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LIFE AND LETTERS 



OF 



MAKCUS TULLIUS CICERO, 




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THE 



LIFE AND LETTERS 



OF 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



THE LIFE OF CICERO. BY DR. MIDDLETON. 

CICERO'S LETTERS TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 
TRANSLATED BY WM. MELMOTH. 

CICERO'S LETTERS TO ATTICUS. TRANSLATED BY DR. HEBERDEN. 



LONDON: 
EDWARD MOXON, DOVER STREET. 

MDCCCXL. 



PA 



a0* 



ESTAT1 OP 

THOMAS IWIMQ IH 

MTOBER 23, 1947 

1*1 ElURY OF CONGRESS 



LONDON : 

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN, 

WHITEFRIARS. 



.•I 



CONTENTS, 



HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF CICERO 1 

CICERO'S LETTERS TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS 331 

CICERO'S LETTERS TO ATTICUS .619 



^ 






THE 



HISTORY OF THE LIFE 



OF 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



BY CONYERS MIDDLETON, D.D. 



Hune igitur spectemus. Hoc propositum sit nobis exemplum. 
Hie se profecisse sciat, cui Cicero valde placebit.— Quintil. 
Instit. 1. x. 1. 



TO THE 

RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD JOHN HERVEY, 

LORD KEEPER OF HIS MAJESTY'S PRIVY SEAL. 



My Lord, 

The public will naturally expect, that in choosing a patron for the Life of Cicero I should address myself to 
some person of illustrious rank, distinguished by his parts and eloquence, and bearing a principal share in the 
great affairs of the nation ; who, according to the usual style of dedications, might be the proper subject of a 
comparison with the hero of my piece. Your lordship's name will confirm that expectation, and your character 
would justify me in running some length into the parallel ; but my experience of your good sense forbids me 
the attempt. For your lordship knows what a disadvantage it would be to any character to be placed in the 
same light with that of Cicero ; that all such comparisons must be invidious and adulatory ; and that the following 
history will suggest a reason in every page, why no man now living can justly be compared with him. 

I do not impute this to any superiority of parts or genius peculiar to the ancients ; for human nature has 
ever been the same in all ages and nations, and owes the difference of its improvements to a difference only of 
culture, and of the rewards proposed to its industry : where these are the most amply provided, there we shall 
always find the most numerous and shining examples of human perfection. In old Rome, the public honours 
were laid open to the virtue of every citizen ; which, by raising them in their turns to the command of that 
mighty empire, produced a race of nobles superior even to kings. This was a prospect that filled the soul of 
the ambitious, and roused every faculty of mind and body to exert its utmost force : whereas in modern 
states, men's views being usually confined to narrow bounds beyond which they cannot pass, and a partial 
culture of their talents being sufficient to procure everything that their ambition can aspire to, a great genius 
has seldom either room or invitation to stretch itself to its full size. 

You see, my lord, how much I trust to your good-nature, as well as good sense, when in an epistle dedicatory, 
the proper place of panegyric, I am depreciating your abilities instead of extolling them ; but I remember that 
it is a history which I am offering to your lordship, and it would ill become me, in the front of such a work, to 
expose my veracity to any hazard : and my head, indeed, is now so full of antiquity that I could wish to see 
the dedicatory style reduced to that classical simplicity with which the ancient writers used to present their 
books to their friends or patrons, at whose desire they were written, or by whose authority they were published : 
for this was the first use and the sole purpose of a dedication ; and as this also is the real ground of my present 
address to your lordship, so it will be the best argument of my epistle, and the most agreeable to the character 
of an historian, to acquaint the public with a plain fact, that it was your lordship who first advised me to 
undertake the Life of Cicero ; and, when from a diffidence of my strength and a nearer view of the task, I 
began to think myself unequal to the weight of it, your lordship still urged and exhorted me to persist, till I 
had moulded it into the form in which it now appears. 

Thus far your lordship was carried by that love for Cicero, which, as one of the best critics qf antiquity 
assures us, is the undoubted proof of a true taste. I wish only that the favour which you have since shown 
to my English Cicero, may not detract] from that praise which is due to your love of the Roman : but, 
whatever censure it may draw upon your lordship, I cannot prevail with myself to conceal, what does so much 
honour to my work, that, before it went to the press, your lordship not only saw and approved, but, as the 
sincerest mark of your approbation, corrected it. It adds no small credit to the history of Polybius that he 

b 



DEDICATION. 



professes to have been assisted in it by Scipio and Laelius ; and even Terence's style was made the purer for its 
being retouched by the same great hands. You must pardon me, therefore, my lord, if, after the example of 
those excellent authors, I cannot forbear boasting, that some parts of my present work have been brightened by 
the strokes of your lordship's pencil. 

It was the custom of those Roman nobles to spend their leisure, not in vicious pleasures or trifling diversions, 
contrived, as we truly call it, to kill the time, but in conversing with the celebrated wits and scholars of the 
age ; in encouraging other people's learning, and improving their own : and here your lordship imitates them 
with success, and for love of letters and politeness may be compared with the noblest of them. For your 
house, like theirs, is open to men of parts and merit ; where I have admired your lordship's agreeable manner 
of treating them all in their own way, by introducing questions of literature, and varying them so artfully, as to 
give every one an opportunity, not only of bearing a part, but of leading the conversation in his turn. In 
these liberal exercises you drop the cares of the statesman, relieve your fatigues in the senate, and strengthen 
your mind while you relax it. 

Encomiums of this kind, upon persons of your lordship's quality, commonly pass for words of course, or a 
fashionable language to the great, and make little impression on men of sense, who know learning, not to be 
the fruit of wit or parts, for there your lordship's title would be unquestionable, but an acquisition of much 
labour and study, which the nobles of our days are apt to look upon as inconsistent with the ease and splendour 
of an elevated fortune, and generally leave to men of professions and inferior life. But your lordship has a 
different way of thinking, and by your education in a public school and university, has learned from your 
earliest youth, that no fortune can exempt a man from pains, who desires to distinguish himself from the vulgar ; 
and that it is a folly, in any condition of life, to aspire to a superior character, without a superior virtue and 
industry to support it. What time, therefore, others bestow upon their sports, or pleasures, or the lazy indo- 
lence of a luxurious life, your lordship applies to the improvement of your knowledge ; and in those early 
hours, when all around you are hushed in sleep, seize the opportunity of that quiet, as the most favourable 
season of study, and frequently spend a useful day before others begin to enjoy it. 

I am saying no more, my lord, than what I know, from my constant admission to your lordship in my 
morning visits, before good manners would permit me to attempt a visit anywhere else ; where I have' found 
you commonly engaged with the classical writers of Greece or Rome, and conversing with those very dead 
with whom Scipio and Lselius used to converse so familiarly when living. Nor does your lordship assume this 
part for ostentation or amusement only, but for the real benefit both of yourself and others ; for I have seen 
the solid effects of your reading, in your judicious reflections on the policy of those ancient governments, and 
have felt your weight even in controversy on some of the most delicate parts of their history. 

There is another circumstance peculiar to your lordship which makes this task of study the easier to you, 
by giving you, not only the greater health, but the greater leisure to pursue it ; I mean that singular temper- 
ance in diet, in which your lordship perseveres with a constancy superior to every temptation that can excite 
an appetite to rebel ; and shows a firmness of mind that subjects every gratification of sense to the rule of right 
reason. Thus, with all the accomplishments of the nobleman, you lead the life of a philosopher ; and, while 
you shine a principal ornament of the court, you practise the discipline of the college. 

In old Rome there were no hereditary honours ; but when the virtue of a family was extinct, its honour 
was extinguished too ; so that no man, how nobly soever born, could arrive at any dignity, who did not win it 
by his personal merit : and here, again, your lordship t seems to have emulated that ancient spirit ; for, though 
born to the first honours of your country, yet disclaiming, as it were, your birthright, and putting yourself upon 
the foot of a Roman, you were not content with inheriting, but resolved to import new dignities into your 
family ; and, after the example of your noble father, to open your own way into the supreme council of the 
kingdom. In this august assembly your lordship displays those shining talents by which you acquired a seat 
in it, in the defence of our excellent establishment ; in maintaining the rights of the people, yet asserting the 
prerogative of the crown ; measuring them both by the equal balance of the laws, which, by the provident care 
of our ancestors, and the happy settlement at the Revolution, have so fixed their just limits, and moderated the 
extent of their influence, that they mutually defend and preserve, but can never destroy each other without a 
general ruin. 

In a nation like ours, which, from the natural effect of freedom, is divided into opposite parties, though 
particular attachments to certain principles, or friendships with certain men, will sometimes draw the best 
citizens into measures of a subordinate kind which they cannot wholly approve ; yet, whatever envy your 



DEDICATION. 



lordship may incur on that account, you will be found, on all occasions of trial, a true friend to our constitution 
both in church and state ; which I have heard you demonstrate with great force to be the bulwark of our 
common peace and prosperity. From this fundamental point no engagements will ever move or interest draw 
you ; and tbough men inflamed by opposition are apt to charge each other with designs wbich were never 
dreamt of perhaps by either side, yet if there be any who know so little of you as to distrust your principles, 
they may depend at least on your judgment, that it can never suffer a person of your lordship's rank, born to 
so large a share of the property as well as the honours of the nation, to think any private interest an equivalent 
for consenting to the ruin of the public. 

I mention this, my lord, as an additional reason for presenting you with the Life of Cicero ; for, were I 
not persuaded of your lordship's sincere love of liberty, and zeal for the happiness of your fellow-citizens it 
would be a reproach to you, to put into your hands the life of a man who, in all the variety of his admirable 
talents, does not shine so glorious in any as in his constant attachment to the true interests of his country, and 
the noble struggle that he sustained, at the expense even of his life, to avert the impending tyranny that finally 
oppressed it. 

But I ought to ask your lordship's pardon for dwelling so long upon a character which is known to the whole 
kingdom as well as to myself; not only by the high office which you fill, and the eminent dignity that you 
bear in it, but by the sprightly compositions of various kinds with which your lordship has often entertained it. 
It would be a presumption to think of adding any honour to your lordship by my pen, after you have acquired 
so much by your own. The chief design of my epistle is, to give this public testimony of my thanks for the 
signal marks of friendship with which your lordship has long honoured me ; and to interest your name, as far 
as I can, in the fate and success of my work, by letting the world know what a share you had in the production 
of it ; that it owed its being to your encouragement ; correctness to your pencil ; and, what many will think 
the most substantial benefit, its large subscription to your authority. For, though in this way of publishing it, 
I have had the pleasure to find myself supported by a noble list of generous friends, who, without being solicited, 
or even asked by me, have promoted my subscription with an uncommon zeal, yet your lordship has distin- 
guished yourself the most eminently of them in contributing, not only to the number but the splendour of the 
names that adorn it. 

Next to that little reputation with which the public has been pleased to favour me, the benefit of this 
subscription is the chief fruit that I have ever reaped from my studies. I am indebted for the first to Cicero 
for the second to your lordship : it was Cicero who instructed me to write ; your lordship who rewards me for 
writing : the same motive, therefore, which induced me to attempt the history of the one, engages me to dedicate 
it to the other ; that I may express my gratitude to you both in the most effectual manner that I am able, 
by celebrating the memory of the dead and acknowledging the generosity of my living benefactor. 

I have received great civilities on several occasions from many noble persons, of which I shall ever retain a 
most grateful sense; but your lordship's accumulated favours have long ago risen up to the character of 
obligations, and made it my perpetual duty, as it had always been my ambition, to profess myself, with the 
greatest truth and respect, 

My lord, your lordship's most obliged and devoted servant, 



CONYERS MIDDLETON. 



62 



PREFACE. 



There is no part of history which seems capable of yielding either more instruction or 
entertainment, than that which offers to us the select lives of great and virtuous men who have 
made an eminent figure on the public stage of the world. In these we see at one view what 
the annals of -a whole age can afford that is worthy of notice ; and in the wide field of universal 
history, skipping as it were over the barren places, gather all its flowers, and possess ourselves 
at once of everything that is good in it. 

But there is one great fault which is commonly observed in the writers of particular lives, 
that they are apt to be partial and prejudiced in favour of their subject, and to give us a 
panegyric, instead of a history. They work up their characters as painters do their portraits ; 
taking the praise of their art to consist, not in copying, but in adorning nature ; not in drawing 
a just resemblance, but giving a fine picture ; or exalting the man into the hero : and this 
indeed seems to flow from the nature of the thing itself, where the very inclination to write is 
generally grounded on prepossession, and an affection already contracted for the person whose 
history we are attempting ; and when we sit down to it with the disposition of a friend, it is 
natural for us to cast a shade over his failings, to give the strongest colouring to his virtues ; 
and, out of a good character, to endeavour to draw a perfect one. 

I am sensible that this is the common prejudice of biographers, and have endeavoured there- 
fore to divest myself of it as far as I was able ; yet dare not take upon me to affirm, that I 
have kept myself wholly clear from it ; but shall leave the decision of that point to the judg- 
ment of the reader : for I must be so ingenuous as to own, that when I formed the plan of this 
work, I was previously possessed with a very favourable opinion of Cicero ; which, after the 
strictest scrutiny, has been greatly confirmed and heightened in me ; and in the case of a 
shining character, such as Cicero's I am persuaded will appear to be, it is certainly more 
pardonable to exceed rather in our praises of it, out of a zeal for illustrious merit, than to be 
reserved in doing justice to it, through a fear of being thought partial. But, that I might 
guard myself equally from both the extremes, I have taken care always to leave the facts to 
speak for themselves, and to affirm nothing of any moment without an authentic testimony to 
support it ; which yet, if consulted in the original at its full length, will commonly add more 
light and strength to what is advanced, than the fragments quoted in the text and the 
brevity of notes would admit. 

But whatever prejudices may be suspected to adhere to the writer, it is certain that in a 
work of this nature he will have many more to combat in the reader. The scene of it is laid 
in a place and age which are familiar to us from our childhood : we learn the names of all the 
chief actors at school, and choose our several favourites according to our tempers or fancies ; 
and when we are least able to judge of the merit of them, form distinct characters of each, 
which we frequently retain through life. Thus Marius, Sylla, Caesar, Pompey, Cato, Cicero, 
Brutus, Antony, have all their several advocates, zealous for their fame, and ready even to 
quarrel for the superiority of their virtues. But among the celebrated names of antiquity, 
those of the great conquerors and generals attract our admiration always the most, and 



xiv PREFACE. 



imprint a notion of magnanimity, and power, and capacity for dominion, superior to that 
of other mortals : we look upon such as destined by Heaven for empire, and born to trample 
upon their fellow-creatures ; without reflecting on the numerous evils which are necessary to 
the acquisition of a glory that is built upon the subversion of nations, and the destruction 
of the human species. Yet these are the only persons who are thought to shine in history, 
or to merit the attention of the reader : dazzled with the splendour of their victories, and 
the pomp of their triumphs, we consider them as the pride and ornament of the Roman 
name ; while the pacific and civil character, though of all others the most beneficial to man- 
kind, whose sole ambition is, to support the laws, the rights and liberty of his citizens, is 
looked upon as humble and contemptible on the comparison, for being forced to truckle to 
the power of these oppressors of their country. 

In the following history therefore, if I have happened to affirm anything that contradicts 
the common opinion and shocks the prejudices of the reader, I must desire him to attend 
diligently to the authorities on which it is grounded ; and if these do not give satisfaction, to 
suspend his judgment still to the end of the work, in the progress of which many facts will 
be cleared up that may appear at first perhaps uncertain and precarious : and in everything 
especially that relates to Cicero, I would recommend to him to contemplate the whole 
character, before he thinks himself qualified to judge of its separate parts, on which the 
whole will always be found the surest comment. 

Quintilian has given us an excellent rule in the very case, — that we should be modest and 
circumspect in passing a judgment on men so illustrious, lest, as it happens to the generality of censurers, 
we be found at last to condemn tchat we do not understand 11 . There is another reflection likewise 
very obvious, which yet seldom has its due weight, that a writer on any part of history which 
he has made his particular study, may be presumed to be better acquainted with it than the 
generality of his readers ; and when he asserts a fact that does not seem to be well grounded, 
it may fairly be imputed, till a good reason appears to the contrary, to a more extensive 
view of his subject ; which, by making it clear to himself, is apt to persuade him, that it is 
equally clear to everybody else, and that a fuller explication of it would consequently be 
unnecessary. If these considerations, which are certainly reasonable, have but their proper 
influence, I flatter myself that there will be no just cause to accuse me of any culpable bias 
in my accounts of things or persons, or of any other favour to the particular character of 
Cicero, than what common humanity will naturally bestow upon every character that is found 
upon the whole to be both great and good. 

In drawing the characters of a number of persons who all lived in the same city at the same 
time, trained by the same discipline, and engaged in the same pursuits ; as there must be 
many similar strokes, and a general resemblance in them all, so the chief difficulty will be to 
prevent them from running into too great an uniformity. This I have endeavoured to do, not 
by forming ideal pictures, or such as would please or surprise ; but by attending to the 
particular facts which history has delivered of the men, and tracing them to their source, or 
to those correspondent affections from which they derived their birth ; for these are the 
distinguishing features of the several persons, which, when duly represented, and placed in 
their proper light, will not fail to exhibit that precise difference in which the peculiarity of 
each character consists. 

As to the nature of my work, though the title of it carries nothing more than the History 
of Cicero's Life, yet it might properly enough be called the History of Cicero's Times : since 
from his first advancement to the public magistracies, there was not anything of moment 
transacted in the state in which he did not bear an eminent part : so that, to make the 
whole work of a piece, I have given a summary account of the Roman affairs during the 
time even of his minority ; and agreeably to what I promised in my proposals, have carried 

a Modeste tamen et circumspecto judicio de tantis daninent, quae non inteiligunt. — Quintiirani Instit. 
viris pronuaciaadum est, ne, quod plerisque accidit, x. 1. 



PREFACE. 



on a series of history through a period of above sixty years, which, for the importance of the 
events, and the dignity of the persons concerned in them, is by far the most interesting of 
any in the annals of Rome. 

In the execution of this design, I have pursued as closely as I could that very plan 
which Cicero himself had sketched out for the model of a complete history. Where he 
lays it down as a fundamental law, " that the writer should not dare to affirm what was 
false, or to suppress what was true ; nor give any suspicion either of favour or disaffection : 
that in the relation of facts he should observe the order of time, and sometimes add the 
description of places ; should first explain the counsels, then the acts, and lastly the events of 
things : that in the counsels he should interpose his own judgment on the merit of them ; 
in the acts relate not only what was done, but how it was done ; in the events show what 
share chance or rashness or prudence had in them ; that he should describe likewise the 
particular characters of all the great persons who bare any considerable part in the story ; 
and should dress up the whole in a clear and equable style, without affecting any ornament 
or seeking any other praise but of perspicuity." These were the rules that Cicero had 
drawn up for himself when he was meditating a general history of his country, as I have taken 
occasion to mention more at large in its proper place. 

But as I have borrowed my plan, so I have drawn my materials also, from Cicero ; whose 
works are the most authentic monuments that remain to us of all the great transactions of 
that age ; being the original accounts of one, who himself was not only a spectator, but a 
principal actor in them. There is not a single part of his writings which does not give some 
light, as well into his own history as into that of the republic : but his Familiar Letters, and above 
all, those to Atticus, may justly be called the memoirs of the times; for they contain, not only a 
distinct account of every memorable event, but lay open the springs and motives whence each 
of them proceeded ; so that, as a polite writer who lived in that very age, and perfectly knew 
the merit of these letters, says, the man who reads them will hate no occasion for any other history of 
those times h . 

My first business therefore, after I had undertaken this task, was to read over Cicero's 
works, with no other view than to extract from them all the passages that seemed to have any 
relation to my design : where the tediousness of collecting an infinite number of testimonies 
scattered through many different volumes ; of sorting them into their classes, and ranging 
them in proper order ; the necessity of overlooking many in the first search, and the trouble of 
retrieving them in a second or third ; and the final omission of several through forgetfulness 
or inadvertency ; have helped to abate that wonder which had often occurred to me, why no 
man had ever attempted the same work before me, or at least in this enlarged and compre- 
hensive form in which it is now offered to the public. 

In my use of these materials, I have chosen to insert as many of them as I could into the 
body of my work ; imagining that it would give both a lustre and authority to a sentiment, 
to deliver it in the person and the very words of Cicero ; especially if they could be managed 
so as not to appear to be sewed on, like splendid patches, but woven originally into the text as 
the genuine parts of it. With this view I have taken occasion to introduce several of his 
letters, with large extracts from such of his orations as gave any particular light into the 
facts, or customs, or characters described in the history, or which seemed on any other account 
to be curious and entertaining. The frequent introduction of these may be charged perhaps 
to laziness, and a design of shortening my pains, by filling up my story with Cicero's words 
instead of my own : but that was not the case ; nor has this part of the task been the easiest 
to me ; as those will readily believe who have ever attempted to translate the classical 

b Sexdecim volumina epistolarum ab consulatu studiis principum, vitiis ducum, ac mutationibus 

ejus usque ad extremnm tempus ad Atticum missa- reipublicae perscripta sunt, ut nihil in his non ap- 

rum ; quae qui legat, non multum desideret historiam pareat. — Corn. Nep. in Vit. Attici, 16. 
contextam eorum temporum. Sic enim omnia de 



XVI 



PREFACE. 



writers of Greece or Rome : where the difficulty is, not so much to give their sense, as to give 
it in their language ; that is, in such as is analogous to it, or what they might be supposed to 
speak if they were living at this time ; since a splendour of style, as well as of sentiment, is 
necessary to support the idea of a fine writer. While I am representing Cicero therefore as 
the most eloquent of the ancients, flowing with a perpetual ease and delicacy, and fullness of 
expression, it would be ridiculous to produce no other specimen of it but what was stiff 
and forced, and offensive to a polite reader : yet this is generally the case of our modern 
versions ; where the first wits of antiquity are made to speak such English, as an Englishman 
of taste would be ashamed to write on any original subject. Yerbal translations are always 
inelegant , and necessarily destroy all the beauty of language ; yet by departing too wantonly 
from the letter, we are apt to vary the sense, and mingle somewhat of our own : translators 
of low genius never reach beyond the first, but march from word to word, without making 
the least excursion, for fear of losing themselves ; while men of spirit, who prefer the second, 
usually contemn the mere task of translating, and are vain enough to think of improving 
their author. I have endeavoured to take the middle way ; and made it my first care always 
to preserve the sentiment ; and my next to adhere to the words, as far as I was able to express 
them in an easy and natural style; which I have varied still agreeably to the different subject, 
or the kind of writing on which I was employed : and I persuade myself that the many 
original pieces which I have translated from Cicero, as they are certainly the most shining, 
so will they be found also the most useful parts of my work, by introducing the reader the oftener 
into the company of one with whom no man ever conversed, as a very eminent writer tells 
us, without coming away the better for it d . 

After I had gone through my review of Cicero's writings, my next recourse was to the 
other ancients, both Greeks and Romans, who had touched upon the affairs of that age. 
These served me chiefly to fill up the interstices of general history, and to illustrate several 
passages which were but slightly mentioned by Cicero ; as well as to add some stories and 
circumstances which tradition had preserved, concerning either Cicero himself or any of the 
chief actors whose characters I had delineated. 

But the Greek historians who treat professedly of these times, Plutarch, Appian, Dio, 
though they are all very useful for illustrating many important facts of aDcient history, which 
would otherwise have been lost, or imperfectly transmitted to us, are not yet to be read 
without some caution ; as being strangers to the language and customs of Rome, and liable 
to frequent mistakes, as well as subject to prejudices in their relation of Roman affairs. 
Plutarch lived from the reign of Claudius to that of Hadrian, in which he died very old, in 
the possession of the priesthood of the Delphic Apollo ; and though he is supposed to have 
resided in Rome near forty years at different times, yet he never seems to have acquired a 
sufficient skill in the Roman language to qualify himself for the compiler of a Roman history. 
But if we should allow him all the talents requisite to an historian, yet the attempt of writing 
the lives of all the illustrious Greeks and Romans, was above the strength of any single man, of what 
abilities and leisure soever ; nmch more of one, who, as he himself tells us, was so engaged in 
public business, and in giving lectures of philosophy to the great men of Rome, that he had 
not time to make himself master of the Latin tongue ; nor to acquire any other knowledge of its words, than 
what he had gradually learnt by a previous use and experience ofthings e ; his work therefore, from the 
very nature of it, must needs be superficial and imperfect, and the sketch rather than the 
completion of a great design. 

This we find to be actually true in his account of Cicero's life, where, besides the particular 
mistakes that have been charged upon him by other writers, we see all the marks of haste, 



c Nee tatnen exprimi verbum e verbo necesse erit, 
ut interpretes iudiserti solent. — Cic. De Finib. iii. 
4. 

d Quis autem siunpfiil lnijus libros in manuni, quin 



surrexerit ammo sedatiore ? — Erasm. Ep. ad Jo. 
Ulatten. 

e Plutarch, in Vit. Demosthen. init. et Vit. Plutaiclti 
per Rualdum, c. 14. 



PREFACE. xv ii 



inaccuracy, and want of due information, from the poverty and perplexity of the whole 
performance. He huddles over Cicero's greatest acts in a summary and negligent manner, yet 
dwells upon Us dreams and his jests, which for the greatest part were probably spurious ; and 
in the last scene of his life, which was of all the most glorious, when the whole councils of the 
empire and the fate and liberty of Rome rested on his shoulders, there he is more particularly 
trifling and empty, where he had the fairest opportunity of displaying his character to advantage 
as well as of illustrating a curious part of history, which has not been well explained by any 
writer, though there are the amplest materials for it in Cicero's Letters and Philippic Orations, of 
which Plutarch appears to have made little or no use. 

Appian flourished likewise in the reign of Hadrian f , and came to Rome probably about the 
time of Plutarch's death, while his works were in everybody's hands, which he has made great- 
use of, and seems to have copied very closely in the most considerable passages of his history. 

Dio Cassius lived still later, from the time of the Antonines to that of Alexander Severus ; and 
besides the exceptions that lie against him in common with the other two, is observed to have 
conceived a particular prejudice against Cicero, whom he treats on all occasions with the utmost 
malignity. The most obvious cause of it seems to be his envy to a man who for arts and 
eloquence was thought to eclipse the fame of Greece ; and, by explaining all the parts of 
philosophy to the Romans in their own language, had superseded in some measure the use of 
the Greek learning and lectures at Rome, to which the hungry wits of that nation owed both 
their credit and their bread. Another reason not less probable may be drawn likewise from 
Dio's character and principles, which were wholly opposite to those of Cicero : he flourished 
under the most tyrannical of the emperors, by whom he was advanced to great dignity ; and 
being the creature of despotic power, thought it a proper compliment to it to depreciate a name 
so highly revered for its patriotism, and whose writings tended to revive that ancient zeal and 
spirit of liberty for which the people of Rome were once so celebrated ; for we find him taking 
all occasions in his history to prefer an absolute and monarchical government to a free and democratical 
one, as the most beneficial to the Roman state e. 

These were the grounds of Dio's malice to Cicero, which is exerted often so absurdly that 
it betrays and confutes itself. Thus in the debates of the senate about Antony, he dresses up 
a speech for Fufius Calenus, filled with all the obscene and brutal ribaldry against Cicero that 
a profligate mind could invent : as if it were possible to persuade any man of sense that such 
infamous stuff could be spoken in the senate at a time when Cicero had an entire ascendant in 
it ! who at no time ever suffered the least insult upon his honour without chastising the aggressor 
for it upon the spot '•> whereas Cicero's speeches in these very debates which are still extant, 
show that though they were managed with great warmth of opposition, yet it was always with 
decency of language between him and Calenus, whom, while he reproves and admonishes with 
his usual freedom, yet he treats with civility, and sometimes even with compliments 11 . 

But a few passages from Dio himself will evince the justice of this censure upon him : He 
calls Cicero's father a fuller, who yet got his livelihood (he says) by dressing other people's vines 
and olives ; that Cicero was born and bred amidst the scourings of old clothes and the filth of 
dunghills ; that he was master of no liberal science, nor ever did a single thing in his life worthy 
of a great man or an orator ; that he prostituted his wife ; trained up his son in drunkenness ; 
committed incest with his daughter ; lived in adultery with Cerellia, whom he owns at the same 
time to be seventy years old 1 ; all which palpable lies, with many more of the same sort that he 

f Vide App. De Bell. Civ. 1. ii. p. 481. sine odio omnia; nihil sine dolore. [lb. vi.] Qua- 

° Vide Dio, 1. xliv. init. propter ut invitus ssepe dissensi a Q. Fufio, ita sum 

h Nam quod me tecum iraeunde agere dixisti solere, libenter assensus ejus sententiae : ex quo judicare 

non est ita. Vehementer me agere fateor ; iraeunde debetis me non cum homine solere, sed cum causa 

nego : omnino irasci amicis non temere soleo, ne si dissidere. Itaque non assentior solum, sed etiam 

merentur quidem. Itaque sine verborum contumelia gratias ago Q. Fufio, &c. — Phil. xi. 6 
a te dissentire possum, sine animi summo dolore non i Vide Dio, 1. xlvi. p. 295, &c. 
possum. [Phil. viii. 5.] Satis multa cum Fufio, ac 



xvm 



PREFACE. 



tells of Cicero, are yet full as credible as what he declares afterwards of himself, that he was 
admonished and commanded by a vision from heaven, against his own will and inclination to under- 
take the task of writing his history k . 

Upon these collections from Cicero and the other ancients I finished the first draught of my 
history, before I began to inquire after the modern writers who had treated the same subject 
before me either in whole or in part. I was unwilling to look into them sooner, lest they should 
fix any prejudice insensibly upon me before I had formed a distinct judgment on the real state 
of the facts, as they appeared to me from their original records. For in writing history, as in 
travels, instead of transcribing the relations of those who have trodden the same ground before 
us, we should exhibit a series of observations peculiar to ourselves, such as the facts and places 
suggested to our own minds from an attentive survey of them, without regard to what any one 
else may have delivered about them ; and though, in a production of this kind, where the same 
materials are common to all, many things must necessarily be said which had been observed 
already by others ; yet, if the author has any genius, there will always be enough of what is new 
to distinguish it as an original work, and to give him a right to call it his own, which I flatter 
myself will be allowed to me in the following history. In this inquiry after the modern pieces 
which had any connexion with my argument, I got notice presently of a greater number than 
I expected, which bore the title of Cicero's Life ; but, upon running over as many of them 
as I could readily meet with, I was cured of my eagerness for hunting out the rest, since I 
perceived them to be nothing else but either trifling panegyrics on Cicero's general character, or 
imperfect abstracts of his principal acts, thrown together within the compass of a few pages in 
duodecimo. 

There are two books however which have been of real use to me, Sebastiani Corradi Quosstura 
and M. T. Ciceronis Historia a Francisco Fabricio : the first was the work of an Italian critic of 
eminent learning, who spent a great part of his life in explaining Cicero's writings, but it is 
rather an apology for Cicero than the history of his life ; its chief end being to vindicate Cicero's 
character from all the objections that have ever been made to it, and particularly from the 
misrepresentations of Plutarch and the calumnies of Dio. The piece is learned and ingenious, 
and written in good Latin ; yet the dialogue is carried on with so harsh and forced an allegory 
of a quaestor or treasurer producing the several testimonies of Cicero's acts under the form of 
genuine money, in opposition to the spurious coins of the Greek historians, that none can read it with 
pleasure, few with patience. The observations however are generally just and well-grounded, 
except that the author's zeal for Cicero's honour gets the better sometimes of his judgment, and 
draws him into a defence of his conduct where even Cicero himself has condemned it. 

Fabricius's history is prefixed to several editions of Cicero's works, and is nothing more than 
a bare detail of his acts and writings, digested into exact order and distinguished by the years of 
Rome and of Cicero's life, without any explication or comment but what relates to the settlement 
of the time, which is the sole end of the work. But as this is executed with diligence and 
accuracy, so it has eased me of a great share of that trouble which I must otherwise have had in 
ranging my materials into their proper places, in which task however I have always taken care 
to consult also the Annals of Pighius. 

I did not forget likewise to pay a due attention to the French authors whose works happened 
to coincide with any part of mine, particularly the History of the two Triumvirates, of the Revolutions of 
the Roman Government, and of the Exile of Cicero, which are all of them ingenious and useful, and 
have given a fair account of the general state of the facts which they profess to illustrate. But 
as I had already been at the fountain-head whence they had all drawn their materials, so the 
chief benefit that I received from them, was to make me review with stricter care the particular 
passages in which I differed from them, as well as to remind me of some few things which I had 
omitted, or touched perhaps more slightly than they deserved. But the author of The Exile has 
treated his argument the most accurately of them, by supporting his story as he goes along 

k Dio, I. Ixxiii. p. 828. 



PREFACE. xix 



with original testimonies from the old authors ; which is the only way of writing history that 
can give satisfaction or carry conviction along with it, by laying open the ground on which it 
is built, without which history assumes the air of romance, and makes no other impression 
than in proportion to our opinion of the judgment and integrity of the compiler. 

There is a little piece also in our own language called, Observations on the Life of Cicero, which, 
though it gives a very different account of Cicero from what I have done, yet I could not but 
read with pleasure, for the elegance and spirit with which it is written by one who appears to 
be animated with a warm love of virtue. But to form our notions of a great man from some 
slight passages of his writings or separate points of conduct, without regarding their connexion 
with the whole, or the figure that they make in his general character, is like examining 
things in a microscope which were made to be surveyed in the gross ; every mole rises 
into a mountain, and the least spot into a deformity : which vanish again into nothing when 
we contemplate them through their proper medium and in their natural light. I persuade 
myself therefore that a person of this writer's good sense and principles, when he has considered 
Cicero's whole history, will conceive a more candid opinion of the man, who, after a life spent 
in a perpetual struggle against vice, faction, and tyranny, fell a martyr at last to the liberty of 
his country. 

As I have had frequent occasion to recommend the use of Cicero's Letters to Atticus for their 
giving the clearest light into the history of those times, so I must not forget to do justice to the 
pains of one who, by an excellent translation and judicious comment upon them, has made that 
use more obvious and accessible to all ; I mean the learned Mr. Mongault, who, not content 
with retailing the remarks of other commentators, or out of the rubbish of their volumes with 
selecting the best, enters upon his task with the spirit of a true critic, and by the force of his 
own genius has happily illustrated many passages which all the interpreters before him had 
given up as inexplicable. But since the obscurity of these letters is now in great measure 
removed by the labours of this gentleman, and especially to his own countrymen, for whose 
particular benefit and in whose language he writes, one caDnot help wondering that the Jesuits, 
Catrou and Rouille, should not think it worth while, by the benefit of his pains, to have made 
themselves better acquainted with them ; which, as far as I am able to judge from the little part 
of their history that I have had the curiosity to look into, would have prevented several mistakes 
which they have committed, with regard both to the facts and persons of the Ciceronian age. 

But instead of making free with other people's mistakes, it would become me perhaps better to 
bespeak some favour for my own. "An historian" says Diodorus Siculus, "may easily be pardoned for 
slips of ignorance, since all men are liable to them, and the truth hard to be traced from past and remote 
ages ; but those who neglect to inform themeselves, and through flattery to some or hatred to others knowingly 
deviate from the truth, justly deserve to be censured" For my part, I am far from pretending to be 
exempt from errors : all that I can say is, that I have committed none wilfully, and used all 
the means which occurred to me of defending myself against them. But since there is not a 
single history, either ancient or modern, that I have consulted on this occasion, in which I 
cannot point out several, it would be arrogant in me to imagine that the same inadvertency, or 
negligence, or want of judgment, may not be discovered also in mine : if any man therefore 
will admonish me of them with candour I shall think myself obliged to him, as a friend to my 
work, for assisting me to make it more perfect, and consequently more useful ; for my chief 
motive for undertaking it was, not to serve any particular cause, but to do a general good by 
offering to the public the example of a character which, of all that I am acquainted with in 
antiquity, is the most accomplished with every talent that can adorn civil life, and the best 
fraught with lessons of prudence and duty for all conditions of men, from the prince to the 
private scholar. 

If my pains therefore should have the effect which I propose, of raising a greater attention 
to the name and writings of Cicero, and making them better understood and more familiar to 
our youth, I cannot fail of gaining my end ; for the next step to admiring is to imitate, and it 



PREFACE. 



is not possible to excite an affection for Cicero, without instilling an affection at the same time 
for every thing that is laudable : since how much soever people may differ in their opinion of 
his conduct, yet all have constantly agreed in their judgment of his works, that there are 
none now remaining to us from the Heathen world that so beautifully display and so forcibly 
recommend all those generous principles that tend to exalt and perfect human nature ; the 
love of virtue, liberty, our country, and of all mankind. 

I cannot support this reflection by a better authority than that of Erasmus, who, having 
contracted some prejudices against Cicero when young, makes a recantation of them when old 
in the following passage of a letter to his friend Ulattenus 1 . 

"When I was a boy," says he, " I was fonder of Seneca than of Cicero, and till I was twenty 
years old could not bear to spend any time in reading him ; while all the other writers of 
antiquity generally pleased me. "Whether my judgment be improved by age, I know not ; but 
am certain, that Cicero never pleased me so much when I was fond of those juvenile studies 
as he does now when I am grown old ; not only for the diviDe felicity of his style, but the 
sanctity of his heart and morals : in short, he has inspired my soul, and made me feel myself a 
better man. I make no scruple, therefore, to exhort our youth to spend their hours in reading 
and getting his books by heart, rather than in the vexatious squabbles and peevish controversies 
with which the world abounds. For my own part, though I am now in the decline of life, yet 
as soon as I have finished what I have in hand, I shall think it no reproach to me to seek a 
reconciliation with my Cicero, and renew an old acquaintance with him, which, for many years 
has been unhappily intermitted." 

Before I conclude this preface it will not be improper to add a short abstract, or general idea 
of the Roman government, from its first institution by Romulus to the time of Cicero's birth ; that 
those who have not been conversant in the affairs of Rome, may not come entire strangers to 
the subject of the following history. 

The constitution of Rome is very often celebrated by Cicero and other writers, as the most 
perfect of all governments ; being happily tempered and composed of the three different sorts that 
are usually distinguished from each other ; the monarchical, the aristocratical, and the popular™. 
Their king was elected by the people as the head of the republic ; to be their leader in war, 
the guardian of the laws in peace : the senate was his council, chosen also by the people, by 
whose advice he was obliged to govern himself in all his measures : but the sovereignty was 
lodged in the body of the citizens, or the general society, whose prerogative it was to enact 
laws, create magistrates, declare war n ; and to receive appeals in all cases, both from the king and 
the senate. Some writers have denied this right of an appeal to the people: but Cicero 
expressly mentions it among the regal constitutions, as old as the foundation of the city ; which 
he had demonstrated more at large in his treatise on the Republic ; whence Seneca has quoted 
a passage in confirmation of it ; and intimates, that the same right was declared likewise in 
the pontifical books?. Valerius Maximus gives us an instance of it, which is confirmed also by 
Livy, that Horatius being condemned to die by king Tullus for killing his sister, was acquitted tipon 
his appeal to the people^. 

This was the original constitution of Rome even under their kings ; for in the foundation of 
a state, where there was no force to compel, it was necessary to invite men into it by all 



1 Erasm. Ep. ad Jo. Ulatt.in Cic. Tuscul. Qusest. 

m Statuo esse optime constitutam reinpublicam quae 
ex tribus generibus illis, regali, optimo, et populari, 
confusa modice — Fragm. de Rep. ii. 

Cum in illis de rcpublica libris persuadere videatur 
Africanns, omnium rerum publicarum nostram vete- 

rem illam fuisse optimam De Legib. ii. 10 ; Polyb. 

vi. p. 460 ; Dion. Hal. ii. 82. 

n Dion. Hal. i. 87. 

° Nam cum a primo urbis ortu, regiis institutes, 



partim etiam legibus, auspicia, cseremonise, comitia, 
provocationes — divinitus essent instituta. — Tusc 
Quaest. iv. 1. , 

P CumCiceronislibros de republica pvehendit — notat 
provocationem ad populnm etiam a regibus fuisse. 
Id ita in pontificalibus libris aliqui putant et Fenes- 
tella. — Senec. Ep. 108. 

1 M. Horatius interfectse sororis crimine a Tullo 
rege damnatus, ad populum provoeato judicio absolutus 
est. — Val. Max. viii. 1 ; Liv. i. 26. 



PREFACE. xxi 



proper encouragements ; and none could be so effectual as the assurance of liberty, and the 
privilege of making their own laws r . But the kings, by gradual encroachments, having 
usurped the whole administration to themselves, and by the violence of their government 
being grown intolerable to a city trained to liberty and arms, were finally expelled by a general 
insurrection of the senate and the people. This was the ground of that invincible fierceness 
and love of their country in the old Romans by which they conquered the world ; for the 
superiority of their civil rights, naturally inspired a superior virtue and courage to defend 
them ; and made them of course the bravest, as long as they continued the freest, of all 
nations. 

By this revolution of the government their old constitution was not so much changed, as 
restored to its primitive state : for though the name of king was abolished, yet the power was 
retained ; with this only difference, that instead of a single person chosen for life, there were 
two chosen annually, whom they called consuls, invested with all the prerogatives and ensigns 
of royalty, and presiding in the same manner in all the affairs of the republic s ; when to 
convince the citizens that nothing was sought by the change but to secure their common 
liberty, and to establish their sovereignty again on a more solid basis, one of the first consuls, 
P, Valerius Poplicola, confirmed by a new law their fundamental right of an appeal to them in 
all cases ; and by a second law, made it capital for any man to exercise a magistracy in Rome, 
without their special appointment l : and as a public acknowledgment of their supreme authority, 
the same consul never appeared in any assembly of the people, without bowing his fasces or 
maces to them ; which was afterwards the constant practice of all succeeding consuls". Thus 
the republic reaped all the benefit of a kingly government, without the danger of it ; since the 
consuls, whose reign was but annual and accountable, could have no opportunity of invading 
its liberty, and erecting themselves into tyrants. 

By the expulsion of the kings, the city was divided into two great parties, the aristocratical 
and the popular, or the senate and the plebeians*, naturally jealous of each other's power, and 
desirous to extend their own ; but the nobles or patricians, of whom the senate was composed, 
were the most immediate gainers by the change, and with the consuls at their head, being 
now the first movers and administrators of all the deliberations of the state, had a great 
advantage over the people ; and within the compass of sixteen years became so insolent and 
oppressive, as to drive the body of the plebeians to that secession into the Sacred Mount whence they 
would not consent to return, till they had extorted a right of creating a new order of 
magistrates of their own body, called tribunes, invested with full powers to protect them from 
all injuries, and whose persons were to be sacred and inviolable y . 

The plebeian party had now got a head exactly suited to their purpose, subject to no control, 
whose business it was to fight their battles with the nobility ; to watch over the liberties of the 
citizens ; and to distinguish themselves in their annual office, by a zeal for the popular interest, 
in opposition to the aristocratical, who, from their first number five, being increased afterwards 
to ten, never left teazing the senate with fresh demands, till they had laid open to the plebeian 

r Romulus seems to have borrowed the plan of his manebit, si unus omnibus reliquis magistratibus im- 

new state from the old government of Athens, as it perabit. — De Legib. iii. 7. 
was instituted by Theseus ; who prevailed with the l Dion. Hal. v. 292. 

dispersed tribes and families of Attica to form them- u Vocato ad concilium populo, summissis fascibus in 

selves into one city, and live within the same walls, concionem ascendit. — Liv. ii. 7. 

under a free and popular government ; distributing its * Duo genera semper in hac civitate fuerunt, — ex 

rights and honours promiscuously to them all, and quibus alteri se populares, alteri optimates et haberi et 

reserving no other prerogative to himself, but to be esse voluerunt. Qui ea, quas faciebant, quseque dicebant, 

their captain in war, and the guardian of their jucunda multitudini esse volebant, populares ; qui 

laws, &c. — Plutarch, in Thes. p. 11. autem ita se gerebant, ut sua consilia optimo cuique 

s Sed quoniam regale civitatis genus, probatum probarent optimates habebantur. — Pro Sext. 45. 
quondam, non tarn regni, quam regis vitiis repudiatum y Dion. Hal. vi. 410. 
est ; nomen tamen videbitur regis repudiatum, res 



xxii PREFACE. 



families a promiscuous right to all the magistracies of the republic, and by that means a free 
admission into the senate. 

Thus far they were certainly in the right, and acted like true patriots ; and after many sharp 
contests had now brought the government of Rome to its perfect state ; when its honours were 
no longer confined to particular families, but proposed equally and indifferently to every 
citizen who by his virtue and services, either in war or peace, could recommend himself to 
the notice and favour of his countrymen ; while the true balance and temperament of power 
between the senate and people, which was generally observed in regular times, and which the 
honest wished to establish in all times, was, that the senate should be the authors and advisers 
of all the public counsels, but the people give them their sanction and legal force. 

The tribunes, however, would not stop here, nor were content with securing the rights of the 
commons, without destroying those of the senate ; and as oft as they were disappointed in their 
private views, and obstructed in the course of their ambition, used to recur always to the 
populace, whom they could easily inflame to what degree they thought fit, by the proposal of 
factious laws for dividing the public lands to the poorer citizens ; or by the free distribution of corn ; 
or the abolition of all debts ; which are all contrary to the quiet, and discipline, and public faith 
of societies. This abuse of the tribunitian power was carried to its greatest height by the two 
Gracchi, who left nothing unattempted that could mortify the senate, or gratify the people 2 ; till 
by their agrarian laws, and other seditious acts, which were greedily received by the city, they 
had in great measure overturned that equilibrium of power in the republic on which its peace 
and prosperity depended. 

But the violent deaths of these two tribunes, and of their principal adherents, put an end to 
their sedition, and was the first civil blood that was spilt in the streets of Rome, in any of their 
public dissentions, which till this time had always been composed by the methods of patience 
and mutual concessions. It must seem strange to observe how these two illustrious brothers, 
who of all men were the dearest to the Roman people, yet upon the first resort to arms, were 
severally deserted by the multitude in the very height of their authority, and suffered to be 
cruelly massacred in the face of the whole city ; which shows what little stress is to be laid on 
the assistance of the populace when the dispute comes to blows ; and that sedition, though it 
may often shake, yet will never destroy a free state while it continues unarmed and unsupported 
by a military force. But this vigorous conduct of the senate, though it seemed necessary to 
the present quiet of the city, yet soon after proved fatal to it ; as it taught all the ambitious, by 
a most sensible experiment, that there was no way of supporting an usurped authority but by 
force ; so that from this time, as we shall find in the following story, all those who aspired to 
extraordinary powers, and a dominion in the republic, seldom troubled themselves with what 
the senate or people were voting at Rome, but came attended by armies to enforce their 
pretensions, which were always decided by the longest sword. 

The popularity of the Gracchi was grounded on the real affections of the people, gained by 
many extraordinary privileges and substantial benefits conferred upon them ; but when force 
was found necessary to control the authority of the senate, and to support that interest which 
was falsely called popular, instead of courting the multitude by real services and beneficial 
laws, it was found a much shorter way to corrupt them by money ; a method wholly unknown 
in the times of the Gracchi, by which the men of power had always a number of mercenaries at 
their devotion, ready to fill the forum at any warning ; who by clamour and violence carried 
all before them in the public assemblies, and came prepared to ratify whatever was proposed to 
them* : this kept up the form of a legal proceeding ; while by the terror of arms, and a superior 

z Nihil immotum, nihil tranquillum, nihil quietum ferant, quae illi velint audire, qui in condone sunt : 

denique in eodem statu relinquebat, &c — Veil. Pat. sed pretio ac mercede perficiunt, ut, quicquid dicant, 

ii. 6. id illi velle audire videantur. Num vos existimatis, 

a Itaque homines seditiosi ac turbulcnti — conductas Gracchos, aut Saturninum, aut quenquam illorum 

habent condones. Neque id agunt, ut ea dicant et veterum, qui populares habebantur, ullum uuquara in 



PREFACE. 



force, the great could easily support, and carry into execution, whatever votes they had once 
procured in their favour by faction and bribery. 

After the death of the younger Gracchus, the senate was perpetually labouring to rescind or 
to moderate the laws that he had enacted to their prejudice ; especially one that affected them 
the most sensibly, by taking from them the right of judicature, which they had exercised from 
the foundation of Rome, and transferring it to the knights. This act, however, was equitable ; 
for as the senators possessed all the magistracies and governments of the empire, so they were 
the men whose oppressions were most severely felt, and most frequently complained of; yet 
while the judgment of all causes continued in their hands, it was their common practice to 
favour and absolve one another in their turns, to the general scandal and injury both of the 
subjects and allies, of which some late and notorious instances had given a plausible pretext for 
Gracchus's law. But the senate could not bear with patience to be subjected to the tribunal of 
an inferior order, which had always been jealous of their power, and was sure to be severe 
upon their crimes ; so that, after many fruitless struggles to get this law repealed, Q. Servilius 
Caepio, who was consul about twenty-five years after, procured at last a mitigation of it, by 
adding a certain number of senators to the three centuries of the Jcnights or equestrian judges ; with 
which the senate was so highly pleased that they honoured this consul with the title of their 
patron . Csepio's law was warmly recommended by L. Crassus, the most celebrated orator of 
that age, who in a speech upon it to the people, defended the authority of the senate with all 
the force of his eloquence, in which state of things and in this very year of Caepio's consulship, 
Cicero was born ; and as Crassus's oration was published and much admired when he was a 
boy, so he took it, as he afterwards tells us, for the -pattern both of his eloquence and his politics c . 

concione habuisse conductum ? Nemo habuit. — Pro annos, totidemque annis mihi aetate prsestabat. lis 

Sext. 49. enim consulibus earn legem suasit, quibus nos nati 

b Is — consulatus decore, maximi pontificatus sacer- sumus. [Brut. p. 274.] Mihi quidem a pueritia, quasi 

dotio, ut senatus patronus diceretur, assecutus. — Val. magistra fuit ilia iu legem Caepionis oratio : in qua et 

Max. vi. 9. auctoritas ornatur senatus, pro quo ordine ilia dicuntur. 

c Suasit Serviliam legem Crassus — sed haec Crassi — Ibid* 278- 



cum edita est oratio — quatuor et triginta turn habehat 



Ii 



THE HISTORY 



LIFE OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO, 



SECTION I. 



coss. 

Q. SERVILIUS 

CffiPJO, 

O. ATILIUS 

tiERRANUS. 



Marcus Tullius Cicero was bom on the 
third of January 3 , in the sis hundred and forty- 
seventh year of Rome, about a hun- 
dred and seven years before Christ b . 
His birth, if we believe Plutarch, was 
attended by prodigies, foretelling the 
future eminence and lustre of his cha- 
racter, which might have passed, he 
fays, for idle dreams, had not the event soon con- 
firmed the truth of the prediction ; but since we 
have no hint of these prodigies from Cicero himself, 
or any author of that age, we may charge them to 
the credulity, or the invention of a writer, who loves 
to raise the solemnity of his story by the introduc- 
tion of something miraculous. 

His mother was called Helvia ; a name men- 
tioned in history and old inscriptions among the 
honourable families of Rome. She was rich, and 
well descended, and had a sister married to a Roman 
knight of distinguished merit, C. Aculeo, an inti- 
mate friend of the orator, L. Crassus, and celebra- 
ted for a singular knowledge of the law ; in which 
his sons likewise, our Cicero's cousins-german, 
were afterwards very eminent c . It is remarkable, 
that Cicero never once speaks of his mother in any 
part of his writings ; but his younger brother Quin- 
tus has left a little story of her, which seems to 
intimate her good management and housewifery ; 
how she used to seal all her wine-casks, the empty 
as well as the full, that when any of them were 
found empty and unsealed, she might know them to 
have been emptied by stealth ; it being the most 
usual theft among the slaves of great families, to 
steal their master's wine out of the vessels d . 

As to his father's family, nothing was delivered 

a III Nonas Jan. natali meo.— Ep. ad Att. vii. 5 ; ib. xiii. 



b This computation follows the common sera of Christ's 
birth, which is placed three years later than it ought to 
be. Pompey the Great was born also in the same year, on 
the last of September.— Vid. Pigh. Ann., Vim. xxxvii. 2. 

c DeOrat. i. 43; ii. 1. 

A Sicut olim matrem meam facere memini, qua? lagenas 
etiam inanes obsignabat, ne dicerentur inanes aliquae 

fuisse, qua? furtim essent exsiccatse Ep. Fam. xvi. 26. 

Posset qui ignoscere servis, 

Et signo la?so non insanire lagense. — Hor. 



of it, but in extremes e : which is not to be won- 
dered at, in the history of a man, whose life was so 
exposed to envy as Cicero's, and who fell a victim 
at last to the power of his enemies. Some derive 
his descent from kings, others from mechanics f ; 
but the truth lay between both ; for his family, 
though it had never borne any of the great offices 
of the republic, was yet very ancient ami honour- 
able s ; of principal distinction and nobility in that 
part of Italy in which it resided ; and of equestrian 
rank h , from its first admission to the freedom of 
Rome. 

Some have insinuated, that Cicero affected to say 
but little of the splendour of his family, for the sake 
of being considered as the founder of it ; and chose 
to suppress the notion of his regal extraction, for 
the aversion that the people of Rome had to the 
name of king ; with which, however, he was some- 
times reproached by bis enemies 1 . But those spe- 
culations are wholly imaginary ; for as oft as there 
was occasion to mention the character and condition 
of his ancestors, he speaks of them always with 
great frankness, declaring them to have been con- 

e See Plutarch's Life of Cicero. 

f Regia progenies et Tullo sanguis ab alto. — Sil. Ital. 

g Hinc enim orti stirpe antiquissima : hie sacra, hie 
genus, hie majorum multa vestigia. — De Leg. ii. 1, 2. 

h The equestrian dignity, or that order of the Roman 
people which we commonly call knights, had nothing in 
it analogous or similar to any order of modern knight- 
hood, but depended entirely upon a census, or valuation 
of their estates, which was usually made every five years 
by the censors, in their lustrum, or general review of the 
whole people, when all those citizens, whose entire for- 
tunes amounted to the value of four hundred sestertia, 
that is, of 32291. of our money, were enrolled of course in 
the list of equites or knights, who were considered as 
a middle order between the senators and the common 
people, yet without any other distinction than the privi- 
lege of wearing a gold ring, which was the peculiar badge 
of their order. [Liv. xxiii. 12 ; Plin. Hist, xxxiii. ] .] 
The census, or estate necessary to a senator, was double 
to that of a knight : and if ever they reduced their for- 
tunes below that standard, they forfeited their rank, and 
were struck out of the roll of their order by the censors. 
Si quadringentis sex septem millia desint, 
Plebs eris. Hor. Ep. i. 1. 57- 

The order of knights therefore included in it the whole 
provincial nobility and gentry of the empire, which had 
not yet obtained the honour of the Senate. 

» Vid. Sebast. Corrad. Quastura, pp. 43, 44. 
B 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



tent with their paternal fortunes, and the private 
honours of their own city, without the ambition of 
appearing on the public stage of Rome. Thus in 
a speech to the people upon his advancement to the 
consulship, I have no pretence, says he, to enlarge 
before you, upon the praises of my ancestors ; not but 
that they were all such as myself, who am descended 
from their blood, and trained by their discipline ; 
but because they lived without this applause of 
popular fame, and the splendour of these honours, 
which you confer k . It is on this account therefore, 
that we find him so often called a new man ; not 
that his famfly was new or ignoble, but because he 
was the first of it, who ever sought and obtained the 
public magistracies of the state. 

The place of his birth was Arpinum ; a city 
anciently of the Samnites, now part of the kingdom 
of Naples ; which, upon its submission to Rome, 
acquired the freedom of the city, and was inserted 
into the Cornelian tribe. It had the honour also 
of producing the great C. Marius ; which gave occa- 
sion to Pompey to say in a public speech, that 
Rome was indebted to this corporation for two 
citizens, who had, each in his turn, preserved it 
from ruin 1 . It may justly therefore claim a place 
in the memory of posterity, for giving life to such 
worthies, who exemplified the character which Pliny 
gives of true glory, by doing what deserved to be 
written, and writing what deserved to be read ; and 
making the world the happier and the better for 
"heir having lived in it m . 

The territory of Arpinum was rude and mountain- 
ous, to which Cicero applies Homer's description of 
Ithaca, 

— T P r ?X e ^' &M-' aya.9}) novporpocpos, k. t. A. 
'Tis rough indeed, yet breeds a generous race". 

The family seat was about three miles from the 
town, in a situation extremely pleasant, and well 
adapted to the nature of the climate. It was sur- 
rounded with groves and shady walks, leading from 
the house to a river called Fibrenus, which was 
divided into two equal streams by a little island, 
covered with trees, and a portico contrived both for 
study and exercise, whither Cicero used to retire 
when he had any particular work upon his hands. 
The clearness and rapidity of the stream, murmur- 
ing through a rocky channel ; the shade and verdure 
of its banks, planted with tall poplars ; the remark- 
able coldness of the water, and above all, its falling 
by a cascade into the nobler river Liris, a little 
below the island ; gives us the idea of a most beau- 
tiful scene, as Cicero himself has described it. When 
Atticus first saw it, he was charmed with it, and 
wondered that Cicero did not prefer it to all his 
other houses ; declaring a contempt of the laboured 
magnificence, marble pavements, artificial canals, 
and forced streams of the celebrated villas of Italy, 
compared with the natural beauties of this place . 
The house, as Cicero says, was but small and humble 
in his grandfather's time, according to the ancient 
frugality, like the Sabine farm of old Curius ; till his 
father beautified and enlarged it into a handsome 
and spacious habitation. 

But there cannot be a better proof of the delight- 

k De Lege Agrar. con. Hull, ad Quirites, 1. 

1 De Legib. ii. 3 ; Val. Maxim, ii. 2. 

» Plin. Ep. 

« Ad Att. ii. II ; Odyss. ix. 27- 

° i>e Legib. ii. 1, 2,3. 



fulness of the place, than that it is now possessed 
by a convent of monks, and called the Villa of St. 
Dominic p. Strange revolution ! to see Cicero's 
porticoes converted to monkish cloisters ! the seat 
of the most refined reason, wit, and learning, to a 
nursery of superstition, bigotry, and enthusiasm ! 
What a pleasure must it give to these Dominican 
Inquisitors, to trample on the ruins of a man, whose 
writings, by spreading the light of reason and liberty 
through the world, have been one great instrument 
of obstructing their unwearied pains to enslave it ! 

Cicero, being the first-born of the family, re- 
ceived, as usual, the name of his father and grand- \ 
father, Marcus. This name was properly personal, * 
equivalent to that of baptism with us, and imposed 
with ceremonies somewhat analogous to it, on the 
ninth day, called the lustrical, or day of purification i ; 
when the child was carried to the temple by the 
friends and, relations of the family, and, before the 
altars of the gods, recommended to the protection of 
some tutelar deity. 

Tullius was the name of the family ; which, in old 
language, signifiedfiowingstreams, or ductsof water, 
and was derived, therefore, probably from their 
ancient situation, at the confluence of the two rivers r . 

The third name was generally added on account 
of some memorable action, quality, or accident, 
which distinguished the founder, or chief person, of 
the family. Plutarch says, that the surname of 
Cicero was owing to a wart or excrescence on the 
nose of one of his ancestors, in the shape of a vetch, 
which the Romans called cicer s : but Pliny tells us, 
more credibly, that all those names, which had a 
reference to any species of grain, as the Fabii, Len- 
tuli, &c. were acquired by a reputation of being the 
best husbandmen or improvers of that species 1 . As 
Tullius, therefore, the family name, was derived 
from the situation of the farm, so Cicero, the sur- 
name, from the culture of it by vetches. This, I 
say, is the most probable ; because agriculture was 
held the most liberal employment in old Rome, and 
those tribes, which resided on their farms in the 
country, the most honourable ; and this very grain, 
from which Cicero drew his name, was, in all ages 
of the republic, in great request with the meaner 
people ; being one of the usual largesses bestowed 
upon them by the rich, and sold everywhere in the 
theatres and streets ready parched or boiled for pre- 
sent use u . 

Cicero's grandfather was living at the time of his 
birth ; and from the few hints which are left of him, 

P Appresso la Villa di S. Domenico ; bora cosi nominate 
questo luogo, ove nacque Cicerone, come dice Pietro 
Marso, laquale Villa e discosta da Arpino da tre miglia. 
— Vid. Leand. Alberti Descrittione d'ltalia, p. 267. 

q Est Nundina K-omanorum dea, a nono nascentium die 
nuncupata, qui lustricus dicitur ; est autem dies lustricus, 
quo infantes lustrantur et nomen accipiunt. — Macrob. 
Sat. i. 16. 

r Pompeius Festus in voce Tullius. 

s This has given rise to a blunder of some sculptors, 
who, in tbe busts of Cicero, have formed tbe resemblance 
of this vetch on his nose ; not reflecting, that it was the 
name only, and not the vetchitself , which was transmitted 
to him by his ancestors. 

1 Hist. Nat. xviii. 3, 1. 

u In cicere, atque faba, bona tu perdasque lupinis, 
Latus ut in circo spatiere, aut ameus ut stes. 

Hor. Sat. 1. ii. 3. 182. 
Nee, siquid fricti ciceris probat et nucis emtor. 

Ars Poet. 249. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



seems to have been a man of business and interest 
in his country". He was at the head of a party in 
Arpinum, in opposition to a busy turbulent man, 
M. Gratidius, whose sister he had married, who 
was pushing forward a popular law, to oblige the 
town to transact all their affairs by ballot. The 
oause was brought before the Consul Scaurus ; in 
which old Cicero behaved himself so well, that the 
consul paid him the compliment to wish that a 
man of his spirit and virtue would come and act with 
them in the great theatre of the republic, and not 
confine his talents to the narrow sphere of his own 
corporation >\ There is a saying likewise recorded 
of this old gentleman, That the men of those times 
were like the Syrian slaves — the more Greek they 
knew, the greater knaves they were* ; which carries 
with it the notion of an old patriot, severe on the 
importation of foreign arts, as destructive of the 
discipline and manners of his country. This grand- 
father had two sons — Marcus the elder, the father 
of our Cicero ; and Lucius, a particular friend of 
the celebrated orator M. Antonius, whom he ac- 
companied to his government of Cilicia a ; and who 
left a son of the same name, frequently mentioned 
by Cicero with great affection, as a youth of excel- 
lent virtue and accomplishments b . 

His father Marcus also was a wise and learned 
man, whose merit recommended him to the fami- 
liarity of the principal magistrates of the republic, 
especially Cato, L. Crassus, and L. Csesar c ; but 
being of an infirm and tender constitution, he spent 
his life chiefly at Arpinum, in an elegant retreat 
and the study of polite letters d . 

But his chief employment, from the time of his 
having sons, was to give them the best education 
which Rome could afford, in hopes to excite in 
them an ambition of breaking through the indo- 
lence of the family, and aspiring to the honours of 
the state. They were bred up with their cousins, 
the young Aculeos, in a method approved and 
directed by L. Crassus ; a man of the first dignity, 
as well as the first eloquence in Rome, and by those 
very masters whom Crassus himself made use of e . 
The Romans were of all people the most careful 
and exact in the education of their children : their 

x De Legib. ii. 1. 

y Ac nostro quideni huic, cum res esset ad se delata, 
Consul Scaurus, utinam. inquit, M. Cicero, isto animo 
atque virtute, in summa republica nobiscum versari, 
quam in municipali voluisses! — Ibid. iii. 16. 

z Nostros homines similes esse Syrorum venalium ; ut 
quisque optime Graece sciret, ita esse nequissimum. — De 
Orat. ii. 66. 

N.B.— A great part of the slaves in Rome were Syrians; 
for the pirates of Cilicia, who used to infest the coasts of 
Syria, carried all their captives to the market of Delos, 
and sold them there to the Greeks, through whose hands 
they usually passed to Rome : those slaves, therefore, who 
had lived the longest with their Grecian masters, and 
consequently talked Greek the best, were the most prac- 
tised in all the little tricks and craft that servitude natu- 
rally teaches; which old Cicero, like Cato the Censor, 
imputed to the arts and manners of Greece itself. — Vid. 
Adr. Turneb. in jocos Ciceronis. 

a De Orat. ii. 1. 

b De Finib. v. 1 ; ad Att. i. 5. 

e Ep. Fam. xv. 4; De Orat. ii. I. 

^ Qui cum esset infirma valetudine, hie fere seiatem 
egit in Uteris. — De Legib. ii. 1. 

e Cumque nos cum consobrinis nostris, Aculeonis filiis, 
et ea disceremus, quae Crasso placerent, et ab iis doctori- 
bus, quibus ille uteretur, erudiremur. — De Orat. ii. 1. 



attention to it began from the moment of their 
birth ; when they committed them to the care of 
some prudent matron of reputable character and 
condition, whose business it was to form their first 
habits of acting and speaking ; to watch their 
growing passions, and direct them to their proper 
objects ; to superintend their sports, and suffer 
nothing immodest or indecent to enter into them ; 
that the mind preserved in its innocence, nor de- 
praved by a taste of false pleasure, might be at 
liberty to pursue whatever was laudable, and apply 
its whole strength to that profession, in which it 
desired to excel f . 

It was the opinion of some of the old masters, 
that children should not be instructed in letters 
till they were seven years old ; but the best judges 
advised, that no time of culture should be lost, and 
that their literary instruction should keep pace with 
their moral ; that three years only should be allowed 
to the nurses, and when they first began to speak, 
that they should begin also to learn s. It was 
reckoned a matter likewise of great importance, 
what kind of language they were first accustomed 
to hear at home, and in what manner not only their 
nurses, but their fathers and even mothers, spoke ; 
since their first habits were then necessarily formed, 
either of a pure or corrupt elocution : thus the two 
Gracchi were thought to owe that elegance of 
speaking, for which they were famous, to the 
institution of their mother Cornelia ; a woman of 
great politeness, whose epistles were read and 
admired long after her death for the purity of their 
language 11 . 

This probably was a part of that domestic disci- 
pline, in which Cicero was trained, and of which 
he often speaks ; but as soon as he was capable of 
a more enlarged and liberal institution, his father 
brought him to Rome, where he had a house of his 
own 1 , and placed him in a public school, under an 
eminent Greek master, which was thought the best 
way of educating one who was designed to appear 
on the public stage, and who, as Quintilian ob- 
serves, ought to be so bred as not to fear the sight 
of men, since that can never be rightly learned in 
solitude, which is to be produced before crowds k . 
Here he gave the first specimen of those shining 
abilities, which rendered him afterwards so illus- 
trious ; and his school-fellows carried home such 
stories of his extraordinary parts and quickness in 
learning, that their parents were often induced to 
visit the school, for the sake of seeing a youth of 
such surprising talents 1 . 

About this time a celebrated rhetorician, Plo- 
tius, first set up a Latin school of eloquence in 
Rome, and had a great resort to him m . Young- 
Cicero was very desirous to be his scholar, but was 

f Eligebatur autem aliqua major natu propinqua, cujus 
probatis spectatisque moribus, omnis cujuspiam familiae 
soboles committeretur, &c. — quae disciplina et severitas 
eo pertinebat, ut sincera et integra et nullis pravitatibus 
detorta uniuscuj usque natura, toto statim pectore arri- 
peret artes honestas, &c. — Tacit. Dial, de Oratorib. 28. 

gQuintil. i. 1. 

h Ibid. ; it. in Brut. p. 319, edit. Sebast. Corradi. 

1 This is a farther proof of the wealth and nourishing 
condition of his family ; sjnee the rent of a moderate house 
in Rome, in a reputable part of the city, fit for one of 
equestrian rank, was about two hundred pounds sterling 
per annum. 

k Quintil. i. 2. 1 Plutarch, in his Life. 

m Sueton. de Claris Rhetoribus, c. 2. 
B 2 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



over-ruled in it by the advice of the learned, who 
thought the Greek masters more useful in forming 
him to the bar, for which he was designed. This 
method of beginning with Greek is approved 
by Quintilian ; because the Latin would come of 
itself, and it seemed most natural to begin from 
the fountain, whence all the Roman learning was 
derived : yet the rule, he says, must be practised 
with some restriction, nor the use of a foreign lan- 
guage pushed so far to the neglect of the native, 
as to acquire with it a foreign accent and vicious 
pronunciation". 

Cicero's father, encouraged by the promising 
genius of his son, spared no cost nor pains to im- 
prove it by the help of the ablest masters, and 
among the other instructors of his early youth, 
put him under the care of the poet Archias, who 
came to Rome with a high reputation for learning 
and poetry, when Cicero was about live years old, 
and lived in the family of Lucullus : for it was the 
custom of the great in those days to entertain in 
their houses the principal scholars and philosophers 
of Greece, with a liberty of opening a school, and 
teaching, together with their own children, any of 
the other young nobility and gentry of Rome. 
Under this master, Cicero applied himself chiefly 
to poetry, to which he was naturally addicted ; and 
made such a proficiency in it, that while he was 
still a boy, he composed and published a poem, 
called Glaucus Pontius, which was extant in Plu- 
tarch's time p. 

After finishing the course of these puerile stu- 
dies, it was the custom to change the habit of the 
boy for that of the man, and take what they called 
the manly gown, or the ordinary robe of the citi- 
zens : this was an occasion of great joy to the young 
men ; who, by this change, passed into a state of 
greater liberty and enlargement from the power of 
their tutors i. They were introduced at the same 
time into the forum, or the great square of the 
city, where the assemblies of the people were held 
and the magistrates used to harangue to them from 
the rostra, and where all the public pleadings and 
judicial proceedings were usually transacted : this 
therefore was the grand school of business and 
eloquence ; the scene on which all the affairs of 
the empire were determined, and where the foun- 
dation of their hopes and fortunes was to be laid : 
so that they were introduced into it with much 
solemnity, attended by all the friends and depend- 
ants of the family; and after divine rites performed 
in the capitol, were committed to the special pro- 
tection of some eminent senator, distinguished for 
his eloquence or knowledge of the laws, to be in- 
structed by his advice in the management of civil 
affairs, and to form themselves by his example 
for useful members and magistrates of the republic. 

Writers are divided about the precise time of 
changing the puerile for the manly gown : what 
seems the most probable is, that in the old re- 

n Q,umtil. i, 1. o p r0 Archia, i. 3. 

P Plutarch. This Glaucus was a fisherman of Anthe- 
don, in Bceotia ; who, upon eating a certain herb, jumped 
into the sea, and became a sea-god : the place was ever 
after called Glaucus's Leap ; where there was an oracle of 
the god, in great vogue with all seamen ; and the story 
furnished the argument to one of iEschylus's tragedies. 
— Pausan. Boeot. c. 22. 

1 Cum primum pavido custos mihi purpura oessit. 

Pers. Sat. v. 30. 



public is was never done till the end of the seven- 
teenth year ; but when the ancient discipline began 
to relax, parents, out of indulgence to their chil- 
dren, advanced this sera of joy one year earlier, 
and gave them the gown at sixteen, which was the 
custom iii Cicero's time. Under the emperors it 
was granted at pleasure, and at any age, to the 
great or their own relations ; for Nero received it 
from Claudius, when he just entered into his four- 
teenth year, which, as Tacitus says, was given 
before the regular season r . 

Cicero being thus introduced into the forum, 
was placed under the care of Q. Mucius Sceevola 
the augur, the principal lawyer, as well as states- 
man of that age ; who had passed through all the 
offices of the republic, with a singular reputation of 
integrity, and was now extremely old. Cicero never 
stirred from his side ; but carefully treasured up in 
his memory all the remarkable sayings which dropt 
from him, as so many lessons of prudence for his 
future conduct s ; and after his death applied him- 
self to another of the same family, Scsevola the 
high-priest, a person of equal character for probity 
and skill in the law ; who, though he did not pro- 
fess to teach, yet freely gave his advice to all the 
young students who consulted him 1 . 

Under these masters he acquired a complete 
knowledge of the laws of his country; a foundation 
useful to all who design to enter into public affairs ; 
and thought to be of such consequence at Rome, 
that it was the common exercise of boys at school, 
to learn the laws of the Twelve Tables by heart, as 
they did their poets and classic authors 11 . Cicero 
particularly took such pains in this study, and was 
so well acquainted with the most intricate parts of 
it, as to be able to sustain a dispute on any question 
with the greatest lawyers of his age x : so that in 
pleading once against his friend S. Sulpicius, he 
declared, by way of raillery, what he could have 
made good likewise in fact, that if he provoked 
him, he would profess himself a lawyer in three 
days' time 7. 

The profession of the law, next to that of arms 
and eloquence, was a sure recommendation to the 
first honours of the republic 7 -, and for that reason 
was preserved as it were hereditary in some of the 
noblest families of Rome a ; who, by giving their 
advice gratis to all who wanted it, engaged the 
favour and observance of their fellow citizens, and 
acquired great authority in all the affairs of state. 
It was the custom of these old senators, eminent 
for their wisdom and experience, to walk every 
morning up and down the forum, as a signal of 
their offering themselves freely to all, who had 
occasion to consult them, not only in cases of law, 
but in their private and domestic affairs b . But in 

r Ann. xii. 41 ; Vid. Norris Cenotaph. ; Pisan. Disser. ii. 
c. 4 ; It. Sueton. August. 8 ; et Notas Pitisci. 

s De Amicit, 1. * Brut. p. 89. edit. Seb. Corradi. 

11 De Legib. ii. 23. * Ep. Fam. vii. 22. 

7 Pro Muraena, 13. z Ibid. 14. 

a Quorum vero patres aut majores aliqua gloria pr«esti- 
terunt, ii student plerumque in eodem genere laudis excel- 
lere : utQ,. Mucius P. filius, injure civili. — Off. i. 32. ii. 19. 

b M. vero Manilium nos etiam vidimus transverso am- 
bulantem foro ; quod erat insigne, eum, qui id faceret, 
facere civibus omnibus consilii sui copiam. Ad quos olim 
et ita ambulantes et in solio sedentes domi ita adibatur, 
non solum ut de jure civili ad eos, verum etiam de filia 
collocanda — de omni denique aut officio aut negotio refer- 
retur.— De Orat. iii. 33. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



later times they chose to sit at home with their 
doors open, in a kind of throne or raised seat, like 
the confessors in foreign churches, giving access 
and audience to all people. This was the case of 
the two Sceevolas, especially the augur, whose 
house was called the oracle of the city c ; and who, 
in the Marsic war, when worn out with age and 
infirmities, gave free admission every day to all the 
citizens, as soon as it was light, nor was ever seen 
by any in his bed during that whole war d . 

But this was not the point that Cicero aimed at, 
to guard the estates only of the citizens : his views 
were much larger ; and the knowledge of the law 
was but one ingredient of many, in the character 
which he aspired to, of a universal patron, not 
only of the fortunes, but of the lives and liberties, of 
his countrymen ; for that was the proper notion of 
an orator, or pleader of causes, whose profession 
it was to speak aptly, elegantly, and copiously, on 
every subject which could be offered to him, and 
whose art therefore included in it all other arts of 
the liberal kind, and could not be acquired, to any 
perfection, without a competent knowledge of 
whatever was great and laudable in the universe. 
This was his own idea of what he had undertaken 6 ; 
and his present business therefore was, to lay a 
foundation fit to sustain the weight of this great 
character : so that while he was studying the law 
under the Scsevolas, he spent a large share of his 
time in attending the pleadings at the bar, and the 
public speeches of the magistrates, and never 
passed one day without writing and reading some- 
thing at home ; constantly taking notes, and making 
comments on what he read. He was fond, when 
very young, of an exercise, which had been recom- 
mended by some of the great orators before him, of 
reading over a number of verses of some esteemed 
poet, or a part of an oration, so carefully as to 
retain the substance of them in his memory, and 
then deliver the same sentiments in different words, 
the most elegant that occurred to him. But he 
soon grew weary of this, upon reflecting, that his 
authors had already employed the best words which 
belonged to their subject ; so that if he used the 
same, it would do him no good ; and if different, 
woidd even hurt him, by a habit of using worse. 
He applied himself therefore to another task of 
more certain benefit, to translate into Latin the 
select speeches of the best Greek orators, which gave 
him an opportunity of observing and employing 
all the most elegant words of his own language, 
and of enriching it at the same time with new ones, 
borrowed or imitated from the Greek f . Nor did 
he yet neglect his poetical studies ; for he now 
translated Aratus on the Phenomena of the Heavens, 
into Latin verse, of which many fragments are 
still extant ; and published also an original poem 
of the heroic kind, in honour of his countryman 
C. Marius. This was much admired, and often 
read by Atticus ; and old Scsevola was so pleased 
with it, that in an epigram, which he seems to have 
made upon it, he declares, that it would live as long 

e Est enim sine dubio domus jurisconsulti totius ora- 
culum civitatis. Testis est hujusce Q, Mucii janua et 
vestibulum, quod in ejus infirmissima valetudine, affec- 
taque jam aetate, maxima quotidie frequentia civium, ac 
summorum hominum splendore celebratur. — De Orat. i. 
45. 

•* Philip. viiL 10. 

« De Orat, i. 5, 6, 13, 16. f De Orator, i 34. 



as the Roman name and learning subsisted «. There 
remains still a little specimen of it, describing a 
memorable omen given to Marius from the oak of 
Arpinum, which from the spirit and elegance of 
the description shows, that his poetical genius was 
scarce inferior to his oratorical, if it had been cul- 
tivated with the same diligence 11 . He published 
another poem also, called Limon ; of w-hich Donatus 
has preserved four lines in the life of Terence, in 
praise of the elegance and purity of that poet's 
style 1 . But while he was employing himself in 
these juvenile exercises for the improvement of his 
invention, he applied himself with no less industry 
to philosophy, for the enlargement of his mind and. 
understanding ; and, among his other masters, was 
very fond at this age of Phsedrus the Epicurean : 
but as soon as he had gained a little more experi- 
ence and judgment of things, he wholly deserted 
and constantly disliked the principles of that sect ; 
yet always retained a particular esteem for the 
man, on account of his learning, humanity, and 
politeness k . 

The peace of Rome was now disturbed by a 
domestic war, which writers call the Italic, Social, 
or Marsic. It was begun by a confederacy of the 
principal towns of Italy, to support their demand 
of the freedom of the city. The tribune Drusus 
had made them a promise of it, but was assassin- 
ated in the attempt of publishing a law to confer 
it. This made them desperate, and resolve to extort 
by force what they could not obtain by entreaty 1 . 
They alleged it to be unjust to exclude them from 
the rights of a city which they sustained by their 
arms ; that in all its wars they furnished twice the 
number of troops which Rome itself did ; and had 
raised it to all that height of power, for which 
it now despised them m . This war was carried on 
for above two years, with great fierceness on both 
sides, and various success : two Roman consuls 
were killed in it, and their armies often defeated ; 
till the confederates, weakened also by frequent 
losses, and the desertion of one ally after another, 
were forced at last to submit to the superior fortune 
of Rome 11 . During the hurry of the war, the 

g Eaque, ut ait Scsevola de fratris mei Mario, — canescet 
sseclis innumerabilibus. — De Leg. i. 1. 
h Hie Jovis altisoni subito pinnata satelles 
Arbor is e trunco, serpen tis saucia morsu, 
Subjugat ipsa feris transfigens unguibus anguem 
Semianimum, et varia graviter cervice micantem ; 
Quern se intorquentem lanians rostroque cruentans, 
Jam satiata animos, jam duros ulta dolores, 
Abjicit efflantem, et laceratum adfligit in unda, 
Seque obitu a solis, nitidos convertit ad ortus. 
Banc ubi praepetibus pennis lapsuque volantem 
Conspexit Marius, divini numinis augur, 
Faustaqne signa sua? laudis, reditusque notavit ; 
Partibus intonuit cceli Pater ipse sinistris. 
Sic aquilae clarum firmavit Juppiter omen. 

De Divin. i. 47. 
» We have no account of the argument of this piece, cr 
of the meaning of its title ; it was probably nothing more 
than the Greek word Aeifxdov, to intimate that the poem, 
like a meadow or garden, exhibited a variety of different 
fancies and flowers. The Greeks, as Pliny says, were fond 
of giving such titles to their books as UavS4KTai, , Eyx ei - 
piZiov, Aeiftctiv, &c, [Prasf. Hist. Nat.,] and Pamphilus 
the Grammarian, as Suidas tells us, published a At ijxuiv, 
or a collection of various subjects. — Vid. in Pnmphil. 
k Ep. Fam. xiii. 1. * Philip, xii. 27. 

m Veil. Pat. ii. 15. n Flor. iii. 18. 



6 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



business of the forum was intermitted ; the greatest 
part of the magistrates, as well as the pleaders, 
being personally engaged in it : Hortensius, the 
most flourishing young orator at the bar, was a 
volunteer in it the first year, and commanded a 
regiment the second . 

Cicero likewise took the opportunity to make a 
campaign, along with the consul Cn. Pompeius 
Strabo, the father of Pompey the Great : this was 
a constant part of the education of the young 
nobility, to learn the art of war by personal service, 
under some general of name and experience ; for, 
in an empire raised and supported wholly by arms, 
a reputation of martial virtue was the shortest and 
surest way of rising to its highest honours ; and 
the constitution of the government was such, that 
as their generals could not make a figure even in 
camps, without some institution in the politer arts, 
especially that of speaking gracefully^; so those 
who applied themselves to the peaceful studies, 
and the management of civil affairs, were obliged 
to acquire a competent share of military skill, for 
the sake of governing provinces, and commanding 
armies, to which they all succeeded of course from 
the administration of the great offices of the 
state. 

In this expedition Cicero was present at a con- 
ference between Pompeius the consul, and Vettius 
the general of the Marsi, who had given the Romans 
a cruel defeat the year before, in which the Consul 
Rutilius was killed*). It was held in sight of the 
two camps, and managed with great decency : the 
consul's brother Sextus, being an old acquaintance 
of Vettius, came from Rome on purpose to assist 
at it ; and at the first sight of each other, after 
lamenting the unhappy circumstance of their meet- 
ing at the head of opposite armies, he asked Vettius 
by what title he should now salute him, of friend 
or enemy? to which Vettius replied, " Call me friend 
by inclination; enemy, by necessity r ." Which shows, 
that these old warriors had not less politeness in 
their civil, thanfierceness in their hostile, encounters. 

Both Marius and Sylla served as lieutenants to 
the consuls in this war, and commanded separate 
armies in different parts of Italy : but Marius per- 
formed nothing in it answerable to his great name 
and former glory : his advanced age had increased 
his caution ; and after so many triumphs and con- 
sulships, he was jealous of a reverse of fortune ; so 
that he kept himself wholly on the defensive, and, 
like old Fabius, chose to tire out the enemy by 
declining a battle ; content with snatching some 
little advantages, that opportunity threw into his 
hands, without suffering them however to gain any 
against him s . Sylla, on the other hand, was ever 
active and enterprising : he had not yet obtained the 
consulship, and was fighting for it, as it were, in the 
sight of his fellow-citizens ; so that be was constantly 
urging the enemy to a battle, and glad of every 
occasion to signalise his military talents, and eclipse 
the fame of Marius ; in which he succeeded to his 
wish, gained many considerable victories, and took 
several of their cities by storm, particularly Stabise, 

Brut. 425- 

D Quantum dicendi gravitate et copia valeat, in quo ipso 
inest quaedam dignitas iniperatoria. — Pro Lege Manilia, 14. 

1 Appian. Bell. Civ. p. 376, 

r Quern te appellem, inquit? at ille; Yoluntate hos- 
pitem, necessitate hostem. — Phil. xii. 11. 
e Plutar. in Mar. 



a town of Campania, which he utterly demolished 1 . 
Cicero, who seems to have followed his camp, as 
the chief scene of the war, and the best school for 
a young volunteer, gives an account of one action, 
of which he was eye-witness, executed with great 
vigour and success ; that, as Sylla was sacrificing 
before his tent in the fields of Nola, a snake hap- 
pened to creep out from the bottom of the altar ; 
upon which Postumius the haruspex, who attended 
the sacrifice, proclaiming it to be a fortunate omen, 
called out upon him to lead his army immediately 
against the enemy. Sylla took the benefit of the 
admonition; and drawing out his troops without 
delay, attacked and took the strong camp of the 
Samnites under the walls of Nola u . This action 
was thought so glorious, that Sylla got the story of 
it painted afterwards in one of the rooms of his 
Tusculan villa x . Thus Cicero was not less diligent 
in the army, than he was in the forum, to observe 
everything that passed ; and contrived always to 
be near the person of the general, that no action 
of moment might escape his notice. 

Upon the breaking out of this war, the Romans 
gave the freedom of the city to all the towns which 
continued firm to them ; and at the end of it, after 
the destruction of three hundred thousand lives, 
thought fit, for the sake of their future quiet, to 
grant it to all the rest : but this step, which they 
considered as the foundation of a perpetual peace, 
was, as an ingenious writer has observed, one of 
the causes that hastened their ruin ; for the enor- 
mous bulk to which the city was swelled by it, gave 
birth to many new disorders, that gradually cor- 
rupted and at last destroyed it ; and the discipline 
of the laws, calculated for a people whom the same 
walls would contain, was too weak to keep in order 
the vast body of Italy : so that from this time 
chiefly, all affairs were decided by faction and vio- 
lence, and the influence of the great, who could 
bring whole towns into the forum from the remote 
parts of Italy, or pour in a number of slaves and 
foreigners under the form of citizens ; for when the 
names and persons of real citizens could no longer 
be distinguished, it was not possible to know, whe- 
ther any act had passed regularly by the genuine 
suffrage of the people ?. 

The Italic war was no sooner ended, than another 
broke out, which, though at a great distance from 
Rome, was one of the most difficult and desperate 
in which it ever was engaged, against Mithridates, 
king of Pontus, a martial and powerful prince, of a 
restless .spirit and ambition, with a capacity equal 
to the greatest designs ; who, disdaining to see all 
his hopes blasted by the overbearing power of Rome, 
and confined to the narrow boundary of his heredi- 
tary dominion, broke through his barrier at once, 
and over-ran the lesser Asia like a torrent, and in 
one day caused eighty thousand Roman citizens to 
be massacred in cold blood 2 . His forces were 

* Plut. in Sylla. In Campano autem agro Stabia? oppi- 
dum fuere usque ad Cn. Pompeium et L. Carbonem con- 
sules, pridie Kalendas Maii, quo dicL. Sylla, legatus bello 
sociali, id delevit, quod nunc in villas abiit. Intercidit 
ibi et Taurania.— Plin. Hist. N. iii. 5. 

u In Syllae scrip turn historia videmus, quod te inspec- 
tante factum est, ut quum ille in agro Nolano immolaret 
ante praetorium, ab infima ara subito anguis emergeret, 
quum quidem C. Postumius haruspex orabat ilium, &c. — 
Ue Divin. i. 33 ; ii. 30 * Plin. Hist. N. xxii. 6. 

y De la Grandeur des Romains, &c, c. 9. 

z Pro Lege Manil. 3. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



answerable to the vastness of his attempt, and the 
inexpiable war that he had now declared against 
tbe republic : he had a fleet of above four hundred 
ships, with an army of two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand foot, and fifty thousand horse ; all completely 
armed, and provided with military stores, fit for 
the use of so great a body a . 

Sylla, who had now obtained the consulship, as 
the reward of his late services, had the province of 
Asia allotted to him, with the command of the war 
against Mithridates b : but old Marius, envious of 
his growing fame, and desirous to engross every 
commission which offered either power or wealth, 
engaged Sulpicius, an eloquent and popular tribune, 
to get that allotment reversed, and the command 
transferred from Sylla to himself, by the suffrage of 
the people. This raised great tumults in the city 
between the opposite parties, in which the son of 
Q. Pompeius the consul, and the son-in-law of 
Sylla, was killed. Sylla happened to be absent, 
quelling the remains of the late commotions near 
Nola ; but, upon the news of these disorders, he 
hastened with his legions to Rome ; and having 
entered it after some resistance, drove Marius and 
his accomplices to the necessity of saving them- 
selves by a precipitate flight. This was the begin- 
ning of the first civil war, properly so called, which 
Rome had ever seen, and what gave both the occa- 
sion and the example to all the rest that followed. 
The tribune Sulpicius was taken and slain; and 
Marius so warmly pursued, that he was forced to 
plunge himself into the marshes of Minturnum, up 
to the chin in water ; in which condition he lay 
concealed for some time, till being discovered and 
dragged out, he was preserved by the compassion 
of the inhabitants who, after refreshing him from 
the cold and hunger which he had suffered in his 
flight, furnished him with a vessel and all necessa- 
ries to transport himself into Africa . 

Sylla in the meanwhile having quieted the city, 
and proscribed twelve of his chief adversaries, set 
forward upon his expedition against Mithridates ; 
but he was no sooner gone, than the civil broils 
broke out afresh between the new consuls, Cinna 
and Octavius, which Cicero calls the Octavian war d . 
For Cinna, attempting to reverse all that Sylla had 
established, was driven out of the city by his col- 
league, with six of the tribunes, and deposed from 
the consulship. Upon this he gathered an army, 
and recalled Marius, who, having joined his forces 
with him, entered Rome in a hostile manner, and, 
with the most horrible cruelty, put all Sylla' s friends 
to the sword, without regard to age, dignity, or 
former services. Among the rest fell the Consul 
Cn. Octavius, the two brothers L. Caesar and C. 
Caesar, P. Crassus, and the orator, M. Antonius, 
whose head, as Cicero says, was fixed upon that 
rostra, where he had so sti-enuously defended the 
republic when consul, and preserved the heads of 
so many citizens ; lamenting, as it were ominously, 
the misery of that fate which happened afterwards 
to himself, from the grandson of this very Anto- 

a Appian. Bell. Mithridat., init. p. 171. 

l> Id. Bell. Civ. 1. i. 383. 

c Pro Plan. 10. This account, that Cicero gives more 
than once, of Marius's escape, makes it probable, that the 
common story of the Gallic soldier, sent into the prison to 
kill him, was forged by some of the later writers, to make 
the relation more tragical and affecting. 

J De Divr. i. 2 ; Philip, xiv. 8. 



nius. Q. Catulus also, though he had been Marius's 
colleague in the consulship and his victoiy over the 
Cimbri, was treated with the same cruelty ; for 
when his friends were interceding for his life, Marius 
made them no other answer but, " he must die, he 
must die ;" so that he was obliged to kill himself s . 

Cicero saw this memorable entry of his country- 
man Marius, who, in that advanced age, was so far 
from being broken, he says, by his late calamity, 
that he seemed to be more alert and vigorous than 
ever ; when he heard him recounting to the people, 
in excuse for the cruelty of his return, the many 
miseries which he had lately suffered ; when he was 
driven from that country which he had saved from 
destruction ; when all his estate was seized and 
plundered by his enemies ; when he saw his young 
son also the partner of his distress ; when he was 
almost drowned in the marshes, and owed his life 
to the mercy of the Mitfturnensians ; when he was 
forced to fly into Africa in a small bark, and become 
a suppliant to those to whom he had given king- 
doms : but that since he had recovered his dignity, 
and all the rest that he had lost, it should be his 
care not to forfeit that virtue and courage which he 
had never lost f . Marius and Cinna having thus 
got the republic . into their hands, declared them- 
selves consuls : but Marius died unexpectedly, as 
soon almost as he was inaugurated into his new 
dignity, on the 13th of January, in the 70th year 
of his age ; and, according to the most probable 
account, of a pleuritic fevers. 

His birth was obscure, though some call it eques- 
trian ; and his education wholly in camps, where 
he learnt the first rudiments of war under the 
greatest master of that age, the younger Scipio, 
who destroyed Carthage ; till by long service, dis- 
tinguished valour, and a peculiar hardiness and 
patience of discipline, he advanced himself gra- 
dually through all the steps of military honour, 
with the reputation of a brave and complete sol- 
dier. The obscurity of his extraction, which de- 
pressed him with the nobility, made him the greater 
favourite of the people, who, on all occasions of 
danger, thought him the only man fit to be trusted 
with their lives and fortunes, or to have the com- 
mand of a difficult and desperate war : and in truth, 
he twice delivered them from the most desperate with 
which they had ever been threatened by a foreign 
enemy. Scipio, from the observation of his mar- 
tial talents, while he had yet but an inferior com- 
mand in the army, gave a kind of prophetic testi- 
mony of his future glory : for being asked by some 
of his officers, who were supping with him at Nu- 
mantia, what general the republic would have, in 
case of any accident to himself ; That man ! replied 
he, pointing to Marius, at the bottom of the table. 
In the field he was cautious and provident ; and 
while he was watching the most favourable oppor- 
tunities of action, affected to take all his measures 

e Cum necessariis Catuli deprecantibusnon semel respon- 
dit, sed sa?pe, moriatur. — Tusc. Disp. v. 19 ; Be QxaX. iii. 3. 

i Post Red. ad Q.uir. 8. 

g Plutarch, in Mar. The celebrated orator L. Crassus 
died not lemg before of the same disease, which might 
probably be then, as I was told in Rome that it is now, 
the peculiar distemper of the place. The modern Romans 
call it puntura, which seems to carry the same notion, 
that the old Romans expressed by percussus frigore ; 
intimating the sudden stroke of cold, upon a body un- 
usually heated. 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



from augurs and diviners ; nor ever gave battle, till, 
by pretended omens and divine admonitions, he had 
inspired his soldiers with a confidence of victory : so 
that his enemies dreaded him, as something more 
than mortal ; and both friends and foes believed 
him to act always by a peculiar impulse and direc- 
tion from the gods. His merit, however, was wholly 
military, void of every accomplishment of learning, 
which he openly affected to despise ; so that Arpi- 
num had the singular felicity to produce the most 
glorious contemner, as well as the most illustrious 
improver, of the arts and eloquence of Rome. He 
made no figure, therefore, in the gown, nor had any 
other way of sustaining his authority in the city, 
than by cherishing the natural jealousy between the 
senate and the people ; that by his declared enmity 
to the one, he might always be at the head of the 
other, whose favour he managed, not with any 
view to the public good, for he had nothing in him 
of the statesman or the patriot, but to the advance- 
ment of his private interest and glory. In short, 
he was crafty, cruel, covetous, perfidious ; of a 
temper and talents greatly serviceable abroad, but 
turbulent and dangerous at home ; an implacable 
enemy to the nobles, ever seeking occasions to mor- 
tify them, and ready to sacrifice the republic, which 
he had saved, to his ambition and revenge. After 
a life spent in the perpetual toils of foreign or do- 
mestic wars, he died at last in his bed, in a good 
old age, and in his seventh consulship ; an honour 
that no Roman before him ever attained ; which is 
urged by Cotta, the Academic, as one argument 
amongst others, against the existence of a Provi- 
dence h . 

The transactions of the forum were greatly inter- 
rupted by these civil dissensions ; in which some of 
the best orators were killed and others banished. 
Cicero however attended the harangues of the ma- 
gistrates, who possessed the rostra in their turns : 
and being now about the age of twenty-one, drew 
up probably those rhetorical pieces which were 
published by him, as he tells us, when very young, 
and are supposed to be the same that still remain, 
on the subject of Invention ; but he condemned 
and retracted them afterwards in his advanced age, 
as unworthy of his maturer judgment, and the work 
only of a boy, attempting to digest into order the 
precepts, which he had brought away from school \ 
In the meanwhile, Philo, a philosopher of the first 
name in the academy, with many of the principal 
Athenians, fled to Rome from the fury of Mithri- 
dates, who had made himself master of Athens, and 

h Natus equestri loco. [Veil. Pat. ii. 11.] Se P. Africani 
discipulum ac militem. [pro Balb. 20 ; Val. Max. viii. 15,] 
Populus Romanus non alium repellendis tantis hostibus 
magis idoneutn, quam Marium est ratus. [Veil. Pat. ii. 
12.] Bis Italiam obsidione et metu liberavit servitutis. 
[in Cat. iv. 10.] Omnes socii atque hostes credere, illi. aut 
mentem divinam esse, aut deorum nutu cuncta portendi. 
[Sallust. Bell. Jug. 92.] Conspicuse felicitatis Arpinum, sive 
unicum literarum gloriosissimum contemptorem, sive 
abundantissimum fontem intueri velis. [Val. Max. ii. 2.] 
Quantum bellooptimustantum pace pessimus ; immodicus 
gloriae insatiabilis, impotens, semperque inquietus. [Veil. 
Pat. ii. 11.] Cur omnium perfidiosissimus, C. Marius, Q. 
Catulum, praestantissima dignitate virum, mori potuit 
jubere ? — cur tarn feliciter, septimum consul, domi suae 
eenex est mortuus? [De Nat. Deor. iii. 32.] 

1 Quae pueris aut adolescentulis nobis, ex commen- 
tariolis nostris inchoata ac rudia exciderunt, vix bac 
astate digna, et boc usu, &c De Orat. i. 2; Quintil. 1. iii. 6. 



all the neighbouring parts of Greece. Cioero im- 
mediately became his scholar, and was exceedingly 
taken with his philosophy ; and by the help of such 
a professor, gave himself up to that study with the 
greater inclination, as there was cause to apprehend 
that the laws and judicial proceedings, which he had 
designed for the ground of his fame and fortunes, 
would be wholly overturned by the continuance of 
the public disorders k . 

But China's party having quelled all opposition 
at home, while Sylla was engaged abroad in the 
Mithridatic war, there was a cessation of arms 
within the city for about three years, so that the 
course of public business began to flow again in its 
usual channel ; and Molo the Rhodian, one of the 
principal orators of that age, and the most cele- 
brated teacher of eloquence, happening to come to 
Rome at the same time, Cicero presently took the 
benefit of his lectures, and resumed his oratorical 
studies with his former ardour \ But the greatest 
spur to his industry was the fame and splendour of 
Hortensius, who made the first figure at the bar, 
and whose praises fired him with such an ambition 
of acquiring the same glory, that he scarcely allowed 
himself any rest from his studies either day or night. 
He had in the house with him Diodotus the Stoic, as 
his preceptor in various parts of learning, but more 
particularly in logic, which Zeno, as he tells us, 
used to call a close and contracted eloquence, as he 
called eloquence an enlarged and dilated logic ; 
comparing the one to the fist or hand doubled ; the 
other, to the palm opened m . Yet with all his atten- 
tion to logic, he never suffered a day to pass with- 
out some exercise in oratory, chiefly that of de- 
claiming, which he generally performed with his 
fellow students, M. Piso and Q,. Pompeius, two 
young noblemen a little older than himself, with 
whom he had contracted an intimate friendship. 
They declaimed sometimes in Latin, but much oftener 
in Greek ; because the Greek furnished a greater 
variety of elegant expressions, and an opportunity 
of imitating and introducing them into the Latin ; 
and because the Greek masters, who were far the 
best, could not correct and improve them, unless 
they declaimed in that language n . 

In this interval Sylla was performing great exploits 
against Mithridates, whom he had driven, out of 
Greece and Asia, and confined once more to his 
own territory ; yet at Rome, where Cinna was 
master, he was declared a public enemy, and his 
estate confiscated. This insult upon his honour and 
fortunes made him very desirous to be at home 
again, in order to take his revenge upon his adver- 
saries : so that after all his success in the war, he 
was glad to put an end to it by an honourable 
peace ; the chief article of which was, that Mithri- 
dates should defray the whole expense of it, and 
content himself for the future with his hereditary 
kingdom. On his return, he brought away with 

k Eodem tempore, cum princeps aoademiae Philo, cum 
Atbeniensium optimatibus, Mitbridatico bello domo pro- 
f ugisset, Romamque venisset, totum ei me tradidi, &c— 
Brut. 430. 

1 Eodem anno Moloni dedimus operam. — Ibid. 

m Zeno quidem ille, a quo disciplina Stoicorum est manu 
demonstrare solebat, quid inter has artes interesset. Nam 
cum compresserat digitos, pugnumque fecerat, dialecticam 
aiebat ejusmodi esse ; cum autem diduxerat, et manum 
dilataverat.palmaeillius similem eloquentiam esse dicebat. 
—Orator. 259. edit. Lamfc. 

n Brut. pp. 357, 433. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



him from Athens the famous library of Apellicon, 
the Teian, in which were the works of Aristotle and 
Theophrastus, that were hardly known before in 
Italy, or to be found indeed entire anywhere else . 
He wrote a letter at the same time to the senate, 
setting forth his great services, and the ingratitude 
with which he had been treated ; and acquainting 
them, that he was coming to do justice to the re- 
public and to himself upon the authors of those 
violences. This raised great terrors in the city, 
which, having lately felt the horrible effects of 
Marius's entry, expected to see the same tragedy 
acted over again by Sylla. 

But while his enemies were busy in gathering 
forces to oppose him, Cinna, the chief of them, was 
killed in a mutiny of his own soldiers. Upon this 
Sylla hastened his march, to take the benefit of 
that disturbance, and landed at Brundisium with 
about thirty thousand men. Hither many of the 
nobility presently resorted to him, and among them 
young Pompey, about twenty-three years old, who, 
without any public character or commission, brought 
along with him three legions which he had raised 
by his own credit out of the veterans who had 
served under his father. He was kindly received by 
Sylla, to whom he did great service in the progress 
of the war, and was ever after much favoured and 
employed by him p. 

Sylla now carried all before him : he defeated 
one of the consuls, Norbanus, and by the pretence 
of a treaty with the other consul, Scipio, found 
means to corrupt his army, and draw it over to 
himself i : he gave Scipio however his life, who 
went into a voluntary exile at Marseilles 1 . The 
new consuls chosen, in the mean time, at Rome 
were Cn. Papirus Carbo and young Marius ; the 
first of whom, after several defeats, was driven 
out of Italy, and the second besieged in Praeneste ; 
where being reduced to extremity, and despairing 
of relief, he wrote to Damasippus, then praetor of 
the city, to call a meeting of the senators, as if 
upon business of importance, and put the principal 
of them to the sword. In this massacre many of 
the nobles perished, and old Scaevola, the high- 
priest, the pattern of ancient temperance and pru- 
dence, as Cicero calls him, was slain before the 
altar of Vesta s : after which sacrifice of noble 
blood to the manes of his father, young Marius put 
an end to his own life. 

Pompey at the same time pursued Carbo into 
Sicily ; and having taken him at Lilybeum, sent 
his head to Sylla, though he begged his life in an 
abject manner at his feet : this drew some reproach 
upon Pompey, for killing a man to whom he had 
been highly obliged on an occasion where his 
father's honour and his own fortunes were attacked. 
But this is the constant effect of factions in states, 
to make men prefer the interests of a party, to all 
the considerations either of private or public 
duty ; and it is not strange, that Pompey, young 
and ambitious, should pay more regard to the 
power of Sylla, than to a scruple of honour or 



o Plut. Life of Sylla. 

P Appian. Bell. Civ. I. i. 3&J, 399. 

q Sylla cum Scipione inter Cales et Teanum— leges inter 
se et eonditiones contulerunt ; non tenuit omnino collo- 
quium illud fidem, a vi tamen et periculo abfuit.— Philip. 
xii. 11. 

* Pro Sextio, 3. 

s De Nat. Deor, iii. 32. 



gratitude 1 . Cicero, however, says of this Carbo, 
that there never was a worse citizen, or more 
wicked man u : which will go a great way towards 
excusing Pompey's act. 

Sylla having subdued all who were in arms 
against him, was now at leisure to take his full 
revenge on their friends and adherents ; in which, 
by the detestable method of a proscription, of 
which he was the first author and inventor, he exer- 
cised a more infamous cruelty than had ever been 
practised in cold blood in that, or perhaps in any 
other city x . The proscription was not confined 
to Rome, but carried through all the towns of 
Italy ; where, besides the crime of party, which 
was pardoned to none, it was fatal to be possessed 
of money, lands, or a pleasant seat ; all manner 
of licence being indulged to an insolent army, of 
carving for themselves what fortunes they pleased y. 

In this general destruction of the Marian faction, 
J. Caesar, then about seventeen years old, had 
much difficulty to escape with his life : he was 
nearly allied to old Marius, and had married Cin- 
na 's daughter ; whom he could not be induced 
to put away, by all the threats of Sylla, who, con- 
sidering him for that reason as irreconcileable to his 
interests, deprived him of his wife's fortune and 
the priesthood, which he had obtained. Csesar 
therefore, apprehending still somewhat worse, 
thought it prudent to retire and conceal himself in 
the country, where, being discovered accidentally 
by Sylla' s soldiers, he was forced to redeem his 
head by a very large sum : but the intercession 
of the vestal virgins, and the authority of his 
powerful relations, extorted a grant of his life very 
unwillingly from Sylla, who bade them take notice,' 
that he, for whose safety they were so solicitous, 
would one day be the ruin of that aristocracy, 
which he was then establishing with so much 
pains, for that he saw many Mariuses in one Caesar 2 . 
The eveiit confirmed Sylla's prediction ; for by the 
experience of these times, young Caesar was in- 
structed both how to form and to execute that 
scheme, which was the grand purpose of his whole 
life, of oppressing the liberty of his country. 



* Sed nobis tacentibus Cn. Carbonis, a quo admodum 
adolescens de paternis bonis in foro dimicans protectus 
es, jussu tuo interempti mors animis hominum obver- 
sabitur, non sine aliqua reprehensione : quia tarn ingrato 
facto, plus L. Syllae viribus, quam propria? indulsisti vere- 
cundia? Val. Max. v. 3. 

11 Hoc vero, qui Lilybei a Pompeio nostro est interfec- 
tus, improbior nemo, meo judicio, fuit. — Ep. Fam. ix. 21. 

x Primus ille, et utinam ultimus, exemplum proscrip- 
tionisinvenit, &c. — Veil. Pat. ii. 28. 

N.B.— The manner of proscribing was, to write down the 
names of those who were doomed to die, and expose them 
on tables fixed up in the public places of the city, with the 
promise of a certain reward for the head of each person so 
proscribed. So that though Marius and Cinna massacred 
their enemies with the same cruelty in cold blood, yet they 
did not do it in the way of proscription, nor with the offer 
of a reward to the murderers. 

y Namque uti quisque domum aut villam, postremo aut 
vas aut vestimentum alicujus concupiverat, dabat operam, 
ut is in proscriptorum numero esset. — Neque prius finis 
jugulandi fuit, quam Sylla omnes suos divitiis explevit. — 
Sallust. Bell. Cat. c. 51 ; Plutar. in SylL 

z Scirent eum, quern incolumem tanto opere cuperent, 
quandoque optimatium partibus, quas secum simul de- 
fendissent, exitiG futurum ; nam Caesari multos Marios 
inesse. [Sueton. J. Caes. c. 1 ; Plutar. in Cass.] Cinnaj gener, 
cujus filiani ut repudiaret, nullo modo compelli potuit. — 
Veil. Pat. ii. 42. 



10 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



As soon as the proscriptions were over, and the 
scene grown a little calm, L. Flaccus, being chosen 
inter rex, declared Sylla dictator for settling the 
state of the republic without any limitation of time, 
and ratified whatever he had done, or should do, 
by a special law, that empowered him to put any 
citizen to death without hearing or trials This 
office of dictator, which in early times had oft been 
of singular service to the republic in cases of diffi- 
culty and distress, was now grown odious and sus- 
pected, in the present state of its wealth and power, 
as dangerous to the public liberty, and for that 
reason had been wholly disused and laid aside for 
one hundred and twenty years past b : so that 
Flaccus's law was the pure effect, of force and 
terror ; and though pretended to be made by the 
people, was utterly detested by them. Sylla, how- 
ever, being invested by it with absolute authority, 
made many useful regulations for the better order 
of the government ; and by the plenitude of his 
power changed in a great measure the whole consti- 
tution of it, from a democratical to an aristocratical 
form, by advancing the prerogative of the senate, 
and depressing that of the people. He took from 
the equestrian order the judgment of all causes, 
which they had enjoyed from the time of the 
Gracchi, and restored it to the senate; deprived 
the people of the right of choosing the priests, 
and replaced it in the colleges of priests : but above 
all, he abridged the immoderate power of the tri- 
bunes, which had been the chief source of all their 
civil dissensions ; for he made them incapable of 
any other magistracy after the tribunate ; restrained 
the liberty of appealing to them ; took from them 
their capital privilege, of proposing laws to the 
people ; and left them nothing but their negative ; 
or, as Cicero says, the power only of helping, not 
of hurting, any one c . But that he might not be 
suspected of aiming at a perpetual tyranny, and a 
total subversion of the republic, he suffered the 
consuls to be chosen in the regular manner, and to 
govern, as usual, in all the ordinary affairs of the 
city ; whilst he employed himself particularly in 
reforming the disorders of the state, by putting his 
new laws in execution ; and in distributing the 
confiscated lands of the adverse party among his 
legions : so that the republic seemed to be once 
more settled on a legal basis, and the laws and 
judicial proceedings began to flourish in the forum. 
About the same time Molo the Rhodian came again 
to Rome, to solicit the payment of what was due to 
his country, for their services in the Mithridatic 
war ; which gave Cicero an opportunity of putting 
himself a second time under his direction, and 
perfecting his oratorical talents by the farther 
instructions of so renowned a master d : whose 
abilities and character were so highly reverenced, 
that he was the first of all foreigners, who was ever 
allowed to speak to the senate in Greek without an 
interpreter 6 . Which shows in what vogue the 
Greek learning, and especially eloquence, flourished 
at this time in Rome. 

a De Leg. Agrar. con. Hull. iii. 2. 

b Cujus honoris usurpatio per annos cxx iniermissa— ut 
appareat populum Romanum usum dictatoris non tain 
desiderasse, quam timuisse potestatem imperii, quo priores 
ad vindicandam maximis periculis I'empublicam usi 
fnerant.— Veil. Pat. ii. 28. 

c De Legit), iii. 10 ; It. vid. Pigh. Annal. ad A. Urb. 
^72. <1 Brut. p. 434. 



Cicero had now run through all that course of 
discipline, which he lays down as necessary to form 
the complete orator : for, in his treatise on that 
subject, he gives us his own sentiments in the per- 
son of Crassus, on the institution requisite to that 
character ; declaring, that no man ought to pretend 
to it, without being previously acquainted with 
everything worth knowing in art or nature ; that 
this is implied in the very name of an orator, whose 
profession it is to speak upon every subject which 
can be proposed to him ; and whose eloquence, 
without the knowledge of what he speaks, would 
be the prattle only and impertinence of children f . 
He had learned the rudiments of grammar and lan- 
guages from the ablest teachers ; gone through the 
studies of humanity and the politer letters with the 
poet Archias ; been instructed in philosophy by the 
principal professors of each sect ; Phsedrus the Epi- 
cm-ean, Philo the Academic, Diodotus the Stoic : 
acquired a perfect knowledge of the law, from the 
greatest lawyers, as well as the greatest statesmen 
of Rome, the two Scaevolas : all which accomplish- 
ments were but ministerial and subservient to 
that, on which his hopes and ambition were singly 
placed, the reputation of an orator. To qualify 
himself therefore, particularly for this, he attended 
the pleadings of all the speakers of his time ; heard 
the daily lectures of the most eminent orators of 
Greece, and was perpetually composing somewhat 
at home, and declaiming under their correction : 
and that he might neglect nothing, which could 
help in any degree to improve and polish his style, 
he spent the intervals of his leisure in the company 
of the ladies ; especially of those who were re- 
markable for a politeness of language, and whose 
fathers had been distinguished by a fame and repu- 
tation of their eloquence. While he studied the 
law, therefore, under Scsevola the augur, he fre- 
quently conversed with his wife Lselia, whose 
discourse, he says, was tinctured with all the 
elegance of her father Lselius, the politest speaker 
of his age s : he was acquainted likewise with her 
daughter Mucia, who married the great orator 
L. Crassus ; and with her grand- daughters, the two 
Licinia? ; one of them, the wife of L. Scipio ; the 
other, of young Marius ; who all excelled in that 
delicacy of the Latin tongue, which was peculiar 
to their families, and valued themselves on pre- 
serving and propagating it to their posterity. 

Thus adorned and accomplished, he offered him- 
self to the bar about the age of twenty-six ; not as 
others generally did, raw and ignorant of their 
business, and wanting to be formed to it by use 
and experience 11 ; but finished and qualified at once 
to sustain any cause which should be committed 
to him. It has been controverted both by the 
ancients and moderns, what was the first cause in 
which he was engaged : some give it for that of 
P. Quinctius ; others, for S. Roscius : but neither 
of them are in the right ; for in his oration for 

e Eum ante omnes exterarum gentium in senatu sine 
interprete auditum constat. — Val. Max. ii. 2. 

f Ac mea quidem sententia, nemo poterit esse omni 
laude cumulatus orator, nisi erit omnium rerum magna- 
rum atque artium scientiam consecutus. — De Orat. i. 6. 
ii. 2. 

S Legimus epistolas Cornelia?, matris Gracchorum— 
auditus est nobis Laslia?, Caii filial, saspe sermo : ergo illam 
patris elegantia tinctam vidimus ; et filias ejus Mucias 
ambas, quarum sermo mihi fuit notus, &c Brut. 319. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



11 



Quinctius he expressly declares, that he had pleaded 
other causes before it; and in that for Roscius, 
says only, that it was the first public or criminal 
cause, in which he was concerned : and it is rea- 
sonable to imagine, that he had tried his strength, 
and acquired some credit in private causes, before 
he would venture upon a public one of that im- 
portance ; agreeably to the advice, which Quinc- 
tilian gives to his young pleaders 1 , whose rules 
are generally drawn from the practice and example 
of Cicero. 

The cause of P. Quinctius was, to defend him 
from an action of bankruptcy, brought against him 
by a creditor who, on pretence of his having for- 
feited his recognizance, and withdrawn himself from 
justice, had obtained a decree to seize his estate, 
and expose it to sale. The creditor was one of the 
public criers who attended the magistrates, and, 
by his interest among them, was likely to oppress 
Quinctius, and had already gained an advantage 
against him by the authority of Hortensius, who 
was his advocate. Cicero entered into the cause, 
at the earnest desire of the famed comedian, 
Roscius, whose sister was Quinctius's wife k : he 
endeavoured at first to excuse himself; alleging, 
that he should not be able to speak a word against 
Hortensius, any more than the other players could 
act with any spirit before Roscius ; but Roscius 
would take no excuse, having formed such a judg- 
ment of him as to think no mian so capable of 
supporting a desperate cause, against a crafty and 
powerful adversary. 

After he had given a specimen of himself to the 
city in this, and several other private causes, he 
undertook the celebrated defence of S. Roscius of 
Ameria, in his 27th year ; the same age, as the 
learned have observed, in which Demosthenes first 
began to distinguish himself in Athens ; as if in 
these geniuses of the first magnitude that was the 
proper season of blooming towards maturity. The 
case of Roscius was this : — His father was killed in 
the late proscription of Sylla ; and his estate, worth 
about 60,000/. sterling, was sold among the con- 
fiscated estates of the proscribed, for a trifling sum 
to L. Cornelius Chrysogonus, a young favourite 
slave whom Sylla had made free, who, to secure 
his possession of it, accused the son of the murder 
of his father, and had provided evidence to convict 
him ; so that the young man was likely to be de- 
prived, not only of his fortune, but, by a more 
villanous cruelty, of his honour also and his life. 
All the old advocates refused to defend him, fearing 
the power of the prosecutor, and the resentment of 
Sylla 1 ; since Roscius's defence would necessarily 
lead them into many complaints on the times, and 
the oppressions of the great : but Cicero readily 
undertook it, as a glorious opportunity of enlisting 
himself into the service of his country, and giving 
a public testimony of his principles and zeal for 
that liberty, to which he had devoted the labours 
of his life. Roscius was acquitted, to the great 
honour of Cicero ; whose courage and address in 
defending him was applauded by the whole city ; so 

h Brut. 433. » Quintil. xii. 6. k Pro Quinct. 24. 

1 Ita loqui homines ; — huic patronos propter Chrysogoni 
gratiam defuturos. — ipso nomine parricidii et atrocitate 
criminis fore, ut hie nullo negotio tolleretur, cum a nullo 
defensussit. — Patronos huic defuturos putaverunt ; desunt. 
Q,ui libere dicat, qui cum fidedefendat, nondeest profecto, 
Judices.— Pro Roscio Amer. 10, 11. 



that from this moment he was looked upon as an 
advocate of the first class, and equal to the greatest 
causes 1 ". 

Having occasion, in the course of his pleading, 
to mention that remarkable punishment which 
their ancestors had contrived for the murder of a 
parent, of sowing the criminal alive into a sack, 
and throwing him into the river, he says, that the 
meaning of it was, to strike him at once as it were 
out of the system of nature, by taking from him the 
air, the sun, the water, and the earth ; that he, 
who had destroyed the author of his being, should 
lose the benefit of those elements, whence all things 
derive their being. They would not throw him to 
the beasts, lest the contagion of such wickedness 
should make the beasts themselves more furious : 
they would not commit him naked to the stream, 
lest he should pollute the very sea, which was the 
purifier of all other pollutions ; they left him no 
share of anything natural, how vile or common 
soever ; for what is so common as breath to the 
living, earth to the dead, the sea to those who 
float, the shore to those who are cast up ? Yet 
these wretches live so, as long as they can, as not 
to draw breath from the air ; die so as not to touch 
the ground ; are so tossed by the waves as not to 
be washed by them ; so cast out upon the shore 
as to find no rest even on the rocks n . This passage 
was received with acclamations of applause ; yet, 
speaking of it afterwards himself, he calls it the 
redundancy of a juvenile fancy, which wanted the 
correction of his sounder judgment ; and, like all 
the compositions of young men, was not applauded 
so much for its own sake, as for the hopes which 
it gave of his more improved and ripened talents °. 

The popularity of his cause, and the favour of 
the audience, gave him such spirits, that he exposed 
the insolence and villany of the favourite Chryso- 
gonus with great gaiety ; and ventured even to 
mingle several bold strokes at Sylla himself; which 
he took care, however, to palliate, by observing 
that, through the multiplicity of Sylla's affairs, who 
reigned as absolute on earth as Jupiter did in 
heaven, it was not possible for him to know, and 
necessary even to connive at, many things which 
his favourites did against his willP. He would not 
complain, he says, in times like those, that an 
innocent man's estate was exposed to public sale ; 
for were it allowed to him to speak freely on that 
head, Roscius was not a person of such consequence 
that he should make a particular complaint on his 
account ; but he must insist upon it, that by the 
law of the proscription itself, whether it was Flac- 
cus's the interrex, or Sylla's the dictator, for he 
knew not which to call it, Roscius's estate was not 
forfeited, nor liable to be soldi. In the conclusion, 
he puts the judges in mind, that nothing was so 
much aimed at by the prosecutors in this trial, as, 
by the condemnation of Roscius, to gain a prece- 
dent for destroying the children of the proscribed : 
he conjures them, therefore, by all the gods, not to 
be the authors of reviving a second proscription, 
more barbarous and cruel than the first ; that the 
senate refused to bear any part in the first, lest it 
should be thought to be authorised by the public 

,r Prima causa puhlica, pro S. Roscio dicta, tantum com- 
mendationis habuit, ut non ulla esset, quae non nostro 
digna patrocinio videretur. Deinceps in.de inultae. — 
Brut. 434. » Pro Rose. 26. 

Orat. 2. r >8. ed. Lamb. P Pro Rose. 45. <i Ibid. 43. 



12 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



council ; that it was their business by this sen- 
tence to put a stop to that spirit of cruelty, which 
then possessed the city, so pernicious to the re- 
public, and so contrary to the temper and character 
of their ancestors. 

As by this defence he acquired a great reputation 
in his youth, so he reflects upon it with pleasure 
in old age, and recommends it to his son, as the 
surest way to true glory and authority in his coun- 
try, to defend the innocent in distress, especially 
when they happen to be oppressed by the power of 
the great ; as I have often done, says he, in other 
causes, but particularly in that of Roscius, against 
Sylla himself in the height of his power r . A noble 
lesson to all advocates, to apply their talents to the 
protection of innocence and injured virtue ; and to 
make justice, not profit, the rule and end of their 
labours. 

Plutarch says, that presently after this trial 
Cicero took occasion to travel abroad, on pretence 
of his health, but in reality to avoid the effects of 
Sylla' s displeasure ; but there seems to be no 
ground for this notion ; for Sylla's revenge was 
now satiated, and his mind wholly bent on restoring 
the public tranquillity ; and it is evident, that Cicero 
continued a year after this in Rome without any 
apprehension of danger, engaged, as before, in the 
same task of pleading causes s ; and in one espe- 
cially, more obnoxious to Sylla's resentment, even 
than that of Roscius : for in the case of a woman 
of Arretium, he defended the right of certain towns 
of Italy to the freedom of Rome, though Syila 
himself had deprived them of it by an express law; 
maintaining it to be one of those natural rights, 
which no law or power on earth could take from 
them : in which also he carried his point, in oppo- 
sition to Cotta, an orator of the first character and 
abilities, who pleaded against him 1 . 

But we have a clear account from himself of the 
real motive of his journey : my body, says he, at 
this time was exceedingly weak and emaciated ; my 
neck long and small ; which is a habit thought 
liable to great risk of life, if engaged in any fatigue 
or labour of the lungs ; and it gave the greater 
alarm to those who had a regard for me, that I 
used to speak without any remission or variation, 
with the utmost stretch of my voice, and great 
agitation of my body ; when my friends, therefore, 
and physicians, advised me to meddle no more with 
causes, I resolved to run any hazard, rather than 
quit the hopes of glory which I proposed to myself 
from pleading : but when I considered, that by 
managing my voice, and changing my way of 
speaking, I might both avoid all danger, and speak 
with more ease, I took a resolution of travelling 
into Asia, merely for an opportunity of correcting 
my manner of speaking : so that after I had been 

r Ut nos et saepe alias et adolescentes, contra L. Sulla? 
dominantis opes pro S. Roscio Amerino fecimus : quae, ut 
scis, extat oratio — De Offic. ii. 14. 

s Prima causa publica pro S. Roscio dicta— deinceps 
inde multse — itaque cum essem biennium versatus in cau- 
sis.— Brut. pp. 434, 437- 

t Populus Romanus, L. Sulla dictatore ferente, comitiis 
centuriatis, municipiis civitatem ademit : ademit iisdem 
agros: de agris ratum est : fuit enim populi potestas : de 
civitate ne. tamdiu quidem valuit, quamdiu ilia Sullani 
temporis arma valuerunt. — Atque ego hanc adolescentulus 
causam cum agerem, contra hominem disertissimum, 
contradicente Cotta, et Sulla vivo, judicatum est.— Pro 
Dom, ad Pontif. 33 ; pro Cxcina, 33. 



two years at the bar, and acquired a reputation in 
the forum. I left Rome, &c. u 

He was twenty-eight years old, when he set for- 
ward upon his travels to Greece and Asia — the 
fashionable tour of all those, who travelled either 
for curiosity or improvement : his first visit was to 
Athens, the capital seat of arts and sciences, where 
some writers tell us that he spent three years x , 
though in truth it was but six months. He took up 
his quarters with Antiochus, the principal philoso- 
pher of the old Academy ; and under this excellent 
master renewed, he says, those studies which he 
had been fond of from his earliest youth. Here he 
met with his school-fellow T. Pomponius, who, 
from his love to Athens, and his spending a great 
part of his days in it, obtained the surname of 
Atticus?; and here they revived and confirmed 
that memorable friendship which subsisted between 
them through life with so celebrated a constancy 
and affection. Atticus, being an Epicurean, was 
often drawing Cicero from his host Antiochus to 
the conversation of Phsedrus and old Zeno, the 
chief professors of that sect, in hopes of making 
him a convert : on which subject they used to have 
many disputes between themselves : but Cicero's 
view in these visits was but to convince himself 
more effectually of the weakness of that doctrine, 
by observing how easily it might be confuted, when 
explained even by the ablest teachers z . Yet he did 
not give himself up so entirely to philosophy as 
to neglect his rhetorical exercises, which he per- 
formed still every day very diligently with Deme- 
trius the Syrian, an experienced master of the art 
of speaking 3 . 

It was in this first journey to Athens, that he was 
initiated most probably into the Eleusinian myste- 
ries : for, though we have no account of the time, I 
yet we cannot fix it better than in a voyage under- | 
taken both for the improvement of his mind and I 
body. The reverence with which he always speaks ] 
of these mysteries, and the hints that he has dropped J 
of their end and use, seem to confirm what a very/ 
learned and ingenious writer has delivered of them,; 
that they were contrived to inculcate the unity of 
God, and the immortality of the soul b . As for the 
first, after observing to Atticus, who was one alsq 
of the initiated, how the gods of the popular reli-^ 
gions were all but deceased mortals advanced from \ 
earth to heaven, he bids him remember the doctrine 
of the mysteries, in order to recollect the univer- 
sality of that truth : and as to the second, he declares 
his initiation to be in fact, what the name itself 
implied, a real beginning of life to him ; as it taught 
the way, not only of living with greater pleasure, 
but of dying also with a better hope c . 

« Brut. 437. x Eusebii Chron. 

y Pomponius — ita enim se Atheniscolloca-vit, ut sitpaene 
unus ex Atticis et id etiam cognomine videatur habiturus. 
— De Fin. v. 2. z De Fin. i. 5 ; De Nat. Deor. i. 21. 

a Eodem tamen tempore apud Demetrium Syrum, 
veterem et non ignobilem dicendi magistrum studiose 
exerceri solebam.— Brut. 437- 

t> See Mr. War burton's Divine Legation of Moses, vol. i. 

c Ipsi, illi, majorum gentium dii qui habentur, hinc a 
nobis in ccelum profecti reperientur — reminiscere. quoniam 
es initiatus, qua? traduntur mysteriis ; turn denique quam 
hoc late pateat intelliges. — Tusc. Quaest. i. J 3. 

Initiaque, ut appellantur, ita revera pi incipia vita eog- 
novimus : neque solum cum lastitia vivendi rationem ac- 
cepimus. sed etiam cum spemelioremoriendi.-De Leg. ii. 14. 

N. B. These mysteries were celebrated at stated seasoua 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



13 



From Athens he passed into Asia, where he 
gathered about him all the principal orators of the 
country, who kept him company through the rest 
of his voyage ; and with whom he constantly exer- 
cised himself in every place, where he made any 
stay. The chief, of them, says he, was Menippus 
of Stratonica, the most eloquent of all the Asiatics ; 
and if to be neither tedious nor impertinent be the 
characteristic of an Attic orator, he may justly be 
ranked in that class. Dionysius also of Magnesia, 
JEschylus of Cnidos, and Zenocles of Adramyttus, 
were continually with me, who were reckoned the 
first rhetoricians of Asia. Nor yet content with 
these, I went to Rhodes, and applied myself again 
to Molo, whom I had heard before at Rome ; who 
was both an experienced pleader, and a fine writer, 
and particularly expert in observing the faults of 
his scholars, as well as in his method of teaching and 
improving them : his greatest trouble with me was, 
to restrain the exuberance of a juvenile imagina- 
tion, always ready to overflow its banks, within its 
due and proper channel 11 . 

But as at Athens, where he employed himself 
chiefly in philosophy, he did not intermit his orato- 
rical studies, so at Rhodes, where his chief study 
was oratory, he gave some share also of his time 
to philosophy, with Posidonius, the most esteemed 
and learned Stoic of that age, whom he often speaks 
of with honour, not only as his master, but as his 
friend e . It was his constant care, that the progress 

of the year, with solemn shows and a great pomp of machi- 
nery, which drew a mighty concourse to them from all 
countries. L. Crassus, the great orator, happened to come 
two days after they were over, and would gladly have per- 
suaded the magistrates to renew them ; hut not being able 
to prevail, left the city in disgust 1 : which shows how 
cautious they were of making them too cheap, when they 
refused the sight of them out of the proper season, to one 
of the first senators of Rome. The shows are supposed to 
have exhibited a representation of Heaven, Hell, Elysium, 
Purgatory, and all that related to the future state of the 
dead ; being contrived to inculcate more sensibly, and ex- 
emplify the doctrines delivered to the initiated : and as 
they were a proper subject for poetry, so they are frequent- 
ly alluded to by the ancient Poets. Cicero, in one of his 
letters to Atticus, begs of him, at the request of Chilius, 
an eminent poet of that age, to send them a relation of the 
Eleusinian rites, which were designed probably for an 
episode or embellishment to some of Chilius's works 2 . 
This confirms also the probability of that ingenious com- 
ment, which the same excellent writer has given on the 
sixth book of the iEneid, where Virgil, as he observes, in 
describing the descent into hell, is but tracing out in their 
genuine order the several scenes of the Eleusinian shows 3 . 

d Brut. 437- 

e He mentions a story of this Posidonius, which Pompey 
often used to tell ; that after the Mithridatic war, as he 
was returning from Syria towards Rome, he called at 
Rhodes, on purpose to hear him ; but being informed, on 
his arrival there, that he was extremely ill of the gout, he 
had a mind however to see him ; and in his visit, when, 
after the first compliments, he began to express his concern 
for finding him so ill, that he could not have the pleasure 
to hear him : But you can hear me, replied Posidonius; 
nor shall it be said, that on the account of any bodily pain, 
I suffered so great a man to come to me in vain ; upon 
which he entered presently into an argument, as he lay 



1 Diutius essem moratus, nisi Atheniensibus, quod 
mystoria nonreferrent,adqua? biduo serius veneram, suc- 
censuissem. — De Orat. iii. 20. 

2 Chilius te rogat, et ego ejus rogatu 'Ei/ i uO/\.7ri5co*' 
varpid — Ad Att. i. 5. 

3 Soe Divine Legation of Moses, p. 182. 



of his knowledge should keep pace with the improve- 
ment of his eloquence ; he considered the one as 
the foundation of the other, and thought it in vain 
to acquire ornaments, before he had provided neces- 
sary furniture. He declaimed here in Greek, because 
Molo did not understand Latin ; and upon ending 
his declamation, while the rest of the company were 
lavish of their praises, Molo, instead of paying any 
compliment, sat silent a considerable time, till observ- 
ing Cicero somewhat disturbed at it, he said, " As 
for you, Cicero, I praise and admire you; but pity 
the fortune of Greece, to see arts and eloquence, the 
only ornaments which were left to her, transplanted 
by you to Rome f . Having thus finished the circuit 
of his travels, he came back again to Italy, after an 
excursion of two years, extremely improved, and 
changed as it were into a new man : the vehe- 
mence of his voice and action was moderated ; the 
redundancy of his style and fancy corrected ; his 
lungs strengthened, and his whole constitution 
confirmed g . 

This voyage of Cicero seems to be the only 
scheme and pattern of travelling from which any 
real benefit is to be expected : he did not stir abroad 
till he had completed his education at home ; for 
nothing can be more pernicious to a nation, than 
the necessity of a foreign one ; and after he had 
acquired in his own country whatever was proper 
to form a worthy citizen and magistrate of Rome, 
he went, confirmed by a maturity of age and reason 
against the impressions of vice, not so much to 
learn, as to polish what he had learned, by visiting 
those places, where arts and sciences flourished in 
their greatest perfection. In a tour, the most 
delightful of the world, he saw everything that 
could entertain a curious traveller, yet stayed no- 
where any longer than his benefit, not his pleasure, 
detained him. By his previous knowledge of the 
laws of Rome, he was able to compare them with 
those of other cities, and to bring back with him 
whatever he found useful, either to his country or 
to himself. He was lodged, wherever he came, in 
the houses of the great and the eminent ; not so 
much for their birth and wealth, as for their virtue, 
knowledge, and learning ; men honoured and reve- 
renced in their several cities, as the principal 
patriots, orators and philosophers of the age. 
These he made the constant companions of his tra- 
vels, that he might not lose the opportunity, even 
on the road, of profiting by their advice and expe- 
rience ; and, from such a voyage, it is no wonder 
that he brought back every accomplishment which, 
could improve and adorn a man of sense. 

Pompey returned about this time victorious from 
Africa, where he had greatly enlarged the bounds 

upon his bed, and maintained with great eloquence, that 
nothing was really good, but what was honest : and being 
all the while in exquisite torture, he often cried out, O pain, 
thou shalt never gain thy point ; for- be as vexatious as 
thou wilt, I will never own thee to be an evil. This was 
the perfection of Stoical heroism, to defy sense and nature 
to the last : while another poor Stoic, Dionysius, a scholar 
of Zeno, the founder of the sect, when by the torture of the 
stone, he was forced to confess, that what his master had 
taught him was false, and that he felt pain to be an evil, 
is treated by all their writers, as a poltroon and base 
deserter. Which shows, that all their boasted firmness 
was owing rather to a false notion of honour and reputation, 
than to any real principle, or conviction of reason. — Nat. 
Deor. ii. 24 ; De Finib. v. 31. 
' Plutar. Life of Cic. g Brut. 438. 



14 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



of the empire, by the conquest and addition of 
many new countries to the Roman dominion. He 
was received with great marks of respect by the 
dictator Sylla, who went out to meet him at the 
head of the nobility, and saluted him by the title 
of Magnus, or the Great, which from that autho- 
rity was ever after given to him by all people. 
But his demand of a triumph disgusted both Sylla 
and the senate, who thought it too ambitious in 
one who had passed through none of the public 
offices, nor was of age to be a senator, to aspire to 
an honour which had never been granted, except 
to consuls or prsetors : but Pompey, insisting on 
his demand, extorted Sylla' s consent, and was the 
first whose triumphal car is said to have been 
drawn by elephants, and the only one of the eques- 
trian order who had ever triumphed ; which gave 
an unusual joy to the people, to see a man of their 
own body obtain so signal an honour ; and much 
more, to see him descend again from it to his old 
rank and private condition among the knights 11 . 

"While Pompey, by his exploits in war, had ac- 
quired the surname of the Great, J. Csesar, about 
six years younger, was giving proofs likewise of his 
military genius, and serving as a volunteer at the 
siege of Mitylene ; a splendid and nourishing city 
of Lesbos, which had assisted Mithridates in the 
late war, and perfidiously delivered up to him M. 
Aquilius, a person of consular dignity, who had 
been sent ambassador to that king, and after the 
defeat of the Roman army had taken refuge in 
Mitylene, as in a place of the greatest security. 
Mithridates is said to have treated him with the 
last indignity ; carrying him about in triumph, 
mounted upon an ass, and forcing him to proclaim 
everywhere aloud, that he was Aquilius, who had 
been the chief cause of the war. But the town 
now paid dear for that treachery, being taken by 
storm, and almost demolished by Q. Thermus ; 
though Pompey restored it afterwards to its former 
beauty and liberty, at the request of his favourite 
freedman, Theophanes. In this siege Csesar ob- 
tained the honour of a civic crown ; which, though 
made only of oaken leaves, was esteemed the most 
reputable badge of martial virtue ; and never be- 
stowed, but for saving the life of a citizen, and 
killing at the same time an enemy 1 . 

Sylla died while Cicero was at Athens, after 
he had laid down his dictatorship and restored 
liberty to the republic, and, with an uncommon 
greatness of mind, lived many months as a private 
senator and with perfect security in that city 
where he had exercised the most bloodj tyranny : 
but nothing was thought to be greater in his cha- 
racter, than that during the three years, in which 

h Bellum in Africa maximum confecit, victorem exerci- 
tum deportavit. Quid vero tarn inauditum, quam equitem 
Romanum triumphare ? [Pro Lege Man. 21,] Africa vero 
tota subacta — Magnique nomine, spolio inde capto, eques 
Romanus, id quod antea nemo, curru triumphali invec- 
tus est. [Plin. Hist Nat. vii. 26.] Romae primum juncti 
elepkantes subiere currum Pompeii Magni Africano tri- 
umpho. [lb. viii. 2: Plutar. in Pomp.] 

i Quid Mitylenae ? quaeeertevestrse, Quirites, belli lege, 
et victoria; jure facta* sunt : urbs et natura et situ, et de- 
seriptione aedificiorum et pulchritudine, imprimis nobilis. 
[De Leg. Agrar. ii. 16.] A Thermo in expugnatione Mi- 
tyienarum corona civica donatus est. [Suet. J. Caps. 2.] 
nine civicae eoronae, militum virtutis insigne clarissimum. 
[Plin. Hist. Nat., xvi. 4 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 18 ; Appian. Bell. 
Mithrid, p. 184 ; Val. Max.. ix. 13.] 



the Marians were masters of Italy, he neither dis- 
sembled his resolution of pursuing them by arms, 
nor neglected the war which he had upon his 
hands ; but thought it his duty, first to chastise a 
foreign enemy, before he took his revenge upon 
citizens' 4 . His family was noble and patrician, 
which yet, through the indolency of his ancestors, 
had made no figure in the republic for many gene- 
rations, and was almost sunk into obscurity, till 
he produced it again into light, by aspiring to the 
honours of the state. He was a lover and patron 
of polite letters, having been carefully instituted 
himself in all the learning of Greece and Rome ; 
but from a peculiar gaiety of temper, and fondness 
for the company of mimics and players, was 
drawn, when young, into a life of luxury and plea- 
sure ; so that when he was sent qusestor to Marius 
in the Jugurthine war, Marius complained, that 
in so rough and desperate a service, chance had 
given him so soft and delicate a quaestor. But 
whether roused by the example, or stung by the 
reproach, of his general, he behaved himself in that 
charge with the greatest vigour and courage, suf- 
fering no man to outdo him in any part of military 
duty or labour, making himself equal and familiar 
even to the lowest of the soldiers, and obliging 
them all by his good offices and his money ; so 
that he soon acquired the favour of the army, with 
the character of a brave and skilful commander ; 
and lived to drive Marius himself, banished and 
proscribed, into that very province where he had 
been contemned by him at first as his quaestor 1 . 
He had a wonderful faculty of concealing his 
passions and purposes, and was so different from 
himself in different circumstances, that he seemed 
as it were to be two men in one : no man was 
ever more mild and moderate before victory ; none 
more bloody and cruel after it m . In war he prac- 
tised the same art, that he had seen so successful 
to Marius, of raising a kind of enthusiasm and 
contempt of danger in his army, by the forgery of 
auspices and divine admonitions : for which end 
he carried always about with him a little statue 
of Apollo taken from the temple of Delphi ; and 
whenever he had resolved to give battle, used 
to embrace it in sight of the soldiers, and beg 
the speedy confirmation of its promises to 
him 11 . From an uninterrupted course of success 

k Vix quidquam in Syllse operibus clarius duxerim, 
quam quod, cum per triennium Cinnanae Marianaeque 
partes Italiam obsiderent, neque illaturum se bellum eis 
dissimulavit, nee quod erat in manibus omisit ; exjstima- 
vitque ante frangendum hostem, quam ulciscendum 
civem.— Veil. Pat. ii. 24. 

1 Gentis Patricias nobilis fuit ; familia prope jam ex- 
stincta majorum ignavia : Uteris Graecis atque Latinis 
juxta atque doctissime eruditus. — [Sallust. Bell. Jug. 95.] 
Usque ad quassturae suae comitia, vitam libidine, vino, 
ludicrae artis amore inquinatam perduxit. Quapropter C. 
Marium consulem moleste tulisse traditur, quod sibi, as- 
perrimum in Africa bellum gerenti, tarn delicatus quaestor 
sorte obvenisset, &c. [Val. Max. vi. 9 ; Sallust. Bell. Jug. 
95.] 

m Ad simulanda negotia altitudo ingenii incredibilis. 
[Sallust. Bell. Jugurtb. 95.] quae tam diversa, tamque inter 
se contraria, si quis apud animum suum expendere velit, 
duos in uno homine Syllas fuisse crediderit. [Val. Max. 
vi. 9.] Adeo enim Sylla fuit dissimilis bellator ac victor, 
ut dum vincit justissimo lenior; post victoriam audito 
fuerit crudelior — ut in eodem homine duplicis ac diversis- 
simi animi conspiceretur exemplum. — Veil. Pat. ii. 25. 

n Quoties praelium committere destinabat, parvum 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



15 



and prosperity he assumed the surname, unknown 
before to the Romans, of Felix or the fortunate ; 
and would have been fortunate indeed, says 
Velleius, if his life h.ad ended with his victories . 
Pliny calls it a wicked title, drawn from the blood 
and oppression of his country ; for which posterity 
would think him more unfortunate, even than 
those whom he had put to death p. He had one 
felicity, however, peculiar to himself, of being the 
only man in history, in whom the odium of the 
most barbarous cruelties was extinguished by the 
glory of his great acts. Cicero, though he had a 
good opinion of his cause, yet detested the inhu- 
manity of his victory, and never speaks of him 
with respect, nor of his government but as a 
proper tyranny ; calling him a master of three 
most pestilent vices, luxury, avarice, cruelty i. 
He was the first of his family, whose dead body 
was burnt : for having ordered Marius's remains 
to be taken out of his grave, and thrown into the 
river Anio, he was apprehensive of the same insult 
upon his own, if left to the usual way of burial 1 . 
A little before his death, he made his own epitaph, 
the sum of which was, that no man had ever gone 
beyond him, in doing good to his friends, or hurt 
to his enemies s . 

As soon as Sylla was dead, the old dissensions, 
that had been smothered awhile by the terror of 
his power, burst out again into a flame between 
the two factions, supported severally by the two 
consuls, Q. Catulus and M. Lepidus ; who were 
wholly opposite to each other in party and politics. 
Lepidus resolved at all adventures to rescind the 
acts of Sylla, and recall the exiled Marians ; and 
began openly to solieit the people to support him 
in that resolution : but his attempt, though plau- 
sible, was factious and unseasonable, tending to 
overturn the present settlement of the republic, 
which, after its late wounds and loss of civil blood, 
wanted nothing so much as rest and quiet to re- 
cover a tolerable degree of strength. Catulus's 
father, the ablest statesman of his time, and the 
chief assertor of the aristocratical interest, had 
been condemned to die by Marius : the son, there- 
fore, who inherited his virtues, as well as principles, 
and was confirmed in them by a resentment of 
that injury, vigorously opposed and effectually 

Apollinis signum Delphis sublatum, in conspectu milituni 
complexus, orabat, uti promissa inaturaret. — Val. Max. i. 
2 ; De Div. i. 33. 

Quod quidem usurpasset justissime, si eundem et vin- 
cendi et vivendi finem habuisset. — Veil. Pat. ii. 27. 

P TJnus kominum ad hoe a?vi Felicis sibi cognomen as- 
seruit — civili nempe sanguine, ac patriae oppugnatione 
adoptatus, &c. — Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 43. 

1 Qui trium pestiferorum vitiorum, luxurise, avaritise, 
crudelitatis, magister fuit. — De Fin. iii. 22 ; De Offic. ii. 8. 

r Quod haud scio an timens suo corpori, primus e 
patriciis Corneliis igne voluit cremari. — De Leg. ii. 22 ; 
Val. Max. ix. 2. 
s Plutarch, in SylL 

The following votive inscription was found in Italy, in 
the year 1723, near Cicero's Arpinum, between Atina and 
Sora, which had been dedicated probably by Sylla, about 
the time of his assuming the surname of Felix, soon after 
his first success and defeat of the chiefs, who were in arms 
against him at home :— 

IOVI 

QTJOD PERICVLVM 

FELICITER EVASERIT 

L. SY^LLA 

V.S. LA. 



disappointed all the designs of his colleague ; who, 
finding himself unable to gain his end without 
recurring to arms, retired to his government of 
Gaul, with intent to raise a force sufficient to sub- 
due all opposition ; where the fame of his levies 
and military preparations gave such umbrage to 
the senate, that they soon abrogated his command. 
Upon this he came forward into Italy at the head 
of a great army, and having possessed himself of 
Etruria without opposition, marched in a hostile 
manner towards the city, to the demand of a 
second consulship. He had with him several of 
the chief magistrates, and the good wishes of all 
the tribunes, and hoped by the authority of the 
Marian cause, which was always favoured by the 
populace, to advance himself into Sylla's place, and 
usurp the sovereign power of Rome. Catulus in 
the mean time, upon the expiration of his office, 
was invested with proconsular authority, and 
charged with the defence of the government ; and 
Pompey also, by a decree of the senate, was 
joined with him in the same commission ; who, 
having united their forces before Lepidus could 
reach the city, came to an engagement with him 
near the Milvian bridge, within a mile or two from 
the walls, where they totally routed and dispersed 
his whole army. But Cisalpine Gaul being still 
in the possession of his lieutenant, M. Brutus, 
the father of him who afterwards killed Caesar, 
Pompey marched forward to reduce that province : 
where Brutus, after sustaining a siege in Modena, 
surrendered himself into his hands ; but being 
conducted, as he desired, by a guard of horse to a 
certain village upon the Po, he was there killed by 
Pompey's orders. This act was censured as cruel 
and unjust, and Pompey generally blamed for 
killing a man of the first quality, who had sur- 
rendered himself voluntarily and on the condition 
of his life : but he acted probably by the advice of 
Catulus, in laying hold of the pretext of Brutus's 
treason, to destroy a man who, from his rank and 
authority, might have been a dangerous head to 
the Marian party, and capable of disturbing that 
aristocracy which Sylla had established, and which 
the senate and all the better sort were very desirous 
to maintain. Lepidus escaped into Sardinia, 
where he died soon after of grief to see his hopes 
and fortunes so miserably blasted : and thus ended 
the civil war of Lepidus, as the Roman writers call 
it, which, though but short-lived, was thought 
considerable enough by Sallust to be made the 
subject of a distinct history, of which several frag- 
ments are still remaining*. 

As Cicero was returning from his travels to- 
wards Rome, full of hopes and aspiring thoughts, 
his ambition was checked, as Plutarch tells us, by 
the Delphic oracle ; for, upon consulting Apollo 
by what means he might arrive at the height of 
glory, he was answered, by making his own genius, 
and not the opinion of the people, the guide of his 
life ; upon which he carried himself after his re- 
turn with great caution, and was very shy of pre- 

' M. Lepido, Q. Catulo consulibus, civile bellum pane 
citius-oppressum est quam inciperet — fax illius inotus ab 
ipso Syllse rogo exarsit. Cupidus namque rerum noTarmn 
per insolentiam Lepidus, acta tanti viri rescindere parabat, 
nee immerito, si tamen posset sine magna clade reipublicse, 
&c— Flor. iii. 27 ; Plutar. in Pomp. ; Appian-. i. 416 ; 
Sallust. Fragment. Hist. 1. i ; Val. Max. vi. 2 ; Pigh. 
Annal. A. U. 676. 



id 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



tending to public honours. But though the rule 
be very good, yet Cicero was certainly too wise, 
and had spent too much of his time with philoso- 
phers, to fetch it from an oracle which, according 
to his own account, had been in the utmost con- 
tempt for many ages, and was considered by all 
men of sense as a mere imposture u . But if he 
really went to Delphi, of which we have not the least 
hint in any of his writings, we must impute it to 
the same motive that draws so many travellers at 
this day to the Holy House of Loretto ; the curio- 
sity of seeing a place so celebrated through the 
world for its sanctity and riches. After his re- 
turn, however, he was so far from observing that 
caution which Plutarch speaks of, that he freely 
and forwardly resumed his former employment 
of pleading ; and after one year more spent at 
the bar, obtained in the next the dignity of 
Quaestor. 

Among the causes which he pleaded before his 
qusestorship was that of the famous comedian 
Roscius, whom a singular merit in his art had re- 
commended to the familiarity and friendship of the 
freatest men in Rome x . The cause was this : One 
'annius had made over to Roscius a young slave, 
to be formed by him to the stage, on condition oi 
a partnership in the profits, which the slave should 
acquire by acting. The slave was afterwards killed, 
and Roscius prosecuted the murderer for damages, 
and obtained, by a composition, a little farm worth 
about eight hundred pounds, for his particular 
share. Fannius also sued separately, and was sup- 
posed to have gained as much ; but pretending to 
have recovered nothing, sued Roscius for the moiety 
of what he had received. One cannot but observe 
from Cicero's pleading the wonderful esteem and 
reputation in which Roscius then flourished, of 
whom he draws a very amiable, picture. — Has 
Roscius then, says he, defrauded his partner ? Can 
such a stain stick upon such a man ? who, I speak 
it with confidence, has more integrity than skill, 
more veracity than experience : whom the people 
of Rome know to be a better man than he is an 
actor ; and while he makes the first figure on the 
stage for his art, is worthy of the senate for his 
virtue y. In another place he says of him, that he 
was such an artist, as to seem the only one fit to 
come upon the stage ; yet such a man, as to seem 
the only one unfit to come upon it at all z : and that 
his action was so perfect and admirable, that when 
a man excelled in any other profession, it was 
grown into a proverb to call him a Roscius a . His 
daily pay for acting is said to have been about thirty 
pounds sterling. b Pliny computes his yearly profit 



n Pyrrhi temporibus jam Apollo versus facere desierat — 
cur isto modo jam oraculanon eduntur, non modo nostra 
aetate. sed jam diu, ut modo nihil possit esse contemptius ? 
Quomodo autem ista vis evanuit ? an postquam homines 
minus creduli esse caperunt? — De Div. ii. 56, 57. 

x Nee vulgi tanturn favorem, verum etiam principum 
familiaritates amplexus est.— Val. Max. viii. 7. 

y Quern populus Romanus meliorem virum, quam his- 
trionem esse arbitratur ; qui ita dignissimus est scena, 
propter artificium ; ut dignissimus sit curias, propter abs- 
tinentiam. — Pro Q. Rose. 6. 

z Pro Quinct. 25. 

a Ut in quo quisque artificio excelleret, is in suo genere 
Roscius diceretur.— De Orat. i. 28. 

b Ut mercedem diurnam de publico mille denarios solus 
acceperit.— Macrob. Saturn, ii. 10. 



at four thousand pounds c ; but Cicero seems to rate 
it at five thousand. He was generous, benevolent, 
and a contemner of money ; and after he had 
raised an ample fortune from the stage, gave his 
pains to the public for many years without any 
pay : whence Cicero urges it as incredible, that he, 
who in ten years past might honestly have gained 
fifty thousand pounds, which he refused, should be 
tempted to commit a fraud for the paltry sum of 
four hundred d . 

At the time of Cicero's return from Greece, there 
reigned in the forum two orators of noble birth and 
great authority, Cotta and Hortensius, whose glory 
inflamed him with an emulation of their virtues. 
Cotta's way of speaking was calm and easy, flowing 
with great elegance and propriety of diction ; Hor- 
tensius's, sprightly, elevated, and warming both 
by his w T ords and action ; who being the nearer to 
him in age, about eight years older, and excelling 
in his own taste and manner, was considered by 
him more particularly as his pattern, or competitor 
rather, in glory e . The business of pleading, though 
a profession of all others the most laborious, yet 
was not mercenary, nor undertaken for any pay; 
for it was illegal to take money, or to accept even 
a present for it : but the richest, the greatest, and 
the noblest of Rome freely offered their talents to 
the service of their citizens, as the common guar- 
dians and protectors of the innocent and distressed f . 
This was a constitution as old as Romulus, who 
assigned the patronage of the people to the patri- 
cians or senators, without fee or reward : but in 
succeeding ages, when, through the avarice of the 
nobles, it was become a custom for all clients to 
make annual presents to their patrons, by which 
the body of the citizens was made tributary as it 
were to the senate, M. Cincius, a tribune, pub- 
lished a law, prohibiting all senators to take money 
or gifts on any account, and especially for pleading 
causes. In the contest about this law, Cicero 
mentions a smart reply made by the tribune to C. 
Cento, one of the oratorsnvho opposed it; for when 
Cento asked him with some scorn, What is it, my 
little Cincius, that you are making all this stir 
about ? Cincius replied, That you, Caius, may pay 
for what you use&. We must not imagine, however, 
that this generosity of the great was wholly disin- 
terested, or without any expectation of fruit ; for it 
brought the noblest which a liberal mind could re- 

c H.S. quingenta annua meritasse prodatur. — Plin. Hist. 
Nat. vii. 39. 

d Decern his annis proximis H.S. sexagies honestissime 
consequi potuit : noluit. — Pro Roscio, 8. 

e Duo turn excellebant oratores, qui me imitandi cu- 
piditate incitarent, Cotta et Hortensius, <tec. — Brut. 440. 

f Diserti igitur hominis, et facile laborantis, quodque in 
patriis est moribus, multorum causas et non gravate et 
gratuito defendentis, beneficia et patrocinia late patent. — 
De Offic. ii. 19. 

S Quid legem Cinciam de donis et muneribus, nisi quia 
vectigalis jam et stipendiaria plebs esse Senatui coeperat ? 
[Liv. xxxiv. 4.] Consurgunt Patres legemque Cinciam 
fiagitant, qua cavetur antiquitus, ne quis ob causam 
orandam pecuniam donumve accipiat. [Tacit. Annal. xi. 
5.] M. Cincius, quo die legem de donis et muneribus tulit, 
cum C. Cento prodiisset, et satis contumeliose, Quid fers 
Cinciole ? quaesisset ; Ut emas, inquit, Cai, si uti velis. 
— Cic. deOrat. ii. 71. 

This Cincian law was made in the year of Rome 54.0 ; 
and recommended to the people, as Cicero tells us, by Q. 
Fabius Maximus, in the extremity of his age. De Senect. 
4.— Vid. Pigh. Annal. torn. ii. p. 218. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



17 



ceive, the fruit of praise and honour from the public 
voice of their country : it was the proper instrument 
of their ambition, and the sure means of advancing 
them to the first dignities of the state : they gave 
their labours to the people, and the people repaid 
them with the honours and preferments which they 
had the power to bestow : this was a wise and 
happy constitution, where, by a necessary connexion 
between virtue and honour, they served mutually to 
produce and perpetuate each other ; where the re- 
ward of honours excited merit, and merit never 
failed to procure honours ; the only policy which 
can make a nation great and prosperous. 

Thus the three orators just mentioned, according 
to the custom and constitution of Rome, were all 
severally employed this summer in sueing for the 
different offices, to which their different age and 
rank gave them a right to pretend ; Cotta for the 
consulship, Hortensius the sedileship, Cicero the 
quaestorship ; in which they all succeeded : and 
Cicero especially had the honour to be chosen the 
first of all his competitors by the unanimous suf- 
frage of the tribes ; and in the first year in which 
he was capable of it by law, the thirty-first of his age. h 

The quaestors were the general receivers or trea- 
surers of the republic ; whose number had been 
gradually enlarged with the bounds and revenues of 
the empire from two to twenty, as it now stood 
from the last regulation of Sylla. They were sent 
annually into the several provinces, one with every 
proconsul or governor, to whom they were the next 
in authority, and had the proper equipage of ma- 
gistrates, the lictors carrying the fasces before 
them ; which was not, however, allowed to them at 
Rome. Besides the care of the revenues, it was 
their business also to provide corn and all sorts of 
grain, for the use of the armies abroad and the 
public consumption at home. 

This was the first step in the legal ascent and 
gradation of public honours, which gave an imme- 
diate right to the senate, and after the expiration of 
the office, an actual admission into it during life : 
and though, strictly speaking, none were held to be 
complete senators, till they were enrolled at the 
next lustrum in the list of the censors ; yet that was 
only a matter of form, and what could not be de- 
nied to them, unless for the charge and notoriety of 
some crime, for which every other senator was 
equally liable to be degraded. These quaestors, 
therefore, chosen annually by the people, were the 
regular and ordinary supply of the vacancies of the 
senate, which consisted at this time of about five 
hundred : by which excellent institution the way to 
the highest order of the state was laid open to the 
virtue and industry of every private citizen ; and the 
dignity of this sovereign council maintained by a 
succession of members, whose distinguished merit 
had first recommended them to the notice and fa- 
vour of their country 1 . 

h Me cum quasstorem in primis — cunctis suffragiis po- 
pulus Romanus faciebat.— In Pis. 1 ; Brut. 440. 

» Qusstura, primus gradus honoris [in Verr. Act. i. 4.] 
Populum Rcmanum, cujus honoribus in amplissimo con- 
cilio, et in altissimo gradu dignitatis, atque in hac omnium 
terrarum arce collocati sumus. [Post. red. ad Sen. 1.] Ita 
magistratus annuos creaverunt, ut concilium senatus 
reipublicae proponerent sempiternum ; deligerentur 
autem in id concilium ab uni verso populo, aditusque in 
ilium summum ordinem omnium civium industrial ac 
virtuti pateret.— Pro Sext. 65. 



The consuls of this year were Cn. Octavius and 
C. Scribonius Curio ; the first was Cicero's par- 
ticular friend, a person of singular humanity and 
benevolence, but cruelly afflicted with the "gout, 
whom Cicero therefore urges as an example against 
the Epicureans, to show that a life supported by 
innocence could not be made miserable by pain k . 
The second was a professed orator, or pleader at 
the bar, where he sustained some credit, without 
any other accomplishment of art or nature, than a 
certain purity and splendour of language, derived 
from the institution of a father who was esteemed 
for his eloquence : his action was vehement, with 
so absurd a manner of waving his body from one 
side to the other, as to give occasion to a jest upon 
him, that he had learnt to speak in a boat. They 
were both of them, however, good magistrates ; such 
as the present state of the republic required, firm 
to the interests of the senate, and the late estab- 
lishment made by Sylla, which the tribunes were 
labouring by all their arts to overthrow. These 
consuls, therefore, were called before the people by 
Sicinius, a bold and factious tribune, to declare 
their opinion about the revocation of Sylla's acts, 
and the restoration of the tribunician power, which 
was now the only question that engaged the zeal 
and attention of the city : Curio spoke much 
against it with his usual vehemence and agitation 
of body ; while Octavius sat by, crippled with the 
gout, and wrapt up in plasters and ointments : 
when Curio had done, the tribune, a man of a 
humorous wit, told Octavius, that he could never 
make amends to his colleague for the service of that 
day ; for if he had not taken such pains to beat 
away the flies, they would certainly have devoured 
But while Sicinius was pursuing his sediti- 



him 1 



ous practices, and using all endeavours to excite 
the people to some violence against the senate, he 
was killed by the management of Curio, in a tumult 
of his own raising™. 

We have no account of the precise time of 
Cicero's marriage ; which was celebrated most pro- 
bably in the end of the preceding year, immediately 
after his return to Rome, when he was about 



This account of the manner of filling up the senate is 
confirmed by many other passages of Cicero's works : for 
example ; when Cicero was elected aadile, the next su- 
perior magistrate to the quaestor, and before his entrance 
into that office, he took a journey into Sicily to collect 
evidence against Verres ; in the account of which voyage 
he says, that he went at his own charges, though a senator, 
into that province, where he had before been quaestor. 
[In Verr. i. 6.] Again; when the government of Cilicia 
was allotted to him, he begged of young Curio, as he did of 
all his friends in the senate, not to suffer it to be pro- 
longed to him beyond the year. In his absence, Curio, 
who before had been only quaestor, was elected tribune ; 
upon which Cicero, in a congratulatory letter to him on 
that promotion, taking occasion to renew his former re- 
quest, says, that he asked it of him before, as of a senator 
of the noblest birth, and a youth of the greatest interest ; 
but now of a tribune of the people, who had the power to 
grant him what he asked.— Ep. Fam. ii. 7. 

k De Finib. ii. 28. 

1 Curio copia nonnulla verborum, nullo alio bono, tenuit 
oratorum lucuin. [Brut. 350 ; it. 323.] Motus erat is, quem 
C. Julius in perpetuum notavit, cum ex eo, in utramque 
partem toto corpore vacillante, quaesivit, quis loqueretur 
e lintre — Nunquam, inquit, Octavi, collegae tuo gratiam 
referes : qui nisi se suo more jactavisset, hodie te istic 
muscae comedissent.— Ibid. 324. 

m Vide Sallust. Fragm. Hist. 1. 3. Orat. Macri ; Pigh. 
Ann. 677. 

C 



18 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



thirty years old : it cannot be placed later, because 
his daughter was married the year before his 
consulship, at the age only of thirteen ; though we 
suppose her to be born this year on the fifth of 
August, which is mentioned to be her birthday". 
Nor is there any thing certain delivered of the 
family and condition of his wife Terentia ; yet from 
her name, her great fortune, and her sister Fabia's 
being one of the vestal virgins , we may conclude 
that she was nobly descended. This year, there- 
fore, was particularly fortunate to him, as it brought 
an increase not only of issue, but of dignity into 
his family, by raising it from the equestrian to the 
senatorian rank ; and by this early taste of popular 
favour, gave him a sure presage of his future ad- 
vancement to the superior honours of the republic. 



SECTION II. 



The provinces of the quaestors being distributed 
to them always by lot, the island of Sicily happened 
to fall to Cicero's share a . This was the first 
country which, after the reduction of Italy, became 
a prey to the power of Rome b , and was then 
thought considerable enough to be divided into 
two provinces of Lilybeum and Syracuse ; the 
former of which was allotted to Cicero : for though 
they were both united at this time under one 
praetor or supreme governor, S. Peducasus, yet 
they continued still to have each of them a dis- 
tinct quaestor . He received this office not as a 
gift, but a trust ; and considered it, he says, as a 
public theatre, in which the eyes of the world 
were turned upon him ; and that he might act his 
part with the greater credit, resolved to devote his 
whole attention to it ; and to deny himself every 
pleasure, every gratification of his appetites, even 
the most innocent and natural, which could 
obstruct the laudable discharge of it d . 

Sicily was usually called the granary of the 
republic e ; and the quaestor's chief employment in 
it was to supply corn and provisions for the use of 
the city : but there happening to be a peculiar 
scarcity this year at Rome, it made the people very 
clamorous, and gave the tribunes an opportunity of 
inflaming them the more easily, by charging it to 
the loss of the tribunician power, and their being 
left a prey by that means to the oppressions of the 
great f . It was necessary therefore to the public 
quiet, to send out large and speedy supplies from 
Sicily, by which the island was like to be drained ; 
so that Cicero had a difficult task to furnish what 
was sufficient for the demands of the city, without 
being grievous at the same time to the poor natives : 



n Nonis Sextil— Ad Att. iv. 1. 

Ascon. Orat. in Tog. Cand. 

a Me quaestorem Siciliensis excepit annus. — Brut. 440. 

b Prima omnium, id quod ornamentum imperii est, 
provincia est appellata. — In Verr. iii. 1. 

c Quaestores utriusque provinciae, qui isto praetore 
fuerunt. — lb. 4. 

d Ita quaestor sum factus, ut mihi honorem ilium non 
solum datum, sed etiam creditum, ut me quaesturamque 
meam quasi in aliquo terrarum orbis theatro versari 
existimarem; ut omnia semper, quae jucunda videntur 
esse, non modo hisextraordinariis cupiditatibus, sed etiam 
ipsi naturae ac necessitati denegarem. — In Verr. v. 14. 

e Ille M. Cato sapiens, cellam penariam reipublicae, 
nutricem plebis Romanae, Siciliam nominavit.— lb. ii. 2. 

4 Vid. Orat. Cottae in fragment. Sallust. 



yet he managed the matter with so much prudence 
and address, that he made very great exportations, 
without any burthen upon the province ; showing 
great courtesy all the while to the dealers, justice 
to the merchants, generosity to the inhabitants, 
humanity to the allies ; and in short", doing all 
manner of good offices to everybody ; by which 
he gained the love and admiration of all the Sicili- 
ans, who decreed greater honours to him at his 
departure, than they had ever decreed before to 
any of their chief governors ?. During his resi- 
dence in the country, several young Romans of 
quality, who served in the army, having committed 
some great disorder and offence against martial 
discipline, ran away to Rome for fear of punishment ; 
where being seized by the magistrates, they were 
sent back to be tried before the praetor in Sicily : 
but Cicero undertook their defence, and pleaded 
for them so well, that he got them all acquitted 11 ; 
and by that means obbged many considerable 
families of the city. 

In the hours of leisure from his provincial affairs, 
he employed himself very diligently, as he used to 
do at Rome, in his rhetorical studies ; agreeably to 
the rule which he constantly inculcates, never to 
let one day pass without some exercise of that 
kind : so that on his return from Sicily his orato- 
rical talents were, according to his own judgment, 
in their full perfection and maturity'. The coun- 
try itself, famous of old for its school of eloquence, 
might afford a particular invitation to the revival 
of those studies : for the Sicilians, as he tells- us, 
being a sharp and litigious people, and after the 
expulsion of their tyrants, having many contro- 
versies among themselves about property, which 
required much pleading, were the firstwho invented 
rules and taught an art of speaking, of which Corax 
and Tysias were the first professors : an art which, 
above all others, owes its birth to liberty, and can 
never flourish but in a free air k . 

Before he left Sicily he made the tour of the island, 
to see every thing in it that was curious, and 
especially the city of Syracuse, which had always 
made the principal figure in its history. Here his 
first request to the magistrates, who were showing 
him the curiosities of the place, was to let him see 
the tomb of Archimedes, whose name had done so 
much honour to it ; but to his surprise he perceived 
that they knew nothing at all of the matter, and 
even denied that there was any such tomb remain- 
ing : yet as he was assured of it beyond all doubt by 
the concurrent testimony of writers, and remem- 
bered the verses inscribed, and that there was a 
sphere with a cylinder engraved on some part of 
it, he would not be dissuaded from the pains of 
searching it out. When they had carried him 

S Fmmenti in summa caritate maximum numerum 
miseram: negotiatoribus comis, mercatoribus Justus, mu- 
nicipibus liberalis, sociis abstinens, omnibus eram visus 
in omni officio diligentissimus : excogitati quidam erant a 
Siculis honores in me inauditi. — Pro Plane. 26. 

h Plutarch's Life of Cic. 

1 Jam videbatur illud in me, quicquid esset, esse per- 
fectum, et habere maturitatem quandam suam. — Brut. 440. 

k Cum sublatis in Sicilia tyrannis res privatae longo 
intervallo judiciis repeterentur, turn primum, quod esset 
acuta ilia gens et conti oversa natura, artem et praecepta 
Siculos Coracem et Tysiam conscripsisse. [Brut. 75.] Haec 
una res in omni libero populo, maximeque in pacatis, 
tranquillisque civitatibus semper floruit, semperque do- 
minata est. — De Orat. i. 8. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



therefore to the gate, where the greatest number of 
their old sepulchres stood, he observed, in a spot 
overgrown with shrubs and briars, a small column, 
whose head just appeared above the bushes, with 
the figure of a sphere and cylinder upon it : this, 
he presently told the company, was the thing that 
they were looking for ; and sending in some men 
to clear the ground of the brambles and rubbish, 
he found the inscription also which he expected, 
though the latter part of all the verses was effaced. 
Thus, says he, one of the noblest cities of Greece, 
and once likewise the most learned, had known 
nothing of the monument of its most deserving and 
ingenious citizen, if it had not been discovered to 
them by a native of Arpinum 1 . At the expiration 
of his year he took leave of the Sicilians by a kind 
and affectionate speech, assuring them of his pro- 
tection in all their affairs at Rome ; in which he 
was as good as his word, and continued ever after 
their constant patron, to the great benefit and 
advantage of the province. 

He came away extremely pleased with the success 
of his administration ; and flattering himself that all 
Rome was celebrating his praises, and that the peo- 
ple w T ould readily grant him everything that he de- 
sired ; in which imagination he landed at Puteoli, a 
considerable port adjoining to Baise, the chief seat 
of pleasure in Italy, where there was a perpetual 
resort of all the rich and the great, as well for the 
delights of its situation, as the use of its baths and 
hot waters. But here, as he himself pleasantly tells 
the story, he was not a little mortified by the first 
friend whom he met, w r ho asked him, how long he 
had left Rome, and what news there ? "When he 
answered, that he came from the provinces, " From 
Africa, I suppose," says another ; and, upon his reply- 
ing with some indignation, "No, I come from Sicily," 
a third who stood by, and had a mind to be thought 
wiser, said presently, "How ! did you not know that 
Cicero was qusestor of Syracuse?" Upon which, 
perceiving it in vain to be angry, he fell into the 
humour of the place, and made himself one of the 
company who came to the waters. This mortifica- 
tion gave some little check to his ambition, or taught 
him rather how to apply it more successfully; and did 
him more good, he says, than if he had received all 
the compliments that he expected ; for it made him 
reflect, that the people of Rome had dull ears, but 
quick eyes ; and that it was his business to keep him- 
self always in their sight ; nor to be so solicitous 
how to make them hear of him, as to make them 
see him : so that from this moment he resolved to 
stick close to the forum, and to live perpetually in 
the view of the city ; nor to suffer either his porter 
or his sleep to hinder any man's access to him m . 

At his return to Rome, he found the consul, L. 
Lucullus, employing all his power to repel the at- 
tempts of a turbulent tribune, L. Quinctius, who 
had a manner of speaking peculiarly adapted to 
inflame the multitude, and was perpetually exerting 
it, to persuade them to reverse Sylla's acts' 1 . These 
acts were odious to all who affected popularity, 
especially to the tribunes, who could not brook, with 
any patience, the diminution of their ancient power ; 
yet all prudent men were desirous to support them, 
as the best foundation of a lasting peace and firm 

1 Tusc. Qusest. v. 3. m Pro Plancio, 26. 

n Homo cum summa potestate praeditus, turn ad in- 
flammandos animos multitudinis accommodatus.— Pro 
Cluent. 29 ; Plutarch, in Lucull. 



settlement of the republic. The tribune Sicinius 
made the first attack upon them soon after Sylla's 
death, but lost his life in the quarrel ; which, instead 
of quenching, added fuel to the flame ; so that C. 
Cotta, one of the next consuls, a man of moderate 
principles and obnoxious to neither party, made it 
his business to mitigate these heats, by mediating 
between the senate and the tribunes, and remitting a 
part of the restraint that Sylla had laid upon them, 
so far as to restore them to a capacity of holding 
the superior magistracies. But a partial restitution 
could not satisfy them ; they were as clamorous 
still as ever, and thought it a treachery to be quiet, 
till they had recovered their whole rights : for which 
purpose, Quinctius was now imitating his predeces- 
sor Sicinius, and exciting the populace to do them- 
selves justice against their oppressors, nor suffer 
their power and liberties to be extorted from them 
by the nobles. But the vigour of Lucullus pre- 
vented him from gaining any farther advantage, or 
making any impression this year to the disturbance 
of the public peace . 

C. Verres, of whom we shall have occasion to 
say more hereafter, was now also prsetor of the 
city, or the supreme administrator of justice ; whose 
decrees were not restrained to the strict letter of the 
law, but formed usually upon the principles of com- 
mon equity ; which, while it gives a greater liberty 
of doing what is right, gives a greater latitude 
withal of doing wrong ; and the power was never 
in worse hands, or more corruptly administered, 
than by Verres : for there was not a man in Italy, 
says Cicero, who had a law-suit at Rome, but knew, 
that the rights and properties of the Roman people 
were determined by the will and pleasure of his 
whore p . 

There was a very extraordinary commission 
granted this year to M. Antonius, the father of the 
triumvir ; the inspection and command of all the 
coasts of the Mediterranean : a boundless power, 
as Cicero calls it', which gave him an opportunity 
of plundering the provinces, and committing all 
kinds of outrage on the allies. He invaded Crete 
without any declaration of war, on purpose to en- 
slave it ; and with such an assurance of victory, that 
he carried more fetters with him than arms 1- . But 
he met with the fate that he deserved : for the 
Cretans totally routed him in a naval engagement, 
and returned triumphant into their ports, with the 
bodies of their enemies hanging on their masts. 
Antonius died soon after this disgrace, infamous 
in his character, nor in any respect a better man, 
says Asconius, than his son s . But Metellus made 

Nisi forte C. Cotta, ex factione media consul, aliter 
quam metu jura quaedam tribunis plebis restituit; et 
quanquam L. Sicinius primus de potestate tribunicia loqui 
ausus, mussitantibus vobis circumventus erat. — Lucullus 
superiore anno quantis animis ierit in L. Quinctium, vidis- 
tis. — Vide Sallust. Hist. Fragment. 1. 3. Orat. Macri Li- 
cinii ; Plut. in Lucull. 

P Ut nemo tarn rusticanus homo, Romam ex ullo muni- 
cipio vadimonii causa venerit, quin sciret jura omnia 
prsetoris urbani nutu atque arbitrio Chelidonis meretri- 
culae gubernari. — In Verr. v. 13. 

q M. Antonii infinitum illud imperium. — lb. ii. 3. 

r Primus invasit insulam M. Antonius, cum ingenti 
quidem victorias spe atque fiducia, adeo ut plures catenas 
in navibus, quam arma portaret. — Flor. iii. 7- 

s Antonium, cum multa contra sociorum salutem, multa 
contra utilitatem provinciarum et faceret et cogitaret, in 
mediis ejus injuriis et cupiditatibus mors oppressit.— In 
Verr. iii. 91. 

C 2 



20 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



the Cretans pay dear for their triumph, by the entire 
conquest of their country ; in which war, as Florus 
says, if the truth must be told, the Romans were 
the aggressors; and though they charged the Cretans 
with favouring Mithridates, yet their real motive 
was the desire of conquering so noble an island 1 . 

Mithridates also had now renewed the war against 
Rome ; encouraged to it by the diversion which 
Sertorius was giving at the same time in Spain to 
their best troops and ablest generals, Metellus and 
Pompey : so that Lucullus, who on the expiration 
of his consulship had the province of Asia allotted 
to him, obtained with it, of course, the command of 
this war. But while their arms were thus em- 
ployed in the different extremities of the empire, 
an ugly disturbance broke out at home, which, 
though contemptible enough in its origin, began in 
a short time to spread terror and consternation 
through all Italy. It took its rise from a few gla- 
diators, scarce above thirty at the first, who broke 
out of their school at Capua, and having seized a 
quantity of arms, and drawn a number of slaves 
after them, posted themselves on Mount Vesuvius ; 
here they were presently surrounded by the praetor 
Clodius Glaber, with a good body of regular troops ; 
but forcing their way through them with sword in 
hand, they assaulted and took his camp, and made 
themselves masters of all Campania. From this 
success their numbers presently increased to the size 
of a just army of forty thousand fighting men : with 
which they made head against the Roman legions, 
and sustained a vigorous war for three years, in the 
very bowels of Italy ; where they defeated several 
commanders of consular and praetorian rank ; and, 
puffed up with their victories, began to talk of 
attacking Rome. But M. Crassus the praetor, to 
whom the war was committed, having gathered 
about him all the forces which were near home, 
chastised their insolence, and drove them before him 
to the extremity of Rhegium, where, for want of 
vessels to make their escape, the greatest part was 
destroyed, and among them, their general Sparta- 
cus, fighting bravely to the last at the head of his 
desperate troops u . This was called the servile war, 
for which Crassus had the honour of an ovation ; 
it being thought beneath the dignity of the republic 
to grant a full triumph for the conquest of slaves : 
but to bring it as near as possible to a triumph, 
Crassus procured a special decree of the senate to 
authorise him to wear the laurel crown, which was 
the proper ornament of the triumph, as myrtle was 
of the ovation x . 

The Sertorian war happened to be finished also, 
fortunately near the same time. The author of it, 
Sertorius, was bred under C. Marius, with whom 
he had served in all his wars, with a singular repu- 
tation, not only of martial virtue, but of justice 
and clemency : for though he was firm to the Ma- 
rian party, he always disliked and opposed their 
cruelty, and advised a more temperate use of their 
power. After the death of Cinna, he fell into Sylla's 
hands, along with the consul Scipio, when the 
army abandoned them : Sylla dismissed him with 
life, on the account, perhaps, of his known mode- 

* Creticum bellura, si vera volumus noscere, nos fecimus 
sola vincendi nobilem insulam cupiditate. — Flor.iii.7. 

u Vide Flor. iii. 20. 

x Plut. in Crass.— Crasse, quid est, quod confecto formi- 
dolosissimo bello, coronam illam lauream tibi tantopere 
decerni volueris ? — In Pison. 24. 



ration ; yet taking him to be an utter enemy to his 
cause, he soon after proscribed and drove him to 
the necessity of seeking his safety in foreign coun- 
tries. After several attempts on Airica and the 
coasts of the Mediterranean, he found a settlement 
in Spain, whither all who fled from Sylla's cruelty, 
resorted to him, of whom he formed a senate, which 
gave laws to the whole province. Here, by hjs great 
credit and address, he raised a force sufficient to 
sustain a war of eight years against the whole power 
of the republic ; and to make it a question, whether 
Rome or Spain should possess the empire of the 
world. Q. Metellus, an old experienced commander, 
was sent against him singly at first, but was so often 
baffled and circumvented by his superior vigour and 
dexterity, that the people of Rome were forced to 
send their favourite Pompey to his assistance, with 
the best troops of the empire. Sertorius main- 
tained his ground against them both ; and after 
many engagements, in which he generally came off 
equal, often superior, was basely murdered at a pri- 
vate feast, by the treachery of Perperna ; who, being 
the next to him in command, was envious of his 
glory, and wanted to usurp his power. Perperna 
was of noble birth, and had been praetor of Rome, 
where he took up arms with the consul Lepidus, to 
reverse the acts of Sylla, and recall the proscribed 
Marians, and after their defeat carried off the best 
part of their troops to the support of Sertorius ^: 
but instead of gaining what he expected from Ser- 
torius's death, he ruined the cause, of which he had 
made himself the chief, and put an end to a war 
that was wholly supported by the reputation of the 
general ; for the revolted provinces presently sub- 
mitted ; and the army having no confidence in their 
new leader, was easily broken and dispersed, and 
Perperna himself taken prisoner. 

Pompey is celebrated on this occasion for an 
act of great prudence and generosity : for when 
Perperna, in hopes of saving his life, offered to 
make some important discoveries, and to put into 
his hands all Sertorius's papers, in which were 
several letters from the principal senators of Rome, 
pressing him to bring his army into Italy for the 
sake of overturning the present government, he 
ordered the papers to be burnt without reading 
them, and Perperna to be killed without seeing 
him 2 . He knew, that the best way of healing the 
discontents of the city, where faction was perpe- 
tually at work to disturb the public quiet, was, to 
ease people of those fears which a consciousness of 

y Sylla et consulern, ut praediximus, exarmatumque 
Sertorium, proh quanti mox belli facem ! et multos alios 
diniisit incolumes. — Veil. Pat. ii. 25. 29. 

Jam Africae, jam Balearibus insulis fortunam expertus, 
missusque in oceairam — tandem Hispaniam armavit — 
Satis tanto hostiuno imperatore resistere resRomananon 
potuit: additus Metello Cn. Pompeius. Hi copias viri 
diu, et ancipiti semper acie attrivere : nee tamen prius 
bello, quam suorum scelere, et insidiis, extinctus est. 
—Flor. iii. 22. 

Ilia in tantum Sertorium armis extulit, ut per quinquen- 
nium dijudicari non potuerit, Hispanis, Romanisve in 
armis plus esset roboris, et uter populus alteri pariturus 
foret.— Veil. Pat. ii. 90. 

A M. Perperna et aliis conjuratis convivio interfectus 
est, octavo ducatus sui anno; magnus dnx, et adyersus 
duos imperatores, Pompeium et Metellum, ssepe par, 
frequentius victor. — Epit. Liv. .06. Vide etiam Plutarch, in 
Sertorio et Pomp. ; Appian. p. 418. 

2 Plutarch, in Pomp. ; Appian. 423. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



21 



guilt would suggest, rather than push them to the 
necessity of seeking their security from a change of 
affairs, and the overthrow of the state 3 . As he 
returned into Italy at the head of his victorious 
army, he happened to fall in luckily with the re- 
mains of those fugitives who, after the destruc- 
tion of Spartacus, had escaped from Crassus, and 
were making their way in a body towards the Alps, 
whom he intercepted and entirely cut off to the 
number of five thousand ; and in a letter upon it 
to the senate, said, that Crassus indeed had defeat- 
ed the gladiators, but that he had plucked up the 
war by the roots b . Cicero, likewise, from a par- 
ticular dislike to Crassus, affected in his public 
speeches to give Pompey the honour of finishing 
this war, declaring, that the very fame of his coming 
had broken the force of it, and his presence extin- 
guished it c . 

For this victory in Spain, Pompey obtained a 
second triumph, while he was still only a private 
citizen, and of the equestrian rank : but the next 
day he took possession of the consulship, to which 
he had been elected in his absence ; and, as if he 
had been born to command, made his first entry 
into the senate in the proper post to preside in it. 
He was not yet full thirty-six years old, but the 
senate, by a decree, dispensed with the incapacity 
of his age and absence ; and qualified him to hold the 
highest magistracy, before he was capable by law of 
pretending even to the lowest ; and, by his authority, 
M. Crassus was elected also for his colleague d . 

Crassus's father and elder brother lost their lives 
in the massacres of Marius and Cinna ; but he 
himself escaped into Spain, and lay there concealed 
till Sylla's return to Italy, whither he presently 
resorted to him, in hopes to revenge the ruin of 
his fortunes and family on the opposite faction. 
As he was attached to Sylla's cause both by interest 
and inclination, so he was much considered in it ; 
and being extremely greedy and rapacious, made 
use of all his credit to enrich himself by the plun- 
der of the enemy, and the purchase of confiscated 
estates, which Cicero calls his harvest. By these 
methods he raised an immense wealth, commuted 
at many millions, gathered from the spoils and 
calamities of his country. He used to say, that 
no man could be reckoned rich, who was not able 
to maintain an army out of his own rents e . And 
if the accounts of antiquity be true, the number 
of his slaves was scarce inferior to that of a full 
army ; which, instead of being a burthen, made 

a In tanto civiumnumero, magna multitude) est corum, 
qui propter metum poena? peccatorum suorum conseii, 
novos motus conversionesque leipublicse quaerunt. — Pro 
Sext. 46. 

b Plut. in Pomp. 

c Quod bellum expectatione Pompeii attenuatum atque 
imminutum est ; adventu sublatum et sepultum. [Pro 
Leg. Manil. 11.] — Qui etiam servitia virtute victoriaque 
domuisset. — Pro Sext. 31. 

d Pompeius hoc quoque triumpho, adhuc Eques Ro- 
manus, ante diem quam consulatum iniret, curru urbem 
invectus est.— Veil. Pat. ii. 30. 

Quid tam singulare, quam ut ex S. C. legibus solut.us, 
consul ante fieret, quam ullum alium magistratum per 
leges capere licuisset? Quid tam incredibile, quam ut 
iterum Eques Romanus S. C. triumpharet ? — Pro Leg. Man. 
21 ; Vide Plutarch, in Pomp. 

e Illam Syllani temporis messem. — Parad. vi. 2. 

Multi ex te audierunt, cum diceres, neminem esse divi- 
tem, nisi qui exercitum alere posset suis fructibus. — lb. 1. 



one part of his revenue ; being all trained to some 
useful art or profession, which enabled them not 
only to support themselves, but to bring a share of 
profit to their master. Among the other trades in 
his family, he is said to have had above five hun- 
dred masons and architects constantly employed in 
building or repairing the houses of the city*. He 
had contracted an early envy to Pompey, for his 
superior credit both with Sylla and the people ; 
which was still aggravated by Pompey's late attempt 
to rob him of the honour of ending the servile war : 
but finding himself wholly unequal to his rival in 
military fame, he applied himself to the arts of 
peace and eloquence, in which he obtained the 
character of a good speaker ; and by his easy and 
familiar address, and a readiness to assist all who 
wanted either his protection or his money, acquired 
a great authority in all the public affairs ; so that 
Pompey was glad to embrace and oblige him, by 
taking him for his partner in the consulship. 

Five years were now almost elapsed, since Cicero's 
election to the qusestorship ; which was the proper 
interval prescribed by law, before he could hold 
the next office of tribune or sedile ; and it was 
necessary to pass through one of these in his way 
to the superior dignities : he chose, therefore, to 
drop the tribunate, as being stripped of its ancient 
power by the late ordinance of Sylla, and began to 
make interest for the sedileship, while Hortensius 
at the same time was sueing for the consulship. 
He had employed all this interval in a close attend- 
ance on the forum, and a perpetual course of 
pleadings, which greatly advanced his interest in 
the city ; especially when it was observed that he 
strictly complied with the law, by refusing not only 
to take fees, but to accept even any presents, in 
which the generality of patrons were less scrupu- 
lous 11 . Yet all his orations within this period are 
lost ; of which number were those for M. Tullius 
and L. Varenus, mentioned by Quintillian and 
Priscian, as extant in their time. 

Some writers tell us, that he improved and per- 
fected his action by the instructions of Roscius and 
iEsopus ; the two most accomplished actors in 
that, or perhaps in any other age, the one in comedy, 
the other in tragedy 1 . He had a great esteem in- 
deed for them both, and admired the uncommon 
perfection of their art : but though he conde- 
scended to treat them as friends, he would have 
disdained to use them as masters. He had formed 
himself upon a nobler plan, drawn his rules of 
action from nature and philosophy, and his prac- 
tice from the most perfect speakers then living in 
the world ; and declares the theatre to be an im- 
proper school for the institution of an orator, as 
teaching gestures too minute and unmanly, and 
labouring more about the expression of words, than 
of things' 5 ; nay, he laughs sometimes at Horten- 

f Plutarch, in Crass. 

S Cum igitur essem in plurimis causis, et in principibus 
patronis quinquennium fere versatus. — Brut. p. 440. 

h Plutarch, in Cicer. 1 Ibid. 

k Quis neget opus esse oratori in hoc oratorio motu, 
statuque Roscii gestum ? — tamen nemo suaserit studiosis 
dicendi adolescentibus in gestu discendo histrionum more 
elaborare.— De Orat. i. 59 ; Vide Tusc. Disp. iv. 25. 

Omnes autemhos motus subsequi debet gestus; non hie, 
verba exprimens, scenicus, sed universam rem et sen- 
tenthim : non demonstratione, sed sign ificationedeelarans, 
laterum infiectione hac forti ac virili, non ab scena, et 
histrionibus. — lb. iii. 59. 



22 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



sius for an action too foppish and theatrical 1 , who 
used to be rallied on that very account by the 
other pleaders with the title of the player ; so that, 
in the cause of P. Sylla, Torquatus, a free speaker 
on the other side, called him, by way of ridicule, 
Dionysia, an actress of those times, in great request 
for her dancing™. Yet Hortensius himself was so 
far from borrowing his manner from the stage, that 
the stage borrowed from him ; and the two cele- 
brated actors just mentioned, Roscius and iEsopus, 
are said to have attended all the trials in which he 
pleaded, in order to perfect the action of the 
theatre by that of the forum ; which seems indeed 
to be the more natural method of the two, that 
they who act in feigned life should take their 
pattern from the true ; not those who represent 
the true, copy from that which is feigned". We 
are told, however, by others, what does not seem 
wholly improbable, that Cicero used to divert him- 
self sometimes with Roscius, and make it an ex- 
ercise, or trial of skill between them, which could 
express the same passion the most variously, the 
one by words, the other by gestures . 

As he had now devoted himself to a life of 
business and ambition, so he omitted none of the 
usual arts of recommending himself to popular 
favour, and facilitating his advancement to the 
superior honours. He thought it absurd, that 
when every little artificer knew the name and 
use of all his tools, a statesman should neglect 
the knowledge of men, who were the proper in- 
struments with which he was to work : he made 
it his business therefore to learn the name, the 
place, and the condition of every eminent citizen; 
what estate, what friends, what neighbours he 
had; and could readily point out their several 
houses, as he travelled through Italy?. This 
knowledge, which is useful in all popular govern- 
ments, was peculiarly necessary at Rome ; where 
the people, having much to give, expected to be 
much courted ; and where their high spirits and 
privileges placed them as much above the rank 
of all other citizens, as the grandeur of the re- 
public exceeded that of all other states ; so that 
every man, who aspired to any public dignity, 
kept a slave or two in his family, whose sole busi- 
ness it was to learn the names and know the per- 
sons of every citizen at sight, so as to be able to 
whisper them to his master, as he passed through 
the streets, that he might be ready to salute them 
all familiarly, and shake hands with them, as his 
particular acquaintance i. 

1 Putamus— Patronum tuum cerviculam jactaturum. 
— In Verr. iii. 19. 

m L. Torquatus, subagresti homo ingenio et infestivo — 
non jam histrionem ilium diceret, sed gesticulariam, 
Dionysiamque eum notisshnae saltatriculac nomine appel- 
laret. — Aul. Gell. i. 5. 

n Genus hoc totum oratores, qui sunt veritatis ipsius 
actores, reliquerunt ; imitatores autem veritatis, histri- 
ones, occupavcrunt. — At sine dubio in omni re vincit imi- 
tationem Veritas. — De Orat. iii. 56. 

o Satis constat, contendere eum cum ipso histrione so- 
litum, utrum ille ssepius eandem scntentiam variis ges- 
tibus efficeret, an ipse per eloquentiae copiam sermone 
diverso pronunciaret. — Macrob. Saturn, ii. 10. 
P Plutarch, in Cic. 1 Vide De Petitione Consulat. xi. 
Mercemur servum, qui dictet nomina: lawum 
Qui fodiat latus, et cogat trans pondera dextram 
Porrigere. Hie multuni in Fabia valet, ille Velina : 
Cuilibet hie fasces dabit, &c.— Hor. Epist. i. 6. 



Plutarch says, that the use of these nomenclators 
was contrary to the laws ; and that Cato for that 
reason, in sueing for the public offices, would not 
employ any of them, but took all that trouble upon 
himself. But that notion is fully confuted by 
Cicero, who, in his oration for Murena, rallies the 
absurd rigour of Cato's stoical principles, and their 
inconsistency with common life, from the very cir- 
cumstance of his having a nomenclator — " What 
do you mean," says he, " by keeping a nomencla- 
tor ? The thing itself is a mere cheat : for if it be 
your duty to call the citizens by their names, it is 
a shame for your slave to know them better than 

yourself. Why do you not speak to them before 

he has whispered you ? Or, after he has whis- 
pered, why d«j you salute them, as if you knew 
them yourself ? Or, when you have gained your 
election, why do you grow careless about saluting 
them at all ? All this, if examined by the rules of 
social life, is right ; but if by the precepts of your 
philosophy, very wicked s ." As for Cicero himself, 
whatever pains he is said to have taken in this 
way, it appears from several passages in his letters, 
that he constantly had a nomenclator at his elbow 
on all public occasions 1 . 

He was now in his thirty- seventh year, the proper 
age for holding the sedileship, which was the first 
public preferment that was properly called a magis- 
tracy, the qusestorship being an office only or place 
of trust, without any jurisdiction in the city, as the 
sediles had u . These sediles, as well as all the infe- 
rior officers, were chosen by the people voting in 
their tribes ; a manner of electing of all the most 
free and popular : in which Cicero was declared 
sedile, as he was before elected qusestor by the 
unanimous suffrage of all the tribes, and preferably 
to all his competitors v . 

There were originally but two sediles, chosen 
from the body of the people on pretence of easing 
the tribunes of a share of their trouble, whose chief 
duty, from which the name itself was derived, was 
to take care of the edifices of the city, and to inspect 
the markets, weights, and measures, and regulate 
the shows and games, which were publicly exhibited 
on the festivals of their gods xv . The senate after- 
wards, taking an opportunity when the people were 
in good humour, prevailed to have two more created 
from their order and of superior rank, called curule 
sediles, from the arm-chair of ivory in which they 
sat x : but the tribunes presently repented of their 
concession, and forced the senate to consent, that 
these new sediles should be chosen indifferently from 

r Plutarch, in Cato. 
s Pro Murena, 36. 

t Ut nemo nullius ordinis homo nornenclatori notus 
fuerit, qui mihi obviam non venerit. — Ad Att. iv. 1. 

u This will explain what Cicero says above of Pompey's 
entering upon the consulship, at an age, when he was in- 
capable even of the lowest magistracy. — But though 
strictly speaking, the asdileship was the first which was 
called a magistracy ; yet Cicero himself, and all the old 
writers, give the same title also to the tribunate and 
quasstorship. 

v Me cum quasstoremin primis, aedilem priorem — cunctia 
suffragiis populus Romanus faciebat. — In Pison. 1. 
w Dionys. Hal. vi. 411. 

* dabit, eripietque curule 

Cui volet importunus ebur. — Hor. Ep. i. 6. 
Signa quoque in sella nossem formats euruli, 
Et totum Numidse sculptile dentis opus. 

OvfD. de Pont. iv. 9 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



23 



the patrician or plebeian families^. But whatever 
difference there might be at first between the 
curule and plebeian sediles, their province and 
authority seem in later times to be the same, with- 
out any distinction but what was nominal ; and the 
two who were chosen the first, were probably called 
the curule sediles, as we find Cicero to be now 
styled. This magistracy gave a precedence in 
the senate, or a priority of voting and speaking, 
next after the consuls and praetors ; and was the 
first that qualified a man to have a picture or statue 
of himself, and consequently ennobled his family 2 : 
for it was from the number of these statues of 
ancestors, who had borne curule offices, that the 
families of Rome were esteemed the more or less 
noble. 

After Cicero's election to the sedileship, but 
before his entrance into the office, he undertook 
the famed prosecution of C Verres, the late praetor 
of Sicily, charged with many flagrant acts of injus- 
tice, rapine, and cruelty, during his triennial govern- 
ment of that island. And since this was one of the 
memorable transactions of his life, and for which 
he is greatly celebrated by antiquity, it will be neces- 
sary to give a distinct and particular relation of it. 

The public administration was at this time, in 
every branch of it, most infamously corrupt : the 
great, exhausted by their luxury and vices, made 
no other use of their governments, than to enrich 
themselves by the spoils of the foreign provinces : 
their business was to extort money abroad, that 
they might purchase offices at home, and to plun- 
der the allies, in order to corrupt the citizens. 
The oppressed in the meanwhile found it in vain 
to seek relief at Rome, where there was none who 
cared either to impeach or to condemn a noble 
criminal ; the decision of all trials being in the hands 
of men of the same condition, who were usually 
involved in the same crimes, and openly prosti- 
tuted their judgment on these occasions for favour 
or a bribe. Tbis had raised a general discontent 
through the empire, with a particular disgust to 
that change made by Sylla, of transferring the right 
of judicature from the equestrian to the senatorian 
order, which the people were now impatient to get 
reversed : the prosecution therefore of Verres was 
both seasonable and popular, as it was likely to 
give some check to the oppressions of the nobi- 
lity, as well as comfort and relief to the distressed 
subjects. 

All the cities of Sicily concurred in the impeach- 
ment, excepting Syracuse and Messana ; for these 
two being the most considerable of the province, 
Verres had taken care to keep up a fair correspon- 
dence with them. Syracuse was the place of his 
residence, and Messana the repository of his plun- 
der, whence he exported it all to Italy : and though 
he would treat even these on certain occasions very 
arbitrarily, yet in some flagrant instances of his 
rapine, that he might ease himself of a part of the 
envy, he used to oblige them with a share of the 
spoil 3 : so that partly by fear, and partly by favour, 

7 Liv. vi. ad fin. 

z Antiquiorem in senatu sententiae dicendae locum— jus 
imaginis ad memoriam, posteritatemque prodendam. — In 
Verr. v. 14. 

a Ergo, inquiet aliquis, donavi fc populo Syracusano istam 
hereditatem, &c. — InVerr. ii. 18. 

Messana tuorum adjutrix scelerum, libidinum testis, 
prffidarum ac fuitorum receptrix,&c. — InVerr. iii. 8. it. 11. 



he held them generally at his devotion ; and at the 
expiration of his government, procured ample testi- 
monials from them both in praise of his administra- 
tion. All the other towns were zealous and active 
in the prosecution, and, by a common petition to 
Cicero, implored him to undertake the management 
of it ; to which he consented, out of regard to the 
relation which he had borne to them as quaestor, 
and his promise made at parting, of his protection 
in all their affairs. Verres, on the other hand, was 
supported by the most powerful families of Rome, 
the Scipios and the Metelli, and defended by Hor- 
tensius, who was the reigning orator at the bar, and 
usually styled the king of the forum' ; yet the diffi- 
culty of the cause, instead of discouraging, did but 
animate Cicero the more, by the greater glory of 
the victory. 

He had no sooner agreed to undertake it, than 
an unexpected rival started up, one Q. Caecilius, a 
Sicilian by birth, who had been quaestor to Verres; 
and, by a pretence of personal injuries received from 
him, and a particular knowledge of his crimes, 
claimed a preference to Cicero in the task of accusing 
him, or at least to bear a joint share in it. But 
this pretended enemy was in reality a secret friend, 
employed by Verres himself to get the cause into 
his hands in order to betray it : his pretensions, 
however, were to be previously decided by a kind 
of process called divination, on account of its being 
wholly conjectural, in which the judges, without 
the help of witnesses, were to divine, as it were, 
what was fit to be done : but in the first hearing 
Cicero easily shook off this weak antagonist, rallying 
his character and pretensions with a great deal of 
wit and humour, and showing, " that the proper 
patron of such a cause could not be one who offered 
himself forwardly, but who was drawn to it unwil- 
lingly from the mere sense of his duty ; one whom 
the prosecutors desired, and the criminal dreaded ; 
one qualified by his innocence, as well as experience, 
to sustain it with credit ; and whom the custom of 
their ancestors pointed out and preferred to it." 
In this speech, after opening the reasons why, con- 
trary to his former practice, and the rule which he 
had laid down to himself, of dedicating his labours 
to the defence of the distressed, he now appeared 
as an accuser, he adds : " the provinces are utterly 
undone ; the allies and tributaries so miserably 
oppressed, that they have lost even the hopes of 
redress, and seek only some comfort in their ruin : 
those, who would have the trials remain in the 
hands of the senate, complain, that there are no 
men of reputation to undertake impeachments, no 
severity in the judges : the people of Rome, in the 
meanwhile, though labouring under many other 
grievances, yet desire nothing so ardently, as the 
ancient discipline and gravity of trials. For the 
want of trials, the tribunician power is called for 
again ; for the abuse of trials, a new order of judges 
is demanded ; for the scandalous behaviour of 
judges, the authority of the censors, hated before as 
too rigid, is now desired and grown popular. In 
this license of profligate criminals, in the daily com- 
plaints of the Roman people, the infamy of trials, 
the disgrace of the whole senatorian order, as I 
thought it the only remedy to these mischiefs, for 
men of abilities and integrity to undertake the cause 

b In foro ob eloquentiam rege causarum. — Ascon. Ar- 
gum. in Divinat. 



24 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



of the republic and the laws, so I was induced the 
more readily, out of regard to our common safety, 
to come to the relief of that part of the adminis- 
tration, which seemed the most to stand in need 
ofit c ." 

This previous point being settled in favour of 
Cicero, a hundred and ten days were granted to 
him by law for preparing the evidence ; in which 
he was obliged to make a voyage to Sicily, in order 
to examine witnesses, and collect facts to support 
the indictment. He was aware, that all Verres's 
art would be employed to gain time, in hopes to 
tire out the prosecutors, and allay the heat of the 
public resentment : so that for the greater dispatch 
he took along with him his cousin, L. Cicero, to 
ease him of a part of the trouble, and finished his 
progress through the island in less than half the 
time which was allowed to him d . 

In all the journeys of this kind, the prosecutor's 
charges used to be publicly defrayed by the pro- 
vince, or the cities concerned in the impeachment : 
but Cicero, to show his contempt of money, and 
disinterestedness in the cause, resolved to put the 
island to no charge on his account ; and in all the 
places to which he came, took up his quarters with 
his particular friends and acquaintance in a private 
manner, and at his own expense e . 

The Sicilians received him everywhere with all 
the honours due to his uncommon generosity, and 
the pains which he was taking in their service : 
but at Syracuse he met with some little affronts 
from the influence of the prsetor Metellus, who 
employed all his power to obstruct his inquiries, 
and discourage the people from giving him infor- 
mation. He was invited however by the magis- 
trates with great respect into their senate, where 
after he had expostulated with them a little for the 
gilt statue of Verres, which stood there before his 
face, and the testimonial which they had sent to 
Rome in his favour ; they excused themselves to 
him in their speeches, and alleged, that what they 
had been induced to do on that occasion was the 
effect of force and fear, obtained by the intrigues 
of a few, against the general inclination ; and to 
convince him of their sincerity, delivered into his 
hands the authentic accounts of many robberies 
and injuries which their own city had suffered from 
Verres in common with the rest of the province. 
As soon as Cicero retired, they declared his cousin 
Lucius the public guest and friend of the city, for 
having signified the same good will towards them, 
which Cicero himself had always done; and, by a 
second decree, revoked the public praises which 
they had before given to Verres. Here Cicero's 
old antagonist, Csecilius, appealed against them to 
the prsetor ; which provoked the populace to such 
a degree, that Cicero could hardly restrain them 
from doing him violence : the prsetor dismissed 
the senate, and declared their act to be irregular, 
and would not suffer a copy of it to be given to 
Cicero ; whom he reproached at the same time for 
betraying the dignity of Rome, by submitting not 



c Divinat. 3. 

d Ego Siciliam totam quinquaginta diebus sic obii. — In 
Verr. Act. i. 2. 

e In Siciliam sum inquirendi causa profectus, quo in 
negotio — ad hospites meos, ac necessarios, causae com- 
munis defensor diverti potius, quam ad eos, qui a me con- 
silium petivissent, Nemini meus adventus labori aut 
sumptui, nequepublicenequeprivatimfuit. — In Verr. i.6. 



only to speak in a foreign senate, but in a foreign 
language, and to talk Greek among Grecians f . 
But Cicero answered him with such spirit and 
resolution, urging the sanction of the laws, and the 
penalty of contemning them, that the praetor was 
forced at last to let him carry away all the vouchers 
and records which he required &. 

But the city of Messana continued obstinate to 
the last, and firm to its engagements with Verres : 
so that when Cicero came thither, he received 
no compliments from the magistrates, no offer 
of refreshments or quarters ; but was left to shift 
for himself, and to be taken care of by private 
friends. An indignity, he says, which had never 
been offered before to a senator of Rome ; whom 
there was not a king or city upon earth, that was 
not proud to invite and accommodate with a lodg- 
ing. But he mortified them for it severely at the 
trial, and threatened to call them to an account 
before the senate, as for an affront to the whole 
order h . After he had finished his business in 
Sicily, having reason to apprehend some danger in 
returning home by land, not only from the robbers, 
who infested all those roads, but from the malice 
and contrivance of Verres, he chose to come back 
by sea, and arrived at Rome, to the surprise of his 
adversaries, much sooner than he was expected 1 , 
and full charged with most manifest proofs of 
Verres's guilt. 

On his return he found, what he suspected, a 
strong cabal formed to prolong the affair by all the 
arts of delay which interest or money could pro- 
cure 14 , with design to throw it off at least to the 
next year, when Hortensius and Metellus were to 
be consuls, and Metellus's brother a prsetor, by 
whose united authority the prosecution might easily 
be baffled : and they had already carried the matter 
so far, that there was not time enough left within 
the current year to go through the cause in the 
ordinary forms. This put Cicero upon a new pro- 
ject, of shortening the method of the proceeding 1 , 
so as to bring it to an issue at any rate before the 
present prsetor M. Glabrio and his assessors, who 

f Ait indignum facinus esse, quod ego in senatu Grasca 
verba fecissem : qund quidem apud Graecos Grsece locutus 
essem, id ferri nullo modo posse. — In Verr. iv. G6 ; Vide 
ib. 62, 63, 64. 

Valerius Maximus says, tbat the Roman magistrates 
were anciently so jealous of the honour of the republic, 
that they never gave an answer to foreigners but in Latin ; 
and obliged the Greeks themselves to speak to them al- 
ways by an interpreter, not only in Rome, but in Greece 
and Asia ; in order to inculcate a reverence for the Latin 
tongue through all nations. [Lib. ii. 2.] But this piece of 
discipline had long been laid aside ; and the Greek lan- 
guage had obtained such a vogue in Rome itself, that all 
the great and noble were obliged not only to learn, but 
ambitious everywhere to speak it. 

g Vide in Verr. iv. 62, 63, 64, 65. 

h Ecquae civitas est— Rex denique ecquis est, qui Sena- 
torem populi Romani tec to ac domo non invitet ? &c. — In 
Verr. iv. 11. 

» IVon ego a Vibone Veliam parvulo navigio inter fugiti- 
vorum praadonum, ac tua tela venissem — omnis ilia mea 
festinatio fuit cum periculo capitis. — In Verr. ii. 40 ; Vido 
Ascon. Argum. in Divinat. 

k Reperio, Judices, base ab istis consilia inita et consti- 
tuta, ut quacunque opus esset ratione res ita duceretur, ut 
apud M. Metellum prastorem causa diceretur. — In Verr. i. 9. 

1 Cicero sum mo consilio videtur in Verrem vel contra- 
here tempora dicendi maluisse, quam in eum annum, qijo 
erat Q,. Hortensius consul futurus, incidere. — Quintil. vi. 5. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



25 



were like to be equal judges™. Instead therefore 
of spending any time in speaking, or employing 
his eloquence, as usual, in enforcing and aggra- 
vating the several articles of the charge, he resolved 
to do nothing more than produce his witnesses, 
and offer them to be interrogated : where the 
novelty of the thing, and the notoriety of the 
guilt, which appeared at once from the very recital 
of the depositions, so confounded Hortensius, that 
he had nothing to say for his client ; who, despair- 
ing of all defence, submitted, without expecting the 
sentence, to a voluntary exile 11 . 

From this account it appears, that of the seven 
excellent orations, which now remain on the sub- 
ject of this trial, the first two only were spoken, 
the one called the Divination, the other the first 
action, which is nothing more than a general preface 
to the whole cause : the other five were published 
afterwards, as they were prepared and intended to 
be spoken, if Verres had made a regular defence : 
for as this was the only cause in which Cicero had 
yet been engaged, or ever designed to be engaged 
as an accuser, so he was willing to leave these 
orations as a specimen of his abilities in that way, 
and the pattern of a just and diligent impeachment 
of a great and corrupt magistrate . 

In the first contest with Cgecilius he estimates 
the damages of the Sicilians at above eight hundred 
thousand pounds?; but this was a computation 
at large, before he was distinctly informed of the 
facts : for after he had been in Sicily, and seen 
what the proofs actually amounted to, he charges 
them at somewhat less than half that sural; and 
though the law in these causes gave double damages, 
yet no more seems to have been allowed in this 
than the single sum ; which gave occasion, as 
Plutarch intimates, to a suspicion of some corrup- 
tion or connivance in Cicero, for suffering so great 
an abatement of the fine : but if there was any 
abatement at all, it must needs have been made by 
the consent of all parties, out of regard perhaps to 
Verres's submission, and shortening the trouble of 
the prosecutors : for it is certain, that so far from 
leaving any imputation of that sort upon Cicero, 
it highly raised the reputation both of his abilities 
and integrity, as of one, whom neither money could 
bribe, nor power terrify from prosecuting a public 
oppressor ; and the Sicilians ever after retained the 
highest sense of his services, and on all occasions 
testified the utmost zeal for his person and in- 
terests. 

From the conclusion of these orations we may 
observe, that Cicero's vigour in this cause had 
drawn upon him the envy and ill will of the no- 

m Mihi certum est non committere, ut in hac causa 
praetor nobis consiliumque mutetur. — Act. i. 18. 

n Faciam hoc — ut utar testibus statim.— Ibid. — Sed 
tantummodo citaret testes — et eosHortensiointerrogandos 
daret : qua arte ita est fatigatus Hortensius, ut nihil, 
contra quod diceret, inveniret : ipse etiam Verres, despe- 
rate patrocinio, suasponte discederet in exilium.— Argum. 
Asconii in Act. i. 

In caeteris orationibus defensor futurus, accusationis 
officium his libris, qui Verrinarum nomine nuncupantur, 
compensare decrevit ; et — in una causa vim hujus artis et 
eloquentiae demonstrare. — Ascon. Argum. in Lib. et in 
Verr. 

P Quo nomine abs te, C. Verres, sestertium millies ex 
lege repeto — Divin. in Caeeil. 5. 

q Dicimus C. Verrem— quadringenties sestertium ex 
Sicilia contra leges abstulisse. — Act. i. 18. 



bility : which was so far however from moving 
him, that in open defiance of it he declares, " that 
the nobles were natural enemies to the virtue and 
industry of all new men ; and, as if they were of 
another race and species, could never be reconciled 
or induced to favour them, by any observance or 
good offices whatsoever ; that for "his part there- 
fore, like many others before him, he would pursue 
his own course, and make his way to the favour of 
the people, and the honours of the state, by his 
diligence and faithfttl services, without regarding 
the quarrels to which he might expose himself — 
That if in this trial the judges did not answer the 
good opinion which he had conceived of them, he 
was resolved to prosecute, not only those who were 
actually guilty of corruption, but those too who 
were privy to it : and if any should be so audacious, 
as to attempt by power or artifice to influence the 
bench, and screen the criminal, he would call him 
to answer for it before the people, and show himself 
more vigorous in pursuing him, than he had been 
even in prosecuting Verres 1 ." 

But before I dismiss the cause of Verres, it 
will not be improper to add a short account of 
some of his principal crimes, in order to give the 
reader a clearer notion of the usual method of 
governing provinces, and explain the grounds of 
those frequent impeachments and public trials, 
which he will meet with in the sequel of this his- 
tory : for though few of their governors ever came 
up to the full measure of Verres's iniquity, yet 
the greatest part were guilty in some degree of 
every kind of oppression with which Verres him- 
self was charged. This Cicero frequently intimates 
in his pleading, and urges the necessity of con- 
demning him for the sake of the example, and to 
prevent such practices from growing too general 
to be controlled 8 . 

The accusation was divided into four heads ; 1 . 
of corruption in judging causes ; 2. of extortion in 
collecting the tithes and revenues of the republic ; 
3. of plundering the subjects of their statues and 
wrought plate, which was his peculiar taste ; 4. of 
illegal and tyrannical punishments. I shall give a 
specimen or two of each from the great number 
that Cicero has collected, which yet, as he teils us, 
was but a small extract from an infinitely greater, 
of which Verres had been actually guilty. 

There was not an estate in Sicily, of any con- 
siderable value, which had been disposed of by will 
for twenty years past, where Verres had not his 
emissaries at work to find some flaw in the title, or 
some omission in executing the conditions of the 
testator, as a ground of extorting money from the 
heir. Dio of Halesa, a man of eminent quality, 
was in quiet possession of a great inheritance, left 
to him by the will of a relation, who had enjoined 
him to erect certain statues in the square of the 
city, on the penalty of forfeiting the estate to 
the Erycinian Venus. The statues were erected 
according to the will ; yet Verres, having found 

r Proinde siqui sunt, qui in hoc reo aut potentes, aut 
audaces, aut artifices ad corrumpendum judicium velint 
esse, ita sintparati,utdisceptante populo Romano mecum 
sibi rem videant futuram, &c. — In Verr. v. 71. 

s Quid igitur dicet ? fecisse alios. — Sunt quaedam om- 
nino inte singularia — quaedam tibi cummultiscommunia. 
Ergo omittam tuos peculatus, ut ob jus dicendum pecu- 
nias acceptas — quae forsitan alii quoque fecerint, &c. — lb. 
iii. 88. 



2G 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



some little pretence for cavilling, suborned an 
obscure Sicilian, one of his own informers, to sue 
for the estate in the name of Venus ; and when the 
cause was brought before him, forced Dio to com- 
pound with him for about nine thousand pounds, 
and to yield to him also a famous breed of mares, 
with all the valuable plate and furniture of his 
house *. 

Sopater, an eminent citizen of Haliciae, had 
been accused before the late praetor, C. Sacerdos, 
of a capital crime, of which he was honourably 
acquitted : but whenVerres succeeded to the govern- 
ment, the prosecutors renewed their charge, and 
brought him to a second trial before their new 
praetor ; to which Sopater, trusting to his inno- 
cence and the judgment of Sacerdos, readily sub- 
mitted without any apprehension of danger. After 
one hearing the cause was adjourned, when Timar- 
chides, the freedman and principal agent of Verres, 
came to Sopater, and admonished him as a friend, 
not to depend too much on the goodness of his 
cause and his former absolution, for that his 
adversaries had resolved to offer money to the 
praetor, who would rather take it for saving, than 
destroying a criminal, and was unwilling likewise 
to reverse the judgment of his predecessor. Sopater, 
surprised at this intimation, and not knowing what 
answer to make, promised to consider of it ; but 
declared himself unable to advance any large sum. 
Upon consulting his friends, they all advised him 
to take the hint, and make up the matter ; so that 
in a second meeting with Timarchides, after 
alleging his particular want of money, he com- 
pounded the affair for about seven hundred pounds, 
which he paid down upon the spot u . He now 
took all his trouble to be over : but after another 
hearing, the cause was still adjourned ; and Timar- 
chides came again to let him know that his accusers 
had offered a much larger sum than what he had 
given, and advised him, if he was wise, to consider 
well what he had to do. But Sopater, provoked 
by a proceeding so impudent, had not the patience 
even to hear Timarchides, but flatly told him that 
they might do what they pleased, for he was deter- 
mined to give no more. All his friends were of the 
same mind, imagining, that whatever "Verres himself 
might intend to do, he would not be able to draw 
the other judges into it, being all men of the first 
figure in Syracuse, who had judged the same cause 
already with the late praetor, and acquitted Sopater. 
When the third hearing came on, Verres ordered 
Petilius, a Roman knight, who was one of the 
bench, to go and hear a private cause, which was 
appointed for that day, and of which he was like- 
wise the judge. Petilius refused, alleging that the 
rest of his assessors would be engaged in the 
present trial. But Verres declared, that they 
might all go with him too if they pleased, for he 
did not desire to detain them ; upon which they 
all presently withdrew, some to sit as judges, and 

* Hie est Dio — de quo multis primariis viris testibus 
satisfaction est, H. S. undecies numeratum esse, ut earn 
causam, in qua ne tenuissima quidem suspicio posset esse, 
isto cognoscente obtineret : praeterea greges nobilissima- 
rum equarum abactos: argenti vestisque stragulas domi 
quod fuerit esse direptum. — In Verr. ii. 7. 

u Post ad amicos retulit. Qui cum ei fuissent auctores 
redimendae salutis, ad Timarchidem venit. Expositis 
suis difficultatibus, homineni ad H. S. lxxx. perducit, 
eamque ei pecuniam numerat. — lb. ii. 28. 



some to serve their friends in the other cause. 
Minucius, Sopater's advocate, seeing the bench 
thus cleared, took it for granted that Verres would 
not proceed in the trial that day, and was going 
out of the court along with the rest ; when Verres 
called him back, and ordered him to enter upon 
the defence of his client. "Defend him!" says 
he; "before whom?" "Before me," replied 
Verres, " if you think me worthy to try a paltry 
Greek and Sicilian." "I do not dispute your 
worthiness," says Minucius, " but wish only that 
your assessors were present, who are so well 
acquainted with the merits of the cause." " Begin, 
I tell you," says Verres, " for they cannot be 
present." " No more can I," replied Minucius ; 
" for Petilius begged of me also to go, and sit 
with him upon the other trial." And when Verres 
with many threats required him to stay, he abso- 
lutely refused to act, since the bench was dismissed, 
and so left the court together with all the rest of 
Sopater's friends. This somewhat discomposed 
Verres ; but after he had been whispered several 
times by his clerk Timarchides, he commanded 
Sopater to speak what he had to say in his own 
defence. Sopater implored him by all the gods 
not to proceed to sentence till the rest of the judges 
could be present : but Verres called for the wit- 
nesses, and after he had heard one or two of them 
in a summary way, without their being interrogated 
by any one, put an end to the trial, and condemned 
the criminal x . 

Among the various branches of Verres's illegal 
gains, the sale of offices was a considerable article: 
for there was not a magistracy of any kind to be 
disposed of either by lot or a free vote, which he 
did not arbitrarily sell to the best bidder. The 
priesthood of Jupiter at Syracuse was of all others 
the most honourable : the method of electing into 
it was to choose three by a general vote out of three 
several classes of the citizens, whose names were 
afterwards cast into an urn, and the first of them 
that was drawn out obtained the priesthood. 
Verres had sold it to Theomnastus, and procured 
him to be named in the first instance among the 
three ; but as the remaining part was to be decided 
by lot, people were in great expectation to see how 
he would manage that which was not so easily in 
his power. He commanded, therefore, in the first 
place, that Theomnastus should be declared priest, 
without casting lots ; but when the Syracusians 
remonstrated against it as contrary to their religion 
and the law, he called for the law, which ordered, 
that as many lots should be made as there were 
persons nominated, and that he whose name came 
out the first, should be the priest. He asked 
them, "howmanywere nominated;" they answered, 
"three." ." And what more then," says he, "is 
required by the law, than that three lots should be 
cast, and one of them drawn out ?" They 
answered, " Nothing :" upon which he presently 
ordered three lots, with Theomnastus's name upon 
every one of them, to be cast into the urn, and so 
by drawing out any one, the election was deter- 
mined in his favour ?. 

x Turn repente iste testes citari jubet. Dicit unus et 
alter breviter. Nihil interrogatur. Praeco, dixissepronun- 
ciat. Iste, properans de sella, exiluit : hominem irmocen- 
tem, a C. Sacerdote absolutum, indicia causa, de sententia 
scribaa.medici. haruspicisquecondemnavit.— InVerr. ii- 30. 

7 Numquid igitur oportet nisi tres sortesconjici, unam 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



27 



The tenth of the corn of all the conquered towns 
in Sicily belonged to the Romans, as it had for- 
merly done to their own princes, and was always 
gathered in kind and sent to Rome : but as this 
was not sufficient for the public use, the praetors 
had an appointment also of money from the trea- 
sury to purchase such farther stores as were neces- 
sary for the current year. Now the manner of 
collecting and ascertaining the quantity of the 
tithes was settled by an old law of King Hiero, 
the most moderate and equitable of all their 
ancient tyrants : but Verres, by a strange sort of 
edict, ordered, that the owner should pay what- 
ever the collector demanded ; but if he exacted 
more than his due, that he should be liable to a 
fine of eight times the value*. By this edict he 
threw the property, as it were, of the island into 
the power of his officers, to whom he had farmed 
out the tithes ; who, in virtue of the new law, 
seized into their hands the whole crop of every 
town, and obliged the owners to give them whatever 
share of it, or composition in money, they thought 
fit ; and if any refused, they not only plundered 
them of all theif goods, but even tortured their per- 
sons, till they had forced them to a compliance a . 
By this means Verres, having gathered a sufficient 
quantity of corn from the very tithes to supply the 
full demands of Rome, put the whole money, that 
he had received from the treasury, into his 
own pocket b ; and used to brag, that he had got 
enough from this single article to screen him from 
any impeachment: and not without reason ; since 
one of his clerks, who had the management of this 
corn-money, was proved to have got above ten 
thousand pounds from the very fees which were 
allowed for collecting it c . The poor husbandmen, 
in the mean time, having no remedy, were forced 
to run away from their houses, and desert the 
tillage of the ground ; so that from the registers, 
which were punctually kept in every town, of all 
the occupiers of arable lands in the island, it 
appeared, that during the three years' government 
of Verres, above two thirds of the whole number 
had entirely deserted their farms, and left their 
lands uncultivated d . 

Apronius, a man of infamous life and character, 
was the principal farmer of the tithes : who, when 
reproached with the cruelty of his exactions, made 
no scruple to own, that the chief share of the gain 
was placed to the account of the praetor. These 
words were charged upon him in the presence of 

educi ? Nihil. Conjici jubet tres, in quibus omnibus 
scriptum esset nomen Theomnasti. Fit clamor maximus — 
ita Jovis illud sacerdotium amplissimum per hanc ratio- 
nem Theomnasto datur. — In Verr. ii. 51 . 

z Tota Hieronica lege rejecta et repudiata — edictum, 
Judices, audite prseclarum ; quantum decumanus edi- 
disset aratorem sibi decuma? dare oportere, ut tantum 
arator decumano dare cogeretur — &c. — lb. iii. 10. 

a Apronius venit, omne instrumentum diripuit, fami- 
liam abduxit, pecus abegit — hominem corr-pi et suspendi 
jussit in oleastro, &c. — lb. 23. 

b Jam vero ab isto omnem illam ex a?rario pecuniam, 
quam his oportuit civitatibus pro frumento dari, lucrifac- 
tam videtis. — lb. 75, &e. 

c Tu ex pecunia publiea H. S. tredecies scribam tuum 
permissu tuo cum abstulisse fateare, reliquam tibi ullarn 
defensionem putas esse ? — lb. 80. 

d Agyrinensis ager — ducentos quinquaginta aratores 
habuit primo anno praeturae tuse. Quid tertio anno ? Oc- 
taginta— hoc peraeque in omni agro decumano reperictis. 
-Ib. 51,52, &c. 



Verres and the magistrates of Syracuse, by one 
Rubrius, who offered a wager and trial upon the 
proof of them ; but Verres, without showing any 
concern or emotion at it, privately took care to 
hush up the matter, and prevent the dispute from 
proceeding any farther . 

The same wager was offered a second time, and 
in the same public manner, by one Scandilius, who 
loudly demanded judges to decide it : to which 
Verres, not being able to appease the clamour of 
the man, was forced to consent, and named them 
presently out of his own band, Cornelius his physi- 
cian, Volusius his soothsayer, and Valerius his crier ; 
to whom he usually referred all disputes, in which 
he had any interest. Scandilius insisted to have 
them named out of the magistrates of Sicily, or that 
the matter should be referred to Rome : but Verres 
declared, that he would not trust a cause, in which 
his own reputation was at stake, to any but his own 
friends ; and when Scandilius refused to produce 
his proofs before such arbitrators, Verres condemn- 
ed him in the forfeiture of his wager, which was 
forty pounds, to Apronius f . 

C. Heius was the principal citizen of Messana, 
where he lived very splendidly in the most magni- 
ficent house of the city, and used to receive all the 
Roman magistrates with great hospitality. He had 
a chapel in his house, built by his ancestors, and 
furnished with certain images of the gods, of ad- 
mirable sculpture and inestimable value. On one 
side stood a Cupid of marble, made by Praxiteles : 
on the other, a Hercules of brass, by Myron ; with 
a little altar before each god, to denote the religion 
and sanctity of the place. There were likewise 
two other figures of brass of two young women, 
called Canephorae, with baskets on their heads, 
carrying things proper for sacrifice after the man- 
ner of the Athenians, the work of Polycletus. 
These statues were an ornament not only to Heius, 
but to Messana itself, being known to everybody 
at Rome, and constantly visited by all strangers, to 
whom Heius's house was always open. The Cupid 
had been borrowed by C. Claudius, for the decora- 
tion of the forum in his aedileship, and was care- 
fully sent back to Messana ; but Verres, while he 
was Heius's guest, would never suffer him to rest, 
tiU he had stripped his chapel of the gods and the 
canephorae ; and to cover the act from an appear- 
ance of robbery, forced Heius to enter them into 
his accounts, as if they had been sold to him for 
fifty pounds ; whereas at a public auction in Rome, 
as Cicero says, they had known one single statue of 
brass, of a moderate size, sold a little before for a 
thousand?. Verres had seen likewise at Heius's 

e Eorum omnium, qui decumani vocabantur, princeps 
erat Q. ille Apronius, quem videtis : decujus improbitate 
singulari gravissimarum legationum querimonias audistis. 
— In Verr. ii. 9. 

Cum palam Syracusis, te audiente, maximo conventu, 
P. Rubrius Q,. Apronium sponsione lacessivit, ni Apronius 
dictitaret, te sibi in decumis esse socium, &c. — lb. 57. 

f Hie tu medicum et haruspicem, et prasconem tuum 
recuperatores dabis ? [ib. (JO.] Iste viros optimos recupe- 
ratores dat, eundem ilium medicum Cornelium et harus- 
picem Volusianum, et Valerium praeconem. — Ib. 21, it. 11. 

Scandilius postulare de conventu recuperatores. Turn 
iste negat se de existimatione suacuiquaru, nisi suis, com- 
missurum — cogit Scandilium quinque ilia miliianummum 
dare atque adnumerare Apronio. — Ib. 60. 

% Erat apud Heium sacrarium magna cum dignitate in 
asdibus, a majoribus traditum, perantiquum ; in quo signa 



28 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



house, a suit of curious tapestry, reckoned the best 
in Sicily, being of the kind which was called Atta- 
lic, richly interwoven with gold ; this he resolved 
also to extort from Heius, but not till he had se- 
cured the statues. As soon therefore as he left 
Messana, he began to urge Heius. by letters, to send 
him the tapestry to Agrigentum,for some particular 
service which he pretended ; but when he had 
once got it into his hands, he never restored it h . 
Now Messana, as it is said above, was the only city 
of Sicily that persevered to the last in the interest 
of Ver r.es ; and at the time of the trial sent a pub- 
lic, testimonial in his praise by a deputation of its 
eminent citizens, of which this very Heius was the 
chief. Yet when he came to be interrogated and 
cross-examined by Cicero, he frankly declared, 
that though he was obliged to perforin what the 
authority of his city had imposed upon him, yet 
that he had been plundered by Verres of his gods, 
which were left to him by his ancestors, and which 
he never would have parted with on any conditions 
whatsoever, if it had been in his power to keep 
them K 

Verres had in his family two brothers of Cilicia, 
the one a painter, the other a sculptor, on whose 
judgment he chiefly relied in his choice of pictures 
and statues, and all other pieces of art. They had 
been forced to fly from their country for robbing a 
temple of Apollo, and were now employed to hunt 
out every thing that was curious and valuable in 
Sicily, whether of public or private property. 
These brothers having given Verres notice of a 
large silver ewer, belonging to Pamphilus of Lily- 
baeum, of most elegant work, made by Boethus k , 
Verres immediately sent for it, and seized it to his 
own use ; and while Pamphilus was sitting pensive 
at home, lamenting the loss of his rich vessel, the 
. chief ornament of his sideboard, and the pride of 
his feasts, another messenger came running to him, 
with orders to bring two silver cups also, which he 
was known to have, adorned with figures in relief, 
to be shown to the praetor. Pamphilus, for fear of 
greater mischief, took up his cups and carried them 
away himself : when he came to the palace Verres 
happened to be asleep, but the brothers were walk- 
ing in the hall, and waiting to receive him ; who, as 
soon as they saw him, asked for the cups, which he 
accordingly produced. They commended the work ; 
whilst he with a sorrowful face began to complain, 
that if they took his cups from him, he should have 
nothing of any value left in his house. The bro- 
thers, seeing his concern, asked how much he 

pulcherrima quatuor, summo artificio, summa nobilitate, 
&c. [In Verr. iv. 2.] C. Claudius, cujus asdilitatem mag- 
nificentissimam scimus fuisse, usus est hoc Cupidine tarn 
diu, dum forum diis immortalibus, populoque Romano 
habuit ornatum. — Hsec omnia, quae dixi, signa ab Heio de 
sacrario Verres abstulit, &c. [ib. 3.] Ita jussisti, bpinor, 
ipsum in tabulas referre. [ib. 6.] In auctione signum 
Ecneum non magnum H. S. cxx millibus venire non vidi- 
mus ? — In Verr. iv. 7. 

h Quid ? ilia Attalica, tota Sicilia nominata, ab eodem 
Heio peripetasmata emere oblitus es ? — At quomodo abs- 
tulit? &c— Ib. 12. 

1 Quid enim poterat Heius respondere ? — Primo dixit, 
se ilium publice laudare, quod sibi ita mandatum esset : 
deinde neque se ilia habuisse venal ia, neque ulla condi- 
tione, si utrum vellet liceret, adduci unquam potuisse ut 
venderet ilia, &c. — In Verr. iv. 7. 

k A celebrated Carthaginian sculptor, who left many 
famous works behind him. — Vid. Flin. Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 
i2 ; it. xxxiv. 8. 



would give to preserve them : in a word, they de- 
manded forty crowns ; he offered twenty : but while 
they were debating, Verres awaked and called for 
the cups, which being presently shown to him, the 
brothers took occasion to observe, that they did 
not answer to the account that had been given of 
them, and were but of paltry work, not fit to be 
seen among his plate ; to whose authority Verres 
readily submitted, and so Pamphilus saved his 
cups 1 . 

In the city of Tindaris there was a celebrated 
image of Mercury, which had been restored to them 
from Carthage by Scipio, and was worshipped by 
the people with singular devotion, and an annual 
festival. This statue Verres resolved to have, and 
commanded the chief magistrate, Sopater, to see it 
taken down and conveyed to Messana. But the 
people were so inflamed and mutinous upon it, 
that Verres did not persist in his demand at that 
time ; but when he was leaving the place, renewed 
his orders to Sopater, with severe threats, to see 
his command executed. Sopater proposed the mat- 
ter to the senate, who universally protested against 
it : in short, Verres returned to the town, and in- 
quired for the statue ; but was told by Sopater, 
that the senate would not suffer it to be taken 
down, and had made it capital for any one to meddle 
with it without their orders. '* Do not tell me," says 
Verres, " of your senate and your orders ; if you do 
not presently deliver the statue, you shall be 
scourged to death with rods." Sopater with tears 
moved the affair again to the senate, and related 
the praetor's threats ; but in vain ; they broke up 
in disorder, without giving any answer. This was 
reported by Sopater to Verres, who was sitting 
in his tribunal : it was the midst of winter, the 
weather extremely cold, and it rained very heavily, 
when Verres ordered Sopater to be stripped, and 
carried into the market-place, and there to be tied 
upon an equestrian statue of C. Marcellus, and 
exposed, naked as he was, to the rain and the cold, 
and stretched in a kind of torture upon the brazen 
horse ; where he must necessarily have perished, if 
the people of the town, out of compassion to him, 
had not forced their senate to grant the Mercury 
to Verres m . 

Young Antiochus, King of Syria, having been at 
Rome to claim the kingdom of Egypt in right of 
his mother, passed through Sicily at this time on 
his return home, and came to Syracuse ; where 
Verres, who knew that he had a great treasure with 
him, received him with a particular civility ; made 
him large presents of wine, and all refreshments 

1 Cybiratse sunt fratres— quorum alteram fingere opinor 
e cera solitum esse, alteram esse pictorem. — Canes vena- 
ticos diceres, ita odorabantur omnia et pervestigabant. — In 
Verr. iv. 13. 

Memini Pamphilum Lilybcetanum mihi narrare, cum 
iste ab sese hydriam Boethi manu factam, praeclaro opere 
et grandi pondere, per potestatem abstulisset ; se sane 
tristem et conturbatum domum revertisse, &c. — Ib. 14. 

111 Turn iste : Q,uam mihi religionem narras ? quam poe- 
nam ? quem senatum ? Vivum te non relinquam : moriere 
virgis, nisi signum traditur — Erat hiems summa, tem- 
pestas, ut ipsum Sopatrum dicere audistis, perfrigida ; 
imber maxim us, cum ipse imperat lictoribus, ut Sopatrum 
— praecipitem in forum dejiciant, nudumque constituant 
— cum esset vinctus nudus in sere, in imbri, in frigore. 
Neque tamen finis huic injuriae crudelitatique fiebat, 
donee populus atquc universa multitudo, atrocitate rei 
commota, senatum clamore coegit, ut ei simulacrum 
illud Mercurii polliceretur.— Ib. 39, 40. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



29 



for his table, and entertained him most magnifi- 
cently at supper. The king, pleased with this com- 
pliment, invited Verres in his turn to sup with him ; 
when his sideboard was dressed out in a royal man- 
ner with his richest plate, and many vessels of solid 
gold set with precious stones ; among which there 
was a large jug for wine, made out of one entire 
gem, with a handle of gold to it. Verres greedily 
surveyed and admired every piece ; and the king 
rejoiced to see the Roman praetor so well satisfied 
with his entertainment. The next morning, Verres 
sent to the king to borrow some of his choicest ves- 
sels, and particularly the jug, for the sake of show- 
ing them, as he pretended, to his own workmen ; 
all which, the king having no suspicion of him, 
readily sent. But besides these vessels of domestic 
use, the king had brought with him a large candle- 
stick, or branch for several lights, of inestimable 
value, all made of precious stones, and adorned with 
the richest jewels, which he had designed for an 
offering to Jupiter Capitolinus ; but finding the 
repairs of the capitol not finished, and no place yet 
ready for the reception of his offering, he resolved 
to carry it back without showing it to anybody, 
that the beauty of it might be new and the more 
surprising when it came to be first seen in that tem- 
ple. Verres, having got intelligence of this candle- 
stick, sent again to the king, to beg by all means 
that he would favour him with a sight of it, promis- 
ing that he would not suffer any one else to see it. 
The king sent it presently by his servants, who, 
after they had uncovered and shown it to Verres, 
expected to carry it back with them to the king ; 
but Verres declared, that he could not sufficiently 
admire the beauty of the work, and must have more 
time to contemplate it ; and obliged them therefore 
to go away and leave it with him. Several days 
passed, and the king heard nothing from Verres : 
so that he thought proper to remind him, by a civil 
message, of sending back the vessels ; but Verres 
ordered the servants to call again some other time. 
In short, after a second message with no better suc- 
cess, the king was forced to speak to Verres him- 
self ; upon which Verres earnestly entreated him 
to make him a present of the candlestick. The 
king affirmed it to be impossible, on the account of 
his vow to Jupiter, to which many nations were 
witnesses. Verres then began to drop some threats, 
but finding them of no more effect than his entreat- 
ies, he commanded the king to depart instantly out 
of his province : declaring, that he had received 
intelligence of certain pirates, who were coming 
from his kingdom to invade Sicily. The poor king, 
finding himself thus abused and robbed of his trea- 
sure, went into the great square of the city, and in 
a public assembly of the people, calling upon the 
gods and men to bear testimony to the injury, 
made a solemn dedication to Jupiter of the candle- 
stick, which he had vowed and designed for the 
capitol, and which Verres had forcibly taken from 
him 11 . 

When any vessel, richly laden, happened to 
arrive in the ports of Sicily, it was generally seized 

n Rex maximo conventu Syracusis in foro flens, ac 
deos hominesque contestans, clamare ccepit, — candela- 
brum factum e gemmis, quod in Capitolium missurus 
esset, id sibi C. Verrem abstulisse.— Id etsi antea jam 
mente et cogitatione sua consecratum esset, tarn en turn se 
in illo conventu civium Romanorum dare, donare, dicare, 
consecrare Jovi Optimo Maximo, &c. — In Verr. iv. 28> 29. 



by his spies and informers, on pretence of its com- 
ing from Spain, and being filled with Sertorius's 
soldiers : and when the commanders exhibited their 
bills of lading, with a sample of their goods, to 
prove themselves to be fair traders, who came from 
different quarters of the world, some producing 
Tyrian purple, others Arabian spices, some jewels 
and precious stones, others Greek wines and Asia- 
tic slaves ; the very proof, by which they hoped to 
save themselves, was their certain ruin : Verres 
declared their goods to have been acquired by piracy, 
and seizing the ships with their cargoes to his own 
use, committed the whole crew to prison, though the 
greatest part of them perhaps were Roman citizens. 
There was a famous dungeon at Syracuse, called the 
Latomise, of a vast and horrible depth, dug out of 
a solid rock, which, having originally been a quarry 
of stone, was converted to a prison by Dionysius 
the Tyrant. Here Verres kept great numbers of 
Roman citizens in chains, whom he had first injured 
to a degree that made it necessary to destroy them ; 
whence few or none ever saw the light again, but 
were commonly strangled by his orders . 

One Gavius, however, a Roman citizen of the 
town of Cosa, happened to escape from this dread- 
ful place, and run away to Messana ; where, fancy- 
ing himself out of danger, and being ready to 
embark for Italy, he began to talk of the injuries 
which he had received, and of going straight to 
Rome, where Verres should be sure to hear of him. 
But he might as well have said the words in the 
praetor's palace, as at Messana ; for he was pre- 
sently seized and secured till Verres's arrival, who, 
coming thither soon after, condemned him as a spy 
of the fugitives, first to be scourged in the market- 
place, and then nailed to a cross, erected for the 
purpose, on a conspicuous part of the shore, and 
looking towards Italy, that the poor wretch might 
have the additional misery of suffering that cruel 
death in sight as it were of his home p. 

The coasts of Sicily being much infested by pi- 
rates, it was the custom of all praetors to fit out a 
fleet every year, for the protection of its trade and 
navigation. This fleet was provided by a contribu- 
tion of the maritime towns, each of which usually 
furnished a ship, with a certain number of men and 
provisions : but Verres for a valuable consideration 
sometimes remitted the ship, and always discharged 
as many of the men as were able to pay for it. A 
fleet however was equipped of seven ships ; but for 
show rather than service, without their complement 
either of men or stores, and wholly unfit to act 
against an enemy ; and the command of it was 



o Quaecunque navis ex Asia veneret, statim certis indi- 
cibus et custodibus tenebatur: vectores omnes in Lato- 
mias conjiciebantur: onera atque merces in praetoriam 
domum deferebantur — eos Sertorianos milites esse, atque 
a Dianio fugere dicebat, &c. — In Verr. 1. 5. 56. 

Latomias Syracusanas omnes audistis. Opus est ingens 
magnificum regum ac tyrannorum. Totum est ex saxo 
mirandam in altitudinem depresso — nihil tarn clausum 
ad exitus, nihil tarn tutum ad custodias, nee fieri nee 
cogitari potest. [lb. 27.] Career ille, qui est a crudelissimo 
tyranno Dionysio factus, quae Latomias vocantur, in istius 
imperio domicilium civium Romanorum fuit. — lb. 55. 

P Gavius hie quern dico, Cosanus, cum in illo numero 
civium ab isto in vincla conjectus esset, et nescio qua ra- 
tione clam e Latomiis profugisset — loqui Messanac ccepit, 
et queri, se civem Romanum in vincla conjectum, sibi 
recta iter esse Romam, Verri se praesto advenienti futu- 
rum. &c— lb. 61. 



30 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



given by him, not to his quaestor, or one of his 
lieutenants, as it was usual, but to Cleomenes a 
Syracusian, whose wife was his mistress, that he 
might enjoy her company the more freely at home, 
while the husband was employed abroad. For in- 
stead of spending the summer, as other governors 
used to do, in a progress through his province, he 
quitted the palace of Syracuse, and retired to a lit- 
tle island, adjoining to the city, to lodge in tents, or 
rich pavilions, pitched close by the fountain of Are- 
thusa ; where, forbidding the approach of men or 
business to disturb him, he passed two of the hot 
months in the company of his favourite women, and 
all the delicacy of pleasure that art and luxury could 
invent *. 

The fleet, in the mean time, sailed out of Syra- 
cuse in great pomp, and saluted Verres and his 
company, as it passed ; when the Roman f prsetor, 
says Cicero, who had not been seen before for many 
days, showed himself at last to the sailors, standing 
on the shore in slippers, with a purple cloak and 
vest, flowing down to his heels, and leaning on the 
shoulder of a girl, to view this formidable squad- 
ron 1, : which, instead of scouring the seas, sailed 
no farther after several days, than into the port of 
Pachynus. Here, as they lay peaceably at anchor, 
they were surprised with an account of a number 
of pirate frigates, lying in another harbour very 
near to them : upon which, the admiral Cleomenes 
cut his cables in a great fright, and, with all the sail 
that he could make, fled away towards Pelorus, 
and escaped to land : the rest of the ships followed 
him as fast as they could ; but two of them, which 
sailed the slowest, were taken by the pirates, and one 
of the captains killed : the other captains quitted 
their ships, as Cleomenes had done, and got safe 
to land. The pirates, finding the ships deserted, 
set fire to them all that evening, and the next day 
sailed boldly into the port of Syracuse, which 
reached into the very heart of the town ; where, after 
they had satisfied their curiosity, and filled the 
city with a general terror, they sailed out again at 
leisure, and in good order, in a kind of triumph 
over Verres and the authority of Rome s . 

The news of a Roman fleet burnt, and Syracuse 
insulted by pirates, made a great noise through all 

1 Erat et Nice, facie eximia, uxor Cleomenis Syracusani 
— iste autem cum vir esset Syracusis, uxoi-em ejus parum 
poterat animo soluto ac libero tot in acta dies secum ha- 
bere. Itaque excogitat rem singularem. Naves, quibus 
legatus praefuerat. Cleomeni tradit. Classi populi Ro- 
mani Cleomenem Syracusanum praeesse jubet. Hoc eo 
facit, ut non solum ille abesset a domo— Nam estate 
summa, quo tempore caeteri prsetores obire provinciam, 
et concursare consueverunt, eo tempore — ad luxuriem, 
libidinesque suas — tabernacula, carbaseis intenta velis, 
collocari jussit in littore, &c. — In Verr. v. 31. 

r Ipse autem, qui visus multis diebus non esset, turn 
se tamen in conspectum nautis paullisper dedit. Stetit 
soleatus praetor populi Romani cum pallio purpureo, 
tunicaque talari, muliercula nixus in littore. — lb. 33. 

Quintilian greatly admires this short description, as 
placing the very scene and fact before our eyes, and sug- 
gesting still much more than is expressed by it : [viii. 3 ] 
but the concise elegance and expressive brevity, in which 
its beauty consists, cannot possibly be preserved in a 
translation. 

s Tunc praedonum dux Heracleo repente praeter spem, 
non sua virtute — victor, classem pulcherrimam populi 
Romani in littus expulsam et ejectam, cum primum ad- 
vesperasceret, inflammari inccndique jussit, &c. — lb. 35, 
36.' 



Sicily. The captains, in excuse of themselves, 
were forced to tell the truth ; that their ships were 
scandalously unprovided both with men and stores, 
and in no condition to tace an enemy ; each of 
them relating how many of their sailors had been 
discharged by Verres's particular orders, on whom 
the whole blame was justly laid. When this came 
to his ears, he sent for the captains, and after 
threatening them very severely for talking in that 
manner, forced them to declare, and to testify it 
also in writing, that every one of their ships had 
its full complement of all things necessary ; but 
finding, after all, that there was no way of stifling 
the clamour, and that it would necessarily reach 
to Rome, he resolved, for the extenuation of 
his own crime, to sacrifice the poor captains, and 
put them all to death, except the admiral Cleomenes, 
the most criminal of them all, and at his request 
the commander also of his ship. In consequence 
of this resolution, the four remaining captains, 
after fourteen days from the action, when they 
suspected no danger, were arrested and clapt into 
irons. They were all young men, of the principal 
families of Sicily, some of them the only sons of 
aged parents, who came presently in great conster- 
nation to Syracuse, to solicit the praetor for their 
pardon. But Verres was inexorable ; and having 
thrown them into his dungeon, where nobody was 
suffered to speak with them, condemned them to 
lose their heads : whilst all the service that their 
unhappy parents could do for them, was to bribe 
the executioner to dispatch them with one stroke, 
instead of more, which he brutally refused to do, 
unless he was paid for it, and to purchase of 
Timarchides the liberty of giving them burial*. 

It happened, however, before this loss of the fleet, 
that a single pirate-ship was taken by Verres's 
lieutenants, and brought into Syracuse ; which 
proved to be a very rich prize, and had on board 
a great number of handsome young fellows. There 
was a band of musicians among them, whom Verres 
sent aw r ay to Rome a present to a friend ; and the 
rest, who had either youth, or beauty, or skill in 
any art, were distributed to his clerks and depen- 
dents, to be kept for his use ; but the few who were 
old and deformed, were committed to the dungeon 
and reserved for punishment u . The captain of 
these pirates had long been a terror to the Sicilians ; 
so that they were all eager to see his person and to 
feed their eyes with his execution : but being rich, 
he found means to redeem his head, and was care- 
fully kept out of sight, and conveyed to some 
private custody, till Verres could make the best 
market of him. The people in the mean time grew 
impatient and clamorous for the death of the pirates, 

t Cleomenem et navarchos ad se vocari jubet ; accusat 
eos, quod hujusmodi de se sermones habuerint : rogat ut 
id facere desistant, et m sua quisque navi dicat se tantum 
habuisse nautarum, quantum oportuerit. Illi se osten- 
dunt quodvellet esse facturos. Iste in tabulas refert ; ob- 
signat signis amicorum. Iste hominibus miseris inno- 
centibusque injici catenas jubet. Veniunt Syracusas 
parentes propinquique miserorum adolescentium, &c. — 
In Verr. v. 39. 40, &c. 

u Erat ea navis plena juventutis formosissimae, plena 
argenti facti atque signati, multa cum stragula veste — 
siqui senes aut deformes erant, eos in hostium numero 
ducit, qui aliquid forma, aetatis, artificiique habebant, 
abducit omnes, nonnullos scribis suis filio, cohortique 
distribuit. Symphoniacos homines sex cuidam amico suo 
Romam muneri misit, &c. — lb. 25, &c. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



.31 



whom all other praetors used to execute as soon as 
taken ; and knowing the number of them to be 
great, could not be satisfied with the few old and 
decrepit, whom Verres willingly sacrificed to their 
resentment. He took this opportunity, therefore, 
to clear the dungeon of those Roman citizens, 
whom he had reserved for such an occasion, and 
now brought out to execution as a part of the pirati- 
cal crew ; but to prevent the imprecations and 
cries, which citizens used to make of their being 
free Romans, and to hinder their being known also 
to any other citizens there present, he produced 
them all with their heads and faces so muffled up, 
that they could neither be heard nor seen, and in 
that cruel manner destroyed great numbers of 
innocent men x . But to finish at last this whole 
story of Verres : after he had lived many years in 
a miserable exile, forgotten and deserted by all his 
friends, he is said to have been relieved by the 
generosity of Cicero?; yet was proscribed and 
murdered after all by Marc Antony, for the sake 
of his fine statues and Corinthian vessels, which he 
refused to part with z : happy only, as Lactantius 
says, before his death, to have seen the more 
deplorable end of his old. enemy and accuser, 
Cicero a . 

But neither the condemnation of this criminal, 
nor the concessions already made by the senate, 
were able to pacify the discontents of the people : 
they demanded still, as loudly as ever, the restora- 
tion of the tribunician power, and the right of 
judicature to the equestrian order ; till after various 
contests and tumults, excited annually on that 
account by the tribunes, they were gratified this 
year in them both ; in the first by Pompey the 
consul, in the second by L. Cotta the praetor b . 
The tribunes were strenuously assisted in all this 
struggle by J. Csesar c , and as strenuously opposed 
by all who wished well to the tranquillity of the 
city : for long experience had shewn that they had 
always been, not only the chief disturbers of the 
public peace, by the abuse of their extravagant power, 
but the constant tools of all the ambitious, who 
had any designs of advancing themselves above the 
laws' 1 : for by corrupting one or more of the tribunes, 
which they were sure to effect by paying their full 
price, they could either obtain from the people 
whatever they wanted, or obstruct at least whatever 
should be attempted against them .- so that this 
act was generally disliked by the better sort, and 
gave a suspicion of no good intentions in Pompey ; 
who, to remove all jealousies against him on this, 
or any other account, voluntarily took an oath, 
that on the expiration of his consulship he would 

x Archipiratam ipsum vidit nemo — cum omnes, ut mos 
est, concur rerent, qusererent, videre cuperent, &c. [In 
Verr. v. 26.] Cum maximus numerus deesset, turn iste 
in eorum locum, quos domum suam de piratis abduxerat, 
substituere ccepit cives Romanos, quos in carcerem antea 
conjecerat. Itaque alii cives Romani ne cognoscerentur, 
capitibus ,obvolutis e carcere ad palum atque necem 
rapiebantur, &c. — lb. 28, &c. 

Quid de multitudine dicemus eorum, qui capitibus in- 
volutis in piratarum captivorumque numero produceban- 
tur, ut securi ferirentur. — lb. 60. 7 Senec. vi. Suasor. 6. 

z Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxiv. 2. a Lactan. ii. 4. 

b Hoc consulatu Pompeius tribuniciam potestatem re- 
Btituit, cujus imaginem Sylla sine re reliquerat.— Veil. 
Pat. ii. 30. 

c Auctores restituendaj tribunicias potestatis enixissime 
juvit. — Sueton. in J. Caes. 5. d De Legib. iii. 9. 



accept no public command or government, but 
content himself with the condition of a private 
senator e . 

Plutarch speaks of this act as the effect of 
Pompey's gratitude to the people for the extraor- 
dinary honours which they had heaped upon him : 
but Cicero makes the best excuse for it after 
Pompey's death, which the thing itself would bear, 
by observing that a statesman must always con- 
sider not only what is best, but what is necessary 
to the times ; that Pompey well knew the impatience 
of the people ; and that they would not bear the 
loss of the tribunician power much longer ; and it 
was the part, therefore, of a good citizen not to 
leave to a bad one the credit of doing what was too 
popular to be withstood*. But whatever were 
Pompey's views in the restitution of this power, 
whether he wanted the skill or the inclination to 
apply it to any bad purpose, it is certain that he 
had cause to repent of it afterwards, when Caesar, 
who had a better head with a worse heart, took the 
advantage of it to his ruin ; and by the help of the 
tribunes was supplied both with the power and the 
pretext for overturning the republic?. 

As to the other dispute, about restoring the 
right of judging to the knights, it was thought the 
best way of correcting the insolence of the nobles, 
to subject them to the judicature of an inferior 
order, who, from a natural jealousy and envy 
towards them, would be sure to punish their 
oppressions with proper severity. It was ended 
however at last by a compromise, and a new law 
was prepared by common consent, to vest this 
power jointly in the senators and the knights ; 
from each of which orders a certain number was to 
be drawn annuallyby lot, to sit in judgment together 
with the praetor upon all causes 1 *. 

But for the mere effectual cure of that general 
license and corruption of morals, which had in- 
fected all orders, another remedy was also provided 
this year, an election of censors : it ought regularly 
to have been made every five years, but had now 
been intermitted from the time of Sylla for about 
seventeen. These Censors were the guardians of 
the discipline and manners of the city 1 , and had a 
power to punish vice and immorality by some mark 
of infamy in all ranks of men, from the highest 
to the lowest. The persons now chosen were 
L. Gellius and Cn. Lentulus ; both of them men- 
tioned by Cicero as his particular acquaintance, 
and the last as his intimate friend k . Their authority, 
after so long an intermission, was exercised with 
that severity which the libertinism of the times 
required ; for they expelled above sixty-four from 
the senate for notorious immoralities, the greatest 
part for the detestable practice of taking money for 

e Qui cum consul laudabiliter jurasset, se in nullam 
provinciam ex eo magistratu iturum. — Veil. Pat. ii. 31. 

f De Legib. 3. 11. 

£"Ot6 drj Kal fxaXiara too no/U7T7jiVp /xere/ieATjire t)]u 
Zr)fxapx'io.v — avayay6uTi avdes inl to apx°^ cv ' Ap- 
pian. ii. p. 445. 

h Per idem tempus Cotta judicandi munus, quod C. 
Gracchus ereptum senatui, ad Equites, Sylia ab illis ad 
senatum transtulerat, aequaliter inter ucrumque ordiuem 
partitus est. — Veil. Pat. ii. 32. 

1 Tu es prsefectus moribus, magister veteris discipline 
ac severitatis. — Pro Cluentio, 46. 

k Nam mini cum ambobus est amicitia : cum altero 
vero, magnus usus et sumina necessitudo. — Pro Cluentio, 
42. 



32 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



judging causes 1 , and among them C. Antonius, 
the uncle of the triumvir ; subscribing their reasons 
for it, that he had plundered the allies, declined 
a trial, mortgaged his lands, and was not master of 
his estate™ : yet this very Antonius was elected 
aedile and praetor soon after in his proper course, 
and within six years advanced to the consulship : 
which confirms what Cicero says of this censorian 
animadversion, that it was become merely nominal, 
and had no other effect than of putting a man to 
the blush". 

From the impeachment of Verres, Cicero entered 
upon the aedileship, and in one of his speeches gives 
us a short account of the duty of it : "I am now 
•chosen sedile, says he, and am sensible of what is 
committed to me by the Roman people : I am to 
exhibit with the greatest solemnity the most sacred 
sports to Ceres, Liber, and Libera ; am to appease 
and conciliate the mother Flora to the people and 
city of Rome, by the celebration of the public 
games ; am to furnish out those ancient shows, 
the first which were called Roman, with all pos- 
sible dignity and religion, in honour of Jupiter, 
Juno, Minerva ; am to take care also of all the 
sacred edifices, and indeed of the whole city, &c.° " 
The people were passionately fond of all these 
games and diversions ; and the public allowance 
for them being but small, according to the frugality 
of the old republic, the aediles supplied the rest at 
their own cost, and were often ruined by it. For 
every part of the empire was ransacked for what 
was rare and curious, to adorn the splendour of 
their shows : the Forum, in which they were ex- 
hibited, was usually beautified with porticoes built 
for the purpose, and filled with the choicest statues 
and pictures which Rome and Italy afforded. 
Cicero reproaches Appius for draining Greece and 
the islands of all their furniture of this kind for 
the ornament of his sedileship p : and Verres is said 
to have supplied his friends, Hortensius and Me- 
tellus, with all the fine statues of which he had 
plundered the provinces 9. 

Several of the greatest men of Cicero's time 
had distinguished themselves by an extraordinary 
expense and magnificence in this magistracy ; Lu- 
cullus, Scaurus, Lentulus, Hortensius 1 , and C. 
Antonius ; who, though expelled so lately from 
the senate, entertained the city this year with 
stage-plays, whose scenes were covered with silver; 
in which he was followed afterwards by Murena s : 

1 Q,uos autem duo censores, clarissimi viri furti et cap- 
tarum pecuniarum nomine notaverunt ; ii non modo in 
senatum redierunt, sed etiam. illarum ipsarum rerum 
judiciis absoluti sunt. — Pro Cluent. 42 ; it, Pigh. Annal. 
ad A. U. 683. m Asconius in Orat. in Tog. Cand. 

n Censoris judicium nihil fere damnato affert prater 
ruborem. Itaque quod omnis ea judicatio versatur tan- 
tummodo in nomine, animadversio ilia ignominia dicta 
est.— Fragment, e lib. iv. De Repub. ex Nonio. 

° In Verr. v. 14. 

P Omnia signa, tabulas, ornamentorum quod superf uit 
in fanis et communibus locis, tota e Graecia atque insulis 
omnibus, honoris populi Romani causa, deportavit. — Pro 
Dom. ad Pont. 43. 

q Asconius. * De Offic. ii. 16. 

s Ego qui trinos ludos agdilis feceram, tamen Antonii 
ludis commovebar. Tibi, qui casu nullos feceras, nihil 
hujus istam ipsam, quam tu irrides, argenteam scenam 
adversatam putas ? — Pro Muren. 20. 

Mox, quod etiam in municipiis imitantur, C. Antonius 
ludos scena argentea fecit : item L. Murena.— Plin. Hist. 
Nat. xxxiii. 3. 



yet J. Caesar outdid them all : and in the sports 
exhibited for his father's funeral, made the whole 
furniture of the theatre of solid silver, so that wild 
beasts were then first seen to tread on that metal 1 : 
but the excess of his expense was but in proportion 
to the excess of his ambition ; for the rest were 
only purchasing the consulship, he the empire. 
Cicero took the middle way, and observed the rule 
which he prescribed afterwards to his son, of an 
expense agreeable to his circumstances' 1 ; so as 
neither to hurt his character by a sordid illibera- 
lity, nor his fortunes by a vain ostentation of 
magnificence ; since the one, by making a man 
odious, deprives him of the power of doing good ; 
the other, by making him necessitous, puts him 
under the temptation of doing ill : thus Mamercus, 
by declining the sedileship through frugality, lost 
the consulship x : and Caesar, by his prodigality, 
was forced to repair his own ruin by ruining the 
republic. 

But Cicero's popularity was built on a more 
solid foundation, the affection of his citizens, from 
a sense of his merit and services ; yet, in compli- 
ance with the custom and humour of the city, he 
furnished the three solemn shows above mentioned, 
to the entire satisfaction of the people : an expense 
which he calls little, in respect to the great ho- 
nours which he had received from thenar The 
Sicilians, during his sedileship, gave him effectual 
proofs of their gratitude, by supplying him largely 
with all manner of provisions which their island 
afforded, for the use of his table and the public 
feasts, which he was obliged to provide in this 
magistracy : but instead of making any private 
advantage of their liberality, he applied the whole 
to the benefit of the poor ; and by the help of this 
extraordinary supply contrived to reduce the price 
of victuals in the markets. 2 

Hortensius was one of the consuls of this year ; 
which produced nothing memorable but the dedi- 
cation of the Capitol by Q. Lutatius Catulus. It 
had been burnt down in Sylla's time, who under- 
took the care of rebuilding it, but did not live to 
see it finished, which he lamented in his last 
illness, as the only thing wanting to complete his 
felicity a . By his death that charge fell to Catulus, 
as being consul at the time, who dedicated it this 
summer with great pomp and solemnity, and had 
the honour to have his name inscribed on the 
front b . 

On the occasion of this festival, he is said to 



* Caesar, qui postea dictator fuit, primus in aedilitate, 
munere patris funebri, omni apparatu arena? argenteo 
usus est, ferasque argenteis vasis incedere turn primum 
visum. — Plin. Hist Nat. xxxiii. 3. 

u Quare si postulatur a populo — faciendum est, modo 
pro facultatibus ; nos ipsi ut fecimus. — De Offic. ii. 17- 

* Ibid. 

y Nam pro amplitudine honorum, quos cunctis suffra- 
giis adepti sumus, sane exiguus sumtus aedilitatis fuit. — 
ib. 33. z Plutarch, in Cic. 

a Hoc tamen felicitati sua? defuisse confessus est, quod 
Capitolium non dedicavisset. — Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 43. 

Curam victor Sylla suscepit, neque tamen dedicavit : 
hoc unum felicitati negatum. — Tacit. Hist. iii. 72. 

b The following inscription was found in the ruins of 
the Capitol, and is supposed by some to be the very original 
which Catulus put up ; where it remained, as Tacitus 
says, to the time of Vitellius. — Ib. 

Q,. LVTATIVS Q. P. Q. N. CATVLVS. COS. 

SVBSTRVCTIONEM. ET TABVLARIVM. EX S. C. 
FACIVNDVM. CYRAV. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



33 



have introduced some instances of luxury not 
known before in Rome, of covering the area, in 
which the people sat, with a purple veil, imitating 
the colour of the sky, and defending from the in- 
juries of it ; and of gilding the tiles of this noble 
fabric, which were made of copper : for though 
the ceilings of temples had before been sometimes 
gilt, yet this was the first use of gold on the out- 
side of any building . Thus the Capitol, like all 
ancient structures, rose the more beautiful from its 
ruins ; which gave Cicero an opportunity of paying 
a particular compliment to Catulus in "Verres's 
trial, where he was one of the judges: for Verres 
having intercepted, as it is said above, the rich 
candlestick of king Antiochus, which was designed 
for the Capitol, Cicero, after he had charged him 
with it, takes occasion to say, " I address myself 
here to you, Catulus, for I am speaking of your 
noble and beautiful monument : it is your part to 
show not only the severity of a judge, but the 
animosity of an accuser. Your honour is united 
with that of this temple, and, by the favour of the 
senate and people of Rome, your name is conse- 
ciated with it to all posterity : it must be your 
care therefore that the Capitol, as it is now re- 
stored more splendidly, may be furnished also 
more richly than it was before ; as if the fire had 
been sent on purpose from heaven, not to destroy 
the temple of Jupiter, but to require from us one 
more shining and magnificent than the former d .'' 
In this year Cicero is supposed to have defended 
Fonteius and Csecina. Fonteius had been praetor 
of the Narbonese Gaul for three years, and was 
afterwards accused by the people of the province, 
and one of their princes, Induciomarus, of great 
oppression and exactions in his government, and 
especially of imposing an arbitrary tax on the 
exportation of their wines. There were two hear- 
ings in the cause, yet but one speech of Cicero's 
remaining, and that so imperfect, that we can 
hardly form a judgment either of the merit or 
the issue of it. Cicero allows the charge of the 
wines to be a heavy one, if true e ; and by his 
method of defence one would suspect it to be so, 
since his pains are chiefly employed in exciting an 
aversion to the accusers, and a compassion to the 
criminal. For, to destroy the credit of the wit- 
nesses, he represents the whole nation, "as a 
drunken, impious, faithless people ; natural ene- 
mies to all religion, without any notion of the 
sanctity of an oath, and polluting the altars of 
their gods with human sacrifices : and what faith, 
what piety," says he, " can you imagine to be in 

c Quod primus omnium invenit Q. Catulus, cum Capi- 
tolium dedicaret. — Plin. xix. 1. Cum sua aetas varie de 
Catulo existimaverit, quod tegulas aereas Capitolii inau- 
rasset primus.— lb. xxxiii. 3. Though Pliny calls Catulus 
the first inventor of these purple veils, yet Lucretius, who, 
as some think, died in this year, or, as others more pro- 
bably, about sixteen years after, speaks of them as of 
common use in all the theatres. 

Carbasus ut quondam magnis intenta theatris. 

Lib. vi. 108. 
Et vulgo faciunt id lutea, russaque vela, 
Et ferrugina, cum magnis intenta theatris, 
Per malos volgata, trabesque trementia flutant. 

Lib. iv. 73. 
J. Caesar covered the whole Forum with them, and the 
later emperors the amphitheatres, in all their shows of 
gladiators and other sports. — Dio, xliii. 
d In Verr. iv. 31. e p ro Fonteio, 5. 



those, who think that the gods are to be appeased 
by cruelty and human blood f ?" And to raise at 
last the pity of the judges, he urges in a pathetic 
peroration the intercession and tears of Fonteius' 
sister, one of the vestal virgins, who was then 
present; opposing the piety and prayers of this 
holy suppliant, to the barbarity and perjuries of 
the impious Gauls ; and admonishing the bench of 
the danger and arrogance of slighting the suit of 
one, whose petitions, if the gods should reject, 
they themselves must be all undone, &c.& 

The cause of Caecina was about the right of suc- 
cession to a private estate, which depended on a 
subtle point of law h , arising from the interpreta- 
tion of the prsetor's interdict : it shows, however, 
his exact knowledge and skill in the civil law, and 
that his public character and employment gave no 
interruption to his usual diligence in pleading 
causes. 

Afcer the expiration of his sedileship he lost his 
cousin Lucius Cicero, the late companion of his 
journey to Sicily ; whose death he laments with all 
the marks of a tender affection, in the following 
letter to Atticus. 

" You, who of all men know me the best, will 
easily conceive how much I have been afflicted, and 
what a loss I have sustained both in my public and 
domestic life : for in him I had everything which 
could be agreeable to a man, from the obliging tem- 
per and behaviour of another. I make no doubt, 
theKefore, but that you also are affected with it, not 
only for the share which you bear in my grief, but 
for your own loss of a relation and a friend, accom- 
plished with every virtue ; who loved you, as well 
from his own inclination, as from what he used to 
hear of you from me," &C. 1 

What made his kinsman's death the more unlucky 
to him at this juncture, was the want of his help in 
making interest for the prsetorship, for which he 
now offered himself a candidate, after the usual 
interval of two years k , from the time of his being 
chosen sedile : but the city was in such a ferment 
all this summer, that there was like to be no elec- 
tion at all : the occasion of it arose from the publi- 
cation of some new laws, which were utterly disliked 
and fiercely opposed by the senate. The first of 
them was proposed in favour of Pompey, by A. 
Gabinius, one of the tribunes, as a testimony of 
their gratitude, and the first fruits, as it were, of 
that power which he had restored to them. It was 
to grant him an extraordinary commission for quell- 
ing the pirates, who infested the coasts and navi- 
gation of the Mediterranean, to the disgrace of the 
empire, and the ruin of all commerce 1 ; by which 
an absolute command was conferred upon him 
through all the provinces bordering on that sea, as 
far as fifty miles within land. These pirates were 
grown so strong, and so audacious, that they had 
taken several Roman magistrates and ambassadors 
prisoners, made some successful descents on Italy 
itself, and burnt the navy of Rome in the very port 



f Pro Fonteio, 10. S Ibid. 17- 

h Tota mini causa pro Ca?cim, de verbis interdicti fuit : 
res involutas definiendo explicavimus. — Orator. 29. 

» Ad Attic, i. 5. 

k Ut si aedilis fuisses, post biennium tuus annus esset. 
— Ep. Fam. x. 25. 

1 Quis navigavit, qui non se aut mortis aut servitutis 
periculo committeret, cum aut hieme aut referto piaedo- 
num mari navigaret ? — Pro Lege Manil. 11. 
D 



34 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



of Ostia m . Yet the grant of a power so exorbitant 
and unknown to the laws was strenuously opposed 
by Catulus, Hortensius, and all the other chiefs of 
the senate, as dangerous to the public liberty, nor 
fit to be entrusted to any single person : they 
alleged, " That these unusual grants were the cause 
of all the misery that the republic had suffered from 
the proscriptions of Marius and Sylla, who, by a 
perpetual succession of extraordinary commands, 
were made too great to be controlled by the autho- 
rity of the laws ; that though the same abuse of 
power was not to be apprehended from Pompey, 
yet the thing itself was pernicious, and contrary to 
the constitution of Rome ; that the equality of a 
democracy required, that the public honours should 
be shared alike by all who were worthy of them ; 
that there was no other way to make men worthy, 
and to furnish the city with a number and choice 
of experienced commanders : and if, as it was said 
by some, there were really none at that time fit to 
command but Pompey, the true reason was, because 
they would suffer none to command but Pompey"." 
All the friends of Lucullus were particularly active 
in the opposition ; apprehending, that this new 
commission would encroach upon his province and 
command in the Mithridatic war : so that Gabinius, 
to turn the popular clamour on that side, got a plan 
of the magnificent palace, which Lucullus was build- 
ing, painted upon a banner, and carried about the 
streets by his mob ; to intimate, that he was making 
all that expense out of the spoils of the republic . 
Catulus, in speaking to the people against this 
law, demanded of them, if everything must needs 
be committed to Pompey, what they would do if 
any accident should befall him ? Upon which , as 
Cicero says, he reaped the just fruit of his virtue, 
when they all cried out with one voice, that their 
dependence would then be upon him?. Pompeyhim- 
self, who was naturally a great dissembler, affected 
not only an indifference, but a dislike to the 
employment, and begged of the people to confer 
it on somebody else ; and, after all the fatigues 
which he had undergone in their service, to give 
him leave to retire to the care of his domestic 
affairs, and spare him the trouble and odium of so 
invidious a commission**. But this seeming self- 
denial gave a handle only to his friends to extol his 
modesty and integrity the more effectually ; and, 
since there had been a precedent for the law a few 
years before, in favour of a man much inferior both 
in merit and interest, M. Antonius r , it was carried 



m Qui ad vos ab exteris nationibus venirent, querar, 
cum legati populi Romani redempti sint ? Mercatoribus 
tutum mare non fuisse dicam, cum duodecim secures in 
potestatem praedonum pervenerint ? — Quid ego Ostiense 
incommodum, atque illam labem et ignominiam reipub- 
licas querar, cum prope inspectantibus vobis, classis ea, 
cui consul populi Romani propositus esset, a praedonibus 
capta atque oppressa est ? — Pro Lege Man. 12. 

n Dio, 1. xxxvi. p. 15. 

° Tugurium ut jam videatur esse ilia villa, quam ipse 
tribunus plebis pictam olim in concionibus explicabat, 
quo fortissimum ac summum civem — in invidiam vocaret. 
—Pro Sext. 43. 

P Qui cum ex vobis quaereret, si in uno Cn. Pompeio 
omnia poneretis, si quid eo factum esset, in quo spem 
essetis habituri ? — Cepit magnum suae virtutis fructum, 
cum omnes una prope voce, in eo ipso vos spem habituros 
esse dixistis.— Pro Lege Man. 20. 

1 Dio, 1. xxxvi. p. 1 1. 

r Sed idem hoc ante biennium in M. Antonii praetura 
decretum.— Veil. Pat. ii. 31. 



against the united authority of all the magistrates, 
but with the general inclination of the people : 
when, from the greatest scarcity of provisions 
which had been known for a long time in Rome, 
the credit of Pompey's name sunk the price of them 
at once, as if plenty had been actually restored s . 
But, though the senate coidd not hinder the law, 
yet they had their revenge on Gabinius, the author 
of it, by preventing his being chosen one of Pom- 
pey's lieutenants, which was what he chiefly aimed 
at, and what Pompey himself solicited 1 : though 
Pompey probably made him amends for it in some 
other way ; since, as Cicero says, he was so neces- 
sitous at this time, and so profligate, that, if he 
had not carried his law, he must have turned pirate 
himself 11 . Pompey had a fleet of five hundred 
sail allowed for this expedition, with twenty-four 
lieutenants chosen out of the senate x ; whom he 
distributed so skilfully through the several sta- 
tions of the Mediterranean, that in less than fifty 
days he drove the pirates out of all their lurking 
holes, and in four months put an end to the whole 
war : for he did not prepare for it till the end of 
winter, set out upon it in the beginning of spring, 
and finished it in the middle of summer J\ 

A second law was published by L. Otho, for the 
assignment of distinct seats in the theatres to the 
equestrian order, who used before to sit promis- 
cuously with the populace : but by this law four- 
teen rows of benches, next to those of the senators, 
were to be appropriated to their use ; by which he 
secured to them, as Cicero says, both their dignity 
and their pleasure 2 . The senate obtained the same 
privilege of separate seats about a hundred years 
before, in the consulship of Scipio Africanus, which 
highly disgusted the people, and gave occasion, 
says Livy, as all innovations are apt to do, to much 
debate and censure ; for many of the wiser sort 
condemned all such distinctions in a free city, as 
dangerous to the public peace : and Scipio himself 
afterwards repented, and blamed himself for suf- 
fering it a . Otho's law, we may imagine, gave still 
greater offence, as it was a greater affront to the 
people, to be removed yet farther from what of all 
things they were fondest of, the sight of plays and 
shows : it was carried however by the authority of 

s Quo die a vobis maritimo bello praspositus est impe- 
rator, tanta repente vilitas annonas ex summa inopia et 
caritate rei frumentarias consecuta est, unius hominis spe 
et nomine, quantum vix ex summa ubertate agrorum 
diuturna pax efficere potuisset. — Pro Lege Man. 15. 

* Ne legaretur A. Gabinius Cn. Pompeio expetenti ac 
postulanti. — lb. 19. 

u Nisi rogationem de piratico bello tulisset, profecto 
egestate ac improbitate coactus piraticam ipse fecisset. — 
Post redit. in Senat. 5. 

x Plutarch, in Pomp. 

y Ipse autem, ut a Brundisio profectus est, undequin- 
quagesimo die totam ad imperium populi Romani Cili- 
ciamadjunxit — itatantumbellum — Cn. Pompeiusextrema 
hieme apparavit, ineunte vere suscepit, media aestate con- 
fecit. — Pro Lege Man. 12. 

z L. Otho, vir fortis, meus necessarius, equestri ordini 
restituit non solum dignitatem, sed etiam voluptatem. — 
Pro Mur. 19. 

a P. Africanus ille superior, ut dicitur, non solum a 
sapientissimis hominibus, qui turn erant, verum etiam a 
seipso saspe accusatus est, quod cum consul esset — passus 
esset turn primum a populari consessu senatoria subsellia 
separari. — Pro Cornel. 1. Fragment, ex Asconio. [Liv. 
1. xxxiv. 54.] Ea res avertit vulgi animum et favorem 
Scipionis vehementer quassavit. — Val. Max. ii. 4. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



85 



the tribune, and is frequently referred to by the 
classic writers, as an act very memorable b , and 
what made much noise in its time. 

C. Cornelius also, another tribune, was pushing 
forward a third law, of a graver kind, to prohibit 
bribery in elections by the sanction of the severest 
penalties : the rigour of it highly displeased the 
senate, whose warm opposition raised great dis- 
orders in the city ; so that all other business was 
interrupted, the elections of magistrates adjourned, 
and the consuls forced to have a guard. The 
matter however was compounded, by moderating 
the severity of the penalties in a new law offered 
by the consuls, which was accepted by Cornelius, 
and enacted in proper form under the title of the 
Calpurnian law, from the name of the consul C. 
Calpurnius Piso c . Cicero speaks of it still as 
rigorously drawn d ; for besides a pecuniary fine, it 
rendered the guilty incapable of any public office or 
place in the senate. This Cornelius seems to have 
been a brave and honest tribune, though somewhat 
too fierce and impetuous in asserting the rights of 
the citizens : he published another law, to prohibit 
any man's being absolved from the obligation of 
the laws, except by the authority of the people ; 
which, though a part of the old constitution, had 
long been usurped by the senate, who dispensed 
with the laws by their own decrees, and those often 
made clandestinely, when a few only were privy to 
them. The senate being resolved not to part with 
so valuable a privilege, prevailed with another 
tribune to inhibit the publication of it, when it 
came to be read ; upon which Cornelius took the 
book from the clerk, and read it himself. This 
was irregular, and much inveighed against, as a 
violation of the rights of the tribunate ; so that 
Cornelius was once more forced to compound the 
matter by a milder law, forbidding the senate to 
pass any such decrees, unless when two hundred 
senators were present e . These disturbances how- 
ever proved the occasion of an unexpected honour 
to Cicero, by giving him a more ample and public 
testimony of the people's affection ; for in three 
different assemblies convened for the choice of 
praetors, two of which were dissolved without effect, 
he was declared every time the first praetor, by the 
suffrages of all the centuries f . 

The praetor was a magistrate next in dignity to 
the consuls, created originally as a colleague or 
assistant to them in the administration of justice, 
and to supply their place also in absence £. At 
first there was but one ; but as the dominion and 
affairs of the republic increased, so the number of 
praetors was gradually enlarged from one to eight. 
They were chosen, not as the inferior magistrates, 
by the people voting in their tribes, but in their 
centuries, as the consuls and censors also were. 
In the first method, the majority of votes in each 
tribe determined the general vote of the tribe, and 

b sedilibusque magnus in primis Eques 

Othone contempto sedet Hor. Ep. iv. 15. 

Sic libitum vano, qui nos distinxit, Othoni. 

Juv. iii. 159. 
c Dio, 1. xxxvi. e. 18. 

d Erat enim severissime scripta Calpurnia. — Pro Mur. 23. 
e Asconii argument. — Pro Cornelio. 
f Nam cum propter dilationem comitioruni ter prastor 
primus centuriis cunctis renuntiatus sum. — Pro Lege 
Manil. 1. 
g Aul. Gell. xiii. 15. 



a majority of tribes determined the election, in 
which the meanest citizen had as good a vote as 
the best : but in the second the balance of power 
was thrown into the hands of the better sort, by a 
wise contrivance of one of their kings, Servius 
Tullius ; who divided the whole body of the citizens 
into a hundred and ninety-three centuries, accord- 
ing to a census or valuation of their estates : and 
then reduced these centuries into six classes 
according to the same rule, assigning to the first 
or richest class ninety-seven of these centuries, or 
a majority of the whole number : so that if the 
centuries of the first class agreed, the affair was 
over, and the votes of all the rest insignificant 11 . 

The business of the praetors was to preside and 
judge in all causes, especially of a public or crimi- 
nal kind, where their several jurisdictions were 
assigned to them by lot 1 ; and it fell to Cicero's 
to sit upon actions of extortion and rapine, brought 
against magistrates and governors of provinces k ; 
in which, as he tells us himself, he had acted as an 
accuser, sat as a judge, and presided as praetor 1 . 
In this office he acquired a great reputation of in- 
tegrity by the condemnation of Licinius Macer, a 
person of praetorian dignity and great eloquence ; 
who would have made an eminent figure at the bar, 
if his abilities had not been sullied by the infamy 
of a vicious life m . " This man," as Plutarch relates 
it, " depending upon his interest, and the influence 
of Crassus, who supported him with all his power, 
was so confident of being acquitted, that without 
waiting for sentence, he went home to dress him- 
self, and, as if already absolved, was returning 
towards the court in a white gown ; but being met 
on his way by Crassus, and informed that he was 
condemned by the unanimous suffrage of the bench, 
he took his bed, and died immediately." The 
story is told differently by other writers : " That 
Macer was actually in the court expecting the 
issue ; but perceiving Cicero ready to give judg- 
ment against him, he sent one to let him know 
that he was dead, and stopping his breath at the 
same time with a handkerchief, instantly expired; 
so that Cicero did not proceed to sentence, by 
which Macer' s estate was saved to his son Licinius 
Calvus, an orator afterwards of the first merit and 
eminence 11 ." But from Cicero's own account it 
appears, that after treating Macer in the trial with 
great candour and equity, he actually condemned 
him, with the universal approbation of the people ; 
and did himself much more honour and service by 
it, than he could have reaped, he says, by Macer's 
friendship and interest, if he had acquitted him°. 

Manilius, one of the new tribunes, no sooner 
entered into his office, than he raised a fresh dis- 
turbance in the city, by the promulgation of a law 

h From this division of the people into classes, the word 
classical, which we now apply to writers of the first rank, 
is derived: for it signified originally persons of the first 
class, all the rest being styled infra classem. —Aul. Gell. 
vii. 13. * In Verr. Act. i. 8. 

k Postulatur apud me prsetorem primum de pecuniis 
repetnndis.— Pro Cornel. 1. fragm. 

1 Accusavi de pecuniis repetundis, judex sedi, praetor 
quaesivi, <fcc. — Pro Rabir. Post. 4. 

m Brutus, 352. n Plutarch, in Cic. ; Val. Max. ix. 12. 

o Nos hie incredibili ac singulari populi voluntate de 
C. Macro transegimus : cui cum aequi fuissemus, tan ion 
multo majorem fructum ex populi existimatione, illo 
damnato, cepimus, quam ex ipsius, si absolutus esset, 
gratia cepissemus. — Ad Att. i. 4. 
D 2 



80 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



for granting to slaves set free a right of voting 
among the tribes ; which gave so much scandal to 
all, and was so vigorously opposed by the senate, 
that he was presently obliged to drop it? : but 
being always venal, as Velleius says, and the tool 
of other men's power, that he might recover his 
credit with the people, and engage the favour of 
Pompey, he proposed a second law, that Pompey, 
who was then in Cilicia extinguishing the remains 
of the piratic war, should have the government of 
Asia added to his commission, with the command 
of the Mithridatic war, and of all the Roman 
armies in those parts'*. It was about eight years 
since Lucullus was first sent to that war, in which, 
by a series of many great and glorious acts, he had 
acquired a reputation both of courage and conduct 
equal to that of the greatest generals : he had 
driven Mithridates out of his kingdom of Pontus, 
and gained several memorable victories against 
him, though supported by the whole force of 
Tigranes, the most potent prince of Asia ; till his 
army, harassed by perpetual fatigues, and debauched 
by his factious officers, particularly by his brother- 
in-law young Clodius r , began to grow impatient 
of his discipline, and to demand their discharge. 
Their disaffection was still increased by the un- 
lucky defeat of one of his lieutenants, Triarius ; 
who, in a rash engagement with Mithridates, was 
destroyed with the loss of his camp, and the best 
of his troops : so that as soon as they heard that 
Glabrio, the consul of the last year, was appointed 
to succeed him, and actually arrived in Asia, they 
broke out into an open mutiny, and refused to 
follow him any further, declaring themselves to 
be no longer his soldiers : but Glabrio, upon the 
news of these disorders, having no inclination to 
enter upon so troublesome a command, chose to stop 
short in Bithynia, without ever going to the army s . 
This mutinous spirit in Lucullus's troops, and 
the loss of his authority with them, which Glabrio 
was still less qualified to sustain, gave a reasonable 
pretext to Manilius's law ; and Pompey's success 
against the pirates, and his being upon the spot 
with a great army, made it likewise the more plau- 
sible : so that after a sharp contest and opposition 
from some of the best and greatest of the senate, 
the tribune carried his point, and got the law con- 
firmed by the people. Cicero supported it with all 
his eloquence, in a speech from the rostra, which 
he had never mounted till this occasion : where, in 
displaying the character of Pompey, he draws the 
picture of a consummate general, with all the 
strength and beauty of colours which words can 
give. Pie was now in the career of his fortunes, 
and in sight as it were of the consulship, the grand 
object of his ambition ; so that his conduct was 
suspected to flow from an interested view of facili- 
tating his own advancement, by paying this court 
to Pompey's power : but the reasons already inti- 
mated, and Pompey's singular character of modesty 
and abstinence, joined to the superiority of his 

P Ascon. in Orat. pro Cornel. ; Dio, 1. xxxvi. 20. 

<l Semper venalis, et alienae minister potentise, legem 
tulit, ut bellum Mithridaticum per Cn. Pompeium ad- 
ministraretnr. — Veil. Pat. ii. 33. 

r Post, exercitn L. Lnculli sollicitato per nefandnm 
scelus, fugit illinc— De Haruspicum Respons. 20; Plu- 
tarch, in L ii cull. 

s Pro Lege Manil. 2, 9 ; Plutarch, ib. ; Dio, 1. xxxvi 
P. 7. 



military fame, might probably convince him, that 
it was not only safe, but necessary at this time, to 
commit a war, which nobody else could finish, to 
such a general ; and a power, which nobody else 
ought to be entrusted with, to such a man. This 
he himself solemnly affirms in the conclusion of his 
speech <. " I call the gods to witness," says he, 
" and especially those who preside over this temple, 
and inspect the minds of all who administer the 
public affairs, that I neither do this at the desire 
of any one, nor to conciliate Pompey's favour, nor 
to procure from any man's greatness, either a sup- 
port in dangers, or assistance in honours : for as to 
dangers, I shall repel them, as a man ought to do, 
by the protection of my innocence ; and for honours, 
I shall obtain them, not from any single man, nor 
from this place, but from my usual laborious course 
of life, and the continuance of your favour. What- 
ever pains therefore I have taken in this cause, I 
have taken it all, I assure you, for the sake of the 
republic ; and so far from serving any interest of 
my own by it, have gained the ill will and enmity 
of many, partly secret, partly declared ; unneces- 
sary to myself, yet not useless perhaps to you : but 
after so many favours received from you, and this 
very honour which 1 now enjoy, I have made it my 
resolution, citizens, to prefer your will, the dignity 
of the republic, and the safety of the provinces, to 
all my own interests and advantages whatsoever*." 

J. Caesar also was a zealous promoter of this law; 
but from a different motive than the love either 
of Pompey or the republic : his design was, to 
recommend himself by it to the people, whose 
favour, he foresaw, would be of more use to him 
than the senate's, and to cast a fresh load of envy 
on Pompey, which, by some accident, might be 
improved afterwards to his hurt ; but his chief view 
was to make the precedent familiar, that, whatever 
use Pompey might make of it, he himself might 
one day make a bad one". For this is the common 
effect of breaking through the barrier of the laws, 
by which many states have been ruined ; when, 
from a confidence in the abilities and integrity of 
some eminent citizen, they invest him, on pressing 
occasions, with extraordinary powers, for the com- 
mon benefit and defence of the society : for though 
power so entrusted may in particular cases be of 
singular service, and sometimes even necessary ; yet 
the example is always dangerous, furnishing a per- 
petual pretence to the ambitious and ill-designing, 
to grasp at every prerogative which had been 
granted at any time to the virtuous, till the same 
power, which would save a country in good hands, 
oppresses it at last in bad. 

Though Cicero had now full employment as prae- 
tor, both in the affairs of state and public trials : 
yet he found time still to act the advocate, as well 
as the judge, and not only to hear causes in his own 
tribunal, but to plead them also at the tribunals 
of the other praetors. He now defended A. Cluen- 
tius, a Roman knight of splendid family and for- 
tunes, accused before the praetor Q. Naso of poison 
ing his father in law Oppianicus, who a few years 
before had been tried and banished for an attempt 
to poison Cluentius. The oration, which is extant, 
lays open a scene of such complicated villany, 
by poisons, murder, incest, suborning witnesses, 
corrupting judges, as the poets themselves have 



Pro Lege Manil. 24. 



u Dio, 1. xxxvi. p. 21. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



never feigned in any one family ; all contrived by 
the mother of Cluentius against the life and fortunes 
of her son : " But what a mother S " says Cicero ; 
" one, who is hurried blindfold by the most cruel 
and brutal passions ; whose lust, no sense of shame 
restrains ; who by the viciousness of her mind per- 
verts all the laws of men to the worst ends ; who 
acts with such folly, that none can take ber for a 
human creature ; witb such violence, that none can 
imagine her to be a woman ; with such cruelty, 
that none can conceive her to be a mother ; one, 
who has confounded not only the name and the 
rights of nature, but all the relations of it too : 
the wife of her son-in-law ! the stepmother of 
her son ! the invader of her daughter's bed ! in 
short, who has nothing left in her of the human 
species but the mere formV 

He is supposed to have defended several other 
criminals this year, though the pleadings are now 
lost, and particularly M. Fundanius ; but what 
gives the most remarkable proof of his industry, is 
that during his prsetorship, as some of the ancient 
writers tell us, though he was in full practice and 
exercise of speaking, yet he frequented the school 
of a celebrated rhetorician, Gnipho^. We cannot 
suppose that his design was to learn anything new, 
but to preserve and confirm that perfection which 
he had already acquired, and prevent any ill habit 
from growing insensibly upon him, by exercising 
himself under the observation of so judicious a mas- 
ter. But his chief view certainly was, to give some 
countenance and encouragement to Gnipho himself, 
as well as to the art which he professed ; and by 
the presence and authority of one of the first magis- 
trates of Rome, to inspire the young nobles with an 
ambition to excel in it. 

When his magistracy was just at an end, Mani- 
lius, whose tribunate expired a few days before, was 
accused before him of rapine and extortion : and 
though ten days were always allowed to the criminal 
to prepare for his defence, he appointed the very 
next day for the trial. This startled and offended 
the citizens, who generally favoured Manilius, and 
looked upon the prosecution as the effect of malice 
and resentment on the part of the senate, for his 
law in favour of Pompey. The tribunes therefore 
called Cicero to an account before the people, for 
treating Manilius so roughly ; who in defence of 
himself said, that as it had been his practice to treat 
all criminals with humanity, so he had no design of 
acting otherwise with Manilius, but on the contrary, 
had appointed that short day for the trial, because 
it was the only one of which he was master ; and 
that it was not the part of those who wished well 
to Manilius, to throw off the cause to another judge. 
This made a wonderful change in the minds of the 
audience, who applauding his conduct, desired then 
that he would undertake the defence of Manilius, 
to which he consented ; and stepping up again into 
the rostra, laid open the source of the whole affair, 
with many severe reflections upon the enemies of 
Pompey z . The trial, however, was dropped, on ac- 
count of the tumults which arose immediately after 
in the city, from some new incidents of much 
greater importance. 

x Pro Cluent. 70. 

y Scholam ejus claros viros frequentasse aiunt ; in his 
M. Ciceronem, etiam cum praetura fungeretur. — Sueton. 
de clar. Grammat. 7 ; Macrob. Saturn, iii. 12. 

z Plutarch, in Cic. 



At the consular election, which was held this 
summer, P. Autronius Partus and P. Cornelius 
Sylla were declared consuls ; but their election was 
no sooner published, than they were accused of 
bribery and corruption by the Calpumian law, and 
being brought to trial, and found guilty before their 
entrance into office, forfeited the consulship to 
their accusers and competitors, L. Manlius Tor- 
quatus and L. Aurelius Cotta. Catiline also, 
who from his prsetorship had obtained the pro- 
vince of Afric, came to Rome this year to appear 
a candidate at the election, but being accused 
of extortion and rapine in that government, was 
not permitted by the consuls to pursue his pre- 
tensions a . 

This disgrace of men so powerful and desperate 
engaged them presently in a conspiracy against the 
state, in which it was resolved to kill the new con- 
suls, with several others of the senate, and share 
the government among themselves : but the effect 
of it was prevented by some information given of 
the design, which was too precipitately laid to be 
ripe for execution. Cn. Piso, an audacious, needy, 
factious young nobleman, was privy to it b ; and, 
as Suetonius says, two more of much greater 
weight, M. Crassus and J. Caesar ; the first of 
whom was to be created dictator, the second his 
master of the horse : but Crassus's heart failing 
him, either through fear or repentance, he did not 
appear at the appointed time, so that Caesar would 
not give the signal agreed upon, of letting his robe 
drop from his shoulder . The senate was parti- 
cularly jealous of Piso, and hoping to cure his dis- 
affection by making him easy in his fortunes, or to 
remove him at least from the cabals of his asso- 
ciates, gave him the government of Spain, at the 
instance of Crassus, who strenuously supported 
him as a determined enemy to Pompey. But be- 
fore his setting out, Caesar and he are said to have 
entered into a new and separate engagement, that 
the one should begin some disturbance abroad, 
while the other was to prepare and inflame matters 
at home : but this plot also was defeated by the 
unexpected death of Piso ; who was assassinated by 
the Spaniards, as some say, for his cruelty, or, as 
others, by Pompey's clients, and at the instigation 
of Pompey himself d . 

Cicero, at the expiration of his prsetorship, 
would not accept any foreign province e , the usual 

a Qui tibi, cum L. Volcatius consul in consilio fuisset, 
ne petendi quidem potestatem esse voluerunt. — Orat. in 
Tog. cand. 

Catilina, pecuniarum repetundarum reus, prohibitus 
erat petere consulatmn. — Sail. Bell. Cat. 18. 

b Cn. Piso, adolescens nobilis, summse audacise, egens, 
factiosus — cum hoc Catilina et Autronius, consilio com- 
municate, parabant in Capitolio L. Cottam et L. Torqua- 
tum consules interficere. Ea re cognita, rursus in Nonas 
Feb. consilium caddis transtulerant. — Ibid. 

c Ut principio anni senatum adorirentur, et trucidatis, 
quos placitum esset, dictaturam Crassus invaderet, ipse 
ab eo Magister Equitum diceretur. — Crassum pcenitentia 
vel metu diem casdi destinatum non obiisse, idcirco, ne 
Ca^sarem quidem signum, quod ab eo dari convenerat, 
dedisse. — Sueton. in J. Ca?s. 9. 

d Pactumque, ut simul foris ille, ipse Roma;, ad res 
novas consurgerent. — Ibid. 

Sunt, qui dicant, imperia ejus injusta barbaros nequi- 
visse pati : alii autem, equites illos, Cn. Pompeii veteres 
clientes, voluntate ejus Pisonem aggressos. — Sail. Bell. 
Cat. 19. 

e Tu in provinciam ire noluisti : non possum id in te 



38 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



reward of that magistracy, and the chief fruit 
which the generality proposed from it. He had 
no particular love for money, nor genius for arms, 
so that those governments had no charms for him : 
the glory which he pursued was to shine in the 
eyes of the city, as the guardian of its laws, and to 
teach the magistrates how to execute, the citizens 
how to obey them. j| But he was now preparing to 
sue for the consulship, the great object of all his 
hopes ; and his whole attention was employed how 
to obtain it in his proper year, and without a re- 
pulse. There were two years necessarily to inter- 
vene between the prsetorship and consulship ; the 
first of which was usually spent in forming a gene- 
ral interest, and soliciting for it as it were in a 
private manner ; the second in suing for it openly 
in the proper form and habit of a candidate. The 
affection of the city, so signally declared for him 
in all the inferior steps of honour, gave him a 
strong presumption of success in his present pre- 
tensions to the highest : but as he had reason to 
apprehend a great opposition from the nobility, 
who looked upon the public dignities as a kind of 
birth-right, and could not brook their being inter- 
cepted and snatched from them by new men f ; so 
he resolved to put it out of their power to hurt him, 
by omitting no pains which could be required of a 
candidate, of visiting and soliciting all the citizens 
in person. At the election therefore of the tribunes 
on the sixteenth of July, where the whole city was 
assembled in the field of Mars, he chose to make 
his first effort, and to mix himself with the crowd, 
on purpose to caress and salute them familiarly by 
name : and as soon as there was any vacation in the 
forum, which happened usually in August, he in- 
tended to make an excursion into the Cisalpine 
Gaul, and in the character of a lieutenant to Piso, 
the governor of it, to visit the towns and colonies 
of that province, which was reckoned very strong 
in the number of its votes, and so return to Rome 
in January following s. While he was thus em- 
ployed in suing for the consulship, L. Cotta, a 
remarkable lover of wine, was one of the censors, 
which gave occasion to one of Cicero's jokes, that 
Plutarch has transmitted to us, that happening one 
day to be dry with the fatigue of his task, he called 
for a glass of water to quench his thirst*, and when 
his friends stood close around him as he was drink- 
ing, You do well, says he, to cover me, lest Cotta 
should censure me for drinking water. 

He wrote about the same time to Atticus, then 
at Athens, to desire him to engage all that band of 
Pompey's dependants who were serving under him 
in the Mithridatic war ; and by way of jest, bids 
him tell Pompey himself, that he would not take it 
ill of him, if he did not come in person to his 
election h . Atticus spent many years in this re- 
sidence at Athens, which gave Cicero an opportu- 
nity of employing him to buy a great number of 

reprehendere, quod in meipso praetor— probavi. — Pro 
Muren. 20. 

f Non idem mihi licet quod iis, qui nobili genere nati 
sunt, quibus omnia populi Romani beneficia dormientibus 
deferuntur. — In Verr. v. 70. 

g Quoniam videtur in suffrages multum posse Gallia, 
cum Romas a judiciis forum refrixerit, excurremus niense 
Septembri legati ad Pisonem.— Ad Att. i. 1. 

h Illam raanum tu mihi cura ut praestes, Pompeii nostri 
amici. Nega me ei iratum fore, si ad mea comitia non 
venerit. — Ibid. 



statues for the ornament of his several villas, espe- 
cially that at Tusculum, in which he took the 
greatest pleasure ■ ; for its delightful situation in 
the neighbourhood of Rome, and the convenience 
of an easy retreat from the hurry and fatigues of 
the city : here he had built several rooms and gal- 
leries, in imitation of the schools and porticoes of 
Athens, which he called likewise by their Attic 
names of the Academy and Gymnasium, and de- 
signed for the same use of philosophical conferences 
with his learned friends. He had given Atticus a 
general commission to purchase for him any piece 
of Grecian art or sculpture, which was elegant and 
curious, especially of the literary kind, or proper 
for the furniture of his academy k ; which Atticus 
executed to his great satisfaction, and sent him at 
different times several cargoes of statues, which 
arrived safe at the port of Cajeta, near to his 
Formian villa 1 ; and pleased him always so well, 
both in the choice and the pries of them, that upon 
the receipt of each parcel he still renewed his 
orders for more. 

" I have paid (says he) a hundred and sixty-four 
pounds, as you ordered, to your agent Cincius, for 
the Megaric statues. The Mercuries, which you 
mentioned, of Pentelician marble, with brazen 
heads, give me already great pleasure ; wherefore I 
would have you send me as many of them as you 
can, and as soon as possible, with any other statues 
and ornaments which you think proper for the 
place, and in my taste, and good enough to please 
yours ; but above all, such as will suit niy gym- 
nasium 'and portico : for I am grown so fond of 
all things of that kind, that though others pro- 
bably may blame me, yet I depend on you to assist 
me m ." 

Of all the pieces which Atticus sent, he seems 
to have been the most pleased with a sort of com- 
pound emblematical figures, representing Mei'cury 
and Minerva, or Mercury and Hercules jointly 
upon one base, called Hermathenge and Herme- 
raclge : for Hercules being the proper deity of the 
Gymnasium, Minerva of the Academy, and Mercury 
common to both, they exactly suited the purpose 
for which he desired them 11 . But he was so intent 
on embellishing this Tusculan villa with all sorts 
of Grecian work, that he sent over to Atticus the 

i Quae tibi mandavi, et quae tu convenire intelliges 
nostro Tusculano, velim, ut scribis, cures: nos ex omnibus 
molestiis et laboribus uno illo in loco conquiescimus.— 
Ad Att. i. 5. 

k Quicquid ejusdem generis habebis, dignum Academia 
quod tibi videbitur, ne dubitaveris mittere, et arcae nos- 
tras confidito.— Ad Att. i. 9 ; vid. it. 5, 6, 10. 

1 Signa, quae curasti, ea sunt ad Cajetam exposita. — 
Ibid. 3. '" Ibid. 8. 

n Hermathena tua me valde delectat.— Ibid. 1. Quod ad 
me de Hermathena scribis. per mihi gratum est — quod et 
Hermes commune omnium, et Minerva singulare est 
insigne ejus gymnasii.— Ibid. 4. Signa nostra et Herme- 
raclas, cum commodissime poteris, velim imponas. — Ibid. 
10. 

The learned generally take these Hermeraclce and Her- 
mathence to be nothing more than a tall square pedestal of 
stone, which was the emblem of Mercury with the head 
of the other deity, Minerva or Hercules, upon it, of which 
sort there are several still extant, as we see them de- 
scribed in the books of antiquities. But I am apt to 
think, that the heads of both the deities were sometimes 
also joined together upon the same pedestal, looking dif- 
ferent ways, as we see in those antique figures which are 
now indiscriminately called Janus's. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



plans of his ceilings, which were of stucco-work, in 
order to hespeak pieces of sculpture or painting to 
be inserted in the compartments ; with the covers 
of two of his wells or fountains, which according to 
the custom of those times they used to form after 
some elegant pattern, and adorn with figures in 
relief . 

Nor was he less eager in making a collection of 
Greek books, and forming a library, by the same 
opportunity of Atticus's help. This was Atticus's 
own passion, who having free access to all the 
libraries of Athens, was employing his slaves in 
copying the works of their best writers, not only 
for his own use, but for sale also, and the common 
profit both of the slave and the master : for Atticus 
was remarkable above all men of his rank for a 
family of learned slaves, having scarce a footboy 
in his house who was not trained both to read and 
write for him p. By this advantage he had made 
a very large collection of choice and curious books, 
and signified to Cicero his design of selling them ; 
yet seems to have intimated withal, that he ex- 
pected a larger sum for them than Cicero would 
easily spare : which gave occasion to Cicero to beg 
of him in several letters to reserve the whole 
number for him, till he could raise money enough 
for the purchase. 

" Pray keep your books," says he, " forme, and 
do not despair of my being able to make them 
mine ; which if I can compass, I shall think 
myself richer than Crassus, and despise the fine 
villas and gardens of them alii." Again: " Take 
care that you do not part with your library to any 
man, how eager soever he may be to buy it ; for I 
am setting apart all my little rents to purchase that 
relief for my old age r ." In a third letter, he says, 
" That he had placed all his hopes of comfort and 
pleasure, whenever he should retire from business, 
on Atticus's reserving these books for him s ." 

But to return to the affairs of the city. Cicero 
was now engaged in the defence of C. Cornelius, 
who was accused and tried for practices against the 
state in his late tribunate, before the praetor Q. 
Gallius. This trial, which lasted four days, was 
one of the most important in which he had ever 
been concerned : the two consuls presided in it ; 
and all the chiefs of the senate, Q. Catulus, L. 
Lucullus, Hortensius, &c. appeared as witnesses 
against the criminal 1 ; whom Cicero defended, as 
Quintiiian says, not only with strong, but shining 
arms, and with a force of eloquence that drew 
acclamations from the people 11 . He published two 

° Praeterea typos tibi mando, quos in tectorio atrioli 
possim includere, et putealia sigillata duo. — Ad Att. i. 10. 

P In ea erant pueri literatissimi, anagnostae optimi, et 
plurimi librarii; ut ne pedissequus quidem quisquam 
esset, qui non utrumque horum pulchre facere posset.— 
Corn. Nep. in vita Attici, 13. 

1 Libros tuos conserva, et noli desperare, eos me meos 
facere posse : quod si assequor, supero Crassum divitiis, 
atque omnium vicos et prata contemno. — Ad Attic, i. 4. 

r JBibliothecam tuam cave cuiquam despondeas, quamvis 
acrem amatorem inveneris. — Ibid. 10. 

s Velim cogites, id quod mihi pollicitus es, qiiemadmo- 
dum bibliotbecam nobis conficere possis. Omnem spem 
delectationis nostra, quam cum in otium venerimus, 
habere volumus, in tua humanitate positam habemus. — 
Ibid. 7. 

* Ascon. Argum. 

u Nee fortibus modo, sed etiam fulgentibus prseliatus 
est Cicero in causa Cornelii. — Lib. viii. 3. 



orations spoken in this cause, whose loss is a public 
detriment to the literary world, since they were 
reckoned among the most finished of his compo- 
sitions : he himself refers to them as such x ; and 
the old critics have drawn many examples from them 
of that genuine eloquence, which extorts applause 
and excites admiration. 

C Papius, one of the tribunes, published a law 
this year to oblige all strangers to quit the city> as 
one of his predecessors, Pennus, had done likewise 
many years before him. The reason which they 
alleged for it, was the confusion occasioned by the 
multitude and insolence of foreigners, who assumed 
the habit and usurped the rights of citizens : but 
Cicero condemns all these laws as cruel and inhos- 
pitable, and a violation of the laws of nature and 
humanity?. 

Catiline was now brought to a trial for his 
oppressions in Africa: he had been soliciting Cicero 
to undertake his defence ; who at one time was 
much inclined, or determined rather to do it, for 
the sake of obliging the nobles, especially Csesar 
and Crassus, or of making Catiline at least his 
friend, as he signifies in a letter to Atticus : " I 
design," says he, " at present to defend my com- 
petitor Catiline : we have judges to our mind, yet 
such as the accuser himself is pleased with : I 
hope, if he be acquitted, that he will be the more 
ready to serve me in our common petition ; but 
if it fall out otherwise, I shall bear it with patience. 
It is of great importance to me to have you here 
as soon as possible : for there is a general persua- 
sion, that certain nobles of your acquaintance will 
be against me ; and you, I know, could be of the 
greatest service in gaining them over 2 ." But 
Cicero changed his mind, and did not defend 
him a ; upon a nearer view perhaps of his designs 
and traitorous practices ; to which he seems to 
allude when, describing the art and dissimulation 
of Catiline, he declares, that he himself was once 
almost deceived by him, so as to take him for a 
good citizen, a lover of honest men, a firm and 
faithful friend, &c. b But it is not strange, that a 
candidate for the consulship, in the career of his 
ambition, should think of defending a man of the 
first rank and interest in the city, when all the 
consular senators, and even the consul himself, 
Torquatus, appeared with him at the trial, and 
gave testimony in his favour. Whom Cicero 
excused, when they were afterwards reproached 
with it, by observing, that they had no notion of 
his treasons, nor suspicion at that time of his 
conspiracy ; but out of mere humanity and com- 
passion defended a friend in distress, and in that 
crisis of his danger overlooked the infamy of his 
Iife c . 

His prosecutor was P. Clodius, a young noble- 
man as profligate as himself ; so that it was not 
difficult to make up matters with such an accuser, 
who for a sum of money agreed to betray the 

x Orator. 67, 70. 

y Usu vero urbis prohibere peregrinos sane inbumanum 
est.— De Offic. iii. 11. 

z Ad Attic, i. 2. a Ascon. in Tog. cand. 

t> Meipsum, me, inquam, quondam ille psene deccpit, 
cum et civis mihi bonus, et optimi cujusque cupidus, et 
firmus amicus et fidelis videretur. — Pro Cselio, 6. 

c Accusati sunt uno nomine consulares— aff uerunt Cati- 
linse, eumque laurlarunt. Nulla turn patebat, nulla erat 
cognita conjuratio, &c. — Pro Syll. 29. 



40 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



cause, and suffer him to escape d : which gave 
occasion to what Cicero said afterwards in a speech 
against him in the senate, while they were suing 
together for the consulship : " Wretch ! not to see 
that thou art not acquitted, but reserved only to 
a severer trial and heavier punishment ." It was 
in this year, as Cicero tells us, under the consuls 
Cotta and Torquatus, that those prodigies hap- 
pened, which were interpreted to portend the great 
dangers and plots that were now hatching against 
the state, and broke out two years after in Cicero's 
consulship ; when the turrets of the Capitol, the 
statues of the gods, and the brazen image of the 
infant Romulus sucking the wolf, were struck down 
by lightning f . 

Cicero being now in his forty-third year, the 
proper age required by laws, declared himself 
a candidate for the consulship along with six com- 
petitors, P. Sulpicius Galba, L. Sergius Catilina, 
C. Antonius, L. Cassius Longinus, Q. Cornificius, 
C. Licinius Sacerdos. The two first were patri- 
cians, the two next plebeians, yet noble ; the two 
last the sons of fathers who had first imported the 
public honours into their families : Cicero was the 
only new man among them, or one born of eques- 
trian rank h . Galba and Cornificius were persons of 

d A Catilina pecuniam accepit, ut turpissime prasvari- 
caretur. — De Harnsp. Resp. 20. 

e O miser, qui non sentias illo judicio te non absolution, 
verum ad aliquod severius judicium, ac majus supplicium 
reservatum.— Orat. in Tog. cand. 

f Tactus est ille etiam, qui hane urbem condidit, Romu- 
lus : quern inauratum in Capitolio parvum atque lactan- 
tem, uberibus lupinis inhiantem fuisse meministis.— In 
Catil. iii. 8, 

This same figure, as it is generally thought, formed in 
brass, of the infants Romulus and Remus sucking the 
wolf, is still preserved and shown in the Capitol, with the 
marks of a liquefaction by a stroke of lightning on one 
of the legs of the wolf. Cicero himself has described the 
prodigy in the following lines : 

Hie silvestris erat Romani nominis altrix 
Martia ; quae parvos Mavortis semine natos 
Uberibus gravidis vitali rore rigabat. 
Quae turn cum pueris flammato fulminis ictu 
Concidit, atque avulsa pedum vestigia liquit. 

De Divinat. i. 12. 
It was the same statue, most probably, whence Virgil 
drew his elegant description : 

— • Geminos huic ubera circum 



Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem 
Impavidos. Illam tereti cervice reflexam 
Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua. 

iEneid. viii. 631. 
The martial twins beneath their mother lay, 
And hanging on her dugs with wanton play 
Securely suck'd : whilst she reclined her head 
To lick their tender limbs, and form them as they fed. 
g Nonne tertio et tricesimo anno mortem obiit ? quae 
est astas, nostris legibus, decern annis minor, quam con- 
sularis.— Philip, v. 17. 

h The distinction of patrician, plebeian, and noble, 
may want a little explication. The title of patrician 
belonged only, in a proper sense, to those families of which 
the senate was composed in the earliest times, either of 
the kings, or the first consuls, before the commons had 
obtained a promiscuous admission to the public honours, 
and by that means into the senate. All other families, 
how considerable soever, were constantly styled plebeian. 
Patrician then and plebeian are properly opposed to each 
other ; but noble common to them both : for the character 
of nobility was wholly derived from the curule magistra- 
cies which any family had borne ; and those which could 



great virtue and merit ; Sacerdos without any 
particular blemish uoon him ; Cassius lazy and 
weak, but not thought so wicked as he soon after 
appeared to be ; Antonius and Catiline, though 
infamous in their lives and characters, yet by 
intrigue and faction had acquired a powerful in- 
terest in the city, and joined all their forces against 
Cicero, as their most formidable antagonist, in 
which they were vigorously supported by Crassus 
and Caesar 1 . 

This was the state of the competition ; in which 
the practice of bribing was carried on so openly 
and shamefully by Antonius and Catiline, that the 
senate thought it necessary to give some check to 
it by a new and more rigorous law ; but when they 
were proceeding to publish it, L. Mucius Orestinus, 
one of the tribunes, put his negative upon them. 
This tribune had been Cicero's client, and de- 
fended by him in an impeachment of plunder and 
robbery ; but having now sold himself to his 
enemies, made it the subject of all his harangues 
to ridicule his birth and character, as unworthy of 
the consulship : in the debate therefore which arose 
in the senate upon the merit of his negative, Cicero, 
provoked to find so desperate a confederacy against 
him, rose up, and after some raillery and expos- 
tulation with Mucius, made a most severe invec- 
tive on the flagitious lives and practices of his two 
competitors, in a speech usually called in Toga 
Candida, because it was delivered in a white gown, 
the proper habit of all candidates, and from which 
the name itself was derived 1 *. 

Though he had now business enough upon his 
hands to engage his whole attention, yet we find 
him employed in the defence of Q. Gallius, the 
prsetor of the last year, accused of corrupt practices 
in procuring that magistracy. Gallius, it seems, 
when chosen sedile, had disgusted the people by 
not providing any wild beasts for their entertain- 
ment in his public shows ; so that to put them into 
good humour when he stood for the praetorship, he 
entertained them with gladiators, on pretence of 
giving them in honour of his deceased father 1 . 
This was his crime, of which he was accused by 
M. Callidius, whose father had been impeached 
before by Gallius. Callidius was one of the most 
eloquent and accurate speakers of his time, of an 
easy, flowing, copious style, always delighting, 
though seldom warming his audience ; which was 
the only thing wanting to make him a complete 
orator. Besides the public crime just mentioned, 
he charged Gallius with a private one against him- 
self, a design to poison him ; of which he pretended 
to have manifest proofs, as well from the testimony 
of witnesses, as of his own hand and letters : but 
he told his story with so much temper and indo- 
lence, that Cicero, from his coldness in opening a 
fact so interesting, and where his life had been 
attempted, formed an argument to prove that it 
could not be true. " How is it possible," says he, 

boast of the greatest number, Avere always accounted the 
noblest ; so that many plebeians surpassed the patricians 
themselves in the point of nobility.— V id. Ascon. argum. 
in Tog. cand. 

i Catilina et Antonius, quanquam omnibus maxime 
infamis eorum vita esset, tamen multum poteranf. Coi- 
erant enim ambo, ut Ciceronem consulatu dejicerent, 
adjutoribus usi firmissimis, M. Crasso et C. Caesare. — 
Ascon. argum. in Tog. cand. 

k Ibid. l Ascon. not. ibid. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



41 



" Callidius, for you to plead in such a manner, if 
you did not know the thing to be forged ? How 
could you, who act with such force of eloquence in 
other men's dangers, be so indolent in your own ? 
Where was that grief, that ardour, which was to 
extort cries and lamentations from the most stupid ? 
We saw no emotion of your mind, none of your 
body ; no striking your forehead, or your thigh ; 
no stamping with your foot : so that instead of 
feeling ourselves inflamed, we could hardly forbear 
sleeping, while you were urging all that part of 
your charge™. " Cicero's speech is lost, but 
| Gallius was acquitted ; for we find him afterwards 
revenging himself in the same kind on this very 
I Callidius, by accusing him of bribery in his suit for 
the consulship 11 . 

J. Caesar was one of the assistant judges this 
year to the praetor, whose province it was to sit 
upon the sicarii, that is, those who were accused 
of killing, or carrying a dagger with intent to kill. 
This gave him an opportunity of citing before him 
as criminals, and condemning by the law of assas- 
sinate, all those, who in Sylla's proscription had 
been known to kill, or receive money for killing a 
proscribed citizen ; which money Cato also, when 
he was quaestor the year before, had made them 
refund to the treasury . Caesar's view was, to 
mortify the senate and ingratiate himself with the 
people, by reviving the Marian cause, which had 
always been popular, and of which he was naturally 
the head, on account of his near relation to old 
Marius : for which purpose he had the hardiness 
likewise to replace in the Capitol the trophies and 
statues of Marius, which Sylla had ordered to be 
thrown down and broken to pieces?. But while he 
was prosecuting with such severity the agents of 
Sylla's cruelty, he not only spared, but favoured 
Catiline, who was one of the most cruel in spilling 
the blood of the proscribed ; having butchered with 
his own hands, and in a manner the most brutal, 
C. Marius Gratidianus, a favourite of the people, 
nearly related both to Marius and Cicero ; whose 
head he carried in triumph through the streets to 
make a present of it to Syllai. But Caesar's zeal 
provoked L. Paullus to bring Catiline also under 
the lash of the same law, and to accuse him in 
form, after his repulse from the consulship, of the 
murder of many citizens in Sylla's proscription : 
of which though he was notoriously guilty, yet, 
contrary to all expectation, he was acquitted 1 ". 

Catiline was suspected also at the same time of 
another heinous and capital crime, an incestuous 
commerce with Fabia, one of the vestal virgins, 
and sister to Cicero's wife. This was charged upon 
him so loudly by common fame, and gave such 
scandal to the city, that Fabia was brought to a 
trial for it ; but either through her innocence, or 

m Brutus, pp. 402, 3. n Epist. Fam. viii. 4. 

Plutarch, in Cato. ; Sueton. J. Cass. 11. 

P Quorum auctoritatem, ut, quibus posset modis, di- 
minueret, trophasa C. Marii, a Sylla olim disjecta, resti- 
tuit. — Suet. ib. 

1 Qui hominem carissimum populo Romano — omni 
cruciatu vivurn lacerarit ; stanti collum gladio sua dex- 
tera secuerit ; cum sinistra cap ilium ejus a vertice teneret, 
&c— Vid. De Petitione Consulat. 3. 

Quod caput etiam turn plenum animae et spiritus, ad 
Syllam, usque a Janiculo ad aadem Apollinis, manibus 
ipse suis detulit.— In Tog. cand. 

r Bis absolutum Catilinam.— Ad Att. i. 16 ; Sallust. Bell. 
Cat. 31 ; Dio, 1. lvi. p. 34. 



the authority of her brother Cicero, she was readily 
acquitted : which gave occasion to Cicero to tell 
him, among the other reproaches on his flagitious 
life, that there was no place so sacred, whither his 
very visits did not carry pollution, and leave the 
imputation of guilt, where there was no real crime 
subsisting 8 . 

As the election of consuls approached, Cicero's 
interest appeared to be superior to that of all the 
candidates : for the nobles themselves, though 
always envious, and desirous to depress him, yet 
out of regard to the dangers which threatened the 
city from many quarters, and seemed ready to burst 
out into a flame, began to think him the only man 
qualified to preserve the republic, and break the 
cabals of the desperate, by the vigour and prudence 
of his administration : for in cases of danger, as 
Sallust observes, pride and envy naturally subside, 
and yield the post of honour to virtue*. The 
method of choosing consuls was not by an open 
vote, but by a kind of ballot, or little tickets of 
wood, distributed to the citizens with the names of 
the candidates severally inscribed upon each : but 
in Cicero's case, the people were not content with 
this secret and silent way of testifying their incli- 
nations ; but before they came to any scrutiny, 
loudly and universally proclaimed Cicero the first 
consul: so that, as he himself declared in his speech 
to them after his election, he was not chosen by the 
votes of particular citizens, but the common suf- 
frage of the city ; nor declared by the voice of the 
crier, but of the whole Roman people u . He was 
the only new man who had obtained this sovereign 
dignity, or, as he expresses it, had forced the 
entrenchments of the nobility for forty years past, 
from the first consulship of C. Marius, and the 
only one likewise who had ever obtained it in his 
proper year, or without a repulse x . Antonius was 
chosen his colleague by the majority of a few cen- 
turies above his friend and partner Catiline ; which 
was effected probably by Cicero's management, 
who considered him as the less dangerous and more 
tractable of the two. 

Cicero's father died this year on the twenty- 
fourth of November ?, in a good old age, with the 
comfort to have seen his son advanced to the 
supreme honour of the city, and wanted nothing to 
complete the happiness of his life, but the addition 
of one year more, to have made him a witness of 
the glory of his consulship. It was in this year 

s Cum ita vixisti, ut non esset locus tam sanctus, quo 
non adventus tuus, etiam cum culpa nulla subesset, 
crimen afferret.— Orat. in Tog. cand.; vid. Ascon. ad 
locum. 

I Sed ubi periculum advenit, invidia atque superbia 
post fuere.— Sallust. Bell. Cat. 23. 

II Sed tamen magnificentius esse illo nihil potest, quod 
meis comitiis non tabellam vindicem tacitae libertatis, 
sed vocem vivam prae vobis indicem vestrarum erga me 
voluntatum tulistis — Itaque me non extrema tribus suf- 
fragiorum, sed primi illi vestri concursus, neque singula? 
voces praeconum, sed una voce uni versus populus Roma- 
nus consulem declaravit.— De Leg. Agrar. con. Rull. ii. 2 ; 
In Pison. 1. 

x Eum locum, quem nobilitas prassidiis firmatum, atque 
omni ratione obvallatum tenebat, me duce rescidistis.— 
Me esse unum, ex omnibus novis hominibus, de quibus 
meminisse possumus, qui consulatum petierim, cum 
primum licitum sit; consul factus sim, cum primum 
petierim.— De Leg. Agrar. ib. i. 2. 

y Pater nobis decessit ad diem viii. Kal. Decemb.— Ad 
Att. i. 6. 



42 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



also most probably, though some critics seem to 
dispute it, that Cicero gave his daughter Tullia in 
marriage at the age of thirteen to C. Piso Frugi, a 
young nobleman of great hopes, and one of the 
best families in Rome 2 : it is certain at least, that 
his sou was born in this same year, as he expressly 
tells us, in the consulship of L. Julius Csesar and 
C. Marcius Figulus a . So that with the highest 
honour which the public could bestow, he received 
the highest pleasure which private life ordinarily 
admits, by the birth of a son and heir to his 
family. 



SECTION III. 

Cicero was now arrived through the usual gra- 
dation of honours, at the highest which the people 
could regularly give, or an honest citizen desire. 
The offices which he had already borne had but a 
partial jurisdiction, confined to particular branches 
of the government ; but the consuls held the reins, 
and directed the whole machine with an authority 
as extensive as the empire itself b . The subordi- 
nate magistracies, therefore, being the steps only 
to this sovereign dignity, were not valued so much 
for their own sake, as for bringing the candidates 
still nearer to the principal object of their hopes, 
who through this course of their ambition were 
forced to practise all the arts of popularity ; to 
court the little as well as the great, to espouse the 
principles and politics in vogue, and to apply their 
talents to conciliate friends, rather than to serve 
the public . But the consulship put an end to this 
subjection, and with the command of the state 
gave them the command of themselves : so that the 
only care left was, how to execute this high office 
with credit and dignity, and employ the power 
entrusted to them for the benefit and service of 
their country. 

We are now, therefore, to look upon Cicero in 
a different light, in order to form a just idea of his 
character: to consider him, not as an ambitious 
courtier, applying all his thoughts and pains to his 
own advancement ; but as a great magistrate and 
statesman, administering the affairs and directing 
the councils of a mighty empire. And according to 
the accounts of all the ancient writers, Rome never 
stood in greater need of the skill and vigilance of 
an able consul than in this very year. For besides 
the traitorous cabals and conspiracies of those who 
were attempting to subvert the whole republic, the 
new tribunes were also labouring to disturb the 

z Tulliolam C. Pisoni, L. F. Frugi despondirnus. — Ad 
Attic, i. 3. Is. Casaubon, rather than give up an hypo- 
thesis which he had formed about the earlier date of this 
letter, will hardly allow that Tullia was marriageable at 
this time, though Cicero himself expressly declares it.' — 
Vid. not. varior. in locum. 

a L. Julio Ca:sare et C. Marcio Figulo Consulibus, filiolo 
me auctum scito, salva Terentia. — Ad Attic, i. 2, 

b Omnes enim in Consulis jure et imperio debent esse 
provinciae. — Philip, iv. 4. Tu summum imperium — gu- 
bernacula reipublicas — orbio terrarum imperium a populo 
Romano petebas. — Pro Mur. 35. 

c Jam urbanam multitudinem, et eorum studia, qui 
conciones tenent, adeptus es, in Pompeio orando, Manilii 
causa recipicnda, Cornelio defendendo, &c— Nee tamen 
in petendo respublica capessenda est, neque in scnatu, 
neque in concione : sed ha?c tibi retinenda, &c— De Peti- 
tione Consulat. 13. 



present quiet of it : some of them were publishing 
laws to abolish everything that remained of Sylla's 
establishment, and to restore the sons of the pro- 
scribed to their estates and honours : others, to 
reverse the punishment of P. Sylla and Autronius, 
condemned for bribery, and replace them in the 
senate : some were for expunging all debts, and 
others, for dividing the lands of the public to the 
poorer citizens d : so that, as Cicero declared both 
to the senate and the people, the republic was 
delivered into his hands full of terrors and alarms; 
distracted by pestilent laws and seditious harangues ; 
endangered, not by foreign wars, but intestine evils, 
and the traitorous designs of profligate citizens ; 
and that there was no mischief incident to a state, 
which the honest had not cause to apprehend, the 
wicked to expect e . 

What gave the greater spirit to the authors of 
these attempts, was Antonius's advancement to the 
consulship : they knew him to be of the same prin- 
ciples and embarked in the same designs with 
themselves, which, by his authority, they now hoped 
to carry into effect. Cicero was aware of this ; 
and foresaw the mischief of a colleague equal to 
him in power, yet opposite in views, and prepared 
to frustrate all his endeavours for the public ser- 
vice ; so that his first care, after their election, was 
to gain the confidence of Antonius, and to draw 
him from his old engagements to the interests of 
the republic ; being convinced that all the success 
of his administration depended upon it. He began, 
therefore, to tempt him by a kind of argument 
which seldom fails of its effect with men of his 
character, the offer of power to his ambition, and 
of money to his pleasures : with these baits he 
caught him ; and a bargain was presently agreed 
upon between them, that Antonius should have the 
choice of the best province which was to be assigned 
to them at the expiration of their year f . It was 
the custom for the senate to appoint what particular 
provinces were to be distributed every year to the 
several magistrates, who used afterwards to cast 
lots for them among themselves ; the prsetors for 
the praetorian, the consuls for the consular pro- 
vinces. In this partition, therefore, when Mace- 
donia, one of the most desirable governments of 
the empire, both for command and wealth, fell to 
Cicero's lot, he exchanged it immediately with his 
colleague for Cisalpine Gaul, which he resigned 
also soon after in favour of Q. Metellus ; being 
resolved, as he declared in his inauguration speech, 
to administer the consulship in such a manner, as 
to put it out of any man's power either to tempt 
or terrify him from his duty : since he neither 
sought, nor would accept, any province, honour, 
or benefit, from it whatsoever ; the only way, says 
he, by which a man can discharge it with gravity 
and freedom ; so as to chastise those tribunes who 
wish ill to the republic, or despise those who wish 
ill to himself? : a noble declaration, and worthy to 
c Pro Sylla, 22, 23. d Dio, 1. xxxvii. p. 41. 

e De Lege Agrar. cont. Pull. i. 8, 9 ; ii. 3. 
f Collegam suum Antonium pactione provincial pepu- 
lerat, ne contra rcmpublicam dissentiret. — Sail. Bell. 
Cat. 26. 

g Cum mini deliberatum et constitutum sit, ita gcrere 
consulatum, quo uno modo geri graviter et libere potest, 
ut neque provinciam, ncquehonorem, neque ornamentum 
aliquod, aut commodum — appetiturus sim *— Sic me geram, 
ut possim tribunum plebis reipublica? iratuni coerccre, 
mini iratum contcmnerc. — Contra Rull. i. 8. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



43 



: be transmitted to posterity for an example to all 
magistrates in a free state. By this address he 
entirely drew Antonius into his measures, and had 

i him ever after obsequious to his will h ; or, as he 
himself expresses it, by his patience and complai- 
sance he softened and calmed him, eagerly desirous 
of a province, and projecting many things against 
the state 1 . The establishment of this concord 
between them was thought to be of such importance 
to the public quiet, that in his first speech to the 
people, he declared it to them from the rostra, as 
an event the most likely to curb the insolence of 
the factious, and raise the spirits of the honest, 
and prevent the dangers with which the city was 
then threatened k . 

There was another project likewise which he had 
much at heart, and made one of the capital points 
of his administration, to unite the equestrian order 
with the senate into one common party and interest. 
This body of men, next to the senators, consisted 
of the richest and most splendid families of Rome, 
who, from the ease and affluence of their fortunes, 
were naturally well-affected to the prosperity of 

i the republic ; and being also the constant farmers 
of all the revenues of the empire, had a great part 
of the inferior people dependent upon them. 

; Cicero imagined, that the united weight of these 
two orders would always be an over-balance to any 
other power in the state, and a secure barrier 
against any attempts of the popular and ambitious 
upon the common liberty 1 . He was the only man 
in the city capable of effecting such a coalition, 
being now at the head of the senate, yet the darling 
of the knights ; who considered him as the pride 
and ornament of their order, whilst he, to ingratiate 
himself the more with them, affected always in 
public to boast of that extraction, and to call him- 
self an equestrian ; and made it his special care to 
protect them in all their affairs, and to advance 
their credit and interest : so that, as some writers 
tell us, it was the authority of his consulship that 
first distinguished and established them into a third 
order of the state m . The policy was certainly very 
good, and the republic reaped great benefit from it 
in this very year, through which he had the whole 
body of knights at his devotion, who, with Atticus 
at their head, constantly attended his orders, and 
served as a guard to his person 11 : and if the same 
maxim had been pursued by all succeeding consuls, 
it might probably have preserved, or would cer- 

h Plutarch in his life. 

i In Pison. 2. 

k Quod ego et concordia, quam mihi constitui cum 
collega, invitissimis iis hominibus, quos in consulatu 
inimicos esse et animis et corporis actibus providi, omni- 
bus prospexi sane, &c. — Con. Hull. ii. 37. 

1 Ut multitudinem cum principibus, equestrem ordinem 
cum senatu conjunxerim. — In Pison. 3. Neque ulla vis 
tanta reperietur, qua? conjunctionem vestram, equitumque 
Romanorum, tantamque conspivationem bonorum om- 
nium perfx-ingere possit. — In Catil. iv. 10. 

m Cicero demum stabilivit equestre nomen in consulatu 
suo ; ei senatum concilians, ex eo se ordine profectum 
celebrans, et ejus vires peculiari popularitate quarens: ab 
illo tempore plane hoc tertiurn corpus in republica fac- 
tum est, coepitque adjici senatui populoque Romano 
equester ordo— Plin. Hist. N. 1. xxxiii. 2. 

n Vos, equites Romani, videte, scitis me ortum e vobis, 
omnia semper sensisse pro vobis, &c. — Pro Rabir. Post. 6. 
— Nunc vero cum equitatus ille, quern ego in Clivo Capi- 
tolino, te signifero ae principe, collocaram, senatum dese- 
ruerit. — Ad Att. ii. 1. 



tainly at least have prolonged, the liberty of the 
republic. 

Having laid this foundation for the laudable 
discharge of his consulship, he took possession of 
it, as usual, on the first of January. A little before 
his inauguration, P. Servilius Rullus, one of the 
new tribunes, who entered always into their office 
on the tenth of December, had been alarming the 
senate with the promulgation of an agrarian law. 
These laws used to be greedily received by the 
populace, and were proposed, therefore, by factious 
magistrates, as oft as they had any point to carry 
with the multitude against the public good : but 
this law was of all others the most extravagant, 
and, by a show of granting more to the people than 
had ever been given before, seemed likely to be 
accepted. The purpose of it was, to create a 
decemvirate, or ten commissioners, with absolute 
power for five years over all the revenues of the 
republic ; to distribute them at pleasure to the 
citizens ; to sell and buy what lands they thought 
fit ; to determine the rights of the present pos- 
sessors ; to require an account from all the generals 
abroad, excepting Pompey, of the spoils taken in 
their wars ; to settle colonies wheresoever they 
judged proper, and particularly at Capua ; and in 
short, to command all the money and forces of the 
empire. 

The publication of a law conferring powers so 
excessive, gave a just alarm to all who wished well 
to the public tranquillity : so that Cicero's first 
business was to quiet the apprehensions of the city, 
and to exert all his art and authority to baffle the 
intrigues of the tribune. As soon, therefore, as he 
was invested with his new dignity, he raised the 
spirits of the senate, by assuring them of his reso- 
lution to oppose the law, and all its abettors, to the 
utmost of his power ; nor suffer the state to be hurt, 
or its liberties to be impaired, while the adminis- 
tration continued in his hands. From the senate 
he pursued the tribune into his own dominion, the 
forum ; where, in an artful and elegant speech from 
the rostra, he gave such a turn to the inclination 
of the people, that they rejected this agrarian law 
with as much eagerness as they had ever before 
received one°. 

He began, "by acknowledging the extraordinary 
obligations which he had received from them, in 
preference and opposition to the nobility ; declaring 
himself the creature of their power, and of all men 
the most engaged to promote their interests ; that 
they were to look upon him as the truly popular 
magistrate ; nay, that he had declared even in the 
senate, that he would be the people's consulP." 
He then fell into a commendation of the Gracchi, 
whose name was extremely dear to them, professing, 
" that he could not be against all agrarian laws, 
when he recollected, that those two most excellent 
men, who had the greatest love for the Roman 
people, had divided the public lands to the citizens ; 
that he was not one of those consuls, who thought 
it a crime to praise the Gracchi ; on whose coun- 
sels, wisdom, and laws, many parts of the present 
government were founded q : that his quarrel was to 
this particular law, which, instead of being popular, 
or adapted to the true interests of the city, was in 
reality the establishment of a tyranny, and a creation 

° Quis unquam tarn secunda concione legem Agrariam 
suasit, quam ego dissuasi? — Con. Rail. ii. 37. 
P Ibid. 3. 1 R»id. 5. 



44 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



of ten kings to domineer over them." This he dis- 
plays at large, from the natural effect of that power 
which was granted byit r ; and proceeds to insi- 
nuate, that it was covertly levelled against their 
favourite Pompey, and particularly contrived to 
retrench and insult his authority: " Forgive me, 
citizens, (says he,) for my calling so often upon so 
great a name : you yourselves imposed the task 
upon me, when I was prsetor, to join with you in 
defending his dignity as far as I was able : I have 
hitherto done all that I could do ; not moved to it 
by my private friendship for the man, nor by any 
hopes of honour, and of this supreme magistracy, 
which I obtained from you, though with his appro- 
bation, yet without his help. Since then I perceive 
this law to be designed as a kind of engine to over- 
turn his power, I will resist the attempts of these 
men ; and as I myself clearly see what they are 
aiming at, so I will take care that you shall also 
see, and be convinced of it too s ." He then shows, 
" how the law, though it excepted Pompey from 
being accountable to the decemvirate, yet excluded 
him from being one of the number, by limiting the 
choice to those who were present at Rome ; that it 
subjected likewise to their jurisdiction the countries 
just conquered by him, which had always been left 
to the management of the general' : upon which 
he draws a pleasant picture of the tribune Rullus, 
with all his train of officers, guards, lictors, and 
apparitors u , swaggering in Mithridates's kingdom, 
and ordering Pompey to attend him, by a manda- 
tory letter, in the following strain : 

" ' P. Servilius Rullus, tribune of the people, 
decemvir, to Cnseus Pompey the son of Cnaeus, 
greeting.' 

" He will not add (says he) the title of great, 
when he has been labouring to take it from him by 
law x . 

" i I require you not to fail to come presently to 
Sinope, and bring me a sufficient guard with you, 
while I sell those lands by my law, which you have 
gained by your valour/ " 

He observes, " that the reason of excepting 
Pompey was not from any respect to him, but for 
fear that he would not submit to the indignity of 
being accountable to their will : but Pompey (says 
he) is a man of that temper, that he thinks it his 
duty to bear whatever you please to impose ; but if 
there be anything which you cannot bear yourselves, 
he will take care that you shall not bear it long 
against your wills V He proceeds to enlarge upon 
" the dangers which this law threatened to their 
liberties : that instead of any good intended by it to 
the body of the citizens, its purpose was to erect a 
power for the oppression of them ; and on pretence 
of planting colonies in Italy and the provinces, to 
settle their own creatures and dependants, like so 
many garrisons, in all the convenient posts of the 
empire, to be ready on all occasions to support 
their tyranny : that Capua was to be their head- 
quarters, their favourite colony ; of all cities the 
proudest, as well as the most hostile and dangerous ; 
in which the wisdom of their ancestors would not 
suffer the shadow of any power or magistracy to 
remain ; yet now it was to be cherished and advanced 
to another Rome 7 ' : that by this law the lands of 



r Contra Rullum, ii. 6, 11, 13, 14. 


s lb. 18. 


« lb. 19. 


» lb. 13. 


* lb. 20, 


>' lb. 23. 


* Ibid. 28, 32. 





Campania were to be sold or given away ; the most 
fruitful of all Italy, the surest revenue of the 
republic, and their constant resource when all 
other rents failed them ; which neither the Gracchi, 
who of all men studied the people's benefit the 
most, nor Sylla, who gave everything away without 
scruple, durst venture to meddle with a ." In the 
conclusion he takes notice *' of the great favour 
and approbation with which they had heard him, 
as a sure omen of their common peace and prospe- 
rity ; and acquaints them with the concord that he 
had established with his colleague, as a piece of 
news of all others the most agreeable ; and promises 
all security to the republic, if they would but show 
the same good disposition on future occasions 
which they had signified on that day ; and that he 
would make those very men, who had been the 
most envious and averse to his advancement, con- 
fess, that the people had seen farther, and judged 
better than they, in choosing him for their consul." 
In the course of this contest he often called upon 
the tribunes to come into the rostra, and debate the 
matter with him before the people b ; but they 
thought if more prudent to decline the challenge, 
and to attack him rather by fictitious stories and 
calumnies, sedulously inculcated into the multi- 
tude ; that his opposition to the law flowed from 
no good will to them, but an affection to Sylla's 
party, and to secure to them the lands which they 
possessed by his grant ; that he was making his 
court by it to the seven tyrants, as they called 
seven of the principal senators, who were known 
to be the greatest favourers of Sylla's cause, and 
the greatest gainers by it ; the two Luculluses, 
Crassus, Catulus, Hortensius, Metellus, Philippus. 
These insinuations made so great an impression on 
the city, that he found it necessary to defend him- 
self against them in a second speech to the people , 
in which he declared, " that he looked upon that 
law, which ratified all Sylla's acts, to be of all laws 
the most wicked, and the most unlike to a true 
law, as it established a tyranny in the city ; yet 
that it had some excuse from the times, and, in 
their present circumstances, seemed proper to be 
supported ; especially by him who, for this year of 
his consulship, professed himself the patron of 
peace d ; but that it was the height of impudence 
in Rullus, to charge him with obstructing their 
interests for the sake of Sylla's grants, when the 
very law which that tribune was then urging, ac- 
tually established and perpetuated those grants ; 
and showed itself to be drawn by a son-in-law of 
Valgius, who possessed more lands than any other 
man by that invidious tenure, which were all by 
this law to be partly confirmed, and partly pur- 
chased of him e ." This he demonstrates from the 
express words of the law, "which he had studiously 
omitted, he says, to take notice of before, that he 
might not revive old quarrels, or move any argu- 
ment of new dissention in a season so improper f : 
that Rullus, therefore, who accused him of defend- 
ing Sylla's acts, was of all others the most impudent 

a Contra Rullum, ii. 29. 

b Si vestrum commodum spectat, veniat ct coram mc- 
cum de agri Campani divisione disputet. — Con. Rull. 
ii. 28. Commodius fecissent tribuni plebis, Quirites, si, 
quae apud vos de me deferunt, ea coram potius me prae- 
scnte dixissent.' — Con. Rull. iii. 1. 

c Ibid. d Ibid. iii. 2. 

e Ibid. iii. 1, 4. f Ibid. iii. 2. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



45 



defender of them ; for none had ever affirmed them 
to be good and legal, but to have some plea only 
from possession and the public quiet ; but by this 
law the estates that had been granted by them 
were to be fixed upon a better foundation and title 
than any other estates whatsoever." He concludes 
by renewing his challenge to the tribunes " to 
come and dispute with him to his face." But 
after several fruitless attempts, finding themselves 
wholly unable to contend with him, they were 
forced at last to submit, and to let the affair drop, 
to the great joy of the senate. 

This alarm being over, another accident broke 
out, which might have endangered the peace of the 
city, if the effects of it had not been prevented by 
the authority of Cicero. Otho's law, mentioned 
above, for the assignment of separate seats to the 
equestrian order, had highly offended the people, 
who could not digest the indignity of being thrust 
so far back from their diversions ; and while the 
grudge was still fresh, Otho happening to come 
into the theatre, was received by the populace with 
an universal hiss, but by the knights with loud 
applause and clapping. Both sides redoubled their 
clamour with great fierceness, and from reproaches 
were proceeding to blows, — till Cicero, informed 
of the tumult, came immediately to the theatre, 
and calling the people out into the temple of Bel- 
lona, so tamed and stung them by the power of 
his words, and made them so ashamed of their folly 
and perverseness, that on their return to the theatre 
they changed their hisses into applauses, and vied 
with the knights themselves in demonstrations of 
their respect to Otho^. The speech was soon 
after published ; though from the nature of the 
thing it must have been made upon the spot, and 
flowed extempore from the occasion : and as it was 
much read and admired for several ages after, as a 
memorable instance of Cicero's command over 
men's passions, so some have imagined it to be 
alluded to in that beautiful passage of Virgil h : 
Ac veluti magno in populo cum saspe coorta est 
Seditio, saevitque animis ignobile vulgus ; 
Jamque faces et saxa volant, furor arma ministrat : 
Turn pietate gravem et meritis si forte virum quern 
Aspexere, silent, arrectisque auribus adstant ; 
Ille regit dictis animos, et pectora mulcet. 

Virg. JEn. i. 152. 
As when sedition fires the ignoble crowd, 
And the wild rabble storms and thirsts for blood ; 
Of stones and brands a mingled tempest flies, 
With all the sudden arms that rage supplies : 
If some grave sire appears amidst the strife, 
In morals strict and innocence of life, 
All stand attentive, while the sage controls 
Their wrath, and calms the tempest of their souls. 

Pitt. 

One topic, which Cicero touched in this speech, 
and the only one of which we have any hint from 
antiquity, was to reproach the rioters for their 
want of taste and good sense, in making such a 
disturbance while Roscius was acting'. 

There happened about the same time a third 
instance, not less remarkable, of Cicero's great 

g Plutarch's Life of Cicero. 

h Sebast. Corradi Quaestura, p. 133; iEneid. i. 152. 
What gives the greater colour to this imagination is, that 
Quintilian applies these lines to his character of a com- 
plete orator, which he professedly forms upon the model 
of Cicero. — Lib. xii. 1. 

» Macrob. Saturn, ii. 10. 



power of persuasion. Sylla had by an express law 
excluded the children of the proscribed from the 
senate and all public honours ; which was certainly 
an act of great violence, and the decree rather of a 
tyrant, than the law of a free state k . So that the 
persons injured by it, who were many, and of great 
families, were now making all their efforts to get 
it reversed. Their petition was highly equitable, 
but, from the condition of the times, as highly 
unseasonable ; for in the present disorders of the 
city, the restoration of an oppressed party must 
needs have added strength to the old factions ; 
since the first use that they would naturally make 
of the recovery of their power, would be to revenge 
themselves on their oppressors. It was Cicero's 
business, therefore, to prevent that inconvenience, 
and, as far as it was possible, with the consent of 
the sufferers themselves : on which occasion this 
great commander of the human affections, as Quin- 
tilian calls him, found means to persuade those 
unfortunate men, that to bear their injury was their 
benefit ; and that the government itself could not 
stand, if Sylla' s laws were then repealed, on which 
the quiet and oi-der of the republic were established ; 
acting herein the part of a wise statesman, who 
will oft be forced to tolerate, and even maintain, 
what he cannot approve, for the sake of the com- 
mon good ; agreeably to what he lays down in his 
book of Offices, that many things which are naturally 
right and just, are yet, by certain circumstances and 
conjunctures of times, made dishonest and unjust 1 . 
As to the instance before us, he declared in a 
speech made several years after, that he had ex- 
cluded from honours a number of brave and honest 
young men, whom fortune had thrown into so 
unhappy a situation, that if they had obtained 
power, they would probably have employed it to 
the ruin of the state 111 . The three cases just 
mentioned make Pliny break out into a kind of 
rapturous admiration of the man, who could per- 
suade the people to give up their bread, their 
pleasure, and their injuries, to the charms of his 
eloquence 11 . 

The next transaction of moment in which he was 
engaged was the defence of C. Rabirius, an aged 
senator, accused by T. Labienus, one of the tri- 
bunes, of treason or rebellion, for having killed 
L. Saturninus, a tribune, about forty years before, 
who had raised a dangerous sedition in the city. 
The fact, if it had been true, was not only legal, 
but laudable, being done in obedience to a decree 
of the senate, by which all the citizens were re- 
quired to take arms in aid of the consuls C. Marius 
and L. Flaccus. 

But the punishment of Rabirius was not the 
thing aimed at, nor the life of an old man worth 
the pains of disturbing the peace of the city : the 
design was to attack that prerogative of the senate 
by which, in the case of a sudden tumult, they 
could arm the city at once, by requiring the consuls 
to take care that the republic received no detri- 
k Exclusique paternis opibus liberi, etiam petendorum 
honorum jure prohiberentur. — Veil. Pat. ii. 28. 

I Sic multa, quae honesta natura videntur esse, tempo- 
ribus fiunt non honesta. — De Offic. iii. 25. 

m Ego adolescentes fortes et bonos, sed usos ea condi- 
tione fortuna?, ut, si essent magistrates adepti, reipublicae 
statum convulsuri viderentur, comitiorum rationc pri- 
vavi. — In Pison. 2. 

II Quo te, M. Tulli, piaculo taceam ? &c— Plin. Hist. 
1. vii. 30. 



46 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



ment : which vote was supposed to give a sanction 
to everything that was done in consequence of it ; 
so that several traitorous magistrates had been cut 
off by it, without the formalities of a trial, in the 
act of stirring up sedition. This practice, though 
in use from the earliest times, had always been 
complained of by the tribunes, as an infringement 
of the constitution, by giving to the senate an 
arbitrary power over the lives of citizens, which 
could not legally be taken away without a hearing 
and judgment of the whole people. But the chief 
grudge to it was, from its being a perpetual check 
to the designs of the ambitious and popular, who 
aspired to any power not allowed by the laws : it 
was not difficult for them to delude the multitude ; 
but the senate was not so easily managed, who by 
that single vote of committing the republic to the 
consuls, could frustrate at once all the effects of 
their popularity, when carried to a point which was 
dangerous to the state : for since in virtue of it, 
the tribunes themselves, whose persons were held 
sacred, might be taken off without sentence or trial, 
when engaged in any traitorous practices, all at- 
tempts of that kind must necessarily be hazardous 
and desperate. 

This point therefore, was to be tried on the 
person of Rabirius, in whose ruin the factious of 
all ranks were interested. J. Csesar suborned La- 
bienus to prosecute him ; and procured himself to 
be appointed one of the Duumviri, or the two 
judges allotted by the prsetor to sit upon trials of 
treason . Hortensius pleaded his cause, and 
proved by many witnesses, that the whole accusa- 
tion was false, and that Saturninus was actually 
killed by the hand of a slave, who for that service 
obtained his freedom from the public p. Csesar, 
however, eagerly condemned the old man, who 
appealed from his sentence to the people; where 
nothing, says Suetonius, did him so much service, 
as the partial and forward severity of his judged 

The tribunes in the mean while employed all 
their power to destroy him ; and Labienns would 
not suffer Cicero to exceed half an hour in his 
defence 1 ; and, to raise the greater indignation 
against the criminal, exposed the picture of Satur- 
ninus in the rostra, as of one who fell a martyr to 
the liberties of the people. Cicero opened the 
defence with great gravity, declaring, " that in the 
memory of man there had not been a cause of such 
importance, either undertaken by a tribune, or de- 
fended by a consul : that nothing less was meant 
by it, than that for the future there should be no 
senate or public council in the city ; no consent or 
concurrence of the honest against the rage and 
rashness of the wicked ; no resource or refuge in 
the extreme dangers of the republic s . — He implores 
the favour of all the gods, by whose providence 
their city was more signally governed than by any 
wisdom of man, to make that day propitious to the 
security of the state, and to the life and fortunes 
of an innocent man." — And having possessed the 
minds of his audience with the sanctity of the 
cause, he proceeds boldly to wish, " that he had 
been at liberty to confess, what Hortensius indeed 
had proved to be false, that Saturninus, the enemy 

o Sucton. J. Cses. 12 ; Dio, p. 42. 
1> Pro Rabir. 6, 11. 

<1 lit ad populum provocanti nihil aeque nc judicis acer- 
bitas profuit. — Sueton. ib, 12. 
r Pro Rabir. 2. s Ibid. 



of the Roman people, was killed by the hand of 
Rabirius 1 — that he should have proclaimed and 
bragged of it, as an act that merited rewards instead 
of punishment." — Here he was interrupted by the 
clamour of the opposite faction ; but he observes 
it to be "the faint effort of a small part of the 
assembly ; and that the body of the people, who 
were silent, would never have made him consul if 
they had thought him capable of being disturbed 
by so feeble an insult ; which he advised them to 
drop, since it betrayed only their folly and the 
inferiority of their numbers." — The assembly being 
quieted, he goes on to declare, " that though 
Rabirius did not kill Saturninus, yet he took arms 
with intent to kill him, together with the consuls 
and all the best of the city, to which his honour, 
virtue, and duty called him. — He puts Labienus in 
mind, " that he was too young to be acquainted 
with the merits of that cause ; that he was not born 
when Saturninus was killed, and could not be 
apprised how odious and detestable his name was 
to all people : that some had been banished for 
complaining only of his death ; others for having a 
picture of him in their houses' 1 : that he wondered 
therefore where Labienus had procured that pic- 
ture, which none dux-st venture to keep even at 
home ; and much more, that he had the hardiness 
to produce, before an assembly of the people, what 
had been the ruin of other men's fortunes — that to 
charge Rabirius with this crime was to condemn 
the greatest and worthiest citizens whom Rome 
had ever bred ; and though they were all dead, yet 
the injury was the same, to rob them of the honour 
due to their names and memories. — Would C. 
Marius, says he, have lived in perpetual toils and 
dangers, if he had conceived no hopes concerning 
himself and his glory beyond the limits of this life ? 
When he defeated those innumerable enemies in 
Italy, and saved the republic, did he imagine that 
everything which related to him would die with 
him ? No, it is not so, citizens ; there is not one 
of us who exerts himself with praise and virtue in 
the dangers of the republic, but is induced to it by 
the expectation of a futurity. As the minds of 
men, therefore, seem to be divine and immortal for 
many other reasons, so especially for this, that in 
all the best and the wisest there is so strong a sense 
of something hereafter, that they seem to relish 
nothing but what is eternal. I appeal then to the 
souls of C. Marius, and of all those wise and worthy 
citizens, who, from this life of men, are translated 
to the honours and sanctity of the gods ; I call 
them, I say, to witness, that I think myself bound 
to fight for their fame, glory, and memory, with as 
much zeal as for the altars and temples of my 
country ; and if it were necessary to take arms in 
defence of their praise, I should take them as 
strenuously as they themselves did for the defence 
of our common safety," &c. x 

After this speech the people were to pass judg- 
ment on Rabirius, by the suffrages of all the 
centuries ; but there being reason to apprehend 
some violence and foul play from the intrigues of 
the tribunes, Metellus, the augur and prsetor of 
that year, contrived to dissolve the assembly by a 
stratagem before they came to a vote?: and the 
greater affairs that presently ensued, and engaged 



1 Pro Rabir. 
* Ibid. 10. 



« Ibid. 9. 
y Dio, 1. xxxvii. 42. 



MARCUS TULL1US CICERO. 



47 



the attention of the city, prevented the farther 
prosecution and revival of the cause. 

But Csesar was more successful in another case, 
in which he was more interested, — his suit for the 
high priesthood, a post of the first dignity in the 
republic, vacant by the death of Metellus Pius. 
Labienus opened his way to it by the publication 
of a new law, for transferring the right of electing 
from the college of priests to the people, agreeably 
to the tenor of a former law, which had been 
repealed by Sylla. Caesar's strength lay in the 
favour of the populace, which, by immense bribes 
and the profusion of his whole substance, he had 
gained on this occasion so effectually, that he carried 
this high office before he had yet been praetor, 
against two consular competitors of the first 
authority in Rome, Q. Catulus and P. Servilius 
Isauricus ; the one of whom had been censor, and 
then bore the title of prince of the senate, and the 
other been honoured with a triumph : yet he pro- 
cured more votes against them, even in their own 
tribes, than they both had out of the whole number 
of the citizens z . 

Catiline was now renewing his efforts for the 
consulship with greater vigour than ever, and by 
such open methods of bribery, that Cicero pub- 
lished a new law against it, with the additional 
penalty of a ten years' exile ; prohibiting likewise 
all shows of gladiators within two years from the 
time of suing for any magistracy, unless they were 
ordered by the will of a person deceased, and on a 
certain day therein specified a . Catiline, who knew 
the law to be levelled at himself, formed a design 
to kill Cicero, with some other chiefs of the senate 1 *, 
on the day of election, which was appointed for the 
twentieth of October ; but Cicero gave information 
of it to the senate the day before, upon which the 
election was deferred, that they might have time to 
deliberate on an affair of so great importance : and 
the day following, in a full house, he called upon 
Catiline to clear himself of this charge ; where, 
without denying or excusing it, he bluntly told 
them that there were two bodies in the republic, 
meaning the senate and the people, the one of them 
infirm with a weak head, the other firm without a 
head ; which last had so well deserved of him, that 
it should never want a head while he lived. He 
had made a declaration of the same kind and in 
the same place a few days before, when upon Cato's 
threatening him with an impeachment, he fiercely 
replied, that if any flame should be excited in his 
fortunes, he would extinguish it, not with water, 
but a general ruin 1 -'. 

These declarations startled the senate, and con- 
vinced them that nothing but a desperate conspiracy, 
ripe for execution, could inspire so daring an as- 
surance : so that they proceeded immediately to 
that decree which was the usual refuge in all cases 

z Ita potentissimos duos competitores, multumque et 
aetate et dignitate antecedentes, superavit ; ut plura ipse 
in eorum tribubus suffragia, quam uterque in omnibus 
tulerit.'— Suet. J. Cass. 13 ; vide Pigh. Annal. 

a Pro Muren. 23 ; In Vatin. 15. 

t> Dio, 1. xxxvii. 43. 

c Turn enim dixit, duo corpora esse reipublicas — unura 
debile, infirmo capite ; alterum firmum, sine capite : huic, 
cum ita de se meritum esset, caput, se vivo, non defutu- 
rum.— Cum idem ille paucis diebus ante Catoni, judicium 
minitanti, respondisset,' — Si quod esset in suas fortunas 
incendium excitatum, id se non aqua, sed ruina restinc- 
turum. — Pro Muren. 25. 



of imminent danger, of ordering the consuls to take 
care that the republic received no harm d . Upon this 
Cicero doubled his guard, and called some troops 
into the city ; and when the election of consuls 
came on, that he might imprint a sense of his own 
and of the public danger the more strongly, he 
took care to throw back his gown in the view of 
the people, and discovered a shining breast-plate, 
which he wore under it e : by which precaution, as 
he told Catiline afterwards to his face, he prevented 
his design of killing both him and the competitors 
for the consulship, of whom D. Junius Silanus and 
L. Licinius Murena were declared consuls elect f . 

Catiline, thus a second time repulsed, and breath- 
ing nothing but revenge, was now eager and impa- 
tient to execute his grand plot : he had no other 
game left : his schemes were not only suspected, 
but actually discovered by the sagacity of the con- 
sul, and himself shunned and detested by all honest 
men ; so that he resolved without farther delay to 
put all to the hazard of ruining either his country 
or himself. He was singularly formed both by art 
and nature for the head of a desperate conspiracy ; 
of an illustrious family, ruined fortunes, profligate 
mind, undaunted courage, unwearied industry ; of 
a capacity equal to the hardiest attempt, with a 
tongue that could explain, and a hand that could 
execute it?. Cicero gives us his just character in 
many parts of his works, but in none a more lively 
picture of him than in the following passage 11 : 

" He had in him," says he, " many, though not 
express images, yet sketches of the greatest virtues ; 
was acquainted with a great number of wicked men, 
yet a pretended admirer of the virtuous. His house 
was furnished with a variety of temptations to lust 
and lewdness, yet with several incitements also to 
industry and labour : it was a scene of vicious 
pleasures, yet a school of martial exercises. There 
never was such a monster on earth, compounded 
of passions so contrary and opposite. Who was 
ever more agreeable at one time to the best citizens ? 
who more intimate at another with the worst ? who 
a man of better principles ? who a fouler enemy to 
this city ? who more intemperate in pleasure ? who 
more patient in labour ? who more rapacious in 
plundering ? who more profuse in squandering ? 
He had a wonderful faculty of engaging men to his 
friendship, and obliging them by his observance ; 
sharing with them in common whatever he was 
master of ; serving them with his money, his inter- 
est, his pains, and, when there was occasion, by 
the most daring acts of villany ; moulding his 
nature to his purposes, and bending it every way 
to his will. With the morose, he could live se- 
verely ; with the free, gaily ; with the old, gravely ; 
with the young, cheerfully ; with the enterprising, 
audaciously ; with the vicious, luxuriously. By a 
temper so various and pliable, he gathered about 
him the profligate and the rash from all countries, 
yet held attached to him at the same time many 

d Sail. Bell. Cat. 29 ; Plutarch, in Cic. 

e Descendi in campum — cum ilia lata insignique lorioa 
— ut omnes boni animadverterent, et cum in metu et 
periculo consulem viderent, id quod factum est, ad opem 
presidium que meum concurrerent. — Pro Muren. 26. 

f Cum proximis comitiis consularibus, me consulem in 
campo et competitores tuos interficere voluisti. compressi 
conatus tuos nefarios amicorum prassidio. — In Cat. i. 5. 

g Erat ei consilium ad facinus aptum : consilio autem 
neque lingua, neque manus deerat. — In Cat. iii. 7> 

h Pro Cael. 5, 6. 



48 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



brave and worthy men, by the specious show of a 
pretended virtue." 

With these talents, if he had obtained the con- 
sulship, and with it the command of the armies 
and provinces of the empire, he would probably, 
like another Cinna, have made himself the tyrant 
of his country : but despair and impatience, under 
his repeated disappointments, hurried him on to 
the mad resolution, of extorting by force what he 
could not procure by address. His scheme how- 
ever was not without a foundation of probability, 
and there were several reasons for thinking the 
present time the most seasonable for the execution 
of it. Italy was drained in a manner of regular 
troops ; Pompey at a great distance, with the best 
army of the empire ; and his old friend Antonius, on 
whose assistance he still depended 1 , was to have the 
command of all the forces that remained. But his 
greatest hopes lay in Sylla's veteran soldiers, whose 
cause he had always espoused, and among whom 
he had been bred ; who, to the number of about a 
hundred thousand, were settled in the several dis- 
tricts and colonies of Italy, in the possession of 
lands assigned to them by Sylla, which the gene- 
rality had wasted by their vices and luxury, and 
wanted another civil war to repair their shattered 
fortunes. Among these he employed his agents 
and officers in all parts, to debauch them to his 
service ; and in Etruria, had actually enrolled a 
considerable body, and formed them into a little 
army under the command of Manlius, a bold and 
experienced centurion, who waited only for his 
orders to take the field k . We must add to this 
what all writers mention, the universal disaffection 
and discontent which possessed all ranks of the 
city, but especially the meaner sort, who from the 
uneasiness of their circumstances, and the pressure 
of their debts, wished for a change of government : 
so that if Catiline had gained any little advantage 
at setting out, or come off but equal in the first 
battle, there was reason to expect a general decla- 
ration in his favour l . 

He called a council therefore of all the conspira- 
tors, to settle the plan of their work, and divide 
the parts of it among themselves, and fix a proper 
day for the execution. There were about thirty- 
five, whose names are transmitted to us as princi- 
pals in the plot, partly of the senatorian, partly of 
the equestrian order, with many others from the 
colonies and municipal towns of Italy, men of fa- 
milies and interest in their several countries. The 
senators were, P. Cornelius Lentulus, C. Cethegus, 
P. Autronius, L. Cassius Longinus, P. Sylla, Serv. 
Sylla, L. Vai-gunteius, Q. Curius, Q. Annius, M. 
Porcius Lecca, L. Bestia 111 . 

Lentulus was descended from a patrician branch 
of the Cornelian family, one of the most numerous 
as well as the most splendid in Rome. His grand- 
father had borne the title of prince of the senate, 
and was the most active in the pursuit and 
destruction of C. Gracchus, in which he received 

> Inflatum turn spe militum, turn collegae mei, ut ipse 
dicebat, promissis. — Pro Muren. 23. 

k Castra sunt in Italia contra rempublicam in Etruriae 
faucibus collocata. — In Cat. i. 2 ; it. ii. 6. 

1 Sed onmino cuncta plebes, novarum rerum studio, 
Catilinse incepta probab.it— quod si primo pra'lio Catilina 
superior, aut ajqua manu discessissct, profecto magna 
clades, <tec— Sallust. Bell. Cat. 27, 29. 

n > Ibid. 17. 



a dangerous wound". The grandson, by the favour 
of his noble birth, had been advanced to the con- 
sulship about eight years before, but was turned 
out of the senate soon after by the censors, for 
the notorious infamy of his life, till by obtaining 
the prsetorship a second time, which he now 
actually enjoyed, he recovered his former place and 
rank in that supreme council . His parts were 
but moderate, or rather slow ; yet the comeliness 
of his person, the gracefulness and propriety of his 
action, the strength and sweetness of his voice, 
procured him some reputation as a speaker?. He 
was lazy, luxurious, and profligately wicked ; yet 
so vain and ambitious, as to expect from the over- 
throw of the government, to be the first man in the 
republic ; in which fancy he was strongly flattered 
by some crafty soothsayers, who assured him from 
the sibylline books, that there were three Corne- 
liuses destined to the dominion of Rome ; that Cinna 
and Sylla had already possessed it, and the pro- 
phecy wanted to be completed in him*!. With these 
views he entered freely into the conspiracy, trust- 
ing to Catiline's vigour for the execution, and 
hoping to reap the chief fruit from its success. 

Cethegus was of an extraction equally noble, but 
of a temper fierce, impetuous, and daring to a de- 
gree even of fury. He had been warmly engaged 
in the cause of Marius, with whom he was driven 
out of Rome ; but when Sylla's affairs became 
prosperous, he presently changed sides, and throw- 
ing himself at Sylla's feet, and promising great 
services, was restored to the city r . After Sylla's 
death , by intrigues and faction, he acquired so great 
an influence, that while Pompey was abroad, he 
governed all things at home ; procured for Antonius, 
that command over the coasts of the Mediterranean, 
and for Lucullus, the management of the Mithri- 
datic war s . In the height of this power, he made 
an excursion into Spain, to raise contributions in 
that province, where meeting with some opposi- 
tion to his violences, he had the hardiness to insult, 
and even wound, the proconsul Q.. Metellus Pius 1 . 
But the insolence of his conduct and the infamy 
of his life gradually diminished, and at last de- 
stroyed his credit ; when finding himself controlled 
by the magistrates, and the particular vigilance of 
Cicero, he entered eagerly into Catiline's plot, and 
w r as entrusted with the most bloody and desperate 

n Num. P. Lentulum, principem senatus? Complures 
alios summos viros, qui cum L. Opimio Consule armati 
Graccbum in Aventinurn persecuti sunt ? quo in pra?lio 
Lentulus grave vulnus accepit.— Phil. viii. 4; In Cat. iv. 0". 

° Lentulus quoque tunc rnaxime praetor, &c. — Flor. 
iv. 1 ; Dio, p. 43 ; Plut. in Cic. 

P P. Lentulus, cujus et excogitandi et loquendi tardi- 
tatem tegebat formas dignitas, corporis niotus plenus et 
artis et venustatis, vocis et suavitas et magnitudo.— Brut. 
350. 

<l Lentulum autem sibi confirmasse ex fatis sibyllinis, 
haruspicumque responsis, se esse tertium ilium Corne- 
lium, ad quern regnum hujus urbis atque imperium per- 
venire esset necesse, &c.> — In Cat. iii. 4 ; it. iv. (i. 
r Quid Catilina tuis natalibus, atque Cethegi 
lnveniet quisquam sublimius? 

Juv. Sat. viii. 231 ; Appian. 399. 

s Hie est M. Antonius, qui gratia Cottae consulis et 
Cethegi factione in senatu, curationem inhnitam nactus, 
&c. — Ascon. in Verr. ii. 3 ; Plut. in Lucull 

1 QuisdeC. Cethego, atque ejus in llispaniam profec- 
tione, ac de vulnere Q,. Metelli Pii cogitat, cui non ad 
illius poenam career redificatus esse videatur ?— Pro Syll. 
25. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



49 



part of it, the task of massacring their enemies 
within the city. The rest of the conspirators were 
not less illustrious for their birth u . The two Syllas 
were nephews to the dictator of that name ; Autro- 
nius had obtained the consulship, but was deprived 
for bribery ; and Cassius was a competitor for it 
with Cicero himself. In short, they were all of 
the same stamp and character ; men whom disap- 
pointments, ruined fortunes, and flagitious lives, 
had prepared for any design against the state ; and 
all whose hopes of ease and advancement depended 
on a change of affairs, and the subversion of the 
republic. 

At this meeting it was resolved, that a general 
insurrection should be raised through Italy, the 
different parts of which were assigned to different 
leaders ; that Catiline should put himself at the 
head of the troops in Etruria ; that Rome should 
be fired in many places at once, and a massacre 
begun at the same time of the whole senate, and 
all their enemies ; of whom none were to be spared 
except the sons of Pompey, who were to be kept as 
hostages of their peace and reconciliation with the 
father ; that in the consternation of the fire and 
massacre, Catiline should be ready with his Tuscan 
army, to take the benefit of the public confusion, 
and make himself master of the city : where Len- 
tulus, in the meanwhile, as first in dignity, was to 
preside in their general councils ; Cassius to ma- 
nage the affair of firing it, Cethegus to direct the 
massacre x . But the vigilance of Cicero being the 
chief obstacle to all their hopes, Catiline was very 
desirous to see him taken off before he left Rome ; 
upon which two knights of the company undertook 
to kill him the next morning in his bed, in an early 
visit on pretence of business J\ They were both of 
his acquaintance, and used to frequent his house ; 
and knowing his custom of giving free access to all, 
made no doubt of being readily admitted, as C. 
Cornelius, one of the two, afterwards confessed 2 . 

The meeting was no sooner over, than Cicero 
had information of all that passed in it ; for by 
the intrigues of a woman named Fulvia, he had 
gained over Curius her gallant, one of the conspi- 
rators of senatorian rank, to send him a punctual 
account of all their deliberations. He presently 
imparted his intelligence to some of the chiefs of 
the city, who were assembled that evening, as usual, 
at his house ; informing them not only of the design, 
but naming the men who were to execute it, and 
the very hour when they would be at his gate : all 
which fell out exactly as he foretold ; for the two 
knights came before break of day, but had the mor- 
tification to find the house well guarded, and all 
admittance refused to them a . 

u Curii, Porcii, Syllas, Cethegi, Antonii, Vargunteii, 
atque Longini : quas familiae ? quae senatus insignia ? &c. 
— Flor. iv. 1. 

x Cum Catilina egrederetur ad exercitum, Lentulus in 
urbe relinqueretur, Cassius incendiis, Cethegus caedi pre- 
poneretur.— Pro Syll. 19 ; Vid. Plut. in Cicer. 

y Dixisti paullulum tibi esse moras, quod ego viverem : 
reperti sunt duo Equites Romani, qui te ista cura libera- 
rent, et sese ilia ipsa nocte ante lucem me meo in lectulo 
interfecturos pollieerentur.— In Catil. i. 4 ; it. Sallust. Bell. 
Cat. 28. 

z Tunc tuus pater, Corneli, id quod tandem aliquando 
confitetur, illam sibi officiosam provinciam depoposcit.— 
Pro Syll. 18. 

a Domum meam majoribus presidiis munivi : exclusi 
eos, quos tu mane ad me salutatum miseras ; cum illi ipsi 



Catiline was disappointed likewise in another 
affair of no less moment before he quitted the city ; 
a design to surprise the town of Prseneste, one of 
the strongest fortresses of Italy, within twenty-five 
miles of Rome ; which would have[been of singular 
use to him in the war, and a sure retreat in all 
events : but Cicero was still beforehand with him, 
and, from the apprehension of such an attempt, had 
previously sent orders to the place to keep a special 
guard ; so that when Catiline came in the night to 
make an assault, he found them so well provided, 
that he durst not venture upon the experiment h . 

This was the state of the conspiracy, when 
Cicero delivered the first of those four speeches, 
which were spoken upon the occasion of it, and are 
still extant. The meeting of the conspirators was 
on the sixth of November, in the evening ; and on 
the eighth he summoned the senate to the temple 
of Jupiter in the capitol, where it was not usually 
held but in times of public alarm . There had 
been several debates before this on the same sub- 
ject of Catiline's treasons, and his design of killing 
the consul ; and a decree had passed at the motion 
of Cicero, to offer a public reward to the first dis- 
coverer of the plot ; if a slave, his liberty, and eight 
hundred pounds ; if a citizen, his pardon, and six- 
teen hundred d . Yet Catiline, by a profound dis- 
simulation, and the constant professions of his 
innocence, still deceived many of all ranks ; repre- 
senting the whole as the fiction of his enemy 
Cicero, and offering to give security for his beha- 
viour, and to deliver himself to the custody of any 
whom the senate would name ; of M. Lepidus, of 
the praetor Metellus, or of Cicero himself: but 
none of them would receive him ; and Cicero 
plainly told him, that he should never think himself 
safe in the same house, when he was in danger by 
living in the same city with him e : yet he still kept 
on the mask, and had the confidence to come to 
this very meeting in the capitol ; which so shocked 
the whole assembly, that none even of his acquaint- 
ance durst venture to salute him ; and the consular 
senators quitted that part of the house in which he 
sat, and left the whole bench clear to him f . Cicero 
was so provoked by his impudence, that instead of 
entering upon any business, as he designed, ad- 
dressing himself directly to Catiline, he broke out 
into a most severe invective against him ; and with 
all the fire and force of an incensed eloquence, laid 
open the whole course of his villanies, and the 
notoriety of his treasons. 

He put him in mind, " that there was a decree 
already made against him, by which he could take 

venissent, quos ego jam multis ac summis viris ad me id 
temporis venturos esse predixeram. — In Catil. i. 4. 

b Quid ? eum tu Prceneste Kalendis ipsis Novembribus 
occupaturum nocturno impetu confideres? Sensistine 
illam coloniam meo jussu, meis presidiis — esse munitam ? 
—Ibid. i. 3. Prceneste' — natura munitum. — Veil. Pat. ii. 26. 

c Nihil hie munitissimus habendi senatus locus.— lb. 
i. 1. 

d Si quis indicasset de conjuratione, qua; contra rempub- 
licam facta erat, prasmium, servo, libertatem et sestertia 
centum ; liberto, impunitatem et sestertia cc. — Sallust. 
Bell. Cat. 30. 

e Cum a me id responsum tulisses, me nullo modo posse 
iisdem parietibus tuto esse tecum, qui magno in periculo 
essem, quod iisdem mcenibus contineremur.' — In Catil. i. 8. 

f Quis te ex hac tanta frequentia, tot ex tuis amicis ac 
necessariis salutavit ? Quid, quod adventu tuo ista sub- 
sellia vacuefacta sunt ? &c. — lb. i. 7- 
E 



50 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



his life?; and that he ought to have done it long 
ago, since many, far more eminent and less crimi- 
nal, had been taken off by the same authority for 
the suspicion only of treasonable designs ; that if 
he should order him, therefore, to be killed upon 
the spot, there was cause to apprehend that it 
would be thought rather too late than too cruel." — 
But there was a certain reason which yet withheld 
him : " Thou shaltthen be put to death," says he, 
" when there is not a man to be found so wicked, so 
desperate, so like to thyself, who will deny it to be 
done justly. — As long as there is one who dares to 
defend thee, thou shalt live ; and live so as thou 
now dost, surrounded by the guards which I have 
placed about thee, so as not to suffer thee to stir a 
foot against the republic ; whilst the eyes and ears 
of many shall watch thee, as they have hitherto 
done, when thou little thoughtest of it h ." He 
then goes on to give a detail of all that had been 
concerted by the conspirators at their several 
meetings, to let him see " that he was perfectly 
informed of every step which he had taken, or 
designed to take;" and observes, " that he saw 
several, at that very time in the senate, who had 
assisted at those meetings." He presses him, there- 
fore, to quit the city ; and " since all his councils 
were detected, to drop the thought of fires and 
massacres ; — that the gates were open, and nobody 
should stop him 1 ." Then running over the flagi- 
tious enormities of his life, and the series of his 
traitorous practices, he " exhorts, urges, com- 
mands him to depart, and, if he would be advised 
by him, to go into a voluntary exile, and free them 
from their fears ; that, if they were just ones, they 
might be safer ; if groundless, the quieter k . That 
though he would not put the question to the house, 
whether they would order him into banishment or 
not, yet he would let him see their sense upon it by 
their manner of behaving while he was urging him 
to it ; for should he bid any other senator of credit, 
P. Sextius, or M. Marcellus, to go into exile, they 
would all rise up against him at once, and lay vio- 
lent hands on their consul : yet when he said it to 
him, by their silence they approved it ; by their 
suffering it, decreed it ; by saying nothing, pro- 
claimed their consent 1 . That he would answer 
likewise for the knights, who were then guarding 
the avenues of the senate, and were hardly restrained 
from doing him violence ; that if he would consent 
to go, they would all quietly attend him to the 
gates. — Yet, after all, if in virtue of his command 
he should really go into banishment, he foresaw 
what a storm of envy he should draw by it upon 
himself; but he did not value that, if by his own 
calamity he could avert the dangers of the republic : 
but there was no hope that Catiline could ever be 
induced to yield to the occasions of the state, or 
moved with a sense of his crimes, or reclaimed by 
shame, or fear, or reason, from his madness 111 . He 
exhorts him, therefore, if he would not go into 
exile, to go at least, where he was expected, into 
Manlius's camp, and begin the war ; provided 
only, that he would carry out with him all the rest 
of his crew. — That there he might riot and exult at 
his full ease, without the mortification of seeing one 

S Habemus senatus consultum in te, Catilina, vehemens 
et grave. — In Catil. i. 1. 
1» Ibid. 2. 1 Ibid. 5. 

k Ibid. 7. ' Ibid. 8. 

»» Ibid. D. 



honest man about him n . — There he might practise 
all that discipline to which he had been trained, of 
lying upon the ground, not only in pursuit of his 
lewd amours, but of bold and hardy enterprises : 
there he might exert all that boasted patience of 
hunger, cold, and want, by which however he 
would shortly find himself undone." He then 
introduces an expostulation of the republic with 
himself, " for his too great lenity, in suffering such 
a traitor to escape, instead of hurrying him to im- 
mediate death ; that it was an instance of cowardice 
and ingratitude to the Roman people, that he, a 
new man, who, without any recommendation from 
his ancestors, had been raised by them through all 
the degrees of honour to sovereign dignity, should, 
for the sake of any danger to himself, neglect the 
care of the public safety . To this most sacred 
voice of m y country, ' ' says he , " and to all those who 
blame me after the same manner, I shall make this 
short answer : that if I had thought it the most 
advisable to put Catiline to death, I would not 
have allowed that gladiator the use of one mo- 
ment's life : for if, in former days, our most 
illustrious citizens, instead of sullying, have done 
honour to their memories, by the destruction of 
Saturninus, the Gracchi, Flaccus, and many others ; 
there is no ground to fear, that, by killing this 
parricide, any envy would lie upon me with poste- 
rity ; yet if the greatest was sure to befall me, it 
was always my persuasion, that envy acquired by 
virtue was really glory, not envy : but there are 
some of this very order, who do not either see the 
dangers which hang over us, or else dissemble what 
they see, who, by the softness of their votes, cherish 
Catiline's hopes, and add strength to the conspi- 
racy by not believing it ; whose authority influences 
many, not only of the wicked, but the weak ; who, 
if I had punished this man as he deserved, would 
not have failed to cry out upon me for acting the 
tyrant?. Now I am persuaded, that when he is 
once gone into Manlius's camp, whither he actu- 
ally designs to go, none can be so silly as not to 
see that there is a plot ; none so wicked, as not to 
acknowledge it : whereas, by taking off him alone, 
though this pestilence would be somewhat checked, 
it could not be suppressed ; but when he has thrown 
himself into rebellion, and carried out his friends 
along with him, and drawn together the profligate 
and desperate from all parts of the empire, not only 
this ripened plague of the republic, but the very 
root and seed of all our evils, will be extirpated 
with him at once." Then applying himself again 
to Catiline, he concludes with a short prayer to 
Jupiter : " With these omens, Catiline, of all pros- 
perity to the republic, but of destruction to thyself 
and all those who have joined themselves with thee 
in all kinds of parricide, go thy way then to this 
impious and abominable war ; whilst thou, Jupiter, 
whose religion was established with the foundation 
of this city, whom we truly call Stator, the stay and 
prop of this empire, wilt drive this man and his 
accomplices from thy altars and temples, from the 
houses and walls of the city, from the lives and for- 
tunes of us all ; and wilt .destroy with eternal 
punishments, both living and dead, all the haters 
of good men, the enemies of their country, the 
plunderers of Italy, now confederated in this detest- 
able league and partnership of villany." 



« In Catil. i. 10. 
P Ibid. 12. 



o Ibid. 11. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



51 



Catiline, astonished by the thunder of this speech, 
had little to say for himself in answer to it ; yet, with 
downcast looks and suppliant voice, he begged of 
the fathers not to believe too hastily what was said 
against him by an enemy ; that his birth and past 
life offered everything to him that was hopeful ; and 
it was not to be imagined that a man of patrician 
family, whose ancestors, as well as himself, had 
given many proofs of their affection to the Roman 
people, should want to overturn the government ; 
while Cicero, a stranger and late inhabitant of 
Rome, was so zealous to preserve it. But as he 
was going on to give foul language, the senate 
interrupted him by a general outcry, calling him 
traitor and parricide : upon which, being furious 
and desperate, he declared again aloud what he had 
said before to Cato, that since he was circumvented 
and driven headlong by his enemies, he would 
quench the flame which was raised about him, by 
the common ruin ; and so rushed out of the assem- 
bly i. As soon as he was come to his house, and 
began to reflect on what had passed, perceiving it 
in vain to dissemble any longer, he resolved to 
enter into action immediately, before the troops of 
the republic were increased, or any new levies 
made ; so that, after a short conference with Len- 
tulus, Cethegus, and the rest, about what had been 
concerted in the last meeting, having given fresh 
orders and assurances of his speedy return at the 
head of a strong army, he left Rome that very 
night with a small retinue, to make the best of his 
way towards Etruria r . 

He no sooner disappeared, than his friends gave 
out that he was gone into a voluntary exile at Mar- 
seilles 8 ; which was industriously spread through 
the city the next morning, to raise an odium upon 
Cicero for driving an innocent man into banish- 
ment without any previous trial or proof of his 
guilt ; but Cicero was too well informed of his 
motions to entertain any doubt about his going to 
Manlius's camp, and into actual rebellion : he knew 
that he had sent thither already a quantity of arms, 
and all the ensigns of military command, with that 
silver eagle which he used to keep with great super- 
stition in his house, for its having belonged to C. 
Marias in his expedition against the Cimbri'. But 
lest the story should make an ill impression on the 
city, he called the people together into the forum, 
to give them an account of what passed in the 
senate the day before, and of Catiline's leaving 
Rome upon it. 

He began by congratulating with them on Cati- 
line's flight, as on a certain victory; " since the 
driving him from his secret plots and insidious 
attempts on their lives and fortunes into open 
rebellion, was in effect to conquer him : that Cati- 
line himself was sensible of it, whose chief regret 
in his retreat was not for leaving the city, but for 
leaving it standin gs — But if there be any here," 

1 Turn ille furibundus ; — Quoniam quidem circumven- 
tus, inquit, ab inimicis praaceps agor, incendium raeum 
ruina extinguam.— Sallust. Bell. Cat. 31. 

F Ibid. 32. 

s At enim sunt, Quirites, qui dicunt a me in exilinm 

ejectum esse Catilinam Ego vehemens ille consul, 

qui verbo cives in exilium ejicio, &c— In Catil. ii. 6. 

4 Cum fasces, cum tubas, cum signa militaria, cum 
aquilam illam argenteam, cui ille etiam sacrarium scele- 
rum domi suae fecerat, scirem esse praemissam.— lb. ; Sal- 
lust. Bell. Cat. 59. 

u in Catil. ii. 1. 



says he, " who blame me for what I am boasting 
of, as you all indeed justly may, that I did not ! 
rather seize than send away so capital an enemy ; j 
that is not my fault, citizens, but the fault of the ; 
times. Catiline ought long ago to have suffered 
the last punishment ; the custom of our ancestors, 
the discipline of the empire, and the republic 
itself, required it. But how many would there 
have been who would not have believed what I 
charged him with ? How many, who, through 
weakness, would never have imagined it, or through 
wickedness would have defended it ? " He observes, | 
" that if he had put Catiline to death, he should j 
have drawn upon himself such an odium as would j 
have rendered him unable to prosecute his accom- 
plices and extirpate the remains of the conspiracy ; 
but so far from being afraid of him now, he was 
sorry only that he went off with so few to attend 
him x : that his forces were contemptible, if com- 
pared with those of the republic ; made up of a 
miserable, needy crew, who had wasted their sub- 
stance, forfeited their bails, and would run away 
not only at the sight of an army, but of the praetor's 
edict. — That those who had deserted his army, and 
staid behind, were more to be dreaded than the army 
itself ; and the more so, because they knew him to 
be informed of all their designs, yet were not at all 
moved by it : that he had laid open all their coun- 
cils in the senate the day before, upon which Cati- 
line was so disheartened that he immediately fled : 
that he could not guess what these others meant ; 
if they imagined that he should always use the same 
lenity, they were much mistaken?; for he had now 
gained what he had hitherto been waiting for, to 
make all people see that there was a conspiracy : 
that now, therefore, thei'e was no more room for 
clemency, the case itself required severity ; yet he 
would still grant them one thing, to quit the city 
and follow Catiline ; nay, would tell them the way ; 
it was the Aurelian road ; and if they would make 
haste, they might overtake him before night." 
Then, after describing the profligate life and con- 
versation of Catiline and his accomplices 2 , he 
declares it " insufferably impudent for such men 
to pretend to plot ; the lazy against the active, the 
foolish against the prudent, the drunken against 
the sober, the drowsy against the vigilant ; who, 
lolling at feasts, embracing mistresses, staggering 
with wine, stuffed with victuals, crowned with gar- 
lands, daubed with perfumes, belch in their con- 
versations of massacring the honest and firing the 
city. If my consulship," says he, " since it can- 
not cure, should cut off all these, it would add no 
small period to the duration of the republic ; for 
there is no nation which we have reason to fear, no 
king who can make war upon the Roman people ; 
all disturbances abroad, both by land and sea, are 
quelled by the virtue of one man ; but a domestic 
war still remains ; the treason, the danger, the 
enemy is within ; we are to combat with luxury, 
with madness, with villany. In this war I profess 
myself your leader, and take upon myself all the 
animosity of the desperate : whatever can possibly 
be healed, I will heal ; but what ought to be cut 
off, I will never suffer to spread to the ruin of the 
city. a " He then takes notice of the report of 
Catiline's being driven into exile, but ridicules the 
weakness of it; and says, " that he had put that 



* In Catil. ii. 2. 




7 Ibid. 3. 


z Ibid. 4. 




» Ibid. 5. 




E 2 





52 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



matter out of doubt, by exposing all his treasons 
the day before in the senateV He laments " the 
wretched condition not only of governing, but even 
of preserving states : For if Catiline," says he, 
" baffled by my pains and counsels, should really 
change his mind, drop all thoughts of war, and 
betake himself to exile, he would not be said to be 
disarmed and terrified, or driven from his purpose 
by my vigilance, but uncondemned and innocent to 
be forced into banishment by the threats of the 
consul ; and there would be numbers who would 
think him not wicked, but unhappy, and me not a 
diligent consul, but a cruel tyrant." He declares, 
*' that though, for the sake of his own ease or cha- 
racter, he should never wish to hear of Catiline's 
being at the head of an army, yet they would 
certainly hear it in three days' time : that if men 
were so perverse as to complain of his being driven 
away, what would they have said if he had been 
put to death ? Yet there was not one of those 
who talked of his going to Marseilles, but would 
be sorry for it, if it was true, and wished much 
rather to see him in Manlius's camp c ." He pro- 
ceeds to describe at large the strength and forces of 
Catiline, and the different sorts of men of which 
they were composed ; and then displaying and 
opposing to them the superior forces of the repub- 
lic, he shows it to be " a contention of all sorts of 
virtue against all sorts of vice ; in which, if all 
human help should fail them, the gods themselves 
would never suffer the best cause in the world to 
be vanquished by the worst d ." He requires them, 
therefore, to " keep a watch only in their private 
houses, for he had taken care to secure the public 
without any tumult : that he had given notice to 
all the colonies and great towns of Catiline's 
retreat, so as to be upon their guard against him : 
that as to the body of gladiators, whom Catiline 
always depended upon as his best and surest band, 
they were taken care of in such a manner as to be 
in the power of the republic* 5 ; though, to say the 
truth, even these were better affected than some 
part of the patricians : that he had sent Q. Metel- 
lus, the praetor, into Gaul and the district of Pice- 
num, to oppose all Catiline's motions on that side ; 
and, for settling all matters at home, had summoned 
the senate to meet again that morning, which, as 
they saw, was then assembling. As for those, 
therefore, who were left behind in the city, though 
they were now enemies, yet, since they were born 
citizens, he admonished them again and again, that 
his lenity had been waiting only for an opportunity 
of demonstrating the certainty of the plot : that for 
the rest, he should never forget that this was his 
country, he their consul, who thought it his duty 
either to live with them, or die for them. There 
is no guard," says he, "upon the gates, none to 
watch the roads ; if any one has a mind to with- 
draw himself, he may go wherever he pleases ; but 
if he makes the least stir within the city, so as to 
be caught in any overt act against the republic, he 
shall know that there are in it vigilant consuls, 
excellent magistrates, a stout senate ; that there 
are arms, and a prison, which our ancestors pro- 
vided as the avenger of manifest crimes ; and all 

t> In Catil. ii. 6. c ibid. 7, 8, 9, 10. 

d Ibid. 11. 

e Ibid. 12. Decrevere uti familiae gladiatoriae Capuam 
et in csetera municipia distribuerentur pro cuj usque opi- 
bus.— Sallust. Bell. Cat. 30. 



this shall be transacted in such a manner, citizens, 
that the greatest disorders shall be quelled without 
the least hurry ; the greatest dangers, without any 
tumult ; a domestic war, the most desperate of any 
in our memory, by me, your only leader and gene- 
ral, in my gown ; which I will manage so, that, as 
far as it is possible, not one even of the guilty shall 
suffer punishment in the city. But if their auda- 
ciousness, and my country's danger, should neces- 
sarily drive me from this mild resolution, yet I will 
effect, what in so cruel and treacherous a war could 
hardly be hoped for, that not one honest man shall 
fall, but all of you be safe by the punishment of a 
few. This I promise, citizens, not from any con- 
fidence in my own prudence, or from any human 
councils, but from the many evident declarations of 
the gods, by whose impulse I am led into this per- 
suasion; who assist us, not as they used to do, at a 
distance, against foreign and remote enemies, but 
by their present help and protection, defend their 
temples and our houses. It is your part, there- 
fore, to worship, implore, and pray to them, that 
since all our enemies are now subdued both by land 
and sea, they would continue to preserve this city, 
which was designed by them for the most beautiful, 
the most flourishing, and most powerful on earth, 
from the detestable treasons of its own desperate 
citizens." 

We have no account of this day's debate in the 
senate, which met while Cicero was speaking to 
the people, and were waiting his coming to them 
from the rostra : but as to Catiline, after staying 
a few days on the road to raise and arm the coun- 
try through which he passed, and which his agents 
had already been disposing to his interests, he 
marched directly to Manlius's camp, with the fasces 
and all the ensigns of military command displayed 
before him. Upon this news, the senate declared 
both him and Manlius public enemies, with offers 
of pardon to all his followers who were not con- 
demned of capital crimes, if they returned to their 
duty by a certain day ; and ordered the consuls to 
make new levies, and that Antonius should follow 
Catiline with the army ; Cicero stay at home to 
guard the city f . 

It will seem strange to some, that Cicero, when 
he had certain information of Catiline's treason, 
instead of seizing him in the city, not only suf- 
fered but urged his escape, and forced him as it 
were to begin the war. But there was good reason 
for what he did, as he frequently intimates in his 
speeches ; he had many enemies among the nobility, 
and Catiline many secret friends ; and though he 
was perfectly informed of the whole progress and 
extent of the plot, yet the proofs being not ready 
to be laid before the public, Catiline's dissimu- 
lation still prevailed, and persuaded great numbers 
of his innocence ; so that if he had imprisoned and 
punished him at this time, as he deserved, the 
whole faction were prepared to raise a general 
clamour against him, by representing his admi- 
nistration as a tyranny, and the plot as a forgery 
contrived to support it : whereas by driving Catiline 
into rebellion, he made all men see the reality of 
their danger ; while from an exact account of his 
troops, he knew them to be so unequal to those of 
the republic, that there was no doubt of his being 
destroyed, if he could be pushed to the necessity of 

f Sallust. Bell. Cat. 36. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



53 



declaring himself, before his other projects were 
ripe for execution. He knew also, that if Catiline 
was once driven out of the city, and separated from 
his accomplices, who were a lazy, drunken, thought- 
less crew, they would ruin themselves by their own 
rashness, and be easily drawn into any trap which 
he should lay for them : the event showed that he 
judged right ; and by what happened afterwards 
both to Catiline and to himself, it appeared, that, 
as far as human caution could reach, he acted with 
the utmost prudence in regard as well to his own, 
as to the public safety. 

In the midst of all this hurry, and soon after 
Catiline's flight, Cicero found leisure, according to 
his custom, to defend L. Murena, one of the 
consuls elect, who was now brought to a trial for 
bribery and corruption. Cato had declared in the 
senate, that he would try the force of Cicero's late 
law upon one of the consular candidates s : and since 
Catiline, whom he chiefly aimed at, was out of his 
reach, he resolved to fall upon Murena ; yet con- 
nived at the same time at the other consul, Silanus, 
who had married his sister, though equally guilty 
with his colleague 11 : he was joined in the accusa- 
tion by one of the disappointed candidates, S. 
Sulpicius, a person of distinguished worth and 
character, and the most celebrated lawyer of the 
age, for whose service, and at whose instance, 
Cicero's law against bribery was chiefly provided'. 
Murena was bred a soldier, and had acquired 
great fame in the Mithridatic war, as lieutenant to 
Lucullus k ; and was now defended by three, the 
greatest men, as well as the greatest orators of 
Rome, Crassus, Hortensius, and Cicero : so that 
there had seldom been a trial of more expectation, 
on account of the dignity of all the parties con- 
cerned. The character of the accusers makes it 
reasonable to believe, that there was clear proof of 
some illegal practices ; yet from Cicero's speech, 
which, though imperfect, is the only remaining 
monument of the transaction, it seems probable, 
that they were such only as, though strictly 
speaking irregular, were yet warranted by custom 
and the example of all candidates ; and though 
heinous in the eyes of a Cato, or an angry compe- 
titor, were usually overlooked by the magistrates 
and expected by the people. 

The accusation consisted of three heads : the 
scandal of Murena's life ; the want of dignity in 
his character and family ; and bribery in the late 
election. As to the first, the greatest crime which 
Cato charged him with was dancing ; to which 
Cicero's defence is somewhat remarkable : "He 
admonishes Cato not to throw out such a calumny 
so inconsiderately, or to call the consul of Rome 
a dancer ; but to consider how many other crimes 
a man must needs be guilty of before that of 
dancing could be truly objected to him ; since no- 
body ever danced, even in solitude, or a private 
meeting of friends, who was not either drunk or 
mad ; for dancing was always the last act of 



e Dixi in senatu, me nomen consularis candidati dela- 
turum.— Pro Muren. 30. Q,uod atrociter in senatu dixisti, 
aut non dixisses, aut seposuisses.— lb. 31 ; Plutar. in Cato. 

h Plutarch, in Cato. 

» Legem ambitus flagitasti — gestus est mos et voluntati 
et dignitati tua?.' — Pro Muren. 23. 

k Legatus L. Lucullo fuit : qua in legatione duxit exer- 
cituni — magnas copias hostium fudit, urbes partim vi, 
partim obsidione cepit.— Pro Muren. 9. 



riotous banquets, gay places, and much jollity : 
that Cato charged him therefore with what was 
the effect of many vices, yet with none of those, 
without which that vice could not possibly subsist ; 
with no scandalous feasts, no amours, no nightly 
revels, no lewdness, no extravagant expense," 

&C. 1 

As to the second article, the want of dignity, it 
was urged chiefly by Sulpicius, who being noble 
and a patrician, was the more mortified to be 
defeated by a plebeian, whose extraction he con- 
temned : but Cicero " ridicules the vanity of 
thinking no family good, but a patrician ; shows 
that Murena's grandfather and great-grandfather 
had been prsetors ; and that his father also from 
the same dignity had obtained the honour of a 
triumph : that Sulpicius's nobility was better 
known to the antiquaries than to the people ; 
since his grandfather had never borne any of the 
principal offices, nor his father ever mounted 
higher than the equestrian rank : that being there- 
fore the son of a Roman knight, he had always 
reckoned him in the same class with himself, of 
those who by their own industry had opened their 
way to the highest honours ; that the Curiuses, 
the Catos, the Pompeiuses, the Mariuses, the 
Didiuses, the Cseliuses were all of the same sort : 
that when he had broken through that barricade 
of nobility, and laid the consulship open to the 
virtuous, as well as to the noble ; and when a 
consul, of an ancient and illustrious descent, was 
defended by a consul, the son of a knight ; he 
never imagined, that the accusers would venture to 
say a word about the novelty of a family : that he 
himself had two patrician competitors, the one a 
profligate and audacious, the other an excellent 
and modest man ; yet that he outdid Catiline in 
dignity, Galba in interest ; and if that had been a 
crime in a new man, he should not have wanted 
enemies to object it to him m ." He then shows 
" that the science of arms, in which Murena 
excelled, had much more dignity and splendour in 
it than the science of the law, being that which 
first gave a name to the Roman people, brought 
glory to their city, and subdued the world to their 
empire : that martial virtue had ever been the 
means of conciliating the favour of the people, and 
recommending to the honours of the state ; and 
it was but reasonable that it should hold the first 
place in that city, which was raised by it to be the 
head of all other cities in the world V 

As to the last and heaviest part of the charge, 
the crime of bribery, there was little or nothing 
made out against him, but what was too common 
to be thought criminal; the -bribery of shows, 
plays, and dinners given to the populace; yet not 
so much by himself, as by his friends and relations, 
who were zealous to serve him ; so that Cicero 
makes very slight of it, and declares himself " more 
afraid of the authority, than the accusation of 
Cato ; " and to obviate the influence which the 
reputation of Cato's integrity might have in the 
cause, he observes, " that the people in general, 
and all wise judges, had ever been jealous of the 
power and interest of an accuser ; lest the criminal 
should be borne down, not by the weight of his 
crimes, but the superior force of his adversary. 
Let the authority of the gre at prevail," says he, 
~~ 1 Pro Muren. 6. ~ ~~ m Ibid. 7, 8. 

" Ibid. 9, 10, 11. 



54 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



" for the safety of the innocent, the protection of 
the helpless, the relief of the miserable ; but let its 
influence be repelled from the dangers and destruc- 
tion of citizens : for if any one should say, that 
Cato would not have taken the pains to accuse, if 
he had not been assured of the crime, he estab- 
lishes a very unjust law to men in distress, by 
making the judgment of an accuser to be con- 
sidered as a prejudice or previous condemnation of 
the criminal ." He exhorts " Cato not to be so 
severe on what ancient custom and the republic 
itself had found useful ; nor to deprive the people 
of their plays, gladiators, and feasts, which their 
ancestors had approved ; nor to take from candi- 
dates an opportunity of obliging by a method of 
expense which indicated their generosity, rather 
than an intention to corrupt?." 

But whatever Murena's crime might be, the 
circumstance which chiefly favoured him was, the 
difficulty of the times, and a rebellion actually on 
foot ; which made it neither safe nor prudent to 
deprive the city of a consul, who by a military 
education was the best qualified to defend it in so 
dangerous a crisis. This point Cicero dwells much 
upon, declaring, " that he undertook this cause, 
not so much for the sake of Murena, as of the 
peace, the liberty, the lives and safety of them all. 
Hear, hear," says he, " your consul, who, not 
to speak arrogantly, thinks of nothing day and 
night but of the republic : Catiline does not 
despise us so far, as to hope to subdue this city 
with the force which he has carried out with him : 
the contagion is spread wider than you imagine ; 
the Trojan horse is within our walls ; which, while 
I am consul, shall never oppress you in your sleep. 
If it be asked then, what reason I have to fear 
Catiline ? none at all ; and I have taken care that 
nobody else need fear him : yet I say, that we 
have cause to fear those troops of his, which I see 
in this very place. Nor is his army so much to be 
dreaded, as those who are said to have deserted it : 
for in truth they have not deserted, but are left by 
him only as spies upon us, and placed as it were 
in ambush, to destroy us the more securely : all 
these want to see a worthy consul, an experienced 
general, a man both by nature and fortunes attached 
to the interests of the republic, driven by your 
sentence from the guard and custody of the cityi." 
After urging this topic with great warmth and 
force, he adds; " We are now come to the crisis 
and extremity of our danger ; there is no resource 
or recovery for us, if we now miscarry ; it is no 
time to throw away any of the helps which we 
have, but by all means possible to acquire more. 
The enemy is not on the banks of the Anio, which 
was thought so terrible in the Punic war, but in 
the city and the forum. Good gods ! (I cannot speak 
it without a sigh,) there are some enemies in the 
very sanctuary ; some, I say, even in the senate ! 
The gods grant, that my colleague may quell this 
rebellion by our arms ; whilst I, in the gown, by 
the assistance of all the honest, will dispel the 
other dangers with which the city is now big. But 
what will become of us, if they should slip through 
our hands into the new year ; and find but one 
consul in the republic, and him employed not in 
prosecuting the war, but in providing a colleague ? 
Then this plague of Catiline will break out in all 



Pro Muren. 28. 

1 Ibid. 37. 



i> Ibid. 36. 



its fury, spreading terror, confusion, fire, and 
sword through the city," &c. r This considera- 
tion, so forcibly urged, of the necessity of having 
two consuls for the guard of the city at the opening 
of the new year, had such weight with the judges, 
that without any deliberation they unanimously 
acquitted Murena, and would not, as Cicero says, 
so much as hear the accusation of men, the most 
eminent and illustrious s . 

Cicero had a strict intimacy all this while with 
Sulpicius, whom he had served with all his interest 
in this very contest for the consulship 1 . He had 
a great friendship also with Cato, and the highest 
esteem of his integrity ; yet he not only defended 
this cause against them both, but to take off the 
prejudice of their authority, laboured even to make 
them ridiculous ; rallying the profession of Sul- 
picius as trifling and contemptible, the principles 
of Cato as absurd and impracticable, with so much 
humour and wit, that he made the whole audience 
very merry, and forced Cato to cry out, What a 
facetious consul have we u ! But what is more 
observable, the opposition of these great men in an 
affair so interesting gave no sort of interruption to 
their friendship, which continued as firm as ever 
to the end of their lives : and Cicero, who lived 
the longest of them, showed the real value that 
he had for them both after their deaths, by pro- 
curing public honours for the one, and writing the 
life and praises of the other. Murena too, though 
exposed to so much danger by the prosecution, yet 
seems to have retained no resentment of it ; but 
during his consulship paid a great deference to the 
counsels of Cato, and employed all his power to 
support him against the violence of Metellus, his 
colleague in the tribunate. This was a greatness 
of mind truly noble, and suitable to the dignity of 
the persons ; not to be shocked by the particular 
contradiction of their friends, when their general 
views on both sides were laudable and virtuous : 
yet this must not be wholly charged to the virtue 
of the men, but to the discipline of the republic 
itself, which by a wise policy imposed it as a duty 
on its subjects to defend their fellow citizens in 
their dangers, without regard to any friendships or 
engagements whatsoever x . The examples of this 
kind will be more or less frequent in states, in pro- 
portion as the public good happens to be the 
ruling principle ; for that is a bond of union too 
firm to be broken by any little differences about 
the measures of pursuing it : but where private 
ambition and party zeal have the ascendant, there 
every opposition must necessarily create animosity, 
as it obstructs the acquisition of that good, which 
is considered as the chief end of life, private benefit 
and advantage. 

Before the trial of Murena, Cicero had pleaded 
another cause of the same kind in the defence of 
C. Piso, who had been consul four years before, 
and acquired the character of a brave and vigorous 

r Pro Muren. 39. 

s Defendi consul L. Murenam — nemo illorum judicum, 
clarissimis viris accusantibus, audiendum sibi de ambitu 
curavit, cum bellum jam gerente Catilina, omnes, me 
auctore, duos consules Kalendis Jan. scirent esse oportere. 
—Ibid. 

t Ibid. 3. u Plut. in Cato. 

x Hanc nobis a majoribus esse traditam disciplinam, ut 
nullius amicitia ad propulsanda pericula impedireniur. — 
Pro Sylla, 17- 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



5o 



magistrate : but we have no remains of the speech, 
nor anything more said of it by Cicero, than that 
Piso was acquitted on the account of his laudable 
behaviour in his consulship y. We learn however 
from Sallust, that he was accused of oppression 
and extortion in his government ; and that the 
prosecution was promoted chiefly by J. Csesar, out 
of revenge for Piso's having arbitrarily punished 
one of his friends or clients in Cisalpine Gaul z . 

But to return to the affair of the conspiracy : 
Lentulus and the rest, who were left in the city, 
were preparing all things for the execution of their 
grand design, and soliciting men of all ranks, who 
seemed likely to favour their cause, or to be of any 
use to it : among the rest, they agreed to make an 
attempt on the ambassadors of the Allobroges ; a 
warlike, mutinous, faithless people, inhabiting the 
countries now called Savoy and Dauphiny, greatly 
disaffected to the Roman power, and already ripe 
for rebellion. These ambassadors, who were pre- 
paring to return home, much out of humour with 
the senate, and without any redress of the griev- 
ances which they were sent to complain of, 
received the proposal at first very greedily, and 
promised to engage their nation to assist the con- 
spirators with what they principally wanted a , a 
good body of horse, whenever they should begin the 
war ; but reflecting afterwards, in their cooler 
thoughts, on the difficulty of the enterprise, and 
the danger of involving themselves and their coun- 
try in so desperate a cause, they resolved to dis- 
cover what they knew to Q. Fabius Sanga, the 
patron of their city, who immediately gave intel- 
ligence of it to the consul b . 

Cicero's instructions upon it were, that the 
ambassadors should continue to feign the same 
zeal which they had hitherto shown, and promise 
everything that was required of them, till they had 
got a full insight into the extent of the plot, with 
distinct proofs against the particular actors in it c : 
upon which, at their next conference with the con- 
spirators, they insisted on having some credentials 
from them to show to their people at home, with- 
out which they would never be induced to enter 
into an engagement so hazardous. This was thought 
reasonable, and presently complied with ; and 
Vulturcius was appointed to go along with the 
ambassadors, and introduce them to Catiline on 
their road, in order to confirm the agreement, and 
exchange assurances also with him ; to whom Len- 
tulus sent at the same time a particular letter under 
his own hand and seal, though without his name. 
Cicei'O, being punctually informed of all these facts, 
concerted privately with the ambassadors the time 
and manner of their leaving Rome in the night, 
and that on the Milvian bridge, about a mile from 
the city, they should be arrested with their papers 
and letters about them, by two of the praetors, 
L. Flaccus and C. Pontinius, whom he had in- 
structed for that purpose, and ordered to lie in 

y Pro Flacco, 39 z Sallust. Bell. Cat. 49. 

a Ut equitatum in Italiam quamprimuni mitterent. — 
In Catil. iii. 4. 

b Allobroges diu incertum habuere, quidnam eonsilii 
caperent — Itaque Q. Fabio Sanga? rem omneni, ut cogno- 
verunt, aperiunt. — Sail. Bell. Cat. 41. 

c Cicero — legatis prsecipit, ut studium conjurationis ve- 
hementer simulent, caeteros adeant, bene polliceantur, 
dentque operam, ut eos quam maxime manifestos habeant. 
—Ibid. 



ambush near the place, with a strong guard of 
friends and soldiers : all which was successfully 
executed, and the whole company brought pri- 
soners to Cicero's house by break of day d . 

The rumour of this accident presently drew a 
resort of Cicero's principal friends about him, who 
advised him to open the letters before he produced 
them in the senate, lest, if nothing of moment were 
found in them, it might be thought rash and im- 
prudent to raise an unnecessary terror and alarm 
through the city. But he was too well informed of 
the contents to fear any censure of that kind ; and 
declared, that in a case of public danger he thought 
it his duty to lay the matter entire before the public 
council e . He summoned the senate therefore to 
meet immediately, and sent at the same time for 
Gabinius, Statilius, Cethegus, and Lentulus, who 
all came presently to his house, suspecting nothing 
of the discovery ; and being informed also of a 
quantity of arms provided by Cethegus for the use 
of the conspiracy, he ordered C. Sulpicius, another 
of the prsetors, to go and search his house, where 
he found a great number of swords and daggers, 
with other arms, all newly cleaned, and ready for 
present service 5 . 

With this preparation he set out to meet the 
senate in the temple of Concord, with a numerous 
guard of citizens, carrying the ambassadors and 
the conspirators with him in custody : and after 
he had given the assembly an account of the whole 
affair, Vulturcius was called in to be examined 
separately ; to whom Cicero, by order of the house, 
offered a pardon and reward, if he would faithfully 
discover all that he knew : upon which, after some 
hesitation, he confessed that he had letters and 
instructions from Lentulus to Catiline, to press 
him to accept the assistance of the slaves, and to 
lead his army with all expedition towards Rome, 
to the intent, that when it should be set on fire in 
different places, and the general massacre begun, 
he might be at hand to intercept those who escaped, 
and join with his friends in the city?. 

The ambassadors were examined next, who de- 
clared, that they had received letters to their nation 
from Lentulus, Cethegus, and Statilius ; that these 
three, and L. Cassius also, required them to send 
a body of horse as soon as possible into Italy, de- 
claring that they had no occasion for any foot ; 
that Lentulus had assured them from the Sibylline 
books, and the answers of soothsayers, that he 
was the third Cornelius, who was destined to be 
master of Rome, as Cinna and Sylla had been be- 
fore him ; and that this was the fatal year marked 
for the destruction of the city and empire : that 
there was some dispute between Cethegus and the 

d L. Flaecum et C. Pontinium praetores — ad me vocavi, 
rem exposui ; quid fieri placeret ostendi— occulte ad pon- 
tem Milvium pervenerunt — ipsi comprehensi ad me, cum 
jam dilucesceret, deducuntur. — In Catil. iii. 2. 

e Cum summis et clarissimis hujus civitatis viris, qui, 
audita re, frequentes ad me convenerant, literas a me 
prius aperiri, quam ad senatum referrem, placeret, ne si 
nihil esset inventum, temere a me tantus tumultus in- 
jectus civitati videretur, me negavi esse facturum, ut de 
periculo publico non ad publicum concilium rem integram 
deferrem. — lb. iii. 3. 

f Admonitu AllobrogunT — C. Sulpicium — misi, qui ex 
aedibus Cethegi, si quid telorum esset, efferret ; ex quibus 
ille maximum sicarum numerum et gladiorum extulit. — 
Ibid. ; it. Plutarch, in Cic. 

g In Cat. iii. 4. 



58 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



rest about the time of firing the city ; for while the 
rest were for fixing it on the feast of Saturn, or 
the middle of December, Cethegus thought that 
day too remote and dilatory. — The letters were 
then produced and opened — first that from Cethe- 
gus ; and upon showing him the seal, he allowed 
it to be his ; it was written with his own hand, 
and addressed to the senate and people of the 
Allobroges, signifying, that he would make good 
what he had promised to their ambassadors, and 
entreating them also to perform what the ambas- 
sadors had undertaken for them. He had been 
interrogated just before about the arms that were 
found at his house ; to which he answered, that 
they were provided only for his curiosity, for he 
had always been particularly fond of neat arms : 
but after his letter was read, he was so dejected 
and confounded, that he had nothing at all to say 
for himself. — Statilius was then brought in, and 
acknowledged his hand and seal ; and when his 
letter was read, to the same purpose with Cethegus's, 
he confessed it to be his own. Then Lentulus's 
letter was produced, and his seal likewise owned 
by him ; which Cicero perceiving to be the head of 
his grandfather, could not help expostulating with 
him, that the very image of such an ancestor, so 
remarkable for a singular love of his country, had 
not reclaimed him from his traitorous designs. 
His letter was of the same import with the other 
two ; but having leave to speak for himself, he at 
first denied the whole charge, and began to question 
the ambassadors and Vulturcius, what business 
they ever had with him, and on what occasion 
they came to his house ; to which they gave clear 
and distinct answers, signifying by whom, and how 
often, they had been introduced to him ; and then 
asked him in their turn, whether he had never 
mentioned anything to them about the Sibylline 
oracles ; upon which being confounded, or infatu- 
ated rather by the sense of his guilt, he gave a 
remarkable proof, as Cicero says, of the great 
force of conscience ; for not; only his usual parts 
and eloquence, but his impudence too, in which 
he outdid all men, quite failed him, so that he 
confessed his crime, to the surprise of the whole 
assembly. Then Vulturcius desired that the letter 
to Catiline, which Lentulus had sent by him, 
might be opened ; where Lentulus again, though 
greatly disordered, acknowledged his hand and 
seal : it was written without any name, but to this 
effect : " You will know who I am, from him whom 
I have sent to you. Take care to show yourself a 
man ; and recollect in what a situation you are ; 
and consider what is now necessary for you. Be 
sure to make use of the assistance of all, even of 
the lowest." — Gabinius was then introduced, and 
behaved impudently for a while ; but at last 
denied nothing of what the ambassadors charged 
him with. 

After the criminals and witnesses were with- 
drawn, the senate went into a debate upon the 
state of the republic, and came unanimously to 
the following resolutions : That public thanks 
should be decreed to Cicero in the amplest manner; 
by whose virtue, counsel, and providence, the re- 
public was delivered from the greatest dangers : 
that Flaccus and Pontinius, the praetors, should 
be thanked likewise for their vigorous and punctual 
execution of Cicero's orders : that Antonius, the 
other consul, should be praised for having removed 



from his councils all those who were concerned in 
the conspiracy. That Lentulus, after having abdi- 
cated the praetorship, and divested himself of his 
robes — and Cethegus, Statilius, and Gabinius, with 
their other accomplices also, when taken — Cassius, 
Cceparius, Furius, Chilo, Umbrenus, should be 
committed to safe custody; and that a public 
thanksgiving should be appointed in Cicero's name, 
for his having preserved the city from a conflagra- 
tion, the citizens from a massacre, and Italy from 
a war h . 

The senate being dismissed, Cicero went directly 
into the rostra, and gave the people an account of 
the whole proceeding, in the manner as it is just 
related : where he observed to them, " That the 
thanksgiving decreed in his name was the first 
which had ever been decreed to any man in the 
gown : that all other thanksgivings had been ap- 
pointed for some particular services to the republic, 
this alone for saving it 1 : that by the seizure of 
these accomplices, all Catiline's hopes were blasted 
at once ; for when he was driving Catiline out of 
the city he foresaw, that if he was once removed, 
there would be nothing to apprehend from the 
drowsiness of Lentulus, the fat of Cassius, or the 
rashness of Cethegus : that Catiline was the life 
and soul of the conspiracy ; who never took a 
thing to be done, because he had ordered it, but 
always followed, solicited, and saw it done himself: 
that if he had not driven him from his secret plots 
into open rebellion, he could never have delivered 
the republic from its dangers, or never, at least, 
with so much ease and quiet : that Catiline would 
not have named the fatal day for their destruction 
so long beforehand ; nor ever suffered his hand 
and seal to be brought against him, as the manifest 
proof of his guilt ; all which was so managed in 
his absence, that no theft in any private house was 
ever more clearly detected than this whole con- 
spiracy : that all this was the pure effect of a 
divine influence ; not only for its being above the 
reach of human counsel, but because the gods had 
so remarkably interposed in it, as to show them- 
selves almost visibly : for not to mention the 
nightly streams of light from the western sky, the 
blazing of the heavens, flashes of lightning, earth- 
quakes, &c. he could not omit what happened two 
years before, when the turrets of the capitol were 
struck down with lightning ; how the soothsayers, 
called together from all Etruria, declared, that fire, 
slaughter, the overthrow of the laws, civil war, and 
the ruin of the city, were portended, unless some 
means were found out of appeasing the gods : for 
which purpose they ordered a new and larger statue 
of Jupiter to be made, and to be placed in a 
position contrary to that of the former image, with 
its face turned towards the east ; intimating, that 
if it looked towards the rising sun, the forum, and 
the senate-house, then all plots against the state 
would be detected so evidently, that all the world 
should see them. That upon this answer, the con- 
suls of that year gave immediate orders for making 
and placing the statue ; but from the slow progress 
of the work, neither they, nor their successors, nor 
he himself, could get it finished till that very day ; 

h In Cat. iii. 5, 6. 

i Quod mihi primum post hanc urbem conditam togato 

contigit quae supplicatio, si cum caeteris conferatur, 

Quirites, hoc interest, quod casterae bene gesta, haec una 
conservata Republica constituta est. — Ibid. 6. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



57 



on which, hy the special influence of Jupiter, while 
the conspirators and witnesses were carried through 
the forum to the temple of Concord, in that very 
moment the statue was fixed in its place ; and, 
being turned to look upon them and the senate, 
both they and the senate saw the whole conspiracy 
detected. And can any man," says he, "be such 
an enemy to truth, so rash, so mad, as to deny, 
that all things which we see, and above all, that 
this city, is governed by the power and providence 
of the gods k ?" He proceeds to observe, " that 
the conspirators must needs be under a divine and 
judicial infatuation, and could never have trusted 
affairs and letters of such moment to men barbarous 
and unknown to them, if the gods had not con- 
founded their senses : and that the ambassadors of 
a nation so disaffected, and so acle and willing to 
make war upon them, should slight the hopes of 
dominion, and the advantageous offers of men of 
patrician rank, must needs be the effect of a divine 
interposition ; especially when they might have 
gained their ends, not by fighting, but by holding 
their tongues." He exhorts them, therefore, " to 
celebrate that thanksgiving-day religiously with their 
wives and children 1 . That for all his pains and 
services he desired no other reward or honour, but 
the perpetual remembrance of that day : in this 
he placed all his triumphs and his glory, to have 
the memory of that day eternally propagated to 
the safety of the city, and the honour of his con- 
sulship ; to have it remembered, that there were 
two citizens living at the same time in the repub- 
lic, the one of whom was terminating the extent of 
the empire by the bounds of the horizon itself; 
the other preserving the seat and centre of that 
empire" 1 . That his case, however, was different 
from that of their generals abroad, who, as soon as 
they had conquered their enemies, left them ; 
whereas it was his lot to live still among those 
whom he had subdued : that it ought to be their 
care therefore to see, that the malice of those 
enemies should not hurt him ; and that what he 
had been doing for their good should not redound 
to his detriment ; though as to himself, he had no 
cause to fear anything, since he should be protected 
by the guard of all honest men, by the dignity of 
the republic itself, by the power of conscience, 
which all those must needs violate who should 
attempt to injure him : that he would never yield, 
therefore, to the audaciousness of any, but even 
provoke and attack all the wicked and the profli- 
gate : yet if all their rage at last, when repelled 
from the people, should turn singly upon him, 
they should consider what a discouragement it 
would be hereafter to those who should expose 
themselves to danger for their safety. That for 
his part, he would ever support and defend in his 
private condition what he had acted in his consul- 
ship, and show, that what he had done was not 
the effect of chance, but of virtue : that if any envy 
should be stirred up against him, it might hurt 
the envious, but advance his glory. — Lastly, since 
it was now night, he bade them all go home, and 
pray to Jupiter, the guardian of them and the city ; 
and though the danger was now over, to keep the 
same watch in their houses as before, for fear of 
any surprise ; and he would take care, that they 
should have no occasion to do it any longer." 

k In Cat. iii. 8, 9~ ' IbidTlO. 

™ Ibid. 11. 



While the prisoners were before the senate, 
Cicero desired some of the senators, who could write 
short-hand, to take notes of everything that was 
said ; and when the whole examination was finished 
and reduced into an act, he set all the clerks at 
work to transcribe copies of it, which he dispersed 
presently through Italy and all the provinces, to 
prevent any invidious misrepresentation of what 
was so clearly attested and confessed by the criminals 
themselves 11 , who for the present were committed 
to the free custody of the magistrates and senators 
of their acquaintance , till the senate should come 
to a final resolution about them. All this passed 
on the third of December, a day of no small 
fatigue to Cicero, who, from break of day till the 
evening, seems to have been engaged, without any 
refreshment, in examining the witnesses and the 
criminals, and procuring the decree which was 
consequent upon it ; and when that was over, in 
giving a narrative of the whole transaction to the 
people, who were waiting for that purpose in the 
forum. The same night his wife Terentia, with 
the vestal virgins and the principal matrons of 
Rome, was performing at home, according to 
annual custom, the mystic rites of the goddess 
Bona, or the Good, to which no male creature was 
ever admitted ; and till that function was over, he 
was excluded also from his own house, and forced 
to retire to a neighbour's ; where, with a select 
council of friends, he began to deliberate about the 
method of punishing the traitors ; when his wife 
came in all haste to inform him of a prodigy, which 
had just happened amongst them ; for the sacrifice 
being over, and the fire of the altar seemingly 
extinct, a bright flame issued suddenly from the 
ashes, to the astonishment of the company ; upon 
which the vestal virgins sent her away, to require 
him to pursue what he had then in his thoughts 
for the good of his country, since the goddess by 
this sign had given great light to his safety and 
glory p. 

It is not improbable, that this pretended prodigy 
was projected between Cicero and Terentia ; whose 
sister likewise being one of the vestal virgins, and 
having the direction of the whole ceremony, might 
help to effect without suspicion, what had been 
privately concerted amongst them. For it was of 
great use to Cicero, to possess the minds of the 
people, as strongly as he could, with an apprehen- 
sion of their danger, for the sake of disposing them 
the more easily to approve the resolution that he 
had already taken in his own mind, of putting the 
conspirators to death. 

The day following, the senate ordered public 
rewards to the ambassadors and Vulturcius for 
their faithful discoveries'! ; and by the vigour of 
their proceedings seemed to shew an intention of 
treating their prisoners with the last severity. The 
city in the mean w 7 hile was alarmed with the rumour 

n Constitui senatores, qui omnium indicum dicta, in- 
terrogata, responsa perscriberent : describi ab omnibus 
statim librariis, dividi passim et pervulgari atque edi 

populo Romano imperavi divisi toti Italia?, emisi in 

omnes provincial— Pro Syll. 14. 15. 

° Ut abdicate magistratu, Lentulus, itemque cseteri in 
liberis custodiis habeantur Itaque Lentulus, P. Lentulo 
Spintheri, qui turn aedilis erat ; Cethegus Cornificio, &c. 
— Sallust. Bell Cat. 47. 

P Plutarch, in Cic. 

q Praemia legatis Allobrogum, Titoque "Vulturcio de- 
distis amplissima. — In Cat. iv. 3. 



58 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



of fresh plots, formed by the slaves and dependants 
of Lentulus and Cethegus for the rescue of their 
masters 1 ; which obliged Cicero to reinforce his 
guards ; and for the prevention of all such attempts, 
to put an end to the whole affair, by bringing the 
question of their punishment, without farther delay, 
before the senate ; which he summoned for that 
purpose the next morning. 

The debate was of great delicacy and importance ; 
to decide upon the lives of citizens of the first rank. 
Capital punishments were rare and ever odious in 
Rome, whose laws were of all others the least san- 
guinary; banishment, with confiscation of goods, 
being the ordinary punishment for the greatest 
crimes. The senate, indeed, as it has been said 
above, in cases of sudden and dangerous tumults, 
claimed the prerogative of punishing the leaders 
with death by the authority of their own decrees : 
but this was looked upon as a stretch of power, 
and an infringement of the rights of the people, 
which nothing could excuse, but the necessity of 
the times, and the extremity of danger. For there 
was an old law of Porcius Laeca, a tribune, which 
granted to all criminals capitally condemned, an 
appeal to the people ; and a later one of C. Grac- 
chus, to prohibit the taking away the life of any 
citizen without a formal hearing before the people s : 
so that some senators, who had concurred in all 
the previous debates, withdrew themselves from 
this, to show their dislike of what they expected to 
be the issue of it, and to have no hand in putting 
Roman citizens to death by a vote of the senate*. 
Here, then, was ground enough for Cicero's enemies 
to act upon, if extreme methods were pursued : he 
himself was aware of it, and saw, that the public 
interest called for the severest punishment, his 
private interest the gentlest ; yet he came resolved 
to sacrifice all regards for his own quiet to the con- 
sideration of the public safety. 

As soon therefore as he had moved the question, 
what was to be done with the conspirators ; Silanus, 
the consul elect, being called upon to speak the first, 
advised, that those who were then in custody, with 
the rest who should afterwards be taken, should 
all be put to death u . To this, all who spoke after 
him, readily assented, till it came to J. Caesar, then 
praetor elect, who in an elegant and elaborate 
speech, " treated that opinion, not as cruel; since 
death, he said, was not a punishment, but relief to 
the miserable, and left no sense either of good or ill 
beyond it ; but as new and illegal, and contrary to 
the constitution of the republic : and though the 
heinousness of the crime would justify any severity, 
yet the example was dangerous in a free state ; and 
the salutary use of arbitrary power in good hands, 
had been the cause of fatal mischiefs when it fell 
into bad ; of which he produced several instances, 
both in other cities and their own : and though no 

r Liberti et pauci ex clientibus Lentuli opifices atque 
servitia in vicis ad eum eripiendum sollicitabant. — Cethe- 
gus autem per nuncios familiam, atque libertos suos, 
lectos et exercitatos in audaciam orabat, ut, grege facto, 
cum telis ad sese irrumperent.— Sallust. Bell. Cat. 50. 

8 Porcia lex virgas ab omnium civium Romanorum 

corpore amovit libertatem civium lictori eripuit — C. 

Gracchus legem tulit, ne de capite civium Romanorum 
injussu vestro judicaretur. — Pro Rabirio, 4. 

1 Video de istis, qui se populares haberi volunt, abesse 
non neminem, ne de capite videlicet Romani civis senten- 
tiam ferat.— In Catil. iv. 5. 

i Sallust. Bell. Cat. 50. 



danger could be apprehended from these times, or 
such a consul as Cicero ; yet in other times, and 
under another consul, when the sword was once 
drawn by a decree of the senate, no man could pro- 
mise what mischief it might not do before it was 
sheathed again : his opinion therefore was, that the 
estates of the conspirators should be confiscated, 
and their persons closely confined in the strong 
towns of Italy ; and that it should be criminal for 
any one to move the senate or the people for any 
favour towards themV 

These two contrary opinions being proposed, the 
next question was, which of them should take place : 
Caesar's had made a great impression on the assem- 
bly, and staggered even Silanus, who began to 
excuse and mitigate the severity of his vote? ; and 
Cicero's friends were going forwardly into it, as 
likely to create the least trouble to Cicero himself, 
for whose future peace and safety they began to be 
solicitous 2 : when Cicero, observing the inclination 
of the house, and rising up to put the question, 
made his fourth speech, which now remains, on 
the subject of this transaction ; in which he deli- 
vered his sentiments with all the skill both of the 
orator and the statesman ; and while he seemed to 
show a perfect neutrality, and to give equal com- 
mendation to both the opinions, was artfully 
labouring all the while to turn the scale in favour 
of Silanus's, which, he considered as a necessary 
example of severity in the present circumstances 
of the republic. 

He declared, " That though it was a pleasure to 
him to observe the concern and solicitude which 
the senate had expressed on his account, yet he 
begged of them to lay it all aside, and, without 
any regard to him, to think only of themselves and 
their families : that he was willing to suffer any 
persecution, if by his labours he could secure their 
dignity and safety : that his life had been oft at- 
tempted in the forum, the field of Mars, the senate, 
his own house, and in his very bed : that for their 
quiet he had digested many things against his will 
without speaking of them ; but if the gods would 
grant that issue to his consulship, of saving them 
from a massacre, the city from flames, all Italy 
from war, let what fate soever attend himself, he 
would be content with it a ." He presses them 
therefore to " turn their whole care upon the state : 
that it was not a Gracchus, or a Saturninus, who 
was now in judgment before them ; but traitors, 
whose design it was to destroy the city by fire, the 
senate and people by a massacre ; who had soli- 
cited the Gauls and the very slaves to join with 
them in their treason, of which they had all been 
convicted by letters, hands, seals, and their own 
confessions 1 *. That the senate, by several previous 
acts, had already condemned them ; by their pub- 
lic thanks to him ; by deposing Lentulus from his 
praetorship ; by committing them to custody ; by 
decreeing a thanksgiving ; by rewarding the wit- 
nesses : but as if nothing had yet been done, he 
resolved to propose to them anew the question both 
of the fact and the punishment : that whatever 
they intended to do, it must be determined before 

x Sallust. Bell. Cat. 51. 

y Ut Silanum, consulem designation non piguerit sen- 
tentiam suam, quia mutare turpe erat, interpretatione 
lenire. — Suet. J. Cass. 14. 

* Plutarch, in Cic. a In Catil. iv. 1. 

b Ibid. 2. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



59 



night: for the mischief was spread wider than they 
imagined ; had not only infected Italy, but crossed 
the Alps, and seized the provinces : that it was not 
to be suppressed by delay and irresolution, but by 
quick and vigorous measures : that there were two 
opinions now before them; the first, of Silanus, for 
putting the criminals to death; the second, of 
Caesar, who, excepting death, was for every other 
way of punishing ; each, agreeably to his dignity, 
and the importance of the cause, was for treating 
them with the last severity : the one thought, that 
those, who had attempted to deprive them all of life 
and to extinguish the very name of Rome, ought 
not to enjoy the benefit of living a moment, and 
he had showed withal, that this punishment had 
often been inflicted on seditious citizens : the other 
imagined, that death was not designed by the gods 
for a punishment, but the cure of our miseries ; so 
that the wise never suffered it unwillingly, the 
brave often sought it voluntarily ; but that bonds 
and imprisonment, especially if perpetual, were 
contrived for the punishment of detestable crimes : 
these therefore he ordered to be provided for them 
in the great towns of Italy : yet in this proposal 
there seemed to be some injustice, if the senate was 
to impose that burthen upon the towns, or some 
difficulty, if they were only to desire it : yet if they 
thought fit to decree it, he would undertake to find 
those, who would not refuse to comply with it for 
the public good : that Caesar, by adding a penalty 
on the towns if any of the criminals should escape, 
and enjoining so horrible a confinement without a 
possibility of being released from it, had deprived 
them of all hope, the only comfort of unhappy mor- 
tals : he had ordered their estates also to be con- 
fiscated, and left them nothing but life ; which if 
he had taken away, he would have eased them at 
once of all farther pain, either of mind or body : for 
it was on this account that the ancients invented 
those infernal punishments of the dead, to keep 
the wicked under some awe in this life, who with- 
out them would have no dread of death itself d . 
That for his own part, he saw how much it was his 
interest that they should follow Caesar's opinion, 
who had always pursued popular measures ; and by 
being the author of that vote, would secure him 
from any attack of popular envy ; but if they fol- 
lowed Silanus's, he did not know what trouble it 
might create to himself ; yet that the service of the 
republic ought to supersede all considerations of his 
danger : that Caesar, by this proposal, had given 
them a perpetual pledge of his affection to the state ; 
and showed the difference between the affected 
lenity of their daily declaimers, and a mind truly 
popular, which sought nothing but the real good of 
the people : that he could not but observe, that 
one of those, who valued themselves on being po- 
pular, had absented himself from this day's debate, 
that he might not give a vote upon the life of a 
citizen ; yet by concurring with them in all their 
previous votes, he had already passed a judgment 
on the merits of the cause : that as to the objection 
urged by Caesar, of Gracchus's law, forbidding to 
put citizens to death, it should be remembered, that 

c In Catil. iv. 3. 

d Itaque ut aliqua in vita formido improbis esset posita, 
apud inferos ejusmodi quaedam illi antiqui supplicia 
impiis constituta esse voluerunt, quod videlicet intellige- 
bant, his remotis, non esse mortem ipsam pertimescen- 
dam.— Ibid. 4. 



those who were adjudged to be enemies, could no 
longer be considered as citizens ; and that the 
author of that law had himself suffered death by 
the order of the people : that since Caesar, a man 
of so mild and merciful a temper, had proposed so 
severe a punishment, if they should pass it into an 
act, they would give him a partner and companion, 
who would justify him to the people ; but if they 
preferred Silanus's opinion, it would be easy still 
to defend both them and himself from any imputa- 
tion of cruelty : for he would maintain it, after all, 
to be the gentler of the two ; and if he seemed to 
be more eager than usual in this cause, it was not 
from any severity of temper, for n© man had less of 

it, but out of pure humanity and clemency." 

Then after forming a most dreadful image of " the 
city reduced to ashes, of heaps of slaughtered citi- 
zens, of the cries of mothers and their infants, the 
violation of the vestal virgins, and the conspirators 
insulting over the ruins of their country ; " he 
affirms it to be " the greatest cruelty to the repub- 
lic, to show any lenity to the authors of such hor- 
rid wickedness ; unless they would call L. Caesar 
cruel, for declaring the other day in the senate, 
that Lentulus, who was his sister's husband, had 
deserved to die : that they ought to be afraid rather 
of being thought cruel for a remissness of punish- 
ing, than for any severity which could be used 
against such outrageous enemies : that he would 
not conceal from them what he had heard to be 
propagated through the city, that they had not 
sufficient force to support and execute their sen- 
tence 6 : but he assured them, that all things of 
that kind were fully provided ; that the whole body 
of the people was assembled for their defence ; that 
the forum, the temples, and all the avenues of the 
senate were possessed by their friends ; that the 
equestrian order vied with the senate itself in 
their zeal for the republic ; whom, after a dis- 
sention of many years, that day's cause had 
entirely reconciled and united with them ; and if 
that union, which his consulship had confirmed, was 
preserved and perpetuated, he was confident that 
no civil or domestic evil could ever again disturb 
them f . That if any of them were shocked by 
the report of Lentulus's agents running up and 
down the streets, and soliciting the needy and silly 
to make some effort for his rescue, the fact indeed 
was true, and the thing had been attempted ; but 
not a man was found so desperate, who did not 
prefer the possession of his shed, in which he 
worked, his little hut and bed in which he slept, to 
any hopes of change from the public confusion : for 
all their subsistence depended on the peace and 
fullness of the city ; and if their gain would be 
interrupted by shutting up their shops, how much 
more would it be so by burning them ? — Since the 
people then were not wanting in their zeal and 
duty towards them, it was their part not to be 
wanting to the people s. That they had a consul 
snatched from various dangers and the jaws of 
death, not for the propagation of his own life, but 
of their security ; such a consul as they would not 
always have, watchful for them, regardless of him- 
self : they had also, what was never known before, 
the whole Roman people of one and the same 
mind •. that they should reflect how one night had 
almost demolished the mighty fabric of their 

e In Catil. iv. 6. f Ibid.T 

g Ibid. 8. 



60 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



empire, raised by such pains and virtue of men, by 
such favour and kindness of the gods : that by their 
behaviour on that day they were to provide, that 
the same thing should not only never be attempted, 
but not so much as thought of again by any citi- 
zen 11 . That as to himself, though he had nOw 
drawn upon him the enmity of the whole band of 
conspirators, he looked upon them as a base, abject, 
contemptible faction ; but if, through the madness 
of any, it should ever rise again, so as to prevail 
against the senate and the republic, yet he should 
never be induced to repent of his present conduct ; 
for death, with which perhaps they would threaten 
him, was prepared for all men; but none ever 
acquired that glory of life, which they had conferred 
upon him by their decrees : for to all others they 
decreed thanks for having served the republic suc- 
cessfully ; to him alone for having saved it. He 
hoped therefore, that there might be some place for 
his name among the Scipios, Paulluses, Mariuses, 
Pompeys ; unless it were thought a greater thing to 
open their way into new provinces, than to provide 
that their conquerors should have a home at last to 
return to: that the condition however of a foreign 
victory was much better than of a domestic one ; 
since a foreign enemy, when conquered, was either 
made a slave or a friend : but when citizens once 
turn rebels, and are baffled in their plots, one can 
neither keep them quiet by force, nor oblige them 
by favours : that he had undertaken therefore an 
eternal war with all traitorous citizens ; but was 
confident, that it would never hurt either him or 
his, while the memory of their past dangers sub- 
sisted, or that there could be any force strong 
enough to overpower the present union of the 
senate and the knights 1 : That in lieu therefore 
of the command of armies and provinces, which 
he had declined ; of a triumph and all other honours, 
which he had refused ; he required nothing more 
from them, than the perpetual remembrance of his 
consulship : while that continued fixed in their 
minds, he should think himself impregnable: but 
if the violence of the factious should ever defeat his 
hopes, he recommended to them his infant son, and 
trusted, that it would be a sufficient guard, not only 
of his safety, but of his dignity, to have it remem- 
bered, that he was the son of one who, at the 
hazard of his own life, had preserved the lives of 
them all." He concludes, by exhorting them to 
"act with the same courage which they had hi- 
therto shown through all this affair, and to proceed 
to some resolute and vigorous decree ; since their 
lives and liberties, the safety of the city, of Italy, 
and the whole empire, depended upon it." 

This speech had the desired effect ; and Cicero, 
by discovering his own inclination, gave a turn to 
the inclination of the senate ; when Cato, one of 
the new tribunes, rose up, and after extolling 
Cicero to the skies k , and recommending to the 
assembly the authority of his example and judg- 
ment, proceeded to declare, agreeably to his temper 
and principles, "That he was surprised to see 
any debate about the punishment of men, who 
had begun an actual war against their country : 
that their deliberation should be, how to secure 

h In Catil. iv. 9. ' Ibid. 10. 

k Quae omnia quia Cato laudibus extulerat in ccelum. — 
[Ep. ad Att. xii. 21.] Ita consulis virtutem amplificavit, 
ut universus senatus in ejus sententiam transiret.— Veil. 
Pat. ii. 35. 



themselves against them, rather than how to punish 
them : that other crimes might be punished after 
commission, but unless this was prevented before 
its effect, it would be vain to seek a remedy after : 
that the debate was not about the public revenues, 
or the oppressions of the allies, but about their 
own lives and liberties ; not about the discipline 
or manners of the city, on which he had oft deli- 
vered his mind in that place, nor about the greatness 
or prosperity of their empire, but whether they or 
their enemies should possess that empire ; and in 
such a case there could be no room for mercy. 
That they had long since lost and confounded the 
true names of things : to give away other people's 
money was called generosity ; and to attempt what 
was criminal, fortitude. But if they must needs 
be generous, let it be from the spoils of the allies ; 
if merciful, to the plunderers of the treasury : but 
let them not be prodigal of the blood of citizens, 
and by sparing a few bad destroy all the good. 
That Caesar indeed had spoken well and gravely 
concerning life and death ; taking all infernal 
punishments for a fiction, and ordering the crimi- 
nals therefore to be confined in the corporate 
towns ; as if there was not more danger from them 
in those towns, than in Rome itself, and more 
encouragement to the attempts of the desperate, 
where there was less strength to resist them ; so 
that his proposal could be of no use, if he was 
really afraid of them : but if in the general fear he 
alone had none, there was the more reason for all 
the rest to be afraid for themselves. That they 
were not deliberating on the fate only of the con- 
spirators, but of Catiline's whole army, which 
would be animated or dejected in proportion to 
the vigour or remissness of their decrees. That it 
was not the arms of their ancestors which made 
Rome so great, but their discipline and manners, 
which were now depraved and corrupted : that in 
the extremity of danger it was a shame to see them 
so indolent and irresolute, waiting for each other 
to speak first, and trusting, like women, to the 
gods, without doing anything for themselves : that 
the help of the gods was not to be obtained by idle 
vows and supplications : that success attended the 
vigilant, the active, the provident ; and when 
people gave themselves up to sloth and laziness, it 
was in vain for them to pray ; they would find the 
gods angry with them : that the flagitious lives of 
the criminals confuted every argument of mercy : 
that Catiline was hovering over them with an 
army, while his accomplices were within the walls, 
and in the very heart of the city ; so that, whatever 
they determined, it could not be kept secret, which 
made it the more necessary to determine quickly. 
Wherefore his opinion was, that since the criminals 
had been convicted, both by testimony and their 
own confession, of a detestable treason against the 
republic, they should suffer the punishment of 
death, according to the custom of their ancestors 1 ." 
Cato's authority, added to the impression which 
Cicero had already made, put an end to the debate; 
and the senate, applauding his vigour and resolu- 
tion, resolved upon a decree in consequence of it m . 
And though Silanus had first proposed that opinion, 
and was followed in it by all the consular senators, 
yet they ordered the decree to be drawn in Cato's 
words, because he had delivered himself more fully 



1 Sallust. Bell. Cat. 52. 



Ibid. 53. 






MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



61 



and explicitly upon it than any of them". The 
vote was no sooner passed, than Cicero resolved to 
put it in execution, lest the night, which was 
coming on, should produce any new disturbance : 
he went directly therefore from the senate, attended 
by a numerous guard of friends and citizens, and 
took Lentulus from the custody of his kinsman 
Lentulus Spinther, and conveyed him through the 
forum to the common prison, where he delivered 
him to the executioners, who presently strangled 
him. The other conspirators, Cethegus, Statilius, 
and Gabinius, were conducted to their execution 
by the praetors, and put to death in the same man- 
ner, together with Coeparius, the only one of their 
accomplices who was taken after the examination . 
When the affair was over, Cicero was conducted 
home in a kind of triumph by the whole body of 
the senate and the knights ; the streets being all 
illuminated, and the women and children at the 
windows and on the tops of houses, to see him 
pass along, through infinite acclamations of the 
multitude proclaiming him their saviour and de- 
livererP. 

This was the fifth of December, those celebrated 
nones, of which Cicero used, to boast so much ever 
after, as the most glorious day of his life : and it 
is certain, that Rome was indebted to him on this 
day for one of the greatest deliverances which it 
had ever received since its foundation, and which 
nothing perhaps but his vigilance and sagacity 
could have so happily effected : for from the first 
alarm of the plot, he never rested night or day, till 
he had got full information of the cabals and 
counsels of the conspirators i ; by which he easily 
baffled all their projects, and played with them as 
he pleased ; and without any risk to the public 
could draw them on just far enough to make their 
guilt manifest, and their ruin inevitable. But his 
masterpiece was the driving Catiline out of Rome, 
and teasing him as it were into a rebellion before 
it was ripe, in hopes that by carrying out with him 
his accomplices, he would clear the city at once of 
the whole faction, or by leaving them behind with- 
out his head to manage them, would expose them 
to sure destruction by their own folly : for Catiline's 
chief trust was not on the open force which he had 
provided in the field, but on the success of his 
secret practices in Rome, and on making himself 
master of the city ; the credit of which would have 
engaged to him of course all the meaner sort, and 
induced all others through Italy, who wished well 
to his cause, to declare for him immediately : so 
that when this apprehension was over, by the 
seizure and punishment of his associates, the senate 
thought the danger at an end, and that they had 
nothing more to do but to vote thanksgivings and 
festivals ; looking upon Catiline's army as a crew 
only of fugitives, or banditti, whom their forces 
were sure to destroy whenever they could meet 
with them. 

But Catiline was in condition still to make a 
stouter resistance than they imagined : he had 
filled up his troops to the number of two legions, 
or about twelve thousand fighting men, of which a 
fourth part only was completely armed, the rest 

n Idcirco in ejus sententiam est facta discessio. — Ad 
Att. xii. 21. 

o Sallust. Bell. Cat. 55. P Plutarch, in Cic. 

<1 In eo omnes dies, noctesque consumsi, ut quid agerent, 
quid molirentur, sentirem ac viderem. — In Catil. iii. 2. 



furnished with what chance offered — darts, lances, 
clubs. He refused at first to enlist slaves, who 
flocked to him in great numbers, trusting to the 
proper strength of the conspiracy, and knowing 
that he should quickly have soldiers enough, if his 
friends performed their part at home 1 ". So that 
when the consul Antonius approached towards him 
with his army, he shifted his quarters, and made 
frequent motions and marches through the moun- 
tains, sometimes towards Gaul, sometimes towards 
the city, in order to avoid an engagement till he 
could hear some news from Rome : but when the 
fatal account came, of the death of Lentulus and 
the rest, the face of his affairs began presently to 
change, and his army to dwindle apace, by the 
desertion of those whom the hopes of victory and 
plunder had invited to his camp. His first attempt, 
therefore, was by long marches and private roads 
through the Apennine, to make his escape into 
Gaul ; but Q. Metellus, who had been sent thither 
before by Cicero, imagining that he would take 
that resolution, had secured all the passes, and 
posted himself so advantageously with an army of 
three legions, that it was impossible for him to 
force his way on that side ; whilst on the other, 
the consul Antonius with a much greater force 
blocked him up behind, and enclosed him within 
the mountains 8 . Antonius himself had no inclin- 
ation to fight, or at least with Catiline; but would 
willingly have given him an opportunity to escape, 
had not his quaestor Sextius, who was Cicero's 
creature, and his lieutenant Petreius, urged him 
on against his will to force Catiline to the necessity 
of a battle l , — who, seeing all things desperate, and 
nothing left but either to die or conquer, resolved 
to try his fortune against Antonius, though much 
the stronger, rather than Metellus ; in hopes still, 
that out of regard to their former engagements, he 
might possibly contrive some way at last of throw- 
ing the victory into his hands u . But Antonius 
happened to be seized at that very time with a fit 
of the gout, or pretended at least to be so, that he 
might have no share in the destruction of an old 
friend, so that the command fell of course to a 
much better soldier and honester man, Petreius, — 
who, after a sharp and bloody action, in which he 
lost a considerable part of his best troops, destroyed 
Catiline and his whole army, fighting desperately 
to the last man x . They ail fell in the very ranks 
in which they stood, and, as if inspired with the 
genuine spirit of their leader, fought not so much 
to conquer as to sell their lives as dear as they 
could, and, as Catiline had threatened in the 
senate, to mingle the public calamity with their 
own ruin. 

* Sperabat propediem magnas copias se liabiturum, si 
Romas socii incepta patravissent — interea servitia repudi- 
abat.— Sallust. Bell. Cat. 56. s Ibid. 57. 

1 Hoc breve dicam :— Si M. Petreii non excellens animo 
et amore reipublica? virtus, non summa auotoritas apud 
milites, non mirificus usus in re militari extitisset, neque 
adjutor ei P. Sextius ad excitandum Antonium, cohortan- 
dum, ac impellendum fuisset, datus illo in bello esset 
hiemi locus, &c. 

Sextius, cum suo exercitu, summa celeritate est Anto- 
nium consecutus. Hie ego quid praedicem, quibus rebus 
consul em ad rem gerendam excitarit ; quot stimulos ad- 
moverit, &c— Pro Sext. 5. 

u Putiov 8e, on i\irida avrov Kara rb avvcafj.0Tbu 
i9eAoKaKr)a€iv e(rx ev — D i°, 1. xxxvii. p. 47. 

x Sallust. Bell. Cat. 59. 



62 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



Thus ended this famed conspiracy, in which 
some of the greatest men in Rome were suspected 
to be privately engaged, particularly Crassus and 
Caesar : they were both influenced by the same 
motive, and might hope, perhaps, by their interest 
in the city, to advance themselves, in the general 
confusion, to that sovereign power which they 
aimed at. Crassus, who had always been Cicero's 
enemy, by an officiousness of bringing letters and 
intelligence to him during the alarm of the plot, 
seemed to betray a consciousness of some guilt? ; 
and Caesar's whole life made it probable, that there 
could hardly be any plot in which he had not some 
share; and in this there was so general a suspicion 
upon him, especially after his speech in favour of 
the criminals, that he had some difficulty to escape 
with life from the rage of the knights who guarded 
the avenues of the senate ; where he durst not 
venture to appear any more, till he entered upon 
his praetorship with the new year 1 . Crassus was 
actually accused by one Tarquinius, who was taken 
upon the road as he was going to Catiline, and, 
upon promise of pardon, made a discovery of what 
he knew ; where, after confirming what the other 
witnesses had deposed, he added, that he was sent 
by Crassus to Catiline, with advice to him not to 
be discouraged by the seizure of his accomplices, 
but to make the greater haste for that reason to 
the city, in order to rescue them, and revive the 
spirits of his other friends. At the name of 
Crassus the senate was so shocked, that they would 
hear the man no farther ; but calling upon Cicero 
to put the question, and take the sense of the 
house upon it, they voted Tarquinius's evidence to 
be false, and ordered him to be kept in chains, nor 
to be produced again before them, till he would 
confess who it was that had suborned him a . 
Crassus declared afterwards, in the hearing of Sal- 
lust, that Cicero was the contriver of this affront 
upon him b . But that does not seem probable ; 
since it was Cicero's constant maxim, as he fre- 
quently intimates in his speeches, to mitigate and 
reclaim all men of credit by gentle methods, rather 
than make them desperate by an unseasonable 
severity, — and in the general contagion of the city, 
not to cut off, but to heal, every part that was 
curable. So that when some information was given 
likewise against Caesar, he chose to stifle it, and 
could not be persuaded to charge him with the 
plot, by the most pressing solicitations of Catulus 
and Piso, who were both his particular enemies, — 
the one for the loss of the high-priesthood, the 
other for the impeachment above-mentioned . 

Whilst the sense of all these services was fresh, 
Cicero was repaid for them to the full of his wishes, 
and in the very way that he desired, by the warm 
and grateful applauses of all orders of the city. 
For besides the honours already mentioned, L. 
Gellius, who had been consul and censor, said in 
a speech to the senate, that the republic owed him 

y Plutarch, in Cic. 

1 Uti nonnulli equites Romani, qui praesidii causa cum 
telis erant circum asdem Concordiae — egredienti ex senatu 
Caesari gladio minitarentur. — [Sallust. Bell. Cat. 49.] Vix 
pauci complexu, togaque objecta protexerint. Tunc 
plane deterritus non modo cessit, sed etiam in reliquum 
anni tempus curia abstinuit. — Sueton. J. Ca?s. 14. 

a Sallust. Bell. Cat. 40. 

b Ipsum Crassum ego postea praedicantem audivi, tan- 
tam illam contumeliam sibi a Cicerone impositam. — Ibid. 

p Appian. Bell. Civ. 1. ii. p. 430 ; Sallust. Bell. Cat. 49. 



a civic crown for having saved them all from 
ruin d : and Catulus in a full house declared him 
the father of his country e ; as Cato likewise did 
from the rostra, with the loud acclamations of 
the whole people f : whence Pliny, in honour of his 
memory, cries out, Hail thou, who wast first sa- 
luted the parent of thy country s. This title, the 
most glorious which a mortal can wear, was from 
this precedent usurped afterwards by those who of 
all mortals deserved it the least, the emperors ; 
proud to extort from slaves and flatterers what 
Cicero obtained from the free vote of the senate and 
people of Rome. 

. Roma Parentem, 

Roma Patrem Patriae Ciceronem libera dixit. 

Juv. viii. 
Thee, Cicero, Rome while free, nor yet enthrall'd 
To tyrants' will, thy Country's Parent call'd. 

All the towns of Italy followed the example of 
the metropolis, in decreeing extraordinary honours 
to him ; and Capua in particular chose him their 
patron, and erected a gilt statue to him h . 

Sallust, who allows him the character of an 
excellent consul, says not a word of any of these 
honours, nor gives him any greater share of praise 
than what could not be dissembled by an historian. 
There are two obvious reasons for this reservedness ; 
first, the personal enmity which, according to tra- 
dition, subsisted between them; secondly, the time 
of publishing his history, in the reign of Augustus-, 
while the name of Cicero was still obnoxious to envy. 
The other consul Antonius had but a small share 
of the thanks and honours which were decreed 
upon this occasion : he was known to have been 
embarked in the same cause with Catiline, and 
considered as acting only under a tutor, and doing 
penance as it were for past offences ; so that all 
the notice which was taken of him by the senate, 
was to pay him the slight compliment above- 
mentioned, for having removed his late profligate 
companions from his friendship and councils 1 . 

Cicero made two new laws this year ; the one, 
as it has been said, against bribery in elections ; 
the other, to correct the abuse of a privilege called 
legatio libera, — that is, an honorary legation, or 
embassy, granted arbitrarily by the senate to any 
of its members, when they travelled abroad on 
their private affairs, in order to give them a public 
character, and a right to be treated as ambassadors 
or magistrates ; which, by the insolence of these 
great guests, was become a grievous burthen upon 
all the states and cities through which they passed. 
Cicero's design was to abolish it; but being driven 
from that by one of the tribunes, he was content 
to restrain the continuance of it, which before was 
unlimited, to the term of one year k . 

lI L. Gellius, his audientibus, civicam coronam deberi a 
republica dixit. — In Pison. 3; it. A. Gell. v. 6. 

e MeQ,. Catulus, princeps hujus ordinis, frequentissimo 
senatu Parentem Patkt.e nominavit. — In Pis. 3. 

f Plutarch, in Cic. — KaToouos $' uinbu Kal 7roTe'po vrjs 
irarptdos TrpoaayopevaavTos, iirefi67}(reu o 5rj/j.os. — 
Appian. p. 431. 

g Salve, primus omnium Parens Patri.e appellate, &c. 
— Plin. Hist. N. vii. 30. 

h Me inaurata statua donarant: me patronum unurn 
adseiverant. — In Pis. 11. 

1 Atque etiam collega? meo laus impertitur, quod eos 
qui hujus conjurationis participes fuissent, a suis et a 
reipublicae consiliis removisset. — In Catil. iii. 6. 

k Jam illud apertum est, nihil esse turpius, quam quen- 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



6.'* 



At his first entrance into his office, L. Lucullus 
was soliciting the demand of a triumph for his 
victories over Mithridates, in which he had been 
obstructed for three years successively by the in- 
trigues of some of the magistrates 1 , who paid their 
court to Pompey, by putting this affront upon his 
rival. By the law and custom of the republic, no 
general, while he was in actual command, could 
come within the gates of Rome without forfeiting 
his commission, and consequently all pretensions 
to a triumph ; so that Lucullus continued all this 
time in the suburbs, till the affair was decided. 
The senate favoured his suit, and were solicitors 
for him m , but could not prevail, till Cicero's 
authority at last helped to introduce his triumphal 
car into the city n ; making him some amends by 
this service for the injury of the Manilian law, 
which had deprived him of his government. After 
his triumph he entertained the whole Roman people 
with a sumptuous feast, and was much caressed by 
the nobility, as one whose authority would be a 
proper check to the ambition and power of Pompey : 
but having now obtained all the honours which he 
could reasonably hope for in life, and observing 
the turbulent and distracted state of the city, he 
withdrew himself not long after from public affairs, 
to spend the remainder of his days in a polite and 
splendid retreat . He was a generous patron of 
learning, and himself eminently learned ; so that 
his house was the constant resort of the principal 
scholars and wits of Greece and Rome, where he 
had provided a well-furnished library, with porti- 
coes and galleries annexed, for the convenience of 
walks and literary conferences, at which he himself 
used frequently to assist; giving an example to the 
world of a life truly noble and elegant, if it had 
not been sullied by too great a tincture of Asiatic 
softness and Epicurean luxury. 

After this act of justice to Lucullus, Cicero had 
an opportunity, before the expiration of his consul- 
ship, to pay all due honour likewise to his friend 
Pompey ; who, since he last left Rome, had glo- 
riously finished the piratic and the Mithridatic war, 
by the destruction of Mithridates himself: upon 
the receipt of which news, the senate, at the motion 
of Cicero, decreed a public thanksgiving in his 
name of ten days ; which was twice as long as had 
ever been decreed before to any general, even to 
Marius himself, for his Cimbric victory p. 

But before we close the account of the memo- 
rable events of this year, we must not omit the 
mention of one, which distinguished it afterwards 
as a particular era in the annals of Rome, the birth 
of Octavius, surnamed Augustus, which happened 
on the twenty-third of September. Velleius calls 
quam legari nisi reipublicse causa — quod quidem genus 
legationis ego consul, quanquam ad commodum senatus 
pertinere videatur, tamen adprobante senatu frequentis- 
simo, nisi mihi levis tribunus plebis turn intercessisset, 
sustulissem : minui tamen tempus, et quod erat infini- 
tum, annuum feci. — De Leg. iii. 8. 
1 Plutarch, in Lucull. 
m Ibid. 

n Cum victor a Mithridatico bello revertisset, inimico- 
rum calumnia triennio tardius, quam debuerat, triumph- 
avit. Nos enim consules introduximus pame in urbem 
currum clarissimi viri. — Academ. ii. 1. 
Plutarch, in Lucull. 

P Quo consule referente, primum decern dierum suppli- 
catio decreta Cn. Pompeio Mithridate interfecto ; cujus 
sententia primum duplicata est supplicatio consularis. — 
De Provinc. Consular. 11. 



it an accession of glory to Cicero's consulship i : 
but it excites speculations rather of a different sort ; 
on the inscrutable methods of Providence, and the 
short-sighted policy of man ; that in the moment 
when Rome was preserved from destruction, and 
its liberty thought to be established more firmly 
than ever, an infant should be thrown into the 
world, who, within the course of twenty years, 
effected what Catiline had attempted, and destroyed 
both Cicero and the republic. If Rome could have 
been saved by human counsel, it would have been 
saved by the skill of Cicero : but its destiny was 
now approaching : for governments, like natural 
bodies, have, with the principles of their preserva- 
tion, the seeds of ruin also essentially mixed in their 
constitution, which, after a certain period, begin 
to operate and exert themselves to the dissolution 
of the vital frame. These seeds had long been 
fermenting in the bowels of the republic ; when 
Octavius came, peculiarly formed by nature and 
instructed by art, to quicken their operation, and 
exalt them to their maturity. 

Cicero's administration was now at an end, and 
nothing remained but to resign the consulship, 
according to custom, in an assembly of the people, 
and to take the usual oath, of his having discharged 
it with fidelity. This was generally accompanied 
with a speech from the expiring consul ; and after 
such a year, and from such a speaker, the city was 
in no small expectation of what Cicero would say 
to them : but Metellus, one of the new tribunes, 
who affected commonly to open their magistracy by 
some remarkable act, as a specimen of the measui'es 
which they intended to pursue, resolved to disap- 
point both the orator and the audience : for when 
Cicero had mounted the rostra, and was ready to 
perform this last act of his office, the tribune would 
not suffer him to speak, or to do anything more, 
than barely take the oath ; declaring, that he, who 
had put citizens to death unheard, ought not to be 
permitted to speak for himself : upon which Cicero, 
who was never at a loss, instead of pronouncing 
the ordinary form of the oath, exalting the tone of 
his voice, swore out aloud, so as all the people 
might hear him, that he had saved the republic and 
the city from ruin ; which the multitude below 
confirmed with an universal shout, and with one 
voice cried out, that what he had sworn was true r . 
Thus the intended affront was turned, by his pre- 
sence of mind, to his greater honour ; and he was 
conducted from the forum to his house, with all pos- 
sible demonstrations of respect by the whole city. 

1 Consulatui Ciceronis non mediocre adjecit decus, natus 
eo anno D. Augustus. — Veil. ii. 36 ; Suet. c. 5 ; Dio, p. 580. 

r Ego cum in concione, abiens magistratu, dicere a tri- 
buno plebis prohiberer, quae constitueram : cumque is 
mihi, tantummodo ut jurarem, permitteret, sine ulla 
dubitatione juravi, rempublicam atque hanc urbem mea 
unius opera esse salvam. Mihi popidus Romanus uni- 
versus non unius diei gratulationem, sed aeternitatem 
immortalitatemque donavit, cum meum jusjurandum tale 
atque tantum juratus ipse una voce et consensu approba- 
vit. Quo quidem tempore is meus domum fuit e foro 
reditus, ut nemo, nisi qui mecum esset, civium esse in 
numero videretur.— In Pison. 3. 

Cum ille mihi nihil nisi ut jurarem permitteret, magna 
voce juravi verissimum pulcherrimumque jusjurandum: 
quod populus item magna voce me vere jurassc juravit. — 
Ep. Fam. v. 2. 

Etenim paullo ante in concione dixerat, ei, qui in alios 
animadvertisset indicta causa, dicendi ipsi potestatem 
fieri non oportere. — Ibid. 



64 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



SECTION IV. 



A. URB. 691. 

cic. 45. 
coss. 

D. JUNIUS 
SILANUS, 
L. LICINIUS 
MURENA. 



Cicero being now reduced to the condition of 
a private senator, was to take his place on that 
venerable bench of consulars, who were 
justly reckoned the first citizens of the 
republic. They delivered their opinions 
the first always in the senate ; and 
commonly determined the opinions of 
the rest : for as they had passed 
through all the public offices, and been 
conversant in every branch of the 
administration so their experience gave them great 
authority in all debates ; and having little or nothing 
farther to expect for themselves, they were esteemed 
not only the most knowing, but, generally speaking, 
the most disinterested, of all the other senators, 
and to have no other view in their deliberations, 
but the peace and prosperity of the republic. 

This was a station exactly suited to Cicero's 
temper and wishes ; he desired no foreign govern- 
ments, or command of armies ; his province was 
the senate and the forum ; to guard, as it were, the 
vitals of the empire, and to direct all its councils 
to their proper end, the general good ; and in this 
advanced post of a consular senator, as in a watch- 
tower of the state, to observe each threatening 
cloud and rising storm, and give the alarm to his 
fellow-citizens from what quarter it was coming, 
and by what means its effects might be prevented a . 
This, as he frequently intimates, was the only glory 
that he sought, the comfort with which he flattered 
himself, that after a life of ambition and fatigue, 
and a course of faithful services to the republic, he 
should enjoy a quiet and secure old age, beloved 
and honoured by his countrymen, as the constant 
champion and defender of all their rights and 
liberties. But he soon found himself mistaken, 
and before he had quitted his office, began to feel 
the weight of that envy, which is the certain fruit 
of illustrious merit : for the vigour of his consulship 
had raised such a zeal and union of all the honest 
in the defence of the laws, that till this spirit could 
be broken, or subside again, it was in vain for the 
ambitious to aim at any power, but through the 
ordinary forms of the constitution; especially while 
he, who was the soul of that union, continued to 
flourish in full credit at the head of the senate. 
He was now, therefore, the common mark, not only 
of all the factious, against whom he had declared 
perpetual war, but of another party not less dan- 
gerous, the envious too ; whose united spleen never 
left pursuing him from this moment, till they had 
driven him out of that city, which he had so lately 
preserved. 

The tribune Metellus began the attack : a fit 
leader for the purpose ; who, from the nobility of 
his birth, and the authority of his office, was the 
most likely to stir up some ill humour against him, 
by insulting and reviling him in all his harangues, 
for putting citizens to death without a trial ; in all 
which he was strenuously supported by Caesar, who 
pushed him on likewise to the promulgation of 
several pestilent laws, which gave great disturbance 
to the senate. Cicero had no inclination to enter 



a Idcirco in hac ouatodia et tanquam in specula collocati 
sunms, ut vacuum onini metu populuni Romanum nostra 
vigilia et prospicicntia redderenius.— Phil. vii. 7. 



into a contest with the tribune, but took some pains 
to make up the matter with him by the interpo- 
sition of the women ; particularly of Claudia, the 
wife of his brother Metellus, and of their sister 
Mucia, the wife of Pompey : he employed also 
several common friends to persuade him to be 
quiet, and desist from his rashness ; but his answer 
was, that he was too far engaged, and had put it 
out of his power b : so that Cicero had nothing left, 
but to exert all his vigour and eloquence to repel 
the insults of this petulant magistrate. 

Caesar, at the same time, was attacking Catulus 
with no less violence ; and being now in possession 
of the praetorship, made it the first act of his office 
to call him to an account for embezzling the public 
money in rebuilding the capitol ; and proposed also 
a law, to efface his name from the fabric, and grant 
the commission for finishing what remained to 
Pompey : but the senate bestirred themselves so 
warmly in the cause, that Caesar was obliged to 
drop it c . This experiment convinced the two 
magistrates, that it was not possible for them to 
make head against the authority of the senate, 
without the help of Pompey, whom they resolved, 
therefore, by all the arts of address and flattery, to 
draw into their measures. With this view Metellus 
published a law, to call him home with his army, 
in order to settle the state, and quiet the public 
disorders raised by the temerity of Cicero d : for by 
throwing all power into his hands, they hoped to 
come in for a share of it with him, or to embroil 
him at least with the senate, by exciting mutual 
jealousies between them : but their law was thought 
to be of so dangerous a tendency, that the senate 
changed their habit upon it, as in the case of a 
public calamity ; and by the help of some of the 
tribunes, particularly of Cato, resolved to oppose 
it to the utmost of their power : so that as soon as 
Metellus began to read it to the people, Cato 
snatched it away from him ; and when he proceeded 
still to pronounce it by heart, Minucius, another 
tribune, stopped his mouth with his hand. This 
threw the assembly into confusion, and raised great 
commotions in the city ; till the senate, finding 
themselves supported by the better sort of all ranks, 
came to a new and vigorous resolution, of suspend- 
ing both Caesar and Metellus from the execution of 
their offices e . 

Caesar resolved at first, to act in defiance of them ; 
but finding a strong force prepared to control him, 
thought it more advisable to retire, and reserve the 
trial of arms, till he was better provided for it : he 
shut himself up therefore in his house, where, by a 
prudent and submissive behaviour, he soon made 
his peace, and got the decree of their suspension 
reversed f . But Metellus, as it was concerted pro- 
bably between them, fled away to his brother 
Pompey «, that by misrepresenting the state of 

b Quibus ille respondit, sibi non esse integrum.-— Ep. 
Fam. v. 2. 

c Sueton. J. Caes. 15; Dio, 1. xxxvii. p. 49. 

d Dio, ib. ; Plutarch, in Cic. 

e Donee ambo administrations reipublicae decreto pa- 
trum summoverentur. — Sueton. J. Caes. 16. 

{ Ut comperit paratos, qui vi ac per anna prohiberent, 
dimissis lictoribus, abjectaque pra?texta, domum clam 
refugit, pro conditione temporum quieturus — quod cum 
praster opinionem evenisset, senatus — accitum in curiam 
et amplissimis verbis collaudatinn, in integrum restituit, 
inducto priore decreto. — Sueton. ibid. 

g Plutarch, in Cicer. 



—7 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



G5 



things at home, and offering everything on the 
part of the people, he might instil into him some 
prejudices against the immoderate power of Cicero 
and the senate, and engage him, if possible, to 
declare for the popular interest. Cicero, in the 
meanwhile, published an invective oration against 
Metellus, which is mentioned in his epistles under 
the title of Metellina h : it was spoken in the senate, 
in answer to a speech which Metellus had made to 
the people, and is often cited by Quintilian and 
others 1 , as extant in their time. 

The senate having gained this victory over Csesar 
and Metellus, by obliging the one to submit, the 
other to leave the city ; Q. Metellus Celer, who 
commanded in Cisalpine Gaul, wrote a peevish and 
complaining letter to his friend Cicero, upon their 
treating his brother the tribune so severely : to 
which Cicero answered with that freedom, which a 
consciousness of integrity naturally dictates, yet 
with all that humanity which the sincerest friendship 
inspires ; as the reader will observe from the letter 
itself, which affords many instructive hints both 
historical and moral. 



M. T. Cicero to Q. Metellus Celer, Proconsul. 
" You write me word, that considering our mu- 
tual affection and late reconciliation, you never 
imagined, that you should be made the subject of 
public jest and ridicule by me. I do not well under- 
stand what you mean ; yet guess that you have 
been told, that, when. I was speaking one day in 
the senate of many who were sorry for my having 
preserved the republic, I said, that certain relations 
of yours, to whom you could refuse nothing, had 
prevailed with you to suppress what you had pre- 
pared to say in the senate in praise of me : when I 
said this, I added, that in the affair of saving the 
state I had divided the task with you in such a 
manner, that I was to secure the city from intestine 
dangers, you to defend Italy from the open arms 
and secret plots of our enemies ; but that this glo- 
rious partnership had been broken by your friends, 
who were afraid of your making me the least return 
for the greatest honours and services which you 
had received from me. In the same discourse, 
when I was describing the expectation which I had 
conceived of your speech, and how much I was 
disappointed by it, it seemed to divert the house, 
and a moderate laugh ensued ; not upon you, but 
on my mistake, and the frank and ingenuous con- 
fession of my desire to be praised by you. Now 
in this, it must needs be owned, that nothing could 
be said more honourably towards you, when, in the 
most shining and illustrious part of my life, I 
wanted still to have the testimony of your commen- 
dation. As to what you say of our mutual affection, 
I do not know what you reckon mutual in friend- 
ship, but I take it to be this ; when we repay the 
same good offices which we receive. Should I tell 
you then, that I gave up my province for your sake, 
you might justly suspect my sincerity : it suited 
my temper and circumstances, and I find more and 
more reason every day to be pleased with it : but 
this I can tell you, that I no sooner resigned it in 
an assembly of the people, than I began to contrive 
how to throw it into your hands. I say nothing 

h In illam orationem Metellinaru addidi qusedam ; liber 
tibi mittetur.— Ad Att. i. 13. 
i Quint. 1. ix. 3 ; Aid. Gell. xviii. 7. 



about the manner of drawing your lots ; but would 
have you only believe, that there was nothing done 
in it by my colleague without my privity. Pray 
recollect what followed ; how quickly I assembled 
the senate after your allotment, how much I said 
in favour of you, when you yourself told me, that 
my speech was not only honourable to you, but 
even injurious to your colleagues. Then as to the 
decree which passed that day in the senate, it is 
drawn in such a strain, that as long as it subsists, 
my good offices to you can never be a secret. 
After your departure, I desire you also to recollect 
what I did for you in the senate, what I said of 
you to the people, what I wrote to you myself; 
and when you have laid all these things together, 
I leave it to you to judge, whether at your last 
coming to Rome you made a suitable return to 
there. You mention a reconciliation between us ; 
but I do not comprehend how a friendship can be 
said to be reconciled, which was never interrupted. 
As to what you write, that your brother ought not 
to have been treated by me so roughly for a word : 
in the first place, I beg of you to believe, that I 
am exceedingly pleased with that affectionate and 
fraternal disposition of yours, so full of humanity 
and piety ; and in the second, to forgive me if in 
any case I have acted against your brother, for the 
j service of the republic, to which no man can be a 
warmer friend than myself : but if I have been 
acting only on the defensive, against his most cruel 
attacks, you may think yourself well used, that I 
have never yet troubled you with any complaints 
against him. As soon as I found that he was pre- 
paring to turn the whole force of his tribunate to 
my destruction, I applied myself to your wife 
Claudia, and your sister Mucia, whose zeal for my 
service I had often experienced, on the account of 
my familiarity with Pompey, to dissuade him from 
that outrage ; but he, as I am sure you have heard, 
on the last day of the year put such an affront 
upon me when consul, and after having saved 
the state, as had never been offered to any magis- 
trate the most traitorously affected, by depriving 
me of the liberty of speaking to the people upon 
laying down my office. But his insult turned only 
to my greater honour : for when he would not suffer 
me to do anything more than swear, I swore with 
a loud voice the truest, as well as the noblest of all 
oaths ; while the people with acclamations swore 
likewise, that my oath was true. After so signal 
an injury, I sent to him the very same day some of 
our common friends, to press him to desist from 
his resolution of pursuing me : but his answer was, 
that it was not then in his power : for he had said 
a few days before in a speech to the people, that 
he who had punished others without a hearing, 
ought not to be suffered to speak for himself. 
Worthy patriot, and excellent citizen ! to adjudge 
the man who had preserved the senate from a mas- 
sacre, the city from fire, and Italy from a war, to 
the same punishment which the senate, with the 
consent of all honest men, had inflicted on the 
authors of those horrid attempts. I withstood your 
brother, therefore, to his face ; and on the first of 
January, in a debate upon the republic, handled 
him in such a manner, as to make him sensible, 
that he had to do with a man of courage and con- 
stancy. Two days after, when he began again to 
harangue, in every three words he named and 
threatened me : nor had he anything so much at 



66 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



heart, as to effect my ruin at any rate ; not by the 
legal way of trial, or judicial proceeding, but by 
dint of force and violence. If I had not resisted 
his rashness with firmness and courage, who would 
not have thought, that the vigour of my consulship 
had been owing to chance, rather than to virtue ? 
If you have not been informed, that your brother 
attempted all this against me, be assured that he 
concealed from you the most material part : but if 
he told you anything of it, you ought to commend 
my temper and patience, for not expostulating with 
you about it : but since you must now be sensible, 
that my quarrel to your brother was not, as you 
write, for a word, but a most determined and spite- 
ful design to ruin me, pray observe my humanity, 
if it may be called by that name, and is not rather, 
after so flagrant an outrage, a base remissness and 
abjection of mind. I never proposed anything 
against your brother, when there was any question 
about him in the senate ; but without rising from 
my seat, assented always to those who were for 
treating him the most favourably. I will add farther, 
what I ought not indeed to have been concerned 
about, yet I was not displeased to see it done, and 
even assisted to get it done ; I mean, the procuring 
a decree for the relief of my enemy, because he 
was your brother. 1 did not, therefore, attack 
your brother, but defend myself only against him ; 
nor has my friendship to you ever been variable, 
as you write, but firm and constant, so as to remain 
still the same when it was even deserted and slighted 
by you. And at this very time, when you almost 
threaten me in your letter, I give you this answer, 
that I not only forgive, but highly applaud your 
grief; for I know, from what I feel within myself, 
how great the force is of fraternal love : but I beg 
of you also to judge with the same equity of my 
cause ; and if, without any ground, I have been 
cruelly and barbarously attacked by your friends, 
to allow that I ought not only not to yield to them, 
but on such an occasion to expect the help even of 
you and your army also against them. I was 
always desirous to have you for my friend, and have 
taken pains to convince you how sincerely I am 
yours : I am still of the same mind, and shall con- 
tinue in it as long as you please ; and, for the love 
of you, will sooner cease to hate your brother, 
than, out of resentment to him, give any shock — 
to the friendship which subsists between us. 
Adieu k ." 

Cicero, upon the expiration of his consulship, 
took care to send a particular account of his whole 
administration to Pompey ; in hopes to prevent 
any wrong impression there from the calumnies of 
his enemies, and to draw from him some public 
declaration in praise of what he had been doing. 
But Pompey, being informed by Metellus and 
Caesar of the ill humour which was rising against 
Cicero in Rome, answered him with great cold- 
ness, and, instead of paying him any compli- 
ment, took no notice at all of what had passed 
in the affair of Catiline : upon which Cicero 
expostulates with him in the following letter with 
some little resentment, yet so as not to irritate 
a man of the first authority in the republic, and 
to whom all parties were forwardly paying their 
court. 

k Ep. Fain. v. 2. 



M. T. Cicero to Cn. Pompeius the Great, 
Emperor 1 . 

" I had an incredible pleasure, in common with 
all people, from the public letter which you sent : 
for you gave us in it that assurance of peace 
which, from my confidence in you alone, I had 
always been promising. I must tell you, however, 
that your old enemies, but new friends, are 
extremely shocked and disappointed at it. As 
to the particular letter which you sent to me, 
though it brought me so slight an intimation of 
your friendship, yet it was very agreeable: for 
nothing is apt to give me so much satisfaction, 
as the consciousness of my services to my friends ; 
and if at any time they are not requited as they 
ought to be, I am always content that the balance 
of the account should rest on my side. I make 
no doubt, however, but that, if the distinguished 
zeal, which I have always shown for your interests, 
has not yet sufficiently recommended me to you, 
the public interest at least will conciliate and 
unite us. But that you may not be at a loss to 
know what it was, which I expected to find in your 
letter, I will tell it you frankly, as my own nature 
and our friendship require. I expected, out of regard 
both to the republic and to our familiarity, to have 
had some compliment or congratulation from you 
on what I lately acted in my consulship ; which 
you omitted, I imagine, for fear of giving offence 
to certain persons : but I would have you to know, 
that the things, which I have been doing for the 
safety of my country, are applauded by the testi- 
mony and judgment of the whole earth ; and when 
you come amongst us, you will find them done 
with so much prudence and greatness of mind, 
that you, who are much superior to Scipio, will 
admit me, who am not much inferior to Laelius, to 
a share both of your public councils and private 
friendship. Adieu m . 

Soon after Catiline's defeat, a fresh inquiry was 
set on foot at Rome against the rest of his accom- 
plices, upon the information of one L. Vettius, 
who, among others, impeached J. Caesar before 
Novius Niger the quaestor, as Q. Curius also did 
in the senate ; where, for the secret intelligence, 
which he had given very early to Cicero, he claimed 
the reward which had been offered to the first dis- 

1 The word emperor signified nothing more in its original 
use, than the general or chief commander of an army: 
[Cic. De Orat. i. 48.] in which sense it belonged equally to 
all who had supreme command in any part of the empire, 
and was never used as a peculiar title. But after a vic- 
tory, in which some considerable advantage was gained, 
and great numbers of the enemy slain, the soldiers, by a 
universal acclamation, used to salute their general in the 
field with the appellation of emperor, • ascribing as it 
were the sole merit of the action to his auspices and con- 
duct. This became a title of honour, of which all com- 
manders were proud, as being the effect of success and 
victory, and won by their proper valour ; and it was 
always the first and necessary step towards a triumph. 
On these occasions, therefore, the title of emperor was 
constantly ass imed, and given t<> generals in all acts and 
letters, both public and private, but was enjoyed by them 
no longer than the commission lasted, by which they had 
obtained it: that is, to the time of their return and en- 
trance into the city, from which moment (heir command 
and title expired together of course, and they resumed 
their civil character, and became private citizens. 

'" Ep. Fain. v. 7. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



67 



coverer 'of the plot. He affirmed, that what he 
deposed against Caesar, was told to him by Catiline 
himself; and Vettius offered to produce a letter to 
Catiline in Caesar's own hand. Caesar found some 
difficulty to repel so bold an accusation, and was 
forced to implore the aid and testimony of Cicero, 
to prove that he also had given early information of 
Catiline's designs : but by his vigour and interest 
in the city, he obtained a full revenge at last upon 
his accusers ; for he deprived Curius of the reward, 
and got Vettius committed to prison, after he had 
been miserably handled, and almost killed by the 
mob ; nor content with this, he imprisoned the 
quaestor Novius too, for suffering a superior magis- 
trate to be arraigned before him 11 . 

Several others, however, of considerable rank 
were found guilty and banished ; some of them not 
appearing to their citation, others after a trial ; 
viz. M. Porcius Lecca, C. Cornelius, L. Vargun- 
teius, Servius Sylla, and P. Autronius, &c. The 
last of these, who lost the consulship four years 
before upon a conviction of bribery, had been 
Cicero's school-fellow, and colleague in the quaes- 
torship ; and solicited him with many tears to 
undertake his defence : but Cicero not only 
refused to defend him, but, from the knowledge of 
his guilt, appeared as a witness against him°. 

P. Sylla also, Autronius's partner and fellow- 
sufferer in the cause of bribery, was now tried for 
conspiring twice with Catiline ; once, when the 
plot proved abortive, soon after his former trial ; 
and a second time, in Cicero's consulship : he was 
defended in the first by Hortensius, in the last by 
Cicero. The prosecutor was Torquatus, the son 
of his former accuser, a young nobleman of great 
parts and spirit ; who ambitious of the triumph of 
ruining an enemy, and fearing that Cicero would 
snatch it from him, turned his raillery against 
Cicero instead of Sylla ; and to take off tbe 
influence of his authority, treated his character 
with great petulance, and employed every topic 
which could raise an odium and envy upon him : 
he called him a king, who assumed a power to 
save or destroy, just as he thought fit ; said, that 
he was the third foreign king who had l-eigned in 
Rome after Numa and Tarquinius ; and that Sylla 
would have run away and never stood a trial, if he 
had not undertaken his cause : whenever he men- 
tioned the plot and the danger of it, it was with so low 
and feeble a voice, that none but the judges could 
hear him ; but when he spoke of the prison and the 
death of the conspirators, he uttered it in so loud 
and lamentable a strain, as to make the whole forum 
ring with it p . 

Cicero, therefore, in his reply, was put to the 
trouble of defending himself, as well as his client. 
" As to Torquatus's calling him foreigner, on the 
account of his being born in one of the corporate 
towns of Italy, he owns it ; and in that towm, he 

n Cum implorato Ciceronis testimonio, quaedam se de 
conjuratione ultro detulisse docuisset, ne Curio prasmia 
darentur, effecit. Vettium, pro rostris in coneione psene 
discerptum, in carcerem conjecit. Eodem Novium quas- 
storem, quod compellari apud se majorem potestatem 
passus esset.— Sueton. Jul. Caes. 17. 

Yeniebat ad me, et saepe veniebat Autronius multis 
cum lacbrymis, supplex, ut se defenderem : — Se meum 
condiscipulum in pueritia, familiarem in adolescentia, 
collegam in qusestura commemorabat fuisse.— Pro Sylla, 
vi. 30. 

P Ibid. vii. 10. 



says, whence the republic had been twice preserved 
from ruin ; and was glad that he had nothing to 
reproach him with, but what affected not only the 
greatest part, but the greatest men of the city ; 
Curius, Coruncanius, Cato, Marius, &c. but since 
he had a mind to be witty, and would needs make 
him a foreigner, why did not he call him a foreign 
consul, rather than a king ; for that would have 
been much more wonderful, since foreigners had 
been kings, but never consuls, of Rome. He 
admonishes him, who was now in the course of his 
preferment, not to be so free of giving that title to 
citizens, lest he should one day feel the resentment 
and power of such foreigners : that if the patricians 
were so proud, as to treat him and the judges upon 
the bench as foreigners, yet Torquatus had no 
right to do it, whose mother was of Asculumi. 
Do not call me, then, foreigner any more, says he, 
lest it turn upon yourself ; nor a king, lest you be 
laughed at ; unless you think it kingly, to live so 
as not to be a slave, not only to any man, but 
even to any appetite ; to contemn all sensual 
pleasures ; to covet no man's gold or silver, or 
anything else ; to speak one's mind freely in the 
senate ; to consult the good, rather than the 
humour of the people ; to give way to none, but 
to withstand many : if you take this to be kingly, 
I confess myself a king : but if the insolence of 
my power, if my dominion, if any proud or arrogant 
saying of mine provokes you, why do not you urge 
me with that, rather than the envy of a name, and 
the contumely of a groundless calumny?" — He 
proceeds to show, " that his kingdom, if it must 
be called so, was of so laborious a kina, that there 
was not a man in Rome who w T ould be content to 
take his place. 1 " He puts him in mind, " that 
he was disposed to indulge and bear with his pert- 
ness, out of regard to his youth and to his father — 
though no man had ever thrown the slightest 
aspersion upon him, without being chastised for 
it — but that he had no mind to fall upon one whom 
he could so easily vanquish ; who had neither 
strength, nor age, nor experience enough for him 
to contend with : he advised him however not to 
abuse his patience much longer, lest he should be 
tempted at last to draw out the stings of his speech 
against him s ." As to the merits of the cause, 
though there was no positive proof, yet there were 
many strong presumptions against Sylla, with 
which his adversary hoped to oppress him : but 
Cicero endeavoured to confute them, by appealing 
" to the tenor and character of his life ; protesting 
in the strongest terms, that he, who had been the 
searcher and detector of the plot, and had taken 
such pains to get intelligence of the whole extent 
of it, had never met with the least hint or suspicion 
of Sylla's name in it ; and that he had no other 
motive for defending him, but a pure regard to 
justice ; and as he had refused to defend others, 
nay, had given evidence against them from the 
knowledge of their guilt, so he had undertaken 
Sylla's defence, through a persuasion of his inno- 
cence 1 ." Torquatus, for want of direct proof, 
threatened to examine Sylla's slaves by torture : 
this was sometimes practised upon the demand of 
the prosecutor ; but Cicero observes upon it. 
" that the effect of those torments was governed 
always by the constitution of the patient, and the 



<i Pro Svlla, vii. 8. 


r Ibid. <). 


s Ibid. 10. 


t Ibid. 30. 




F 2 



68 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



firmness of his mind and body ; by the will and 
pleasure of the torturer, and the hopes and fears 
of the tortured ; and that in moments of so much 
anguish there could be no room for truth :" he bids 
them " put Sylla's life to the rack, and examine 
that with rigour ; whether there was any hidden lust, 
any latent treason, any cruelty, any audaciousness 
in it : that there could be no mistake in the cause, 
if the voice of his perpetual life, which ought to be 
of the greatest weight, was but attended to u ." 
Sylla was acquitted ; but Cicero had no great joy 
frpm his victory, or comfort in preserving such a 
citizen, who lived afterwards in great confidence 
with Csesar, and commanded his right wing in the 
battle of Pharsalia x ; and served him afterwards 
in his power, as he had before served his kinsman 
Sylla, in managing his confiscations and the sale of 
the forfeited estates. 

About the time of this trial Cicero bought a 
house of M. Crassus, on the Palatine hill, adjoin- 
ing to that in which he had always lived with his 
father, and which he is now supposed to have 
given up to his brother Quintus. The house cost 
him near thirty thousand pounds, and seems to 
have been one of the noblest in Rome ; it was 
built about thirty years before by the famous 
tribune, M. Livius Drusus ; on which occasion we 
are told, that when the architect promised to build 
it for him in such a manner, that none of his 
neighbours should overlook him : but if you have 
any skill, replied Drusus, contrive it rather so, 
that all the world may see what I am doing y. It 
was situated ^ in the most conspicuous part of the 
city, near to the centre of all business, overlooking 
the forum and the rostra ; and what made it the 
more splendid, was its being joined to a portico or 
colonnade, called by the name of Catulus, who 
built it out of the Cimbric spoils, on that area 
where Flaccus formerly lived, whose house was 
demolished by public authority for his seditious 
practices with C. Gracchus 2 . In this purchase 
he followed the rule which he recommends in his 
Offices, with regard to the habitation of a principal 
citizen ; that his dignity should be adorned by his 
house, but not derived from it a : where he men- 
tions several instances of great men, who by the 
splendour of their houses on this very hill, which 
were constantly striking the eyes of the people, 
and imprinting a notion of their magnificence, 
made their way the more easily to the highest 
honours of the republic. 

A. Gellius tells us, that having resolved to buy 
the house, and wanting money to pay for it, he 
borrowed it privately of his client Sylla, when he 
was under prosecution ; but the story taking wind, 
and being charged upon him, he denied both the 
borrowing and design of purchasing, yet soon after 
bought the house ; and when he was reproached 

' l Pro Sylla, vii. 28. 

x Vid. Caes. Comment, de Bello Civili. 

y Cum promitteret ei architects, ita se sedificaturum, 
ut libera a conspectu, immunis ab omnibus arbitris esset. 
— Tu vero, inquit, si quid in te artis est, ita compone 
domum meam, ut quicquid agam ab omnibus perspici 
possit.— Veil. Pat. ii. 14 ; Ep. Fam. v. 6. 

z M. Flaccus, quia cum Graccho conira reipublica; sa- 
lutem fecerat, et senatus sententia est interfectus, et 
domus ejus eversa est : in qua porticum post aliquanto Q. 
Catulus de manubiis Cimbricis fecit.— Pro Domo, 38. 

a Ornanda est enim dignitas domo, non ex domo tota 
quaerenda.—De Offic. i. 39. 



with the denial of it, replied only laughing, that 
they must be fools to imagine, that when he had 
resolved to buy, he would raise competitors of the 
purchase by proclaiming it b . 

The story was taken probably from some of the 
spurious collections of Cicero's Jests ; which were 
handed about not only after his death, but even 
in his lifetime, as he often complains to his 
friends : for it is certain, that there could be 
nothing dishonourable in the purchase, since it was 
transacted so publicly, that before it was even con- 
cluded, one of his friends congratulated him upon 
it by letter from Macedonia" 1 . The truth is, and 
what he himself does not dissemble, that he bor- 
rowed part of the money to pay for it, at six per 
cent. ; and says merrily upon it, that he was now 
so plunged in debt, as to be ready for a plot, but 
that the conspirators would not trust him e . It 
raised indeed some censure upon his vanity, for 
purchasing so expensive a house with borrowed 
money : but Messala, the consul, happening soon 
after to buy Autronius's house at a greater price, 
and with borrowed money too, it gave him some 
pleasure, that he could justify himself by the 
example of so worthy a magistrate : by Messala's 
purchase, says he, I am thought to have made a 
good bargain ; and men begin to be convinced, 
that we may use the wealth of our friends, in buy- 
ing what contributes to our dignity f . 

But the most remarkable event, which happened 
in the end of this year, was the pollution of the 
mysteries of the Bona Dea, or the Good Goddess, 
by P. Clodius ; which, by an unhappy train of 
consequences, not only involved Cicero in an 
unexpected calamity, but seems to have given the 
first blow towards the ruin of the republic. Clodius 
was now quaestor, and by that means a senator ; 
descended from the noblest family in Rome, in the 
vigour of his age, of a graceful person, lively wit, 
and flowing eloquence ; but with all the advantages 
of nature, he had a mind incredibly vicious ; was 
fierce, insolent, audacious, but above all, most 
profligately wicked, and an open contemner of gods 
and men ; valuing nothing, that either nature or 
the laws allowed ; nothing, but in proportion as it 
was desperate and above the reach of other men ; 
disdaining even honours in the common forms of 
the republic ; nor relishing pleasures, but what 
were impious, adulterous, incestuous?. He had 

1> Aul. Gell. xii. 12. 

c Ais enim, ut ego discesserim omnia omnium dicta, in 
his etiam Sestiana in me conferri. Quid? tu id pateris? 
nonne defendis ? nonne resistis ? &c. — Ep. Fam. vii. 32. 

Sic audio Caesarem — si quod afferatur ad euro pro meo, 
quod meum non est, rejicere solere. — Ibid. ix. 16. 

d Quod ad me pridem scripseras, velle te bene evenire, 
quod de Crasso domum emeram — Emi earn ipsam domum 
H. S. xxxv. aliquanto post tuam gratulationem. — Ep. 
Fam. v. 6. 

e Itaque scito, me nunc tantum habere osris alieni, ut 
cupiam conjurarc, si quisquam reeipiat. Sed partim me 
excludunt, &c. — Ibid. 

f Ea emptione et nos bene emisse judicati sumus ; et 
homines intelligere cceperunt, licere amicorum facultati- 
bus in eniendo ad dignitatem aliquam pervenire. — Ad 
Att. i. 13. 

{ Ezorta est ilia reipublica? sacris, religionibus, aucto- 
ritati vestrai, judiciis publicis funesta quasstura : in qua 
idem iste deos, hominesque, pudorem, pudicitiam, sena- 
tus auctoritatem, jus, fas, leges, judicia violavit, &c De 

Ilaruspic. Resp. 20. 

Qui ita judicia pcenamque contempserat, ut eum nihil 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



69 



an intrigue with Caesar's wife Pompeia, who, 
according to annual custom, was now celebrating 
in her house those awful and mystic sacrifices of 
the goddess, to which no male creature was ever 
admitted, and where everything masculine was so 
scrupulously excluded, that even pictures of that 
sort were covered during the ceremony 11 . This 
was a proper scene for Clodius's genius to act 
upon ; an opportunity of daring, beyond what 
man had ever dared before him : the thought of 
mixing the impurity of his lusts with the' sanctity 
of these venerable rites flattered his imagination 
so strongly, that he resolved to gain access to his 
mistress in the very midst of her holy ministry. 
With this view he dressed himself in.a woman's 
habit, and by the benefit of his smooth face, and 
the introduction of one of the maids, who was 
in the secret, hoped to pass without discovery : 
but by some mistake between him and his guide, 
he lost his way when he came within the house, 
and fell in unluckily among the other female ser- 
vants, who detecting him by his voice, alarmed 
the whole company by their shrieks, to the great 
amazement of the matrons, who presently threw a 
veil over the sacred mysteries, while Clodius 
found means to escape by the favour of some of 
the damsels'. 

The story was presently spread abroad, and 
raised a general scandal and horror through the 
whole city : in the vulgar, for the profanation 
of a religion held the most sacred of any in 
Rome ; in the better sort, for its offence to good 
manners, and the discipline of the republic. 
Csesar put away his wife upon it ; and the honest 
of all ranks were for pushing this advantage against 
Clodius as far as it would go, in hopes to free 
themselves by it of a citizen, who by this, as well 
as other specimens of his audaciousness, seemed 
born to create much disturbance to the state k . It 
had been the constant belief of the populace, that 
if a man should ever pry into these mysteries, he 
would be instantly struck blind : but it was not 
possible, as Cicero says, to know the truth of it 
before, since no man, but Clodius, had ever ven- 
tured upon the experiment : though it was now 
found, as he tells him, that the blindness of the 
eyes was converted to that of the mind 1 . 

delectaret, quod aut per naturam fas esset; aut per leges 
liceret.— Pro Mil. 16. 

P. Clodius, homo nobilis, disertus, audax ; qui neque 
dicendi, neque faciendi ullurn, nisi quern vellet, nosset 
modum ; malorum propositorum executor acerrimus, in- 
famis etiam sororis stupro, &c. — Veil. Pat. ii. 45. 

k i ubi velari pictura jubetur, 

Qufficunque alterius sexus imitata figuram est. 

Juven. vi. 339. 
Quod quidem sacrificium nemo ante P. Clodium in 

omni memoria violavit quod fit per Virgines Vestales ; 

fit pro populo Romano ; fit in ea domo, qua? est in im- 
perio ; fit increclibili ceremonia ; fit ei dead, cujus ne 
nomen quidem viros scire fas est. — De Harusp. Resp. 17- 

i P. Clodium, Appii filium, credo te audisse cum veste 
muliebri deprehensum domi C. Caesaris, cum pro populo 
fieret, e\imque per manus servula? servatum et eductum ; 
rem esse insigni infamia. — Ad Att. i. 12. 

k Videbam, illud scelus tarn importunum, audaciam 
tarn immanem adolcscentis, furentis, nobilis, vulnerati, 
non posse arceri otii finibus : erupturum illud malum 
aliquando, si impunitum fuisset, ad perniciem civitatis. — 
De Harusp. Resp. 3. 

1 Aut quod oculos, ut opinio illius religionis est, non 
perdidisti. Quis enim ante te sacra ilia vir sciens viderat, 



The affair was soon brought before the senate, 
where it was resolved to refer it to the college of 
a. orb. 692. priests, who declared it to be an abo- 
cic. 46. minable impiety ; upon which the 
coss. consuls were ordered to provide a law 

m. pupius for bringing Clodius to a trial for it 
piso, before the people" 1 . But Q. Fufius 

m. Valerius Calenus, one of the tribunes, support- 
messala. ed by all the Clodian f action> wou id 

not permit the law to be offered to the suffrage of 
the citizens. This raised a great ferment in the 
city, while the senate adhered to their former reso- 
lution, though the consul Piso used all his endea- 
vours to divert them from it, and Clodius, in an 
abject manner, threw himself at the feet of every 
senator ; yet, after a second debate in a full house, 
there were fifteen only who voted on Clodius' side, 
and four hundred directly against him ; so that a 
fresh decree passed, to order the consuls to recom- 
mend the law to the people with all their authority, 
and that no other business should be done till it 
was carried?. But this being likely to produce 
great disorders, Hortensius proposed an expedient, 
which was accepted by both parties, that the tri- 
bune Fufius should publish a law for the trial of 
Clodius by the praetor, with a select bench of 
judges. The only difference between the two laws 
was, whether he should be tried by the people or 
by particular judges : but this, says Cicero, was 
everything. Hortensius was afraid lest he should 
escape in the squabble without any trial, being 
persuaded that no judges could absolve him, and 
that a sword of lead, as he said, would destroy him ; 
but the tribune knew that in such a trial there would 
be room for intrigue, both in choosing and cor- 
rupting the judges, which Cicero likewise foresaw 
from the first ; and wished, therefore, to leave him 
rather to the effect of that odium in which his cha- 
racter then lay, than bring him to a trial where he 
had any chance to escape . 

Clodius's whole defence was, to prove himself 
absent at the time of the fact ; for which purpose, 
he produced men to swear that he was then at 
ut quisquam poenam, quae sequeretur illud scelus, scire 
posset ?— De Harusp. Resp. 18. 

Poena omnis oculorum ad caecitatem mentis est con- 
versa. — Pro Domo, 40. 

m Id sacrificium . cum Virgines instaurassent, men- 
tionem a Q,. Cornificio in senatu factam — post rem ex 
S. C. ad Pontifices relatam ; idque ab eis nefas esse decre- 
turn ; deinde ex S. C. consules rogationem promulgasse : 
uxori Cassarem nuncium remisisse — In hac causa Piso, 
amicitia P. Clodii ductus, operam dat, ut ea rogatio — 
antiquetur, &c. — Ad Att. i. 13. 

n Senatus vocatur ; cum decerneretur frequenti senatu, 
contra pugnante Pisone, ad pedes omnium sigillatim 
accedente Clodio, ut consules populum cohortarentur ad 
rogationem accipiendam : homines ad xv. Curioni, nul- 
lum S. C. facienti, assenserunt, ex altera parte facile cccc. 
fuerunt.— Senatus decernebat, ut ante, quam rogatio lata 
esset, ne quid ageretur. — Ibid. 14. 

Postea vero quam Hortensius excogitavit, ut legem de 
religione Fufius tribunus plebis ferret : in qua nihil aliud 
a consulari rogatione differebat, nisi judicum genus, (in 
eo autem erant omnia) pugnavitque ut ita fieret ; quod et 
sibi et aliis persuaserat, nullis ilium judicibus effugere 
posse ; contraxi vela, perspiciens inopiam judicum. — Hor- 
tensius— non vidit illud, satius esse ilium in infamia et 
sordibus relinqui, quam infirmo judicio committi. Sed 
ductus odio properavit rem deducere in judicium, cum 
ilium plumbeo gladio jugulatum hi tamen diceret — A me 
tamen ab initio consilium Hortensii reprehendebatur. — Ad 
Att. i. 16. 



r 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



Interamna, about two or three days' journey from 
the city. But Cicero being called upon to give his 
testimony, deposed, that Clodius had been with 
him that very morning at his house in Rome p. As 
soon as Cicero appeared in the court, the Clodian 
mob began to insult him with great rudeness ; but 
the judges rose up, and received him with such 
respect, that they presently secured him from all 
farther affronts 3. Csesar, who was the most par- 
ticularly interested in the affair, being summoned 
also to give evidence, declared, that he knew 
nothing at all of the matter ; though his mother 
Aurelia, and sister Julia, who were examined before 
him, had given a punctual relation of the whole 
fact : and being interrogated, how he came then to 
part with his wife ? he replied, that all who belonged 
to him ought to be free from suspicion as well as 
guilt 1 . He saw very well how the thing was like 
to turn, and had no mind to exasperate a man of 
Clodius's character, who might be of good service 
to him for the advancement of his future projects. 
Plutarch says, that Cicero himself was urged on to 
this act against his will, by the importunity of his 
wife — a fierce, imperious dame, jealous of Clodius' 
sister, whom she suspected of some design to get 
Cicero from her, which by this step she hoped to 
make desperate. The story does not seem impro- 
bable ; for, before the trial, Cicero owns himself to 
be growing every day more cool and indifferent 
about it ; and in his railleries with Clodius after 
it, touches upon the forward advances which his 
sister had made towards him ; and at the very time 
of giving his testimony, did it with no spirit, nor 
said anything more, as he tells us, than what was 
so well known that he could not avoid saying it s . 

The judges seemed to act at first with great 
gravity ; granted everything that was asked by the 
prosecutors ; and demanded a guard to protect 
them from the mob ; which the senate readily 
ordered, with great commendation of their pru- 
dence : but when it came to the issue, twenty-five 
only condemned, while thirty-one absolved him. 
Crassus is said to have been Clodius's chief mana- 
ger in tampering with the judges, employing every 
art and instrument of corruption as it suited the 
different tempers of the men ; and where money 
would not do, offering even certain ladies and 
young men of quality to their pleasure. Cicero 
says, that a " more scandalous company of sharpers 
never sat down at a gaming-table : infamous sena- 
tors, beggarly knights, with a few honest men 
among them, whom Clodius could not exclude ; 
who, in a crew so unlike to themselves, sat with sad 
and mournful faces, as if afraid of being infected 
with the contagion of their infamy ; and that Catu- 
lus, meeting one of them, asked him what they 
meant by desiring a guard ; were they afraid of 

i> Plutarch, in Cic. : Val. Max. viii. 5. 

1 Me vero teste produeto ; Credo te — audisse, quae con- 
surrectio judicum facta sit, ut me circumsteterint, &c.— 
Ad Att. i. 16. 

r Negavit se quidquam comperisse, quamvis et mater 
Aurelia, et soror Julia, apud eosdem judices, omnia ex 
fide retulissent: interrogatusque, cur igitur repudiasset 
uxorem ? — Quoniam, inquit, meos tarn suspicione quam 
crimine judico carcrc oportcrc.— Suet. J. C;rs. 74. 

s Nosmetipsi, qui Lycurgei a principio fuissemus, quo- 
tidie demitigamur. — Ad Att. i. 13. 

Neque dixi quicquam pro testimonio, nisi quod erat ita 
notu'm atque testatum, ut non possem pra'terire.— Ibid. 
16. 



being robbed of the money which Clodius had 
given them 1 ?" 

This transaction, however, gave a very serious 
concern to Cicero, who laments " that the firm 
and quiet state of the republic which he had estab- 
lished in his consulship, and which seemed to be 
founded in the union of all good men, was now lost 
and broken, if some deity did not interpose, by this 
single judgment : if that," says he, " can be called 
a judgment, for thirty of the most contemptible 
scoundrels of Rome to violate all that is just and 
sacred for the sake of money, and vote that to be 
false which all the world knows to be true." As 
he looked upon himself to be particularly affronted 
by a sentence given in flat contradiction to his tes- 
timony, so he made it his business on all occasions 
to display the iniquity of it, and to sting the several 
actors in it with all the keenness of his raillery 11 . 
In a debate soon after in the senate, on the state of 
the republic, taking occasion to fall upon this affair, 
he " exhorted the fathers not to be discouraged for 
having received one single wound, which was of 
such a nature that it ought neither to be dissembled 
nor to be feared ; for to fear it, was a meanness ; 
and not to be sensible of it, a stupidity : that Len- 
tulus was twice acquitted ; Catiline also twice ; and 
this man was the third, whom a bench of judges 
had let loose upon the republic. But thou art 
mistaken, Clodius," says he ; " the judges have not 
reserved thee for the city, but for a prison : they 
designed thee no kindness by keeping thee at 
home, but to deprive thee of the benefit of an 
exile. Wherefore, fathers, rouse your usual vigour; 
resume your dignity ; there subsists still the same 
union among the honest : they have had, indeed, a 
fresh subject of mortification, yet their courage is 
not impaired by it : no new mischief has befallen 
us ; but that only, which lay concealed, is now dis- 
covered, and, by the trial of one desperate man, 
many others are found to be as bad as he x ." 

Clodius, not caring to encounter Cicero by for- 
mal speeches, chose to tease him with raillery, and 
turn the debate into ridicule. " You are a fine 
gentleman, indeed," says he, " and have been at 
Baise." " That's not so fine," replied Cicero, " as 
to be caught at the mysteries of the goddess." 
" But what," says he, " has a clown of Arpinum 
to do at the hot wells ?" " Ask that friend of 
yours," replied Cicero, " who had a month's mind 
to your Arpinum clown V " You have bought a 
t Nosti Calvum— biduo per unum servum, et eum ex 
gladiatorio ludo, confecit totum negotium. Arcessivit ad 
se, promisit, intercessit, dedit. Jam vero (O dii boni, rem 
perditam !) etiam noctes certarum mulierum, atque ado- 
lescentulorum nobilium introductiones nonnullis judici- 
bus pro mercedis cumulo fuerunt — xxv. judices ita fortes 
fuerunt, ut summo proposito periculo vel perire malue- 
rint, quam perdere omnia, xxxi. fuerunt, quos fames 
magis quam fama commovcrit. Quorum Catulus cum 
vidisset quendam ;— Quid vos, inquit, presidium a nobis 
postulabatis? an, ne nummi vobis cripcrcntur, timebatis? 
Maculosi senatores, nudi equites — pauci tamen boni 
inerant, quos rejectione fugare ille non poterat; qui moesti 
inter sui dissimiles et mcerentcs sedebant, et contagione 
turpitudinis vehementer permovebantur. — Ad Att. i. 16. 

u Insectandis vero, exagitandisque nummariis judici- 
bus, omnem omnibus studiosis ac fautoribus illius victo- 
rias irapfacrlav eripui, — Ibid. x Ibid. 

y Tbis is supposed to refer to bis sister Clodia, a lady 
famous for ber intrigues ; who had been trying all arts to 
tempt Cicero to put away Terentia, and to take her for 
his wife. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



71 



house," says he z . "You should have said, judges," 
replied Cicero. " Those judges," says he, " would 
not believe you upon your oath." " Yes," replied 
Cicero, " twenty-five of them gave credit to me ; 
while the rest would not give any to you, but made 
you pay your money beforehand." This turned the 
laugh so strongly on Cicero's side, that Clodius was 
confounded, and forced to sit down a . But being 
now declared enemies, they never met without some 
strokes of this kind upon each other ; which, as 
Cicero observes, must needs appear flat in the nar- 
ration, since all their force and beauty depended 
on the smartness of the contention, and the spirit 
with which they were delivered b . 

The present consuls were M. Pupius Piso and 
M. Messala ; the first of whom, as soon as he 
entered into office, put a slight affront upon Cicero : 
for his opinion having been asked always the first 
by the late consuls, Piso called upon him only the 
second, on Catulus the third, Hortensius the fourth. 
This, he says, did not displease him, since it left 
him more at liberty in his voting, and freed him 
from the obligation of any complaisance to a man 
whom he despised . This consul was warmly in 
the interest of Clodius ; not so much out of friend- 
ship, as a natural inclination to the worst side; for, 
according to Cicero's account of him, he was a man 
" of a weak and wicked mind ; a churlish, captious 
sneerer, without any turn of wit, and making men 
laugh by his looks rather than jests ; favouring 
neither the popular nor the aristocratical party ; 
from whom no good was to be expected, because 
he wished none, nor hurt to be feared, because he 
durst do none ; who would have been more vicious, 
by having one vice the less," sloth and laziness," 
&c. d Cicero frankly used the liberty which this 
consul's behaviour allowed him, of delivering his 
sentiments without any reserve ; giving Piso him- 
self no quarter, but exposing everything that he 
did and said in favour of Clodius, in such a manner 
as to hinder the senate from decreeing to him the 
province of Syria, which had been designed, and, 
in a manner, promised to him e . The other consul, 
Messala, was of a quite different character ; a firm 
and excellent magistrate, in the true interests of his 
country, and a constant admirer and imitator of 
Cicero f . 

About this time, Cicero is supposed to have 
made that elegant oration, still extant, in the de- 
fence of his old preceptor, the poet Archias : he 

z Though Clodius reproaches Cicero here for the extra- 
vagant purchase of a house, yet he himself is said to have 
given afterwards near four times as much for one, viz. 
about 119,000?. sterling.— Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xxxvi. 15. 

a Ad Att. i. 16. 

b Nam caetera non possunt habere neque vim, neque 
venustatem, remoto illo studio contentionis. — Ibid. 

c Ibid. 13. 

d Neque id magis amicitia Clodii ductus, quam studio 
perditarum rerum, atque partium. — Ibid. 14. 

Consul autem ipse parvo animo et pravo ; tantum cavil- 
lator genere illo moroso, quod etiam sine dicacitate ride- 
tur ; facie magis, quam facetiis ridiculus : nihil agens 
cum republica, sejunctus ab optimatibus: a quo nihil 
speres boni reipublicae, quia non vult ; nihil mctuas mali, 
quia non audet— Ibid. 13. 

Uno vitio minus vitiosus, quod iners, quod somni plenus. 
—Ibid. 14. 

e Consulem nulla in re consistere unquam sum passus : 
desponsam homini jam Syriam ademi. — Ibid. 16. 

f Messala consul est egregius, fortis, constans, diligens, 
nostri laudator, amator, imitator.— Ibid. 14. 



expected for his pains an immortality of fame from 
the praise of Archias's muse ; but, by a contrary 
fate of things, instead of deriving any addition of 
glory from Archias's compositions, it is wholly 
owing to his own that the name of Archias has not 
long ago been buried in oblivion. From the great 
character given by him of the talents and genius of 
this poet, we cannot help regretting the entire loss 
of his works : he had sung in Greek verse the tri- 
umphs of Marius over the Cimbri, and of Lucullus 
over Mithridates ; and was now attempting the 
consulship of Cicero?: but this perished with the 
rest, or was left rather unfinished and interrupted 
by his death, since we find no farther mention of 
it in any of Cicero's later writings. 

Pompey the Great returned to Rome about the 
beginning of this year, in the height of his fame 
and fortunes, from the Mithridatic war. The city 
had been much alarmed about him, by various 
reports from abroad, and several tumults at home ; 
where a general apprehension prevailed of his 
coming at the head of an army to take the govern- 
ment into his hands h . It is certain, that he had it 
now in his power to make himself master of the 
republic without the hazard even of a war, or any 
opposition to controul him. Caesar, with the tri- 
bune Metellus, was inviting him to it, and had no 
other ambition at present than to serve under him : 
but Pompey was too phlegmatic to be easily induced 
to so desperate a resolution ; or seems rather, in- 
deed, to have had no thoughts at all of that sort, 
but to have been content with the rank which he 
then possessed, of the first citizen of Rome, with- 
out a rival. He had lived in a perpetual course of 
success and glory, without any slur, either from the 
senate or the people, to inspire him with sentiments 
of revenge, or to give him a pretence for violent 
measures ; and he was persuaded that the growing 
disorders of the city would soon force all parties to 
create him Dictator, for the settlement of the state ; 
and thought it of more honour to his character to 
obtain that power by the consent of his citizens, 
than to extort it from them by violence. But what- 
ever apprehensions were conceived of him before 
his coming, they all vanished at his arrival ; for he 
no sooner set foot in Italy, than he disbanded his 
troops, giving them orders only to attend him in his 
triumph ; and, with a private retinue, pursued his 
journey to Rome, where the whole body of the 
people came out to receive him with all imaginable 
gratulations and expressions of joy for his happy 
return 1 . 

By his late victories he had greatly extended the 
barrier of the empire into the continent of Asia, 
having added to it three powerful kingdoms k , Pon- 
tus, Syria, Bithynia, which he reduced to the con- 

S Nam et Cimbricas res adolescens attigit, et ipsi illi 
C. Mario, qui durior ad ha?c studia videbatur, jucundus 
fuit. 

Mithridaticum vero bellum, magnum atque difficile, 
totum ab hoc expressum est ; qui libri non modo L. Lu- 
cullum, verum etiam populi Romani nomen illustrant. — 
Nam quas res in consulatu nostro vobiscum simul pro 
salute urbis atque imperii gessimus, attigit hie versibus 
atque inchoavit : quibus auditis, quod mini magna reset 
jucunda visa est, nunc ad perficiendum hortatus sum. — 
Pro Archia, 9, 11. 

h Plutarch, in Pomp. ' Ibid. 

k Ut Asia, qua; imperium antea nostrum terminabat, 
nunc tribus novis provinciis ipsa cingatur.— De Provin. 
Consular. 12. 



72 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



dition of Roman provinces ; leaving all the other 
kings and nations of the East tributary to the 
republic, as far as the Tigris. Among his other 
conquests, he took the city of Jerusalem, by the 
opportunity of a contest about the crown between 
the two brothers, Hircanus and Aristobulus. The 
lower town was surrendered to him with little or no 
opposition, but the fortress of the temple cost him 
a siege of three months ; nor would he have taken 
it then so easily, as Dio tells us 1 , had it not been 
for the advantage that the besieged gave him by 
the observance of their weekly sabbaths, on which 
they abstained so religiously from all work as to 
neglect even their necessary defence. He showed 
great humanity to the people, and touched no part 
of the sacred treasure, or vessels of gold, which 
were of an immense value m ; yet was drawn by his 
curiosity into such a profanation of their temple, 
as mortified them more than all that they had suf- 
fered by the war : for, in taking a view of the 
buildings, he entered with his officers not only into 
the holy place, where none but the priests, but into 
the holy of holies, where none but the high priest 
was permitted by the law to enter : by which act, as 
a very eminent writer, more piously perhaps than 
judiciously, remarks, he drew upon himself the 
curse of God, and never prospered afterwards". 
He carried Aristobulus and his children prisoners 
to Rome, for the ornament of his triumph, and 
settled Hircanus in the government and the high 
priesthood, but subject to a tribute. Upon the 
receipt of the public letters which brought the 
account of his success, the senate passed a decree, 
that, on all festival days, he should have the privi- 
lege to wear a laurel crown with his general's robe ; 
and in the equestrian races of the Circus, his tri- 
umphal habit ; an honour which, when he had once 
used, to show his grateful sense of it, he ever after 
prudently declined, since, without adding anything 
to his power, it could serve only to increase the 
envy which many were endeavouring to stir up 
against him . 

On the merit of these great services, he did many 
acts abroad of a very extraordinary nature ; gave 
what laws he pleased to the whole East ; distri- 
buted the conquered countries at discretion to the 
kings and princes who had served him in the wars ; 
built twenty-nine new cities, or colonies ; and 
divided to each private soldier about fifty pounds 
sterling, and to his officers in proportion ; so that 
the whole of his donative is computed to amount 
to above three millions of our moneyP. 

His first business, therefore, after his return, and 
what he had much at heart, was to get these acts 
ratified by public authority. The popular faction 
promised him everything, and employed all their 
skill to divert him from a union with Cicero and 
the senate, and had made a considerable impression 
upon him ; but he found the state of things very 
different from their representations, saw Cicero still 
in high credit, and, by his means, the authority of 
the senate much respected ; which obliged him to 
use great management, and made him so cautious 
of offending any side that he pleased none. Cicero 

1 Dio, 1. xxxvii. p. 3(5. 

m At Cn. Pompeius, captis Hierosolymis, victor ex illo 
fano nihil attigit.— Pro Flaeco 28. 
n Prideaux, Connect, part ii. p. 343. 
° Dio, 1. xxxvii. p. 39. 
P Plin. Hist. 1. xxxvii. 2 ; Appian. De Bello Mitliridat. 



says of his first speech, that it was neither agree- 
able to the poor, nor relished by the rich ; disap- 
pointed the seditious, yet gave no satisfaction to 
the honest i. As he happened to come home in the 
very heat of Clodius's affair, so he was presently 
urged by both parties to declare for the one or the 
other. Fufius, a busy factious tribune, demanded 
of him, before the people, what he thought of Clo- 
dius's being tried by the prsetor and a bench of 
judges ? To which he answered, very aristocrati- 
cally, as Cicero calls it, that he had ever taken the 
authority of the senate to be of the greatest weight 
in all cases. And when the consul Messala asked 
him, in the senate, what his opinion was of that 
profanation of religion, and the law proposed about 
it ; he took occasion, without entering into parti- 
culars, to applaud in general all that the senate had 
done in it ; and upon sitting down, told Cicero, 
who sat next to him, that he had now said enough, 
he thought, to signify his sentiments of the matter 1 ". 
Crassus, observing Pompey's reserve, resolved to 
push him to a more explicit declaration, or to get 
the better of him at least in the good opinion 
of the senate ; rising up, therefore, to speak, he 
launched out, in a very high strain, into the praises 
of Cicero's consulship ; declaring himself indebted 
to it for his being at that time a senator and a citi- 
zen, nay, for his very liberty and his life ; and that 
as often as he saw his wife, his family, and his coun- 
try, so often he saw his obligations to Cicero. This 
discomposed Pompey, who was at a loss to under- 
stand Crassus's motive ; whether it was to take the 
benefit of an opportunity, which he had omitted, of 
ingratiating himself with Cicero, or that he knew 
Cicero's acts to be in high esteem, and the praise 
of them very agreeable to the senate ; and it piqued 
him the more, for its coming from a quarter whence 
it was least to be expected ; from one whom Cicero, 
out of regard to him, had always treated with a 
particular slight. The incident, however, raised 
Cicero's spirits, and made him exert himself before 
his new hearer, Pompey, with all the pride of his 
eloquence : his topics were, the firmness and gra- 
vity of the senate ; the concord of the equestrian 
order ; the concurrence of all Italy ; the lifeless 
remains of a baffled conspiracy ; the peace and 
plenty which had since succeeded : all which he 
displayed with his utmost force, to let Pompey see 
his ascendant still in that assembly, and how much 
he had been imposed upon by the accounts of his 
new friends 8 . Pompey likewise, on his side, began 
presently to change his tone, and affected, on all 
public occasions, to pay so great a court to Cicero, 
that the other faction gave him the nickname of 
Cnasus Cicero : and their seeming union was so 
generally agreeable to the city, that they were both 
of them constantly clapped whenever they appeared 

<l Prima concio Pompeii — non jucunda miseris, inanis 
improbis, beatis non grata, bonis non gravis. Itaque fri- 
gebat.— Ad Att. i. 14. 

r Mihique, ut assedit, dixit, se putare satis ab se etiam 
de istis rebus esse responsum. — Ibid. 

s Proximo Pompeium sedebam: intellexi hominem 
moveri ; ntrum Crassum in ire cam gratiam, quam ipse 
praetermisisset. 

Ego autem, dii boni, quomodo eVe7rep7repeurra/«7i/ novo 
auditori Pompeio ! — Hsec erat vnSOeais, de gravitate or- 
dinis, de equestri concordia, de consensione Italia?, de 
imniortuis reliquiis conjurationis, de volitate, de otio. — Ad 
Att. i. 14. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



73 



in the theatre, without a hiss from any quarter*. 
Yet Cicero easily discovered that all this outward 
civility was but feigned and artificial ; that he was 
full of envy within, and had no good intentions 
towards the public ; nothing candid or sincere ; 
nothing great, generous, or free in him u . 

There was one point which Pompey resolved to 
carry this summer against the universal inclination 
of the city — the election of L. Afranius, one of his 
creatures, to the consulship ; in which he fights, 
says Cicero, u neither with authority nor interest, 
but with what Philip of Macedon took every fort- 
ress into which he could drive a loaded assV 
Plutarch says, that he himself distributed the money 
openly in his own gardens ; but Cicero mentions it 
as a current report, that the consul Piso had under- 
taken to divide it at his house : which gave birth 
to two new laws, drawn up by Cato and his bro- 
ther-in-law Domitius Ahenobarbus, and supposed 
to be levelled at the consul ; the one of which gave 
a liberty to search the houses even of magistrates, 
on informations of bribery ; the other declared all 
those enemies to the state, at whose houses the 
dividers of money were founds. Pompey, however, 
obtruded Afranius upon the city, by which he dis- 
gusted all the better sort both of the senate and 
people 2 . 

He had been making preparation all this summer 
for his triumph, which he deferred to his birth-day, 
the thirtieth of September, having resided in the 
meanwhile, as usual, in the suburbs ; so that the 
senate and people, in compliment to him, held 
their assemblies generally, during that time, with- 
out the walls ; some of which are mentioned to 
have been in the Flaminian Circus a . His triumph 
lasted two days, and was the most splendid which 
had ever been seen in Rome. He built a temple to 
Minerva out of the spoils, with an inscription giv- 
ing a summary of his victories : that he had finished 
a war of thirty years ; had vanquished, slain, and 
taken two millions one hundred and eighty-three 
thousand men ; sunk or taken eight hundred and 
forty-six ships ; reduced to the power of the empire 
a thousand five hundred and thirty-eight towns and 
fortresses ; and subdued all the countries between 
the lake Maeotis and the Red Sea b . 

Quintus Cicero, who, by the help and interest of 
his brother, was following him at a proper distance, 
through all the honours of the state, having been 
prsetor the last year, now obtained the government 

1 Usque eo, ut nostri illi comissatores conjurationis, 
barbatuli juvenes, ilium in sermonibus Cn^eum Ciceronem 
appellent. Itaque et ludis et gladiatoribus mirandas 
iTTKTriixaaias, sine ulla pastoricia fistula, auferebamus. — 
AdAtt. i. 16. 

u Nos, ut ostendit, admodum diligit, aperte laudat ; 
occulte, sed ita ut perspicuum sit, invidet : nihil come, 
nihil simplex, nihil iv to?s to\itiko?s honestum, nihil 
illustre, nihil forte, nihil liberum.— Ibid. 13. 

x In eo neque auctoritate, neque gratia pugnat ; sed 
quibus Philippus omnia castella expugnari posse dicebat, 
in quae modo asellus onustus auro posset ascendere.— 
Ibid. 16. 

y Consul autem ille— suscepisse negotium dicitur, et 
domi divisores habere: sed S. C. duo jam facta sunt odiosa, 
quod in consulem facta putantur, Catone et Domitio pos- 
tulante, &c.— Ibid. 16. 

7 - Consul est impositus nobis, quern nemo prajter nos 
philosophos aspicere sine suspiratu posset.— Ibid. 18. 

a Fufius ha concionem produxit Pompeium ; res ageba- 
tur in Circo Flaminio.— Ibid. 14. 



of Asia ; a rich and noble province, comprehending 
the greatest part of what is called Asia Minor. Be- 
fore he went to take possession of it, he earnestly 
pressed Atticus, whose sister he married, to go 
along with him as one of his lieutenants ; and re- 
sented his refusal so heinously, that Cicero had no 
small trouble to make them friends again. There 
is an excellent letter on this subject from Cicero to 
Atticus, which I cannot forbear inserting, for the 
light which it gives us into the genuine characters 
of all the three, as well as of other great men of 
those times, with a short account also of the pre- 
sent state of the republic. 

Cicero to Atticus. 
" I perceive from your letter, and the copy of my 
brother's which you sent with it, a great alteration 
in his affection and sentiments with regard to you ; 
which affects me with all that concern which my 
extreme love for you both ought to give me ; and 
with wonder, at the same time, what could possibly 
happen either to exasperate him so highly, or to 
effect so great a change in him. I had observed, 
indeed, before, what you also mistrusted at your 
leaving us, that he had conceived some secret dis- 
gust which shocked and filled his mind with odious 
suspicions ; which, though I was often attempting 
to heal, and especially after the allotment of his 
province, yet I could neither discover that his re- 
sentment was so great, as it appears to be from 
your letter, nor find that what I said had so great 
an effect upon him as I wished. I comforted my- 
self, however, with a persuasion that he would 
contrive to see you at Dyrrhachium, or some other 
place in those parts ; and, in that case, made no 
doubt but that all would be set right ; not only by 
your discourse, and talking the matter over between 
yourselves, but by the very sight and mutual em- 
braces of each other. For I need not tell you, who 
know it as well as myself, what a fund of good- 
nature and sweetness of temper there is in my bro- 
ther, and how apt he is both to take and to forgive 
an offence. But it is very unlucky that you did not 
see him, since, by that means, what others have 
artfully inculcated has had more influence on his 
mind than either his duty, or his relation to you, 
or your old friendship, which ought to have had 
the most. Where the blame of all this lies, it is 
easier for me to imagine than to write, being afraid 
lest, while I am excusing my own people, I should 
be too severe upon yours ; for, as I take the case 
to be, if those of his own family did not make the 
wound, they might at least have cured it. When 
we see one another again, I shall explain to you 
more easily the source of the whole evil, which is 
spread somewhat wider than it seems to be. As to 
the letter which he wrote to you from Thessalonica, 
and what you suppose him to have said of you to 
your friends at Rome, and on the road, I cannot 

l» Cn. Pompeius. Cnt. F. magnus. Imp. 

bello. xxx. annorum. confecto. 

fljsis. fugatis. occisis. jn deditionem 

acceptis. hominum. centies. vicies. 

semel. centenjs. lxxxiii.m. 

Depressis aut capt. navibus. Dcccxlvi. 

Oppidis. Castellis. M.n.xxxvni. 

in fid em receptis. 

Terris. a Mjeoti. Lacu. ad Rubrum. 

Mare, subactis. 

votum. merito. mlnervje. 

Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 26. 



74 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



conceive what could move him to it. But all my 
hopes of making this matter easy, depend on your 
humanity ; for if you will but reflect, that the best 
men are often the most easy, both to be provoked 
and to be appeased ; and that this quickness, if I 
may so call it, or flexibility of temper, is generally 
the proof of a good-nature ; and above all, that we 
ought to bear with one another's infirmities or 
faults, or even injuries ; this troublesome affair, I 
hope, will soon be made up again. I beg of you 
that it may be so. For it ought to be my special 
care, from the singular affection which I bear to you, 
to do everything in my power that all who belong to 
me may both love and be beloved by you. There 
was no occasion for that part of your letter, in 
which you mention the opportunities which you 
have omitted of employments, both in the city and 
the provinces, as well at other times as in my con- 
sulship. I am perfectly acquainted with the inge- 
nuity and greatness of your mind, and never thought 
that there was any other difference between you and 
me, but in a different choice and method of life : 
whilst I was drawn, by a sort of ambition, to the 
desire and pursuit of honours, you, by other maxims, 
in nowise blameable, to the enjoyment of an ho- 
nourable retreat. But for the genuine character of 
probity, diligence, exactness of behaviour, I neither 
prefer myself, nor any man else, to you ; and as for 
love to me, after my brother and my own family, I 
give you always the first place. For I saw, and saw 
it in a manner the most affecting, both your solici- 
tude and your joy in all the various turns of my 
affairs ; and was often pleased as well with the ap- 
plause which you gave me in success, as the com- 
fort which you administered in my fears ; and even 
now, in the time of your absence, I feel and regret 
the loss, not only of your advice, in which you 
excel all, but of that familiar chat with you, in 
which I used to take so much delight. Where then 
shall I tell you that I most want you ? in public 
affairs ? where it can never be permitted to me to 
sit idle ; or in my labours at the bar ? which I sus- 
tained before through ambition, but now to preserve 
my dignity ; or in my domestic concerns ? where, 
though I always wanted your help before, yet, since 
the departure of my brother, I now stand the more 
in need of it. In short, neither in my labours nor 
rest ; neither in business nor retirement ; neither 
in the forum nor at home ; neither in public nor 
in private affairs, can I live any longer without your 
friendly counsel and endearing conversation. We 
have often been restrained, on both sides, by a kind 
of shame, from explaining ourselves on this article ; 
but I was now forced to it by that part of your 
letter, in which you thought fit to justify yourself 
and your way of life to me. But to return to my 
brother : in the present state of the ill humour 
which he expresses towards you, it happens, how- 
ever, conveniently, that your resolution of declining 
all employments abroad was declared and known 
long beforehand, both to me and your other friends ; 
so that your not being now together cannot be 
charged to any quarrel or rupture between you, 
but to your judgment and choice of life. Where- 
fore both this breach in your union will undoubt- 
edly be healed again, and your friendship with me 
remain for ever inviolable, as it has hitherto been. 
We live here in an infirm, wretched, tottering re- 
public : for you have heard, I guess, that our 
knights are now almost disjoined again from the 



senate. The first thing which they took amiss was 
the decree for calling the judges to account, who 
had taken money in Clodius's affair : I happened 
to be absent when it passed ; but hearing after- 
wards that the whole order resented it, though 
without complaining openly, I chid the senate, as 
I thought, with great effect ; and in a cause not 
very modest, spoke forcibly and copiously. They 
have now another curious petition, scarce fit to be 
endured, which yet I not only bore with, but de- 
fended. The company, who hired the Asiatic reve- 
nues of the censors, complained to the senate that, 
through too great an eagerness, they had given 
more for them than they were worth, and begged 
to be released from the bargain. I was their chief 
advocate, or rather, indeed, the second ; for Cras- 
sus was the man who put them upon making this 
request. The thing is odious and shameful, and a 
public confession of their rashness ; but there was 
great reason to apprehend, that if they should ob- 
tain nothing, they would be wholly alienated from 
the senate ; so that this point also was principally 
managed by me. For, on the first and second of 
December, I spoke a great deal on the dignity of 
the two orders, and the advantages of the concord 
between them, and was heard very favourably in a 
full house. Nothing, however, is yet done, but 
the senate appears well disposed ; for Metellus, the 
consul elect, was the only one who spoke against 
us ; though that hero of ours, Cato, was going also 
to speak, if the shortness of the day had not pre- 
vented him. Thus, in pursuit of my old measures, 
I am supporting as well as I can that concord 
which my consulship had cemented : but since no 
great stress can now be laid upon it, I have pro- 
vided myself another way, and a sure one, I hope, 
of maintaining my authority ; which I cannot well 
explain by letter, yet will give you a short hint of 
it. I am in strict friendship with Pompey — I know 
already what you say — and will be upon my guard 
as far as caution can serve me, and give you a far- 
ther account some other time of my present conduct 
in politics. You are to know, in the meanwhile, 
that Lucceius designs to sue directly for the con- 
sulship ; for he will have, it is said, but two com- 
petitors : Caesar, by means of Arrius, proposes to 
join with him ; and Bibulus, by Piso's mediation, 
thinks of joining with Caesar. Do you laugh at 
this ? Take my word for it, it is no laughing 
matter. What shall I write farther ? What ? 
There are many things ; but for another occasion. 
If you would have us expect you, pray let me 
know it : at present I shall beg only modestly what 
I desire very earnestly, that you would come as 
soon as possible. December the fifth c ." 

As to the petition of the knights, mentioned in 
this letter, Cato, when he came afterwards to speak 
to it, opposed it so resolutely, that he prevailed to 
have it rejected, which Cicero often condemns as 
contrary to all good policy ; and complains some- 
times in his letters, that Cato, though he was the 
only man who had any regard for the republic, yet 
frequently did mischief by pursuing his maxims 
absurdly, and without any regard to the times d . 

c Ad Att. i. 17- 

d Unus est, qui curet, constantia magis et intcgritate, 
quam, ut mini videtur, consilio et ingenio, Cato ; qui 
miseros publicanos, quos habuit amantissimos sui, tertium 
jam mensem vexat, neque eis a senatu responsum dari 
patitur.— Ad Att. i. 18 ; it. ii. 1. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



75 



And upon a review of the transactions which had 

passed since his consulship, and the turu which 

the public affairs were then taking, he seems to 

foretell that the republic could not stand much 

longer ; since this very year had overthrown the 

two main pillars of it, which he had been erecting 

with such pains — the authority of the senate, and 

their union with the knights e . 

Q. Caecilius Metellus and L. Afranius were now 

consuls. The first had been prsetor in Cicero's 

„ no consulship, and commanded an army 
a. ubb. 693. . ri ,-i- i u i 

cic. 47. against Catiline, and was an excellent 
coss. ' magistrate and true patriot ; a firm op- 
q. cEcrLius poser of all the factious, and a professed 
metellus enemy also to Pompey ; in which he 
celer, was the more heated by a private re- 

l. afranius. se ntment of the affront offered to his 
sister Mucia, whom Pompey had lately put away f . 
His partner, Afranius, was the creature of Pom- 
pey 's power ; but of no credit or service to him, 
on the account of his luxury and laziness, being 
fonder of balls than of business. Cicero calls him 
a consul whom none but a philosopher could look 
upon without sighing ; a soldier without spirit, and 
a proper but for the raillery of the senate, where 
Palicanus abused him every day to his face ; and so 
stupid, as not to know the value of what he had 
purchased^. 

By the help of this consul and some of the tri- 
bunes, Pompey imagined that he should readily 
obtain the ratification of his acts, together with an 
Agrarian law, which he was pushing forward at the 
same time, for the distribution of lauds to his sol- 
diers ; but he was vigorously opposed in them, 
both by the other consul, Metellus, and the gene- 
rality of the senate 11 . Lucullus declared, that they 
ought not to confirm his acts in the gross, as if 
they received them from a master, but to consider 
them separately, and ratify those only which were 
found to be reasonable'. But the tribune Flavius, 
who was the promoter of the law, impatient of this 
opposition, and animated by Pompey's power, had 
the hardiness to commit Metellus to prison ; and 
when all the senate followed, and resolved to go to 
prison too, he clapped his chair at the prison-door 
to keep them out : but this violence gave such a 
general scandal to the city, that Pompey found it 

e Nam ut ea breviter, quas post discessum tuum acta 
sunt, colligam, jam exclames necesse est, res Romanas 
diutius stare non posse. 

Sic ille annus duo firmamenta reipublicae per me unum 
constituta, evertit : nam et senatus auctoritatem abjecit, 
et ordinum concordiam disjunxit. — Ad Att. i. 18. 

f Metellus est consul egregius, et nos amat, &c— Ibid. 
18, 19, 20 ; Dio, 1. xxxvii. p. 52. 

g Quern nemo pra?ter nos philosopbos aspicere sine sus- 
piratu posset. 

Auli autem filius, O dii immortales ! quam ignavus et 
sine animo miles ! quam dignus, qui Palicano, sicut facit, 
os ad male audiendum quotidie praebeat ! 

Ille alter ita nihil est, ut plane quid emerit, nesciat. 

Auli filius vero ita se gerit, ut ejus consulatus non con- 
sulatus sit, sed magni nostri vTrcairiov.— Ad Att. ibid. ; 
Dio, ibid. 

h Agraria autem promulgata est a Flavio, sane levis, 
&c— Ad Att. i. 18. 

Agraria lex a Flavio tribuno plebis vehementer agita- 
batur, auctore Pompeio : — Nihil populare habebat practer 
auctorem : — Iluic toti rationi agrarise senatus adversaba- 
tur, suspicans Pompeio novam quandam potentiam quaeri. 
—Ibid. 19. 

' Dio, 1. xxxvii. 52. 



advisable to draw off the tribune, and release the 
consul k . In order to allay these heats, Cicero 
offered an amendment to the law, which satisfied 
both parties, by securing the possessions of all pri- 
vate proprietors, and hindering the public lands 
from being given away. His proposal was, that 
out of the new revenues which Pompey had ac- 
quired to the empire, five years' rents should be 
set apart to purchase lands for the intended dis- 
tribution 1 . But the progress of the affair was 
suspended by the sudden alarm of a Gallic war, 
which was always terrible to Rome ; and being now 
actually commenced by several revolted nations, 
called for the immediate care and attention of the 
government™. 

The senate decreed the two Gauls severally to 
the two consuls ; and required them to make levies 
without any regard to privilege or exemption from 
service ; and that three senators should be chosen 
by lot, one of them of consular rank, to be sent 
with a public character to the other Gallic cities, 
to dissuade them from joining in the war. In the 
allotment of these ambassadors, the first lot hap- 
pened to fall upon Cicero ; but the whole assembly 
remonstrated against it, declaring his presence to 
be necessary at Rome, and that he ought not to be 
employed on such an errand. The same thing hap- 
pened to Pompey, on whom the next lot fell, who 
was retained also with Cicero, as two pledges of the 
public safety 11 . The three at last chosen were Q. 
Metellus Creticus, L. Flaccus, and Lentulus. The 
Transalpine Gaul, which was the seat of the war, 
fell to the lot of Metellus, who could not contain 
his joy upon it for the prospect of glory which it 
offered him. " Metellus" says Cicero, " is an ad- 
mirable consul ; I blame him only in one thing : 
for not seeming pleased with the news of peace 
from Gaul. He longs, I suppose, to triumph. I 
wish that he was as moderate in this as he is excel- 
lent in all other respects ." 

Cicero now finished in the Greek language, and 
in the style and manner of Isocrates, what he calls 
a Commentary or Memoirs of the transactions of 
his Consulship ; and sent it to Atticus, with a 
desire, if he approved it, to publish it in Athens 
and the cities of Greece. He happened to receive 
a piece at the same time, and on the same subject, 
from Atticus, which he rallies as rough and un- 
polished, and without any beauty, but its simplicity. 

k Dio, 1. xxxvii. 52. 

I Ex hac ego lege, secunda concionis voluntate, omnia 
tollebam quse ad privatorum incommodum pertinebant. — 
Unam rationem non rejiciebam, ut ager hac adventitia 
pecunia emeretur, qua? ex novis vectigalibus per quin- 
quennium reciperetur. — Magna cum Agrariorum gratia 
confirmabam omnium privatorum possessiones, (is enim 
est noster exercitus, hominum, ut tute scis, locupletium) 
populo autem et Pompeio (nam id quoque volebam) satis- 
faciebam emptione.— Ad Att. i. 19. 

m Sed hasc tota res interpellata bello refrixerat.— Ad 
Att. i. 19. 

II Senatus decrevit, ut consules duas Gallias sortirentur ; 
delectus haberetur ; vacationes ne valerent ; legati cum 
auctoritate mitterentur, qui adirent Gallia? civitates. — 
Cum de consularibus mea prima sors exisset, una voce 
senatus frequens me in urbe retinendum censuit. Hoc 
idem post me Pompeio accidit ; ut nos duo, quasi pignora 
reipublicae retineri videremur. — Ibid. 

° Metellus tuus est egregius consul : unum reprehendo, 
quod otium e Gallia nunciari non magnopere gaudet. 
Cupit, credo, triuniphare. Hoc vellem mediocrius ; castera 
egregia.— Ibid, 20. 



76 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



He sent his own work also to Posidonius of Rhodes, 
and begged that he would undertake the same 
argument in a more elegant and masterly manner. 
But Posidonius answered him with a compliment, 
that instead of being encouraged to write by the 
perusal of his piece, he was quite deterred from 
attempting it. Upon which Cicero says jocosely, 
that he had confounded the whole Greek nation, 
and freed himself from the importunity of those 
little wits, who had been teasing him so long, to 
be employed in writing the history of his acts?. 
What he says in excuse for taking that task upon 
himself, is, that it was not a panegyric, but a 
history ; which makes our loss of it the greater, 
since it must have given a more exact account of 
those times, than can now be possibly had, in an 
entertaining work, finished with care and elegance ; 
which not only pleased himself, as it seems to have 
done very highly, but, as he tells us, everybody 
else : " If there be anything in it," says he, "which 
does not seem to be good Greek, or polite enough 
to please your taste, I will not say what Lucullus 
told you of his own history at Panormus, that he 
had scattered some barbarisms in it, on purpose 
to make it appear to be the work of a Roman : 
for if anything of that kind should be found in 
mine, it is not with design, but contrary to my in- 
tention^." 

Upon the plan of these memoirs, he composed 
afterwards a Latin poem in three books, in which 
he carried down the history to the end of his exile, 
but did not venture to publish it till several years 
after : not that he was afraid, he says, of the re- 
sentment of those whom he had lashed in it, for he 
had done that part very sparingly, but of those 
rather whom he had not celebrated, it being end- 
less to mention all who had been serviceable to 
him r . This piece is also lost, except a few frag- 
ments scattered in different parts of his other 
writings. The three books were severally inscribed 
to three of the Muses ; of which his brother ex- 
presses the highest approbation, and admonishes 
him to bear in mind what Jupiter recommends in 
the end of Urania, or the second book ; which 
concluded probably with some moral lesson, not 
unlike to what Calliope prescribes in the third s . 

P Tua ilia— horridula mihi atque incompta visa sunt : 
sed tamen erant ornata hoc ipso, quod ornamenta neglex- 
erant : et ut mulieres, ideo bene olere, quia nihil olebant, 
videbantur. — Ad me rescripsit jam Rhodo Posidonius, se 
nostrum illud vTr6/J.ur]fJ.a cum legeret, non modo non ex- 
citatum ad scribendum, sed etiam plane perterritum esse. 
— Conturbavi Graecam nationem : ita vulgo qui instabant, 
ut darem sibi quod ornarent, jam exbibere mihi modes- 
tiam destiterunt. — Ad Att. ii. 1. 

1 Commentarium consulatus mei Graece compositum ad 
tc misi : in quo si quid erit, quod homini Attico minus 
Graecum, eruditumque videatur, non dicam, quod tibi, ut 
opinor, Panormi Lucullus de suis historiis dixerat, — se, 
quo facilius illas probaret Romani hominis esse, idcirco 
barbara quaedam et (Tohoina dispersissc. Apud me si quid 
erit ejusmodi, me imprudente erit et invito' — Att. i. 1!). 

r Scripsi etiam versibus tree libros de temporibus meis, 
quos jam pridem ad tc misdssem, si esse edendos putasscm 
—sed quia vcrcbar non eos, qui se lffiSOS aibitrarentur, 
etcnim id feci parcc ct molliter; sed eos, quos erat Infini- 
tum bene de me meritos omnes nominare.— Ep. Fam. i. !) 

s Quod me admones de nostra Urania, suadesque ut 
meminerim Jovisorationem, quae est in extremo iiiolibro ; 
egovero memini, et ilia omnia mihi magis scripsi, quam 
caetcris.— Ep. ad Quint. Prat. ii. !). ; vid. Ad. Att. ii. 3. ; De 
Divin. i. 11. 



Interea cursus, quos prima a parte juventae, 
Quosque adeo Consul virtute animoque petisti, 
Hos retine ; atque auge famam laudesque bonorum. 

That noble course, in which thy earliest youth 
"Was train'd to virtue, liberty, and truth, 
In which, when Consul, you such honour won, 
While Rome with wonder and applause look'd on, 
The same pursue ; and let each growing year 
A fresh increase of fame and glory bear. 

He published likewise at this time a collection 
of the principal speeches which he had made in his 
consulship, under the title of his Consular Orations : 
he chose to make a separate volume of them, as 
Demosthenes had done of his Philippics, in order 
to give a specimen of his civil or political talents ; 
being of a different manner, he says, from the dry 
and crabbed style of the bar, and showing, not 
only how he spoke, but how he acted. The two 
first were against the Agrarian law of Rullus ; the 
one to the senate, the other to the people : the 
third on the tumult about Otho : the fourth, for 
Rabirius : the fifth, to the sons of the proscribed : 
the sixth, upon his resigning the province of Gaul : 
the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth, on the affair 
of Catiline : with two more short ones, as appen- 
dixes to those on the Agrarian law. But of these 
twelve, four are entirely lost ; the third, fifth, and 
sixth, with one of the short ones ; and some of 
the rest left maimed and imperfect. He published 
also at this time in Latin verse a translation of 
the Prognostics of Aratus, which he promises to 
send to Atticus with the volume of his orations 1 ; 
of which work there are only two or three small 
fragments now remaining. 

Clodius, who had been contriving all this while 
how to revenge himself on Cicero, began now to 
give an opening to the scheme, which he had 
formed for that purpose. His project was, to get 
himself chosen tribune, and in that office to drive 
him out of the city, by the publication of a law, 
which by some stratagem or other he hoped to 
obtrude upon the people 11 . But as all patricians 
were incapable of the tribunate, by its original in- 
stitution, so his first step was to make himself 
a plebeian, by the pretence of an adoption into a 
plebeian house, which could not yet be done with- 
out the suffrage of the people. This case was 
wholly new, and contrary to all the forms ; want- 
ing every condition, and serving none of the ends, 
which were recmired in regular adoptions ; so that 
on the first proposal it seemed too extravagant to 
be treated seriously, and would soon have been 
hissed off with scorn, had it not been concerted 
and privately supported by persons of much more 
weight than Clodius. Cffisar was at the bottom 
of it, and Pompey secretly favoured it : not that they 
intended to ruin Cicero, but to keep him only 
under the lash ; and if they could not draw him 



I Puit enim mihi commodum, quod in eis orationibus, 
qua) Philippicae nominantur, enituerat civis ille tuus De- 
mosthenes, etquod se ah hocrefractariolojudiciali dicendi 
genere abjunxerat, ut <re[xvoTep6s tis et iroXiTiKwrepos 
videretur, curare, ut meae quoque essent orationea, quae 
consularcs nominarentur. — Hoc totum o~o>/iia curabo ut 
habeas: etquoniam tecum scripta, turn res meedelectant, 
iisdem libris pcrspicies, ct que gesserim, et quae dixerim. 
—Ad Att. ii. 1. 

iMoimostica mea cum oratiunculis propediem expecta. 
—Ibid. 

II Ille autem non simulat, sed plane tribunus plebis fieri 
cupit— Ad Att. ii. 1. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



77 



into their measures, or make him at least sit quiet, 
to let Clodius loose upon him. The solicitor of 
it was one Herennius, an obscure, hardy tribune, 
who first moved it to the senate, and afterwards to 
the people, but met with no encouragement from 
either : for the consul Metellus, though brother- 
in-law to Clodius, warmly opposed it x ; and de- 
clared, that he would strangle him sooner with his 
own hands, than suffer him to bring such a dis- 
grace upon his family? : yet Herennius persisted 
to press it, but without any visible effect or success; 
and so the matter hung through the remainder of 
the year. 

Cicero affected to treat it with the contempt 
which it seemed to deserve ; sometimes rallying 
Clodius with much pleasantry, sometimes ad- 
monishing him with no less gravity : he told him 
in the senate, that his attempt gave him no man- 
ner of pain ; and that it should not be any more in 
his power to overturn the state, when a plebeian, 
than it was in the power of the patricians of the 
same stamp in the time of his consulship 2 . But 
whatever face he put outwardly on this affair, it 
gave him a real uneasiness within, and made him 
unite himself more closely with Pompey, for the 
benefit of his protection against a storm, which he 
saw ready to break upon him ; while Pompey, 
ruffled likewise by the opposition of the senate, 
was as forward on his side to embrace Cicero, as 
a person necessary to his interests. Cicero, how- 
ever, imagining that this step would be censured 
by many, as a desertion of his old principles, takes 
frequent occasion to explain the motives of it to 
his friend Atticus, declaring, " That the absolution 
of Clodius, the alienation of the knights, the in- 
dolence and luxury of the consular senators, who 
minded nothing but their fish-ponds, their carps 
and mullets, and yet were all envious of him, made 
it necessary for him to seek some firmer support 
and alliance. — That in this new friendship he 
should attend still to what the Sicilian wag, Epi- 
charmus, whispered, ' Be watchful and distrust, for 
those are the nerves of the mindV " On another 
occasion he observes, " That his union with 
Pompey, though useful to himself, was more useful 
to the republic, by gaining a man of his power and 
authority, who was wavering and irresolute, from 
the hopes and intrigues of the factious : that if this 
could not have been done without drawing upon 
himself a charge of levity, he would not have pur- 
chased that, or any other advantage, at such a price ; 
but he had managed the matter so, as not to be 
thought the worse citizen for joining with Pompey, 
but Pompey himself the better, by declaring for 

x Veruin praeclare Metellus impedit et impediet.— Ad 
Att. ii. 1. 

7 Qui consul ineipientem furere atque conantem, sua se 
manu interfecturum, audiente senatu dixerit.— Pro Cae- 
lio, 24. 

z Sed neque magnopere dixi esse nobis laborandum, 
quod nihilo magis ei liciturum esset plebeio rempublicam 
perdere, quam similibus ejus me consule patriciis esset 
libitum. — Ad Att. ii. 1. 

a Cum hoe ego me tanta familiaritate conjunxi, ut uter- 
que nostrum in sua ratione mimitior, et in republica j 
firmior hac conjunctione esse possit. 

Et si iis novis amicitiis implicati sumus, ut crebro mihi 
vafer ille Siculus, insusurret Epicbarmus, cantilenam illam j 
suam : 

Na0e Kal [xefivaa' aTiareiv. apOpa ravra r&v cppevcov. 

Ad Att. i. 19. ' 



him. — That since Catulus's death, he stood single 
and unsupported by the other consulars in the 
cause of the aristocracy ; for, as the poet Rhinton 
says, ' some of them were good for nothing, others 
cared for nothing b '. But how much these fish- 
mongers of ours envy me, says he, I will write you 
word another time, or reserve it to our meeting. 
Yet nothing shall ever draw me away from the 
senate ; both because it is right, and most agree- 
able to my interest, and that I have no reason to 
be displeased with the marks of respect which they 
give me c ." In a third letter he says, " You chide 
me gently for my union with Pompey : I would 
not have you to think, that I sought it only for my 
own sake ; but things were come to such a crisis, 
that if any difference had happened between us, it 
must have caused great disturbance in the republic ; 
which I have guarded against in such a manner, 
that without departing from my own maxims, I 
have rendered him the better, and made him remit 
somewhat of his popularity : for you must know, 
that he now speaks of my acts, which many have 
been incensing him against, much more gloriously 
than he does of his own : and declares, that he 
had only served the state successfully, but that I 
had saved it d . What good this will do to me, I 
know not ; but it will certainly do much to the re- 
public. What if I could make Csesar also a better 
citizen, whose winds are now very prosperous ; 
should I do any great harm by it ? Nay, if there 
were none who really envied me, but all were 
encouraging me as they ought, it would yet be 
more commendable to heal the vitiated parts of 
the state, than to cut them off: but now, when 
that body of knights, who were planted by me in my 
consulship, with you at their head, as our guard 
in the capitol, have deserted the senate, and our 
consulars place their chief happiness in training 
the fish in their ponds to feed from their hands, 
and mind nothing else ; do not you think, that I 
am doing good service, by managing so, that those 
who can do mischief, will not ? For as to our 
friend Cato, you cannot love him more than I 
do ; yet, with the best intentions and the greatest 
integrity, he often hurts the republic ; for he de- 
livers his opinion, as if it were in the polity of 
Plato, not in the dregs of Romulus e . What could 
be more just, than to call those to an account who I 
had received money for judging ? Cato proposed, j 
the senate agreed to it i the knights presently de- | 
clared war against the senate, not against me ; for 
I was not of that opinion. What more impudent, 
than to demand a release from their contract ? yet 
it was better to suffer that loss, than to alienate the 

b Illud tamen velim existimes, me hane viam optima- 
tium post Catuli mortem nee praesidio ullo nee comitatu 
tenere. Nam ut ait Rhinton, ut opinor, 

01 (lev Trap' ouSeV eiaiv, ols 5' ovdev jueAet. 

Ad Att, i. 20. 

c Mihi vero ut invideant piseinarii nostri, aiit scribani 
ad te alias, aut in congressum nostrum reservabo. A curia 
autem nulla me res divellet. — Ibid. 

d Quern do meis rebus, in quas multi eum incitarant, 
multo scito gloriosius, quam de suis praedicare. Sibi euim 
bene gestae, mihi conservatae reipublicae, dat testimonium. 
—Ibid. ii. 1. 

c Nam Catonem nostrum non tu amas plus, quam ego. 
Sed tamen ille optimo animo utens, et gumma fide, nocet 
interdum reipublicae; dicit enim tanquam in Platouia 
7roAt re'ia, non tanquam in Roniuli faece, scntentiam. — Ad 
Att. ii. 1. 



78 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



whole order : but Cato opposed it, and prevailed ; 
so that now, when the consul was thrown into 
prison, as well as in all the tumults which have lately- 
happened, not one of them would stir a foot ; 
though, under me, and the consuls who succeeded 
me, they had defended the republic so strenu- 
ously," &c. f . 

In the midst of these transactions, Julius Csesar 
returned from the government of Spain, which had 
been allotted to him from his praetorship, with 
great fame both for his military and political acts. 
He conquered the barbarous nations by his arms, 
and civilized them by his laws ; and having sub- 
dued the whole country as far as the ocean, and 
been saluted emperor by the soldiers, came away 
in all haste to Rome, to sue at the same time for 
the double honour of a triumph and the consulship s. 
But his demand of the first was, according to the 
usual forms, incompatible with his pretensions to 
the second ; since the one obliged him to continue 
without the city, the other made his presence 
necessary within : so that finding an aversion in 
the senate to dispense with the laws in his favour, 
he preferred the solid to the specious, and dropped 
the triumph, to lay hold on the consulship 11 . He 
designed L. Lucceius for his colleague, and pri- 
vately joined interests with him, on condition that 
Lucceius, who was rich, should furnish money 
sufficient to bribe the centuries. But the senate, 
always jealous of his designs, and fearing the effects 
of his power, when supported by a colleague sub- 
servient to his will, espoused the other candidate, 
Bibulus, with all their authority, and made a com- 
mon purse, to enable him to bribe as high as his 
competitors ; which Cato himself is said to have 
approved 1 . By this means they got Bibulus 
elected, to their great joy; a man firm to their in- 
terests, and determined to obstruct all the ambitious 
attempts of Csesar. 

Upon Caesar's going to Spain, he had engaged 
Crassus to stand bound for him to his creditors, 
who were clamorous and troublesome, as far as 
two hundred thousand pounds sterling : so much 
did he want to be worth nothing, as he merrily said 
of himself k . Crassus hoped, by the purchase of 
his friendship, to be able to make head against 
Pompey in the administration of public affairs : 
but Caesar, who had long been courting Pompey, 
and labouring to disengage him from a union with 
Cicero and the aristocratical interest, easily saw, 
that as things then stood, their joint strength 

f Restitit et pervicit Cato. Itaque nunc, consule in car- 
cere incluso, saepe item seditione comniota, aspiravit nemo 
eorum, quorum ego concursu, itemque consules, qui post 
me f uerunt, rempublicam defendere solebant. — Ad Att. ii. 1. 

g Jura ipsorum permissu statuerit ; inveteratam quan- 
dam barbariam ex Gaditanorum moribus et disciplina 
delerit —Pro Balbo, 19. 

Pacataque provincia, pari festinatione, non expectato 
successore, ad triumphum simul consulatumque decessit. 
— Sueton. J. Cffis. 18 ; vid. it. Dio. 1. xxxvii. p. 54. 

h Dio, ibid. 

' Pactus ut is, quoniam inferior gratia esset, pecuniaque 
polleret, nummos de suo, communi nomine per centurias 
pronuntiaret. Q,ua cognita re, optimates, quos metus 
ceperat, nihil non ausurum eum in summo magistratu, 
concordi et consentiente collega, auctores Bibulof uerunt 
tantundem pollicendi : ac plerique peeunias contulerunt ; 
ne Catone quidcm abnuente earn largitionem c republica 
fieri.— Sueton. J. Caps. 19. 

k .Plutarch, in J. Ca?s. ; Appian. De Bello Civ. ii. p. 432 ; 
Sueton. ib. 18. 



would avail but little towards obtaining what they 
aimed at, unless they could induce Pompey also to 
join with them : on pretence, therefore, of recon- 
ciling Pompey and Crassus, who had been constant 
enemies, he formed the project of a triple league 
between the three ; by which they should mutually 
oblige themselves to promote each others' interest, 
and to act nothing but by common agreement : to 
this Pompey easily consented, on account of the 
disgust which the senate had impoliticly given him, 
by their perverse opposition to everything which 
he desired or attempted in the state. 

This is commonly called the first triumvirate ; 
which was nothing else in reality but a traitorous 
conspiracy of three, the most powerful citizens of 
Rome, to extort from their country by violence 
what they could not obtain by law. Pompey's 
chief motive was, to get his acts confirmed by 
Caesar in his consulship ; Caesar's, by giving way 
to Pompey's glory, to advance his own ; and 
Crassus's, to gain that ascendant, which he could 
not sustain alone, by the authority of Pompey and 
the vigour of Caesar 1 . But Caesar, who formed 
the scheme, easily saw, that the chief advantage of 
it would necessarily redound to himself : he knew 
that the old enmity between the other two, though 
it might be palliated, could never be healed with- 
out leaving a secret jealousy between them ; and as 
by their common help he was sure to make himself 
superior to all others, so by managing the one 
against the other, he hoped to gain at last a superi- 
ority also over them both m . To cement this union 
therefore the more strongly by the ties of blood, 
as well as interest, he gave his daughter Julia, a 
beautiful and accomplished young lady, in marriage 
to Pompey : and from this era all the Roman 
writers date the origin of the civil wars which 
afterwards ensued, and the subversion of the re- 
public in which they ended". 



-tu causa malorum 



Facta tribus dominis communis Roma — 
Lucan. i. 



85. 



Hence flow'd our ills, hence all that civil flame, 
When Rome the common slave of three became. 

Cicero might have made what terms he pleased 
with the triumvirate ; been admitted even a part- 
ner of their power, and a fourth in their league ; 
which seemed to want a man of his character to 
make it complete. For while the rest were engaged 
in their governments, and the command of armies 
abroad, his authority would have been of singular 
use at home, to manage the affairs of the city, and 
solicit what they had to transact with the senate or 

I Hoc consilium Pompeius habuerat, ut tandem acta in 
transmarinis provinciis per Ca?sarem confirmarentur con- 
sulem : Caesar autem, quod animadvertebat, se cedendo 
Pompeii gloria? aucturum suam ; et invidia communis 
potential in ilium relegata, confirmaturum vires suas: 
Crassus, ut quern principatum solus assequi non poterat, 
auctoritate Pompeii, viribus teneret Caesaris. — Veil. Pat. 
ii. 44. 

" u Sciebat enim, se alios facile omnes ipsorum auxilio, 
deinde ipsos etiam, unum per alteram, baud multo postea 
superaturum esse.' — Dio, 1. xxxvii. 55. 

II Inter eum et Cn. Pompeium et M. Crassum inita po- 
tential societas, quae urbi orbique ten-arum, ncc minus 
diverso quoque tempore, etiam ipsis exitiabilis fuit.< — Veil. 
Pat. ii. 44. 

Motum ex Metello consule civicum, &c. 

Hoa. Carm. ii. 1. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



79 



people. Caesar therefore was extremely desirous 
to add him to the party, or to engage him rather 
in particular measures with himself ; and no 
sooner entered into the consulship, than he sent 
him word by their common friend Balbus, that he 
would be governed in every step by him and Pom- 
pey, with whom he would endeavour to join Cras- 
sus too . But Cicero would not enter into any 
engagements jointly with the three, whose union 
he abhorred ; nor into private measures with Csesar, 
whose intentions he always suspected. He thought 
Pompey the better citizen of the two ; took his 
views to be less dangerous, and his temper more 
tractable ; and imagined, that a separate alliance 
with him would be sufficient to screen him from 
the malice of his enemies. Yet this put him under 
no small difficulty : for if he opposed the trium- 
virate, he could not expect to continue well with 
Pompey ; or, if he served it, with the senate : in 
the first, he saw his ruin ; in the second, the loss 
of his credit. He chose, therefore, what the wise 
will always choose in such circumstances, a middle 
way ; to temper his behaviour so, that with the con- 
stancy of his duty to the republic, he might have 
a regard also to his safety, by remitting somewhat 
of his old vigour and contention, without submit- 
ting to the meanness of consent or approbation ; 
and when his authority could be of no use to his 
country, to manage their new masters so, as not 
to irritate their power to his own destruction ; which 
was all that he desired p. This was the scheme of 
politics, which, as he often laments, the weakness 
of the honest, the perverseness of the envious, 
and the hatred of the wicked, obliged him to 
pursue. 

One of his intimate friends, Papirius Psetus, 
made him a present about this time of a collection 
of books, which fell to him by the death of his 
brother Servius Claudius, a celebrated scholar and 
critic of that age -. The books were all at Athens, 
where Servius probably died ; and the manner in 
which Cicero writes about them to Atticus, shows 
what value he set upon the present, and what 
pleasure he expected from the use of it. 

" Papirius Pectus," says he, " an honest man, 
who loves me, has given me the books which his 
brother Servius left ; and since your agent Cincius 
tells me, that I may safely take them by the Cincian 
law r , I readily signified my acceptance of them. 
Now if you love me, or know that I love you, I 

° Cassar consul egit eas res, quavum me participem esse 
voluit — me in tribus sibi conjunctissiniis consularibus esse 
voluit -De Provin. Consular. 17. 

Nam fuit apudme Cornelius, nunc dicoBalbum, Caesaris 
familiarem. Is affirmabat, eum omnibus in rebus meo et 
Pompeii consilio usurum, daturumque operam ut cum 
Pompeio Crassumconjungeret. Hie sunt base. Conjunctio 
mini summa cum Pompeio ; si placet etiam cum Cassare. 
—Ad Att. ii. 3, 

p Nihil jam a me asperum in quenquam fit, nee tamen 
quidquam populare ac dissolutum ; sed ita temperata tota 
ratio est, ut reipublicas constantiam prsestem, privatis rebus 
mcis, propter infirmitatem bonorum, iniquitatem malevo- 
lorum, odium in me improborum ; adhibeam quandam 
cautionem.— Att. i. 19. 

1 Ut Servius, frater tuus, quem literatissimum fuisse 
judico, facile diceret, hie versus Plauti non est. — Ep. Fam. 
ix. 16. 

r The pleasantly which Cicero aims at, turns on the 
name of Atticus's agent being the same -with that of the 
author of the law ; as if, by being of that family, his au- 
thority was a good warrant for taking any present. 



beg of you to take care by your friends, clients, 
hosts, freedmen, slaves, that not a leaf of them be 
lost. I am in extreme want both of the Greek 
books, which I guess, and the Latin, which I 
know him to have left : for I find more and more 
comfort every day, in giving all the time, which I 
can steal from the bar, to those studies. You will 
do me a great pleasure, a very great one, I assure 
you, by showing the same diligence in this, that 
you usually do in all other affairs, which you take 
me to have much at heart," &c. s 

While Cicero was in the country in the end of 
the year, his architect Cyrus was finishing for him 
at Rome some additional buildings to his house on 
Mount Palatine : but Atticus, who was just returned 
from Athens, found great fault with the smallness 
of the windows ; to which Cicero gives a jocose 
answer, bantering both the objection of Atticus, 
and the way of reasoning of the architects : " You 
little think, (says he,) that in finding fault with my 
windows, you condemn the Institution of Cyrus 1 ; 
for when I made the same objection, Cyrus told 
me, that the prospect of the fields did not appear 
to such advantage through larger lights. For let 
the eye be A ; the object B, C ; the rays D, E ; 
you see the rest. If vision indeed were performed, 
as you Epicureans hold, by images flying off from 
the object, those images would be well crowded 
in so strait a passage ; but if by the emission of 
rays from the eye, it will be made commodiously 
enough. If you find any other fault, you shall have 
as good as you bring ; unless it can be mended 
without any cost to me u ." 

Cassar and Bibulus entered now into the consul- 
ship, with views and principles wholly opposite to 
each other ; while the senate were 
a. urb. 694. pleasing themselves with their address, 
cic. 48. j n p rocur i n g ne consul of their own, 
to check the ambition of the other, 
and expecting now to reap the fruit of 
m. calpur- it* But they presently found upon a 
nius bibulus. trial, that the balance and constitution 
of the republic was quite changed by 
the overbearing power of the three ; and that Cassar 
was too strong to be controlled by any of the legal 
and ordinary methods of opposition : he had gained 
seven of the tribunes, of whom Vatinius was the 
captain of his mercenaries ; whose task it was to 
scour the streets, secure the avenues of the forum, 
and clear it, by a superior force, of all who were 
prepared to oppose them. 

Clodius, in the mean time, was pushing on the 
affair of his adoption ; and soliciting the people to 
confirm the law, which he had provided for that 
purpose. The triumvirate pretended to be against 
it, or at least to stand neuter ; but were watching 
Cicero's motions, in order to take their measures 
from his conduct, which they did not find so obse- 
quious as they expected. In this interval it hap- 
pened, that C. Antonius, Cicero's colleague, who 
had governed Macedonia from the time of his 
consulship, was now impeached and brought to a 
trial for the mal-administration of his province ; 
and being found guilty, was condemned to perpetual 
exile. Cicero was his advocate, and, in the course 
of his pleading, happened to fall, with his usual 
freedom, into a complaint of the times and the 
s Ad Att. i. 20. 

1 Referring to the celebrated piece of Xenophon, called 
by that name. u Ad Att. ii. 3. 



coss. 

C. JULIUS 

C^SAR, 



80 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



oppression of the republic, in a style that was 
interpreted to reflect severely upon their present 
rulers. The story was carried directly to Csesar, 
and represented to him in such colours, that he 
resolved to revenge it presently on Cicero, by 
bringing on Clodius's law ; and was so eager in it, 
that he instantly called an assembly of the people, 
and being assisted by Pompey, as augur, to make 
the act legal and auspicious, got the adoption 
ratified by the people through all the forms*, 
within three hours from the time of Cicero's 
speaking. 

Bibulus, who was an augur too, being advertised 
of what was going forward, sent notice to Pompey, 
that he was observing the heavens and taking the 
auspices, during which function it was illegal to 
transact any business with the people y. But 
Pompey, instead of paying any regard to his mes- 
sage, gave a sanction to the proceeding, by pre- 
siding in it ; so that it was carried without any 
opposition. And thus the bow, as Cicero calls 
it, which had been kept bent against him and the 
republic, was at last discharged 2 ; and a plain 
admonition given to him, what he had to expect, 
if he would not be more complying. For his 
danger was brought one step nearer, by laying the 
tribunate open to Clodius, whose next attempt 
would probably reach home to him. These laws 
of adoption were drawn up in the style of a petition 
to the people, after the following form : — 

" May it please you, citizens, to ordain, that 
P. Clodius be, to all intents and purposes of law, 
as truly the son of Fonteius, as if he were begotten 
of his body in lawful marriage ; and that Fonteius 
have the power of life and death over him, as much 
as a father has over a proper son : this, citizens, 
I pray you to confirm in the manner in which it is 
desired a ." 

There were three conditions absolutely necessary 
to make an act of this kind regular : first, that the 
adopter should be older" than the adopted, and in- 
capable of procreating children, after having endea- 
voured it without success when he was capable : 
secondly, that no injury or diminution should be 
done to^the dignity, or the religious rites of either 
family : thirdly, that there should be no fraud or 
collusion in it ; nor anything sought by it, but the 
genuine effects of a real adoption. All these par- 
ticulars were to. be previously examined by the 
college of priests ; and if after a due inquiry they 

x Hora fortasse sexta diei questus sum in judicio, cum 
C. Antonium defenderem, quaedam de republica qua? mini 
visa sunt ad causam miseri illius pertinere. Hagc homines 
improbi ad quosdam viros fortes longe aliter atque a me 
dicta erant, detulerunt. Hora nona, illo ipso die, tu es 
adoptatus.*— Pro Domo, 16 ; Vid. Sueton. J. Cass. 20. 

y Negant fas esse agi cum populo cum de ccelo servatum 
sit. Quo die de te lex curiata lata esse dicatur, audes 
negare de ccelo esse servatum ? Adest praesens vir singulari 

virtute M. Bibulus : hunc consulem illo ipso die con- 

tendo servasse de ccelo.— Pro Domo, 15. 

'■ Fuerat ille annus tanquam intentus arcus in me 

ununi, sicut vulgo rerum ignari loquebantur, re quidem 
vera in universam rempublicam traductione ad plcbem 
furibundi hominis.' — Pro Sext. 7- 

a The lawyers and all the later writers, from the autho- 
rity of A. Gellius, call this kind of adoption, which was 
confirmed by a law of the people, an adrogation .• but it 
does not appear that there was any such distinction in 
Cicero's time, who, as oft as he speaks of this act, either to 
the senate or the people, never uses any other term than 
that of adoption.^ Vide. A. Gell. 1. v. 19. 



approved the petition, it was proposed to the 
suffrage of the citizens living in Rome, who voted 
according to their original division into thirty 
curiae, or wards, which seem to have been analogous 
to our parishes 1 * ; where no business however could 
be transacted, when an augur or consul was ob- 
serving the heavens. Now in this adoption of 
Clodius, there was not one of these conditions 
observed : the college of priests was not so much 
as consulted ; the adopter Fonteius had a wife and 
children ; was a man obscure and unknown, not 
full twenty years old when Clodius was thirty-five, 
and a senator of the noblest birth in Rome : nor 
was there anything meant by it, but purely to 
evade the laws, and procure the tribunate : for the 
affair was no sooner over, than Clodius was eman- 
cipated, or set free again by his new father from 
all his obligations . But these obstacles signified 
nothing to Csesar, who always took the shortest 
way to what he aimed at, and valued neither forms 
nor laws, when he had a power sufficient to con- 
trol them. 

But the main trial of strength between the two 
consuls was about the promulgation of an agrarian 
law, which Csesar had prepared, for distributing 
the lands of Campania to twenty thousand poor 
citizens, who had each three children or more. 
Bibulus mustered all his forces to oppose it, and 
came down to the forum full of courage and 
resolution, guarded by three of the tribunes and 
the whole body of the senate ; and as oft as Csesar 
attempted to recommend it, he as often interrupted 
him, and loudly remonstrated against it, declaring, 
that it should never pass in his year. From words 
they soon came to blows ; where Bibulus was 
roughly handled, his fasces broken, pots of filth 
thrown upon his head ; his three tribunes wounded, 
and the whole party driven out of the forum by 
Vatinius, at the head of Csesar's mob d . When the 
tumult was over, and the forum cleared of their 
adversaries, Csesar produced Pompey and Crassus 
into the rostra, to signify their opinion of the law to 
the people ; where Pompey, after speaking largely 
in praise of it, declared in the conclusion, that if 
any should be so hardy as to oppose it with the 
sword, he would defend it with his shield. Crassus 
applauded what Pompey said, and warmly pressed 
the acceptance of it ; so that it passed upon the 
spot without any farther contradiction 6 . Cicero 
was in the country during this contest, but speaks 
of it with great indignation in a letter to Atticus, 
and wonders at Pompey's policy, in supporting 
Csesar in an act so odious, of alienating the best 
revenues of the republic ; and says, that he must 

b Comitiis curiatis. 

c Quod jus est adoptionis, Pontifices? Nempe, ut is 
adoptet, qui neque procreare liberos jam possit, et cum 
potuerit, sit expertus. Qua? denique causa cuique adop- 
tionis, qua? ratio generum ac dignitatis, qua? sacrorum, 
quaeri a pontificum collegio solet. Quid est horum in ista 
adoptione quaesitum ? Adoptat annos viginti natus, etiam 
minor, senatorem. Liberorumne causa ? at procreare 

potest. Habet uxorem : suscepit etiam liberos. Quae 

omnis notio pontificum cum adoptarere esse debuit, &c. 
—Pro Domo, adPontif. 13. 

d Idemque tu— nomine C. Caesaris, clcinentissimi atque 
optimi viri, scelere vero atque audacia tua, M. Bibulum 
foro, curia, templis, locis publicis omnibus expulisses, 
inclusum domi contineres. — In Vatin. 9 ; Dio, xxxviii. CI ; 
Suet. J. Caes. 20; Plutarch, in Pomp. 

e Dio, ibid. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



81 



not think to make them amends by his rents on 
mount Libanus, for the loss of those which he 
had taken from them in Campania f . The senate 
and all the magistrates were obliged, by a special 
clause of this law, to take an oath to the observance 
of it ; which Cato himself, though he had publicly 
declared that he would never do it, was forced at 
last to s wallow £. 

Bibulus made his complaint the next day in the 
senate, of the violence offered to his person ; but 
finding the assembly so cold and intimidated, that 
nobody cared to enter into the affair, or to move 
anything about it, he retired to his house in despair, 
with a resolution to shut himself up for the remain- 
ing eight months of the year, and to act no more 
in public but by his edicts h . This was a weak step 
in a magistrate armed with sovereign authority; 
for though it had one effect, which he proposed 
by it, of turning the odium of the city upon his col- 
league, yet it had another that overbalanced it, of 
strengthening the hands and raising the spirits of 
the adverse party, by leaving the field wholly clear 
to them. 

As Caesar's view in the agrarian law was to 
oblige the populace, so he took the opportunity, 
which the senate had thrown into his hands, of 
obliging the knights too, by easing them of the 
disadvantageous contract, which they had long in 
vain complained of, and remitting a third part of 
what they had stipulated to pay 1 ; and when Cato 
still opposed it with his usual firmness, he ordered 
him to be hurried away to prison. He imagined, 
that Cato would have appealed to the tribunes ; 
but seeing him go along patiently, without speaking 
a word, and reflecting, that such a violence would 
create a fresh odium, without serving any pur- 
pose, he desired one of the tribunes to interpose 
and release him k . He next procured a special 
law, from the people, for the ratification of all 
Pompey's acts in Asia ; and in the struggle about 
it, so terrified and humbled Lucullus, who was the 
chief opposer, that he brought him to ask pardon 
at his feet 1 . 

He carried it still with great outward respect 
towards Cicero ; and gave him to understand again 
by Balbus, that he depended on his assistance in 
the agrarian law : but Cicero contrived to be out 
of the way, and spent the months of April and 
May in his villa near Antium, where he had placed 
his chief collection of books™ ; amusing himself 

f Cnaeus quidem noster jam plane quid cogitet, nescio. — 
Ad Att. ii. 16. 

Quid dices ? Vectigal te nobis in monte Antilibano con- 
stituisse, agri Campani abstulisse.— Ibid. 

S Dio, xxxviii. 61. 

h Ac postero die in senatu conquestum, nee quoquam 
reperto, qui super tali consternatione referre, aut censere 
aliquid auderet— in earn coegit desperationem, ut quoad 
potestate abiret, domo abditus nibil aliud quam per edicta 
obnunciaret. — Sueton. J. Caes. 20. 

i Dio, xxxviii. 62. 

k Plutarch, in Cass. 

1 L. Lucullo, liberius resistenti tantum calumniarum 
metum injecit, ut ad genua ultro sibi accederet.— Sueton. 
J. Cass. 20. 

ra Nam aut fortiter resistendum est legi Agrariae, in quo 
est quaedam dimicatio, sed plena laudis : aut quiescendum, 
quod est non dissimile, atque ire in Solonium, aut Antium : 
aut etiam adjuvandum, quod a me aiunt Caesarem sic 
expectare, ut non dubitet— Ad Att. ii. 3. 

Itaque aut libris me delecto, quorum habeo Antii festi- 
vam copiam, aut fluctus numero.— Ibid. 6. 



with his studies and his children, or as he says 
jocosely, in counting the waves. He was pro- 
jecting however a system of geography, at the 
request of Atticus, but soon grew -weary of it, as a 
subject too dry and jejune to admit of any orna- 
ment 11 ; and being desired also by Atticus to send 
him the copies of two orations which he had 
lately made, his answer was, that he had torn one 
of them, and could not give a copy ; and did not 
care to let the other go abroad, for the praises 
which it bestowed on Pompey ; being disposed 
rather to recant, than publish them, since the 
adoption of Clodius . He seems indeed to have 
been too splenetic at present to compose anything 
but invectives ; of which kind he was now drawing 
up certain anecdotes, as he calls them, or a secret 
history of the times, to be shown to none but 
Atticus, in the style of Theopompus, the most 
satirical of all writers : for all his politics, he says, 
were reduced to this one point, of hating bad 
citizens, and pleasing himself with writing against 
them : and since he was driven from the helm, he 
had nothing to wish, but to see the wreck from the 
shore ; or, as Sophocles says?, 

Under the shelter of a good warm roof, 
With mind serenely calm and prone to sleep, 
Hear the loud storm and beating rain without. 

Clodius, having got through the obstacle of his 
adoption, began without loss of time to sue for the 
tribunate; whilst a report was industriously spread, 
which amused the city for a while, of a breach 
between him and Caesar. He declared everywhere 
loudly, that his chief view in desiring that office 
was, to rescind all Caesar's acts ; and Caesar, on 
his part, as openly disclaimed any share in his 
adoption, and denied him to be a plebeian. This 
was eagerly carried to Cicero by young Curio, who 
assured him, that all the young nobles were as 
much incensed against their proud kings as he 
himself, and would not bear them much longer ; 
and that Memmius and Metellus Nepos had de- 
clared against them : which being confirmed also 
by Atticus's letters, gave no small comfort to 
Cicero ; all whose hopes of any good depended, he 
says, upon their quarrelling among themselves i. 



n Etenim yeaypacpiKa, qua* constitueram, magnum 
opus est,— et hercule sunt res difficiles ad explicandum et 
6fxoei8e?s ; nee tarn possunt uv6iripoypa<pe7(r6cu, quam 
videbatur. — Ad Att. ii. 6. 

Orationes me duas postulas, quarum alteram non 
libebat mihi scribere, quia abscideram ; alteram, ne lau- 
darem eum, quem non amabam — Ibid. 7- 

Ut sciat hie noster Hierosolymarius, traductor ad ple- 
bem, quam bonam meis putissimis orationibus gratiam 
retulerit ; quarum expecta divinam TaAivcodlav. — Ibid. 9. 

P Itaque dveVoVra, quae tibi uni legamus, Theopompino 
genere, aut etiam asperiore multo, pangentur. Neque aliud 
jam quicquam TroXiTtvofxai, nisi odisseimprobos.— Ibid. 6. 

Nunc vero cum cogar exire de navi, non abjectis sed 
receptis gubernaculis, cupio istorum naufragia ex terra 
intueri ; cupio, ut ait tuus amicus Sophocles, 

Khv inrb crreyrj 

Kvas anoveiv vJ/e/<a8os evSovaij (ppevt. 

Ibid. 7. 

q Scito Curionem adolescentem venisse me salutation. 
Valde ejus sermo de Publio cum tuis Uteris congruebat. 
Ipse vero mirandum in modum reges odisse superbos. 
Perasque narrabat incensam esse juventutem, neque ferre 
haec posse. — Ibid. 8. 

Incurrit in me Roma veniens Curio meus— Publius, in- 
quit, tribunatum plebis petit. Quid ais ? et inimicissimus 
G 



82 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



The pretended ground of this rupture, as it is 
hinted in Cicero's letters, was Clodius' slighting 
an offer, which the triumvirate made to him, of an 
embassy to king Tigranes ; for being weary of his 
insolence, and jealous of his growing power, they 
had contrived this employment as an honourable 
way of getting rid of him : but in the present 
condition of the republic, Clodius knew his own 
importance too well, to quit his views at home, by 
an offer of so little advantage abroad ; and was 
disgusted, that Cgesar had not named him among 
the twenty commissioners appointed to divide the 
Campanian lands ; and resolved not to stir from 
the city till he had reaped the fruits of the tri- 
bunate. Cicero mentioning this affair to Atticus, 
says, " I am much delighted with what you write 
about Clodius : try all means to search into the 
bottom of it ; and send or bring me word, whatever 
you either learn or suspect ; and especially, what 
he intends to do about the embassy. Before I 
read your letter, I was wishing, that he would 
accept it ; not for the sake of declining a battle with 
him, for I am in wonderful spirits for fighting ; 
but I imagined, that he would lose by it all the 
popularity which he has gained by going over to 
the plebeians — What then did you mean by making 
yourself a plebeian ? Was it only to pay a visit 
to Tigranes ? Do not the kings of Armenia use 
to take notice of patricians ? — You see how I had 
been preparing myself to rally the embassy ; which 
if he slights after all, and if this, as you say, 
disgusts the authors and promoters of the law, we 
shall have rare sport. But to say the truth, Publius 
has been treated somewhat rudely by them ; since 
he, who was lately the only man with Caesar, 
cannot now find a place among the twenty ; and 
after promising one embassy, they put him off 
with another ; and while they bestow the rich ones 
upon Drusus, or Vatinius, reserve this barren one 
for him, whose tribunate was proposed to be of 
such use to them. Warm him, I beg of you, on 
this head, as much as you can ; all our hopes of 
safety are placed on their falling out among them- 
selves, of which, as I understand from Curio, some 
symptoms begin already to appear r ." But all 
this noise of a quarrel was found at last to be 
a mere artifice, as the event quickly showed : or if 
there was any real disgust among them, it pro- 
ceeded no farther than to give the better colour to 
a report, by which they hoped to impose upon 
Cicero, and draw some unwary people into a hasty 
declaration of themselves ; and above all, to weaken 
the obstruction to Clodius's election from that 
quarter, whence it was chiefly to be apprehended. 
Cicero returned to Rome in May, after an 
interview with Atticus, who went abroad at the 
same time to his estate in Epirus : he resolved to 
decline all public business, as much as he decently 
could, and to give the greatest part of his time to 
the bar, and to the defence of causes ; an employ- 
ment always popular, which made many friends, 
and few enemies, so that he was still much fre- 
quented at home, and honourably attended abroad, 
and maintained his dignity, he says, not meanly, 



quidem Caesaris, et ut omnia, inquit, ista rescindat. Quid 
Caesar ? inquam. Negat se quicquam de illius adoptione 
tulisse. Deindesuum, Memmii, Metelli Nepotia expromp- 
sit odium. Complcxus juvcncm diniisi, propurans ad 
epistolas.— Ad Att. ii. 12. 
T Ad Att. ii. 7. 



considering the general oppression ; nor yetgreatly, 
considering the part which he had before acted s . 
Among the other causes which he pleaded this 
summer, he twice defended A. Thermus, and once 
L. Flaccus ; men of praetorian dignity, who were 
both acquitted. The speeches for Thermus are 
lost ; but that for Flaccus remains, yet somewhat 
imperfect ; in which, though he had lately paid so 
dear for speaking his mind too freely, we find seve- 
ral bold reflections on the wretched state of sub- 
jection to which the city was now reduced. 

This L. Valerius Flaccus had been praetor in 
Cicero's consulship, and received the thanks of 
the senate for his zeal and vigour in the seizure of 
Catiline's accomplices ; but was now accused by 
P. Laelius of rapine and oppression in his province 
of Asia, which was allotted to him from his prae- 
torship. The defence consists chiefly in display- 
ing the dignity of the criminal, and invalidating the 
credit of the Asiatic witnesses. Cicero observes, 
" That the judges, who had known and seen the 
integrity of Flaccus's life through a series of great 
employments, were themselves the best witnesses 
of it, and could not want to learn it from others, 
especially from Grecians : that for his part, he had 
always been particularly addicted to that nation 
and their studies, and knew many modest and 
worthy men among them : that he allowed them 
to have learning, the discipline of many arts, an 
elegance of writing, a fluency of speaking, and an 
acuteness of wit : but as to the sanctity of an oath, 
they had no notion of it, knew nothing of the 
force and the efficacy of it : that all their concern 
in giving evidence was, not how to prove, but how 
to express what they said : — that they never ap- 
peared in a cause, but with a resolution to hurt ; 
nor ever considered what words were proper for an 
oath, but what were proper to do mischief ; taking 
it for the last disgrace, to be baffled, confuted, and 
outdone in swearing : so that they never chose the 
best and worthiest men for witnesses, but the most 
daring and loquacious : — in short, that the whole 
nation looked upon an oath as a mere jest, and 
placed all their credit, livelihood, and praise, on 
the success of an impudent lie : — whereas of the 
Roman witnesses, who were produced against Flac- 
cus, though several of them came angry, fierce, 
and willing to ruin him, yet one- : could not help 
observing, with what caution and religion they 
delivered what they had to say ; and though they 
had the greatest desire to hurt, yet could not do it 
for their scruples : — that a Roman, in giving his 
testimony, was always jealous of himself, lest he 
should go too far ; weighed all his words, and was 
afraid to let anything drop from him too hastily 
and passionately ; or to say a syllable more or less 
than was necessary 1 ." Then after showing, at 

s Me tueor, ut oppressis omnibus, nondemisse ; ut tantis 
rebus gestis, parum fortiter. — Ad Att. ii. 18. 

4 Pro Flacco, 4. 5. This character of the Greek and 
Roman witnesses is exactly agreeable to what Polybius, 
though himself a Grecian, bad long before observed ; that 
those who managed the public money in Greece, though 
they gave ever so many bonds and sureties for their beha- 
viour, could not be induced to act honestly, or preserve 
their faith, in the case even of a single talent: whereas 
in Home, out of pure reverence to the sanctity of an oath, 
they were never known to violate their trust, though in the 
management of the greatest sums, [l'olyb 1. vi. p 498.] 
This was certainly true of the old republic ; but we must 
make great allowance for the language of the Bar, when 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



83 



large, by what scandalous methods this accusation 
was procured against Flaccus, and after exposing 
the vanity of the crimes charged upon him, toge- 
ther with the profligate characters of the particular 
witnesses ; he declares, " that the true and genuine 
Grecians were all on Flaccus' side, with public 
testimonies and decrees in his favour. — Here, says 
he, you see the Athenians, whence humanity, learn- 
ing, religion, the fruits of the earth, the rights and 
laws of mankind, are thought to have been first 
propagated ; for the possession of whose city, the 
gods themselves are said to have contended on the 
account of its beauty ; which is of so great anti- 
quity, that it is reported to have brought forth 
its own citizens, and the same spot to have been 
their parent, their nurse, and their country ; and 
of so great authority, that the broken and shat- 
tered fame of Greece depends now singly on the 
credit of this city. — Here also are the Lacedemo- 
nians, whose tried and renowned virtue was con- 
firmed not only by nature, but by discipline ; who 
alone, of all the nations upon earth, have subsisted 
for above seven hundred years, without any change 
in their laws and manners. — Nor can I pass over 
the city of Marseilles, which knew Flaccus when 
first a soldier, and afterwards qusestor ; the gravity 
of whose discipline, I think preferable, not only to 
Greece, but to all other cities ; which, though se- 
parated so far from the country, the customs, and 
the language of all Grecians, surrounded by the 
nations of Gaul, and washed by the waves of bar- 
barism, is so wisely governed by the counsels of an 
aristocracy, that it is easier to praise their constitu- 
tion, than to imitate it u ." One part of the charge 
against Flaccus was, for prohibiting the Jews to 
carry out of his province the gold, which they 
used to collect annually through the empire for the 
temple of Jerusalem ; all which he seized and re- 
mitted to the treasury at Rome. The charge itself 
seems to imply, that the Jews made no mean figure 
at this time in the empire ; and Cicero's answer, 
though it betrays a great contempt of their reli- 
gion, through his ignorance of it, yet shows, that 
their numbers and credit were very considerable 
also in Rome. The trial was held near the Aure- 
lian steps, a place of great resort for the populace, 
and particularly for the Jews, who used it probably 
as a kind of exchange, or general rendezvous of 
their countrymen : Cicero therefore proceeds to say, 
" It was for this reason, Lselius, and for the sake 
of this crime, that you have chosen this place and 
all this crowd for the trial : you know what a nu- 
merous band the Jews are ; what concord among 
themselves ; what a bustle they make in our assem- 
blies — I will speak softly, that the judges only may 
hear me ; for there are people ready to incite them 
against me and against every honest man ; and I 
would not willingly lend any help to that design — 
Since our gold then is annually carried out of Italy, 
and all the provinces, in the name of the Jews, to 
Jerusalem, Flaccus, by a public edict, prohibited 
the exportation of it from Asia : and where is there 
a man, judges, who does not truly applaud this 
act ? The senate, on several different occasions, 
but more severely in my consulship, condemned 
the exportation of gold. To withstand this barba- 
rous superstition was a piece therefore of laudable 

we find Cicero applying the same integrity and regard to 
an oath to the character of his own times. 
« Pro Flacco, 26. 



discipline ; and, out of regard to the republic, to 
contemn the multitude of Jews, who are so tumul- 
tuous in all our assemblies, an act of the greatest 
gravity : but Pompey, it seems, when he took 
Jerusalem, meddled with nothing in that temple : 
in which, as on many other occasions, he acted 
prudently, that in so suspicious and ill-tongued a 
people, he would not give any handle for calumny; 
for I can never believe, that it was the religion of 
Jews and enemies, which hindered this excellent 
general, but his own modesty." Then after show- 
ing, that " Flaccus had not embezzled or seized 
the gold to his own use, but transmitted it to the 
public treasury," he observes, that it was not there- 
fore for the sake of the crime, but to raise an envy, 
that this fact was mentioned ; and that the accuser's 
speech was turned from the judges, and addressed 
to the circle around them : "Every city," says he, 
" Lselius, has its religion ; we have ours : while 
Jerusalem flourished, and Judea was at peace with 
us, yet their religious rites were held inconsistent 
with the splendour of this empire, the gravity of 
the Roman name, and the institutions of our ances- 
tors : but much more ought they to beheld so now ; 
since they have let us see, by taking arms, what 
opinion they have of us ; and by their being con- 
quered, how dear they are to the gods v ." He pro- 
ceeds in the last place to show, what he had 
initimated in the beginning, " that the real aim of 
this trial was to sacrifice those, who had signalized 
themselves against Catiline, to the malice and 
revenge of the seditious : " and puts the judges in 
mind, that " the fate of the city, and the safety of 
all honest men, now rested on their shoulders : 
that they saw in what an unsettled state things 
were, and what a turn their affairs had taken : that 
among many other acts, which certain men had done, 
they were now contriving, that by the votes and 
decisions of the judges every honest man might be 
undone ; thatthesejudgesindeedhadgivenmanylau- 
dable judgments in favour of the republic; many, 
against the wickedness of the conspirators : yet 
some people thought the republic not yet suffi- 
ciently changed, till the best citizens were involved 
in the same punishment with the worst. C. 
Antonius," says he, " is already oppressed ; let it be 
so : he had a peculiar infamy upon him : yet even 
he, if I may be allowed to say it, would not have 
been condemned by you : upon whose condemna- 
tion a sepulchre was dressed up to Catiline, and 
celebrated with a feast and concourse of our auda- 
cious and domestic enemies, and funeral rites 
performed to him : now the death of Lentulus is to 
be revenged on Flaccus ; and what more agreeable 
sacrifice can you offer to him, than by Flaccus 's 
blood to satiate his detestable hatred of us all ? Let 
us then appease the manes of Lentulus ; pay the 
last honours to Cethegus ; recall the banished ; nay, 
let me also be punished for the excess of my love 
to my country : I am already named and marked 
out for a trial ; have crimes forged ; dangers pre- 
pared for me ; which if they had attempted by any 
other method ; or if, in the name of the people, 
they had stirred up the unwary multitude against 
me, I could better have borne it ; but it is not to be 
endured, that they should think to drive out of the 
city the authors, the leaders, the champions of our 
common safety ; by the help of senators and 

v Pro Flacco, 28. 
G 2 



84 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



knights, who, with one mind and consent, assisted 
so greatly in the same cause. They know the mind 
and inclination of the Roman people : the people 
themselves take all possible occasions of declaring 
it : there is no variety in their sentiments, or their 
language. If any one therefore call me thither, I 
come : I do not only not refuse, but require, the 
Roman people for my judge : let force only be 
excluded ; let swords and stones be removed ; let 
mercenaries be quiet ; let slaves be silent ; and 
when I come to be heard for myself, there will not 
be a man so unjust, if he be free and a citizen, who 
will not be of opinion, that they ought to vote me 
rewards rather than punishment x ." He concludes, 
by applying himself, as usual, to move the pity 
and clemency of the bench towards the person of 
the criminal, by all the topics proper to excite com- 
passion : " the merit of his former services ; the 
lustre of his family ; the tears of his children ; the 
discouragement of the honest ; and the hurt which 
the republic would suffer in being deprived, at such 
a time, of such a citizen." 

Q. Cicero, who succeeded Flaccus in the pro- 
vince of Asia, was now entering into the third 
year of his government, when Cicero sent him a 
most admirable letter of advice about the admi- 
nistration of his province ; fraught with such 
excellent precepts of moderation, humanity, jus- 
tice, and laying down rules of governing, so truly 
calculated for the good of mankind, that it deserves 
a place in the closets of all who govern ; and es- 
pecially of those who are entrusted with the com- 
mand of foreign provinces ; who by their distance 
from any immediate control, are often tempted, by 
the insolence of power, to acts of great oppression. 

The triumvirate was now dreaded and detested 
by all ranks of men : and Pompey, as the first of 
the league, had the first share of the public hatred : 
"so that these affecters of popularity," says Cicero, 
" have taught even modest men tohissy." Bibulus 
was continually teasing them by his edicts ; in 
which he inveighed and protested against all their 
acts. These edicts were greedily received by the 
city ; all people got copies of them ; and where- 
ever they were fixed up in the streets, it was scarce 
possible to pass for the crowds which were reading 
them 2 . Bibulus was extolled to the skies ; " though I 
know not why," says Cicero, " unless, like another 
Fabius, he is thought to save the state by doing 
nothing : for what is all his greatness of mind, but 
a mere testimony of his sentiments, without any 
service to the republic 8 ? " His edicts however pro- 
voked Caesar so far, that he attempted to excite the 
mob to storm his house, and drag him out by force : 
and Vatinius actually made an assault upon it, 

x Pro Flacco, 38. 

y Qui fremitus hominum ? qui irati animi ? quanto in 
odio noster amicus Magnus? — Ad Att. ii. 13. 

Scito nihil unquam fuisse tarn infame, tam turpe, tarn 
peraeque omnibus gcncribus, ordinibus, a?tatibus offensum, 
quam nunc statum, qui nunc est : magis mehercule quam 
vellem, non modo quam putaram. Populares isti jam etiam 
modestos homines sibilare docuerunt. — Ibid. 19. 

L Itaque archilochia in ilium edicta Bibuli populo ita 
sunt jucunda, ut cum locum, ubi proponuntur, pne multi- 
tudine eorum qui legunt.transirenequcunt.*— Ad Att. ii. 21. 

a Bibulus in ccelo est ; nee quare, scio. Sed ita laudatur, 

quasi, unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem.— Ibid. 19. 

Bibuli autem ista magnitudo animi in comitiorum dila- 

tione, quid habet, nisi ipsius judicium sineulla correctione 

reipublica?.— Ibid. 15. 



though without success b . But while all the world 
disliked, lamented, and talked loudly against these 
proceedings ; and above all, young Curio at the head 
of the young nobility ; " yet we seek no remedy," 
says " Cicero, through a persuasion, that there is 
no resisting, but to our destruction . 

The inclinations of the people were shown 
chiefly, as he tells us, in the theatres and public 
shows ; where, when Caesar entered, he was re- 
ceived only with a dead applause ; but when young 
Curio, who followed him, appeared, he was clapped, 
as Pompey used to be in the height of his glory. 
And in the Apollinarian plays, Diphilus, the tra- 
gedian, happening to have some passages in his 
part which were thought to hit the character of 
Pompey, he was forced to repeat them a thousand 
times : 

Thou by our miseries art great • 



The time will come when thou wilt wretchedly lament 

that greatness 

If neither law nor custom can restrain thee 

at each of which sentences, the whole theatre made 
such a roaring and clapping, that they could hardly 
be quieted d . Pompey was greatly shocked to find 
himself fallen so low in the esteem of the city : he 
had hitherto lived in the midst of glory, an utter 
stranger to disgrace, which made him the more 
impatient under so mortifying a change : " I could 
scarce refrain from tears," says Cicero, " to see 
what an abject, paltry figure, he made in the rostra, 
where he never used to appear but with universal 
applause and admiration ; meanly haranguing against 
the edicts of Bibulus, and displeasing not only his 
audience, but himself: a spectacle agreeable to 
none so much as to Crassus ; to see him fallen so 
low from such a height : — and as Apelles or Pro- 
togenes would have been grieved to see one of 
their capital pieces besmeared with dirt ; so it was 
a real grief to me, to see the man, whom I had 
painted with all the colours of my art, become of 
a sudden so deformed : for though nobody can 
think, since the affair of Clodius, that I have any 
reason to be his friend ; yet my love for him was 
so great, that no injury could efface it e ." 

Caesar, on the other hand, began to reap some 

b Putarat Caesar oratione sua posse impelli concionem, 
ut iret ad Bibulum ; multa cum seditiosissime diceret, 
vocem exprimere non potuit. — Ad Att. ii. 21. 

Qui consulem morti objeceris, inclusum obsederis, 
extrahere ex suis tectis conatus sis. — In A r atin. 9. 

c Nunc quidem novo quodam morbo civitas moritur ; ut 
cum omnes ea, quae sunt acta, improbent, querantur, do- 
leant, varietas in re nulla sit, aperteque loquantur et jam 
clare gemant ; tamen medicina nulla afferatur, neque enim 
resisti sine in ternecione posse arbitramur. — Ad Att. ii. 20. 

d Diphilus tragoedus in nostrum Pompeium petulanter 
invectus est : Nostra miser iatu es magnus, millies coactus 
est dicere. Tandem virtutem istam veniet tempus cum gra- 
viter gemes, totius theatri clamore dixit, itemque cetera. 
Nam et ejusmodi sunt ii versus, ut in tempus ab inimico 
Pompeii scripti esse videantur. Si ncqne leges, neque 
mores cogunt, et camera magno cum fremitu et clamore 
dicta sunt.— Ibid. 19. 

Valerius Maximus, who tells the same story, says, that 
Diphilus, in pronouncing those sentences, stretched out his 
hands towards Pompeii, to point him out to the company. 
But it appears from Cicero's account of it in this letter to 
Atticus, that Pompey was then at Capua; whither Caesar 
sent an express to him in all haste to acquaint him with 
what had passed, and to call him probably to Rome. — Val. 
Max. vi. 2. 

e Ut ille turn humilis, ut demissus erat: ut ipse etiam 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



85 



part of that fruit which he expected from their 
union ; he foresaw, from the first, that the odium 
of it would fall upon Pompey ; the benefit accrue 
to himself f : till Pompey, gradually sinking under 
the eavy, and himself insensibly rising by the 
power of it, they might come at last to act upon a 
level : or, as Florus states the several views of the 
three, Caesar wanted to acquire ; Crassus to in- 
crease ; Pompey to preserve his dignity &, So that 
Pompey in reality was but the dupe of the other 
two : whereas if he had united himself with Cicero, 
and through him with the senate ; whither his own 
and his country's interest called him, and where, 
from the different talents of the men, there could 
have been no contrast of glory or power ; he must 
have preserved through life, what his utmost ambi- 
tion seemed to aim at, the character not only of 
the first, but of the best citizen in Rome : but by 
his alliance with Caesar, he lent his authority to 
the nursing up a rival, who gained upon him daily 
in credit, and grew too strong for him at last in 
power. The people's disaffection began to open 
his eyes, and make him sensible of his error ; which 
he frankly owned to Cicero, and seemed desirous 
of entering into measures with him to retrieve it h . 
He saw himself on the brink of a precipice, where 
to proceed was ruinous, to retreat ignominious : the 
honest were become his enemies, and the factious 
had never been his friends : but though it was easy 
to see his mistake, it was difficult to find a remedy. 
Cicero pressed the only one which could be effec- 
tual, an immediate breach with Caesar ; and used 
all arguments to bring him to it ; but Caesar was 
more successful, and drew Pompey quite away 
from him 1 ; and having got possession, entangled 
him so fast, that he could never disengage himself 
till it was too late. 

But to give a turn to the disposition of the peo- 
ple, or to draw their attention at least another way, 
Caesar contrived to amuse the city with the disco- 
very of a new conspiracy to assassinate Pompey. 
Vettius, who in Catiline's affair had impeached 
Csesar, and smarted severely for it, was now in- 
structed how to make amends for that step, by 
swearing a plot upon the opposite party ; particu- 
larly upon young Curio, the briskest opposer of the 
triumvirate. For this purpose, he insinuated him- 
self into Curio's acquaintance, and when he was 
grown familiar, opened to him a resolution, which 

sibi, non iis solum qui aderant, displicebat. O spectaculum 
uni Crasso jucundum, &c. — Q,uanquam nemo putabat 
propter Clodianum negotium me illi amicum esse debere : 
tamen tantus f uit amor, ut exhauriri nulla posset inj uria. 
—Ad Att. ii. 21. 

f Caesar animad vertebat se— invidia communis potentiae in 
ilium relegata, confirmaturum vires suas. — Veil. Pat. ii. 44. 

8 Sic igitur Cassare dignitatem comparare, Crasso augere, 
Pompeio retinere, cupientibus, omnibusque pariter poten- 
tiae cupidis, de invadenda republica facile convenit.— Flor. 
4.2. 11. 

h Sed quod facile sentias, taedet ipsum Pompeium, vehe- 
menterque pcenitet, &c— Ad Att. ii. 22. 

Primum igitur illud te scire volo, Sampsiceranum, nos- 
trum amicum, vebementer sui status pcenitere, restitui- 
que in eum locum cupere, ex quo decidit, doloremque 
suum impertire nobis, et medicinam interdum aperte quae- 
rere ; quam ego possum invenire nullam.' — Ibid. 23. 

1 Ego M. Bibulo, praestantissimo cive, consule, nihil 
praetermisi, quantum facere, nitique potui, quin Pom- 
peium a Caesaris conjunctione avocarem. In quo Caesar 
felicior fuit : ipse enim Pompeium a mea familiaritate 
disjunxit.— Phil. ii. 10. 



he pretended to have taken, of killing Pompey, in 
expectation of drawing some approbation of it from 
him : but Curio carried the story to his father, 
who gave immediate information of it to Pompey, 
and so the matter, being made public, was brought 
before the senate. This was a disappointment to 
Vettius, who had laid his measures so, that "he 
himself should have been seized in the forum with 
a poniard, and his slaves taken also with pon- 
iards ; and upon his examination, was to have made 
the first discovery if Curio had not prevented him. 
But being now examined before the senate, he 
denied at first his having any such discourse with 
Curio ; but presently recanted, and offered to dis- 
cover what he knew, upon promise of pardon, 
which was readily granted : he then told them, 
that there was a plot formed by many of the young 
nobility, of which Curio was the head : that Paul- 
lus was engaged in it from the first, with Brutus 
also and Lentulus, the son of the flamen, with the 
privity of his father : that Septimius, the secretary 
of Bibulus, had brought him a dagger from Bibu- 
lus himself. — This was thought ridiculous, that 
Vettius should not be able to procure a dagger, 
unless the consul had given him one. — Young 
Curio was called in to answer to Vettius' s infor- 
mation, who soon confounded him, and showed 
his narrative to be inconsistent and impossible : 
for he had deposed, that the young nobles had 
agreed to attack Pompey in the forum on the day 
when Gabinius gave his show of gladiators, and 
that Paullus was to be the leader in the attack ; but 
it appeared, that Paullus was in Macedonia at that 
very time. — The senate therefore ordered Vettius to 
be clapped into irons, and that if any man released 
him, he should be deemed a public enemy." 

Caesar, however, unwilling to let the matter drop 
so easily, brought him out again the next day, and 
produced him to the people in the rostra ; and in 
that place, where Bibulus, though consul, durst 
not venture to show himself, exhibited this wretch, 
as his puppet, to utter whatever he should think fit 
to inspire. Vettius impeached several here, whom 
he had not named before in the senate; particularly 
Lucullus and Domitius : he did not name Cicero, 
but said, that a certain senator of great eloquence, 
and consular rank, and a neighbour of the consul, 
had told him, that the times wanted another Brutus 
or Ahala. When he had done, and was going 
down, being called back again and whispered by 
Vatinius, and then asked aloud, whether he could 
recollect nothing more, he farther declared, that 
Piso, Cicero's son-in-law, and M. Laterensis, were 
also privy to the design k . But it happened in this, 
as it commonly does in all plots of the same kind, 
that the too great eagerness of the managers 
destroyed its effect : for, by the extravagance to 
which it was pushed, it confuted itself ; and was 
entertained with so general a contempt by all orders, 
that Caesar was glad to get rid of it, by strangling 
or poisoning Vettius privately in pi'ison, and giving 
it out, that it was done by the conspirators 1 . 

The senate had still one expedient in reserve for 
mortifying Caesar, by throwing some contemptible 

k Ad Att. ii. 24 ; In Vatin. 11 ; Sueton. J. Caes 20. 

1 Fregerisne in carcere cervices ipsi illi Vettio, ne quod 
indicium corrupti judicii extaret ? — In Vatin. 11 , 

Caesar— desperans tam praecipitis consilii eventum, in- 
tercepisse veneno indicem creditur.' — Sueton. J. Cses. 20 ; 
Plutarch, in Lucull. 



8f> 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



province upon him at the expiration of his consul- 
ship ; as the care of the woods or the roads ; or 
what should give him at least no power to molest 
them" 1 . The distribution of the provinces was, 
by ancient usage and express law, their undoubted 
prerogative ; which had never been invaded or 
attempted by the people"; so that this piece of 
revenge, or rather self-defence, seemed to be clearly 
in their power ; but Caesar, who valued no law or 
custom which did not serve his purposes, without 
any regard to the senate, applied himself to his 
better friends, the people ; and by his agent Vati- 
nius procured from them, by a new and extraordi- 
nary law, the grant of Cisalpine Gaul, with the 
addition of Illyricum, for the term of five years. 
This was a cruel blow to the power of the senate, 
and a direct infringement of the old constitution ; 
as it transferred to the people a right which they 
had never exercised or pretended to before . It 
convinced the senate, however, that all opposition 
was vain ; so that when Caesar soon after declared 
a desire to have the Transalpine Gaul added to his 
other provinces, they decreed it to him readily 
themselves ; to prevent his recurring a second time 
to the people, and establishing a precedent, so 
fatal to their authority p. 

Clodius began now to threaten Cicero with all 
the terrors of his tribunate ; to which he was elected 
without any opposition : and in proportion as the 
danger approached, Cicero's apprehensions were 
every day more and more alarmed. The absence 
of his friend Atticus, who was lately gone to Epirus, 
was an additional mortification to him : for Atticus, 
having a great familiarity with all the Clodian 
family, might have been of service, either in dis- 
suading Clodius from any attempt, or in fishing 
out of him at least what he really intended. Cicero 
pressed him therefore, in every letter, to come back 
again to Rome: " If you love me, (says he,) as 
much as I am persuaded you do, hold yourself 
ready to run hither as soon as I call : though I am 
doing and will do everything in my power to save 
you that trouble i — My wishes and my affairs 
require you -. I shall want neither counsel, nor 
courage, nor forces, if I see you here at the time. 
I have reason to be satisfied with Varro : Pompey 
talks divinely 1 ". — How much do I wish that you 
had staid at Rome ! as you surely would have done, 
if you had imagined how things would happen : 

m Eandem ob causam opera optimatibus data est, ut 
provincia? futuris consulibus minimi negotii, id est, sylvze 
callesque, decernerentuiv — Sueton. J. Caes. 19. 

n Tu provincias consulares, quas C. Gracchus, qui unus 
maxime popularis f uit, non modo non abstulit ab senatu : 
sed etiam utnecesseesset, quotannisconstituiper senatum 
decveta lege sanxic. — Pro Domo, 9. 

Eripueras senatui provincia; decernenda? potestatem ; 
imperatoris deligendi judicium ; aerarii dispensationem ; 
qua; nunquam sibi populus Romanus appetivit, qui nun- 
quam ha»c a summi consilii gubernatione auferre conatus 
est. — In Vatin. 15. 

P Initio quidem Galliam Cisalpinam, adjecto Illyrico, 
lege Vatinia accepit : mox per senatum Comatam quoque : 
veritis Patribus, ne si ipsi negassent, populus ethane daret. 
— Sueton. J. Ca»s. 22. 

1 Tu, si me amas tan turn, quantum profecto amas, expe- 
ditus facito ut sis; si inclamaro, ut accurras. Sed do 
operam, et dabo, ne sit neccsse. — Ad Att. ii. 20. 

r Te cum ego desidero, turn etiam res ad tempus illud 
vocat. Plurimum consilii, animi, presidii denique mini, 
si te ad- tempus videro, accesserit. Varro milii aatisfacit, 
Pompeius loquitur divinitus.— Ibid. 21. 



we should easily have managed Clodius, or learnt 
at least for certain what he meant to do. At pre- 
sent he flies about ; raves ; knows not what he 
would be at ; threatens many ; and will take his 
measures perhaps at last from chance. When he 
reflects, in what a general odium the administration 
of our affairs now is, he seems disposed to turn his 
attacks upon the authors of it : but when he con- 
siders their power, and their armies, he falls again 
upon me ; and threatens me both with violence and 
a trial. — Many things may be transacted by our 
friend Varro, which, when urged also by you, 
would have the greater weight ; many things may 
be drawn from Clodius himself ; many discovered, 
which cannotbe concealed from you ; but itis absurd 
to run into particulars, when I want you for all 
things — the whole depends on your coming before 
he enters into his magistracy 8 . Wherefore, if this 
finds you asleep, awake yourself; if standing still, 
come away ; if coming, run ; if running, fly : itis in- 
credible, what a stress I lay on your counsel and pru- 
dence ; but above all, on your love and fidelity," &c.* 
Caesar's whole aim in this affair was to subdue 
Cicero's spirit, and distress him so far, as to force 
him to a dependence upon him : for which end, 
while he was privately encouraging Clodius to pur- 
sue him, he was proposing expedients to Cicero for 
his security : he offered to put him into the com- 
mission, for distributing the lands of Campania, 
with which twenty of the principal senators were 
charged : but as it was an invitation only into the 
place of one deceased, and not an original desig- 
nation, Cicero did not think it for his dignity to 
accept it ; nor cared on any account to bear a part 
in an affair so odious u ; he then offered, in the most 
obliging manner, to make him one of his lieutenants 
in Gaul, and pressed it earnestly upon him ; which 
was both a sure and honourable way of avoiding 
the danger, and what he might have made use of 
so far only as it served his purpose, without embar- 
rassing himself with the duty of it x : yet Cicero, 
after some hesitation, declined this also. He was 
unwilling to owe the obligation of his safety to any 
man, and much more to Caesar ; being desirous, if 
possible, to defend himself by his own strength ; as 
he could easily have done, if the triumvirate would 
not have acted against him. But this stiffness so 
exasperated Caesar, that he resolved immediately 
to assist Clodius, with all his power, to oppress 
him ; and in excuse for it afterwards, used to throw 
the whole blame on Cicero himself, for slighting so 
obstinately all the friendly offers which he made to 
him^. Pompey all this while, to prevent his throw- 
ing himself perhaps into Caesar's hands, was giving 
him the strongest assurances, confirmed by oaths 

s Ad Att. ii. 22. 

1 Quamobrem, si dormis, expergiscere ; si stas, ingre- 
dere ; si ingrederis, curre ; si curris, advola. Credibilc non 
est, quantum ego in consiliis et prudentia tua. et quod max- 
imum est, quantum inamore etfideponam. — Ad Att. ii. 23. 

u Cosconio mortuo, sum in ejus locum invitatus. Id erat 
vocari in locum mortui. Nihil me turpius apud homines 
fuisset: nequevero ad istam ipsam a<T<pd.\eiav quicquam 
alienius. Sunt enim illi apud bonos invidiosL — Ibid. 19. 

x A Caesarevaldeliberaliterinvitor in legationem illam, 
sibi ut sim legatus. Ilia et munitior est, et non impedit, 
quo minus adsim, cum velim. — Ibid. 18. 

Caesar me sibi vult esse legatum. Iloncstior ha>c deeli- 
natio periculi. Sed ego hoc nunc repndio. Quid ergo est ? 
Pugnare malo : nihil tamen certi.— Ibid. 19. 

y Ac solet, cum se purgat, in me conferre omneni isto- 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



87 



and vows, that there was no danger ; and that he 

would sooner be killed himself, than suffer him to 

be hurt ; that both Clodius and his brother Appius 

had solemnly promised to act nothing against him, 

but to be wholly at his disposal ; and if they did 

not keep their word, that he would let all the world 

see, how much he preferred Cicero's friendship to 

all his other engagements. In Cicero's account of 

this to Atticus, " Varro, (says he,) gives me full 

satisfaction. Pompey loves me, and treats me with 

j great kindness. Do you believe him ? you'll say. 

Yes, I do. He convinces me, that he is in earnest. 

j — Yet since all men of affairs, in their historical 

reflections, and even poets too in their verses, 

I admonish us always to be upon our guard, nor to 

j believe too easily ; I comply with them in one 

I thing ; to use all proper caution, as far as I am 

able ; but for the other, find it impossible for me 

not to believe him z ." 

But whatever really passed between Clodius and 
Pompey ; Cicero perceiving, that Clodius talked in 
a different strain to everybody else, and denounced 
nothing but war and ruin to him, began to be very 
suspicious of Pompey; and prepared to defend 
himself by his genuine forces, the senate and the 
knights, wi:h the honest of all ranks, who were 
ready to fly to his assistance from all parts of 
Italy a . This was the situation of affairs when 
Clodius entered upon the tribunate ; where his first 
act was, to put the same affront on Bibulus, which 
had been offered before to Cicero, on laying down 
that office, by not suffering him to speak to the 
people, but only to take the accustomed oath. 

Q. Metellus Celer, an excellent citizen and 
patriot, who. from his consulship, obtained the 
government cf Gaul, to which Caesar now succeeded, 
died suddenly this summer at Rome, in the vigour 
of his health and flower of his age, not without 
suspicion of "violence. His wife, the sister of Clo- 
dius, a lewd, intriguing woman, was commonly 
thought to have poisoned him, as well to revenge 
his opposition to all the attempts of her brother, 
as to gain the greater liberty of pursuing her own 
amours. Cicero does not scruple to charge her 

rum temporum culpam : ita me sibi fuisse inimicum, ut 
ne honorem quidem a se accipere vellem — Ad Att. ix. 2. 

Non caruerunt suspicione oppressi Ciceronis, Caesar et 
Pompeius. Hoc sibi contraxisse videbatur Cicero, quod 
inter xx. viros dividendo agro Campano esse noluisset. 
—Veil. Pat. ii. 45. 

'■ Pompeius omnia pollicetur et Caesar : quibus ego ita 
credo, ut nihil de mea comparatione diminuam. — Ad 
Quint. Frat. i. 2. 

Pompeius amat nos, carosque habet. Credis ? inquies, 
Credo : Prorsus mihi persuadet. Sed quia, ut video, prag- 
nutici homines omnibus historicis praeceptis, versibus 
daiique cavere jubent, et vetant credere ; alteram facio, ut 
caream; alterum, ut non credam, facere non possum. Clo- 
dias adhuc mihi denunciat periculum : Pompeius affirmat 
ncn esse periculum ; adjurat, addit etiam, seprius occisum 
ir: ab eo, quam me violatum iri. — Ad Att. ii. 20. 

Fidem recepisse sibi et Clodium et Appium de me : hanc 
siille non servaret, ita laturum, ut omnes intelligerent, 
nihil antiquius amicitia nostra fuisse, &c. Ibid. 22. 

a Clodius est inimicus nobis. Pompeius confirmat eum 
nihil facturum esse contra me. Mihi periculosum est cre- 
dere : ad resistendum me paro. Studia spero me summa 
labiturum omnium ordinum.— Ibid. 21. 

Si diem Clodius dixerit, tota Italia concurret : sin au- 
tem vi agere conabitur, omnes se et suos liberos, amicus, 
clientes, servos, pecunias denique suas pollicentur — Ad 
Quint. Frat. i 2. 



with it in his speech for Caelius, where he gives a 
moving account of the death of her husband, whom 
he visited in his last moments ; when in broken, 
faltering accents he foretold the storm which was 
ready to break both upon Cicero and the republic; 
and, in the midst of his agonies, signified it to be 
his only concern in dying, that his friend and his 
country should be deprived of his help at so critical 
a conjuncture 1 *. 

By Metellus's death a place became vacant in 
the college of augurs : and though Cicero was so 
shy of accepting any favour from the triumvirate, 
yet he seems inclined to have accepted this, if it 
had been offered to him, as he intimates in a letter 
to Atticus. Tell me, says he, every tittle of news 
that is stirring ; and since Nepos is leaving Rome, 
who is to have his brother's augurate : it is the 
only thing with which they could tempt me. Ob- 
serve my weakness ! But what have I to do with 
such things, to which I long to bid adieu, and turn 
myself entirely to philosophy ? I am now in 
earnest to do it ; and wish that I had been so from 
the beginning . But his inclination to the augu- 
rate, at this time, was nothing else, we see, but a 
sudden start of an unweighed thought ; no sooner 
thrown out, than retracted ; and dropped only to 
Atticus, to whom he used to open all his thoughts 
with the same freedom with which they offered 
themselves to his own mind d : for it is certain, that 
he might have had this very augurate, if he had 
thought it worth asking for ; nay, in a letter to 
Cato, who could not be ignorant of the fact, he 
says, that he had actually slighted it ; which seems 
indeed to have been the case e : for though he was 

b Cum ille — tertio die post quam in curia, quam in ros- 
tris, quam in republica floruisset, integerrima aetate, 
optimo habitu, maximis viribus, eriperetur bonis omni- 
bus atque universal civitati — Cum me intuens flentem 
significabatinterruptis atque morieutibus vocibus, quanta 
impenderet procella urbi, quanta tempestas civitati— ut 
non se emori, quam spoliari suo praesidio cum patriam, 
turn etiam me doleret. — Ex hac igitur domo progressa ilia 
mulier de veneni celeritate dicere audebit ?— Pro Caelio, 24. 

c Et numquid novi omnino : et quoniam Nepos proficis- 
citur, cuinam auguratus deferatur, quo quidem uno ego 
ab istis capi possum. Vide levitatem meam! Sed quid 
ego hasc, quas cupio deponere, et toto animo atque omni 
cura (pi\o(To<peiv ? Sic, inquam, in animo est ; vellem ab 
initio. — Ad Att. ii. 5. 

An ingenious French writer, and an English one also 
not less ingenious, have taken occasion from this passage 
to form a heavy charge against Cicero both in his civil and 
moral character, The Frenchman descants with great 
gravity on the foible of human nature, and the astonishing 
weakness of our Orator, in suffering a thought to drop from 
him, which must for ever ruin his credit with posterity, 
and destroy that high opinion of his virtue, which he labours 
everywhere to inculcate. But a proper attention to the 
general tenor of his conduct would easily have convinced 
him of the absurdity of so severe an interpretation ; and 
the facts produced in this history abundantly show, that 
the passage itself cannot admit any other sense than what 
I have given to it, as it is rendered also by Mr. Mongault, 
the judicious translator of the Epistles to Atticus, viz. 
that the augurate ivas the only bait that could tempt him ; 
not to go into the measures of the trium virate, for that was 
never in his thoughts, but to accept anything from them, 
or suffer himself to be obliged to them. — See Hist, de 
l'Exil de Ciceron, p. 42 ; Considerations on the Life of 
Cicero, p. 27. 

d Ego tecum, tanquam mecum loquor. — Ad Att. viii. 14. 

e Sacerdotium denique, cum, quemadmodum te existi- 
m.irc arbitror, non difhcillime consequi possem, non 
appetivi.— Idem post injuriam acceptanr— studui quam 



88 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



within twenty miles of Rome, yet he never stirred 
from his retreat to solicit or offer himself for it, 
which he must necessarily have done, if he had 
any real desire to obtain it. 

Cicero's fortunes seemed now to be in a tottering 
condition : his enemies were gaining ground upon 
him, and any addition of help from the new magis- 
trates might turn the scale to his ruin. Catulus used 
to tell him, that he had no cause to fear anything ; 
for that one good consul was sufficient to protect 
him ; and Rome had never known two bad ones in 
office together, except in Cinna's tyranny f . But 
that day was now come ; and Rome saw in this 
year, what it had never seen before in peaceful 
times since its foundation, two profligate men 
advanced to that high dignity. 

These were L. Calpurnius Piso and A. Gabinius ; 

the one, the father-in-law of Csesar, the other, the 

creature of Pompey. Before their 

A - URB - 695 - entrance into office, Cicero had con- 

°coss ' ce i ve d great hopes of them, and not 
l calpur- without reason ; for, by the marriage 
nius piso, °f ms daughter, he was allied to Piso ; 
a. gabinius. who continued to give him all the 
marks of his confidence, and had 
employed him, in his late election, to preside over 
the votes of the leading century ; and when he 
entered into his office, on the first of January, 
asked his opinion the third in the senate, or the 
next after Pompey and Crassus s : and he might 
flatter himself also, probably, that on account of 
the influence which they were under, they would 
not be very forward to declare themselves against 
him h . But he presently found himself deceived : 
for Clodius had already secured them to his mea- 
sures, by a private contract, to procure for them, 
by a grant of the people, two of the best govern- 
ments of the empire ; for Piso, Macedonia, with 
Greece and Thessaly ; for Gabinius, Cilicia : and 
when this last was not thought good enough, and 
Gabinius seemed to be displeased with his bargain, 
it was exchanged soon after for Syria, with a power 
of making war upon the Parthians 1 . For this price 
they agreed to serve him in all his designs, and 
particularly in the oppression of Cicero ; who, on 

ornatissima senatus populique Romani de me judicia inter- 
cedere. Itaque et augur postea fieri volui, quod antea 
neglexeram. — Ep. Fam. xv. 4. 

f Audieram ex sapientissimo nomine, Q. Catulo, non 
ssepe unum consulem improbum, duos vero nunquam post 
Romam conditam, excepto illo Cinnano tempore, fuisse. 
Quare meam causam semper fore firmissimam dicere sole- 
bat.dum vel unus in republica consul esset.— Post Red. in 
Sen. 4. 

g Consules se optime ostendunt.— Ad Quint. Frat. i. 2. 

Tu misericors me affinem tuum, quern tuis comitiis pras- 
rogativa? primum custodem praDfeceras ; quern kalendis 
Januariistertiolocosententiamrogaras, constrictuminimi- 
cis reipublicsE tradidisti. — Post Red. in Sen. 7 ; In Pis. 5, 6. 

h The author of the Exile of Cicero, to aggravate the per- 
fidy of Gabinius, tells us, that Cicero had defended him in 
a capital cause, and produces a fragment of the oration : 
but he mistakes the time of the fact ; for that defence was 
not made till several years after this consulship ; as we 
shall see hereafter in its proper place.— Hist, de l'Exil de 
Ciceron, p. 115. 

1 Foedus fecerunt cum tribuno plebis palam, ut ab co 
provincias accipercnt, quas vcllent — id autcin foedus meo 
sanguine ictum sanciri posse diccbant. — Pro Sext. 10. 

Cui quidem cum Ciliciam dedisses, mutasti pactionem 
et Gabinio, prctio amplificato, Syriam nominatim dedisti. 
—Pro Dorao, 9. 



that account, often calls them, not consuls, but 
brokers of provinces, and sellers of their country k . 

They were, both of them, equally corrupt in their 
morals, yet very different in their tempers. Piso 
had been accused the year before, by P. Clodius, of 
plundering and oppressing the allies : when by 
throwing himself at the feet of his judges in the 
most abject manner, and in the midst of a violent 
rain, he is said to have moved the compassion of 
the bench, who thought it punishment enough for 
a man of his birth, to be reduced to the necessity 
of prostrating himself so miserably, and rising so 
deformed and besmeared with dirt 1 . But in truth, 
it was Caesar's authority that saved him, and recon- 
ciled him at the same time to Clodius. In his 
outward carriage he affected the mien and garb of 
a philosopher, and his aspect greatly contributed 
to give him the credit of that character : he was 
severe in his looks, squalid in his dress, slow in 
his speech, morose in his manners, the very picture 
of antiquity, and a pattern of the ancient republic ; 
ambitious to be thought a patriot, and a reviver of 
the old discipline. But this garb of rigid virtue 
covered a most lewd and vicious mind : he was 
surrounded always with Greeks, to imprint a notion 
of his learning : but while others entertained them 
for the improvement of their knowledge, he, for 
the gratification of his lusts, as his cooks, his 
pimps, or his drunken companions. In short, he 
was a dirty, sottish, stupid Epicurean; wallowing 
in all the low and filthy pleasures of life ; till a false 
opinion of his wisdom, the splendour of his great 
family, and the smoky images of ancestors, whom 
he resembled in nothing but his complexion, re- 
commended him to the consulship ; which exposed 
the genuine temper and talents of the man m . 

His colleague Gabinius was no hypocrite, but a 
professed rake from the beginning ; gay, foppish, 
luxurious ; always curled and perfumed, and living 
in a perpetual debauch of gaming, wine, and women ; 
void of every principle of virtue, honour, and pro- 
bity ; and so desperate in his fortunes, through the 
extravagance of his pleasures, that he had no other 
resource, or hopes of subsistence, but from the 



k Non consules, sed mercatores provinciarum, ac vendi- 
tores vestrse dignitatis.' — Post Red. in Sen. 4. 

1 L. Piso, a P. Clodio accusatus, quod graves et intolera- 
biles injurias sociis intulisset, baud dubias ruina? met im 
fortuito auxilio vitavit— quia jam satis graves eum poenas 
sociis dedisse arbitrati sunt hue deductum necessitatis, ut 
abjicere se tam suppliciter, aut attollere tarn deformi:er 
cogeretur. — Val. Max. viii. 1. 

m Quam teter incedebat ? quam truculentus ? quam t?r- 
ribilis aspectu? Aliquem te ex barbatis illis, cxemplim 
veteris imperii, imaginem antiquitatis,columen reipublicae, 
diceres intueri. Yestitus aspere, nostra hac purpura ple- 
beia, et pene fusca. Capillo ita horrido, ut — tanta cat 
gravitasin oculo, tanta contractio frontis, ut illo supcr- 
cilio respublica, tanquam Atlante ccelum, niti videretur. 
[Fro Sext. 8.] Quia tristem semper, quia taciturnum. qiia 
subhoiridum atque incultum videbant. et quod erat eo 10- 
mine, utingenerata familiae frugalitas videretur ; favebmt 
— etenim animus ejus vultu, flagitia parietibus tegebanbir 
— laudabat homo doctus philosophos nescio quos. — [Ibid. 
9.] Jaccbatin suoGrsecorum foetore etvino — Gra?ci stipa.i, 
quini in lcetulis, Bsepe plures.— In Pis. 10, 27. 

His utitur quasi praefectis libidinum suarum : hi volup- 
tates omnes vestigant atque odorantur: hi sunt eonditorcs 
mstructoresque oonvivii, &c. — Post Red. in Sen. (>. 

Obrepisti ad bonores errore hominum, commendation* 
fumosarum imaginum, quarum simile nihil babes praetei 
colorem.— In Pis. 1. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



plunder of the republic. In his tribunate, to pay 
his court to Pompey, he exposed to the mob the 
plan of Lucullus's house, to show what an expen- 
sive fabric one of the greatest subjects of Rome 
was building, as he would intimate, out of the spoils 
of the treasury : yet this vain man, oppressed with 
debts, and scarce able to show his head, found 
means, from the perquisites of his consulship, to 
build a much more magnificent palace than Lucullus 
himself had done 11 . No wonder then that two such 
consuls, ready to sacrifice the empire itself to their 
lusts and pleasures, should barter away the safety 
and fortunes of a private senator, whose virtue was 
a standing reproof to them, and whose very pre- 
sence gave some check to the free indulgence of 
their vices. 

Clodius having gained the consuls, made his 
next attempt upon the people, by obliging them 
with several new laws, contrived chiefly for their 
advantage, which he now promulgated. First, that 
corn should be distributed gratis to the citizens. 
Secondly, that no magistrates should take the 
auspices, or observe the heavens, when the people 
were actually assembled on public business. 
Thirdly, that the old companies or fraternities of 
the city, which the senate had abolished, should 
be revived, and new ones instituted. Fourthly, to 
please those also of higher rank, that the censors 
should not expel from the senate, or inflict any 
mark of infamy on any man, who was not first 
openly accused and convicted of some crime by 
their joint sentence . These laws, though generally 
agreeable, were highly unseasonable ; tending to 
relax the public discipline, at a time when it wanted 
most to be reinforced : Cicero took them all to be 
levelled at himself, and contrived to pave the way 
to his ruin ; so that he provided his friend L. Nin- 
nius, one of the tribunes, to put his negative upon 
them, especially on the law of fraternities, which, 
under colour of incorporating those societies, gave 
Clodius an opportunity of gathering an army, and 
enlisting into his service all the scum and dregs of 
the city p. Dion Cassius says, that Clodius, fearing 
lest this opposition should retard the effect of his 
other projects, persuaded Cicero, in an amicable 
conference, to withdraw his tribune, and give no 
interruption to his laws, upon a promise and con- 
dition that he would not make any attempt against 
him 1 !: but we find from Cicero's account, that it 
was the advice of his friends, which induced him 
to be quiet against his own judgment ; because the 
laws themselves were popular, and did not per- 
sonally affect him : though he blamed himself soon 
afterwards for his indolence, and expostulated with 
Atticus for advising him to it ; when he felt to his 
cost the advantag e which Clodius had gained by it r . 

» Alter unguentisaffluens,calamistratacoma, despiciens 
conscios stuprorum— f ef ellit neminem— hominem emersum 
subito ex diuturnistenebrislustrorum ac stuproruni — vino, 
ganeis, lenociniis, adulteriisque confectum— Pro Sext. 9. 

Cm- ille gurges, heluatus tecum simul reipublicas sangui- 
nem, ad coelum tamen extruxit villam in Tusculano visce- 
ribus aerarii.— Pro Domo, 47. 

° Vid. Orat. in Pison. 4. et notas Asconii.— Dio, 1. xxxviii. 
P .67. 

P Collegia, non ea solum, quae senatus sustulerat, resti- 
tuta, sed innumerabilia quaedam nova ex omni faece urbis 
ac servitio concitata.— In Pison. 4. 

1 Dio, 1. xxxviii. p. 67. 

r Nunquam esses passus mihi persuaderi, utile nobis esse 
legem de collegiis perferri — Ad Att. iii. 15. 



For the true design of all these laws was, to 
introduce only with better grace the grand plot of 
the play, the banishment of Cicero, which was now 
directly attempted by a special law, importing, that 
whoever had taken the life of a citizen uncondemned 
and without a trial, should be prohibited from fire 
and water s . Though Cicero was not named, yet 
he was marked out by the law : his crime was, the 
putting Catiline's accomplices to death ; which, 
though not done by his single authority, but by a 
general vote of the senate, and after a solemn hear- 
ing and debate, was alleged to be illegal, and con- 
trary to the liberties of the people. Cicero finding 
himself thus reduced to the condition of a criminal, 
changed his habit upon it, as it was usual in the 
case of a public impeachment, and appeared about 
the streets in a sordid or mourning gown, to excite 
the compassion of his citizens ; whilst Clodius, at 
the head of his mob, contrived to meet and insult 
him at every turn ; reproaching him for his cow- 
ardice and dejection, and throwing dirt and stones 
at him*. But Cicero soon gathered friends enough 
about him to secure him from such insults : " the 
whole body of the knights and the young nobility, 
to the number of twenty thousand 11 , with young 
Crassus at their head, who all changed their habit, 
and perpetually attended him about the city, to 
implore the protection and assistance of the people." 

The city was now in great agitation, and every 
part of it engaged on one side or the other. The 
senate met in the temple of Concord, while Cicero's 
friends assembled in the capitol ; whence all the 
knights and the young nobles went in their habit 
of mourning to throw themselves at the feet of the 
consuls, and beg their interposition in Cicero's 
favour. Piso kept his house that day on purpose 
to avoid them ; but Gabinius received them with 
intolerable rudeness, though their petition was 
seconded'by the intreaties and tears of the whole 
senate : he treated Cicero's character and consul- 
ship with the utmost derision, and repulsed the 
whole company with threats and insults for their 
fruitless pains to support a sinking cause. This 
raised great indignation in the assembly, — where 
the tribune Ninnius, instead of being discouraged 
by the violence of the consul, made a motion, that 
the senate also should change their habit with the 
rest of the city ; which was agreed to instantly 
by a unanimous vote. Gabinius, enraged at this, 
flew out of the senate into the forum, where he 
declared to the people from the rostra, "that men 
were mistaken to imagine that the senate had any 
power in the republic ; that the knights should pay 
dear for that day's work, when, in Cicero's con- 
sulship, they kept guard in the capitol with their 
drawn swords : and that the hour was now come 
when those, who lived at that time in fear, should 
revenge themselves on their enemies : and to con- 
firm the truth of what he said, he banished L. 
Lamia, a Roman knight, two hundred miles from 
the city, for his distinguished zeal and activity in 
Cicero's service x ;" an act of power which no 

8 Qui civem Romanum indemnatum perimisset, ei aqua 
et igni interdiceretur.— Veil. Pat. ii. 45. 

1 Plutarch, in Cicero. 

u Pro me prsesente senatus, hominumque viginti millia 
vestem mutaverunt.— Post Red. ad Quir. 3. 

x Hie subito cum incredibilis in Capitolium multitude) 
ex tota urbe, cunctaque Italia convenisset, vestem mutan- 
dam omnes, meque etiam omni ratione, private consilio, 



90 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



consul before him had ever presumed to exert on 
any citizen; which was followed presently " by an 
edict from both the consuls, forbidding the senate 
to put their late vote in execution, and enjoining 
them to resume their ordinary dress f. And where 
is there," says Cicero, "in all history, a more illus- 
trious testimony to the honour of any man than 
that all the honest by private inclination, and the 
senate by a public decree, should change their 
habit for the sake of a single citizen 2 ? " 

But the resolution of changing his gown was too 
hasty and inconsiderate, and helped to precipitate 
his ruin. He was not named in the law, nor per- 
sonally affected by it : the terms of it were general 
and seemingly just, reaching only to those who had 
taken the life of a citizen illegally. Whether this 
was his case or not, was not yet the point in issue, 
but to be the subject of another trial ; so that by 
making himself a criminal before his time, he 
shortened the trouble of his enemies, discouraged 
his friends, and made his case more desperate than 
he needed to have done ; whereas, if he had taken 
the part of commending or slighting the law, as 
being wholly unconcerned in it, and when he came 
to be actually attacked by a second law, and 
brought to a trial upon it, had stood resolutely 
upon his defence, he might have baffled the malice 
of his prosecutors. He was sensible of his error 
when it was too late ; and oft reproaches Atticus, 
that being a stander-by, and less heated in the 
game than himself, he would suffer him to make 
such blunders 3 . 

As the other consul, Piso, had not yet explicitly 
declared himself, so Cicero, accompanied by his 
son-in-law, who was his near kinsman, took occa- 
sion to make him a visit, in hopes to move him to 
espouse his cause, and support the authority of 
the senate. They went to him about eleven in the 
morning, and found him, as Cicero afterwards told 
the senate, " coming out from a little dirty hovel, 
fresh from the last night's debauch, with his slip- 

quoniam publicis ducibus respublica careret, defendendum 
putarunt. Erat eodem tempore senatus in aede Concordia, 
■ — cum. flens universus ordo cincinnatum consulem orabat, 
nam alter ille horridus et severus domi se consulto tenebat. 
Qua turn superbia ccenum illud ac labes amplissimi ordinis 
preces et clarissimorum civium lacrymas repudiavit ? Me 
ipsum ut contemsit helluo patriae? — Vestris precibus a 
latrone isto repudiatis, vir incredibili fide — L. Ninnius ad 
senatum de republica retulit. Senatusque frequens vestem 
pro mea salute mutandam censuit.' — Exanimatus evolat e 
senatu— advocat concionem — errare homines, si etiamtum 

senatum aliquid in republica posse arbitrarentur Venisse 

tempus iis, qui in timore fuissent, ulciscendi se. — L. La- 
in iam — in concione relegavit, edixitque ut ab urbe abesset 
millia passu umducenta — [ProSext. 11, 12, 13; it. Post Red. 
in Sen. 5] Quod ante id tempus civi Romano contigit ne- 
mini. — Ep. Fam. xi. 16. 

y Cum subito edicunt duo consules, ut ad suum vestitum 
senatores redirent.— Ep. Fam. xi. 14. 

z Quid enim quisquam potest ex omni memoria sumere 
illustrius, quam pro uno cive et bonos omnes privato con- 
sensu, et universum senatum publico consilio mutasse 
vestem ?— Ibid. 12. 

a Nam prior lex nos nihil laedebat : quam si, ut est pro- 
mulgata, laudare voluissenius, aut, ut erat negligenda, 
negligere, nocere omnino nobis non potuisset. Ilic mihi 
primum meum consilium defuit ; sed etiam obfuit. Ca?ci, 
cseci, inquam, fuimus in vestitu mutando, in populo 
rogando. Quod, nisinominatim mccum agi cceptum csset, 
perniciosum fuit. — Me, meos meis tradidi inimicis, in- 
spcctante et tacente te ; qui, si non plus ingenio valebas 
quam ego, certe timebas minus.— Ad Att. iii. 15. 



pers on, his head muffled, and his breath so strong 
of wine, that they could hardly bear the scent of 
it : he excused his dress, and smell of wine, on the 
account of his ill health, for which he was obliged, 
he said, to take some vinous medicines ; but he 
kept them standing all the while in that filthy place, 
till they had finished their business." As soon as 
Cicero entered into the affair, he frankly told them 
that " Gabinius was so miserably poor as not to be 
able to show his head, and must be utterly ruined 
if he could not procure some rich province ; that 
he had hopes of one from Clodius, but despaired 
of anything from the senate ;- that for his own part 
it was his business to humour him on this occasion, 
as Cicero had humoured his colleague in his con- 
sulship ; and that there was no reason to implore 
the help of the consuls, since it was every man's 
duty to look to himself b ;" which was all that 
they could get from him. 

Clodius, all the while, was not idle, but pushed 
on his law with great vigour ; and calling the 
people into the Flarainian circus, summoned thither 
also the young nobles and the knights who were 
so busy in Cicero's cause, to give an account of 
their conduct to that assembly : but as soon as 
they appeared, he ordered his slaves and mer- 
cenaries to fall upon them with drawn swords and 
volleys of stones in so rude a manner, that Horten- 
sius was almost killed, and Vibienus, another 
senator, so desperately hurt, that he died soon after 
of his wounds . Here he produced the two con- 
suls, to deliver their sentiments to the people on 
the merit of Cicero's consulship ; when Gabinius 
declared, with great gravity, that he utterly con- 
demned the putting citizens to death without a 
trial. Piso only said, that he had always been on 
the merciful side, and had a great aversion to 
cruelty d . The reason of holding this assembly in 
the Flaminian circus, without the gates of Rome, 
was to give Csesar an opportunity of assisting at 
it, who, being now invested with a military com- 
mand, could not appear within the walls. Csesar, 
therefore, being called upon, after the consuls, to 
deliver his mind on the same question, declared, 
that " the proceedings against Lentulus and the 
rest were irregular and illegal ; but that he could 
not approve the design of punishing anybody for 
them ; that all the world knew his sense of the 
matter, and that he had given his vote against 
taking away their lives, yet he did not think it 
right to propound a law at this time about things 
that were so long past e ." This answer was artful, 



b Egere — Gabinium ; sine provincia stare non posse : 
spem habere a tribuno plebis — a senatu quidem desperasse : 
hujus te cupiditati obsequi, sicut ego fecissem in collega 
meo : nihil esse quod presidium consulum implorarem ; 
sibi quemque consulere oportere, &c. — In Pison. 6. 

c Qui adesse nobilissimos adolescentes, honestissimos 
equitesRomanosdeprecatoresmea? salutisjusserit ; eosque 
operarum suarum gladiis et lapidibus objecerit. — Pro 
Sext. 12. 

Vidi hunc ipsum ITortensium, lumen et ornamentum 
reipublicae pame interfici servorummanu — qua in turba C. 
Vibienus, senator, vir optimus, cum hoc cum esset una, 
ita est mulctatus, ut vitam amiserit. — Pro Mil. 14. 

d Pressa voce et temulenta, quod in cives indemnatos 
esset animadversum, id sibi dixit gravis auctor vehemen- 
tissime displicere. — Post Red. in Sen. 6. 

Cum esses intermgatus quid sentires de consulatu meo, 
respondes, crudelitatem tibi non placere. [In Pis. 6.] Te 
semper misericordem fuisse.— Post Red. in Sen. 7. 

e Dio, 1. xxxviii. p. CD. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



91 



and agreeable to the part which he was then acting ; 
for while it confirmed the foundation of Clodius's 
law, it carried a show of moderation towards 
Cicero, or, as an ingenious writer expresses it, left 
appearances only to the one, but did real service 
to the other f . 

In this same assembly, Clodius got a new law 
likewise enacted, that made a great alteration in 
the constitution of the republic, viz. the repeal of 
the iElian and Fusian laws, by which the people 
were left at liberty to transact all public business, 
even on the days called fasti, without being liable 
to be obstructed by the magistrates on any pretence 
whatsoever^. The two laws, now repealed, had 
been in force about a hundred years h ; and made 
it unlawful to act anything with the people, while 
the augurs or consuls were observing the heavens 
and taking the auspices. This wise constitution 
was the main support of the aristocratical interest, 
and a perpetual curb to the petulance of factious 
tribunes, whose chief opportunity of doing mischief 
lay in their power of obtruding dangerous laws 
upon the city, by their credit with the populace. 
Cicero therefore frequently -laments the loss of 
these two laws, as fatal to the republic ; he calls 
them " the most sacred and salutary laws of the 
state, the fences of their civil peace and quiet, the 
very walls and bulwarks of the republic, which had 
held out against the fierceness of the Gracchi, the 
audaciousness of Saturninus, the mobs of Drusus, 
the bloodshed of Cinna, the arms of Sylla 1 ;" to be 
abolished at last by the violence of this worthless 
tribune. 

Pompey, who had hitherto been giving Cicero 
the strongest assurances of his friendship, and been 
frequent and open in his visits to him, began now, 
as the plot ripened towards a crisis, to grow cool 
and reserved ; while the Clodian faction, fearing 
lest he might be induced at last to protect him, 
were employing all their arts " to infuse jealousies 
and suspicions into him of a design against him 
from Cicero. They posted some of their confidants 
at Cicero's house, to watch his coming thither, 
and to admonish him, by whispers and billets put 
into his hands, to be cautious of venturing himself 
there, and to take better care of his life ; which 
was inculcated to him likewise so strongly at home 
by perpetual letters and messages from pretended 
friends, that he thought fit to withdraw himself 

* Exil de Ciceron, p. 133. 

g Iisdem consulibus sedentibus atqueinspectantibuslata 
lex est, ne auspieia valerent, ne quis obnunciaret, ne quis 
legi intercederet ; ut omnibus fastis diebus legem ferre 
liceret : ut lex iElia, lex Fusia ne valeret, Qua una roga- 
tione quis non intelligat, universam rempublicam esse 
deletam ? [Pro Sext. 15.] Sustulit duas leges, iEliam et 
Fusiam, maxime reipublicae salutares. — De Harusp. Resp. 
27- 

The dies fasti were the days on which the courts of law 
were open, and the praetors sat to hear causes, which were 
marked for that purpose in the calendars : but before this 
Clodian law it was not allowed to transact any business 
upon them with the people. 

h Centum prope annos legem iEliam et Fusiam tenue- 
ramus. — In Pison. 5. 

» Deinde sanctissimas leges, jEliam et Fusiam, quae in 
Gracchorum ferocitate, et in audacia Saturnini ; et in col- 
luyione Drusi, et in cruore Cinnano, etiam inter Syllana 
arma vixerunt, solus conculcaris ac pronihilo putaris. [In 
Vatin. 9.] Propugnacula inurique tranquillitatis et otii. 
— In Pison. 4. 



from the city, to his house on the Alban hill k ." 
It cannot be imagined that he could entertain any 
real apprehension of Cicero ; both Cicero's cha- 
racter and his own make that incredible : but if he 
had conceived any, it was not, as Cicero says, 
against him, but against the common enemies of 
them both, lest they might possibly attempt some- 
what in Cicero's name, and, by the opportunity of 
charging it upon Cicero, hope to get rid of them 
both at the same time. But the most probable 
conjecture is, that being obliged, by his engage- 
ments with Caesar, to desert Cicero, and suffer him 
to be driven out of the city, he was willing to 
humour these insinuations, as giving the most 
plausible pretext of excusing his perfidy. 

But Cicero had still with him not only all the 
best, but much the greatest part of the city, de- 
termined to run all hazards, and expose their lives 
for his safety 1 ; and was more than a match for all 
the strength of Clodius and the consuls, if the 
triumvirate only would stand neuter. Before things 
came therefore to extremity, he thought it advis- 
able to press Pompey in such a manner, as to 
know for certain what he had to expect from him : 
some of his chief friends undertook this task ; 
Lucullus, Torquatus, Lentulus, &c, who, with a 
numerous attendance of citizens, went to find him 
at his Alban villa, and to intercede with him not 
to desert the fortunes of his old friend. He re- 
ceived them civilly, though coldly ; referring them 
wholly to the consuls, and declaring, " that he, 
being only a private man, could not pretend to 
take the field against an armed tribune, without a 
public authority ; but if the consuls, by a decree 
of the senate, would enter into the affair, he would 
presently arm himself in their defence" 1 ." With 
this answer they addressed themselves again to the 
consuls ; but with no better success than before. 
Gabinius treated them rudely ; but Piso calmly 
told them, that he was not so stout a consul as 
Torquatus and Cicero had been ; that there was no 
need of arms, or fighting ; that Cicero might save 
the republic a second time, if he pleased, by with- 
drawing himself, for if he staid it would cost an 
infinite quantity of civil blood ; and in short, that 
neither he, nor his colleague, nor his son in-law 
Caesar, would relinquish the party of the tribune". 

k Cum iidem ilium, ut me metueret, me caveret, monu- 
erunt ; iidem me, mihi ilium uni esse inimicissimum, 
dicerent. — Pro Domo, 11. 

Quern — domi meae certi homines ad earn rem compositi 
monuerunt, ut esset cautior: ejusque vitae a me insidias 
apud me domi positas esse dixerunt : atque hanc ei suspi- 
cionem alii Uteris mittendis, alii nunciis, alii coram ipsi 
excitaverunt, ut ille, cum a me certe nihil timeret, ab 
illis, ne quid meo nomine molirentur, cavendum putaret. 
—Pro Sext. 18. 

1 Si ego in causa tam bona, tanto studio senatus, con- 
sensu tarn incredibili bonorum omnium, tam parato, tota 
denique Italia ad omnem contentionem expedita. — Ibid. 16. 

m Nonne ad te L. Lentulus, L. Torquatus, M. Lucullus 
venit ? Qui omnes ad eum, multique mortales oratum in 
Albanum obsecratumque venerant, nemeas fortunas dese- 
reret, cum reipublicae fortunis conjunctas.—Se contra ar- 
matum t ribunum plebis sine consilio publico decertare 
nolle: consulibus ex senatus consulto rempublicam defen- 
dentibus, se arma sumpturum. — In Pison. 31. 

n Quid, infelix, responderis ?— Te non esse tam fortem, 
quam ipse Torquatus in consulatu fuisset, aut ego : nihil 
opus esse armis, nihil contentione : me posse iterum rem- 
publicam servare, si cessissem ; infinitam caedem fore, si 
restitissem. Deinde ad extremum, neque se, neque gene- 



92 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



After this repulse, Cicero resolved to make his 
last effort on Pompey, by throwing himself in per- 
son at his feet. Plutarch tells us, that Pompey 
slipped out at a back door, and would not see him : 
but it is certain, from Cicero's account, that he was 
admitted to an audience ; " and when he began to 
press and even supplicate him, in a manner the 
most affecting, that Pompey flatly refused to help 
him ; alleging in excuse of himself, the necessity 
which he was under of acting nothing against the 
will of Caesar ." This experiment convinced 
Cicero that he had a much greater power to con- 
tend with than what had yet appeared in sight : he 
called therefore a council of his friends, with intent 
to take his final resolution, agreeably to their 
advice. The question was, whether it was best to 
stay and defend himself by force, or to save the 
effusion of blood by retreating till the storm should 
blow over. Lucullus advised the first ; but Cato, 
and above all Hortensius, warmly urged the last ; 
which concurring also with Atticus's advice, as 
well as the fears and entreaties of all his own 
family, made him resolve to quit the field to his 
enemies, and submit to a voluntary exile p. 

A little before his retreat, he took a small statue 
of Minerva, which had long been reverenced in his 
family as a kind of tutelar deity, and carrying it to 
the capitol, placed it in the temple of Jupiter, 
under the title of Minerva, the guardian of the 
cityi. His view might possibly be to signify, that 
after he had done all which human prudence could 
contrive for the defence of the republic, he was 
now forced to give it up to the protection of the 
gods, since nothing less than the interposition of 
some deity could preserve it from ruin ; or rather, 
as he himself seems to intimate, in the uncertain 
issue of his flight, and the plunder of his goods 
which was likely to ensue, he had a mind to pre- 
serve this sacred image, in the most conspicuous 
part of the city, as a monument of his services, 
which would naturally excite an affectionate re- 
membrance of him in the people, by letting them 
see that his heart was still there, where he had 
deposited his gods. After this act he withdrew 
himself in the night, escorted by a numerous guard 
of friends, who, after a day's journey or two, left 
him, with great expressions of tenderness, to 
pursue his way towards Sicily ; which he proposed 
for the place of his residence, and where, for his 
eminent services to the island, he assured himself 
of a kind reception and safe retreat. 



SECTION V. 

The wretched alternative to which Cicero was 
reduced, of losing either his country or his life, is 
sufficient to confute all the cavils of those who, 

rum, neque collegam suum tribuno plcbis defuturum.— 
In Pison. 31. 

o Is, qui nos sibi quondam ad pedes stratos ne subleva- 
bat quidem, qui se nihil contra hujus voluntatem facere 
posse aiebat — Ad Att. x 4. 

P Lacrymae meorum me ad mortem ire prohibuerunt.— 
Ibid. 4 ; Plutarch, in Cicero. 

<i Nos, qui illam custodem urbis, omnibus ereptis nostris 
rebus ac perditis, violari ab impiispassi non sumus, eamque 
ex nostra domo in ipsius patris domuni detulimus.. — De 
Leg. ii. 17. 



from a hint or two in his writings obscurely thrown 
out and not well understood, are so forward to 
charge him with the levity of temporizing, or sell- 
ing himself for any bribe which could feed his 
vanity : for nothing is more evident than that he 
might not only have avoided this storm, but ob- 
tained whatever honours he pleased, by entering 
into the measures of the triumvirate, and lending 
his authority to the support of their power ; and 
that the only thing which provoked Caesar to bring 
this calamity upon him, was to see all his offers 
slighted, and his friendship utterly rejected by 
him a . This he expressly declares to the senate, 
who were conscious of the truth of it, "that Caesar 
had tried all means to induce him to take part in 
the acts of his consulship ; had offered him com- 
missions and lieutenancies of what kind and with 
what privileges he should desire ; to make him 
even a fourth in the alliance of the three, and to 
hold him in the same rank of friendship with 
Pompey himself: all which I refused (says he), 
not out of slight to Caesar, but constancy to my 
principles, and because I thought the acceptance 
of them unbecoming the character which I sus- 
tained ; how wisely I will not dispute ; but I am 
sure that it was firmly and bravely ; when, instead 
of baffling the malice of my enemies, as I could 
easily have done by that help, I chose to suffer any 
violence, rather than to desert your interest, and 
descend from my own rank b ." 

Caesar continued at Rome till he saw Cicero 
driven out of it ; but had no sooner laid down 
his consulship than he began to be attacked and 
affronted himself by two of the new praetors, L. 
Domitius and C. Memmius, who called in question 
the validity of his acts, and made several efforts in 
the senate to get them annulled by public authority. 
But the senate had no stomach to meddle with an 
affair so delicate ; so that the whole ended in some 
fruitless debates and altercations ; and Caesar, to 
prevent all attempts of that kind in his absence, 
took care always, by force of bribes, to secure the 
leading magistrates to his interests, and so went 
off to his province of Gaul c . But as this unex- 
pected opposition gave some little ruffle to the 
triumvirate, so it served them as an additional 
excuse for their behaviour towards Cicero ; alleging, 
that their own dangers were nearer to them than 
other people's, and that they were obliged for their 
own security not to irritate so popular a tribune as 
Clodius d . 

a Hoc sibi contraxisse videbatur Cicero, quod inter xx. 
viros dividendo agro Campano esse noluisset.— Veil. Pat. ii. 
45 ; Ad Att. ix. 2. 

b Consul egit eas res, quarum me participem esse voluit. 
■ — Me ille ut quinqueviratum acciperem rogavit : me in 
tribus sibi conjunctissimis consularibus esse voluit ; mini 
legationem, quam vellem, quanto cum honore vellem, 
detulit. Quae ego non ingrato animo, sed obstinatione 
quadam sentential rcpudiavi, &c. — DeProv. Cons. 17- 

c Functus consulatu, C. Memmio, L. Domitio praetori- 
bus, de supcrioris anni acris referentibus, cognitionem 
senatui detulit : nee illo suscipiente, triduoque per irritas 
altercationes absumpto, in provinciam abiit — ad securita- 
tem igitur postcri temporis in magno negotio habuit obli- 
gare semper annuos magistratus, et e petitoribus non alios 
adjuvare, aut ad honorem pati pervenire, quam qui sibi 
recepissent propugnaturos absentiam suaru.' — Sueton. J. 
Caes. 23. 

d 1111 autem aliquo turn timore perterriti, quod acta ilia, 
atque omnes res anni superioris labefactari a praetoribus, 
infirmaii a senatu, atque principibus civitatis putabant, 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



93 



As soon as it was known that Cicero was gone, 
Clodius filled the forum with his band of slaves and 
incendiaries, and published a second law to the 
Roman people, as he called them, though there 
was not one honest citizen or man of credit amongst 
them e . The law, as we may gather from the scat- 
tered passages of it, was conceived in the following 
terms : — 

"Whereas, M. T. Cicero has put Roman citizens 
to death unheard and uncondemned ; and for that 
end forged the authority and decree of the senate : 
may it please you to ordain that he be interdicted 
from fire and water ; that nobody presume to har- 
bour or receive him, on pain of death ; and that 
whoever shall move, speak, vote, or take any step 
towards recalling him, he shall be treated as a 
public enemy, unless those should first be recalled 
to life whom Cicero unlawfully put to death f ." 

The law was drawn by Sext. Clodius, the kinsman 
and prime minister of the tribune ; though Vatinius 
also laid some claim to it, and was the only one of 
senatorian rank who openly approved its. Tt was 
essentially null and invalid, both for the matter 
and the form : for in the first place it was not pro- 
perly a law, but what they called a privilege, or an 
act to inflict penalties on a particular citizen by 
name, without any previous trial, which was 
expressly prohibited by the most sacred and funda- 
mental constitutions of the republic 11 . Secondly, 
the terms of it were so absurd, that they annulled 
themselves ; for it enacted, not that Cicero may or 
should be, but that he be interdicted, — which was 
impossible ; since no power on earth, says Cicero, 
ean make a thing to be done before it be done 1 . 
Thirdly, the penal clause being grounded on a 
suggestion notoriously false, that Cicero had forged 
the decrees of the senate, it could not possibly 
stand for want of a foundation k . Lastly, though 
it provided that nobody should harbour him, yet it 
had not ordered him to be expelled, or enjoined 
him to quit the city 1 . It was the custom, in all 



tribumim popularem a se alienare nolebant, suaque sibi 
propiora pericula esse, quarn mea, loquebantur. — Pro 
Sext. 18. 

e Non denique suffragii latorem in ista tua proscriptione 
quenquam, nisi furem ae sicarium reperire potuisti. — Pro 
Domo, 18. 

* Vid. Pro Domo, 18, 19, 20 ; Post Red. in Sen. ii. 10. 

S Hanc tibi legem S. Clodius scripsit — homini egentis- 
simo ac facinorosissimo S. Clodio, socio tui sanguinis. — 
Hoc tu scriptore, hoc consiliario. hoc ministrO' — rempubli- 
cam perdidisti. [Pro Domo, ii. 10, 18.] Hie unus ordinis 
nostri discessu meo — palam exsultavit.. — Pro Sext. 64. 

h Vetant leges sacratae, vetant XII. tabulae, leges privatis 
hominibusirrogari. liestenixaprivilcgium. — ProDomo,17- 

> Non tulit ut interdicatursed ut interdictum sit — Sexte 
noster, bona venia, quoniam jam dialecticus es — quod fac- 
tum, non est, sit factum, ferri ad populum, aut verbis 
ullis sanciri, aut suffragiis confirmari potest ? [Ibid. 18.] 
Quid si iis verbis scripta est ista proscriptio, ut se ipsa dis- 
solvat ?— Ibid. 19. 

N. B. The distinction here intimated between intcrdi- 
catur, and interdictum sit, deserves the attention of all 
grammarians. They are commonly used indifferently, as 
terms wholly equivalent ; yet according to Cicero's criti- 
cism, the one, we see, makes the sense absurd, where the 
other is just and proper. 

k Est enim, quod M. Tullius falsum senatus consul turn 
retulerit, si igitur retulit falsum senatus consultum, turn 
est rogatio : si non retulit, nulla est. — Pro Domo, 19. 

1 Tulisti de me ne reciperer, non ut exirem — poena est, 
qui receperit ; quam omnes neglexerunt ; ejectio nulla est. 
—Ibid. 20. 



laws made by the tribes, to insert the name of the 
tribe which was first called to vote, and of the 
man who first voted in it for the law, that he might 
be transmitted down with the law itself, as the 
principal espouser and promoter of it m . This 
honour was given to one Sedulius, a mean obscure 
fellow, without any settled habitation, who yet 
afterwards declared that he was not in Rome at the 
time, and knew nothing at all of the matter: which 
gave Cicero occasion to observe, when he was re- 
proaching Clodius with this act, that Sedulius might 
easily be the first voter, who, for want of a lodging, 
used to lie all night m the forum ; but it was 
strange, that when he was driven to the necessity 
of forging a leader, he should not be able to find a 
more reputable one 11 . 

With this law against Cicero, there was another 
published at the same time, which, according to 
the stipulation already mentioned, was to be the 
pay and price for it ; to grant to the two consuls 
the provinces above specified, with a provision of 
whatever troops and money they thought fit°. 
Both the laws passed without opposition ; and 
Clodius lost no time in putting the first of them in 
execution, but fell to work immediately in plunder- 
ing, burning, and demolishing Cicero's houses, 
both in the city and the country. The best part 
of his goods was divided between the two consuls ; 
the marble columns of his Palatine house were 
carried publicly to Piso's father-in-law, and the 
rich furniture of his Tusculan villa to his neighbonr 
Gabinius, who removed even the trees of his plan- 
tations into his own grounds? : and to make the 
loss of his house in Rome irretrievable, Clodius 
consecrated the area on which it stood to the per- 
petual service of religion, and built a temple upon 
it to the goddess Liberty i. 

While Cicero's house was in flames, the two 
consuls, with all their seditious crew around them, 
were publicly feasting and congratulating each 
other for their victory, and for having revenged 
the death of their old friends on the head of Cicero : 
where, in the gaiety of their hearts, Gabinius 
openly bragged that he had always been the fa- 

m Tribus Sergia principium fuit : pro tribu, Sextus L. 
F. Varro primus scivit. This was the form, as appears 
from fragments of the old laws. — Vid. Frontin. deAquaed. ; 
Fragment. Legis Thoriae, apud rei agrar. Scriptores ; 
Liv. ix. 38. 

n Sedulio principe, qui se illo die confirmat Romaa non 
fuisse. Quod si non fuit, quid te audacius, qui in ejus no- 
men incideris? Quid desperatius, qui ne ementiendo 
quidem potueris auctorem adumbrare meliorem? Sin 
autem is primus scivit, quod facile potuit, propter inopiam 
tecti in foro pernoctans. [Pro Domo, 30.] Quam Sedulius 
se negat scivisse. — Ibid. 31. 

Ut provincias acciperent, quas ipsi vellent : exercitum 
et pecuniam quantam vellent. [Pro Sext. 10.— In Pison. 
16.] Illo ipso die — mihi reique publicse pernicies, Gabinio 
et Pisoni provincia rogata est. — Pro Sext. 24. 

P Uno eodemque tempore domusmea diripiebatur, arde- 
bat : bona ad vicinum consulem de Palatio ; de Tusculano 
ad item alteram, vicinum consulem deferebantur. — Post 
Red. in Sen. 7- 

Cum domus in Palatio, villa in Tusculano. altera ad 
alteram consulem transferebatur, columnar marmoreae ex 
aedibus meis, inspectante populo Romano, ad socerum 
consulis portabantur: in fundum autem vicini consulis 
noninstrumentum, aut ornamenta villa?, sed etiam arbores 
transferebantur.— Pro Domo, 24. 

1 Cum suis dicat se manibus domum civis optimi ever- 
tisse, et earn iisdem manibus consecrasse. — Ibid. 40. 



94 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



vourite of Catiline : and Piso, that he was cousin to 
Cethegus 1 ". Clodius, in the mean while, not con- 
tent with exerting his vengeance only on Cicero's 
houses, pursued his wife and children with the same 
fury : and made several attempts to get young 
Cicero, the son, into his hands, then about six 
years old, with an intent to kill him s ; but the 
child was carefully guarded by the friends of the 
family, and removed from the reach of his malice. 
Terentia had taken sanctuary in the temple of 
Vesta, but was dragged out of it forcibly, by his 
orders, to the public office or tribunal, where he 
was sitting, to be examined about the concealment 
of her husband's effects ; but being a woman of 
singular spirit and resolution, she bore all his in- 
sults with a masculine courage*. 

But while Clodius seemed to aim at nothing 
in this affair but the gratification of his revenge, 
he was carrying on a private interest at the same 
time, which he had much at heart. The house, 
in which he himself lived, was contiguous to a 
part of Cicero's ground ; which, being now laid 
open, made that side of the Palatine hill the most 
airy and desirable situation in Rome : his intention 
therefore was, by the purchase of another house 
which stood next to him, to make the whole area 
his own, with the benefit of the fine portico and 
temple annexed : so that he had no sooner de- 
molished Cicero's house, than he began to treat 
with the owner of the next, Q. Seius Postumus, a 
Roman knight, who absolutely refused to sell it ; 
and declared, that Clodius, of all men, should 
never have it, while he lived. Clodius threatened 
to obstruct his windows ; but finding that neither 
his threats nor offers availed anything, he con- 
trived to get the knight poisoned ; and so bought 
the house, after his death, at the sale of his effects, 
by outbidding all who offered for it. His next 
step was, to secure the remaining part of Cicero's 
area, which was not included in the consecration, 
and was now also exposed by his direction to a 
public auction : but as it was not easy to find any 
citizen who would bid for it, and he did not care 
to buy it in his own name, he was forced to pro- 
vide an obscure, needy fellow, called Scato, to pur- 
chase it for him, and by that means became master 
of the most spacious habitation in all the city u . 

r Domus ardebat in Palatio — Consules epulabantur, et 
in conjuratorum gratulatione versabantur ; cum alter se 
Catilinas delicias, alter Cethegiconsobrinumfuissediceret. 
—Pro Domo, 24 ; In Pison. 11 ; Pro Sext. 24. 

s Vexabatur uxor mea : liberi ad necem quasrebantur. 
—Pro Sext. 24. 

Quid vos uxor mea misera violarat ? Quam vexavistis, 

raptavistis quid mea filia ?■ — Quid parvus Alius ? — Quid 

fecerat, quod eum totiesper insidias interficere voluistis? 
—Pro Domo, 23. 

I A te quidem omnia fieri fortissime, atque amantissime 
video : nee miror ; nam ad me P. Valerius scripsit id 
quod ego maximo cum fletu legi, quemadmodum a Vestas 
ad tabulam Valeriam ducta esses. — Ep. Fam. xiv. 2. 

II Ipse cum loci illius, cum scdium cupiditate flagraret. 
—Pro Domo, 41. 

Monumentum iste, nunquam aut religionem ullam ex- 
cogitavit : habitare laxe ct magnifies voluit : duasque et 
magnas et nobiles domos conjungere. Eodem puncto 
temporis quo meus discessus isti causam caddis eripuit, a 
Q. Seio contendit, ut doinum sibi venderet. Cum ille id 
negaret, primoseluminibusejus esse obstructurum mina- 
batur. Affirmabat Postumus, so vivo, domum suam istius 
nunquam futuram. Acutus adolescens ex istius sermone 
intellexit, quid fieri oporteret. Hominem veneno aper- 



This desolation" of Cicero's fortunes at home, 
and the misery which he suffered abroad, in being 
deprived of everything that was dear to him, soon 
made him repent of the resolution of his flight ; 
which he ascribes to the envy and treachery of his 
counsellors, who, taking the advantage of his fears, 
and the perplexity which he was under, pushed 
him to an act both ruinous and inglorious. This 
he chiefly charges on Hortensius ; and chough he 
forbears to name him to Atticus, on account of 
the strict friendship between them, yet he accuses 
him very freely to his brother Quintus, of coming 
every day insidiously to his house, and with the 
greatest professions of zeal and affection, perpetu- 
ally insinuating to his hopes and fears that by 
giving way to the present rage, he could not fail of 
being recalled with glory in three days' time x . Hor- 
tensius was particularly intimate at this time 
with Pompey ; and might possibly be employed to 
urge Cicero to this step, in order to save Pompey 
the disgrace of being forced to act against him with 
a high hand. But let that be as it will, it was 
Pompey's conduct which shocked Cicero the most; 
not for its being contrary to his oaths, which the 
ambitious can easily dispense with, but to his in- 
terest, which they never neglect, but through 
weakness. The consideration of what was useful 
to Pompey made him depend on his assistance? : 
he could have guarded against his treachery, but 
could not suspect him of the folly of giving himself 
entirely up to Caesar, who was the principal mover 
and director of the whole affair. 

In this ruffled and querulous state of his mind, 
stung with the recollection of his own mistakes, 
and the perfidy of his friends, he frequently laments 
that he had not tried the fate of arms, and resolved 
either to conquer bravely or fall honourably ; which 
he dwells so much upon in his letters, as to seem 
persuaded that it would have been his wisest 
course. But this is a problem not easy to be 
solved : it is certain that his enemies were using 
all arts to urge him to the resolution of retreating ; 
as if they apprehended the consequences of his 
stay : and that the real aim of the triumvirate 
was, not to destroy, but to humble him ; yet it is 
no less certain, that all resistance must have been 
vain, if they had found it necessary to exert their 

tissime sustulit. Emit domum, licitatoribus defatigatis, 
in Palatio pulcherrimo prospectu porticum cum conclavi- 
bus pavimentatam trecentum pedum concupierat ; am- 
plissimum peristylum, facile ut omnium domos et laxitate 
et dignitate superaret : et homo religiosus, cum asdes meas 
idem emeret et venderet, tamen illis tantis tenebris, non 
ausus est suum nomen emptioni ascribere. Posuit scilicet 
Scatonem ilium. — Pro Domo, 44. 

At in iis aedibus, quas tu Q. Seio equite Romano— per 
te apertissime interfecto, tenes. — De Harusp. Respon. 14. 

x Me summa simulatione amoris, summaque assiduitate 
quotidiana sceleratissime, insidiosissimeque tractavit, ad- 
juncto etiam Arrio, quorum ego consiliis, promissis, prae- 
ceptis destitutus, in banc calamitatem incidi.— Ad Quint. 
Frat. i. 3. 

Ssepe triduo summa cum gloria dicebar esse rediturus. — 
Ibid. 4. 

y Sed si quisquam fuisset, qui me Pompeii minus libe- 
rali responso perterritum, a turpissimo consilio revocaret. 
—Ad Att. iii. 15. 

Multa, qua? mentem exturbarent meam : subita defectio 
Pompeii. — Ad Quint. Frat. i. 4. 

Nullum est mcum peccatum, nisi quod iis credidi, a 
quibus nefas putaram esse me deeipi, aut etiam quibus ne 
id expedire quidem arbitrabar. — Ibid. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



95 



strength against him ; and that they had already- 
proceeded too far, to suffer him to remain in the 
city, in defiance of them ; and if their power had 
been actually employed to drive him away, his re- 
turn must have been the more desperate, and they the 
more interested to keep him out ; so that it seems 
to have been his most prudent part, and the most 
agreeable to his character, to yield, as he did, to 
the necessity of the times. 

But we have a full account of the motives of 
his retreat, in the speeches, which he made after 
his return, both to the senate and the people. 
" When I saw the senate," says he, " deprived of 
its leaders ; myself partly pushed and partly be- 
trayed by the magistrates ; the slaves enrolled by 
name, under the colour of fraternities ; the remains 
of Catiline's forces brought again into the field, 
under their old chiefs ; the knights terrified with 
proscriptions ; the corporate towns with military 
execution ; and all with death and destruction ; I 
could still have defended myself by arms ; and 
was advised to it by many brave friends, nor did I 
want that same courage, which you had all seen 
me exert on other occasions ; but when I saw, at 
the same time, that, if I conquered my present 
enemy, there were many more behind, whom I had 
still to conquer ; that, if I happened to be conquered , 
many honest men would fall both with me and 
after me ; that there were people enough ready to 
revenge the tribune's blood, while the punishment 
of mine would be left to the forms of a trial and 
to posterity ; I resolved not to employ force in de- 
fending my private safety, after I had defended 
that of the public without it ; and was willing, 
that honest men should rather lament the ruin of 
my fortunes, than make their own desperate by 
adhering to me ; and if after all I had fallen alone, 
that would have been dishonourable to myself : if 
amidst the slaughter of my citizens, fatal to the 
republic 2 ." 

In another speech — " If in so good a cause," 
says he, " supported by such zeal by the senate; 
by the concurrence of all honest men ; by the 
ready help of all Italy, I had given way to the 
rage of a despicable tribune, or feared the levity of 
two contemptible consuls, I must own myself to 
have been a coward, without heart or head — but 
there were other things which moved me. That 
fury Clodius was perpetually proclaiming in his 
harangues, that what he did against me was done 
by the authority of Pompey, Crassus, and Csesar ; 
that these three were his counsellors in the cabinet, 
his leaders in the field — one of whom had an army 
already in Italy, and the other two could raise one 
whenever they pleased. What then ? Was it my 
part to regard the vain brags of an enemy, falsely 
thrown out against those eminent men ? No ; it 
was not his talking, but their silence, which shocked 
me ; and, though they had other reasons for hold- 
ing their tongues, yet to one in my circumstances 
their saying nothing was a declaration ; their 
silence a confession : they had cause indeed to be 
alarmed on their own account, lest their acts of 
the year before should be annulled by the praetors 
and the senate ; many people also were instilling 
jealousies of me into Pompey, and perpetually 
admonishing him to beware of me ; and as for 
Csesar, whom some imagined to be angry with me, 

z Post Red. in Sen. ]3, 14. 



he was at the gates of the city with an army, the 
command of which he had given to Appius, my 
enemy's brother. When I saw ail this, which was 
open and manifest to everybody, what could I do? 
When Clodius declared in a public speech, that I 
must either conquer twice, or perish ; so that 
neither my victory nor my fall would have restored 
the peace of the republic a ." 

Clodius, having satiated his revenge upon Cicero, 
proposed another law, not less violent and unjust, 
against Ptolemy, king of Cyprus, to deprive him 
of his kingdom, and reduce it to a Roman province, 
and confiscate his whole estate. This prince was 
brother to the king of Egypt, and reigning by the 
same right of hereditary succession, in full peace 
and amity with Rome ; accused of no practices 
nor suspected of any designs against the republic, 
whose only crime was to be rich and covetous ; so 
that the law was anunparalleled act of injustice, and 
what Cicero, in a public speech, did not scruple to 
call a mere robbery b . But Clodius had an old 
grudge to the king, for refusing to ransom him, 
when he was taken by the pirates ; and sending 
him only the contemptible sum of two talents . 
And what, says Cicero, must other kings think of 
their security, to see their crowns and fortunes at 
the disposal of a tribune, and six hundred mercena- 
ries' 1 ? The law passed however without any 
opposition ; and to sanctify it, as it were, and 
give it the better face and colour of justice, Cato 
was charged with the execution of it ; which gave 
Clodius a double pleasure, by imposing so shame- 
ful a task upon the gravest man in Rome. It was 
a part likewise of the same law, as well as of Cato's 
commission, to restore certain exiles of Byzantium, 
whom their city had driven out for crimes against 
the public peace e . The engaging Cato in such 
dirty work was a masterpiece, and served many 
purposes of great use to Clodius : first, to get rid 
of a troublesome adversary for the remainder of 
his magistracy : secondly, to fix a blot, on Cato 
himself, and show, that the most rigid pretenders 
to virtue might be caught by a proper bait: thirdly, 
to stop his mouth for the future, as he openly 
bragged, from clamouring against extraordinary 
commissions : fourthly, to oblige him, above all, 
to acknowledge the validity of his acts, by his sub- 
mitting to bear a part in them f . The tribune had 

a Pro Sext. 16, 18, 19. 

b Qui cum lege nefaria Ptolemseum, regem Cypri, fra- 
trem regis Alexandrini, eodem jure regnantem, causa 
incognita, publicasses, populumque Romanuni scelere 
obligasses : cum in ejus regnum, bona, fortunas, latroci- 
nium hujus imperii immisisses, cujus cum patre, avo, 
majoribus, societas nobis et amicitia fuisset. — Pro Domo, 8. 

Rex amicus, nulla injuria commemorata, nullis repe- 
titis rebus, cum bonis omnibus publicaretur. [Pro Sext. 
26.] De quo nulla unquam suspicio durior. — Ibid. 27. 

c Dio, xxxviii. p. 78; Appian. 1. ii. 441. 

d En ! cur caeteri reges stabilem esse fortunam suam 
arbitrentur, cum — videant, per tribunum aliquem et sex- 
centas operas se fortunis spoliari, et regno omni posse 
nudari ?— Pro Sext. 27. 

e Hujus pecuniae deportandse, et si quis suum jus defen- 
deret, bello gerendo Catonem prarfecisti. — Pro Domo, 8. 

At etiam eo negotio M. Catonis splendorem maculare 
voluerunt.— Pro Sext 28. 

Tu una lege tulisti, ut Cyprius rex — cum bonis omnibus 
sub prascone subjiceretur, et exules Byzantium reduce- 
rentur. Eidem, inquit, utraque de re negotium dedi. — 
Pro Domo, 20. 

f Sub honorificentissimo ministerii titulo M. Catonem a 



96 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



the satisfaction to see Cato taken in his trap ; and 
received a congratulatory letter upon it from Caesar, 
addressed to him in the familiar style of Caesar to 
Clodius, which he read publicly to the people, as a 
proof of the singular intimacy between thern^. 
King Ptolemy, in the mean while, as soon as he 
heard of the law, and of Cato's approach towards 
Cyprus, put an end to his life by poison, unable 
to bear the disgrace of losing at once both his 
crown and his wealth. Cato executed his com- 
mission with great fidelity ; and returned the year 
following in a kind of triumph to Rome, with all 
the king's effects reduced into money, amounting 
to about a million and a half sterling, which he 
delivered with great pomp into the public trea- 
sury 11 . 

This proceeding was severely condemned by 
Cicero, though he touches it in his public speeches 
with some tenderness for the sake of Cato, whom 
he labours to clear from any share of the iniquity. 
" The commission," says he, " was contrived, not 
to adorn, but to banish Cato ; not offered, but 
imposed upon him. Why did he then obey it ? 
Just as he has sworn to obey other laws, which he 
knew to be unjust, that he might not expose him- 
self to the fury of his enemies, and withoutdoing any 
good, deprive the republic of such a citizen. If he 
had not submitted to the law, he could not have 
hindered it ; the stain of it would still have stuck 
upon the republic, and he himself suffered violence 
for rejecting it, since it would have been a pre- 
cedent for invalidating all the other acts of that 
year : he considered, therefore, that since the 
scandal of it could not be avoided, he was the 
person the best qualified to draw good out of evil, 
and to serve his country well, though in a bad 
cause 1 ." But howsoever this may colour, it can- 
not justify Cato's conduct, who valued himself 
highly upon his Cyprian transactions, and for the 
sake of that commission was drawn in, as Clodius 
expected, to support the authority from which it 
flowed, and to maintain the legality of Clodius's 
tribunate, in some warm debates even with Cicero 
himself k . 

Among the other laws made by Clodius, there 
was one likewise to give relief to the private mem- 
bers of corporate towns, against the public injuries 
of their communities. The purpose of it was 
specious, but the real design, to screen a creature 
of his own, one Merula, of Anagnia, who had 
been punished or driven from his city for some 
notorious villanies, and who, in return for this 
service, erected a statue to his patron, on parr of 
the area of Cicero's house, and inscribed it to 
Clodius, the author of so excellent a law. But as 



republica relegavit. [Veil. Pat. ii. 45.] Non illi ornandum 
M. Catonem, sed relegandum putaverunt : qui in concione 
palam dixerint, linguam se evellisse Catoni, quae semper 
contra extraordinarias potestates libera fuisset. — Quod si 
ille repudiasset, dubitatis quin ei vis esset allata, cum 
omnia acta illius anni per ilium unum labefactari vide- 
rentur ?— Pro Scxt. 28, 29. 

Gratulari tibi, quod idem in posterum M. Catonem, 
tribunatu tuo removisses.— Pro Domo, 9. 

S Literas in concione rccitasti, quas tibi a C. Csesare 
missas esse diceres. Caesar Pulchro. Cum etiam es argu- 
mentatus, amorisesse hoc signum, cum nominibus tantum 
uteretur. — Ibid. 

h Plutarch, in Catone ; Flor. iii. 9. 

1 Pro Sext. 28, 29. 

k Plutarch, in Catone; Dio, 1. xxxix. 100. 



Cicero told him afterwards in one of his speeches, 
the place itself where the statue stood, the scene of 
so memorable an injury, confuted both the excel- 
lency of the law and the inscription 1 . 

But it is time for us to look after Cicero in his 
flight, who left Rome about the end of March ; for 
on the eighth of April we find him at Vibo, a town 
in the most southern part of Italy, where he spent 
several days with a friend named Sica. Here he 
received the copy of the law made against him, 
which after some alteration and correction fixed 
the limits of his exile to the distance of four 
hundred miles from Italy 111 . His thoughts had 
hitherto been wholly bent on Sicily ; but when he 
was arrived in sight of it, the praetor, C. Virgilius, 
sent him word that he must not set his foot in it. 
This was a cruel shock to him, and the first taste 
of the misery of disgrace — that an old friend, who 
had been highly obliged to him n , of the same 
party and principles, should refuse him shelter in 
a calamity which he had drawn upon himself by 
his services to the republic. Speaking of it after- 
wards, when it was not his business to treat it 
severely, " See," says he, " the horror of these 
times ; when all Sicily was coming out to meet 
me, the praetor, who had often felt the rage of the 
same tribune, and in the same cause, would not 
suffer me to come into the island. What shall I 
say ? That Virgilius, such a citizen, and such a 
man, had lost all benevolence, all remembrance of 
our common sufferings, all his piety, humanity, 
and faith towards me ? No such thing : he was 
afraid how he should singly sustain the weight of 
that storm which had overpowered our joint 
forces ." 

This unexpected repulse from Sicily obliged him 
to change his route, and turn back again towards 
Brundisium, in order to pass into Greece : he left 
Vibo, therefore, that he might not expose his host 
Sica to any danger for entertaining him ; expect- 
ing to find no quiet till he could remove himself 
beyond the bounds prescribed by the law. But in 
this he found himself mistaken, for all the towns 
on his road received him with the most public 
marks of respect : inviting him to take up his 
quarters with them, and guarding him as he passed 
through their territories with all imaginable hon- 
our and safety to his person. He avoided however 
as much as possible all public places ; and when 
he came to Brundisium, would not enter into the 
city, though it expressed the warmest zeal for his 

1 Legem de injuriis publicis tulisti, Anagnino nescio cui 
Merulae per gratiam, qui tibi ob earn legem statuam tibi 
in meis aedibus posuit ; ut locus ipse in tua tanta injuria 
legem et inscriptionem statuae refelleret. Quas res Anag- 
ninis multo majori dolori fuit, quam quae idem ille gladia- 
tor scelera Anagniae fecerat. — Pro Domo, 30. 

m Allata est nobis rogatio de pernicie mea, in qua quod 
correctum est, audieramus esse ejusmodi, ut mihi ultra 
quadringenta millia liceret esse — statim iter Brundisium 
versus contuli — ne et Sica, apud quern eram, periret. — Ad 
Att. iii. 4. 

n Plutarch, in Cic. 

o Siciliam petivi animo, quae et ipsa erat mihi, sicut 
domus una, conjuncta ; et obtinebatur a Virgilio : quocuin 
me uno vcl maxime turn vctusta amicitia, turn mei fratris 
collegia, turn respublica sociarat. Vide nunc caliginem 
temporum illorum. Cum ipsa pa?ne insula mihi sese 
obviam ferre vellet, praetor ille ejusdem tribuni plebis 
concionibus propter eandem reipublicse causam saspe 
vexatus, nibil amplius dico, nisi me in Siciliam venire 
noluit, &c— Pro Cn. Plane. 40. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



97 



service, and offered to run all hazards in his de- 
fence p. 

In this interval, he was pressing Atticus in every 
letter, and in the most moving terms, to come to 
him ; and when he removed from Vibo, gave him 
daily intelligence of all his stages, that he might 
still know where to find him, taking it for granted 
that he would not fail to follow himi. But Atticus 
seems to have given him no answer on this head, 
nor to have had any thoughts of stirring from 
Rome. He was persuaded, perhaps, that his com- 
pany abroad could be of no other use to him than 
to give some little relief to his present chagrin ; 
whereas his continuance in the city might be of 
the greatest, not only in relieving, but removing 
his calamity, and procuring his restoration : or 
we may imagine, what his character seems to 
suggest, that though he had a greater love for 
Cicero than for any man, yet it was always with 
an exception of not involving himself in the dis- 
tress of his friend, or disturbing the tranquillity 
of his life by taking any share of another's 
misery ; and that he was following only the dic- 
tates of his temper and principles in sparing him- 
self a trouble which would have made him suffer 
more than his philosophy could easily bear. But 
whatever was the cause, it gave a fresh mortifica- 
tion to Cicero, who, in a letter upon it, says, " I 
made no doubt but that I should see you at Taren- 
tum or Brundisium : it would have been convenient 
for many reasons ; and above all, for my design of 
spending some time with you in Epirus, and re- 
gulating all my measures by your advice : but since 
it has not happened as I wished, I shall add this also 
to the great number of my other afflictions 1 "." He 
was now lodged in the villa of M. Lenius Flaccus, 
not far from the walls of Brundisium, where he 
arrived on the seventeenth of April, and on the 
last of the same month embarked for Dyrrhachium. 
In his account of himself to his wife — " I spent 
thirteen days," says he, " with Flaccus, who for 
my sake slighted the risk of his fortunes and life ; 
nor was deterred by the penalty of the law from 
performing towards me all the rights of friendship 
and hospitality : I wish that it may ever be in my 
power to make him a proper return ; I am sure 
that I shall always think myself obliged to do it 3 ." 

During his stay with Flaccus, he was in no small 
perplexity about the choice of a convenient place 

P Cum omnia ilia municipia, quae sunt a Vibone Brun- 
disium, in fide mea essent, iter mihi tutum, multis mini- 
tan tibus, magno cum suo metu praestiterunt. Brundisium 
veni, vel potius ad mcenia accessi. Urbem unam mihi 
amicissimam declinavi, quae se vel potius exscindi, quam e 
suo complexu ut eriperer facile pateretur.— Pro Plancio, 41. 

q Sed te oro, ut ad me Vibonem statim venias. — Si id 
non feceris mirabor, sed confido te esse facturum. — Ad 
Att. iii. 1. 

Nunc, ut ad te antea scripsi, si ad nos veneris, consilium 
totius rei capiemus. — Ibid. 2. 

Iter Brundisium versus contuli — nunc tu propera, ut 
nos consequare, si modo recipiemur. Adhuc invitamur 
benigne.— Ibid. 3. 

Nihil mihi optatius cadere posse, quam ut tu me quam 
primum consequare.— Ibid. 4. 

T Non fuerat mihi dubium, quin te Tarenti aut Brun- 
disii visurus essem : idque ad multa pertinuit ; in eis, et 
ut in Epiro consisteremus, etde reliquis rebus tuo consilio 
uteremur. Quoniam id non contigit, erit hoc quoque in 
magno numero nostrorum malorum. — Ibid. 6. 

s In hortos M. Lenii Flacci me contuli : cui cum omnis 
metus, publicatio bonorum, exilium, mors proponeretur, 



for his residence abroad : Atticus offered him his 
house in Epirus ; which was a castle of some 
strength, and likely to afford him a secure retreat. 
But since Atticus could not attend him thither in 
person, he dropped all thoughts of that, and was 
inclined to go to Athens ; till he was informed, 
that it would be dangerous for him to travel into 
that part of Greece ; where all those who had been 
banished for Catiline's conspiracy, and especially 
Autronius, then resided ; who would have had some 
comfort in their exile to revenge themselves on 
the author of their misery, if they could have 
caught him*. 

Plutarch tells us, that in sailing out of Brundi- 
sium, the wind, which was fair, changed of a 
sudden, and drove him back again ; and when he 
passed over to Dyrrhachium in the second attempt, 
that there happened an earthquake and a great 
storm, immediately after his landing ; from which 
the soothsayers foretold, that his stay abroad would 
not be long. But it is strange, that a writer so 
fond of prodigies, which nobody else takes notice 
of, should omit the story of Cicero's dream, which 
was more to his purpose, and is related by Cicero 
himself: ". That in one of the stages of his flight, 
being lodged in the villa of a friend, after he had 
lain restless and wakeful a great part of the night, 
he fell into a sound sleep near break of day, and 
when he awaked about eight in the morning, told 
his dream to those round him : That as he seemed 
to be wandering disconsolate in a lonely place, C. 
Marius, with his fasces wreathed with laurel, ac- 
costed him, and demanded, why he was so melan- 
choly : and when he answered, that he was driven 
out of his country by violence ; Marius took him 
by the hand, and bidding him be of courage, ordered 
the next lictor to conduct him into his monument ; 
telling him, that there he should find safety : upon 
this, the company presently cried out, that he 
would have a quick and glorious return 11 ." All 
which was exactly fulfilled ; for his restoration was 
decreed in a certain temple built by Marius, and 
for that reason called Marius's Monument ; where 
the senate happened to be assembled on that oc- 
casion x . 

This dream was much talked of in the family, 
and Cicero himself, in that season of his dejection, 
seemed to be pleased with it ; and on the first 
news of the decree's passing in Marius's monu- 
ment, declared, that nothing could be more divine ; 
yet in disputing afterwards on the nature of dreams, 
haec perpeti, si acciderent, maluit, quam custodiam mei 
capitis dimittere. — Pro Plancio, 41. 

Nos Brundisii apud M. Lenium Flaccum dies xm. 
fuimus, virum optimum : qui periculum fortunarum et 
capitis sui pras mea salute neglexit : neque legis improbis- 
simae poena deductus est, quo minus hospitii et amicitias 
jus, officiumque praestaret. Huic utinam gratiam ali- 
quando referre possimus; habebimus quidem semper. — 
Ep. Fam. xiv. 4. 

* Quod me rogas et hortaris, ut apud te in Epiro sim ; 
voluntas tua mihi valde grata est.— Sed itineris causa ut 
diverterem, primum est devium ; deinde ab Autronio et 
caeteris quatridui ; deinde sine te. Nam castellum muni- 
tum habitanti mihi prodesset, transeunti non est necessa- 
rium. Quod si auderem, Athenas peterem : sane ita 
cadebat ut vellem. Nunc et nostri hostes ibi sunt, et te 
non habemus.' — Ad Att. iii. 7- 

u De Divin. i. 28 ; Val. Max. i. 7- 

x Valerius Maximus calls this monument of Marius the 
temple of Jupiter ; but it appears from Cicero's account to 
have been the temple of Honour and Virtue. 
H 



98 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



he asserts them all to be vain and fantastical, and 
nothing else but the imperfect traces and confused 
impressions which our waking thoughts leave upon 
the mind ; that, in his flight therefore, as it was 
natural for him to think much upon his countryman 
Marius, who had suffered the same calamity ; so 
that was the cause of his dreaming of him ; and 
that no old woman could be so silly, as to give any 
credit to dreams, if in the infinite number and 
variety of them they did not sometimes happen 
to hit righU. 

When he came to Dyrrhachium, he found con- 
firmed, what he had heard before in Italy, that 
Achaia and the neighbouring parts of Greece were 
possessed by those rebels who had been driven 
from Rome on Catiline's account. This deter- 
mined him to go into Macedonia, before they could 
be informed of his arrival, where his friend, Cn. 
Plancius, was then quaestor ; who no sooner heard 
of his landing, than he came to find him at Dyr- 
rhachium ; where, out of regard to his present 
circumstances, and the privacy which he affected, 
dismissing his officers, and laying aside all the 
pomp of magistracy, he conducted him with the 
observance of a private companion to his head- 
quarters at Thessalonica, about the twenty-first 
of May. L. Appuleius was the prsetor or chief 
governor of the province : but though he was an 
honest man and Cicero's friend, yet he durst not 
venture to grant him his protection, or show him 
any public civility, but contented himself with 
conniving only at what his queestor Plancius 
did 2 . 

While Cicero staid at Dyrrhachium, he received 
two expresses from his brother Quintus, who was 
now coming home from Asia, to inform him of his 
intended route, and to settle the place of their 
meeting : Quintus's design was, to pass from Ephe- 
sus to Athens, and thence by land through Mace- 
donia ; and to have an interview with his brother 
at Thessalonica : but the news which he met with 
at Athens obliged him to hasten his journey to- 
wards Rome, where the faction were preparing to 
receive him with an impeachment, for the mal- 
administration of his province ; nor had Cicero at 
last resolution enough to see him ; being unable to 
bear the tenderness of such a meeting, and much 
more the misery of parting ; and he was appre- 
hensive, besides, that if they once met, they should 
not be able to part at all, whilst Quintus's presence 
at home was necessary to their common interests : 
so that to avoid one affliction, he was forced (he 



y Maximeque reliquia? earum rerura moventur in 
animis, et agitantur, de quibus vigilantes aut cogitavimus 
aut egimus. Ut mini temporibus illis multum in animo 
Marius versabatur, recordanti, quam ille gravem suum 
casum magno animo, quam constanti tulisset. Hanc 
credo causam de illo somniandi fuisse.— De Divin. ii. 67. 

An tu censes ullam anum tarn deliram f uturam fuisse, 
ut somniis crederet, nisi ista casu nonnunquam forte 
temere concurrerent ?. — Ibid. 68. 

z Q,uo cum venissem cognovi, id quod audieram, refertam 
esse Graeciam sceleratissimorum hominum ac nefariorum. 
— Qui antequam de meo adventu audire potuissent, in 

Macedonian! ad Planciumque perrexi nam simul ac 

me Dyrrhachium attigisse audivit, statim admelictoribus 
dimissis, insignibus abjectis, veste mutata profectus est. — 
Thessalonicam me in quaestoriumque perduxit. — Pro 
Plancio, 41 ; Post Red. in Sen. 14. 

Hie ego nunc deprsetore Macedonia nihil dicam amplius, 
nisi eum et civem optimum semper et mini amicum fuisse, 
sed eadem timuisse quae caeteros.— Pro Plancio, ibid. 



says) to endure another most cruel one, that of 
shunning the embraces of a brother a . 

L. Tubero, however, his kinsman, and one of 
his brother's lieutenants, paid him a visit on his 
return towards Italy, and acquainted him with 
what he had learned in passing through Greece, 
that the banished conspirators who resided there 
were actually forming a plot to seize and murder 
him ; for which reason he advised him to go into 
Asia ; where the zeal and affection of the province 
would afford him the safest retreat, both on his 
own and his brother's account b . Cicero was dis- 
posed to follow this advice and leave Macedonia ; 
for the prsetor Appuleius, though a friend, gave 
him no encouragement to stay ; and the consul 
Piso, his enemy, was coming to the command of 
it the next winter : but all his friends at Rome 
dissuaded his removal to any place more distant 
from them ; and Plancius treated him so affection- 
ately, and contrived to make all things so easy to 
him, that he dropped the thoughts of changing his 
quarters. Plancius was in hopes that Cicero 
would be recalled with the expiration of his quse- 
storship, and that he should have the honour of 
returning with him to Rome, to reap the fruit of 
his fidelity, not only from Cicero's gratitude, but 
the favour of the senate and people . The only 
inconvenience that Cicero found in his present 
situation, was the number of soldiers and concourse 
of people, who frequented the place on account of 
business with the quaestor. For he was so shocked 
and dejected by his misfortune, that, though the 
cities of Greece were offering their services and 
compliments, and striving to do him all imaginable 
honours' 1 , yet he refused to see all company, and 
was so shy of the public, that he could hardly 
endure the light e . 

For it cannot be denied, that, in this calamity of 
his exile, he did not behave himself with that firm- 
ness which might reasonably be expected from 
one who had borne so glorious a part in the re- 
public ; conscious of his integrity, and suffering in 
the cause of his country : for his letters are gene- 
rally filled with such lamentable expressions of 
grief and despair, that his best friends, and even 

a Quintus frater cum ex Asia venisset ante kalend. 
Mai. et Athenas venisset idib. valde fuit ei properandum, 
ne quid absens acciperet calamitatis, si quis forte fuisset, 
qui contentus nostris malis non esset. Itaque eum 
malui properare Romam, quam ad me venire: et simul, 
dicam enim quod verum est, — animum inducere non potui, 
ut aut ilium amantissimum mei, mollissimo animo tanto 
in mcerore aspicerem— atque etiam illud timebam, quod 
profecto accidisset, ne a me digredi non posset.' — Hujus 
acerbitatis eventum altera acerbitate non videndi fratris 
vitavi.— Ad Att. iii. 9 ; Ad Quint. Frat. i. 3. 

t> Cum ad me L. Tubero, meus necessarius, qui fratri 
meo legatus fuisset, decedens ex Asia venisset, easque 
insidias, quas mini paratas ab exulibus conjuratis 
audierat, animo amicissimo detulisset. In Asiam me ire, 
propter ejus provinciae mecum et cum fratre meo necessi- 
tudinem.— Pro Plancio, 41. 

c Plancius, homo officiosissimus, me cupifc esse secum 
et adhuc/etinet— sperat posse fieri, ut mecum in Italiam 
decedat.— Ep. Fam, xiv. 1. 

Longius, quum ita vobis placet, non discedam. — Ibid. 2, 

Me adhuc Plancius liberalitate sua retinet — spes homini 
est injecta, non eadem, quae mihi, posse nos una decederc : 
quam rem sibi magno honori sperat fore. — Ad Att. iii. 22. 

d Plutarch, in Cic. 

e Odi enim celebritatem, fugio homines, lucem aspicere 
vix possum. — Ad Att. iii. 7- 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



99 



his wife, was forced to admonish him sometimes, to 
rouse his courage f , and remember his former cha- 
racter. Atticus was constantly putting him in 
mind of it ; and sent him word of a report, that 
was brought to Rome by one of Crassus's freed- 
men, that his affliction had disordered his senses : 
to wbich he answered, that his mind was still 
sound, and wished only that it had been always so, 
when he placed his confidence on those who per- 
fidiously abused it to his ruins. 

But these remonstrances did not please him ; he 
thought them unkind and unseasonable, as he in- 
timates in several of his letters, where he expresses 
himself very movingly on this subject. '"'As to 
your chiding me (says he) so often and so severely, 
for being too much dejected ; what misery is there, 
I pray you, so grievous, which I do not feel in 
my present calamity ? Did any man ever fall 
from such a height of dignity, in so good a cause, 
with the advantage of such talents, experience, 
interest; such support of all honest men? Is it 
possible for me to forget what I was ? Or not to 
feel what I am ? From what honour, what glory 
T am driven ? From what children ? What for- 
tunes ? What a brother? Whom, though I love 
and have ever loved better than myself, yet (that 
you may perceive what a new sort of affliction I 
suffer) I refused to see ; that I might neither aug- 
ment my own grief by the sight of his, nor offer 
myself to him thus ruined, whom he had left so 
flourishing : I omit many other things intolerable 
to me : for I am hindered by my tears : tell me 
then, whether I am still to be reproached for 
grieving ; or for suffering myself rather to be de- 
prived of what I ought never to have parted with 
but with my life ; which I might easily have pre- 
vented, if some perfidious friends had not urged 
me to my ruin within my own walls," &c. h In 
another lerter; "Continue (says he) to assist me, 
as you do, with your endeavours, your advice, and 
your interest ; but spare yourself the pains of com- 
forting, and much more of chiding me : for w r hen 
you do this, I cannot help charging it to your want 
of love and concern for me ; whom I imagine to 
be so afflicted with my misfortune, as to be incon- 
solable even yourself 1 ." 

He was now indeed attacked in his weakest part ; 
the only place in which he was vulnerable : to have 
been as great in affliction as he was in prosperity, 
would have been a perfection not given to man : 
yet this very weakness flowed from a source which 
rendered him the more amiable in all the other 
parts of life ; and the same tenderness of disposi- 
tion which made him love his friends, his children, 
his country, more passionately than other men, 

f Tu quod me bortaris, ut animo sim magno, &c— Ep. 
Fam. xiv. 14. 

S Nam quod scribis te audire, me etiam mentis errore 
ex dolore affici : milii vero mens integra est, atque utinam 
tam in periculo fuisset, cum ego iis, quibus salutem meam 
carissimam esse arbitrabar, inimicissimis, crudelissimis- 
que usus sum.— Ad Att. iii. 13. 

Accepi quatuor epistolas a te missas; unam, qua me 
objurgas, ut sim firmior ; alteram, qua Crassi libertum ais 
tibi de mea sollicitudine macieque narrasse. — Ibid. 15. 

h Ad Att. iii. 10. 

1 Tu me, ut facis, opera, consilio, gratia juva: consolari 
jam desine : objurgare vero noli : quod cum facis, ego tuum 
amorem et dolorem desidero; quern ita affectum mea 
asrumna esse arbitror, ut te ipsum nemo consolari potest. 
—Ibid. 11. 



made him feel the loss of them more sensibly : " I 
have twice (says he) saved the republic ; once 
with glory ; a second time with misery : for I will 
never deny myself to be a man ; or brag of bearing 
the loss of a brother, children, wife, country, with- 
out sorrow — For what thanks had been due to me 
for quitting. what I did not value k ?" In another 
speech : " I own my grief to have been extremely 
great ; nor do I pretend to that wisdom, which 
those expected from me, who gave out, that I was 
too much broken by my affliction : for such a hard- 
ness of mind, as of body, which does not feel pain, 
is a stupidity, rather than a virtue. — I am not one 
of those to whom all things are indifferent ; but 
love myself and my friends as our common huma- 
nity requires ; and he who, for the public good, 
parts with what he holds the dearest, gives the 
highest proof of love to his country 1 ." 

There was another consideration which added 
no small sting to his affliction ; to reflect, as he 
often does, not only on what he had lost, but how 
he had lost it, by his own fault ; in suffering him- 
self to be imposed upon and deluded by false and 
envious friends. This he frequently touches upon 
in a strain which shows that it galled him very 
severely: "Though my grief (says he) is incre- 
dible, yet I am not disturbed so much by the misery 
of what I feel, as the recollection of my fault, — 
Wherefore, when you hear how much I am afflicted, 
imagine that I am suffering the punishment of my 
folly, not of the event ; for having trusted too 
much to one whom I did not take to be a rascal m ." 
It must needs be cruelly mortifying to one of his 
temper ; nicely tender of his reputation, and pas- 
sionately fond of glory ; to impute his calamity to 
his own blunders, and fancy himself the dupe of 
men not so wise as himself : yet after all, it may 
reasonably be questioned, whether his inquietude 
of this sort, was not owing rather to the jealous 
and querulous nature of affliction itself, than to any 
real foundation of truth : for Atticus w r ould never 
allow his suspicions to be just, not even against 
Hortensius, where they seem to lie the heaviest 11 . 
This is the substance of what Cicero himself says, 

k TJnus bis rempublicam servavi, semel gloria, iterum 
aerumna mea. Neque enim in boc me bominem esse infi- 
ciabor unquam ; ut me optimo fratre, carissimis liberis, 
fidelissima conjuge, vestro conspectu, patria, boc bonoris 
gradu sine dolore caruisse glorier. Quod sifecissem, quod 
a me beneficium baberetis, cum pro vobis ea, quae mibi 
essent vilia, reiiquissem.' — Pro Sext. 22. 

I Accepimagnum atque incredibilem dolorem: nonnego: 
neque istam mibi ascisco sapientiam, quam nonnulli in 
me requirebant, qui me animo nimis fracto et afflicto esse 
loquebantur — earn que animi duritiem, sicut corporis, quod 
cum uritur non sentit, stuporem potius, quam virtutem 
putarem — non tam sapiens quam ii, qui nibil curant, sed 
tam amans tuorum ac tui, quam communis bumanitas 
postulat — qui autem ea relinquit reipublicae causa, a qui- 
bus summo cum dolore divellitur, ei patria cara est. — Pro 
Domo, 36, 37- 

1U Etsi incredibili calamitate afflictus sum, tamen non 
tam est ex miseria, quam ex culpa? nostras recordatione 
— quare cum me affiictum et confectum luctuaudies, exis- 
timato me stultitia? meas poanam ferre gravius, quam 
eventi ; quod ei crediderim, quem nefarium esse non puta- 
rim.— Ad Att. iii. 8 ; vide 9, 14, 15, 19, &c. 

II Nam quod purgas eos, quos ego mini scripsi invidisse, 
et in eis Catonem : ego vero tantum ilium puto a scelere 
isto afuisse, utmaxime doleam plus apud me simulationem 
aliorum, quam istius fidemvaluisse. Caeteri, quos purgas, 
debent mibi purgati esse, tibi si sunt.— Ibid. 15. 

H 2 



100 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



to excuse the excess of his grief ; and the only ex- 
cuse indeed which can be made for him ; that he 
did not pretend to be a stoic, nor aspire to the 
character of a hero : yet we see some writers la- 
bouring to defend him even against himself ; and 
endeavouring to persuade us, that all this air of 
dejection and despair was wholly feigned and as- 
sumed, for the sake of moving compassion, and 
engaging his friends to exert themselves the more 
warmly in soliciting his restoration ; lest his afflic- 
tion should destroy him before they could effect it°. 
When he had been gone a little more than two 
months, his friend Ninnius, the tribune, made a 
motion in the senate to recal him, and repeal the 
law of Clodius ; to which the whole house readily 
agreed, with eight of the tribunes, till one of the 
other two, iElius Ligus, interposed his negative : 
they proceeded however to a resolution, that no 
other business should be transacted, till the consuls 
had actually prepared a new law for that purpose?. 
About the same time, Quintus Cicero, who left 
Asia on the first of May, arrived at Rome ; and 
was received with great demonstrations of respect, 
by persons of all ranks, who flocked out to meet 
himi. Cicero suffered an additional anxiety on 
his account, lest the Clodian cabal, by means of the 
impeachment, which they threatened, should be 
able to expel him too : especially since Clodius's 
brother Appius was the praetor whose lot it was 
to sit on those trials 1 ". But Clodius was now 
losing ground apace ; being grown so insolent on 
his late success, that even his friends could not 
bear him any longer : for having banished Cicero, 
and sent Cato out of his way, he began to fancy 
himself a match for Pompey ; by whose help, or 
connivance at least, he had acquired all his power ; 
and, in open defiance of him, seized by stratagem 
into his hands the son of king Tigranes, whom 
Pompey had brought with him from the East, and 
kept a prisoner at Rome, in the custody of Flavius 
the praetor ; and instead of delivering him up, 
when Pompey demanded him, undertook, for a 
large sum of money, to give him his liberty and 
send him home. This however did not pass with- 
out a sharp engagement between him and Flavius, 
" who marched out of Rome, with a body of men 
well armed, to recover Tigranes by force : but 
Clodius proved too strong for him ; and killed a 
great part of his company, and among them Pa- 
pirius, a Roman knight of Pompey's intimate 
acquaintance, while Flavius also himself had some 
difficulty to escape with life s ." 

Absens potius se dolere simulavit, ut suos, quod dixi- 
mus, magis commoveret : et praesens item se doluisse 
simulavit, ut vir prudentissimus, scenae, quod aiunt, ser- 
viret. — Corradi Questura, p. 291. 

P Decrevit senatus frequens de meo reditu Kal. Jun. 
dissentiente nullo, referente L. Ninnio— intercessit Ligus 
istenescio qui, additamentum inimicorum meorum. — Om- 
nia senatus rejiciebat, nisi de me primum consules retu- 
lissent.— Pro Sext. 31. 

Non multo post discessum meum me universi revoca- 
vistis referente L. Ninnio.— Post Red. in Sen. 2. 

q Huic ad urbem venienti tota obviam civitas cum 
lacrymis, gemituque processerat.— Pro Sext. 31. 

r Mihi etiam unum de malis in metu est, fratris miseri 
negotium.' — Ad Att. iii. 8. 

De Quinto fratre nuntii nobis tristes — sane sum in meo 
infinito mcerore sollicitus, et eo magis, quod Appii quaestio 
est.— Tbid. 17- 

s Me expulso, Catone amandato, in eum ipsum se con- 
vertit, quo auctore, quo adjutore, in concionibus ea, quae 



This affront roused Pompey to think of recalling 
Cicero ; as well to correct the arrogance of Clodius, 
as to retrieve his credit, and ingratiate himself with 
the senate and people : he dropped some hints of 
his inclination to Cicero's friends, and particularly 
to Atticus, who presently gave him part of the 
agreeable news : upon which, Cicero, though he 
had no opinion of Pompey's sincerity, was encou- 
raged to write to him ; and sent a copy of his 
letter to Atticus, telling him at the same time, 
that if Pompey could digest the affront, which he 
had received in the case of Tigranes, he should 
despair of his being moved by anything 1 . Varro 
likewise, who had a particular intimacy with 
Pompey, desired Atticus to let Cicero know, that 
Pompey would certainly enter into his cause as 
soon as he heard from Caesar, which he expected 
to do every day. This intelligence, from so good 
an author, raised Cicero's hopes, till finding no 
effects of it for a considerable time, he began to 
apprehend^ that there was either nothing at all in 
it, or that Csesar's answer was averse, and had put 
an end to it u . The fact however shows what an 
extraordinary deference Pompey paid to Csesar, 
that he would not take a step in this affair at 
Rome, without sending first to Gaul, to consult 
him about it. 

The city was alarmed at the same time by the 
rumour of a second plot against Pompey's life, said 
to be contrived by Clodius ; one of whose slaves 
was seized at the door of the senate with a dagger, 
which his master had given him, as he confessed, 
to stab Pompey : which, being accompanied with 
many daring attacks on Pompey's person by Clo- 
dius's mob, made him resolve to retire from the 
senate and the forum, till Clodius was out of his 
tribunate, and shut himself up in his own house, 
whither he was still pursued, and actually besieged 
by one of Clodius's freedmen, Damio. An outrage 
so audacious could not be overlooked by the ma- 
gistrates, who came out with all their forces to seize 
or drive away Damio ; upon which a general en- 
gagement ensued, where Gabinius (as Cicero says) 
" was forced to break his league with Clodius, and 



gerebat, omnia, queque gesserat, se fecisse et facere dicebat. 
Cn. Pompeium — diutius furori suo veniam daturum non 
arbitrabatur. Qui ex ejus custodia per insidias regis 
amici filium, bostem captivum surripuisset ; et ea injuria 
virum fortissimum lacessisset. Speravit iisdem se copiis 
cum illo posse confligere, quibuscum ego noluissem bono- 
rum periculo dimicare. — Pro Domo, 25. 

Ad quartum ab urbe lapidem pugna facta est : in qua 
multi ex utraque parte ceciderunt ; plures tamen ex 
Flavii, inter quos M. Papirius, eques Romanus, publi- 
canus, familiaris Pompeio. Flavius sine comite Romam 
vix perfugit. — Ascon. in Milon. 14. 

t Sermonem tuum et Pompeii cognovi ex tuis Uteris. 
Motum in republica non tantum impendere video, quan- 
tum tu aut vides, aut ad me consolandum affers. — Tigrane 
enim neglecto sublata sunt omnia. — Literarum exemplum, 
quas ad Pompeium scripsi, misi tibi.' — Ad Att. iii. 8. 

Pompeium etiam simulatorem puto. — Ad Quint. Frat. 
i. 3. 

Ex Uteris tuis plenus sum expectatione de Pompeio, 
quidnam de nobis velit, aut ostendat. — Si tibi stuitus esse 
videor, qui sperem, facio tuo jussu.— -Ad Att. iii. 14. 

u Expectationem nobis non parvam attuleras, cum 
scripseras Varronem tibi pro amicitia confirmasse, causam 
nostram Pompeium certe suscepturum ; et simul a Caesare 
literal, quas expectaret, remissas essent, auctorem etiam 
daturum. Utrum id nihil fuit, an adversatae sunt Caesaris 
literas ?— Ibid. 18. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



101 



fight for Pompey ; at first faintly and unwillingly, 
but at last heartily ; while Piso, more religious, 
stood firm to his contract, and fought on Clodius' 
side, till his fasces were broken, and he himself 
wounded, and forced to run away x ." 

Whether any design was really formed against 
Pompey's life, or the story was contrived to serve 
his present views, it seems probable at least that 
his fears were feigned, and the danger too con- 
temptible to give him any just apprehension ; but 
the shutting himself up at home made an impres- 
sion upon the vulgar, and furnished a better pre- 
tence for turning so quick upon Clodius, and 
quelling that insolence which he himself had 
raised : for this was the constant tenor of his 
politics, to give a free course to the public dis- 
orders, for the sake of displaying his own import- 
ance to more advantage ; that when the storm was at 
the height, he might appear at last in the scene, like 
a deity of the theatre, and reduce all again to order ; 
expecting still, that the people, tired and harassed 
by these perpetual tumults, would be forced to 
create him dictator, for settling the quiet of the city. 

The consuls elect were, P. Cornelius Lentulus, 
and Q. Metellus Nepos : the first was Cicero's 
warm friend, the second his old enemy ; the same 
who put that affront upon him on laying down his 
consulship : his promotion therefore was a great 
discouragement to Cicero, who took it for granted 
that he would employ all his power to obstruct his 
return ; and reflected, as he tells us, " that, though 
it was a great thing to drive him out, yet, as there 
were many who hated, and more who envied him, 
it would not be difficult to keep him outV But 
Metellus, perceiving which way Pompey's inclina- 
tion and Caesar's also was turning, found reason 
to change his mind, or at least to dissemble it ; 
and promised, not only to give his consent, but 
his assistance, to Cicero's restoration. His col- 
league, Lentulus, in the mean while, was no sooner 
elected, than he revived the late motion of Ninnius, 
and proposed a vote to recal Cicero ; and when 
Clodius interrupted him and recited that part of 
his law which made it criminal to move anything 
about it, Lentulus declared it to be no law, but a 
mere proscription, and act of violence 2 . This 
alarmed Clodius, and obliged him to exert all his 
arts to support the validity of the law ; he threat- 
ened ruin and destruction to all who should dare 
to oppose it ; and to imprint the greater terror, 
fixed up on the doors of the senate-house, that 
clause which prohibited all men to speak or act in 

s Cum haec non possent diutius jam sustinere, initur 
consilium de interitu Cn. Pompeii : quo patefacto, ferroque 
deprehenso, ille inclusus domi tamdiu fuit, quamdiu 
inimicus meus in tribunatu. — Pro Sext. 32. 

Deprehensus denique cum ferro ad senatum is, quern ad 
Cn. Pompeium interimendum collocatum fuisse constabat. 
—In Pison. 12. 

Cum tamen — Gabinius collegit ipse se vix: et contra 
suum Clodium, primum simulate ; deinde non libenter ; 
ad extremum tamen pro Cn.Pompeiovere,vehementerque 
pugnavit. — Tu tamen homo religiosus et sanctus, fcedus 
frangere noluisti — itaque in illo tumultu fracti fasces, ictus 
ipse, quotidie tela, lapides, fugae.— Ibid. 

y Inimici sunt multi, invidi paene omnes. Ejicere nos 
magnum fuit, excludere facile est.' — Ep. Fam. xiv. 3. 

z Cum a tribuno plebis vetaretur, cum praeclarum caput 
recitaretur, ne quis ad vos referret — totam illam, ut ante 
dixi, proscriptionem, non legem putavit.— Post Red. in 
Sen. 4. 



any manner for Cicero's return, on pain of being 
treated as enemies. This gave a farther disquiet 
to Cicero, lest it should dishearten his active 
friends, and furnish an excuse to the indolent for 
doing nothing : he insinuates therefore to Atticus 
what might be said to obviate it ; " that all such 
clauses were only bugbears, without any real force ; 
or otherwise no law could ever be abrogated ; and 
whatever effect this was intended to have, that it 
must needs fall of course with the law itselfV' 

In this anxious state of his mind, jealous of 
everything that could hurt, and catching at every- 
thing that could help him, another little incident 
happened, which gave him a fresh cause of unea- 
ness : for some of his enemies had published an 
invective oration, drawn up by him for the enter- 
tainment only of his intimate friends, against some 
eminent senator, not named, but generally sup- 
posed to be Curio, the father, who was now dis- 
posed and engaged to serve him : he was surprised 
and concerned, that the oration was made public ; 
and his instructions upon it to Atticus are some- 
what curious ; and show how much he was struck 
with the apprehension of losing so powerful a 
friend. " You have stunned me," says he, " with 
the news of the oration's being published : heal 
the wound, as you promise, if you possibly can : I 
wrote it long ago in anger, after he had first 
written against me ; but had suppressed it so 
carefully that I never dreamed of its getting abroad, 
nor can imagine how it slipped out : but since, as 
fortune would have it, I never had a word with 
him in person, and it is written more negligently 
than my other orations usually are ; I cannot but 
think that you may disown it, and prove it not to 
be mine : pray take care of this, if you see any 
hopes for me ; if not, there is the less reason to 
trouble myself about it b ." 

His principal agents and solicitors at Rome were, 
his brother Quintus, his wife Terentia, his son-in- 
law Piso, Atticus, and Sextius. But the brother 
and the wife, being both of them naturally peevish, 
seem to have given him some additional disquiet, 
by their mutual complaints against each other ; 
which obliged him to admonish them gently in his 
letters, that since their friends were so few, they 
ought to live more amicably among themselves c . 

Terentia however bore a very considerable part 
of the whole affair ; and instead of being daunted 
by the depression of the family, and the ruin of 
their fortunes, seems to have been animated rather 
the more to withstand the violences of their enemies, 
and procure her husband's restoration. But one 

a Tute scripsisti, quoddam caput legis Clodium in curiae 
poste fixisse, ne referri, neve dici liceret.' — Ad Att. iii. 15. 

Sed vides nunquam esse observatas sanctiones earum 
legum, quae abrogarentur. Nam si id esset, nulla fere abro- 
gari posset : — sed cum lex abrogatur , illud ipsum abrogatur, 
quo non earn abrogari oporteat.' — Ibid. 23. 

b Percussisti autem me deorationeprolata : cuivulneri, 
ut scribis, medere, si quid potes. Scripsi equidem olim 
iratus, quod ille prior scripserat : seditacompresseram, ut 
nunquam manaturam putarem. Quo modo exciderit ne- 
scio. Sed quia nunquam accidit, ut cum eo verbo uno 
concertarem ; et quia scripta mihi videtur negligentius, 
quam caeterae, puto posse probari non esse meam. Id, si 
putas me posse sanari, cures velim : sin plane perii, minus 
laboro.— Ad Att. iii. 12. 

c De Quinto fratre nihil ego te accusavi, sed vos, cum 
praesertim tarn pauci estis, volui esse quam conjunctissi- 
mos.— Ep. Fam. xiv. 1. 



102 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



of Cicero's letters to her in these unhappy circum- 
stances will give the clearest view of her character, 
and the spirit with which she acted. 

" Cicero to Terentia. 

" Do not imagine that I write longer letters to 
any one than to you, unless it be when I receive a 
long one from somebody else, which I find myself 
obliged to answer. For I have nothing either to 
write, nor in my present situation employ myself 
on anything that is more troublesome to me ; 
and when it is to you and our dear Tulliola, 
I cannot write without a flood of tears. For I 
see you the most wretched of women, whom I 
wished always to see the happiest, and ought to have 
made so ; as I should have done, if I had not been 
so great a coward. I am extremely sensible of 
Piso's services to us ; have exhorted him, as well 
as I could, and thanked him as I ought. Your 
hopes, I perceive, are in the new tribunes : that 
will be effectual, if Pompey concur with them : 
but I am afraid still of Crassus. You do every- 
thing for me, I see, with the utmost courage and 
affection : nor do I wonder at it ; but lament our 
unhappy fate, that my miseries can only be 
relieved by your suffering still greater : for our 
good friend P. Valerius wrote me word, what I 
could not read without bursting into tears, how 
you were dragged from the temple of Vesta to the 
Valerian Rank. Alas, my light, my darling, to 
whom all the world used to sue for help ! that you, 
my dear Terentia, should be thus insulted ; thus 
oppressed with grief and distress ! and that I 
should be the cause of it ; I, who have preserved 
so many others, that we ourselves should be 
undone ! As to what you write about the house, 
that is, about the area ; I shall then take myself 
to be restored, when that shall be restored to us. 
But those things are not in our power. What affects 
me more nearly is, that when so great an expense 
is necessary, it should all lie upon you, who are so 
miserably stripped and plundered already. If we 
live to see an end of these troubles, we shall repair 
all the rest. But if the same fortune must ever 
depress us, will you throw away the poor remains 
that are left for your subsistence ? For God's sake, 
my dear life, let others supply the money, who are 
able, if they are willing : and if you love me, do 
nothing that can hurt your health, which is already 
so impaired. For you are perpetually in my 
thoughts both day and night. I see that you 
decline no sort of trouble ; but am afraid, how 
you will sustain it. Yet the whole affair depends 
on you. Pay the first regard therefore to your 
health, that we may attain the end of all your 
wishes, and your labours. I know not whom to 
write to, except to those who write to me, or of 
whom you send me some good account. I will 
not remove to a greater distance, since you are 
against it ; but would have you write to me as 
often as possible, especially if you have any hopes 
that are well grounded. Adieu, my dear love, 
adieu. The 5th of October from Thessalonica. " 

Terentia had a particular estate of her own, not 
obnoxious to Clodius's law, which she was now 
offering to sale, for a supply of their present neces- 
sities : this is what Cicero refers to, where he 
entreats her, not to throw away the small remains 
of her fortunes ; which he presses still more warmly 
in another letter, putting her in mind, " that if 



their friends did not fail in their duty, she could 
not want money ; and if they did, that her own 
would do but little towards making them easy : 
he implores her therefore not to ruin the boy ; 
who, if there was anything left to keep him from 
want, would, with a moderate share of virtue and 
good fortune, easily recover the rest d ." The son- 
in-law, Piso, was extremely affectionate and dutiful 
in performing all good offices both to his banished 
father and the family ; and resigned the quaestor- 
ship of Pontus and Bithynia, on purpose to serve 
them the more effectually by his presence in 
Rome : Cicero makes frequent acknowledgment of 
his kindness and generosity; " Piso's humanity, 
virtue and love for us all is so great," says he, 
" that nothing can exceed it ; the gods grant that 
it may one day be a pleasure, I am sure it will 
always be an honour, to him e ." 

Atticus likewise supplied them liberally with 
money : he had already furnished Cicero, for the 
exigences of his flight, with above 2000 pounds ; 
and upon succeeding to the great estate of his 
uncle Csecilius, whose name he now assumed, made 
him a fresh offer of his purse f : yet his conduct did 
not wholly satisfy Cicero ; who thought him too 
cold and remiss in his service ; and fancied, that 
it flowed from some secret resentment, for having 
never received from him, in his flourishing con- 
dition, any beneficial proofs of his friendship : in 
order therefore to rouse his zeal, he took occasion 
to promise him, in one of his letters, that whatever 
reason he had to complain on that score, it should 
all be made up to him, if he lived to return : " If 
fortune," says he, " ever restore me to my country, 
it shall be my special care, that you, above all my 
friends, have cause to rejoice at it : and though 
hitherto, I confess, you have reaped but little 

d Tantum scribo, si erunt in officio amici, pecunia non 
deerit, si non erunt, tu efiicere tua pecunia non poteris. 
Per fortunas miseras nostras, Tide ne puerum perditum 
perdamus : cui si aliquid erit, ne egeat, mediocri virtute 
opus est, et mediocri fortuna, ut caetera consequatur. — 
Ibid. 

e Qui Pontum et Bithyniam quasstor pro mea salute 
neglexit.' — Post Red. in Sen. 15. 

Pisonis humanitas, virtus, amor in nos omnes tantus 
est, ut nihil supra esse possit. TJtinam ea res ei voluptati 
sit, glorias quidem video fore. — Ep. Fam. xiv. 1. 

f Ciceroni, ex patria fugienti H. S. ducenta et quinqua- 
ginta millia donavit. — Corn. Nep. Vit. Att. 4. 

Quod te in tanta hereditate ab omni occupatione expe- 
disti, valde mihi gratum est. Quod facilitates tuas ad 
meam salutem polliceris, ut omnibus rebus a te praeter 
caeteros juver, id quantum sit presidium video. — Ad Att. 
iii. 20. 

This Cascilius, Atticus's uncle, was a famous churl and 
usurer, sometimes mentioned in Cicero's letters, who 
adopted Atticus by his will, and left him three-fourths of 
his estate, which amounted to above 80,000/. sterling. He 
had raised this great fortune by the favour chiefly of Lucul- 
lus, whom he flattered to the last with a promise of making 
him his heir, yet left the bulk of his estate to Atticus, who 
had been very observant of his humour : for which fraud, 
added to his notorious avarice and extortion, the mob 
seized his dead body, and dragged it infamously about the 
streets. [Val. Max. vii. 8.] Cicero, congratulating Atticus 
upon his adoption, addresses his letter to Q. Csecilius, Q. 
F. Pomponianus, Atticus. For in assuming the name of 
the Adopter, it was usual to add also their own family 
name, though changed in its termination from Pomponius 
to Pomponianus, to preserve the memory of their real 
extraction : to which some added also the surname, as 
Cicero does in the present case. — Ad Att. iii. 20. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



103 



benefit from my kindness ; I will manage so for 
the future, that whenever I am restored, you shall 
find yourself as dear to me as my brother and my 
children : if I have been wanting therefore in my 
duty to you, or rather, since I have been wanting, 
pray pardon me ; for I have been much more 
wanting to myself?." But Atticus begged of him 
to lay aside all such fancies, and assured him, that 
there was not the least ground for them ; and that 
he had never been disgusted by anything, which 
he had either done, or neglected to do for him ; 
entreating him to be perfectly easy on that head, 
and to depend always on his best services, without 
giving himself the trouble, even of reminding 
him h . Yet after all, the suspicion itself, as it 
comes from one who knew Atticus so perfectly, 
seems to leave some little blot upon his character : 
but whatever cause there might be for it, it is cer- 
tain, that Cicero at least was as good as his word, 
and by the care which he took after his return to 
celebrate Atticus's name in all his writings, has 
left the most illustrious testimony to posterity of 
his sincere esteem and affection for him. 

Sextius was one of the tribunes elect ; and 
being entirely devoted to Cicero, took the trouble 
of a journey into Gaul, to solicit Caesar's consent to 
his restoration ; which though he obtained, as well 
by his own intercession as by Pompey's letters, 
yet it seems to have been with certain limitations 
not agreeable to Cicero : for on Sextius's return 
to Rome, when he drew up the copy of a law 
which he intended to propose upon his entrance 
into office ; conformable, as we may imagine, to 
the conditions stipulated with Caesar ; Cicero 
greatly disliked it ; as being too general, and 
without the mention even of his name, nor pro- 
viding sufficiently either for his dignity, or the 
restitution of his estate ; so that he desires Atticus 
to take care to get it amended by Sextius'. 

The old tribunes, in the mean while, eight of 
whom were Cicero's friends, resolved to make one 
effort more to obtain a law in his favour, which 
they jointly offered to the people on the twenty - 
eighth of October : but Cicero was much more 
displeased with this than with Sextius's : it con- 
sisted of three articles ; the first of which restored 
him only to his former rank, but not to his estate : 
the second was only matter of form, to indemnify 
the proposers of it : the third enacted, " that if 
there was anything in it which was prohibited to 
be promulgated by any former law, particularly by 
that of Clodius, or which involved the author of 
such promulgation in any fine or penalty, that in 

g Ego, si me aliquando vestri et patriae compotem for- 
tuna fecerit, certe efficiam, ut maxime laetere unus ex 
omnibus amicis : meaque officia ac studia, quae parum 
antea luxerunt (fatendum est enim) sic exequar, ut me 
asque tibi ac fratri et liberis nostris restitutum putes. Si 
quid in te peccavi, ac potius quoniam peccavi, ignosce : in 
me enim ipsum peccavi vebementius. — Ad Att. iii. 15. 

h Quod me vetas quicquam suspicari accidisse ad 
animum tuum, quod secus a me erga te commissum, aut 
prsetermissum videretur, geram tibi morem et liberabor 
ista cura. Tibi tamen eo plus debeo, quo tua in me 
humanitas fuerit excelsior, quam in te mea. — Ibid. 20. 

1 Hoc interim tempore, P. Sextius, designatus iter ad 
C. Caesarem pro mea salute suscepit. Quid egerit, quantum 
profecerit, nihil ad causam. — Pro Sext. 32. 

Rogatio Sextii neque dignitatis satis habet nee cautionis. 
Nam et nominatim ferre oportet, et de bonis diligentius 
scribi : et id animadvertas velim.— Ad Att. iii. 20. 



such case it should have no effect." Cicero was 
surprised, that his friends could be induced to pro- 
pose such an act, "which seemed to be against him, 
and to confirm that clause of the Clodian law 
which made it penal to move anything for him ; 
whereas no clauses of that kind had ever been 
regarded, or thought to have any special force, but 
fell of course when the laws themselves were 
repealed : he observes, " that it was an ugly pre- 
cedent for the succeeding tribunes, if they should 
happen to have any scruples ; and that Clodius 
had already taken the advantage of it, when in a 
speech to the people, on the third of November, he 
declared, that this act of the tribunes was a proper 
lesson to their successors, to let them see how far 
their power extended." He desires Atticus therefore 
" to find Out who was the contriver of it, and how 
Ninnius and the rest came to be so much overseen 
as not to be aware of the consequences of it k ." 

The most probable solution of it is, that these 
tribunes hoped to carry their point with less diffi- 
culty, by paying this deference to Clodius's law, 
the validity of which was acknowledged by Cato, 
and several others of the principal citizens 1 ; and 
they were induced to make this push for it before 
they quitted their office, from a persuasion, that 
if Cicero was once restored, on any terms, or with 
what restrictions soever, the rest would follow of 
course ; and that the recovery of his dignity would 
necessarily draw after it everything else that was 
wanted. Cicero seems to have been sensible of it 
himself on second thoughts, as he intimates, in 
the conclusion of his letter : "I should be sorry," 
says he, ' ' to have the new tribunes insert such a 
clause in their law ; yet let them insert what they 
please : if it will but pass and call me home, I shall 
be content with it m ." But the only project of a 
law which he approved, was drawn by his cousin 
C. Visellius Aculeo, an eminent lawyer of that 
age, for another of the new tribunes, T. Fadius, 
who had been his quaestor when he was consul : 
he advised his friends therefore, if there was any 
prospect of success, to push forward that law, 
which entirely pleased him n . 

In this suspense of his affairs at Rome, the 
troops, which Piso had provided for his govern- 
ment of Macedonia, began to arrive in great num- 
bers at Thessalonica : this greatly alarmed him, 
and made him resolve to quit the place without 
delay : and as it was not advisable to move farther 
from Italy, he ventured to come still nearer, and 
turned back again to Dyrrhachium : for though 
this was within the distance forbidden to him by 

k Quo major est suspicio malitiae alicujus, cum id, quod 
ad ipsos nihil pertinebat, erat autem contra me, scrip- 
serunt. Ut novi tribuni plebis si essent thnidiores, multo 
magis sibi eo capite utendum putarent. Neque id a 
Clodio praetermissum est, dixit enim in concione ad diem 
in. Non. Novemb.hoc capite designatis tribunis plebis prae- 
scriptum esse quid liceret. Ut Ninnium et casteros fugerit 
investiges velim, et quis attulerit, &c— Ad Att. iii. 23. 

1 Video enim quosdam clarissimos viros, aliquot locis 
judicasse, te cum plebe jure agerepotuisse. — Pro Domo, 16. 

m Id caput sane nolim novos tribunos plebis ferre : sed 
perferant modo quidlibet: uno capite quo revocabor, 
modo res conficiatur, ero contentus.— Ibid. 23. 

n Sed si est aliquid in spe, vide legem, quam T. Fadio 
scripsit Visellius : ea mihi perplacet.— Ibid. 

Me adhuc Plancius retinet.— Sed jam cum adventare 
milites dicerentur, faciendum nobis erit, ut ab eo disce- 
damus.— Ibid. 22. 



104 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



law, yet he had no reason to apprehend any danger, 
in a town particularly devoted to him, and which 
had always been under his special patronage and 
protection. He came thither on the twenty-fifth 
of November, and gave notice of his removal to 
his friends at Rome, by letters of the same date, 
begun at Thessalonica and finished at Dyrrha- 
chium ? : which shows the great haste which he 
thought necessary in making this sudden change 
of his quarters. Here he received another piece 
of news which displeased him ; " that with the 
consent and assistance of his managers at Rome, 
the provinces of the consuls elect had been fur- 
nished with money and troops by a decree of the 
senate :" but in what manner it affected him, and 
what reason he had to be uneasy at it, will be 
explained by his own letter upon it to Atticus. 

" When you first sent me word," says he, " that 
the consular provinces had been settled and pro- 
vided for by your consent ; though I was afraid 
lest it might be attended with some ill conse- 
quence, yet I hoped that you had some special 
reason for it which 1 could not penetrate : but 
having since been informed, both by friends and 
letters, that your conduct is universally con- 
demned, I am extremely disturbed at it ; because 
the little hopes, that were left, seem now to be 
destroyed : for should the new tribunes quarrel 
with us upon it, what farther hopes can there be ? 
and they have reason to do so ; since they were 
not consulted in it, though they had undertaken 
my cause, and have lost by our concession all that 
influence which they would otherwise have had 
over it ; especially when they declare, that it was 
for my sake only that they desired the power of 
furnishing out the consuls ; not with design to 
hinder them, but to secure them to my interest ; 
whereas if the consuls have a mind to be perverse, 
they may now be so without any risk ; yet let 
them be never so well disposed, can do nothing 
without the consent of the tribunes. As to what 
you say, that, if you had not agreed to it, the 
consuls would have carried their point with the 
people ; that could never have been done against 
the will of the tribunes : I am afraid, therefore, 
that we have lost by it the affection of the tribunes ; 
or if that still remains, have lost at least our hold 
on the consuls. There is another inconvenience 
still, not less considerable ; for that important 
declaration, as it was represented to me, that the 
senate would enter into nothing till my affair was 
settled, is now at an end ; and in a case not only 
unnecessary, but new and unprecedented; for I 
do not believe, that the provinces of the consuls 
had ever before been provided for until their 
entrance into office : but having now broken 
through that resolution which they had taken in my 
cause, they are at liberty to proceed to any other 
business, as they please. It is not however to be 
wondered at, that my friends, who were applied to, 
should consent to it ; for it was hard for any one, 
to declare openly against a motion so beneficial to 

P Dyrrhachium veni quod et libera civitas est, et in me 
officiosa. — Ep. Fam. xiv. 1. 

Nam ego eo nomine sum Dyrrhachii, ut quam celerrime 
quid agatur, audiam, et sum tuto. Civitas enim haec 
semper a me defensa est — Ibid. 3. 

Quod mei studiosos habeo Dyrrhachinos, ad cos perrexi, 
cum ilia superiora Thessalonicffi scripsisseni .— Ad Att. iii. 
22; Ep. Fam. xiv. 1. 



the two consuls ; it was hard, I say, to refuse 
anything to Lentulus, who has always been my 
true friend ; or to Metellus, who has given up his 
resentments with so much humanity ; yet I am 
apprehensive that we have alienated the tribunes, 
and cannot hold the consuls : write me word, I 
desire you, what turn this has taken, and how the 
whole affair stands ; and write with your usual 
frankness ; for I love to know the truth, though it 
should happen to be disagreeable." The tenth of 
December i. 

But Atticus, instead of answering this letter, or 
rather indeed before he received it, having occasion 
to visit his estate in Epirus, took his way thither 
through Dyrrhachium, on purpose to see Cicero, 
and explain to him in person the motives of their 
conduct. Their interview was but short ; and 
after they parted, Cicero, upon some new intel- 
ligence, which gave him fresh uneasiness, sent 
another letter after him into Epirus, to call him 
back again : " After you left me," says he, " I 
received letters from Rome, from which I perceive 
that I must end my days in this calamity ; and to 
speak the truth, (which you will take in good part,) 
if there had been any hopes of my return, you, 
who love me so well, would never have left the 
city at such a conjuncture : but I say no more, 
lest I be thought either ungrateful, or desirous 
to involve my friends too in my ruin : one thing I 
beg ; that you would not fail, as you have given 
your word, to come to me, wherever I shall happen 
to be, before the first of Januarys" 

While he was thus perplexing himself with per- 
petual fears and suspicions, his cause was proceeding 
very prosperously at Rome, and seemed to be in 
such a train, that it could not be obstructed much 
longer : for the new magistrates, who were coming 
on with the new year, were all, except the praetor 
Appius, supposed to be his friends ; while his 
enemy Clodius was soon to resign his office, on 
which the greatest part of his power depended : 
Clodius himself was sensible of the daily decay of 
his credit, through the superior influence of Porn- 
pey, who had drawn Caesar . away from him, and 
forced even Gabinius to desert him : so that, out 
of rage and despair, and the desire of revenging 
himself on these new and more powerful enemies, 
he would willingly have dropped the pursuit of 
Cicero, or consented even to recal him, if he could 
have persuaded Cicero's friends and the senate to 
join their forces with him against the triumvirate. 
For this end he produced Bibulus and the other 
augurs in an assembly of the people, and demanded 
of them, "whether it was not unlawful to transact 
any public business, when any of them were taking 
the auspices?" To which they all answered in 
the affirmative. Then he asked Bibulus, " whether 
he was not actually observing the heavens as oft as 
any of Caesar's laws were proposed to the people?" 
To which he answered in the affirmative : but being 
produced a second time by the praetor Appius, he 
added, "that he took the auspices also in the same 
manner at the time when Clodius's act of adoption 
was confirmed by the people :" but Clodius, while 
he gratified his present revenge, little regarded how 
much it turned against himself ; but insisted, 
that " all Caesar's acts ought to be annulled by the 
senate, as being contrary to the auspices ;" and on 



q Ad Att. iii. 24. 



Ad Att. iii. 25. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



105 



that condition, declared publicly, that " he himself 
would bring back Cicero, the guardian of the city, 
on his own shoulders s ." 

In the same fit of revenge, he fell upon the con- 
sul Gabinius ; and in an assembly of the people, 
which he called for that purpose, with his head 
-veiled, and a little altar and fire before him, conse- 
crated his whole estate. This had been sometimes 
done against traitorous citizens, and, when legally 
performed, had the effect of a confiscation, by 
making the place and effects ever after sacred and 
public : but in the present case, it was considered 
only as an act of madness ; and the tribune Nin- 
nius, in ridicule of it, consecrated Clodius' s estate 
in the same form and manner, that whatever efficacy 
was ascribed to the one, the other might justly chal- 
lenge the same 1 . 

But the expected hour was now come, which put 
an end to his detestable tribunate : it had been 
uniform and of a piece from the first to the last ; 
the most infamous and corrupt that Rome had ever 
seen : there was scarce an office bestowed at home, 
or any favour granted to a prince, state, or city 
abroad, but what he openly sold to the best bidder: 
"The poets (says Cicero) could not feign a Charyb- 
dis so voracious as his rapine : he conferred the 
title of king on those who had it not, and took it 
away from who had u ;" and sold the rich priest- 
hoods of Asia, as the Turks are said to sell the 
Grecian bishopi'ics, without regarding whether 
they were full or vacant, of which Cicero gives us 
a remarkable instance : " There was a celebrated 
temple of Cybele, at Pessinuns in Phrygia, where 
that goddess was worshipped with singular devotion, 
not only by all Asia, but Europe too ; and where 
the Roman generals themselves often used to pay 
their vows and make their offerings." Her priest 
was in quiet possession, without any rival preten- 
der, or any complaint against him ; yet Clodius, 
by a law of the people, granted this priesthood to 
one Brogitarus, a petty sovereign in those parts, 
to whom he had before given the title of king : " and 
I shall think him a king indeed," says Cicero, "if 
ever he be able to pay the purchase money :" but 
the spoils of the temple were destined to that use, 
and would soon have been applied to it, if Deiota- 
rus, king of Galatia, a prince of noble character, 
and a true friend to Rome, had not defeated the 
impious bargain, by taking the temple into his 
protection, and maintaining the lawful priest 
against the intruder, nor suffering Brogitarus, 

s Tu tuo praecipitante jam et debilitato tribunatu, 
auspiciorum patronus subito extitisti. Tu M. Bibulum in 
concione, tu augures produxisti. Te interrogante augures 
responderunt, cum de coelo servatum sit, cum populo agi 
non posse — tua denique omnis actio posterioribus men- 
sibusfuit, omnia, qua? C. Caesar egisset, quae contra auspicia 
essent acta, per senatum rescindi oportere. Quod si fieret, 
dicebas, te tuis humeris me, custodem urbis, in urbem 
relaturum. — Pro Domo, 15. 

* Tu, tu, inquam, capite velato, concione advocata, 
foculo posito bona tui Gabinii consecrasti in — quid ? exem- 
plo tuo bona tua nonne L. Ninnius — consecravit? quod si, 
quia , ad te pertinet, ratum esse negas oportere; eajura 
constituisti in praeclaro tribunatu tuo, quibus in te con- 
versis, recusares, alios everteres.— Pro Domo, 47, 48. 

u Reges, qui erant, vendidit ; qui non erant, appellavit— 
quam denique tam immanem Charybdim poetae fingendo 
exprimere potuerunt, quae tantos exhaurire gurgites pos- 
set, quantas iste praedas — exsorbuit? — De Harus. Resp. 
27. 



A. URB. 696. 

cic. 50. 
coss. 

P.CORNELIUS 

LENTULUS 

SPINTHER, 

Q. C^CILIUS 

METELLUS 

NEPOS. 



though his son-in-law, to pollute or touch anything 
belonging to it x . 

All the ten new tribunes had solemnly promised 
to serve Cicero ; yet Clodius found means to cor- 
rupt two of them, S. Atilius Serrauus, and Nume- 
rius Quinctius Gracchus, by whose help he was 
enabled still to make head against Cicero's party, 
and retard his restoration some time longer : but 
Piso and Gabinius, perceiving the scene to be 
opening apace in his favour, and his return to be 
unavoidable, thought it time to get out of his way, 
and retire to their several governments, to enjoy 
the reward of their perfidy : so that they both left 
Rome with the expiration of their year, and Piso 
set out for Macedonia, Gabinius for Syria. 

On the first of January the new consul Lentulus, 
after the ceremony of his inauguration, and his 
first duty paid, as usual, to religion, 
entered directly into Cicero's affair, 
and moved the senate for his restora- 
tion y ; while his colleague Metellus 
declared, with much seeming candour, 
" that though Cicero and he had been 
enemies, on account of their different 
sentiments in politics, yet he would 
give up his resentments to the autho- 
rity of the fathers, and the interests of the repub- 
lic 2 ." Upon which L. Cotta, a person of consular 
and censorian rank, being asked his opinion the 
first, said, " that nothing had been done against 
Cicero agreeably to right or law, or the custom of 
their ancestors : that no citizen could be driven out 
of the city without a trial ; and that the people 
could not condemn, nor even try a man capitally, 
but in an assembly of their centuries : that the 
whole was the effect of violence, turbulent times, 
and an oppressed republic : that in so strange a 
revolution and confusion of all things, Cicero had 
only stepped aside, to provide for his future tranquil- 
lity, by declining the impending storm ; and since 
he had freed the republic from no less danger by 
his absence, than he had done before by his pre- 
sence, that he ought not only to be restored, but 
to be adorned with new honours : that what his 
mad enemy had published against him, was drawn 
so absurdly both in words and sentiments, that, if 

x Qui accepta pecunia Pessinuntem ipsum, sedem domi- 
ciliumque Matris Deorum vastaris, et Brogitaro, Gallo- 
graeco, impuro homini ac nefario, totum ilium locum 
fanumque vendideris. Sacerdotem ab ipsis aris, pulvina- 
ribusque detraxeris.— Quae reges omnes, qui Asiam Euro- 
pamque tenuerunt, semper summa religione coluerunt — 
Quae majores nostri tam sancta duxerunt, ut — nostri 
imperatores maximis et periculosissimis bellis buic deae 
vota facerent, eaque in ipso Pessinimte ad illam ipsam 
principem aram et in illo loco fanoque persolverent.— 
Putabo regem, si babuerit unde tibi solvat. — Nam cum 
multa regia sunt in Deiotaro, turn ilia maxime, quod tibi 
nummum nullum dedit. — Quod Pessinuntem per scelus 
a te violatum, et sacerdote, sacrisque spoliatum recupe- 
ravit. — Quod caeremonias ab omni vetustate acceptas a 
Brogitaro pollui non sinit, mavultque generum suum 
munere tuo, quam illud fanum antiquitate religionis 
carere.— Ibid. 13; Pro Sext. 26. 

y Kalendis Januariis.— P. Lentulus consul— simul ac 
de solemni religione retulit, nibil humanarum rerum 
sibi prius, quam de me agendum judicavit. — Post Red. ad 
Quir. 5. 

z Quae etiam college? ejus moderatio de me ? Qui cum 
inimicitias sibi mecum ex reipublicae dissensione suscep- 
tas esse dixisset, eas se Patribus conscriptis dixit et tem- 
poribus reipublicae permissurum.— Pro Sext. 32. 



106 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



it had been enacted in proper form, it could never 
obtain the force of a law : that since Cicero there- 
fore was expelled by no law, he could not want a 
law to restore him, but ought to be recalled by a 
vote of the senate." — Pompey, who spoke next, 
having highly applauded what Cotta said, added, 
" that for the sake of Cicero's future quiet, and to 
prevent all farther trouble from the same quarter, 
it was his opinion, that the people should have a 
share in conferring that grace, and their consent be 
joined also to the authority of the senate." After 
many others had spoken likewise with great warmth 
in the defence and praise of Cicero, they all came 
unanimously into Pompey's opinion, and were pro- 
ceeding to make a decree upon it, when Serranus 
the tribune rose up and put a stop to it, not flatly 
interposing his negative, for he had not the assur- 
ance to do that, against such a spirit and unani- 
mity of the senate, but desiring only a night's time 
to consider of it. This unexpected interruption 
incensed the whole assembly ; some reproached, 
others entreated him ; and his father-in-law, Op- 
pius, threw himself at his feet, to move him to 
desist : but all that they could get from him was a 
promise to give way to the decree the next morn- 
ing ; upon which they broke up. "But the tribune 
(says Cicero) employed the night, not as people 
fancied he would, in giving back the money which 
he had taken, but in making a better bargain, and 
doubling his price ; for the next morning, being 
grown more hardy, he absolutely prohibited the 
senate from proceeding to any act a ." This conduct 
of Serranus surprised Cicero's friends, being not 
only perfidious and contrary to his engagements, 
but highly ungrateful to Cicero ; who, in his con- 
sulship, had been his special encourager and 
benefactor b . 

The senate, however, though hindered at present 
from passing their decree, were too well united, 
and too strongly supported, to be baffled much 
longer by the artifices of a faction : they resolved, 
therefore, without farther delay, to propound a 
law to the people for Cicero's restoration ; and the 
twenty-second of the month was appointed for the 
promulgation of it. When the day came, Fabri- 
cius, one of Cicero's tribunes, marched out with a 
strong guard, before it was light, to get possession 
of the rostra : but Clodius was too early for him : 
and having seized all the posts and avenues of the 
forum, was prepared to give him a warm reception: 

a Turn princeps rogatus sententiam L. Cotta, dixit.'— 
Nihil de me actum esse jure, nihil more majorum, nihil 
legibus, &c. Quare me, qui nulla lege abessem, non 
restitui lege, sed senatus auctoritate oportere.— 

Post eum rogatus sententiam Cn. Pompeius, approbata, 
laudataque Cotta? sententia, dixit, sese otii mei causa, ut 
omni populari concertatione defungerer, censere ; ut ad 
senatus auctoritatem populi quoque Romani beneficium 
adjungeretur. Cum omnes certatim, aliusque alio gravius 
de mea salute dixisset, fieretque sine ulla varietate dis- 
cessio : surrexit Atilius ; nee ausus est, cum esset emptus, 
intercedere ; noctcm sibi ad deliberandum postulavit. 
Clamor senatus, querelas, preces, socer ad pedes abjectus. 
Ille, se affirmare postero die moram nullam esse factu- 
rum. Creditum est; discessum est: illi interea delibe- 
ratori merces, intcrposita nocte, duplicata est.— Pro Sext. 
34. 

Deliberatio non in redden da, quemadmodum nonnulli 
arbitrabantur, sed, ut patefactum est, in augenda mercede 
consumta est .—Post Red.adQuir. 5. 

b Is tribunus plebis quern ego maximis beneficiis qua?s- 
torem consul ornaveram. — Ibid. 



he had purchased some gladiators, for the shows of 
his sedileship, to which he was now pretending, 
and borrowed another band of his brother Appius ; 
and with these well armed, at the head of his 
slaves and dependants, he attacked Fabricius, killed 
several of his followers, wounded many more, and 
drove him quite out of the place ; and happening 
to fall in at the same time with Cispius, another 
tribune, who was coming to the aid of his colleague, 
he repulsed him also with a great slaughter. The 
gladiators, heated with this taste of blood, " opened 
their way on all sides with their swords, in quest 
of Quintus Cicero, whom they met with at last, 
and would certainly have murdered, if, by the 
advantage of the confusion and darkness, he had 
not hid himself under the bodies of his slaves and 
freedmen, who were killed around him ; where he 
lay concealed till the fray was over." The tribune 
Sextius was treated still more roughly, " for being 
particularly pursued and marked out for destruc- 
tion, he was so desperately wounded, as to be left 
for dead upon the spot, and escaped death only by 
feigning it :" but while he lay in that condition, 
supposed to be killed, Clodius reflecting, that the 
murder of a tribune, whose person was sacred, 
would raise such a storm, as might occasion his 
ruin, " took a sudden resolution to kill one of his 
own tribunes, in order to charge it upon his adver- 
saries, and so balance the account by making both 
sides equally obnoxious." The victim doomed to 
this sacrifice was Numerius Quinctius, an obscure 
fellow, raised to this dignity by the caprice of the 
multitude, who, to make himself the more popular, 
had assumed the surname of Gracchus : " but the 
crafty clown (says Cicero) having got some hint of 
the design, and finding that his blood was to wipe 
off the envy of Sextius's, disguised himself presently 
in the habit of a muleteer, the same in which he 
first came to Rome, and with a basket upon his 
head, while some were calling out for Numerius, 
others for Quinctius, passed undiscovered by the 
confusion of the two names : but he continued in 
this danger till Sextius was known to be alive ; 
and if that discovery had not been made sooner 
than one would have wished, though they could 
not have fixed the odium of killing their mercenary 
where they designed it ; yet they would have less- 
ened the infamy of one villany, by committing 
another, which all people would have been pleased 
with." According to the account of this day's 
tragedy, " the Tiber and all the common sewers 
were filled with dead bodies, and the blood wiped 
up with sponges in the forum, where such heaps of 
slain had never before been seen but in the civil 
dissensions of Cinna and Octavius c ." 

c Princeps rogationis, vir mihi amicissimus, Q. Fabri- 
cius templum aliquanto ante lucent occupavit. Cum 

forum, comitium, curiam multa de nocte armatis homi- 
nibus, ac scrvis occupavissent, impetum faciunt in Fabri- 
cium, manus afferunt, occidunt nonnullos, vulnerant 
multos : venientem in forum, virum optimum M. Cispiunt 
— vi depellunt ; caedem in foro maximam faciunt. Universi 
districtis gladiis in omnibus fori partibus fratrem mount 
oculis quaerebant, voce poscebant. — Pulsus e rostris in comi- 
tio jacuit, seque servorum et libertorum corporibus obtexit. 

Multis vulneribus acceptis ac debilitato corpore contru- 
cidato, Sextius, se abjecit exanimatus ; neque ulla alia re 
ab se mortem, nisi mortis opinione, depulit.' — At vero illi 
ipsi parricidae.— Adeo vim facinoris sui pcrhorruerant, ut 
si paullo longior opinio mortis Sextii fuisset, Gracchunt 
ilium suura transferendi in nos criminis causa, occidere 



MARCUS TULLTUS CICERO. 



107 



Clodius, flushed with this victory, " set fire with 
his own hands to the temple of the Nymphs, where 
the books of the censors and the public registers of 
the city were kept, which were all consumed with 
the fabric itself d ." He then attacked the houses 
of Milo the tribune, and Csecilius the prsetor, with 
fire and sword, but was repulsed in both attempts 
with loss : " Milo took several of Appius's gla- 
diators prisoners, who, being brought before the 
senate, made a confession of what they knew, and 
were sent to jail ; but were presently released by 
Serranus e ." Upon these outrages Milo impeached 
Clodius in form, for the violation of the public 
peace : but the consul Metellus, who had not yet 
abandoned him, with the prsetor Appius, and the 
tribune Serranus, resolved to prevent any process 
upon it, "and by their edicts prohibited, either 
the criminal himself to appear, or any one to cite 
him f ." Their pretence was, " that the quaestors 
were not yet chosen, whose office it was to make 
the allotment of the judges ; while they themselves 
kept back the election," and were pushing Clodius 
at the same time into the aedileship, which would 
screen him, of course, for one year from any pro- 
secution. Milo therefore, finding it impracticable 
to bring him to justice in the legal method, resolved 
to deal with him in his own way, by opposing force 
to force ; and for this end purchased a band of 
gladiators, with which he had daily skirmishes with 
him in the streets ; and acquired a great reputation 
of courage and generosity, for being the first of all 
the Romans who had ever bought gladiators for 
the defence of the republic £. 

This obstruction given to Cicero's return by an 
obstinate and desperate faction, made the senate 
only the more resolute to effect it : they passed a 
second vote, therefore, that no other business 
should be done till it was carried ; and to prevent 
all farther tumults, and insults upon the magistrates, 
ordered the consuls to summon all the people of 
Italy, who wished well to the state, to come to the 
assistance and defence of Cicero h . This gave new 

cogitarint. — Sensit rusticulus, non incautus ;— niulioni- 
cam penulam arripuit, cum qua primum Romam ad 
comitia venerit : messoria se corbe contexit : cum quasre- 
rent alii Numerium, alii Quinctium, gemini nominis 
errore servatus est, atque hoc scitis omnes ; usque adeo 
hominem in periculo fuisse, quoad scitum sit, Sextium 
vivere. Quod nisi esset patefactum paullo citius, quern 
vellem, &c. Meministis turn, Judices, eorporibus civium 
Tiberim compleri, cloacas referciri, e foro spongiis effingi 
sanguinem. — Lapidationes persaepe vidimus ; non ita saspe, 
sed nimium tamen sa?pe gladios ; caedem vero tantam, 
tantos acervos corporum exstructos, nisi forte illo Cinnano 
atque Octaviano die, quis unquam in foro vidit ? — Pro 
Sext. 35, 36, 37, 38. 

d Eum qui asdem Nympharum incendit, ut memoriam 
publicam recensionis, tabulis publicis impressam, extin- 
gueret.— Pro Mil. 27 ; Parad. 4 ; De Haruspic. Resp. 27. 

e Gladiatores — comprehensi, in senatum introducti, con- 
fessi, in vincula conjecti a Milone, emissi a Serrano.— Pro 
Sext. 39. 

f Ecce tibi consul, praetor, tribunus plebis nova novi 
generis edicta proponunt : ne reus adsit, ne citetur. — Pro 
Sext. 41 . 

g Sed honori summo Miloni nostro nuper fait, quod 
gladiatoribus emptis reipubliea? causa, qua? salute nostra 
continebatur, omnes P. Clodii conatus furoresque com- 
pressit.— De Offic. ii. 17. 

h Itaque postea nihil vos civibus, nihil sociis, nihil 
regibus respondistis.— Post Red. in Sen. 3. . 

Quid mihi pra?clarius accidere potuit, quam quod illo 
referente vos decrevistis, ut cuncti ex omni Italia, qui 



spirits to the honest citizens, and drew a vast con- 
course to Rome from all parts of Italy, where there 
was not a corporate town of any note which did 
not testify its respect to Cicero by some public 
act or monument. " Pompey was at Capua, acting 
as chief magistrate of his new colony ; where he 
presided in person at their making a decree to 
Cicero's honour, and took the trouble likewise of 
visiting all the other colonies and chief towns in 
those parts," to appoint them a day of general 
rendezvous at Rome, to assist at the promulgation 
of the law 1 . , 

Lentulus at the same time was entertaining the 
city with shows and stage plays, in order to keep 
the people in good humour, whom he had called 
from their private affairs in the country to attend 
the public business. The shows were exhibited in 
Pompey's theatre, while the senate, for the conve- 
nience of being near them, was held in the adjoining 
temple of Honour and Virtue, built by Marius out 
of the Cimbric spoils, and called for that reason 
Marius's Monument : here, according to Cicero's 
dream, a decree now passed in proper form for his 
restoration; when, "under the joint influence of 
those deities, honour (he says) was done to virtue ; 
and the monument of Marius, the preserver of the 
empire, gave safety to his countryman, the defender 
ofitV 

The news of this decree no sooner reached the 
neighbouring theatre, than the whole assembly 
expressed their satisfaction by claps and applauses, 
which they renewed upon the entrance of every 
senator ; but when the consul Lentulus took his 
place, they all rose up, and, with acclamations, 
stretched-out hands, and tears of joy, publicly 
testified their thanks to him. But when Clodius 
ventured to show himself, they were hardly re- 
strained from doing him violence, throwing out 
reproaches, threats and curses upon him : so that 
in the shows of gladiators, which he could not 
bear to be deprived of, he durst not go to his seat 
in the common and open manner, but used to start 
up into it at once from some obscure passage under 
the benches, which on that account was jocosely 
called "the Appian way," where he was no sooner 
espied, than so " general a hiss ensued, that it 
distui'bed the gladiators, and frightened their very 
horses. From these significations (says Cicero) he 
might learn the difference between the genuine 
citizens of Rome, and those packed assemblies of 
the people where he used to domineer ; and that 
the men who lord it in such assemblies, are the 
real aversion of the city ; while those who dare not 
show their heads in them, are received with all 
demonstrations of honour by the whole people 1 ." 
rempublicam salvamvellent, ad me unum — restituendum, 
et defendendum venirent ? — Post Red. in Sen. 9. 

In una mea causa factum est, ut literis consularibus ex 
S. C. cimcta ex Italia, omnes, qui rempublicam salvam 
vellent, convocarentmv — Pro Sext. 60. 

1 Qui in colonia nuper constituta, cum ipse gereret 
magistratum, vim et crudelitatem privilegii auctoritate 
honestissimorum hominum, et publicis literis consignavit: 
princepsque Italia? totius presidium ad meam salutem im- 
plorandam putavit.— Post Red. in Sen. 11. 

Hie municipia, coloniasque adiit : hie Italia? totius 
auxilium imploravit. — Pro Domo, 12. 

k Cum in templo Honoris et Virtutis, honos habitus 
esset virtuti ; Caiique Marii, conservatoris hujus imperii, 
monumentum, municipi ejus et reipublicae defensori 
sedem ad salutem praabuisset.— Pro Sext. 54 ; it. 56. 

1 Audito S. C. ore ipsi, atque absenti senatui plausus est 



108 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



When the decree passed, the famed tragedian, 
iEsopus, who acted, as Cicero says, the same good 
part in the republic that he did upon the stage, 
was performing the part of Telamon, banished from 
his country, in one of Accius's plays, where, by the 
emphasis of his voice, and the change of a word or 
two in some of the lines, he contrived to turn the 
thoughts of the audience on Cicero. " What he ! 
who always stood up for the republic ! who, in 
doubtful times, spared neither life nor fortunes — 
the greatest friend in the greatest danger — of such 
parts and talents — O father — I saw his houses and 
rich furniture all in flames — O ungrateful Greeks, 
inconstant people ; forgetful of services ! — to see 
such a man banished ; driven from his country ; 
and suffer him to continue so ? " — At each of which 
sentences there was no end of clapping. — In an- 
other tragedy of the same poet, called Brutus, when 
instead of Brutus he pronounced Tullius, who 

| established the liberty of his citizens, the people 
were so affected, that they called for it again a 
thousand times. This was the constant practice 

! through the whole time of his exile : there was not 
a passage in any play, which could possibly be 

| applied to his case, but the whole audience pre- 
sently catched it up, and by their claps and 
applauses loudly signified their zeal and good 
wishes for him m . 

Though a decree was regularly obtained for 
Cicero's return, Clodius had the courage and ad- 
dress still to hinder its passing into a law : he 
took all occasions of haranguing the people against 
it ; and when he had filled the forum with his 
mercenaries, " used to demand of them aloud, 
contrary to the custom of Rome, whether they 
would have Cicero restored or not ; upon which his 
emissaries raising a sort of dead cry in the negative, 
he laid hold of it, as the voice of the Roman people, 
and declared the proposal to be rejected"." But 

ab universis datus : deinde, cum senatoribus singulis 
spectatum e senatu redeuntibus : cum vero ipse, qui ludos 
faciebat, consul assedit : stantes, et manibus passis gratias 
agentes, et lacrymantes gaudio, suam erga me benevolen- 
tiam ac misericordiam declararunt : at cum ille f uribundus 
venisset, vix se populus Romanus tenuit.— Pro Sext. 55. 
Is, cum quotidie gladiatores spectaret, nunquam est con- 
spectus, cum veniret : emergebat subito, cum sub tabulas 
subrepserat— itaque ilia via latebrosa, qua ille spectatum 
veniebat, Appia jam vocabatur : qui tamen quo tempore 
conspectus erat, non modo gladiatores, sed equi ipsi 
| gladiatorum repentinis sibilis extimescebant. Videtisne 
j igitur, quantum inter populum Romanum, et concionem 
| intersit ? Dominos concionum omni odio populi notari ? 
Quibus autem consistere in operarum concionibus non 
liceat, eos omni populi Romani signification e decorari? — 
Pro Sext. 59. 

m Recenti nuncio de illo S. C. ad ludos, scenamque 
perlato, summus artifex, et mehercule semper partium 
in republica tanquam in scena, optimatium, flens et 
recenti lstitia et misto dolore ac desiderio mei — summi 
enim poetae ingenium non solum arte sua sed etiam dolore 
exprimebat. Quid enim ? qui rempublicam certo animo 
adjuverit, statuerit, stelcrit cum Achivis — re dubia nee 
dubitarit vitam offcrre, nee capiti pepcrcerit,-— — summum 
amicum summo in bello — summo ingenio prceditum — 
Pater — hcec omnia vidi inflammari — ingratifici Argivi, 
inanes Graii, immemores beneficii '.—exulare sinitis, sistis 
pelli, pidsum patimini — quse significatio fuerit omnium, 
quae declaratio voluntatis ab universo populo Romano ? 

Nominatim sum appellatus in Bruto, Tullius, qui libcr- 
taiem civibus stabiliverat. Millies revocatum est. — Pro 
Sext. 56, 57, 58. 
n Ille tribunus plebis qui de me — non majorum suorum, 



the senate, ashamed to see their authority thus in- 
sulted, when the whole city was on their side, re- 
solved to take such measures in the support of 
their decrees, that it should not be possible to 
defeat them. Lentulus therefore summoned them 
into the Capitol, on the twenty-fifth of May, where 
Pompey began the debate, and renewed the motion 
for recalling Cicero ; and in a grave and elaborate 
speech which he had prepared in writing, and 
delivered from his notes, gave him the honour of 
having saved his country . All the leading men 
of the senate spoke after him to the same effect ; 
but the consul Metellus, notwithstanding his 
promises, had been acting hitherto a double part; 
and was all along the chief encourager and supporter 
of Clodius. When Servilius therefore rose up, a 
person of the first dignity, who had been honoured 
with a triumph and the censorship, he addressed 
himself to his kinsman Metellus, and, " calling up 
from the dead all the family of the Metelli, laid 
before him the glorious acts of his ancestors, with 
the conduct and unhappy fate of his brother, in a 
manner so moving, that Metellus could not hold 
out any longer against the force of the speech, nor 
the authority of the speaker, but with tears in his 
eyes gave himself up to Servilius, and professed all 
future services to Cicero" — in which he proved 
very sincere, and from this moment assisted his 
colleague in promoting Cicero's restoration; "so 
that in a very full house of four hundred and seven- 
teen senators, when all the magistrates were pre- 
sent, the decree passed, without one dissenting voice 
but Clodius'sP," which gave occasion to Cicero 
to write a particular letter of thanks to Metellus, 
as he had done once before upon his first declara- 
tion for himi. 

Some maybe apt to wonder why the two tribunes, 
who were Cicero's enemies still as much as ever, 
did not persevere to inhibit the decree, since the 
negative of a single tribune had an indisputable 
force to stop all proceedings ; but when that nega- 
tive was wholly arbitrary and factious, contrary to 
the apparent interest and general inclination of the 
citizens, if the tribune could not be prevailed with 
by gentle means to recal it, the senate used to 
enter into a debate upon the merit of it, and pro- 
ceed to some extraordinary resolution of declaring 

sed Graeculorum institute concionem interrogare solebat, 
velletne me redire: et cum erat reclamatum semivivis 
mercenariorum vocibus ; populum Romanum negare dice- 
bat.— Pro Sext. 59. 

o Idem ille consul cum ilia incredibilis multitudo Ro- 
mam, et paene Italia ipsa venisset, vos frequentissimos in 
Capitolium con vocavit.— [Post Red. in Sen. 10.] Cum vir 
is, qui tripartitas orbis ten-arum oras atque regiones tribus 
triumphis huic imperio adjunctas notavit, de scripto 
sententia dicta, niihi uni testimonium patriae conservatae 
dedit.— Ibid. 61. 

P Qu. Metellus, et inimicus et frater inimici perspecta 
vestra voluntate, omnia privata odia deposuit : quern P. 
Servilius — et auctoritatis et orationis suae divina quadam 
gravitate ad sui generis, cominunisque sanguinis facta, 
virtutesque revocavit, ut liaberet in consilio et fratrem ab 
inferis — et omnes Metellos, praestantissimos eives — itaque 
extitit non modo salutis defensor,— verum etiam adscriptor 
dignitatis meas. Quo quidem die, cum vos ccccxvn, ex 
senatu essetis, magistratus autem hi omnes adessent, dis- 
sensit unus.— Post Red. in Sen. 10. 

Collacrymavit vir egregius ac vere Metellus, totumque 
se P. Servilio dicenti etiam turn tradidit, Nee illam divi- 
nam gravitatem, plcnam antiquitatis, diutius — potuit sus- 
tinere.— Pro Sext. 62. 9 Ep. Fam. v. 4. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



109 



the author of such an opposition an enemy to his 
country, and answerable for all the mischief that 
was likely to ensue, or of ordering the consuls to 
take care that the republic received no detriment ; 
which votes were thought to justify any methods, 
how violent soever, of removing either the obstruc- 
tion or the author of it, who seldom cared to ex- 
pose himself to the rage of an inflamed city, headed 
by the consuls and the senate, and to assert his 
prerogative at the peril of his life. 

This in effect was the case at present ; when the 
consul Lentulus assembled the senate again the 
next day to concert some effectual method for pre- 
venting all further opposition, and getting the de- 
cree enacted into a law : but before they met, he 
called the people likewise to the rostra, where he, 
and all the principal senators in their turns, re- 
peated to them the substance of what they had 
said before in the senate, in order to prepare them 
for the reception of the law. Pompey particularly 
exerted himself in extolling the praises of Cicero, 
declaring " that the republic owed its preservation 
to him, and that their common safety was involved 
in his ;" exhorting them " to defend and support 
the decree of the senate, the quiet of the city, and 
the fortunes of a man who had deserved so well of 
them ; that this was the general voice of the senate, 
of the knights, of all Italy ; and, lastly, that it 
was his own earnest and special request to them, 
which he not only desired, but implored them to 
grant 1 ." When the senate afterwards met, they 
proceeded to several new and vigorous votes to 
facilitate the success of the law : first, "That no 
magistrate should presume to take the auspices, so 
as to disturb the assembly of the people, when 
Cicero's cause was to come before them ; and that 
if any one attempted it, he should be treated as a 
public enemy. 

Secondly, " That, if through any violence or 
obstruction, the law was not suffered to pass within 
the five next legal days of assembly, Cicero should 
then be at liberty to return, without any farther 
authority. 

Thirdly, "That public thanks should be given 
to all the people of Italy who came to Rome for 
Cicero's defence, and that they should be desired to 
come again, on the day when the suffrages of the 
people were to be taken. 

Fourthly, "That thanks should be given like- 
wise to all the states and cities which had received 
and entertained Cicero ; and that the care of his 
person should be recommended to all foreign 
nations in alliance with them ; and that the Roman 
generals, and all who had command abroad, should 
be ordered to protect his life and safety 8 ." 

r Quorum princeps ad rogandos et ad cohortandos vos 
fuit Cn. Pompeius— primum vos docuit, meis consiliis 
rempublieam esse servatam, causamque meam cum com- 
muni salute conjunxit ; hortatusque est, ut auctoritatem 
senatus, statum civitatis, fortunas civis bene meriti defen- 
deretis: turn in perorando posuit, vos rogari a senatu, 
rogari ab equitibus, rogari ab Italia euncta : denique ipse 
adextremum pro mea vos salute non rogavit solum, verum 
etiam obsecravit.— Post Red. ad Quir. 7. 

s Quod est postridie decretum in curia — ne quis de coelo 
servaret ; ne quis moram ullam afferret ; si quis aliter 
fecisset, eum plane eversorem reipublica? fore.. — 

Addidit, si diebus quinque quibus agi de me potuisset, 
non esset actum, redirem in patriam omni auctoritate 
recuperata. 

Ut iis, qui ex tota Italia salutis meas causa convenerant, 



One cannot help pausing a while to reflect on 
the great idea which these facts imprint of the 
character and dignity of Cicero ; to see so vast an 
empire in such a ferment on his account as to 
postpone all their concerns and interests, for many 
months successively, to the safety of a single 
senator 1 , who had no other means of exciting the 
zeal or engaging the affections of his citizens but 
the genuine force of his personal virtues, and the 
merit of his eminent services : as if the republic 
itself could not stand without him, but must fall 
into ruins, if he, the main pillar of it, was removed, 
whilst the greatest monarchs on earth, who had 
any affairs with the people of Rome, were looking 
on to expect the event, unable to procure any 
answer or regard to what they were soliciting, till 
this affair was decided. Ptolemy, the king of 
Egypt, was particularly affected by it, who, being 
driven out of his kingdom, came to Rome about 
this time to beg help and protection against his re- 
bellious subjects ; but though he was lodged in 
Pompey's house, it was not possible for him to 
get an audience till Cicero's cause was at an end. 

The law, now prepared for his restoration, was to 
be offered to the suffrage of the centuries : this was 
the most solemn and honourable way of transacting 
any public business where the best and gravest part 
of the city had the chief influence, and where a de- 
cree of the senate was previously necessary to make 
the act valid ; but in the present case there seem 
to have been four or five several decrees, provided 
at different times, which had all been frustrated by 
the intrigues of Clodius and his friends till these 
last votes proved decisive and effectual 11 . Cicero's 
resolution upon them was, "to wait till the law 
should be proposed to the people; and, if by the 
artifices of his enemies it should then be obstructed, 
to come away directly upon the authority of the 
senate, and rather hazard his life than bear the 
loss of his country any longer V But the vigour 
of the late debates had so discouraged the chiefs of 
the faction, that they left Clodius single in the 
opposition. Metellus dropped him, and his brother 
Appius was desirous to be quiet? ; yet it was above 
two months still from the last decree before Cicero's 
friends could bring the affair to a general vote, 
which they effected at last on the fourth of August. 

There had never been known so numerous and 
solemn an assembly of the Roman people as this — 
all Italy was drawn together on the occasion ; it 
was reckoned a kind of sin to be absent, and 
neither age nor infirmity was thought a sufficient 

agerentur gratia? : atque iidem ad res redeuntes, ut veni- 
rent, rogarentur. 

Quem enim unquam senatus civem, nisi me, nationibus 
exteris commendavit ? cujus unquam propter salutem, nisi 
meam, senatus publice sociis populi Romani gratias egit ? 
De me uno P. C. decreverunt, ut qui provincias cum impe- 
rio obtinerent, qui quaestores legatique essent, salutem et 
vitam meam custodirent.— Pro Sext. 60, 61. 

1 Nihil vos civibus, nihil sociis, nihil regibus respondis- 
tis. Nihil judices sententiis, nihil populus suffrages, nihil 
hie ordo auctoritate declaravit : mutum forum, elinguem 
curiam, tacitam et fractam civitatem videbatis.— Post Red. 
in Sen. 3. 

u Vid. Pro Sext. 60, et Notas Manutii ad 61. 

x Mibi in animo est legum lationem expectare, et si ob- 
trectabitur, utar auctoritate senatus, et potius vita quam 
patria carebo.— Ad Att. iii. 26. 

y Redii cum maxima dignitate, fratre tuo altero consule 
reducente, altero praetore petente.— Pro Demo, 33. 



no 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



excuse for not lending a helping hand to the resto- 
ration of Cicero. All the magistrates exerted 
themselves in recommending the law, excepting 
Appius and the two tribunes, who durst not venture 
however to oppose it. The meeting was held in 
the Field of Mars, for the more convenient recep- 
tion of so great a multitude, where the senators 
divided among themselves the task of presiding in 
the several centuries and seeing the poll fairly 
taken. The result was, that Cicero was recalled 
from exile by the unanimous suffrage of all the 
centuries, and to the infinite joy of the whole 
city z . 

Clodius however had the hardiness not only to 
appear, but to speak in this assembly against the 
law, but nobody regarded or heard a word that he 
said. He now found the difference mentioned 
above between a free convention of the Roman 
people and those mercenary assemblies where a 
few desperate citizens, headed by slaves and gladi- 
ators, used to carry all before them. "Where now," 
says Cicero, "were those tyrants of the forum, those 
haranguers of the mob, those disposers of king- 
doms ?" This was one of the last genuine acts of 
free Rome, one of the last efforts of public liberty, 
exerting itself to do honour to its patron and de- 
fender; for the union of the triumvirate had already 
given it a dangerous wound, and their dissention, 
which not long after ensued, entirely destroyed it. 

But it gave some damp to the joy of this glorious 
day that Cicero's son-in-law Piso happened to die 
not long before it, to the extreme grief of the 
family, without reaping the fruits of his piety, and 
sharing the pleasure and benefit of Cicero's return. 
His praises however will be as immortal as Cicero's 
writings, from whose repeated character of him 
we learn " that for parts, probity, virtue, modesty, 
and for every accomplishment of a fine gentleman 
and fine speaker, he scarce left his equal behind 
him among all the young nobles of that age a ." 

Cicero had resolved to come home in virtue of 
the senate's decree, whether the law had passed 
or not ; but perceiving from the accounts of all 
his friends, that it could not be defeated any longer, 
he embarked for Italy on the fourth of August, 
the very day on which it was enacted, and landed 
the next at Brundisium, where he found his daugh- 
ter Tullia already arrived to receive him. The 
day happened to be the annual festival of the 
foundation of the town, as well as of the dedication 

z Quo die quis eivis fuit, qui non nefas esse putaret, 
quacunque aut aetate aut valetudine esset, non se de salute 
mea sententiam ferre?— Post Red. in Sen. 11. 

Nemo sibi nee valetudinis excusationem nee senectutis 
satis justam putavit. — Pro Sext. 52. 

De me cum omnes magistratus promulgassent, praater 
unum praetorem, a quo non erat postulandum, fratrem 
inimici mei, praeterque duos de lapide emptos tribunos 
plebis — nullis comitiis unquam multitudinem hominum 
tantam, neque splendidiorem fuisse. — Vos rogatores, vos 
distributors, vos custodes fuisse tabularum.-— In Pison. 15. 

a Piso ille gener meus, cui pietatis suae fructum, neque 
ex me, neque apopulo Romano ferre licuit. — Pro Sext. 31. 

Studio autem neminem nee industria majore cognovi ; 
quanquam ne ingenio quidem qui praestiterit, facile dixe- 
rim, C. Pisoni, genero meo. Nullum illi tempus vacabat, 
aut a forensi dictione, aut a commentatione domestica, aut 
a scribendo aut a cogitando. Itaque tantos processus facie- 
bat, ut evolare non excurrere videbatur, &c— alia de illo 
majora dici possunt. Nam nee continentia, nee pietate, 
nee ullo genere virtutis, quenquam ejusdem aotatis cum illo 
conferendum puto.— Brut. pp. 397, 398. 



of the temple of Safety at Rome, and the birth-day 
likewise of Tullia : as if Providence had thrown all 
these circumstances together to enhance the joy 
and solemnity of his landing, which was celebrated 
by the people with the most profuse expressions 
of mirth and gaiety. Cicero took up his quarters 
again with his old host Lenius Flaccus, who had 
entertained him so honourably in his distress, a 
person of great learning as well as generosity. Here 
he received the welcome news in four days from 
Rome, that the law was actually ratified by the 
people with an incredible zeal and unanimity of 
all the centuries b . This obliged him to pursue his 
journey in all haste, and take leave of the Brundi- 
sians, who, by all the offices of private duty, as well 
as public decrees, endeavoured to testify their sincere 
respect for him. The fame of his landing and 
progress towards the city drew infinite multitudes 
from all parts to see him as he passed, and con- 
gratulate him on his return ; " so that the whole 
road was but one continued street from Brundisium 
to Rome, lined on both sides with crowds of men, 
women, and children ; nor was there a prefecture, 
town or colony through Italy, which did not de- 
cree him statues or public honours, and send a 
deputation of their principal members to pay him 
their compliments ; that it was rather less than 
the truth, as Plutarch says, what Cicero himself 
tells us, that all Italy brought him back upon its 
shoulders . But that one day, says he, was worth 
an immortality, when on my approach towards the 
city the senate came out to receive me, followed by 
the whole body of the citizens, as if Rome itself 
had left its foundations, and marched forward to 
embrace its preserver 11 ." 

As soon as he entered the gates he saw " the 
steps of all the temples, porticoes, and even the 
tops of houses covered with people, who saluted 
him with a universal acclamation as he marched 
forward towards the Capitol, where fresh multitudes 
were expecting his arrival ; yet in the midst of all 
this joy he could not help grieving," he says, within 

t> Pridie Non. Sextil. Dyrrbachio sum profectus, illo 
ipso die lex est lata de nobis. Brundisium veni Nonis : ibi 
mihi Tulliola mea praesto fuit, natali suo ipso die, qui 
casu idem natalis erat Brundisinae colonise ; et tuae vicinae 
saiutis. Quae res animadversa a multitudine, summa 
Brundisinorum gratulatione celebrata est. Ante diem 
sextum Id. Sext. cognovi, Uteris Quinti fratris, mirifico 
studio omnium aetatum at que ordinum, incredibili con- 
cursu Italia?, legem comitiis centuriatis esse perlatum.— 
Ad Att. iv. 1. 

Cumque me domus eadem optimorum et doctissimorum 
virorum, Lenii Flacci, et patris et fratris ejus laetissima 
accepisset, quae proximo anno mcerens receperat, et suo 
periculo praesidioque defenderat.— Pro Sext. 63. 

c Meus quidem reditus is fuit, ut a Brundisio usque 
Romam agmen perpetuum totius Italiae viderem. Neque 
enim regio fuit ulla, neque praefectura, neque municipium 
aut colonia, ex qua non publice ad me venerint gratulatum. 
Quid dicam adventus meos? Quid effusi ones hominum ex 
oppidis ? Quid concursum ex agris patrum familias cum 
conjugibus ac liberis? &c — In Pison. 22. 

Italia cuncta pasne suis humeris reportavit — Post Red. 
in Sen. 15. 

Itinere toto urbes Italia; festos dies agere adventus mei 
videbantur. Viae multitudine legatorum undique missorum 
celebrabantur.— Pro Sext. 63. 

<1 Unus ille dies mihi quidem instar immortalitatis fuit 
—cum senatum egressum vidi, populumque Romanum 
universum, cum mihi ipsa Roma, prope convulsa sedibus 
suis, ad complectendum conservatorem suum procedere 
visa est.— In Pison. 22. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



Ill 



himself, " to reflect that a city so grateful to the de- 
fender of its liberty had been so miserably enslaved 
and oppressed 6 ." The capitol was the proper seat 
or throne, as it were, of the majesty of the empire, 
where stood the most magnificent fabric of Rome, 
the temple of Jupiter, or of that god whom they 
styled the greatest and the best f , to whose shrine 
all who entered the city in pomp or triumph used 
always to make their first visit. Cicero, therefore, 
before he had saluted his wife and family, was 
obliged to discharge himself here of his vows and 
thanks for his safe return ; where, in compliance 
with the popular superstition, he paid his devotion 
also to that tutelary Minerva, whom, at his quit- 
ting Rome, he had placed in the temple of her 
father. From this office of religion he was con- 
ducted by the same company, and with the same 
acclamations, to his brother's house, where this 
great procession ended ; which, from one end of 
it to the other, was so splendid and triumphant, 
that he had reason, he says, to fear, lest people 
should imagine that he himself had contrived his 
late flight for the sake of so glorious a restoration s. 



SECTION VI. 



Cicero's return was, what he himself truly calls 
it, the beginning of a new life to him a , which was 
to be governed by new maxims and a new kind cf 
policy, yet so as not to forfeit his old character. 
He had been made to feel in what hands the weight 
of power lay, and what little dependence was to 
be placed on the help and support of his aristocra- 
tical friends. Pompey had served him on this im- 
portant occasion very sincerely, and with the con- 
currence also of Csesar, so as to make it a point 
of gratitude as well as prudence to be more ob- 
servant of them than he had hitherto been. The 
senate, on the other hand, with the magistrates 
and the honest of all ranks, were zealous in his 
cause ; and the consul Lentulus above all seemed 
to make it the sole end and glory of his adminis- 
tration 13 . This uncommon consent of opposite 
parties in promoting his restoration drew upon 
him a variety of obligations which must needs often 
clash and interfere with each other, and which it 
was his part still to manage so as to make them 
consistent with his honour, his safety, his private 

e Iter a porta, in Capitoliimi ascensus, domum reditus 
erat ejusmodi, ut summa in lsetitia illud dolerem, civita- 
tem tarn gratam, tarn miserarn atque oppressam fuisse. — 
Pro Sext. 63. 

f Quocircate, Capitoline, quern propter beneficia, populus 
Romanus Optimum, propter vim, Maximum, nominavit. 
■ — Pro Domo, 57- 

g Ut tua mihi conscelerata ilia vis non modo non 
propulsanda, sed etiam emenda fuisse videatur.— Pro 
Domo, 28. 

a Alterius vita? quoddam initium ordimur. [Ad Att. iv. 
1.] In another place he calls his restoration to his former 
dignity, ira\iyytve<r(a.v, [Ad Att. vi. 6.] or a new birth ; 
a word borrowed probably from the Pythagorean school, and 
applied afterwards by the sacred writers to the renovation 
of our nature by baptism, as well as our restoration to life 
after death in the general resurrection.— Matt, xix. 29 ; 
Tit. iii. 5. 

b Hoc specimen virtutis, hoc indicium animi, hoc lumen 
consulatus sui fore putavit, si me mihi, si meis, si reipub- 
licaa reddidisset.— Post Red. in Sen. 4. 



and his public duty : these were to be the springs 
and motives of his new fife — the hinges on which 
his future conduct was to turn — and to do justice 
severally to them all, and assign to each its proper 
weight and measure of influence, required his 
utmost skill and address . 

The day after his arrival, on the fifth of Sep- 
tember, the consuls summoned the senate to give 
him an opportunity of paying his thanks to them 
in public for their late services, where, after a 
general profession of his obligations to them all, 
he made his particular acknowledgments to each 
magistrate by name — to the consuls, the tribunes, 
the prsetors ; he addressed himself to the tribunes 
before the prsetors, not for the dignity of their 
office, for in that they were inferior, but for their 
greater authority in making laws, and consequently 
their greater merit in carrying his law into effect. 
The number of his private friends was too great to 
make it possible for him to enumerate or thank 
them all ; so that he confined himself to the magis- 
trates, with exception only to Pompey d , whom, 
for the eminence of his character, though at present 
only a private man, he took care to distinguish by 
a personal address and compliment. But as Len- 
tulus was the first in office, and had served him 
with the greatest affection, so he gives him the first 
share of his praise, and in the overflowing of his 
gratitude styles him the parent and the god of his 
life and fortunes e . The next day he paid his 
thanks likewise to the people in a speech from the 
rostra, where he dwelt chiefly on the same topics 
which he had used in the senate, celebrating the 
particular merits and services of his principal 
friends, especially of Pompey, whom he declares 
to be the greatest man for virtue, wisdom, glory, 
who was then living, or had lived, or ever would 
live, and that he owed more to him on this occa- 
sion than it was even lawful almost for one man to 
owe to another f . 

Both these speeches are still extant, and a pas- 
sage or two from each will illustrate the temper 
and disposition in which he returned. In speaking 
to the senate, after a particular recital of the 
services of his friends, he adds — " As I have a 
pleasure in enumerating these, so I willingly pass 
over in silence what others wickedly acted against 

c Sed quia sa?pe concurrit, propter aliquorum de me 
meritorum inter ipsos contentiones, ut eodem tempore in 
omnes verear ne vix possim gratus videri. Sed ego hoc 
meis ponderibus examinabo, non solum quid cuique de- 
beam, sed etiam quid cujusque intersit, et quid a me 
cujusque tempus poscat.' — Pro Plancio, 32. 

d Cum perpaucis nominatim gratias egissem, quod omnes 
enumerari nullo modo possent, scelus autem esset quen- 
quam praateriri.— Ibid. 30. 

Hodierno autem die nominatim a me magistratibus 
statui gratias esse agendas, et de privatis uni, qui pro 
salute mea municipia, coloniasque adiisset.— Post Red. in 
Sen. 12. 

e Princeps P. Lentulus, parens ac deus nostra? vita?, 
fortuna?, &c. — Ibid. 4. It was a kind of maxim among the 
ancients ; that to do good to a mortal, teas to be a god to a 
mortal. Deus est mortaU,juvare mortalcm. [Plin. Hist. 
Nat. ii. 7.] Thus Cicero, as he calls Lentulus here his 
god, so on other occasions gives the same appellation to 
Plato, Deusille noster Plato— [Ad Att. iv. 16.] to express 
the highest sense of the benefits received from them. 

f Cn. Pompeius, vir omnium qui sunt, fuerunt, erunt, 
princeps virtute, sapientia, ac gloria. — Huic ego homini, 
Quirites, tantum debeo, quantum hominem homini debere 
vix fas est.— Post Red. ad Quir. 7« 



112 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



me. It is not my present business to remember 
injuries, which, if it were in my power to revenge, 
I should choose to forget ; my life shall be applied 
to other purposes — to repay the good offices of 
those who have deserved it of me ; to hold fast 
the friendships which have been tried as it were 
in the fire ; to wage war with declared enemies ; 
to pardon my timorous, nor yet expose my 
treacherous friends ; and to balance the misery of 
my exile by the dignity of my return?." To the 
people he observes, " that there were four sorts of 
enemies who concurred to oppress him — the first, 
who, out of hatred to the republic, were mortal 
enemies to him for having saved it ; the second, 
who, under a false pretence of friendship, in- 
famously betrayed him ; the third, who, through 
their inability to obtain what he had acquired, 
were envious of his dignity ; the fourth, who, 
though by office they ought to have been the guar- 
dians of the republic, bartered away his safety, the 
peace of the city, and the dignity of the empire, 
which were committed to their trust. I will take 
my revenge, says he, on each of them, agreeably 
to the different manner of their provocation, on 
the bad citizens, by defending the republic strenu- 
ously ; on my perfidious friends, by never trusting 
them again ; on the envious, by continuing my 
steady pursuit of virtue and glory ; on those mer- 
chants of provinces, by calling them home to give 
an account of their administration : but I am more 
solicitous how to acquit myself of my obligations 
to you for your great services, than to resent the 
injuries and cruelties of my enemies ; for it is 
much easier to revenge an injury than to repay a 
kindness, and much less trouble to get the better 
of bad men than to equal the goodV 

This affair being happily over, the senate had 
leisure again to attend to public business ; and 
there was now a case before them of a very urgent 
nature, which required a present remedy, — an un- 
usual scarcity of corn and provisions in the city, 
which had been greatly increased by the late con- 
course of people from all parts of Italy on Cicero's 
account, and was now felt very severely by the 
poorer citizens. They had borne it with much 
patience while Cicero's return was in agitation; 
comforting themselves with a notion, that if he was 
once restored plenty would be restored with him ; 
but finding the one at last effected without the 
other, they began to grow clamorous, and unable 
to endure their hunger any longer. 

Clodius could not let slip so fair an opportunity 
of exciting some new disturbance, and creating 
fresh trouble to Cicero, by charging the calamity 
to his score : for this end he employed a number of 
young fellows to run all night about the streets 
making a lamentable outcry for bread, and calling 
upon Cicero to relieve them from the famine to 
which he had reduced them ; as if he had got some 
hidden store or magazine of corn secreted from 
common use'. He sent his mob also to the theatre 
in which the praetor Caecilius, Cicero's particular 

g Post Red. in Sen. 9. h Post Red. ad Quir. 9. 

> Qui facultate oblata, ad imperitorum animos incitan- 
dos, renovafcuium te ilia funesta latrocinia ob annonas 
causam putavisti. — Pro Domo, 5. 

Quid? puerorum ilia concursatio nocturna? num a te 
ipso instituta me frumentum nagitabant? Quasi vero 
ego aut rei frumentaria? piffifuissem, aut compressum ali- 
quod frumentum tenercm. — Ibid. 6. 



friend, was exhibiting the Apollinarian shows, 
where they raised such a terror, that they drove the 
whole company out of it : then, in the same 
tumultuous manner, they marched to the temple 
of Concord, whither Metellus had summoned the 
senate ; but happening to meet with Metellus in 
the way, they presently attacked him with volleys 
of stones, with some of which they wounded even 
the consul himself, who, for the greater security, 
immediately adjourned the senate into the capitol. 
They were led on by two desperate ruffians, their 
usual commanders, M. Lollius and M. Sergius ; 
the first of whom had in Clodius' s tribunate un- 
dertaken the task of killing Pompey, the second 
had been captain of the guard to Catiline, and was 
probably of his family k : but Clodius, encouraged 
by this hopeful beginning, put himself at their 
head in person, and pursued the senate into the 
capitol, in order to disturb their debates, and pre- 
vent their providing any relief for the present evil, 
and above all to excite the meaner sort to some 
violence against Cicero. But he soon found, to 
his great disappointment, that Cicero was too 
strong in the affections of the city to be hurt again 
so soon : for the people themselves saw through 
his design, and were so provoked at it that they 
turned universally against him and drove him out 
of the field with all his mercenaries ; when, per- 
ceiving that Cicero was not present in the senate, 
they called out upon him by name with one voice, 
and would not be quieted till he came in person to 
undertake their cause, and propose some expedient 
for their relief. He had kept his house all that 
day, and resolved to do so till he saw the issue of 
the tumult ; but when he understood that Clodius 
was repulsed, and that his presence was universally 
required by the consuls, the senate, and the whole 
people, he came to the senate-house in the midst 
of their debates, and being presently asked his 
opinion, proposed that Pompey should be entreated 
to undertake the province of restoring plenty to 
the city, and, to enable him to execute it with effect, 
should be invested with an absolute power over all 
the public stores and corn-rents of the empire 
through all the provinces. The motion was readily 
accepted, and a vote immediately passed that a law 
should be prepared for that purpose and offered to 
the people 1 . All the consular senators were absent, 
except Messala and Afranius : they pretended to 

k Cum homines ad theatrum primo, deinde ad senatum 
concurrissent impulsu Clodii. — Ad Att. iv. 1. 

Concursus est ad templum Concordia? factus, senatum 
illuc vocante Metello — Qui sunt homines a Q. Metello, in 
senatu palam nominati, a quibus ille se lapidibus appeti- 
tum, etiam percussum esse dixit. — Quis est iste Lollius ? 
Qui te tribuno plebis.— Cn. Pompeium interficienduni 
depoposcit.— Quis est Sergius ? armiger Catilina?, stipator 
tui corporis, signifer seditionis — his atque hujusmodi duci- 
bus, cum tu in annonae caritate in consules, in senatum — 
repentinos impetus comparares —Pro Domo, 5. 

1 Ego vero domi me tenui, quamdiu turbulentum tem- 
pus fuit — cum servos tuos ad rapinam, ad bonorum caedem 
paratos — armatos etiam in Capitolium tecum venisse con- 
stabat — scio me domi mansisse — posteaquam mini nuncia- 
tum est, populum Romanum in Capitolium — convenisse, 
ministros autem scelerum tuorum perterritos, partim 
amissis gladiis, partim ereptis diffugisse ; veni non solum 
sine ullis copiis, ac manu, verum etiam cum paucis 
amicis.— Ibid. 3. 

Ego denique, a populo Romano universo, qui turn in 
Capitolium convenerat, cum illo die minus valerem, 
nominatim in senatum vocabar. Veni exspectatus ; multis 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



IV 



be afraid of the mob ; but the real cause was their 
unwillingness to concur in granting this commission 
to Pompey. The consuls carried the decree with 
them into the rostra, and read it publicly to the 
people, who, on the mention of Cicero's name, in 
which it was drawn, gave a universal shout of 
applause ; upon which, at the desire of all the ma- 
gistrates, Cicero made a speech to them, setting 
forth the reasons and necessity of the decree, and 
giving them the comfort of a speedy relief from 
the vigilance and authority of Pompey m . The 
absence, however, of the consular senators gave a 
handle to reflect upon the act, as not free and 
valid, but extorted by fear, and without the inter- 
vention of the principal members ; but the very 
next day, in a fuller house, when all those senators 
were present, and a motion was made to revoke 
the decree, it was unanimously rejected" ; and the 
consuls were ordered to draw up a law conformable 
to it, by which the whole administration of the 
corn and provisions of the republic was to be 
granted to Pompey for five years, with a power of 
choosing fifteen lieutenants to assist him in it. 

This furnished Clodius with fresh matter of 
abuse upon Cicero : he charged hirn with ingra- 
titude arid the desertion of the senate, which had 
always been firm to him, in order to pay his court 
to a man who had betrayed him ; and that he was 
so silly as not to know his own strength and credit 
in the city, and how able he was to maintain his 
authority without the help of Pompey . But 
Cicero defended himself by saying, " that they 
must not expect to play the same game upon him 
now that he was restored, with which they had 
ruined him before, by raising jealousies between 
him and Pompey ; that he had smarted for it too 
severely already, to be caught again in the same 
trap ; that in decreeing this commission to Pom- 
pey, he had discharged both his private obligations 
to a friend and his public duty to the state ; that 
those who grudged all extraordinary power to 
Pompey, must grudge the victories, the triumphs, 
the accession of dominion and revenue, which their 
former grants of this sort had procured to the 
empire ; that the success of those showed what 
fruit they were to expect from this p ." 

But what authority soever this law conferred on 
Pompey, his creatures were not yet satisfied with 

jam sententiis dictis, rogatus sum sententiam ; dixi reipub- 
licas saluberrimam, mihi necessariam.— Pro Domo, 7- 

Factum est S. C. in meam sententiam, ut cum Pompeio 
ageretur, ut earn rem susciperet, lexque ferretur. — Ad 
Att. iv. 1. 

m Cum abessent consulares, quod tuto se negarent posse 
sententiam dicere, praeter Messalam et Afranium — Ibid. 

Quo S. C. recitato, cum continuo more hoc insulso et 
novo plausum, meo nomine recitando dedisset, habui con- 
cionem.— Ibid. 

n At enim liberum senatus judicium propter metum 
non fuit.— Pro Domo, 4. 

Postridie senatus frequens, et omnes consulares nihil 
Pompeio postulanti negarunt.— Ad Att. iv. 1. 

Cum omnes adessent, cceptum est referri de inducendo 
S. C. ; ab universe senatu reclamatum est. — Pro Domo, 4. 

Tune es ille, inquit, quo senatus carere non potuit?— • 
quo restituto, senatus auctoritatem restitutam putabamus? 
quam primum adveniens prodidisti —Ibid. 2. 

Nescit quantum auctoritate valeat, quas res gesserit, 
qua dignitate sit restitutus. Cur ornat eum a quo desertus 
est?— Ibid. 11. 

P Desinant homines iisdem machinis sperare me restitu- 
tum posse labefactari, quibus antea stantem perculerunt 



it ; so that Messius, one of the tribunes, proposed 
another, to give him the additional power of rais- 
ing what money, fleets and armies he thought fit, 
with a greater command through all the provinces 
than their proper governors had in each. Cicero's 
law seemed modest in comparison of Messius's. 
Pompey pretended to be content with the first, 
whilst all his dependants were pushing for the last ; 
they expected that Cicero would come over to 
them, but he continued silent, nor would stir a 
step farther, — for his affairs were still in such a 
state as obliged him to act with caution, and to 
manage both the senate and the men of power: the 
conclusion was, that Cicero's law was received by 
all parties, and Pompey named him for his first 
lieutenant, declaring that he should consider him 
as a second self, and act nothing without his ad- 
vice i. Cicero accepted the employment, on con- 
dition that he might be at liberty to use or resign 
it at pleasure, as he found it convenient to his 
affairs' : but he soon after quitted it to his brother, 
and chose to continue in the city, where he had 
the pleasure to see the end of his law effectually 
answered ; for the credit of Pompey's name imme- 
diately reduced the price of victuals in the markets, 
and his vigour and diligence in prosecuting the 
affair soon established a general plenty. 

Cicero was restored to his former dignity, but 
not to his former fortunes ; nor was any satisfac- 
tion yet made to him for the ruin of his houses 
and estates : a full restitution indeed had been 
decreed, but was reserved to his return ; which 
came now before the senate to be considered and 
settled by public authority, where it met still with 
great obstruction. The chief difficulty was about 
his Palatine house, which he valued above all the 
rest, and which Clodius for that reason had con- 
trived to alienate, as he hoped, irretrievably, by 
demolishing the fabric, and dedicating a temple 
upon the area to the goddess Liberty ; where, to 
make his work the more complete, he pulled down 
also the adjoining portico of Catulus, that he 
might build it up anew of the same order with his 
temple, and by blending the public with private 
property, and consecrating the whole to religion, 
might make it impossible to separate or restore any 
part to Cicero, — since a consecration, legally per- 
formed, made the thing consecrated unapplicable 
ever after to any private use. 

This portico was built, as has been said, on the 
spot where Fulvius Flaccus formerly lived, whose 
house was publicly demolished for the treason of 

— data merces est erroris mei magna, ut me non solum 
pigeat stultitiae mese, sed etiam pudeat.— Pro Domo, 11. 

Cn. Pompeio — maxima terra marique bella extra ordi- 
nem esse commissa: quarum rerum si quern pceniteat, 
eum victorias populiRomaninecesseestpcenitere. — Ibid. 8. 

1 Legem consules conscripserunt— alteram Messius, qua 
omnis pecuniae dat potestatem, et adjungit classem et 
exercitum, et majus imperium in provinciis, quam sit 
eorum, qui eas obtment. Ilia nostra lex consularis nunc 
modesta videtur, hasc Messii non ferenda. Pompeius 
illam velle se dicit; familiares banc. Consulares duce 
Favonio fremunt, nos tacemus ; et eo magis quod de domo 
nostra nihil adhuc pontifices responderunt. 

Ille legatos quindecim cum postularet, me principem 
nominavit, et ad omnia me alterum se fore dixit. — Ad 
Att. iv. 1. 

* Ego me a Pompeio legari ita sum passus, ut nulla re 
impedirer, quod ne, si vellem, mihi esset integrum. — 
Ibid. 2. 



114 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



its master ; and it was Clodius's design to join 
Cicero's to it under the same denomination, as the 
perpetual memorial of a disgrace and punishment 
inflicted by the people s . When he had finished 
the portico, therefore, and annexed his temple to 
it, which took up but a small part, scarce a tenth, 
of Cicero's house, he left the rest of the area void, 
in order to plant a grove or walks of pleasure upon 
it, as had been usual in such cases ; where, as it has 
been observed, he was prosecuting a particular 
interest, as well as indulging his malice in obstruct- 
ing the restitution of it to Cicero. 

The affair was to be determined by the college 
of priests, who were the judges in all cases relating 
to religion ; for the senate could only make a pro- 
visional decree, that if the priests discharged the 
ground from the service of religion, then the con- 
suls should take an estimate of the damage, and 
make a contract for rebuilding the whole at the 
public charge, so as to restore it to Cicero in the 
condition in which he left it 1 . The priests, there- 
fore, of all orders, were called together on the last 
of September to hear this cause, which Cicero 
pleaded in person before them : they were men of 
the first dignity and families in the republic ; and 
there never was, as Cicero tells us, so full an ap- 
pearance of them in any cause since the foundation 
of the city : he reckons up nineteen by name, — a 
great part of whom were of consular rank u . His 
first care, before he entered into the merits of the 
question, was to remove the prejudices which his 
enemies had been labouring to instil, on the account 
of his late conduct in favour of Pompey, by ex- 
plaining the motives and showing the necessity of 
it ; contriving at the same time to turn the odium 
on the other side, by running over the history of 
Clodius's tribunate, and painting all its violences 
in the most lively colours ; but the question on 
which the cause singly turned was about the efficacy 
of the pretended consecration of the house and the 
dedication of the temple. To show the nullity, 
therefore, of this act, he endeavours to overthrow 
the very foundation of it, " and prove Clodius's 
tribunate to be originally null and void, from the 
invalidity of his adoption, on which it was entirely 
grounded:" he shows, "that the sole end of 
adoption which the laws acknowledged was to sup- 
ply the want of children, by borrowing them as it 
were from other families ; that it was an essential 
condition of it that he who adopted had no children 
of his own, nor was in condition to have any ; that 
the parties concerned were obliged to appear before 
the priests to signify their consent, the cause of 
the adoption, the circumstances of the families 
interested in it, and the nature of their religious 
rites; that the priests might judge of the whole, 
and see that there was no fraud or deceit in it, nor 
any dishonour to any family or person concerned. 
That nothing of all this had been observed in the 
case of Clodius. That the adopter was not full 
twenty years old when he adopted a sen ator who 
s Ut domus M. Tullii Ciceronis cum doino Fulvii Flacci 
ad memoriam poena? publice constitute conjuncta esse 
videatur.— Pro Domo, 38. 

4 Qui si sustulerint rcligionem, areara prasclaram habe- 
bimus: superiiciem consides ex S. C. a?stimabunt.— Ad 
Att. iv. 1. 

u Nego unquam post sacra constituta, quorum eadem 
est.antiquitas, quae ipsius urbis, ulla de re, ne de capite 
quidem Virginum Vestalium, tarn frequens collegium 
judicasse.— De Harusp. Resp. G, 7. 



was old enough to be his father : that he had no 
occasion to adopt, since he had a wife and children, 
and would probably have more, which he must 
necessarily disinherit by this adoption, if it was 
real : that Clodius had no other view than, by the 
pretence of an adoption, to make himself a plebeian 
and tribune, in order to overturn the state : that 
the act itself which confirmed the adoption was 
null and illegal, being transacted while Bibulus was 
observing the auspices, which was contrary to 
express law, and huddled over in three hours by 
Csesar, when it ought to have been published for 
three market days successively, at the interval of 
nine days each x : that if the adoption was irregular 
and illegal, as it certainly was, the tribunate must 
needs be so too, which was entirely built upon it : 
but granting the tribunate after all to be valid, be- 
cause some eminent men would have it so, yet the 
act made afterwards for his banishment could not 
possibly be considered as a law, but as a privilege 
only, made against a particular person, which the 
sacred laws and the laws of the twelve tables had 
utterly prohibited : that it was contrary to the 
very constitution of the republic to punish any 
citizen, either in body or goods, till he had been 
accused in proper form, and condemned of some 
crime by competent judges : that privileges, or 
laws to inflict penalties on single persons by name, 
without a legal trial, were cruel and pernicious, 
and nothing better than proscriptions, and of all 
things not to be endured in their city?." Then 
in entering upon the question of his house, he de- 
clares, "that the whole effect of his restoration 
depended upon it ; that if it was not given back to 
him, but suffered to remain a monument of triumph 
to his enemy, of grief and calamity to himself, he 
could not consider it as a restoration, but a per- 
petual punishment : that his house stood in the 
view of the whole people ; and if it must con- 
tinue in its present state, he should be forced to 
remove to some other place, and could never 
endure to live in that city in which he must always 
see trophies erected both against himself and the 
republic : the house of Sp. Melius, (says he,) who 
affected a tyranny, was levelled ; and by the name 
of iEquimelium, given to the place, the people con- 
firmed the equity of his punishment : the house of 
Sp. Cassius was overturned also for the same cause, 
and a temple raised upon it to Tellus : M. Vaccus's 
house was confiscated and levelled ; and, to per- 
petuate the memory of his treason, the place is 
still called Vaccus's meadows : M. Manlius, like- 
wise, after he had repulsed the Gauls from the 
capitol, not content with the glory of that service, 
was adjudged to aim at dominion ; so that his 
house was demolished where you now see the two 
groves planted. Must I, therefore, suffer that 
punishment which our ancestors inflicted as the 
greatest on wicked and traitorous citizens ; that 
posterity may consider me, not as the oppressor, 
but the author and captain of the conspiracy 2 ?" 
When he comes to speak to the dedication itself, 
he observes, " that the goddess Liberty, to which 
the temple was dedicated, was the known statue of 
a celebrated strumpet, which Appius brought from 

x Pro Domo, 13, 14, 15, 16. 

y Ibid. 17. — In privos homines leges ferri noluerunt ; id 
est enim privilegium : quo quid est injustius?— De Legib. 
iii. 19. 

* Pro Domo, 37, 38. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



115 



Greece for the ornament of his aedileship ; and 
upon dropping the thoughts of that magistracy, 
gave to his brother Clodius to be advanced into a 
deity a : that the ceremony was performed without 
any licence or judgment obtained from the college 
of priests, by the single ministry of a raw young 
man, the brother-in-law of Clodius, who had been 
made priest but a few days before, — a mere novice 
in his business, and forced into the service b : but 
if all had been transacted regularly and in due 
form, that it could not possibly have any force, as 
being contrary to the standing laws of the republic : 
for there was an old tribunitian law made by Q. 
Papirius, which prohibited the consecration of 
houses, lauds, or altars, without the express com- 
mand of the people ; which was not obtained nor 
even pretended in the present case c : that great 
regard had always been paid to this law in several 
instances of the gravest kind : that Q. Marcius, 
the censor, erected a statue of Concord in a public 
part of the city, which C. Cassius afterwards, when 
censor, removed into the senate-house, and con- 
sulted the college of priests whether he might not 
dedicate the statue and the house also itself to 
Concord ; upon which M. iEmilius, the high- 
priest, gave answer, in the name of the college, 
that unless the people had deputed him by name, 
and he acted in it by their authority, they were of 
opinion that he could not rightly dedicate them d : 
that Licinia also, a vestal virgin, dedicated an 
altar and little temple under the sacred rock ; upon 
which S. Julius, the praetor, by order of the senate, 
consulted the college of priests ; for whom P. 
Scsevola, the high-priest, gave answer, that what 
Licinia had dedicated in a public place, without 
any order of the people, could not be considered 
as sacred : so that the senate enjoined the praetor 
to see it desecrated, and to efface whatever had 
been inscribed upon it. After all this, it was to no 
purpose, he tells them, to mention what he had 
proposed to speak to in the last place, that the 
dedication was not performed with any of the 
solemn words and rites which such a function 
required, but by the ignorant young man before- 
mentioned, without the help of his colleagues, his 
books, or any to prompt him ; especially when 
Clodius, who directed him, that impure enemy of 
all religion, who often acted the woman among 
men, as well as the man among women, huddled 
over the whole ceremony in a blundering precipitate 
manner, faltering and confounded in mind, voice, 
and speech, often recalling himself, doubting, 
fearing, hesitating, and performing everything 
quite contrary to what the sacred books prescribed : 
nor is it strange (says he), that in an act so mad 
and villanous, his audaciousness could not get the 
better of his fears ; for what pirate, though ever 
so barbarous, after he had been plundering 
temples, when pricked by a dream or scruple of 
religion, he came to consecrate some altar on a 
desert shore, was not terrified in his mind on being 
forced to appease that deity by his prayers whom 
he had provoked by his sacrilege ? In what hor- 
rors, then, think you, must this man needs be, the 
plunderer of all temples, houses, and the whole 
city, when for the expiation of so many impieties 
he was wickedly consecrating one single altar e ? " 

a Pro Domo, 43. b Ibid. 45. 

c Ibid. 49. d ibid. 51,53. 

e Ibid. 54, 55. 



Then, after a solemn invocation and appeal " to 
all the gods who peculiarly favoured and protected 
that city, to bear witness to the integrity of his 
zeal and love to the republic," and that "in all his 
labours and struggles he had constantly preferred 
the public benefit to his own, he commits the 
justice of his cause to the judgment of the venerable 
bench." 

He was particularly pleased with the composition 
of this speech, which he published immediately ; 
and says upon it, that if ever he made any figure 
in speaking, his indignation and the sense of his 
injuries had inspired him with new force and spirit 
in this cause f . The sentence of the priests turned 
wholly on what Cicero had alleged about the force 
of the Papirian law ; viz. that if he, who performed 
the office of consecration, had not been specially 
authorised and personally appointed to it by the 
people, then the area in question might, without 
any scruple of religion, be restored to Cicero. 
This, though it seemed somewhat evasive, was 
sufficient for Cicero's purpose ; and his friends 
congratulated him upon it, as upon a clear victory ; 
while Clodius interpreted it still in favour of him- 
self, and being produced into the rostra by his 
brother Appius, acquainted the people, that the 
priests had given judgment for him, but that 
Cicero was preparing to recover possession by 
force, and exhorted them therefore to follow him 
and Appius in the defence of their liberties. But 
his speech made no impression on the audience ; 
some wondered at his impudence, others laughed 
at his folly, and Cicero resolved not to trouble 
himself or the people about it, till the consuls, by 
a decree of the senate, had contracted for rebuilding 
the portico of Catuluss. 

The senate met the next day, in a full house, 
to put an end to this affair ; when Marcellinus, 
one of the consuls elect, being called upon to 
speak first, addressed himself to the priests, and 
desired them to give an account of the grounds and 
meaning of their sentence : upon which Lucullus, 
in the name of the rest, declared, that the priests 
were indeed the judges of religion, but the senate 
of the law ; that they therefore had determined 
only what related to the point of religion, and left 
it to the senate to determine whether any obstacle 
remained in point of law : all the other priests spoke 
largely after him in favour of Cicero's cause : when 
Clodius rose afterwards to speak, he endeavoured 
to waste the time so as to hinder their coming to 
any resolution that day ; but after he had been 
speaking for three hours successively, the assembly 
grew so impatient, and made such a noise and 

f Acta res est accurate a nobis ; et si unquam in dicendo 
fuimus aliquid, aut etiam si unquam alias fuimus, turn 
profecto dolor et magnitudo vim quandam nobis dicendi 
dedit. Itaque oratio juventuti nostra? deberi non potest. 
—Ad Att. iv. 2. 

S Cum pontifices decressent, ita, si neque populi jussu, 
neque plebis scitu, is qui se dedicusse diceret, nominatim 
ei rei praefectus esset ; neque populi jussu, neque plebis 
scitu id facere jussus esset, videri posse sine religione earn 
partem areae mihi restitui. Mihi facta statim est gratula- 
tio : nemo enim dubitat, quin domus nobis esset adjudi- 
cata. Turn subito ille in concionem ascendit, quam 
Appius ei dedit : nunciat jam populo, pontifices secundum 
se decrevisse ; me autem vi conari in possessionem venire : 
hortatur, ut se et Appium sequantur, et suam libertatem 
ut defendant. Hie cum etiam illi infimipartim admiraren- 
tur, partim irriderent hominis amentiam. — Ad Att. iv. 2. 



11G 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



hissing, that he was forced to give over : yet 
when they were going to pass a decree, in the 
words of Marcellinus, Serranus put his negative 
upon it : this raised a universal indignation ; and 
a fresh debate began, at the motion of the two 
consuls, on the merit of the tribune's intercession; 
when, after many warm speeches, they came to 
the following vote ; that it was the resolution of 
the senate, that Cicero's house should be restored 
to him, and Catulus's portico rebuilt, as it had 
been before ; and that this vote should be defended 
by all the magistrates ; and if any violence or 
obstruction was offered to it, that the senate would 
look upon it as offered by him who had inter- 
posed his negative. This staggered Serranus, and 
the late farce was played over again ; his father 
threw himself at his feet, to beg him to desist ; he 
desired a night's time ; which at first was refused, 
but on Cicero's request granted ; and the next 
day he revoked his negative, and without farther 
opposition suffered the senate to pass a decree, 
that Cicero's damage should be made good to him, 
and his houses rebuilt at the public charge h . 

The consuls began presently to put the decree 
in execution ; and having contracted for the re- 
building Catulus's portico, set men to work upon 
clearing the ground, and demolishing what had 
been built by Clodius : but as to Cicero's buildings, 
it was agreed to take an estimate of his damage, 
and pay the amount of it to himself, to be laid 
out according to his own fancy : in which his 
Palatine house was valued at sixteen thousand 
pounds ; hisTusculan at four thousand ; his Formian 
only at two thousand. This was a very deficient 
and shameful valuation, which all the world cried 
out upon ; for the Palatine house had cost him not 
long before near twice that sum : but Cicero would 
not give himself any trouble about it, or make any 
exceptions, which gave the consuls a handle to 
throw the blame upon his own modesty, for not 
remonstrating against it, and seeming to be satisfied 
with what was awarded : but the true reason was, 
as he himself declares, that those who had clipped 
his wings, had no mind to let them grow again ; and 
though they had been his advocates when absent, 
began now to be secretly angry, and openly envious 
of him when present 1 . 

But as he was never covetous, this affair gave 
him no great uneasiness ; though, through the 
late ruin of his fortunes, he was now in such want 
of money, that he resolved to expose his Tusculan 
villa to sale ; but soon changed his mind and built 
it up again, with much more magnificence than 
before ; and for the beauty of its situation and 
neighbourhood to the city, took more pleasure in 
it ever after than in any other of his country- 
seats. But he had some domestic grievances about 
this time, which touched him more nearly ; and 
which, as he signifies obscurely to Atticus, were of 

h Ad Att. iv. 2. 

i Nobis superficiem tedium consules de consilii sententia 
aestimarunt H. S. vicies ; caeteravaldeilliberaliter : Tuscu- 
lanam villain quingentis millibus ; Formianum ducentis 
quinquaginta millibus ; qua? aestimatio non modo ab optimo 
quoque sed etiam a plebe reprehenditur. Dices, quid igi- 
tur causae fuit ? Dicunt illi quidem pudorem meum, quod 
nequc negaiim, neque vehementius postularim. Sed non 
est id ; nam hoc quidem etiam profuisset. Verum iidem, 
mi Pomponi, iidem. inquam illi, qui mihi pennas ineide- 
runt, nolunt easdem renasci.— Ibid. 



too delicate a nature to be explained by a letter k : 
they arose chiefly from the petulant humour of his 
wife, which began to give him frequent occasions 
of chagrin ; and by a series of repeated provo- 
cations confirmed in him that settled disgust 
which ended at last in a divorce. 

As he was now restored to the possession both 
of his dignity and fortunes, so he was desirous to 
destroy all the public monuments of his late dis- 
grace ; nor to suffer the law of his exile to remain, 
with the other acts of Clodius's tribunate, hanging 
up in the Capitol, engraved, as usual, on tables of 
brass : watching therefore the opportunity of 
Clodius's absence, he went to the Capitol with 
a strong body of his friends, and taking the tables 
down, conveyed them to his own house. This 
occasioned a sharp contest in the senate between 
him and Clodius about the validity of those acts ; 
and drew Cato also into the debate ; who, for the 
sake of his Cyprian commission, thought himself 
obliged to defend their legality against Cicero ; 
which created some little coldness between them, 
and gave no small pleasure to the common enemies 
of them both 1 . 

But Cicero's chief concern at present was, how 
to support his former authority in the city, and 
provide for his future safety ; as well against the 
malice of declared enemies as the envy of pre- 
tended friends, which he perceived to be growing 
up afresh against him : he had thoughts of putting 
in for the censorship ; or of procuring one of those 
honorary lieutenancies which gave a public cha- 
racter to private senators ; with intent to make 
a progress through Italy, or a kind of religious 
pilgrimage to all the temples, groves and sacred 
places, on pretence of a vow made in his exile. 
This would give him an opportunity of showing 
himself everywhere in a light which naturally 
attracts the affection of the multitude, by testifying 
a pious regard to the favourite superstitions and 
local religions of the country ; as the great, in the 
same country, still pay their court to the vulgar, 
by visiting the shrines and altars of the saints 
which are most in vogue : he mentions these pro- 
jects to Atticus, as designed to be executed in the 
spring, resolving in the meanwhile to cherish the 
good inclination of the people towards him, by 
keeping himself perpetually in the view of the 
city m . 

Catulus's portico and Cicero's house were rising 
again apace, and carried up almost to the roof; 
when Clodius, without any warning, attacked 
them, on the second of November, with a band of 
armed men, who demolished the portico, and drove 
the workmen out of Cicero's ground, and with the 
stones and rubbish of the place began to batter 
Quintus's house, with whom Cicero then lived, 
and at last set fire to it ; so that the two brothers, 
with their families, were forced to save themselves 
by a hasty flight. Milo had already accused 
Clodius for his former violences, and resolved, 
if possible, to bring him to justice : Clodius, on 

k Tusculan um proscripsi : suburbano non facile careo.— 
Caetera, qua? me sollicitant, fivariKwrepu sunt. Amamur 
a fratre et hlia.— Ad Att. iv. 2. 

1 Plutarch, in Cic. ; Dio, p. 100. 

m Ut nulla re impedirer, quod ne si vellem, mihi esset 
integrum, aut si comitia censorum proximi consules habe- 
rent, petere posse, aut votivam legationem sumsisse prope 
omnium fanorum, lucorum.— Ad Att. iv. 2. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



117 



the other hand, was suing for the sedileship, to 
secure himself, for one year more at least, from 
any prosecution : he was sure of being condemned 
if ever he was brought to trial, so that whatever 
mischief he did in the mean time was all clear 
gain, and could not make his cause the worse" : 
he now therefore gave a free course to his natural 
fury ; was perpetually scouring the streets with his 
incendiaries, and threatening fire and sword to the 
city itself, if an assembly was not called for the 
election of eediles. In this humour, about a week 
after his last outrage, on the eleventh of November, 
happening to meet with Cicero in the sacred street, 
he presently assaulted him with stones, clubs, and 
drawn swords : Cicero was not prepared for the 
encounter, and took refuge in the vestibule of the 
next house ; where his attendants rallying in his 
defence, beat off the assailants, and could easily 
have killed their leader, but that Cicero was willing, 
he says, to cure by diet, rather than surgery. The 
day following Clodius attacked Milo's house, with 
sword in hand and lighted flambeaus, with intent 
to storm and burn it : but Milo was never unpro- 
vided for him ; and Q. Flaccus, sallying out with 
a strong band of stout fellows, killed several of 
his men, and would have killed Clodius too, if he 
had not hid himself in the inner apartments of 
P. Sylla's house, which he made use of on this 
occasion as his fortress . 

The senate met, on the fourteenth, to take these 
disorders into consideration; Clodius did not think 
fit to appear there ; but Sylla came, to clear him- 
self probably from the suspicion of encouraging 
him in these violences, on account of the freedom 
which he had taken with his house?. Many severe 
speeches were made, and vigorous counsels pro- 
posed ; Marcellinus's opinion was, that Clodius 
should be impeached anew for these last outrages ; 
and that no election of sediles should be suffered 
till he was brought to a trial : Milo declared, that 
as long as he continued in office, the consul 
Metellus should make no election ; for he would 
take the auspices every day on which an assembly 
could be held ; but Metellus contrived to waste 
the day in speaking, so that they were forced to 
break up without making any decree. Milo was as 
good as his word, and, having gathered a superior 
force, took care to obstruct the election ; though 
the consul Metellus employed all his power and 
art to elude his vigilance, and procure an assembly 
by stratagem ; calling it to one place and holding 
it in another, sometimes in the field of Mars, 

n Armatis hominibus ante diem in. Non. Novemb. 
expulsi sunt fabri de area nostra, disturbata porticus Ca- 
tuli — Quae ad tectum pane pervenerat. Quinti fratris 
domus primo fracta conjectu lapidum, ex area nostra, 
deindejussuClodiiinflammata, inspectante urbe, eonjectis 

ignibus. Videt, si omnes quos vult palam occiderit, 

nihilo suam causam difficiliorem, quam adbuc sit, in 
judicio futuram.— Ad Att. iv. 3. 

Ante diem tertium Id. Novemb. cum sacra via descen- 
derem, insecutus est me cum suis. Clamor, lapides, fustes, 
gladii ; haec improvisa omnia. Discessimus in vestibulum 
Tertii Damionis : qui erant mecum facile operas aditu 
prohibuerunt. Ipse occidi potuit; sed ego diseta curare 
incipio, chirurgiae taedet.— Milonis domum pridie Id. ex- 
pugnare et incendere ita conatus est, ut palam hora quinta 
cum scutis homines, eductis gladiis, alios cum accensis 
facibus adduxerit. Ipse domum P. Syllas pro castris ad 
earn impugnationem sumpserat, &c— Ad Att. iv. 3. 

P Sylla se in senatu postridie Idus, domi Clodius.— Ibid. 



sometimes in the forum ; but Milo was ever 
beforehand with him ; and, keeping a constant 
guard in the field from midnight to noon, was 
always at hand to inhibit his proceedings, by 
obnouncing, as it was called, or declaring, that he 
was taking the auspices on that day ; so that the 
three brothers were baffled and disappointed, 
though they were perpetually haranguing and 
labouring to inflame the people against those who 
interrupted their assemblies and right of electing; 
where Metellus's speeches were turbulent, Appius's 
rash, Clodius's furious. Cicero, who gives this 
account to Atticus, was of opinion, that there would 
be no election ; and that Clodius would be brought 
to trial, if he was not first killed by Milo ; which 
was likely to be his fate : " Milo (says he) makes 
no scruple to own it ; being not deterred by my 
misfortune, and having no envious or perfidious 
counsellors about him, nor any lazy nobles to 
discourage him : it is commonly given out by the 
other side, that what he does, is all done by my 
advice ; but they little know how much conduct, 
as well as courage, there is in this hero q ." 

Young Lentulus, the son of the consul, was, by 
the interest of his father and the recommendation 
of his noble birth, chosen into the college of 
augurs this summer, though not yet seventeen 
years old ; having but just changed his puerile 
for the manly gown 1 : Cicero was invited to the 
inauguration feast, where by eating too freely of 
some vegetables, which happened to please his 
palate, he was seized with a violent pain of the 
bowels, and diarrhoea ; of which he sends the fol- 
lowing account to his friend Gallus. 

Cicero to Gallus. 
" After I had been labouring for ten days, with 
a cruel disorder in my bowels, yet could not con- 
vince those who wanted me at the bar that I was 
ill because I had no fever, I ran away to Tus- 
culum ; having kept so strict a fast for two days 
before, that I did not taste so much as water : 
being worn out therefore with illness and fasting, 
I wanted rather to see you, than imagined that 
you expected a visit from me : for my part, I am 
afraid, I confess, of all distempers ; but especially 
of those for which the Stoics abuse your Epicurus, 
when he complains of the strangury and dysentery ; 

1 Egregius Marcellinus, omnes acres ; 3Ietelluscalumnia 
dicendi tempus exemit : conciones turbulentae Metelli, 
temerariae Appii,furiosissimae Clodii ; haec tamen summa, 
nisi Milo in Campum obnunciasset, comitia futura. — 
Comitia fore non arbitror ; reum Publium, nisi ante occisus 
erit, fore a Milone puto. Si se inter viam obtulerit, 
occisum iri ab ipso Milone video. Non dubitat facere ; 
prae se fert ; casum ilium nostrum non extimescit, &c. 

Meo consilio omnia illi fieri querebantur, ignari quan- 
tum in illo heroe esset animi, quantum etiam consilii. — 
Ad Att. iv. 3. 

N.B.— From these facts it appears, that what is said 
above, of Clodius's repealing the ^Elian and Fusian laws, 
and prohibiting the magistrates from obstructing the 
assemblies of the people, is to be understood only in a 
partial sense, and that his new law extended no farther 
than to hinder the magistrates from dissolving an assembly 
after it was actually convened and had entered upon 
business ; for it was still unlawful, we see, to convene an 
assembly while the magistrate was in the act of observing 
the heavens. 

r Cui superior annus idem et virilem patris et prae- 
textam populi judicio togam dederit.— Pro Sext. 69; it. 
Dio, 1. xxxix. p. 99. 



118 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



the one of which they take to be the effect of glut- 
tony ; the other of a more scandalous intemper- 
ance. I was apprehensive indeed of a dysentery ; 
but seem to have found benefit, either from the 
change of air, or the relaxation of my mind, or the 
remission of the disease itself : but that you may 
not be surprised how this should happen, and 
what I have been doing to bring it upon me ; the 
sumptuary law, which seems to introduce a sim- 
plicity of diet, did me all this mischief. For since 
our men of taste are grown so fond of covering 
their tables with the productions of the earth 
which are excepted by the law, they have found a 
way of dressing mushrooms and all other vegetables 
so palatably, that nothing can be more delicious : 
I happened to fall upon these at Lentulus's 
augural supper, and was taken with so violent a 
flux, that this is the first day on which it has 
begun to give me any ease. Thus I, who used to 
command myself so easily in oysters and lampreys, 
was caught with beet and mallows ; but I shall be 
more cautious for the future : you however, who 
must have heard of my illness from Anicius, for 
he saw me in a fit of vomiting, had a just reason, 
not only for sending, but for coming yourself to 
see me. I think to stay here till I recruit myself ; 
for I have lost both my strength and my flesh ; 
but if I once get rid of my distemper, it will be 
easy, I hope, to recover the rest s ." 

King Ptolemy left Rome about this time, after 
he had distributed immense sums among the great, 
to purchase his restoration by a Roman army. 
The people of Egypt had sent deputies also after 
him, to plead their cause before the senate, and 
to explain the reasons of their expelling him ; but 
the king contrived to get them all assassinated on 
the road, before they reached the city. This piece 
of villany, and the notion of his having bribed all 
the magistrates, had raised so general an aversion 
to him among the people, that he found it advis- 
able to quit the city and leave the management of 
his interest to his agents. The consul Lentulus, 
who had obtained the province of Cilicia and 
Cyprus, whither he was preparing to set forward, 
was very desirous to be charged with the com- 
mission of replacing him on his throne ; for which 
he had already procured a vote of the senate : the 
opportunity of a command, almost in sight of 
Egypt, made him generally thought to have the 
best pretensions to that charge ; and he was assured 
of Cicero's warm assistance in soliciting the con- 
firmation of it. 

In this situation of affairs, the new tribunes 
entered into office : C. Cato, of the same family 
with his namesake Marcus, was one of the number ; 
a bold, turbulent man, of no temper or prudence, 
yet a tolerable speaker, and generally on the better 
side in p olitics. Before he had borne any public 

s Ep. Fam. vii. 26. 

N.B. Pliny says, that the colum, hy which he is sup- 
posed to mean the colic, was not known at Rome till the 
reign of Tiberius : hut the case described in this letter 
seems to come so very near to it, that he must he under- 
stood, rather of the name, than of the thing ; as the learned 
Dr. Le Clerc has observed in his History of Medicine.— 
Plin. 1. xxvi. 1 ; Le Clcrc, Hist. par. ii. 1. 4. sect. ii. c. 4. 

The mention likewise of the SvaovpiKa iraQi], or the 
strangury of Epicurus, and the censure which the Stoics 
passed upon it, woidd make one apt to suspect, that some 
disorders of a venereal kind were not unknown to the . 
ancients. I 



office, he attempted to impeach Gabinius of bribery 
and corruption ; but not being able to get an 
audience of the prsetors, he had the hardiness to 
mount the rostra, which was never allowed to a 
private citizen, and, in a speech to the people, 
declared Pompey dictator : but his presumption 
had like to have cost him dear ; for it raised such 
an indignation in the audience, that he had much 
difficulty to escape with his life 1 . He opened 
his present magistracy by declaring loudly against 
king Ptolemy, and all who favoured him ; espe- 
cially Lentulus ; whom he supposed to be under 
some private engagement with him, and for that 
reason was determined to baffle all their schemes. 

Lupus likewise, one of his colleagues, summoned 
the senate, and raised an expectation of some un- 
common proposal from him ; it was indeed of an 
extraordinary nature ; to revise and annul that 
famed act of Csesar's consulship, for the division 
of the Campanian lands : he spoke long and well 
upon it, and was heard with much attention ; gave 
great praises to Cicero, with severe reflections on 
Caesar, and expostulations with Pompey, who was 
now abroad in the execution of his late commis- 
sion ; in the conclusion he told them, that he 
would not demand the opinions of the particular 
senators, because he had no mind to expose them 
to the resentment and animosity of any ; but from 
the ill humour, which he remembered, when that 
act first passed, and the favour with which he was 
now heard, he could easily collect the sense of the 
house. Upon which Marcellinus said, that he 
must not conclude from their silence either what 
they liked or disliked : that for his own part, and 
he might answer too he believed for the rest, he 
chose to say nothing on the subject at present, be- 
cause he thought that the cause of the Campanian 
lands ought not to be brought upon the stage in 
Pompey's absence. 

This affair being dropped, Racilius, another tri- 
bune, rose up and renewed the debate about Milo's 
impeachment of Clodius, and called upon Marcel- 
linus, the consul elect, to give his opinion upon it; 
who after inveighing against all the violences of 
Clodius, proposed that, in the first place, an allot- 
ment of judges should be made for the trial ; and 
after that, the election of sediles ; and if any one 
attempted to hinder the trial, that he should be 
deemed a public enemy. The other consul elect, 
Philippus, was of the same mind ; but the tribunes 
Cato and Cassius spoke against it, and were for 
proceeding to an election before any step towards 
a trial. When Cicero was called upon to speak, 
he ran through the whole series of Clodius' s ex- 
travagances, as if he had been accusing him already 
at the bar, to the great satisfaction of the as- 
sembly : Antistius the tribune seconded him, and 
declared that no business should be done before 
the trial ; and when the house was going univer- 
sally into that opinion, Clodius began to speak, 
with intent to waste the rest of the day, while his 
slaves and followers without, who had seized the 
steps and avenues of the senate, raised so great a 
noise of a sudden, in abusing some of Milo's 

1 Ut Cato, adolescens nullius consilii,— vix vivus effu- 
geret ; quod cum Gabinium de ambitu vellct postulare 
neque pra-tores diebus aliquot adiri possent, vel potes' 
tatem sui facerent, in coneionem adscendit, et Pompeium 
privatus dictatorem appellavit. Propius nihil est factum, 
quam ut occideretur.— Ep. ad Quint. Frat. i. 2. 



MARCUS TULL1US CICERO, 



119 



cic. 51. 
coss. 

CN. CORNELI- 
US LENTULUS 
MARCELLI- 

■ NUS, 
L. MARCIUS 
PHJLIPPUS. 



friends, that the senate broke up in no small hurry, 
and with fresh indignation at this new insult u . 

There was no more business done through the 
remaining part of December, which was taken up 
chiefly with holy days. Lentulus and Metellus, 
whose consulship expired with the year, set for- 
ward for their several governments ; the one for 
Cilicia, the other for Spain : Lentulus committed 
the whole direction of his affairs to Cicero ; and 
Metellus, unwilling to leave him his enemy, made 
up all matters with him before his departure, and 
wrote an affectionate letter to him afterwards from 
Spain ; in which he acknowledges his services, and 
intimates, that he had given up his brother Clodius 
in exchange for his friendship x . 

Cicero's first concern, on the opening of the 
new year, was to get the commission, for restoring 
a. urb. 697. k m . g Ptolemy, confirmed to Lentulus ; 
which came now under deliberation : 
the tribune, Cato, was fierce against 
restoring him at all, with the greatest 
part of the senate on his side ; when 
taking occasion to consult the Sibyl- 
line books on the subject of some late 
prodigies, he chanced to find in them 
certain verses, forewarniDg the Roman 
people not to replace an exiled king of Egypt with 
an army. This was so pat to his purpose, that 
there could be no doubt of its being forged ; but 
Cato called up the guardians of the books into the 
rostra, to testify the passage to be genuine ; where 
it was publicly read and explained to the people : it 
was laid also before the senate, who greedily re- 
ceived it ; and after a grave debate on this scruple 
of religion, came to a resolution, that it seemed 
dangerous to the republic, that the king should be 
restored by a multitude ?. It cannot be imagined 
that they laid any real stress on this admonition of 
the sibyl, for there was not a man either in or out 
of the house who did not take it for a fiction : 
but it was a fair pretext for defeating a project, 
which was generally disliked : they were unwilling 
to gratify any man's ambition, of visiting the rich 
country of Egypt, at the head of an army ; and 
persuaded, that without an army, no man would be 
solicitous about going thither at all z . 

This point being settled, the next question was, 
in what manner the king should be restored : 
various opinions were proposed ; Crassus moved, 
that three ambassadors, chosen from those who had 
some public command, should be sent on the 
errand ; which did not exclude Pompey : Bibulus 

u Turn Clodius rogatus diem dicendo eximere ccepit— 
deinde ejus operse repente a Graecostasi et gradibus cla- 
morem satis magnum sustulerunt, opinor in Q. Sextilium 
et amicos Milonis incitatae; eo metu injecto repente 
magna querimonia omnium discessimus.— Ad Quint. Frat. 
ii. 1. 

x Libenterque commutata persona, te mihi fratris loco 
esse duco.— Ep. Fam. v. 3. 

y Senatus religionis calumniam, non religione sed male- 
volentia, et illius regia? largitionis invidia comprobat.— 
Ep. Fam. i. 1. 

De rege Alexandrino factum est S. C. cum multitudine 
eum reduci, periculosum reipublicce videri.—Ad Quint. 
Frat. ii. 2. 

z Haec tamen opinio est populi Romani, a tuis invidis 
atque obtrectatoribus nomen inductum fictce religionis, 
non tarn ut te impedirent, quam ut nequis, propter 
exercitus cupiditatem, Alexandrian! vellet ire.— Ep. Fam. 



proposed that three private senators ; and Volca- 
tius, that Pompey alone, should be charged with 
it: but Cicero, Hortensius, and Lucullus urged, 
that Lentulus, to whom the senate had already 
decreed it, and who could execute it with most 
convenience, should restore him without an army. 
The two first opinions were soon overruled, and 
the struggle lay between Lentulus and Pompey. 
Cicero, though he had some reason to complain of 
Lentulus since his return, particularly for the 
contemptible valuation of his houses, yet for the 
great part which he had borne in restoring him, 
was very desirous to show his gratitude, and re- 
solved to support him with all his authority : 
Pompey, who had obligations also to Lentulus, 
acted the same part towards him which he had 
done before towards Cicero ; by his own conduct 
and professions he seemed to have Lentulus's 
interest at heart ; yet by the conduct of all his 
friends, seemed desirous to procure the employ- 
ment for himself ; while the king's agents and cre- 
ditors, fancying that their business would be served 
the most effectually by Pompey, began openly to 
solicit, and even to bribe for him a . But the senate, 
through Cicero's influence, stood generally inclined 
to Lentulus ; and after a debate, which ended in 
his favour, Cicero, who had been the manager of 
it, happening to sup with Pompey that evening, 
took occasion to press him with much freedom 
not to suffer his name to be used in this competi- 
tion ; nor give a handle to his enemies for re- 
proaching him with the desertion of a friend, as 
well as an ambition of engrossing all power to 
himself. Pompey seemed touched with the re- 
monstrance, and professed to have no other thought 
but of serving Lentulus, while his dependants 
still acted so as to convince everybody that he 
could not be sincere b . 

When Lentulus's pretensions seemed to be in a 
hopeful way, C. Cato took a new and effectual 
method to disappoint them, by proposing a law to 
the people for taking away his government and 
recalling him home. This stroke surprised every- 

a Crassus tres legatos decernit, nee excludit Pompeium : 
censet enim etiam ex iis, qui cum imperio sunt. M. 
Bibulus tres legatos ex iis, qui privati sunt. Huic assen- 
tiuntur reliqui consulares, praeter Servilium, qui omnino 
reduci negat oportere, et Volcatium, qui decernit Poin- 
peio. — 

Hortensii et mea et Luculli sententia — Ex illo S. C. 
quod te referente factum est, tibi decernit, ut reducas 
regem. — 

Regis causa si qui sunt qui velint, qui pauci sunt, omnes 
rem ad Pompeium deferri volunt. — Ep. Fam. i. 1. 

Reliqui cum esset in senatu contentio, Lentulusne an 
Pompeius reduceret, obtinere causam Lentulus videbatur. 
— In ea re Pompeius quid velit non despicio : familiares 
ejus quid cupiant, omnes vident. Creditores vero regis 
aperte pecunias suppeditant contra Lentulum. Sine dubio 
res remota a Lentulo videtur, cum magno meo dolore : 
quamquam multa fecit, quare si fas esset, jure ei suc- 
censere possemus.— Ad Quint. Fiat. ii. 2. 

b Ego eo die casu apud Pompeium casnavi : nactusque 
tempus hoc magis idoneum, quam unquam antea post 
tuum discessum, is enim dies honestissimus nobis fuerat 
in senatu, ita sum cum illo locutus, ut mibi viderer 
animum hominis ab omni alia cogitatione ad tuam digni- 
tatem tuendam traducere : quern ego ipsum cum audio, 
prorsus eum libero omni suspicione cupiditatis : cum 
autem ejus familiares, omnium ordinum video, perspicio, 
id quod jam omnibus est apertum, totam rem istam 
jampridem a certis hominibus, non invito rege ipso.— 
Esse corruptam.— Ep. Fam. i. 2. 



120 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



body; the senate condemned it as factious; and 
Lentulus' son changed his habit upon it, in order 
to move the citizens, and hinder their offering such 
an affront to his father. The tribune Caninius 
proposed another law at the same time for sending 
Pompey to Egypt : but this pleased no better than 
the other ; and the consuls contrived, that neither 
of them should be brought to the suffrage of the 
people . These new contests gave a fresh inter- 
ruption to Ptolemy's cause ; in which Cicero's re- 
solution was, if the commission could not be ob- 
tained for Lentulus, to prevent its being granted 
at least to Pompey, and save themselves the dis- 
grace of being baffled by a competitor d : but the 
senate was grown so sick of the whole affair, that 
they resolved to leave the king to shift for himself, 
without interposing at all in his restoration ; and 
so the matter hung ; whilst other affairs more in- 
teresting were daily rising up at home, and en- 
gaging the attention of the city. 

The election of sediles, which had been indus- 
triously postponed through all the last summer, 
could not easily be kept off any longer : the city 
was impatient for its magistrates ; and especially 
for the plays and shows with which they used to 
entertain them ; and several also of the new tri- 
bunes being zealous for an election, it was held at 
last on the twentieth of January ; when Clodius 
was chosen sedile, without any opposition ; so 
that Cicero began once more to put himself upon 
his guard, from the certain expectation of a furious 
gedileship e . 

It may justly seem strange, how a man so pro- 
fligate and criminal as Clodius, whose life was a 
perpetual insult on all laws divine and human, 
should be suffered not only to live without punish- 
ment, but to obtain all the honours of a free city in 
their proper course ; and it would be natural to 
suspect, that we had been deceived in our accounts 
of him, by taking them from his enemies, did we 
not find them too firmly supported by facts to be 
called in question : but a little attention to the par- 
ticular character of the man, as well as of the 
times in which he lived, will enable us to solve 
the difficulty. First, the splendour of his family, 
which had borne a principal share in all the tri- 
umphs of the republic from the very foundation 
of its liberty, was of great force to protect him in 
all his extravagances : those who know anything 
of Rome, know what a strong impression this 
single circumstance of illustrious nobility would 
necessarily make upon the people ; Cicero calls 
the nobles of this class, praetors and consuls elect 
from their cradles, by a kind of hereditary right ; 
whose very names were sufficient to advance them 
to all the dignities of the state f . Secondly, his per- 

c Nos cum maxime consilio, studio, labore, gratia, de 
causa regia niteremur, subito exorta est nefaria Catonis 
promulgatio, quae studia nostra impediret, et animos a mi- 
nore cura ad summum timorem traduceret.— Ep. Fam. i. 5. 

Suspicor per vim rogationem Caninium perlaturum. — 
Ad Quint, ii. 2. 

d Sed vereor ne aut eripiatur nobis causa regia, aut 
deseratur.— Sed si res coget, est quiddam tertium, quod 
non— mihi displicebat ; ut neque jacere regem pateremur, 
nee nobis repugnantibus, ad eum deferri, ad quern prope 
jam delatum videtur. — Ne, si quid non obtinuerimus, 
repulsi esse videamur. — Ep. Fam. i. 5. 

e Sed omnia fiunt tardiora propter furiosae aedilitatis 
expectationem.— Ad Quint, ii. 2. 

1 Non idem mihi licet, quod iis, qui nobili genere nati 



sonal qualities were peculiarly adapted to endear 
him to all the meaner sort : his bold and ready 
wit ; his talent at haranguing ; his profuse expense ; 
and his being the first of his family who had 
pursued popular measures against the maxims of his 
ancestors, who were all stern assertors of the aristo- 
cratical power. Thirdly, the contrast of opposite 
factions, who had each their ends in supporting 
him, contributed principally to his safety : the 
triumvirate willingly permitted and privately en- 
couraged his violences : to make their own power 
not only the less odious, but even necessary, for 
controlling the fury of such an incendiary ; and 
though it was often turned against themselves, yet 
they chose to bear it, and dissemble their ability of 
repelling it, rather than destroy the man who was 
playing their game for them, and by throwing the 
republic into confusion, throwing it of course into 
their hands : the senate, on the other side, whose 
chief apprehensions were from the triumvirate, 
thought, that the rashness of Clodius might be of 
some use to perplex their measures, and stir up 
the people against them on proper occasions ; or it 
humoured their spleen at least, to see him often 
insulting Pompey to his faceg. Lastly, all who 
envied Cicero, and desired to lessen his authority, 
privately cherished an enemy, who employed all 
his force to drive him from the administration of 
affairs : this accidental concurrence of circum- 
stances, peculiar to the man and the times, was 
the thing that preserved Clodius, whose insolence 
could never have been endured in any quiet and 
regular state of the city. 

By his obtaining the sedileship, the tables were 
turned between him and Milo : the one was armed 
with the authority of a magistrate ; the other be- 
come a private man : the one freed from all appre- 
hension of judges and a trial ; the other exposed 
to all that danger from the power of his antagonist: 
and it was not Clodius's custom, to neglect any 
advantage against an enemy, so that he now ac- 
cused Milo of the same crime of which Milo had 
accused him ; of public violence and breach of the 
laws, in maintaining a band of gladiators to the 
terror of the city. Milo made his appearance to 
this accusation on the second of February ; when 
Pompey, Crassus, and Cicero appeared with him ; 
and M. Marcellus, though Clodius's colleague in 
the eedileship, spoke for him at Cicero's desire ; 
and the whole passed quietly and favourably for 
him on that day. The second hearing was ap- 
pointed on the ninth ; when Pompey undertook to 
plead his cause, but no sooner stood up to speak, 
than Clodius's mob began to exert their usual arts, 
and by a continual clamour of reproaches and in- 
vectives, endeavoured to hinder him from going 
on, or at least from being heard : but Pompey was 

sunt, quibus omnia populi Romani beneficia dormientibus 
deferuntur.— In Verr. v. 70. 

Erat nobilitate ipsa, blanda conciliatricula commenda- 
tus. Omnes semper boni nobilitati favemus, &c. — Pro 
Sext. 9. 

S Videtis igitur hominem per seipsum jam pridem 
amictum ac jacentem, perniciosis optimatium discordiis 
excitari.'— Ne a republica reipublicae pestis amoveretur, 
restiterunt : etiam , ne causam diceret : etiam ne privatus 
esset : etiamne in sinu atque in deliciis quidam optimi 
viri viperam illam venenatam ac pestiferam habere potue- 
runt ? Quo tandem decepti munere ? Volo, inquiunt, 
esse qui in concione detrahat de Pompeio.— De Harusp. 
Resp. 24. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



121 



too firm, to be so baffled ; and spoke for near three 
hours, with a presence of mind, which commanded 
silence in spite of their attempts. When Clodius 
rose up to answer him, Milo's party, in their turn, 
so disturbed and confounded him, that he was not 
able to speak a word ; while a number of epigrams 
and lampoons upon him and his sister were thrown 
about, and publicly rehearsed among the multitude 
below, so as to make him quite furious : till recol- 
lecting himself a little, and finding it impossible to 
proceed in his speech, he demanded aloud of his 
mob, who it was that attempted to starve them by 
famine ? To which they presently cried out, Pom- 
pey : he then asked, who it was that desired to 
be sent to Egypt ? They all echoed, Pompey : but 
when he asked, who it was that they themselves 
had a mind to send ? they answered, Crassus : for 
the old jealousy was now breaking out again be- 
tween him and Pompey ; and though he appeared 
that day on Milo's side, yet he was not, as Cicero 
says, a real well-wisher to him. 

These warm proceedings among the chiefs 
brought on a fray below among their partisans ; 
the Clodians began the attack, but were repulsed 
by the Pompeians ; and Clodius himself driven out 
of the rostra : Cicero, when he saw the affair pro- 
ceed to blows, thought it high time to retreat and 
make the best of his way towards home : but no 
great harm was done, for Pompey, having cleared 
the forum of his enemies, presently drew off his 
forces, to prevent any farther mischief or scandal 
from his side h . 

The senate was presently summoned, to provide 
some remedy for these disorders ; where Pompey, 
who had drawn upon himself a fresh envy from 
his behaviour in the Egyptian affair, was severely 
handled by Bibulus, Curio, Favonius, and others ; 
Cicero chose to be absent, since he must either 
have offended Pompey, by saying nothing for him, 
or the honest party, by defending him. The same 
debate was carried on for several days ; in which 
Pompey was treated very roughly by the tribune, 
Cato ; who inveighed against him with great 
fierceness, and laid open his perfidy to Cicero, 
to whom he paid the highest compliments, and 
was heard with much attention by all Pompey's 
enemies. 

h Ad diem mi. Non. Febr. Milo affuit. Ei Pompeius 
advocatus venit. Dixit Marcellus a me rogatus. Honeste 
discessimus. Productus dies est in mi. Id. Feb. — A. D. 
mi. Id. Milo affuit. Dixit Pompeius, sive voluit. Nam 
ut surrexit, operas Clodianae clamorem sustulerunt : idque 
ei perpetua oratione contigit, non modo ut acclamatione, 
sed ut convicio et maledictis impediretur. Qui ut per- 
oravit, nam in eo sane fortis fuit, non est deterritus, dixit 
omnia, atque interdum etiam silentio, cum auctoritate 
peregerat ; sed ut peroravit, surrexit Clodius : ei tantus 
clamor a nostris, placuerat enim referre gratiam, ut 
neque mente, neque lingua, neque ore consisteret. — Cum 
omnia maledicta, turn versus etiam obscenissimi in 
Clodium et Clodiam dicerentur. Ille furens et exsanguis 
interrogabat suos in clamore ipso, quis esset, qui plebem 
fame necaret ? Respondebant operae, Pompeius. Quis 
Alexandriam ire cuperet? Respondebant, Pompeius. 
Quern ire vellent? Respondebant, Crassum. Is aderat 
turn Miloni animo non amico. 

Hora fere nona, quasi signo dato, Clodiani nostros con- 
sputare coeperunt Exarsit dolor, urgere illi ut loco nos 
moverent. Factus est a nostris impetus, fuga operarum. 
Ejectus de rostris Clodius. Ac nos quoque turn fuginius, 
ne quid in turba, — Senatus vocatus in curiam, Pompeius 
domum. — Ad Quint. Fr. ii. 3. 



Pompey answered him with an unusual vehe- 
mence; and reflecting openly on Crassus, as the 
author of these affronts, declared, that he would 
guard his life with more care than Scipio Africanus 
did when Carbo murdered him These warm ex- 
pressions seemed to open a prospect of some great 
agitation likely to ensue : Pompey consulted with 
Cicero on the proper means of his security ; and 
acquainted him with his apprehensions of a design 
against his life ; that Cato was privately supported, 
and Clodius furnished with money by Crassus ; 
and both of them encouraged by Curio, Bibulus, 
and the rest, who envied him ; that it was neces- 
sary for him to look to himself, since the meaner 
people were wholly alienated, the nobility and 
senate generally disaffected, and the youth cor- 
rupted. Cicero readily consented to join forces 
with him, and to summon their clients and friends 
from all parts of Italy : for though he had no mind 
to fight his battles in the senate, he was desirous 
to defend his person from all violence, especially 
against Crassus, whom he never loved : they re- 
solved likewise to oppose with united strength all 
the attempts of Clodius and Cato, against Lentulus 
and Milo 1 . Clodius, on the other hand, was not 
less busy in mustering his friends against the next 
hearing of Milo's cause : but as his strength was 
much inferior to that of his adversary, so he had 
no expectation of getting him condemned, nor any 
other view but to tease and harass him k : for 
after two hearings, the affair was put off by several 
adjournments to the beginning of May ; from which 
time we find no farther mention of it. 

The consul Marcellinus, who drew his colleague, 
Philippus, along with him, was a resolute opposer 
of the triumvirate, as well as of all the violences of 
the other magistrates : for which reason he resolved 
to suffer no assemblies of the people, except such 
as were necessary for the elections into the annual 
offices : his view was, to prevent Cato's law for 
recalling Lentulus, and the monstrous things, as 
Cicero calls them, which some were attempting at 
this time in favour of Csesar. Cicero gives him 
the character of one of the best consuls that he 
had ever known, and blames him only in one thing, 
for treating Pompey on all occasions too rudely ; 
which made Cicero often absent himself from the 
senate, to avoid taking part either on the one side 

i Neque ego in senatum, ne aut de tantis rebus tacerem, 
aut in Pompeio defendendo, nam is carpebatur a Bibulo, 
Curione, Favonio, Servilio filio, animos bonorum offende- 
rem. Res in posterum diem dilata est.— Eo die nibil 
perfactum.— Ad diem n. Id.— Cato est vehementer in 
Pompeium invectus et eum oratione perpetua tanquam 
reum accusavit. De me multa me invito, cum mea 
summa laude dixit. Cum illius in me perfidiam incre- 
pavit, auditus est magno silentio malevolorum. Re- 
spondit ei vebementer Pompeius, Crassumque descripsit ; 
dixitque aperte, se munitiorem ad custodiendam vitam 
suam fore, quam Africanus fuisset, quem C. Carbo inter- 
emisset. Itaque magna? mihi res moveri videbantur. 
Nam Pompeius haec intelligit, mecumque communicat 
insidias vitae suae fieri : C. Catonem a Crasso sustentari ; 
Clodio pecuniam suppeditari : utrumque et ab eo et a 
Curione, Bibulo, caeterisque suis obtrectatoribus con- 
firmari : vehementer esse providendum ne opprimatur, 
concionario illo populo, a se prope alienato, nobilitate 
inimica, non aequo senatu, juventute improba ; itaque se 
comparat, homines ex agris arcessit. Operas autem suas 
Clodius confirmat. Manus ad Quirinalia paratur. In eo 
multo sumus superiores, <tec. — Ad Quint, ii. 3. 

k Vid. Dio, p. 99. 



122 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



or the other 1 . For the support therefore of his 
dignity and interest in the city, he resumed his old 
task of pleading causes ; which was always popular 
and reputable, and in which he was sure to find 
full employment. His first cause was the defence 
of L. Bestia, on the tenth of February, who, after 
the disgrace of a repulse from the praetorship in 
the last election, was accused of bribery and cor- 
ruption in his suit for it ; and, notwithstanding 
the authority and eloquence of his advocate, was 
convicted and banished. He was a man extremely 
corrupt, turbulent, and seditious ; had always been 
an enemy to Cicero ; and supposed to be deeply 
engaged in Catiline's plot ; and is one instance of 
the truth of what Cicero says, that he was often 
forced, against his will, to defend certain persons, 
who had not deserved it of him, by the intercession 
of those who had m . 

Caesar, who was now in the career of his victories 
in Gaul, sent a request to the senate, that money 
might be decreed to him for the payment of his 
army ; with a power of choosing ten lieutenants, 
for the better management of the war, and the 
conquered provinces ; and that his command should 
be prolonged for five years more. The demand 
was thought very exorbitant ; and it seemed strange, 
that after all his boasted conquests, he should not 
be able to maintain his army without money from 
home at a time when the treasury was greatly ex- 
hausted ; and the renewal of a commission, obtained 
at first by violence and against the authority of the 
senate, was of hard digestion. But Caesar's interest 
prevailed, and Cicero himself was the promoter of 
it, and procured a decree to his satisfaction ; yet 
not without disgusting the old patriots, who stood 
firm to their maxim of opposing all extraordinary 
grants : but Cicero alleged the extraordinary ser- 
vices of Caesar ; and that the course of his victories 
ought not to be checked by the want of necessary 
supplies, while he was so gloriously extending the 
bounds of the empire, and conquering nations 
whose names had never been heard before at Rome : 
and though it were possible for him to maintain 
his troops without their help by the spoils of the 
enemy, yet those spoils ought to be reserved for 
the splendour of his triumph, which it was not just 
to defraud by their unseasonable parsimony 11 . 

He might think it imprudent perhaps at this time, 

1 Consul est egregius Lentulus, non impediente collega : 
sic inquam bonus, ut meliorem non viderim. Dies comi- 
tiales exemit omnes. — Sic legibus perniciosissimis obsis- 
titur, maxime Catonis.— Nunc igitur Catonem Lentulus a 
legibus removit, et eos, qui de Cassare monstra promul- 
garunt. — Marcellinus autem hoc uno mihi minus satis- 
facit, quod eum nimis aspere tractat, quanquam id senatu 
non invito facit : quo ego me libentius a curia, et ab ornni 
parte reipublicae subtraho. — Ad Quint. 2b'. 

m A. D. in. Id. dixi pro Bestia de ambitu apud pras- 
torem Cn. Domitium, in foro medio, maximo conventu. — 
Ad Quint, ii. 3. 

Cogor nonnunquam homines non optime de me meritos, 
rogatu eorum qui bene meriti sunt, defendere. — Ep. Fam. 
vii. 1 ; vid. Philip, xi. 5. ; Sallust. Bell. Cat. 17, 43 ; Plutar. 
in Cic 

n Ilium enim arbitrabar etiam sine hoc subsidio pecuniae 
retinere exercitum praeda ante parta, et bellum conficere 
posse : sed decus illud et ornamentum triumphi minuen- 
dum nostra parsimonia non putavi. — 

Et quas regiones, quasque gentes nulla? nobis antea 
literae, nulla vox, nulla fama notas fecerat, has noster 
imperator, nosterquo cxercitus, et populi llomani anna 
peragrarunt.—De Prov. Consul, xi. 13. 



to call Caesar home from an unfinished war, and 
stop the progress of his arms in the very height of 
his success ; yet the real motive of his conduct 
seems to have flowed, not so much from the merits 
of the cause, as a regard to the condition of the 
times, and his own circumstances. For in his 
private letters he owns, " that the malevolence and 
envy of the aristocratical chiefs had almost driven 
him from his old principles ; and though not so far 
as to make him forget his dignity, yet so as to take 
a proper care of his safety ; both which might be 
easily consistent : if there was any faith or gravity 
in the consular senators : but they had managed 
their matters so ill, that those who were superior to 
them in power, were become superior too in autho- 
rity ; so as to be able to carry in the senate, what 
they could not have carried even with the people 
without violence : that he had learnt from experi- 
ence, what he could not learn so well from books, 
that as no regard was to be had to our safety, with- 
out a regard also to our dignity, so the consideration 
of dignity ought not to exclude the care of our 
safety ." In another letter he says, " that the 
state and form of the government was quite changed ; 
and what he had proposed to himself as the end of 
all his toils, a dignity and liberty of acting and 
voting, was quite lost and gone; that there was 
nothing left, but either meanly to assent to the few, 
who governed all ; or weakly to oppose them, with- 
out doing any good : that he had dropped therefore 
all thoughts of that old consular gravity and cha- 
racter of a resolute senator, and resolved to conform 
himself to Pompey's will ; that his great affection 
to Pompey made him begin to think all things right 
which were useful to him ; and he comforted him- 
self with reflecting, that the greatness of his obli- 
gations would make all the world excuse him for 
defending what Pompey liked, or at least for not 
opposing it : or else, what of all things he most 
desired, if his friendship with Pompey would per- 
mit him, for retiring from public business, and 
giving himself wholly up to his books?." 

But he was now engaged in a cause, in which he 
was warmly and specially interested, the defence of 
P. Sextius, the late tribune. Clodius, who gave 

o Quorum malevolentissimis obtrectationibus nos scito 
de vetere ilia nostra, diuturnaque sententia prope jam esse 
depulsos : non nos quidem ut nostras dignitatis simus 
obliti, sed ut habeamus rationem aliquando etiam salutis. 
Poterat utrumque praeclare, si esset fides, si gravitas in 
hominibus consularibus. — 

Nam qui plus opibus, armis, potentia valent, profecisse 
tantum mihi videntur stultitia et inconstantia adver- 
sariorum, ut etiam auctoritate jam plus valerent. — Quod 
ipse, Uteris omnibus a pueritia deditus, experiundo tamen 
magis, quam discendo cognovi ; — neque salutis nostra; 
rationem habendam nobis esse sine dignitate, neque digni- 
tatis sine salute.' — Ep. Fam. i. 7. 

P Tantum enim animi inductio et mehercule amor erga 
Pompeium apud me valet, ut, quae illi utilia sunt, et quas 
ille vult, ea mihi omnia jam et recta et vera videantur— 
Me quidem ilia res consolatur, quod ego is sum, cui vel 
maxime concedant omnes, ut vel ea defendam, qua; Pom- 
peius velit, vel taceam, vel etiam, id quod mihi maxime 
lubet, ad nostra me studia referam literarum ; quod pro- 
fecto faciam, si mihi per ejusdem amicitiam licebit. — 

Qua; enim proposita fuerant nobis, cum et honoribus 
amplisssimis, et laboribus maximis perfuncti essemus, 
dignitas in sententiis dicendis, libertas in republica 
capessenda ; ea sublata tota : sed nee mihi magis, quam 
omnibus. Nam aut assentiendum est nulla cum gravitate 
paucis, aut frustra dissentiendum.— Ibid. 8. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



123 



Cicero's friends no respite, having himself under- 
taken Milo, assigned the prosecution of Sextius to 
one of his confidants, M. Tullius Albinovanus, who 
accused him of public violence or breach of peace 
in his tribunate i. Sextius had been a true friend 
to Cicero in his distress ; and borne a great part in 
his restoration ; but as in cases of eminent service, 
conferred jointly by many, every one is apt to claim 
the first merit, and expect the first share of praise ; 
so Sextius, naturally morose, fancying himself neg- 
lected or not sufficiently requited by Cicero, had 
behaved very churlishly towards him since his 
return : but Cicero, who was never forgetful of 
past kindnesses, instead of resenting his perverse- 
ness, having heard that Sextius was indisposed, 
went in person to bis house, and cured him of all 
his jealousies, by freely offering his assistance and 
patronage in pleading his cause r . 

This was a disappointment to the prosecutors ; 
who flattered themselves that Cicero was so much 
disgusted, that he would not be persuaded to plead 
for him ; but he entered into the cause with a hearty 
inclination, and made it, as in effect it really was, 
his own s . In his speech, which is still extant, 
after laying open the history of his exile, and the 
motives of his own conduct through the whole pro- 
gress of it, he shows, " that the only ground of 
prosecuting Sextius was, his faithful adherence to 
him, or rather to the republic ; that by condemning 
Sextius, they would in effect condemn him, whom 
all the orders of the city had declared to be unjustly 
expelled, by the very same men who were now 
attempting to expel Sextius : that it was a banter 
and ridicule on justice itself, to accuse a man of 
violence, who had been left for dead upon the spot 
by the violence of those who accused him ; and 
whose only crime it was, that he would not suffer 
himself to be quite killed, but presumed to guard 
his life against their future attempts." In short, 
he managed the cause so well, that Sextius was 
acquitted, and in a manner the most honourable, 
by the unanimous suffrages of all the judges ; and 
with a universal applause of Cicero's humanity 
and gratitude'. 

Pompey attended this trial as a friend to Sextius ; 
while Caesar's creature, Vatinius, appeared not only 
as an adversary but a witness against him : which 
gave Cicero an opportunity of lashing him, as Sex- 
tius particularly desired, with all the keenness of 
his raillery, to the great diversion of the audience ; 
for instead of interrogating him in the ordinary way 
about the facts deposed in the trial, he contrived to 
tease him with a perpetual series of questions, 
which revived and exposed the iniquity of his fac- 
tious tribunate, and the whole course of his profli- 
gate life, from his first appearance in public ; and, 

1 Qui cum omnibus salutis meae defensoribus bellum 
sibi esse gerendum judicaverunt. — Pro Sext. 2. 

r Is erat aeger : domum, ut debuimus, ad eum statim 
venimus ; eique nos totos tradidimus : idque fecimus prae- 
ter hominum opinionem, qui nos ei jure suecensere puta- 
bant, ut bumanissimi gratissimique et ipsi et omnibus 
videremur : itaque faciemus.— Ad Quint, ii. 3. 

s P. Sextius est reus non suo sed meo nomine, &c. — Pro 
Sext. 13. 

1 Sextius noster absolutus est, a. d. n. Id. Mart, et quod 
vehementer interfuit reipublicae, nullam videri in ejus- 
modi causa dissensionem esse, omnibus sententiis abso- 
lutus est — Scito nos in eo judicio consecutos esse, ut om- 
nium gratissimi judicaremur. Nam in defendendo nomine 
moroso cumulatissime satisfechnus. — Ad Quint, ii. 4. 



in spite of all his impudence, quite daunted and 
confounded him. Vatinius however made some 
feeble effort to defend himself, and rally Cicero in 
his turn ; and among other things, reproached him 
with the baseness of changing sides, and becoming 
Caesar's friend on account of the fortunate state of 
his affairs : to which Cicero briskly replied, though 
Pompey himself stood by, that he still preferred the 
condition of Bibulus's consulship, which Vatinius 
thought abject and miserable, to the victories and 
triumphs of all men whatsoever. This speech 
against Vatinius is still remaining, under the title 
of the Interrogation ; and is nothing else but what 
Cicero himself calls it, a perpetual invective on the 
magistracy of Vatinius, and the conduct of those 
who supported him u . 

In the beginning of April, the senate granted the 
sum of three hundred thousand pounds to Pompey, 
to be laid out in purchasing corn for the use of the 
city ; where there was still a great scarcity, and as 
great at the same time of money : so that the mov- 
ing a point so tender could not fail of raising some 
ill-humour in the assembly ; when Cicero, whose 
old spirit seems to have revived in him from bis 
late success in Sextius's cause, surprised them by 
proposing, that in the present inability of the trea- 
sury to purchase the Campanian lands, which by 
Caesar's act were to be divided to the people, the 
act itself should be reconsidered, and a day ap- 
pointed for that deliberation : the motion was 
received with a universal joy, and a kind of tumul- 
tuary acclamation : the enemies of the triumvirate 
were extremely pleased with it, in hopes that it 
would make a breach between Cicero and Pompey ; 
but it served only for a proof, of what Cicero him- 
self observes, that it is very hard for a man to depart 
from his old sentiments in politics when they are 
right and just x . 

Pompey, whose nature was singularly reserved, 
expressed no uneasiness upon it, nor took any notice 
of it to Cicero, though they met and supped to- 
gether familiarly as they used to do : but he set 
forward soon after towards Africa, in order to pro- 
vide corn ; and intending to call at Sardinia, 
proposed to embark at Pisa or Leghorn, that he 
might have an interview with Caesar, who was now 
at Luca, the utmost limit of his Gallic government. 
He found Caesar exceedingly out of humour with 
Cicero ; for Crassus had already been with him at 
Ravenna, and greatly incensed him by his account 
of Cicero's late motion ; which he complained of 

u Vatinium, a quo palam oppugnabatur, arbitratu 
nostro concidimus, diis hominibusque plaudentibus.— 
Quid quaeris ? Homo petulans, et audax Vatinius valde 
perturbatus, debilitatusque discessit. — Ad Quint, ii. 4. 

Ego sedente Pompeio, cum ut laudaret P. Sextium in- 
troiisset in urbem, dixissetque testis Vatinius, me fortuna 
et felicitate C. Caesaris commotum, illi amicum esse coe- 
pisse ; dixi, me earn Bibuli fortimam, quam ille afflictam 
putaret, omnium triumpbis victoriisque anteferre. — Tota 
vero interrogatio mea nibil babuit, nisi reprehensionem 
illius tribunatus : in quo omnia dicta sunt libertate, ani- 
moque maximo. — Ep. Fam. i. 9. 

x Pompeio pecunia decreta in rem frumentariam ad 
H. S. cccc. sed eodem die vehementer actum de agro 
Campano, clamore senatus prope concionali. Acriorem 
causam inopia pecuniae faciebat, et annonee caritas. — Ad 
Quint, ii. 5. 

Nonis April, mibi est senatus assensus, ut de agro 
Campano, idibus Maiis, frequenti senatu referretur. 
Nura potui magia in arcem illius causae invaderc — Ep. 
Fam. i. 9. 



124 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



so heavily, that Pompey promised to use all his 
authority to induce Cicero to drop the pursuit of 
it ; and for that purpose sent away an express to 
Rome to entreat him not to proceed any farther in 
it till his return; and when he came afterwards to 
Sardinia, where his lieutenant Q. Cicero then re- 
sided, he entered immediately into an expostulation 
with him about it, " recounting all his services to 
his brother, and that everything which he had done 
for him was done with Caesar's consent; and re- 
minding him of a former conversation between 
themselves concerning Caesar's ~ acts, and what 
Quintus himself had undertaken for his brother on 
that head; and as he then made himself answerable 
for him, so he was now obliged to call him to the 
performance of those engagements : in short, he 
begged of him to press his brother to support and 
defend Caesar's interests and dignity, or if he could 
not persuade him to that, to engage him at least 
not to act against them?." 

This remonstrance from Pompey, enforced by 
his brother Quintus, staggered Cicero's resolution, 
and made him enter into a fresh deliberation with 
himself about the measures of his conduct ; where, 
after casting up the sum of all his thoughts, and 
weighing every circumstance which concerned either 
his own or the public interest, he determined at 
last to drop the affair rather than expose himself 
again, in his present situation, to the animosity of 
Pompey and Caesar, for which he makes the fol- 
lowing apology to his friend Lentulus : — " that 
those who professed the same principles and were 
embarked in the same cause with him, were perpe- 
tually envying and thwarting him, and more dis- 
gusted by the splendour of his life than pleased 
with anything which he did for the public service ; 
that their only pleasure, and what they could not 
even dissemble while he was acting with them, was 
to see him disoblige Pompey and make Caesar his 
enemy, when they at the same time were continually 
caressing Clodius before his face, on purpose to 
mortify him : that if the government indeed had 
fallen into wicked and desperate hands, neither 
hopes nor fears nor gratitude itself could have 
prevailed with him to join with them ; but when 
Pompey held the chief sway, who had acquired it 
by the most illustrious merit, whose dignity he had 
always favoured from his first setting out in the 
world, and from whom he had received the greatest 
obligations, and who at that very time made his 
enemy the common enemy of them both, he had 
no reason to apprehend the charge of inconstancy 
if on some occasions he voted and acted a little 
differently from what he used to do, in complaisance 

y Hoc S. C. in sententiam meam facto, Pompeius, cum 
mihi nihil ostendisset se esse offensum, in Sardiniam et in 
Afrieam profectus est, eoque itinere Lucani ad Csesarem 
venit. Ibi multa de mea sententia questus est Caesar, 
quippe qui etiam Ravenna? Crassum ante vidisset, ab 
eoque in me esset incensus. Sane moleste Pompeium id 
ferre constabat : quod ego, cum audissem ex aliis, maxime 
ex fratre meo cognovi ; quern cum in Sardinia paucis post 
diebus, quam Luca discesserat, convenisset. Te, inquit, 
ipsum cupio : nihil opportunius potuit accidere ! nisi cum 
Marco fratre diligcnter egeris, dependendum tihi est, quod 
mihi pro illo spopondisti : quid multa ? Questus est gra- 
viter : sua merita commemoravit : quid egisset sa>pissime 
de actis Caesaris cum meo fratre, quidque sibi is de me 
recepisset, in memoriam redegit: sequequae de mea salute 
egisset, voluntate Ca?saris egisse, ipsum meum fratrem 
testatus est. — Ep. Fain. i. 9. 



to such a friend : that his union with Pompey 
necessarily included Caesar, with whom both he 
and his brother had a friendship also of long stand- 
ing, which they were invited to renew by all 
manner of civilities and good offices freely offered 
on Caesar's part : that, after Caesar's great exploits 
and victories, the republic itself seemed to inter- 
pose and forbid him to quarrel with such men ; 
that when he stood in need of their assistance, his 
brother had engaged his word for him to Pompey, 
and Pompey to Caesar, and he thought himself 
obliged to make good those engagements 2 ." 

This was the general state of his political be- 
haviour : he had a much larger view and more 
comprehensive knowledge both of men and things 
than the other chiefs of the aristocracy, Bibulus, 
Marcellinus, Cato, Favonius, &c, whose stiffness 
had ruined their cause, and brought them into 
their present subjection, by alienating Pompey and 
the equestrian order from the senate. They con- 
sidered Cicero's management of the triumvirate as 
a mean submission to illegal power, which they 
were always opposing and irritating, though ever 
so unseasonably ; whereas Cicero thought it time 
to give over fighting when the forces were so un- 
equal, and that the more patiently they suffered 
the dominion of their new masters the more 
temperately they would use it a ; being persuaded 
that Pompey at least, who was the head of them, 
had no designs against the public liberty, unless he 
were provoked and driven to it by the perverse 
opposition of his enemies b . These were the 
grounds of that complaisance which he now 
generally paid to him, for the sake both of his own 
and the public quiet ; in consequence of which, 
when the appointed day came for considering the 
case of the Campanian lands, the debate dropped 
of course, when it was understood that Cicero, the 
mover of it, was absent and had changed his mind ; 
though it was not, as he intimates, without some 
struggle in his own breast that he submitted to 
this step, which was likely to draw upon him an 
imputation of levity c . 

z Qui cum ilia sentirent in republica qua? ego agebam, 
semperque sensissent ; me tamen non satisfacere Pompeio, 
Caesaremque inimicissimum mihi futurum, gaudere se 
aiebant : hoc mihi dolendum, sed illud multo magis, quod 
inimicum meum. — Sic amplexabantur — Sic me praesente 
osculabantur — Ego si ab improbis et perditis civibus rem- 
publicam teneri videbam — Non modo praemiis' — Sed ne 
periculis quidem ullis compulsus — Ad eorum causam me 
adjungerem, ne si summa quidem eorum in me merita 
constarent. Cum autem in republica Cn. Pompeius prin- 
ceps esset — meumque inimicum unum in civitate haberet 
inimicum, non putavi famam inconstantiae mihi pertimes- 
cendain, si quibusdam in sententiis paullum me immu- 
tassem, meam que voluntatem ad summi viri, de meque 
optime meriti dignitatem aggregassem, &c. Gravissime 
autem me in hac mente impulit, et Pompeii fides, quam 
de me Cassari dederat, et fratris mei, quam Pompeio — 
Ep. Fam. i. 9. 

a Neque, ut ego arbitror, errarent, si cum pares esse non 
possent, pugnare desisterent. — 

Commutata tota ratio est senatus, judiciorum, rei totius 
publican. Otium nobis exoptandum est : quod ii, qui 
potiuntur rerum, praostituri videntur, si quidam homines 
patientius eorum potentiam ferre potuerint. Dignitatem 
quidem illam consularem fortis et constantis senatoris, 
nihil est, quod cogitemus. Amissa est culpa eorum, qui a 
senatu et ordinem conjunctissimum, ct hominem clarissi- 
irrum abalienaruut. — Ibid. 8. 

b Ep. Fam. i. 9. 

c Quod idibus et postridie fuerat dictum, de agro Cam- 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



125 



His daughter Tullia, having now lived a widow 
about a year, was married to a second husband, 
Furius Crassipes, and the wedding feast held at 
Cicero's house on the sixth of April. We find very- 
little said of the character or condition of this 
Crassipes ; but by Cicero's care in making the 
match, the fortune which he paid, and the con- 
gratulation of his friends upon it, he appears to 
have been a nobleman of principal rank and 
dignity d . Atticus also, who was about a year 
younger than Cicero, was married this spring to 
Pilia, and invited him to the wedding e . As to his 
domestic affairs, his chief care at present was about 
rebuilding three of his houses which were de- 
molished in his exile, and repairing the rest, with 
that also of his brother, out of which they were 
driven in the last attack of Clodius : by the hints 
which he gives of them, they ail seem to have been 
very magnificent, and built under the direction of 
the best architects. Clodius gave no farther inter- 
ruption to them, being forced to quit the pursuit 
of Cicero in order to watch the motions of a more 
dangerous enemy, Milo. Cicero, however, was 
not without a share of uneasiness within his own 
walls ; his brother's wife and his own neither 
agreed well with each other nor their own husbands. 
Quintus's was displeased at her husband's staying 
so long abroad, and Cicero's not disposed to make 
hers the happier for staying at home. His nephew 
also, young Quintus, a perverse youth, spoiled by 
a mother's indulgence, added somewhat to his 
trouble ; for he was now charged with the care of 
his education in the father's absence, and had him 
taught under his own eye by Tyrannio, a Greek 
master, who, with several other learned men of 
that country, was entertained in his house f . 

King Ptolemy's affair was no more talked of ; 
Pompey had other business upon his hands, and 
was so ruffled by the tribune Cato and the consul 
Marcellinus, that he laid aside all thoughts of it 
for himself, and wished to serve Lentulus in it. 
The senate had passed a vote against restoring him 
at all, but one of the tribunes inhibited them from 
proceeding to a decree, and a former decree was 
actually subsisting in favour of Lentulus. Cicero, 
therefore, after a consultation with Pompey, sent 
him their joint and last advice : " that by his com- 
mand of a province so near to Egypt, as he was 
the best judge of what he was able to do, so if he 
found himself master of the thing and was assured 

pano actum iri, non est actum. In hac causa mini aqua 
hffiret. — Ad Quint, ii. 8. 

d De nostra Tullia— spero nos cum Crassipede confecisse. 
—Ibid. 4. 

Quod mihi de filia et de Crassipede gratularis— Speroque 
et op to hanc conjunctionem nobis voluptati fore.— Epist. 
Fam. i 7- 

Viaticum Crassipes prseripit.— Ad Att. iv. 5. 

e Prid. Id. haec scripsi ante lucem. Eo die apudPompo- 
nium in ejus nuptiis eram caenaturus.— Ad Quint, ii. 3. 

f Domus utriusque nostrum aedificatur strenue. [Ibid. 
4.] Longilium redemptorem cohortatus sum. Fidem 
mihi faciebat, se velle nobis placere. Domus erit egregia. 
—Ibid. 6. 

Quintus tuus, puer optimus, eruditur egregie. Hoc 
nunc magis animadverto, quod Tyrannio docet apud me. 
—Ibid. 4. 

A. D. vm. Id. Apr. sponsalia Crassipedi praebui. Huic 
convivio puer optimus, Quintus tuus, quod perleviter 
commotus fuerat, defuit.— Multum is mecum sermonem 
habuit et perhumanum de discordiis mulierum nostra- 
rum.— Pomponia autem etiam de te questa est.— Ibid. 6. 



of success, he might leave the king at Ptolemais, 
or some other neighbouring city, and proceed 
without him to Alexandria, where, if by the 
influence of his fleet and troops he could appease 
the public dissentions, and persuade the inhabitants 
to receive their king peaceably, he might then carry 
him home, and so restore him according to the 
first decree ; yet without a multitude, as our re- 
ligious men (says he) tell us, the sibyl has enjoined; 
that it was the opinion, however, of them both, 
that people would judge of the fact by the event. 
If he was certain, therefore, of carrying his point, 
he should not defer it; if doubtful, should not 
undertake it : for as the world would applaud him 
if he effected it with ease, so a miscarriage might 
be fatal on account of the late vote of the senate, 
and the scruple about religion?." But Lentulus, 
wisely judging the affair too hazardous for one of 
his dignity and fortunes, left it to a man of more 
desperate character, Gabinius, who ruined himself 
soon after by embarking in it. 

The tribune Cato, who was perpetually inveighing 
against keeping gladiators, like so many standing 
armies to the terror of the citizens, had lately 
bought a band of them, but finding himself unable 
to maintain them was contriving to part with them 
again without noise or scandal. Milo got notice 
of it, and privately employed a person, not one of 
his own friends, to buy them ; and when they were 
purchased, Racilius, another tribune, taking the 
matter upon himself, and pretending that they 
were bought for him, published a proclamation 
that Cato's family of gladiators was to be sold by 
auction, which gave no small diversion to the 
city h . 

Milo's trial being put off to the fifth of May, 
Cicero took the benefit of a short vacation to make 
an excursion into the country and visit his estates 
and villas in different parts of Italy. He spent 
five days at Arpinum, whence he proceeded to his 
other houses at Pompeii and Cumse ; and stopped 
a while, on his return, at Antium, where he had 
lately rebuilt his house, and was now disposing and 
ordering his library by the direction of Tyrannio, 
the remains of which, he says, were more consider- 
able than he expected from the late ruin. Atticus 
lent him two of his librarians to assist his own in 
taking catalogues, and placing the books in order ; 
which he calls the infusion of a soul into the body 

g Te perspicere posse, qui Ciliciam Cyprumque teneas, 
quid efncere et quid consequi possis, et, si res facultatem 
habitura videatur, ut Alexandriam atque iEgyptum tenere 
possis, esse et tuae et nostri imperii dignitatis, Ptolemaide, 
aut aliquo propinquo loco rege collocato, te cum elasse, 
atque exercitu proficisci Alexandriam : ut cum earn pace, 
praesidiisque firmaris, Ptolemasus redeat in regnum : ita 
fore, ut per te restituatur, quemadmodum senatus initio 
censuit ; et sine multitudine reducatur, quemadmodum 
homines religiosi sibyllae placere dixerunt. Sed ha?c sen- 
ten tia sic et illi et nobis probabatur, ut ex eventu homines 
de tuo consilio existimaturos videremus — Nos quidem hoc 
sentimus; si exploration tibi sit, posse te regni illius 
potiri ; non esse cunctandum : si dubium, non esse conan- 
dum, &c— Ep. Fam. i. 7. 

h Hie vindex gladiatorum et bestiariorum emerat — bes- 
tiarios— Hos alere non poterat. Itaque vix tenebat. Sensit 
Milo, dedit cuidam non familiar! negotium, qui sine suspi- 
cione emeret earn familiam a Catone : quae simulatque 
abducta est, Racilius rem patefecit, eosque homines sibi 
emptos esse dixit — et tabulam proscripsit, se familiam 
Catonianam venditurum. In earn tabulam niagni risus 
consequebantur. — Ad Quint, ii. 6. 



126 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



of his house 1 . During this tour, his old enemy 
Gabinius, the proconsul of Syria, having gained 
some advantage in Judea against Aristobulus, who 
had been dethroned by Pompey, and on that ac- 
count was raising troubles in the country, sent 
public letters to the senate to give an account of 
his victory, and to beg the decree of a thanksgiving 
for it. His friends took the opportunity of moving 
the affair in Cicero's absence, from whose authority 
they apprehended some obstruction ; but the senate, 
in a full house, slighted his letters and rejected his 
suit : an affront which had never been offered 
before to any proconsul. Cicero was infinitely de- 
lighted with it, calls the resolution divine, and was 
doubly pleased for its being the free and genuine 
judgment of the senate, without any struggle or 
influence on his part ; and reproaching Gabinius 
with it afterwards, says that by this act the senate 
had declared that they could not believe that he, 
whom they had always known to be a traitor at 
home, could ever do anything abroad that was use- 
ful to the republic k . 

Many prodigies were reported to have happened 
about this time in the neighbourhood of Rome : 
horrible noises under ground, with clashing of 
arms ; and on the Alban hill a little shrine of Juno, 
which stood on a table facing the east, turned sud- 
denly of itself towards the north. These terrors 
alarmed the city, and the senate consulted the 
haruspices,who were the public diviners or prophets 
of the state, skilled in all the Tuscan discipline of 
interpreting portentous events, who gave the fol- 
lowing answer in writing, — that supplications must 
be made to Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and the 
other gods ; that the solemn shows and plays had 
been negligently exhibited and polluted ; sacred 
and religious places made profane ; ambassadors 
killed, contrary to right and law ; faith and oaths 
disregarded ; ancient and hidden sacrifices care- 
lessly performed and profaned ; — that the gods 
gave this warning, lest, by the discord and dissen- 
tion of the better sort, dangers and destruction 
should fall upon the senate and the chiefs of the 
city, by which means the provinces would fall 
under the power of a single person, their armies 
be beaten, great loss ensue, and honours be heaped 
on the unworthy and disgraced 1 . 

One may observe from this answer, that the 
diviners were under the direction of those who 
endeavoured to apply the influence of religion to 
the cure of their civil disorders : each party inter- 

i Offendes designationem Tyrannionis mirificam in 
librorum meorum bibliotheca ; quorum reliquia? multo 
meliores sunt, quam putaram. Etiam vellem mini mittas 
de tuis librariolis duos aliquos, quibus Tyrannio utatur 
glutinatoribus, et ad camera administris. — Ad Att. iv. 4. 

Postea vero quam Tyrannio mihi libros disposuit, mens 
addita videtur meis aedibus : qua quidem in re, mirifica 
opera Dionysii et Menophili tui fuit.— Ibid. 8. 

k Id. Maiis senatus frequcns divinus fuit in supplicatione 
Gabinio deneganda. Adjurat Procilius hoc nemini aeci- 
disse. Foris valde plauditur. Mihi cum sua sponte 
jucundum, cum jucundius, quod me absente, est enim 
dXiKptveS judicium, sine oppugnatione, sine gratia nostra. 
— Ad Quint, ii. 8 ; iv. 5. 

Hoc statuit senatus, cum frequens supplicationem Gabi- 
nio denegavit. — A proditore, atque eo, quern praesentem 
hostem reipublicae cognosset, bene rcmpublicam geri non 
potuisse. — De Prov. Consul. G. 

1 Vid. Argum. Manutii in Orat. de Harusp. Respons. — 
Dio, 1. xxxix. p. 100. 



preted it according to their own views. Clodius 
took a handle from it of venting his spleen afresh 
against Cicero ; and calling the people together for 
that purpose, attempted to persuade them that this 
divine admonition was designed particularly against 
him ; and that the article of the sacred and reli- 
gious places referred to the case of his house, which, 
after a solemn consecration to religion, was ren- 
dered again profane ; charging all the displeasure 
of the gods to Cicero's account, who affected no- 
thing less than a tyranny, and the oppression of 
their liberties 1 ". 

Cicero made a reply to Clodius the next day in 
the senate, where, after a short and general invec- 
tive upon his profligate life, " he leaves him, he 
says, a devoted victim to Milo, who seemed to be 
given to them by heaven for the extinction of such 
a plague, as Scipio was for the destruction of Car- 
thage. He declares the prodigy to be one of the 
most extraordinary which had ever been reported 
to the senate ; but laughs at the absurdity of ap- 
plying any part of it to him, since his house, as 
he proves at large, was more solemnly cleared 
from any service or relation to religion than any 
other house in Rome, by the judgment of the 
priests, the senate, and all the orders of the city 11 ." 
Then running through the several articles of the 
answer, he shows them " all to tally so exactly 
with the notorious acts and impieties of Clodius's 
life, that they could not possibly be applied to any- 
thing else. That as to the sports, said to be neg- 
ligently performed and polluted, it clearly denoted 
the pollution of the Megalensian play, the most 
venerable and religious of all other shows, which 
Clodius himself, as sedile, exhibited in honour of 
the Mother of the gods ; where, when the magis- 
trates and citizens were seated to partake of the 
diversions, and the usual proclamation was made, 
to command all slaves to retire, a vast body of 
them, gathered from all parts of the city by the 
order of Clodius, forced their way upon the stage, 
to the great terror of the assembly ; where much 
mischief and bloodshed would have ensued, if the 
consul Marcellinus, by his firmness and presence 
of mind, had not quieted the tumult. And in 
another representation of the same plays, the slaves, 
encouraged again by Clodius, were so audacious 
and successful in a second irruption, that they 
drove the whole company out of the theatre, and 
possessed it entirely to themselves . That as to 
the profanation of sacred and religious places, it 
could not be interpreted of anything so aptly as of 
what Clodius and his friends had done ; for that, 
in the house of Q. Seius, which he had bought 
after murdering the owner, there was a chapel and 
altars, which he had lately demolished. That L. 
Piso had destroyed a celebrated chapel of Diana, 
where all that neighbourhood, and some even of 
the senate, used annually to perform their family 
sacrifices. That Serranus also had thrown down, 
burnt, and profaned several consecrated chapels, 
and raised other buildings upon them p. That as 
to ambassadors killed contrary to law and right, 
though it was commonly interpreted of those from 
Alexandria, yet other ambassadors had been mur- 
dered, whose death was no less offensive to the 
gods : as Theodosius, killed with the privity and 
permission of Clodius ; and Plator, by the order of 

111 Dio, 1. xxxix. p. 100. u De Harusp. Respons. 6. 

° Ibid. 10,11, 12, 13. P Ibid. 14, 15. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



127 



Piso i. As to the violation of faith and oaths, that 
it related evidently to those judges who had ab- 
solved Clodius, as being one of the most memora- 
ble and flagrant perjuries which Rome had ever 
known : that the answer itself suggested this 
interpretation, when it subjoined, that ancient and 
occult sacrifices were polluted ; which could refer 
to nothing so properly as to the rites of the Bona 
Dea, which were the most ancient and the most 
occult of any in the city ; celebrated with incre- 
dible secrecy to that goddess, whose name it was 
not lawful for men to know, and with ceremonies 
which no man ever pried into but Clodius r . Then, 
as to the warning given by the gods, of dangers 
likely to ensue from the dissentions of the princi- 
pal citizens ; that there was no man so particularly 
active in promoting those dissentions as Clodius, 
who was perpetually inflaming one side or the 
other ; — now pursuing popular, now aristocratical 
measures ; at one time a favourite of the triumvi- 
rate, at another of the senate ; whose credit was 
wholly supported by their quarrels and animosities." 
He exhorts them, therefore, in the conclusion, " to 
beware of falling into those miseries of which the 
gods so evidently forewarned them ; and to take 
care especially that the form of the republic was 
not altered, since all civil contests between great 
and powerful citizens must necessarily end either 
in a universal destruction, or a tyranny of the con- 
queror : that the state was now in so tottering a 
condition, that nothing could preserve it but their 
concord : that there was no hope of its being better 
while Clodius remained unpunished ; and but one 
degree left of being worse, by being wholly ruined 
and enslaved : for the prevention of which the 
gods had given them this remarkable admonition ; 
for they were not to believe, what was sometimes 
represented on the stage, that any god ever de- 
scended from heaven to converse familiarly with 
men, but that these extraordinary sounds and agi- 
tations of the world, the air, the elements, were 
the only voice and speech which heaven made use 
of: that these admonished them of their danger, 
and pointed out the remedy ; and that the gods, by 
intimating so freely the way of their safety, had 
shown how easy it would be to pacify them by 
pacifying only their own animosities and discords 
among themselves." 

About the middle of the summer, and before the 
time of choosing new consuls, which was commonly 
in August, the senate began to deliberate on the 
provinces which were to be assigned to them at the 
expiration of their office. The consular provinces, 
about which the debate singly turned, were the two 
Gauls which Caesar now held, Macedonia which 
Piso, and Syria which Gabinius, possessed. All 
who spoke before Cicero, excepting Servilius, were 
for taking one or both the Gauls from Csesar, 
which was what the senate generally desired ; but 
when it came to Cicero's turn, he gladly laid hold 
on the occasion to revenge himself on Piso and 
Gabinius, and exerted all his authority to get them 
recalled, with some marks of disgrace, and their 
governments assigned to the succeeding consuls : 
but as for Csesar, his opinion was, that his com- 
mand should be continued to him till he had 
finished the war which he was carrying on with 
such success, and settled the conquered countries. 



i De Harusp. Respons. 16. 



Ibid. 17, 18. 



This gave no small offence ; and the consul Phi- 
lippus could not forbear interrupting and remind- 
ing him, that he had more reason to be angry with 
Caesar than with Gabinius himself, since Csesar was 
the author and raiser of all that storm which had 
oppressed him. But Cicero replied, that, in this 
vote, he was not pursuing his private resentment, 
but the public good, which had reconciled him to 
Caesar ; and that he could not be an enemy to one 
who was deserving so well of his country ; that a 
year or two more would complete his conquests, 
and reduce all Gaul to a state of peaceful subjec- 
tion : that the cause was widely different between 
Caesar and the other two ; that Caesar's adminis- 
tration was beneficial, prosperous, glorious to the 
republic ; theirs scandalous, ignominious, hurtful 
to their subjects, and contemptible to their ene- 
mies. In short, he managed the debate so, that 
the senate came fully into his sentiments, and de- 
creed the revocation of Piso and Gabinius s . 

He was now likewise engaged in pleading two 
considerable causes at the bar ; the one in defence 
of Cornelius Balbus, the other of M. Caelius. Bal- 
bus was a native of Gades, in Spain, of a splendid 
family in that city, who, for his fidelity and ser- 
vices to the Roman generals in that province, and 
especially in the Sertorian war, had the freedom of 
Rome conferred upon him by Pompey, in virtue of 
a law which authorised him to grant it to as many 
as he thought proper. But Pompey 's act was now 
called in question as originally null and invalid, on 
a pretence that the city of Gades was not within 
the terms of that alliance and relation to Rome 
which rendered its citizens capable of that pri- 
vilege. Pompey and Crassus were his advocates, 
and, at their desire, Cicero also, who had the third 
place or post of honour assigned to him, to give 
the finishing hand to the cause 1 . The prosecution 
was projected not so much out of enmity to Balbus 
as to his patrons, Pompey and Caesar, by whose 
favour he had acquired great wealth and power ; 
being at this time general of the artillery to Caesar, 
and the principal manager or steward of all his 
affairs. The judges gave sentence for him, and 
confirmed his right to the city ; from which foun- 
dation he was raised afterwards by Augustus to 
the consulate itself. His nephew also, young 
Balbus, who was made free with him at the same 
time, obtained the honour of a triumph for his 
victories over the Garamantes ; and, as Pliny tells 
us, they were the only instances of foreigners and 

s Itaque ego idem, qui nunc consulibus iis, qui designati 
erunt, Syriam, Macedoniamque decerno — Quod si essent 
illi optimi viri, tamen ego mea sententia C. Csesari non- 
dum succedendum putarem. Qua de re dicam, Patres 
Conscripti, quod sentio, atque illam interpellationem 
familiarissimi mei, qua paullo ante interrupta est oratio 
mea, non pertimescam. Negat me vir optimus inimicio- 
rem debere esse Gabinio, quam Cajsari ; omnem enim 
illam tempestatem, cui cesserim, Cassare impulsore atque 
adjutore esse excitatam. Cui si pritnum sic respondeam, 
me communis utilitatis habere rationem, non doloris nici. — 
Hie me meus in rempublicam animus pristinus ac pcrennis, 
cum C. Caasare reducit, reconciliat, restituit in gratiam. 
Quod volent denique homines existiment, nemini ego 
possum esse bene de republica merenti non amicus. — Vid. 
Orat. De Provin. Cons. 8, 9, &c. 

1 Quo mihi difficilior est hie extremus perorandi locus. — 
Sed mos est gerendus, non modo Cornelio, cujus ego volun- 
tati in ejus periculis nullo modo deesse possum ; sed etiam 
Cn. Pompeio.— Pro Balbo, 1, 2, &c. 



128 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



adopted citizens who had ever advanced them- 
selves to either of those honours in Rome ,l . 

Cselius, whom he next defended, was a young 
gentleman of equestrian rank, of great parts and 
accomplishments, trained under the discipline of 
Cicero himself; to whose care he was committed 
by his father upon his first introduction into the 
forum. Before he was of age to hold any magis- 
tracy, he had distinguished himself by two public 
impeachments ; the one of C. Antonius, Cicero's 
colleague in the consulship, for conspiring against 
the state ; the other of L. Atratinus, for bribery 
and corruption. Atratinus' son was now reveng- 
ing his father's quarrel, and accused Cselius of 
public violence, for being concerned in the assas- 
sination of Dio, the chief of the Alexandrian 
embassy, and of an attempt to poison Clodia, the 
sister of Clodius : he had been this lady's gallant, 
whose resentment for her favours, slighted by him, 
was the real source of all his trouble. In this 
speech, Cicero treats the character and gallantries 
of Clodia, her commerce with Cselius, and the 
gaieties and licentiousness of youth, with such a 
vivacity of wit and humour, that makes it one of 
the most entertaining which he has left to us. 
Cselius, who was truly a libertine, lived on the 
Palatine Hill, in a house which he hired of Clo- 
dius ; and among the other proofs of his extrava- 
gance, it was objected, that a young man in no 
public employment should take a separate house 
from his father, at the yearly rent of two hundred 
and fifty pounds. To which Cicero replied, that 
Clodius, he perceived, had a mind to sell his 
house, by setting the value of it so high ; whereas, 
in truth, it was but a little paltry dwelling, of 
small rent, scarce above eighty pounds per annum x . 
Cselius was acquitted ; and ever after professed 
the highest regard for Cicero, with whom he held 
a correspondence of letters, which will give us 
occasion to speak more of him in the sequel of the 
history. 

Cicero seems to have composed a little poem 
about this time, in compliment to Csesar ; and 
excuses his not sending it to Atticus, "because 
Csesar pressed to have it, and he had reserved no 
copy ; though, to confess the truth, (he says,) he 
found it very difficult to digest the meanness of 
recanting his old principles. But adieu (says he) 
to all right, true, honest counsels : it is incredible 
what perfidy there is in those who want to be 
leaders, and who really would be so, if there was 
any faith in them. I felt what they were, to my 
cost, when I was drawn in, deserted, and betrayed 
by them : I resolved still to act on with them in 
all things, but found them the same as before : 
till, by your advice, 1 came at last to a better 
mind. You will tell me, that you advised me 
indeed to act, but not to write ; 'tis true ; but I 
was willing to put myself under a necessity of 

u Fuit et Balbus Cornelius major consul — Primus exter- 
norum, atque etiam in oceano genitorum usus illo honore. 
— Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 43. 

Garama caput Garamantum : omnia armis Romanis 
superata, et a Cornelio Balbo triumphata, uno omnium 
externo curru et Quiritium jure donate : quippe Gadibus 
nato civitas Romana cum Balbo majore patruo data est. 
—Ibid. v. 5. 

x Sumptus unius generis objectus est, habitationis : 
triginta millibus dixistis eum habitare. Nunc demum 
intelligo P. Clodii insulam esse venalem, cujus hie in asdi- 
culis habitet, decern, ut opinor, millibus.— Pro Caelio, 7. 



adhering to my new alliance, and preclude the pos- 
sibility of returning to those who, instead of pitying 

me, as they ought, never cease envying me But 

since those who have no power will not love me, 
my business is to acquire the love of those who 
have : you will say, I wish that you had done it 
long ago ; I know you wished it ; and I was a mere 
ass for not minding you?." 

In this year also, Cicero wrote that celebrated 
letter to Lucceius, in which he presses him to 
attempt the history of his transactions. Lucceius 
was a man of eminent learning and abilities, and 
had just finished the history of the Italic and 
Marian civil wars ; with intent to carry it down 
through his own times, and, in the general rela- 
tion, to include, as he had promised, a particular 
account of Cicero's acts : but Cicero, who was 
pleased with his style and manner of writing, 
labours to engage him, in this letter, to postpone 
the design of his continued history, and enter 
directly on that separate period, " from the begin- 
ning of his consulship to his restoration ; compre- 
hending Catiline's conspiracy and his own exile." 
He observes, " that this short interval was distin- 
guished with such a variety of incidents, and 
unexpected turns of fortune, as furnished the hap- 
piest materials both to the skill of the writer and 
the entertainment of the reader : that when an 
author's attention was confined to a single and 
select subject, he was more capable of adorning it, 
and displaying his talents, than in the wide and 
diffusive field of general history. But if he did 
not think the facts themselves worth the pains of 
adorning, that he would yet allow so much to 
friendship, to affection, and even to that favour 
which he had so laudably disclaimed in his pre- 
faces, as not to confine himself scrupulously to the 
strict laws of history and the rules of truth. That, 
if he would undertake it, he would supply him 
with some rough memoirs, or commentaries, for 
the foundation of his work ; if not, that he himself 
should be forced to do what many had done before 
him, write his own life — a task liable to many 
exceptions and difficulties : where a man would 
necessarily be restrained by modesty on the one 
hand, or partiality on the other ; either from blam- 
ing or praising himself so much as he deserved," 
&c. z 

This letter is constantly alleged as a proof of 
Cicero's vanity, and excessive love of praise : but 
we must consider it as written, not by a philoso- 

y Urgebar ab eo, ad quern misi, et non habebam exem- 
plar. Quid ? etiam, (dudum circumrodo, quod devorandum 
est) subturpicula mihi videbatur iraXivcpdia ; sed valeant 
recta, vera, honesta consilia. Non est credibile, qua2 sit 
perfidia in istis principibus, ut volunt esse, et ut essent, si 
quicquam haberent fidei. Senseram, noram, inductus, 
relictus, projectusab iis : tamen hoc erat in animo, ut cum 
iis in republica consentirem. Iidem erant, qui fuerant. 
Vix aliquando te auctore resipivi. Dices, ea te monuisse, 
quaa facerem, non etiam ut scriberem. Ego mehercule 
mihi necessitatem volui imponere hujus nova? conjunc- 
tionis, ne qua mihi liceret labi ad illos, qui etiam turn cum 
misereri mei debent, non desinunt invidere. Sed tamen 
modici fuimus viroGeaei, ut scripsi — Sed quoniam qui 
nihil possunt, ii me amare nolunt, demus operant, ut ab 
iis, qui possunt, diligamur. Dices, vellem jampridem. 
Scio te voluisse, et me asinum germanum fuisse. — Ad Att. 
iv. 5. 

Scribis poema ab eo nostrum probari.— Ad Quint, ii. 15. 

z Ep. Fam. 12. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



129 



pher, but a statesman, conscious of the greatest 
services to his country, for which he had been bar- 
barously treated ; and, on that account, the more 
eager to have them represented in an advantageous 
light, and impatient to taste some part of that glory 
when living, which he was sure to reap from them 
when dead : and as to the passage which gives the 
offence, where he presses his friend to exceed even 
the bounds of truth in his praises, it is urged only, 
we see, conditionally, and upon an absurd or im- 
probable supposition, that Lucceius did not think 
the acts themselves really laudable, or worth 
praising : but whatever exceptions there may be to 
the morality, there can be none to the elegance and 
composition of the letter, which is filled with a 
variety of beautiful sentiments, illustrated by ex- 
amples drawn from a perfect knowledge of history ; 
so that it is justly ranked among the capital pieces 
of the epistolary kind which remain to us from 
antiquity. Cicero had employed more than ordi- 
nary pains upon it, and was pleased with his 
success in it : for he mentions it to Atticus with no 
small satisfaction, and wished him to get a copy of 
it from their friend Lucceius. The effect of it was, 
that Lucceius undertook what Cicero desired, and 
probably made some progress in it, since Cicero 
sent him the memoirs which he promised ; and 
Lucceius lived many years after in an uninter- 
rupted friendship with him, though neither this 
nor any other of his writings had the fortune to be 
preserved to succeeding ages a . 

All people's eyes and inclinations began now to 
turn towards Caesar, who by the eclat of his victo- 
ries seemed to rival the fame of Pompey himself, 
and by his address and generosity gained ground 
upon him daily in authority and influence in public 
affairs. He spent the winter at Luca, whither a 
vast concourse of all ranks resorted to him from 
Rome. Here Pompey and Crassus were again 
made friends by him ; and a project formed that 
they should jointly seize the consulship for the 
next year, though they had not declared themselves 
candidates within the usual time. L. Domitius 
Ahenobarbus, a professed enemy, was one of the 
competitors ; who, thinking himself sure of success, 
could not forbear bragging, that he would effect, 
when consul, what he could not do when praetor, 
rescind Caesar's acts, and recal him from his 
government 1 * ; which made them resolve at all 
hazards to defeat him. What greatly favoured 
their design was the obstinacy of the tribune C. 
Cato, who, to revenge himself on Marcellinus, for 
not suffering him to hold any assemblies of the 
people, for promulgating his laws, would not suffer 
the consuls to hold any, for the choice of the 
magistrates . The triumvirate supported him in 
this resolution till the year expired, and the govern- 

a Epistolam, Lucceio quam misi — fac ut ab eo sumas : 
valde bella est : eumque ut adproperet adhorteris, et, 
quod mihi se ita facturum rescripsit, agas gratias. — Ad 
Att. iv. 6. 

Tu Lucceio librum nostrum dabis. — Ibid. 11. 

b Sed cum L. Domitius consulatus candidatus palam 
minaretur, consulem se effecturum, quod prastor nequis- 
set, adempturumque ei exercitus. Crassum Pompeium- 
que in urbem provincial suae Lucam extractos compulit, 
ut detrudendi Domitii causa alteram consulatum peterent. 
— Sueton. J. Caes. 24. 

c Consul — dies comitiales ex emit omnes — C. Cato con- 
cionatus est, comitia baberi non siturum, si sibi cum 
populo agendi dies essent exempti.— Ad Quint, ii. 6. 



A. urb. 698. 

crc. 52. 

coss. 

CN.POMPEIUS 
MAGNUS II. 
M. LICINTUS 
CRASSUS IJ. 



ment fell into an interregnum ; when by faction 
and violence, and the terror of troops, poured into 
the city, they extorted the consulship out of the 
hands of Domitius, and secured it to themselves* 1 . 
This made Pompey generally odious, who, in all 
this height of greatness, could not defend himself 
from the perpetual railleries and insults of his 
adversaries, which yet he bore with singular temper 
and patience. Marcellinus was constantly alarming 
the city with the danger of his power ; and, as he 
was haranguing one day on that subject, being 
encouraged by a general acclamation of the people, 
" Cry out, citizens," says he, " cry out while you may, 
for it will not be long in your power to do so with 
safety e ." Cn. Piso also, a young nobleman, who 
had impeached Manilius Crispus, a man of praeto- 
rian rank and notoriously guilty, being provoked 
by Pompey's protection of him, turned his attack 
against Pompey himself, and charged him with 
many crimes against the state ; being asked, there- 
fore, by Pompey, why he did not choose to impeach 
him rather than the criminal, he replied briskly, 
that if he would give bail to stand a trial, without 
raising a civil war, he would soon bring him before 
his judges f . 

During the continuance of these tumults, occa- 
sioned by the election of the new consuls, Cicero 
retired into the country, where he 
staid to the beginning of May, much 
out of humour, and disgusted both 
with the republic and himself. Atti- 
cus's constant advice to him was, to 
consult his safety and interest, by 
uniting himself with the men of power ; 
and they, on their part, were as con- 
stantly inviting him to it, by all possible assurances 
of their affection : but in his answers to Atticus he 
observes, " that their two cases were very different ; 
that Atticus, having no peculiar character, suffered 
no peculiar indignity, nothing but what was com- 
mon to all the citizens ; whereas his own condition 
was such, that if he spoke what he ought to do, he 
should be looked upon as a madman ; if what was 
useful only to himself, as a slave ; if nothing at all, 
as quite oppressed and subdued ; that his uneasi- 
ness was the greater, because he could not show 
it without being thought ungrateful. — Shall I with- 
draw myself then (says he) from business, and 
retire to the port of ease ? That will not be allowed 
to me. Shall I follow these leaders to the wars, 
and after having refused to command, submit to 
be commanded ? I will do so, for I see that it is 
your advice, and wish that I had always followed 
it : or shall I resume my post, and enter again into 
affairs ? I cannot persuade myself to that, but 
begin to think Philoxenus in the right, who chose 
to be carried back to prison, rather than commend 
the tyrant's verses. This is what I am now medi- 
tating, to declare my dislike at least of what they 
are doing C 

Such were the agitations of his mind at this 

d Quid enim boc miserius, quam eum, qui tot annos, 
quod habet, designatus consul fuerit, consulem fieri non 
posse? &c— Ad Att. iv. 8 ; vide Dio, p. 103. 

e Acclamate, inquit. Quirites, acclamate. dum licet : jam 
enim vobis impune facere non licebit. — Val. Max. vi. 2. 

f Da, inquit, prasdes reipublicse te. si postulatus fueris, 
civile bellum non excitaturum ; etiam do tuoprius, quam 
de Manilii capite, in concilium judices mittam. — Ibid. 

g Tu quidem, etsi es natura ttoAitikSs, tamen nullam 
K 



130 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



time, as he frequently signifies in his letters : he 
was now at one of his villas on the delightful shore 
of Baise, the chief place of resort and pleasure for 
the great and rich ; Pompey came thither in April, 
and no sooner arrived than he sent him his com- 
pliments, and spent his whole time with him : they 
had much discourse on public affairs, in which 
Pompey expressed great uneasiness, and owned 
himself dissatisfied with his own part in them ; but 
Cicero, in his account of the conversation, inti- 
mates some suspicion of his sincerity 11 . In the 
midst of this company and diversion, Cicero's 
entertainment was in his studies ; for he never 
resided anywhere without securing to himself the 
use of a good library : here he had the command 
of Faustus's, the son of Sylla, and son-in-law of 
Pompey, one of the best collections of Italy, 
gathered from the spoils of Greece, and especially 
of Athens, from which Sylla brought awa^r many 
thousand volumes. He had nobody in the house 
with him but Dionysius, a learned Greek slave, 
whom Atticus had made free, and who was en- 
trusted with the instruction of the two young 
Ciceros, the son and the nephew : with this com- 
panion he was devouring books, since the wretched 
state of the public had deprived him, as he tells us, 
of all other pleasures. " I had much rather," says he 
to Atticus, " be sitting on your little bench under 
Aristotle's picture, than in the curule chairs of our 
great ones ; or taking a turn with you in your 
walks, than with him whom it must, I see, be my 
fate to walk with : as for the success of that walk, 
let fortune look to it, or some god, if there be any, 
who takes care of us 1 ." He mentions in the same 
letter a current report at Puteoli, that king 
Ptolemy was restored ; and desires to know what 
account they had of it at Rome : the report was 
very true, for Gabinius, tempted by Ptolemy's gold, 



habes propriam servitutem: communi frueris nomine. 
Ego vero, qui, si loquor derepublica quod oportet, insanus, 
si quod opus est, servus existimor, si taceo, oppressus et 
captus ; quo dolore esse debeo ? quo sum scilicet hoc etiam 
acriore, quod ne dolere quidem possum, ut non ingratus 
videar. Quid si cessare libeat et in otii portum conf ugere ? 
Nequicquam. Immo etiam in bellum et in castra : ergo 
erimus diradoi, qui rayoi esse noluimus ? Sic faciendum 
est ; tibi enim ipsi, cui utinam semper paruissem, sic 
video placere. Reliqui est, ^Trdprav €Aa;£e?, ravrav 
Kocr[.i6i ; non mehercule possum : et Philoxeno ignosco, 
qui reduci in carcerem maluit. Venmtamen id ipsum 
mecum in his locis commentor, ut ista improbem.— Ad 
Att. iv. 6. 

The story of Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse, and Phi- 
loxenus the poet, is told by Diodorus Siculus, lib. xv. p. 
331. 

h Pompeius in Cumanum Parilibus venit : misitadme 
statim qui salutem nuntiaret : ad eum postridie mane 
vadebam.— Ad Att. iv. 10. 

Nos hie cum Pompeio fuimus : sane sibi displicens ; ut 
loquebatur ; sic est enim in hoc hominedicendum.— In nos 
vero suavissime eff usus ; venit etiam ad me in Cumanum 
a se. — Ibid. 9. 

» Ego hie pascor bibliotheca Fausti. Fortasse tu puta- 
bas his rebus Puteolanis et Lucrinensibus. Neista quidem 
desunt. Sed mehercule a casteris oblectationibus deseror 
et voluptatibus propter rempublicam, sic Uteris sustentor 
et recreor ; maloque in ilia tua sedecula, quam habes sub 
imagine Aristotelis, sedere, quam in istorum sella curuli, 
tecumque apud te ambulare, quam cum eo, quocum video 
esse ambulandum. Sed de ilia ambulatione fors videret, 
aut si qui est, qui curet deus.— Ibid. 10. 

Nos hie voramus literas cum homine mirifico, ita meher- 
cule sentio, Dionysio.— Ibid. 11. 



and the plunder of Egypt, and encouraged also, 
as some write, by Pompey himself, undertook to 
replace him on the throne with his Syrian army ; 
which he executed with a high hand, and the 
destruction of all the king's enemies, in open 
defiance of the authority of the senate, and the 
direction of the sibyl : this made a great noise at 
Rome, and irritated the people to such a degree, 
that they resolved to make him feel their displeasure 
for it very severely at his return k . 

His colleague Piso came home the first from 
his nearer government of Macedonia, after an in- 
glorious administration of a province, whence no 
consular senator had ever returned but to a triumph. 
For though, on the account of some trifling advan- 
tage in the field, he had procured himself to be 
saluted emperor by his army, yet the occasion was 
so contemptible, that he durst not send any letters 
upon it to the senate ; but after oppressing the 
subjects, plundering the allies, and losing the best 
part of his troops against the neighbouring barba- 
rians, who invaded and laid waste the country, he 
ran away in disguise from a mutiny of the soldiers, 
whom he disbanded at last without their pay 1 . 
When he arrived at Rome, he stripped his fasces 
of their laurel, and entered the city obscurely and 
ignominiously, without any other attendance than 
his own retinue" 1 . On his first appearance in 
public, trusting to the authority of his son-in-law, 
Csesar, he had the hardiness to attack Cicero, and 
complain to the senate of his injurious treatment 
of him : but when he began to reproach him with 
the disgrace of his exile, the whole assembly inter- 
rupted him by a loud and general clamour 11 . 
Among other things with which he upbraided 
Cicero, he told him that it was not any envy for 
what he had done, but the vanity of what he had 
said, which had driven him into exile ; and that a 
single verse of his, 

Cedant arma toga?, eoncedat laurea lingua?, 
was the cause of all his calamity, by provoking 
Pompey to make him feel, how much the power of 
the general was superior to that of the orator : he 
put him in mind also, that it was mean and unge- 
nerous to exert his spleen only against such whom 
he had reason to contemn, without daring to 
meddle with those who had more power, and where 
his resentment, was more due . But it had been 

« Vid. Dio, 1. xxxix. p. 116, &c. 

1 Ex qua aliquot praetorio imperio, consulari quidem 
nemo rediit, qui incolumis fuerit, qui non triumphant. — 
In Pison. 16. 

Ut ex ea provincia, qua? fuit ex omnibus una maxime 
triumphalis, nullas sit ad senatum literas mittere ausus. 
— Nuntius ad senatum missus est nullus. — Ibid. 19. 

Mitto de amissa maxima parte exercitus.— Ibid. 20. 

Dyrrhachium ut venit decedens, obsessus est ab iis ipsis 
militibus — Quibus cum juratus affirmassit. se, qua? debe- 
rentur, postero die persoluturum ; domum se abdidit : 
inde nocte intempesta crepidatus, veste servili navem 
conscendit.— Ibid. 38. 

m Sic iste— Macedonicus imperator in urbem se intulit, 
ut nullius negotiatoris obscurissimi reditus unquam fuerit 
desertior.— Ibid. 23. 

Cum tu— detractam e cruentis fascibus lauream ad por- 
tani Esquilinam abjecisti. — Ibid. 30. 

n Tune ausus es meum discessum ilium — maledicti et 
contumelia? loco ponere? Quo quidem tempore cepi, 
Patres Conscripti, fructum immortalem vestri in me amo- 
ris — qui non admurmuratione, sed voce et clamore abjecti 
hominis — petulantiam fregistis. — Ibid. 14. 

Non ulla tibi, inquit, invidia nocuit, sed versus tui. — 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



131 



better for him to have stifled his complaints, and 
suffered Cicero to be quiet ; who, exasperated by 
his imprudent attack, made a reply to him upon 
the spot in an invective speech, the severest 
perhaps that was ever spoken by any man, on the 
person, the parts, the whole life and conduct of 
Piso ; which, as long as the Roman name subsists, 
must deliver down a most detestable character of 
him to all posterity. As to the verse with which 
he was urged, he ridicules the absurdity of Piso's 
application of it, and tells him, "that he had con- 
trived a very extraordinary punishment for poor 
poets, if they were to be banished for every bad 
line : that he was a critic of a new kind, not an 
Aristarchus, but a grammatical Phalaris ; who, 
instead of expunging the verse, was for destroying 
the author : that the verse itself could not imply 
any affront to any man whatsoever ; that he was 
an ass, and did not know his letters, to imagine, 
that by the gown he meant his own gown, or by 
arms, the arms of any particular general ; and not 
to see, that he was speaking only in the poetical 
style ; .and as the one was the emblem of peace, 
the other of war, that he could mean nothing else, 
than that the tumults and dangers with which the 
city had been threatened, must now give way to 
peace and tranquillity : that he might have stuck a 
little indeed in explaining the latter part of the 
verse, if Piso himself had not helped him out ; 
who, by trampling his own laurel under foot at 
the gates of Rome, had declared how much he 
thought it inferior to every other kind of honour 

that as for Pompey, it was silly to think, that 

after the volumes which he had written in his 
praise, one silly verse should make him at last his 
enemy : but that, in truth, he never was his enemy; 
and if, on a certain occasion, he had shown any 
coldness towards him, it was all owing to the 
perfidy and malice of such as Piso, who were con- 
tinually infusing jealousies and suspicions into him, 
till they had removed from his confidence all who 
loved either him or the republicP." 

About this time the theatre, which Pompey had 
built at his own charge for the use and ornament 
of the city, was solemnly opened and dedicated : it 
is much celebrated by the ancients for its grandeur 
and magnificence : the plan was taken from the 
theatre of Mytilene, but greatly enlarged, so as to 
receive commodiously forty thousand people. It 
was surrounded by a portico, to shelter the company 
in bad weather, and had a curia or senate-house 
Hsec res tibi fluctus illos excitavit — Tuse dicis, inquit, 
togae, summum imperatorem esse cessurum. — 

Paullo ante dixisti me cum iis confligere, quos despice- 
rem ; non attingere eos, qui plus possent, quibus iratus 
esse deberem.— -In Pison. 29, 30, 31. 

P Quoniam tenon Aristarchum, sed grammaticum Pha- 
larim habemus, qui non notam apponas ad malum versum, 
sed poetain armis prosequare — Quid nunc te, asine, literas 
doceam ? Non dixi banc togam, qua sum amictus, nee 
arma, scutum etgladium uniusimperatoris : sed quod pacis 
est insigneet otii, toga; contra autem arma, tumultus ac 
belli, more poetarum locutus, boc intelligi volui, bellum 
ac tumultum paci atque otio concessurum — in altero — 
hasrerem, nisi tu expedisses. Nam cum tu— detractam e 
cruentis fascibuslaureamadportam Esquilinam abjecisti, 
indicasti, non modo amplissimae, sed etiam minima? laudi 
lauream concessisse — Vis Pompeium isto versu inimicum 
mihi esse factum — Primo nonne compensabit cum uno 
versiculo tot mea volumina laudum suarum? Vestras 
fraudes,— vestrae criminationes insidiarum mearum — effe- 
cerunt ut ego excluderer— &c— Ibid. 30, 31. 



annexed to it, with a basilica also, or grand hall, 
proper for the sittings of judges, or any other 
public business ; which were all finished at Pompey's 
cost, and adorned with a great number of images, 
formed by the ablest masters, of men and women, 
famed for something very remarkable or prodigious 
in their lives and characters'!. Atticus undertook 
the care of placing all these statues, for which 
Pompey charged Cicero with his thanks to him r : 
but what made this fabric the more surprising and 
splendid, was a beautiful temple, erected at one 
end of it, to Venus the conqueress, and so con- 
trived that the seats of the theatre might serve as 
stairs to the temple. This was designed, it is said, 
to avoid the reproach of making so vast an expense 
for the mere use of luxury, the temple being so 
placed that those who came to the shows might 
seem to come to worship the goddess s . 

At the solemnity of this dedication, Pompey 
entertained the people with the most magnificent 
shows which had ever been exhibited in Rome : 
in the theatre were stage plays, prizes of music, 
wrestling, and all kinds of bodily exercises : in the 
circus, horse-races and huntings of wild beasts for 
five days successively, in which five hundred lions 
were killed, and, on the last day, twenty elephants, 
whose lamentable howling, when mortally wounded, 
raised such a commiseration in the multitude, from 
a vulgar notion of their great sense and love to 
man, that it destroyed the whole diversion of the 
show, and drew curses on Pompey himself for being 
the author of so much cruelty 1 . So true it is, 
what Cicero observes of this kind of prodigality, 
that there is no real dignity or lasting honour in 
it ; that it satiates while it pleases, and is forgotten 
as soon as it is over u . It gives us, however, a 
genuine idea of the wealth and grandeur of these 
principal subjects of Rome, who, from their private 
revenues, could raise such noble buildings, and 
provide such shows, from the several quarters of 

1 Pompeius Magnus in ornamentis tbeatri mirabiles 
fama posuit imagines ; ob id diligentius magnorum artifi- 
cum ingeniis elaboratas : inter quas legitur Eutyche, a 
viginti liberis rogo illata, enixa triginta partus ; Alcippe, 
Elephantum — Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 3. 

r Tibi etiam gratias agebat, quod signa componenda 
suscepisses. — Ad Att. iv. 9. 

8 Q,uum Pompeius, inquit, asdem Victorias dedicaturus 
esset, cujus gradus vicem theatri essent, &c— Aul. Gell. 
x. 1 ; Tertull. De Spectaculis. 

Dion Cassius mentions it, as a tradition that be bad 
met with, that this theatre was not really built by 
Pompey, but by his freedman, Demetrius, who had made 
himself richer than his master, by attending him in his 
wars ; and to take off the envy of raising so vast an estate, 
laid out a considerable part of it upon the theatre, and 
gave the honour of it to Pompey.— Dio, p. 107 ; Seneca De 
Tranq. Anim. c. 8. 

t Magnificentissima vero Pompeii nostri munera in se- 
cundo consulatu.— De Off. ii. 16. 

Pompeii quoque altero consulatu, dedicatione terapli 
Veneris Victricis, pugnavere in circo viginti elephantes. 

Amissa fugse spe misericordiam vulgi inenarrabili 

habitu querentes supplicavere, quadam sese lamentatione 
complorantes, tanto populi dolore, ut oblitus imperatoris 
■ — flens universus consurgeret, dirasque Pompeio, quas 
ille mox luit, pcenas imprecaretur. — Plin. 1. viii. 7 ; Dio, 
1. xxxix. p. 107 ; Plutarch, in Pomp. 

u In his infinitis — sumptibus, nihil nos magnopere 
mirari: cum nee necessitati subveniatur, nee dignitas 
augeatur : ipsaque ilia delectatio multitudinis sit ad breve 
exiguumque tempus — in quo tamen ipso una cum satietate 
memoria quoque morintur voluptatis. — De Off. ii. 16. 
K 2 



132 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



the world, which no monarch on earth is now able 
to exhibit. 

Cicero, contrary to his custom, was present at 
these shows, out of compliment to Pompey, and 
gives a particular account of them to his friend M. 
Marius, who could not be drawn by them from his 
books and retreat in the country. "The old actors 
(says he) who had left the stage came on to it 
again in honour to Pompey, but, for the sake of 
their own honour, ought rather to have staid away : 
our friend iEsopus appeared to be quite sunk and 
worn out, so that all people seemed willing to grant 
him his quietus ; for, in attempting to raise his 
voice, where he had occasion to swear, his speech 

faltered and failed him. In the other plays, the 

vast apparatus, and crowded machinery, which 
raised the admiration of the mob, spoiled the 
entertainment : six hundred mules, infinite trea- 
sures of plate, troops of horse and foot fighting on 
the stage. The huntings, indeed, were magni- 
ficent ; but what pleasure to a man of taste, to see 
a poor weak fellow torn to pieces by a fierce beast, 
or a noble beast struck dead with a spear ? The 
last day's show of elephants, instead of delight, 
raised a general compassion, and an opinion of 
some relation between that animal and man : but 
lest, you should think me wholly happy, in these 
days of diversion, I have almost burst myself in 
the defence of your friend Gallus Caninius : if the 
city would be as kind to me as they are to iEsopus, 
I would willingly quit the stage, to live with you, 
and such as you, in a polite and liberal easeV 

The city continued, for a great part of this 
summer, without its annual magistrates : for the 
1 elections, which had been postponed from the last 
year, were still kept off by the consuls, till they 
could settle them to their minds, and secure them 
to their own creatures ; which they effected at last, 
except in the case of two tribunes, who slipped 
into the office against their will : but the most 
remarkable repulse was of M. Cato from the prse- 
torship, which was given to Vatinius, from the best 
citizen to the worst. Cato, upon his return from 
the Cyprian voyage, was complimented by the 
senate for that service with the offer of the prsetor- 
ship in an extraordinary manner ?. But he declined 
the compliment, thinking it more agreeable to his 
character to obtain it in the ordinary way, by the 
free choice of the people : but when the election 
came on, in which he was thought sure of success, 
Pompey broke up the assembly, on pretence of 
somewhat inauspicious in the heavens, and by 
intrigue and management got Vatinius declared 
praetor, who had been repulsed the year before with 
disgrace, from the aedileship 2 : but this being car- 
ried by force of money, and likely to produce an 
impeachment of Vatinius, Afranius moved for a 
decree, that the praetors should not be questioned 
for bribery after their election, which passed against 
the general humour of the senate, with an exception 
only of sixty days, in which they were to be con- 
sidered as private men. The pretence for the 

x Ep. Fam. vii. 1. 

7 Cujus ministerii gratia senatus relationem interponi 
jubebat, ut praetoriis comitiis extra ordinem ratio ejus 
haberetur. Sed ipse id fieri passus non est. — Val. Max. 
iv. 1 ; Plutarch, in Caton. 

* Proxima dementia; suffragia— quoniam quern honorem 
Catoni, negaverunt, Vatinio dare coaeti sunt. — Val. Max. 
vii. 5 ; Plutarch, in Pomp. 



decree was, that so much of the year being spent, 
the whole would pass without any praetors at all, 
if a liberty of impeaching was allowed : from this 
moment, says Cicero, they have given the exclusion 
to Cato ; and, being masters of all, resolve that all 
the world shall know it a . 

Cicero's Palatine house, and the adjoining portico 
of Catulus, were now finished ; and as he and his 
brother were the curators likewise of the repairs of 
the temple of Tellus b , so they seem to have pro- 
vided some inscriptions for these buildings in honour 
and memory of themselves ; but since no public 
inscriptions could be set up unless by public autho- 
rity, they were apprehensive of an opposition from 
Clodius. Cicero mentioned the case to Pompey, 
who promised his assistance, but advised him to 
talk also with Crassus, which he took occasion to 
do as he attended him home one day from the 
senate. Crassus readily undertook the affair, and 
told him that Clodius had a point to carry for him- 
self by Pompey's help and his ; and that if Cicero 
would not oppose Clodius, he was persuaded that 
Clodius would not disturb him, to which Cicero 
consented. Clodius's business was to procure 
one of those free or honorary lieutenancies, that he 
might go with a public character to Byzantium, 
and king Brogitarus, to gather the money which 
they owed him for past services. "As it is a mere 
money matter," says Cicero, " I shall not concern 
myself about it, whether I gain my own point or 
not, though Pompey and Crassus have jointly 
undertaken it." But he seems to have obtained 
what he desired, since, besides the intended in- 
scriptions, he mentions a statue also of his brother, 
which he had actually erected at the temple of 
Tellus c . 

Trebonius, one of the tribunes in the interests of 
the triumvirate, published a law for the assignment 
of provinces to the consuls for the term of five 
years — to Pompey Spain and Afric, to Crassus 
Syria and the Parthian war, with a power of raising 
what forces they thought fit ; and that Caesar's 
commission should be renewed also for five years 
more. The law was opposed by the generality of 
the senate, and, above all, by Cato, Favonius, and 
two of the tribunes, C. Ateius Capito,and P. Aqui- 
lius Gallus. But the superior force of the consuls 
and the other tribunes prevailed, and cleared the 
forum by violence of all their opponents. 

The law no sooner passed than Crassus began 

a A. D. in Id. Maii S, C. factum est de ambitu in Afranii 

sententiam. Sed magno cum gemitu senatus. Consules 

non sunt persecuti eorum sententias : qui Afranio cum 
essent assensi addiderunt, ut prsetores ita crearentur, ut 
dies lx. privati essent. EodieCatonem plane repudiarunt. 
Quid multa ? Tenent omnia, idque ita omnes intelligere 
volunt. — Ad Quint, ii. 9. 

l> Quod aedes Telluris est curationis nieae.— De Harusp. 
Respons. 14. 

t Multa nocte cum Vibullio veni ad Pompeium. Cum- 
que ego egissem de istis operibus et inscriptionibus, per 
mini benigne respondit. — Cum Crasso se dixit loqui velle, 
mihique, ut idem facerem suasit. Crassum consulem 
ex senatu domum reduxi : suscepit rem, dixitque esse 
quod Clodius hoc tempore cuperet se, et per Pompeium 
consequi. Putare se, si ego eum non impedirem, posse me 
adipisci sine contentione quod vellem, &c. — Ad Quint, 
ii. 9. 

Peddita est mini pervetus epistola in qua de aede 

Telluris, et de porticu Catuli me admones. Fit utrumque 
diligenter. Ad Telluris etiam tuam statuam locavi. — 
Ibid. iii. 1. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



133 



to prepare for his Eastern expedition, and was in 
such haste to set forward that he left Rome above 
two months before the expiration of his consulship. 
His eagerness to involve the republic in a desperate 
war, for which the Parthians had given no pretext, 
was generally detested by the city. The tribune 
Ateius declared it impious, and prohibited by all 
the auspices, and denounced direful imprecations 
against it ; but finding Crassus determined to 
march in defiance of all religion, he waited for him 
at the gates of the city, and, having dressed up a 
little altar, stood ready with a fire and sacrifice to 
devote him to destruction d . Ateius was afterwards 
turned out of the senate by Appius, when he was 
censor, for falsifying the auspices on this occasion ; 
but the miserable fate of Crassus supported the 
credit of them, and confirmed the vulgar opinion 
of the inevitable force of those ancient rites in 
drawing down the divine vengeance on all who 
presumed to contemn them e . Appius was one of 
the augurs, and the only one of the college who 
maintained the truth of their auguries and the re- 
ality of divination, for which he was laughed at by 
the rest, who charged him also with an absurdity 
in the reason which he subscribed for his censure 
upon Ateius, viz. that he had falsified the auspices, 
and brought a great calamity on the E,oman people ; 
for if the auspices, they said, were false, they 
could not possibly have any effect, or be the cause 
of that calamity 5 . But though they were undoubt- 
edly forged, it is certain however that they had a 
real influence on the overthrow of Crassus ; for 
the terror of them had deeply possessed the minds 
of the soldiers, and made them turn everything 
which they saw or heard to an omen of their 
ruin ; so that when the enemy appeared in sight 
they were struck with such a panic that they had 
not courage or spirit enough left to make a tolera- 
ble resistance. 

Crassus was desirous before he left Rome to be 
reconciled to Cicero. They had never been real 
friends, but generally opposite in party ; and 
Cicero's early engagements with Pompey kept him 
of course at a distance from Crassus. Their cold- 
ness was still increased on account of Catiline's 
plot, of which Crassus was strongly suspected, and 
charged Cicero with being the author of that 
suspicion ; they carried it however on both sides 
with much decency, out of regard to Crassus's 
son, Publius, a professed admirer and disciple of 
Cicero, till an accidental debate in the senate blew 
up their secret grudge into an open quarrel. The de- 
bate was upon Gabinius, whom Crassus undertook 
to defend, with many severe reflections upon 
Cicero, who replied with no less acrimony, and gave 
a free vent to that old resentment of Crassus's many 
injuries which had been gathering, he says, several 
years, but lain dormant so long that he took it to 
be extinguished, till, from this accident, it burst 

d L>io, 1. xxxix. p. 109 ; Plutarch, in Crass. 

e M. Crasso quid aeciderit, videmus, dirarum obnuncia- 
tione neglecta.— De Divin. i. 16. 

t Solus enim multorum annorum memoria, non decan- 
tandi augurii, sed divinandi tenuit disciplinam : quern 
irridebantcollegae tui, eumque turn Pisidam, turn Soranum 
augurem esse dicebant. Quibus nulla videbatur in augu- 
riis aut auspiciis praesensio. — Ibid. 47. 

In quo Appius, bonus augur — non satis scienter — civem 
egregium, Ateium, censor notavit, quod ementitum auspi- 
cia subscripserit. — Quae si falsa fuisset nullam adferre 
potuisset causam calamitatis.— Ibid. 16. 



out into a flame. The quarrel gave great joy to the 
chiefs of the senate, who highly applauded Cicero, 
in hopes to embroil him with the triumvirate. But 
Pompey laboured hard to make it up, and Caesar 
also by letter expressed his uneasiness upon it, and 
begged it of Cicero as a favour to be reconciled 
with Crassus ; so that he could not hold out 
against an intercession so powerful, and so well 
enforced by his affection to young Crassus. Their 
reconciliation was confirmed by mutual professions 
of a sincere friendship for the future ; and Crassus, 
to give a public testimony of it to the city, invited 
himself, just before his departure, to sup with 
Cicero, who entertained him in the gardens of 
his son-in-law, Crassipes^. These gardens were 
upon the banks of the Tiber, and seem to have 
been famous for their beauty and situation 11 , and 
are the only proof which we meet with of the 
splendid fortunes and condition of Crassipes. 

Cicero spent a great part of the summer in the 
country, in study and retreat ; pleased, he says, 
that he was out of the way of those squabbles 
where he must either have defended what he did 
not approve, or deserted the man whom he ought 
not to forsake 1 . In this retirement he put the 
last hand to his piece on the Complete Orator, 
which he sent to Atticus, and promises also to 
send to Lentulus, telling him that he had inter- 
mitted his old task of orations, and betaken him- 
self to the milder and gentler studies, in which he 
had finished to his satisfaction three books, by way 
of dialogue, on the subject of the Orator, in Aris- 
totle's manner, which would be of use to his son, 
young Lentulus, being drawn, not in the ordinary 
way of the schools and the dry method of precepts, 
but comprehending all that the ancients, and 
especially Aristotle and Isocrates, had taught on 
the institution of an orator k . 

The three books contain as many dialogues, upon 
the character and idea of the perfect orator. The 
principal speakers were P. Crassus and M. Anto- 
nius, persons of the first dignity in the republic, 
and the greatest masters of eloquence which Rome 
had then known ; they were near forty years 
older than Cicero, and the first Romans who could 
pretend to dispute the prize of oratory with the 

g Repentinam ejus Gabinii defensionem — Si sine ulla 
mea contumelia suscepisset, tulissem : sed cum me dispu- 
tantem, non lacessentem lassisset, exarsi non solum pra> 
senti, credo, iracundia (nam ea tarn vehemens fortasse non 
fuisset) sed cum inclusum illud odium multarum ejus in 
me injuriarum, quod ego effudisse me omne arbitrabar, 
ref iduum tamen insciente me fuisset, omne repente appa- 
ruit— Cumque Pompeius ita contendisset, ut nihil unquam 
magis, ut cum Crasso redirem in gratiam ; Caesarque per 
literas maxima se molestia ex ilia contentione affectum 
ostenderet : habui non temporum solum meorum rationem, 
sed etiam naturae. Crassusque, ut quasi testata populo 
Romano esset nostra gratia, pasne a meis laribus in provin- 
ciam est profectus. Nam cum mini condixisset, coenavit 
apud me in mei generi Crassipedis hortis. — Ep. Fam. i. 9. 

h Ad Quint, iii. 7 ; Ad Att. iv. 12. 

' Ego afuisse me in altercationibus, quas in senatu factas 
audio, fero non moleste ; nam aut defendissem quod non 
placeret, aut defuissem cui non oportcret. — Ad Att. iv. 13. 

k Scripsi etiam, (nam ab orationibus dijungo me fere, 
referoque ad mansuetiores musas.) scripsi igitur Aristoteleo 
more, quemadmodum quidem volui, tres libros in dispu- 
tatione et dialogo de oratore, quos arbitror Lentulo tuo 
non fore inutiles. Abhorrent enim a conimunibus precep- 
lis: ac omnem antiquorum.et Aristoteleam et Isocrateam 
rationem oratoriam complcctuntur. — Ep. Earn. i. 9. 



134 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



Greeks, and who carried the Latin tongue to a 
degree of perfection which left little or no room 
for any further improvement l . The disputation 
was undertaken at the desire and for the instruc- 
tion of two young orators of great hopes, C. Cotta 
and P. Sulpicius, who were then beginning to 
flourish at the bar. Cicero himself was not pre- 
sent at it, but being informed by Cotta of the 
principal heads and general argument of the 
whole, supplied the rest from his own invention, 
agreeably to the different style and manner which 
those great men were known to pursue ; and with 
design to do honour to the memory of them both, 
but especially of Crassus, who had been the direc- 
tor of his early studies, and to whom he assigns 
the defence of that notion which he himself always 
entertained of the character of a consummate 
speaker" 1 . 

Atticuswas exceedingly pleased with this treatise, 
and commended it to the skies, but objected to 
the propriety of dismissing Scsevola from the dis- 
putation after he had once been introduced into 
the first dialogue. Cicero defends himself by the 
example of their god Plato, as he calls him, in his 
book on Government, where the scene, being laid 
in the house of an old gentleman, Cephalus, the 
old man, after bearing a part in the first conver- 
sation, excuses himself that he must go to prayers, 
and returns no more ; Plato not thinking it suit- 
able to the character of his age to be detained in 
the company through so long a discourse ; that, 
with greater reason, therefore, he had used the 
same caution in the case of Scsevola, since it was 
not decent to suppose a person of his dignity, ex- 
treme age, and infirm health, spending several 
days successively in another man's house : that 
the first day's dialogue related to his particular 
profession, but the other two turned chiefly on the 
rules and precepts of the art, where it was not 
proper for one of Scsevola's temper and character 
to assist only as a hearer 11 . This admirable work 
remains entire, a standing monument of Cicero's 
parts and abilities, which, while it exhibits to us 
the idea of a perfect orator, and marks out the 
way by which Cicero formed himself to that cha- 
racter, it explains the reason likewise why nobody 

1 Crassus— quatuor et triginta turn habebat annos, tot- 
idemque annis mihi state praestabat— Triennio ipso minor 
quam Antonius, quod idcirco posui, ut dicendi latine 
prima maturitas qua astate extitisset, posset notari; et 
intelligeretur, jam ad summum pasne esse perductam, ut 
eo nihil ferme quisquam addere posset, nisi qui a philo- 
sophia, a jure civili, ab historia fuisset instructior.— 
Brut. 275. 

Nunc ad Antonium, Crassumque pervenimus. Nam ego 
sic existimo hos oratores f uisse maximos : et in his primum 
cum Graccorum gloria latine dicendi copiam asquatam.— 
Ibid. 250. 

m Nos enim, qui ipsi sermoni non interfuissemus, et 
quibus C. Cotta tantummodo locos ac sententias hujus 
disputationis tradidisset, quo in genere orationis utrum- 
que oratorem cognoveramus, id ipsum sumus in eorum 
sermone adumbrare conati. — De Orat. iii. 4. 

Ut ei, (Crasso) et si nequaquam parem illius ingenio, at 
pro nostro tamen studio meritam gratiam debitamque 
referamus. — Ibid. 

» Quod in iis libris, quos laudas, personam desideras 
Scaevolas. Non earn temere dimovi, sod feci idem, quod in 
7roAiT6ia dens ille noster, Plato. Cum in Piraeeum 
Socrates venisset ad Cephalum, locuplctem et festivum 
sencm, quoad primus illc sermo habcretur adest in dispu- 
tando scnex, &c— Ad Att. iv. 16. 



coss. 

L. DOMITICS 
AHENO- 



has since equalled him, or ever will, till there be 
found again united, what will hardly be found single 
in any man, the same industry and the same parts. 
Cicero returned to Rome about the middle of 
November, to assist at Milo's wedding, who mar- 
ried Fausta, a rich and noble lady, the daughter of 
Sylla the dictator , with whom, as some writers 
say, he found Sallust the historian in bed not long 
after, and had him soundly lashed before he dis- 
missed him. The consuls, Pompey and Crassus, 
having reaped all the fruit which they had proposed 
from the consulship, of securing to themselves 
the provinces which they wanted, were not much 
concerned about the choice of their successors ; so 
that after postponing the election to the end of 
the year, they gave way at last to their enemy, 
L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, being content to have 
joined with him their friend Appius Claudius 
Pulcher. 

As soon as the new year came on, Crassus's 
enemies began to attack him in the senate : their 
design was to revoke his commission, 
a. urb. 699. or abridge it at least of the power of 
making war upon the Parthians ; but 
Cicero exerted himself so strenuously 
in his defence that he baffled their 
attempts, after a warm contest with 
a.claudius the consuls themselves and several of 
pulcher. the consular senators. He gave Cras- 
sus an account of the debate by letter, 
in which he tells him that he had given proof, not 
only to his friends and family, but to the whole 
city, of the sincerity of his reconciliation ; and 
assures him of his resolution to serve him with all 
his pains, advice, authority, interest, in everything 
great or small, which concerned himself, his friends, 
or clients, and bids him look upon that letter as a 
league of amity which on his part should be invio- 
lably observedP. 

The month of February being generally employed 
in giving audience to foreign princes and ambas- 
sadors, Antiochus, king of Comagene, a territory 
on the banks of the Euphrates °>, preferred a peti- 
tion to the senate for some new honour or privi- 
lege, which was commonly decreed to princes in 
alliance with the republic : but Cicero, being in a 
rallying humour, made the petition so ridiculous 
that the house rejected it ; and, at his motion, re- 
served likewise out of his jurisdiction one of his 
principal towns, Zeugma, in which was the chief 
bridge and passage over the Euphrates. Caesar, 
in his consulship, had granted to this king the 
honour of the praetexta, or the robe of the Roman 
magistrates, which was always disagreeable to the 
nobility, who did not care to see these petty 
princes put upon the same rank with themselves ; 
so that Cicero, calling out upon the nobles, " Will 
you," says he, " who refused the prretexta to the 
king of Bostra, "suffer this Comagenian to strut in 
purple !" But this disappointment was not more 
mortifying to the king than it was to the consuls, 
whose best perquisites were drawn from these com- 
pliments, which were always repaid by rich pre- 
sents : so that Appius, who had been lately recon- 
ciled to Cicero, and paid a particular court to him 

o Ad Att. iv. 13 ; v. 8. 

P Has literas velim existimes foederis habituras esse vim, 
non epistolae ; meque ea, quae tibi promitto ac recipio, 
sanctissime esse obscrvaturum.— Ep. Fam. v. 8. 

p Ep. Fam. xv. 1, 3, 4. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



135 



at this time, applied to him by Atticus and their 
common friends to suffer the petitions of this 
sort to pass quietly, nor destroy the usual harvest 
of the month, and make it quite barren to him r . 

Cicero made an excursion this spring to visit 
his several seats and estates in the country ; and, 
in his Cuman villa, began a treatise on politics, or 
on the best state of a city, and the duties of a 
citizen: he calls it "a great and laborious work, yet 
worthy of his pains if he could succeed in it ; if 
not, I shall throw it (says he) into that sea which 
is now before me, and attempt something else, 
since it is impossible for me to be idle." It was 
drawn up in the form of a dialogue, in which the 
greatest persons of the old republic were intro- 
duced, debating on the origin and best constitution 
of government ; Scipio, Laelius, Philus, Manilius, 
&c. s The whole was to be distributed into nine 
books, each of them the subject of one day's dis- 
putation. When he had finished the two first, 
they were read in his Tusculan villa to some of 
his friends ; where Sallust, who was one of the 
company, advised him to change his plan, and 
treat the subject in his own person, as Aristotle 
had done before him ; alleging, that the intro- 
duction of those ancients, instead of adding gravity, 
gave an air of romance to the argument, which 
would have the greater weight when delivered 
from himself, as being the work not of a little 
sophist, or contemplative theorist, but of a con- 
sular senator and statesman, conversant in the 
greatest affairs, and writing what his own practice 
and the experience of many years had taught him 
to be true. These reasons seemed very plausible, 
and made him think of altering his scheme ; 
especially since, by throwing the scene so far back, 
he precluded himself from touching on those 
important revolutions of the republic which were 
later than the period to which he confined himself: 
but after some deliberation, being unwilling to 
throw away the two books already finished, with 
which he was much pleased, he resolved to stick 
to the old plan, and as he had preferred it from 
the first, for the sake of avoiding offence, so he 
pursued it without any other alteration than that 
of reducing the number of books from nine to six, 
in which form they were afterwards published, and 
survived him for several ages, though now unfor- 
tunately lost'. 

r De Comageno rege, quod rem totam discusseram, mihi 
et per se et per Pomponium blanditur Appius. Yidet enim, 
si hoc genere dicendi utar in casteris, Februarium sterilem 
futurum. Eumque lusi jocose satis : neque solum illud 
extorsi oppidulum, quod erat positum in Euphrate, Zeug- 
ma ; sed praeterea togam ejus prastextam, quam erat 
adeptus Caesare consule, magno hominum risu cavillatus. 
— Vos autem homines nobiles, qui Bostrenum praatex- 
tatum non ferebatis, Comagenum feretis ?— Multa dixi in 
ignobilem regem, quibus totus est explosus. Quo genere 
commotus Appius totum me amplexatur. — Ad Quint, 
ii. 12. 

s Scribebam ilia, quae dixeram ttoAitikol, spissum sane 
opus et operosum : sed si ex sententia successerit, bene 
erit opera posita ; sin minus, in illud ipsum mare deji- 
ciemus, quod scribentes spectamus ; aggrediemur alia, 
quoniam quiescere non possumus. — Ibid. 14. 

Hanc ego, quam institui, de republica disputationem in 
Africani personam et Phili, et Laelii et Manilii contuli, 
&c. — Rem, quod te non fugit, magnam complexus sum 
et gravem, et plurimi otii, quod ego maxime egeo. — Ad 
Att. iv. 16. 

* Sermo autem in novem et dies et libros distributus de 



From the fragments of this work, which still 
remain, it appears to have been a noble perform- 
ance, and one of his capital pieces, where all the 
important questions in politics and morality were 
discussed with the greatest elegance and accuracy 
— of the origin of society, the nature of law and 
obligation, the eternal difference of right and 
wrong, of justice being the only good policy or 
foundation either of public or private prosperity ; 
so that he calls his six books so many pledges 
given to the public for the integrity of his conduct u . 
The younger Scipio was the principal speaker of 
the dialogue, whose part it was to assert the ex- 
cellence of the Roman constitution, preferably 
to that of all other states x ; who, in the sixth 
book, under the fiction of a dream, which is still 
preserved to us, takes occasion to inculcate the 
doctrine of the immortality of the soul and 
a future state, in a manner so lively and en- 
tertaining that it has been the standing pattern 
ever since to the wits of succeeding ages, for 
attempting the same method of instilling moral 
lessons in the form of dreams or visions. 

He was now drawn at last into a particular in- 
timacy and correspondence of letters with Caesar, 
who had long been endeavouring to engage him to 
his friendship, and with that view had invited his 
brother, Quintus, to be one of his lieutenants in 
Gaul, where Quintus, to pay his court the better 
to his general, joined heartily in pressing his 
brother to a union with him, instead of adhering 
so obstinately to Pompey, who, as he tells him, 
was neither so sincere nor so generous a friend as 
Caesar ?. Cicero did not dislike the advice, and 
expressed a readiness to comply with it, of which 
Balbus gave an intimation to Caesar, with a letter 
also inclosed from Cicero himself ; but the packet 
happening to fall into water, the letters were all 
destroyed except a scrap or two of Balbus's, to 
which Caesar returned answer : — " I perceive that 
you had written somewhat about Cicero, which I 
could not make out ; but, as far as I can guess, it 
was something rather to be wished than hoped for 2 ." 
optimo statu civitatis et de optimo cive.— Hi libri, cum in 
Tusculano mihi legerentur, audiente Sallustio, admonitus 
sum ab illo, multo majore auctoritate illis de rebus dici 
posse, si ipse loquerer de republica ; praesertim cum essem, 
non Heraclides Ponticus, sed consularis, et is, qui in maxi- 
mis versatus in republica rebus essem : quae tarn antiquis 
hominibus attribuerem, ea visum iri ficta esse. — Commovit 
me, et eo magis, quod maximos motus nostra? civitatis 
attingere non poteram, quod erant inferiores, quam illorum 
astas qui loquebantur. Ego autem id ipsum turn eram 
secutus, ne in nostra tempora incurrens offenderem quem- 
piam.— Ad Quint, iii. 5. 

This will solve that variation which we find in his own 
account of this work, in different parts of his writings : 
and why Fannius, who in some places is declared to be a 
speaker in it, [Ad Att. iv. 16 ; Ad Quint, iii. 5,] is denied 
to be so in others ; being dropped when the number of books 
was contracted. 

u Cum sex libris, tanquam praedibus me ipsum 
obstrinxerim, quos tibi tarn valde probari gaudeo.— Ad 
Att. vi. 1. 

x An censes, cum in illis de republica libris persuadere 
videatur Africanus, omnium rerumpublicarum nostram 
veterem illam fuisse optimam. — De Leg. ii. 10 ; ibid, 
i. 6, 9. 

y De Pompeio asscntior tibi, vel tu potius mihi, nam, ut 
scis, jampridem istum canto Cassarem.— Ad Quint, ii. 13. 

z Hie scripsit ad Balbum, fasciculum ilium epistolarum, 
in quo fuerat et mea et Balbi, totum sibi aqua madidum 
esse: ut ne illud quidcm sciat, meam fuisse aliquain epis- 



136 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



But Cicero sent another copy of the same letter, 
which came safe to his hands, written, as he says, 
in the familiar style, yet without departing from 
his dignity. Csesar answered him with all imagin- 
able kindness, and the offer of everything in 
which his power could serve him, telling him how 
agreeable his brother's company was to him by 
the revival of their old affection; and since he 
was now removed to such a distance from him, he 
would take care that in their mutual want of each 
other, he should have cause at least to rejoice that 
his brother was with him, rather than any one 
else. He thanks him also for sending the lawyer 
Trebatius to him, and says upon it jocosely, that 
there was not a man before in his army who knew 
how to draw a recognizance. Cicero, in his ac- 
count of this letter to his brother, says — " It is 
kind in you, and like a brother, to press me to 
this friendship, though I am running that way 
apace myself, and shall do, what often happens to 
travellers, who, rising later than they intended, 
yet by quickening their speed come sooner to their 
journey's end than if they had set out earlier ; so 
I, who have overslept myself in my observance of 
this man, though you were frequently rousing me, 
will correct my past laziness by mending my pace 
for the future." But as to his seeking any advan- 
tage or personal benefit from this alliance, " believe 
me," says he, "you who know me, I have from him 
already what I most value, the assurance of his 
affection, which I prefer to all the great things that 
he offers me a ." In another letter he says, — " I lay 
no great stress on his promises, want no further 
honours, nor desire any new glory, and wish nothing 
more but the continuance of his esteem — yet live 
still in such a course of ambition and fatigue as if 
I were expecting what I do not really desire V 

But though he made no use of Csesar's generosity 
for himself, yet he used it freely for his friends : 
for besides his brother, who was Csesar's lieutenant, 
and Trebatius, who was his lawyer ; he procured 
an eminent post for Orfius, and a regiment for 
Curtius ; yet Csesar was chiding him all the while 
for his reservedness in asking . His recom- 
tolam. Sed ex Balbi epistola pauca verba intellexerat, 
ad qu£E rescripsit his verbis : — De Cicerone video te quid- 
dam scripsisse, quod ego non intellexi ; quantum autem 
conjectura consequebar, id erat hujusmodi, ut magis optan- 
dum, quam sperandum putarem.— Ad Quint, ii. 12. 

a Cum Caesaris Uteris, refertis omni officio, diligentia, 
suavitate — Quarum initium est, quam suavis ei tuus 
adventus fuerit, et recordatio veteris amoris ; deinde se 
effecturum, ut ego in medio dolore ac desiderio tui, te, 
cum a me abesses, potissimum secum esse laetarer. — 
Trebatium quod ad se miserim, persalse et humaniter 
etiam gratias mihi agit : negat enim in tanta multitudine 
eorum, qui una essent, quempiam fuisse, qui vadimonium 
concipere posset. — 

Quare facis tu quidem fraterne, quod me hortaris, sed 
mehercule currentem nunc quidem, ut omnia mea studia 
in istum unum conferam, &c. 

Sed mihi crede, quem nosti, quod in istis rebus ego 
plurimi a^stimo, jam habeo :— deinde Caesaris tantum in 
me amorem, quem omnibus his honoribus, quos me a se 
expectare vult, antepono. — Ad Quint, ii. 15. 

b Promissis iis, qua? ostendit, non valde pendeo: nee 
honoies sitio, nee desidero gloriam : magisque ejus volun- 
tatis pcrpetuitatem, quam promissorum exitum expeeto. 
Vivo tamen in ea ambitione et labore, tanquam id, quod 
non postulo, expectem. — Ibid. iii. 5. 

c M. Curtio tribunatum ab eo petivi. — Ibid. ii. lfi ; Ep. 
Fam. vii. 5. 

De tribunatu — mihi ipse Caesar nominatim Curtio para- 



mendatory letter of Trebatius, will show both 
what a share he possessed at this time of Csesar's 
confidence, and with what an affectionate zeal he 
used to recommend his friends. 

" Cicero to Ccesar emperor. 

" See, how I have persuaded myself to consider 
you as a second self; not only in what affects my 
own interest, but in what concerns my friends : 
I had resolved, whithersoever I went abroad, to 
carry C. Trebatius along with me, that I might 
bring him home adorned with the fruits of my 
care and kindness: but since Pompey's stay in 
Rome has been longer than I expected, and my 
own irresolution, to which you are no stranger, 
will either wholly hinder, or at least retard, my 
going abroad at all ; see, what I have taken upon 
myself: I began presently to resolve, that Trebatius 
should expect the same things from you which he 
had been hoping for from me : nor did I assure 
him with less frankness of your good will, than I 
used to do of my own : but a wonderful incident 
fell out, both as a testimony of my opinion, and a 
pledge of your humanity ; for while I was talking 
of this very Trebatius at my house with our friend 
Balbus, your letter was delivered to me ; in the end 
of which you said, ' As to M. Orfius, whom you 
recommended to me, I will make him even king 
of Gaul, or lieutenant to Lepta ; send me another 
therefore, if you please, whom I may prefer.' We 
lifted up our hands, both 1 and Balbus ; the occasion 
was so pat, that it seemed not to be accidental, 
but divine. I send you therefore Trebatius ; and 
send him so, as at first indeed I designed, of my 
own accord, but now also by your invitation : 
embrace him, my dear Csesar, with all your usual 
courtesy ; and whatever you could be induced to 
do for my friends, out of your regard to me, confer 
it all singly upon him. I will be answerable for 
the man ; not in my former style, which you justly 
rallied, when I wrote to you about Milo, but in 
the true Roman phrase which men of sense use ; 
that there is not an honester, worthier, modester 
man living : I must add, what makes the principal 
part of his character, that he has a singular memory 
and perfect knowledge of the civil law. I ask for 
him, neither a regiment nor government, nor any 
certain piece of preferment ; I ask your bene- 
volence and generosity; yet am not against the 
adorning him, whenever you shall think proper, 
with those trappings also of glory : in short, I 
deliver the whole man to you, from my hand, as 
we say, into yours, illustrious for victory and 
faith. But I am more importunate than I need to 
be to you ; yet I know you will excuse it. Take 
care of your health, and continue to love me, as 
you now do d ." 

Trebatius was of a lazy, indolent, studious 
temper ; a lover of books and good company ; 
eagerly fond of the pleasures of Rome ; and wholly 
out of his element in a camp : and because Csesar, , 
through the infinite hurry of his affairs, could not 
presently admit him to his familiarity, and prefer 
him so soon as he expected, he was tired of the 
drudgery of attending him, and impatient to be at 
home again. Under these circumstances, there is a 
series of letters to him from Cicero, written not only 

turn esse rescripsit, meamque in rogando verecundiam 
objurgavit.'— Ad Quint, iii. 1. 
d Ep. Fam. vii. 5. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



137 



with the disinterested affection of a friend, but the 
solicitude even of a parent, employing all the arts 
of insinuation, as well of the grave as of the 
facetious kind, to hinder him from ruining his 
hopes and fortunes by his own imprudence. He 
" laughs at his childish hankering after the city; 
bids him reflect on the end for which he went 
abroad, and pursue it with constancy ; observes, 
from the Medea of Euripides, that many had 
served themselves and the public well at a distance 
from their country ; whilst others, by spending their 
lives at home, had lived and died ingloriously ; of 
which number," says he, " you would have been 
one, if we had not thrust you out ; and since I am 
now acting Medea, take this other lesson from me, 
that he who is not wise for himself, is wise to no 
purpose e ." He rallies his impatience, or rather 
" imprudence ; as if he had carried a bond, not a 
letter to Csesar, and thought that he had nothing 
to do but to take his money and return home ; 
not recollecting, that even those who followed 
king Ptolemy with bonds to Alexandria, had not 
yet brought back a penny of money f . You write me 
word," says he, " that Csesar now consults you; 
I had rather hear that he consults your interests. 
Let me die, if I do not believe, such is your vanity, 
that you had rather be consulted than enriched by 
him h ." By these railleries and perpetual admo- 
nitions he made Trebatius ashamed of his softness, 
and content to stay with Csesar, by whose favour 
and generosity he was cured at last of all his 
uneasiness ; and having here laid the foundation of 
his fortunes, flourished afterwards in the court of 
Augustus, with the character of the most learned 
lawyer of that age 1 . 

Csesar was now upon his second expedition into 
Britain ; which raised much talk and expectation 
at Rome, and gave Cicero no small concern for 
the safety of his brother, who, as one of Caesar's 
lieutenants, was to bear a considerable part in it k . 
But the accounts which he received from the place 
soon eased him of his apprehensions, by informing 
him, that there was nothing either to fear or to 
hope from the attempt ; no danger from the 
people, no spoils from the country 1 . In a letter 

e Tu modo ineptias istas et desideria urbis et urbanitatis 
depone : et quo consilio profectus es, id assiduitate et 
virtute consequere. — 

Nam multi suam rem bene gessere et poplicam, patria 
procul. 

Multi, quei domi setatem agerent, propterea sunt im- 
probati. 
Quo in numero tu certe fuisses, nisi te extrusissemus — 
et quando Medeam agere ccepi, illud semper memento, 
qui ipse sibi sapiens prodesse non quit, nequicquam sapit. 
— Ep. Fam. vii. 6. 

* Subimprudens videbare ; tanquam enim syngrapham 
ad imperatorem, non epistolam attulisses, sic, pecunia 
ablata, domum redire pi-operabas. Nee tibi in mentem 
veniebat, eos ipsos, qui cum syngraphis venissent Alex- 
andriam, nummiun adhuc nullum auferre potuisse.— Ibid. 
17. 

S Consuli quidem te a Caesare scribis ; sed ego tibi ab 
illo consuli vellem.— Ibid. 11. 

h Moriar, ni, quae tua gloria est, puto te malle a Caesare 
consuli, quam inaurari.— Ibid. 13. 

1 nisi quid tu, docte Trebati, 

Dissentis. — Hor. Sat. n. i. 79- 

k Ex Quinti fratris Uteris suspieor jam eum esse in 
Britannia : suspenso animo expecto quid agat.— Ad Att. 
iv. 15. 

1 O jucundas mini tuas de Britannia literas .' Timebam 



to Atticus, " we are in suspense," says he, " about 
the British war : it is certain, that the access of the 
island is strongly fortified ; and it is known also 
already that there is not a grain of silver in it, nor 
anything else but slaves ; of whom you will scarce 
expect any, I dare say, skilled in music or letters m ." 
In another to Trebatius ; " I hear that there is not 
either any gold or silver in the island : if so, you 
have nothing to do but to take one of their chariots, 
and fly back to us n ." 

From their railleries of this kind on the barbarity 
and misery of our island, one cannot help reflecting 
on the surprising fate and revolutions of kingdoms : 
how Rome, once the mistress of the world, the 
seat of arts, empire and glory, now lies sunk in 
sloth, ignorance and poverty; enslaved to the most 
cruel as well as to the most contemptible of tyrants, 
superstition and religious imposture : while this 
remote country, anciently the jest and contempt of 
the polite Romans, is become the happy seat of 
liberty, plenty, and letters ; flourishing in all the 
arts and refinements of civil life : yet running 
perhaps the same course which Rome itself had 
run before it ; from virtuous industry to wealth ; 
from wealth to luxury ; from luxury to an impa- 
tience of discipline and corruption of morals ; till 
by a total degeneracy and loss of virtue, being 
grown ripe for destruction, it falls a prey at last to 
some hardy oppressor, and, with the loss of liberty, 
losing everything else that is valuable, sinks gradu- 
ally again into its original barbarism. 

Cicero taking it for granted that Trebatius 
followed Csesar into Britain, begins to joke with 
him upon the wonderful figure that a British 
lawyer would make at Rome ; and, as it was his 
profession to guard other people's safety, bids him 
beware that he himself was not caught by the 
British charioteers . But Trebatius, it seems, 
knew how to take care of himself w-ithout Cicero's 
advice ; and when Csesar passed over to Britain, 
chose to stay behind in Gaul : this gave a fresh 
handle for raillery ; and Cicero congratulates him 
" upon being arrived at last into a country where 
he was thought to know something ; that if he 
had gone over also to Britain, there would not 
have been a man in all that great island wiser than 
himself." — He observes, " that he was much more 
cautious in military than in civil contests ; and 
wonders, that being such a lover of swimming, he 
could not be persuaded to swim in the ocean ; and 
when he could not be kept away from every show 
of gladiators at Rome, had not the curiosity to see 
the British charioteers :" he rejoices however, after 
all, that he did not go ; " since they should not now 

oceanum, timebam littus insula?. Keliqua non equidem 
contemno.— Ad Quint, i. 16. 

De Britannicis rebus cognovi ex tuis Uteris, nihil esse 
nee quod metuamus, nee quod gaudeamus. — Ibid. iii. 1. 

m Britannici belli exitus expectatur. Constat enim 
aditus insulae munitos esse mirificis molibus. Etiam illud 
jam cognitum est, neque argenti scripulum esse ullum in 
ilia insula, neque ullam spem praedse, nisi ex mancipiis ; 
ex quibus nullos puto te Uteris, aut musicis eruditos ex- 
pectare.— Ad Att. iv. 16. 

n In Britannia nihil esse audio neque auri neque argenti. 
Id si itaest, essedum aliquod suadeo capias, et adnos quam 
primum recurras. — Ep. Fam. vii. 7- 

Mira enim persona indiici potest Britannici juris con- 
sulti.— Ep. Fam. vii. 11. 

Tu, qui ceteris cavere didicisti, in Britannia ne ab esse- 
dariis decipiaris caveto. — Ibid. 6. 



138 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



be troubled with the impertinence of his British 
stories p." 

Quintus Cicero, who had a genius for poetry, 
was projecting the plan of a poem upon their 
British expedition, and begged his brother's assist- 
ance in it : Cicero approved the design, and 
observed upon it, that the nature and situation of 
places so strange, the manners of the people, their 
battles with them, and the general himself Caesar, 
were excellent subjects for poetry ; but as to his 
assistance, it was sending owls to Athens : that 
Quintus, who had finished four tragedies in sixteen 
days, could not want either help or fame in that 
way, after his Electra and theTroades''. In other 
letters he answers more seriously ; that it was 
impossible to conceive how much he wanted 
leisure for versifying : that to write verses required 
an ease and cheerfulness of mind which the times 
had taken from him ; and that his poetical flame 
was quite extinguished by the sad prospect of 
things before them r . 

He had sent Caesar his Greek poem, in three 
books, on the history of his consulship ; and 
Caesar's judgment upon it was, that the beginning 
of it was as good as anything which he had ever 
seen in that language, but that the following lines, 
to a certain place, were not equal in accuracy and 
spirit. Cicero desires therefore to know of his 
brother, what Caesar really thought of the whole ; 

P Est, quod gaudeas, te in ista loca venisse, ubi aliquid 
sapere viderere : quod si in Britanniam quoque profectus 
esses, profecto nemo in ilia tanta insula te peritior f uisset. 
— Sed tu in re militari multo es cautior quam in advoca- 
tionibvis : qui neque in oeeano nature voluisti, homo 
studios issimus natandi, neque spectare essedarios, quem 
antea ne andabatam quidem defraudare poteramus. — Ep. 
Fam. vii. 10. 

In Britanniam te profectum non esse gaudeo, quod et 
labore caruisti, et ego te de illis rebus non audiam.. — Ibid. 
17. 

The little here given of Trebatius's love of swimming, 
adds a new light and beauty to that passage of Horace, 
where the poet introduces him, advising, to swim thrice 
cross the Tiber, to cure the want of sleep ; the advice, it 
seems, being peculiarly agreeable to his own practice and 
character. 

ter uncti 

Transnanto Tiberim, somno quibus est opus alto. 

Sat. ii. i. 8. 

1 Te vero viroOeaiv scribendi egregiam habere video. 
Quos tu situs, quas naturas rerum etlocorum, quos mores, 
quas gentes, quas pugnas, quem vero ipsum imperatorem 
habes? Ego te libenter, ut rogas, quibus rebus vis, adju- 
vabo, et tibi versus, quos rogas, yXavKa els 'A8r)vas 
mittam. — Ad Quint, ii. 16. 

Quatuor tragcedias, cum xvi diebus absolvisse scribas, 
tu quidquam ab alio mutuaris? et /cAe'os qua?ris, cum 
Electram et Troadem scripseris? — Ibid. iii. 6. 

N.B.— These four tragedies, said to be written in sixteen 
days, cannot be supposed to have been original produc- 
tions, but translations from some of the Greek poets, of 
which Quintus was a great master ; finished by him in 
haste for the entertainment of the camp: for the word 
Troadem in the text, the name of one of them, should 
most probably be Troades, the title of one of Euripides's 
plays ; as the Electra also was. 

r Quod me de faciendis versibus rogas, incredibile est, 
mi frater, quantum egeam tempore — Facerem tamen ut 
posscm, sed — opus est ad poema quadam animi alacritate, 
quam plane mini tempora eripiunt. — Ibid. iii. 5. 

De versibus— deest mini opera, quae non modo tempus, 
sed etiam animum ab onini cura vacuum desiderat : sed 
abest etiam ivQovcriao-^6s &c— Ibid. 4. 



whether the matter or the style displeased him ; 
and begs that he would tell him the truth freely ; 
since whether Caesar liked it or not, he should not, 
he says, be a jot the less pleased with himself s . 
He began however another poem, at his brother's 
earnest request, to be addressed to Caesar, but 
after some progress was so dissatisfied with it that 
he tore it 1 : yet Quintus still urging, and signi- 
fying, that he had acquainted Caesar with the 
design, he was obliged to resume it, and actually 
finished an epic poem in honour of Caesar ; which 
he promises to send as soon as he could find 
a proper conveyance, that it might not be lost, 
as Quintus's tragedy of Erigone was in coming 
from Gaul ; the only thing, says he, which had 
not found a safe passage since Caesar governed 
that province 11 . 

While Cicero was expressing no small dissatis- 
faction at the measures which his present situation 
obliged him to pursue, Caesar was doing everything 
in his power to make him easy : he treated his 
brother with as much kindness as if Cicero himself 
had been his general ; gave him the choice of his 
winter-quarters, and the legion which he best 
liked* : and Clodius happening to write to him 
from Rome, he showed the letter to Quintus, and 
declared that he would not answer it ; though 
Quintus civilly pressed him not to put such an 
affront upon Clodius for their sakes^: in the midst 
of all his hurry in Britain, he sent frequent accounts 
to Cicero in his own hand of his progress and 
success, and at the instant of quitting the island 
wrote to him from the very shore, of the embark- 
ment of the troops, and his having taken hostages 
and imposed a tribute : and lest he should be 
surprised at having no letters at the same time 
from his brother, he acquaints him, that Quintus 
was then at a distance from him, and could not 
take the benefit of that express : Cicero received all 
these letters at Rome in less than a month after 
date, and takes notice of one of them, that it 
arrived on the twentieth day ; a despatch equal to 
that of our present couriers by the post 2 . 

s Sed heus tu, celari videor a te, quomodonam, mi 
frater, de nostris versibus Caesar ? Nam primum librum 
so legisse scripsit ad me ante : et prima sic, ut neget se ne 
Graeea quidem meliora legisse ; reliqua ad quendam locum 
padvpuTepa. Hoc enim utitur verbo. Die mihi verum, 
num aut res eum aut x a P aKr 'hp non delectat ? Nihil est 
quod vereare. Ego enim ne pilo quidem minus me amabo. 
—Ad Quint, ii. 16. 

1 Poema ad Caesarem, quod composueram, ineidi. — rbid. 
iii. 1. s. 4. 

u Quod me institutum ad ilium poema jiibes perficere ; 
etsi distentus turn opera, turn animo sum multo magis, 
quoniam ex epistola, quam ad te miseram, cognovit 
Caesar me aliquod esse exorsum ; revertar ad institutum. 
—Ibid. 8. 

Quod me hortaris, ut absolvam, habeo absolutum suave, 
mihi quidem uti videtur, tttos ad Ca-sarem. Sed quaero 
locupletem tabellarium, ne accidat quod Erigonsr tua?; 
cui soli. Cffisare imperatorc, iter ex Gallia tutum non fuit. 
—Ibid. 9. 

x Quintum mciim- Dii boni ! quemadmodum tractat, 
honore, dignitatc. gratia ? Non secus ac si ego essem 
unperator. Hibernam legionem eligendi optio delata 
commodum, ut ad me scribit. — Ad Att. iv. 18. 

y In qua primum est de Clodii ad Ceesarem Uteris, in 
quo Ca?saris consilium probo, quod tibi amantissime 
petenti veniam non dedit, ut uUum ad illam Furiam ver- 
bum rescribcret.— Ad Quint, iii. 1. s. 4. 

1 Ab Quinto fratre et a Caesare acccpi a. d. ix. Kal. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



139 



As to the news of the city this summer, Cicero 
tells his brother, " that there were some hopes of 
an election of magistrates, but those uncertain ; 
some suspicion of a dictator, yet that not more 
certain ; a great calm in the forum ; but of a city, 
seemed to be quieted rather by the effects of age 
than of concord : that his own conduct, as well in 
public as in private, was just what Quintus had 
advised, softer than the tip of his ear; and his 
votes in the senate such as pleased others rather 
than himself. 

Such ills does wretched war and discord breed, 
that bribery was never carried so high as at this 
time, by the consular candidates, Memmius, Do- 
mitius, Scaurus, Messala : that they were all alike; 
no eminence in any; for money levelled the dignity 
of them all : that above eighty thousand pounds 
was promised to the first tribe ; and money grown 
so scarce by this profusion of it, that interest was 
risen from four to eight per cent. a " 

Memmius and Cn. Domitius, who joined their 
interests, made a strange sort of contract with the 
consuls, which was drawn up in writing, and 
attested in proper form by many of their friends 
on both sides; by which " the consuls obliged 
themselves to serve them with all their power in 
the ensuing election ; and they on their part 
undertook, when elected, to procure for the consuls 
what provinces they desired ; and gave a bond of 
above 3000/. to provide three augurs who should 
testify, that they were present at making a law 
for granting them those provinces, when no such 
law had ever been made ; and two consular senators, 
who should affirm, that they were present likewise 
at passing a decree of the senate, for furnishing 
the same provinces with arms and money, when 
the senate had never been consulted about it. b " 

Nov. literas, confecta Britannia, obsidibus acceptis, nulla 
praeda, itnperata tamen pecunia, datas a littoribus Britan- 
nia?, proximo a. d. vi. Kal. Octob. exercitum Britannia 
reportabant. — Ad Att. iv. 17. 

Ex Britannia Csesar ad me Kal. Sept. dedit literas ; quas 
ego accepi a. d. iv. Kal. Octob. satis commodas de Bri- 
tannieis rebus : quibus, ne admirer, quod a te nullasaccep- 
erim, scribit se sine te fuisse, cum ad mare accesserit. — 
Ad Quint, iii. 1. s 7. 

Cum hanc jam epistolam complicarem, tabellarii a vobis 
vcnerunt a. d. xi. Kal. Sept. vicesimo die.— Ibid. iii. 1. s. 5. 

a Res Romanas sic se habebant. Erat nonnulla spes 
comitiorum, sed incerta: erat aliqua suspicio dictatura?, 
ne ea quidem certa : summum otium forense ; sed senes- 
centis magis civitatis, quam adquiescentis. Sententia 
autem nostra in senatu ej usrnodi, magis ut alii nobis assen- 
tiantur, quam nosmet ipsi. — 

Toiavd' 6 T\7i{ioov irStefMOS i^pyd^erai. 

Eurip. Supplices. 
Ambitus redit immanis, nunquam par fuit — Ad Quint. 
ii. 15. 

Sequere me nunc in Campum. Ardet ambitus: crrifia 
Se roi epe'w ; foenus ex triente Idib. Quint, factum erat 
bessibus— 6 : |o^t/ in nullo est, pecunia omnium dignitatem 
exaiquat.— Ad Att. iv. 15. 

b Consules flagrant infamia, quod C. Memmius candi- 
datus pactionem in senatu recitavit, quam ipse et suus 
competitor Domitius cum consulibus fecissent, uti ambo 
II. S. quadragena consulibus darent, siessent ipsi consules 
facti, nisi ties augures dedissent, qui se adfuisse dicerent, 
cum lex euriata ferretur, qua? lata non esset; et duo con- 
sul ares, qui se dicerent in ornandisprovinciis consularibus 
scribendo affuisse, cum omnino ne senatus quidem fuisset. 
Usee pactio non verbis sednominibus et perscriptionibus ; 
multorum tabulis cum esse facta diceretur, prolata a 



Memmius, who was strongly supported by Caesar c , 
finding some reason to dislike his bargain, resolved 
to break it, and, by Pompey's advice, gave an 
account of it to the senate. Pompey was pleased 
with the opportunity of mortifying the consul 
Domitius ; and willing likewise to take some 
revenge on Appius, who, though his near relation, 
did not enter so fully as he expected into his 
measures' 1 : but Csesar was much out of humour at 
this step e ; as it was likely to raise great scandal 
in the city, and strengthen the interest of those 
who were endeavouring to restrain that infamous 
corruption, which was the main instrument of 
advancing his power. Appius never changed 
countenance, nor lost any credit by the discovery ; 
but his colleague Domitius, who affected the cha- 
racter of a patriot, was extremely discomposed ; 
and Memmius, now grown desperate, resolved to 
promote the general disorder and the creation of a 
dictator f . 

Quintus sent his brother word from Gaul, that 
it was reported there, that he was present at this 
contract : but Cicero assures him that it was false, 
and that the bargain was of such a nature, as 
Memmius had opened it to the senate, that no 
honest man could have been present at it?. The 
senate was highly incensed ; and to check the 
insolence of the parties concerned, passed a decree, 
that their conduct should be inquired into by what 
they called a private, or silent judgment ; where 
the sentence was not to be declared till after the 
election, yet so as to make void the election of 
those who should be found guilty : this they 
resolved to execute with rigour, and made an 
allotment of judges for that purpose : but some of 
the tribunes were prevailed with to interpose their 
negative, on pretence of hindering all inquisitions 
not specially authorised by the people 11 . 

This detestable bargain of forging laws and 
decrees at pleasure, in which so many of the first 
rank were concerned, either as principals or wit- 
nesses, is alleged by an ingenious French writer as 
a flagrant instance of libertinism which hastened 
the destruction of Rome 1 . So far are " private 
vices" from being " public benefits," that this great 
republic, of all others the most free and flourishing, 
owed the loss of its liberty to nothing else but a 
general defection of its citizens, from the probity 



Memmio est nominibus inductis, auctore Pompeio. — Ad 
Att. iv. 18. 

c Memmium Caesaris omnes opes confirmant. — Ibid. 15. 
17. 

d Dio, xxxix. p. 118. 

e Ut qui jam intelligebamus e nunciationem illam Mem- 
mii valde Cassari displicere. — Ad Att. iv. 16. 

f Hie Appius erat idem ; nibil sane jacturae. Corruerat 
alter, et plane, inquam, jacebat. Memmius autem— plane 
refrixerat, et eo magis nunc cogitare dictaturam, turn 
faverc justitio et omnium rerum licentia?.— Ibid. 18. 

S Quodscribis te audisse, in candidatorum consularium 
coitione me interfuisse, id falsum est. Ejusmodi enim 
pactiones in ista coitione facta; siyit. quas postea Memmius 
patcfecit, ut nemo bonus interesse debuerit. — Ad Quint, 
iii. l.a. 5. 

h At senatus decrevit ut taciturn judicium ante comitia 
fieret — Magnus timor candidatorum, Sed quidam j ndices — 
tribunos plebis appellarunt, ne injussu populi judicarcnt. 
lies cedit, comitia dilata ex scnatusconsulto dum lex de 
tacito judicio ferretur. Venit legi dies. Terentius inter- 
cessit.— Ad Att. iv. 16. 

» Considerations sur les Causes de la Grandeur, &c. des 
llomains, chap. x. 



140 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



and discipline of their ancestors. Cicero often 
foretells their approaching ruin from this very- 
cause ; and when he bewails the wretchedness of 
the times, usually joins the wretchedness of their 
morals as the genuine source of it k . 

But lest these corrupt candidates should escape 
without punishment, they were all publicly im- 
peached by different prosecutors, and the city was 
now in a great ferment about them, since, as 
Cicero says, either the men or the laws must 
necessarily perish : yet they will all, says he, be 
acquitted ; for trials are now managed so corruptly, 
that no man will ever be condemned for the future 
unless for murder 1 . But Q. Scsevola, one of the 
tribunes, took a more effectual way to mortify 
them, by resolving to hinder any election of 
consuls during his magistracy ; in which he per- 
severed, and by his authority dissolved all the 
assemblies, convened for that purpose™. The 
tribunitian candidates however were remarkably 
modest this year : for they made an agreement 
among themselves, which they all confirmed by an 
oath, " that in prosecuting their several interests, 
they would submit their conduct to the judgment 
of Cato, and deposit four thousand pounds apiece 
in his hands, to be forfeited by those whom he 
should condemn of any irregular practice. If the 
election proves free," says Cicero, " as it is thought 
it will, Cato alone can do more than all the laws 
and all the judges 11 ." 

A great part of this year was taken up in public 
trials : Suffenas and C. Cato, who had been tribunes 
two years before, were tried in the beginning of 
July for violence and breach of peace in their 
magistracy, and both acquitted : but Procilius, 
one of their colleagues, " was condemned for 
killing a citizen in his own house : whence we are 
to collect," says Cicero, ' ; that our Areopagites value 
neither bribery, nor elections, nor interregnums, 
nor attempts against the state, nor the whole 
republic, a rush : we must not murder a man 
indeed in his own house, though that perhaps might 
be done moderately, since twenty- two acquitted 
Procilius when twenty-eight condemned him ." 
Clodius was the accuser in these impeachments : 

k His prsesertim moribus atque temporibus, quibus ita 
prolapsa respublica est, ut omnium opibus reframanda, ac 
co.ercenda sit.— De Divin. ii. 2, 

Qui sit rempublicam afflictam et oppressam miseris 
temporibus, ac perditis moribus, in veterem dignitatem 
et libertatem vindicaturus. — Ep. Fara. ii. 5. 

I De ambitu postulati sunt omnes, qui consulatum 
petant— Magno res in motu est. Propterea quod aut 
hominum aut legum interitus ostenditur.— Ad Quint. 
iii. 2. 

Sed omnes absolventur, nee posthac quisquam damna- 
bitur, nisi qui hominem Occident. — Ad Att. iv. 16. 

"i Comitiorum quotidie singuli dies tolluntur obnun- 
cia tionibus, magna voluntate bonorum.— Ad Quint, iii. 3. 

Obnunciationibus per Scaevolam interpositis, singulis 
diebus. — Ad Att. iv. IK. 

II Tribunitii candidate iurarunt se arbitrio Catonis peti- 
turos : apud eum II. S. quingena deposuerunt; ut qui a 
Catone damnatus esset, id perderet, et competitoribus 
tribueretur— Si comitia, ut putantur, gratuita fuerint, 
plus unus Cato potuerit, quam omnes quidem judices.' — 
Ibid. 15 ; Ad Quint, ii. 15. 

° in. Non. Quint. Suffenas et Cato absoluti : Procilius 
condenmatus. Ex quo intellectum est, rpKTapeioirayirag, 
ambitum, comitia, interregnum, majestatem, totam deni- 
que rempublicam, flocci non facere. Debemus patrem 
familias domi suae occidere nolle, neque tamen id ipsum 



which made Cato, as soon as he was acquitted, seek 
a reconciliation with Cicero and MiloP. It was not 
Cicero's business to reject the friendship of an 
active and popular senator ; and Milo had occasion 
for his service in his approaching suit for the 
consulship. But though Cicero had no concern 
in these trials, he was continually employed in 
others through the rest of the summer : " I was 
never," says he, " more busy in trials than now ; 
in the worst season of the year, and the greatest 
heats that we have ever known, there scarce 
passes a day in which I do not defend somei." 
Besides his clients in the city, he had several 
towns and colonies under his patronage, which 
sometimes wanted his help abroad, as the corpora- 
tion of Reate did now, to plead for them before 
the consul Appius, and ten commissioners, in a 
controversy with their neighbours of Interamna, 
about draining the lake Velinus into the river Nar, 
to the damage of their grounds. He returned 
from this cause in the midst of the Apollinarian 
shows ; and to relieve himself from the fatigue of 
his journey went directly to the theatre, where he 
was received by a universal clap : in the account 
of which to Atticus he adds, " but this you are not 
to take notice of, and' 1 am a fool indeed myself 
for mentioning it r ." 

He now also defended Messius, one of Caesar's 
lieutenants, who came from Gaul on purpose to 
take his trial : then Drusus, accused of prevari- 
cating or betraying a cause, which he had under- 
taken to defend ; of which he was acquitted by a 
majority of only four voices : after that Vatinius, 
the last year's praetor, and iEmilius Scaurus, one 
of the consular candidates, accused of plundering 
the province of Sardinia s ; and about the same time 
likewise his old friend Cn. Plancius, who had en- 
tertained him so generously in his exile, and being 
now chosen eedile, was accused by a disappointed 
competitor, M. Laterensis, of bribery and corrup- 
tion. All these were acquitted, but the orations 
for them are lost, except that for Plancius ; which 
remains a perpetual monument of Cicero's grati- 
tude : for Plancius having obtained the tribunate 
from the people, as the reward of his fidelity to 
Cicero, did not behave himself in that post with 
the same affection to him as before, but seems stu- 
diously to have slighted him ; while several of his 
colleagues, and especially Racilius, were exerting 
all their power in the defence of his person and 
abunde. Nam absolverunt xxii ; condemnarunt xxviii. — 
Ad Att. iv. 15. 

P Is tamen et mecum et cum Milone in gratiam rediit.— 
Ibid. 16. 

q Sic enim habeto nunquam me a causis et judiciis dis- 
trictiorem fuisse, atque id anni tempore gravissimo, et 
caloribus maximis. — Ad Quint, ii. 16. 

Diem scito esse nullum, quo non dico pro reo.— Ibid, 
iii. 3. 

r Reatini me ad sua Te/.wr'? duxerunt, ut agerem 
causam contra Interamnates — Redii Romam — Veni in 
spectaculum ; primum magno et sequabili plausu, (sed 
hoc ne curaris ; ego ineptus qui scripserim.) — Ad Att. 
iv. 15. 

s Messius defendebatur a nobis, e legatione revocatus — 
Deiude me expedio ad Drusum, hide ad Scaurum. — Ibid. 

Drusus erat de praevaricatione — absolutus, in summa 
quatuor sententiis — Eodem die post meridiem Vatinium 
aderam defensurus ; ea res facilis — Scauri judicium statiin 
exercebitur, cui nos non deerimus. — Ad Quint, ii. 16. 

Scaurum beneficio defensionis valde obligavi.— Ibid. iii. 
1. s. 5. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



141 



dignity 1 . Yet Cicero freely undertook his cause, 
and as if no coldness had intervened, displayed the 
merit of his services in the most pathetic and 
affecting manner; and rescued him from the hands 
of a powerful accuser, and his own particular 
friend. " Drusus's trial was held in the morning ; 
from which, after going home to write a few 
letters, he was obliged to return to Vatinius's in 
the afternoon:" which gives us a specimen of the 
hurry in which he generally lived, and of the little 
time which he had to spend upon his private 
affairs, or his studies ; and though he was now 
carrying on several great works of the learned kind, 
" yet he had no other leisure (he tells us) for me- 
ditating and composing, but when he was taking a 
few turns in his gardens, for the exercise of his 
body, and refreshment of his voice u ." Vatinius 
had been one of his fiercest enemies ; was in a 
perpetual opposition to him in politics ; and, like 
Bestia mentioned above, a seditious, profligate, 
abandoned libertine ; so that the defence of him 
gave a plausible handle for some censure upon 
Cicero : but his engagements with Pompey, and 
especially his new friendship with Caesar, made it 
necessary to embrace all Caesar's friends ; among 
whom Vatinius was most warmly recommended to 
him. 

Gabinius being recalled, as has been said, from 
his government, returned to Rome about the 
end of September : he bragged everywhere on his 
journey, that he was going to the demand of a 
triumph ; and to carry on that farce, continued 
a while without the gates ; till perceiving how 
odious he was to all within, he stole privately into 
the city by night, to avoid the disgrace of being 
insulted by the populace x . There were three 
different impeachments provided against him : the 
first, for treasonable practices against the state ; 
the second, for the plunder of his province ; the 
third for bribery and corruption ; and so many 
persons offered themselves to be prosecutors, that 
there was a contest among them before the praetor, 
how to adjust their several claims y. The first 
indictment fell to L. Lentulus, who accused him 
the day after he entered the city, " that, in defiance 
of religion and the decree of the senate, he had 
restored the king of Egypt with an army, leaving 
his own province naked, and open to the incursion 
of enemies, who had made great devastations in 
it." Cicero, who had received from Gabinius all 
the provocation which one man could receive from 
another, had the pleasure to see his insolent adver- 
sary at his feet ; and was prepared to give him 
such a reception as he deserved : but Gabinius 
durst not venture to show his head for the first ten 

1 Negas tribunatum Plancii quicquam attulisse adju- | 
menti dignitati meae. Atque hoc loco, quod verissime j 
facere potes. L. Racilii divina in me merita commemoras, 
&c— Pro Plancio, 32. 

u Ita quicquid conficio aut cogito in ambulationis fere 
tempus confero.— Ad Quint, iii. 3. 

x Ad urbem accessit a. d. xn. Kal. Oct. nihil turpius, 
nee desertius. — Ad Quint, iii. 1. sec. f>. 

Cum Gabinius, quacunque veniebat, triumphum se 
postulare dixisset, subitoque bonus imperator noctu in 
urbem, hostium plane, invasisset. — Ibid. 2. 

y Gabinium tres adhuc factiones postulant : &c. — Ibid. 
1. sec. 5. 

Cum hsec scribebam ante lucem, apud Catonem erat 
divinatio in Gabinium futura, inter Memmium, et Ti. 
Neronem, et C. et L. Antonios.— Ibid. 2. 



days, till he was obliged to come to the senate, in 
order to give them an account, according to custom, 
of the state of his province and the troops which 
he had left in it: as soon as he had told his story 
he was going to retire, but the consuls detained 
him to answer to a complaint brought against him 
by the publicans, or farmers of the revenues, who 
were attending at the door to make it good. This 
drew on a debate, in which Gabinius was so urged 
and teased on all sides, but especially by Cicero, 
that trembling with passion, and unable to contain 
himself, he called Cicero a banished man : upon 
which (says Cicero, in a letter to his brother) 
" nothing ever happened more honourable to me : 
the whole senate left their seats to a man, and with 
a general clamour ran up to his very face ; while 
the publicans also were equally fierce and clamor- 
ous against him, and the whole company behaved 
just as you yourself would have done 2 .'' 

Cicero had been deliberating for some time, 
whether he should not accuse Gabinius himself; 
but out of regard to Pompey was content to appear 
only as a witness against him a ; and when the trial 
was over, gives the following account of it to his 
brother. 

" Gabinius is acquitted : nothing was ever so 
stupid as his accuser Lentulus ; nothing so sordid 
as the bench : yet if Pompey had not taken incre- 
dible pains, and the rumour of a dictatorship had 
not infused some apprehensions, he could not 
have held up his head even against Lentulus : 
since with such an accuser, and such judges, of 
the seventy-two who sat upon him, thirty-two 
condemned him. The sentence is so infamous, 
that he seems likely to fall in the other trials ; 
especially that of plunder : but there's no republic, 
no senate, no justice, no dignity in any of us : 
what can I say more of the judges ? There were 
but two of them of praetorian rank, Domitius Cal- 
vinus, who acquitted him so forwardly that all the 
world might see it ; and Cato, who, as soon as the 
votes were declared, ran officiously from the bench 
to carry the first news to Pompey. Some say, and 
particularly Sallust, that I ought to have accused 
him : but should I risk my credit with such judges? 
What a figure should 1 have made, if he had 
escaped from me ! but there were other things 
which influenced me : Pompey would have con- 
sidered it as a struggle, not about Gabinius's 
safety, but his own dignity : it must have made a 
breach between us : we should have been matched 
like a pair of gladiators ; as Pacidianus, with 
JEseruinus the Samnite ; he would probably have 
bit off one of my ears, or been reconciled at least 
with Clodius — for after all the pains which I had 
taken to serve him ; when I owed nothing to him, 
he every thing to me ; yet he would not bear my 
differing from him in public affairs, to say no worse 

z Interim ipso decimo die, quo ipsum oportebat hostium 
numerum et militum renunciare, in re ha?sit, summa in 
frequentia : cum vellet exire, a consulibus retentus est ; 
introducti publicani. Homo undique actus, cum a me 
maxime vulneraretur, non tulit, et me trementi voce 
exulem appellavit. Hie, o dii, nihil unquam honorificen- 
tius nobis accidit. Consurrexit senatus cum clamore ad 
unum, sic ut ad corpus ejus accedeiet. Pari clamore 
atque impetu publicani. Quid qua?ris ? Omnes, tanquam 
si tu esses, ita fuerunt. — Ad Quint, iii 2. 

a Ego tamen me teneo abaccusando vix mehercule. Sed 
tamen teneo, vel quod nolo cum Pompeio pugnare ; satis 
est, quod instat de Milone.— Ibid. iii. 2. 



142 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



of it ; and when he was less powerful than he is 
at present, showed what power he had against me 
in my flourishing condition ; why should I now, 
when I have lost even all desire of power ; when 
the republic certainly has none ; when he alone has 
all ; choose him of all men to contend with ? for 
that must have been the case : I cannot think 
that you would have advised me to it. Sallust 
says, that I ought to have done either the one or 
the other ; and, in compliment to Pompey, have 
defended him ; who begged it of me indeed very 

earnestly A special friend this Sallust ! to wish 

me to involve myself either in a dangerous enmity, 
or perpetual infamy. I am delighted with my 
middle way ; and when I had given my testimony 
faithfully and religiously, was pleased to hear 
Gabinius say, that if it should be permitted to 
him to continue in the city, he would make it his 
business to give me satisfaction ; nor did he so 
much as interrogate me— V He gives the same 
account of this trial to his other friends; "how 
Lentulus acted his part so ill, that people were 
persuaded that he prevaricated— and that Gabi- 
nius's escape was owing to the indefatigable in- 
dustry of Pompey, and the corruption of the 
bench c ." 

About the time of this trial there happened a 
terrible inundation of the Tiber, which did much 
damage at Rome : many houses and shops were 
carried away by it, and the fine gardens of Cicero's 
son-in-law, Crassipes, demolished. It was all 
charged to the absolution of Gabinius, after his 
daring violation of religion, and contempt of the 
Sibyl's books : Cicero applies to it the following 
passage of Homer d . 

As when in autumn Jove his fury pours, 
And earth is loaden with incessant showers ; 
When guilty mortals break the eternal laws, 
And judges bribed betray the righteous cause, 
From their deep beds he bids the rivers rise, 
And opens all the flood-gates of the skies. 

Pope, II. xvi. 466. 

But Gabinius's danger was not yet over : he 
was to be tried a second time, for the plunder of 
his province ; where C. Memmius, one of the tri- 
bunes, was his accuser, and M. Cato his judge, 
with whom he was not likely to find any favour : 
Pompey pressed Cicero to defend him, and would 
not admit of any excuse ; and Gabinius's humble 
behaviour in the late trial was intended to make 
way for Pompey's solicitation. Cicero stood firm 
for a long time : " Pompey (says he) labours hard 
with me, but has yet made no impression, nor, if 
1 retain a grain of liberty, ever will e ;" 

Oh ! ere that dire disgrace shall blast my fame, 
O'erwhelm me earth II. iv. 218. 

b Ad Quint, iii. 4. 

c Quomodo ergo absolutus ? — Accusatorum incredibilis 
infamia, id est L. Lentuli, quern fremunt omnes praevari- 
catum ; deinde Pompeii mira contentio, judicum sordes. 
—Ad Att. iv. 16. 

d Romac, et maxime Appia ad Martis, mira proluvies. 
Crassipedis ambulatio ablata, horti, tabemas plurimae. 
Magna vis aquae usque ad piscinam publicam. Viget illud 

Ilomeri Cadit enim in absolutionem Gabinii.— Ad 

Quint, iii. 7- 

e Pompeius a me valdo contendit de reditu in gratiam, 
sed adhuc nihil profecit : nee si ullam partem libertatis 
tenebo, proficiet.— Ad Quint, iii. 1. s. 5. 

'De Gabinio nihil fait faciendum istorum, &c. t6ts fxoi 
Xavoi.—l\. iv. 218. 



but Pompey's incessant importunity, backed by 
Caesar's earnest request, made it vain to struggle 
any longer ; and forced him, against his judgment, 
his resolution, and his dignity, to defend Gabinius ; 
at a time when his defence at last proved of no 
service to him ; for he was found guilty by Cato, 
and condemned of course to a perpetual banishment. 
It is probable that Cicero's oration was never 
published, but as it was his custom to keep the 
minutes or rough draught of all his pleadings in 
what he called his Commentaries, which were 
extant many ages after his death f ; so St. Jerome 
has preserved from them a small fragment of this 
speech : which seems to be a part of the apology 
that he found himself obliged to make for it ; 
wherein he observes, " that when Pompey's au- 
thority had once reconciled him to Gabinius, it 
was no longer in his power to avoid defending him ; 
for it was ever my persuasion (says he) that all 
friendships should be maintained with a religious 
exactness : but especially those which happen to 
be renewed from a quarrel : for in friendships 
that have suffered no interruption, a failure of duty 
is easily excused by a plea of inadvertency, or at 
the worst of negligence ; whereas, if after a recon- 
ciliation any new offence be given, it never passes 
for negligent, but wilful ; and is not imputed to 
imprudence, but to perfidy s." 

The proconsul Lentulus, who resided still in 
Cilicia, having had an account from Rome, of 
Cicero's change of conduct, and his defence of 
Vatinius, wrote a sort of expostulatory letter to 
him to know the reasons of it ; telling him, that 
he had heard of his reconciliation with Caesar and 
Appius, for which he did not blame him ; but was 
at a loss how to account for his new friendship 
with Crassus ; and above all what it was, that in- 
duced him to defend Vatinius. This gave occasion 
to that long and elaborate answer from Cicero, 
already referred to, written before Gabinius's trial ; 
which would otherwise have made his apology 
more difficult, in which he lays open the motives 
and progress of his whole behaviour from the time 
of his exile. — " As to the case of Vatinius (he 
says), as soon as he was chosen praetor, where I 
warmly opposed him in favour of Cato, Pompey 
prevailed with me to be reconciled to him ; and 
Caesar afterwards took surprising pains with me to 
defend him ; to which I consented, for the sake of 
doing what, as I told the court at the trial, the 
Parasite, in the Eunuch, advised his Patron to do : 
— ' Whenever she talks of Phaedria, do you pre- 
sently praise Pamphila,' &c, so I begged of the 
judges, that since certain persons of distinguished 
rank, to whom I was much obliged, were so fond 
of my enemy, and affected to caress him in the 
senate before my face with all the marks of fa- 
miliarity ; and since they had their Publius to give 
me jealousy, I might be allowed to have my Pub- 
lius also to tease them with in my turn — ." Then 
as to his general conduct, he makes this general 
defence: "that the union and firmness of the 
honest, which subsisted when Lentulus left Rome, 
confirmed (says he) by my consulship, and revived 
by yours, is now quite broken and deserted by 
those who ought to have supported it, and were 
looked upon as patriots ; for which reason the 

f Quod fecisse M. Tullium commentariis ipsius apparet. 
— Quint, x. 7- 
g Vide Fragment. Orationum. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



140 



maxims and measures of all wise citizens, in which 
class I always wish to be ranked, ought to he 
changed too : for it is a precept of Plato, whose 
authority has the greatest weight with me, to con- 
tend in public affairs, as far as we can persuade 
our citizens, but not to offer violence, either to 
our parent or our country. — If I was quite free 
from all engagements, I should act therefore as I 
now do : should not think it prudent to contend 
with so great a power ; nor, if it could be effected, 
to extinguish it in our present circumstances ; nor 
continue always in one mind, when the things 
themselves and the sentiments of the honest are 
altered ; since a perpetual adherence to the same 
measures has never been approved by those who 
know best how to govern states : but as in sailing, 
it is the business of art to be directed by the 
weather, and foolish to persevere with danger in 
the course in which we set out, rather than, by 
changing it, to arrive with safety, though later, 
where we intended; so to us who manage public 
affairs, the chief end proposed being dignity with 
public quiet, our business is not to be always 
aiming at the same thing. Wherefore if all things, 
as I said, were wholly free to me, I should be the 
same man that I now am : but when I am invited 
to this conduct on the one side by kindnesses, and 
driven to it on the other by injuries, I easily suffer 
myself to vote and act what I take to be useful 
both to myself and the republic ; and I do it the 
more freely, as well on the account of my brother's 
being Csesar's lieutenant, as that there is not the 
least thing which I have ever said or done for 
Caesar, but what he has repaid with such eminent 
gratitude, as persuades me that he takes himself to 
be obliged to me ; so that I have as much use of 
all his power and interest, which you know to be 
the greatest, as if they were my own : nor could I 
otherwise have defeated the designs of my des- 
perate enemies, if to those forces which I have 
always been master of, I had not joined the favour 
of the men of power. Had you been here to advise 
me, I am persuaded that I should have followed 
the same measures: for I know your good-nature 
and moderation ; I know your heart, not only the 
most friendly to me, but void of all malevolence to 
others ; great and noble, open and sincere," &c. h 
He often defends himself on other occasions by the 
same allusion to the art of sailing: ""I cannot 
reckon it inconstancy (says he) to change and 
moderate our opinion, like the course of a ship, 
by the weather of the republic ; this is what I 
have learned, have observed, have read ; what the 
records of former ages have delivered, of the wisest 
and most eminent citizens, both in this and all 
other cities ; that the same maxims are not always 
to be pursued by the same men ; but such, what- 
ever they be, which the state of the republic, the 
inclination of the times, the occasions of public 
peace, require : this is what I am now doing and 
shall always do — '." 

The trial of C. Rabirius Postumus, a person of 

h Ep. Fam. i. 9. 

» Neque enim inconstantis puto, sententiam, tanquam 
aliquod navigium atque cursum ex reipublica? tempestate 
moderari. Ego vero ha?c didici, hsec vidi, bapc scripta legi : 
hsec de sapientissimis et clarissimis viris, et in hac repub- 
lica et in aliis civitatibus monumenta nobis et liters pro- 
diderunt : non semper easdem sententias ab iisdem, sed 
quascunque reipublicse status, inclinatio temporum, ratio 



equestrian rank, was an appendix to that of Gabi- 
nius. It was one of the articles against Gabinius, 
that he had received about two millions for restoring 
king Ptolemy ; yet all his estate which was to be 
found was not sufficient to answer the damages 
in which he was condemned ; nor could he give 
any security for the rest : in this case, the me- 
thod was, to demand the deficiency from those 
through whose hands the management of his 
money affairs had passed, and who were supposed 
to have been sharers in the spoil : this was charged 
upon Rabirius ; and that he had advised Gabinius 
to undertake the restoration of the king, and ac- 
companied him in it, and was employed to solicit 
the payment of the money, and lived at Alex- 
andria for that purpose, in the king's service, as 
the public receiver of his taxes, and wearing the 
pallium or habit of the country. 

Cicero urged in defence of Rabirius, " that he 
had borne no part in that transaction ; but that 
his whole crime, or rather folly, was, that he had 
lent the king great sums of money for his support 
at Rome ; and ventured to trust a prince who, as 
all the world then thought, was going to be restored 
by the authority of the Roman people : that the 
necessity of going to Egypt for the recovery of that 
debt was the source of all his misery, where he was 
forced to take whatever the king would give or 
impose : that it was his misfortune to be obliged 
to commit himself to the power of an arbitrary 
monarch : that nothing could be more mad than 
for a Roman knight, and citizen of a republic of 
all others the most free, to go to any place where 
he must needs be a slave to the will of another ; 
that all who ever did so, as Plato and the wisest 
had sometimes done too hastily, always suffered for 
it. This was the case of Rabirius : necessity car- 
ried him to Alexandria ; his whole fortunes were 
at stake k ; which he was so far from improving by 
his traffic with that king, that he was ill treated by 
him, imprisoned, threatened with death, and glad 
to run away at last with the loss of all : and at 
that very time, it was wholly owing to Csesar's 
generosity and regard to the merit and misfortunes 
of an old friend, that he was enabled to support 
his former rank and equestrian dignity. 1 " Gabi- 
nius's trial had so near a relation to this, and was 
so often referred to in it, that the prosecutors could 
not omit so fair an opportunity of rallying Cicero 
for the part which he had acted in it. Memmius 
observed, that the deputies of Alexandria had the 
same reason for appearing for Gabinius which 
Cicero had for defending him — the command of a 
master. " No, Memmius," replied Cicero, " my 
reason for defending him was a reconciliation with 
him ; for I am not ashamed to own that my quar- 
rels are mortal, my friendships immortal. And if 
you imagine that I undertook that cause for fear of 
Pompey, you neither know Pompey nor me ; for 
Pompey would neither desire it of me against my 
will, nor would I, after I had preserved the liberty 
of my citizens, ever give up my own 1 "." 

concordia? postularet, esse defendendas. Quod ego et facio, 
et semper faciam.— Pro Plancio, 39. 

k Pro Rabir. 8, 9. ' Ibid. 15. 

m Ait etiam meus familiaris, eandem causnm Alexan- 
drinis fuisse, cur laudarcnt Gabinium, qua? niihi fuit. ear 
eundem defenderem. Mihi, C. Merami, causa defendendi 
Gabinii fuit reconciliato gratiae. Neque vero me pcenitet, 
mor tales inimicitias sempiternas amicitias habere. Nam 



144 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



Valerius Maximus reckons Cicero's defence of 
Gabinius and Vatinius among the great and laudable 
examples of humanity which the Roman history fur- 
nished : as it is nobler, he says, to conquer inju- 
ries with benefits, than to repay them in kind with 
an obstinacy of hatred 11 . This turn is agreeable to 
the design of that writer, whose view it seems to 
be, in the collection of his stories, to give us rather 
what is strange than true ; and to dress up facts as 
it were into fables, for the sake of drawing a moral 
from them : for whatever Cicero himself might say 
for it in the flourishing style of an oration, it is 
certain that he knew and felt it to be what it really 
was, an indignity and dishonour to him, which he 
was forced to submit to by the iniquity of the times 
and his engagements with Pompey and Caesar ; as 
he often laments to his friends, in a very passionate 
strain: " I am afflicted," says he, " my dearest bro- 
ther ; I am afflicted, that there is no republic, no 
justice in trials ; that this season of my life, which 
ought to flourish in the authority of the senatorian 
character, is either wasted in the drudgery of the 
bar, or relieved only by domestic studies ; that 
what I have ever been fond of from a boy, 

In every virtuous act and glorious strife 

To shine the first and best 

is wholly lost and gone ; that my enemies are partly 
not opposed, partly even defended by me ; and 
neither what I love nor what I hate left free to 
me ." 

While Caesar was engaged in the British expedi- 
tion, his daughter Julia, Pompey's wife, died in 
child-bed at Rome, after she was delivered of a 
son, which died also soon after her. Her loss was 
not more lamented by the husband and father, who 
both of them tenderly loved her, than by all their 
common friends and well-wishers to the public 
peace ; who considered it as a source of fresh dis- 
turbance to the state, from the ambitious views and 
clashing interests of the two chiefs, whom the life 
of one so dear, and the relation of son and father, 
seemed hitherto to have united by the ties both of 
duty and affection p. Caesar is said to have borne 
the news of her death with an uncommon firm- 
nessi : it is certain that she had lived long enough 

si me invitum putas, ne Cn. Pompeii ammunioffenderem, 
defendisse causam, et ilium et me veheroenter ignoras. 
Neque enim Pompeius me sua causa quidquam facere 
voluisset invitum ; neque ego, cui omnium civium libertas 
carissima fuisset, meam projecissem.— Pro C. Rabir. Post. 
12. 

n Sed hujusce generis humanitas etiam in M. Cicerone 
praecipua apparuit, &c— Val. Max. iv. 2. 

o Angor, mi suavissime frater, angor, nullam esse rem- 
publicam, nulla judicia, nostrumque hoc tempus setatis, 
quod in ilia senatoria auctoritate florere debebat, aut 
forensi labore jactari, aut domesticis Uteris sustentari. 
Illud vero quod a puero adamaram, 

Atev apiareveiv, teal virdpoxov e[xjxevai &\Acov. 

II. ?. 208. 
totum occidisse ; inimicos a me partim non oppugnatos ; 
partim etiam esse defensos ; meum non modo animum, sed 
ne odium quidem esse liberum.— Ad Quint, iii. 5. 

p Cum medium jam, ex invidia potential male cohaeren- 
tis inter Cn. Pompeium et C. Caesarem, concordise pignus. 

Julia uxor Magni decessit Filius quoque parvus, Julia 

natus, intra breve spatium obiit. — Veil. Pat. ii. 47 ; Val. 
Max. iv. 6. 

q Caesar— cum audivit decessisse filiam— inter tertium 
diem imperatoria obiit munera.— Senec. Consol. ad Ilelv. 
p. 116. 



to serve all the ends which he proposed from that 
alliance, and to procure for him everything that 
Pompey's power could give : for while Pompey, 
forgetful of his honour and interest, was spending 
his time ingloriously at home, in the caresses of a 
young wife and the delights of Italy, and, as if he 
had been only Caesar's agent, was continually de- 
creeing fresh honours, troops, and money to him, 
Caesar was pursuing the direct road to empire ; 
training his legions in all the toils and discipline of 
a bloody war ; himself always at their head, ani- 
mating them by his courage, and rewarding them 
by his bounty; till, from a great and wealthy 
province, having raised money enough to corrupt 
and an army able to conquer all who could oppose 
him, he seemed to want nothing for the execution 
of his vast designs but a pretext to break with 
Pompey ; which, as all wise men foresaw, could 
not long be wanted, when Julia, the cement of 
their union, was removed. For though the power 
of the triumvirate had given a dangerous blow to 
the liberty of Rome, yet the jealousies and separate 
interests of the chiefs obliged them to manage it 
with some decency, and to extend it but rarely 
beyond the forms of the constitution : but when- 
ever that league should happen to be dissolved 
which had made them already too great for private 
subjects, the next contest of course must be for 
dominion, and the single mastery of the empire. 

On the second of November, C. Pontinius tri- 
umphed over the Allobroges : he had been praetor 
when Cicero was consul ; and at the end of his 
magistracy obtained the government of that part 
of Gaul which, having been tampering with Cati- 
line in his conspiracy, broke out soon afterwards 
into open rebellion, but was reduced by the vigour 
of this general. For this service he demanded a 
triumph, but met with great opposition, which he 
surmounted with incredible patience ; for he per- 
severed in his suit for five years successively, 
residing all that while, according to custom, in the 
suburbs of the city, till he gained his point at last 
by a kind of violence. Cicero was his friend, and 
continued in Rome on purpose to assist him ; and 
the consul Appius served him with all his power ; 
but Cato protested that Pontinius should never tri- 
umph while he lived: "Though this, (says Cicero,) 
like many of his other threats, will end at last in 
nothing." But the praetor Galba, who had been his 
lieutenant, having procured by stratagem an act of 
the people in his favour, he entered the city in his 
triumphal chariot, where he was so rudely received 
and opposed inhis passage through the streets, that 
he was forced to make his way with his sword and 
the slaughter of many of his adversaries r . 

In the end of the year, Cicero consented to be 
one of Pompey's lieutenants in Spain, which he 
began to think convenient to the present state of 
his affairs, and resolved to set forward for that 
province about the middle of January 8 : but this 

r Ea re non longius, quam vellem, quod Pontinio ad 
triumph urn volebam adesse : etenim erit nescio quid 
negotioli, &c.—- Ad Quint, iii. 5. 

Pontinius vult a. d. iv. Non. Novemb. triumphare. 
Huic obviam Cato et Servilius prastores aperte. et Q. 
Mucius tribunus— Sed erit cum Pontinio Appius consul. 
Cato tamen affirmat, se vivo ilium non triumphare: id ego 
puto, ut multa ejusdem, ad nihil recasurum.— Ad Att. iv. 
16 ; Dio, xxxix. p. 120. 

s Sed heus tu, scripseramne tibi me esse legatum Pom- 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



145 



seemed to give some umbrage to C&esar, who, by 
the help of Quintus, hoped to disengage him gra- 
dually from Pompey, and to attach him to himself ; 
and with that view had begged of him in his letters 
to continue at Rome *, for the sake of serving himself 
with his authority in all affairs which he had occa- 
sion to transact there ; so that, out of regard pro- 
bably to Caesar's uneasiness, Cicero soon changed 
his mind, and resigned his lieutenancy : to which 
he seems to allude in a letter to his brother, where 
he says, " that he had no second thoughts in what- 
ever concerned Caesar ; that he would make good 
his engagements to him ; and being entered into his 
friendship with judgment, was now attached to him 
by affection 11 . 1 " 

He was employed, at Caesar's desire, along with 
Oppius, in settling the plan of a most expensive 
and magnificent work which Caesar was going to 
execute at Rome out of the spoils of Gaul ; a new 
forum, with many grand buildings annexed to it ; 
for the area of which alone they had contracted to 
pay to the several owners about five hundred thou- 
sand pounds ; or, as Suetonius computes, near 
double that sum x . Cicero calls it a glorious piece 
of work ; and says, that the partitions, or inclo- 
sures of the Campus Martius, in which the tribes 
used to vote, were all to be made new of marble, 
with a roof likewise of the same, and a stately por- 
tico carried round the whole, of a mile in circuit ; 
to which a public hall or town-house was to be 
joined?. While this building was going forward, 
L. iEmilius Paullus was employed in raising an- 
other, not much inferior to it, at his own expense : 
for he repaired and beautified an ancient basilica 
in the old forum, and built at the same time a new 
one with Phrygian columns, which was called after 
his own name ; and is frequently mentioned by the 
later writers as a fabric of wonderful magnificence, 
computed to have cost him three hundred thousand 
pounds 2 . 

The new tribunes pursued the measures of their 
predecessors, and would not suffer an election of con- 

a. urb 700. su * s ' so ^ at wnen tQe new J ear came 
cic. 54. on > the republic wanted its proper 
head. In this case, the administra- 
tion fell into the hands of an interrex, a provisional 
magistrate, who must necessarily be a patrician, 
and chosen by the body of patricians, called toge- 

peio ; et extra urbem quidem fore, ex Id. Jan. visum est 
hoc mihi ad multa quadrare.— Ad Att. iv. 18. 

1 Quod mihi tempus, Romas praesertim, ut istemerogat, 
manenti, vacmim ostenditur ?— Ad Quint, ii. 15. 

u Ego vero nullas Setn-epa? (ppovrioag habere possum 
in Caesaris rebus — Yideor id judicio facere. Jam enim 
debeo : sed tamen aniore sum incensus.' — Ad Quint, iii. 1. 
s. 5. 

x Forum de manubiis inchoavit ; cujus area super H. S. 
millies constitit.— Suet. J. Caes. 26. 

7 Itaque Ca?saris amici (me dico et Oppium, dirumparis 
licet) in monumentum illud, quod tutollere laudibus sole- 
bas, ut forum laxaremus, et usque ad Libertatis atrium 
explicaremus, consumsimus H. S. sexcenties : cum priva- 
te non poterat transigi minore pecunia. Efficiemus rem 
gloriosissimam. Nam in Campo Martio septa tributis 
comitiis marmorea sumus, et tecta facturi, eaque cingemus 
excelsa porticu, ut mille passuum conficiatur. Simul ad- 
jungetur huic operi, villa etiam publica— Ad Att. iv. 16. 

z Paullus in medio foro basilicam jam pa?ne texuit, 
iisdem antiquis columnis: illam autem, quam locavit, 
facit magnificentissimam. Nihil gratius illo monumento, 
nihil gloriosius.— Ibid. 



ther for that purpose by the senate a . His power, 
however, was but short-lived, being transferred 
every five days from one interrex to another, till an 
election of consuls could be obtained ; but the tri- 
bunes, whose authority was absolute while there 
were no consuls to control them, continued fierce 
against any election at all : some were for reviving 
the ancient dignity of military tribunes ; but that 
being unpopular, a more plausible scheme was 
taken up and openly avowed, of declaring Pompey 
dictator. This gave great apprehensions to the 
city, for the memory of Sylla's dictatorship ; and 
was vigorously opposed by all the chiefs of the 
senate, and especially by Cato. Pompey chose to 
keep himself out of sight, and retired into the 
country to avoid the suspicion of affecting it. — 
" The rumour of a dictatorship," says Cicero, "is 
disagreeable to the honest ; but the other things 
which they talk of are more so to me : the whole 
affair is dreaded, but flags. Pompey flatly dis- 
claims it, though he never denied it to me before : 
the tribune Hirrus will probably be the promotor. 
Good gods ! how silly and fond of himself without 
arrival! At Pompey's request, I have deterred 
Crassus Junianus, who pays great regard to me, 
from meddling with it. It is hard to know whether 
Pompey really desires it or not ; but if Hirrus stir 
in it, he will not convince us that he is averse to 
it b ." In another letter: "Nothing is yet done 
as to the dictatorship : Pompey is still absent ; 
Appius in a great bustle ; Hirrus preparing to 
propose it ; but several are named as ready to inter- 
pose their negative. The people do not trouble 
their heads about it ; the chiefs are against it ; I 
keep myself quiet c ." Cicero's friend, Milo, was 
irresolute how to act on this occasion ; he was 
forming an interest for the consulship ; and if he 
declared against a dictatorship, was afraid of mak- 
ing Pompey his enemy ; or if he should not help 
the opponents, that it would be carried by force : 
in both which cases, his own pretensions were sure 
to be disappointed : he was inclined therefore to 
join in the opposition, but so far only as to repel 
any violence d . 

The tribunes in the mean time were growing 
every day more and more insolent, and engrossing 
all power to themselves ; till Q. Pompeius Rufus, 
the grandson of Sylla, and the most factious 
espouser of a dictator was, by a resolute decree 
of the senate, committed to prison : and Pompey 
himself, upon his return to the city, finding the 
greater and better part utterly averse to his dicta- 
torship, yielded at last, after an interregnum of six 
months, that Cn. Domitius Calvinus, and M. Mes- 

a Vide Ascon. argument, in Milon. 

b Rumor dictatoris injucundus bonis : mihi etiam magis 
quas loquuntur. Sed tota res et timetur et refrigescit. 
Pompeius plane se negat velle : antea ipse mihi non nega- 
bat. Hirrus auctor fore videtur. O dii, quam ineptus, et 
quam se amans sine rivali ! Crassum Junianum, hominem 
mihi deditum, per me deterruit. Velit, nolit, scire diffi- 
cile est. Hirro tamen agente, nolle se non probabit. — Ad 
Quint, iii. 8. 

c De dictatore tamen actum nihil est. Pompeius abest : 
Appius miscet : Hirrus parat : multi intercessores nume- 
rantur : populus non curat : principes nolunt : ego quiesco. 
—Ibid. 9. 

d Hoc horret Milo — et si ille dictator factus sit, pa?ne 
diffidit. Intercessorem dictatime si juverit manu et pra?- 
sidio suo Pompeium metuit inimicum ; si non juverit, 
timet, ne per vim perferatur. — Ibid. 8. 
L 



146 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



sala, should be declared consuls 6 . These were 
agreeable likewise to Caesar : Cicero had particu- 
larly recommended Messala to him ; of whom he 
says, in a letter to his brother, "As to your- 
reckoning Messala and Calvinus sure consuls, you 
agree with what we think here ; for I will be 
answerable to Csesar for Messala f ." 

But after all this bustle about a dictator, there 
seems to have been no great reason for being much 

a. urb. 700. afraid °f i* at this time ; for the 

cic. 54. republic was in so great a disorder 

coss. that nothing less than the dictatorial 

cn. domitius power could reduce it to a tolerable 

calvinus, state : some good of that kind might 
m. Valerius reasonably be expected from Pompey, 

messala. w ithout the fear of any great harm, 
while there was so sure a check upon him as 
Caesar ; who, upon any exorbitant use of that 
power, would have had the senate and all the 
better sort on his side, by the specious pretence of 
asserting the public liberty. Cicero, therefore, 
judged rightly in thinking that there were other 
thiogs which might be apprehended, and seemed 
likely to happen, that, in their present situation, 
were of more dangerous consequence than a dicta- 
torship. 

There had scarce been so long an interregnum 
in Rome since the expulsion of their kings ; during 
which all public business, and especially all judicial 
proceedings, were wholly interrupted : which ex- 
plains a jocose passage iu one of Cicero's letters to 
Trebatius : "If you had not already," says he, 
" been absent from Rome, you would certainly 
have run away now ; for what business is there for 
a lawyer in so many interregnums ? I advise all 
my clients, if sued in any action, to move every 
interrex twice for more time : do not you think 
that I have learned the law of you to good pur- 
pose&?" 

He now began a correspondence of letters with 
Curio, a young senator of distinguished birth and 
parts ; who, upon his first entrance into the forum, 
had been committed to his care, and was at this 
time quaestor in Asia. He was possessed of a large 
and splendid fortune by the late death of his father ; 
so that Cicero, who knew his high spirit and ambi- 
tion, and that he was formed to do much good or 
hurt to his country, was desirous to engage him 
early in the interests of the republic, and, by instil- 
ling great and generous sentiments, to inflame him 
with a love of true glory. Curio had sent orders 
to his agents at Rome to proclaim a show of gladi- 
ators in honour of his deceased father ; but Cicero 
stopped the declaration of it for a while, in hopes 
to dissuade him from so great and fruitless an ex- 
pense 11 . He foresaw that nothing was more likely 
to corrupt his virtue than the ruin of his fortunes ; 

e Vide Dio, xl. p. 141. 

f Messalam quod certum consulem cum Domitio nume- 
ratis, nihil a nostra opinione dissentitis. Ego Messalam 
Caesari praestabo. — Ad Quint, iii. 8. 

g Nisi ante Roma profectus esses, nunc earn certe relin- 
queres. Quis enim tot interregnis jurisconsultum desi- 
derat ? Ego omnibus, unde petitur, hoc consilii dederim, 
ut a singulis intcrrcgibus binas advocationes postulent. 
Satisne tibi videor abs te jus civile didicisse? — Ep. Fam. 
vii. 11. 

h Rupae studium non defuit declarandorum munerum 
tuo nomine: sed nee mini placuit, nee ouiquam tuormn, 
quidquam te absence fieri, quod tibi, cum venisses, non 
esset integrum, &c— Ep. Fam. ii. 3. 



or to make him a dangerous citizen, than prodi- 
gality, to which he was naturally inclined, and 
which Cicero for that reason was the more de- 
sirous to check at his first setting out : but all his 
endeavours were to no purpose : Curio resolved to 
give the show of gladiators ; and by a continual 
profusion of his money, answerable to this begin- 
ning, after he had acted the patriot for some time 
with credit and applause, was reduced at last to 
the necessity of selling himself to Csesar. 

There is but little of politics in these letters 
besides some general complaints of the lost and 
desperate state of the republic : in one of them, 
after reckoning up the various subjects of epistolary 
writing, "Shall I joke with you then," says he, "in 
my letters ? On my conscience, there is not a 
citizen, I believe, who can laugh in these times : or 
shall I write something serious? But what can 
Cicero write seriously to Curio, unless it be on the 
republic ? where my case at present is such, that I 
have no inclination to write what I do not think 1 ." 
In another, after putting him in mind of the incre- 
dible expectation which was entertained of him at 
Rome, " Not that I am afraid (says he) that your 
virtue should not come up to the opinion of the 
public, but rather that you find nothing worth 
caring for at your return, all things are so ruined 
and oppressed : but I question whether it be pru- 
dent to say so much. — It is your part, however, 
whether you retain any hopes, or quite despair, to 
adorn yourself with all those accomplishments 
which can qualify a citizen, in wretched times and 
profligate morals, to restore the republic to its 
ancient dignity k ." 

The first news from abroad after the inauguration 
of the consuls, was of the miserable death of Cras- 
sus and his son Publius, with the total defeat of 
his army by the Parthians. This was one of the 
greatest blows that Rome had ever received from a 
foreign enemy, and for which it was ever after 
meditating revenge : the Roman writers generally 
imputed it to Crassus's contempt of the auspices; 
as some Christians have since charged it to his 
sacrilegious violation of the temple of Jerusalem, 
which he is said to have plundered of two millions ; 
both of them with equal superstition pretending to 
unfold the counsels of heaven, and to fathom those 
depths which are declared to be unsearchable 1 . 
The chief and immediate concern which the city 
felt on this occasion, was for the detriment that 
the republic had suffered, and the danger to which 
it was exposed, by the loss of so great an army ; 
yet the principal mischief lay in what they did not 
at first regard, and seemed rather to rejoice at, the 
loss of Crassus himself. For after the death of 

» Jocerne tecum per literas ? civem mehercule non puto 
esse, qui temporibus his ridere possit. An gravius aliquid 
scribam ? Quid est quod possit graviter a Cicerone scribi 
ad Curionem, nisi de republica ? Atque in hoc genere haec 
mea causa est, ut neque ea, quae non sentio, velim scri- 
bere.— Ibid. 4. 

k Non quo vcrear ne tua virtus opinioni hominum non 
respondeat ; sed mehercule, ne cum veneris, non habeas 
jam quod cures : ita sunt omnia debilitata jam prope et 
exstincta, &c— Ibid. 5. 

1 M. Crasso quid acciderit, videmus dirarum obnuneia- 
tione neglecta.— De Dio, i. 16. 

"Being for his impious sacrilege at Jerusalem justly- 
destined to destruction, God did cast infatuations into all 
his councils, for the leading him thereto." — Prideaux's 
Connect, part ii. p. HG2. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



147 



Julia, Crassus's authority was the only means left 
of curbing the power of Pompey and the ambition 
of Caesar ; being ready always to support the 
weaker against the encroachments of the stronger, 
and keep them both within the bounds of a decent 
respect to the laws ; but this check being now taken 
away, and the power of the empire thrown, as a 
kind of prize, between two, it gave a new turn to 
their several pretensions, and created a fresh com- 
petition for the larger share, which, as the event 
afterwards showed, must necessarily end in the 
subversion of the whole. 

Publius Crassus, who perished with his father in 
this fatal expedition, was a youth of an amiable 
character ; educated with the strictest care, and 
perfectly instructed in all the liberal studies, he 
had a ready wit and easy language ; was grave 
without arrogance, modest without negligence, 
adorned with all the accomplishments proper to 
form a principal citizen and leader of the republic : 
by the force of his own judgment he had devoted 
himself very early to the observance and imitation 
of Cicero, whom he perpetually attended and 
reverenced with a kind of filial piety. Cicero con- 
ceived a mutual affection for him, and observing 
his eager thirst of glory, was constantly instilling 
into him the true notion of it, and exhorting him 
to pursue that sure path to it which his ancestors 
had left beaten and traced out to him, through the 
gradual ascent of civil honours. But by serving 
under Caesar in the Gallic wars, he had learnt, as 
he fancied, a shorter way to fame and power than 
what Cicero had been inculcating ; and having 
signalised himself in a campaign or two as a 
soldier, was in too much haste to be a general, 
when Caesar sent him at the head of a thousand 
horse to the assistance of his father in the Parthian 
war. Here the vigour of his youth and courage 
carried him on so far in the pursuit of an enemy 
whose chief art of conquest consisted in flying, that 
he had no way left to escape but what his high 
spirit disdained, by the desertion of his troops and 
a precipitate flight ; so that finding himself op- 
pressed with numbers, cruelly wounded, and in 
danger of falling alive into the hands of the Par- 
tisans, he chose to die by the sword of his armour- 
bearer. " Thus, while he aspired," as Cicero says, 
" to the fame of another Cyrus or Alexander, he 
fell short of that glory which many of his prede- 
cessors had reaped from a succession of honours 
conferred by their country as the reward of their 
services m ." 

By the death of young Crassus, a place became 
vacant in the college of augurs, for which Cicero 
declared himself a candidate : nor was any one so 
hardy as to appear against him, except Hirrus, the 
tribune, who, trusting to the popularity of his office 

m Hoc magis sum Publio deditus, quod me quanquam a 
pueritia semper, tamen hoc tempore maxime, sicut alterum 
parentem et observat et diligit Ep. Fam. v. 8. 

P. Crassum ex omni nobilitate adolescentem dilexi 
plurimum, &c. — Ibid. xiii. 16. 

Cum P. Crasso, cum initio aetatis ad amicitiam se meam 
contulisset, sa?pe egisse me arbitror, cum eum vehementis- 
sime hortarer, ut earn laudis viam rectissimam esse duceret, 
quam majores ejus ei tritam reliquissent. Erat enim cum 
institutus optime, turn plane perfecteque eruditus. In- 
eratque et ingenium satis acre, et orationis non inelegans 
copia : praetereaque sine arrogantia gravis esse videbatur, 
et sine segnitie verecundus, &c— Vide Brut. p. 407 ; it- 
Plutarch, in Crass. 



and Pompey's favour, had the vanity to pretend to 
it ; but a competition so unequal furnished matter 
of raillery only to Cicero, who was chosen without 
any difficulty or struggle with the unanimous appro- 
bation of the whole body 11 . This college, from the 
last regulation of it by Sylla, consisted of fifteen, 
who were all persons of the first distinction in 
Rome. It was a priesthood for life, of a character 
indelible, which no crime or forfeiture could efface. 
The priests of all kinds were originally chosen by 
their colleges, till Domitius, a tribune, about fifty 
years before, transferred the choice of them to the 
people, whose authority was held to be supreme in 
sacred as well as civil affairs . This act was reversed 
by Sylla, and the ancient right restored to the 
colleges ; but Labienus, when tribune in Cicero's 
consulship, recalled the law of Domitius, to facili- 
tate Caesar's advancement to the high-priesthood. 
It was necessary, however, that every candidate 
should be nominated to the people by two augurs, 
who gave a solemn testimony, upon oath, of his 
dignity and fitness for the office : this was done in 
Cicero's case by Pompey and Hortensius, the two 
most eminent members of the college ; and after 
the election, he was installed with all the usual 
formalities by Hortensius p. 

As in the last year, so in this ; the factions of 
the city prevented the choice of consuls : the can- 
didates, T. Annius Milo, Q. Metellus Scipio, and 
P. Plautius Hypsaeus, pushed on their several in- 
terests with such open violence and bribery, as if 
the consulship was to be carried only by money or 
armsi. Clodius was putting in at the same time 
for the praetorship, and employing all his credit 
and interest to disappoint Milo, by whose obtain- 
ing the consulship he was sure to be eclipsed and 
controlled in the exercise of his subordinate magis- 
tracy 1 ". Pompey was wholly averse to Milo, who 
did not pay him that court which he expected, but 
seemed to affect an independency, and to trust to 
his own strength ; while the other two competitors 
were wholly at his devotion. Hypsaeus had been 
his quaestor, and always his creature ; and he de- 
signed to make Scipio his father-in-law, by marry- 
ing his daughter Cornelia, a lady of celebrated 
accomplishments, the widow of young Crassus. 

Cicero, on the other hand, served Milo to the 
utmost of his power, and ardently wished his suc- 
cess : this he owed to Milo's constant attachment 
to him, which, at all hazards, he now resolved to 
repay. The affair, however, was likely to give him 
much trouble, as well from the difficulty of the 
opposition as from Milo's own conduct and un- 
bounded prodigality, which threatened the ruin of 
all his fortunes. In a letter to his brother, who 
was still with Caesar, he says, " Nothing can be 
more wretched than these men and these times : 

n Quomodo Hirrum putas auguratus tui competitorem . 
— Ep. Fam. viii. 3. 

Atque hoc idem de caeteris sacerdotiis Cn. Domitius 
tribunus plebis tulit, &c. — De Leg. Ag. ii. 7- 

P Quo enim tempore me augurem a toto collegio expeti- 
tum Cn. Pompeius et Q. Hortensius nominaverunt ; neque 
enim licebat a pluribus nominari. — Phil. ii. 2. 

Cooptatum me ab eo in collegium recordabar, in quo 
juratus judicium dignitatis meae fecerat : et inauguratum 
ab eodem, ex quo, augurum institutis in parentis eum loco 
colere debebam. — Brut, in it. 

1 Plutarch, in Caton. 

r Occurrebat ei, mancam ac debilem pretuxam suam 
futuram consule Milone— Pro Milone, 9. 
L 2 



148 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



wherefore, since no pleasure can now be had from 
the republic, I know not why I should make my- 
self uneasy. Books, study, quiet, my country- 
houses, and, above all, my children, are my sole 
delight. Milo is my only trouble : I wish his con- 
sulship may put an end to it ; in which I will not 
take less pains than I did in my own, and you will 
assist us there also as you now do.- All things 
stand well with him, unless some violence defeat 
us : I am afraid only how his money will hold out ; 
for he is mad beyond all bounds in the magnificence 
of his shows, which he is now preparing at the ex- 
pense of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds ; 
but it shall be my care to check his inconsiderate- 
ness in this one article as far as I am able s ," &c. 

In the heat of this competition, Curio was coming 
home from Asia, and expected shortly at Rome ; 
whence Cicero sent an express to meet him on the 
road, or at his landing in Italy, with a most earnest 
and pressing letter to engage him to Milo's in- 
terest. 

M . T. Cicero to C. Curio. 
" Before we had yet heard of your coming to- 
wards Italy, I sent away S. Villius, Milo's friend, 

with this letter to you ; but when your 
* arrival was supposed to be near, and 

it was known for certain that you had 
left Asia and were upon the road to Rome, the im- 
portance of the subject left no room to fear that we 
should be thought to send too hastily, when we were 
desirous to have it delivered to you as soon as 
possible. If my services to you, Curio, were really 
so great as they are proclaimed to be by you, rather 
than considered by me, I should be more reserved 
in asking, if I had any great favour to beg of you : 
for it goes hard with a modest man to ask anything 
considerable of one whom he takes to be obliged to 
him, lest he be thought to demand rather than to 
ask, and to look upon it as a debt, not as a kind- 
ness. But since your services to me, so eminently 
displayed in my late troubles, are known to all to 
be the greatest, — and it is the part of an ingenuous 
mind to wish to be more obliged to those to whom 
we are already much obliged, — I made no scruple 
to beg of you, by letter, what, of all things, is the 
most important and necessary to me. For I am 
not afraid lest I should not be able to sustain the 
weight of all your favours, though ever so numer- 
ous, being confident that there is none so great 
which my mind is not able both fully to contain 
and amply to requite and illustrate. I have placed 
all my studies, pains, care, industry, thoughts, and 
in short my very soul, on Milo's consulship ; and 
have resolved with myself to expect from it not 

s Itaque ex republica quoniam nihil jam voluptatis 
capi potest ; cur stomacher, nescio. Litera? me et studia 
nostra, et otium ; villaeque delectant, maximeque pueri 
nostri. Angit unus Milo. Sed vclim finem afferat consu- 
latus; in quo enitarnon minus quana sum enisus in nostro : 
tuque istinc, quod facis, adjuvabis. De quo castera (nisi 
plane vis eripuerit) recte sunt : de re familiari timeo. 

'O 5e /UcuveTcu ovic er avetcTuis — 
qui ludos IT. S. ccc. comparet. Cujus in hoc uno inconsi- 
derantiam et ego sustinebo, ut potero. — Ad Quint, iii. 9. 

Cicero had great reasons for the apprehensions which he 
expresses on account of Milo's extravagance : for Milo had 
already wasted three estates in giving plays and shows to 
tlie people; and when he went soon after into exile, was 
found to owe still above half a million of our money. — 
Plin. xxxvi. 15; Ascon. Argum. in Milon. 



only the common fruit of duty, but the praise even 
of piety : nor was any man, I believe, ever so soli- 
citous for his own safety and fortunes, as I am for 
his honour, on which I have fixed all my views and 
hopes. You, I perceive, can be of such service to 
him, if you please, that we shall have no occasion 
for anything farther. We have already with us the 
good wishes of all the honest, engaged to him by his 
tribunate ; and, as you will imagine also, I hope, 
by his attachment to me : of the populace and the 
multitude, by the magnificence of his shows and the 
generosity of his nature : of the youth and men of 
interest, by his own peculiar credit or diligence 
among that sort : he has all my assistance likewise, 
which, though of little weight, yet being allowed by 
all to be just and due to him, may perhaps be of 
some influence. What we want, is a captain and 
leader, or a pilot, as it were, of all those winds ; 
and were we to choose one out of the whole city, 
we could not find a man so fit for the purpose as 
you. Wherefore, if from all the pains which I am 
now taking for Milo, you can believe me to be 
mindful of benefits ; if grateful, if a good man, if 
worthy, in short, of your kindness, I beg of you to 
relieve my present solicitude, and lend your help- 
ing hand to my praise ; or, to speak more truly, 
to my safety. As to T. Annius himself, I promise 
you, if you embrace him, that you will not find a 
man of a greater mind, gravity, constancy, or of 
greater affection to you : and as for myself, you 
will add such a lustre and fresh dignity to me, that 
I shall readily own you to have shown the same 
zeal for my honour which you exerted before for 
my preservation. If I was not sure, from what I 
have already said, that you would see how much I 
take my duty to be interested in this affair, and 
how much it concerns me not only to struggle, but 
even to fight for Milo's success, I should press you 
still farther ; but I now recommend and throw the 
whole cause, and myself also with it, into your 
hands ; and beg of you to assure yourself of this 
one thing, that if I obtain this favour from you, I 
shall be more indebted almost to you than even to 
Milo himself; since my safety, in which I was 
principally assisted by him, was not so dear as the 
piety of showing my gratitude will be agreeable to 
me ; which, I am persuaded, I shall be able to effect 
by your assistance. Adieu 4 ." 

The senate and the better sort were generally in 
Milo's interest ; but three of the tribunes were vio- 
lent against him, — Q. Pompeius Rufus, Munatius 
Plancus Bursa, and Sallust the historian ; the other 
seven were his fast friends ; but above all, M. Cse- 
lius, who, out of regard to Cicero, served him with 
a particular zeal. But while all things were pro- 
ceeding very prosperously in his favour, and nothing 
seemed wanting to crown his success but to bring 
on the election, which his adversaries for that rea- 
son were labouring to keep back, all his hopes and 
fortunes were blasted at once by an unhappy ren- 
contre with his old enemy Clodius, in which Clodius 
was killed by his servants, and by his command. 

Their meeting was wholly accidental, on the 
Appian road, not far from the city : Clodius coming 
home from the country towards Rome ; Milo going 
out about three in the afternoon : the first on horse- 
back, with three companions, and thirty servants 
well armed ; the latter in a chariot, with his wife 

« Ep. Fam. ii. 6. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



149 



and one friend, bat with a much greater retinue, 
and among them some gladiators. The servants 
on both sides began presently to insult each other, 
when Clodius, turning briskly to some of Milo's 
men who were Dearest to him, and threatening them 
with his usual fierceness, received a wound in the 
shoulder from one of the gladiators ; and after re- 
ceiving several more in the general fray, which 
instantly ensued, finding his life in danger, was 
forced to fly for shelter into a neighbouring tavern. 
Milo, heated by this success, and the thoughts of 
revenge, and reflecting that he had already done 
enough to give his enemy a great advantage against 
him, if he was left alive to pursue it, resolved, what- 
ever was the consequence, to have the pleasure of 
destroying him ; and so ordered the house to be 
stormed, and Clodius to be dragged out and mur- 
dered. The master of the tavern was likewise killed, 
with eleven of Clodius' servants, while the rest 
saved themselves by flight : so that Clodius's body 
was left in the road where it fell, till S. Tedius, a 
senator, happening to come by, took it up into his 
chaise, and brought it with him to Rome ; where it 
was exposed in that condition , all covered with blood 
and wounds, to the view of the populace, who flock- 
ed about it in crowds to lament the miserable fate 
of their leader. The next day, the mob, headed by 
S. Clodius, a kinsman of the deceased, and one of 
his chief incendiaries, carried the body naked, so as 
all the wounds might be seen, into the forum, and 
placed it in the rostra ; where the three tribunes, 
Milo's enemies, were prepared to harangue upon it 
in a style suited to the lamentable occasion, by which 
they inflamed their mercenaries to such a height of 
fury, that, snatching up the body, they ran away 
with it into the senate-house, and tearing up the 
benches, tables, and everything combustible, dressed 
up a funeral-pile upon the spot, and, together with 
the body, burnt the house itself, with a basilica also, 
or public hall adjoining, called the Porcian ; and in 
the same fit of madness proceeded to storm the 
house of Milo, and of M. Lepidus, the interrex, 
but were repulsed in both attacks with some loss u . 
These extravagancies raised great indignation in 
the city, and gave a turn in favour of Milo, who, 
looking upon himself as undone, was meditating 
nothing before but a voluntary exile ; but now tak- 
ing courage, he ventured to appear in public, and 
was introduced into the rostra by Cselius, where he 
made his defence to the people ; and, to mitigate 
their resentment, distributed through all the tribes 
above three pounds a man to every poor citizen. 
But all his pains and expense were to little pur- 
pose ; for the three tribunes employed all the arts 
of party and faction to keep up the ill humour of 
the populace ; and what was more fatal, Pompey 
would not be brought into any measures of accom- 
modating the matter ; so that the tumult still 
increasing, the senate passed a decree, that the 



u Quanquam re vera, fuerat pugna fortuita.— Quintil. 
vi. 5. 

'EKirlaas — paou rod cpovov reKevT7]o-auros aurov, 
?) tov TpavjjLaros, el TrspiylypoiTO, atyedijcreo-Oai. — Dio, 
xl. p. 143. 

Milo, ut cognovit vulneratum Clodium, cum sibi pericu- 
losius illud etiam, vivo eo, futurum intelligeret, occiso 
autem magnum solatium esset babiturus, etiam si sub- 
eunda poena esset, exturbari tabernam jussit.— Ita Clodius 
latens extractus est, multisque vulneribus confectus, &c. 
— Aseonii Argum. in Milon. 



A. VRB. 701. 

cic. 55. 

CN.POMPETUS 
MAGNUS HI. 

Sine Collega.- 



interrex, assisted by the tribunes and Pompey, 
should take care that the republic received no de- 
triment ; and that Pompey, in particular, should 
raise a body of troops for the common security, 
which he presently drew together from all parts of 
Italy. In this confusion, the rumour of a dictator 
was again industriously revived, and gave a fresh 
alarm to the senate ; who, to avoid the greater 
evil, resolved presently to create Pompey the single 
consul : so that the interrex, Servius Sulpicius, 
declared his election accordingly, after an inter- 
regnum of near two months x . 

Pompey applied himself immediately to calm the 
public disorders, and published several new laws 
prepared by him for that purpose. 
One of them was to appoint a special 
commission to inquire into Clodius's 
death, the burning of the senate-house, 
and the attack on M. Lepidus, — and 
to appoint an extraordinary judge, of 
consular rank, to preside in it : a second was 
against bribery and corruption in elections, with 
the infliction of new and severer penalties. By 
these laws the method of trials was altered and the 
length of them limited : three days were allowed 
for the examination of witnesses, and the fourth 
for the sentence ; on which the accuser was to have 
two hours only to enforce the charge, the criminal 
three for his defence y : which regulation Tacitus 
seems to consider as the first step towards the ruin 
of the Roman eloquence, by imposing reins as it 
were upon its free and ancient course z . Cselius 
opposed his negative to these laws, as being rather 
privileges than laws, and provided particularly 
against Milo ; but he was soon obliged to withdraw 
it, upon Pompey's declaring that he would support 
them by force of arms. The three tribunes all the 
while were perpetually haranguing and terrifying 
the city with forged stories of magazines of arms 
prepared by Milo for massacring his enemies and 
burning the city, and produced their creatures in 
the rostra to vouch the truth of them to the people. 
They charged him particularly with a design against 
Pompey's life, and brought one Licinius, a killer 
of the victims for sacrifice, to declare that Milo's 
servants had confessed it to him in their cups, and 
then endeavoured to kill him lest he should dis- 
cover it ; and to make his story the more credible, 
showed a slight wound in his side, made by himself, 
which he affirmed to have been given by the stroke 
of a gladiator. Pompey himself confirmed this 
fact, and laid an account of it before the senate ; 
and, by doubling his guard, affected to intimate a 
real apprehension of danger 8 . Nor were they less 
industrious to raise a clamour against Cicero ; and 
in order to deter him from pleading Milo's cause, 
threatened him also with trials and prosecutions, 
giving it out everywhere that Clodius was killed 
indeed by the hand of Milo, but by the advice and 
contrivance of a greater man b . Yet such was his 
x Vide Dio, ibid. ; et Ascon. Argum, 
y Ibid. 

z Primus tertio consulate Cn. Pompeius astrinxit, 
irnposuitque veluti fraenos eloquentiae, &c. — Dialog, dc 
Orator. 38. 

a Audiendus Popa Licinius, nescio qui deCirco maximo, 
servos Milonis apud se ebrios factos confessos esse, de inter- 
ficiendo Cn. Pompeio eonjurasse — de amicorum sententia 
rem defert ad senatum.— Pro Milone, 24. 

b Scitis, Judices, fuisse, qui in bac rogatione suadenda 
dicerent, Milonis inanu caedem esse factam, consiliu vein 



150 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



constancy to his friend, says Asconius, that neither 
the loss of popular favour, nor Pompey's suspicions, 
nor his own danger, nor the terror of arms, could 
divert him from the resolution of undertaking 
Milo's defence . 

But it was Pompey's influence and authority 
which ruined Milo d . He was the only man in 
Rome who had the power either to bring him to a 
trial or to get him condemned : not that he was 
concerned for Clodius's death, or the manner of it, 
but pleased rather that the republic was freed at 
any rate from so pestilent a demagogue ; yet he 
resolved to take the benefit of the occasion for 
getting rid of Milo too, from whose ambition and 
high spirit he had cause to apprehend no less 
trouble. He would not listen therefore to any 
overtures which were made to him by Milo's 
friends ; and when Milo offered to drop his suit for 
the consulship, if that would satisfy him, he 
answered that he would not concern himself with 
any man's suing or desisting, nor give any obstruc- 
tion to the power and inclination of the Roman 
people. He attended the trial in person with a 
strong guard, to preserve peace and prevent any 
violence from either side. There were many clear 
and positive proofs produced against Milo, though 
some of them were supposed to be forged : among 
the rest, the vestal virgins deposed that a woman 
unknown came to them in Milo's name to discharge 
a vow said to be made by him on the account of 
Clodius's death e . 

When the examination was over, Munatius 
Plancus called the people together and exhorted 
them to appear in a full body the next day, when 
judgment was to be given, and to declare their 
sentiments in so public a manner that the criminal 
might not be suffered to escape ; which Cicero 
reflects upon in the defence as an insult on the 
liberty of the bench f . Early in the morning, on 
the eleventh of April, the shops were all shut and 
the whole city gathered into the forum, where the 
avenues were possessed by Pompey's soldiers, and 
he himself seated in a conspicuous part to overlook 
the whole proceeding, and hinder all disturbance. 
The accusers were, young Appius, the nephew of 
Clodius, M. Antonius, and P. Valerius, — who, 
according to the new law, employed two hours in 
supporting their indictment. Cicero was the only 
advocate on Milo's side ; but as soon as he rose 
up to speak he was received with so rude a clamour 
by the Clodians, that he was much discomposed 
and daunted at his first setting out, yet recovered 
spirit enough to go through his speech of three hours, 
which was taken down in writing and published as 
it was delivered, though the copy of it now extant is 
supposed to have been retouched and corrected by 
him afterwards, for a present to Milo in his exiled 

majoris alicujus : videlicet me latronem et sicarium abjecti 
homines describebant. — Pro Milone, 18. 

c Tanta tamen constantia ac fides fuit Ciceronis, ut non 
populi a se alienatione, non Cn. Pompeii snspicionibus, 
non periculi futuri metu, — non armis, qua? palam in Milo- 
nem sumpta erant, deterreri potuerit a defensione ejus. — 
Ascon. Argum. in Milon. 

d Milonem reum non magis invidia facti, quam Pompeii 
damnavit voluntas. — Veil. Pat. ii. 47. 

e Ascon. Argum. in Milon. 

f Ut intelligatis contra hestcrnam illam concionem licere 
vobis; quod sentiatis, libere judicare.— Pro Milone, 26 ; 
Ascon. Argum. 

£ Cicero, cum inciperet diccrc, acccptus est acclamationc 



In the council of Milo's friends, several were of 
opinion that he should defend himself by avowing 
the death of Clodius to be an act of public benefit : 
but Cicero thought that defence too desperate, — as 
it would disgust the grave, by opening so great a 
door to licence, and offend the powerful, lest the 
precedent should be extended to themselves. But 
young Brutus was not so cautious ; who, in an 
oration which he composed and published after- 
wards in vindication of Milo, maintained the killing 
of Clodius to be right and just, and of great service 
to the republic 11 . It was notorious, that on both 
sides they had often threatened death to each other. 
Clodius especially had declared several times, both 
to the senate and the people, that Milo ought to 
be killed ; and that, if the consulship could not be 
taken from him , his life could : and when Favonius 
asked him once what hopes he could have of 
playing his mad pranks while Milo was living, he 
replied, that in three or four days at most he should 
live no more ; which was spoken just three days 
before the fatal rencounter, and attested by Favo- 
nius 1 . Since Milo then was charged with being 
the contriver of their meeting and the aggressor in 
it, and several testimonies were produced to that 
purpose, Cicero chose to risk the cause on that 
issue, in hopes to persuade, what seemed to be the 
most probable, that Clodius actually lay in wait for 
Milo, and contrived the time and place ; and that 
Milo's part was but a necessary act of self-defence. 
This appeared plausible, from the nature of their 
equipage and the circumstances in which they met : 
for though Milo's company was the more numerous, 
yet it was much more encumbered and unfit for an 
engagement than his adversary's ; he himself being 
in a chariot with his wife and all her women along 
with him, while Clodius with his followers was on 
horseback, as if prepared and equipped for fight- 
ing 15 . He did not preclude himself however by this 
from the other plea, which he often takes occasion 
to insinuate, that if Milo had really designed and 
contrived to kill Clodius, he would have deserved 
honours instead of punishment, for cutting off so 
desperate and dangerous an enemy to the peace 
and liberty of Rome 1 . 

Clodianorum — itaque non ea, qua solitus erat constantia 
dixit. Manet autem ilia quoque excepta ejus oratio. — 
Ascon. Argum. 

h Cum quibusdam placuisset, ita defendi crimen, inter- 
fici Clodium pro republica fuisse, quam formamM. Brutus 
secutus est in ea oratione, quam pro Milone composuit, et 
edidit, cuamvis non egisset, Ciceroni id non placuit. — 
Ibid. 

1 Etenim palam dictitabat, consulatum Miloni eripi non 
posse, vitam posse. Significavit hoc sa?pe in senatu : dixit 
in concione. Quinetiam Favonio, qua?renti ex eo : — Qua 
spe fureret, Milone vivo? Respondit, triduo ilium, ad 
summum quatriduo periturum. — Pro Milone, 9. 

Post diem tertium gesta res est, quam dixerat. — Ibid. 
16. 

k Interim cum sciret Clodius — Iter solenne — necessarium 
.—Miloni esse Lanuvium — Roma ipse profectus pridie est, 
ut ante suum fundum, quod re intellectum est, insidias 
Miloni collocaret — Milo autem cum in senatu fuisset eo 
die, quoad senatus dimissus est, domum venit, calceos et 
vestimenta mutavit : paullisper, dum se uxor, ut fit, com- 
parat, commoratus est— obviam fit ei Clodius expeditus in 
equo, nulla rheda, nullis impedimentis, nullis Cra?cis 
comitibus, sine uxore, quod nunquam fere ; cum hie insi- 
diatur, — (Milo)— cum uxore in rheda veheretur pcnulatus, 
magno et impedito et muliebri ac delicato ancillaruiu et 
puerorum comitatu. — Pro Milone, 10; it. 21. 

1 Q,uamobrein si cruentum gladium tenens clamaret T. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



151 



In this speech for Milo, after he had shown the 
folly of paying such a regard to the idle rumours 
and forgeries of his enemies as to give them the 
credit of an examination, he touches Pompey's 
conduct and pretended fears with a fine and 
masterly raillery ; and from a kind of prophetic 
foresight of what might one day happen, addresses 
himself to him in a very pathetic manner. — " I 
could not but applaud (says he) the wonderful 
diligence of Pompey in these inquiries : but to tell 
you freely what I think, those who are charged 
with the care of the whole republic are forced to 
hear many things which they would contemn if they 
were at liberty to do it. He could not refuse an 
audience to that paltry fellow Licinius, who gave 
the information about Milo's servants. I was sent 
for among the first of those friends by whose ad- 
vice he laid it before the senate, and was, I own, 
in no small consternation to see the guardian both 
of me and my country under so great an appre- 
hension ; yet I could not help wondering that such 
credit was given to a butcher, such regard to 
drunken slaves, and how the wound in the man's 
side, which seemed to be the prick only of a needle, 
could be taken for the stroke of a gladiator. But 
Pompey was showing his caution rather than his 
fear ; and disposed to be suspicious of everything, 
that you might have reason to fear nothing. There 
was a rumour also that Caesar's house was attacked 
for several hours in the night : the neighbours, 
though in so public a place, heard nothing at all of 
it; yet the affair was thought fit to be inquired into. 
I can never suspect a man of Pompey's eminent 
courage of being timorous, nor yet think any 
caution too great -in one who has taken upon himself 
the defence of the whole republic. A senator 
likewise, in a full house, affirmed lately in the 
capitol that Milo had a dagger under his gown at 
that very time. Milo stripped himself presently in 
that most sacred temple, that, since his life and 
manners would not give him credit, the thing itself 
might speak for him, which was found to be false 
and basely forged. But if after all Milo must still 
be feared, it is no longer the affair of Clodius but 
your suspicions, Pompey, which we dread : your, 
your suspicions, I say, and speak it so, that you 
may hear me. If those suspicions stick so close 
that they are never to be removed, if Italy must 
never be free from new levies nor the city from 
arms without Milo's destruction, he would not 
scruple, such is his nature and his principles, to 
bid adieu to his country and submit to a voluntary 
exile ; but at taking leave he would call upon thee, 
O thou great one ! as he now does, to consider how 
uncertain and variable the condition of life is ; how 
unsettled and inconstant a thing fortune ; what 
unfaithfulness there is in friends ; what dissimula- 
tion suited to times and circumstances ; what 
desertion, what cowardice in our dangers, even of 
those who are dearest to us. There will, there 
will I say, be a time, and the day will certainly 
come, when you, with safety still I hope to your 
fortunes, though changed perhaps by some turn of 
the common times, which, as experience shows, 



Armius, — Adeste, quaeso, atque audite cives : P. Clodium 
interfeci: ejus furores, quos nullis jam legibus, nullis 
judiciis fraenare poteramus, hoc ferro, atque hac dextra a 
cervicibus vestris repuli, &c— Vos tanti sceleris ultorem 
non modo honoribus nullis afficietis, sed etiam ad suppli- 
cium rapi patiemini ?— Pro Milone, 28, &c. 



will often happen to us all, may want the affection 
of the friendliest, the fidelity of the worthiest, the 
courage of the bravest man living," &c. m 

Of one-and-fifty judges who sat upon Milo, 
thirteen only acquitted and thirty-eight condemned 
him. The votes were usually given by ballot; but 
Cato, who absolved him, chose to give his vote 
openly ; and "if he had done it earlier (says 
Velleius), would have drawn others after him ; 
since all were convinced that he who was killed 
was of all who had ever lived the most pernicious 
enemy to his country and to all good men 11 .". 
Milo went into exile at Marseilles a few days after 
his condemnation : his debts were so great that he 
was glad to retire the sooner from the importunity 
of his creditors, for whose satisfaction his whole 
estate was sold by public auction. Here Cicero 
still continued his care for him, and in concert 
with Milo's friends, ordered one of his wife's 
freedmen, Philotimus, to assist at the sale, and to 
purchase the greatest part of the effects, in order to 
dispose of them afterwards to the best advantage for 
the benefit of Milo and his wife Fausta, if anything 
could be saved for them. But his intended service 
was not so well relished by Milo as he expected, 
for Philotimus was suspected of playing the knave 
and secreting part of the effects to his own use ; 
which gave Cicero great uneasiness, so that he 
pressed Atticus and Cselius to inquire into the 
matter very narrowly, and oblige Philotimus "to 
give satisfaction to Milo's friends, and to see 
especially that his own reputation did not suffer by 
the management of his servant ." Through this 
whole struggle about Milo, Pompey treated Cicero 
with great humanity: he assigned him a "guard at 
the trial, forgave all his labours for his friend, 
though in opposition to himself ; and so far from 
resenting what he did, would not suffer other 
people's resentments to hurt him p." 

The next trial before the same tribunal, and for 
the same crime, was of M. Saufeius, one of Milo's 
confidants, charged with being the ringleader in 
storming the house and killing Clodius. He was 
defended also by Cicero, and acquitted only by one 
vote : but being accused a second time on the same 
account, though for a different fact, and again 
defended by Cicero, he was acquitted by a great 
majority. But Sex. Clodius, the captain of the 

m Pro Milone, 24, 25, 26. 

n M. Cato palam lata absolvit sententia, qiiam si matu- 
rius tulisset, non defuissent, qui sequerentur exemplum, 
probarentque eum civem occisum, quo nemo perniciosior 
reipublicaeneque bonis inimicior vixerat. — Veil. Pat. ii. 47 

Consilium meum hoc fuerat, primum ut in potestate 
nostra res esset, ne ilium malus emptor et alienus manci- 
piis, quae permulta secum habet, spoliaret: deinde ut 
Faustae, cui cautum ille voluisset, ratum esset. Erat 
etiam illud, ut ipsi nos, si quid servari posset, quam fa- 
cillime servaremus. Nunc rem totam perspicias velim — 
Si ille qneritur — Si idem Fausta vult, Philotimus, ut ego 
ei coram dixeram, mihique ille receperat, ne sit invito 
Milone in bonis.— Ad Att. v. 8 ; it. vi. 4. 

Quod ad Philotimi liberti officium et bona Milonis at- 
tinet, dedimus operam ut et Philotimus quam honestissme 
Miloni absenti, ej usque necessariis satis faceret, et secun- 
dum ejus fidem et sedulitatem existimatio tua conser- 
varetur. — Ep. Fam. viii. 3. 

P Qua humanitate tulit contentionem meam pro Milone, 
adversante interdum actionibus suis? Quo studio pro- 
vidit, ne quae me illius temporis invidia attingeret ? Cum 
me consilio, turn auctoritate, cum armis denique texit 
suis.— Ibid. iii. 10. 



152 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



A. URB. 701. 

cic. 55. 
coss. 

CN.POMPE1US 
MAGNUS III. 
Q. CECILIUS 
METELLUS 
SCIPIO. 



other side, had not the luck to escape so well, but 
was condemned and banished with several others 
of that faction, to the great joy of the city, for 
burning- the senate-house, and the other violences 
committed upon Clodius's deaths 

Pompey no sooner published his new law against 
bribery, than the late consular candidates Scipio 
andHypsaeus were severally impeached 
upon it, and being both of them no- 
toriously guilty, were in great danger 
of being condemned : but Pompey, 
calling the body of the judges together, 
begged it of them as a favour, that, 
out of the great number of state 
criminals, they would remit Scipio to 
him ; whom, after he had rescued 
from this prosecution, he declared his colleague in 
the consulship for the last five months of the year, 
having first made him his father-in-law, by marry- 
ing his daughter Cornelia. The other candidate, 
Hypsseus, was left to the mercy of the law ; and 
being likely to fare the worse for Scipio's escape, 
and to be made a sacrifice to the popular odium, 
he watched an opportunity of access to Pompey as 
he was coming out of his bath, and throwing him- 
self at his feet, implored his protection : but though 
he had been his quaestor, and ever obsequious to 
his will, yet Pompey is said to have thrust him 
away with great haughtiness and inhumanity, telling 
him coldly that he would only spoil his supper by 
detaining him r . 

Before the end of the year, Cicero had some 
amends for the loss of his friend Milo, by the con- 
demnation and banishment of two of the tribunes, 
the common enemies of them both, Q. Pompeius 
Rufus and T. Munatius Plancus Bursa, for the 
violences of their tribunate, and burning the senate- 
house. As soon as their office expired, Cselius 
accused the first, and Cicero himself the second ; 
the only cause, excepting that of Verres, in which 
he ever acted the part of an accuser. But Bursa 
had deserved it, both for his public behaviour in 
his office, and his personal injuries to Cicero, who 
had defended and preserved him in a former trial. 
He depended on Pompey's saving him, and had no 
apprehension of danger, since Pompey undertook 
to plead his cause before judges of his own appoint- 
ing ; yet, by Cicei;o's vigour in managing the 
prosecution, he was condemned by a unanimous 
vote of the whole bench s . Cicero was highly 
pleased with this success, as he signifies in a letter 
to his friend Marius, which will explain the motives 
of his conduct in it. 

" I know very well (says he) that you rejoice at 
Bursa's fate, but you congratulate me too coldly. 
You imagine, you tell me, that for the sordidness 
of the man I take the less pleasure in it ; but be- 
lieve me I have more joy from this sentence than 
from the death of my enemy ; for in the first place 
<i Ascon. Argum. in Milon. 

r Cn. autem Pompeius quam insolenter? Qui balneo 
egressus, ante pedes suos prostratum Hypsamm ambitus 
reum et nobiletn virum et sibi amicum, jacentem reliquit, 
contumcliosa voce proculcatum. Nihil enim eum aliud 
agere, quam ut convivium suum moraretur, rcspondit.— 
Ille vero P. Scipionem, socerum suum, legibus noxium, 
quas ipse tulerat, in maxima quidcm reorum et illustrium 
ruina, munerisloco a judicious deposcere.— "Val. Max. ix. 
5; it. Plutarch, in Pomp. 

s Plancum, qui omnibus scntentiis maximo vestro plausu 
condemnatus. — Phil. vi. 4. 



I love to pursue rather by a trial than the sword, 
rather with the glory than the ruin of a friend, and 
it pleased me extremely to see so great an incli- 
nation of all honest men on my side against the 
incredible pains of one, the most eminent and 
powerful : and lastly, what you will scarce think 
possible, I hated this fellow worse than Clodius 
himself ; for I had attacked the one, but defended 
the other; and Clodius, when the safety of the 
republic was risked upon my head, had something 
great in view, not indeed from his own strength, 
but the help of those who could not maintain their 
ground whilst I stood firm : but this silly ape, out 
of a gaiety of heart, chose me particularly for the 
object of his invectives, and persuaded those who 
envied me, that he would be always at their service 
to insult me at any warning. Wherefore I charge 
you to rejoice in good earnest ; for it is a great 
victory which we have won. No citizens were 
ever stouter than those who condemned him, 
against so great a power of one by whom themselves 
were chosen judges, — which they would never have 
done if they had not made my cause and grief their 
own. We are so distracted here by a multitude of 
trials and new laws, that our daily prayer is against 
all intercalations, that we may see you as soon as 
possible 1 ." 

Soon after the death of Clodius, Cicero seems to 
have written his treatise on laws u , after the example 
of Plato, whom of all writers he most loved to 
imitate ; for as Plato, after he had written on 
government in general, drew up a body of laws 
adapted to that particular form of it which he had 
been delineating ; so Cicero chose to deliver his 
political sentiments in the same method x — not by 
translating Plato, but imitating his manner in the 
explication of them. This work being designed 
then as a supplement or second volume to his other 
upon the republic, was distributed probably, as 
that other was, into six books ; for we meet with 
some quotations among the ancients from the 
fourth and fifth, though there are but three now 
remaining, and those in some places imperfect. 
In the first of these he lays open the origin of law 
and the source of obligation, which he derives 
from the universal nature of things, or, as he ex- 
plains it, from the consummate reason or will of 
the Supreme God^. In the other two books he 
gives a body of laws conformable to his own plan 
and idea of a well-ordered city 2 : first, those which 
relate to religion and the worship of the gods ; 
secondly, those which prescribe the duties and 
powers of the several magistrates from which the 
peculiar form of each government is denominated. 

t Ep. Fam. vii. 2. « De Legib. ii. 17. 

x Sed ut vir doctissimus fecit Plato, atque idem gravis- 
simus philosophorum omnium, qui princeps de republica 
conscripsit, idemque separatim de legibus ejus, id mini 
credo esse faciundum. — De Legib. ii. 6. 

y Hanc igitur video sapientissimorum fuisse sententiam, 
legem neque hominum ingcniis excogitatam, nee scitum 
aliquod esse populorum, sed aeternum quiddam, quod 
universuni mundum regeret, imperandi prohibendique 
sapientia. Ita principem legem illam et ultimam menteni 
esse dicebant, omnia ratione aut cogentis autvetantis Dei. 
— Quamobrem lex vera atque princeps — ratio est recta 
summi Jovis. — Ibid. ii. 4. 

z Nos autem quoniam — qua; de optima republica sen- 
tiremus, in sex libris ante diximus, accommodablmus hoc 
tempore leges ad ilium, quern probamus, civitatis statum. 
—Ibid. iii. 2. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



153 



These laws are generally taken from the old con- 
stitution or custom of Rome a , with some little 
variation and temperament, contrived to obviate 
the disorders to which that republic was liable, 
and to give it a stronger turn towards the aristo- 
cratical side b . In the other books which are lost, 
he had treated, as he tells us, of the particular 
rights and privileges of the Roman people . 

Pompey was preparing an inscription this sum- 
mer for the front of the new temple which he had 
lately built to Venus the Conqueress, containing, 
as usual, the recital of all his titles ; but in draw- 
ing it up, a question happened to be started about 
the manner of expressing his third consulship, 
whether it should be by Consul Tertium or Tertio. 
This was referred to the principal critics of Rome, 
who could not, it seems, agree about it ; some of 
them contending for the one, some for the other ; 
so that Pompey left it to Cicero to decide the 
matter, and to inscribe what he thought the best. 
But Cicero being unwilling to give judgment on 
either side, when there were great authorities on 
both, and Varro among them, advised Pompey to 
abbreviate the word in question and order tert. 
only to be inscribed, which fully declared the thing 
without determining the dispute. From this fact 
we may observe how nicely exact they were in this 
age, in preserving a propriety of language in their 
public monuments and inscriptions' 1 . 

Among the other acts of Pompey in this third 
consulship, there was a new law against bribery 
contrived to strengthen the old ones that were 
already subsisting against it, " by disqualifying all 
future consuls and praetors from holding any pro- 
vince till five years after the expiration of their 
magistracies :" for this was thought likely to give 
some check to the eagerness of suing and bribing 
for those great offices, when the chief fruit and 
benefit of them was removed to such a distance e . 
But before the law passed, Pompey took care to 
provide an exception for himself, " and to get the 
government of Spain continued to him for five 
years longer, with an appointment of money for 
the payment of his troops ;" and lest this should 
give offence to Caesar, if something also of an 
extraordinary kind was not provided for him, he 
proposed a law to dispense with Caesar's absence in 
suing for the consulship, of which Caesar at that 
time seemed very desirous. Caelius was the pro- 
motor of this law, engaged to it by Cicero, at the 
joint request of Pompey and Caesar f , and it was 
carried with the concurrence of all the tribunes, 
though not without difficulty and obstruction from 
the senate ; but this unusual favour, instead of 
satisfying Caesar, served only, as Suetonius says, 
to raise his hopes and demands still higher?. 

a Et si quse forte a me hodie rogabimtur, quse non sint 
in nostra republica nee fuerint, tamen erunt fere in more 
majorum, qui turn, ut lex, valebat. — De Legib. ii- 10. 

b Nihil habui ; sane non multum, quod putarem no- 
vandum in legibus.— Ibid. iii. 5. c ibid. iii. 20. 

d This story is told by Tiro, a favourite slave and freed- 
man of Cicero, in a letter preserved by Aul. Gell. x. J . 

e Dio, p. 142. 

f Rogatus ab ipso Ravenna? de Caelio tribuno plebis ; ab 
ipso autem ? Etiam a Cnaeo nostro.— Ad Att. vii. 1 . 

S Egit cum tribunis plebis ut absenti sibi petitio 

secundi consulates daretur Quod ut adeptus est, altiora 

jam meditans et spei plenus, nullum largitionis, aut ofiici- 
oruin in quemquam genus publice privatimque omisit. — 
Suet. J. Ca?s. 26. 



By Pompey's law just mentioned, it was pro- 
vided that, for a supply of governors for the inter- 
val " of five years, in which the consuls and praetors 
were disqualified, the senators of consular and 
praetorian rank who had never held any foreign 
command, should divide the vacant provinces 
among themselves by lot ;" in consequence of 
which Cicero, who was obliged to take his chance 
with the rest, obtained the government of Cilicia, 
now in the hands of Appius, the late consul. This 
province included also Pisidia, Pamphilia, and 
three dioceses, as they were called, or districts of 
Asia, together with the island of Cyprus, for the 
guard of all which " a standing army was kept up of 
two legions, or about twelve thousand foot, with two 
thousand six hundred horse h :" and thus one of 
those provincial governments, which were withheld 
from others by law, to correct their inordinate 
passion for them, was, contrary to his will and 
expectation, obtruded at last upon Cicero, whose 
business it had been through life to avoid them 1 . 

The city began now to feel the unhappy effects 
both of Julia's and Crassus's death, from the 
mutual apprehensions and jealousies which dis- 
covered themselves more and more every day be- 
tween Pompey and Caesar. The senate was gene- 
rally in Pompey's interest, and trusting to the 
name and authority of so great a leader, were deter- 
mined to humble the pride and ambition of Caesar 
by recalling him from his government ; whilst Caesar, 
on the other hand, trusting to the strength of his 
troops, resolved to keep possession of it in defiance 
of all their votes ; and by drawing a part of his 
forces into the Italic or Cisalpine Gaul, so as to be 
ready at any warning to support his pretensions, 
began to alarm all Italy with the melancholy pro- 
spect of an approacbing civil war ; and this was the 
situation of affairs when Cicero set forward towards 
his government of Cilicia. 



SECTION VII. 

This year opens to us a new scene in Cicero's 
life, and presents him in a character which he had 

never before sustained, of the governor 

a.urb.702. f a province and general of an army. 

cic. 56. These preferments were, of all others, 

C0Ss ' the most ardently desired by the great 

cr's rufus ^ or ^ e advantages which they afforded 

m. claudius both of acquiring power and amassing 

marcellus. wealth ; for their command, though 

accountable to the Roman people, 
was absolute and uncontrollable in the province, 
where they kept up the state and pride of sovereign 
princes, and had all the neighbouring kings paying 
a court to them, and attending their orders. If 
their genius was turned to arms, and fond of 
martial glory, they could never want a pretext for 
war, since it was easy to drive the subjects into 
rebellion, or the adjoining nations to acts of hosti- 
lity by their oppressions and injuries, till from the 
destruction of a number of innocent people they 
had acquired the title of emperor, and with it the 

h Ad Att. v. 15. 

• Cum et contra voluntatem meam et pra>tcr opinioncm 
accidisset, ut mini cum imperio in provinciam proficisci 
necesse esset.— Ep. Fam. iii. 2. 



154 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



pretension to a triumph, without which scarce any 
proconsul was ever known to return from a remote 
and frontier province a . Their opportunities of 
raising money were as immense as their power, 
and bounded only by their own appetites ; the 
appointments from the treasury for their equipage, 
plate, and necessary furniture, amounted, as it 
appears from some instances, to near a hundred 
and fifty thousand pounds b ; and besides the 
revenues of kingdoms and pay of armies, of which 
they had the arbitrary management, they could 
exact what contributions they pleased, not only 
from the cities of their own jurisdiction, but from 
all the states and princes around them, who were 
under the protection of Rome. But while their 
primary care was to enrich themselves, they carried 
out with them always a band of hungry friends and 
dependants as their lieutenants, tribunes, prsefects, 
with a crew of freedmen and favourite slaves, 
who were all likewise to be enriched by the spoils 
of the province, and the sale of their master's 
favours. Hence flowed all those accusations and 
trials tor the plunder of the subjects of which we 
read so much in the Roman writers ; for as few or 
none of the proconsuls behaved themselves with 
that exact justice as to leave no room for com- 
plaint, so the factions of the city and the quarrels 
of families subsisting from former impeachments, 
generally excited some or other to revenge the 
affront in kind by undertaking the cause of an in- 
jured province, and dressing up an impeachment 
against their enemy. 

But whatever benefit or glory this government 
seemed to offer, it had no charms for Cicero : the 
thing itself was disagreeable to his temper , nor 
worthy of those talents which were formed to sit 
at the helm and shine in the administration of the 
whole republic ; so that he considered it only as 
an honourable exile or a burden imposed by his 
country to which his duty obliged him to submit. 
His first care, therefore, was to provide that this 
command might not be prolonged to him beyond 
the usual term of a year, which was frequently 



a While the ancient discipline of the republic subsisted, 
no general could pretend to a triumph who had not 
enlarged the bounds of the empire by his conquests, and 
killed at least five thousand enemies in battle, without 
any considerable loss of his own soldiers. This was 
expressly enacted by an old law : in support of which a 
second was afterwards provided, that made it penal for 
any of their triumphant commanders to give a false 
account of the number of slain, either on the enemy's side 
or their own ; and obliged them, upon their entrance into 
the city, to take an oath before the quaestors or public trea- 
surers, that the accounts which they had sent to the 
senate, of each number, were true. [Val. Max. ii. 8.] But 
these laws had long been neglected and treated as obsolete, 
and the honour of a triumph usually granted, by intrigue 
and faction, to every general of any credit, who had gained 
some little advantage against pirates or fugitives, or re- 
pelled the incursions of the wild barbarians, who bordered 
upon the distant provinces. 

l> Nonne U.S. centics ct octagies— quasi vasarii nomine 
— ex erario tibi attributum, Roma? in quaestu reliquisti ? 
—In Pison. 35. 

c Totum negotium non est dignum viribus nostris, qui 
majors onera in republica sustincre et possim et soleam. — 
Ep. Fam. ii. 11. 

O rem minime aptam meis moribus, &c. — Ad Att. v. 10. 

Sed est incredibile, quani me negotii ta?dcat,non habet 
satis magnum campum ille tibi non ignotus cursus animi 
mei.— Ibid. 15. 



done when the necessities of the province, the 
character of the man, the intrigues of parties, or 
the hurry of other business at home, left the senate 
neither leisure nor inclination to think of changing 
the governor ; and this was the more likely to 
happen at present, through the scarcity of magis- 
trates who were now left capable by the late law 
of succeeding him. Before his departure, there- 
fore, he solicited all his friends not to suffer such 
a mortification to fall upon him, and after he was 
gone, scarce wrote a single letter to Rome without 
urging the same request in the most pressing terms. 
In his first to Atticus, within three days from their 
parting — "Do not imagine," says he, "that I have 
any other consolation in this great trouble than the 
hopes that it will not be continued beyond the 
year. Many who judge of me by others do not 
take me to be in earnest ; but you, who know me, 
will use all your diligence, especially when the 
affair is to come on d ." 

He left the city about the first of May, attended 
by his brother and their two sons, for Quintus 
had quitted his commission under Ceesar in order 
to accompany him into Cilicia in the same capacity 
of his lieutenant. Atticus had desired him, before 
he left Italy, to admonish his brother to show 
more complaisance and affection to his wife Pom- 
ponia, who had been complaining to him of her 
husband's peevishness and churlish carriage ; and 
lest Cicero should forget it, he put him in mind 
again by a letter to him on the road, that since all 
the family were to be together in the country, on 
this occasion of his going abroad he would persuade 
Quintus to leave his wife at least in good humour 
at their parting, in relation to which Cicero sends 
him the following account of what passed. 

" When I arrived at Arpinum, and my brother 
was come to me, our first and chief discourse was 
on you, which gave me an opportunity of falling 
upon the affair of your sister, which you and I 
had talked over together at Tusculum. I never 
saw anything so mild and moderate as my brother 
was, without giving the least hint of his ever having 
had any real cause of offence from her. The next 
morning we left Arpinum, and that day being a 
festival, Quintus was obliged to spend it at Arca- 
num, where I dined with him, but went on after- 
wards to Aquinum. You know this villa of his : 
as soon as we came thither, Quintus said to his 
wife, in the civilest terms, Do you, Pomponia, in- 
vite the women, and I will send to the men 
(nothing, as far as I saw, could be said more 
obligingly, either in his words or manner) ; to 
which she replied, so as we all might hear it, I am 
but a stranger here myself ; referring, I guess, to 
my brother's having sent Statius before us to order 
the dinner ; upon which, See, says my brother to 
me, what I am forced to bear every day. This, 
you will say, was no great matter. Yes, truly, 
great enough to give me much concern ; to see her 
reply so absurdly and fiercely both in her words 
and looks ; but I dissembled my uneasiness. 
When we sat down to dinner, she would not sit 
down with us ; and when Quintus sent her several 
things from the table, she sent them all back : in 

d Noli putare mihi aliam consolationem esse hujus 
ingentis molestie, nisi quod spero non longiorem annua 
fore. Hoc me ita velle multi non credunt ex consuetudine 
aliorum. Tu, qui scis. omnem diligentiam adhibebis ; turn 
scilicet, cum id agi debebit— Ep. Fam. ii. 8. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



155 



short, nothing could be milder than my brother, 
or ruder than your sister ; yet I omit many par- 
ticulars which gave more trouble to me than to 
Quintus himself. I went away to Aquinum ; he 
staid at Arcanum : but when he came to me early 
the next morning he told me that she refused to 
lie with him that night, and at their parting con- 
tinued in the same humour in which I had seen her. 
In a word, you may let her know from me that, in 
my opinion, the fault was all on her side that day. 
I have been longer, perhaps, than was necessary 
in my narrative, to let you see that there is occa- 
sion also on your part for advice and admoni- 
tion 6 ." 

One cannot help observing from this little inci- 
dent what is confirmed by innumerable instances 
in the Roman story, that the freedom of a divorce, 
which was indulged without restraint at Rome, to 
the caprice of either party, gave no advantage of 
comfort to the matrimonial state, but, on the con- 
trary, seems to have encouraged rather a mutual 
perverseness and obstinacy ; since, upon any little 
disgust or obstruction given to their follies, the 
expedient of a change was . ready always to flatter 
them with the hopes of better success in another 
trial ; for there never was an age or country where 
there was so profligate a contempt and violation 
of the nuptial bond, or so much lewdness and in- 
fidelity in the great of both sexes, as at this time in 
Rome. 

Cicero spent a few days as he passed forward at 
his Cuman villa, near Baiae, where there was such 
a resort of company to him that he had, he says, 
a kind of little Rome about him. Hortensius 
came among the rest, though much out of health, 
to pay his compliments, and wish him a good voy- 
age, and at taking leave, when he asked what 
commands he had for him in his absence, Cicero 
begged of him only to use all his authority to 
hinder his government from being prolonged to 
him f . In sixteen days from Rome he arrived at 
Tarentum, where he had promised to make a 
visit to Pompey, who was taking the benefit of 
that soft air for the recovery of his health at one 
of his villas in those parts, and had invited and 
pressed Cicero to spend some days with him upon 
his journey. They proposed great satisfaction on 
both sides from this interview, for the opportunity 
of conferring together with all freedom on the pre- 
sent state of the republic, which was to be their 
subject ; though Cicero expected also to get some 
lessons of the military kind from this renowned 
commander. He promised Atticus an account of 

j this conference, but the particulars being too de- 
licate to be communicated by letter, he acquainted 

! him only in general that he found Pompey an ex- 

] cellent citizen, and provided for all events which 

J could possibly be apprehended s. 
e Ad Att. v. 1. 
f In Cumano cum essem, venit ad me, quod mihi per- 

j gratum fuit, noster Hortensius: cui, deposcenti mea 
mandata, caetera universe mandavi ; illud proprie, ne 
pateretur, quantum esset in ipso, prorogari nobis provin- 
ciam. — Habuimus in Cumano quasi pusillam Romam : 
tanta erat in his locis multitudo. — Ibid. 2. 

S Nos Tarenti, quoscum Pompeio diaKoyovs de repub- 
lica habuerimus ad te perscribemus. — Ibid. 5. 

Tarentum veni a. d. xv. Kal. Jun. quod Pontinium 
statueram expectare, commodissimum duxi dies eos— cum 
Pompeio consumere : eoque magis, quod ei gratum esse id 
videbam , qui etiam a me petierit, ut secum et apud se 



After three days' stay with Pompey he proceeded 
to Brundisium, where he was detained for twelve 
days by a slight indisposition, and the expectation 
of his principal officers, particularly of his lieute- 
nant Pontinius, an experienced leader, the same 
who had triumphed over the Allobroges, and on 
whose skill he chiefly depended in his martial 
affairs. From Brundisium he sailed to Actium, 
on the fifteenth of June, whence partly by sea and 
partly by land he arrived at Athens on the twenty- 
sixth 11 . Here he lodged in the house of Aristus, 
the principal professor of the Academy, and his 
brother not far from him, with Xeno, another 
celebrated philosopher of Epicurus' school. They 
spent their time here very agreeably ; at home, in 
philosophical disquisitions ; abroad in viewing the 
buildings and antiquities of the place, with which 
Cicero was much delighted. There were several 
other men of learning, both Greeks and Romans, 
of the party ; especially Gallus Caninius, and 
Patro, an eminent Epicurean, and intimate friend 
of Atticus 1 . 

There lived at this time in exile at Athens 
C.Memmius, banished upon a conviction of bribery 
in his suit for the consulship, who, the day before 
Cicero's arrival, happened to go away to Mitylene. 
The figure which he had borne in Rome gave him 
great authority in Athens, and the council of Areo- 
pagus had granted him a piece of ground to build 
upon where Epicurus formerly lived, and where there 
still remained the old ruins of his walls. But this 
grant had given great offence to the whole body of 
the Epicureans, to see the remains of their master 
in danger of being destroyed. They had written 
to Cicero at Rome, to beg him to intercede with 
Memmius to consent to a revocation of it ; and 
now at Athens, Xeno and Patro renewed their in- 
stances, and prevailed with him to write about it 
in the most effectual manner ; for though Memmius 
had laid aside his design of building, the Areopa- 
gites would not recall their decree without his 
leave k . Cicero's letter is drawn with much art 
and accuracy ; he laughs at the trifling zeal of 
these philosophers for the old rubbish and paltry 
ruins of their founder, yet earnestly presses 
Memmius to indulge them in a prejudice con- 
tracted through weakness, not wickedness ; and 
though he professes an utter dislike of their philo- 
sophy, yet he recommends them, as honest, agree- 
able, friendly men, for whom he entertained the 
highest esteem 1 . From this letter one may observe, 
essem quotidie : quod concessi libenter multos. enim ejus 
prseclaros de republica sermones accipiam : instruar etiam 
consiliis idoneis ad hoc nostrum negotium. — Ad Attic, v. 6. 

Ego, cum triduum cum Pompeio et apud Pompeium fuis- 
sem, proficiscebar Brundisium. — Civem ilium egregium 
relinquebam, et ad ha?c, quae timentur, propulsanda par- 
atissimum.— Ibid. 7. 

h Ibid. 8, 9. 

1 Valdeme Athena? delectarunt : urbs duntaxat, et urbis 
ornamentum, et hominum amores in te, et in nos qusedam 
benevolentia ; sed multum et philosophia— si quid est, est 
in Aristo apud quern eram, nam Xenonem tuum— Quinto 
concesseram.— Ibid. 10; Ep. Fam. ii. 8. xiii. 1. 

k Visum est Xenoni, et post, ipsi Patroni, me ad Mem- 
mium scribere, qui pridie quam ego Athenas veni, Mityle- 
nas profectus erat, — non enim dubitabat Xeno, quin ab 
Areopagitis invito Memmio impetrari non posset. Mem- 
mius autem asdificandi consilium abjecisset, sed erat 
Patroni iratus, itaque scripsi ad eum accurate — Ibid. 
11. 

1 Ep. Fam. xiii. 1. 



15(5 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



that the greatest difference in philosophy made no 
difference of friendship among the great of these 
times. There was not a more declared enemy to 
Epicurus' s doctrine than Cicero ; he thought it 
destructive of morality and pernicious to society, 
but he charged this consequence to the principles, 
not the professors of them, with many of whom he 
held the strictest intimacy, and found them to be 
worthy, virtuous, generous friends, and lovers of 
their country. There is a jocose letter to Trebatius, 
when he was with Caesar in Gaul, upon his turn- 
ing Epicurean, which will help to confirm this re- 
flection. 

Cicero to Trebatius. 

" I was wondering why you had given over 
writing to me, till Pansa informed me that you 
were turned Epicurean. O rare camp ! what 
would you have done if I had sent you to Taren- 
tum instead of Samerobriva? I began to think 
the worse of you ever since you made my friend 
Seius your pattern. But with what face will you 
now pretend to practise the law, when you are to 
do everything for your own interest, and not for 
your client's ? and what will become of that old 
form and test of fidelity. As true men ought to act 
truly, with another ? What law will you allege 
for the distribution of common right, when nothing 
can be common with those who measure all things 
by their pleasure ? With what face can you swear 
by Jupiter, when Jupiter, you know, can never 
be angry with any man ? And what will become of 
your people of Ulubrse ; since you do not allow a 
wise man to meddle with politics ? Wherefore if you 
are really gone off from us, I am sorry for it ; but 
if it be convenient to pay this compliment to Pansa, 
I forgive you ; on condition, however, that you 
write me word what you are doing, and what you 
would have me do for you here m ." The change 
of principles in Trebatius, though equivalent in 
effect to a change of religion with us, made no 
alteration in Cicero's affection for him. This was 
the dictate of reason to the best and wisest of the 
heathens ; and may serve to expose the rashness of 
those zealots who, with the light of a most divine 
and benevolent religion, are perpetually insulting 
and persecuting their fellow Christians for dif- 
ferences of opinion, which for the most part are 
merely speculative, and without any influence on 
life, or the good and happiness of civil society. 

After ten days spent at Athens, where Pontinius 
at last joined him, Cicero set sail towards Asia. 
Upon leaving Italy, he had charged his friend 
Cselius with the task of sending him the news of 
Rome, which Caelius performed very punctually, 
in a series of letters, which make a valuable part 
in the collection of his familiar epistles : they are 
polite and entertaining ; full of wit and spirit ; yet 
not flowing with that easy turn and elegance of 
expression which we always find in Cicero's. The 
first of them, with Cicero's answer, will give us a 
specimen of the rest. 

M. Caelius to M. Cicero. 

" According to my promise at parting to send 

you an account of all the news of the town, I have 

provided one to collect it for you so punctually, 

that I am afraid lest you should think my dili- 

n> Ep. Pain. vii. 1-.'. 



gence at last too minute : but I know how curious 
you are, and how agreeable it is to all who are 
abroad to be informed of everything that passes 
at home, though ever so trifling. I beg of you, 
however, not to condemn me of arrogance, for 
deputing another to this task : since, as busy as I 
now am, and as lazy as you know me to be in 
writing, it would be the greatest pleasure to me to 
be employed in anything that revives the remem- 
brance of you : but the pacquet itself which I have 
sent will I imagine readily excuse me : for what 
leisure would it require, not only to transcribe, 
but to attend even to the contents of it ? There are 
all the decrees of the senate, edicts, plays, rumours : 
if the sample does not please you, pray let me 
know it, that I may not give you trouble at 
my cost. If anything important happens in the 
republic above the reach of these hackney writers, 
I will send you an account of it myself ; in what 
manner it was transacted ; what speculations are 
raised upon it ; what effects apprehended : at pre- 
sent there is no great expectation of anything. As 
to those rumours which were so warm at Cumse, 
of assembling the colonies beyond the Po, when I 
came to Rome I heard not a syllable about them. 
Marcellus too, because he has not yet made any 
motion for a successor to the two Gauls, but puts 
it off as he told me himself to the first of June, 
has revived the same talk concerning him which 
was stirring when we were at Rome together. If 
you saw Pompey, as you designed to do, pray send 
me word in what temper you found him ; what 
conversation he had with you ; what inclination he 
showed : for he is apt to think one thing and say 
another, yet has not wit enough to conceal what 
he really means. As for Caesar, there are many 
ugly reports about him, but propagated only in 
whispers : some say, that he has lost all his horse ; 
which I take indeed to be true : others, that the 
seventh legion has been beaten ; and that he him- 
self is besieged by the Bellovaci, and cut off from 
the rest of his army. There is nothing yet certain; 
nor are these uncertain stories publicly talked of ; 
but among the few whom you know, told openly, 
by way of secrets : Domitius never mentions them 
without clapping his hand to his mouth. On the 
twenty-first of May, the mob under the rostra sent 
about a report (may it fall on their own heads), 
which was warmly propagated through the forum 
and the whole city, that you w T ere killed upon the 
road by Q. Pompeius : but I, who knew him to be 
then at Bauli, and in such a starving condition 
that I could not help pitying him, being forced to 
turn pilot for his bread, was not concerned about 
it ; and wished only that, if any real dangers 
threatened you, we might be quit for this lie : 
your friend Plancus Bursa is at Ravenna, where 
he has had a large donative from Csesar; but is not 
yet easy, nor w r ell provided. Your books on 
government are applauded by all people"." 

]\I. T. Cicero, proconsul, to M. Ccelius. 
" How ! was it this, think you, that I charged 
you with ; to send me the matches of gladiators ; 
the adjournments of causes ; and Chrestus's news- 
letter ; and what nobody dares mention to me 
when at Rome ? see how much I ascribe to you in 
my judgment ; nor indeed without reason, for I 

11 Ep. Fain. viii. 1. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



157 



have never yet met with a better head for politics ; 
I would not have you write what passes every day 
in public, though ever so important, unless it 
happen to affect myself: others will write it ; many 
bring accounts of it ; and fame itself convey a great 
part to me : I expect from you neither the past 
nor the present ; but as from one who sees a great 
way before him, the future only; that when I have 
before me in your letters the plan of the republic, 
I may be able to judge what a sort of edifice it 
will be. Nor have I hitherto indeed any cause to 
complain of you : for nothing has yet happened 
which you could foresee better than any of us ; 
especially myself, who spent several days with 
Pompey in conversing on nothing else but the 
republic ; which it is neither possible nor proper 
for me to explain by letter : take this only from 
me ; that Pompey is an excellent citizen, prepared 
both with courage and counsel for all events which 
can be foreseen : wherefore, give yourself up to 
the man ; believe me, he will embrace you ; for he 
now holds the same opinion with us of good and 
bad citizens. After I had been ten days at Athens, 
where our friend Gallus Caninius was much with 
me, I left it on the sixth of July, when I sent 
away this letter : as I earnestly recommend all my 
affairs to you, so nothing more particularly than 
that the time of my provincial command be not 
prolonged ; this is everything to me ; which, when 
and how, and by whom it is to be managed, you 
will be the best able to contrive. Adieu . 

He landed at Ephesus on the twenty-second of 
July, after a slow but safe passage of fifteen days ; 
the tediousness of which was agreeably relieved by 
touching on the way at several of the islands of the 
iEgean sea, of which he sends a kind of journal to 
AtticusP. Many deputations from the cities of 
Asia and a great concourse of people came to meet 
him as far as Samos ; but a much greater still was 
expecting his landing at Ephesus : the Greeks 
flocked eagerly from all parts to see a man so 
celebrated through the empire for the fame of his 
learning and eloquence ; so that all his boastings, 
as he merrily says, of many years past, were now 
brought to the test<i. After reposing himself for 
three days at Ephesus, he marched forward to- 
wards his province ; and on the last of July, arrived 
at Laodicea, one of the capital cities of his juris- 
diction. From this moment the date of his 
government commenced, which he bids Atticus 
take notice of, that he might know how to compute 
the precise extent of his annual term 1 ". 

It was Cicero's resolution, in this provincial 
command, to practise those admirable rules which 
he had drawn up formerly for his brother ; and 
from an employment wholly tedious and disagree- 
able to him to derive fresh glory upon his character, 
by leaving the innocence and integrity of his ad- 
ministration, as a pattern of governing to all 
succeeding proconsuls. It had always been the 

o Ep. Fam. ii. 8. 

P Ephesum venimus a. d. xr. Kal. Sext.— Ad Att. v. 13 ; 
it. Ibid. 12. 

q De concursu legationum, privatorum, etde incredibili 
ixuiltitudine, qua?mihijam Sami, sed mirabilem in modum 

Ephesi, praesto fuit, aut te audisse puto ex quo te intel- 

ligere certo scio multorum annorum ostentationes meas 
nunc in discrimen esse adduetas.— Ibid. J 3. 

r Laodieeam veni prid. Kal. Sextiles. Ex hoc die clavum 
anni movebis.— Ibid. 15. 



custom, when any governors went abroad to their 
provinces, that the countries through which they 
passed should defray all the charges of their jour- 
ney : but Cicero no sooner set his foot on foreign 
ground than he forbade all expense whatsoever, 
public or private, to be made either upon himself 
or any of his company ; which raised a great 
admiration of him in all the cities of Greece s . In 
Asia he did the same, not suffering his officers to 
accept what was due to them even by law, forage 
and wood for firing, nor anything else but mtre 
house-room, with four beds ; which he remitted 
also, as oft as it was practicable, and obliged them 
to lodge in their tents ; and by his example and 
constant exhortations brought his lieutenants, 
tribunes, and prsefects, so fully into his measures, 
that they all concurred with him, he says, wonder- 
fully, in a jealous concern for his honour*. 

Being desirous to put himself at the head of his 
army before the season of action was over, he 
spent but little time in visiting the cities of his 
jurisdiction, reserving the winter months for set- 
tling the civil affairs of the province 11 . He went, 
therefore, to the camp at Iconium, in Lycaonia, 
about the twenty-fourth of August ; where he had 
no sooner reviewed the troops than he received an 
account from Antiochus, king of Comagene, which 
was confirmed from the other princes of those 
parts, that the Parthians had passed the Euphrates 
with a mighty force, in order to invade the Roman 
territory under the conduct of Pacorus, the king's 
son. Upon this news, he marched towards Cilicia, 
to secure his province from the inroads of the 
enemy, or any commotions within ; but as all ac- 
cess to it was difficult except on the side of Cap- 
padocia, an open country, and not well provided, 
he took his route through that kingdom, and 
encamped in that part of it which bordered upon 
Cilicia, near to the town of Cybistra, at the foot of 
mount Taurus. His army, as it is said above, 
consisted of about twelve thousand foot, and two 
thousand six hundred horse, besides the auxiliary 
troops of the neighbouring states, and especially 
of Deiotarus, king of Galatia, the most faithful 
ally of Rome, and Cicero's particular friend ; whose 
whole forces he could depend upon at any warn- 
ing x - 

s Ego — quotidie meditor, pra?cipio meis ; faeiam denique 
ut summa modestia et summa abstinentia munus hoc 
extraordinarium traducamus. — Ep. Fam. ii. 9. 

Adhuc sumptus nee in me aut publice aut privatim, nee 
iu quemquam comitum. Nihil accipitur lege Julia, nihil 
ab hospite, persuasum est omnibus meis serviendum esse 
famae mea?. Belle adhuc. Hoc animadversum Graecoruni 
laude et multo sermone celebratur. — Ibid. 10. 

Nos adhuc iter per Graeciam summa cum admiratione 
fecimus. — Ibid. 11. 

1 Levantur miserse civitates, quod nullus sit sumptus in 
nos, neque in legatos. neque in qua?storem, neque in quem- 
quam. Scito, non modo nos foenum, aut quod lege Julia 
dari solet, non accipere, sed ne ligna quidem, nee pra?tcr 
quatuor lectos, et tectum, quemquam accipere quidquam : 
multis locis ne tectum quidem, et in tabernaculo manere 
plerumque.— Ad Att. v. 16. 

Ut nullus teruncius insumatur in quemquam ; idfitetiam 
et legatorum et tribunorum et praefectorum diligentia. 
Nam omnesmirificc (TvfJLCpikoSo^ovaiv gloria? meae.— Ibid. 
17. 

u Erat mihi in animo recta proficisci ad exercitum, 
a?stivos menses reliquos rei militari dare, hibernos juris- 
diction!.— Ibid. 14. 

* In castra veni a. d. vn. Kal. Sept. a. d. m. exercitum 



158 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



While he lay in this camp, he had an opportu- 
nity of executing a special commission with which 
he was charged by the senate, to take Ariobar- 
zanes, king of Cappadocia, under his particular 
protection, and provide for the security of his 
person and government ; in honour of whom the 
senate had decreed, what they had never done be- 
fore to any foreign prince, that his safety was of 
great concern to the senate and people of Rome. 
His father had been killed by the treachery of his 
subjects, and a conspiracy of the same kind was 
apprehended against the son : Cicero, therefore, in 
a council of his officers, gave the king an account 
of the decree of the senate, and that in conse- 
quence of it he was then ready to assist him with 
his troops and authority in any measures that 
should be concerted for the safety and quiet of his 
kingdom. The king, after great professions of his 
thanks and duty to the senate for the honour of 
their decree, and to Cicero himself for his care in 
the execution of it, said, that he knew no occasion 
for giving him any particular trouble at that time ; 
nor had any suspicion of any design against his life 
or crown : upon which Cicero, after congratulating 
him upon the tranquillity of his affairs, advised 
him, however, to remember his father's fate, and, 
from the admonition of the senate, to be particu- 
larly vigilant in the care of his person, and so they 
parted. But the next morning the king returned 
early to the camp, attended by his brother and 
counsellors, and with many tears implored the pro- 
tection of Cicero, and the benefit of the senate's 
decree ; declaring, " that he had received undoubted 
intelligence of a plot, which those who were privy 
to it durst not venture to discover till Cicero's 
arrival in the country, but trusting to his authority, 
had now given full information of it ; and that 
his brother, who was present and ready to confirm 
what he said, had been solicited to enter into it by 
the offer of the crown : he begged, therefore, that 
some of Cicero's troops might be left with him for 
his better guard and defence." Cicero told him, 
"that under the present alarm of the Parthian war, 
he could not possibly lend him any part of his 
army ; that since the conspiracy was detected, his 
own forces would be sufficient for preventing the 
effects of it ; that he should learn to act the king, 
by showing a proper concern for his own life, and 
exert his regal power in punishing the authors of 
the plot, and pardoning all the rest ; that he need 
not apprehend any farther danger, when his people 
were acquainted with the senate's decree, and saw 
a Roman army so near to them, and ready to put 
it in execution :" and having thus encouraged and 
comforted the king, he marched towards Cilicia, 
and gave an account of this accident, and of the 
motions of the Parthians, in two public letters to 
the consuls and the senate : he added a private letter 
also to Cato, who was a particular favourer and 
lustravi. Ex his castris cum graves de Parthis nuncii 
venirent, perrexi in C'iliciam, per Cappadocia? partem earn, 
quae Ciliciam attingit — 

Regis Antiochi Comageni legati primi niihi nunciarunt 
Parthorum magnas copias Eupliratem transire ccepisse.— 
Cum exercitum in Ciliciam ducerem— mihi liters redditas 
sunt aTareondimoto, qui fidelissimnssocius trans Taurum 
populi Romani existimatur. Pacorum Orodis regis Partho- 
rum filium, cum permagno equitatu transisse Euphratem, 
&c. — Ep. Fam. xv. 1. 

Eodem die ab Jamblicho, PhylarchoArabum— liters? de 
eisdem rebus, &c. 



patron of Ariobarzanes, in which he informed him, 
" that he had not only secured the king's person 
from any attempt, but had taken care that he 
should reign for the future with honour and dig- 
nity, by restoring to his favour and service his old 
counsellors, whom Cato had recommended, and 
who had been disgraced by the intrigues of his 
court ; and by obliging a turbulent young priest of 
Bellona, who was the head of the malcontents, and 
the next in power to the king himself, to quit the 
country f. 

This king Ariobarzanes seems to have been 
poor even to a proverb : — 

Mancipiis locuples egit aeris Cappadocum rex. 

Hor. Ep. i. 6. 
for he had been miserably squeezed and drained by 
the Roman generals and governors, to whom he 
owed vast sums, either actually borrowed or stipu- 
lated to be paid for particular services. It was a 
common practice with the great of Rome to lend 
money at an exorbitant interest to the princes and 
cities dependent on the empire, which was thought 
a useful piece of policy to both sides ; to the 
princes, for the opportunity of engaging to their 
interests the most powerful men of the republic, by 
a kind of honourable pension ; to the Romans, for 
the convenience of placing their money where it 
was sure to bring the greatest return of profit. The 
ordinary interest of these provincial loans was, one 
per cent, by the month, with interest upon interest : 
this was the lowest, but in extraordinary or ha- 
zardous cases, it was frequently four times as 
much. Pompey received monthly, from this very 
king, above six thousand pounds sterling, which 
yet was short of Ins full interest. Brutus also had 
lent him a very large sum, and earnestly desired 
Cicero to procure the payment of it, with the 
arrears of interest : but Pompey's agents were so 
pressing, and the king so needy, that though Cicero 
solicited Brutus's affair very heartily, he had little 
hopes of getting anything for him : when Ariobar- 
zanes came, therefore, to offer him the same present 
of money, which he had usually made to every 
other governor, he generously refused it, and de- 
sired only, that instead of giving it to him, it might 
be paid to Brutus : but the poor prince was so dis- 
tressed that he excused himself, by the necessity 
which he was under, of satisfying some other more 
pressing demands ; so that Cicero gives a sad ac- 
count of his negotiation, in a long letter to Atticus, 
who had warmly recommended Brutus's interests to 
him. 

" I come now (says he) to Brutus, whom by 
your authority I embraced with inclination, and 
began even to love : but — what am I going to say ? 
I recal myself, lest I offend you — do not think that 
I ever entered into anything more willingly or took 
more pains than in what he recommended to me. 
He gave me a memorial of the particulars, which 
you had talked over with me before : I pursued 
your instructions exactly. In the first place I 
pressed Ariobarzanes to give that money to Brutus 
which he promised to me. As long as the king 
continued with me, all things looked well ; but he 
was afterwards teased by six hundred of Pompey's 
agents, and Pompey, for other reasons, can do 
more with him than all the world besides, but 
especially when it is imagined that he is to be sent 



7 Ep. Fam. xv. 2, 3, 4. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



150 



to the Parthian war. They now pay Pompey 
thirty-three Attic talents per month out of the 
taxes, though this falls short of a month's interest; 
but our friend Cnseus takes it calmly, and is con- 
tent to abate somewhat of the interest without 
pressing for the principal. As for others, he 
neither does nor can pay any man ; for he has no 
treasury, no revenues ; he raises taxes by Appius's 
method of capitation, but these are scarce sufficient 
for Pompey's monthly pay. Two or three of the 
king's friends are very rich, but they hold their 
own as closely as either you or I. I do not forbear, 
however, to ask, urge, and chide him by letters. 
King Deiotarus also told me that he had sent people 
to him on purpose to solicit for Brutus, but they 
brought him word back that he had really no 
money ; which I take indeed to be the case, that 
nothing is more drained than his kingdom, nothing 
poorer than the kingV 

But Brutus had recommended another affair of 
the same nature to Cicero, which gave him much 
more trouble. The city of Salamis in Cyprus 
owed to two of his friends, as he pretended, 
Scaptius and Matinius, above twenty thousand 
pounds sterling upon bond at a most extravagant 
interest ; and he begged of Cicero to take their 
persons and concerns under his special protection. 
Appius, who was Brutus's father-in-law, had 
granted everything which was asked to Scaptius ; 
a prsefecture in Cyprus, with some troops of horse, 
with which he miserably harassed the poor Sala- 
minians in order to force them to comply with his 
unreasonable demands ; for he shut up their whole 
senate in the council- room till five of them were 
starved to death with hunger a . Brutus laboured 
to place him in the same degree of favour with 
Cicero ; but Cicero being informed of this violence 
at Ephesus by a deputation from Salamis, made it 
the first act of his government to recal the troops 
from Cyprus, and put an end to Scaptius's prsefec- 
ture, having laid it down for a rule to grant no 
command to any man who was concerned in trade 
or negotiating money in the province. To give 
satisfaction, however, to Brutus, he enjoined the 
Salaminians to pay off Scaptius's bond, which they 
were ready to do according to the tenor of his 
edict, by which he had ordered that no bonds in 
his province should carry above one per cent, by 
the month. Scaptius refused to take the money 
on those terms, insisting on four per cent, as the 
condition of his bond expressed, which by compu- 
tation almost doubled the principal sum ; while the 
Salaminians, as they protested to Cicero, could not 
have paid the original debt if they had not been 
enabled to do it by his help, and out of his own 
dues that he had remitted to them, which amounted 
to somewhat more than Scaptius's legal demand b . 

This extortion raised Cicero's indignation, — and 

* Ad Att. vi. l« 

a Fuerat enim praefeetus Appio, et quidem habuerat 
turmas equitum, quibus inclusum in curia senatum Sa- 
lainine obsederat, ut fame senatores quinque morerentur. 
—Ibid. 

b Itaque ego, quo die tetigi provinciam, cum mihi Cyprii 
legati Ephesum obviam venissent, literas misi, ut equites 
ex insula statim decederent.— Ad Att. vi. 1. 

Confeceram, ut solverent centesimis — at Scaptius qua- 
ternas postulabat. — Ibid. 

Homines non modo non recusare, sed etiam dicere, se a 
me solvere. Quod enim praetori dare consuessent, quoniam 
ego non acceperam, se a me quodam modo dare ; atque 



notwithstanding the repeated instances of Brutus 
and Atticus, he was determined to overrule it ; 
though Brutus, in order to move him the more 
effectually, thought proper to confess what he had 
all along dissembled, that the debt was really his 
own, and Scaptius only his agent in it c . This 
surprised Cicero still more, and though he had a 
warm inclination to oblige Brutus, yet he could not 
consent to so flagrant an injustice, but makes fre- 
quent and heavy complaints of it in his letters to 
Atticus. "You have now (says he in one of them), 
the ground of my conduct ; if Brutus does not 
approve it I see no reason why we should love 
him, but I am sure it will be approved by his 
uncle Cato d ." In another, " If Brutus thinks that 
I ought to allow him four per cent, when by edict I 
have decreed but one through all the province, and 
that to the satisfaction of the keenest usurers ; if 
he complains that I denied a prsefecture to one 
concerned in trade which I denied for that reason 
to your friend Lenius, and to Sex. Statius, though 
Torquatus solicited for the one and Pompey himself 
for the other, yet without disgusting either of 
them ; if he takes it ill that I recalled the troops 
of horse out of Cyprus, I shall be sorry indeed 
that he has any occasion to be angry with me, but 
much more not to find him the man that I took 
him to be. I would have you to know, however, 
that I have not forgot what you intimated to me 
in several of your letters, that if I brought back 
nothing else from the province but Brutus's friend- 
ship, that would be enough : let it be so since you 
will have it so, — yet it must always be with this 
exception, as far as it can be done without my 
committinganywrong e ." In a third, "How, my dear 
Atticus ! you who applaud my integrity and good 
conduct, and are vexed sometimes you say that 
you are not with me, — how can such a thing, as 
Ennius says, come out of your mouth to desire me 
to grant troops to Scaptius for the sake of extort- 
ing money ? Could you, if you were with me, 
suffer me to do it if I would ? If I really had done 
such a thing, with what face could I ever read 
again or touch those books of mine with which you 
are so much pleased f ? " He tells him likewise in 

etiam minus esse aliquanto in Scaptii nomine, quam in 
vectigali praetorio. — Ad Att. v. 21. 

c Atque hoc tempore ipso impingit mihi epistolam Scap- 
tius Bruti, rem illam suo periculo esse : quod nee mihi 
unquam Brutus dixerat nee tibi. — Ibid. 

Nunquam ex illo audivi illam pecuniam esse suam. — 
Ibid. 

d Habes meam causam : qua? si Bruto non probatur, 
nescio cur ilium amemus : sed avunculo ejus certe proba- 
bitur.— Ibid. v. 21. 

e Si Brutus putabit me quaternas centesimas oportuisse 
decernere, qui in tota provincia singulas obsarvarem, 
itaque edixissem, idque etiam acerbissimis fceneratoribus 
probaretur ; si praefecturam negotiatori denegatam quere- 
tur, quod ego Torquato nostro in tuo Lenio, Pompeio ipsi 
in S. Statio negavi, et iis probavi ; si equites deductos 
moleste feret ; accipiam equidem dolorem, mihi ilium 
irasci, sed multo majorem, non esse eum talem, qualem 

putassem Sed plane te intelligere volui, mihi non exci- 

disse illud, quod tu ad me quibusdam Uteris scripsisses, 
si nihil aliud de hac provincia nisi illius benevolentiam 
deportassem, mihi id satis esse. Sit sane, quoniam ita tu 
vis sed tamen cum eo credo, quod sine peccato meo fiat — 
Ibid. 

t Ain' tandem Attice, laudator integritatis et elegantia? 
nostras ? ausus es hoc ex ore tuo, inquit Ennius, ut equites 
Scaptio ad pecuniam cogendam darem, me rogare ? an tu, 



160 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



confidence, that all Brutus's letters to him, even 
when he was asking favours, were unmannerly, 
churlish, and arrogant, without regarding either 
what or to whom he was writing ; " and if he con- 
tinued in that humour, you may love him alone, 
(says he) if you please, you shall have no rival of 
me; but he will come I believe to a better minds." 
But to show after all what a real inclination he 
had to oblige him, he never left urging king Ario- 
barzanes till he had squeezed from him a hundred 
talents in part of Brutus's debt, or about twenty 
thousand pounds ; the same sum probably which 
had been destined to Cicero himself h . 

While he lay encamped in Cappadocia expecting 
what way the Parthians would move, he received 
an account that they had taken a different route, 
and were advanced to Antioch in Syria, where they 
heldC. Cassius blocked up, and that a detachment 
of them had actually penetrated into Cilicia, but 
were routed and cut off by those troops which were 
left to guard the country. Upon this he presently 
decamped, and, by great journeys over Mount 
Taurus, marched in all haste to possess himself of 
the passes of Amanus, a great and strong mountain 
lying between Syria and Cilicia, and the common 
boundary of them both. By this march, and the 
approach of his army to the neighbourhood of 
Syria, the Parthians being discouraged retired from 
Antioch, which gave Cassius an opportunity of 
falling upon them in their retreat and gaining a 
considerable advantage, in which one of their prin- 
cipal commanders, Osaces, was mortally wounded 5 . 

In the suspense of the Parthian war, which the 
late disgrace of Crassus had made terrible at Rome, 
Cicero's friends, who had no great opinion of his 
military talents, were in some pain for his safety 
and success ; but now that he found himself en- 
gaged and pushed to the necessity of acting the 
general, he seems to have wanted neither the 
courage nor conduct of an experienced leader. In 
a letter to Atticus, dated from his camp, — u We 
are in great spirits (says he), and as our councils 
are good, have no distrust of an engagement ; we 
are securely encamped, with plenty of provisions, 
and in sight almost of Cilicia ; with a small army, 
indeed, but, as I have reason to believe, entirely 

si raecum esses, qui scribis morderi te interdum quod non 

simul sis, paterere me id facere, si vellem ? et ego 

audebo legere unquam, aut attingere eos libros, quos tu 
dilaudas? si tale quid fecero ?— Ad Att. vi. 2. 

g Ad me etiam, cum rogat aliquid, contumaciter, arro- 
ganter, aicoivoivriTOiS solet scribere— Ibid. vi. 1. 

Omnino (soli enirn sumus) nullas unquam ad me literap, 
misit Brutus — in quibus non esset arrogans, b.Koivoivr)rov 
aliquid— in quo tamen ille mihi risum magis quam stoma- 
clium moverc solet. Sed plane parum cogitat. quid scribat, 
aut ad quern. — Ibid. vi. 3. 

h Bruti tui causa, ut sa>pe ad te scripsi, feci omnia — 
Ariobarzanes non in Pompcium prolixior per ipsum, 

quam per me in Krutum pro ratione pecuniae liberius 

est Brutus tractatus, quam Pompeius. Bruto curata hoc 
anno talenta circiter c. Pompcio in sex mensibus pro- 
missa cc. — Ibid. 

i Itaque confestim iter in Ciliciam feci per Tauri pylas. 
Tarsum veni ad diem in. Non. Oct. inde ad Amanum con- 
tendi, qui Syriam a Cilicia in aquarum divortio dividit — 
rumore adventus nostri, et Cassio, qui Antiochia tcneba- 
tur, animus accessit, et Parthis timor injcctus est. Itaque 
eos cedentes ab oppido Cassius insecutus rem bene gessit. 
Qua infuga magna auctoritatc Osaces, dux Parthorum, 
vulnus accepit, eoque interiit paucis post dicbus.— Ad 
Att. v. 20. 



well affected to me, which I shall double by the 
accession of Deiotarus, who is upon the road to 
join me. I have the allies more firmly attached 
to me than any governor ever had ; they are won- 
derfully taken with my easiness and abstinence ; 
we are making new levies of citizens and establish- 
ing magazines : if there be occasion for fighting, 
we shall not decline it ; if not, shall defend ourselves 
by the strength of our posts ; wherefore be of good 
heart, for I see as much as if you were with me, 
the sympathy of your love for me k ." 

But the danger of the Parthians being over for 
this season, Cicero resolved that his labour should 
not be lost and his army dismissed without at- 
tempting something of moment. The inhabitants 
of the mountains close to which he now lay were 
a fierce untamed race of banditti or freebooters, 
who had never submitted to the Roman power, but 
lived in perpetual defiance of it, trusting to their 
forts and castles, which were supposed to be im- 
pregnable from the strength of their situation. He 
thought it, therefore, of no small importance to 
the empire to reduce them to a state of subjection ; 
and in order to conceal his design and take them 
unprovided, he drew off his forces on pretence of 
marching to the distant parts of Cilicia ; but after 
a day's journey stopped short, and having refreshed 
his army and left his baggage behind, turned back 
again in the night with the utmost celerity, and 
reached Amanus before day on the thirteenth of 
October. He divided his troops among his four 
lieutenants, and himself, accompanied by his bro- 
ther, led lip one part of them, and so coming upon 
the natives by surprise, they easily killed or made 
them all prisoners. They took six strong forts, 
and burned many more ; but the capital of the 
mountain, Erana, made a brave resistance, and 
held out from break of day to four in the afternoon. 
Upon this success Cicero was saluted emperor, and 
sat down again at the foot of the hills, where he 
spent five days in demolishing the other strongholds 
and wasting the lands of these mountaineers. In 
this place his troops were lodged in the same camp 
which Alexander the Great had formerly used 
when he beat Darius at Issus, and where there 
remained three altars as the monument of his 
victory, which bore his name to that day ; a 
circumstance which furnished matter for some 
pleasantry in his letters to his friends at Rome 1 . 

k Ad Att. v 18. 

1 Qui mons erat hostium plenus sempiternorum. Hie 
a. d. in. Id. Oct. magnum numcrum hostium occidimus. 
Castella munitissima, nocturno Pontinii adventu, nostro 
matutino cepimus, incendimus. Imperatorcs appellati 
sumus. Castra paucos dies habuimus, ea ipsa, qua? contra 
Darium habuerat apud Issum Alexander, imperator baud 
paullo mclior, quam aut tu aut ego. Ibi dies quinque 
morati, direpto et vastato Amano, inde discessimus.— Ad 
Att. v. 20. 

Expedito cxercitu ita noctu iter feci, utad in. Id. Oct. 
cum lucisceret, in Amanum nseenderem, distributisque 
cohortibus et auxiliis, cum aliis Quintus frater legatus, 
mccum simul, aliis C. Pontinius legatus. reliquis M. An- 
neius, et M. Tullius legati praeessent : plcrosque nee opin- 
antcs oppressimus — Eranam autem, que fait non vici 
instar, sed urbis, quod erat Amani caput — acriter et din 
repugnantibus, Pontinio illam partem Amani tenente, ex 
antelucano tempore usque ad horam dici decimam, magna 
multitudinc bostium occisa, cepimus, castcllaque sex 
eapta: complura incendimus. His rebus ita gestis, castra 
in radicibus Amani habuimus apud aras Alexandri qua- 
triduum : et in reliquiis Amani delcndis. agrisque vastandis 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



161 



From Amanus he led his army to another part 
of the highlands the most disaffected to the Roman 
name, possessed by a stout and free people, who 
had never been subject even to the kings of that 
country. Their chief town was called Pindenissum, 
situated on a steep and craggy hill, strongly fortified 
by nature and art, and provided with everything 
necessary for defence. It was the constant refuge 
of all deserters and the harbour of foreign enemies, 
and at that very time was expecting and prepared 
to receive the Parthians. Cicero, resolving, there- 
fore, to chastise their insolence and bring them 
under the Roman yoke, laid siege to it in form ; 
and though he pushed it on with all imaginable 
vigour, and a continual battery of his engines, yet 
it cost him above six weeks to reduce it to the 
necessity of surrendering at discretion. The in- 
habitants were sold for slaves ; and when Cicero 
was writing the account from his tribunal, he had 
already raised about a hundred thousand pounds 
by that sale : all the other plunder, excepting the 
horses, was given to the soldiers. In his letter 
upon it to Atticus, " the Pindenissians," says he, 
"surrendered to me on the Saturnalia, after a siege 
of seven and forty days. • But what the plague/ 
you will say, ' are these Pindenissians ? I never 
heard of their name before.' How can I help that ? 
Could I turn Cilicia into iEtolia or Macedonia ? 
Take this, however, for certain, that no man could 
do more than I have done with such an army,"&c. m 
After this action, another neighbouring nation of 
the same spirit and fierceness, called Tiburani, 
terrified by the fate of Pindenissum, voluntarily 
submitted and gave hostages ; so that Cicero sent 
his army into winter-quarters, under the command 
of his brothei', into those parts of the province 
which were thought the most turbulent 11 . 

While he was engaged in this expedition, Papirius 
Psetus, an eminent wit and Epicurean, with whom 
he had a particular intimacy and correspondence of 
facetious letters, sent him some military instructions 
in the way of raillery, to which Cicero answered in 
the same jocose manner: — "Your letter," says 
he, "has made me a complete commander. I was 
wholly ignorant before of your great skill in the 
art of war; but perceive that you have read Pyrrhus 
and Cineas. Wherefore 1 intend to follow your 



— id tempus omne consumsimus. — Ep. Fam. xv. 4 ; Ibid. 
ii. 10. 

m Confectis his rebus ad oppidum Eleutherocilicum, 
J Pindenissum, exercitura adduxi : quod cum esset altissimo 
et munitissimo loco, ab iisque incoleretur, qui ne regibus 
quidem unquam paruissent : cum et fugitives reciperent, 
et Parthorum adventum acerrime expectarent : ad existi- 
mationem imperii pertinere arbitratus sum comprimere 

eorum audaciam vallo et fossa circumdedi, sex cas- 

tellis, castrisque maximis sepsi, aggere, vineis, turribus 
oppugnavi, ususque tormenlis multis, multis sagittariis, 
magno labore meo — septimo quadragesimo die rem confeci. 
— Ep. Fam. xv. 4. 

Qui (malum) istiPindenissae? qui sunt? inquies: nomen 
audivi nunquam. Quid ego faciam ? potui Ciliciam, JEto- 
liam, aut Macedonian! reddere ? hoc jam sic habeto, nee 
hoc exercitu hie tanta negotia geri potuisse, &c. — Ad 
Att. v. 20. 

ManeipiavamibantSaturnalibustertiis, cum hsee scribe- 
bam in tribunali, res erat ad H. S. cxx. — Ibid. 

n His erant finitimi pari scelere et audacia Tiburani : ab 
his, Pindenisso capto, obsides accepi, exercitum in hiberna 
dimisi. Quintum fratrem negotio prseposui, ut in vieis 
aut captis aut malo pacatis exercitus collocaretur.— Ep. 
Fam. xv. 4. 



precepts, and withal, to have some ships in readi- 
ness on the coast ; for they deny that there can be 
any better defence against the Parthian horse. 
But, raillery apart, you little think what a general 
you have to deal with ; for in this government I 
have reduced to practice what I had worn out 
before with reading, the whole Institution of 
Cyrus," &c. ° These martial exploits spread Cicero's 
fame into Syria, where Bibulus was just arrived to 
take upon him the command, but kept himself 
close within the gates of Antioch till the country 
was cleared of all the Parthians. His envy of 
Cicero's success and title of emperor made him 
impatient to purchase the same honour by the 
same service on the Syrian side of the mountain 
Amanus ; but he had the misfortune to be repulsed 
in his attempt, with the entire loss of the first 
cohort and several officers of distinction, which 
Cicero calls an ugly blow both for the time and the 
effect of it p. 

Though Cicero had obtained what he calls a just 
victory at Amanus, and in consequence of it the 
appellation of emperor which he assumed from this 
time, yet he sent no public account of it to Rome 
till after the affair of Pindenissum, an exploit of 
more eclat and importance, for which he expected 
the honour of a thanksgiving, and began to enter- 
tain hopes even of a triumph. His public letter 
is lost, but that loss is supplied by a particular 
narrative of the whole action in a private letter to ' 
Cato. The design of paying this compliment to 
Cato, was to engage his vote and concurrence to 
the decree of the "supplication ;" and by the pains 
which he takes to obtain it, where he was sure of 
gaining his point without it, shows the high opinion 
which he had of Cato's authority, and how desirous 
he was to have the testimony of it on his side. 
But Cato was not to be moved from his purpose 
by compliments or motives of friendship. He was 
an enemy by principle to all decrees of this kind, 
and thought them bestowed too cheaply and pros- 
tituted to occasions unworthy of them : so that 
when Cicero's letters came under deliberation, 
though he spoke with all imaginable honour and 
respect of Cicero, and highly extolled both his civil 
and military administration, yet he voted against 
the supplication, — which was decreed, however, 
without any other dissenting voice except that of 
Favonius, who loved always to mimic Cato, and of 
Hirrus, who had a personal quarrel with Cicero : 
yet when the vote was over, Cato himself assisted 
in drawing up the decree, and had his name inserted 
in it, which was the usual mark of a particular 
approbation of the thing and friendship to the 
person in whose favour it passed i. But Cato's 

° Ep. Fam. ix. 25. 

P Erat in Syria nostrum nomen in gratia. Venit interim 
Bibulus. Credo voluit appellatione hac inani nobis esse 
par. In eodem Amano coepit laureolam in mustaceo 

qua?rere. At ille cohortem primam totam perdidit 

sane plagam odiosam acceperat turn re turn tempore. — Ad 
Att. v. 20. 

1 Nunc publice literas Romam mittere parabam. Ube- 
riores erunt, quam si ex Amano misissem.' — Ibid. 

Deinde de triumpho, quern video, nisi reipublicse tem- 
pora impedient, evTropiarov.— Ad Att. vii. 1 . 

Ei porro assensus est unus, familiaris mens Favonius ; 
alter iratus Hirrus. Cato autem et scribendo affuit.— 
Ibid. 

Res ipsa declarat, tibi ilium honorem supplicationis 
jucundumfuisse, quod scribendo affuisti. na:c enim sena- 
M 



162 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



answer to Cicero's letter will show the temper of 
the man and the grounds on which he acted on this 
occasion. 

M. Cato to M. T. Cicero, Emperor. 

u In compliance with what both the republic 
and our private friendship require of me, I rejoice 
that your virtue, innocence, diligence, approved in 
the greatest affairs, exerts itself everywhere with 
equal vigour, — at home in the gown, abroad in 
arms. I did all, therefore, that I could do, agree- 
ably to my own judgment, when in my vote and 
speech I ascribed to your innocence and good 
conduct the defence of your province, the safety of 
the kingdom and person of Ariobarzanes, the 
recovery of the allies to their duty and affection to 
our empire. I am glad, however, that a supplica- 
tion is decreed ; if, where chance had no part, but 
the whole was owing to your consummate prudence 
and moderation, you are better pleased that we 
should hold ourselves indebted to the gods than to 
you. But if you think that a supplication will 
pave the way to a triumph, and for that reason 
choose that fortune should have the praise rather 
than yourself, yet a triumph does not always follow 
a supplication, and it is much more honourable 
than any triumph for the senate to decree that a 
province is preserved to the empire by the mildness 
and innocence of the general, rather than by the 
force of arms and the favour of the gods. This 
was the purpose of my vote ; and I have now em- 
ployed more words than it is my custom to do, 
that you might perceive what I chiefly wish to 
testify, how desirous I am to convince you that in 
regard to your glory I had a mind to do what I 
took to be the most honourable for you, yet rejoice 
to see that done which you are the most pleased 
with. Adieu, and still love me ; and, agreeably to 
the course which you have begun, continue your 
integrity and diligence to the allies and the re- 
public 1 ." 

Csesar was delighted to hear of Cato's stiffness, 
in hopes that it would create a coldness between 
him and Cicero ; and in a congratulatory letter to 
Cicero, upon the success of his arms, and the sup- 
plication decreed to him, took care to aggravate 
the rudeness and ingratitude of Cato s . Cicero 
himself was highly disgusted at it, especially when 
Cato soon afterwards voted a supplication to his 
son-in-law, Bibulus, who had done much less to 
deserve it. " Cato," says he, " was shamefully mali- 
cious ; he gave me what I did not ask, a character 
of integrity, justice, clemency ; but denied me 
what I did — yet this same man voted a supplica- 
tion of twenty days to Bibulus : pardon me, if I 
cannot bear this usage 1 ." Yet as he had a good 
opinion of Cato in the main, and a farther suit to 
make to the senate, in the demand of a triumph, 
he chose to dissemble his resentment, and returned 



tus consulta non ignoro ab amicissimis ejus, cujus de 
honore agitur, scribi solere.^Ep. Fam. xv. 6. 

r Ep. Fam. xv. 5. 

8 Itaque Caesar iis Uteris, quibus mihi gratulatur, et 
omnia pollicetur, quo modo exultat Catonis in me ingra- 
tissimi injuria. — Ad Att. vii. 2. 

1 Aveo scire — Cato quid agat : qui quidcm in me turpiter 
fuit malevolus. Dedit integritatis, justitiae, dementia?, 
fidei testimonium, quod non quaerebam, quod postulabam, 

negavit at hie idem Bibulo dierum viginti. Ignosce 

mihi, non possum haec ferre. Ibid. 



him a civil answer, to signify his satisfaction and 
thanks for what he had thought fit to do u . 

Cicero's campaign ended just so, as Cselius had 
wished in one of his letters to him ; with fighting 
enough to give a claim to the laurel ; yet without 
the risk of a battle with the Parthians x . During 
these months of action, he sent away the two 
young Ciceros, the son and nephew, to king 
Deiotarus's court, under the conduct of the king's 
son, who came on purpose to invite them : they 
were kept strictly to their books and exercises, and 
made great proficiency in both, though the one of 
them, as Cicero says, wanted the bit, the other the 
spur : their tutor Dionysius attended them, a man 
of great learning and probity, but, as his young 
pupils complained, horribly passionate ?. Deiota- 
rus himself was setting forward to join Cicero with 
all his forces, upon the first news of the Parthian 
irruption : he had with him thirty cohorts, of four 
hundred men each, armed and disciplined after the 
Roman manner, with two thousand horse : but the 
Parthian alarm being over, Cicero sent couriers to 
meet him on the road, in order to prevent his 
marching to no purpose, so far from his own domi- 
nion 2 : the old king, however, seems to have 
brought the children back again in person, for the 
opportunity of paying his compliments, and spend- 
ing some time with his friend ; for by what Cicero 
intimates, they appear to have had an interview a . 

The remaining part of Cicero's government was 
employed in the civil affairs of the province : where 
his whole care was to ease the several cities and 
districts of that excessive load of debts, in which 
the avarice and rapaciousness of former governors 
had involved them. He laid it down for the fixed 
rule of his administration, not to suffer any money 
to be expended either upon himself or his officers ; 
and when one of his lieutenants, L. Tullius, in 
passing through the country, exacted only the 
forage and firing, which was due by law, and that 
but once a day, and not, as all others had done 
befoi'e, from every town and village through which 
they passed, he was much out of humour, and 
could not help complaining of it, as a stain upon 
his government, since none of his people besides 
had taken even a single farthing. All the wealthier 
cities of the province used to pay to all their pro- 
consuls large contributions for being exempted from 
furnishing winter-quarters to the army ; Cyprus 
alone paid yearly on this single account two hun- 

u Ep. Fam. xv. 6. 

* TJt optasti, ita est ; velles enim, ais, tantummodo ut 
haberem negotii quod esset ad laureolam satis. Parthos 
times, quia diffidis copiis nostris.— Ep. Fam. ii. 10; viii. 5. 

y Cicerones nostros Deiotarus filius, qui rex a senatu 
appellatus est, secum in regnum. Dum in aestivis nos 
essemus, ilium pueris locum esse bellissimum duximus. — 
Ad Att. v. 17. 

Cicerones pueri amant inter se, discunt, exercentur: sed 
alter— fraenis eget, alter calcaribus — Dionysius mihi qui- 
dem in amoribus est. Pueri autem aiunt eum furenter 
irasci. Sed homo nee doctior, nee sanctior fieri potest. — 
Ibid. vi. 1. 

z Mihi tamen cum Deiotaro convenit, ut ille in meis 
castris esset cum omnibus suis copiis, habet autcm co- 
hortes quadringenarias nostra armatura triginta ; cquitum 
duo millia. — Ibid. 

Deiotarum confestim, jam ad me venientem cum magno 
et firmo cquitatu et peditatu et cum omnibus suis copiis, 
certiorem feci, non videri esse causam cur abesset a regno. 
— Ep. Fam. xv. 4. 

a Deiotarus mihi narravit, &c. — Ad Att. vi. 1, 6, 21. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



163 



dred talents, or about forty thousand pounds ; but 
Cicero remitted this whole tax to them, which 
alone made a vast revenue ; and applied all the 
customary perquisites of his office to the relief of 
the oppressed province ; yet for all his services and 
generosity, which amazed the poor people, he would 
accept no honours, but what were merely verbal ; 
prohibiting all expensive monuments, as statues, 
temples, brazen horses, &c, which, by the flattery of 
Asia, used to be erected of course to all governors, 
though ever so corrupt and oppressive. While he 
was upon his visitation of the Asiatic districts, 
there happened to be a kind of famine in the coun- 
try ; yet wherever he came, he not only provided 
for his family at his own expense, but prevailed 
with the merchants and dealers, who had any quan- 
tity of corn in their store-houses, to supply the 
people with it on easy terms b ; living himself, all 
the while, splendidly and hospitably, and keeping 
an open table, not only for all the Roman officers, 
but the gentry of the province . In the following 
letter to Atticus, he gives him a summary view of 
his manner of governing : 

"I see (says he) that you are much pleased with 
my moderation and abstinence ; but you would be 
much more so, if you were with me, especially at 
Laodicea, where I did wonders at the sessions, 
which I have just held, for the affairs of the dio- 
ceses, from the thirteenth of February to the first 
of May. Many cities are wholly freed from all 
their debts, many greatly eased ; and all, by being 
allowed to govern themselves by their own laws, 
have recovered new life. There are two ways by 
which I have put them into a capacity of freeing, 
or of easing themselves, at least of their debts. 
The one is, by suffering no expense at all to be 
made on the account of my government. When I 
say none at all, I speak not hyperbolically ; there 
is not so much as a farthing ; it is incredible to 
think, what relief they have found from this single 
article. The other is this : their own Greek ma- 
gistrates had strangely abused and plundered them. 
I examined every one of them, who had borne any 
office for ten years past ; they all plainly confessed, 
and, without the ignominy of a public conviction, 
made restitution of the money which they had pil- 
laged ; so that the people, who had paid nothing to 
our farmers for the present lustrum, have now paid 
the arrears of the last, even without murmuring. 
This has placed me in high favour with the publi- 

b Cave putes quicquam homines magis unquam esse 
miratos, quam nullum teruncium, me obtinente provin- 
ciam, sumtus factum esse, nee in rempublicam nee in 
quemquam meorum, praeterquam in L. Tullium, legatum. 
Is caeteroqui abstinens (sed Julia lege transitans, semel 
tamen in diem, non. ut alii solebant omnibus vicis) facit 
ut mihi excipiendus sit, cum teruncium nego sumtus fac- 
tum. Praeter eum accepit nemo. Has sordes a nostro Q. 
Titinnio accepimus. — Ad Att. v. 21. 

Civitates locupletes, ne in hiberna milites reciperent, 
magnas pecunias dabant. Cyprii talenta Attica cc. Qua 
ex insula (non virepfioAiKcos sed verissimeloquor) nummus 
nullus me obtinente erogabitur. Ob haec beneficia, quibus 
obstupescunt, nullos honores mihi, nisi verborum, decerni 
sino. Statuas, fana, redpiinra, prohibeo. — Ibid. 

Fames, quae erat in hac mea Asia, mihi optanda fuerit. 
Quacunque iter feci, nulla vi, — auctoritate et cohortatione 
perfeci, ut et Graeci et cives Itomani, qui frumentum 
compresserant, magnum numerum populis pollicerentur. 
—Ibid. 

c Ita vivam, ut maximos sumptus facio. Mirifice 
delector hoc instituto.— -Ad Att. v. 15. 



cans : a grateful set of men ! you'll say ; I have really 
found them such — the rest of my jurisdiction shall 
be managed with the same address, and create the 
same admiration of my clemency and easiness. 
There is no difficulty of access to me, as there is 
to all other provincial governors ; no introduction 
by my chamberlain ; I am always up before day, 
and walking in my hall with my doors open, as I 
used to do when a candidate at Rome : this is great 
and gracious here, though not at all troublesome to 
me, from my old habit and discipline," &c. d 

This method of governing gave no small um- 
brage to Appius, who considered it as a reproach 
upon himself, and sent several querulous letters to 
Cicero, because he had reversed some of his consti- 
tutions : " And no wonder," says Cicero, " that he 
is displeased with my manner, for what can be more 
unlike, than his administration and mine ? under 
him the province was drained by expenses and ex- 
actions ; under me, not a penny levied for public or 
private use. What shall I say of his prsefects, 
attendants, lieutenants ? of their plunders, rapines, 
injuries ? whereas now, there is not a single family 
governed with such order, discipline, and modesty, 
as my province. This some of Appius's friends 
interpret ridiculously, as if I was taking pains to 
exalt my own character, in order to depress his ; 
and doing all this, not for the sake of my own cre- 
dit, but of his disgrace e ." But the truth was, 
that from the time of his reconciliation with Ap- 
pius, he had a sincere desire to live on good terms 
with him, as well out of regard to the splendour of 
his birth and fortunes, as to his great alliances, for 
one of his daughters was married to Potnpey's son, 
and another to Brutus f ; so that, though their prin- 
ciples and maxims were totally different, yet he 
took care to do every thing with the greatest pro- 
fessions of honour and respect towards Appius, 
even when he found it necessary to rescind his 
decrees ; considering himself only, he says, as a 
second physician called in to a case of sickness, 
where he found it necessary to change the method 
of cure, and when the patient had been brought 
low by evacuations and blood-letting, to apply all 
kinds of lenitive and restoring medicines s. 

As soon as the government of Cilicia was allot- 
ted to him, he acquainted Appius with it by letter, 
begging of him that, as no man could succeed to 
it with a more friendly disposition than himself, so 
Appius would deliver up the province to him, in 
such a condition as one friend would expect to re- 
ceive it from another 11 ; in answer to which Appius, 

d Ad Att. vi. 2. 

e Quid enim potest esse tarn dissimile, quam illo imper- 
ante, exhaustam esse sumptibus et jacturis provinciam, 
nobis earn obtinentibus, nummum nullum esse erogatum 
nee privatim nee publice, &c— Ibid. vi. 1. 

f Ego Appium, ut tecum ssepe locutus sum, valde diligo. 
Meque ab eo diligi statim coeptum esse, ut simultatem de- 
posuimus, sensi— -jam me Pompeii totum esse scis : Brutum 
a me amari intelligis. Quid est causae, cur mihi non in 
optatis est complecti hominem, florentem aetate, opibus, 
honoribus, ingenio, liberis, propinquis, affinibus, amicis. 
— Ep. Fam. ii. 13. 

S Ut si medicus, cum aegrotus alii medico traditus sit, 
irasci velit ei medico, qui sibi successerit, si quae ipse in 
curando constituerit mutet ille. Sic Appius, cum e| 
acpaipeazcas provinciam curarit, sanguinem miserit, &c. 
—Ad Att. vi. 1. 

h Cum contra voluntatem nieam — accidisset, ut mihi 

cum imperio in provinciam ire necesse esset— haec una 

M 2 



164 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



having intimated some desire of an interview, 
Cicero took occasion to press it with much earnest- 
ness, as a thing of great service to them both ; 
and, that it might not be defeated, gave him an ac- 
count of all his stages and motions, and offered to 
regulate them in such a manner as to make the 
place of their meeting the most agreeable to Ap- 
pius's convenience ; but Appius being disgusted 
by the first edicts which Cicero published, resolved 
for that reason to disappoint him, and as Cicero 
advanced into the province, retired still to the 
remoter parts of it, and contrived to come upon 
him at last so suddenly, that Cicero had not warn- 
ing enough given to go out and meet him, which 
Appius laid hold of as a fresh ground of complaint 
against Cicero's pride, for refusing that common 
piece of respect to him 1 . 

This provoked Cicero to expostulate with him 
with great spirit — '• I was informed," says he, " by 
one of my apparitors, that you complained of me 
for not coming out to meet you ; I despised you, 
it seems, so as nothing could be prouder. When 
your servant came to me near midnight and told 
me that you would be with me at Iconium before 
day, but could not say by which road, when there 
were two, I sent out your friend Varro by the one, 
and Q. Lepta, the commander of my artillery, by 
the other, with instructions to each of them to 
bring me timely notice of your approach, that I 
might come out in person to meet you. Lepta 
came running back presently in all haste to ac- 
quaint me that you had already passed by the camp, 
upon which I went directly to Iconium, where you 
know the rest. Did I then refuse to come out 
to you ? — to Appius Claudius, to an emperor ; 
then, according to ancient custom, and, above all, 
to my friend ? I, who of all men am apt to do 
more in that way than becomes my dignity — but 
enough of this. The same man told me likewise, 
that you said ' What ! Appius went out to meet 
Lentulus ; Lentulus to Appius, but Cicero would 
not come out to Appius.' Can you then be guilty 
of such impertinence? A man, in my judg- 
ment of the greatest prudence, learning, expe- 
rience, and I may add politeness too, which the 
Stoics rightly judge to be a virtue ? Do you ima- 
gine, that your Appiuses and Lentuluses are of more 
weight with me than the ornaments of virtue ? Be- 
fore I had obtained those honours, which in the 
opinion of the world are thought to be the greatest, 
I never fondly admired those names of yours ; I 
looked indeed upon those who had left them to 
you, as great men, but after I had acquired and 
borne the highest commands, so as to have nothing 
more to desire, either of honour or glory, I never 
indeed considered myself as your superior, but 
hoped that I was become your equal ; nor did 
Pompey, whom I prefer to all men who ever lived, 
nor Lentulus, whom I prefer to myself, think 
otherwise. If you however are of a different opinion, 
it will do you no harm to read with some attention 
what Athenodorus says on this subject, that you 

consolatio occurrebat, qucd neque tibi amicior, quam ego 
sum, quisquam posset succedere, neque ego ab ullo pro- 
vinciam aecipere, qui mallet earn mibi quam maxime 
aptam explicatamque traders, &c. — Ep. Fam. iii. 2. 

1 ■ me libenter ad earn partem provincial primum esse 

venturum, quo te maxime vclle arbitrarer, &cv — Ibid. 5. 

Appius noster, cum me advcntare videt, profectus est 
Tarsum usque Laodicea.— Ad Att. v. 17. 



may learn wherein true nobility consists. But to 
return to the point : I desire you to look upon me, 
not only as your friend, but a most affectionate 
one ; it shall be my care by all possible services to 
convince you that I am truly so, but if you have a 
mind to let people see that you are less concerned 
for my interests in my absence, than my pains for 
yours deserved, I free you from that trouble : 
For I have friends enough to serve and love 
Both me and mine, and above all great Jove. 

II. i. 174. 

butif you are naturally querulous, you shall not still 
hinder my good offices and wishes for you ; all 
that you will do, is to make me less solicitous how 
you take them. I have written this with more than 
my usual freedom, from the consciousness of my 
duty and affection, which being contracted by 
choice and judgment, it will be in your power to 
preserve as long as you think proper. Adieu k ." 

Cicero's letters to Appius make one book of his 
Familiar Epistles, the greatest part of which are of 
the expostulatory kind, on the subject of their mu- 
tual jealousies and complaints. In this slippery 
state of their friendship, an accident happened at 
Rome which had like to have put an end to it. His 
daughter Tullia, after parting from her second 
husband Crassipes, as it is probably thought, by 
divorce 1 , was married in her father's absence to a 
third, P. Cornelius Dolabella; several parties had 
been offered to her, and among them Ti. Clau- 
dius Nero, who afterwards married Livia, whom 
Augustus took away from him ; Nero made his 
proposals to Cicero in Cilicia, who referred him to 
the women, to whom he had left the management 
of that affair ; but before those overtures reached 
them, they had made up the match with Dolabella, 
being mightily taken with his complaisant and ob- 
sequious address m . He was a nobleman of patri- 
cian descent, and of great parts and politeness, but 
of a violent, daring, ambitious temper, warmly 
attached to Csesar, and by a life of pleasure and 
expense which the prudence of Tullia, it was hoped, 
would correct, greatly distressed in his fortunes, 
which made Cicero very uneasy, when he came 
afterwards to know it n . Dolabella, at the time of 
this marriage, for which he made way also by the 
divorce of his first wife , gave a proof of his enter- 
prising genius, by impeaching Appius Claudius of 

k Ep. Fam. iii. 7- 

1 What confirms this notion is, that Crassipes appears 
to have been alive at this time, and under Cicero's dis- 
pleasure : who mentions him as the only senator, besides 
Iiirrus, to whom he did not think fit to write about the 
affair of his supplication. — Ad Att. vii. 1. 

m Ego dum in provincia omnibus rebus Appium orno, 
subito sum factus accusatoris ejus socer — sed crede mibi 
nihil minus putaram ego, qui de Ti. Nerone, qui mecum 
egerat, certos homines ad mulieres miseram, qui Rom am 
vencrunt factis sponsalibus. Sed hoe spero melius. Mu- 
lieres quidemvalde intelligodelectariobsequio et comitate 
adolescentis. — Ad Att. vi. 6. 

» Gener est suavis— quantumvis vel ingenii, vel huma- 
nitatis ; satis. Reliqua qua; nosti ferenda. — Ad Att. vii. 3. 
. Dolabellam a te gaudeo primum laudari, deinde etiam 
amari. Nam ea qua 1 speras Tullia? mea prudentia posse 
tempcrari, scio cui tua? epistola? respondeant. — Ep. Fam. 
ii. 15; viii. 13. 

Hac oblectabar specula, Dolabellam meum fore ab iis 
molestiis, quas libertate sua contraxcrat, liberum. — Ibid, 
viii. 16. 

«> Illud mibi occurrit, quod inter postulationem, et no- 
minis delationcm uxor a Dolabella discessit. — Ibid. viii. 6. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



165 



practices against the state, in his government of 
Cilicia, and of bribery and corruption in his suit 
for the consulship. This put a great difficulty upon 
Cicero, and made it natural to suspect, that he 
privately favoured the impeachment, where the 
accuser was his son-in-law ; but, in clearing him- 
self of it to Appius, though he dissembled a little, 
perhaps in disclaiming any part or knowledge of 
that match, yet he was very sincere in professing 
himself an utter stranger to the impeachment, and 
was in truth greatly disturbed at it. But as, from 
the circumstance of his succeeding to Appius in 
his government, he was of all men the most capa- 
ble of serving or hurting him at the trial ; so 
Pompey, who took great pains to screen Appius, 
was extremely desirous to engage him on their side, 
and had thoughts of sending one of his sons to him 
for that purpose ; but Cicero saved them that 
trouble, by declaring early and openly for Appius, 
and promising everything from the province that 
could possibly be of service to ;him, which he 
thought himself obliged to do the more forwardly, 
to prevent any suspicion of treachery to his 
friend on the account of his new alliance p : so 
that Appius, instead of declining a trial, contrived 
to bring it on as soon as he could ; and with that 
view, having dropped his pretensions to a triumph, 
entered the city, and offered himself to his judges 
before his accuser was prepared for him, and was 
acquitted without any difficulty of both the in- 
dictments. 

In a little time after his trial he was chosen cen- 
sor, together with Piso, Caesar's father-in-law, the 
last who bore that office during the freedom of the 
republic. Claudius's law, mentioned above, which 
had greatly restrained the power of these magis- 
trates, was repealed the last year by Scipio, the 
consul, and their ancient authority restored to 
themi, which was now exercised with great rigour 
by Appius, who, though really a libertine, and re- 
markable for indulging himself in all the luxury of 
life, yet by an affectation of severity, hoped to 
retrieve his character, and pass for an admirer of 
that ancient discipline for which many of his ances- 
tors had been celebrated. Cselius gives a pleasant 
acount of him to Cicero. " Do you know, says he, 
that the censor Appius is doing wonders amongst 
us, about statues and pictures, the number of our 
acres, and the payment of debts ? He takes the 
censorship for soap or nitre, and -thinks to scour 
himself clean with it ; but he is mistaken — for 
while he is labouring to wash out his stains, he 
opens his very veins and bowels, and lets us see 
him the more intimately : run away to us by all 
the Gods, to laugh at these things. Drusus sits 
judge upon adultery, by the Scantinian law r , Ap- 

P Pompeius dicitur valde pro Appio laborare, ut etiam 
putent alterutrum de filiis ad te missurum.— Ep. Fam. 
viii. 6. 

Post hoc negotium autem et temeritatem nostri Dola- 
bellas deprecatorem me pro illius periculo praebeo. — Ibid, 
ii. 13. 

Tamen hac mihi affinitate nunciata, non majore equi- 
dem studio, sed acrius, apertius, significantius dignitatem 
tuam defendissem — nam ut vetus nostra simultas antea 
stimulabat me, ut caverem ne cui suspicionem ficte recon- 
ciliataj gratiae darem: sic affinitas novam curam affert 
cavendi.— Ibid. iii. 12. 

1 Dio, p. 147. 

* Scis Appium censorem hie ostenta facere ? de signis et 
tabulis, de agri modo, et asre alieno acerrime agere ? per- 



pius on statues and pictures." But this vain and 
unseasonable attempt at reformation, instead of 
doing any good, served only to alienate people from 
Pompey's cause, with whom Appius was strictly 
allied ; whilst his colleague Piso, who foresaw that 
effect, chose to sit still and suffer him to disgrace 
the knights and senators at pleasure, which he did 
with great freedom, and among others turned Sallust, 
the historian, out of the senate, and was hardly re- 
strained from putting the same affront upon Curio, 
which added still more friends and strength to Csesar s . 
As to the public news of the year, the grand 
affair that engaged all people's thoughts, was 
the expectation of a breach between Csesar and 
Pompey, which seemed now unavoidable, and in 
which all men were beginning to take part, and 
ranging themselves on the one side or the other. 
On Pompey's there was a great majority of the 
senate and the magistrates, with the better sort of 
all ranks : on Caesar's all the criminal and ob- 
noxious, all who had suffered punishment, or de- 
served it ; the greatest part of the youth and the city 
mob ; some of the popular tribunes, and all who 
were oppressed with debts ; who had a leader fit 
for their purpose, daring, and well provided, and 
wanting nothing but a cause. This is Cicero's 
account ; and Caelius's is much the same. ii I see 
(says he) that Pompey will have the senate, and all 
who judge of things ; Csesar, all who live in fear 
and uneasiness ; but there is no comparison be- 
tween their armies V Csesar had put an end to the 
Gallic war, and reduced the whole province to the 
Roman yoke ; but though his commission was near 
expiring, he seemed to have no thoughts of giving 
it up, and returning to the condition of a private 
subject ; he pretended that he could not possibly 
be safe, if he parted with his army, especially while 
Pompey held the province of Spain, prolonged to 
him for five years 11 . The senate, in the meanwhile, 
in order to make him easy, had consented to let 
him take the consulship, without coming to sue for 
it in person; but when that did not satisfy him, 
the consul M. Marcellus, one of his fiercest ene- 
mies, moved them to abrogate his command di- 
rectly, and appoint him a successor ; and since the 
war was at an end, to oblige him to disband his 
troops, and to come likewise in person to sue for 
the consulship, nor to allow the freedom of the 
city to his colonies beyond the Po : this related 
particularly to a favourite colony which Csesar, 
when consul, had settled at Comum, at the foot of 
suasum est ei, censuram lomentum aut nitrum esse. Er- 
rare mihi videtur. Nam sordes eluere vult, venas sibi 
omnes et viscera aperit. Curre per deos, et quam primum 
haec risum veni. Legis Scantinia? judicium apud Drusum 
fieri. Appium de tabulis et signis agere. — Ep. Fam. 
viii. 14. 

s Dio, xl. p. 150. 

4 Hoc video, cum homine audacissimo, paratissimoque 
negotium esse : omnes damnatos, omnes ignominia affectos, 
oninesdamnatione ignominiaque dignos iliac facere. Om- 
nem fere juventutem, omnera illam urbanam ac perditam 
plebem ; tribunos valentes— omnes, qui are alieno pre- 
mantur — causam solam ilia causa non habet, ceteris rebus 
abundat.— Ad Att. vii. 3. 

In hac discordia video, Cn. Pompeium senatum, quique 
res judicant, secum habiturum : ad Caesarem omnes, qui 
cum timore aut mala spe vivant ad Cassarem accessiuos. 
Exercitum conferendum non esse.— Ep. Fam. viii. 14. 

u Caesari autem persuasum est, se salvum esse non posse, 
si ab exercitu recesserit. Fert iliani tamen conditionem, 
ut ambo exercitus tradant. — Ibid. 



166 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



the Alps, with the freedom of the city granted to it 
hy the Vatinian law x . All the other colonies on 
that side of the Po had before obtained from Pom- 
pey's father the rights of Latium, that is, the free- 
dom of Rome to those who had borne an annual 
magistracy in them : but M. Marcellus, out of a 
singular enmity to Caesar, would allow no such 
right to his colony of Comum ; and having caught 
a certain Comensian magistrate who was acting the 
citizen at Rome, he ordered him to be seized, and 
publicly whipped, an indignity from which all 
citizens were exempted by law ; bidding the man 
go and show those marks of his citizenship to 
Caesar ?. Cicero condemns this act as violent and 
unjust : " Marcellus (says he) behaved shamefully 
in the case of the Comensian ; for if the man had 
never been a magistrate, he was yet of a colony 
beyond the Po, so that Pompey will not be less 
shocked at it than Caesar himself 2 ." 

The other consul, Serv. Sulpicius, was of a more 
candid and moderate temper ; and being unwilling 
to give such a handle for a civil war, opposed and 
overruled the motions of his colleague by the help 
of some of the tribunes : nor was Pompey himself 
disposed to proceed so violently, or to break with 
Caesar on that foot, but thought it more plausible 
to let his term run out, and his command expire of 
itself, and so throw upon him the odium of turn- 
ing his arms against his country, if he should re- 
solve to act against the senate and the laws. This 
counsel prevailed, after many warm contestations, 
in which the summer was chiefly spent, and a decree 
was offered on the last of September, " That the 
consuls elect, L. Paullus and C. Marcellus, should 
move the senate on the first of March, to settle the 
consular provinces ; and if any magistrate should 
interpose to hinder the effect of their decrees, that 
he should be deemed an enemy to the republic ; 
and if any one actually interposed, that this vote 
and resolution should be entered into the journals, 
to be considered some other time by the senate, and 
laid also befoi'e the people." But four of the tri- 
bunes gave their joint negative to this decree, C. 
Caelius, L. Vinicius, P. Cornelius, and C. Yibius 
Pansa. In the course of these debates, Pompey, 
who affected great moderation in whatever he said 
of Caesar, was teased and urged on all sides to 
make an explicit declaration of his sentiments. 
When he called it unjust to determine anything 
about Caesar's government before the first of 
March, the term prescribed to it by law, being 
asked, " What, if any one should then put a nega- 
tive upon them ?" he said, " there was no difference 
whether Caesar refused to obey the decrees of the 
senate, or provided men to obstruct them." "What, 
(says another) if he should insist on being consul, 
and holding his province too? " "What," replied 
Pompey, " if my son should take a stick and cudgel 
me a ?" — intimating the one to be as incredible and 
as impious also as the other. 

x Sucton. J. Caert. 28 ; Strabo, v. 326. 

y Appian. ii. 44.'!. 

* Marcellus ftmic do Comensi : etsi ille magistratum non 
gesscrit, orat tamen tranepadanus. f ta mihi videtur non 
minus Btomaohi nostro, ao Caraari movisse — Ad Att. v. 11. 

a Cum interrogaretur, si qui tnm intercederent : dixit 
hoc nihil interesse, utrum C. Caesar Benatui dicto audiens 
futurus non esset, .-in pararet, qui senatuni decernere non 
pateretur. Quid si, tnquit alius, et consul esse et exeroi- 
tum habere volet ? atillequam clementer. Quid si filius 
meus fustem mihi impingere volet? — Ep. Fam. viii. 8. 



Cicero's friend Caelius obtained the sedileship this 
summer from his competitor Hirrus, the same who 
had opposed Cicero in the augurate, and whose 
disappointment gave occasion to many jokes be- 
tween them in their letters' 5 . In this magistracy 
it being customary to procure wild beasts of all 
kinds from different parts of the empire for the 
entertainment of the city, Caelius begged of Cicero 
to supply him with panthers from Cilicia, and to 
employ the Cybarites, a people of his province 
famed for hunting, to catch them : " for it would be 
a reflection upon you (says he) when Curio had ten 
panthers from that country, not to let me have 
many more." He recommends to him at the same 
time M. Feridius, a Roman knight, who had an 
estate in Cilicia, charged with some services or 
quit-rent to the neighbouring cities, which he 
begs of him to get discharged, so as to make the 
lands free c . He seems also to have desired Ci- 
cero's consent to his levying certain contributions 
upon the cities of his province, towards defray- 
ing the expense of his shows at Rome ; a pre- 
rogative which the sediles always claimed, and 
sometimes practised ; though it was denied to them 
by some governors, and particularly by Quintus 
Cicero in Asia, upon the advice of his brother d ; 
in answer to all which Cicero replied, " that he 
was sorry to find that his actions were so much in 
the dark, that it was not yet known at Rome that 
not a farthing had been exacted in his province, 
except for the payment of just debts ; that it was 
neither fit for him to extort money, nor for Caelius 
to take it, if it were designed for himself; and 
admonished him, who had undertaken the part of 
accusing others, to live himself with more caution 
— and as to panthers, that it was not consistent 
with his character to impose the charge of hunting 
them upon the poor people e ." But though he 
would not break his rules for the sake of his 
friend, yet he took care to provide panthers for 
him at his own expense ; and says pleasantly upon 
it, that the beasts made a sad complaint against 
him, and resolved to quit the country, since no 
snares were laid in his province for any other crea- 
ture but themselves f . 

Curio likewise obtained the tribunate this sum- 
mer, which he sought with no other design, as 
many imagined, than for the opportunity of mor- 
tifying Caesar, against whom he had hitherto acted 
with great fierceness s. But Cicero, who knew from 
the temper and views of them both, how easy it 

b Ep. Fam. ii. J), 10 ; it. viii. 2, 3, 9. 

c Fere Uteris omnibus tibi dc pantheris scripsi. Turpe 
tibi erit, Patisclium Curioni decern pantberas misisse, te 
non multispartibus plures, &c. — Ep. Fam. viii. f). 

M. Feridium— -tibi commendo. Agros, quos fructuarios 
habent civitatcs, vult tuo beneficio, quod tibi facile et 
honestum factu est, immirnes esse. — Ibid. 

d Ad Quint, i. 1, a 9. 

e Bescripsi, me moleste ferre, si ego in tenebris latercm, 
nee audiretur Rome, nullum in mea provincia minimum 
nisi in ses alienum erogari; docuiqueneo mihi conoiliare 
pecuniam lioere, nee illi capere ;. monuique emu, &c. — Ad 
Att. vi. 1. 

f De pantheris, per cos, qui venari solcnt, agitur man- 
dato moo diligenter: Bed mira paucitasest: et eas, quae 
sunt, valde aiunt queri, quod nihil cuiquam insidiarum in 
mea provincia n i?-i sibi fiat. — Ep. Fam. ii. II. 

g Bed ut spero et volo, et ut se fort ipse Curio, bonos ct 
senatum malet. Totus ut nmic est, hoc seaturit.— Ibid, 
viii. 4. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



167 



would be to make up matters between tbem, took 
occasion to write a congratulatory letter to him 
upon this advancement, in which he exhorts him, 
with great gravity, " to consider into what a dan- 
gerous crisis his tribunate had fallen, not by chance 
but his own choice ; what violence of the times, 
what variety of dangers hung over the republic, 
how uncertain the events of things were, how 
changeable men's minds, how much treachery and 
falsehood in human life — he begs of him, therefore, 
to beware of entering into any new counsels, but 
to pursue and defend what he himself thought 
right, and net suffer himself to be drawn away by 
the advice of others" — referring, without doubt, to 
M. Antony, the chief companion and corrupter of 
his youth : in the conclusion, he conjures him to 
" employ his present power to hinder his pro- 
vincial trouble from being prolonged by any new 
act of the senate." h — Cicero's suspicions were soon 
confirmed by letters from Rome, whence Cselius 
sent him word of Curio's changing sides, and de- 
claring himself for Csesar ; in answer to which, 
Cicero says, "the last page of your letter in your 
own hand really touched me. What do you say? 
is Curio turned advocate for Csesar ? who would 
have thought it besides myself ? for let me die if 
I did not expect it ! Good gods, how much do I 
long to be laughing with you at Rome ? i " 

The new consuls being Cicero's particular friends, 
he wrote congratulatory letters to them both upon 
their election, in which he begged the 
a. urb. 703. concurrence of their authority, to the 
crc. o7. decree of his supplication ; and what he 
l mT^ s ^ a( l more at heart, that they would not 
paullus. suffer any prolongation of his annual 
c. claudius term ; in which they readily obliged him, 
marcellus. and received his thanks also by letter 
for that favour k . It was expected that 
something decisive would now be done in relation 
to the two Gauls, and the appointment of a suc- 
cessor to Csesar, since both the consuls were sup- 
posed to be his enemies : but all attempts of that 
kind were still frustrated by the intrigues of Csesar; 
for when C. Marcellus began to renew the same 
motion which his kinsman had made the year be- 
fore, he was obstructed by his colleague Paullus 
and the tribune Curio, whom Csesar had privately 
gained by immense bribes, to suffer nothing preju- 
dicial to his interest to pass during their magis- 
tracy 1 . He is said to have given Paullus about 
three hundred thousand pounds, and to Curio 
much more m . The first wanted it to defray the 
charges of those splendid buildings which he had 
undertaken to raise at his own cost ; the second 
to clear himself of the load of his debts, which 
amounted to about half a million 11 ; for he had 
wasted his great fortunes so effectually in a few 
years, that he had no other revenue left, as Pliny 
says, but in the hopes of a civil war . These facts 
are mentioned by all the Roman writers ; 

h Ep. Fam. ii. 7. 

> Extrema pagella pupugit me tuo chirographo. Quid 
a is ? Caesarem nunc defendit Curio ? quis hoc putaret prop- 
ter me? nam ita vivam, putavi.— Ibid. 13. 

k Ep. Fam. xv. 7, 10, 11, 12, 13. 

1 Sueton. J. Ca?s. 29. 

m Appian. ii. p. 443. 

n Sexcenties sestertium seris alieni. — Val. Max. ix. 1. 

Qui nihil in censu habuerit, praeter discordiam princi- 
pum — Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 15. 



Momentumque fuit mutatus Curio rerum, 
Gallorum captus spoliis et Cassaris auro— 

Lucan. iv. 819. 
Caught by the spoils of Gaul, and Caesar's gold, 
Curio turn'd traitor, and his country sold, 
and Servius applies that passage of Virgil, Vendidit 
hie auro patriam, to the case of Curio's selling 
Rome to Csesar. 

Cicero in the mean time was expecting with im- 
patience the expiration of his annual term ; but 
before he could quit the province he was obliged 
to see the account of all the money which had 
passed through his own or his officers' hands, 
stated and balanced ; and three fair copies pro- 
vided, two to be deposited in two of the principal 
cities of his jurisdiction, and a third in the trea- 
sury at Rome. That his whole administration, 
therefore, might be of a piece, he was very exact 
and punctual in acquitting himself of this duty, 
and would not indulge his officers in the use of any 
public money beyond the legal time or above the 
sum prescribed by law, as appears from his letters 
to some of them who desired it p. Out of the 
annual revenue which was decreed to him for the 
use of the province, he remitted to the treasury all 
that he had not expended, to the amount of above 
eight hundred thousand pounds. " This," says he, 
" makes my whole company groan ; they imagined 
that it should have beeen divided among them- 
selves, as if I ought to have been a better manager 
for the treasuries of Phrygia and Cilicia than for 
our own. But they did not move me ; for my 
own honour weighed with me the most ; yet I have 
not been wanting to do every thing in my power 
that is honourable and generous to them alii". 

His last concern was, to what hand he should 
commit the government of his province upon his 
leaving it, since there was no successor appointed 
by the senate on account of the heats among them 
about the case of Csesar, which disturbed all their 
debates, and interrupted all other business. He 
had no opinion of his qusestor, C. Cselius, a young 
man of noble birth, but of no great virtue or pru- 
dence, and was afraid, after his glorious adminis- 
tration, that by placing so great a trust in one of 
his character, he should expose himself to some 
censure. But he had nobody about him of superior 
rank who was willing to accept it, and did not care 
to force it upon his brother, lest that might give a 
handle to suspect him of some interest or partiality 
in the choice 1 . He dropped the province, therefore, 

P Laodicea? me praedes accepturum arbitror omnis pub- 
lic as pecuniae — nihil est, quod in isto genere cuiquam 
possim commodare, &c. — Ep. Fam. ii. 17. 

Ulud quidem certe factum est, quod lex jubebat, ut 
apud duas civitates, Laodicensem, et Apameensem, qua? 
nobis maximae videbantur — rationes confectas et consoli- 
datas deponeremus, &c Ibid. v. 20. 

<l Cum enim rectum et gloriosum putarem ex annuo 
sumptu, qui mihi deoretus esset. Me Caelio quaestori 
relinquere annuum, referre in aerarium ad H. S. ci3 inge- 
muit nostra cohors, omne illud putans distribui sibi opor- 
tere : ut ego amicior invenirer Phrygum aut Cilicum aera- 
riis, quam nostro. Sed me non moverunt ; nam mea laus 
apud me plurimum valuit. Nee tamen quicquam honori- 
fice in quemquam fieri potuit, quod praetenniserim. — Ad 
Att. vii. 1. 

r Ego de provincia decedens quaestorem Caelium pra?posui 
provinciae. Puerum ? inquies. At quaestorem ; at nobilem 
adolcscentem ; at omnium fere exemplo. Neque erat 
superiore honore usus, quern praefieerem. Pontinius multo 
ante discesserat. A Quinto fratre impetrari non poterat : 



168 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



after some deliberation, into Cselius's hands, and 
set forward immediately upon his journey towards 
Italy. 

But before he quitted Asia he begged of Atticus 
by letter to send him a particular detail of all the 
news of the city. " There are odious reports," 
says he, " about Curio and Paullus ; not that I see 
any danger while Pompey stands, or I may say, 
indeed, while he sits, if he has but his health ; but 
in truth I am sorry for my friends Curio and Paul- 
lus. If you are now, therefore, at Rome, or as soon 
as you come thither, I would have you send me a 
plan of the whole republic, which may meet me on 
the road, that I may form myself upon it, and re- 
solve what temper to assume on my coming to the 
city ; for it is some advantage not to come thither 
a mere stranger s ." We see what a confidence he 
placed in Pompey, on whom indeed their whole 
prospect either of peace with Caesar or of success 
against him depended : as to the intimation about 
his health, it is expressed more strongly in another 
letter : "All our hopes (says he) hang upon the life 
of one man, who is attacked every year by a dan- 
gerous fit of sickness 1 ." His constitution seems to 
have been peculiarly subject to fevers, the frequent 
returns of which, in the present situation of affairs, 
gave great apprehension to all his party. In one 
of those fevers which threatened his life for many 
days successively, all the towns of Italy put up 
public prayers for his safety ; an honour which had 
never before been paid to any man while Rome 
was free u . 

Upon taking leave of Cilicia, Cicero paid a visit 
to Rhodes, for the sake (he says) of the children*. 

His design was to give them a view of that flou- 
rishing isle, and a little exercise, perhaps, in that 
celebrated school of eloquence where he himself 
had studied with so much success 1 under Molo. 
Here he received the news of Hortensius' s deaths, 
which greatly affected him, by recalling to his mind 
the many glorious struggles that they had sustained 
together at the bar, in their competition for the 
prize of eloquence. Hortensius reigned absolute 
in the forum when Cicero first entered it ; and as 
his superior fame was the chief spur to Cicero's 
industry, so the shining specimen which Cicero 
soon gave of himself made Hortensius likewise the 
brighter for it, by obliging him to exert all the 
force of his genius to maintain his ground against 
his young rival. They passed a great part of their 
lives in a kind of equal contest and emulation of 
each other's merit ; but Hortensius, by the supe- 



quem tamen si reliquissem, dicerent iniqui, non me plane 
post annum, ut senatus voluisset, de provincia decessisse, 
quoniam alteram inc reliquissem.— Ep. Fain. ii. 15 ; Ad 
Att. vi. 5, G. 

s Hue odiosa affercbantur de Curione, de Paullo : non 
quo ullum pcrieulum videam stante Pompeio, vel etiam 
scdentc, valeat modo. Bed mehercule Curionis et Paulli 
meorum familiarum vicem doleo. Formam igitur mini 
totius reipublicae si jam es Rome, aut cum eris, velim 
mittas, qua mini obviam veniat. Ex qua me fingere pos- 
sum, &c— Ad Att. vi. 3. 

1 In unius hominis, quotannis, pcriculose aegrotantis, 
anima, positaa omnea nostras spes habemua.— Ibid. viii. 2. 

" Quoquidem tempore unlversa Italia vota pro salute 
ejus, primo omnium civiuni, susecpit.— Veil. Pat. ii. 48; 
Dio, p. 155. 

x liliodum volo puerorum causa.— Ad Att. vi. 7. 

v Cum e Cilioia deoedene Rhodum venissem, et eo mini 
de Q,. Hortensii mortc esset allatum ; opinione oimiium 
majorem animo cepi dolorem.— Brut, in it. 



riority of his years, having first passed through the 
usual gradation of public honours, and satisfied his 
ambition by obtaining the highest, began to relax 
somewhat of his old contention, and give way to 
the charms of ease and luxury, to which his nature 
strongly inclined him z , till he was forced at last by 
the general voice of the city to yield the post of 
honour to Cicero, who never lost sight of the true 
point of glory, nor w r as ever diverted by any tempta- 
tion of pleasure from his steady course and labo- 
rious pursuit of virtue. Hortensius published 
several orations, which were extant long after his 
death ; and it were much to be wished that they 
had remained to this day, to enable us to form a 
judgment of the different talents of these two great 
men ; but they are said to have owed a great part 
of their credit to the advantage of his action, 
which yet was thought to have more of art than 
was necessary to an orator, so that his composi- 
tions were not admired so much by the reader, as 
they had been by the hearer 3 ; while Cicero's more 
valued productions made all others of that kind 
less sought for, and consequently the less carefully 
preserved. Hortensius, however, was generally 
allowed by the ancients, and by Cicero himself, to 
have possessed every accomplishment which could 
adorn an orator : elegance of style, art of compo- 
sition, fertility of invention, sweetness of elocution, 
gracefulness of action b . These two rivals lived, 
however, always with great civility and respect 
towards each other, and were usually in the same 
way of thinking and acting in the affairs of the 
republic, till Cicero, in the case of his exile, dis- 
covered the plain marks of a lurking envy and infi- 
delity in Hortensius ; yet his resentment carried 
him no farther than to some free complaints of it 
to their common friend Atticus, who made it his 
business to mitigate this disgust, and hinder it 
from proceeding to an open breach, so that Cicero, 
being naturally placable, lived again with him, 
after his return, on the same easy terms as before, 
and lamented his death at this time with great 
tenderness, not only as the private loss of a friend, 
but a public misfortune to his country, in being 
deprived of the service and authority of so ex- 
perienced a statesman at so critical a conjunc- 
ture . 

From Rhodes he passed on to Ephesus, whence 
he set sail on the first of October, and after a 
tedious passage landed at Athens, on the four- 

z Nam is post consulatum — sunimum illud suum stu- 
dium remisit, quo a puero fucrat incensus ; atque in 
omnium rerumabundantiavoluitbeatius, ut ipse putabat. 
remissius certe vivere. — Brut. p. 44.'?. 

a Motus et gestus etiam plus artis habebat, quam erat 
oratori satis. — Brut. 425. 

Dicebat melius quam scripsit Ilortensius. — Orator, p. 
261. 

Ejus scripta tantum intra famam sunt, quidiu princeps 
oratorum — existimatus est, novissime quoad vixit, secun- 
dus; ut appareat placuisse aliquid co dicente, quod 
legentcs non invenimus. — Ad Quint, xi. 3. 

b Erat in verborum splendore elegans, compositiono 
aptus, facilitate copiosus: — ncc pretermittebat fere quic- 
quam, quod erat in causa — vox canora et suavis. — Brut. 
425. 

c Nam et amico amisso cum consuetudine jucunda, turn 
multorum officiorum conjunctions me privatum videbam 
i— augebat etiam molestiam, quod magna Bapientinm ci- 
vium bonorumque penuria, vir egregius, conjunctissimus- 
quo meoum oonailiorum omnium societate alienissinio 
eipubliea? tempore extinotus. — Brut, in it. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



169 



teenth d . Here he lodged again in his old quarters, 
at the house of his friend Aristus. His predecessor, 
Appius, who passed also through Athens on his 
return, had ordered a new portico or vestibule to 
be built at his cost to the temple of the Eleusinian 
Ceres ; which suggested a thought likewise to 
Cicero of adding some ornament of the same kind 
to the Academy, as a public monument of his name, 
as well as of his affection for the place : for he 
hated, he says, those false inscriptions of other 
people's statues e with which the Greeks used to 
flatter their new masters, by effacing the old titles 
and inscribing them anew to the great men of 
Rome. He acquainted Atticus with his design, 
and desired his opinion upon it : but in all proba- 
bility it was never executed, since his stay at 
Athens was now very short, and his thoughts 
wholly bent on Italy ; for as all his letters con- 
firmed to him the certainty of a war, in which he 
must necessarily bear a part, so he was impatient 
to be at home, that he might have the clearer view 
of the state of affairs, and take his measures with 
the greater deliberation^ Yet he was not still 
without hopes of peace, and that he should be able 
to make up the quarrel between the chiefs : for he 
was, of all men, the best qualified to effect it, on. 
account not only of his authority, but of his inti- 
mate friendship with them both, who severally 
paid great court to him at this time, and reckoned 
upon him as their own, and wrote to him with a 
confidence of his being a determined friend?. 

In his voyage from Athens towards Italy, Tiro, 
one of his slaves, whom he soon after made free, 
happened to fall sick, and was left behind at Patrse 
to the care of friends and a physician. The 
mention of such an accident will seem trifling to 
those who are not acquainted with the character 
and excellent qualities of Tiro, and how much we 
are indebted to him for preserving and transmitting 
to posterity the precious collection of Cicero's 
letters, of which a great part still remain, and one 
entire book of them written to Tiro himself, seve- 
ral of which relate to the subject of this very 
illness. Tiro was trained up in Cicero's family 
among the rest of his young slaves, in every kind 
of useful and polite learning, and being a youth of 
singular parts and industry, soon became an emi- 
nent scholar, and extremely serviceable to his 
master in all his affairs both civil and domestic. 
"As for Tiro," says he to Atticus, "I see you 
d Prid. Id. Oct. Athenas venimus, cum sane adversis 
ventis usi essemus. — Ep. Fam. xiv. 5. 
e Audio Appium trpoirvXaiov, Eleusine facere. Num 

inepti fuerimus, si nos quoque Academiae fecerimus? 

equidem valde ipsas Athenas amo. Volo esse aliquod 
monumentum. Odi falsas inscriptiones alienarum statu- 
arum. Sed ut tibi placebit.'— Ad Att. vi. 1. 

f Cognovi ex multorum amicorum literis — ad arma rem 
spectare. Ut mihi cum venero, dissimulare non liceat, 
quid sentiam. Sed quum subeunda fortuna est, eo citius 
dabimus operam ut veniamus, quo facilius de tota re deli- 
beremus. — Ep. Fam. xiv. 5. 

Sive enim ad concordiam res adduci potest, sive ad 
bonorum victoriam, utriusve rei me aut adjutorem esse 
velim, aut certe non expertem. — Ad Att. vii. 3. 

s Ipsum tamen Pompeium separatim ad concordiam 
hortabor.— Ibid. 

Me autem uterque numerat suum. Nisi forte simulat 
alter. Nam Pompeius non dubitat (vere enim judicat) ea, 
quae de republica nunc sentiat, mihi valde probari. Utri- 
usque autem accepi literas ejusmodi — ut neuter quemquam 
omnium pluris facere quam me videretur.— Ibid. vii. 1. 



have a concern for him : though he is wonderfully 
useful to me when he is well, in every kind both of 
my business and studies, yet I wish his health 
more^for his own humanity and modesty, than for 
any service which I reap from him h ." But his 
letter to Tiro himself will best show what an affec- 
tionate master he was : for, from the time of 
leaving him, he never failed writing to him by 
every messenger or ship which passed that way, 
though it were twice or thrice a day, and often 
sent one of his servants express to bring an account 
of his health : the first of these letters will give us 
a notion of the rest. 

M. T. Cicero to Tiro. 

" I thought that I should have been able to bear 
the want of you more easily, but in truth I cannot 
bear it ; and though it is of great importance to my 
expected honour to be at Rome as soon as possi- 
ble, yet I seem to have committed a sin when I 
left you. But since you were utterly against pro- 
ceeding in the voyage till your health was con- 
firmed, I approved your resolution ; nor do I now 
think otherwise, if you continue in the same mind. 
But after you have begun to take meat again, if 
you think that you shall be able to overtake me, that 
is left to your consideration. I have sent Mario to 
you with instructions either to come with you to me 
as soon as you can, or if you should stay longer, to 
return instantly without you. Assure yourself, how- 
ever, of this, that, as far as it can be convenient to 
your health, I wish nothing more than to have you 
with me ; but if it be necessary for the perfecting 
your recovery to stay a while longer at Patrse, that 
I wish nothing more than to have you well. If you 
sail immediately, you will overtake me at Leucas ; 
but if you stay to establish your health, take care 
to have good company, good weather, and a good 
vessel. Observe this one thing, my Tiro, if you 
love me, that neither Mario's coming, nor this 
letter hurry you. By doing what is most condu- 
cive to your health, you will do what is most 
agreeable to me : weigh all these things by your 
own discretion. I want you ; yet so as to love you ; 
my love makes me wish to see you well ; my want 
of you to see you as soon as possible : the first is 
the better ; take care, therefore, above all things, 
to get well again : of all your innumerable services 
to me, that will be the most acceptable. — The 
third of November 1 ." 

By the honour that he mentions in the letter, he 
means the honour of a triumph, which his friends 
encouraged him to demand for his success at 
Amanus and Pindenissum : in writing upon it to 
Atticus, he says, " consider what you would advise 
me with regard to a triumph to which my friends 
invite me : for my part, if Bibulus, who, while 
there was a Parthian in Syria, never set a foot out 
of the gates of Antioch any more than he did upon 
a certain occasion out of his own house, had not 
solicited a triumph, I should have been quiet : but 
now it is a shame to sit still k ." Again, " as to 
a triumph, I had no thoughts of it before Bibulus's 
most impudent letters, by which he obtained an 

h De Tirone video tibi curas esse. Quern qui clem ego, et 
si mirabiles utilitates mihi praebet, cum valet, in omni 
genere vel.negotiorum velstudiorum meorum, tamen prop- 
ter humanitatem et modestiam rnalo salvum, quam 
propter usum meum.^Ad Att. vii. 5. 

» Ep. Fam. xvi. 1. k Ad Att. vi. 8. 



170 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



honourable supplication. If he had really done all 
that he has written, I should rejoice at it and wish 
well to his suit : but for him, who never stirred 
beyond the walls while there was an enemy on this 
side the Euphrates, to have such an honour 
decreed ; and for me, whose army inspired all their 
hopes and spirits into his, not to obtain the same, 
will be a disgrace to us ; I say to us, joining you 
to myself : wherefore I am determined to push at 
all, and hope to obtain all 1 ." 

After the contemptible account, which Cicero 
gives of Bibulus's conduct in Syria, it must appear 
strange to see him honoured with a supplication, 
and aspiring even to a triumph : but this was not 
for anything that he himself had done, but for 
what his lieutenant Cassius had performed in his 
absence against the Parthians ; the success of the 
lieutenants being ascribed always to the auspices 
of the general, who reaped the reward and glory of 
it : and as the Parthians were the most dangerous 
enemies of the republic, and the more particularly 
dreaded at this time for their late defeat of Crassus, 
so any advantage gained against them was sure to 
be well received at Rome, and repaid with all the 
honours that could reasonably be demanded. 

"Whenever any proconsul returned from his pro- 
vince with pretensions to a triumph, his fasces, or 
ensigns of magistracy, were wreathed with laurel : 
with this equipage Cicero landed at Brundisium 
on the twenty-fifth of November, where his wife, 
Terentia, arrived at the same moment to meet 
him, so that their first salutation was in the great 
square of the city. From Brundisium he marched 
forward by slow stages towards Rome, making it 
his business on the road to confer with all his 
friends of both parties, who came out to salute 
him, and to learn their sentiments on the present 
state of affairs ; from which he soon perceived what 
of all things he most dreaded, a universal dispo- 
sition to war. But as he foresaw the consequences 
of it more coolly and clearly than any of them, so 
his first resolution was to apply all his endeavours 
and authority to the mediation of a peace. He had 
not yet declared for either side, not that he was 
irresolute which of them to choose, for he was de- 
termined within himself to follow Pompey ; but the 
difficulty was, how to act in the mean time to- 
wards Csesar, so as to avoid taking part in the 
previous decrees, which were prepared against him 
for abrogating his command, and obliging him to 
disband his forces on pain of being declared an 
enemy : here he wished to stand neuter awhile, that 
he might act the mediator with the better grace 
and effect m . 

In this disposition he had an interview with 

1 De triumpho, nulla me cupiditas unquam tenuit ante 
Bibuli impudentissimas literas, quas amplissima supplica- 
tio consecuta est. A quo si ca gesta sunt, qua? scripsit, 
gauderem et honori faverem. Nunc ilium, qui pedem 
porta, quoad hostis cis Kuphratem fuit, non extulerit, 
honore augeri, mo, in cujus exercitu spem illius exercitus 
habuit, idem non OSSequi, dedecusest nostrum; nostrum, 
inquam, te oonjungens, [taque omnia experiar, et ut 
spero, as6equar. — Ad Att. vii. -'. 

m Brundisium venimus vii K a l. Doe.— Terentia vero, 
quae quidem eodem tempore ad portam Brundisinamvenit, 
quo ego in portum, mihique obvia in foro fuit. — ibid. 

Milii (TKti(pos unum nit. quod a Pompeio gubernabitu? 
—die M. Tulli (rvuTo/xa. Cn. Pompeio assentio, — Ibid. ;j. 

Nunc inoido in disorimen Ipsum,- — dabunt operam, ut 
cliciant sententiam in earn— tu autoni do nostro statu cogi- 



Pompey on the 10th of December, of which he 
gives the following account: — "We were toge- 
ther," says he, " about two hours. He seemed to 
be extremely pleased at my return ; he exhorted 
me to demand a triumph ; promised to do his part 
in it ; advised me not to appear in the senate before 
I had obtained it, lest I should disgust any of the 
tribunes by declaring my mind : in a word, nothing 
could be more obliging than his whole discourse on 
this subject. But as to public affairs, he talked in 
such a strain as if a war was inevitable, without 
giving the least hopes of an accommodation. He 
said, that he had long perceived Csesar to be alien- 
ated from him, but had received a very late 
instance of it ; for that Hirtius came from Csesar a 
few days before, and did not come to see him ; and 
when Balbus promised to bring Scipio an account 
of his business the next morning before day, 
Hirtius was gone back again to Csesar in the night : 
this he takes for a clear proof of Csesar's resolution 
to break with him. In short, I have no other com- 
fort but in imagining that he, to whom even his 
enemies have voted a second consulship, and 
fortune given the greatest power, will not be so 
mad as to put all this to hazard : yet if he begins 
to rush on, I see many more things to be appre- 
hended than I dare venture to commit to writing : 
at present I propose to be at Rome on the third of 
January 11 ." 

There is one little circumstance frequently 
touched in Cicero's letters, which gave him a par- 
ticular uneasiness in his present situation, viz., his 
owing a sum of money to Caesar, which he imagined 
might draw some reproach upon him, since he 
thought it dishonourable and indecent (he says) to 
be a debtor to one against whom we were acting 
in public affairs : yet to pay it at that time would 
deprive him of a part of the money which he 
had reserved for his triumph . He desires Atticus, 
however, very earnestly to see it paid, which was 
done without doubt accordingly, since we meet 
with no farther mention of it : it does not appear, 
nor is it easy to guess, for what occasion this debt 
was contracted, unless it was to supply the extra- 
ordinary expense of his buildings after his return 
from exile, when he complained of being in a par- 
ticular want of money from that general dissipation 
of his fortunes. 

Pompey, finding Cicero wholly bent on peace, 
contrived to have a second conference with him be- 
fore he reached the city, in hopes to allay his fears 
and beat him off from that vain project of an ac- 
commodation, which might help to cool the zeal of 
his friends in the senate : he overtook him, there- 
fore, at Lavernium, and came on with him to 
Formiae, where they spent a whole afternoon in a 
close conversation. Pompey strongly discouraged 
all thoughts of a pacification, declaring, M that 
there could be none but what was treacherous and 
dangerous ; and that if Caesar should disband his 
army and take the consulship, he would throw the 

tabis: primum quo artificio tueamur benevolentiam 
Csesarifl,— Ad Att. vii. 1. 

" Ibid. vii. 4. 

° Illud tamen non desinam, dum adesse to putabo, de 
Cesaris nomine rogare, ut confectum relinquaa — Ibid. v. <;. 

Milii autem molestissimum est. quod BOlvendi sunt 
nummi Csesari, et instrumentum triurapbi eo oonferen- 
dum. Est enim a/j.opfov, avTiiroKiTzvoixevov xpeo^et- 
\4ti]V esse.— Ibid. vii. ». 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



171 



republic into confusion : but be was of opinion, 
that when he understood their preparations against 
him, he would drop the consulship and hold fast 
his army ; but if he was mad enough to come for- 
ward and act offensively, he held him in utter 
contempt from a confidence in his own troops and 
those of the republic. They had got with them the 
copy of a speech which Antony, one of the new 
tribunes, made to the people four days before : it 
was a perpetual invective on Pompey's conduct 
from his first appearance in public, with great com- 
plaints against the violent and arbitrary condem- 
nation of citizens and the terror of his arms. After 
reading it over together, " What think you (says 
Pompey) would Caesar himself do if in possession 
of the republic, when this paltry, beggarly fellow, 
his quaestor, dares to talk at this rate ? on the 
whole, Pompey seemed not only not to desire, but 
even to dread a peace p." 

Cicero, however, would not still be driven from 
the hopes and pursuit of an accommodation ; the 
more he observed the disposition of both parties, 
the more he perceived the necessity of it : the 
honest, as they were called, were disunited among 
themselves ; many of them dissatisfied with Pom- 
pey ; all fierce and violent ; and denouncing nothing 
but ruin to their adversaries ; he clearly foresaw 
what he declared without scruple to his friends, 
"that which side soever got the better, the war 
must necessarily end in a tyranny ; the only differ- 
ence was, that if their enemies conquered they 
should be proscribed, if their friends, be slaves." 
Though he had an abhorrence therefore of Caesar's 
cause, yet his advice was to grant him his own 
terms, rather than try the experiment of arms, ''and 
prefer the most unjust conditions to the justest war ; 
since, after they had been arming him against them- 
selves for ten years past, it was too late to think of 
fighting, when they had made him too strong for 
themi." 

This was the sum of his thoughts and counsels 
when he arrived at Rome on the 4th of January ; 
where he found the two new consuls 
A - U * B, ^° 4, entirely devoted to Pompey's interests. 
On his approach towards the city 
great multitudes came out to meet 
him with all possible demonstrations 
of honour : his last stage was from 
4tu- Pompey's villa near Alba, because his 
lus crus. own at Tusculum lay out of the great 
road, and was not commodious for a 
public entry : on his arrival (as he says) he fell 
into the very flame of civil discord, and found the 
war in effect proclaimed r ; for the senate, at 
Scipio's motion, had just voted a decree, " that 

P Ad Att. vii. 8. 

1 De republica quotidie magis timeo. Non enim boni, 
ut putant, consentiunt. Quos ego equites Romanos, quos 
senatores vidi, qui acerrime turn cetera, turn hoc iter Pom- 
peii vituperarent. Pace opus est, ex victoria cum multa 
mala, turn certe tyrannus existet. — Ibid. vii. 5. 

Ut si vietus eris, proscribare ; si viceris, tamen servias. 
—Ibid. vii. 7. 

Ad pacem hortari non desino, quae vel injustautiliorest, 
quam justissimum bellum. — Ibid. vii. 14. 

Mallem tantas ei vires non dedisset, quam nunc tarn 
valenti resisteret. — Ibid. vii. 3. 

Nisi'forte base illi turn arma dedimus, ut nunc cum bene 
parato pugnaremus. — Ibid. vii. 6. 

' Ego ad urbem accessi prid. non. Jan. obviam milii sic 
est proditum, ut nihil possit fieri ornatius. Sed incidi hi 



cic. 58 
coss. 

C. CLAUDIUS 
MARCELLUS, 
h. CORNELI- 



Caesar should dismiss his army by a certain day, or 
be declared an enemy ; and when M. Antony and 
Q. Cassius, two of the tribunes, opposed their nega- 
tive to it," as they had done to every decree 
proposed against Caesar, and could not be per- 
suaded by the entreaties of their friends to give 
way to the authority of the senate, they proceeded 
to that vote which was the last resort in cases of 
extremity, "that the consuls, praetors, tribunes, and 
all who were about the city with proconsular power, 
should take care that the republic received no de- 
triment." As this was supposed to arm the magis- 
trates with an absolute power to treat all men as 
they pleased whom they judged to be enemies, so 
the two tribunes, together with Curio, immediately 
withdrew themselves upon it, and fled in disguise 
to Caesar's camp, on pretence of danger and vio- 
lence to their persons, though none was yet offered 
or designed to them s . 

M. Antony, who now began to make a figure in 
the affairs of Rome, was of an ancient and noble 
extraction ; the grandson of that celebrated states- 
man and orator who lost his life in the massacres 
of Marius and Cinna : his father, as it is already 
related, had been honoured with one of the most 
important commissions of the republic ; but after 
an inglorious discharge of it, died with the charac- 
ter of a corrupt, oppressive, and rapacious com- 
mander. The son, trained in the discipline of such 
a parent, whom he lost when he was very young, 
launched out at once into all the excess of riot and 
debauchery, and wasted his whole patrimony before 
he had put on the manly gown ; showing himself 
to be the genuine son of that father who was born, 
as Sallust says, to squander money, without ever 
employing a thought on business till a present ne- 
cessity urged him. His comely person, lively wit, 
insinuating address, made young Curio infinitely 
fond of him ; so that, in spite of the commands of 
a severe father who had often turned Antony out 
of doors and forbidden him his house, he could not 
be prevailed with to forsake his company, but sup- 
plied him with money for his frolics and amours, 
till he had involved himself on his account in a 
debt of fifty thousand pounds. This greatly afflicted 
old Curio ; and Cicero was called in to heal the 
distress of the family, whom the son entreated, with 
tears in his eyes, to intercede for Antony as well 
as for himself, and not suffer them to be parted ; 
but Cicero having prevailed with the father to 
make his son easy by discharging his debts, advised 
him to insist upon it as a condition, and to enforce 
it by his paternal power, that he should have no 
farther commerce with Antony 1 . This laid the 

ipsam flammam civilis discordiaa vel potius belli. — Ep. 
Fam. xvi. 11. 

Ego in Tusculanum nihil hoc tempore. Devium est 
to7s aTravTcoai, &c— Ad Att. vii. 5. 

s Antonius quidemnosteret Q,. Cassius, nulla viexpulsi, 
ad Caesarem cum Curione profecti erant ; postea quam se- 
natus consulibus, prsetoribus, tribunis plebis, et nobis, qui 
proconsules sumus, negotium dederat, ut curaremus, ne 
quid respublica detrimenti caperet. — Ep. Fam. xvi. 11. 

1 Tenesne memoria praetextatum te decoxisse ? — nemo 
unquam puer emptus libidinus causa tarn fuit in domini 
potestate, quam tu in Curionis. Quoties te pater ejus 
domo suo ejecit? — scisne me de rebus mini notissimis 
dicere? recordare tempus illud, cum pater Curio mcerens 
jacebat in lecto ; filius se ad pedes meos prosternens, lacry- 
mans te mihi commendabat, orabat, ut te contra patrem 
suum, si H.S. sexagies peteret defenderem : tantum enim 



172 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



foundation of an early aversion in Antony to Cicero, 
increased still by the perpetual course of Antony's 
life, which fortune happened to throw among 
Cicero's inveterate enemies : for, by the second 
marriage of his mother, he became son-in-law to 
that Lentulus who was put to death for conspiring 
with Catiline, by whom he was initiated into all 
the cabals of a traitorous faction, and infected with 
principles pernicious to the liberty of Rome. To 
revenge the death of this father, he attached him- 
self to Clodius, and during his tribunate was one 
of the ministers of all his violences ; yet was de- 
tected at the same time in some criminal intrigue 
in his family injurious to the honour of his patron u . 
From this education in the city, he went abroad to 
learn the art of war under Gabinius, the most pro- 
fligate of all generals, who gave him the command 
of his horse in Syria, where he signalised his 
courage in the restoration of king Ptolemy, and 
acquired the first taste of martial glory in an expe- 
dition undertaken against the laws and religion of 
his country x . From Egypt, instead of coming 
home, where his debts would not suffer him to be 
easy, he went to Caesar into Gaul, the sure refuge 
of all the needy, the desperate, and the audacious : 
and after some stay in that province, being fur- 
nished with money and credit by Caesar, he 
returned to Rome to sue for the quaestorshipy. 
Caesar recommended him in a pressing manner to 
Cicero, " entreating him to accept Antony's sub- 
mission and pardon him for what was past, and to 
assist him in his present suit : with which Cicero 
readily complied," and obliged Antony so highly 
by it, that he declared war presently against 
Clodius, " whom he attacked with great fierceness 
in the forum, and would certainly have killed if he 
had not found means to hide himself under some 
stairs." Antony openly gave out " that he owed 
all this to Cicero's generosity, to whom he could 
never make amends for former injuries, but by the 
destruction of his enemy Clodius z . ' ' Being chosen 
quaestor he went back immediately to Caesar, with- 
out expecting his lot or a decree of the senate to 
appoint him his province : where, though he had 
all imaginable opportunities of acquiring money, 
yet by squandering as fast as he got it, he came a 
second time empty and beggarly to Rome, to put in 



se pro te intercessisse: ipse autem amore ardens confirma- 
bat, quod desiderium tui discidii ferre non posset — quo ego 
tempore tanta mala florentissimse familise sedavi vel potius 
sustuli : patri persuasi, ut ass alienum filii dissolveret, &c. 
— [Phil. ii. 18. — ] M. Antonius, perdundae pecuniae geni- 
tus, vacuusque curis, nisi instantibus.— Sallust. Histor. 
Fragm. 1. iii. 

» Te domi P. Lentuli educatum [Phil. ii. 7-] Inti- 

mus erat in tribunatu Clodio — ejus omnium incendiorum 
fax— cujus etiam domi quiddam jam turn molitus est, &c. 
—Ibid. 19. 

x Inde iter Alexandriam, contra senatus auctoritatem, 
contra rempublicam et religiones : sed habebat ducem 
Gabinium, &c. — Ibid. 

y Prius in ultimam Galliam ex iEgypto quam domum — 
venisti e Gallia ad questuram petendam.< — Ibid. ; Plut. in 
Anton. 

z Acceperam jam ante Cassaris literas, ut mihi satisfieri 
paterer a te — postea custoditus sum a te, tu a me observa- 
tus in petitionequaesturas, quo quidem tempore P. Clodium 
— in foro es conatus occidcre — ita praedicabas, te non exis- 
timare, nisi ilium interfccisscs, unquam mihi pro tuis in 
me injuriis satis esse facturum. — Phil. ii. 20. 

Cum se ille fugiens inscalarum tencbras abdidisset, &c. 
—Pro Mil. 15. 



for the tribunate ; in which office, after the example 
of his friend Curio, having sold himself to Caesar, 
he was (as Cicero says) as much the cause of the 
ensuing war as Helen was of that of Troy a . 

It is certain at least that Antony's flight gave 
the immediate pretext to it, as Cicero had foretold. 
" Caesar," says he, " will betake himself to arms, 
either from our want of preparation, or if no re- 
gard be had to him at the election cf consuls ; but 
especially if any tribune, obstructing the delibera- 
tions of the senate, or exciting the people to sedition, 
should happen to be censured or overruled, or taken 
off, or expelled, or, pretending to be expelled, run 
away to him b ." In the same letter he gives a short, 
but true state of the merit of his cause : "What, says 
he, can be more impudent ? You have held your 
government ten years, not granted to you by the 
senate, but extorted by violence and faction. The full 
term is expired, not of the law, but of your licen- 
tious will : but allow it to be a law ; it is now de- 
creed that you must have a successor. You refuse, 
and say, have some regard to me : do you first 
show your regard to us. Will you pretend to keep 
an army longer than the people ordered, and con- 
trary to the will of the senate ?" But Caesar's 
strength lay not in the goodness of his cause, but 
of his troops d , a considerable part of which he 
was now drawing together towards the confines of 
Italy, to be ready to enter into action at any warn- 
ing. The flight of the tribunes gave him a plausible 
handle to begin, and seemed to sanctify his 
attempt. But " his real motive," says Plutarch, 
(t was the same that animated Cyrus and Alexander 
before him, to disturb the peace of mankind : the 
unquenchable thirst of empire, and the wild 
ambition of being the greatest man in the world, 
which was not possible till Pompey was first 
destroyed e . ' ' Laying hold therefore of the occasion, 
he presently passed the Rubicon, which was the 
boundary of his province on that side of Italy, 
and, marching forward in a hostile manner, 
possessed himself without resistance of the next 
great towns in his way — Ariminum, Pisaurum, 
Ancona, Aretium, &c. f 

In this confused and disordered state of the 
city, Cicero's friends were soliciting the decree of 
his triumph, to which the whole senate signified 
their ready consent. But "the consul Lentulus, 
to make the favour more particularly his own, de- 
ft Deinde sine senatus consulto, sine sorte, sine lege ad 
Caesarem cucurristi. Id enim unum in terris egestatis, 
asris alieni, nequitiaa, perditis vitas rationibus perfugium 
esse ducebas — advolasti egens ad Tribunatum, ut in eo 
magistratu, si posses, viri tui similis esses — ut Helena Tro- 
janis, sic iste huic reipublicae causa belli, &c. — Phil. ii. 
21, 22. 

b Aut addita causa, si forte tribunus plebis senatum 
impediens, aut populum incitans, notatus, aut senatus 
consulto circumseriptus, aut sublatus aut expulsus sit, 
dicensve se expulsum ad se confugerit. — Ad Att. vii. 9. 

c Ibid. ; Ep. Fam. xvi. 11. 

d Alterius ducis causa mclior videbatur, alterius erat 
firmior. Hie omnia speciosa, illic valentia. Pompeium 
senatus auctoritas, Cajsarem militum armavit fiducia. — 
Veil. Pat. ii. 49. 

e Plut. in Anton. 

f An ille id faciat, quod paullo ante decretum est, ut 
ezeroitum citraRubiconem, qui finis est Galliae, educeret ? 
—Phil. vi. 3. 

Itaque cum Caesar amentia quadam rapcrctur, et— 
Ariminum, Pisaurum, Anconam, Arretium occupavissct, 
urbem reliquimus. — Ep. Fam. xvi. 12. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



173 



sired that it might be deferred for a while till the 
public affairs were better settled, giving his word 
that he would then be the mover of it himself &." 
But Caesar's sudden march towards Rome put an 
end to all farther thoughts of it, and struck the 
senate with such a panic, that, as if he had been 
already at the gates, they resolved presently to 
quit the city, and retreat towards the southern 
parts of Italy. All the principal senators had 
particular districts assigned to their care, to be 
provided with troops and all materials of defence 
against Caesar. Cicero had Capua, with the 
inspection of the sea-coast from Formiae ; he 
would not accept any greater charge, for the sake 
of preserving his authority in the task of mediating 
a peace h : and for the same reason, when he per- 
ceived his new province wholly unprovided against 
an enemy, and that it was impossible to hold 
Capua without a strong garrison, he resigned his 
employment and chose not to act at all 1 . 

Capua had always been the common seminary 
or place of educating gladiators for the great men 
of Rome, where Caesar had a famous school of 
them at this time, which he had long maintained 
under the best masters for the occasions of his 
public shows in the city ; and as they were very 
numerous and well furnished with arms, there was 
reason to apprehend that they would break out, 
and make some attempt in favour of their master, 
which might have been of dangerous consequence 
in the present circumstances of the republic, so 
that Pompey thought it necessary to take them 
out of their school, and distribute them among the 
principal inhabitants of the place, assigning two 
to each master of a family, by which he secured 
them from doing any mischief k . 

While the Pompeian party was under no small 
dejection on account of Pompey's quitting the 
city, and retreating from the approach of Caesar, 
T. Labienus, one of the chief commanders on the 

g Nobis tamen inter has turbas senatus frequens flagi- 
tavit triumphum : sed Lentulus consul, quo majus suum 
beneficium faceret, simul atque expedisset quae essent 
necessaria de republica dixit se relaturum.' — Ep. Fam. 
xvi. 11. 

h Ego negotio praesum non turbulento ; vult enim me 
Pompeius esse, quern tota haec Campana et maritima ora 
habeat Zitlg kottov , ad quern delectus et surnma negotii 
referatur. — Ad Att. vii. 11. 

Ego adhuc orae maritimae praesum a Formiis. Nullum 
majus negotium suscipere volui, quo plus apud ilium meae 
literae cohortationesque ad pacem valerent. — Ep. Fam. 
xvi. 12. 

1 Nam certe neque turn peccavi, cum imparatam jam 
Capuam, non solum ignaviae delectus, sed etiam perfidiae 
suspicionem fugiens, accipere nolui. — Ad Att. viii. 12. 

Quod tibi ostenderam, cum a me Capuam rejiciebam : 
quod feci non vitandi oneris causa, sed quod videbam 
teneri illam urbem sine exercitu non posse. — Ep. Cic. ad 
Pomp. ; Ad Att. viii. 11. 

As Cicero, when proconsul of Cilicia, often mentions 
the dioceses that were annexed to his government, [Ep. 
Fam. xiii. 67,] so in this command of Capua he calls him- 
self the episcopus of the Campanian coast : which shows, 
that these names, which were appropriated afterwards in 
the Christian church to characters and powers ecclesias- 
tical, carried with them, in their original use, the notion of 
a real authority and jurisdiction. 

k Gladiatores Caesaris, qui Capuae sunt — sane commode 
Pompeius distribuit, binos singulis patribus familiarum. 
Scutorum in ludo c fuerunt eruptionem facturi fuisse 
dicebantur — sane multum in eo reipublicae provisum est. 
Ad Att. vii. 14. 



other side, deserted Caesar and came over to them, 
which added some new life to their cause, and 
raised an expectation that many more would follow 
his example. Labienus had eminently distinguished 
himself in the Gallic war, where, next to Caesar 
himself, he had borne the principal part, and by 
Caesar's favour had raised an immense fortune ; so 
that he was much caressed, and carried about 
everywhere by Pompey, who promised himself 
great service from his fame and experience, and 
especially from his credit in Caesar's army, and 
the knowledge of all his councils : but his account 
of things, like that of all deserters, was accommo- 
dated rather to please than to serve his new 
friends ; representing the weakness of Caesar's 
troops, their aversion to his present designs, the 
disaffection of the two Gauls, and disposition to 
revolt, the contrary of all which was found to be 
true in the experiment ; and as he came to them 
single, without bringing with him any of those 
troops with which he had acquired his reputation, 
so his desertion had no other effect than to ruin 
his own fortunes, without doing any service to 
Pompey 1 . 

But what gave a much better prospect to all 
honest men was the proposal of an accommodation 
which came about this time from Caesar, who, 
while he was pushing on the war with incredible 
vigour, talked of nothing but peace, and endea- 
voured particularly to persuade Cicero "that he 
had no other view than to secure himself from the 
insults of his enemies, and yield the first rank in 
the state to Pompey m ." The conditions were, 
" that Pompey should go to his government of 
Spain, that his new levies should be dismissed, 
and his garrisons withdrawn, and that Caesar 
should deliver up his provinces, the farther Gaul 
to Domitius, the hither to Considius, and sue for 
the consulship in person, without requiring the 
privilege of absence." These terms were readily 
embraced in a grand council of the chiefs at Capua, 
and young L. Caesar, who brought them, was sent 
back with letters from Pompey, and the addition 
only of one preliminary article — " that Caesar, in 
the mean while, should recall his troops from the 
towns which he had seized beyond his own juris- 
diction, so that the senate might return to Rome, 
and settle the whole affair with honour and free- 
dom V Cicero was present at this council, of 

I Maximam autem plagam accepit, quod is, qui sum- 
mam auctoritatem in illius exercitu habebat, T. Labienus 
socius sceleris esse noluit: reliquit ilium, et nobiscum est : 
multique idem facturi dicuntur.— Ep. Fam. xvi. 12. 

Aliquantum animi videtur attulisse nobis Labienus.— 
Ad Att. vii. 13. 

Labienum secum habet (Pompeius) non dubitantem de 
imbecillitate Caesaris copiarum : cujus adventu Cnasus 
noster multo animi plus habet.— Ibid. vii. 16. 

Nam in Labieno parum est dignitatis.— Ibid. viii. 2. 

fortis in armis 

Caesareis Labienus erat : nunc transfuga vilis 

Lucan. v. 345. 

m Balbus major ad me scribit, nihil malle Ca?sarem, 
quam, principe Pompeio, sine metu vivere. Tu, puto, 
haec credis — Ad Att. viii. 9. 

II Feruntur omnino conditiones ab illo, ut Pompeius eat 
in Hispaniam ; dilectus, qui sunt habiti, et praesidia nostra 
dimittantur : se ulteriorem Galliam Domitio, citeriorem 
Considio Noniano — traditurum. Ad consulatus petitionem 
se venturum :— neque se jam velle, absente se, rationem 
sui haberi— Ep. Fam. xvi. 12 ; Ad Att. vii. 14. 

Accepimus conditiones ; sed ita, ut removeat praesidia 



174 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



which he gave an account to Atticus : " I came to 
Capua, (says he,) yesterday, the twenty-sixth of 
January, where I met the consuls and many of our 
order : they all wished that Csesar would stand to 
his conditions, and withdraw his troops. Favonius 
alone was against all conditions imposed by Csesar, 
but was little regarded by the council : for Cato 
himself would now rather live a slave than fight ; 
and declares, that if Csesar recall his garrisons 
he will attend the senate when the conditions come 
to be settled, and not go to Sicily, where his service 
is more necessary, which I am afraid will be of ill 
consequence. There is a strange variety in our 
sentiments ; the greatest part are of opinion, that 
Csesar will not stand to his terms, and that these 
offers are made only to hinder our preparations : 
but I am apt to think that he will withdraw his 
troops ; for he gets the better of us by being made 
consul, and with less iniquity than in the way 
which he is now pursuing, and we cannot possibly 
come off without some loss ; for we are scan- 
dalously unprovided both with soldiers and with 
money, since all that which was either private in 
the city or public in the treasury is left a prey to 
him ." 

During the suspense of this treaty and the ex- 
pectation of Caesar's answer, Cicero began to con- 
ceive some hopes that both sides were relenting, 
and disposed to make up the quarrel — Csesar, 
from a reflection on his rashness, and the senate 
on their want of preparation : but he still suspected 
Csesar ; and the sending a message so important 
by a person so insignificant as young Lucius Csesar, 
looked, he says, as if he had done it by way of 
contempt, or with a view to disclaim it, especially 
when, after offering conditions, which were likely 
to be accepted, he would not sit still to wait an 
answer, but continued his march with the same 
diligence, and in the same hostile manner as be- 
foreP. His suspicions proved true ; for, by letters, 
which came soon after from Furnius and Curio, 
he perceived that they made a mere jest of the 
embassy i. 

It seems very evident that Csesar had no real 
thoughts of peace, by his paying no regard to 
Pompey's answer, and the trifling reasons which 
he gave for slighting it r . But he had a double 
view in offering those conditions ; for, by Pom- 
pey's rejecting them, as there was reason to expect 
from his known aversion to any treaty, he hoped 
to load him with the odium of the war ; or by his 
embracing them, to slacken his preparations, and 
retard his design of leaving Italy, whilst he himself 
in the mean time, by following him with a celerity 

ex iis locis, qua? occupavit, ut sine metu de iis ipsis con- 
ditionibus Romae senatus haberi possit.— Ad Att. vii. 14. 
~ ° Ad Att. vii. 15. 

P Spero in praesentia pacem nos habere. Nam et ilium 
furoris, et hunc nostrum copiarum suppoenitet. — Ibid. 

Tamen vereor ut his ipsis (Ca?sar) contentus sit. Nam 
cum ista mandata dedisset L. Caesari, debuit esse paullo 
quietior, dum responsa rcferrentur. — Ibid. vii. 17. 

Caesarem quidem, L. Caesare cum mandatis de pace 
misso, tamcn aiunt accrrime loca occuparc. — Ibid. 18. 

L. Cassarem vidi — ut id ipsum mihi illo videatur irri- 
dendi causa fecissc, qui tan t is de rebus huic mandata 
dederit, nisi forte non dedit, ct hie scrmone aliquo arrcpto 
pro mandatis abusus est. — Ibid. 13. 

1 Aocepi literas tuas, Philotimi, Furnii, Curionis ad 
Furnium, quibus irridet L. Cacsaris legationem.— Ibid. 19. 

r Caes. De Bello Civ. 1. i. 



that amazed everybody 8 , might chance to come 
up with him before he could embark, and give a 
decisive blow to the war, from which he had 
nothing to apprehend but its being drawn into 
length. " I now plainly see," says Cicero, "though 
later indeed than I could have wished, on account 
of the assurances given me by Balbus, that he aims 
at nothing else, nor has ever aimed at anything 
from the beginning, but Pompey's life 1 ." 

If we consider this famous passage of the 
Rubicon, abstractedly from the event, it seems to 
have been so hazardous and desperate that Pompey 
might reasonably contemn the thought of it, as of 
an attempt too rash for any prudent man to venture 
upon. If Csesar's view, indeed, had been to pos- 
sess himself only of Italy, there could have been 
no difficulty in it. His army was undoubtedly 
the best which was then in the world ; flushed 
with victory, animated with zeal for the person 
of their general, and an overmatch for any which 
could be brought against it into the field. But 
this single army was all that he had to trust to ; 
he had no resource : the loss of one battle was 
certain ruin to him, and yet he must necessarily 
run the risk of many before he could gain his end, 
for the whole empire was armed against him ; every 
province offered a fresh enemy, and a fresh field 
of action, where he was like to be exposed to the 
same danger as on the plains of Pharsalia. But above 
all, his enemies were masters of the sea, so that 
he could not transport his forces abroad, without the 
hazard of their being destroyed by a superior fleet, 
or of being starved at land by the difficulty of 
conveying supplies and provisions to them. Pom- 
pey relied chiefly on this single circumstance, and 
was persuaded, that it must necessarily determine 
the war in his favour 11 : so that it seems surprising 
how such a superiority of advantage, in the hands 
of so great a commander, could possibly fail of 
success ; and we must admire rather the fortune 
than the conduct of Csesar, for carrying him safe 
through all these difficulties to the possession of 
the empire. 

Cicero seldom speaks of his attempt, but as a 
kind of madness x , and seemed to retain some 
hopes to the last that he would not persist in it. 
The same imagination made Pompey and the 
senate so resolute to defy, when they were in no 
condition to oppose him. Csesar on the other 
hand might probably imagine, that their stiffness 
proceeded from a vain conceit of their strength, 
which would induce them to venture a battle with 
him in Italy, in which case he was sure enough to 
beat them : so that both sides were drawn farther 

s O celeritatem incredibilem ! — Ad Att. vii. 22. 

Cicero calls him a monster of vigilance and celerity — 
[Ibid. viii. 9.]— for from his passage of tbe Rubicon, though 
he was forced to take in all the great towns on his road, 
and spent seven days before Corfinium, yet in less than 
two months he marched through the whole length of Italy, 
and came before the gates? of Brundisium before Pompey 
could embark on the 9th of March. — Ad Att. ix. 

1 Intelligo serius equidem quam vcllcm, propter episto- 
las sermoncsque Balbi, Bed video plane nihil aliud agl, 
nihil actum ab initio, quam ut hunc occideret.— Ad Att. 
ix. 5. 

u Existimat, (Pompeius) qui mare tcneat, cum necesse 
rcrum potiri — itaque navalis apparatus ei semper antiquis- 
sima cura fuit. — Ibid, x {). 

* Cum Cajsar amentia quadam raperetur.— Ep. Fam. 
xvi. 12. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



175 



perhaps than they intended, by mistaking each 
other's views. Caesar, I say, might well appre- 
hend that they designed to try their strength with 
him in Italy ; for that was the constant persuasion 
of the whole party, who thought it the best scheme 
which could be pursued. Pompey humoured 
them in it, and always talked big to keep up their 
spirits ; and though he saw from the first the 
necessity of quitting Italy, yet he kept the secret 
to himself, and wrote word at the same time to 
Cicero that he should have a firm army in a few 
days, with which he would march against Caesar 
into Picenum, so as to give them an opportunity 
of returning to the city?. The plan of the war, as 
it was commonly understood, was to possess them- 
selves of the principal posts of Italy, and act 
chiefly on the defensive, in order to distress Csesar 
by their different armies, cut off his opportunities 
of forage, hinder his access to Rome, and hold 
him continually employed till the veteran army from 
Spain, under Pompey's lieutenants, Afranius, 
Petreius, and Varro, could come up to finish his 
overthrow z . This was the notion which the senate 
entertained of the war ; they never conceived it 
possible that Pompey should submit to the dis- 
grace of flying before Caesar, and giving up Italy 
a prey to his enemy. In this confidence Domitius, 
with a very considerable force, and some of the 
principal senators, threw himself into Corfinium, 
a strong town at the foot of the Apennine, on the 
Adriatic side, where he proposed to make a stand 
against Caesar, and stop the progress of his march ; 
but he lost all his troops in the attempt, to the 
number of three legions, for want of knowing 
Pompey's secret. Pompey indeed, when he saw 
what Domitius intended, pressed him earnestly, 
by several letters, to come away and join with him, 
telling him, " That it was impossible to make any 
opposition to Caesar till their whole forces were 
united : and that as to himself, he had with him 
only the two legions which were recalled from 
Caesar, and were not to be trusted against him ; 
and if Domitius should entangle himself in Cor- 
finium, so as to be precluded by Caesar from a 
retreat, that he could not come to his relief with so 
weak an army, and bade him therefore not to be 
surprised to hear of his retiring if Caesar should 
persist to march towards him a . Yet, Domitius, 
prepossessed with the o pinion, that Italy was to 

r Omnes nos airpoa-^cou^TOvs, expertes sui tanti et tarn 
inusitati consilii relinquebat.. — Ad Att. viii. 8. 

Pompeius— ad me scribit, paucis diebus se firmum exer- 
eitum habiturum, spemque affert, si in Picenum agrum 
ipse venerit, nos Romam redituros esse.— Ibid. vii. 16. 

z Suscepto autem bello, aut tenenda sit urbs, aut ea 
relicta, ille commeatu et reliquis copiis intercludendus. — 
Ad Att. vii. 9. 

Sin autem ille suis conditionibus stare noluerit, bellum 
paratum est : — tantummodo ut eum intercludamus, ne ad 
urbem possit accedere : quod sperabamus fieri posse : di- 
lectus enim magnos habebamus— ex Hispaniaque sex legi- 
ones et magna auxilia, Afranio et Petreio ducibus, habet 
a tergo. Videtur, si insaniet, posse opprimi, modo ut urbe 
salva. — Ep. Fam. xvi. 12. 

Summa autem spes Afranium cum magnis copiis adven- 
tare.— Ad Att. viii. 3. 

a Nos disjecta manu pares advefsariis esse non possu- 
mus. — 

Quamobrem nolito commoveri, si audieris me regredi, 
si forte Csesar ad me veniet,— etiam atque etiam te hortor, 
ut cum omni copia quam primum ad me venias. — Epist. 
Pomp, ad Domit. ; Ad Att. viii. 12. 



be the seat of the war, and that Pompey would 
never suffer so good a body of troops, and so many 
of his best friends to be lost, would not quit the 
advantangeous post of Corfinium, but depended 
still on being relieved ; and when he was actually 
besieged, sent Pompey word, how easily Caesar 
might be intercepted between their two armies b . 

Cicero was as much disappointed as any of the 
rest ; he had never dreamt of their being obliged 
to quit Italy till, by Pompey's motions, he per- 
ceived at last his intentions, of which he speaks 
with great severity in several of his letters, and 
begs Atticus's advice upon that new face of their 
affairs ; and to enable Atticus to give it the more 
clearly, he explains to him in short what occurred 
to his own mind on the one side and the other. 
" The great obligations," says he, " which I am 
under to Pompey, and my particular friendship 
with him, as well as the cause of the republic 
itself, seem to persuade me, that I ought to join 
my counsels and fortunes with his. Besides, if I 
stay behind, and desert that band of the best and 
most eminent citizens, I must fall under the power 
of a single person, who gives me many proofs 
indeed of being my friend, and whom, as you know, 
I had long ago taken care to make such from a 
suspicion of this very storm which now hangs 
over us ; yet it should be well considered, both 
how far I may venture to trust him, and supposing 
it clear that I may trust him, whether it be con- 
sistent with the character of a firm and honest 
citizen to continue in that city, in which he has 
borne the greatest honours and performed the 
greatest acts, and where he is now invested with 
the most honourable priesthood, when it is to be 
attended with some danger, and perhaps with 
some disgrace, if Pompey should ever restore the 
republic. These are the difficulties on the one 
side — let us see what there are on the other : 
nothing has hitherto been done by our Pompey, 
either with prudence or courage ; I may add also 
nothing but what was contrary to my advice and 
authority. I will omit those old stories ; how he 
first nursed, raised, and armed this man against 
the republic ; how he supported him in carrying 
his laws by violence, and without regard to the 
auspices ; how he added the farther Gaul to his 
government, made himself his son-in-law, assisted 
as augur in the adoption of Clodius, was more 
zealous to restore me than to prevent my being 
expelled ; enlarged the term of Caesar's command, 
served him in all his affairs in his absence — nay, 
in his third consulship, after he began to espouse 
the interests of the republic, how he insisted that 
the ten tribunes should jointly propose a law to 
dispense with his absence in suing for the consul- 
ship, which he confirmed afterwards by a law of 
his own, and opposed the consul Marcellus when 
he moved to put an end to his government on the 
first of March : but to omit, I say, all this, vfhat 
can be more dishonourable, or show a greater want 
of conduct than this retreat, or rather shameful 
flight from the city ? What conditions were not 
preferable to the necessity of abandoning our 
country ? the conditions, I confess, were bad ; yet 

b Domitius ad Pompeium— mittit, qui petant atque 
orent, ut sibi subveniat : Caesarem duobus exercitibus, 
et locorum angustiis intercludi posse, frumentoque prohi- 
beri, &c. 

Caes. De Bello Civ. 1. i. 



176 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



what can be worse than this ? But Pompey, you 
will say, will recover the republic : when, or what 
preparation is there for it ? Is not all Picenum 
lost ? Is not the way left open to the city? Is not 
all our treasure, both public and private, given up 
to the enemy ? In a word, there is no party, no 
forces, no place of rendezvous, for the friends of 
the republic to resort to. Apulia is chosen for our 
retreat, the weakest and remotest part of Italy, 
which implies nothing but despair, and a design of 
flying by the opportunity of the sea," &c. c In 
another letter, " There is but one thing wanting," 
says he, " to complete our friend's disgrace ; his 
failing to succour Domitius : nobody doubts but 
that he will come to his relief ; yet I am not of that 
mind. Will he then desert such a citizen, and the 
rest, whom you know to be with him ? especially 
when he has thirty cohorts in the town : yes, 
unless all things deceive me, he will desert him : 
he is strangely frightened ; means nothing but to 
fly ; yet you, for I perceive what your opinion is, 
think that I ought to follow this man. For my 
part I easily know whom I ought to fly, not whom 
I ought to follow. As to that saying of mine 
which you extol, and think worthy to be cele- 
brated, that I had rather be conquered with Pom- 
pey, than conquer with Caesar, 'tis true, I still 
say so ; but, with such a Pompey as he then was, 
or as I took him to be : but as for this man, who 
runs away before he knows from whom, or whither ; 
who has betrayed us and ours, given up his country 
and is now leaving Italy; if I had rather be con- 
quered with him, the thing is over, I am con- 
quered," &c. d 

There was a notion in the meanwhile, that uni- 
versally prevailed through Italy, of Caesar's cruel 
and revengeful temper, from which horrible effects 
were apprehended : Cicero himself was strongly 
possessed with it, as appears from many of his 
letters, where he seems to take it for granted, that 
he would be a second Phalaris, not a Pisistratus ; 
a bloody, not a gentle tyrant. This he inferred 
from the violence of his past life ; the nature of 
his present enterprise ; and, above all, from the 
character of his friends and followers ; who were, 
generally speaking, a needy, profligate, audacious 
crew ; prepared for every thing that was desperate e . 
It was affirmed likewise with great confidence, 
that he had openly declared, that he was now 
coming to revenge the deaths of Cn. Carbo, M. 
Brutus, and all the other Marian chiefs, whom 
Pompey, when acting under Sylla, had cruelly put 
to death for their opposition to the Syllan cause f . 
But there was no real ground for any of these 
suspicions : for Caesar, who thought Tyranny (as 
Cicero says) the greatest of goddesses, and whose 
sole view it had been through life to bring his 
affairs to this crisis, and to make a bold push for 

c Ad Att. viii. 3. d Ibid. viii. 7- 

e Istum cuj us (pa\apiT/x6v times, omnia tctcrrime fac- 
turum puto. — Ad Att. vii. 12. 

Inccrtum est Phalarimne an Pisistratum sit imitaturus. 
—Ibid. 20. 

Nam cacdem video si viecrit — et regnum non modo 
Romano homini sed ne Persic quidem tolerabile.— Ibid. 
x. 8. 

Qui hie potest se gcrcrc non perditc ? vita, mores ante 
facta, ratio susccpti uegotii, soeii — Ibid. ix. 2 ; it. ix. 1!>. 

f Atque eum loqui quidam avdtvTiKais narrabant ; Cn. 
Carbonis, M. Bruti se poenas persequi, &c.— Ad Att. ix. 14. 



empire, had, from the observation of past times, 
and the fate of former tyrants, laid it down for a 
maxim, that clemency in victory was the best means 
of securing the stability of its. Upon the sur- 
render therefore of Corfinium, where he had the first 
opportunity of giving a public specimen of himself, 
he showed a noble example of moderation, by the 
generous dismission of Domitius and all the other 
senators who fell into his hands; among whom was 
Lentulus Spinther, Cicero's particular friend h . 
This made a great turn in his favour, by easing 
people of the terrors which they had before con- 
ceived of him, and seemed to confirm what he 
affected everywhere to give out, that he sought 
nothing by the war but the security of his person 
and dignity. Pompey on the other hand appeared 
every day more and more despicable, by flying 
before an enemy, whom his pride and perverseness 
was said to have driven to the necessity of taking 
arms. — " Tell me, I beg of you," says Cicero, 
" what can be more wretched, than for the one to 
be gathering applause from the worst of causes, 
the other giving offence in the best ? the one to be 
reckoned the preserver of his enemies, the other 
the deserter of his friends ? and in truth, though 
I have all the affection which I ought to have for 
our friend Cnaeus, yet I cannot excuse his not 
coming to the relief of such men : for if he was 
afraid to do it, what can be more paltry ? or if, as 
some think, he thought to make his cause the more 
popular by their destruction, what can be more 
unjust?" &C.' — From this first experiment of 
Caesar's clemency, Cicero took occasion to send 
him a letter of compliment, and to thank him par- 
ticularly for his generous treatment of Lentulus, 
who, when consul, had been the chief author of his 
restoration ; to which Caesar returned the following 
answer. 

Ccesar Emperor to Cicero Emperor. 
"You judge rightly of me, for I am thoroughly 
known to you, that nothing is farther removed 
from me than cruelty ; and as I have a great plea- 
sure from the thing itself, so I rejoice and triumph 
to find my act approved by you : nor does it at all 
move me, that those who were dismissed by me, 
are said to be gone away to renew the war against 
me : for I desire nothing more, than that I may 
always act like myself; they like themselves. I 
wish that you would meet me at the city, that I 
may use your counsel and assistance as I have 
hitherto done in all things. Nothing, I assure you, 

8 TV Qewv fj.eyiarr]V 8><tt' exeiv rvpavvida. — Ad 
Att. vii. 11. 

Ten tenuis hoc modo, si possumus, omnium voluntates 
recuperare, et diuturna victoria uti : quoniam reliqui 
credulitate odium effugere non potucrunt, nequc victo- 
riam diutius tenere, piveter unum L. Syllam, queni imi- 
taturus non sum. Ha?c nova sit ratio vincendi : ut 
misericordia et liberalitate nos muniamus. — Ep. Cesaris 
ad Opp. Att. ix. 7. 

'> Ces. De Bcllo Civ. Li; Plutarch, in Ca?s. 

i Sed obsecro te, quid hoc miserius, quam alteram 
plausus in foedissima causa quserere; alteram offensiones 
in optima? alteram existimari conservatorem inimicorum, 
alteram desertorcm amicorum ? et meheroule quamvis 
amemus Cnauim nostrum, ut etfacimus et debemus, tamen 
hoc, quod talibus viris non subvenit, laudare non possum. 
Nam sive timuit quid ignavius? sive, ut quidam putant, 
meliorem suam oausam illorum casde fore putavit, quid 
injustius?— Ad Att. viii. 9. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



177 



is dearer to me than Dolabella ; I will owe this 
favour therefore to him : nor is it possible for him 
indeed to behave otherwise, such is his humanity, 
his good sense, and his affection to me. Adieu k ." 
When Pompey, after the unhappy affair of Cor- 
finium, found himself obliged to retire to Brundi- 
sium, and to declare, what he had never before 
directly owned, his design of quitting Italy and 
carrying the war abroad 1 ; he was very desirous to 
draw Cicero along with him, and wrote two letters 
to him at Formiae, to press him to come away di- 
rectly ; but Cicero, already much out of humour 
with him, was disgusted still the more by his short 
and negligent manner of writing, upon an occasion 
so important" 1 : the second of Pompey's letters, 
with Cicero's answer, will explain the present state 
of their affairs, and Cicero's sentiments upon 
them. 

Cn. Pompeius Magnus Proconsul to M. Cicero 
Emperor. 
" If you are in good health, I rejoice : I read 
your letter with pleasure: for I perceived in it 
your ancient virtue by your concern for the common 
safety. The consuls are come to the army which 
I had in Apulia : I earnestly exhort you, by your 
singular and perpetual affection to the republic, to 
come also to us, that by our joint advice we may 
give help and relief to the afflicted state. I would 
have you make the Appian way your road, and 
come in all haste to Brundisium. Take care of 
your health.' ' 

M. Cicero Emperor to Cn. Magnus Proconsul. 
" When I sent that letter, which was delivered to 
you atCanusium, Ihadno suspicion of yourcrossing 
the sea for the service of the republic, and was in 
great hopes that we should be able, either to bring 
about an accommodation, which to me seemed the 
most useful, or to defend the republic with the great- 
est dignity in Italy. In the mean time, before my 
letter reached you, being informed of your reso- 
lution by the instructions which you sent to the 
consuls, I did not wait till I could have a letter 
from you, but set out immediately towards you 
with my brother and our children for Apulia. 
When we were come to Theanum, your friend C. 
Messius and many others told us, that Caesar was 
on the road to Capua, and would lodge that very 
night at iEsernia : I was much disturbed at it, 
because if it was true, I not only took my journey 
to be precluded, but myself also to be certainly a 
prisoner. I went on therefore to Cales with intent 
to stay there till I could learn from iEsernia the 
certainty of my intelligence : at Cales there was 
brought to me a copy of the letter which you 
wrote to the consul Lentulus, with which you sent 
the copy also of one that you had received from 
Domitius, dated the eighteenth of February, and 
signified, that it was of great importance to the 
republic that all the troops should be drawn toge- 
ther as soon as possible to one place ; yet so as to 
leave a sufficient garrison in Capua. Upon reading 

k Ad Att. ix. 16. 

1 Qui amisso Corfinio denique me certiorem oonsilii sui 
fecit.— Ibid. ix. 2. 

m Epistolarum Pompeii duarum, quas ad me misit, negli- 
gentiam, meamque in scribendo diligentiam volui tibi 
notam esse : earum exempla ad te misi.— Ibid. viii. 11. 



these letters I was of the same opinion with all the 
rest, that you were resolved to march to Corfinium 
with all your forces, whither, when Caesar lay 
before the town, I thought it impossible for me to 
come. While this affair was in the utmost expec- 
tation, we were informed at one and the same time 
both of what had happened at Corfinium, and 
that you were actually marching towards Brundi 
sium : and when I and my brother resolved without 
hesitation to follow you thither, we were advertised 
by many who came from Samnium and Apulia, to 
take care that we did not fall into Caesar's hands, 
for that he was upon his march to the same places 
where our road lay, and would reach them sooner 
than we could possibly do. This being the case, 
it did not seem advisable to me or my brother, or 
any of our friends, to run the risk of hurting, not 
only ourselves, but the republic, by our rashness : 
especially when we could not doubt, but that if the 
journey had been safe to us, we should not then be 
able to overtake you. In the mean while I received 
your letter dated from Canusium the twenty-first 
of February, in which you exhort me to come in all 
haste to Brundisium : but as I did not receive it 
till the twenty-ninth, I made no question but that 
you were already arrived at Brundisium, and all 
that road seemed wholly shut up to us, and we 
ourselves as surely intercepted as those who were 
taken at Corfinium : for we did not reckon them 
only to be prisoners, who were actually fallen into 
the enemy's hands, but those too not less so who 
happen to be inclosed within the quarters and 
garrisons of their adversaries. Since this is our 
case, I heartily wish, in the first place, that I had 
always been with you, as I then told you when I 
relinquished the command of Capua, which I did not 
do forjthe sake of avoiding trouble, but because I saw 
that the town could not be held without an army, 
and was unwilling that the same accident should 
happen to me which, to my sorrow, has happened 
to some of our bravest citizens at Corfinium ; but 
since it has not been my lot to be with you, I wish 
that I had been made privy to your counsels : for 
I could not possibly suspect, and should sooner 
have believed anything than that for the good of 
the republic, under such a leader as you, we should 
not be able to stand our ground in Italy : nor do I 
now blame your conduct, but lament the fate of 
the republic ; and though I cannot comprehend 
what it is which you have followed, yet I am not 
the less persuaded that you have done nothing but 
with the greatest reason. You remember, I believe, 
what my opinion always was : first, to preserve 
peace even on bad conditions ; then about leaving 
the city ; for as to Italy, you never intimated a 
tittle to me about it : but I do not take upon myself 
to think that my advice ought to have been fol- 
lowed : I followed yours ; nor that for the sake of 
the republic, of which I despaired, and which is 
now overturned, so as not to be raised up again 
without a civil and most pernicious war : I sought 
you ; desired to be with you ; nor will I omit the 
first opportunity which offers of effecting it. I 
easily perceived through all this affair, that I did 
not satisfy those who are fond of fighting : for I 
made no scruple to own, that I wished for nothing 
so much as peace ; not but that I had the same 
apprehensions from it as they ; but I thought them 
more tolerable than a civil war : then after the 
war was begun, when I saw that conditions of 
N 



178 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



peace were offered to you, and a full and honour- 
able answer given to them, I began to weigh 
and deliberate well upon my own conduct, which, 
considering your kindness to me, I fancied that I 
should easily explain to your satisfaction : I re- 
collected that I was the only man who, for the 
greatest services to the public, had suffered a most 
wretched and cruel punishment : that I was the 
only one who, if I offended him to whom at the 
very time when we were in arms against him a 
second consulship and most splendid triumph was 
offered, should be involved again in all the same 
struggles; so that my person seemed to stand 
always exposed as a public mark to the insults of 
profligate citizens : nor did I suspect any of these 
things till I was openly threatened with them : 
nor was I so much afraid of them, if they were 
really to befal me, as I judged it prudent to decline 
them, if they could honestly be avoided. You see 
in short the state of my conduct while we had any 
hopes of peace ; what has since happened deprived 
me of all power to do anything : but to those whom 
I do not please I can easily answer, that I never 
was more a friend to C. Caesar than they, nor they 
ever better friends to the republic than myself : 
the only difference between me and them is, that 
as they are excellent citizens, and I not far removed 
from that character, it was my advice to proceed 
by way of treaty, which I understood to be approved 
also by you ; theirs by way of arms ; and since 
this method has prevailed, it shall be my care to 
behave myself so, that the republic may not want 
in me the spirit of a true citizen, nor you of a 
friend. Adieu 11 ." 

The disgust which Pompey's management had 
given him, and which he gently intimates in this 
letter, was the true reason why he did not join 
him at this time : he had a mind to deliberate a 
while longer, before he took a step so decisive : 
this he owns to Atticus, where, after recounting 
all the particulars of his own conduct which were 
the most liable to exception, he adds, " I have 
neither done nor omitted to do anything, which 
has not both a probable and prudent excuse — and 
in truth was willing to consider a little longer what 
was right and fit for me to do ." The chief 
ground of his deliberation was, that he still thought 
a peace possible, in which case Pompey and Caesar 
would be one again, and he had no mind to give 
Caesar any cause to be an enemy to him when he 
was become a friend to Pompey. 

While things were in this situation, Caesar sent 
young Balbus after the consul Lentulus, to en- 
deavour to persuade him to stay in Italy, and 
return to the city, by the offer of everything that 
could tempt him : he called upon Cicero on his 
way, who gives the following account of it to 
Atticus : " Young Balbus came to me on the 
twenty-fourth in the evening, running in all haste 
by private roads after Lentulus with letters and 
instructions from Caesar, and the offer of any go- 
vernment if he will return to Rome : but it will 
have no effect unless they happen to meet : he 
told me that Caesar desired nothing so much as to 
overtake Pompey : which I believe ; and to be 
friends with him again : which I do not believe ; 

n Ad Att. viii. 11. 

o Nihil prsetermissum est, quod non habeat sapientcm 
excusationem — et plane quid rectum, et quid faciendum 
mihi esset, diutius cogitare malui. — Ad Att. viii. 12. 



and begin to fear, that all his clemency means 
nothing else at last but to give that one cruel blow. 
The elder Balbus writes me word, that Caesar 
wishes nothing more than to live in safety, and 
yield the first rank to Pompey. You take him I 
suppose to be in earnest p." 

Cicero seems to think that Lentulus might have 
been persuaded to stay, if Balbus and he had met 
together ; for he had no opinion of the firmness of 
these consuls, but says of them both on another 
occasion, that they were more easily moved by 
every wind than a feather or a leaf. He received 
another letter soon after from Balbus, of which he 
sent a copy to Atticus, " that he might pity him," 
he says, " to see what a dupe they thought to make 
of him i." 

Balbus to Cicero Emperor. 

" 1 conjure you, Cicero, to think of some me- 
thod of making Caesar and Pompey friends again, 
who by the perfidy of certain persons are now 
divided : it is a work highly worthy of your virtue : 
take my word for it, Caesar will not only be in 
your power, but think himself infinitely obliged to 
you if you would charge yourself with this affair. 
I should be glad if Pompey would do so too ; but 
in the present circumstances, it is what I wish 
rather than hope, that he may be brought to any 
terms : but whenever he gives over flying and 
fearing Caesar, I shall not despair that your au- 
thority may have its weight with him. Caesar 
takes it kindly .that you were for Lentulus's 
staying in Italy, and it was the greatest obligation 
which you could confer upon me : for I love him 
as much as I do Caesar himself: if he had suffered 
me to talk to him as freely as we used to do, and 
not so often shunned the opportunities which I 
sought of conferring with him, I should have been 
less unhappy than I now am : for assure yourself 
that no man can be more afflicted than I, to see 
one who is dearer to me than myself, acting his 
part so ill in his consulship, that he seems to be 
anything rather than a consul : but should he be 
disposed to follow your advice, and take your word 
for Caesar's good intentions, and pass the rest of 
his consulship at Rome, I should begin to hope, 
that by your authority and at his motion, Pompey 
and Caesar may be made one again with the appro- 
bation even of the senate. Whenever this can be 
brought about, I shall think that I have lived long 
enough : you will entirely approve, I am sure, 
what Caesar did at Corfinium : in an affair of that 
sort, nothing could fall out better, than that it 
should be transacted without blood. 1 am ex- 
tremely glad that my nephew's visit was agreeable 
to you ; as to what he said on Caesar's part, and 
what Caesar himself wrote to you, I know Caesar to 
be very sincere in it, whatever turn his affairs may 
take r ." 

Caesar at the same time was extremely solicitous, 
not so much to gain Cicero, for that was not to be 
expected, as to prevail with him to stand neuter. 
He wrote to him several times to that effect, and 
employed all their common friends to press him 



P Ad Att. viii. 9. 

q Nee me conaules movent, qui ipsi pluma aut folio 
facilius moventur — ut vicem meam doleres, cum me deri- 
ded videres. — Ibid. viii. 15. 

r Ad Att. viii. 15. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



179 



with letters on that head 8 : who, by his keeping 
such a distance at this time from Pompey, ima- 
gining that they had made some impression, began 
to attempt a second point with him, viz., to per- 
suade him to come back to Rome and assist in the 
councils of the senate, which Caesar designed to 
summon at his return from following Pompey : 
with this view, in the hurry of his march towards 
Brundisium, Caesar sent him the following letter: 

Caesar Emperor to Cicero Emperor. 
" When I had but just time to see our friend 
Furnius, nor could conveniently speak with or hear 
him, was in haste and on my march, having sent 
the legions before me, yet I could not pass by 
without writing, and sending him to you with my 
thanks ; though I have often paid this duty before, 
and seem likely to pay it oftener, you deserve it so 
well of me. I desire of you in a special manner, 
that, as I hope to be in the city shortly, I may see 
you there, and have the benefit of your advice, 
your interest, your authority, your assistance in all 
things. But to return to the point : you will pardon 
the haste and brevity of my letter, and learn the 
rest from Furnius." To which Cicero answered : 

Cicero Emperor to Ccesar Emperor. 
11 Upon reading your letter, delivered to me by 
Furnius, in which you pressed me to come to the 
city, I did not so much wonder at what you there 
intimated, of your desire to use my advice and 
authority, but was at a loss to find out what you 
meant by my interest and assistance ; yet I flat- 
tered myself into a persuasion, that out of your 
admirable and singular wisdom you were desirous 
to enter into some measures for establishing the 
peace and concord of the city ; and in that case I 
looked upon my temper and character as fit enough 
to be employed in such a deliberation. If the case 
be so, and you have any concern for the safety of 
our friend Pompey, and of reconciling him to your- 
self, and to the republic, you will certainly find no 
man more proper for such a work than I am, who 
from the very first have always been the adviser 
of peace, both to him and the senate ; and since 
this recourse to arms have not meddled with any 
part of the war, but thought you to be .really in- 
jured by it, while your enemies and enviers were 
attempting to deprive you of those honours which 
the Roman people had granted you. But as at 
that time I was not only a favourer of your dig- 
nity, but an encourager also of others to assist you 
in it ; so now the dignity of Pompey greatly affects 
me, for many years ago I made choice of you two, 
with whom to cultivate a particular friendship, and 
to be, as I now am, most strictly united. Where- 
fore I desire of you, or rather beg and implore 
with all my prayers, that in the hurry of your 
cares you would indulge a moment to this thought, 
how by your generosity I maybe permitted to show 
myself an honest, grateful, pious man, in remem- 
bering an act of the greatest kindness to me. If 
this related only to myself, I should hope still to 
obtain it from you ; but it concerns, I think, both 
your honour and the republic, that by your means 

s Quod quaeris quid Caesar ad me scripserit. Quod 
saepe : gratissimum sibi esse quod quierim : oratque ut in 
eo perseverem. Balbus minor base eadem mandata.— 
AdAtt.viii.il. 



I should be allowed to continue in a situation the 
best adapted to promote the peace of you two, as 
well as the general concord of all the citizens. Af- 
ter I had sent my thanks to you before on the 
account of Lentulus, for giving safety to him who 
had given it to me ; yet upon reading his letter, 
in which he expresses the most grateful sense of 
your liberality, I took myself to have received the 
same grace from you which he had done, towards 
whom, if by this you perceive me to be grateful, 
let it be your care, I beseech you, that I may be so 
too towards Pompey 1 ." 

Cicero was censured for some passages of this 
letter, which Caesar took care to make public, viz., 
the compliment on Caesar's admirable wisdom ; 
and above all, the acknowledgment of his being 
injured by his adversaries in the present war ; in 
excuse of which, he says, " that he was not sorry 
for the publication of it, for he himself had given 
several copies of it, and considering what had since 
happened, was pleased to have it known to the 
world how much he had always been inclined to 
peace, and that, in urging Caesar to save his coun- 
try, he thought it his business to use such expres- 
sions as were the most likely to gain authority with 
him, without fearing to be thought guilty of flat- 
tery, in urging him to an act for which he would 
gladly have thrown himself even at his feet u ." 

He received another letter on the same subject, 
and about the same time, written jointly by Balbus 
and Oppius, two of Caesar's chief confidants. 

Balbus and Oppius to M. Cicero. 
" The advice, not only of little men such as we 
are, but even of the greatest, is generally weighed, 
not by the intention of the giver, but the event : 
yet relying on your humanity, we will give you 
what we take to be the best in the case about 
which you wrote to us ; which, though it should 
not be found prudent, yet certainly flows from the 
utmost fidelity and affection to you. If we did not 
know from Caesar himself that, as soon as he comes 
to Rome, he will do what in our judgment we 
think he ought to do, treat about a reconciliation 
between him and Pompey, we should give over 
exhorting you to come and take part in those delibe- 
rations, that by your help, who have a strict friend- 
ship with them both, the whole affair may be set- 
tled with ease and dignity ; or if, on the contrary, 
we believed that Caesar would not do it, and knew 
that he was resolved upon a war with Pompey, we 
should never try to persuade you to take arms 
against a man to whom you have the greatest obli- 
gations, in the same manner as we have always 
entreated you, not to fight against Caesar. But 
since at present we can only guess rather than 
know, what Caesar will do, we have nothing to offer 
but this, that it does not seem agreeable to your 
dignity, or your fidelity, so well known to all, when 

t AdAtt. ix. 6, 11. 

u Epistolam meam quod pervulgatam scribis esse non 
fero moleste. Quin etiam ipse multis dedi describendam. 
Ea enim et acciderunt jam et impendent, ut testatum esse 
velim de pace quid senserim. Cum autem eum hortarer, 
eum praesertim hominem, non videbar ullo niodo faeilius 
moturus, quam si id, quod eum hortarer, convenire ejus ■ 
sapiential dicerem. Earn si admirabilem dixi, cum eum I 
ad salutem patriae hortarer, non sum veritus, ne viderer 
assentiri, cui tali in re lubenter me ad pedes abjecissem, 
&c— Ibid. viii. 9. 

N 2 



180 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



you are intimate with them both, to take arms 
against either ; and this we do not doubt but Caesar, 
according to his humanity, will highly approve ; 
yet if you judge proper we will write to him, to 
let us know what he will really do about it ; and if 
he returns us an answer, will presently send you 
notice what we think of it, and give you our word 
that we will advise only what we take to be most 
suitable to your honour, not to Caesar's views ; 
and are persuaded that Caesar, out of his indul- 
gence to his friends, will be pleased with it x ." 
This joint letter was followed by a separate one 
from Balbus. 

Balbus to Cicero Emperor. 
" Immediately after I had sent the common let- 
ter from Oppius and myself, I received one from 
Caesar, of which I have sent you a copy, whence 
you will perceive how desirous he is of peace, and 
to be reconciled with Pompey, and how far removed 
from all thoughts of cruelty. It gives me an ex- 
treme joy, as it certainly ought to do, to see him 
in these sentiments. As to yourself, your fidelity, 
and your piety, I am entirely of the same mind, 
my dear Cicero, with you, that you cannot, con- 
sistently with your character and duty, bear arms 
against a man to whom you declare yourself so 
greatly obliged ; that Caesar will approve this reso- 
lution I certainly know from his singular huma- 
nity, and that you will perfectly satisfy him, by 
taking no part in the war against him, nor joining 
yourself to his adversaries ; this he will think suf- 
ficient, not only from you, a person of such dignity 
and splendour, but has allowed it even to me, not 
to be found in that camp, which is likely to be 
formed against Lentulus and Pompey, from whom 
I have received the greatest obligations. It was 
enough, he said, if I performed my part to him in 
the city and the gown, which I might perform also 
to them if I thought fit ; wherefore I now manage 
all Lentulus's affairs at Rome, and discharge my 
duty, my fidelity, my piety, to them both ; yet in 
truth I do not take the hopes of an accommoda- 
tion, though now so low, to be quite desperate, 
since Caesar is in that mind in which we ought to 
wish him. One thing would please me, if you 
think it proper, that you would write to him, and 
desire a guard from him, as you did from Pom- 
pey, at the time of Milo's trial, with my approba- 
tion ; I will undertake for him, if I rightly know 
Caesar, that he will sooner pay a regard to your 
dignity, than to his own interest. How prudently 
I write these things I know not ; but this I cer- 
tainly know, that whatever I write, I write out of 
a singular love and affection to you ; for (let me 
die so as Caesar may but live) if I have not so 
great an esteem for you, that few are equally dear 
to me. When you have taken any resolution in 
this affair, I wish that you would let me know it, 
for I am exceedingly solicitous that you should 
discharge your duty to them both, which in truth 
I am confident you will discharge. Take care of 
your health^." 

The offer of a guard was artfully insinuated ; 
for while it carried an appearance of honour and 
respect to Cicero's person, it must necessarily 
have made him Caesar's prisoner, and deprived 
him of the liberty of retiring, when he found it 



x Ad Att. ix. 8. 



Ibid. 



proper, out of Italy. But he was too wise to be 
caught by it, or to be moved in any manner by the 
letters themselves, to entertain the least thought of 
going to Rome, since to assist in the senate, when 
Pompey and the consuls were driven out of it, was 
in reality to take part against them. What gave 
him a more immediate uneasiness, was the daily 
expectation of an interview with Caesar himself, 
who was now returning from Brundisium by the 
road of Formise, where he then resided ; for though 
he would gladly have avoided him, if he could have 
contrived to do it decently, yet to leave the place 
just when Caesar was coming to it, could not fail 
of being interpreted as a particular affront; he 
resolved therefore to wait for him, and to act on 
the occasion with a firmness and gravity which 
became his rank and character. 

They met as he expected, and he sent Atticus 
the following account of what passed between them. 
" My discourse with him (says he) was such as 
would rather make him think well of me than 
thank me. I stood firm in refusing to go to Rome, 
but was deceived in expecting to find him easy, 
for I never saw any one less so ; he was con- 
demned, he said, by my judgment, and, if I did 
not come, others would be the more backward ; 
I told him that their case was very different from 
mine. After many things said on both sides, he 
bade me come, however, and try to make peace. 
Shall I do it, says I, in my own way ? Do you 
imagine, replied he, that I will prescribe to you ? 
I will move the senate then, says I, for a decree 
against your going to Spain, or transporting your 
troops into Greece, and say a great deal besides in 
bewailing the case of Pompey. I will not allow, 
replied he, such things to be said. So I thought, 
said I, and for that reason will not come ; because 
I must either say them, and many more which I 
cannot help saying, if I am there, or not come at 
all. The result was, that to shift off the discourse 
he wished me to consider of it, which I could not 
refuse to do, and so we parted. I am persuaded 
that he is not pleased with me, but I am pleased 
with myself, which I have not been before of a 
long time. As for the rest, good gods, what a crew 
he has with him ! what a hellish band, as you call 
them ! — what a deplorable affair ! what desperate 
troops ! what a lamentable thing to see Servius' 
son, and Titinius's, with many more of their rank, 
in that camp, which besieged Pompey ! he has six 
legions, wakes at all hours, fears nothing ; I see 
no end of this calamity. His declaration at the 
last, which I had almost forgot, was odious ; that 
if he was not permitted to use my advice, he would 
use such as he could get from others, and pursue 
all measures which were for his service 2 ." From 
this conference, Cicero went directly to Arpinum, 
and there invested his son, at the age of sixteen, 
with the manly gown ; he resolved to carry him 
along with him to Pompey's camp, and thought it 
proper to give him an air of manhood before he 
enlisted him into the war ; and since he could not 
perform that ceremony at Rome, chose to oblige 
his countrymen by celebrating this festival in his 
native city a . 

While Caesar was on the road towards Rome, 

z Ad Att. ix. lfi. 

a Ego meo Ciceroni, quoniam Roma caremus, Arpini 
potissimum togampuramdedi, idque municipibus nostris 
fuit gratum.— Ibid. ix. ID. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



181 



young Quintus Cicero, the nephew, a fiery giddy 
youth, privately wrote to him to offer his service, 
with a promise of some information concern- 
ing his uncle ; upon which, being sent for and 
admitted to an audience, he assured Caesar that his 
uncle was utterly disaffected to all his measures, 
and determined to leave Italy and go to Pompey. 
The boy was tempted to this rashness by the hopes 
of a considerable present, and gave much uneasi- 
ness by it both to the father and the uncle, who 
had reason to fear some ill consequence from it b ; 
but Caesar desiring still to divert Cicero from de- 
claring against him, and to quiet the apprehensions 
which he might entertain for what was past, took 
occasion to signify to him, in a kind letter from 
Rome, that he retained no resentment of his refu- 
sal to come to the city, though Tullus and Servius 
complained that he had not shown the same indul- 
gence to them ; ridiculous men, says Cicero, who 
after sending their sons to besiege Pompey at 
Brundisium, pretend to be scrupulous about going 
to the senate . 

Cicero's behaviour, however, and residence in 
those villas of his which were nearest to the sea, 
gave rise to a general report, that he was waiting 
only for a wind to carry him over to Pompey : 
upon which Caesar sent him another pressing 
letter to try, if possible, to dissuade him from 
that step. 

Caesar Emperor to Cicero Emperor. 
" Though I never imagined that you would do 
anything rashly or imprudently, yet moved by 
common report I thought proper to write to you, 
and beg of you by our mutual affection, that you 
would not run to a declining cause, whither you 
did not think fit to go while it stood firm. For 
you will do the greatest injury to our friendship, 
and consult but ill for yourself, if you do not fol- 
low where fortune calls, for all things seem to 
have succeeded most prosperously for us — most 
unfortunately for them ; nor will you be thought 
to have followed the cause (since that was the 
same when you chose to withdraw yourself from 
their councils), but to have condemned some act of 
mine, than which you can do nothing that could 
affect me more sensibly, and what I beg by the 
rights of our friendship that you would not do. 
Lastly, what is more agreeable to the character of 
an honest, quiet man, and good citizen, than to 
retire from civil broils ? from which some, who 
would gladly have done it, have been deterred by an 
apprehension of danger ; but you, after a full testi- 
mony of my life, and trial of my friendship, will 
find nothing more safe or more reputable than to 

b Literasejus ad Cassarem missas ita graviter tulimus, 

ut te quidem celaremus tantum scito post Hirtium 

conventum, arcessitum ab Caesare ; cum eo de meo animo 
ab suis consiliis alienissimo, et consilio relinquendiltaliam. 
—Ad Att. x. 4, 5, &c. 

Quintum puerum accepi vehementer. Avaritiam video 
fuisse, et spem magni congiarii. Magnum hoc malum est. 
—Ibid. x. 7. 

c Caesar mihi ignoscit per literas, quod non Romam 
venerim, se seque in optimam partem id accipere dicit. 
Facile patior, quod scribit, secum Tullum et Servium 
questos esse, quia non idem sibi, quod mihi remisisset. 
Homines ridiculos, qui cum filios misissent ad Cn. Pom- 
peium circumsidendum, ipsi in senatum venire dubitarent. 
—Ibid. x. 3. 



keep yourself clear from all this contention. The 
lGth of April, on the road d ." 

Antony also, whom Caesar left to guard Italy 
in his absence, wrote to him to the same purpose, 
and on the same day. 

Antonius Tribune of the people and Proprcetor to 
Cicero Emperor. 

" If I had not a great esteem for you, and much 
greater indeed than you imagine, I should not be 
concerned at the report which is spread of you, 
especially when I take it to be false. But out 
of the excess of my affection, I cannot dissemble, 
that even a report, though false, makes some im- 
pression on me. I cannot believe that you are 
preparing to cross the sea, when you have such a 
value for Dolabella, and your daughter Tullia, that 
excellent woman, and are so much valued by us 
all, to whom in truth your dignity and honour are 
almost dearer than to yourself ; yet I did not think 
it the part of a friend not to be moved by the dis- 
course even of ill-designing men, and wrote this 
with the greater inclination, as I take my part to 
be the more difficult on the account of our late 
coldness, occasioned rather by my jealousy, than 
any injury from you. For I desire you to assure 
yourself, that nobody is dearer to me than you, 
excepting my Caesar, and that I know also that 
Caesar reckons M. Cicero in the first class of his 
friends. Wherefore I beg of you, my Cicero, 
that you will keep yourself free and undetermined, 
and despise the fidelity of that man who first did 
you an injury, that he might afterwards do you a 
kindness ; nor fly from him, who, though he 
should not love you, which is impossible, yet will 
always desire to see you in safety and splendour. 
I have sent Calpurnius to you with this, the most 
intimate of my friends, that you might perceive 
the great concern which I have for your life and 
dignity e ." 

Cselius also wrote to him on the same subject, 
but finding, by some hints in Cicero's answer, that 
he was actually preparing to run away to Pompey, 
he sent him a second letter, in a most pathetic, or, 
as Cicero calls it, lamentable strain f , in hopes to 
work upon him by alarming all his fears. 

Ccelius to Cicero. 
u Being in a consternation at your letter, by 
which you show that you are meditating nothing 
but what is dismal, yet neither tell me directly 
what it is nor wholly hide it from me, I presently 
wrote this to you. By all your fortunes, Cicero, 
by your children, I beg and beseech you not to 
take any step injurious to your safety ; for I call 
the gods and men and our friendship to witness, 
that what I have told and forewarned you of was 
not any vain conceit of my own, but after I had 
talked with Caesar, and understood from him how 
he resolved to act after his victory, I informed you 
of what I had learned. If you imagine that his 
conduct will always be the same, in dismissing his 
enemies and offering conditions, you are mistaken. 
He thinks and even talks of nothing but what is 
fierce and severe, and is gone away much out of 
humour with the senate and thoroughly provoked 
by the opposition which he has met with, nor will 

d Ad Att. x. 8. e Ibid. 

f M. C32U epistolam scriptam miserabiliter.— Ibid. 9. 



182 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



there be any room for mercy. Wherefore, if you 
yourself, your only son, your house, your remain- 
ing hopes, be dear to you ; if I, if the worthy man 
your son-in-law, have any weight with you, you 
should not desire to overturn our fortunes and 
force us to hate or to relinquish that cause in which 
our safety consists, or to entertain an impious wish 
against yours. Lastly, reflect on this, that you 
have already given all the offence which you can 
give by staying so long behind ; and now to declare 
against a conqueror whom you would not offend 
while his cause was doubtful, and to fly after those 
who run away, with whom you would not join 
while they were in condition to resist, is the utmost 
folly. Take care that, while you are ashamed not 
to approve yourself one of the best citizens, you be 
not too hasty in determining what is the best. But 
if I cannot wholly prevail with you, yet wait at 
least till you know how we succeed in Spain, which 
I now tell you will be ours as soon as Csesar comes 
thither. What hopes they may have when Spain 
is lost, I know not ; and what your view can be in 
acceding to a desperate cause, by my faith I cannot 
find out. As to the thing which you discover to 
me by your silence about it, Csesar has been in- 
formed of it, and after the first salutation told me 
presently what he had heard of you. I denied that 
I knew anything of the matter, but begged of him 
to write to you in a manner the most effectual to 
make you stay. He carries me with him into 
Spain ; if he did not, I would run away to you 
wherever you are before I came to Rome, to dis- 
pute this point with you in person and hold you 
fast even by force. Consider, Cicero, again and 
again, that you do not utterly ruin both you and 
yours ; that you do not knowingly and willingly 
throw yourself into difficulties whence you see no 
way to extricate yourself. But if either the re- 
proaches of the better sort touch you, or you 
cannot bear the insolence and haughtiness of a 
certain set of men, I would advise you to choose 
some place remote from the war till these contests 
be over, which will soon be decided. If you do 
this I shall think that you have done wisely, and 
you will not offend Csesar &." 

Cselius's advice as well as his practice was 
grounded upon a maxim, which he had before 
advanced in a letter to Cicero, that in a public 
dissention, as long as it was carried on by civil 
methods one ought to take the honester side, but 
when it came to arms the stronger, and to judge 
that the best which was the safest 11 . Cicero was 
not of his opinion, but governed himself in this, as 
he generally did in all other cases, by a contrary 
rule, that where our duty and our safety interfere 
we should adhere always to what is right, whatever 
danger we incur by it. 

Curio paid Cicero a friendly visit of two days 
about this time, on his way towards Sicily, the 
command of which Caesar had committed to him. 
Their conversation turned on the unhappy condition 
of the times and the impending miseries of the war, 
in which Curio was open and without any reserve 
in talking of Caesar's views. " He exhorted Cicero 

g Ep. Fam. viii. 16. 

h Jllud te non arbitror fugcrc ; quin homines in dissen- 
fcione domestica debeant, quamdiu eiviliter sine armis 
cernetur, honcstiorem sequi partem: ubi ad bellum et 
cas£ra ventum sit, firmiorem ; et id melius statuere, quod 
tutius sit.— Ibid. viii. 14. 



to choose some neutral place for his retreat, assured 
him that Csesar would be pleased with it, offered 
him all kind of accommodation and safe passage 
through Sicily, made not the least doubt but that 
Csesar would soon be master of Spain and then 
follow Pompey with his whole force, and that 
Pompey's death would be the end of the war ; but 
confessed withal that he saw no prospect or glim- 
mering of hope for the republic ; said that Csesar 
was so provoked by the tribune Metellus at Rome 
that he had a mind to have killed him, as many of 
his friends advised ; that if he had done it a great 
slaughter would have ensued ; that his clemency 
flowed, not from his natural disposition, but because 
he thought it popular, and if he once lost the 
affections of the people he would be cruel ; that he 
was disturbed to see the people so disgusted by his 
seizing the public treasure, and though he had 
resolved to speak to them before he left Rome, yet 
he durst not venture upon it for fear of some 
affront, and went away at last much discomposed 1 ." 

The leaving the public treasure at Rome a prey 
to Csesar, is censured more than once by Cicero as 
one of the blunders of his friends k : but it is a 
common case in civil dissentions for the honester 
side, through the fear of discrediting their cause 
by any irregular act, to ruin it by an unseasonable 
moderation. The public money was kept in the 
temple of Saturn, and the consuls contented them- 
selves with carrying away the keys ; fancying that 
the sanctity of the place would secure it from 
violence, especially when the greatest part of it was 
a fund of a sacred kind, set apart by the laws for 
occasions only of the last exigency or the terror of 
a Gallic invasion 1 . Pompey was sensible of the 
mistake when it was too late, and sent instructions 
to the consuls to go back and fetch away this 
sacred treasure ; but Csesar was then so far ad- 
vanced that they durst not venture upon it, — and 
Lentulus coldly sent him word that he himself 
should first march against Csesar into Picenum, 
that they might be able to do it with safety" 1 . 
Csesar had none of these scruples, but as soon as 
he came to Rome ordered the "doors of the temple 
to be broken open and the money to be seized for 
his own use, and had like to have killed the tribune 
Metellus," who, trusting to the authority of his 
office, was silly enough to attempt to hinder him. 
He found there an immense treasure, " both in 
coin and wedges of solid gold, reserved from the 
spoils of conquered nations from the time even of 
the Punic war ; for the republic (as Pliny says) 
had never been richer than it was at this day"." 

Cicero was now impatient to be gone, and the 
more so on account of the inconvenient pomp of 
his laurel, and lictors, and style of emperor, which 
in a time of that jealousy and distraction exposed 
him too much to the eyes of the public as well as 
to the taunts and raillery of his enemies . He 
resolved to cross the sea to Pompey, yet knowing 

i AdAtt. x. 4. k Ibid. vii. 12,T5. 

I Dio, p. 161. 

m C. Cassius attulit mandata ad consules, ut Romam 

venirent, pecuniam do sanctiore serario auferrent — Consul 
rescripsit, ut prius ipse in Picenum. — Ad Att. vii. 21. 

II Nee fuit aliis temporibus respublica locupletior.— 
Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 3. 

° Accedit ctiam molcsta ha?c pompa lictorum meorum, 
nomenque imperii quo appellor, — sed ineurrit hacc nostra 
laurus non solum in oeulos, sed jam etiam in voculas male- 
volorum.— Ep. Fam. ii. 16. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



180 



all his motions to be narrowly watched, took pains 
to conceal his intention, especially from Antony, 
who resided at this time in his neighbourhood, and 
kept a strict eye upon him. He sent him word 
therefore by letter, that he had "no design against 
Caesar ; that he remembered his friendship, and his 
son-in-law Dolabelia; that if he had other thoughts, 
he could easily have been with Pompey ; that his 
chief reason for retiring was to avoid the uneasiness 
of appearing in public with the formality of his 
lictorsP." But Antony wrote him a surly answer, 
which Cicero calls a laconic mandate, and sent a 
copy of it to Atticus, to let him see, he says, how 
tyrannically it was drawn. 

" How sincere is your way of acting ! for he 
who has a mind to stand neuter stays at home ; he 
who goes abroad seems to pass a judgment on the 
one side or the other. But it does not belong to 
me to determine whether a man may go abroad or 
not. Caesar has imposed this task upon me, not 
to suffer any man to go out of Italy. Wherefore 
it signifies nothing for me to approve your resolu- 
tion if I have no power to indulge you in it. I 
would have you write to Caesar, and ask that favour 
of him : I do not doubt but you will obtain it, 
especially since you promise to retain a regard for 
our friendship i." 

After this letter Antony never came to see him, 
but sent an excuse that he was ashamed to do it 
because he took him to be angry with him, giving 
him to understand at the same time by Trebatius, 
that he had special orders to observe his motions 1 . 
These letters give us the most sensible proof of 
the high esteem and credit in which Cicero flourished 
at this time in Rome; when in a contest for empire, 
which force alone was to decide, we see the chiefs 
on both sides so solicitous to gain a man to their 
party who had no peculiar skill in arms or talents 
for war; but his name and authority was the 
acquisition which they sought ; since whatever was 
the fate of their arms, the world, they knew, would 
judge better of the cause which Cicero espoused. 
The same letters will confute likewise in a great 
measure the common opinion of his want of reso- 
lution in all cases of difficulty, since no man could 
show a greater than he did on the present occasion, 
when, against the importunities of his friends and 
all the invitations of a successful power, he chose 
to follow that cause which he thought the best, 
though he knew it to be the weakest. 

During Caesar's absence in Spain, Antony, who 
had nobody to control him at home, gave a free 
course to his natural disposition, and indulged 
himself without reserve in all the excess of lewdness 
and luxury. Cicero, describing his usual equipage 
in travelling about Italy, says, " He carries with 
him in an open chaise the famed actress Cytheris, 
his wife follows in a second, with seven other close 
litters full of his whores and boys. See by what 
base hands we fall, and doubt if you can whether 

P Cum ego saspissime scripsissem, nihil me contra 
Caesaris rationes cogitare; memiDisse me generi mei, 
meminisse amicitias, potuisse si aliter sentirem, esse cum 
Pompeio, me autem, quia cum lictoribus invitus cursarem, 
abesse velle. — Ad Att. x. 10. 

q Ad Att. x. 10. 

r Nominatim de me sibi imperatum dicit Antonius, nee 
me tamen ipse adhuc viderat, sed hoc Trebatio narravit. 
—Ibid. x. 12. 

Antonius— ad me misit, se pudore deterritum ad me non 
venisse, quod me sibi succensere putaret. — Ibid. x. 15. 



Caesar, let him come vanquished or victorious, will 
not make cruel work amongst us at his return. 
For my part, if I cannot get a ship I will take a 
boat to transport myself out of their reach ; but I 
shall tell you more after I have had a conference 
with Antony s ." Among Antony's other extrava- 
gances, he had the insolence to appear sometimes 
in public with his mistress Cytheris in a chariot 
drawn by lions. Cicero, alluding to this in a letter 
to Atticus, tells him jocosely that he need not be 
afraid of Antony's lions 1 , for though the beasts 
were so fierce the master himself was very tame. 

Pliny speaks of this fact as a designed insult on 
the Roman people, as if, by the emblem of the 
lions, Antony intended to give them to understand 
that the fiercest spirits of them would be forced to 
submit to the yoke u . Plutarch also mentions it ; 
but both of them place it after the battle of Phar- 
salia, though it is evident from this hint of it given 
by Cicero that it happened long before. 

Whilst Cicero continued at Formiae deliberating 
on the measures of his conduct, he formed several 
political theses adapted to the circumstances of 
the times, for the amusement of his solitary hours : 
" Whether a man ought to stay in his country 
when it was possessed by a tyrant. Whether one 
ought not by all means to attempt the dissolution 
of the tyranny, though his city on that account 
was exposed to the utmost hazard. Whether there 
was not cause to be afraid of the man who should 
dissolve it, lest he should advance himself into the 
other's place. Whether we should not help our 
country by the methods of peace rather than war. 
Whether it be the part of a citizen to sit still in a 
neutral place while his country is oppressed, or to 
run all hazards for the sake of the common liberty. 
Whether one ought to bring a war upon his city, 
and besiege it, when in the hands of a tyrant. 
Whether a man, not approving the dissolution of 
a tyranny by war, ought not to join himself how- 
ever to the best citizens. Whether one ought to 
act with his benefactors and friends, though they 
do not in his opinion take right measures for the 
public interest. Whether a man who has done 
great services to his country, and for that reason 
has been envied and cruelly treated, is still bound 
to expose himself to fresh dangers for it, or may 
not be permitted at last to take care of himself 
and his family and give up all political matters 
to the men of power ; — by exercising myself (says 
he) in these questions, and examining them on 
the one side and the other, I relieve my. mind 
from its present anxiety, and draw out something 
which may be of use to me x ." 

s Hie tamen Cytheridem secum lectica aperta portat, 
altera uxorem : septem pra^terea conjuncta? lectica? sunt 
amicarum, an amicorum ? vide quam turpi leto pereamus : 
et dubita, si potes, quin ille seu victus, seu victor redierit, 
casdem facturus sit. Ego vero vel lintriculo, si navis non 
erit, eripiam me ex istorum parricidio. Sed plura scribam 
cum ilium convenero.' — Ad Att. x. 10. 

1 Tu Antonii leones pertimescas, cave. Nihil est illo 
homine jucundius.— Ibid. x. 13. 

u Jugo subdidit eos, primusqueRoma? adcurrum junxit 
Antonius ; et quidem civili bello cum dimicatum esset in 
Pharsalicis campis ; non sine ostento quodam temporum, 
generosos spiritus jugum subire illo prodigio significante : 
nam quod ita vectus est cum mima Cytheride, supra mon- 
stra etiam illarum calamitatum fuit .— Plin. Hist. Nat. 
viii. 16. 

x In his ego me consultationibus exercens, disserens in 



184 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



From the time of his leaving the city together 
with Pompey and the senate, there passed not a 
single day in which he did not write one or more 
letters to Atticus ^, the only friend whom he trusted 
with the secret of his thoughts. From these letters 
it appears, that the sum of Atticus's advice to him 
agreed entirely with his own sentiments, that if 
Pompey remained in Italy he ought to join with 
him ; if not, should stay behind and expect what 
fresh accidents might produce 2 . This was what 
Cicero had hitherto followed ; and as to his future 
conduct, though he seems sometimes to be a little 
wavering and irresolute, yet the result of his deli- 
berations constantly turned in favour of Pompey. 
His personal affection for the man, preference of 
his cause, the reproaches of the better sort, who 
began to censure his tardiness, and above all his 
gratitude for favours received, which had ever the 
greatest weight with him, made him resolve at all 
adventures to run after him ; and though he was 
displeased with his management of the war and 
without any hopes of his success 3 , though he knew 
him before to be no politician, and now perceived 
him, he says, to be no general, yet with all his 
faults he could not endure the thought of deserting 
him, nor hardly forgive himself for staying so long 
behind him. " For as in love (says he), anything 
dirty and indecent in a mistress will stifle it for 
the present, so the deformity of Pompey's conduct 
put me out of humour with him, but now that he 
is gone my love revives and I cannot bear his 
absence," &c. b 

What held him still a while longer was the tears 
of his family and the remonstrances of his daughter 
Tullia, who entreated him to wait only the issue of 
the Spanish war, and urged it as the advice of 
Atticus c . He was passionately fond of this daugh- 
ter, and with great reason, for she was a woman of 
singular accomplishments, with the utmost affection 
and piety to him. Speaking of her to Atticus, 
" how admirable (says he) is her virtue ! how does 
she bear the public calamity ! how her domestic 
disgusts ! what a greatness of mind did she show 
at my parting from them ! in spite of the tender- 

utramque partem, turn grasce turn latine, abduco parum- 
per animum a molestiis et rod irpovpyov rt delibero. — Ad 
Att. ix. 4. 

J Hujus autem epistolse non solum ea causa est, ut ne 
quis a me dies intermittetur, quin dem ad te literas, sed, 
&c.— Ibid. viii. 12. 

Alteram tibi eodem diehanc epistolamdictavi, etpridie 
dederam mea manu longiorem.— Ibid. x. 3. 

z Ego quidem tibi non sim auctor, si Pompeius Italiam 
relinquit, te quoque profugere, summo enim periculo 
facies, nee reipublicae proderis ; cui quidem posterius pote- 
ris prodesse, si manseris.— Ibid. ix. 10. 

tt Ingrati animi crimen horreo.— Ibid. ix. 2, 5, 7. 

Nee mehercule hoc facio reipublicae causa, quam fundi- 
tus deletam puto, sed nequis me putet ingratum in eum, 

qui me levavit iis incommodis, quibus ipse affecerat 

Ibid. ix. 19. 

Fortune sunt committenda omnia. Sine spe conamur 
ulla. Si melius quid accident mirabimur. — Ibid. x. 2. 

l> Sicut eV rots ipwriKOLS, alienant immundac, insulsao, 
indecorse: sic me illius fugae, negligentiaeque deformitas 
avertit ab amorc — nunc emergit amor, nunc desiderium 
fcrre non possum.' — Ibid. ix. 10. 

c Sed cum ad me mea Tullia scribat, orans, ut quid in 
Hispania geratur expectem, ct semper adseribat idem 
videri tibi. — Ibid. x. 8. 

I<acrymac meorum me interdum mnlliunt, precantium, 
ut de llispaniis expectemus. — Ibid. x. 9. 



ness of her love she wishes me to do nothing but 
what is right and for my honour" 1 ." But as to the 
affair of Spain, he answered, "that whatever was 
the fate of it, it could not alter the case with 
regard to himself; for if Csesar should be driven 
out of it, his journey to Pompey would be less wel- 
come and reputable, since Curio himself would run 
over to him ; or if the war was drawn into length, 
there would be no end of waiting ; or lastly, if 
Pompey's army should be beaten, instead of sitting 
still, as they advised, he thought just the contrary, 
and should choose the rather to run away from the 
violence of such a victory. He resolved, therefore," 
he says, " to act nothing craftily ; but whatever 
became of Spain to find out Pompey as soon as he 
could, in conformity to Solon's law, who made it 
capital for a citizen not to take part in a civil dis- 
sention e ." 

Before his going off, Servius Sulpicius sent him 
word from Rome that he had a great desire to have 
a conference with him, to consult in common what 
measures they ought to take. Cicero consented to 
it, in hopes to find Servius in the same mind with 
himself, and to have his company to Pompey's 
camp : for in answer to his message, he intimated 
his own intention of leaving Italy, and if Servius 
was not in the same resolution, advised him to save 
himself the trouble of the journey ; though, if he 
had anything of moment. to communicate, he would 
wait for his coming f . But at their meeting, he 
found him so timorous and desponding, and so full 
of scruples upon everything which was proposed, 
that, instead of pressing him to the same conduct 
with himself, he found it necessary to conceal his 
own design from him. " Of all the men," says he, 
"■ whom I have met with, he is alone a greater 
coward than C. Marcellus, who laments his hav- 
ing been consul ; and urges Antony to hinder 
my going, that he himself may stay with a better 
graces." 

Cato, whom Pompey had sent to possess himself 
of Sicily, thought fit to quit that post, and yield up 

d Cujus quidem virtus mirifica. Quomodo ilia fert 
publicam cladem? quomodo domesticas tricas? quantus 
autem animus in discessu nostro ? sit (TTopyrj, sit summa 
(Tvuttj^is ; tamen nos recte facere et bene audire vult— 
Ad Att. x. 8. 

e Si pelletur, quam gratus aut quam honestus turn erit 
ad Pompeium noster adventus, cum ipsum Curionem ad 
ipsum transiturum putem ? si trahitur bellum, quid 
expectem, aut quam diu ? relinquitur, ut si vincimur in 
Hispania, quiescamus. Id ego contra puto : istum enim 
victorem relinquendum magis puto, quam vietum. — Ibid. 

Astute nihil sum acturus ; fiat in Hispania quidlibet. — 
Ibid. x. 6. 

Ego vero Solonis— legem negligam, qui capite sanxit, si 
qui in seditione non alterius utrius partis fuisset. — Ibid, 
x. 1. 

{ Sin autem tibi homini prudentissimo videtur utile esse, 
nos colloqui, quanquam longius etiam cogitabam ab urbe 
discedere, cujus jam etiam nomen invitus audio, tamen 
propius accedam.*— Ep. Fain. iv. 1. 

Restat ut discedendum putem ; in quo reliqua videtur 
esse delibcratio, quod consilium in discessu, quae loca 
sequamur — si babes jam statutum, quid tibi agendum 
putes, in quo non sit conjunctum consilium tuum cum 
meo, supersedeas hoc labore itineris. — Ibid. iv. 8. 

f Servii consilio nihil expeditur. Omnes captiones in 
omni sententia occurrunt. Unum C. Marcello cognovi 
timidiorom, quern consulcm fuisse poenitet — qui etiam 
Antonium confirmasse dioitur, ut me impediret, quo ipse, 
credo, honestius. — Ad Att. x. 15. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



185 



the island to Curio, who came likewise to seize it 
on Caesar's part with a superior force. Cicero was 
much scandalized at Cato's conduct, being per- 
suaded that he might have held his possession 
without difficulty ; and that all honest men would 
have flocked to him, especially when Pompey's 
fleet was so near to support him : for if that had 
but once appeared on the coast, and begun to act, 
Curio himself, as he confessed, would have run 
away the first. " I wish," says Cicero, " that Cotta 
may hold out Sardinia, as it is said he will ; for if 
so, how base will Cato's act appearM " 

In these circumstances, while he was preparing 
all things for his voyage, and waiting only for a 
fair wind, he removed from his Cuman to his Pom- 
peian villa, beyond Naples, which not being so 
commodious for an embarkment, would help to 
lessen the suspicion of his intended flight 1 . Here 
he received a private message from the officers of 
three cohorts which were in garrison at Pompeii, 
to beg leave to wait upon him the day following, 
in order to deliver up their troops and the town 
into his hands ; but instead of listening to the 
overture, he slipped away the next morning before 
day to avoid seeing them, since such a force or a 
greater could be of no service there, and he was 
apprehensive that it was designed only as a trap 
for him k . 

Thus pursuing at last the result of all his delibe- 
rations, and preferring the consideration of duty to 
that of his safety, he embarked to follow Pompey ; 
and though, from the nature of the war, he plainly 
saw and declared, " that it was a contention only 
for rule ; yet he thought Pompey the modester, 
honester, and juster king of the two ; and if he did 
not conquer, that the very name of the Roman 
people would be extinguished ; or if he did, that it 
would still be after the manner and pattern of 
Sylla, with much cruelty and blood 1 ." With these 
melancholy reflections, he set sail on the eleventh 
of June m , "rushing (as he tells us; knowingly and 

h Curio mecum vixit — Sicilian diffidens, si Pompeius 
navigare ecepisset. — Ad Att. x. 7- 

Curio — Pompeii classem timebat : quae si esset, se de 
Sicilia abiturum. — Ibid. x. 4. 

Cato qui Siciliam tenere nullo negotio potuit, et si 
tenuisset, omnes boni ad eum se contulissent, Syracusis 
profectus est a. d. vin. Kal. Maii — utinam, quod aiunt, 
Cotta Sardiniam teneat. Est enim rumor. O, si id fuerit, 
turpem Catonem .'—Ibid. x. 16. 

» Ego ut minuerem suspicionem profectionis, — profectus 
sum in Pompeianum a. d. iv. Id. Ut ibi essem, dum quae 
ad navigandum opus essent, pararentur. — Ibid. 

k Cum ad villain venissem, ventum est ad me, cen- 
turiones trium cohortium, quae Pompeiis sunt, me velle 
postridie ; haec mecum Ninnius noster, velle eos mihi se, 
et oppidum tradere. At ego tibi postridie a villa ante 
lucem, ut me omnino illi non viderent. Quid enim erat 
in tribus cobortibus ? quid si plures, quo apparatu ? — et 
simul fieri poterat, ut tentaremur. Omnem igitur suspi- 
cionem sustuli.— Ibid. 

1 Dominatio quaesita ab utroque est. — Ibid. viii. 11. 

Regnandi contentio est ; in qua pulsus est modestior rex 
et probior et integrior ; et is, qui nisi vine-it, nomen populi 
Romani deleatur necesse est: sin autem vincit, Sy llano 
more, exemploque vineet.— Ibid. x. 7. 

m A. D. in. Id. Jun.— Ep. Fam. xiv. 7- It is remark- 
able, that among the reasons which detained Cicero in 
Italy longer than he intended, he mentions the tempestuous 
weather of the Equinox, and the calms that succeeded it ,- 
yet this was about the end of May, [Ad Att. x. 17, 18.] 
which shows what a strange confusion there wag at this 
time in the Roman Kalendar ; and what necessity for that 



willingly into voluntary destruction, and doing just 
what cattle do, when driven by any force, running 
after those of his own kind : for as the ox (says 
he) follows the herd, so I follow the honest, or 
those at least who are called so, though it be to 
certain ruin 11 ." As to his brother Quintus, he 
was so far from desiring his company in this fligbyt, 
that he pressed him to stay in Italy on account of 
his personal obligations to Caesar, and the relation 
that he had borne to him : yet Quintus would not 
be left behind ; but declared that he would follow 
his brother whithersoever he should lead, and 
think that party right which he should choose for 
him . 

What gave Cicero a more particular abhorrence 
of the war into which he was entering was, to see 
Pompey on all occasions affecting to imitate Sylla, 
and to hear him often say, with a superior air, 
" Could Sylla do such a thing, and cannot I do 
it ?" as if determined to make Sylla' s victory the 
pattern of his own. He was now in much the same 
circumstances in which that conqueror had once been ; 
sustaining the cause of the senate by his arms, and 
treated as an enemy by those who possessed Italy ; 
and as he flattered himself with the same good for- 
tune, so he was meditating the same kind of return, 
and threatening ruin and proscription to all his 
enemies. This frequently shocked Cicero, as we 
find from many of his letters, to consider with 
what cruelty and effusion of civil blood the suc- 
cess even of his own friends would certainly be 
attended p. 

We have no account of the manner and circum- 
stances of his voyage, or by what course he steered 
towards Dyrrhachium ; for after his leaving Italy, 
all his correspondence with it was in great measure 
cut off ; so that from June, in which he sailed, we 
find an intermission of about nine months in the 
series of his letters, and not more than four of 
them written to Atticus during the continuance of 
the wari. He arrived, however, safely in Pompey's 
camp, with his son, his brother, and nephew, com- 
mitting the fortunes of the whole family to the 
issue of that cause : and that he might make some 
amends for coming so late, and gain the greater 
authority with his party, he furnished Pompey, 

reformation of it which Caesar soon after effected, in order 
to reduce the computation of their months to the regular 
course of the seasons from which they had so widely varied. 
Some of the commentators, for want of attending to this 
cause, are strangely puzzled to account for the difficulty ; 
and one of them ridiculously imagines, that by the Equi- 
nox, Cicero covertly means Antony, who used to make 
Ms days and nights equal, by sleeping as much as he 
waked ! 

n Ego prudens ac sciens ad pestem ante oculos positam 
turn profectus.— Ep. Fam. vi. 6. 

Prudens et sciens tanquam ad interitum ruerem volun- 
tarium. [Pro M. Marcel. 5.] quid ergo acturus es ? idem, 
quod pecudes, quae dispulsae sui generis sequuntur greges. 
Ut bos armenta, sic ego bonos viros, aut eos, quicunque 
dicentur boni, sequar, etiam si ruent.< — Ad Att. vii. 7- 

° Fratrem — socium hujus fortunae esse non erat aequum : 
cui magis etiam Caesar irascetur. Sed impetrare non 
possum, ut maneat. [Ibid. ix. 1.] frater, quicquid mihi 
placeret, id rectum se putare aiebat.— Ibid. ix. 6. 

P Quam crebro illud, Sylla potuit, ego non potero ?— 

Ita Syllaturit animus ejus, et proscripturit diu. [Ad 
Att. ix. 10.] Cnaeus noster Syllani regni similitudinem 
concupivit. et'ScoS o~oi \eyw. [Ibid. 7.] ut non nominatim 
sed generatim proscriptio esset informata.— Ibid. xi. 6. 

1 Ad Att. xi. 1—4. 



180 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



who was in great want of money, with a large sum 
out of his own stock for the public service 1 . 

But as he entered into the war with reluctance, 
so he found nothing in it but what increased his 
disgust : he disliked everything which they had 
done, or designed to do ; saw nothing good amongst 
them but their cause ; and that their own counsels 
would ruin them. For all the chiefs of the party, 
trusting to the superior fame and authority of Pom- 
pey, and dazzled with the splendour of the troops 
which the princes of the East had sent to their 
assistance, assured themselves of victory ; and 
without reflecting on the different character of the 
two armies, would hear of nothing but fighting. It 
was Cicero's business therefore to discourage this 
wild spirit, and to represent the hazard of the war, 
the force of Caesar, and the probability of his beat- 
ing them, if ever they ventured a battle with him : 
but all his remonstrances were slighted, and he 
himself reproached as timorous and cowardly by 
the other leaders ; though nothing afterwards hap- 
pened to them but what he had often foretold s . 
This soon made him repent of embarking in a 
cause so imprudently conducted ; and it added to 
his discontent, to find himself even blamed by 
Cato for coming to them at all, and deserting that 
neutral post which might have given him the better 
opportunity of bringing about an accommodation 1 . 

In this disagreeable situation, he declined all em- 
ployment ; and finding his counsels wholly slighted, 
resumed his usual way of raillery ; and what he 
could not dissuade by his authority, endeavoured 
to make ridiculous by his jests. This gave occa- 
sion, afterwards, to Antony, in a speech to the 
senate, to censure the levity of his behaviour in 
the calamity of a civil war ; and to reflect not only 
upon his fears, but the unseasonableness also of his 
jokes. To which Cicero answered, " that though 
their camp indeed was full of care and anxiety, yet 
in circumstances the most turbulent, there were 
certain moments of relaxation which all men, who 
had any humanity in them, were glad to lay hold 
on : but while Antony reproached him both with 
dejection and joking at the same time, it was a 
sure proof that he had observed a proper temper 
and moderation in them both u ." 

r Etsi egeo rebus omnibus, quod is quoque in angustiis 
est, quicum sumus, cui magnam dedimus pecuniani mu- 
tuam, opinantes nobis, constitutes rebus, earn rem etiam 
honori fore. [Ibid. xi. 3.] si quas habuimus facilitates, eas 
Pompeio turn, cum id videbamur sapienter facere, detuli- 
mus —Ad Att. 13. 

s Quippe mihi nee quae accidunt, nee qua? aguntur, ullo 
modi) probantur. [Ibid. xi. 4.] Nihil boni praeter causam. 
[Kp. Fam. vii. 3.] Itaque ego, quern turn fortes illi viri, 
Domitii et Lentuli, timidum esse dicebant, &c. [Ibid. vi. 
21.] quo quidem in bello, nihil adversi accidit non pra?di- 
centc me. — Ibid. 6. 

1 Cujus me mei fact! pcenituit, non tarn propter peri- 
culum iiKimi, quam propter vitia multa, qua; ibi offend i, 
quo veneram.— Ibid. vii. 3 ; Plutarch, in Cic. 

u Ipso fugi adhuc oxxme munus, eo maglB, quod ita nihil 
poterat agi, ut mihi el meia rebus aptuxn esset. [Ad Att. 
xi. 4.] Quod autem Idem moestitiam meant reprehendit, 
idem jocum ; magno argumento c&t, me in utroque fuisse 
moderatum. — Phil ii. 16. 

Some of Cicero'a sayings on this occasion are preserved 
by different writers. When Pompey put him in mind of 
his coming to late to them: How can / come late, said 
he, when I find nothing in readinett among you 9 — and 
upon Pompey 's asking him aaroastioally, where his son- 
in-law Dolabclla was; He it with your father-in-law, 



Young Brutus was also in Pompey's camp, where 
he distinguished himself by a peculiar zeal ; which 
Cicero mentions as the more remarkable, because 
he had always professed an irreconcilable hatred to 
Pompey as to the murderer of his father x . But 
he followed the cause, not the man ; sacrificing all 
his resentments to the service of his country, and 
looking now upon Pompey as the general of the 
republic and the defender of their common liberty. 

During the course of this war, Cicero never 
speaks of Pompey's conduct but as a perpetual 
succession of blunders. His first step, of leaving 
Italy, was condemned indeed by all, but particu- 
larly by Atticus ; yet to us, at this distance, it 
seems not only to have been prudent, but neces- 
sary y. What shocked people so much at it, was 
the discovery that it made of his weakness and 
want of preparation ; and after the security which 
he had all along affected, and the defiance so oft 
declared against his adversary, it made him appear 
contemptible to run away at last on the first ap- 
proach of Caesar. " Did you ever see," says 
Caelius, " a more silly creature than this Pompey of 
yours ; who, after raising all this bustle, is found to 
be such a trifler? or did you ever read or hear of 
a man more vigorous in action, more temperate in 
victory, than our Csesar z ?" 

Pompey had left Italy about a year before Caesar 
found it convenient to go after him ; during which 
time he had gathered a vast fleet from all the ma- 
ritime states and cities dependent on the empire, 
without making any use of it to distress an enemy 
who had no fleet at all : he suffered Sicily and Sar- 
dinia to fall into Caesar's hands without a blow ; 
and the important town of Marseilles, after having 
endured a long siege for its affection to his cause. 
But his capital error was the giving up Spain, and 
neglecting to put himself at the head of the best 
army that he had, in a country devoted to his in- 
terests, and commodious for the operations of his 
naval force. When Cicero first heard of this reso- 
lution, he thought it monstrous a ; and, in truth, 
the committing that war to his lieutenants, against 

replied he. To a person newly arrived from Italy, and 
informing them of a strong report at Rome, that Pompey 
tvas blocked up by Ccesar ,■ And you sailed hither therefore, 
said he, that you might see it with your own eyes. And 
even after their defeat, when Nonnius was exhorting them ■ 
to courage, because there were sevi n eaglet still left in 
Pompey's camp,- You encourage well, said he. if we were 
to fight with jackdaws. By the frequency of these sple- 
netic jokes, he is said to have provoked Pompey so far as 
to tell him, / wish that you would go over to the other side, 
that you may begin to fear «*.— Macrob. Saturn, ii. 3; 
Plutarch, in Cic. 

x Brutus amicus in causa vcrsatur acriter. — Ad Att. xi. 
4 ; Plutarch, in Brut, et Pomp. 

y Quorum dux quam aarpaT^yr]TOi>\ tu quoque ani- 
madvertis, cui nc Picena quidem nota sunt: quam autem 
sine consilio, res testis.— Ad Att. vii. 13. 

Si iste ltaliam relinquet, faciei omnino male, et ut ego 
cxistimo a\oyiaTus. dec. — Ibid. ix. 10, 

* Kcquando tu homincm incytiorem quam tuum Cn. 
Pompeium vidisti? qui tantas turbas, qui tarn nugax 
esset, oommorit? ecquem autem Caeeare nostra aoriorem 
in rebus agendas, eodem in victoria temperatiorem, aut 
legist! aut audisti? — E)p. Fam. viii. 15. 

» Omnia hav olassia Alexandria. Colchis, Tyro, Sidone, 
Cypro, Pamphilia, Lycia, Rhodo, &o. ad intercludendos 
Italia- oommeatus — oomparatur. — Ad Att. ix. <). 

Nunciant JGgyptuin— cogitare ; Llispuniani abjecisse. 
Monstra narrant.— Ad Att. ix. 11. 



MARCUS TULL1US CICERO. 



187 



the superior genius and ascendant of Csesar, was 
the ruin of his best troops and hopes at once. 

Some have been apt to wonder why Csesar, after 
forcing Pompey out of Italy, instead of crossing the 
sea after him, when he was in no condition to resist, 
should leave him for the space of a year to gather 
armies and fleets at his leisure, and strengthen him- 
self with all the forces of the East. But Csesar had 
good reasons for what he did : he knew that all the 
troops which could be drawn together from those 
countries were no match for his ; that if he had 
pursued him directly to Greece, and driven him out 
of it, as he had done out of Italy, he should have 
driven him probably into Spain, where of all places 
he desired the least to meet him ; and where, in all 
events, Pompey had a sure resource as long as it 
was possessed by a firm and veteran army ; which 
it was Caesar's business therefore to destroy in the 
first place, or he could expect no success from the 
war ; and there was no opportunity of destroying 
it so favourable as when Pompey himself was at 
such a distance from it. This was the reason of 
his marching back with so much expedition, " to 
find," as he said, " an army without a general, and 
return to a general without an army b ." The event 
showed that he judged right ; for within forty days 
from the first sight of his enemy in Spain, he made 
himself master of the whole province . 

After the reduction of Spain, he was created dic- 
tator by M. Lepidus, then prsetor at Rome ; and by 
a urb 705 hi s dictatorial power declared himself 

cic 59. consul, with P. Servilius Isauricus ; 

coss. but he was no sooner invested with 

c. julius this office, than he marched to Brun- 
c;esar ii. disium, and embarked, on the fourth 
p. servilius of January, in order to find out Pom- 
vatia isau- p e y^ -pjjg carr yi n g about in his person 
ricus. ^ e supreme dignity of the empire, 

added no small authority to his cause, by making 
the cities and states abroad the more cautious of 
acting against him, or giving them a better pre- 
tence at least for opening their gates to the consul 
of Rome d . Cicero all this while, despairing of any 
good from the war, had been using all his endea- 
vours to dispose his friends to peace, till Pompey 
forbade any farther mention of it in council ; de- 
claring, that he valued neither life nor country for 
which he must be indebted to Csesar, as the world 
must take the case to be, should he accept any 
conditions in his present circumstances 6 . He was 
sensible that he had hitherto been acting a con- 
temptible part, and done nothing equal to the great 
name which he had acquired in the world ; and was 
determined, therefore, to retrieve his honour, before 
he laid down his arms, by the destruction of his 
adversary, or to perish in the attempt. 

During the blockade of Dyrrhachium, it was a 
current notion in Csesar's army that Pompey would 

b Ire 6e ad exercitum sine duce, et inde reversurum ad 
ducem sine exercitu. — Sueton. J. Caes. 34. 

c Caes. De Bello Civ. ii. 

d Illi se daturos negare, neque portas consuli praeclusu- 
ros.— Ibid. iii. 590. 

e Desperans victoriam, primum ccepi suadere pacem, 
cujus fueram semper auctor ; deinde cum ab ea sententia 
Pompeius valde abhorreret. — Ep. Fam. vii. 3. 

Vibullius de Caesaris mandatis agere instituit ; eum 

ingressum in sermonem Pompeius interpellavit, et loqui 
plura prohibuit. Quid mibi, inquit, aut vita aut civitate 
opus est, quam beneficio Caesaris habere videbor ?— Caes. 
De Bello Civ. iii. 596. 



draw off his troops into his ships, and remove the 
war to- some distant place. Upon this, Dolabella, 
who was with Csesar, sent a letter to Cicero, into 
Pompey's camp, exhorting him, " that if Pompey 
should be driven from these quarters, to seek some 
other country, he would sit down quietly at Athens, 
or any city remote from the war : that it was time 
to think of his own safety, and be a friend to him- 
self rather than to others : that he had now fully 
satisfied his duty, his friendship, and his engage- 
ments to that party which he had espoused in the 
republic : that there was nothing left but to be 
where the republic itself now was, rather than, by 
following that ancient one, to be in none at all ; 
and that Csesar would readily approve this con- 
duct f ." But the war took a quite different turn ; 
and instead of Pompey's running away from Dyr- 
rhachium, Csesar, by an unexpected defeat before it, 
was forced to retire the first, and leave to Pompey 
the credit of pursuing him, as in a kind of flight 
towards Macedonia. 

While the two armies were thus employed, Cselius, 
now prsetor at Rome, trusting to his power and the 
success of his party, began to publish several vio- 
lent and odious laws, especially one for the cancel- 
ling of all debts &. This raised a great flame in the 
city, till he was overruled and deposed from his 
magistracy by the consul Servilius and the senate : 
but being made desperate by this affront, he re- 
called Milo from his exile at Marseilles, whom 
Csesar had refused to restore ; and, in concert with 
him, resolved to raise some public commotion in 
favour of Pompey. In this disposition, he wrote 
his last letter to Cicero ; in which, after an account 
of his conversion, and the service which he was 
projecting, " You are asleep," says he, " and do not 
know how open and weak we are here : what are 
you doing ? are you waiting for a battle, which is 
sure to be against you ? I am not acquainted with 
your troops ; but ours have been long used to fight 
hard, and to bear cold and hunger with easeV 
But this disturbance, which began to alarm all 
Italy, was soon ended by the death of the authors 
of it, Milo and Cselius, who perished in their rash 
attempt, being destroyed by the soldiers whom they 
were endeavouring to debauch. They had both at- 
tached themselves very early to the interests and 
the authority of Cicero, and were qualified by their 
parts and fortunes to have made a principal figure 
in the republic, if they had continued in those 
sentiments, and adhered to his advice ; but their 
passions, pleasures, and ambition, got the ascen- 
dant, and, through a factious and turbulent life, 
hurried them on to this wretched fate. 

All thoughts of peace being now laid aside, 
Cicero's next advice to Pompey was, to draw the 
war into length, nor ever to give Csesar the oppor- 

f Illud autem a te peto, ut, si jam ille evitaverit hoc 
periculum, et se abdiderit in classem, tu tuis rebus consu- 
las : et aliquando tibi potius quam cuivis sis amicus. Satis 
factum est jam a te vel officio, vel familiaritati ; satisfac- 
tum etiam partibus, et ei reipublicae quam tu probabas. 
Reliquum est, ubi nunc est respublica ibi simus potius, 
quam dum veterem illam sequainur, simus in nulla.— Ep. 
Fam. ix. 9. 

e Caes. De Bello Civ. iii 600. 

h Vos dormitis, nee haec adhuc mihi videmini intelligere, 
quam nos pateamus, et quam simus imbecilli — quid istic 
facitis? praelium expectatis, quod firmissimum est? vestras 
copias non novi. Nostri valdc depugnare, et facile algere 
et esurire consueverint.— Ep. Fam. viii. 17. 



188 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



tunity of a battle. Pompey approved this counsel, 
and pursued it for some time, till he gained the 
advantage above-mentioned before Dyrrhachium ; 
which gave him such a confidence in his own 
troops, and such a contempt of Caesar's, " that 
from this moment," says Cicero, " this great man 
ceased to be a general ; opposed a raw, Dew-raised 
army to the most robust and veteran legions ; was 
shamefully beaten, and, with the loss of his camp, 
forced to fly away alone 1 ." 

Had Cicero's advice been followed, Caesar must 
inevitably have been ruined : for Pompey's fleet 
would have cut off all supplies from him by sea, 
and it was not possible for him to subsist long at 
land while an enemy, superior in number of troops, 
was perpetually harassing him and wasting the 
country : and the report everywhere spread of his 
flying from Dyrrhachium before a victorious army 
which was pursuing him, made his march every 
way the more difficult, and the people of the coun- 
try more shy of assisting him : till the despicable 
figure that he seemed to make raised such an im- 
patience for fighting, and assurance of victory in 
the Pompeian chiefs, as drew them to the fatal 
resolution of giving him battle at Pharsalia. There 
was another motive likewise suggested to us by 
Cicero, which seems to have had no small influ- 
ence in determining Pompey to this unhappy step ; 
his superstitious regard to omens, and the admo- 
nitions of diviners, to which his nature was strongly 
addicted. The haruspices were all on his side, 
and flattered him with everything that was pros- 
perous : and besides those in his own camp, the 
whole fraternity of them at Rome were sending 
him perpetual accounts of the fortunate and auspi- 
cious significations which they had observed in the 
entrails of their victims' 4 . 

But, after all, it must needs be owned, that 
Pompey had a very difficult part to act, and much 
less liberty of executing what he himself approved, 
than in all the other wars in which he had been 
engaged. In his wars against foreign enemies, his 
power was absolute, and all his motions depended 
on his own will ; but in this, besides several kings 
and princes of the East who attended him in per- 
son, he had with him in his camp almost all the 
chief magistrates and senators of Rome ; men of 
equal dignity with himself, who had commanded 
armies, and obtained triumphs, and expected a 
share in all his councils ; and that, in their com- 
mon danger, no step should be taken but by their 
common advice : and as they were under no en- 
gagement to his cause but what was voluntary, so 
they were necessarily to be humoured, lest through 
disgust they should desert it. Now these were all 
uneasy in their present situation, and longed to 
be at home in the enjoyment of their estates and 
honours ; and having a confidence of victory, from 
the number of their troops and the reputation of 



» Cum ab ea sententia Pompeius valde abhorreret, sua- 
dere institui, ut bellum duceret : hoc interdum probabat 
et in ea sententia videbatur fore, et fui&set fortasse, nisi 
quadam ex pugna ccepisset militibus suis confidere. Ex 
eo tempore vir ille summus nnllus imperator fuit : victus 
turpissime, amissis etiam castris, solus fugit.— Ep. Fam. 
vii. 3. 

k Hoc civili bello, dii immortales ! quae nobis in 

Graeciam Roma responsa haruspicum missa sunt? quae 

dicta Pompeio ? etenim ille admodum extis et ostentis 

movebatur.— De Div. ii. 24. 



their leader, were perpetually teasing Pompey to 
the resolution of a battle, charging him with a de- 
sign to protract the war for the sake of perpetuat- 
ing his authority ; and calling him another Aga- 
memnon, who was proud of holding so many kings 
and generals under his command 1 ; till, being unable 
to withstand their reproaches any longer, he was 
driven, by a kind of shame, and against his judg- 
ment, to the experiment of a decisive action. 

Caesar was sensible of Pompey's difficulty, and 
persuaded that he could not support the indignity 
of showing himself afraid of fighting ; and from 
that assurance exposed himself often more rashly 
than prudence would otherwise justify : for his be- 
sieging Pompey at Dyrrhachium, who was master 
of the sea which supplied everything to him that 
was wanted, while his own army was starving at 
land ; and the attempt to block up intrenchments 
so widely extended with much smaller numbers 
than were employed to defend them, must needs 
be thought rash and extravagant, were it not for 
the expectation of drawing Pompey by it to a ge- 
neral engagement ; for when he could not gain that 
end, his perseverance in the siege had like to have 
ruined him, and would inevitably have done so if 
he had not quitted it, as he himself afterwards 
owned 111 . 

It must be observed likewise, that while Pom- 
pey had any walls or intrenchments between him 
and Caesar, not all Csesar's vigour, nor the courage 
of his veterans, could gain the least advantage 
against him ; but on the contrary, that Caesar was 
baffled and disappointed in every attempt. Thus 
at Brundisium he could make no impression upon 
the town, till Pompey at full leisure had secured 
his retreat, and embarked his troops : and at Dyr- 
rhachium, the only considerable action which hap- 
pened between them, was not only disadvantageous, 
but almost fatal to him. Thus far Pompey cer- 
tainly showed himself the greater captain, in not 
suffering a force, which he could not resist in the 
field, to do him any hurt, or carry any point against 
him, since that depended on the skill of the general. 
By the help of intrenchments he knew how to 
make his new-raised soldiers a match for Caesar's 
veterans ; but when he was drawn to encounter 
him on the open plain, he fought against insuperable 
odds, by deserting his proper arms, as Cicero says, 
of caution, counsel, and authority, in which he 
was superior, and committing his fate to swords 
and spears, and bodily strength, in which his ene- 
mies far excelled him 11 . 

Cicero was not present at the battle of Pharsa- 
lia, but was left behind at Dyrrhachium much out 

1 Kal itrl To?5e abrbv fiacriXza. ical 'Aya/xe/jLvova 
kolXovvtoov, on KaKetvos jSounAeW Sia rbv tt6\€/j.ov 
^PX €V ' e^eV-nj T <*>v oiKelwv Aoyiaficov, xal eveSco/cev 
avrols. — App. p. 470. 

Milites otium, socii morara, principes ambitum ducis 
increpabant. — Flor. iv. 2 ; Dio, p. 185 ; Plutarch, in Pomp. 

m Caesar pro natura ferox, et conficiendae rei cupidus, 
ostentare aciem, provocare, lacessere ; nunc obsidione 
castrorum, quae sedecim millium vallo obduxerat ; (sed 
quid his obesset obsidio, qui patente mari omnibus copiis 
abundarent?) nunc expugnatione Dyrrhachii irrita, &c. 
—Flor. iv. 2. 

'ClfAoAoyei T€ ixsrayivwaKsiv irpbs Avpfaxlcp arpa- 
ToireSevaas, &c. — App. p. 468. 

" Non iis rebus pugnabamus, quibus valere poteramus, 
consilio, auctoritate, causa, quae erant in nobis superiora ; 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



180 



of humour, as well as out of order : his discontent 
to see all things going wrong on that side, and 
contrary to his advice, had brought upon him an 
ill habit of body and weak state of health, which 
made him decline all public command ; but he 
promised Pompey to follow, and continue with 
him, as soon as his health permitted ; and as a 
pledge of his sincerity, sent his son in the mean- 
while along with him, who, though very young, 
behaved himself gallantly, and acquired great ap- 
plause by his dexterity of riding and throwing the 
javelin, and performing every other part of military 
discipline at the head of one of the wings of horse, 
of which Pompey had given him the commandP. 
Cato staid behind also in the camp at Dyrrhachium, 
which he commanded with fifteen cohorts, when 
Labienus brought them the news of Pompey's 
defeat, upon which Cato offered the command to 
Cicero, as the superior in dignity ; and upon his 
refusal of it, as Plutarch tells us, young Pompey 
was so enraged that he drew his sword, and would 
have killed him upon the spot, if Cato had not 
prevented it. This fact is not mentioned by 
Cicero, yet seems to be referred to in his speech 
for Marcellus, where he says, that in the very war 
he had been a perpetual assertor of peace, to the 
hazard even of his lifei. But the wretched news 
from Pharsalia threw them all into such a conster- 
nation, that they presently took shipping, and dis- 
persed themselves severally, as their hopes or 
inclinations led them, into the different provinces 
of the empire r . The greatest part, who were deter- 
mined to renew the war, went directly into Africa, 
the general rendezvous of their scattered forces ; 
whilst others, who were disposed to expect the 
farther issue of things, and take such measures as 
fortune offered, retired to Achaia : but Cicero was 
resolved to make this the end of the war to himself, 
and recommended the same conduct to his friends, 
declaring, that as they had been no match for 
Caesar when entire, they could not hope to beat 
him when shattered and broken s : and so, after a 
miserable campaign of about eighteen months, he 
committed himself without hesitation to the mercy 
of the conqueror, and landed again at Brundisium 
about the end of October. 

sed lacertis et viribus, quibus pares non fuimus. — Ep. 
Fam. iv. 7- 

Dolebamque pilis et gladiis, non consiliis neque auctori- 
tatibus nostris de jure publico disceptari. — Ep. Fam. vi. 1. 

Ipse fugi adhuc omne munus, eo magis, quod nihil ita 
poterat agi, ut mihiet meis rebus aptum esset — me conficit 
sollicitudo, ex qua etiam summa infirmitas corporis ; qua 
levata, ero cum eo, qui negotium gerit, estque in magna 
spe — Ad Att. xi. 4. 

P Quo tamen in bello cum te Pompeius alae alteri praefe- 
cisset, magnam laudem et a summo viro et ab exercitu 
consequebare, equitando, jaculando, omni militari labore 
tolerando : atque ea quidem tua laus pariter cum repub- 
lica cecidit.— De Offic. ii. 13. 

1 Multa de pace dixi, et in ipso bello, eadem etiam cum 
capitis mei periculo sensi. — Pro Marcell. 5. 

r Paucis sane post diebus ex Pharsalica fuga venisse 
Labienum: qui cum interitum exercitus nunciavisset — 
naves subito perterriti conscendistis. — De Divin. i. 32. 

s Hunc ego belli mihi finem feci ; nee putavi, cum 
integri pares non fuissemus, fraetos superiores fore. — Ep. 
Fam. vii. 3. 



SECTION VIII. 



A. URB. 706. 

cic. 60. 
coss. 

C. JULIUS 
CAESAR, DIC- 
TATOR II. 
M. ANTON I 'JS 

Mag. Equit. 



Cicero no sooner returned to Italy than he 
to reflect that he had been too hasty in 
coming home, before the war was de- 
termined, and without any invitation 
from the conqueror ; and in a time of 
that general licence, had reason to 
apprehend some insult from the sol- 
diers, if he ventured to appear in pub- 
lic with his fasces and laurel ; and 
yet to drop them would be a dimi- 
nution of that honour which he had 
received from the Roman people, and the acknow- 
ledgment of a power superior to the laws : he 
condemned himself therefore for not continuing 
abroad, in some convenient place of retirement, till 
he had been sent for, or things were better settled 1 . 
What gave him the greater reason to repent of 
this step was, a message that he received from 
Antony, who governed all in Caesar's absence, and 
with the same churlish spirit with which he would 
have held him before in Italy against his will, 
seemed now disposed to drive him out of it : for 
he sent him the copy of a letter from Caesar, in 
which Caesar signified, " that he had heard that 
Cato and Metellus were at Rome, and appeared 
openly there, which might occasion some dis- 
turbance ; wherefore he strictly enjoined that none 
should be suffered to come to Italy without a special 
licence from himself." Antony therefore desired 
Cicero to excuse him, since he could not help obey- 
ing Caesar's commands : but Cicero sent L. Lamia 
to assure him that Caesar had ordered Dolabella to 
write to him to come to Italy as soon as he pleased, 
and that he came upon the authority of Dolabella's 
letter : so that Antony, in the edict which he 
published to exclude the Pompeians from Italy, 
excepted Cicero by name, which added still to his 
mortification ; since all his desire was to be con- 
nived at only, or tacitly permitted, without being 
personally distinguished from the rest of his party u . 
But he had several other grievances of a domestic 
kind, which concurred also to make him unhappy : 
his brother Quintus, with his son, after their 
escape from Pharsalia, followed Caesar into Asia, 
to obtain their pardon from him in person. Quintus 
had particular reason to be afraid of his resentment, 
on account of the relation which he had borne to 
him as one of his lieutenants in Gaul, where he 
had been treated by him with great generosity ; so 
that Cicero himself would have dissuaded him from 
going over to Pompey, but could not prevail : yet 

1 Ego vero et incaute, ut scribis, et celerius quam opor- 
tuit, feci, &c— AdAtt. xi. 9. 

Quare voluntatis me mea? nunquam pcenitebit, consilii 
poenitet. In oppido aliquo mallem resedisse, quoad arces- 
serer. Minus sermonis subiissem : minus accepissem 
doloris : ipsum hoc non me angeret. Brundisii jacere in 
omnes partes est molestum. Propius accedere, ut suades, 
quomodo sine lictoribus, quos populus dedit, possum ? qui 
mihi incolumi adimi non possunt.— Ad Att. xi. 6. 

u Sed quid ego de lictoribus, qui paene ex Italia decedere 
sim jussus? nam admemisit Antoniusexemplum Ca?saris 
ad se literarum ; in quibus erat, se audisse, Catonem et 
L. Metellum in Italiam venisse, Romas ut essent palam, 
&c. Turn ille edixit ita, ut me exciperet et Laelium 
nominatim. Quod sane nollem. Poterat enim sine 
nomine, re ipsa excipi. O multas graves offeusiones ! — 
Ibid. 7- 



190 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



in this common calamity, Quintus, in order to 
make his own peace the more easily, resolved to 
throw all the blame upon his brother, and for that 
purpose made it the subject of all his letters and 
speeches to Caesar's friends, to rail at him in a 
manner the most inhuman. 

Cicero was informed of this from all quarters, 
and that young Quintus, who was sent before 
towards Caesar, had read an oration to his friends, 
which he had prepared to speak to him against his 
uncle. Nothing (as Cicero says) ever happened 
more shocking to him ; and though he had no 
small diffidence of Caesar's inclination, and many 
enemies labouring to do him ill offices, yet his 
greatest concern was, lest his brother and nephew 
should hurt themselves rather than him, by their 
perfidy x : for under all the sense of this provoca- 
tion, his behaviour was just the reverse of theirs ; 
and having been informed that Caesar in a certain 
conversation had charged his brother with being the 
author of their going away to Pompey, he took 
occasion to write to him in the following terms : — 

" As for my brother, I am not less solicitous for 
his safety than my own ; but in my present situa- 
tion dare not venture to recommend him to you : 
all that I can pretend to is, to beg that you will 
not believe him to have ever done anything towards 
obstructing my good offices and affection to you ; 
but rather, that he was always the adviser of our 
union, and the companion, not the leader of my 
voyage : wherefore, in all other respects J leave it 
to you to treat him as your own humanity and his 
friendship with you require ; but I entreat you, in 
the most pressing manner, that I may not be the 
cause of hurting him with you on any account 
whatsoever^." 

He found himself likewise at this time in some 
distress for want of money, which in that season 
of public distraction it was very difficult to procure, 
either by borrowing or selling : the sum which 
he advanced to Pompey had drained him ; and 
his wife, by her indulgence to stewards and fa- 
vourite servants, had made great waste of what was 
left at home ; and instead of saving anything from 
their rents, had plunged him deeply into debt : so 
that Atticus's purse was the chief fund which he 
had to trust to for his present support 2 . 

The conduct of Dolabella was a farther mortifi- 
cation to him, who, by the fiction of an adoption 
into a plebeian family, had obtained the tribunate 
this year, and was raising great tumults and dis- 
orders in Rome, by a law which he published, to 
expunge all debts. Laws of that kind had been 

x Quintus misit filium non solum sui deprecatorem, sed 
etiam accusatoreni mei — neque vero desistet, ubicunque 
est omnia in me maledicta conferre. Nihil mini unquam 
tarn incredibile accidit, nihil in his malis tarn aeerbum. — 
Ad Att. xi. 8. 

Epistolas mihi legerunt plenas omnium in me probro- 
rum — ipsi enim illi putavi perniciosum fore, si ejus hoc 
tantum scelus percrebuisset. — Ibid. 9. 

Quintum filium — volumen sibi ostendisse orationis, 
quam apud Cassarem contra me esset habiturus— multa 
postea patris, consimili scelere patrem esse locutum.— Ibid. 
10. 

y Cum mihi literae a Balbo minore missas essent, Cae- 
sarem existimare, Quintum fratrem lituum mece pro- 
fectionis fuisse, sic enim scripsit. — Ad Att. xi. 12. 

2 Velim consideres ut sit, unde nobis suppeditentur 
sumtus necessarii. Si quas habuimus facilitates, eas 
Pompeio, turn, cum id videbamur sapicntcr facere, detuli- 
mus — Ibid, xiii. 2, 22, &c. 



often attempted by desperate or ambitious magis- 
trates, but were always detested by the better sort, 
and particularly by Cicero, who treats them as per- 
nicious to the peace and prosperity of states, and 
sapping the very foundations of civil society, by 
destroying all faith and credit among men a . No 
wonder, therefore, that we find him taking this 
affair so much to heart, and complaining so heavily, 
in many of his letters to Atticus, of the famed acts 
of his son-in-law, as an additional source of afflic- 
tion and disgrace to him b . Dolabella was greatly 
embarrassed in his fortunes, and while he was with 
Caesar abroad, seems to have left his wife destitute 
of necessaries at home, and forced to recur to her 
father for her subsistence. Cicero likewise, either 
through the difficulty of the times, or for want of a 
sufficient settlement on Dolabella's part, had not 
yet paid all her fortune ; which it was usual to do 
at three different payments, within a time limited 
by law : he had discharged the two first, and was 
now preparing to make the third payment, which 
he frequently and pressingly recommends to the 
care of Atticus . But Dolabella's whole life and 
character were so entirely contrary to the manners 
and temper both of Cicero and Tullia, that a divorce 
ensued between them not long after, though the 
account of it is delivered so darkly, that it is hard 
to say at what time or from what side it first 
arose. 

In these circumstances Tullia paid her father a 
visit at Brundisium on the thirteenth of June : 
but his great love for her made their meeting only 
the more afflicting to him in that abject state of 
their fortunes; "I was so far," says he, "from 
taking that pleasure which I ought to have done, 
from the virtue, humanity, and piety of an excel- 
lent daughter, that I was exceedingly grieved to 
see so deserving a creature in such an unhappy 
condition, not by her own, but wholly by my fault ; 
I saw no reason therefore for keeping her longer 
here in this our common affliction, but was will- 
ing to send her back to her mother as soon as she 
would consent to it d ." 

At Brundisium he received the news of Pompey 's 
death, which did not surprise him, as we find from 
the short reflection that he makes upon it : "As 
to Pompey's end (says he) I never had any doubt 
about it : for the lost and desperate state of his 
affairs had so possessed the minds of all the kings 
and states abroad, that whithersoever he went I took 
it for granted that this would be his fate : I can- 

a Nee enim ulla res vehementius rempublicam continet, 
quam fides; quas esse nulla potest, nisi erit necessaria 
solutio rerum creditarum, &c— De Offic. ii. 24. 

*> Quod me audis fractiorem esse animo ; quid putas, 
cum videas accessisse ad superiores asgritudines praeclaras 
generi actiones?— Ad Att. xi. 12. 

Etsi omnium conspectum horreo, praesertini hoc genero. 
—Ibid. 14, 15, &c. 

e De dote, quod scribis, per omnes deos te obtestor, ut 
totam rem suscipias, et illam miseram mea culpa — tueare 
meis opibus, si quas sunt ; tuis, quibus tibi non molestum 
erit facultatibus— Ibid. xi. 2. 

De pensione altera, oro te, omni cura considera quid 
faciendum sit.— Ibid. xi. 4. 

d Tullia mea ad me venit prid. Id. Jun.— Ego autem 
ex ipsius virtute, humanitate, pietate non modo earn vo- 
luptatem non cepi, quam capcre ex singulari filia debui, 
sed etiam incredibili sum dolore affectus, tale ingenium 
in tarn misera fortuna versari.— Ibid. xi. 17; Ep. Fam. 
xiv. 11. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



191 



not however help grieving at it ; for I knew him 
to be an honest, grave, and worthy maa e ." 

This was the short and true character of the 
man from one who perfectly knew him, not height- 
ened, as we sometimes find it, by the shining co- 
lours of his eloquence, nor depressed by the darker 
strokes of his resentment. Pompey had early 
acquired the surname of the Great, by that sort 
of merit which, from the constitution of the re- 
public, necessarily made him great ; a fame and 
success in war superior to what Home had ever 
known in the most celebrated of her generals. He 
had triumphed at three several times over the three 
different parts of the known world, Europe, Asia, 
Africa, and by his victories had almost doubled the 
extent as well as the revenues of the Roman domi- 
nion ; for as he declared to the people on his re- 
turn from the Mithridatic war, he had found the 
Lesser Asia the boundary, but left it the middle of 
their empire. He was about six years older than 
Caesar ; and while Caesar, immersed in pleasures, 
oppressed with debts, and suspected by all honest 
men, was hardly able to show his head, Pompey 
was flourishing in the height of power and glory, 
and by the consent of all parties placed at the head 
of the republic. This was the post that his ambi- 
tion seemed to aim at — to be the first man in Rome 
— the leader, not the tyrant of his country : for 
he more than once had it in his power to have 
made himself the master of it without any risk, if 
his virtue, or his phlegm at least, had not re- 
strained him ; but he lived in a perpetual expec- 
tation of receiving from the gift of the people what 
he did not care to seize by force ; and by foment- 
ing the disorders of the city, hoped to drive them 
to the necessity of creating him dictator. It is an 
observation of all the historians, that while Caesar 
made no difference of power, whether it was con- 
ferred or usurped, whether over those who loved 
or those who feared him, Pompey seemed to value 
none but what was offered, nor to have any desire 
to govern but with the good-will of the governed. 
What leisure he found from his wars he employed 
in the study of polite letters, and especially of 
eloquence, in which he would have acquired great 
fame, if his genius had not drawn him to the more 
dazzling glory of arms : yet he pleaded several 
causes with applause, in the defence of his friends 
and clients, and some of them in conjunction with 
Cicero. His language was copious and elevated, 
his sentiments just, his voice sweet, his action 
noble, and full of dignity. But his talents were 
better formed for arms than the gown ; for though 
in both he observed the same discipline, a per- 
petual modesty, temperance, and gravity of outward 
behaviour, yet in the licence of camps the example 
was more rare and striking. His person was 
extremely graceful, and imprinting respect, yet 
with an air of reserve and haughtiness which be- 
came the general better than the citizen. His parts 
were plausible rather than great, specious rather 
than penetrating, and his view of politics but 
narrow ; for his chief instrument of governing was 
dissimulation ; yet he had not always the art to 
conceal his real sentiments. As he was a better 

e De Pompeii exitu mihi dubium nunquam f uit : tanta 
enim desperatio rerum ejus omnium regum et populorum 
animos occuparat, ut quocunque venisset, hoc putarem 
futurum. Non possum ejus casum non dolere : hominem 
enim integrum etcastumetgravemcognovi.— Ad Att xi. 6. 



soldier than a statesman, so what he gained in the 
camp he usually lost in the city, and though adored 
when abroad, was often affronted and mortified at 
home, till the imprudent opposition of the senate 
drove him to that alliance with Crassus and Caesar 
which proved fatal both to himself and the republic. 
He took in these two, not as the partners, but the 
ministers rather of his power ; that by giving them 
some share with him he might make his own 
authority uncontrollable : he had no reason to 
apprehend that they could ever prove his rivals, 
since neither of them had any credit or character 
of that kind which alone could raise them above 
the laws — a superior fame and experience in war, 
with the militia of the empire at their devotion : 
all this was purely his own, till by cherishing 
Caesar, and throwing into his hands the only thing 
which he wanted, arms and military command, he 
made him at last too strong for himself, and never 
began to fear him till it was too late. Cicero 
warmly dissuaded both his union and his breach 
with Caesar, and after the rupture, as warmly still 
the thought of giving him battle. If any of these 
counsels had been followed, Pompey had preserved | 
his life and honour, and the republic its liberty. ! 
But he was urged to his fate by a natural supersti- ! 
tion, and attention to those vain auguries with 
which he was flattered by all the haruspices : he 
had seen the same temper in Marius and Sylla, and 
observed the happy effects of it ; but they assumed 
it only out of policy, he out of principle. They 
used it to animate their soldiers, when they had 
found a probable opportunity of fighting ; but he, 
against all prudence and probability, was encou- 
raged by it to fight to his own ruin. He saw all 
his mistakes at last, when it was out of his power 
to correct them ; and in his wretched flight from 
Pharsalia, was forced to confess that he had trusted 
too much to his hopes, and that Cicero had judged 
better, and seen farther into things than he. The 
resolution of seeking refuge in Egypt finished the 
sad catastrophe of this great man. The father of 
the reigning prince had been highly obliged to him 
for his protection at Rome and restoration to his 
kingdom ; and the son had sent a considerable 
fleet to his assistance in the present war ; but in 
this ruin of his fortunes, what gratitude was there 
to be expected from a court governed by eunuchs 
and mercenary Greeks ? all whose politics turned, 
not on the honour of the king, but the establish- 
ment of their own power, which was likely to be 
eclipsed by the admission of Pompey. How happy 
had it been for him to have died in that sickness, 
when all Italy was putting up vows and prayers for 
his safety ! or if he had fallen by the chance of 
war on the plains of Pharsalia, in the defence of 
his country's liberty, he had died still glorious, 
though unfortunate : but as if he had been reserved 
for an example of the instability of human great- 
ness, he who a few days before commanded kings 
and consuls, and all the noblest of Rome, was 
sentenced to die by a council of slaves ; murdered 
by a base deserter ; cast out naked and headless 
on the Egyptian strand ; and when the whole earth 
(as Velleius says) had scarce been sufficient for his j 
victories, could not find a spot upon it at last for a | 
grave. His body was burnt on the shore by one of j 
his freedmen, with the planks of an old fishing-boat ; 
and his ashes being conveyed to Rome, were de- 
posited privately by his wife Cornelia in a vault of 



192 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



his Alban villa. The Egyptians, however, raised 
a monument to him on the place, and adorned it 
with figures of brass, which being defaced after- 
wards by time, and buried almost in sand and 
rubbish, was sought out and restored by the 
emperor Hadrian f . 

On the news of Pompey's death, Caesar was de- 
clared dictator the second time in his absence, and 
M. Antony his master of the horse, who by virtue 
of that post governed all things absolutely in 
Italy. Cicero continued all the while at Brundi- 
sium, in a situation wholly disagreeable, and worse 
to him (he says) than any punishment : for the air 
of the place began to affect his health, and to the 
uneasiness of mind added an ill state of body£ : yet 
to move nearer towards Rome without leave from 
his new masters was not thought advisable, nor 

f Hujus viri fastigium tantis auctibus fortuna extulit, 
ut primum ex Africa, iterum ex Europa, tertio ex Asia 
triumpharet : et quot partes terrarum orbis sunt, totidem 
faceret monumenta victoriae. [Veil. Pat. ii. 40.] Ut ipse 
in concione dixit,. — Asiam ultimam provinciarum acce- 
pisse, mediam patriae reddidisse. [Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 26 ; 
Flor. iii. 5] Potentiae quae honoris causa ad eum deferre- 
tur, non ut ab eo occuparetur, cupidissimus. [Veil. Pat. 
ii. 29 ; Dio, p. 178.] Meus autem aequalis Cn. Pompeius, 
vir ad omnia summa natus, majorem dicendi gloriam 
habuisset, nisi eum ma j oris gloria? cupiditas ad bellicas 
laudes abstraxisset. Erat oratione satis amplus : rem pru- 
denter videbat : actio vero ejushabebat et in voce magnum 
splendorem, et in motu summam dignitatem. [Brut. 354 ; 
Pro Balbo. 1, 2.] Forma excellens, non ea, qua flos com- 
mendatur aetatis, sed ex dignitate constanti. [Veil. Pat. 
ii. 29.] Illud osprobum, ipsumque honorem eximiae frontis. 
[Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 12.] Solet enim aliud sentireet loqui, 
neque tantum valere ingenio, ut non appareat quid cupiat. 

[Ep. Fam. viii. 1.] Illealuit, auxit, armavit illeGalliae 

ulterioris adjunctor — ille provinciae propagator ; ille absen- 
tis in omnibus adjutor. [Ad Att. viii. 3.] aluerat Caesarem, 
eundem repente timere cceperat. [Ibid. 8.] Ego nihil 
praetermisi, quantum facere, nitique potui, quin Pompeium 
a Caesaris conjunctione avocarem— idem ego, cum jam 
omnes opeset suas et populi Romani Pompeius ad Caesarem 
detulisset, seroque ea sentire ccepisset, quae ego ante multo 
provideram— pacis, concordiae, compositionis auctor esse 
non destiti : meaque ilia vox est nota multis, Utinam, 
Pompei, cum Caesare societatem aut nunquam coisses, aut 
nunquam diremisses !— haec mea, Antoni, et de Pompeio 
et de republica consilia fuerunt : quaesivaluissent, respub- 
lica staret. [Phil. ii. 10.] Multi testes, me et initio ne 
conjungeret se cum Caesare, monuisse Pompeium, et postea, 
ne sejungeret, &c. [Ep. Fam. vi. 6.] Quid vero singularis 
ille vir ac paene divinus de me senserit, sciunt, qui eum de 
Pharsalica fuga Paphum prosecuti sunt : nunquam ab eo 
mentio de me nisi honorifica— cum me vidisse plus fatere- 
tur, se speravisse meliora. [Ibid. 15.] Qui, si mortem turn 
obisset, in amplissimis fortunis occidisset ; is propagatione 
vitae quot, quantas, quam incredibiles hausit calamitates ? 
[Tusc. Disp. i. 35.] In Pelusiaco littore, imperio vilissimi 
regis, consiliis spadonum, et ne quidmalis desit, Septimii 
desertoris sui gladio trucidatur. [Flor. iv. 2, 52.] iEgyp- 
tum petere proposuit, memor beneficiorum quae in patrem 
ejus Ptoleman,— qui turn regnabat, contulerat— Princeps 
Romani nominis, imperio, arbitrioque iEgyptii mancipii 
jugulatus est — in tantum in illo viro a se discordante for- 
tuna, ut cui modo ad victoriam terra defuerat, deesset ad 
sepulturam.— Veil. Pat. ii. 54 ; Dio, p. 186 ; Appian. ii. 481. 
Provida Pompeio dederat Campania febres 
Optandas. Sed multae urbes, et publica vota 
Vicerunt. Igitur fortuna ipsius et urbis 
Servatum victo caput abstulit.— Juv. x. 283. 
e Quodvis enim supplicium levius esthac permansione. 
—Ad Att. xi. 18. 

Jam enim corpore vix sustineo gravitatem hujus coeli, 
qui mihi laborem affert, in dolore.— Ibid. 22. 



did Antony encourage it, being pleased rather, we 
may believe, to see him well mortified : so that he 
had no hopes of any ease or comfort but in the 
expectation of Caesar's return, which made his 
stay in that place the more necessary for the op- 
portunity of paying his early compliments to him 
at landing. 

But what gave him the greatest uneasiness was, 
to be held still in suspense in what touched him 
the most nearly, the case of his own safety and of 
Caesar's disposition towards him : for though all 
Caesar's friends assured him not only of pardon, 
but of all kind of favour ; yet he had received no 
intimation of kindness from Caesar himself, who 
was so embarrassed in Egypt that he had no leisure 
to think of Italy, and did not so much as write a 
letter thither from December to June ; for as he 
had rashly, and out of gaiety as it were, involved 
himself there in a most desperate war to the 
hazard of all his fortunes, he was ashamed (as 
Cicero says h ) to write anything about it till he had 
extricated himself out of that difficulty. 

His enemies in the mean time had greatly 
strengthened themselves in Africa, where P. Varus, 
who first seized it on the part of the republic, was 
supported by all the force of king Juba, Pompey's 
fast friend, and had reduced the whole province to 
his obedience ; for Curio, after he had driven Cato 
out of Sicily, being ambitious to drive Varus also 
out of Africa, and having transported thither the 
best part of four legions, which Caesar had com- 
mitted to him, was, after some little success upon 
his landing, entirely defeated and destroyed with 
his whole army in an engagement with Sabura, 
king Juba's general. 

Curio was a young noblemen of shining parts ; 
admirably formed by nature to adorn that character 
in which his father and grandfather had flourished 
before him, of one of the principal orators of 
Rome. Upon his entrance into the forum he was 
committed to the care of Cicero ; but a natural 
propension to pleasure, stimulated by the example 
and counsels of his perpetual companion Antony, 
hurried him into all the extravagance of expense 
and debauchery ; for Antony, who always wanted 
money, with which Curio abounded, was ever ob- 
sequious to his will and ministering to his lusts, 
for the opportunity of gratifying his own : so that 
no boy purchased for the use of lewdness was more 
in a master's power than Antony in Curio's. He was 
equally prodigal of his money and his modesty, and 
not only of his own but of other people's ; so that 
Cicero, alluding to the infamous effeminacy of his 
life, calls him in one of his letters, Miss Curio. 
But when the father, by Cicero's advice, had 
obliged him by his paternal authority to quit the 
familiarity of Antony, he reformed his conduct, 
and adhering to the instructions and maxims of 
Cicero, became the favourite of the city, the leader 
of the young nobility, and a warm assertor of the 
authority of the senate against the power of the 
triumvirate. After his father's death, upon his 
first taste of public honours and admission into the 
senate, his ambition and thirst of popularity en- 
gaged him in so immense a prodigality, that to 
supply the magnificence of his shows and plays 
with which he entertained the city, he was soon 



h Ille enim ita videtur Alexandrian! tenere, ut eum 
scribere etiam pudeat de illis rebus.— Ad Att. xi. 15. 
Nee post Id. Dec. ab illo datas ullas literas.— Ibid. 17. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



193 



driven to the necessity of selling himself toCsesar : 
having no revenue left (as Pliny says) but from the 
discord of his citizens. For this he is considered 
commonly, by the old writers, as the chief instru- 
ment and the trumpet, as it were, of the civil war, 
in which he justly fell the first victim : yet after all 
his luxury and debauch, fought and died with a 
courage truly Roman, which would have merited a 
better fate, if it had been employed in a better 
cause ; for upon the loss of the battle, and his best 
troops, being admonished by his friends to save 
himself by flight, he answered, that after losing an 
army which had been committed to him by Ceesar, 
he could never show his face to him again ; and so 
continued fighting till he was killed among the last 
of his soldiers'. 

Curio's death happened before the battle of 
Pharsalia, while Ceesar was engaged in Spain k ; by 
which means Africa fell entirely into the hands of 
the Pompeians, and became the general rendezvous 
of all that party : hither Scipio, Cato, and La- 
bienus, conveyed the remains of their scattered 
troops from Greece, as Afranius and Petreius 
likewise did from Spain, till, on the whole, they 
had brought together again a more numerous army 
than Caesar's, and were in such high spirits as to 
talk of coming over with it into Italy before Caesar 
could return from Alexandria 1 . This was confi- 
dently given out and expected at Rome ; and in 
that case, Cicero was sure to be treated as a de- 
serter ; for while Ceesar looked upon all men as 
friends who did not act against him, and pardoned 
even enemies who submitted to his power ; it was 
a declared law on the other side to consider all as 
enemies who were not actually in their camp m ; so 
that Cicero had nothing now to wish, either for 
himself or the republic, but in the first place a 
peace, of which he had still some hopes 11 ; or else, 



* Haud alium tanta civem tulit indole Roma. 

Lucan. iv. 814. 

Una familia Curionum, in qua tres continua serie ora- 
tores extiterunt.— Plin. Hist, Nat. vii. 41. 

Naturam habuit admirabileni ad dicendum.— Brut. 406. 

Nemo unquam puer, emptus libidinis causa, tarn fuit in 
domini potestate, quam tu in Curionis. [Phil. ii. 18.] Duce 
filiola Curionis.— Ad Att. i. 14. 

Vir nobilis, eloquens, audax, suae alienaeque et fortunse 
et pudicitise prodigus — eujus animo, voluptatibus vel libi- 
dinibus, neque opes ullse neque cupiditates sufficere pos- 
sent.— VeU. Pat. 248. 

Nisi meis puer olim fidelissimis atque amantissimis 
consiliis paruisses.— Ep. Fam. ii. 1. 

Bello autem civili — non alius majorem quam C. Curio 
subjecit facem.— Veil. Pat. ii. 48. 

Quid nunc rostra tibi prosunt turbata, forumque 

Unde tribunitia plebeius signifer arce 

Anna dabas populis, &c. Lucan. iv. 800. 

At Curio, nunquam amisso exercitu, quem a Ceesare fidei 
suae commissum acceperat, se in ejus conspectum rever- 
surum, confirmat ; atque ita prslians interficitur.— Caes. 
De Bello Civ. ii. 

k Ante jaces, quam dira duces Pharsalia confert, 
Spectandumque tibi bellum civile negatum est. 

Lucan. iv. 800. 

1 Ii autem ex Africa jam affuturi videntur.— Ad Att. 
xi. 15. 

m Te enim dicere audiebamus, nos omnes adversaries 
putare, nisi qui nobiscum essent ; te omnes, qui contra te 
non essent, tuos.— Pro Ligar. 11 ; Ad Att. xi. 6. 

n Est autem, unum, quod mihi sit optandum, si quid 
agi de pace possit : quod nulla equidem babeo in spe : sed 
quia tu leviter interdum significas, cogis me sperare quod 
optandum vix est.— Ad Att. xi. 19: it. 12. 



that Caesar might conquer, whose victory was like 
to prove the more temperate of the two ; which 
makes him often lament the unhappy situation 
to which he was reduced, where nothing could be 
of any service to him, but what he had always 
abhorred . 

Under this anxiety of mind, it was an additional 
vexation to him to hear that his reputation was 
attacked at Rome for submitting so nastily to the 
conqueror, or putting himself rather at all into his 
power. Some condemned him for not following 
Pompey ; some more severely for not going to 
Africa, as the greatest part had done ; others for 
not retiring with many of his party to Achaia, till 
they could see the farther progress of the war : as 
he was always extremely sensible of what was said 
of him by honest men, so he begs of Atticus to be 
his advocate ; and gives him some hints which 
might be urged in his defence. As to the first 
charge, for not following Pompey, he says, u that 
Pompey's fate would extenuate the omission of 
that step : of the second, that though he knew 
many brave men to be in Africa, yet it was his 
opinion that the republic neither could nor ought to 
be defended by the help of so barbarous and trea- 
cherous a nation : as to the third, he wishes indeed 
that he had joined himself to those in Achaia, and 
owns them to be in a better condition than himself, 
because they were many of them together; and 
whenever they returned to Italy would be restored 
to their own at once:" whereas he was confined 
like a prisoner of war to Brundisium, without the 
liberty of stirring from it till Caesar arrived?. 

While he continued in this uneasy state, some 
of his friends at Rome contrived to send him a 
letter in Caesar's name, dated the 9th of February, 
from Alexandria, encouraging him to lay aside all 
gloomy apprehensions, and expect every thing that 
was kind and friendly from him : but it was drawn 
in terms so slight and general, that instead of 
giving him any satisfaction, it made him only sus- 
pect what he perceived afterwards to be true, that 
it was forged by Balbus or Oppius on purpose to 
raise his spirits, and administer some little comfort 
to himi. All his accounts, however, confirmed to 
him the report of Caesar's clemency and modera- 
tion, and his granting pardon without exception to 
all who asked it ; and with regard to himself, Caesar 
sent Quintus's virulent letters to Balbus, with 
orders to show them to him as a proof of his kind- 
ness and dislike of Quintus's perfidy. But Cicero's 
present despondency, which interpreted everything 

° Mihi cum omnia sunt intolerabilia ad dolorem, turn 
maxime, quod in earn causam venisse me video, ut ea 
sola utilia mihi esse videantur, quae semper nolui. — Ad 
Att. xi. 13. 

V Dicebar debuisse cum Pompeio proficisci. Exitus 
illius minuit ejus officii praetermissi reprehensionem. — Sed 
ex omnibus nihil magis desideratur, quam quod in Africam 
non ierim. Judicio hoc sum usus, non esse barbaris aux- 
iliis fallacissima? gentis rempublicam defendendam — extre- 
mum est eorum, qui in Achaia sunt. Ii tamen ipsi se hoc 
melius habent, quam nos, quod et multi sunt uno in loco, 
et cum in Italiam venerint, domum statim venerint. Haec 
tu perge, ut facis, mitigare et probare quam plurimis.— Ad 
Att xi. 7. 

q Ut me ista epistola nihil consoletur ; nam et exigue 
scripta est et magnas suspiciones habet, non esse ab illo.— 
Ad Att. xi. 16. 

Ex quo intelligis, illud de Uteris a. d. v. Id. Feb. dati9 
(quod inane esset, etiam si verum esset) non verum esse. 
—Ibid. 17. 

O 



194 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



by his fears, made him suspect Csesar the more for 
refusing grace to none, as if such a clemency must 
needs be affected and his revenge deferred only to 
a season more convenient ; and as to his brother's 
letters, he fancied that Csesar did not send them 
to Italy because he condemned them, but to make 
his present misery and abject condition the more 
notorious and despicable to everybody 1 . 

But after a long series of perpetual mortifications 
he was refreshed at last by a very obliging letter 
from Csesar, who confirmed to him the full enjoy- 
ment of his former state and dignity, and bade him 
resume his fasces and style of emperor as before 3 . 
Ca?sar's mind was too great to listen to the tales 
of the brother and nephew, and instead of approv- 
ing their treachery, seems to have granted them 
their pardon on Cicero's account rather than their 
own ; so that Quintus, upon the trial of Csesar's 
inclination, began presently to change his note, and 
to congratulate with his brother on Csesar's affec- 
tion and esteem for him*. 

Cicero was now preparing to send his son to wait 
upon Csesar, who was supposed to be upon his 
journey towards home ; but the uncertain accounts 
of his coming diverted him awhile from that 
thought 11 , till Csesar himself prevented it, and re- 
lieved him very agreeably from his tedious resi- 
dence at Brundisium, by his sudden and unexpected 
arrival in Italy ; where he landed at Tarentum in 
the month of September, and on the first notice of 
his coming forward towards Rome, Cicero set out 
on foot to meet him. 

We may easily imagine, what we find indeed 
from his lettei's, that he was not a little discom- 
posed at the thoughts of this interview, and the 
indignity of offering himself to a conqueror against 
whom he had been in arms in the midst of a licen- 
tious and insolent rabble ; for though he had 
reason to expect a kind reception from Caesar, yet 
he hardly thought his life (he says) worth begging, 
since what was given by a master might always 
be taken away again at pleasure x . But, at their 
meeting, he had no occasion to say or do anything 
that was below his dignity ; for Csesar no sooner 
saw him than he alighted and ran to embrace him, 
and walked with him alone, conversing very fa- 
miliarly for several furlongs y. 



r Omnino dicitur nemini negare : quod ipsum est suspec- 
tum, notionem ejus differri.— Ad Att. xi. 20. 

Diligenter mihi fasciculum reddidit Balbi tabellarius— 
quod ne Caesar qiiidern ad istos videtur misisse, quasi quo 
illius improbitate offenderetur, sed credo, uti notiora nostra 
mala essent. — Ibid. 22. 

s Redditae mihi tandem sunt a Caesare liters satis libe- 
rales. — Ep. Fam. xiv. 23. 

Qui ad me ex JEgy-gto literas misit, ut essem idem, qui 
fuissem : qui cum ipse imperator in toto imperio populi 
Romani unus esset, esse me alterum passus est : a quo— 
concessos fasces laureatos tenui, quoad tenendos putavi.— 
Pro Ligar. 3. 

* Sed mihi valde Quintus gratulatur— Ad Att. xi. 23. 

« Ego cum Sallustio Ciceronem ad Caesarem mittere 
eogitabam.-7-Ibid. 17. 

De illius Alexandria disccssu nihil adhuc rumoris, con- 
traque opinio— itaquo nee mitto, ut constitueram, Cicero- 
nem. — Ibid. 18. 

x Sed non adducor, quemquam bonum ullam salutem 
mihi tanti fuisse putare, ut cam peterem ab illo. — Ad Att. 
xi/16. 

Sed ab hoc ipso quae dantur, ut a domino, rursus in 

ejusdem sunt potestate. — Ibid. 20. 

y Plutarch, in Cic. 



From this interview Cicero followed Csesar to- 
wards Rome : he proposed to be at Tusculum on 
the seventh or eighth of October, and wrote to his 
wife to provide for his reception there with a large 
company of friends, who designed to make some 
stay with him 2 . From Tusculum he came after- 
wards to the city, with a resolution to spend his 
time in study and retreat, till the republic should 
be restored to some tolerable state ; " having made 
his peace again (as he writes to Varro) with his old 
friends, his books, who had been out of humour 
with him for not Obeying their precepts, but instead 
of living quietly with them, as Varro had done, 
committing himself to the turbulent counsels and 
hazards of war, with faithless companions a ." 

On Csesar's return to Rome, he appointed P. 
Vatinius and Q. Fufius Calenus, consuls for the 
three last months of the year : this was a very un- 
popular use of his new power, which he continued 
however to practise through the rest of his reign, 
creating these first magistrates of the state without 
any regard to the ancient forms, or recourse to the 
people, and at any time of the year ; which gave a 
sensible disgust to the city, and an early specimen 
of the arbitrary manner in which he designed to 
govern them. 

About the end of the year, Csesar embarked for 
Africa, to pursue the war against Scipio and the 
other Pompeian generals, who, assisted by king 
Juba, held the possession of that province with a 
vast army. As he was sacrificing for the success 
of this voyage, the victim happened to break loose 
and run away from the altar, which being looked 
upon as an unlucky omen, the haruspex admonished 
him not to sail before the winter solstice : but he 
took ship directly in contempt of the admonition, 
and by that means (as Cicero says) came upon his 
enemies unprepared, and before they had drawn 
together all their forces b . Upon his leaving the 
city, he declared himself consul, together with M. 
Lepidus, for the year ensuing ; and gave the go- 
vernment of the Hither Gaul to M. Brutus ; of 

z Ep. Fam. xiv. 20. 

a Scito enim me posteaquam in urbem venerim, redisse 
cum veteribus amicis, id est, cum libris nostris in gratiam 
— ignoscunt mihi, revocant in consuetudinem pristinam, 
teque, quod in ea pernianseris, sapientiorem, quani me 
dicunt fuisse, &c— Ep. Fam. ix. 1. 

t> Quid ? ipse Csesar, cum a summo haruspice moneretur, 
ne in Africam ante brumam transmitteret, nonne trans- 
misit? quod ni fecisset, uno in loco omnes adversariorum 
copiae convenissent. — De Divin. ii. 24. 

Cum immolanti aufugisset hostia profectionem adversus 
Scipionem et Jubam non distulit. — Sueton. J. Cass. 59. 

Hirtius, in his account of this war, says, that Caesar 
embarked atLilybaeum for Africa on the 6th of the Kalends 
of Jan. [De Bello Afric. init."] that is, on the 27th of our 
December: whereas Cicero, in the passage just cited, de- 
clares him to have passed over before the solstice, or the 
shortest day. But this seeming contradiction is entirely 
owing to a cause already intimated, the great confusion 
that was introduced at this time into the Roman Kalendar, 
by which the months were all transposed from their stated 
seasons, so that the 2"(th of December, on which, according 
to their computation, Caesar embarked, was in reality 
coincident, or the same with our Qlh of October, and con- 
sequently above two months before the solstice, or shortest 
day. All which is clearly and accurately explained in a 
learned dissertation, published by a person of eminent 
merit in the university of Cambridge, who chooses to con- 
ceal his name.— See Bibliothec. Literar. No. VIII. Lond. 
1724, 4to. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



195 



Greece, to Servius Sulpicius ; the first of whom 
had been in arms against him at Pharsalia, and 
the second was a favourer likewise of the Pompeian 
cause, and a great friend of Cicero, yet seems to 
have taken no part in the war c . 

The African war now held the whole empire in 

suspense ; Scipio's name was thought ominous and 

invincible on that ground ; but while 

a. urb. 707. the general attention was employed on 

ere. 61. thg expectation of some decisive blow, 
coss. Cicero, despairing of any good from 

cjesar in either side, chose to live retired and 
m. jemilius out °f sight ; and whether in the city 
lepidus. or the country, shut himself up with 

his books; which (as he often says) 
had hitherto been the diversion only, but were now 
become the support of his life d . In this humour 
of study he entered into a close friendship and 
correspondence of letters with M. Terentius Varro, 
a friendship equally valued on both sides, and at 
Varro's desire immortalised by the mutual dedica- 
tion of their learned works to each other ; of 
Cicero's Academic Questions to Varro ; of Varro's 
treatise on the Latin Tongue, to Cicero. Varro 
was a senator of the first distinction, both for birth 
and merit ; esteemed the most learned man of 
Rome, and though now above fourscore years old, 
yet continued still writing and publishing books to 
his eighty-eighth year e . He was Pompey's lieute- 
nant in Spain in the beginning of the war ; but 
after the defeat of Afranius and Petreius, quitted 
his arms and retired to his studies, so that his pre- 
sent circumstances were not very different from 
those of Cicero, who, in all his letters to him, be- 
wails with great freedom the utter ruin of the state ; 
and proposes " that they should live together in a 
strict communication of studies, and avoid at least 
the sight if not the tongues of men ; yet so that if 
their new masters should call for their help to- 
wards settling the republic, they should run with 
pleasure and assist not only as architects but even 
as masons to build it up again ; or if nobody would 
employ them, should write and read the best forms 
of government, and, as the learned ancients had 
done before them, serve their country, if not in the 
senate and forum, yet by their books and studies, 
and by composing treatises of morals and laws f ." 

In this retreat he wrote his book of Oratorial 
Partitions, or the art of ordering and distributing 
the parts of an oration so as to adapt them in the 
best manner to their proper end of moving and 
persuading an audience. It was written for the 
instruction of his son, now about eighteen years 
old, but seems to have been the rude draught only 
of what he intended, or not to have been finished 
at least to his satisfaction ; since we find no men- 
tion of it in any of his letters, as of all his other 
pieces which were prepared for the public. 

c Bruturn Gallias praefecifc ; Sulpicium Graecias.— Ep. 
Fam. vi. 6. 

d A quibus antea delectationem modo petebamus, nunc 
vero etiam salutem. — Ep. Fam. ix. 2. 

e Nisi M. Varronem scirem octogesimo octavo vitse anno 
prodidisse, &c— Plin. Hist. Nat. xxix. 4. 

f Non deesse si quis adhibere volet, non modo ut archi- 
tects, verum etiam ut fabros, ad aedincandam retnpubli- 
cam, et potius libenter accurrere : si nemo utetur opera, 
tamen et scribere et legere iroAireias ; et si minus in curia 
atque in foro, at in literis et libris, ut doctissimi veteres 
fecerunt, navare rempublicam et de moribus et legibus 
quserere. Mihi haec videntur.— Ep. Fam. ix. 2. 



Another fruit of this leisure was his Dialogue on 
famous Orators, called "Brutus,' in which he gives a 
short character of all who had ever flourished either 
in Greece or Rome, with any reputation of elo- 
quence, down to his own times ; and as he gene- 
rally touches the principal points of each man's 
life, so an attentive reader may find in it an epi- 
tome, as it were, of the Roman history. The 
conference is supposed to be held with Brutus and 
Atticus in Cicero's garden at Rome, under the 
statue of Plato s, whom he always admired, and 
usually imitated in the manner of his dialogues ; 
and in this seems to have copied from him the very 
form of his double title, Brutus, or of Famous 
Orators ; taken from the speaker and the subject, 
as in Plato's piece, called Phsedon, or of the Soul. 
This work was intended as a supplement, or a 
fourth book to the three, which he had before 
published on the complete orator. But though it 
was prepared and finished at this time, while Cato 
was living, as it is intimated in some parts of it, 
yet, as it appears from the preface, it was not 
made public till the year following, after the death 
of his daughter Tullia. 

As at the opening of the war we found Cicero in 
debt to Csesar, so we now meet with several hints 
in his letters of Csesar's being indebted to him. It 
arose probably from a mortgage that Cicero had 
upon the confiscated estate of some Pompeian, 
which Csesar had seized ; but of what kind soever 
it was, Cicero was in pain for his money : " he saw 
but three ways," he says, " of getting it ; by pur- 
chasing the estate at Caesar's auction, or taking an 
assignment on the purchaser, or compounding for 
half with the brokers or money-jobbers of those 
times, who would advance the money on those 
terms. The first he declares to be base, and that 
he would rather lose his debt than touch anything 
confiscated : the second he thought hazardous, and 
that nobody would pay anything in such uncertain 
times ; the third he liked the best, but desires 
Atticus's advice upon it 1 '." 

He now at last parted with his wife Terentia, 
whose humour and conduct had long been uneasy 
to him ; this drew upon him some censui'e, for 
putting away a wife who had lived with him above 
thirty years, the faithful partner of his bed and 
fortunes, andthe mother of two children, extremely 
dear to him. But she was a woman of an impe- 
rious and turbulent spirit ; expensive and negligent 
in her private affairs, busy and intriguing in the 
public ; and, in the height of her husband's power, 
seems to have had the chief hand in the distribu- 
tion of all his favours. He had easily borne her 
perverseness in the vigour of health, and the 
flourishing state of his fortunes ; but in a declin- 
ing life, soured by a continual succession of mor- 
tifications from abroad, the want of ease and quiet 
at home was no longer tolerable to him ; the 
divorce, however, was not likely to cure the diffi- 
culties in which her management had involved 
him, for she had brought him a great fortune, 
which was all to be restored to her at parting. 

S Cum idem placuisset illis, turn in pratulo, propter 
Platonis statuam consedimus.— Brut. 28. 

ll Nomen illud, quod a Caesare, tres habet conditiones ; 
aut emtionem ab hasta; (perdere malo : — ) aut delega- 
tionem a mancipe, annua die: (quis erit, cui crcdam?)— 
autvecteni conditionem, seniisse, (TKexpai igitur.— Ad Att. 
xii. 3. 

O 2 



106 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



This made a second marriage necessary, in order 
to repair the ill state of his affairs, and his friends 
of both sexes were busy in providing a fit match 
for him ; several parties were proposed to him, 
and among others, the daughter of Pompey the 
Great, for whom he seems to have had an inclina- 
tion, but a prudential regard to the times, and the 
envy and ruin under which that family then lay, 
induced him probably to drop it 1 . What gave his 
enemies the greater handle to rally him was, his 
marrying a handsome young woman, named Pub- 
lilia, of an age disproportionate to his own, to 
whom he was guardian, but she was well allied, 
and rich, circumstances very convenient to him at 
this time, as he intimates in a letter to a friend, 
who congratulated with him on his marriage. 

" As to your giving me joy, says he, for what I 
have done, I know you wish it ; but I should not 
have taken any new step in such wretched times, 
if at my return I had not found my private affairs 
in no better condition than those of the republic. 
For when through the wickedness of those, who, 
for my infinite kindness to them, ought to have 
had the greatest concern for my welfare, I found 
no safety or ease from their intrigues and perfidy 
within my own walls ; I thought it necessary to 
secure myself by the fidelity of new alliances 
against the treachery of the old k ." 

Caesar returned victorious from Africa about the 
end of July, by the way of Sardinia, where he 
spent some days: upon which Cicero says plea- 
santly in a letter to Varro, " he had never seen 
that farm of his before, which, though one of the 
worst that he has, he does not yet despise 1 ." The 
uncertain event of the African war had kept the 
senate under some reserve, but they now began to 
push their flattery beyond all the bounds of de- 
cency, and decreed more extravagant honours to 
Caesar than were ever given before to man, which 
Cicero often rallies with great spirit ; and being de- 
termined to bear no partin that servile adulation, was 
treating about the purchase of a house at Naples, 
for a pretence of retiring still farther, and oftener, 
from Rome. But his friends, who knew his im- 
patience under their present subjection, and the 
free way of speaking which he was apt to in- 
dulge, were in some pain lest he should forfeit 
the good graces of Caesar and his favourites, and 

» De Pompeii Magni filia tibi rescripsi, nihil me hoc 
tempore cogitare. Alteram vero illam, quam tu scribis, 
puto nosti. Nihil vidi foedius.— Ad Att. xii. 11. 

k Ep. Pam. iv. 14. 

In cases of divorce, where there were children, it was 
the custom for each party to make a settlement by will on 
their common offspring, proportionable to their several 
estates : which is the meaning of Cicero's pressing Atticus 
so often in his letters to put Terentia in mind of making 
her will, and depositing it in safe hands.— Ad Att. xi. 21, 
22, 24 ; xii. 18. 

Terentia is said to have lived to the age of a hundred 
and three years : [Val. Max. viii. 13 ; Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 
48.] and took, as St. Jerome says, for her second husband, 
Cicero's enemy, Sallust ; and Messala for her third. Dio 
Cassius gives her a fourth, Vibius Rufus, who was consul 
in the reign of Tiberius, and valued himself for the pos- 
session of two things, which had belonged to the two 
greatest men of the age before him, Cicero's wife, and 
Ccesar's chair, in which he was killed.— Dio, p. 612 ; 
Hieron. Op. to. iv. par. 2. p. 190. 

1 111 ud enim adhuc praedium suum non inspexit : nee 

ullum habet deterius, sed tamen non contemnit Ep. 

Fam. ix. 7. 



provoke them too far by the keenness of his rail- 
lery" 1 . They pressed him to accommodate himself 
to the times, and to use more caution in his 
discourse ; and to reside more at Rome, especially 
when Caesar was there, who would interpret the 
distance and retreat which he affected as a proof 
of his aversion to him. 

But his answers on this occasion will show 
the real state of his sentiments and conduct to- 
wards Caesar, as well as of Caesar's towards him. 
Writing on this subject to Papirius Paetus, he 
says, " You are of opinion, I perceive, that it will 
not be allowed to me, as I thought it might be, 
to quit these affairs of the city ; you tell me of 
Catulus, and those times, but what similitude 
have they to these ? I myself was unwilling, at 
that time, to stir from the guard of the state, for 
I then sat at the helm, and held the rudder ; but 
am now scarce thought worthy to work at the 
pump ; would the senate, think you, pass fewer 
decrees, if I should live at Naples ? While I am 
still at Rome, and attend the forum, their decrees 
are all drawn at our friend's house ; and whenever 
it comes into his head, my name is set down, as 
if present at drawing them, so that I hear from 
Armenia and Syria of decrees, said to be made 
at my motion, of which I had never heard a syllable 
at home. Do not take me to be in jest, for I 
assure you, that I have received letters from kings 
from the remotest parts of the earth, to thank me 
for giving them the title of king ; when, so far 
from knowing that any such title had been decreed to 
them, I knew not even that there were any such 
men in being. What is then to be done ? Why, 
as long as our master of manners continues here, 
I will follow your advice ; but as soon as he is 
gone, will run away to your mushrooms n ," &c. 

In another letter, " Since you express' (says he) 
such a concern for me in your last, be assured, my 
dear Psetus, that whatever can be done by art, 
(for it is not enough to act with prudence, some 
artifice also must now be employed) yet whatever, 
I say, can be done by art, towards acquiring their 
good graces, I have already done it with the great- 
est care, nor, as I believe, without success ; for I am 

m Some of his jests on Caesar's administration are still 
preserved; which show, that his friends had reason 
enough to admonish him to be more upon his guard. 
Caesar had advanced Laberius, a celebrated mimic actor, 
to the order of knights : but when he stepped from the 
stage into the theatre to take his place on the equestrian 
benches, none of the knights would admit him to a seat 
among them. As he was marching off therefore with 
disgrace, happening to pass near Cicero, I would make 
room for you here, says Cicero, on our bench, if we were 
not already too much crowded ; alluding to Caesar's filling 
up the senate also with the scum of his creatures, and 
even with strangers and barbarians. At another time, 
being desired by a friend, in a public company, to procure 
for his son the rank of a senator in one of the corporate 
towns of Italy, He shall have it, says he, if you please, at 
Rome i but it will be difficult at Pompeii. An acquaint- 
ance likewise from Laodicea, coming to pay his respects 
to him, and being asked, what business had brought him 
to Rome, said, that he was sent upon an embassy to 
Caesar, to intercede with him for the liberty of his country ,■ 
upon which Cicero replied, If you succeed, you shall be an 
ambassador also for us.— Macrob. Saturn, ii. 3 ; Sueton. 
c. 76- 

n Ep. Fam. ix. 15. — Prcefectus morum, or Master of the 
public manners, was one of the new titles which the senate 
had decreed to Caesar. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



197 



somuchcourtedbyallwhoareinanydegreeof favour 
with Caesar, that I begin to fancy that they love 
me ; and though real love is not easily distinguished 
from false, except in the case of danger, by which the 
sincerity of it may be tried, as of gold by fire, for all 
other marks are common to both ; yet T have one 
argument to persuade me that they really love me, 
because both my condition and theirs is such as 
puts them under no temptation to dissemble ; and 
as for him who has all power, I see no reason to fear 
any thing, unless that all things become of course 
uncertain, when justice and right are once deserted; 
nor can we be sure of anything that depends on 
the will, not to say the passion, of another. Yet 
I have not in any instance particularly offended 
him, but behaved myself all along with the great- 
est moderation ; for as once I took it to be my 
duty to speak my mind freely in that city, which 
owed its freedom to me, so now, since that is lost, 
to speak nothing that may offend him, or his prin- 
cipal friends ; but if I would avoid all offence, of 
things said facetiously or by way of raillery, I 
must give up all reputation of wit, which I would 
not refuse to do, if I could. But as to Caesar 
himself, he has a very piercing judgment ; and 
as your brother Servius, whom I take to have 
been an excellent critic, would readily say, ' This 
verse is not Plautus's — that verse is ;' having 
formed his ears, by great use, to distinguish the 
peculiar style and manner of different poets ; so 
Caesar, I hear, who has already collected some vo- 
lumes of apophthegms, if any thing be brought to 
him for mine which is not so, presently rejects it, 
which he now does the more easily, because his 
friends live almost continually with me ; and in the 
variety of discourse, when anything drops from 
me which they take to have some humour or 
spirit in it, they carry it always to him, with the 
other news of the town, for such are his orders ; 
so that if he hears anything besides of mine from 
other persons, he does not regard it. I have no 
occasion therefore for your example of GEnomaus, 
though aptly applied from Accius ; for what is the 
envy which you speak of, or what is there in me 
to be envied now ? But suppose there was every- 
thing, it has been the constant opinion of philo- 
sophers, the only men in my judgment who have 
a right notion of virtue, that a wise man has no- 
thing more to answer for, than to keep himself 
free from guilt, of which I take myself to be clear, 
on a double account ; because I both pursued 
those measures which were the justest, and when 
I saw that I had not strength enough to carry 
them, did not think it my business to contend 
by force with those who were too strong for me. 
It is certain, therefore, that I cannot be blamed 
in what concerns the part of a good citizen ; all 
that is now left, is not to say or do anything 
foolishly and rashly against the men in power, 
which I lake also to be the part of a wise man. 
As for the rest, what people may report to be 
said by me, or how he may take it, or with what 
sincerity those live with me who now so assi- 
duously court me, it is not in my power to answer. 
I comfort myself, therefore, with the conscious- 
ness of my former conduct, and the moderation 
of my present, and shall apply your similitude 
from Accius, not only to the case of envy, but of 
fortune, which I consider as light and weak, and 
what ought to be repelled by a firm and great 



mind, as waves by a rock. For since the Greek 
history is full of examples, how the wisest men 
have endured tyrannies at Athens or Syracuse ; 
and, when their cities were enslaved, have lived 
themselves in some measure free, why may not I 
think it possible to maintain my rank, so as neither 
to offend the mind of any, nor hurt my own dig- 
nity ?" &c. 

Paetus, having heard that Caesar was going to 
divide some lands in his neighbourhood to the 
soldiers, began to be afraid for his own estate, and 
writes to Cicero to know how far that distribution 
would extend. To which Cicero answers : " Are 
not you a pleasant fellow, who when Balbus has 
just been with you, ask me what will become of 
those towns and their lands ? as if either I knew 
anything that Balbus does not ; or if at any time 
I chance to know anything, I do not know it 
from him ; nay, it is your part rather, if you love 
me, to let me know what will become of me, for 
you had it in your power to have learnt it from 
him, either sober, or at least when drunk. But 
as for me, my dear Paetus, I have done inquiring 
about those things : first, because we have already 
lived near four years by clear gain, as it were, if 
that can be called gain, or this life, to outlive the 
republic. Secondly, because I myself seem to 
know what will happen ; for it will be, whatever 
pleases the strongest, which must always be de- 
cided by arms ; it is our part, therefore, to be 
content with what is allowed to us : he who cannot 
submit to this, ought to have chosen death. They 
are now measuring the fields of Veiae and Ca- 
penae : this is not far from Tusculum. Yet I fear 
nothing, I enjoy it whilst I may; wish that I always 
may ; but if it should happen otherwise, yet since, 
with all my courage and philosophy, I have thought 
it best to live, I cannot but have an affection for him 
by whose benefit I hold that life : who, if he has an 
inclination to restore the republic, as he himself 
perhaps may desire, and we all ought to wish, 
yet he has linked himself so with others, that he 
has not the power to do what he would. But I 
proceed too far, for I am writing to you ; be 
assured however of this, that not only I, who have 
no part in their counsels, but even the chief him- 
self does not know what will happen. We are 
slaves to him, he to the times ; so neither can he 
know what the times will require, nor we what he 
may intendP," &c. 

The chiefs of the Caesarian party, who courted 
Cicero so much at this time, were Balbus, Oppius, 
Matius, Pansa, Hirtius, Dolabella ; they were 
all in the first confidence with Caesar, yet pro- 
fessed the utmost affection for Cicero : were every 
morning at his levee, and perpetually engaging 
him to sup with them ; and the last two employed 
themselves in a daily exercise of declaiming at his 
house, for the benefit of his instruction, of which 
he gives the following account in his familiar way 
to Paetus : " Hirtius and Dolabella are my scholars 
in speaking — my masters in eating ; for you have 
heard, I guess, how they declaim with me ; I sup 
with them." In another letter he tells him, " that 
as king Dionysius, when driven out of Syracuse, 
turned schoolmaster at Corinth, so he, having 
lost his kingdom of the forum, had now opened a 
school," to which he merrily invites Paetus, with 



° Ep. Fam. ix. 16. 



P Ep. Fam. ix. 17. 



198 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



the offer of a " seat and cushion next to himself," 
as his usher i." But to Varro, more seriously, " I 
acquainted you (says he) before, that I am intimate 
with them all, and assist at their councils ; I see 
no reason why I should not — for it is not the 
same thing to bear what must be borne, and to 
approve what ought not to be approved." And 
again; " I do not forbear to sup with those who now 
rule. What can I do ? we must comply with the 
times 1 "." 

The only use which he made of all this favour 
was, to screen himself from any particular calamity 
in the general misery of the times, andto serve those 
unhappy men who were driven from their country 
and their families, for their adherence to that cause 
which he himself had espoused. Csesar was desi- 
rous indeed to engage him in his measures, and 
attach him insensibly to his interests, but he would 
bear no part in an administration established on 
the ruins of his country, nor ever cared to be ac- 
quainted with their affairs, or to inquire what they 
were doing ; so that whenever he entered into their 
councils, as he signifies above to Varro, it was 
only when the case of some exiled friend required 
it, for whose service he scrupled no pains of soli- 
citing, and attending even Csesar himself ; though 
he was sometimes shocked, as he complains, by the 
difficulty of access, and the indignity of waiting in 
an antechamber : not indeed through Caesar's fault, 
who was always ready to give him audience ; but 
from the multiplicity of his affairs, by whose hands 
all the favours of the empire were dispensed 8 . 
Thus in a letter to Ampius, whose pardon he had 
procured, " I have solicited your cause (says he) 
more eagerly than my present situation would well 
justify ; for my desire to see you, and my constant 
love for you, most assiduously cultivated on your 
part, overruled all regard to the present weak con- 
dition of my power and interest. Every thing 
that relates to your return and safety is promised, 
confirmed, fixed, and ratified ; I saw, knew, was 
present at every step : for by good luck I have all 
Csesar's friends engaged to me by an old acquaint- 
ance and friendship ; so that next to him they pay 
the first regard to me : Pansa, Hirtius, Balbus, 
Oppius, Matius, Postumius, take all occasions to 
give me proof of their singular affection. If this 
had been sought and procured by me, I should 
have no reason, as things now stand, to repent of 
my pains, but I have done nothing with the view 
of serving the times ; I had an intimacy of long 
standing with them all, and never gave over soli- 
citing them on your behalf. I found Pansa, how- 
ever, the readiest of them all to serve you, and 

1 Hirtium ego et Dolabellam dicendi discipulos habeo, 
coenandi magiatros: puto enim te audisse— illos apud me 
declamitare, me apud eos ecenitare. — Ep. Fam. ix. 16. 

Ut Dionysius tyrannus, cum Syracusis pulsus esset, 
Corinthi dicitur ludum aperuisse, sic ego — amisso regno 
forensi, ludum quasi habere cceperim— sella tibi erit in 
ludo, tanquam hypodidasculo, proxima : earn pulvinus 
sequetmv — Ibid. 18. 

r Ostentavi tibi, me istis esse familiarem, et consiliis 
eorum intercsse. Quod ego cur nolim nihil video. Non 
enim est idem, ferre si quid ferendum est, et probare, si 
quid probandum non est. — Ibid. 6. 

Non desino apud istos, qui nunc dominantur, ecenitare. 
Quid faciam ? tempori serviendum est. — Ibid. 7. 

s Quod si tardius fit quam volumus, magnis occupa- 
tionibus ejus, a quo omnia petuntur, aditus ad euni diffi- 
ciliores fuerunt— Ep. Fam. vi. 13. 



oblige me ; who has not only an interest, but 
authority with Caesar 1 ," &c. 

But while he was thus caressed by Csesar's 
friends, he was not less followed, we may imagine, 
by the friends of the republic. These had always 
looked upon him as the chief patron of their 
liberty, whose counsels, if they had been followed, 
would have preserved it ; and whose authority 
gave them the only hopes that were left, of reco- 
vering it : so that his house was as much fre- 
quented, and his levee as much crowded, as ever ; 
since " people now flocked (he says) to see a good 
citizen, as a sort of rai*ity u ." In another letter, 
giving a short account of his way of life, he says, 
" Early in the morning, I receive the compliments 
of many honest men, but melancholy ones, as well 
as of these gay conquerors, who show indeed a 
very officious and affectionate regard to me. 
When these visits are over, I shut myself up in 
my library, either to write or read. Here some 
also come to hear me, as a man of learning, 
because I am somewhat more learned than they ; 
the rest of my time I give to the care of my 
body, for I have now bewailed my country longer 
and more heavily than any mother ever bewailed 
her only son x ." 

It is certain, that there was not a man in the 
republic so particularly engaged, both by principle 
and interest, to wish well to its liberty, or who had 
so much to lose by the subversion of it, as he ; for 
as long as it was governed by civil methods, and 
stood upon the foundation of its laws, he was 
undoubtedly the first citizen in it ; had the chief 
influence in the senate, the chief authority with 
the people ; and as all his hopes and fortunes were 
grounded on the peace of his country, so all his 
labours and studies were perpetually applied to the 
promotion of it ; it is no wonder therefore, in the 
present situation of the city, oppressed by arms 
and a tyrannical power, to find him so particularly 
impatient under the common misery, and express- 
ing so keen a sense of the diminution of his dig- 
nity, and the disgrace of serving, where he had been 
used to govern. 

Ceesar, on the other hand, though he knew his 
temper and principles to be irreconcileable to his 
usurped dominion, yet, out of friendship to the 
man, and a reverence for his character, was deter- 
mined to treat him with the greatest humanity ; 
and by all the marks of personal favour to make 
his life not only tolerable, but easy to him : yet 
all that he could do had no other effect on Cicero 
than to make him think and speak sometimes 
favourably of the natural clemency of their master, 
and to entertain some hopes from it that he would 
one day be persuaded to restore the public liberty ; 
but exclusive of that hope, he never mentions his 
government but as a real tyranny, or his person 

t Ep. Fam. vi. 12. 

u Cum salutation! nos dedimus amicorum ; quae fit 
hoc etiam frequentius, quam solebat, quod quasi avem 
albam, videntur bene sentientem civem videre, abdo me 
in bibliothecam.— Ibid. vii. 28. 

x Ha?c igitur est nunc vita nostra. Mane salutamus 
domi et bonos viros multos, sed tristes, et hos lfetos vic- 
tores; qui me quidemperotneioseet peramanter observant. 
Ubi salutatio defluxit, Uteris me involve-, aut scribo aut 
lego. Veniunt etiam qui me audiunt, quasi doctum homi- 
nem, quia paullo sum, quam ipsi, doctior. Inde corpori 
omne tempus datur. Patriam eluxi jam gravius et diutius 
quam ulla mater unicimi filium. — Ep. Fam. ix. 20. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



199 



in any other style than as the oppressor of his 
country. 

But he gave a remarkable proof at this time of 
his being no temporiser, by writing a book in 
praise of Cato, which he published within a few 
months after Cato's death. He seems to have been 
left a guardian to Cato's son, as he was also to 
young Lucullus, Cato's nephew ^ ; and this testi- 
mony of Cato's friendship and judgment of him 
might induce him the more readily to pay this 
honour to his memory. It was a matter however 
of no small deliberation in what manner he ought 
to treat the subject. His friends advised him not 
to be too explicit and particular in the detail 
of Cato's praises, but to content himself with a 
general encomium, for fear of irritating Caesar, 
by pushing the argument too far. In a letter to 
Atticus, he calls this " an Archimedean problem ;" 
" but I cannot hit upon anything," says he, u that 
those friends of yours will read with pleasure, or 
even with patience ; besides, if I should drop 
the account of Cato's votes and speeches in the 
senate, and of his political conduct in the state, 
and give a slight commendation only of his con- 
stancy and gravity, even this may be more than 
they will care to hear : but the man cannot be 
praised as he deserves unless it be particularly ex- 
plained how he foretold all that has happened to 
us ; how he took arms to prevent its happening, 
and parted with life rather than see it happen 2 ." 

These were the topics which he resolved to dis- 
play with all his force ; and from the accounts 
given of the work by antiquity, it appears that he 
had spared no pains to adorn it, but extolled Cato's 
virtue and character to the skies a . 

The book was soon spread into all hands ; and 
Caesar, instead of expressing any resentment, 
affected to be much pleased with it, yet declared 
that he would answer it ; and Hirtius, in the 
meanwhile, drew up a little piece in the form of 
a letter to Cicero, filled with objections to Cato's 
character, but with high compliments to Cicero 
himself, which Cicero took care to make public, 
and calls it a specimen of what Caesar's work was 
like to be b . Brutus also composed and published 
a piece on the same subject, as well as another 
friend of Cicero, Fabius Gallus c ; but these were 
but little considered in comparison of Cicero's : 
and Brutus had made some mistakes in his 
account of the transactions in which Cato had 

y Ad Att. xiii. 6.— De Fin. iii. 2. 

z Sed de Catone irp6$\t)\xa apxwh$eiov est. Non asse- 
quor ut scribarn, quod tui convivse non modo libenter, 
sed etiam aequo animo legere possint. Quin etiam si a 
sententiis ejus dictis, si ab omni voluntate, consiliisque 
qua* de republica habuit, recedam ; tyiAoos que velim 
gravitatem constantiarnque ejus laudare, hoc ipsum 
&Kova/J.a sit. Sed vere laudari ille vir non potest, nisi hseo 
ornata sint, quod ille ea, quas nunc sunt, et futura viderit, 
et ne fierent contenderit, et facta ne videret, vitam reli- 
querit.— Ad Att. xii. 4. 

a M. Ciceronis libro, quo Catonem ccelo aequavit, &c. — 
Tacit. Ann. iv. 34. 

b Qualis futura sit Caesaris vituperatio contra lauda- 
tionem meam perspexi ex eo libro, quern Hirtius ad me 
misit, ia quo colligit vitia Catonis, sed cum maximis 
laudibus meis. Itaque misi librum ad Muscam, ut tuis 
librariis daret. Volo eum divulgari, &c. — Ad Att. xii. 
40, 41. 

c Catonem tuum mihi mitte. Cupio enim legere. — Ep. 
Fam. vii. 24. 



been concerned, especially in the debates on 
Catiline's plot, in which he had given him the first 
part and merit, in derogation even of Cicero 
himself d . 

Caesar's answer was not published till the next 
year, upon his return from Spain, after the defeat 
of Pompey's sons. It was a laboured invective, 
answering Cicero's book paragraph by paragraph, 
and accusing Cato with all the art and force of 
his rhetoric, as if in a public trial before judges e , 
yet with expressions of great respect towards 
Cicero, whom, for his virtues and abilities, he 
compared to Pericles and Theramenes of Athens f ; 
and in a letter upon it to Balbus, which was shown 
by his order to Cicero, he said, that by the frequent 
reading of Cicero's Cato, he was grown more 
copious, but after he had read Brutus's, thought 
himself even eloquent £. 

These two rival pieces were much celebrated in 
Borne, and had their several admirers, as different 
parties and interests disposed men to favour the sub- 
ject or the author of each ; and it is certain, that they 
were the principal cause of establishing and pro- 
pagating that veneration which posterity has since 
paid to the memory of Cato. For his name being 
thrown into controversy in that critical period of 
the fate of Rome, by the patron of liberty on the 
one side, and the oppressor of it on the other, 
became of course a kind of political test to all 
succeeding ages, and a perpetual argument of dis- 
pute between the friends of liberty and the flat- 
terers of power. But if we consider his character 
without prejudice, he was certainly a great and 
worthy man — a friend to truth, virtue, liberty ; 
yet falsely measuring all duty by the absurd rigour 
of the stoical rule, he was generally disappointed 
of the end which he sought by it — the happiness 
both of his private and public life. In his private 
conduct he was severe, morose, inexorable — banish- 
ing all the softer affections as natural enemies to 
justice, and as suggesting false motives of acting 
from favour, clemency, and compassion ; in public 
affairs he was the same — had but one rule of 
policy — to adhere to what was right, without 
regard to times or circumstances, or even to a 
force that could control him ; for instead of 
managing the power of the great, so as to mitigate 
the ill, or extract any good from it, he was urging 
it always to acts of violence by a perpetual defiance; 
so that, with the best intentions in the world, he 
often did great harm to the republic. This was 
his general behaviour ; yet, from some particular 
facts explained above, it appears that his strength 
of mind was not always impregnable, but had its 
weak places of pride, ambition, and party zeal, 

d Catonem primumsententiamputatdeanimadversione 
dixisse, quam "omnes ante dixerant praster Csesarein, &c. 
—Ad Att. xii. 21. 

From this and other particulars which are mentioned 
in the same letter, we may observe, that Sallust had pro- 
bably taken his account of the debates upon Catiline's 
" accomplices," from Brutus's Life of Cato, and chosen to 
copy even his mistakes, rather than do justice to Cicero on 
that occasion. 

e Ciceronis libro— quid aliud dictator Casar, quam 
rescripta oratione, velut apud judices respondit ?— Tacit. 
Ann. iv. 34 ; Quintil. iii. 7. 

f Plut. in Cic. 

S Legi epistolam : multa de meo Catone, quo sacpissime 
legendo se dicit copiosiorem factum ; Bruti Catone lecto, 
se sibi visum disertum. — Ad Att. xiii. 46. 



200 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



which, when managed and flattered to a certain 
point, would betray him sometimes into measures 
contrary to his ordinary rule of right and truth. 
The last act of his life was agreeable to his nature 
and philosophy : when he could no longer be what 
he had been, or when the ills of life overbalanced 
the good, which, by the principles of his sect, was 
a just cause for dying h , he put an end to his life 
with a spirit and resolution which would make one 
imagine that he was glad to have found an occasion 
of dying in his proper character. On the whole, 
his life was rather admirable than amiable— fit to 
be praised rather than imitated 1 . 

As soon as Cicero had published his " Cato," he 
wrote his piece called "the Orator," at the request 
of Brutus, containing the plan or delineation of 
what he him self esteemed the most perfect eloquence 
or manner of speaking. He calls it the fifth part or 
book, designed to complete the argument of his 
" Brutus," and the other three on the same subject. 
It was received with great approbation ; and in a 
letter to Lepta, who had complimented him upon 
it, he declares, that whatever judgment he had in 
speaking, he had thrown it all into that work, and 
was content to risk his reputation on the merit 
of it k . 

He now likewise spoke that famous speech of 
thanks to Csesar for the pardon of M. Marcellus, 
which was granted upon the intercession of the 
senate. Cicero had a particular friendship with 
all the family of the Marcelli, but especially with 
this Marcus, who, from the defeat of Pompey at 
Pharsalia, retired to Mitylene in Lesbos, where he 
lived with so much ease and satisfaction to himself 
in a philosophical retreat, that Cicero, as it appears 
from his letters, was forced to use all his art and 
authority to persuade him to return, and take the 
benefit of that grace which they had been labour- 
ing to obtain for him 1 . But how the affair was 
transacted we may learn from Cicero's account of 
it to Serv. Sulpicius, who was then proconsul 
of Greece. " Your condition," says he, " is 
better than ours in this particular, that you dare 
venture to write your grievances — we cannot even 
do that with safety ; not through any fault of the 
conqueror, than whom nothing can be more 
moderate, but of victory itself, which in civil wars 
is always insolent. We have had the advantage 
of you however in one thing — in being acquainted 
a little sooner than you with the pardon of your 
colleague Marcellus ; or rather, indeed, in seeing 



h In quo enim plura sunt, quae secundum naturani sunt, 
hujus officium est in vita manere : in quo autem aut sunt 
plura contraria, aut fore videntur, hujus officium est e vita 
excedere. — De Fin. iii. 18. 

Vetus est enim ; ubi non sis, qui fueris, non esse cur 
velis vivere. — Ep. Fam. vii. 3. 

« Cato sic abiit e vita, ut causam moriundi nactum se 
esse gauderet.— Cum vero causam justam deus ipse de- 
derit, ut time Socrati, nunc Catoni, &c— Tusc. Qusest. 
i. 30. 

Catoni— moriundum potius, quam tyranni vultus adspi- 
ciendus fuit.— De Offic. i. 31. 

Non immaturus decessit : vixit enim, quantum debuit 
vivere. — Senec. Consol. ad Marc. 20. 

k Ita tres erunt, De Oratore : quartus Brutus : quintus, 
Orator.— De Div. ii. 1. 

Oratorem meum tantopere a te probari, vehementer 
gaudeo : milii quidem sic persuadeo, me quicquid habu- 
erim judicii in dicendo, in ilium librum contulisse. — Ep. 
Fam. vi. 18. 

1 Ep. Fam. iv. 7, 8, 9. 



how the whole affair passed ; for I would have you 
believe, that from the beginning of these miseries, 
or ever since the public right has been decided by 
arms, there has nothing been done besides this 
with any dignity. For Caesar himself, after having 
complained of the moroseness of Marcellus, for so 
he called it, and praised in the strongest terms the 
equity and prudence of your conduct, presently 
declared, beyond all our hopes, that whatever 
offence he had received from the man, he could 
refuse nothing to the intercession of the senate. 
What the senate did was this : upon the mention 
of Marcellus by Piso, his brother Caius having 
thrown himself at Caesar's feet, they all rose up 
and went forward in a supplicating manner towards 
Csesar : in short, this day's work appeared to me . 
so decent, that I could not help fancying that I 
saw the image of the old republic reviving : when 
all, therefore, who were asked their opinions before 
me, had returned thanks to Csesar, excepting 
Volcatius (for he declared that he would not have 
done it, though he had been in Marcellus 's place), 
I, as soon as I was called upon, changed my mind, 
for I had resolved with myself to observe an 
eternal silence, not through any laziness, but the 
loss of my former dignity ; but Caesar's greatness 
of mind, and the laudable zeal of the senate, got 
the better of my resolution. I gave thanks there- 
fore to Csesar in a long speech, and have deprived 
myself by it, I fear, on other occasions, of that 
honest quiet, which was my only comfort in these 
unhappy times ; but since I have hitherto avoided 
giving him offence, and if I had always continued 
silent, he would have interpreted it, perhaps, as a 
proof of my taking the republic to be ruined, I 
shall speak for the future not often, or rather very 
seldom, so as to manage at the same time both his 
favour and my own leisure for study m ." 

Csesar, though he saw the senate unanimous in 
their petition for Marcellus, yet took the pains to 
call for the particular opinion of every senator 
upon it, a method never practised except in cases 
of debate, and where the house was divided : but 
he wanted the usual tribute of flattery upon this 
act of grace, and had a mind probably to make an 
experiment of Cicero's temper, and to draw from 
him especially some incense on the occasion ; nor 
was he disappointed of his aim, for Cicero, touched 
by his generosity, and greatly pleased with the act 
itself, on the account of his friend, returned thanks 
to him in a speech, which, though made upon the 
spot, yet for elegance of diction, vivacity of senti- 
ment, and politeness of compliment, is superior to 
anything extant of the kind in all antiquity. The 
many fine things which are said in it of Csesar, 
have given some handle indeed for a charge of 
insincerity against Cicero : but it must be remem- 
bered that he was delivering a speech of thanks 
not only for himself, but in the name and at the 
desire of the senate, where his subject naturally 
required the embellishments of oratory, and that 
all his compliments are grounded on a supposition 
that Csesar intended to restore the republic, of 
which he entertained no small hopes at this time, 
as he signifies in a letter to one of Csesar's prin- 
cipal friends". This therefore he recommends, 

m Ep. Fam. iv. 4. 

n Sperare tamen videor, Caosari, collegae nostro, fore 

euros et esse, ut habeamus aliquam rempublicam.< — Ep. 
Fam. xiii. 68. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



201 



enforces, and requires from him in his speech, 
with the spirit of an old Roman ; and no reason- 
able man will think it strange that so free an 
address to a conqueror, in the height of all his 
power, should want to be tempered with some few 
strokes of flattery. But the following passage 
from the oration itself will justify the truth of 
what I am saying. 

" If this," says he, " Csesar, was to be the end 
of your immortal acts, that after conquering all 
your enemies, you should leave the republic in the 
condition in which it now is ; consider, I beseech 
you, whether your divine virtue would not excite 
rather an admiration of you than any real glory ; 
for glory is the illustrious fame of many and great 
services either to our friends, our country, or to 
the whole race of mankind. This part, therefore, 
still remains ; there is one act more to be per- 
formed by you, to establish the republic again, 
that you may reap the benefit of it yourself in 
peace and prosperity. When you have paid this 
debt to your country, and fulfilled the ends of your 
nature by a satiety of living, you may then tell us, 
if you please, that you have lived long enough ; 
yet what is it after all that we can really call long, 
of which there is an end ? for when that end is 
once come, all past pleasure is to be reckoned as 
nothing, since no more of it is to be expected. 
Though your mind, I know, was never content 
with these narrow bounds of life which nature has 
assigned to us, but inflamed always with an ardent 
love of immortality : nor is this indeed to be con- 
sidered as your life, which is comprised in this 
body and breath ; but that — that I say, is your 
life which is to flourish in the memory of all ages, 
which posterity will cherish, and eternity itself 
propagate. It is to this that you must attend, to 
this that you must form yourself, which has many 
things already to admire, yet wants something 
still that it may praise in you. Posterity will be 
amazed to hear and read of your commands, 
provinces ; the Rhine, the Ocean, the Nile ; your 
innumerable battles, incredible victories, infinite 
monuments, splendid triumphs : but unless this 
city be established again by your wisdom and coun- 
cils, your name indeed will wander far and wide, 
yet will have no certain seat or place at'last where 
to fix itself. There will be also amongst those who 
are yet unborn the same controversy that has been 
amongst us ; when some will extol your actions 
to the skies, others, perhaps, will find something 
defective in them ; and that one thing above all, 
if you should not extinguish this flame of civil 
war, by restoring liberty to your country ; for the 
one may be looked upon as the effect of fate, but 
the other is the certain act of wisdom. Pay a 
reverence, therefore, to those judges who will pass 
judgment upon you in ages to come, and with less 
partiality, perhaps, than we, since they will neither 
be biassed by affection or party, nor prejudiced by 
hatred or envy to you : and though this, as some 
falsely imagine, should then have no relation to 
you, yet it concerns you certainly at the present, 
to act in such a manner that no oblivion may ever 
obscure the lustre of your praises. Various were 
the inclinations of the citizens, and their opinions 
wholly divided ; nor did we differ only in sen- 
timents and wishes, but in arms also and camps ; 
the merits of the cause were dubious, and the 
contention between two celebrated leaders : many 



doubted what was the best ; many what was con- 
venient ; many what was decent ; some also what 
was lawful," &c.° 

But though Csesar took no step towards re- 
storing the republic, he employed himself this 
summer in another work of general benefit to 
mankind, the reformation of the calendar, by 
accommodating the course of the year to the exact 
course of the sun, from which it had varied so 
widely as to occasion a strange confusion in all 
their accounts of time. 

The Roman year, from the old institution of 
Numa, was lunar, borrowed from the Greeks, 
amongst whom it consisted of three hundred and 
fifty-four days. Numa added one more to them 
to make the whole number odd, which was thought 
the more fortunate ; and to fill up the deficiency 
of his year to the measure of the solar course, 
inserted likewise or intercalated, after the manner 
of the Greeks, an extraordinary month of twenty- 
two days, every second year, and twenty-three every 
fourth, between the twenty-third and twenty- 
fourth day of February p : he committed the care 
of intercalating this month and the supernumerary 
day to the college of priests, who, in progress of 
time, partly by a negligent, partly a superstitious, 
but chiefly by an arbitrary abuse of their trust, 
used either to drop or insert them, as it was found 
most convenient to themselves or their friends, to 
make the current year longer or shorter*!. Thus 
Cicero, when harassed by a perpetual course of 
pleading, prayed, that there might be no inter- 
calation to lengthen his fatigue ; and when pro- 
consul of Cilicia, pressed Atticus to exert all his 
interest to prevent any intercalation within the 
year, that it might not protract his government 
and retard his return to Rome r . Curio, on the 
contrary, when he could not persuade the priests 
to prolong the year of his tribunate by an interca- 
lation, made that a pretence for abandoning the 
senate, and going over to Caesar s . 

This licence of intercalating introduced the 
confusion above-mentioned, in the computation of 
their time : so that the order of all their months 
was transposed from their stated seasons ; the 
winter months carried back into autumn, the 
autumnal into summer : till Csesar resolved to put 
an end to this disorder by abolishing the source of 
it, the use of intercalations ; and instead of the 
lunar to establish the solar year, adjusted to the 
exact measure of the sun's revolution in the zodiac, 
or to that period of time in which it returns to 

o Pro M. Marcell. 8, 9, 10, 

P This was usually called intercalaris, though Plutarch 
gives it the name of mercedonius, which none of the 
Roman writers mention, except that Festus speaks of 
some days under the title of mercedonice, because the 
merces or wages of workmen were commonly paid upon 
them. 

q Quod institutum perite a Numa posteriorum pontifi- 
cum negligentia dissolutum est. — De Leg. ii. 12 ; Censorin. 
De Die Nat. c. 20 ; Macrob. Sat. i. 14. 

r Nos hie in multitudine et celebritate judiciorum — ita 
destinemur, ut quotidie vota faciamus ne intercaletur. — 
Ep. Fam. vii. 2. 

Per fortunas primum illud prsefulci atque pnemuni 
quaeso, ut simus annui ; ne intercaletur quidem. — Ad Att. 
v. 13. 9. 

s Levissime enim, quia de intercalando non obtinuerat, 
transfugit ad populum et pro Ca>sare loqui coepit.— Ep. 
Fam. viii. 6 ; Dio, p. 148. 



202 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



the point from which it set out : and as this, ac- 
cording to the astronomers of that age, was sup- 
posed to be three hundred and sixty-five days and 
six hours, so he divided the days into twelve arti- 
ficial months ; and to supply the deficiency of the 
six hours, by which they fell short of the sun's 
complete course, he ordered a day to be inter- 
calated after every four years, between the twenty- 
third and twenty-fourth of February 1 . 

But to make this new year begin and proceed 
regularly, he was forced to insert into the current 
year two extraordinary months between November 
and December ; the one of thirty-three, the other 
of thirty-four days ; besides the ordinary inter- 
calary month of twenty-three days, which fell into 
it of course ; which were all necessary to fill up 
the number of days that were lost to the old year, 
by the omission of intercalations, and to i-eplace 
the months in their proper seasons u . All this was 
effected by the care and skill of Sosigenes, a cele- 
brated astronomer of Alexandria, whom Csesar had 
brought to Rome for that purpose x : and a new 
calendar was formed upon it by Flavius a scribe, 
digested according to the order of the Roman fes- 
tivals, and the old manner of computing their days 
by calends, ides, and nones ; which was published 
and authorised by the dictator's edict, not long 
after his return from Africa. This year therefore 
was the longest that Rome had ever known, con- 
sisting of fifteen months, or four hundred and 
forty-five days, and is called the last of the con- 
fusion ^ ; because it introduced the Julian or solar 
year, with the commencement of the ensuing 
January ; which continues in use to this day in all 
Christian countries, without any other variation 
than that of the old and new style 7 . 

Soon after the affair of Marcellus, Cicero had 
another occasion of trying both his eloquence and 
interest with Csesar, in the cause of Ligarius ; who 
was now in exile on the account of his having been 
in arms against Csesar in the African war, in which 
he had borne a considerable command. His two 
brothers however had always been on Caesar's side ; 
and being recommended by Pansa, and warmly 

4 This day was called Bissextus, from its being a repeti- 
tion or duplicate of the sixth of the kalends of March, 
which fell always on the 24th ; and hence our intercalary 
or leap year is still called Bissextile. 

u Quo autem magis in posterum ex Kalendis Januariis 
nobis temporum ratio congrueret, inter Novembrem et 
Decembrem mensem adjecit duos alios : fuitque is annus 
—xv. mensium cum intercalario, qui ex consuetudine eum 
annum inciderat.— Suet. J. Caes. 40. 

x Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 25. 

y Adnitente sibi M. Flavio scriba, qui scriptos dies sin- 
gulos ita ad dictatorem detulit, ut et ordo eorum inveniri 
facillime posset, et invento certus status perseveraret — 
eaque re factum est, ut annus confusionisultimus in quad- 
ringentos quadraginta tres dies tenderetur. — Macrob. Sat. 
i. 14; Dio, 227. 

Macrobius makes this year to consist of 443 days, but he 
should have said 445, since, according to all accounts, 
ninety days were added to the old year of 355. 

z This difference of the old and new style was occasioned 
by a regulation made by Pope Gregory, a. d. 1582, for it 
having been observed, that the computation of the vernal 
equinox was fallen back ten days from the time of the 
council of Nice, when it was found to be on the 21st of 
March ; according to which all the festivals of the church 
were then solemnly settled ; Pope Gregory, by the advice 
of astronomers, caused ten days to be entirely sunk and 
thrown out of the current year, between the 4th and 15th 
of October. 



supported by Cicero, had almost prevailed for his 
pardon ; of which Cicero gives the following ac- 
count in a letter to Ligarius himself. 

Cicero to Ligarius. 

" I would have you to be assured that I employ 
my whole pains, labour, care, study, in procuring 
your restoration : for as I have ever had the 
greatest affection for you, so the singular piety and 
love of your brothers, for whom as well as yourself 
I have always professed the utmost r esteem, never 
suffer me to neglect any opportunity of my duty 
and service to you. But what I am now doing, or 
have done, I would have you learn from their 
letters rather than mine ; but as to what I hope 
and take to be certain in your affair, that I choose 
to acquaint you with myself: for if any man be 
timorous in great and dangerous events, and fearing 
always the worst rather than hoping the best, I am 
he ; and if this be a fault, confess myself not to 
be free from it ; yet on the twenty- seventh of No- 
vember, when, at the desire of your brothers I had 
been early with Caesar, and gone through the 
trouble and indignity of getting access and au- 
dience ; when your brothers and relations had 
thrown themselves at his feet, and I had said 
what your cause and circumstances required, I 
came away persuaded that your pardon was cer- 
tain : which I collected not only from Caesar's 
discourse, which was mild and generous, but from 
his eyes and looks, and many other signs, which I 
could better observe than describe. It is your part, 
therefore, to behave yourself with firmness and 
courage ; and as you have borne the more turbulent 
part prudently, to bear this calmer state of things 
cheerfully : I shall continue still to take the same 
pains in your affairs as if there was the greatest 
difficulty in them, and will heartily supplicate in 
your behalf, as I have hitherto done, not only 
Caesar himself, but all his friends whom I have 
ever found most affectionate to me. Adieu a ." 

While Ligarius' s affair was in this hopeful way, 
Q. Tubero, who had an old quarrel with him, being 
desirous to obstruct his pardon, and knowing 
Caesar to be particularly exasperated against all 
those who, through an obstinate aversion to him, 
had renewed the war in Africa, accused him in the 
usual forms of an uncommon zeal and violence in 
prosecuting that war. Caesar privately encouraged 
the prosecution, and ordered the cause to be tried 
in the forum, where he sat upon it in person, 
strongly prepossessed against the criminal, and 
determined to lay hold on any plausible pretence 
for condemning him : but the force of Cicero's 
eloquence, exerted with all his skill in a cause 
which he had much at heart, got the better of all 
his prejudices, and extorted a pardon from him 
against his will. 

The merit of this speech is too well known, to 
want to be enlarged upon here : those who read it 
will find no reason to charge Cicero with flattery : 
but the free spirit which it breathes in the face of 
that power to which it was suing for mercy, must 
give a great idea of the art of the speaker who 
could deliver such bold truths without offence ; as 
well as of the generosity of the judge, who heard 
them not only with patience but approbation. 

" Observe, Csesar," says he, " with what fidelity 

a Ep. Fam. vi. 14. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



20U 



I plead Ligarius's cause, when I betray even my 
own by it. O that admirable clemency, worthy to 
be celebrated by every kind of praise, letters, monu- 
ments ! M. Cicero defends a criminal before you, 
by proving him not to have been in those senti- 
ments, in which he owns himself to have been : nor 
does he yet fear your secret thoughts, or while he 
is pleading for another, what may occur to you 
about himself. See, I say, how little he is afraid 
of you. See with what a courage and gaiety of 
speaking your generosity and wisdom inspire me. 
I will raise my voice to such a pitch that the 
whole Roman people may hear me. After the war 
was not only begun, Caesar, but in great measure 
finished, when I was driven by no necessity, I went 
by choice and judgment to join myself with those 
who had taken arms against you. Before whom 
do I say this ? why before him who, though he 
knew it to be true, yet restored me to the republic, 
before he had even seen me ; who wrote to me 
from Egypt, that I should be the same man that I 
had always been ; and when he was the only em- 
peror within the dominion of Rome, suffered me 
to be the other, and to hold my laurelled fasces as 
long as I thought them worth holding — b . Do 
you then, Tubero, call Ligarius's conduct wicked ? 
for what reason ? since that cause has never yet 
been called by that name : some indeed call it 
mistake, others fear ; those who speak more se- 
verely, hope, ambition, hatred, obstinacy ; or at 
the worst, rashness ; but no man besides you has 
ever called it wickedness. For my part were I to 
invent a proper and genuine name for our calamity, 
I should take it for a kind of fatality that had 
possessed the unwary minds of men ; so that none 
can think it strange that all human counsels were 
overruled by a divine necessity. Call us then, if 
you please, unhappy ; though we can never be so 
under this conqueror : but I speak not of us who 
survive, but of those who fell ; let them be ambi- 
tious ; let them be angry ; let them be obstinate ; 
but let not the guilt of crime, of fury, of parri- 
cide, ever be charged on Cn. Pompey, and on 
many of those who died with him. When did we 
ever hear any such thing from you, Caesar ? or 
what other view had you in the war, than to defend 
yourself from injury ? — you considered it, from the 
first, not as a war, but a secession ; not as a 
hostile but civil dissention : where both sides 
wished well to the republic ; yet through a differ- 
ence, partly of counsels, partly of inclinations, 
deviated from the common good : the dignity of 
the leaders was almost equal ; though not perhaps 
of those who followed them : the cause was then 
dubious, since there was something which one might 
approve on either side ; but now, that must needs 
be thought the best which the gods have favoured; 
and after the experience of your clemency, who 
can be displeased with that victory in which no 
man fell who was not actually in arms c ." 

The speech was soon made public, and greedily 
bought by all. Atticus was extremely pleased with 
it, and very industrious in recommending it ; so 
that Cicero says merrily to him by letter, — " You 
have sold my Ligarian speech finely : whatever I 
write for the future, I will make you the pub- 
lisher :" and again, "your authority, I perceive, 
has made my little oration famous : for Balbus and 



Pro Ligar. 3. 



Ibid. 0. 



LEPJDUS 

Mag. Equit. 



Oppius write me word that they are wonderfully 
taken with it, and have sent a copy to Caesar d ." 
The success which it met with made Tubero 
ashamed of the figure that he made in it, so that he 
applied to Cicero to have something inserted in 
his favour, with the mention of his wife, and some 
of his family, who were Cicero's near relations ; 
but Cicero excused himself, " because the speech 
was got abroad: nor had he a mind," he says, 
" to make any apology for Tubero's conduct e ." 

Ligarius was a man of distinguished zeal for the 
liberty of his country, which was the reason both 
of Cicero's pains to preserve, and of Caesar's 
averseness to restore him. After his return he 
lived in great confidence with Brutus, who found 
him a fit person to bear a part in the conspiracy i 
against Caesar ; but happening to be taken iil near 
the time of its execution, when Brutus, in a visit 
to him, began to lament that he was fallen sick in 
a very unlucky hour ; Ligarius, raising himself 
presently upon his elbow, and taking Brutus by 
the hand, replied : " Yet still, Brutus, if you mean 
to do anything worthy of yourself, I am well f ;" 
nor did he disappoint Brutus's opinion of him, for 
we find him afterwards in the list of the conspira- 
tors. 

In the end of the year, Caesar was called away in 
great haste into Spain, to oppose the attempts of 
Pompey's sons, who, by the credit of their father's 
name, were become masters again of all that pro- 
vince ; and with the remains of the troops which 
Labienus, Varus, and the other chiefs who escaped, 
had gathered up from Africa, were once more in 
condition to try the fortune of the field with him : 
where the great danger to which he was exposed 
from this last effort of a broken party, shows how 
desperate his case must have been, if Pompey 
himself, with an entire andVeteran army, had first 
made choice of this country for the scene of the 
war. 

Cicero all this while passed his time with little 
satisfaction at home, being disappointed of the 
ease and comfort which he expected 
A cic B '62 ° 8 ' from tis new marria g e : bis children, 
c julius' as we ma y i ma g me > while their own 
c^esar mother w 7 as living, would not easily 

dictator in. bear with a young mother-in-law in 
et the house with them. The son es- 

consul iv. pecially was pressing to get a par- 
sine col- ticular appointment settled for his 
le3a. maintenance, and to have leave also 

to go to Spain, and make a campaign 
under Caesar, whither his cousin Quin- 
tus was already gone : Cicero did not 
approve this project, and endeavoured by all means 
to dissuade him from it, representing to him that 
it would naturally draw a just reproach upon them, 
for not thinking it enough to quit their former 
party, unless they fought against it too ; and that 
he would not be pleased to see his cousin more 

d Ligarianam praeclare vendidisti. Posthac quicquid 
scripsero, tibi praeconium deferam. — Ad Att. xiii. 12. 

Ligarianam, ut video, pra?clare auctoritas tua commen- 
davit. Scripsit enim ad me Balbus et Oppius, mirince se 
probare, ob eamquecausamadCassarem earn se oratiuneu- 
lam misisse.— -Ibid. 19. 

e Ad Ligarianam de uxore Tuberonis, etprivigna, nequc 
possum jam addere, est enim res pervulgata. neque Tuber- 
oncm volo defendere. Mirince est enim <pi\airios. —Ibid. 
20. f Pint, in Brut. 



204 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



regarded there than himself ; and promising withal, 
if he would consent to stay, to make him an ample 
and honourable allowance s. This diverted him 
from the thoughts of Spain, though not from the 
desire of removing from his father, and taking a 
separate house in the city, with a distinct family 
of his own ; but Cicero thought it best to send 
him to Athens, in order to spend a few years in 
the study of philosophy and polite letters ; and to 
make the proposal agreeable, offered him an ap- 
pointment that would enable him to live as splen- 
didly as any of the Roman nobility who then 
resided there, Bibulus, Acidinus, or Messala h . 
This scheme was accepted, and soon after executed, 
and young Cicero was sent to A. then s with two of 
his father's freedmen, L. Tullius Montanus, and 
TulliusMarcianus, astheintendants and counsellors 
of his general conduct, while the particular direc- 
tion of his studies was left to the principal philo- 
sophers of the place, and above all, to Cratippus, 
the chief of the Peripatetic sect 1 . 

In this uneasy state both of his private and 
public life, he was oppressed by a new and most 
cruel affliction — the death of his beloved daughter 
Tullia, which happened soon after her divorce 
from Dolabella, whose manners and humour were 
entirely disagreeable to her. Cicero had long been 
deliberating with himself and his friends, whether 
Tullia should not first send the divorce, but a 
prudential regard to Dolabella's power and interest 
with Csesar, which was of use to him in these 
times, seems to have withheld him. k The case 
was the same with Dolabella ; he was willing 
enough to part with Tullia, but did not care to 
break with Cicero, whose friendship was a credit 
to him, and whom gratitude obliged him to observe 
and reverence, since Cicero had twice defended 
and preserved him in capital causes 1 ; so that it 
seems most probable that the divorce was of an 
amicable kind, and executed at last by the consent 
of both sides ; for it gave no apparent interruption 
to the friendship between Cicero and Dolabella, 
which they carried on with the same show of 
affection and professions of respect towards each 
other, as if the relation had still subsisted. 

Tullia died in childbed at her husband's house m , 
which confirms the probability of their agreement 
in the divorce : it is certain, at least, that she died 

S De Hispania duo attuli ; primum idem, quod tibi, me 
vereri vituperationem : non satis esse si ha?c arma reliquis- 
semus ? etiam contraria ? deinde fore ut angeretur, cum 
a fratre familiaritate et omni gratia vinceretur. Velim 
magis liberalitate uti mea quam sua libertate.— Ad Att. 
xii. 7- 

h Prasstabo nee Bibulum, nee Acidinum,nec Messalam, 
quos Athenis futuros audio, majores sumptus facturos, 
quam quod ex eis mercedibus accipietur.— Ibid. 32. 

i L. Tullium Montanum nosti, qui cum Cicerone profec- 
tus est.— Ibid. 52,. 53. 

Quanquam te, Marce fill, annum jam audientem Cratip- 
pum, &c— De Off. i. 1 ; ii. 2. 

k Te oro ut de hac misera cogites— melius quidem in 
pessimis nihil fuit discidio— nunc quidem ipse videtur 
denunciare— placet mihi igitur, et idem tibi nuncium 
remitti, &c.— Ad Att. xi. 23 ; ibid. 3. 

Quod scripsi de nuncio remittendo, quae sit istius vis hoc 
tempore, et qua? concitatio multitudinis, ignore Si me- 
tuendus iratus est, quies tamen ab illo fortasse nascetur. 
— Ep. Fam. xiv. 13. 

1 Cujus ego salutem duobus capitis judiciis summa con- 
tentione defendi. — Ep. Fam. iii. 10. 

m Plut. in Cic. 



in Rome, where Cicero was detained (he says) 
by the expectation of the birth, and to receive the 
first payment of her fortune back again from 
Dolabella, who was then in Spain : she was de- 
livered, as it was thought, very happily, and sup- 
posed to be out of danger, when an unexpected 
turn in her case put an end to her life, to the 
inexpressible grief of her father". 

We have no account of the issue of this birth, 
which writers confound with that which happened 
three years before, when she was delivered at the 
end of seven months of a puny male child ; but 
whether it was from the first, or the second time 
of her lying-in, it is evident that she left a son 
by Dolabella, who survived her, and whom Cicero 
mentions more than once in his letters to Atticus, 
by the name of Lentulus : desiring him to visit 
the child, and see a due care taken of him, and to 
assign him what number of servants he thought 
proper p. 

Tullia was about two-and-thirty years old at the 
time of her death ; and by the few hints which are 
left of her character, appears to have been an 
excellent and admirable woman : she was most 
affectionately and piously observant of her father ; 
and to the usual graces of her sex, having added 
the more solid accomplishments of knowledge and 
polite letters, was qualified to be the companion, 
as well as the delight of his age, and was justly 
esteemed, not only as one of the best, but the most 
learned of the Roman ladies. It is not strange, 
therefore, that the loss of such a daughter, in the 
prime of her life, and the most comfortless season 
of his own, should affect him with all that grief, 
which the greatest calamity could imprint on a 
temper naturally timid and desponding. 

Plutarch tells us that the philosophers came 
from all parts to comfort him ; but that can hardly 
be true, except of those who lived in Rome, or in 
his own family ; for his first care was, to shun all 
company as much as he could, by removing to 
Atticus's house, where he lived chiefly in the 
library, endeavouring to relieve his mind by turn- 
ing over every book which he could meet with, on 
the subject of moderating griefs ; but finding his 
residence here too public, and a greater resort to 

n Me Romas tenuit omnino Tullia? mea? partus : sed cum 
ea, quemadmodum spero, satis firma sit, teneor tamen, 
dum a Dolabella? procuratoribus exigam priinam pen- 
sionem. — Ep. Fam. vi. 18. 

o The father's names were Publius Cornelius Lentulus 
Dolabella ; the two last being surnames acquired perhaps 
by adoption, and distinguishing the different branches of 
the Cornelian family. 

P Velim aliquando, cum erit tuum commodum, Lentu- 
lum puerum visas, eique de mancipiis, qua? tibi videbitur, 
attribuas. — Ad Att. xii. 28. 

Quod Lentulum invisis, valde gratum.— Ibid. 30 ; it. 18. 

N.B. Mr. Bayle declares himself surprised, to find Asco- 
nius Peed, so ill-informed of the history of Tullia, as to tell 
us, that after Piso's death, she ivas married to P. Lentulus, 
and died in child-bed at his house: in which short account 
there is contained, he says, two or three lies. But Plutarch 
confirms the same account ; and the mistake will rest at 
last, not on Asconius, but on Mr. Bayle himself, who did 
not reflect, from the authority of those ancients, that Len- 
tulus was one of Dolabella's names, by which he was called 
indifferently, as well as by any of the rest. — Bayle, Diction. 
Artie. Tullia, note k. 

q Me mihi non defuisse tu testis es, nihil enimde mcerore 
minuendo ab ullo scriptum est, quod ego non domi tua? 
legerim.— Ad Att. xii. 14. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



205 



him than he could bear, he retired to Astura, one 
of his seats near Antium, a little island on the 
Latian shore, at the mouth of a river of the same 
name, covered with woods and groves, cut out into 
shady walks ; a scene of all others the fittest to 
indulge melancholy, and where he could give a free 
course to his grief. " Here," says he, " I live 
without the speech of man : every morning early 
1 hide myself in the thickest of the wood, and 
never come out till the evening : next to yourself, 
nothing is so dear to me as this solitude : my 
whole conversation is with books, yet that is some- 
times interrupted by my tears, which I resist as 
well as I can, but am not yet able to do muchV 

Atticus urged him to quit this retirement, and 
divert himself with business, and the company of 
his friends ; and put him gently in mind, that, by 
afflicting himself so immoderately, he would hurt 
his character, and give people a handle to censure 
his weakness ; to which he makes the following 
answer : 

" As to what you write, that you are afraid lest 
the excess of my grief should lessen my credit and 
authority ; I do not know what men would have 
of me. Is it that I should not grieve ? that is 
impossible : or that I should not be oppressed 
with grief ? who was ever less so ? When I took 
refuge at your house, was any man ever denied 
access to me ? or did any one ever come who had 
reason to complain of me ? I went from you to 
Astura, where those gay sparks who find fault 
with me are not able even to read so much as I 
have written. How well, is nothing to the purpose ; 
yet it is of a kind which nobody could write, with 
a disordered mind. I spent a month in my gardens 
about Rome, where I received all who came with 
the same easiness as before. At this very moment, 
while I am employing my whole time in reading 
and writing, those who are with me are more 
fatigued with their leisure than I with my pains. 
If any one asks why I am not at Rome ? because 
it is vacation time : why not in some of my villas 
more suitable to the season ? because I could not 
easily bear so much company. I am where he who 
has the best house at Baise chooses to be in this 
part of the year. When I come to Rome, nobody 
shall find anything amiss, either in my looks or 
discourse. As to that cheerfulness with which we 
used to season the misery of these times, I have 
lost it, indeed, for ever, but will never part with 
my constancy and firmness, either of mind or 
speech s ," &c. 

All his other friends were very officious, like- 
wise, in making their compliments of condolence, 
and administering arguments of comfort to him : 
among the rest, Csesar himself, in the hurry of 
his affairs in Spain, wrote him a letter on the 
occasion, dated from Hispalis, the last of April *. 
Brutus wrote another, so friendly and affectionate, 
that it greatly moved him u . Lucceius, also, one 

r In hac solitudine careo omnium colloquio, cumque 
mane in silvam me abstrusi densam et asperam, non exeo 
inde ante vesperum. Secundum te, nihil mini amicius 
solitudine. In ea mihi omnis sermo est cum Uteris ; eum 
tamen interpellat fletus ; cui repugno quoad possum, sed 
adhue pares non sumus.— Ad Att. 15. 

s Ad Att. xii. 40. 

* A Caesare literas accepi consolatarias, datas prid. Kal. 
Maii, Hispali.— Ad Att. xiii. 20. 

11 Bruti literae scripts et prudenter et amice, multas 
tamen mihi lacrymas attulerunt.— Ibid. xii. 13. 



of the most esteemed writers of that age, sent him 
two ; the first to condole, the second to expostu- 
late with him, for persevering to cherish an un- 
manly and useless grief x : but the following letter 
of Ser. Sulpicius is thought to be a masterpiece 
of the consolatory kind. 

Ser. Sulpicius to M. T. Cicero. 
" I was exceedingly concerned, as indeed I ought 
to be, to hear of the death of your daughter Tullia, 
which I looked upon as an affliction common to 
us both. If I had been with you, I would have 
made it my business to convince you what a real 
share I take in your grief. Though that kind of 
consolation is but wretched and lamentable, as it is 
to be performed by friends and relations, who are 
overwhelmed with grief, and cannot enter upon 
their task without tears, and seem to want comfort 
rather themselves, than to be in condition to ad- 
minister it to others. I resolved, therefore, to write 
you in short, what occurred upon it to my own 
mind : not that I imagined that the same things 
would not occur also to you, but that the force of 
your grief might possibly hinder your attention to 
them. What reason is there, then, to disturb 
yourself so immoderately on this melancholy occa- 
sion ? Consider how fortune has already treated 
us : how it has deprived us of what ought to be as 
dear to us as children ; our country, credit, dig- 
nity, honours. After so miserable a loss as this, 
what addition can it possibly make to our grief, to 
suffer one misfortune more ? or how can a mind, 
after being exercised in such trials, not grow cal- 
lous, and think everything else of inferior value ? 
But is it for your daughter's sake that you grieve ? 
Yet how often must you necessarily reflect, as I 
myself frequently do, that those cannot be said to 
be hardly dealt with, whose lot it has been in these 
times, without suffering any affliction, to exchange 
life for death ! For what is there in our present 
circumstances that could give her any great invi- 
tation to live ? What business ? what hopes ? 
what prospect of comfort before her ? Was it to 
pass her days in the married state, with some 
young man of the first quality (for you, I know, 
on the account of your dignity, might have chosen 
what son-in-law you pleased out of all our youth, 
to whose fidelity you might safely have trusted 
her) ? Was it then for the sake of bearing children, 
whom she might have had the pleasure to see 
flourishing afterwards, in the enjoyment of their 
paternal fortunes, and rising gradually to all the 
honours of the state, and using the liberty to which 
they were born, in the protection of their friends 
and clients ? But what is there of all this which 
was not taken away before it was even given to 
her ? But it is an evil, you'll say, to lose our 
children. It is so ; yet it is much greater to suffer 
what we now endure. I cannot help mentioning 
one thing, which has given me no small comfort, 
and may help also, perhaps, to mitigate your grief. 
On my return from Asia, as I was sailing from 
iEgina towards Megara, I began to contemplate 
the prospect of the countries around me. JEgina 
was behind, Megara before me ; — Piraeus on the 
right, Corinth on the left ; all which towns, once 
famous and flourishing, now lie overturned, and 
buried in their ruins. Upon this sight, I could not 

* Ep, Fam. v. 13, 14. 



206 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



but think presently within myself, Alas ! how do 
we poor mortals fret and vex ourselves, if any of 
our friends happen to die, or to be killed, whose 
life is yet so short, when the carcasses of so many 
noble cities lie here exposed before me in one 
view ? Why wilt thou not then command thyself, 
Servius, and remember that thou art born a man ? 
Believe me, I was not a little confirmed by this 
contemplation. Try the force of it, therefore, if 
you please, upon yourself, and imagine the same 
prospect before your own eyes. But to come 
nearer home : — When you consider how many of 
our greatest men have perished lately at once — 
what destruction has been made in the empire — 
what havoc in all the provinces — how can you be 
so much shocked, to be deprived of the fleeting 
breath of one little woman, who, if she had not 
died at this time, must necessarily have died a few 
years after, since that was the condition of her 
being born ? But recall your mind from reflections 
of this kind to the consideration of yourself, and 
think rather on what becomes your character and 
dignity ; that your daughter lived as long as life 
was worth enjoying, as long as the republic stood ; 
had seen her father praetor, consul, augur ; been 
married to the noblest of our youth ; had tasted 
every good in life ; and when the republic fell, 
then quitted it : — what ground is there then, either 
for you or her, to complain of fortune on this 
account ? In short, do not forget that you are 
Cicero, one who has been used always to prescribe 
and give advice to others ; nor imitate those paltry 
physicians, who pretend to cure other people's 
diseases, yet are not able to cure their own ; but 
suggest rather to yourself the same lesson, which 
you would give in the same case. There is no 
grief so great which length of time will not alle- 
viate ; but it would be shameful in you to wait for 
that time, and not to prevent it by your wisdom ; 
besides, if there be any sense in the dead, such was 
her love and piety to you, that she must be con- 
cerned to see how much you afflict yourself. Give 
this, therefore, to the deceased; give it to your 
friends, give it to your country, that it may have 
the benefit of your assistance and advice, whenever 
there shall be occasion. Lastly, since fortune has 
now made it necessary to us to accommodate our- 
selves to our present situation, do not give any one 
a handle to think that you are not so much bewail- 
ing your daughter as the state of the times, and 
the victory of certain persons. I am ashamed to 
write any more, lest I should seem to distrust 
your prudence, and will add, therefore, but one 
thing farther, and conclude. We have sometimes 
seen you bear prosperity nobly, with great honour 
and applause to yourself; let us now see that you 
can bear adversity with the same moderation, and 
without thinking it a greater burthen than you 
ought to do, lest, in the number of all your other 
virtues, this one at last be thought to be wanting. 
As to myself, when I understand that your mind 
is grown more calm and composed, I will send you 
word how all things go on here, and what is the 
state of the province. Adieu >\" 

His answer to Sulpicius was the same in effect 
with what he gave to all his friends ; " that his 
case, was different from all the examples which he 
had been collecting for his own imitation of men 

y Ep. Fam. iv. 5. 



who had borne the loss of children with firmness ; 
since they lived in times when their dignity in the 
state was able in great measure to compensate 
their misfortune ; but for me," says he, "after I 
had lost all those ornaments which you enumerate, 
and which I had acquired with the utmost pains, I 
have now lost the only comfort that was left to me. 
In this ruin of the republic, my thoughts were 
not diverted by serving either my friends or my 
country : I had no inclination to the forum ; could 
not bear the sight of the senate ; took myself, as 
the case in truth was, to have lost all the fruit of 
my industry and fortunes : yet when I reflected that 
all this was common to you and to many others as 
well as to myself, and was forcing myself therefore 
to bear it tolerably, I had still in Tullia somewhat 
always to recur to, in which I could acquiesce, and 
in whose sweet conversation I could drop all my 
cares and troubles : but by this last cruel wound, all 
the rest which seemed to be healed are broken out 
again afresh : for as I then could relieve the uneasi- 
ness which the republic gave me by what I found at 
home ; so I cannot now, in the affliction which 
I feel at home, find any remedy abroad, but am 
driven as well from my house as the forum, since 
neither my house can ease my public grief, nor the 
public my domestic one 2 ." 

The remonstrances of his friends had but little 
effect upon him ; all the relief that he found was 
from reading and writing, in which he continually 
employed himself, and did what no man had ever 
done before him, draw up a treatise of consolation 
for himself, from which he professes to have 
received his greatest comfort : " Though he wrote 
it," he owns, " at a time when, in the opinion of the 
philosophers, he was not so wise as he ought to 
have been : but I did violence," says he, " to my 
nature ; to make the greatness of my sorrow give 
place to the greatness of the medicine, though I 
.acted against the advice of Chrysippus, who dis- 
suades the application of any remedy to the first 
assaults of grief a ." In this work he chiefly imi- 
tated Grantor, the academic, who had left a cele- 
brated piece on the same subject ; yet he inserted 
also whatever pleased him from any other author 
who had written upon it b ; illustrating his precepts 
all the way by examples from their own history, of 
the most eminent Romans of both sexes who had 
borne the same misfortune with a remarkable con- 
stancy. This book was much read by the primitive 
fathers, especially Lactantius, to whom we are 
obliged for the few fragments which remain of it ; 
for, as the critics have long since observed, that 

z Exi. Fam. iv. 6 ; Ad Att. xiL 28. 

a Feci, quod ante me nemo, ut ipse me per literas conso- 

larer affirmo tibi millam consolationem esse talem. — 

AdAtt. xii. 14; it. 28. 

Quid ego de consolatione dicam ? quae mihi quidem ipsi 
sane aliquantum medetur, cseteris item multum illam pro- 
futuram puto. — De Div. ii. 1. 

In consolationis libro, quem in medio, (non enim sapien- 
tes eramus) moerore et dolore conscripsimus : quodque 
vetat Chrysippus, ad recentes quasi tumores animi reme- 
dium adhibere, id nos fecimus, naturseque vim adtulimus, 
ut magnitudini medieinae doloris magnitudo concederet. — 
Tusc. Disp. iv. 29. 

b Crantorem sequor. — Plin. Hist. Nat. Prcef. 

Neque tamen progredior longius, quam mihi doctissimi 
homines concedunt. quorum scripta omnia, quaecunque 
sunt in earn sententiam non legi solum — sod in mea etiam 
scripta transtuli. — Ad Att. xii. 21, 22. 



MARCUS TULL1US CICERO. 



207 



piece which we now see in the collection of his 
writings under the title of Consolation, is un- 
doubtedly spurious. 

But the design of this treatise was not only to 
relieve his own mind, but to consecrate the virtues 
and memory of Tullia to all posterity ; nor did his 
fondness for her stop here, but suggested the pro- 
ject of a more effectual consecration by building a 
temple to her, and erecting her into a sort of deity. 
It was an opinion of the philosophers, which he 
himself constantly favoured, and in his present 
circumstances particularly indulged, " that the 
souls of men were of heavenly extraction, and that 
the pure and chaste, at their dissolution from the 
body, returned to the fountain from which they 
were derived, to subsist eternally in the fruition and 
participation of the divine nature ; whilst the im- 
pure and corrupt were left to grovel below in the 
dirt and darkness of these inferior regions." He 
declares, therefore, " that as the wisdom of the 
ancients had consecrated and deified many excellent 
persons of both sexes, whose temples were then 
remaining, the progeny of Cadmus, of Amphitryon, 
of Tyndarus, so he would perform the same honour 
to Tullia ; who, if any creature had ever deserved 
it, was of all the most worthy of it. I will do it, 
therefore (says he) and consecrate thee, thou best 
and most learned of women, now admitted into tbe 
assembly of the gods, to the regard and veneration 
of all mortals 1 '." 

In his letters to Atticus we find the strongest 
expressions of his resolution, and impatience to see 
this design executed : '■' I will have a temple," 
says he; " it it is not possible to divert me from it 
— if it be not finished this summer, I shall not 
think myself clear of guilt — I am more religiously 
bound to the execution of it than any man ever was 
to the performance of his vow d ." He seems to 
have designed a fabric of great magnificence, for he 
had settled the plan with his architect, and con- t 
tracted for pillars of Chian marble with a sculptor 
of that isle, where both the work and the materials 
were the most esteemed of any in Greece c . One 
reason that determined him to a temple rather 

c Non onim omnibus 111 i sapientes arbitrati sunt oundem 
cursuni in ccelum patere. Nam vitiis et sceleribus conta- 
minates deprimi in tenebras, atque in oceno jaoere docue- 
runt; castos autem animos, puros, integros, inoorruptos, 
bonis etiam studiis atque artibus expblitos leniquodam ac 
facili lapsu ad deos, id est, ad naturam sui similem pervo- 
larc— Fragm. Consolat. ex Lactantio. 

Cum vero et mares et fceminas complures ox hominibus 
in dcorum numero esse videamus, et eorum in urbibus 
atque agris augustissima templa veneremur, assentiamur 
eorum sapientise, quorum ingeniis et inventis omnem 
vitam legibus et institutis excultam constitutamque habe- 
mus. Quod si ulhiin unquam animal conseorandum fuit, 
illud profecto f uit. SiCadmi, aut Amphitryonis progenies, 
autTyndari in ccelum tollendafama fuit, huio idem bonds 
eerte dioandus est. Quod quidem faoiam ; teque omnium 
optimam dootissimamque, approbantibus diis ipsis, in 
eorum ooetu Locatam, ad opinionem omnium mortalium 
eonseorabo.— Ibid. ; Tuso. Disp. i. 11, 12, ;i»>, 81. 

<* Fanum fieri volo.neque mihj erui potest. [Ad Att. \ii. 
.'}(>.] Redeo ad fanum, nisi hac estate absolutum erit — 
scelere me Liberatum non putabo. [ibid. 41.] Ego me ma- 
jore religione, quam quisquam fuit ullius voti, obstriotum 
puto— Ibid. 4,{. 

e Do fano illo dieo— -noquo de genere dubito, placet 

enim mihi Clnatii. [Ibid. 18.] Tu tanien emu Apolla 

Chio oonflce do oolumnis.— Ibid, i!) ; l'lin. Hist. Nat. 
xxxvi. 5, (J. 



than a sepulchre was, that in the one he was not 
limited in the expense, whereas in tbe otber he was 
confined by law to a certain sum, which he could 
not exceed without the forfeiture of the same sum 
also to the public : yet this, as he tells us, was not 
the chief motive, but a resolution that he had 
taken of making a proper apotheosis f . The only 
difficulty was, to find a place that suited his pur- 
pose : his first thought was to purchase certain 
gardens across the Tyber, which, lying near the 
city and in the public view, were the most likely 
to draw a resort of votaries to his new temple : 
he presses Atticus, therefore, " to buy them for 
him at any rate without regard to his circum- 
stances, since he would sell, or mortgage, or be 
content to live on little, rather than be disap- 
pointed : groves and remote places (he says) were 
proper only for deities of an established name and 
religion ; but for the deification of mortals public 
and open situations were necessary to strike the 
eyes and attract the notice of the people." But 
he found so many obstructions in all his attempts 
of purchasing, that to save trouble and expense, 
Atticus advised him to build at last in one of his 
own villas, to which he seemed inclined, lest the 
summer should pass without doing anything ; yet 
he was irresolute still which of his villas he should 
choose, and discouraged by reflecting on the change 
of masters, to which all private estates were ex- 
posed in a succession of ages, which might defeat 
the end of his building, and destroy the honour of 
his temple, by converting it to other uses, or 
suffering it to fall into ruins *. 

f Nunquam mihivenit in mentem, quo plus insumtum 
in monumentum esset, quam nesoio quid, quod lege oonce- 

dltur, tantundcin populo danduni esse : quod non magno- 
pere moveref, nisi noscio quomodo, akoyecs forlasse. Nol- 
lom illud ullo nomine nisi fani appollari. [Ad Att. xii. 

;i. r ).] Sepulcri Biznilitudinem effugere non tarn propter pee- 
nam legis studeo, quam nt maxinie assequar airoQewatv. 
—Ibid. 36. 

This fact seems to confirm what the author of tbe Book 
of Wisdom observes on (ho origin of Idolatry; that it was 
owing to (he fond affection of parents, seeking to do honour 
to their deceased children. The father, says be. oppressed 
villi an unexpected grief for the sudden <i ath of his child, 
after making an image of him, began to worship him as a 
god, though he teas hut a dead man, ami enjoined certain 
riles and mysteries to his .«.•< rvants and dependants. [Wisd. 
xiv. la.] r>u( It was not Oioero's real thought after all to 

exalt his daughter into a deity: he know it to ho absurd, 

as he often declares, to pay divine honours to dead mortals ; 

and tolls us, bow their very publicans had decided that 

question in Basotia: for when die hinds of the immortal 

gods were excepted out of their lease, by the lau: of the 

censi rs, (hoy denied that any one could he deemed an i»i- 
mortal .</<></. who had once heeu a man ,■ and so made the 
/ands of Amphiaraus and Trophonius pay the same taxes 

With the rest. [De Nat. Door. iii. 1!).] Net in a political 

view he sometimes recommends the worship of those sons 
of men, whom their eminent services to mankind had 

advanced to the rank of inferior gods, as it inculcated, in 
a. manner the most sensible, the doctrine of the soul's im- 
mortality. [ De beg. ii. 11.] And since a temple was (lie 
most ancient way of doing honour (o those dead who had 

deserved it. [Plin. Hist. Nat. szvii.]he considered it as 
the most effectual 'method of perpetuating the memory 
and praises of Tullia. and was willing to take the benefit 
of (he popular superstition, and follow the example of 

(hose ancients, who had polished and civilised human life. 

by oonseorating such patterns of virtue to the veneration 

of their follow -cit izons.—JUongault . ml. 1 ; Ad Att. xii. )!!. 

k Sod ineunda nobis ratio est, quemadmodum in omai 
mutatione dominorum, qui innumerabiles fieri poaaunt in 



208 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



But after all his eagerness and solicitude about 
this temple, it was never actually built by him, 
since we find no mention of it in any of the 
ancient writers, which could not have been omitted 
if a fabric so memorable had ever been erected 11 . 
It is likely that as his grief evaporated and his 
mind grew more calm, he began to consider his 
project more philosophically, and to perceive the 
vanity of expecting any lasting glory from such 
monuments which time itself, in the course of a 
few ages, must necessarily destroy : it is certain, 
at least, that as he made no step towards building 
it this summer, so Caesar's death, which happened 
before the next, gave fresh obstruction to it, by 
the hurry of affairs in which it engaged him ; and 
though he had not still wholly dropped the thoughts 
of it, but continued to make preparation and to 
set apart a fund for it 1 , yet in the short and busy 
scene of life which remained to him, he never had 
leisure enough to carry it into execution. 

He was now grown so fond of solitude that all 
company was become uneasy to him, and when his 
friend Philippus, the father-in-law of Octavius, 
happened to come to his villa in that neighbour- 
hood, he was not a little disturbed at it, from the 
apprehension of being teased with his visits ; and 
he tells Atticus, with some pleasure, that he had 
called upon him only to pay a short compli- 
ment, and went back again to Rome without giving 
him any troubled His wife, Publilia, also wrote 
him word that her mother and brother intended to 
wait upon him, and that she would come along 
with them if he would give her leave, which she 
begged in the most earnest and submissive terms 
— but his answer was, that he was more indisposed 
than ever to receive company, and would not have 
them come ; and lest they should come without 
leave, he desires Atticus to watch their motions 
and give him notice, that he might contrive to avoid 
them 1 . A denial so peremptory confirms what 

infinita posteritate — illud quasi consecratum remanere 
possit. Equidem jam nihil egeo vectigalibus, et parvo 
contentus esse possum. Cogito interdum trans Tiberim 
hortos aliquos parare, et quidem ob banc causam maxime ; 
nihil enim video quod tarn celebre esse posset. [Ad Att. 
xii. 19.] De hortis, etiam atque etiam te rogo. [Ibid. 22.] 
Ut ssepe locuti sumus, eommutationes dominorum refor- 
mido. [Ibid. 36.] Celebritatem requiro.— Ibid. 37. 

h Cselius Rhodiginus tells us, that in the time of Sixtus 
IV. there was found near Rome, on the Appian-way, over 
against the tomb of Cicero, the body of a woman, whose 
hair was dressed up in net-work of gold, and which, from 
the inscription, was thought to be the body of Tullia. It 
was entire, and so well preserved by spices, as to have 
suffered no injury from time ; yet when it was removed 
into the city, it mouldered away in three days. But this 
was only the hasty conjecture of some learned of that time, 
which, for want of authority to support it, soon vanished 
of itself ; for no inscription was ever produced to confirm 
it, nor has it been mentioned, that I know of, by any other 
author, that there was any sepulchre of Cicero on the 
Appian-way. — Cael. Rhod. Lection. Antiq. iii. 24. 

' Quod ex istis fructuosis rebus receptum est, id ego ad 
illud fanum sepositum putabam. — Ad Att. xv. 15. 

k Mihi adhuc nihil prius fuit hac solitudine, quam 
vereor, ne Philippus tollat : heri enim vesperi venerat. — 
Ibid. xii. 16. 

Quod eram veritus, non obturbavit Philippus: nam 
ut heri me salutavit, statim Romam profectus est. — Ibid. 
18. 

1 Publilia ad me scripsit, matrem suam cum Publilio 
ad me venturam, et se una, si ego paterer : orat multis 
et supplicibus verbis ut liceat, et ut sibi rescribam 



Plutarch says, that his wife was now in disgrace 
with him, on account of her carriage towards his 
daughter, and for seeming to rejoice at her death ; 
a crime which, in the tenderness of his affliction, 
appeared to him so heinous, that he could not bear 
the thoughts of seeing her any more ; and though 
it was inconvenient to him to part with her fortune 
at this time, yet he resolved to send her a divorce, 
as a proper sacrifice to the honour of Tullia m . 

Brutus likewise about this time took a resolu- 
tion of putting away his wife Claudia, for the sake 
of taking Porcia, Bibulus's widow, and his uncle 
Cato's daughter. But he was much censured for 
this step, since Claudia had no stain upon her 
character, was nobly born, the sister of Appius 
Claudius, and nearly allied to Pompey ; so that his 
mother Servilia, though Cato's sister, seems to 
have been averse to the divorce, and strongly in 
the interests of Claudia against her niece. Cicero's 
advice upon it was, that if Brutus was resolved 
upon the thing, he should do it out of hand, as 
the best way to put an end to people's talking, by 
showing that it was not done out of levity or com- 
plaisance to the times, but to take the daughter of 
Cato, whose name was now highly popular", which 
Brutus soon after complied with, and made Porcia 
his wife. 

There happened another accident this summer 
which raised a great alarm in the city, the sur- 
prising death of Marcellus, whom Caesar had lately 
pardoned. He had left Mitylene and was come 
as far as Piraeus on his way towards Rome, 
where he spent a day with his old friend and 
colleague Serv. Sulpicius, intending to pursue his 
voyage the day following by sea ; but in the night, 
after Sulpicius had taken leave of him, on the 
twenty-third of May, he was killed by his friend 
and client, Magius, who stabbed himself instantly 
with the same poniard ; of which Sulpicius sent 
the following account to Cicero. 

Serv. Sulpicius to M. T. Cicero. 
" Though I know that the news which I am 
going to tell you will not be agreeable, yet since 
chance and nature govern the lives of us all, I 
thought it my duty to acquaint you with the fact, 
in what manner soever it happened. On the 
twenty-second of May I came by sea from Epidau- 
rus to Piraeus to meet my colleague Marcellus, and 
for the sake of his company spent that day with 
him there. The next day, when I took my leave of 
him, with design to go from Athens into Boeotia to 
finish the remaining part of my jurisdiction, he, as 
he told me, intended to set sail at the same time 
towards Italy. The day following, about four in 
the morning, when I was preparing to set out from 

rescripsi, me etiam gravius esse affectum, quam turn, 
cum illi dixissem, me solum esse velle, quare nolle me 

hoc tempore earn ad me venire te hoc nunc rogo ut 

explores. — Ad Att. 32. 

m This affair of Publilia's divorce is frequently referred 
to, though with some obscurity, in his letters ; and we 
find Atticus employed by him afterwards to adjust with 
the brother, Publilius, the time and manner of paying back 
the fortune.— Ad Att. xiii. 34, 47 ; xvi. 2. 

n Ate expecto si quid de Bruto: quanquam Nicias 
confectum putabat, sed divortium non probari. — Ad Att. 
xiii. 9. 

Brutus si quid— curabis ut sciam. Cui quidem quam 
primum agendum puto, praesertim si statuit; sermun- 
culum enim omnem aut restinxerit aut sedarit. — Ibid. 10. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



209 



Athens, his friend, P. Posturmus, came to let me 
know that Marcellus was stabbed by his companion 
P. Magius Cilo, after supper, and had received 
two wounds, the one in his stomach, the other in 
his head near the ear, but he was in hopes still 
that he might live ; that Magius presently killed 
himself; and that Marcellus sent him to inform 
me of the case, and to desire that I would bring 
some physicians to him. I got some together im- 
mediately, and went away with them before break 
of day : but when I was come near Piraeus, Aci- 
dinus's boy met me with a note from his master, 
in which it was signified that Marcellus died a little 
before day. Thus a great man was murdered by 
a base villain ; and he, whom his very enemies had 
spared on the account of his dignity, received his 
death from the hands of a friend. I went forward 
however to his tent, where I found two of his 
freedmen and a few of his slaves ; all the rest, they 
said, were fled, being in a terrible fright on the 
account of their master's murder. I was forced 
to carry his body with me into the city in the same 
litter in which I came, and by my own servants ; 
where I provided a funeral for him, as splendid as 
the condition of Athens would allow. I could not 
prevail with the Athenians to grant a place of 
burial for him within the city ; they said that it 
was forbidden by their religion, and had never been 
indulged to any man : but they readily granted 
what was the most desirable in the next place, to 
bury him in any of their public schools that I 
pleased. I chose a place, therefore, the noblest in 
the universe, the school of the Academy, where I 
burnt him, and have since given orders that the 
Athenians should provide a marble monument for 
him in the same place. Thus I have faithfully 
performed to him, both when living and dead, 
every duty, which our partnership in office, and 
my particular relation to him, required. Adieu. 
The thirtieth of May, from Athens ." 

M. Marcellus was the head of a family which, 
for a succession of many ages, had made the first 
figure in Rome ; and was himself adorned with all 
the virtues that could qualify him to sustain that 
dignity which he derived from his noble ancestors. 
He had formed himself in a particular manner for 
the bar, where he soon acquired great fame, and of 
all the orators of his time seems to have approached 
the nearest to Cicero himself, in the character of a 
complete speaker. His manner of speaking was 
elegant, strong, and copious, with a sweetness of 
voice and propriety of action that added a grace 
and lustre to everything that he said. He was a 
constant admirer and imitator of Cicero ; of the 
same principles in peace, and on the same side in 
war ; so that Cicero laments his absence as the loss 
of a companion and partner in their common 
studies and labours of life. Of all the magistrates, 
he was the fiercest opposer of Csesar's power, and 
the most active to reduce it : his high spirit, and 
the ancient glory of his house, made him impatient 
under the thought of receiving a master ; and 
when the battle of Pharsalia seemed at last to have 
imposed one upon them, he retired to Mitylene, 
the usual resort of men of learning, there to spend 
the rest of his days in a studious retreat, remote 
from arms and the hurry of war, and determined 
neither to seek nor to accept any grace from the 

o Ep. Fam. iv. 12. 



conqueror. Here Brutus paid him a visit, and 
found him, as he gave an account to Cicero, as 
perfectly easy and happy under all the misery of 
the times, from the consciousness of his integrity, 
as the condition of human life could bear, sur- 
rounded with the principal scholars and philoso- 
phers of Greece, and eager in the pursuit of 
knowledge ; so that in departing from him towards 
Italy, he seemed (he said) to be going himself 
into exile rather than leaving Marcellus in it?. 

Magius, who killed him, was of a family which 
had borne some of the public offices, and had him- 
self been quaestor <i ; and having attached himself 
to the fortunes of Marcellus and followed him 
through the wars and his exile, was now returning 
with him to Italy. Sulpicius gives no hint of any 
cause that induced him to commit this horrid fact, 
which, by the immediate death of Magius, could 
never be clearly known. Cicero's conjecture was, 
that Magius, oppressed with debts, and apprehend- 
ing some trouble on that score at his return, had 
been urging Marcellus, who was his sponsor for 
some part of them, to furnish him with money to 
pay the whole ; and by receiving a denial, was pro- 
voked to the madness of killing his patron r . Others 
assign a different reason, as the rage of jealousy 
and the impatience of seeing others more favoured 
by Marcellus than himself s . 

As soon as the news reached Rome, it raised a 
general consternation ; and from the suspicious 
nature of the times all people's thoughts were pre- 
sently turned on Csesar, as if he were privately the 
contriver of it ; and from the wretched fate of so 
illustrious a citizen, every man began to think him- 
self in danger. Cicero was greatly shocked at it, 
and seemed to consider it as the prelude of some 
greater evil to ensue ; and Atticus, signifying his 
concern upon it, advises him to take a more parti- 
cular care of himself, as being the only consular 
senator left who stood exposed to any envy*. But 

P Mihi, inquit, Marcellus satis est notus. Quid igitur de 
illo judicas ? — quod habiturus es similem tui — ita est, et 
vehementer placet. Nametdidicit, et omissis cseteris studiis 
id egit unum, seseque quotidianis commentationibus acer- 
rime exercuit. Itaque et lectis utitur verbis et frequen- 
tibus ; et splendore vocis, dignitate motus fit speciosum 
et illustre, quod dicitur ; omniaque sic suppetunt, ut ei 
nullam deesse virtutern oratoris putem. — Brut. 367. 

Dolebam, Patres Conscripti, — illo aemulo atque imitatore 
studiorum meoruru, quasi quodam socio a me et comite 
distracto — quis enim est illo aut nobilitate, aut probitate, 
aut optimarum artium studio, aut innocentia, aut ullo 
gen ere laudis praestantior ? — Pro Marcel. 1. 

Nostri enim sensus, ut in pace semper, sic turn etiam in 
bello congruebant. — Ibid. 6. 

Qui hoc tempore ipso — in hoc communi nostro et quasi 
fatali malo, consoletur se cum conscientia optimae mentis, 
turn etiam usurpatione ac renovatione doctrinae. Vidi 
enim Mitylenis nuper virurn, atque ut dixi, vidi plane 
virum. Itaque cum eum antjea tui similem in dicendo 
viderim ; turn vero nunc doctissimo viro, tibique ut 
intellexi, amicissimo Cratippo, instructum omni copia, 
multo videbam similiorem. — Brut. ibid. ; Senec. Consolat. 
ad Helv. p. 79. 

<l Pigh. Annal. A. IT. 691. 

r Quanquam nihil habeo quod dubitem, nisi ipsi Magio 
quag fuerit causa amentiae. Pro quo quidem etiam sponsor 
Sunii factus est. Nimirum id fuit. Solvendo enim non 
erat. Credo eum a Marcello petiisse aliquid, et ilium, ut 
erat, constantius respondisse. — Ad Att. xiii. 10. 

s Indignatus aliquem amicorum ab eo sibi pra?ferri.— 
Val. Max. ix. 11. 

1 Minime miror te et graviter ferre de Marcello, et 



210 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



Caesar's friends soon cleared him of all suspicion, 
as indeed the fact itself did when the circumstances 
came to be known, and fixed the whole guilt of it 
on the fury of Magius. 

There appeared at this time a hold impostor, 
who began to make a great noise and figure in 
Italy, by assuming the name and pretending to be 
the grandson of Caius Marius : but apprehending 
that Caesar would soon put an end to his preten- 
sions and treat him as he deserved, he sent a 
pathetic letter to Cicero by some young fellows of 
his company, to justify his claim and descent, and 
to implore his protection against the enemies of 
his family, — conjuring him by their relation, by 
the poem which he had formerly written in praise 
of Marius, by the eloquence of L. Crassus, his 
mother's father, whom he had likewise celebrated, 
that he would undertake the defence of his cause. 
Cicero answered him very gravely that he could 
not want a patron when his kinsman Caesar, so 
excellent and generous a man, was now the master 
of all, yet that he also should be ready to favour 
him u . But Caesar, at his return, knowing him to 
be a cheat, banished him out of Italy, since, instead 
of being what he pretended to be, he was found to 
he only a farrier whose true name was Herophilus*. 

Ariarathes, the brother and presumptive heir of 
Ariobarzanes, king of Cappadocia, came to Rome 
this year, and as Cicero had a particular friendship 
with his family, and, when consul, had by a decree 
of the senate conferred upon his father the honour 
of the regal title, he thought proper to send a ser- 
vant to meet him on the road and invite him to 
his house : but he was already engaged by Sestius, 
whose office it then was to receive foreign princes 
and ambassadors at the public expense, which 
Cicero was not displeased with in the present 
state of his domestic affairs. " He comes (says 
he,) I guess, to purchase some kingdom of Caesar, 
for he has not at present a foot of land of his 
owny." 

Cicero's whole time during his solitude was 
employed in reading and writing : this was the 
business both of his days and nights. "It is in- 
credible," he says, " how much he wrote and how 
little he slept : and if he had not fallen into that 
way of spending his time, he should not have 

plura vereri periculi genera. Quis enim hoc timeret, quod 
neque acciderat antea, nee videbatur natura ferre, ut ac- 
cidere posset. Omnia igitur metuenda, &c.— Ad Att. xiii. 
10. 

u Heri— quidam urbani, ut videbantur, ad me mandata 
et literas attulerunt, a C. Mario, C. F. C. N. multis verbis 
agere mecum per cognationem, quae mihi secum esset, 
per eum Marium, quern scripsissem, per eloquentiam 
L. Crassi avi sui, ut se defenderem — rescripsi nihil ei 
patrono opus esse, quoniam Caesaris, propinqui ejus,omnis 
potestas esset, viri optimi et hominis liberalissimi : me 
tamen ei fauturum. — Ad Att. xii. 49. 

* Herophilus equarius medicus, C. Marium septies con- 
sulein avura sibi vendicando, ita se extulit, ut colonise 
veteranorum complures et municipia splendida, collegia- 
que fere omnia patronum adoptarent — cseterum decreto 
Caesaris extra Italiam relegatus, &c. — Val. Max. ix. 15. 

y Ariarathes Ariobarzani Alius Romara venit. Vult, 
opinor, regnum aliquod emere a Caesare : nam, quo modo 
nunc est, pedem ubi ponat in suo non habet. Omnino 
eum Sestius noster parochus publicus occupavit: quod 
quidem facile patior. Verumtamen quod mihi, summo 
beneficio meo, magna cum fratribus illius necessitudo est, 
invito eum per literas, ut apud me diversetur. — Ad Att. 
xiii. 2. 



known what to do with himself 2 ." His studies 
were chiefly philosophical, which he had been fond 
of from his youth, and, after a long intermission, 
now resumed with great ardour, having taken a 
resolution to explain to his countrymen in their 
own language whatever the Greeks had taught on 
every part of philosophy, whether speculative or 
practical. " For being driven (as he tells us) 
from the public administration, he knew no way so 
effectual of doing good as by instructing the minds 
and reforming the morals of the youth, which in 
the licence of those times wanted every help to 
restrain and correct them. The calamity of the 
city (says he), made this task necessary to me;' 
since in the confusion of civil arms I could neither 
defend it after my old way, nor, when it was im- 
possible for me to be idle, could I find anything 
better on which to employ myself. My citizens 
therefore will pardon or rather thank me, that 
when the government was fallen into the power of 
a single person I neither wholly hid nor afflicted 
myself unnecessarily, nor acted in such a manner 
as to seem angry at the man or the times, nor yet 
flattered or admired the fortune of another so as to 
be displeased with my own. For I had learned 
from Plato and philosophy, that these turns and 
revolutions of states are natural, — sometimes into 
the hands of a few, sometimes of the many, some- 
times of one. As this was the case of our own 
republic, so when I was deprived of my former 
post in it, I betook myself to these studies in order 
to relieve my mind from the sense of our common 
miseries, and to serve my country at the same time 
in the best manner that I was able ; for my books 
supplied the place of my votes in the senate and of 
my speeches to the people, and I took up philosophy 
as a substitute for my management of the state 8 ." 
He now published, therefore, in the way of 
dialogue, a book which he called "Hortensius," in 
honour of his deceased friend ; where in a debate 
of learning he did what he had often done in con- 
tests of the bar, undertake the defence of philosophy 
against Hortensius, to whom he assigned the part 
of arraigning it b . It was the reading of this book, 
long since unfortunately lost, which first inflamed 
St. Austin, as he himself somewhere declares, to 
the study of the Christian philosophy : and if it had 
yielded no other fruit, yet happy it was to the 
world that it once subsisted, to be the instrument 
of raising up so illustrious a convert and champion 
to the church of Christ c . 

He drew up also about this time, in four books, 

z Credibile non est, quantum scribam die, quin etiam 
noctibus. Nihil enim somni. — Ad Att. xiii. 26. 

Nisi mihi hoc venisset in mentem, scribere ista nescio 
quae, quo verterem me non haberem. — Ibid. 10. 

a De Divin. ii. 2 ; De Fin. i. 3. 

b Cohortati sumus, ut maxime potuimus, ad philo- 
sophise studium eo libro, qui est inscriptus, Hortensius. — 
De Div. ii. 1. 

Nos autem universal philosophies vituperatoribus respon- 
dimus in Hortensio. — Tusc. Disp. ii. 2. 

c It is certain that all the Latin Fathers made great use 
of Cicero's writings ; and especially Jerome, Avho was not 
so grateful as Austin in acknowledging the benefit ; for, 
having conceived somescruples on that score in his declin- 
ing age, he endeavoured to discourage his disciples from 
reading them at all ; and declared, that he had not taken 
either Cicero or Maro, or any heathen writer, into his 
hands for above fifteen years: for which his adversary 
Ruffinus rallies him very severely. — Hieron. Op. torn. 4. 
pars 2. p. 414 ; it. pars 1. p. 288. Edit. Benedict. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



211 



a particular account and defence of the philosophy 
of the Academy ; the sect which he himself followed 
being, as he says, of all others the most consistent 
with itself, and the least arrogant as well as most 
elegant d . He had before published a work on the 
same subject in two books, — the one called " Catu- 
lus," the other " Lucullus ;" but considering that the 
argument was not suited to the characters of the 
speakers, who were not particularly remarkable for 
any study of that sort, he was thinking to change 
them to Cato and Brutus, when Atticus happening 
to signify to him that Varro had expressed a desire 
to be inserted in some of his writings, he presently 
reformed his scheme and enlarged it into four 
books, which he addressed to Varro, taking upon 
himself the part of Philo of defending the principles 
of the Academy, and assigning to Varro that of 
Antiochus, of opposing and confuting them, and 
introducing Atticus as the moderator of the dispute. 
He finished the whole with great accuracy, so as 
to make it a present worthy of Varro ; and if he 
was not deceived, he says, by a partiality and self- 
love too common in such cases, there was nothing 
on the subject equal to it even among the Greeks e . 
All these four books, excepting part of the first, 
are now lost ; whilst the second book of the first 
edition, which he took some pains to suppress, 
remains still entire, under its original title of 
Lucullus. 

He published likewise this year one of the noblest 
of his works and on the noblest subject in philo- 
sophy, his treatise called De Finibus, or of the 
chief good and ill of man, — written in Aristotle's 
manner f ; in which he explained with great elegance 
and perspicuity the several opinions of all the 
ancient sects on that most important question. It 
is there inquired, he tells us, what is the chief end 
to which all the views of life ought to be referred 
in order to make it happy ; or what it is which 
nature pursues as the supreme good and shuns as 
the worst of illsS. The work consists of five books ; 
in the two first the Epicurean doctrine is largely 
opened and discussed, being defended by Torquatus 
and confuted by Cicero, in a conference supposed 
to be held in his Cuman villa, in the presence of 
Triarius, a young gentleman who came with Tor- 
quatus to visit him. The two next explain the 
doctrine of the Stoics, asserted by Cato and op- 
posed by Cicero in a friendly debate, upon their 
meeting accidentally in Lucullus's library. The 

d Quod genus philosophandi minime arrogans, maxi- 
meque et constans, et elegans arbitraremur, quatuor 
Academicis libris ostendimus. — De Divin. ii. 1. 

e Ergo illam 'AKad7]jULiKT]U, in qua homines, nobiles ill! 
quidem, sed nullo modo philologi, nimis acute loquuntur, 
ad Varronem transferamus — Catulo et Lucullo alibi re- 
ponemus. — Ad Att. xiii. 12. 

Quod ad me de Varrone scripseras, totam Academiam 
ab hominibus nobilissimis abstuli ; transtuli ad nostrum 
sodalem, et ex duobus libris contuli in quatuor — libri 
quidem ita exierunt, (nisi me forte communis (ptKavria 
decipit) ut in tali genere ne apud Graecos quidem quic- 
quam simile.— Ibid. 13 ; it. 16, 19. 

{ Quaj autem his temporibus scripsi 'ApiCTOTeAetov 
morem habent— ita confeci quinque libros irepl reAwu. — 
Ibid. 19. 

g Turn id, quod his libris quasritur, quid sit finis, quid 
extremum, quid ultimum, quo sint omnia bene vivendi, 
recteque faciendi consilia referenda. Quid sequatur na- 
ture, ut summum ex rebus expetendis; quid fugiat ut 
extremum malorum.— De Fin. i. 4. 



fifth contains the opinions of the old Academy, or 
the Peripatetics, explained by Piso in a third 
dialogue supposed to be held at Athens in the pre- 
sence of Cicero, his brother Quintus, cousin Lucius, 
and Atticus. The critics have observed some im- 
propriety in this last book, in making Piso refer to 
the other two dialogues, of which he had no share 
and could not be presumed to have any knowledge h . 
But if any inaccuracy of that kind be really found 
in this or any other of his works, it may reasonably 
be excused by that multiplicity of affairs which 
scarce allowed him time to write, much less to 
revise what he wrote : and in dialogues of length, 
composed by piecemeal and in the short intervals 
of leisure, it cannot seem strange that he should 
sometimes forget his artificial to resume his proper 
character, and enter inadvertently into a part which 
he had assigned to another. He addressed this 
work to Brutus, in return for a present of the 
same kind which Brutus had sent to him a little 
before, a treatise upon virtue'. 

Not long after he had finished this work he pub- 
lished another of equal gravity called his Tusculan 
Disputations, in five books also, upon as many 
different questions in philosophy, the most im- 
portant and useful to the happiness of human life. 
The first teaches us how to contemn the terrors of 
death, and to look upon it as a blessing rather than 
an evil ; the second, to support pain and affliction 
with a manly fortitude ; the third, to appease all 
our complaints and uneasinesses under the accidents 
of life ; the fourth, to moderate all our other pas- 
sions ; the fifth, to evince the sufficiency of virtue 
to make man happy. It was his custom, in the 
opportunities of his leisure, to take some friends 
with him into the country, where, instead of 
amusing themselves with idle sports or feasts, their 
diversions were wholly speculative, — tending to 
improve the mind and enlarge the understanding. 
In this manner he now spent five days at his Tus- 
culan villa in discussing with his friends the several 
questions just mentioned ; for after employing the 
mornings in declaiming and rhetorical exercises, 
they used to retire in the afternoon into a gallery 
called the Academy, which he had built for the 
purpose of philosophical conferences, where, after 
the manner of the Greeks, he held a school, as they 
called it, and invited the company to call for any 
subject that they desired to hear explained ; which 
being proposed accordingly by some of the audience, 
became immediately the argument of that day's 
debate. These five conferences or dialogues he 
collected afterwards into writing, in the very words 
and manner in which they really passed, and pub- 
lished them under the title of his Tusculan Disputa- 
tions, from the name of the villa in which they 
were held k . 

He wrote also a little piece in the way of a 
funeral encomium in praise o f Porcia, the sister of 

h Praefat. Davis in Lib. De Fin. 

> De Fin. i. & 

k In Tusculano, cum essent complures mccum fami- 
liares — ponere jubebam, de quo quis audire vellet ; ad id 
aut scdens aut ambulans disputabam. Itaque dierum 
quinque scholas, ut Graeci appellant, in totidem libros 
contuli. — Tusc. Disp. i. 4. 

Itaque cum ante meridiem dictioni oporam dedisaemns 
—post meridiem in Academiam descendimus : in ipm dis- 
putationem habitam non quasi narrantes axponimus, Bed 
eisdem fere verbis ut actum disputatumque est.— Ibid. ii. 
3 ; iii. 37- 

P 2 



212 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



Cato and wife of Domitius Ahenobarbus, Caesar's 
mortal enemy ; which shows how little he was still 
disposed to court the times. Varro and Lollius 
attempted the same subject, and Cicero desires 
Atticus to send him their compositions ; but all 
the three are now lost, — though Cicero took the 
pains to revise and correct his, and sent copies of 
it afterwards to Domitius the son, and Brutus the 
nephew of that Porcia 1 . 

Csesar continued all this while in Spain pursuing 
the sons of Pompey, and providing for the future 
peace and settlement of the province ; whence he 
paid Cicero the compliment of sending him an ac- 
count of his success with his own hand. Hirtius 
also gave him early intelligence of the defeat and 
flight of the two brothers, which was not disagree- 
able to him ; for though he was not much concerned 
about the event of the war, and expected no good 
from it on either side, yet the opinion which he 
had conceived of the fierceness and violence of the 
young Pompeys, especially of the elder of them 
Cnseus, engaged his wishes rather for Csesar. In 
a letter to Atticus, " Hirtius (says he) wrote me 
word that Sextus Pompey had withdrawn himself 
from Corduba into the hither Spain, and that 
Cnseus too was fled I know not whither, nor in 
truth do I care m ." And this indeed seems to have 
been the common sentiment of all the republicans ; 
as Cassius himself, writing to Cicero on the same 
subject, declares still more explicitly : " May I 
perish (says he,) if I be not solicitous about the 
event of things in Spain, and would rather keep 
our old and clement master than try a new and 
cruel one. You know what a fool Cnseus is, — how 
he takes cruelty for a virtue, how he has always 
thought that we laughed at him ; I am afraid lest 
he should take it into his head to repay our jokes 
in his rustic manner with the sword 11 ." 

Young Quintus Cicero, who made the campaign 
along with Csesar, thinking to please his company 
and to make his fortunes the better among them, 
began to play over his old game and to abuse his 
uncle again in all places. Cicero, in his account 
of it to Atticus, says, " there is nothing new but 
I that Hirtius has been quarrelling in my defence 
j with our nephew Quintus, who takes all occasions 
of saying everything bad of me, and especially at 
public feasts, and when he has done with me falls 
next upon his father. He is thought to say nothing 
so credible as that we are both irreconcilable to 
Caesar, that Caesar should trust neither of us, and 
even beware of me : this would be terrible, did I 
not see that our king is persuaded that I have no 
spirit left ." 



1 Laudation cm Porciae tibi 



misi correctam : ac eo pro- 



peravi ; ut si forte aut Domitio filio aut Bruto mitteretur, 
haec mitteretur. Id si tibi erit commodum, mognopere 
cures velim ; et velim M. Varronis, Lolliique mittas lauda- 
tionem. — Ad Att. xiii. 48 ; it. 37. 

™ Hirtius ad me scripsit, Sex. Pompeium Corduba 
exisse, et fugisse in Hispaniam citeriorem ; Cnaeum 
fugisse nescio quo, neque enim euro.— Ad Att. xii. 37. 

n Peream, nisi sollicitus sum ; ac malo veterem ac 
clementeni dominum habere, quam novum et crudelem 
experiri. Scis, Cnasus quam sit fatuus ; scis quomodo 
crudelitatem virtutem putet ; scis, quam se semper a 
nobis derisum putet. 

Vereor, ne nos rustice gladio velit avTifjLvKTyplorai. 

Ep. Fam. xv. 19. 

° Novi sane nihil, nisi Hirtium cum Quinto acerrime 
pro me litigasse ; omnibus eum locis facere, maximeque 



Atticus was always endeavouring to moderate 
Cicero's impatience under the present government, 
and persuading him to comply more cheerfully 
with the times, nor to reject the friendship of 
Csesar, which was so forwardly offered to him ; and 
upon his frequent complaints of the slavery and 
indignity of his present condition, he took occasion 
to observe, what Cicero could not but own to be 
true, that if to pay a particular court and observ- 
ance to a man was the mark of slavery, those in 
power seemed to be slaves rather to him than he 
to them p. With the same view he was now pressing 
him among his other works to think of something 
to be addressed to Csesar : but Cicero had no appe- 
tite to this task ; he saw how difficult it would be 
to perform it without lessening his character and 
descending to flattery, — yet being urged to it also 
by other friends, he drew up a letter, which was 
communicated to Hirtius and Balbus, for their 
judgment upon it whether it was proper to be sent 
to Csesar. The subject seems to have been some 
advice about restoring the peace and liberty of 
the republic, and to dissuade him from the Parthian 
war, which he intended for his next expedition, till 
he had finished the more necessary work of settling 
the state of things at home. " There was nothing 
in it (he says) but what might come from the 
best of citizens." It was drawn however with so 
much freedom, that though Atticus seemed pleased 
with it, yet the other two durst not advise the 
sending it unless some passages were altered and 
softened, which disgusted Cicero so much that he 
resolved not to write at all ; and when Atticus was 
still urging him to be more complaisant, he an- 
swered with great spirit in two or three letters i. 

" As for the letter to Csesar (says he), I was 
always very willing that they should first read it ; 
for otherwise I had both been wanting in civility 
to them, and if I had happened to give offence, 
exposed myself also to danger. They have dealt 
ingenuously and kindly with me in not concealing 
what they thought ; but what pleases me the most 
is, that by requiring so many alterations they give 
me an excuse for not writing at all. As to the 
Parthian war, what had I to consider about it but 
that which I thought would please him ? for what 
subject was there else for a letter but flattery? or if 
I had a mind to advise what I really took to be the 
best, could I have been at a loss for words? There 
is no occasion, therefore, for any letter : for where 
there is no great matter to be gained, and a slip, 
though not great, may make us uneasy, what 
reason is there to run any risk ? especially when it 
in conviviis ; cum multa de me, turn redire ad patrem : 
nihil autem ab eo tarn a^ioiricrTcas dici, quam alienis- 
simos nos esse a Cassare ; fidem nobis habendam non esse ; 
me vero cavendum. (pofiepbv jju, nisi viderem scire re- 
gem, me animi nihil habere. — Ad Att. xiii. 37. 

P Et si mehercule, ut tu intelligis, magis mihi isti ser- 
viunt, si observare servire est. — Ad Att. xiii. 49. 

q Epistolam ad Caesarem mitti video tibi placere— mihi 
quidem hoc idem maxime placuit, et eo magis, quod nihil 
est in ea nisi optimi civis ; sed ita optimi, ut tempora, 
quibus parere omnes ttoMtikol praecipiunt. Sed scis ita 
nobis esse visum, ut isti ante legerent. Tu igitur id 
curabis. Sed nisi plane intelliges iis placere, mittenda 
non est.— Ad Att. xii. 51. 

De epistola ad Csesarem, KeKpiKa. Atque id ipsum, 
quod isti aiunt ilium scribere, se, nisi constitutis rebus, 
non iturum in Parthos, idem ego suadebam in ilia epistola. 
—Ibid. xiii. 31. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



21-3 



is natural for him to think that as I wrote nothing 
to him before, so I should have written nothing 
now, had not the war been wholly ended : besides I 
am afraid lest he should imagine that I sent this 
as a sweetener for my ' Cato. 1 In short, I was 
heartily ashamed of what I had written ; and no- 
thing could fall out more luckily than that it did 
not please'." 

Again, " as for writing to Caesar, I swear to you 
I cannot do it : nor is it yet the shame of it that 
deters me which ought to do it the most ; for how 
mean would it be to natter when even to live is 
base in me ? But it is not, as I was saying, this 
shame which hinders me, though I wish it did, for 
I should then be what I ought to be ; but I can 
think of nothing to write upon. As to those 
exhortations addressed to Alexander by the eloquent 
and the learned of that time, you see on what 
points they turn : they are addressed to a youth 
inflamed with the thirst of true glory and desiring 
to be advised how to acquire it. On an occasion 
of such dignity words can never be wanting ; but 
what can I do on my subject? Yet I had scratched 
as it were out of the block some faint resemblance 
of an image ; but because there were some things 
hinted in it a little better than what we see done 
every day, it was disliked. I am not at all sorry 
for it ; for had the letter gone, take my word for it 
I should have had cause to repent. For do you not 
see that very scholar of Aristotle, a youth of the 
greatest parts and the greatest modesty, after he 
came to be called a king, grow proud, cruel, extra- 
vagant ? Do you imagine that this man, ranked 
in the processions of the gods and enshrined in the 
same temple with Romulus, will be pleased with 
the moderate style of my letters ? It is better that 
he be disgusted at my not writing, than at what I 
write. In a word, let him do what he pleases ; for 
that problem which I once proposed to you and 
thought so difficult, in what way I should manage 
him, is over with me ; and in truth I now wish 
more to feel the effect of his resentment, be it what 
it will, than I was before afraid of it s ." "I beg 
of you, therefore, (says he in another letter,) let us 
have no more of this, but show ourselves at least 
half free, by our silence and retreat 1 ." 

From this little fact, one cannot help reflecting 
on the fatal effects of arbitrary power upon the 
studies and compositions of men of genius, and on 
the^ restraint that it necessarily lays on the free 
course of good sense and truth among men. It 
had yet scarce shown itself in Rome, when we see 
one of the greatest men, as well as the greatest 
wits which that republic ever bred, embarrassed in 
the choice of a subject to write upon, and for fear 
of offending choosing not to write at all ; and it 
was the same power which, from this beginning, 
gradually debased the purity both of the Roman 
wit and language, from the perfection of elegance to 
which Cicero had advanced them, to that state of 
rudeness and barbarism which we find in the pro- 
ductions of the lower empire. 

This was the present state of things between 
Caesar and Cicero, all the marks of kindness on 
Caesar's part, of coldness and reserve on Cicero's. 
Caesar was determined never to part with his 
power, and took the more pains for that reason to 
r Ad Att. xiii. 27. s Ad Att. xiii. 28. 

* Obsecro, abjiciamus ista ; et semiliberi saltern simus ; 
quod assequemur et tacendo, et latendo.— Ibid. 31. 



make Cicero easy under it ; he seems irvleed to 
have been somewhat afraid of him, not of iii.^ en- 
gaging in any attempt against his life, but lest by 
his insinuations, his railleries, and his authority, he 
should excite others to some act of violence ; but 
what he more especially desired and wanted was, to 
draw from him some public testimony of his ap- 
probation, and to be recommended by his writings 
to the favour of posterity. 

Cicero, on the other hand, perceiving no step 
taken towards the establishment of the republic, 
but more and more reason every day to despair of 
it, grew still more indifferent to everything else ; 
the restoration of public liberty was the only con- 
dition on which he could entertain any friendship 
with Caesar, or think and speak of him with any 
respect ; without that no favours could oblige him, 
since to receive them from a master was an affront 
to his former dignity, and but a splendid badge of 
servitude : books, therefore, were his only comfort, 
for while he conversed with them he found himself 
easy, and fancied himself free. — Thus, in a letter 
to Cassius, touching upon the misery of the times, 
he adds, "What is become, then, you'll say, of 
philosophy ? why, yours is in the kitchen, but 
mine is troublesome to me : for I am ashamed to 
live a slave, and feign myself, therefore, to be doing 
something else, that I may not hear the reproach 
of Plato u ." 

During Caesar's stay in Spain, Antony set for- 
ward from Italy to pay his compliments to him 
there, or to meet him at least on the road in his 
return towards home : but when he had made about 
half of the journey, he met with some despatches 
which obliged him to turn back in all haste to Rome. 
This raised a new alarm in the city, and especially 
among the Pompeians, who were afraid that Caesar, 
having now subdued all opposition, was resolved, 
after the example of former conquerors, to take 
his revenge in cool blood on all his adversaries, and 
had sent Antony back as the properest instrument 
to execute some orders of that sort. Cicero him- 
self had the same suspicion, and was much sur- 
prised at Antony's sudden return ; till Balbus and 
Oppius eased him of his apprehensions by sending 
him an account of the true reason of it x ; which, 
contrary to expectation, gave no uneasiness at last 
to anybody but to Antony himself. Antony had 
bought Pompey's houses in Rome and the neigh- 
bourhood, with all their rich furniture, at Caesar's 
auction, soon after his return from Egypt ; but, 
trusting to his interest with Caesar, and to the part 
which he had borne in advancing him to his power, 
never dreamt of being obliged to pay for them ; 
but Caesar, being disgusted by the account of his 
debauches and extravagances in Italy, and resolved 
to show himself the sole master, nor suffer any con- 
tradiction to his will, sent peremptory orders to L. 
Plancus, the praetor, to require immediate payment 
of Antony, or else to levy the money upon his 
sureties according to the tenor of their bond. This 



i Ubi igitur, inquies, philosophia ? Tua quidem in 
culina ; mea molesta est. Pudet enini servirc. Itaqno 
facio me alias res agere, ne convicium Platonis audiani. — 
Ep. Fam. xv. 18. 

x Heri cum ex aliorum Uteris oognovissem de Antonii 
adventu, admiratus sum nihil esse in tuia— Ad Att. xii. 1& 

De Antonio Balbus quoquead me cum Oppio conscripait, 
idque tibi placuisse, ne perturbarer. Illis egi gratia-.— 
Ibid. 19. 



214 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



was the cause of his quick return, to prevent that 
disgrace from falling upon him, and find some 
means of complying with Caesar's commands ; it 
provoked him however to such a degree, that in 
the height of his resentment he is said to have 
entered into a design of taking away Csesar's life ; 
of which Caesar himself complained openly in the 
senate y. 

The war being ended in Spain by the death of 
Cnaeus Pompey and the flight of Sextus, Caesar 
finished his answer to Cicero's " Cato,'' in two 
books, which he sent immediately to Rome in order 
to be published. This gave Cicero at last the argu- 
ment of a letter to him to return thanks for the great 
civility with which he had treated him in that 
piece ; and to pay his compliments likewise in his 
turn upon the elegance of the composition. This 
letter was communicated again to Balbus and 
Oppius, who declared themselves extremely pleased 
with it, and forwarded it directly to Caesar. In 
Cicero's account of it to Atticus, " I forgot," says 
he, " to send you a copy of what I wrote to Caesar; 
not for the reason which you suspect, that I was 
ashamed to let you see how well I could flatter ; 
for, in truth, I wrote to him no otherwise than as 
if I was writing to an equal, for I really have a 
good opinion of his two books, as I told you when 
we were together, and wrote, therefore, both with- 
out flattering him ; and yet so that he will read 
nothing, I believe, with more pleasure 2 ." 

Caesar returned to Rome about the end of Sep- 
tember, when, divesting himself of the consulship, 
he conferred it on Q. Fabius Maximus 
a. urb.^ 708. anc i c. Trebonius for the three remain- 

cic. 62. } n g mon ths of the year a . His first 
^ Sb ' care after his arrival was to entertain 

maximus l ^ e c ^y wu ^ the most splendid 

c. trebo- triumph which Rome had ever seen ; 
nws. but the people, instead of admiring 

and applauding it as he expected, were 
sullen and silent, considering it, as it really was, a 
triumph over themselves, purchased by the loss of 
their liberty 'and the destruction of the best and 
noblest families of the republic. They had before 
given the same proof of their discontent at the Cir- 
censian games, where Caesar's statue, by a decree 
of the senate, was carried in the procession along 
with those of the gods ; for they gave none of their 
usual acclamations to the favourite deities as they 

y Appellatus es de pecunia, quam pro domo, pro hortis, 
pro sectione debebas — et ad te et ad praedes tuos milites 
misit. [Phil. ii. 29.] Idcirco urbem terrore nocturno, 
Italiam multorum dierum metu perturbasti— neL. Plancus 
praedes tuos venderet— [ibid. 31.] Quin bis ipsis temporibus 
domi Caesaris percussor ab isto missus, deprehensus dice- 
batur esse cum sica. De quo Caesar in senatu, aperte in te 
invehens, questus est. — Ibid. 29. 

z Conscripsi de his libris epistolam Caesari, quae defer- 
retur ad Dolabellam: sed ejusexemplum misi ad Balbuni 
et Oppiuni, scripsique ad eos, ut turn deferri ad Dola- 
bellaui juberent nieas litems, si ipsi exemplum' probas- 
scut; ita mihi rcscripserunt, nihil unquam se legisse 
melius. — Ad Att. xiii. 50. 

Ad Caesarem quam misi epistolam, ejus exemplum 
fugit me tum tibi mittere ; nee id fuit quod suspicaris, 
ut me puderet tui— nee mehercule scripsi aliter, ac si 
Trpbs 'iffov '6/j.oiov que scriberem. Bene enim cxistimo de 
illis libris, ut tibi coram. Itaque scrips] et d/coAa/feuTws, 
et tamen sic, ut nihil eurn existimem lecturum libentius. 
—Ibid. 51. 

a Utroque anno binos consules substituit sibi in ternos 
novissimos menses. — Suet. J. Cas. 76. 



passed, lest they should be thought to give them 
to Caesar. Atticus sent an account of it to Cicero, 
who says in answer to him, "Your letter was 
agreeable, though the show was so sad — the peo- 
ple, however, behaved bravely, who would not clap 
even the goddess Victory for the sake of so bad a 
neighbour b ." Caesar, however, to make amends 
for the unpopularity of his triumph, and to put the 
people into good humour, entertained the whole 
city soon after with something more substantial 
than shows ; two public dinners, with plenty of the 
most esteemed and costly wines of Chios and 
Falernum e . 

Soon after Caesar's triumph, the consul Fabius, 
one of his lieutenants in Spain, was allowed to 
triumph too, for the reduction of some parts of that 
province which had revolted ; but the magnificence 
of Caesar made Fabius's triumph appear contemp- 
tible, for his models of the conquered towns, which 
were always a part of the show, being made only 
of wood when Caesar's were of silver or ivory, 
Chrysippus merrily called them, the cases only of 
Caesar's towns d . 

Cicero resided generally in the country, and 
withdrew himself wholly from the senate e ; but on 
Caesar's approach towards Rome, Lepidus began 
to press him by repeated letters to come and give 
them his assistance, assuring him that both he and 
Caesar would take it very kindly of him. He could 
not guess for what particular service they wanted 
him, except the dedication of some temple to which 
the presence of three augurs was necessary f . 
But whatever it was, as his friends had long been 
urging the same advice and persuading him to 
return to public affairs, he consented at last to 
quit his retirement and come to the city ; where, 
soon after Caesar's arrival, he had an opportunity 
of employing his authority and eloquence, where 
he exerted them always with the greatest pleasure, 
in the service and defence of an old friend, king 
Deiotarus. 

This prince had already been deprived by Caesar 
of part of his dominions for his adherence to 
Pompey, and was now in danger of losing the rest, 
from an accusation preferred against him by his 
grandson, of a design pretended to have been 
formed by him against Caesar's life, when Caesar 
was entertained at his house four years before, on 
his return from Egypt. The charge was groundless 
and ridiculous ; but under his present disgrace any 
charge was sufficient to ruin him, and Caesar's 
countenancing it so far as to receive and hear it, 

b Suaves tuas literas ! etsi acerba pompa— populum 
vero praeclarum, quod propter tarn malum vicinum, ne 
Victoriae quidem plauditur. — Ad Att. xiii. 44. 

c Quid non et Caesar dictator triumphi sui ccena vini 
Falerni amphoras, Chii cados in convivia distribuit? idem 
in Hispaniensi triumpho Chium et Falernum dedit. — Plin. 
Hist. Nat. xiv. J 5. 

Adjecit post Hispaniensem victoriam duo prandia. — 
Sueton. 38. 

d Ut Chrysippus, cum in triumpho Caesaris eborea 
oppida essent translata, et post dies paucos Fabii Maxiini 
lignea, thecas esse oppidoruni Caesaris dixit.— Quint, vi. 3; 
Dio, 234. 

e Cum his temporibus non sane in senatum ventitarem. 
Fp. Fam. xiii. 77- 

i Ecce tibi, orat Lepidus, ut veniam. Opinor augures 
nil habere ad templum effandum — Ad Att. xiii. 42. 

Lepidus ad me heri — literas misit. Rogat magnopere ut 
sim Kalend. in senatu, me et sibi et Caesari vehementer 
gratum esse facturum.— Ibid. 47. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



215 



showed a strong prejudice against the king, and 
that he wanted only a pretence for stripping him 
of all that remained to him. Brutus likewise in- 
terested himself very warmly in the same cause ; 
and when he went to meet Caesar on his road from 
Spain, made an oration to him at Nicaea, in favour 
of Deiotarus, with a freedom which startled Caesar, 
and gave him occasion to reflect on what he had 
not perceived so clearly before, the invincible fierce- 
ness and vehemence of Brutus's temper^. The pre- 
sent trial was held in Caesar's house, where Cicero 
so manifestly exposed the malice of the accuser 
and the innocence of the accused, that Caesar, being 
determined not to acquit, yet ashamed to condemn 
him, chose the expedient of reserving his sentence 
to farther deliberation, till he should go in person 
into the East, and inform himself of the whole affair 
upon the spot. Cicero says that Deiotarus, neither 
present nor absent, could ever obtain any favour or 
equity from Caesar ; and that as oft as he pleaded 
for him, which he was always ready to do, he 
could never persuade Caesar to think anything 
reasonable that he asked for him h . He sent a copy 
of his oration to the king, and, at Dolabella's 
request, gave another likewise to him, excusing it 
as a trifling performance and hardly worth trans- 
cribing ; " but I had a mind, (says he,) to make a 
slight present to my old friend and host, of coarse 
stuff indeed, yet such as his presents usually are to 
me'." 

Some little time after this trial, Caesar, to show 
his confidence in Cicero, invited himself to spend 
a day witH him at his house in the country, and 
chose the third day of the Saturnalia for his visit, 
a season always dedicated to mirth and feasting 
amongst friends and relations 14 . Cicero gives 
Atticus the following account of the entertainment, 
and how the day passed between them. " O this 
guest," says he, "whom I so much dreaded ! yet 
I had no reason to repent of him, for he was well 
pleased with his reception. When he came the 
evening before, on the eighteenth, to my neighbour 
Philip's, the house was so crowded with soldiers 
that there was scarce a room left empty for Caesar 
to sup in ; there were about two thousand of 
them, which gave me no small pain for the next 
day ; but Barba Cassius relieved me, for he assigned 
me a guard, and made the rest encamp in the 
field, so that my house was clear. On the nine- 
teenth, he staid at Philip's till one in the after- 

g Ad Att. xiv. J. The Jesuits, Catrou and Rouille, take 
Nicea, where Brutus made this speech, to be the capital 
of Bithynia, Deiotarus's kingdom : but it was a city on 
the Ligurian coast, still called Nice, where Brutus met 
Caesar on his last return from Spain ; and when he was not 
able to prevail for Deiotarus, Cicero was forced to under- 
take the cause as soon as Caesar came to Rome. — Hist. torn, 
xvii. p. 91. uot. 

h Quis enim cuiquam inimicitior, quam Deiotaro 
Caesar? — a quo nee praesens, nee absens rex Deiotarus 
quidquam aequi boni impetravit — ille nunquam, semper 
enim absenti affui Deiotaro, quicquam sibi, quod nos pro 
illo postularemus, aequum dixit videri.— Phil. ii. 37. 

i Oratiunculam pro Deiotaro, quam requirebas — tibi 
misi. Quam velim sic legas, ut causam tenuem et inopem, 
nee scriptione magno opere dignam. Sed ego hospiti veteri 
et amico munusculum mittere volui levidense, crasso filo, 
cujusmodi ipsius solent esse munera. — Ep. Fam. ix. 12. 

k This festival, after Caesar's reformation of the calen- 
dar, began on the 17th of December, and lasted three days. 
— Macrob. Saturn, i. 10. 



noon, but saw nobody ; was settling accounts, I 
guess, with Balbus ; then took a walk on the 
shore ; bathed after two ; heard the verses on 



amurra 1 , at which he never changed counte- 



M 

nance ; was rubbed, anointed, sat down to table. 
Having taken a vomit just before, he ate and drank 
freely, and was very cheerful m : the supper was 
good and well served : 

But our discourse at table, as we eat, 
For taste and seasoning still excell'd our meat n . 
Besides Caesar's table, his friends were plentifully 
provided for in three other rooms ; nor was there 
anything wanting to his freedmen of lower rank 
and his slaves, but the better sort were elegantly 
treated. In a word, I acquitted myself like a man ; 
yet he is not a guest to whom one would say at 
parting, ' Pray call upon me again as you return ;' 
once is enough ; we had not a word on business, 
but many on points of literature : in short, he was 
delighted with his entertainment, and passed the 
day agreeably. He talked of spending one day at 
Puteoli, another at Baiae ; thus you see the manner 
of my receiving him, somewhat troublesome indeed 
but not uneasy to me. I shall stay here a little 
longer, and then to Tusculum. As he passed by 
Dolabella's villa, his troops marched close by his 

1 Mamurra was a Roman knight, and general of the 
artillery to Caesar in Gaul ; where he raised an immense 
fortune, and is said to have been the first man in Rome 
who incrusted his house with marble, and made all his pil- 
lars of solid marble. [Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 6.] He was 
severely lashed, together with Caesar himself, for his 
excessive luxury, and more infamous vices, by Catullus ; 
whose verses are still extant, and the same probably that 
Cicero here refers to, as being first read to Caesar at his 
house. — Vide Catull. 27, 55. 

The reader perhaps will not readily understand the time 
and manner of Caesar's passing from Philip's house to 
Cicero's in this short account of it : but it must be remem- 
bered, that their villas were adjoining to each other on 
the Formian coast, near Cajeta ; so that when Caesar came 
out of Philip's at one, he took a walk on the shore for about 
an hour, and then entered into Cicero's ; where the bath 
was prepared for him, and in bathing, he heard Catullus's 
verses ; not produced by Cicero, for that would not have 
been agreeable to good manners, but by some of his own 
friends who attended him, and who knew his desire to see 
everything that was published against him, as w r ell as his 
easiness in slighting or forgiving it. 

m The custom of taking a vomit both immediately before 
and after meals, which Cicero mentions Caesar to have 
done on different occasions, [Pro Deiot. 7.] was verj f com- 
mon with the Romans, and used by them as an instrument 
both of their luxury and of their health : " they vomit," 
says Seneca, " that they may eat, and eat that they may 
vomit." [Consol. ad Helv. 9.] By this evacuation before 
eating, they were prepared to eat more plentifully ; and 
by emptying themselves presently after it, prevented any 
hurt from repletion. Thus Vitellius, who was a famous 
glutton, is said to have preserved his life by constant 
vomits, while he destroyed all his companions who did not 
use the same caution : [Sueton. 12 ; Dio, lxv. 734.] And the 
practice was thought so effectual for strengthening the 
constitution, that it was the constant regimen of all the 
athletae, or the professed wrestlers trained for the public 
shows, in order to make them more robust. So that < tesar's 
vomiting before dinner was a sort of compliment to Cicero, 
as it intimated a resolution to pass the day cheerfully and 
to cat and drink freely with him. 

" This is a citation from Lueilins, of an hexameter verse, 
with part of a second, which is not distinguished from 
the text, in the editions of Cicero's Letters, 
sed bene cocto et 
Condito sermonc bono, et si quaeris libentcr. 



216 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



horse's side on the right and left, which was done 
nowhere else. I had this from Nicias ." 

On the last of December, when the consul Tre- 
bonius was abroad, his colleague, Q. Fabius, died 
suddenly ; and his death being declared in the 
morning, C. Caninius Rebilus was named by 
Caesar to the vacancy at one in the afternoon, 
whose office was to continue only through the re- 
maining part of that day. This wanton profanation 
of the sovereign dignity of the empire raised a 
general indignation in the city, and a consulate 
so ridiculous gave birth to much raillery, and many 
jokes which are transmitted to us by the ancients?, 
of which Cicero, who was the chief author of them, 
gives us the following specimen in his own account 
of the fact. 

Cicero to Curius. 

" 1 no longer either advise or desire you to come 
home to us, but want to fly somewhither myself, 
where I may hear neither the name nor the acts of 
these sons of Pelops. It is incredible how meanly 
I think of myself for being present at these transac- 
tions. You had surely an early foresight of what 
was coming on when you ran away from this place ; 
for though it be vexatious to hear of such things, 
yet that is more tolerable than to see them. It is 
well that you were not in the field when, at seven 
in the morning, as they were proceeding to an 
election of quaestors, the chair of Q,. Maximus, 
whom they called consul i, was set in its place, but 
his death being immediately proclaimed, it was 
removed, and Caesar, though he had taken the 
auspices for an assembly of the tribes, changed it 
to an assembly of the centuries ; and at one in the 
afternoon, declared a new consul, who was to 
govern till one the next morning. I would have 
you to know, therefore, that whilst Caninius was 
consul nobody dined, and that there was no crime 
committed in his consulship, for he was so won- 
derfully vigilant that through his whole adminis- 
tration he never so much as slept. These things 
seem ridiculous to you, who are absent, but were 
you to see them you would hardly refrain from 
tears. What if I should tell you the rest ? For 
there are numberless facts of the same kind, which 
I could never have borne if I had not taken refuge 
in the port of philosophy with our friend Atticus, 
the companion and partner of my studies," &c. r 

Caesar had so many creatures and dependants, 
who expected the honour of the consulship from 
him as the reward of their services, that it was 
impossible to oblige them all in the regular way, 
so that he was forced to contrive the expedient of 
splitting it, as it were, into parcels, and conferring 
it for a few months, or weeks, or even days, as it 
happened to suit his convenience : and as the 
thing itself was now but a name, without any real 
power, it was of little moment for what term it was 
granted, since the shortest gave the same privilege 

Ad Att. xiii. 52. 

P Macrob. Saturn, ii. 3 ; Dio, p. 236. 

q Cicero would not allow a consul of three months, so 
irregularly chosen, to be properly called a consul : nor did 
the people themselves acknowledge him : for, as Suetonius 
tells us, [in J. Cass. 80.] when, upon Fabius's entrance into 
the theatre, his officers, according to custom, proclaimed 
his presence, and ordered the people to make ivay for the 
consul, the whole assembly cried out He is no consul. 

1 Ep. Fam. vii. 30. 



ctc. 03. 
coss. 

C. JULIUS 
CAESAR V. 
M. ANTO- 
NIUS. 



with the longest, and a man once declared consul, 
enjoyed ever after the rank and character of a con- 
sular senator 8 . 

On the opening of the new year, Caesar entered 
into his fifth consulship, in partnership with M. 
Antony : he had promised it all along 
A " U ^ B ;^ 09 ' to Dolabella, but, contrary to expec- 
tation, took it at last to himself. This 
was contrived by Antony, who, jea- 
lous of Dolabella as a rival in Csesar's 
favour, had been suggesting somewhat 
to his disadvantage, and labouring to 
create a diffidence of him in Caesar ; 
Which seems to have been the ground of what is 
mentioned above, Caesar's guarding himself so 
particularly when he passed by his villa. Dolabella 
was sensibly touched with this affront, and came 
full of indignation to the senate, where, not daring 
to vent his spleen on Caesar, he entertained the 
assembly with a severe speech against Antony, 
which drew on many warm and angry words be- 
tween them ; till Caesar, to end the dispute, pro- 
mised to resign the consulship to Dolabella before 
he went to the Parthian war : but Antony protested 
that, by his authority as augur, he would disturb 
that election whenever it should be attempted* ; 
and declared, without any scruple, that the ground 
of his quarrel with Dolabella was for having caught 
him in an attempt to debauch his wife Antonia, the 
daughter of his uncle ; though that was thought to 
be a calumny, contrived to colour his divorce with 
her and his late marriage with Fulvia, the widow 
of Clodius u . 

Caesar was now in the height of all his glory, 
and dressed (as Florus says) in all his trappings, 
like a victim destined to sacrificed He had received 
from the senate the most extravagant honours, 
both human and divine, which flattery could 
invent, a temple, altar, priest ; his image carried 
in procession with the gods ; his statue among the 
kings ; one of the months called after his name, 
and a perpetual dictatorship J\ Cicero endeavoured 
to restrain the excess of this complaisance within 
the bounds of reason 2 , but in vain, since Caesar 
was more forward to receive than they to give ; 
and out of the gaiety of his pride, and to try, as it 
were, to what length their adulation would reach, 
when he was actually possessed of everything which 
carried with it any real power, was not content still 
without a title, which could add nothing but envy 
and popular odium, and wanted to be called a 
king. Plutarch thinks it a strange instance of folly 
in the people to endure with patience all the real 
effects of kingly government, yet declare such an 
abhorrence to the name. But the folly was not so 
strange in the people as it was in Caesar : it is 
natural to the multitude to be governed by names 
rather than things, and the constant art of parties 



s Dio, p. 240. 

* Cum Caesar ostendisset, se, priusquam proficisceretur, 
Dolabellam consulem essejussurum — hie bonus augur eo 
se sacerdotio praeditum esse dixit, ut comitia auspiciis vel 
impedire vel vitiare posset, idque se facturum asseveravit. 
—Phil. ii. 32. 

u Frequentissimo senatu — banc tibi esse cum Dolabella 
causam odii dicere ausus es, quod ab eo sorori et uxori 
tuae stuprum oblatum esse comperisses. — Phil. ii. 38. 

x Quae omnia, velut infulae, in destinatam morti victi- 
mam congerebantur. — Flor. iv. 2, 92. 

y Flor. ibid ; Sueton. J. Cass. 76. 

* Plut. in Caes. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



217 



to keep up that prejudice ; but it was unpardonable 
in so great a man as Caesar to lay so much stress 
on a title which, so far from being an honour to 
him, seemed to be a diminution rather of that 
superior dignity which he already enjoyed. 

Among the other compliments that were paid to 
him, there was a new fraternity of Luperci insti- 
tuted to his honour, and called by his name, of 
which Antony was the head. Young Quintus 
Cicero was one of this society, with the consent of 
his father, though to the dissatisfaction of his 
uncle, who considered it not only as a low piece of 
flattery, but an indecency, for a young man of 
family, to be engaged in ceremonies so immodest, 
of running naked and frantic about the streets a . 
The festival was held about the middle of February ; 
and Caesar, in his triumphal robe, seated himself 
in the rostra, in a golden chair, to see the diversion 
of the running, where, in the midst of their sport, 
the consul Antony, at the head of his naked crew, 
made him the offer of a regal diadem, and at- 
tempted to put it upon his head ; at the sight 
of which a general groan issued from the whole 
forum, till, upon Caesar's slight refusal of it, the 
people loudly testified their joy by a universal 
shout. Antony, however, ordered it to be entered 
in the public acts, that by the command of the 
people he had offered the kingly name and power 
to Caesar, and that Caesar would not accept it b . 

While this affair of the kingly title amused and 
alarmed the city, two of the tribunes, Marullus and 
Caesetius, were particularly active in discouraging 
every step and attempt towards it : they took off 
the diadem which certain persons had privately 
put upon Caesar's statue in the rostra, and com- 
mitted those to prison who were suspected to have 
done it, and publicly punished others for daring 
to salute him in the streets by the name of king, 
declaring that Caesar himself refused and abhorred 
that title. This provoked Caesar beyond his usual 
temper and command of himself, so that he accused 
them to the senate, of a design to raise a sedition 
against him, by persuading the city that he really 
affected to be a king ; but when the assembly was 
going to pass the severest sentence upon them, he 
was content with deposing them from their magis- 
tracy, and expelling them from the senate c , which 
convinced people still the more of his real fondness 
for a name that he pretended to despise. 

He had now prepared all things for his expedition 
against the Parthians, had sent his legions before 
him into Macedonia, settled the succession of all 
the magistrates for two years to come tl , appointed 
Dolabella to take his own place as consul of the 
current year, named A. Hirtius and C. Pansa for 

a Quintus pater quartum vel potius millesimum nihil 
sapit, qui lstetur Luperco filio et Statio, ut cernat du- 
plici dedecore cumulatam domuni. — Ad Att. xii. 5. 

b Sedebat in rostris collega tuus, amictus toga purpurea, 
in sella aurea, coronatus : adscendis, accedis ad sellam — 
diadema ostendis : gemitus toto font— tu diadema impone- 
bas cum plangore populi, ille cum plausu rejiciebat— at 
enim adscribi jussit in fastis ad Lupercalia, C. Caesari, 
dictatori perpetuo M. Antonium consulem populi jussu 
regnum detulisse, Ca;sarem uti noluisse. [Phil. ii. 34.] 
Quod ab eo ita repulsum erat, ut non offensus videretur. 
—Veil. Pat. ii. 56. 

e Sueton. J. Caes. 79 ; Dio, p. 245 ; App. l.ii. p. 496 ; Veil. 
Pat. ii. 68. 

d Etiamne consules et tribunos plebis in biennium, quos 
ille voluit ?— Ad Att. xiv. 6. 



consuls of the next, and D. Brutus and Cn. Plancus 
for the following year : but before his departure he 
resolved to have the regal title conferred upon him 
by the senate, who were too sensible of his power, 
and obsequious to bis will, to deny him anything ; 
and to make it the more palatable at the same time 
to the people, he caused a report to be indus- 
triously propagated through the city, of ancient 
prophecies found in the Sibylline books, that the 
Parthians could not be conquered but by a king ; 
on the strength of which Cotta, one of the guar- 
dians of those books, was to move the senate at 
their next meeting, to decree the title of king to 
him e . Cicero, speaking afterwards of this design, 
says, " It was expected that some forged testi- 
monies would be produced, to show that he whom 
we had felt in reality to be a king, should he called 
also by that name, if we would be safe ; but let us 
make a bargain with the keepers of those oracles, 
that they bring anything out of them rather than 
a king, which neither the gods nor men will ever 
endure again at Rome f ." 

One would naturally have expected, after all the 
fatigues and dangers through which Caesar had 
made his way to empire, that he would have chosen 
to spend the remainder of a declining life in the 
quiet enjoyment of all the honours and pleasures 
which absolute power and a command of the world 
could bestow ; but in the midst of all this glory he 
was a stranger still to ease : he saw the people 
generally disaffected to him, and impatient under 
his government ; and though amused, awhile with 
the splendour of his shows and triumphs, yet 
regretting severely in cool blood the price that they 
had paid for them ; the loss of their liberty, with the 
lives of the best and noblest of their fellow-citizens. 
This expedition, therefore, against the Parthians, 
seems to have been a political pretext for remov- 
ing himself from the murmurs of the city, and 
leaving to his ministers the exercise of an invidious 
power, and the task of taming the spirits of the 
populace ; whilst he, by employing himself in 
gathering fresh laurels in the East, and extending 
the bounds and retrieving the honour of the 
empire against its most dreaded enemy, might 
gradually reconcile them to a reign that was gentle 
and clement at home, successful and glorious 
abroad. 

But his impatience to be a king defeated all his 
projects, and accelerated his fate, and pushed on 
the nobles, who had conspired against his life, to 
the immediate execution of their plot, that they 
might save themselves the shame of being forced 
to concur in an act which they heartily detested s ; 
and the two Brutuses in particular, the honour of 
whose house was founded in the extirpation of 
kingly government, could not but consider it as a 
personal infamy, and a disgrace to their very 
name, to suffer the rest oration of it. 

e Proximo an tern sanatu, L. Cottam quiudecimvirum 
sententiam dicturum ; utquoniam librisfatalibus contine- 
retur, Parthos non nisi a rege posse vinci, Caesar rex 
appellaretur.— Sueton. J. Cass. 79 ; Dio, p 247. 

f Quorum interpres nuper falsa quaedanihominum faina 
dicturus in senatu putabatur, cum, quern re vera regem 
habebamus, appellandum quoque esse regem, si salyi esse 
vellemus— cum antistibus agamus, ut quidvis potius ex 
illis libris, quam regem proferant, quern Romse posthac 
nee dii nee homines esse patieutur. — De Diviu. ii. f>4. 

S Qua? causa conjuratisfuit maturandi dot inn ta nogotia, 
ne assentiri necesse esset.— Suet. J. Ca>s. 80 ; Dio, p. ->47. 



218 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



There were above sixty persons said to be en- 
gaged in this conspiracy 11 ; the greatest part of 
them of the senatorian rank ; but M. Brutus and 
C. Cassius were the chief in credit and authority ; 
the first contrivers and movers of the whole design. 

M. Junius Brutus was about one-and-forty years 
old, of the most illustrious family of the republic, 
deriving his name and descent in a direct line from 
that first consul, L. Brutus, who expelled Tarquin, 
and gave freedom to the Roman people 1 . Having 
lost his father when very young, he was trained 
with great care by his uncle Cato, in all the studies 
of polite letters, especially of eloquence and philo- 
sophy ; and under the discipline of such a tutor, 
imbibed a warm love for liberty and virtue. He 
had excellent parts, and equal industry, and ac- 
quired an early fame at the bar, where he pleaded 
several causes of great importance, and was 
esteemed the most eloquent and learned of all the 
young nobles of his age. His manner of speaking 
was correct, elegant, judicious, yet wanting that 
force and copiousness which is required in a con- 
summate orator. But philosophy was his favourite 
study, in which, though he professed himself of 
the more moderate sect of the old Academy, yet 
from a certain pride and gravity of temper, he 
affected the severity of the Stoic, and to imitate 
his uncle Cato, to which he was wholly unequal ; 
for he was of a mild, merciful, and compassionate 
disposition, averse to everything cruel, and was 
often forced, by the tenderness of his nature, to 
confute the rigour of his principles. While his 
mother lived in the greatest familiarity with Caesar, 
he was constantly attached to the opposite party, 
and firm to the interests of liberty ; for the sake of 
which he followed Pompey, whom he hated, and 
acted on that side with a distinguished zeal. At 
the battle of Pharsalia, Caesar gave particular 
orders to find out and preserve Brutus, being 
desirous to draw him from the pursuit of a cause 
that was likely to prove fatal to him ; so that 
when Cato, with the rest of the chiefs, went to 
renew the war in Africa, he was induced by Caesar's 
generosity and his mother's prayers, to lay down 

h Conspiratum est in euni a sexaginta amplius, C. Cas- 
sio, Marcoque et Decimo Brutoprincipibus conspirationis. 
—Suet. ibid. 18- 

» Some of the ancient writers call in question this account 
of Brutus's descent ; particularly Dionysius of Halicar- 
nassus, the most judicious and critical of them, who 
alleges several arguments against it, which seem to he very 
plausible. Yet while Brutus lived, it was universally 
allowed to him. Cicero mentions it in his public speeches, 
and other writings, as a fact that nobody doubted, and 
often speaks of the image of old Brutus, which Marcus 
kept in his house among those of his ancestors : and Atti- 
cus, who was peculiarly curious in the antiquities of the 
Roman families, drew up Brutus's genealogy or him ; and 
deduced his succession from that old hero, in a direct line 
through all the intermediate ages, from father to son. — 
Corn. Nep. vit. Att. 18 ; Tusc. Disp. iv. 1. 

He was born in the consulship of L. Cornelius Cinna III. 
and Cn. Papirius Carbo, A.U. 668, which fully confutes the 
vulgar story of his being commonly believed to be Ccesar's 
son ; since he was but fifteen years younger than Caesar 
himself: whose familiarity with his mother Servilia can- 
not be supposed to have commenced till many years after 
Brutus was born, or not till Caesar had lost his first wife 
Cornelia, whom he married when he was very young, and 
always tenderly loved ; and whose funeral oration he made 
when he was quaestor, and consequently thirty years old. 
— Sueton. J. Caes. i. 6. 50 ; it. Brut. p. 343. 447, et Corradi 
notas. 



his arms, and return to Italy. Caesar endeavoured 
to oblige him by all the honours which his power 
could bestow ; but the indignity of receiving 
from a master what he ought to have received 
from a free people, shocked him much more than 
any honours could oblige ; and the ruin in which 
he saw his friends involved by Caesar's usurped 
dominion, gave him a disgust which no favours 
could compensate. He observed, therefore, a dis- 
tance and reserve through Caesar's reign ; aspired 
to no share of his confidence, or part in his coun- 
sels, and by the uncourtly vehemence with which 
he defended the rights of King Deiotarus, con- 
vinced Caesar that he could never be obliged where 
he did not find himself free. He cultivated all the 
while the strictest friendship with Cicero, whose 
principles he knew were utterly averse to the 
measures of the times, and in whose free conversa- 
tion he used to mingle his own complaints on the 
unhappy state of the republic, and the wretched 
hands into which it was fallen, till, animated by 
these conferences, and confirmed by the general 
discontent of ail the honest, he formed the bold 
design of freeing his country by the destruction of 
Caesar. He had publicly defended Milo's act of 
killing Clodius, by a maxim, which he maintained 
to be universally true, that those who live in 
defiance of the law, and cannot be brought to a 
trial, ought to be taken off without a trial. The 
case was applicable to Caesar in a much higher 
degree than to Clodius ; whose power had placed 
him above the reach of the law, and left no way 
of punishing him, but by an assassination. This, 
therefore, was Brutus's motive ; and Antony did 
him the justice to say, that he was the only one of 
the conspiracy who entered into it out of principle : 
that the rest, from private malice, rose up against 
the man, he alone against the tyrant. k 

C. Cassius was descended likewise from a family 
not less honourable or ancient, nor less zealous 
for the public liberty, than Brutus's : whose ances- 
tor, Sp. Cassius, after a triumph and three con- 
sulships, is said to have been condemned, and put 
to death by his own father, for aiming at a domi- 
nion. He showed a remarkable instance, when a 
boy, of his high spirit and love of liberty ; for he 
gave Sylla's son, Faustus, a box on the ear, for 
bragging among his school- fellows of his father's 
greatness and absolute power ; and when Pompey 
called the boys before him to give an account of 
their quarrel, he declared in his presence, that if 
Faustus should dare to repeat the words, he would 
repeat the blow. He was quaestor to Crassus in 
the Parthian war, where he greatly signalised both 
his courage and skill ; and if Crassus had followed 

k Natura admirabilis, ct exquisita doctrina, et singularis 
industria. Cum enim in maximis causis versatus esses 
— [Brut. 26.] quo magistuum, Brute, judicium probo, qui 
eorum, id est, ex vetere accidentia, philosophorum sectam 
secutus es, quorum in doctrina et preeceptis disserendi 
ratio conjungitur cum suavitate dicendi et copia. [Brut. 
219.] Nam cum inambularem inXysto — M. ad me Brutus, 
ut consueverat, cum T. Pomponio venerat — [Brut. 15.] turn 
Brutus — itaque doleo et illius consilio et tua voce populum 
Romanian carere tamdiu. Quod cum per se dolendum 
est, turn multo magis consideranti, ad quosista non trans- 
lata sint, sed nescio quo pacto devenerint. — [Brut. 269.~] 

'AAA 5 'AvTowiovye x.al ttoWovs afcovaai \4yovros, 
cos jx6vov oXoito Bpovrou iiri9ecr6cuKaiaapi, irpoax^ePTa 
T7? \afxivp6TT\ri Kal rep (paivofievy KaAcp rrjs rrpd^eoos. 
— Plut. in. Brut. p. 997 ; App. p. 498. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



219 



his advice, would have preserved the whole army ; 
but after their miserable defeat, he made good his 
retreat into Syria with the remains of the broken 
legions : and when the Parthians, flushed with 
success, pursued him thither soon after, and 
blocked him up in Antioch, he preserved that city 
and province from falling into their hands, and, 
watching his opportunity, gained a considerable 
victory over them, with the destruction of their 
general. In the civil war, after the battle of Phar- 
salia, he sailed with seventy ships to the coast of 
Asia, to raise fresh forces in that country, and 
renew the war against Caesar ; but as the historians 
tell us, happening to meet with Caesar crossing the 
Hellespont, in a common passage-boat, instead of 
destroying him, as he might have done, he was so 
terrified by the sight of the conqueror, that he 
begged his life in an abject manner, and delivered 
up his fleet to him ; but Cicero gives us a hint of 
a quite different story, which is much more pro- 
bable, and worthy of Cassius ; that having got 
intelligence where Caesar designed to land, he lay 
in wait for him in a bay of Cilicia, at the mouth of 
the river Cydnus, with a resolution to destroy him ; 
but Caesar happened to land on the opposite shore, 
before he was aware ; so that seeing his project 
blasted, and Caesar secured in a country where all 
people were declaring for him, he thought it best 
to make his own peace too, by going over to him 
with his fleet. He married Tertia, the sister of 
Brutus ; and though differing in temper and phi- 
losophy, was strictly united with him in friendship 
and politics, and the constant partner of all his 
counsels. He was brave, witty, learned, yet pas- 
sionate, fierce, and cruel ; so that Brutus was the 
more amiable friend, he the more dangerous 
enemy : in his later years he deserted the Stoics, 
and became a convert to Epicurus, whose doctrine 
he thought more natural and reasonable ; con- 
stantly maintaining that the pleasure which their 
master recommended was to be found only in the 
habitual practice of justice and virtue. While he 
professed himself, therefore, an Epicurean, he lived 
like a Stoic ; was moderate in pleasures, temperate 
in diet, and a water-drinker through life. He 
attached himself very early to the observance of 
Cicero, as all the young nobles did who had any- 
thing great or laudable in view. This friendship 
was confirmed by a conformity of their sentiments 
in the civil war, and in Caesar's reign ; during 
which several letters passed between them, written 
with a freedom and familiarity which is to be found 
only in the most intimate correspondence. In these 
letters, though Cicero rallies his Epicurism, and 
change of principles, yet he allows him to have acted 
always with the greatest honour and integrity ; 
and pleasantly says, that he should begin to think 
that sect to have more nerves than he imagined, 
since Cassius had embraced it. The old writers 
assign several frivolous reasons of disgust as the 
motives of his killing Caesar ; that Caesar took a 
number of lions from him, which he had provided 
for a public show ; that he would not gije him the 
consulship ; that he gave Brutus the more honour- 
able praetorship in preference to him. But we 
need not look farther for the true motive than to 
his temper and principles ; for his nature was 
singularly impetuous and violent ; impatient of 
contradiction, and much more of subjection, and 
passionately fond of glory, virtue, liberty. It was 



from these qualities that Caesar apprehended his 
danger; and when admonished to beware of Antony 
and Dolabella, used to say, that it was not the gay, 
the curled, and the jovial, whom he had cause to 
fear, but the thoughtful, the pale, and the lean; — 
meaning Brutus and Cassius 1 . 

The next in authority to Brutus and Cassius, 
though very different from them in character, 
were Decimus Brutus and C. Trebonius : they had 
both been constantly devoted to Caesar, and were 
singularly favoured, advanced, and entrusted by 
him in all his wars ; so that when Caesar marched 
first into Spain, he left them to command the 
siege of Marseilles, Brutus by sea, Trebonius by 
land ; in which they acquitted themselves with 
the greatest courage and ability, and reduced 
that strong place to the necessity of surrendering 
at discretion. Decimus was of the same family 
with his namesake, Marcus ; and Caesar, as if 
jealous of a name that inspired an aversion to 
kings, was particularly solicitous to gain them both 
to his interest, and seemed to have succeeded to 
his wish in Decimus, who forwardly embraced his 
friendship, and accepted all his favours, being 
named by him to the command of Cisalpine Gaul, 
and to the consulship of the following year, and 
the second heir even of his estate, in failure of the 
first. He seems to have had no peculiar character 
of virtue or patriotism, nor any correspondence 
with Cicero before the act of killing Caesar, so that 
people, instead of expecting it from him, were 
surprised at his doing it ; yet he was brave, gene- 
rous, magnificent, and lived with great splendour 
in the enjoyment of an immense fortune; for he 
kept a numerous band of gladiators, at his own 
expense, for the diversion of the city ; and after 
Caesar's death, spent about four hundred thousand 



1 C. Cassius in ea familia natus, quse non niodo doniina- 
tum, sed ne potentiam quidem cujusquam ferre potuit. 
[Phil. ii. 11.] Quern ubi primum magistratu abiit, darn- 
natumque constat. Sunt qui patrem aetorem ejus suppli- 
ed ferant. Eum eognita domi causa verberasse ac necasse, 
peculiumque filii Cereri conseeravisse. [Liv. ii. 41.] Cujus 
filiuni, Faustum, C. Cassius condiscipulum suuni in 
schola, proscriptionem paternam laudantem — colapho 
percussit. [Val. Max.iii. l.vid. Plutar. in.Brut.] Reliquias 
legionum C. Cassius — quaestor conservavit, Syriamque adeo 
in populi Romani potestate retinuit, ut transgressos in 
eum Parthos, felici rerum eventu fugaret ac funderet. 
[Veil. Pat. ii. 46 ; Phil. xi. 14.] OuSe epyov erepov r)*yov- 
fxcu TUX7JS iv airopcx) Kcupw -ytvicxQai fxaAhov, ^ Kda- 
(TiOu rbv iroAzfUKtoTaTOV iirl Tpir\pcov i^Sofx^KOvra 
aTrapa(rKevwKal<rapi (Tvurvx^ J/Ta ' A^o is x^P as &•" 
Qtlv viroarTrjvai, 6 6° ovtws eavrbv alaxp&s virb <pof$ov 
jxovov irapanXeoPTt irapaSovs, varepou iv Vufxri Svva- 
orevoVTa ^7} /careWayei'. [App. ii. 483 ; Dio, xlii. 188 ; 
Sueton. J. Caes. 63.] C. Cassius — sine his clarissiniis viris 
hanc rem in Cilicia ad ostium fluminis Cydni confeci>set, 
si ille ad earn ripam, quarn constituerat, non ad contrarian) 
naves appulisset. [Phil. ii. 11.] E quibus Brutum amicum 
habere malles, inimicum magis timeres Cassium. [Veil. 
Pat. ii. 72.] 'HSortiv vero et arapa^iav virtute, justitia. 
TCfi naXty parari, et verum et probabile est. Ipse enim 
Epicurus— dicit, ouk iwriv ffiews &vev rod kcl\cvs ko.1 
SlkcllcoS, £rju. [Ep. Fam. xv. 19.1 Cassius fcota vita aquain 
bibit. [Senec. 547.] Quanquam quicum loquor ? cum uno 
fortissimo viro ; qui postea quam forum attigisti. nihil 
fecisti nisi plenissimum amplissimie dignitatis. In ista 
ipsa aipecrei metuo ne plus nervorum sit, quam ego puta- 
rim, si modo earn tu probas. [Ep. Fam. xv. 16.] Differendo 
consulatum Cassium offenderat. [Veil. Pat. ii. 56 ; Pint, 
in Brut. ; App. 408. 



220 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



pounds of his own money in maintaining an army 
against Antony" 1 . 

Trebonius had no family to boast of, but was 
wholly a new man, and the creature of Caesar's 
power, who produced him through all the honours 
of the state to his late consulship of three months. 
Antony calls him the son of a buffoon, but Cicero 
of a splendid knight : he was a man of parts, 
prudence, integrity, humanity ; was conversant also 
in the politer arts, and had a peculiar turn to wit 
and humour ; for after Caesar's death he published 
a volume of Cicero's sayings, which he had taken 
the pains to collect : upon which Cicero compli- 
ments him, for having explained them with great 
elegance, and given them a fresh force and beauty, 
by his humorous manner of introducing them. As 
the historians have not suggested any reason that 
should move either him or Decimus to the resolu- 
tion of killing a man to whom they were infinitely 
obliged ; so we may reasonably impute it, as 
Cicero does, to a greatness of soul, and superior 
love of their country, which made them prefer the 
liberty of Rome to the friendship of any man, and 
choose rather to be the destroyers than the partners 
of a tyranny 11 . 

The rest of the conspirators were partly young 
men, of noble blood, eager to revenge the ruin of 
their fortunes and families ; partly men obscure, 
and unknown to the public °, yet whose fidelity 
and courage had been approved by Brutus and 
Cassius. It was agreed by them all in council to 
execute their design in the senate, which was sum- 
moned to meet on the Ides, or fifteenth, of March : 
they knew that the senate would applaud it when 
done, and even assist, if there was occasion, in the 
doing itP ; and there was a circumstance which 
peculiarly encouraged them, and seemed to be 
even ominous ; that it happened to be Pompey's 
senate-house in which their attempt was to be 
made, and where Caesar would consequently fall at 
the foot of Pompey's statue, as a just sacrifice to 
the manes of that great man**. They took it also 
for granted, that the city would be generally 

m Adjectis etiam consiliariis caedis, familiarissimis 
omnium, et for tuna partium ejus in summum evectis fas- 
tigium, D. Bruto et C. Trebonio, aliisque clari nominis 
viris. [Veil. Pat. ii. 56.] Pluresque percussorum in tutori- 
bus filii nominavit : Decimum Brutum etiam in secundis 
heredibus. [Sueton. J. Caes. 83.] Cass. De Bello Civ. 
1. ii; Plut. in Brut.; App. p. 497, 511 ; Dio, xliv. 247- 
&c] D. Brutus — cum Cassaris primus omnium amicorum 
fuisset, interfector fuit.— Veil. Pat. ii. 64. 

« Scurrae filium appellat Antonius. Quasi vero ignotus 
! nobis fuerit splendidus eques Romanus Trebonii pater. 
[Phil. xiii. 10.] Trebonii — consilium, ingenium, humani- 
tatem, innocentiam, magnitudinem animi in patria libe- 
randa quis ignorat ? [Phil, xi, 4.] Liber iste, quern mini 
misisti, quantam habet declarationem amoris tui? pri- 
muril, quod tibi facetum videtur quicquid ego dixi, quod 
aliis fortasse non item : deinde, quod ilia, sive faceta sunt, 
sive sic sunt narrante te vcnustissima. Quin etiam ante- 
quam ad me veniatur, risus omnis psene consumitur, &c. 
[Ep. Fam. xv. 21 ; ib. xii. 16.] Qui libertatem populi 
Rornani unius amicitia? praeposuit, depulsorque domina- 
tus, quam particeps esse maluit. — Phil. ii. 11. 

° In tot hominibus, partim obscuris, partirn adolescenti- 
bus, &c.— Phil. ii. 11. 

P 'fls tqov fiovkGVTwv, et nal [x$) irpofxaOoiev, irpodv- 
fJLws, oVe XSolsvto tfjyov, o-vve7ri\r]\pofxeuctiv.^- App. 499. 

1 Postquam senatus Idibus Martiia in Pompeii curiam 
edictus est, facile tempus ct locum pratulcrunt. — Sueton. 
J. Cass. 80. 



on their side ; yet for their greater security, D. 
Brutus gave orders to arm his gladiators that 
morning, as if for some public show,' ; that they might 
be ready, on the first notice, to secure the avenues 
of the senate, and defend them from any sudden 
violence ; and Pompey's theatre, which adjoined to 
his senate-house, being the properest place for the 
exercise of the gladiators, would cover all suspicion 
that might otherwise arise from them. The only 
deliberation that perplexed them, and on which 
they were much divided, was, whether they should 
not kill Antony also, and Lepidus, together with 
Csesar ; especially Antony, the more ambitious of 
the two, and the more likely to create fresh danger 
to the commonwealth. Cassius, with the majority 
of the company, was warmly for killing him : but 
the two Brutuses as warmly opposed, and finally 
overruled it : they alleged, " that to shed more 
blood than was necessary would disgrace their 
cause, and draw upon them an imputation of 
cruelty, and of acting not as patriots, but as the 
partisans of Pompey ; not so much to free the city 
as to revenge themselves on their enemies, and 
get the dominion of it into their hands." But 
what weighed with them the most, was a vain 
persuasion that Antony would be tractable, and 
easily reconciled, as soon as the affair was over ; 
but this lenity proved their ruin ; and by leaving 
their work imperfect, defeated all the benefit of it, 
as we find Cicero afterwards often reproaching 
them in his letters 17 . 

Many prodigies are mentioned by the historians 
to have given warning of Caesar's death s ; which 
having been forged by some and credulously re- 
ceived by others, were copied as usual by all, to 
strike the imagination of their readers and raise 
an awful attention to an event in which the gods 
were supposed to be interested. Cicero has related 
one of the most remarkable of them, — "that as 
Caesar was sacrificing a little before his death, with 
great pomp and splendour, in his triumphal robes 
and golden chair, the victim, which was a fat ox, 
was found to be without a heart ; and when Caesar 
seemed to be shocked at it, Spurinna the haru- 
spex, admonished him to beware lest through a 
failure of counsel his life should be cut off, since 
the heart was the seat and source of them both. 
The next day he sacrificed again, in hopes to find 
the entrails more propitious ; but the liver of the 
bullock appeared to want its head, which was 
reckoned also among the direful omens'." These 

r Plutar. in Caes. ; App. ii. 499, 502 ; Dio, 247, 248. 
Quam vellem ad illas pulcherrimas epulas me Idibus Mar- 
tiis invitasses. Reliquiarum nihil haberemus. — Ep. Fam. 
x. 28 ; xii. 4 ; Ad Brut. ii. 7. 

s Sed Cffisari futura cse&es evidentibus prodigiis denun- 
ciata est, &c— Sueton. J. Caes. 81 ; Plut. in Ca?s. 

* De Divin. i. 52 ; ii. 16. These cases of victims found 
sometimes without a heart or liver, gave rise to a curious 
question among those who believed the reality of this kind 
of divination, as the Stoics generally did, how to account 
for the cause of so strange a phenomenon. The common 
solution was, that the gods made such changes instanta- 
neously, in the moment of sacrificing, by annihilating or 
altering the condition of the entrails, so as to make them 
correspond with the circumstances of the sacrificer, and 
the admonition which they intended to give. [De Div. ib.] 
But this was laughed at by the naturalists, as wholly 
un philosophical, who thought it absurd to imagine that 
the deity could either annihilate or create, either reduce 
anything to nothing, or form anything out of nothing. 
What seems the most probable, is, that if the facts really 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



221 



facts, though ridiculed by Cicero, were publicly- 
affirmed and believed at the time, and seem to have 
raised a general rumour through the city of some 
secret danger that threatened Caesar's life, so that 
his friends, being alarmed at it, were endeavouring 
to instil the same apprehension into Csesar himself, 
and had succeeded so far as to shake his resolution 
of going that day to the senate, when it was ac- 
tually assembled by his summons in Pompey's 
senate-house, — till D. Brutus, by rallying those 
fears as unmanly and unworthy of him, and al- 
leging that his absence would be interpreted as 
an affront to the assembly, drew him out against 
his will to meet his destined fate u . 

In the morning of the fatal day, M. Brutus and 
C. Cassius appeared according to custom in the 
forum, sitting in their praetorian tribunals to hear 
and determine causes, where, though they had 
daggers under their gowns, they sat with the same 
calmness as if they had nothing upon their minds, 
till the news of Caesar's coming out to the senate 
called them away to the performance of their part 
in the tragical act, which they executed at last with 
such resolution, that through the eagerness of 
stabbing Caesar they wounded even one another x . 

Thus fell Csesar on the celebrated Ides of March, 
after he had advanced himself to a height of power 
which no conqueror had ever attained before him ; 
though to raise the mighty fabric he had made 
more desolation in the world than any man per- 
haps who ever lived in it. He used to say that 
his conquests in Gaul had cost about a million 
and two hundred thousand lives y ; and if we add 
the civil wars to the account, they could not cost 
the republic much less in the more valuable blood 
of its best citizens ; yet when, through a perpetual 
course of faction, violence, rapine, slaughter, he 
had made his way at last to empire, he did not 
enjoy the quiet possession of it above five months 2 . 

He was endowed with every great and noble 
quality that could exalt human nature and give a 
man the ascendant in society ; formed to excel in 
peace as well as war, provident in counsel, fearless 
in action, and executing what he had resolved with 
an amazing celerity ; generous beyond measure to 
his friends, placable to his enemies ; and for parts, 
learning, eloquence, scarce inferior to any man. 
His orations were admired for two qualities which 
are seldom found together, — strength and elegance. 
Cicero ranks him among the greatest orators that 
Rome ever bred ; and Quintilian says that he spoke 
with the same force with which he fought, and if 
he had devoted himself to the bar would have been 
the only man capable of rivalling Cicero. Nor was 
he a master only of the politer arts, but conversant 
also with the most abstruse and critical parts of 
learning ; and among other works which he pub- 
lished, addressed two books to Cicero on the analogy 

happened, they were contrived by Caesar's friends, and 
the heart conveyed away by some artifice, to give them a 
better pretence of enforcing their admonitions, and putting 
Caesar upon his guard against dangers, which they really 
apprehended, from quite different reasons than the pre- 
tended denunciations of the gods. 

u Plutarch, in J. Caes. x Ibid, in Brut. ; App. ii. 505. 

y Undecies centena et nonaginta duo hominum millia 
occisa praeliis ab eo — quod ita esse confessus est ipse, bel- 
lorum civilium stragem non prodendo. — Plin. Hist. Nat. 
vii. 25. 

z Neque illi tanto viro— plusquam quinque mensium 
principalis quies contigit.— Veil. Pat. ii. 56. 



of language, or the art of speaking and writing 
correctly a . He was a most liberal patron of wit 
and learning wheresoever they were found, and out 
of his love of those talents would readily pardon 
those who had employed them against himself ; 
rightly judging that by making such men his 
friends he should draw praises from the same 
fountain from which he had been aspersed. His 
capital passions were ambition and love of pleasure, 
which he indulged in their turns to the greatest 
excess ; yet the first was always predominant, to 
which he could easily sacrifice all the charms of 
the second, and draw pleasure even from toils and 
dangers when they ministered to his glory. For 
he thought tyranny (as Cicero says) the greatest 
of goddesses ; and had frequently in his mouth a 
verse of Euripides which expressed the image of 
his soul, that if right and justice were ever to be 
violated, they were to be violated for the sake of 
reigning. This was the chief end and purpose of 
his life, the scheme that he had formed from his 
early youth, so that, as Cato truly declared of him, 
he came with sobriety and meditation to the sub- 
version of the republic. He used to say, that 
there were two things necessary to acquire and to 
support power, — soldiers and money, which yet 
depended mutually on each other. With money, 
therefore, he provided soldiers, and with soldiers 
extorted money ; and was of all men the most 
rapacious in plundering both friends and foes, — 
sparing neither prince, nor state, nor temple, nor 
even private persons who were known to possess 
any share of treasure. His great abilities would 
necessarily have made him one of the first citizens 
of Rome ; but disdaining the condition of a subject, 
he could never rest till he had made himself a 
monarch. In acting this last part his usual pru- 
dence seemed to fail him, as if the height to which 
he was mounted had turned his head and made 
him giddy : for by a vain ostentation of his power 
he destroyed the stability of it ; and as men shorten 
life by living too fast, so by an intemperance of 
reigning he brought his reign to a violent end b . 

a It was in the dedication of this piece to Cicero, that 
Caesar paid him the compliment, which Pliny mentions, 
of his having acquired a laurel superior to that of all 
triumphs, as it vias more glorious to extend the bounds of 
the Roman wit, than of their empire.— Plin. Hist. Nat 
vii. 30. 

b De Caesare et ipse ita judico — ilium omnium fere ora- 
torum latine loqui elegantissime — et id — multis Uteris, et 
iis quidem reconditis et exquisitis, summoque studio ac 
diligentia est consecutus. [Brut. 370.] C. vero Caesar si 
foro tantumvacasset, non alius ex nostris contraCiceronem 
nominaretur, tanta in eo vis est, id acumen, ea concitalio, 
ut ilium eodem animo dixisse, quo bellavit, apparent. 
[Quintil. x. ].] C. Caesar, in libris, quos ad M. Ciceronem 
de Analogia conscripsit. [Aul. Cell. xix. 8.] Quin etiam 
in maximis occupationibus cum ad te ipsiim, inquit, <lc 
ratione latine loquendi accuratissime scripserit— [Brut. 
370; Sueton. J. Caes. 56.]— in Caesare haec sunt, mitis, cle- 
mensque natura— accedit, quod mirifice ingeniis exccllen- 
tibus, quale tuuni est, delectatur — eodem fonte se haustu- 
riun intelligit laudes suas, e quo sit leviter aspersua [Ep. 
Fam. vi. 6.] TV Qecav fxeytaT-qv &ot e^etf rvpawiSa. 
[Ad Att. vii. 11.] Ipse autcm in ore semper greoos ver-us 
de Phoenissis habebat — 

Nam si violandum est jus, regnandi gratia 
Violandum est: aliis rebus pietatcm colas. 

De Offic. iii. 8L 

Cato dixit, C. Caesarcm ad evcrtendani reninublicam, 
sobrium accessisse. [Quintil. viii. 2.] Abstinentiam ne- 



222 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



It was a common question after his death, and 
proposed as a problem by Livy, whether it was of 
service to the republic that he had ever been born c . 
The question did not turn on the simple merit of 
his acts, for that would bear no dispute, but on 
the accidental effects of them, — their producing 
the settlement under Augustus, and the benefits of 
that government, which was the consequence of 
his tyranny. Suetonius, who treats the characters 
of the Caesars with that freedom which the happy 
reigns in which he lived indulged, upon balancing 
the exact sum of his virtues and vices, declares him 
on the whole to have been justly killed d ; which 
appears to have been the general sense of the best, 
the wisest, and the most disinterested in Rome, at 
the time when the fact was committed. 

The only question which seemed to admit any 
dispute was, whether it ought to have been com- 
mitted by those who were the leaders in it e , some 
of whom owed their lives to Caesar, and others had 
been loaded by him with honours to a degree that 
helped to increase the popular odium, particularly 
D. Brutus, who was the most cherished by him of 
them all, and left by his will the second heir of 
his estate f . For of the two Brutuses, it was not 
Marcus, as it is commonly imagined, but Decimus, 
who was the favourite, and whose part in the con- 
spiracy surprised people the mosts. But this 
circumstance served only for a different handle to 
the different parties, for aggravating either their 
crime or their merit. Caesar's friends charged 
them with base ingratitude for killing their bene- 
factor and abusing the power which he had given 
to the destruction of the giver. The other side 
gave a contrary turn to it, — extolled the greater 
virtue of the men for not being diverted by private 
considerations from doing an act of public benefit. 
Cicero takes it always in this view, and says, "that 
the republic was the more indebted to them for 
preferring the common good to the friendship of 
any man whatsoever ; that as to the kindness of 
giving them their lives, it was the kindness only of 
a robber, who had first done them the greater wrong 
by usurping the power to take it ; that if there had 
been any stain of ingratitude in the act they could 
never have acquired so much glory by it, and 
though he wondered indeed at some of them for 
doing it, rather than ever imagined that they would 
have done it, yet he admired them so much the 
more for being regardless of favours, that they 
might show their regard to their country 11 ." 

Some of Caesar's friends, particularly Pansa and 
que in imperiis neque in magistratibus prasstitit — in Gallia 
fana, templaque deum donis referta expilavit : urbes di- 
ruit, saepius ob praedam quam delictum — evidentissimis 
rapinis, ac saerilegiis onera bellorum civilium— sustinuit. 
— Sueton. J. Cass. 54 ; Dio, p. 208. 

c Senec. Natur. Quaest. v. 18. 

d Prasgravant tanien caetera facta, dictaque ejus, ut et 
abusus dominatione et jure caesus existimetur. — Sueton. 
J. Cass. 76. 

e Disputari de M. Brute- solet, an debuerit accipere a D. 
Julio vitam, cum occidendum eum judicaret.— Senec. De 
Benef. ii. 20. 

f Appian. ii. 518. 

g Etsi est enim Brutorum commune factum et laudis 
Bocietas a?qua, Decimo tamen iratiores erant ii, qui id fac- 
tum dolebant, quo minus ab eo rem illam dicebant fieri 
debuisse. — Phil. x. 7« 

h Quod est aliud beneficium— latronum, nisi ut comme- 
morare possint, iis se dedisse vitam, quibus non ademerint ? 
quod si esset beneficium, nunquam ii qui ilium interfeco- 



Hirtius, advised him always to keep a standing 
guard of praetorian troops for the defence of his 
person, alleging that a power acquired by arms 
must necessarily be maintained by arms ; but his 
common answer was, that he had rather die once by 
treachery than live always in fear of it 1 . He used 
to laugh at Sylla for restoring the liberty of the 
republic, and to say in contempt of him that he 
did not know his letters k . But, as a judicious 
writer has observed, " Sylla had learned a better 
grammar than he, which taught him to resign his 
guards and his government together ; whereas 
Caesar, by dismissing the one yet retaining the 
other, committed a dangerous solecism in politics" \ 
for he strengthened the popular odium and con- 
sequently his own danger while he weakened his 
defence. 

He made several good laws during his adminis- 
tration, all tending to enforce the public discipline 
and extend the penalties of former laws. The 
most considerable as well as the most useful of 
them was, that no praetor should hold any province 
more than one year, nor a consul more than two m . 
This was a regulation that had been often wished 
for (as Cicero says) in the best of times, and what 
one of the ablest dictators of the old republic had 
declared to be its chief security, not to suffer great 
and arbitrary commands to be of long duration, 
but to limit them at least in time if it was not con- 
venient to limit them in power 11 . Caesar knew by 
experience that the prolongation of these extraor- 
dinary commands and the habit of ruling kingdoms, 
was the readiest way not only to inspire a contempt 
of the laws but to give a man the power to subvert 
them ; and he hoped, therefore, by this law to 
prevent any other man from doing what he himself 
had done, and to secure his own possession from 
the attempts of all future invaders. 

runt, a quo erant servati, — tantam essent gloriam conse- 
cuti.— Phil. ii. 3. 

Quo etiam majorem ei respublica gratiam debet, qui 
libertatem populi Romani unius amicitias praeposuit, depul- 
sorque dominatus quam particeps esse maluit — admiratus 
sum ob earn causam, quod immemor beneficiorum, memor 
patriae fuisset. — Ibid. 1 1 . 

i Laudandum experientia consilium est Pansae atque 
Hirtii : qui semper praedixerant Caesari, ut principatum 
armis quaesitum armis teneret. Ille dictitans, mori se 
quam timeri malle. — Veil. Pat. ii. 57- 

Insidias undique imminentes subire semel confessum 
satius esse, quam cavere semper. — Sueton. J. Caes. 86. 

k Nee minoris impotentiae voces propalam edebat — Syl- 
lam nescisse literas, qui dictaturam deposuerit. — Sueton. 
J. Cass. 77- 

1 Sir H. Savile's " Dissertatio de Militia Romana," at the 
end of his translation of Tacitus. 

m Phil. i. 8 ; Sueton. J. Caes. 4L>, 43. 

n Quae lex melior, utilior, optima etiam republica, saspius 
flagitata, quam ne prastorias provinciae plus quam annum, 
neve plus quam biennium consulares obtinerentur ? — 
Phil. i. 8. 

Mamercus JEmilius — maximam autem, ait, ejus custo- 
diam esse, si magna imperia diuturna uon essent, et tem- 
poris modus imponeretur, quibus juris imponi non posset. 
— Liv. iv. 24. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



223 



SECTION IX. 



A. URB. 709. 

cic. 63. 

coss. 

M. ANTONIUS. 
P.CORNELIUS 
DOI.ABELLA. 



Cicero was present at the death of Caesar in the 
senate, where he had the pleasure (he tells us) to 
see the tyrant perish as he deserved . 
By this accident he was freed at once 
from all subjection to a superior, and 
all the uneasiness and indignity of 
managing a power which every mo- 
ment could oppress him. He was 
now without competition the first citi- 
zen in Rome, the first in that credit and authority, 
both with the senate and people, which illustrious 
merit and services will necessarily give in a free 
city. The conspirators considered him as such, 
and reckoned upon him as their sure friend ; for 
they had no sooner finished theirwork than Brutus, 
lifting up his bloody dagger, called out upon him 
by name, to congratulate with him on the recovery 
of their liberty p ; and when they all ran out pre- 
sently after into the forum with their daggers in 
their hands, proclaiming liberty to the city, they 
proclaimed at the same time the name of Cicero, 
in hopes to recommend the justice of their act by 
the credit of his approbation i. 

This gave Antony a pretence to charge him 
afterwards in public with being privy to the con- 
spiracy and the principal adviser of it r . But it is 
certain that he was not at all acquainted with it ; 
for though he had the strictest friendship with the 
chief actors and they the greatest confidence in 
him, yet his age, character, and dignity, rendered 
him wholly unlit to bear a part in an attempt of 
that nature, and to embark himself in an affair so 
desperate with a number of men who, excepting a 
few of their leaders, were all either too young to 
be trusted or too obscure even to be known by 
him s . He could have been of little or no service 
to them in the execution of the act, yet of much 
greater in justifying it afterwards to the city, for 
having had no share in it nor any personal interest 
to make his authority suspected. These were the 
true reasons without doubt why Brutus and Cassius 
did not impart the design to him : had it been 
from any other motive, as some writers have 
suggested, or had it admitted any interpretation 
injurious to his honour, he must .have been often 
reproached with it by Antony and his other adver- 
saries of those times, who were so studious to invent 
and propagate every calumny that could depress 
his credit. I cannot, however, entirely acquit him 
of being in some degree accessory to the death of 
Caesar ; for it is evident from several of his letters 
that he had an expectation of such an attempt and 
from what quarter it would come, and not only 
Quid mini attulerit ista domini mutatio, praeter 
laetitiam, quam oculis cepi, justo interitu tyranni ? — Ad 
Att. xiv. 14. 

P Csesare interfecto — statim cruentum alte extollens 
M. Brutus pugionem, Ciceronem norninatim exclamavit, 
atque ei recuperatain libertatem est gratulatus. — Phil, 
ii. 12. 
q Dio, p. 249. 

r Caesarem meo concilio interfectum. [Phil. ii. 11.] Ves- 
tri enim pulcherrimi facti ille furiosus me principem dicit 
fuisse. TJtinam quidem fuissem, molestus nobis non esset. 
— Ep. Fam. xii. 3 ; it. 2. 

8 Quam verisimile porro est, in tot hominibus partim 
obscuris, partim adolescentibus, neminem occultantibus, 
meum nomen latere potuisse ?— Phil. ii. 11. 



expected but wished it. He prophesied very early 
that Caesar's reign could not last six months, but 
must necessarily fall, either by violence or of itself, 
and hoped to live to see it 1 . He knew the dis- 
affection of the greatest and best of the city, which 
they expressed with great freedom in their letters, 
and with much more, we may imagine, in their 
private conversation. He knew the fierce and 
haughty spirit of Brutus and Cassius, and their 
impatience of a master, and cultivated a strict 
correspondence with them both at this time, as if 
for the opportunity of exciting them to some act 
of vigour. On the news that Atticus sent him of 
Caesar's image being placed in the temple of 

Quirinus, adjoining to that of the goddess Salus, 

" I had rather," says he, " have him the comrade 
of Romulus than of the goddess Safety" u : referring 
to Romulus's fate of being killed in the senate* 
In another letter it seems to be intimated that 
Atticus and he had been contriving, or talking at 
least together, how Brutus might be spirited up to 
some attempt of that kind, by setting before him 
the fame and glory of his ancestors. "Does 
Brutus then tell us (says he) that Csesar brings 
with him glad tidings to honest men ? where will 
he find them, unless he hangs himself? But how 
securely is he now intrenched on all sides ? What 
use then of your fine invention ; the picture of old 
Brutus and Ahala with the verses under, which 
I saw in your gallery ? Yet what after all can he 
do x ?" One cannot help observing, likewise, in 
his pieces addressed about this time to Brutus, 
how artfully he falls into a lamentation of the 
times, and of the particular unhappiness of Brutus 
himself in being deprived by them of ail the hopes 
and use of his great talents, putting him in mind 
at the same time of his double descent from ances- 
tors who had acquired immortal glory by delivering 
Rome from servitude. Thus he concludes his 
treatise on Famous Orators : — 

" When I look upon you, Brutus, I am grieved 
to see your youth, running as it were in full career 



t Jam intelliges id regnum vix semestre esse posse — nos 
tamen hoc confirmamus illo augurio, quo diximus ; nee 
nos fallit, nee aliter accidet. Corruat iste necesse est. aut 
per adversarios, aut ipse per se — id spero vivis nobis fore. 
—Ad Att. x. 8. 

u Eum avvvaov Quirino malo, quam saluti.— Ad Att. 
xii. 15. 

x Itane nunciat Brutus, ilium ad bonos viros eucryye- 
Xia ? sed ubi eos? nisi forte se suspendit ? hie autem ut 
fultum est ! ubi igitur <pi\orix v ' n t x,x iUud tuum quod 
vidi in Parthenone, Ahalam et Brutum ? sed quid faciat? 
—Ad Att. xiii. 40. 

Parthenone is supposed to denote some room or gallery 
in Brutus's, or more probably in Atticus's house, adorned 
with the images or portraits of the great men of Rome, 
under each of which, as Cornelius Nepos tells us, [in Vit. 
Att. 18.] Atticus had severally described their principal 
acts and honours, in four or five verses of his own com- 
posing : where the contemplation of these figures of old 
Brutus and Ahala, joined together in one picture, with 
the verses under, had given a handle perhaps to a conver- 
sation between Cicero and him, how Brutus might be 
incited by the example of those great ancestors to dissolve 
the tyranny of Cagsar. It seems also very probable, that 
this very picture of Atticus's invention, as Cioero calls it. 
might give occasion to the thought and coinage of that 
silver medal or denarius, which is still extant, with the 
heads and names of those two old patriots ; Brutus on the 
one side, Ahala on the other.— Vide Thesaur. Morell. in 
Fam. Junia. Tab. i. 1. 



224 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



through the midst of glory, stopped short by the 
wretched fate of your country. This grief sits 
heavy upon me, and on our common friend Atticus, 
the partner of my affection and good opinion of 
you. We heartily wish you well ; wish to see you 
reap the fruit of your virtue, and to live in a re- 
public, that may give you the opportunity not only 
to revive but to increase the honour and memory 
of the two noble families from which you descend : 
for the forum was wholly yours, — yours all that 
course of glory. You, of all the young pleaders, 
brought thither not only a tongue ready formed 
by the exercise of speaking, but had enriched your 
oratory by the furniture also of the severer arts, 
and by the help of the same arts had joined to a 
perfection of eloquence the ornament of every 
virtue. We are doubly sorry therefore on your 
account that you want the benefit of the republic, 
the republic of you ; but though this odious ruin 
of the city extinguishes the use of your abilities, 
go on still, Brutus, to pursue your usual studies," 
&c. 

These passages seem to give a reasonable ground 
to believe that Cicero, though a stranger to the 
particular councils of the conspirators, had yet a 
general notion of their design, as well as some 
share in promoting it. In his reply to Antony's 
charge, he does not deny his expectation of it, 
freely owns his joy for it, and thanks him for giv- 
ing him an honour, which he had not merited, of 
bearing a part in it. He calls it " the most glorious 
act which had ever been done, not only in that but 
in any other city : in which men were more for- 
ward to claim a share which they had not, than to 
dissemble that which they had; that Brutus's rea- 
son for calling out upon him, was to signify that he 
was then emulating his praises by an act not unlike 
to what he had done. That if to wish Caesar's 
death was a crime, to rejoice at it was the same, — 
there being no difference between the adviser and 
the approver ; yet excepting Antony and a few 
more, who were fond of having a king, that there 
was not a man in Rome who did not desire to see 
the fact committed ; that all honest men, as far as 
it was in their power, concurred in it ; that some 
indeed wanted the counsel, some the courage, some 
the opportunity, but none the will to do it," &c.y 

The news of this surprising fact raised a general 
consternation through the city, so that the first 
care of the conspirators was to quiet the minds of 
the people by proclaiming peace and liberty to all, 
and declaring that no farther violence was intended 
to any. They marched out, therefore, in a body, 
with a cap, as the ensign of liberty, carried before 
them on a spear z ; and in a calm and orderly 



y Ecquis est igitur, qui te excepto, et iis, qui ilium 
regnare gaudebant, qui illud aut fieri noluerit, aut factum 
improbarit ? omnes enim in culpa. Etenim omnes boni, 
quantum in ipsis fuit, Cassarern occiderunt. Aliis consi- 
lium, aliis animus, occasio defuit ; voluntas nemini, &c. 
Phil. ii. 12. 

z A cap was always given to slaves, when they were 
made free; whence it became the emblem of liberty : to 
expose it therefore on a spear, was a public invitation to 
the people to embrace the liberty that was offered to them 
by the destruction of their tyrant. There was a medal 
likewise struck on this occasion, with the same device, 
which is still extant. The thought however was not new ; 
for Saturninus, in his sedition, when he had possessed 
himself of the capitol, exalted a cap also on the top of a 
spear, as a token of liberty to all the slaves who would 



manner proceeded through the forum, where, in the 
first heat of joy for the death of the tyrant, several 
of the young nobility who had borne no part in 
the conspiracy joined themselves to the company 
with swords in their hands, out of an ambition to 
be thought partners in the act ; but they paid dear 
afterwards for that vanity, and without any share 
of the glory were involved in the ruin which it 
drew upon all the rest. Brutus designed to have 
spoken to the citizens from the rostra, but per- 
ceiving them to be in too great an agitation to 
attend to speeches, and being uncertain what way 
the popular humour might turn, and knowing that 
there were great numbers of Caesar's old soldiers 
in the city, who had been summoned from all parts 
to attend him to the Parthian war, he thought 
proper, with his accomplices, under the guard 
of Decimus's gladiators, to take refuge in the 
capitol a . Being here secured from any immediate 
violence, he summoned the people thither in the 
afternoon, and in a speech to them, which he had 
prepared, justified his act and explained the motives 
of it, and in a pathetic manner exhorted them to 
exert themselves in the defence of their country, 
and maintain the liberty now offered to them 
against all the abettors of the late tyranny. Cicero 
presently followed them into the capitol with the 
best and greatest part of the senate, to deliberate 
on the proper means of improving this hopeful 
beginning, and establishing their liberty on a solid 
and lasting foundation. 

Antony in the meanwhile, shocked by the har- 
diness of the act, and apprehending some danger 
to his own life, stripped himself of his consular 
robes and fled home in disguise, where he began to 
fortify his house, and kept himself close all that 
day b , till perceiving the pacific conduct of the con- 
spirators, he recovered his spirits, and appeared 
again the next morning in public. 

While things were in this situation, L. Cornelius 
Cinna, one of the praetors, who was nearly allied 
to Caesar, made a speech to the people in praise of 
the conspirators ; extolling their act as highly 
meritorious, and exhorting the multitude to invite 
them down from the capitol, and reward them 
with the honours due to the deliverers of their 
country ; then throwing off his praetorian robe, he 
declared that he would not wear it any longer, as 
being bestowed upon him by a tyrant, and not by 
the laws. But the next day, as he was going to 
the senate, some of Caesar's veteran soldiers having 
gathered a mob of the same party, attacked him in 
the streets with volleys of stones and drove him 
into a house, which they were going presently to 
set on fire, with design to have burnt him in it, if 
Lepidus had not come to his rescue with a body 
of regular troops . 

Lepidus was at this time in the suburbs of Rome, 
at the head of an army, ready to depart for the 
join with him : and though Marius, in his sixth consul- 
ship, destroyed him for that act, by a decree of the senate, 
yet he himself used the same expedient afterwards to invite 
the slaves to take arms with him against Sylla, who was 
marching with his army into the city to attack him.— Val. 
Max. viii. 6. 

a App. ii. p. 503 ; Dio, p. 250; Plutarch, in Caes. et Brut. 

b Quae tua fuga ? quae formido prasclaro illo die ? qua? 
propter conscientiam scelerum desperatio vitae ? cum ex 
ilia fuga. — clam te domum recepisti. — Phil. ii. 35 ; Dio, p. 
259 ; App. 502, 503. 

c Plutarch, in Brut. ; App. p. 504. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



225 



government of Spain, which had been assigned to 
him by Caesar, with a part of Gaul. In the night 
therefore, after Caesar's death, he filled the forum 
with his troops, and finding 'himself superior to any 
man in power, began to think of making himself 
master of the city, and taking immediate revenge 
on the conspirators ; but being a weak and vain 
man, Antony easily diverted him from that design, 
and managed him to his own views; " he repre- 
sented the hazard and difficulty of the attempt, 
while the senate, the city, and all Italy were against 
them ; that the only way to effect what they wished 
was to dissemble their real purpose ; to recommend 
pacific counsels, and lull their adversaries asleep, 
till they had provided a strength sufficient to op- 
press them ; and that, as soon as things were ripe, 
he would join with him very heartily in avenging 
Caesar's death." With these remonstrances he 
pacified him, and to render their union the firmer, 
and to humour his vanity at the same time, gave 
his daughter in marriage to Lepidus' son, and 
assisted him to seize the high-priesthood, vacant 
by Caesar's death, without any regard to the ordi- 
nary forms of election d . Having thus gained 
Lepidus into his measures, he made use of his 
authority and his forces to harass and terrify the 
opposite party, till he had driven the conspirators 
out of the city ; and when he had served his pur- 
poses with him at home, contrived to send him to 
his government, to keep the provinces and the com- 
manders abroad in proper respect to them ; and 
that, by sitting down with his army in the nearest 
part of Gaul, he might be ready for any event 
which should require his help in Italy. 

The conspirators in the meanwhile had formed 
no scheme, beyond the death of Caesar ; but 
seemed to be as much surprised and amazed at 
what they had done, as the rest of the city. They 
trusted entirely to the integrity of their cause, 
fancying that it would be sufficient of itself to 
effect all that they expected from it, and draw a 
universal concurrence to the defence of their com- 
mon liberty ; and taking-it for granted that Caesar's 
fate, in the height of all his greatness, would deter 
any of his partisans from aiming at the same 
power : they placed withal a great confidence in 
Cicero's authority, of which they assured them- 
selves as their own, and were not disappointed ; 
for from this moment he resolved at all adventures to 
support the credit of the men, and their act, as the 
only means left of recovering the republic. He 
knew that the people were all on their side, and as 
long as force was removed, that they were masters 
of the city ; his advice therefore was, to use their 
present advantage, and in the consternation of 
Caesar's party, and the zeal and union of their 
own, that Brutus and Cassius, as praetors, should 
call the senate into the capitol, and proceed to 
some vigorous decrees, for the security of the 
public tranquillity e . But Brutus was for marching 
calmly, and with all due respect to the authority 
of the consul ; and having conceived hopes of 
Antony, proposed the sending a deputation to him, 
to exhort him to measures of peace ; Cicero 

d Dio, p. 249, 250, 257, 269. 

« Meministi me clamare, illo ipso primo capitolino 
die, senatum in capitolium a praetoribus vocari ? Dii 
immortales, quae turn opera effici potuerunt, laetantibus 
omnibus bonis, etiam sat bonis, fractis latronibus ! — Ad 
Att. xiv. 10. 



remonstrated against it, nor would be prevailed 
with to bear a part in it : he told them plainly, 
"that there could be no safe treaty with him; 
that as long as he was afraid of them, he would 
promise every thing ; but, when his fears were over, 
would be like himself, and perform nothing ; so 
that while the other consular senators were going 
forwards and backwards in this office of media- 
tion, he stuck to his point, and staid with the rest 
in the capitol, and did not see Antony for the two 
first days f ." 

The event confirmed what Cicero foretold : 
Antony had no thoughts of peace or of any good 
to the republic ; his sole view was, to seize the 
government to himself, as soon as he should be in 
condition to do it ; and then, on pretence of 
revenging Caesar's death, to destroy all those who 
were likely to oppose him : as his business there- 
fore was to gain time by dissembling and deceiving 
the republican party into a good opinion of him, 
so all his answers were mild and moderate, pro- 
fessing a sincere inclination to peace, and no other 
desire than to see the republic settled again on its 
old basis. Two days passed in mutual assurances 
from both sides, of their disposition to concord and 
amity ; and Antony summoned the senate on the 
third to adjust the conditions of it, and confirm 
them by some solemn act. Here Cicero, as the 
best foundation of a lasting quiet, moved the 
assembly in the first place, after the example of 
Athens, to decree a general amnesty, or act of 
oblivion, for all that was passed, to which they 
unanimously agreed. Antony seemed to be all 
goodness, talked of nothing but healing measures, 
and, for a proof of his sincerity, moved, that the 
conspirators should be invited to take part in their 
deliberations, and sent his son as a hostage for 
their safety : upon which they all came down from 
the capitol ; and Brutus supped with Lepidus, 
Cassius with Antony, and the day ended to the 
universal joy of the city, who imagined that their 
liberty was now crowned with certain peaces. 

There were several things however very artfully 
proposed and carried by Antony, on the pretence 
of public concord, of which he afterwards made a 
most pernicious use, particularly a decree for the 
confirmation of all Caesar's acts. This motion was 
suspected by many, who stuck upon it for some 
time, and called upon Antony to explain it, and 
specify how far it was to extend : he assured them, 
" that no other acts were meant, than what were 
known to every body, and entered publicly on 

f Dicebam illis in capitolio liberatoribus nostris, cum 
me ad to ire vellent, ut ad defendendam rempublicam te 
adbortarer, quoad metueres, omnia te promissurum, simul 
ac timere desiisses, similem te futurum tui. Itaque cum 
cseteri consulares irent, redirent, in sententia mansi : ne- 
que te illo die, neque postero vidi. — Phil. ii. 35. 

S In quo templo, quantum in me fuit, jeci fundamenta 
pacis, Atheniensiumque renovavi vetus exemplum : Gra?- 
cum etiam verbum usurpavi, quo turn in sedandis discordiis 
erat visa civitas ilia, atque omnem memoriam discordiarum 
oblivione sempiterna delendam censui. Praeclara turn 
oratio M. Antonii, egregia etiam voluntas : pax denique 
per eum et per liberos ejus cum praestantissimis civibus 
confirmata est. — Phil. i. 1. 

Quae fuit oratio de concordia ?— tuus parvulus films in 
capitolium a te missus pacis obses fuit. Quo scnatus die 
laetior? quo populus Romanus ?— turn denique liberati per 
viros fortissimos videbamur, quia, ut illi voluerant, liber- 
tatem pax sequebatur.— Ibid. 13 ; Plutarch, in lirut. 



226 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



Caesar's register : they asked, if any persons were 
to be restored from exile, he said one only, and no 
more ; whether any immunities were granted to 
cities or countries, he answered none ; and con- 
sented, that it should pass with a restriction, 
proposed by Ser. Sulpicius, that no grant, which 
was to take place after the ides of March, should 
be ratified V' This was generally thought so 
reasonable, and Antony's seeming candour had 
made such an impression, that those who saw the 
mischief of it durst not venture to oppose it, espe- 
cially as there was a precedent for it in the case of 
Sylla ; and as it was supposed to relate chiefly to 
the veteran soldiers, whom it was not possible to 
oblige, or keep in good humour, without confirming 
the privileges and possessions which Caesar had 
granted to them. But Brutus and his friends had 
private reasons for entertaining a better opinion of 
Antony, than his outward conduct would justify ; 
Caesar had used him roughly on several occasions 1 , 
and they knew his resentment of it ; and that he 
had been engaged with Trebonius, on Caesar's last 
return from Spain, in a design against his life; 
and though he did not perform that engagement, 
yet they thought it an obligation, as well as a proof 
of his continuing in the same mind, that he had 
not discovered it, which was the reason of their 
sparing him when Caesar was killed, and of Trebo- 
nius's taking him aside on pretence of business, 
lest his behaviour on that occasion might provoke 
them to kill him too k . 

But, as Cicero often laments, they had already 
ruined their cause, by giving Antony leisure to 
recollect himself, and gather troops about him, by 
which he forced upon them several other decrees 
against their will. One of them in favour of the 
veteran soldiers, whom he had drawn up for that 
purpose in arms about the senate 1 ; and another still 
worse, for the allowance of apublic funeral to Caesar, 
which Atticus had been remonstrating against both 
to Cicero and Brutus, as pernicious to the peace 
of the city. But it was too late to prevent it : 
Antony was resolved upon it, and had provided 
all things for it, as the best opportunity of inflam- 
ing the soldiers and the populace, and raising 
some commotions to the disadvantage of the re- 
publican cause ; in which he succeeded so well, 
that Brutus and Cassius had no small difficulty to 
defend their lives and houses from the violence of 
his mob m . In this tumult Helvius Cinna, one of 
the tribunes, and a particular friend of Caesar, was 
torn in pieces by the rabble, being mistaken un- 

h Summa constantia ad ea, quae quaesita erant, respon- 
debat : nihil turn, nisi quod erat notum omnibus, in C. 
Caesaris commentariis reperiebatur : num qui exules resti- 
tuti ? unum aiebat, praeterea neminem. Num immuni- 
tates datae ? nullae, respondebat. Assentiri etiam nos Ser. 
Sulpicio voluit, ne qua tabula post Idus Martias ullius 
decreti Caesaris aut beneficii figeretur.— Phil. i. 1. 

> Phil. ii. 29. 

k Quanquam si interfici Caesarem voluisse crimen est, 
vide quaeso, Antoni, quid tibi futurum sit, quem et Nar- 
bone hoc consilium cum C. Trebonio cepisse notissimum 
est, et ob ejus consilii societatem, cum interriceretur Caesar, 
turn te a Trebonio vidimus sevocari. — Ibid. 14. 

1 Nonne omni ratione veterani, qui armati aderant, cum 
praesidii nos nihil haberemus, defendendi fuerunt ? — Ad 
Att. xiv. 14. 

m Memiuistine te clamare, causam periisse, si funere 
elatus esset ? at ille etiam in foro combustus, laudatusque 
miserabiliter ; servique et egentes in tecta, nostra cum 
facibus immissi. — Ad Att. xiv. 10, 14 ; Plutarch, in Brut. 



luckily for the praetor of that name, who, as it is 
said above, had extolled the act of killing Caesar 
in a speech from the rostra. This so alarmed all 
those who had any similitude of name with any 
of the conspirators, that Caius Casca, another se- 
nator, thought fit by a public advertisement, to sig- 
nify the distinction of his person and principles 
from Publius Casca, who gave the first blow to 
Caesar 11 . 

We are not to imagine, however, as it is com- 
monly believed, that these violences were owing to 
the general indignation of the citizens, against the 
murderers of Caesar, excited either by the spec- 
tacle of his body, or the eloquence of Antony, who 
made the funeral oration ; for it is certain that 
Caesar, through his whole reign, could never draw 
from the people any public signification of their 
favour ; but on the contrary, was constantly mor- 
tified by the perpetual demonstrations of their 
hatred and disaffection to him. The case was the 
same after his death : the memory of his tyranny 
was odious, and Brutus and Cassius the real fa- 
vourites of the city ; as appeared on all occasions 
wherever their free and genuine sense could be 
declared, in the public shows and theatres ° ; which 
Cicero frequently appeals to, as a proper encourage- 
menttoall honest men, to act withspirit and vigour 
in the defence of their common liberty. What hap- 
pened therefore at the funeral was the effect of 
artifice and faction, the work of a mercenary rab- 
ble, the greatest part slaves and strangers, listed 
and prepared for violence, against a party unarmed 
and pursuing pacific counsels, and placing all their 
trust and security in the justice of their cause. 
Cicero calls it a conspiracy of Caesar's freedmenP, 
who were the chief managers of the tumult, in 
which the Jews seem to have borne a consider- 
able part, who, out of hatred to Pompey, for his 
affront to their city and temple, were zealously 
attached to Caesar, and above all the other foreign- 
ers in Rome, distinguished themselves by the 
expressions of their grief for his death, so as to 
spend whole nights at his monument, iD a kind 
of religious devotion to his memory i. 

This first taste of Antony's perfidy was a clear 
warning to the conspirators what little reason 
they had to depend upon him, or to expect any 
safety in the city where he had the sovereign 
command, without a guard for their defence ; 
which, though D. Brutus demanded for them, they 
could not obtain : whilst Antony, to alarm them 
still the more, took care to let them know that the 

n C. Helvius Cinna tribunus plebis ex funere C. Caesaris 
domum suam petens, populi manibus discerptus est, pro 
Cornelio Cinna, in quem saevire se existimabat ; iratus ei, 
quod cum affinis esset Caesaris, adversus eum nefarie 
raptum, impiam pro rostris orationem habuisset. — Val. 
Max. ix. 9 ; Dio, p. 267, 268 ; Plutarch, in Caes. et. Brut. 

° Omnes enim jam cives de reipublicae salute una et mente 
et voce consentiunt. — Phil. i. 9. 

Quid enim gladiatoribus clam ores innumerabilium 
civium ? quid populi versus ? quid Pompeii statuae plausus 
infinitus ? quid iis tribunis plebis, qui vobis adversantur ? 
parumne haec significant, incredibiliter consentientem po- 
puli Romani voluntatem ? &c. — Ibid. 15 ; Ad Att. xiv. 2. 

P Nam ista quidem liber torum Caesaris conjuratio facile 
opprimeretur, si recte saperet Antonius. — Ad Att. xiv. 5. 

q In summo publico luctu exterarum gentium, multi- 
tudo circulatim, suo quaeque more, lamentata est, prae- 
cipueque Judaei, qui etiam noctibus continuis bustum 
frequentarunt.— Sueton. in J. Caes. 84. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



227 



soldiers and the populace were so enraged, that he 
did not think it possible for any of them to be 
safe r . They all therefore quitted Rome : Trebo- 
nius stole away privately for Asia, to take posses- 
sion of that province, which had before been assigned 
to him, being afraid of being prevented by the 
intrigues of Antony. D. Brutus, forthe same reason, 
possessed himself of the Cisalpine or Italic Gaul, 
which had been conferred upon him likewise by 
Caesar, in order to strengthen himself there against 
all events, and by his neighbourhood to Rome, to 
encourage and protect all the friends of liberty. 
M. Brutus, accompanied by Cassius, retired to one 
of his villas near Lanuvium, to deliberate about 
their future conduct, and to take such measures as 
the accidents of the times and the motions of their 
enemies should make necessary. 

But as soon as the conspirators were gone, 
Antony resumed his mask, and as if the late 
violences had been accidental only, and the sudden 
transport of a vile mob, professed the same mode- 
ration as before, and affected to speak with the 
greatest respect of Brutus and Cassius ; and by 
several seasonable acts, proposed by him to the 
senate, appeared to have nothing so much at heart 
as the public concord. Among other decrees he 
offered one, which was prepared and drawn up by 
himself, to abolish for ever the name and office of 
dictator. This seemed to be a sure pledge of his 
good intentions, and gave a universal satisfaction 
to the senate, who passed it, as it were, by accla- 
mation, without putting it even to the vote ; and 
decreed the thanks of the house for it to Antony, 
who, as Cicero afterwards told him, had fixed an 
indelible infamy by it on Caesar, in declaring to 
the world, that for the odium of his government, 
such a decree was become both necessary and 
popular s . 

Cicero also left Rome soon after Brutus and 
Cassius*, not a little mortified to see things take 
so wrong a turn, by the indolence of their friends ; 
which gave him frequent occasion to say, that the 
ides of March had produced nothing which pleased 
him, but the fact of the day, which was executed 
indeed with manly vigour, but supported by child- 
ish counsels 11 . As he passed through the country 
he found nothing but mirth and rejoicing in all the 
great towns, on the account of Caesar's death : 
"It is impossible to express (says he) what joy 
there is everywhere ; how all people flock about 

r Heri apud me Hirtius fuit ; qua mente Antonius esset, 
demonstravit, pessima scilicet et infidelissima. Nam se 
neque mihi provinciam dare posse aiebat, neque arbitrari, 
tuto in urbe esse quemquam nostrum, adeo esse militum 
concitatos animos et plebis. Quorum utrumque esse fal- 
sum puto vos animadvertere — placitum est mihi postulare, 
ut liceret nobis esse Roma? publico praesidio : quod illos 
nobis concessuros non puto. — Ep. Fam. xi. 1 . 

s Dictaturam.'quae vim jam regiae potestatis obsederat, 
funditus e republica sustulit. De qua ne sententias quidem 
diximus— eique amplissimis verbis per senatus consultum 
gratias egimus — maximum autem illud, quod dictatura? 
nomen sustulisti: haec inusta est a te — mortuo Ca?sari 
nota ad ignominiam sempiternam, &c. — Phil. i. 1, 13. 

t Itaque cum teneri urbem a parricidis viderem, nee te 
in ea, nee Cassium tuto esse posse, eamque arm is oppres- 
sam ab Antonio, mihi quoque ipsi esse excedendum 
putavi. — Ad Brut. 15. 

u Sed tamen adhuc me nihil delectat prater Idus 
Martias. [Ad Att. xiv. 6, 21.] Itaque stultajam Iduum 
Martiarum est consolatio. Animis enim usi sumus virili- 
bus ; consiliis, mihi crede, puerilibus. — Ibid. xv. 4. 



me ; how greedy they are to hear an account of it 
from me : yet what strange politics do we pursue ? 
What a solecism do we commit? To be afraid of 
those whom we have subdued ; to defend his acts, 
for whose death we rejoice ; to suffer tyranny to 
live, when the tyrant is killed ; and the republic 
to be lost, when our liberty is recovered V 

Atticus sent him word of some remarkable 
applause which was given to the famed come- 
dian, Publius, for what he had said upon the stage, 
in favour of the public liberty ; and that L. Cas- 
sius, the brother of the conspirator, then one of 
the tribunes, was received with infinite acclama- 
tions upon his entrance into the theatre ?; which 
convinced him only the more of the mistake of 
their friends in sitting still, and trusting to the 
merit of their cause, while their enemies were 
using all arts to destroy them. This general incli- 
nation, which declared itself so freely on the side 
of liberty, obliged Antony to act with caution, and, 
as far as possible, to persuade the city that he was 
on the same side too : for which end he did 
another thing at this time both prudent and 
popular, in putting to death the impostor Marius, 
who was now returned to Rome, to revenge, as he 
gave out, the death of his kinsman Caesar ; where, 
signalising himself at the head of the mob, he was 
the chief incendiary at the funeral and the sub- 
sequent riots, and threatened nothing less than 
destruction to the whole senate. But Antony, 
having served his main purpose with him, of 
driving Brutus and the rest out of the city, ordered 
him to be seized and strangled, and his body 
to be dragged through the streets z : which gave 
him fresh credit with the republicans ; so that 
Brutus, together with Cassius and other friends, 
had a personal conference with him about this time, 
which passed to mutual satisfaction a . 

By these arts Antouy hoped to amuse the con- 
spirators, and induce them to lay aside all vigorous 
counsels, especially what he most apprehended, 
that of leaving Italy and seizing some provinces 
abroad, furnished with troops and money, which 
might put them into a condition to act offensively. 
With the same view he wrote an artful letter to 
Cicero, to desire his consent to the restoration 
of S. Clodius, the chief agent of P. Clodius, who 
had been several years in banishment, for outrages 
committed in the city, chiefly against Cicero him- 
self, on whose account he was condemned. Antony, 
by his marriage with Fulvia, the widow of P. 
Clodius, became the protector of all that family, 
and the tutor of young Publius, her son, which 
gave him a decent pretence of interesting himself 
in this affair. He assures Cicero, " that he had 
procured a pardon for S. Clodius from Caesar, 



x Dici enim non potest quantopere gaudeant. ut ad me 
concurrant, ut audire cupiant verba mea ea de re — sic 
enim 7re7roAtT€Vjtie3-a, ut victos metueremus — nihil enim 
tarn g6Koikov, quam rvpauvoHrdvovs in coelo esse, ty- 
ranni facta defendi. — Ad Att. xiv. 6. 

O dii boni! vivit tyrannis. tyrannus occidit. Ejus intcr- 
fecti morte laetamur, cujus facta defendimua — Ibid. 9. 

7 Ex priore theatrum, Publiumque cognovi, bona aigna 
consentientis multitudinis. Plausus vero, L. Cassio datus 
facetus mihi quidem visus est. — Ad Att. xiv. -2. 

Infinite fratris tui plausu dirumpitur.— Ep. Tarn. xii. 2. 

■'■ Uncus impactus est fugitivo illi, qui C. Marii nomen 
invaserat. — Phil. i. 2. 

a Antonii colloquium cum nostris heroibus pro re nata 
non incommodum. — Ad Att. xiv. (>. 
Q 2 



228 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



but did not intend to have made use of it, till he 
had obtained his consent ; and though he thought 
himself now obliged to support all Caesar's acts, 
yet he would not insist on this, against his leave ; 
that it would be an obligation to young Publius, a 
youth of the greatest hopes, to let him see that 
Cicero did not extend his revenge to his father's 
friends : permit me," says he, "to instil these sen- 
timents into the boy ; and to persuade his tender 
mind, that quarrels are not to be perpetuated in 
families ; and though your condition, I know, is 
superior to all danger, yet you would choose, I 
fancy, to enjoy a quiet and honourable, rather than 
a turbulent old age. Lastly, I have a sort of right 
to ask this favour of you, since I never refused 
anything to you ; if I do not however prevail 
with you, I will not grant it to Clodius : that 
you may see how great your authority is with 
me : show yourself the more placable on that ac- 
count 15 ." 

Cicero never hesitated about giving his consent 
to what Antony could and would have done with- 
out it : " the thing itself, he knew, was scandalous, 
and the pardon said to be granted by Caesar a 
forgery, and that Caesar would never have done it, 
or suffered it to be done ; and so many forgeries of 
that kind began to be published every day from 
Caesar's books, that he was almost tempted, (he 
says,) to wish for Csesar again c ." He answered 
him, however, with great civility, and in a strain of 
complaisance which corresponded but little with 
his real opinion of the man : but Antony's public 
behaviour had merited some compliments ; and 
under the present state of his power, and the un- 
certain condition of their own party, Cicero 
resolved to observe all the forms of an old acquaint- 
ance with him, till by some overt act against the 
public interest, he should be forced to consider 
him as an enemy d . 

Antony made him but a cold reply, having heard, 
perhaps, in the mean time, of something which 
did not please him in his conduct. He told him 
only that his easiness and clemency were agreeable 
to him, and might hereafter be a great pleasure to 
him s elf e . 

Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, was in Rome 
when Caesar was killed ; but being terrified by that 
accident and the subsequent disorders of the city, 
she ran away presently with great precipitation. 
Her authority and credit with Caesar, in whose 
house she was lodged, made her insolence intoler- 
able to the Romans, whom she seems to have 



1> Ad Att. xiv. after letter the 13th. 

c Antonius ad me scripsit de restitutione S. Clodii: 
quam honorifice quod ad me attinet, ex ipsius Uteris cog- 
nosces— quam dissolute, quam turpiter, quamque ita per- 
niciose, ut nonnunquam etiam Ca?sar desiderandus esse 
videatur, facile existimabis: qua* enim Csesar nunquam 
neque fecisset, neque passus esset, ea nunc ex falsis ejus 
commentariis proferuntur. Ego autem Antonio facilli- 
mum me pracbui. Etenim ille, quoniam semel induxit 
in animum sibi licerc quod vellet, fecisset nihilo minus 
me invito.— Ad Att. xiv. 1.1. 

d Ego tamen Antonii inveteratam sine ulla offensione 
amicitiam retinere sane volo.— Ep. Fam. xvi. 23. 

Cui quidem ego semper amicus fui, antequam ilium 
intellexi non modo aperte, scd etiam libenter cum repub- 
lica bellum gerere. — Ibid. xi. 5. 

e Antonius ad me tantum de Clodio rescripsit, meam 
lenitatem et clementiam et sibi esse gratam, et mihi 
magna? voluptati fore.— Ad Att. xiv. 19. 



treated on the same foot with her own Egyptians, 
as the subjects of absolute power and the slaves of 
a master whom she commanded. Cicero had a con- 
ference with her in Caesar's gardens, where the 
haughtiness of her behaviour gave him no small 
offence. Knowing his taste and character, she 
made him the promise of some present very agree- 
able, but disobliged him the more by not perform- 
ing it: he does not tell us what it was, but from 
the hints which he drops, it seems to have been 
statues or curiosities from Egypt for the ornament 
of his library, a sort of furniture which he was 
peculiarly fond of. But her pride being mortified 
by Caesar's fate, she was now forced to apply to 
him by her ministers for his assistance in a parti- 
cular suit that she was recommending to the 
senate, in which he refused to be concerned. The 
affair seems to have related to her infant son, 
whom she pretended to be Caesar's, and called by 
his name ; and was labouring to get him acknow- 
ledged as such at Rome, and declared the heir of 
her kingdom; as he was the year following, both by 
Antony and Octavius ; though Caesar's friends were 
generally scandalised at it, and Oppius thought it 
worth while to write a book to prove that the 
child could not be Caesar's f . Cleopatra had been 
waiting to accompany Csesar into the East, in order 
to preserve her influence over him, which was very 
great ; for after his death, Helvius Cinna, one of 
the tribunes, owned that he had a law ready pre- 
pared and delivered to him by Csesar, with orders 
to publish it, as soon as he was gone, for granting 
to him the liberty of taking what number of wives 
and of what condition he thought fit, for the sake 
of propagating children s. This was contrived 
probably to save Cleopatra's honour, and to legiti- 
mate his issue by her, since polygamy and the 
marriage of a stranger were prohibited by the laws 
of Rome. 

Cicero touches these particulars in several 
places, though darkly and abruptly, according to 
the style of his letters to Atticus. " The flight of 
the queen," says he, "gives me no pain. I should 
be glad to hear what farther news there is of her, 
and her young Caesar. I hate the queen : her agent, 
Ammonius, the witness and sponsor of her pro- 
mises to me, knows that I have reason : they were 
things only proper for a man of letters, and suitable 
to my character, so that I should not scruple to 
proclaim them from the rostra. Her other agent, 
Sara, is not only a rascal, but has been rude to me. 
I never saw him at my house but once ; and when 
I asked him civilly what commands he had for me, 
he said that he came to look for Atticus. As to 
the pride of the queen when I saw her in the gar- 
dens, I can never think of it without resentment ; 
I will have nothing therefore to do with them ; 
they take me to have neither spirit nor even feel- 
ing leftV; 

f Quorum C. Oppius, quasi plane defensione ac patro- 
cinio res egeret, librum edidit, non esse Caesaris filium, 
quern Cleopatra dicat.— Sueton. in J. Caes. 52 ; Dio. pp. 
227, 345. 

S Helvius Cinna — confessus est, habuisse sc scriptam 
paratamque legem, quam Caesar ferre jussisset cum ipse 
abesset, ut uxores liberorum qua?rendorum causa, quas et 
quot decere vellet, liceret. — Sueton. ib. ; Dio, p. 243. 

h Regina? fuga mihi non molesta. [Ad Att. xiv. 8.] De 
rcgina vclim, atque etiam de Cassare illo. [Ibid. 20.] 
Reginam odi. Me jure facere scit sponsor promissorum 
ejus Ammonius ; quae quidam erant <pi\6\oya, et digni- 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



229 



Antony having put his affairs into the best train 
that he could, and appointed the first of June for a 
meeting of the senate in order to deliberate on the 
state of the republic, took the opportunity of that 
interval to make a progress through Italy, for the 
sake of visiting the quarters of the veteran soldiers, 
and engaging them to his service by all sorts of 
bribes and promises. He left the government of 
the city to Dolabella, whom Caesar, upon his in- 
tended expedition to Parthia, had designed and 
nominated to the consulship : and though Antony 
had protested against that designation, and resolved 
to obstruct its effect, yet after Caesar's death, when 
Dolabella, by the advantage of the general confu- 
sion, seized the ensigns of the office and assumed 
the habit and character of the consul, Antony 
quietly received and acknowledged him as such at 
the next meeting of the senate 1 . 

Cicero had always kept up a fair correspondence 
with his son-in-law, though he had long known 
him to be void of all virtue and good principles ; 
but he had now greater reason than ever for insinu- 
ating himself as far as he was able into his confi- 
dence, in order to engage him, if possible, to the 
interests of the republic, and use him as a check 
upon the designs of his colleague Antony ; in 
which he had the greater prospect of success on the 
account of their declared enmity to each other. 
Dolabella greatly confirmed these hopes ; and as 
soon as Antony had left the city, made all honest 
men think themselves sure of him by exerting a 
most severe, as well as seasonable act of discipline, 
upon the disturbers of the public tranquillity. For 
the mob, headed by the impostor Marius, and the 
freedmen of Caesar, had erected an altar in the 
forum, on the spot where Caesar's body was burnt, 
with a pillar of Numidian marble twenty feet high, 
inscribed to the father of his country. Here 
they performed daily sacrifices and divine rites ; 
and the humour of worshipping at this new altar 
began to spread itself so fast among the meaner 
sort and the slaves, as to endanger the peace and 
safety of the city ; for the multitudes which flocked 
to the place, fired with a kind of enthusiastic rage, 
ran furious about the streets committing all sorts 
of outrage and violence against the supposed friends 
of liberty. But Dolabella put an end'to the evil at 
once by demolishing the pillar and the altar, and 
seizing the authors of the disorders, and causing 
such of them as were free to be thrown down the 
Tarpeian rock, and the slaves to be crucified. This 
gave a universal joy to the city : the whole body 
of the people attended the consul to his house, and 
in the theatres gave him the usual testimony of 
their thanks by the loudest acclamations k . 

Cicero was infinitely pleased with this act, and 

tatis meae, ut vel in concione clicere auderem. Saram 
autem, praeterquam quod nefarium hominem cognovi, 
prasterea in me contumacem. Semel eum omnino domi 
meae vidi. Cum tyi\o(pp6v(as ex eo quaererem, quid opus 
esset, Atticum se dixit quaerere. Superbiam autem ipsius 
reginae, cum esset trans Tiberim in hortis, commemorare 
sine magno dolore non possum. Nihil igitur cum istis : 
nee tarn animum me, quam vix stomachum habere arbi- 
trantur.— Ad Att. xv. 15. 

1 Tuum collegam, depositis inimicitiis, oblitus auspieia, 
te ipso augure nunciante, illo primo die collegam tibi esse 
voluisti.— Phil. i. 13. 

k Plebs — postea solidam colurunam prope viginti pedum 
lapidis Numidici in foro statuit, scripsitque Parenti 
Patrije, apud eandem longo tempore sacrificare, vota 



enjoyed some share of the praise, since it was 
generally imputed to the influence of his counsels : 
in a letter upon it to Atticus ; " O my admirable 
Dolabella! " says he, " I now call him mine, for, 
believe me, I had some doubt of him before : the fact 
affords matter of great speculation ; to throw them 
down the rock ; to crucify ; demolish the pillar ; pave 
the area ; in short, it is heroic. He has extinguished 
all appearance of that regret for Caesar which was 
spreading every day so fast, that I began to appre- 
hend some danger to our tyrant-killers ; but I now 
agree with you and conceive better hopes," &C. 1 
Again : "O the brave act of Dolabella ! what a pro- 
spect does it give us ? I never cease praising and 

exhorting him Our Brutus, I dare say, might 

now walk safely through the forum with a crown 
of gold upon his head ; for who dares molest him, 
when the rock or the cross is to be their fate ? and 
when the very lowest of the people give such proofs 
of their applause and approbation™ ?" He wrote 
at the same time from Baiae the following letter to 
Dolabella himself. 

Cicero to Dolabella Consul. 
"Though I was content, my Dolabella, with 
your glory, and reaped a sufficiency of pleasure 
from it, yet I cannot but own that it gives me an 
inexpressible joy, to find the world ascribing to me 
also some share in your praises. I have met with 
nobody here, though I see so much company every 
day (for there are many worthy men now at this 
place for the sake of their health, and many of my 
acquaintance from the great towns,) who, after 
extolling you to the skies, does not give thanks 
presently to me ; not doubting, as they all say, but 
it is by my precepts and advice, that you now show 
yourself to be this admirable citizen and singular 
consul : and though I could assure them, with great 
truth, that what you are doing flows wholly from 
yourself and your own judgment, and that you 
want not the advice of any one ; yet I neither 
wholly assent, lest I should derogate from your 
merit, by making it seem to proceed from my 
counsel ; nor do I strongly deny it, being myself 
perhaps more greedy of glory than I ought to be. 
But that can never be a diminution to you, which 
was an honour even to Agamemnon, the king of 
kings, to have a Nestor for his counsellor ; while 
it will be glorious to me to see a young consul, the 
scholar, as it were, of my discipline, flourishing in 
the midst of applause. L. Caesar, when I visited 
him lately sick at Naples, though oppressed with 
suscipere, controversias quasdam, interposito per Caesarem 
jurejurando, distrahere perseveravit. — Sueton. J. Caes. 85. 

Manabat enim illud malum urbanum, et ita corrobora- 
batur quotidie, ut ego quidem et urbi et otio diffidereni 
urbano. — Ep. Fam. xii. 1. 

Nam cum serperet in urbe infinitum malum — et quoti- 
die magis magisque perditi homines, cum sui similibus 
servis, tectis et templis urbis minarentur ; talis animad- 
versio fuit Dolabellae, cum in audaces sceleratosque servos, 
turn in impuros et nefarios cives, talisque eversio illius 
execratae colmnna;, &c. [Phil. i. 2.] Recordare, quasso, 
Dolabella, consensum ilium theatri.— Ibid. 12. 

1 Ad Att. xiv. 15. 

™ O Dolabellae nostri apHTTelav ! quanta est avaS-ew- 
prjaig ? equidem laudarc eum et hortari non desisto— mihi 
quidem videtur Brutus noster jam vel coronam auream 
per forum ferre posse : quis enim audeat violare, proposita 
cruce aut saxo ? prrcsertim tantis plausibus, tanta appro- 
bations infimorum ?— Ibid. 16. 



230 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



pain in every part of his body, yet before he had 
even saluted me could not forbear crying out, ' O 
my Cicero ! I congratulate with you on account of 
the authority which you have with Dolabella, for 
if I had the same credit with my sister's son, 
Antony, we should all now be safe ; but as to your 
Dolabella, I both congratulate with him and thank 
him ; since, from the time of your consulship, he 
is the only one whom we can truly call a consul :' 
he then enlarged upon your act and the manner of 
it, and declared that nothing was ever greater, no- 
thing nobler, nothing more salutary to the state ; 
and this indeed is the common voice of all. Allow 
me, therefore, I beg of you, to take some share, 
though it be a false one, in the possession of an- 
other man's glory ; and admit me in some degree 
into a partnership of your praises. But to be 
serious, my Dolabella, for hitherto I have been 
joking, I would sooner transfer all the credit that 
I have to you, if I really have any, than rob you 
of any part of yours : for as I have always had that 
sincere affection for you, to which you have been 
no stranger, so now I am so charmed by your late 
conduct that no love was ever more ardent. For, 
believe me, there is nothing after ail more engag- 
ing, nothing more beautiful, nothing more lovely 
than virtue. I have ever loved M. Brutus, you 
know, for his incomparable parts, sweet disposi- 
tion, singular probity, and firmness of mind ; yet 
on the ides of March, such an accession was made 
to my love, that I was surprised to find any room 
for increase in that which I had long ago taken to 
be full and perfect. Who could have thought it 
possible that any addition could be made to my 
love of you ? Yet so much has been added that I 
seem but now at last to love, before to have only 
esteemed you. What is it, therefore, that I must 
now exhort you to ? Is it to pursue the path of 
dignity and glory ? And as those do, who use to 
exhort, shall I propose to you the examples of 
eminent men ? I can think of none more eminent 
than yourself. You must imitate therefore your- 
self; contend with yourself; for after such great 
things done, it would be a disgrace to you not to 
be like yourself. Since this then is the case, there 
is no occasion to exhort but to congratulate with 
you ; for that has happened to you which scarce 
ever happened to any man, that by the utmost 
severity of punishing, instead of acquiring odium, 
you are become popular ; and not only with the 
better sort, but the very meanest of the city. If 
this was owing to fortune, I should congratulate 
your felicity ; but it was owing to the greatness of 
your courage, as well as of your parts and wisdom. 
For I have read your speech to the people ; nothing- 
was ever more prudent ; you enter so deliberately 
and gradually into the reason of your act, and 
retire from it so artfully, that the case itself, in the 
opinion of all, appears to be ripe for punishment. 
You have freed us therefore both from our danger 
and our fears, and have done an act of the greatest 
service not only to the present times, but for the 
example of it also to posterity. You are to con- 
sider that the republic now rests upon your shoul- 
ders, and that it is your part not only to protect 
but to adorn those men, from whom we have 
received this beginning of our liberty ; but of this 
we shall talk more fully when we meet again, as I 
hope we shall shortly : in the mean while, since 
you are now the common guardian both of the 



republic and of us all, take care, my dear Dola- 
bella, that you guard more especially your own 
safety"." 

In this retreat from Rome he had a mind to 
make an excursion to Greece, and pay a visit to his 
son at Athens, whose conduct did not please him, 
and seemed to require his presence to reform and 
set it right . But the news of Dolabella's beha- 
viour, and the hopes which it gave of gaining the 
only thing that was wanted, a head and leader of 
their cause armed with the authority of the state, 
made him resolve to stay at least till after the first 
of June, lest his absence should be interpreted as a 
kind of desertion ; nor did he ever intend indeed to 
leave Italy, till he could do it without censure, and 
to the full satisfaction of Brutus, whom he was 
determined never to desert on any occasion?. 

He had frequent meetings and conferences all 
this while with his old friends of. the opposite party, 
the late ministers of Caesar's power, Pansa, Hirtius, 
Balbus, Matius, &c. But Csesar's death, on which 
their sentiments were very different from his, had 
in great measure broken their former confidence : 
and though the popularity of the act made them 
somewhat shy of speaking their minds freely about 
it, yet he easily perceived that they were utterly 
displeased with it, and seemed to want an occasion 
of revenging it. Pansa and Hirtius, as has been 
said, were nominated by Csesar to the consulship 
of the next year ; and as Caesar's acts were ratified 
by the senate, were to succeed to it of course. 
This made Brutus and Cassius press Cicero ear- 
nestly to gain them, if possible, to the republican 
side, but especially Hirtius, whom they most sus- 
pected. But Cicero seems to have had little hopes 
of success ; his account of them to Atticus is, 
" That there was not one of them who did not 
dread peace more than war ; that they were perpe- 
tually lamenting the miserable end of so great a 
man ; and declaring that the republic was ruined 
by it ; that all his acts would be made void as soon 
as people's fears were over, and that clemency was 
his ruin, since, if it had not been for that, he could 
not have perished in such a manner ; and of Hirtius 
in particular, he warmly loves him (says he) whom 
Brutus stabbed ; as to their desiring me to make 
him better, I am doing my endeavour : he talks 
very honestly, but lives with Balbus, who talks 
honestly too ; how far they are to be trusted you 
must consider^." 

But of all this set of men, Matius was the most 

n Ep. Fam. ix. 14. 

Quod sentio valde esse utile ad confirmationem Cice- 
ronis, me illuc venire. [Ad Att. xiv. 13.] Magni interest 
Ciceronis, vel mea potius, vel mehercule utriusque, me 
intervenire discenti. — Ibid. 16. 

P Nunc autem videmur habituri ducem, quod unum 
municipia, bonique desiderant. — Ibid. 20. 

Nee vero discedam, nisi cum tu me id boncste putabis 
facere posse. Bruto certe meo nullo loco deero. — Ibid. 15 ; 
it. xvi, 13. 

1 Minime enim obscurum est. quid isti moliantur : 
meus vero discipulus, qui hodic apud me coenat. valde amat 
ilium, quern Brutus noster sauciavit, et si qiiauis, perspexi 
enim plane, timent otium. im6deatv autem banc babent, 
eamque pre sc ferunt, virum clarissimum intcrfectum, 
totamrempublicamilliusinteritupertiirbatam: irritafore, 
quae ille cgisset, siinul ac desistemus timere. Clementiam 
illi malo fuisse: qua si usus non esset, nihil illi tale 
accidero potuisse. — Ad Att. xiv. 22. 

Quod liirtiuni per me mcliorem fieri volunt, do equidem 
operam, et ille uptime loquitur, sed vivit habitatque cum 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



231 



open and explicit in condemning the act of the 
conspirators, so as to put Cicero out of humour 
with him, as a man irreconcileable to the liberty of 
the republic. Cicero called upon him on his way 
from Rome into the country, and found him sullen, 
desponding, and foreboding nothing but wars and 
desolation, as the certain consequence of Caesar's 
death. Among other particulars of their conversa- 
tion, Matius told him something which Caesar had 
lately said both of him and Brutus ; that he used to 
say of Brutus, " it was of great consequence which 
way he stood inclined, since whatever he had a 
mind to, he pursued with an impetuous eagerness ; 
that he had remarked this of him more especially 
in his pleading for Deiotarus at Nicsea ; where he 
spoke with a surprising vehemence and freedom : 
and of Cicero, that when he was attending Caesar 
in the cause of Sestius, Caesar perceiving him 
sitting in the room, and waiting till he was called, 
said, ' Can I doubt of my being extremely odious, 
when Cicero sits waiting and cannot get access to 
me ?' yet if any man be easy enough to forgive it, it 
is he, though I do not question but that he really 
hates me r ," 

There were several reasons, however,which made 
it necessary to these men to court Cicero at this 
time as much as ever ; for if the republic happened 
to recover itself, he was of all men the most 
capable to protect them on that side ; if not, the 
most able to assist them against Antony, whose 
designs and success they dreaded still more ; for if 
they must have a new master, they were disposed, 
for the sake of Caesar, to prefer his heir and 
nephew, Octavius. We find Hirtius and Pansa, 
therefore, very assiduous in their observance of 
him. They spent a great part of the summer 
with him at different times in his villas, giving 
him the strongest assurances of their good inten- 
tions, and disposition to peace, and that he should 
be the arbiter of their future consulship ; and 
though he continued still to have some distrust 
of Hirtius, yet Pansa wholly persuaded him that 
he was sincere s . 

Brutus and Cassius continued still near Lanu- 
vium, in the neighbourhood of Cicero's villa at 
Astura, of which, at Cicero's desire, they some- 
times made use 1 ; being yet irresolute what mea- 
sures they should take, they kept themselves quiet 
and retired, expecting what time and chance would 
offer, and waiting particularly to see what humour 
the consuls would be in at the next meeting of the 
senate, with regard to themselves and the repub- 
lic ; and since they were driven from the discharge 

Balbo : qui item bene loquitur. Quid credas videris.— 
Ad Att. xx. 21. 

r De Bruto nostro — Ca?sarem solitum dicere : — Magni 
refert hie quid velit : sed quicquid vult, valde vult. 
Idque eum animadvertisse cum pro Deiotaro Niceae 
dixerit, valde vebementer eum visum, et libere dicere, 
Atque etiam proxime cum Sestii rogatu apud eum fuis- 
sem, expectaremque sedens quoad vocarer, dixisse eum : — 
Ego dubitem quin summo in odio sim, cum M. Cicero 
sedeat, nee suo commodo me convenire possit? Atqui si 
quisquam est facilis, hie est : tamen non duibto, quin me 
male oderit.— Ad Att. xiv. 1. 

s Cum Pansa vixi in Pompeiano. Is plane mihi pro- 
babat, se bene sentire et cupere pacem, &c. — Ad Att. xiv. 
20 ; it. xv. 1. ' 

1 "Velim mehercule Asturae Brutus. [Ad Att. xiv. 11.] 
Brutum apud me fuisse gaudeo : niodo et libenter fuerit 
et sat diu.— Ibid. xv. 3. 



of their praetorship in the city, they contrived to 
put the people in mind of them, from time to time, 
by their edicts, in which they made the strongest 
professions of their pacific disposition ; and de- 
clared, " that their conduct should give no handle 
for a civil war ; and that they would submit to 
a perpetual exile, if it would contribute in any 
manner to the public concord, being content with 
the consciousness of their act, as the greatest 
honour which they could enjoyV Their present 
design was to come to Rome on the first of June, 
and take their places in the senate, if it should be 
thought advisable ; or to present themselves at 
least in the rostra, and try the affections of the 
people, for whom Brutus was preparing a speech. 
They sent to know Cicero's opinion of this project, 
with the copy also of that speech which Brutus 
made in the capitol on the day of Caesar's death, 
begging his revisal and correction of it, in order to 
its being published. Cicero, in his account of it 
to Atticus, says, "the oration is drawn with the 
utmost elegance, both of sentiments and style ; 
yet were I to handle the subject, I should work it 
up with more fire. You know the character of the 
speaker ; for which reason I could not correct it. 
For in the style in which our friend would excel, 
and according to the idea which he has formed of 
the best manner of speaking, he has succeeded so 
well, that nothing can be better : but whether I 
am in the right or the wrong, I am of a quite 
different taste. I wish, however, that you would 
read it, if you have not already, and let me know 
what you think of it ; though I am afraid, lest 
through the prejudice of your name, you should 
show too much of the Attic in your judgment : yet 
if you remember the thunder of Demosthenes, you 
will perceive that the greatest force may consist 
with the perfection of Attic elegance x ." 

Atticus did not like the speech ; he thought the 
manner too cold and spiritless for so great an 
occasion ; and begged of Cicero to draw up another 
to be published in Brutus's name : but Cicero 
would not consent to it, thinking the thing itself 
improper, and knowing that Brutus would take it 
ill^. In one of his letters on the subject, — 
" Though you think me in the wrong," says he, 
" to imagine that the republic depends on Brutus, 
the fact is certainly so : there will either be none 
at all, or it will be saved by him and his accom- 
plices. As to your urging me to write a speech for 
him, take it from me, my Atticus, as a general 
rule, which by long experience I have found to be 
true, that there never was a poet or orator who 
thought any one preferable to himself. This is the 
case even with bad ones. What shall we think, 
then, of Brutus, who has both wit and learning ? 
especially after the late experiment of him in the 
case of the edict. I drew up one for him at your 
desire. I liked mine ; he his. Besides, when at 
his earnest solicitation I addressed to him my 
treatise on the best manner of speaking, he wrote 
word, not only to me, but to you too, that the 

u Testati edictis, libenter se vel in perpetuo exilio vic- 
turos, dum reipublica? constaret concordia, nee ullain 
belli civilis praebituros materiuu. plurimum sibi honoris 
esse in couscientia facti Bui, &c. [Veil. Pat. ii. I>2.] Edic- 
tum Bruti et C'assii probo. [Ad Att. xiv. 20.] De quibus 
tu bonam spem te habere signiheas propter edictorum 
humanitateiu. — Ibid. xv. 1. 

* Ad Att. xv. 1. >• Ibid. 3, 4. 



232 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



kind of eloquence which I recommended did not 
please him. Let every one, therefore, compose 
for himself — I wish only that it may be in his 
power to make a speech at all ; for if ever he can 
appear again with safety at Rome, we have gained 
the victory 2 ." 

In this interval a new actor appeared on the 
stage, who, though hitherto but little considered, 
soon made the first figure upon it, and drew all 
people's eyes towards him : the young Octavius, 
who was left by his uncle Csesar the heir of his 
name and estate. He had been sent a few months 
before to Apollonia, a celebrated academy or 
school of learning in Macedonia, there to wait for 
his uncle on his way to the Parthian war, in which 
he was to attend him ; but the news of Csesar's 
death soon brought him back to Italy, to try what 
fortunes he could carve for himself, by the credit 
of his new name, and the help of his uncle's friends. 
He arrived at Naples on the eighteenth of April, 
whither Balbus went the next morning to receive 
him, and returned the same day to Cicero, near 
Cumse, having first conducted Octavius to the 
adjoining villa of his father-in-law Philip. Hirtius 
and Pansa were with Cicero at the same time, to 
whom they immediately presented Octavius, with 
the strongest professions on the part of the young 
man, that he would be governed entirely by his 
direction 51 . 

The sole pretension which he avowed at present 
was, to assert his right to the succession of his 
uncle's estate, and to claim the possession of it ; 
but this was thought an attempt too hardy and 
dangerous for a mere boy, scarce yet above eighteen 
years old ; for the republican party had great 
reason to be jealous of him, lest with the inherit- 
ance of the estate, he should grasp at the power 
of his uncle ; and Antony still more, who had 
destined that succession to himself, and already 
seized the effects, lest by the advantage of all that 
wealth, Octavius might be in a condition to make 
head against him. The mother, therefore, and 
her husband Philip, out of concern for his safety, 
pressed him to suspend his claim for awhile, and 
not assume an invidious name, before he could see 
what turn the public affairs would take ; but he 
was of too great a spirit to relish any suggestions 
of caution, declaring it base and infamous to think 
himself unworthy of a name, of which Csesar had 
thought him worthy b : and there were many about 
him constantly pushing him on to throw himself 
upon the affections of the city and the army, before 
his enemies had made themselves too strong for 
him ; so that he was on fire to be at Rome, and to 
enter into action, being determined to risk all his 
hopes on the credit of his name, and the friends 
and troops of his uncle. 

Before he left the country, Cicero, speaking of 
him to Atticus, says,—" Octavius is still with us, 
an d treats me with the greatest r espect and friend- 

z Ad Att. xiv. 20. 

a Octavius Neapolim venit a. d. xnir. Kal. ibi eum 
Balbus mane postridie ; eodemque die mecura in Cumano. 
[Ad Att. xiv. 10.] Hie mecum Balbus, Ilirtius, _Pansa. 
Modo venit Octavius, et quidem in proximam "villain 
Philippi, mihi totus deditus.— Ibid. ] 1. 

b Non placebat Atiae matri, Philippoque vitrico, adiri 
nomen invidiosae fortunae Caesaris — sprevit ccelestis animus 
humana consilia — dictitans nefas esse, quo nomine Caesari 
dignus esset visus, sibimet ipsum vidcri indignum. — Veil. 
Pat. ii. 60. 



ship. His domestics give him the name of Csesar; 
Philip does not ; nor for that reason do I. It is 
not possible for him, in my opinion, to make a 
good citizen, there are so many about him who 
threaten the death of our friends : they declare that 
what they have done can never be forgiven. What 
will be the case, think you, when the boy comes 
to Rome, where our deliverers cannot show their 
heads ? who yet must ever be famous, nay, happy 
too, in the consciousness of their act ; but as for 
us, unless I am deceived, we shall be undone. I 
long, therefore, to go abroad, where I may hear 
no more of these Pelopidae," &c. c 

As soon as Octavius came to Rome, he was 
produced to the people by one of the tribunes, and 
made a speech to them from the rostra, which was 
now generally possessed by the enemies of Brutus, 
who were perpetually making use of the advantage 
to inflame the mob against him. "Remember," 
says Cicero, ' ' what I tell you : this custom of 
seditious harangues is so much cherished, that 
those heroes of ours, or rather gods, will live indeed 
in immortal glory, yet not without envy, and even 
danger : their great comfort, however, is, the 
consciousness of a most glorious act ; but what 
comfort for us, who, when our king is killed, are 
not yet free ? But fortune must look to that, 
since reason has no sway d ." 

Octavius seconded his speech by what was like 
to please the inferior part of the city much better ; 
the representation of public shows and plays, in 
honour of his uncle's victories. Caesar had pro- 
mised and prepared for them in his lifetime ; but 
those whom he had entrusted with the manage- 
ment durst not venture to exhibit them after his 
death, till Octavius, as his heir and representative, 
undertook the affair, as devolved, of course, upon 
himself e . In these shows Octavius brought out 
the golden chair which, among the other honours 
decreed to Csesar when living, was ordered to be 
placed in the theatres and circus, as to a deity, on 
all solemn occasions 5 . But the tribunes ordered 
the chair to be taken away, upon which the body 
of the knights testified their applause by a general 
clap. Atticus sent an account of this to Cicero, 
which was very agreeable to him s ; but he was 
not at all pleased with Octavius's conduct, since it 
indicated a spirit determined to revive the memory 
and to avenge the death of Ceesar ; and he was the 
less pleased to hear, also, that Matius had taken 

c Nobiscum hie perhonorifice et amice Octavius ; quern 
quidem sui Caesarem salutabant, Philippus non ; itaque 
ne nos quidem : quem nego posse bonum civem, ita multi 
circumstant, qui quidem nostris mortem minitantur. 
Negant haec ferri posse. Quid censes, cum Romam puer 
venerit, ubi nostri liberatores tuti esse non possunt ? qui 
quidem semper erunt clari ; conscientia vero facti sui 
etiam beati : sed nos, nisi me fallit, jacebimus. Itaque 
aveo exire, ubi nee Pelopidarum, &c. — Ad Att. xiv. 12. 

d Sed memento, sic alitur consuetudo perditarum con- 
cionum, ut nostri illi non heroes, sed dii, futuri quidem in 
gloria sempiterna sint, sed non sine invidia, ne sine peri- 
culo quidem : verum illis magna consolatio, conscientia 
maximi et clarissimi facti : nobis quae, qui interfecto 
rege liberi non sumus ? Sed haec fortuna viderit, quoniam 
ratio non gubernat. — Ad Att. xiv. 11. 

e Ludos autem victoria} Caesaris non audentibus facere, 
quibusobtigerat idmunus, ipse edidit.— Sueton. in Aug. 10 ; 
Dio, p. 272. 

f Dio, xliv. 243. 

g De sella Caesaris, bene tribuni. Praeclaros etiam xiv. 
ordines.— Ad Att. xv. 3. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



233 



upon him the care of these shows h , since it con- 
firmed the suspicion which he had before conceived 
of Matius, and made him apprehensive that he 
would be an ill counsellor to young Octavras, in 
which light he seems to have represented him to 
Brutus. Matius was informed of these suspicions, 
and complained to their common friend Trebatius 
of Cicero's unkind opinion and unfriendly treat- 
ment of him, which gave occasion to the following 
apology from Cicero, and the answer to it from 
Matius, which is deservedly valued, not only for 
the beauty of its sentiments and composition, but' 
for preserving to us a name and character, which 
was almost lost to history, of a most esteemed 
and amiable person, who lived in the first degree 
of confidence with Caesar, and for parts, learning, 
and virtue, was scarce inferior to any of that age. 
Cicero takes pains to persuade Matius that he 
had said nothing of him but what was consistent 
with the strictest friendship ; and to gain the easier 
credit with him, prefaces his apology with a detail 
and acknowledgment of Matius' s perpetual civili- 
ties and observance of him through life, even when 
in the height of his power and credit with Caesar ; 
but when he comes to the point of the complaint 
he touches it very tenderly, and observes only in 
general, " that as Matius's dignity exposed every- 
thing which he did to public notice, so the malice 
of the world interpreted some of his acts more 
hardly than they deserved ; that it was his care 
always to give the most favourable turn to them 
— but you (says he), a man of the greatest learn- 
ing, are not ignorant, that if Csesar was in fact a 
king, as I indeed look upon him to have been, 
there are two ways of considering the case of your 
duty ; either that, which I commonly take, of 
extolling your fidelity and humanity, in showing so 
much affection even to a dead friend ; or the other, 
which some people use, that the liberty of our 
country ought to be preferred to the life of any 
friend. I wish that you had heard with what zeal 
I used to defend you in these conversations ; but 
there are two things especially that make the prin- 
cipal part of your praise, which no man speaks of 
more frequently or more freely than I : that you, 
of all Caesar's friends, were the most active, both 
in dissuading the civil war, and in moderating the 
victory ; in which I have met with nobody who 
does not agree with me'," &c. 

Matius to Cicero. 
" Your letter gave me great pleasure, by letting 
me see that you retain still that favourable opinion 
of me, which I had always hoped and wished ; and 
though I had never, indeed, any doubt of it, yet 
for the high value that I set upon it, I was very 
solicitous that it should remain always inviolable ; 
I was conscious to myself that I had done nothing 
which could reasonably give offence to any honest 
man, and did not imagine, therefore, that a person 
of your great and excellent accomplishments could 
be induced to take any without reason, especially 
against one who had always professed, and still 
continued to profess, a sincere good-will to you. 
Since all this, then, stands just as I wish it, I will 
now give an answer to those accusations, from 

h Ludorum ejus apparatus, et Matius ac Postumius pro- 
curators non placent.— Ad Att. xv. 2. 
i Ep. Fam. xi. 27. 



which you, agreeably to your character, out of 
your singular goodness and friendship, have so 
often defended me. I am no stranger to what has 
been said of me by certain persons, since Caesar's 
death : they call it a crime in me, that I am con- 
cerned for the loss of an intimate friend, and sorry 
that the man whom I loved met with so unhappy 
a fate : they say that our country ought to be pre- 
ferred to any friendship, as if they had already 
made it evident that his death was of service to 
the republic ; but I will not deal craftily ; I own 
myself not to be arrived at that degree of wisdom ; 
nor did I yet follow Csesar in our late dissentions, 
but my friend, whom, though displeased with the 
thing, I could not desert ; for I never approved 
the civil war, or the cause of it, but took all 
possible pains to stifle it in its birth. Upon the 
victory, therefore, of a familiar friend, I was not 
eager either to advance or to enrich myself: an 
advantage which others, who had less interest with 
him than I, abused to great excess. Nay, my cir- 
cumstances were even hurt by Caesar's law, to 
whose kindness the greatest part of those who now 
rejoice at his death, owed their very continuance in 
the city. I solicited the pardon of the vanquished 
with the same zeal as if it had been for myself. Is 
it possible, therefore, for me, who laboured to pro- 
cure the safety of all, not to be concerned for the 
death of him from whom I used to procure it ? 
especially when the very same men who were the 
cause of making him odious, were the authors also 
of de'stroying him. But I shall have cause, they 
say, to repent, for daring to condemn their act. 
Unheard of insolence ! that it should be allowed 
to some to glory in a wicked action, yet not to 
others even to grieve at it, without punishment ! 
But this was always free even to slaves, to fear, 
rejoice, and grieve by their own will, not that of 
another ; which yet these men, who call themselves 
the authors of liberty, are endeavouring to extort 
from us by the force of terror. But they may spare 
their threats ; for no danger shall terrify me from 
performing my duty and the offices of humanity, 
since it was always my opinion, that an honest 
death was never to be avoided, often even to be 
sought. But why are they angry with me for 
wishing only that they may repent of their act ? 
I wish that all the world may regret Caesar's death. 
But I ought, they say, as a member of civil society, 
to wish the good and safety of the republic. If my 
past life and future hopes do not already prove that 
I wish it, without my saying so, I will not pretend 
to evince it by argument. — I beg of you, therefore, 
in the strongest terms, to attend to facts rather 
than to words ; and if you think it the most useful 
to one in my circumstances, that what is right 
should take place, never imagine that I can have 
any union or commerce with ill-designing men. I 
acted the same part in my youth, where to mistake 
would have been pardonable ; shall I then undo it 
all again, and renounce my principles in my declin- 
ing age ? No ; it is my resolution to do nothing 
that can give any offence, except it be when I lament 
the cruel fate of a dear friend and illustrious man. 
If I were in different sentiments, I would never 
disown what I was doing, lest I should be thought 
not only wicked for pursuing what was wrong, but 
false and cowardly for dissembling it. But I 
undertook the care of the shows which young 
Caesar exhibited for the victory of his uncle : this 



234 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



was an affair of private, not of public duty : it was 
what I ought to have performed to the memory and 
honour of my dear friend, and what I could not, 
therefore, deny to a youth of the greatest hopes, 
and so highly worthy of Caesar. But I go often, 
also, to the consul Antony's, to pay my compli- 
ments : yet you will find those very men go oftener 
to ask and receive favours, who reflect upon me for 
it, as disaffected to my country. But what arro- 
gance is this ? When Csesar never hindered me 
from visiting whom I would — even those whom he 
did not care for — that they, who had deprived me 
of him, should attempt, by their cavils, to debar 
me from placing my esteem where I think proper. 
But I am not afraid that either the modesty of my 
life should not be sufficient to confute all false 
reports of me for the future, or that they, who do 
not love me for my constancy to Csesar, would not 
choose to have their friends resemble me rather 
than themselves. For my own part, if I could have 
my wish, I would spend the remainder of my days 
in quiet at Rhodes ; but if any accident prevent 
me, will live in such a manner at Rome, as always 
to desire that what is right may prevail. I am 
greatly obliged to our friend Trebatius, for giving 
me this assurance of your sincere and friendly re- 
gard for me, and for making it my duty to respect 
and observe a man whom I had esteemed always 
before with inclination. Take care of your health, 
and preserve me in your affection — k ." 

Antony all this while was not idle, but pushed 
on his designs with great vigour and address : in 
his progress through Italy, his business was to 
gather up Csesar's old soldiers from the several 
colonies and quarters in which they were settled y 
and by large bribes, and larger promises, to attach 
them to his interests, and draw great bodies of 
them towards Rome, to be ready for any purpose 
that his affairs should require. In the city like- 
wise he neglected no means which his consular 
authority offered, how unjust or violent soever, of 
strengthening his power ; and let all people now 
see for what ends he had provided that decree, to 
which the senate had consented for the sake of 
peace, of confirming Csesar's acts ; for being the 
master both of Caesar's papers and of his secretary 
Faberius, by whose hand they were written 1 , he 
had an opportunity of forging and inserting at 
pleasure whatever he found of use to him, which 
he practised without any reserve or management ; 
selling publicly for money whatever immunities 
were desired by countries, cities, princes, or private 
men, on pretence that they had been granted by 

k pjp. Fam. xi. 28. This Cn. Matius lived long after- 
wards in such favour and familiarity with Augustus, as to 
be distinguished by the title of Augustus's friend. Yet he 
seems to have declined all public honours and business, 
and to have spent the remainder of his days in an elegant 
and pleasurable retreat ; employing his time and studies 
in the improvements of gardening and planting, as well as 
in refining the delicacy of a splendid and luxurious life, 
which was the general taste of that age. For he first 
taught how to inoculate and propagate some of their 
curious and foreign fruits ; and introduced the way of 
cutting trees and groves into regular forms: on which 
subjects he published several books which are mentioned 
by the later writers. — Columel. Do Re Rust. xii. 44. init. ,• 
Plin..IIist. Nat. xii. 2; xv. 14. 

1 Ta inro/jLU-fifiaTa twc PefiovAevfxevcov 6 ''Avrcivios 
ex&>f, Kcd rbu 7po/u / uoTea rod Kalaapos <bafi4piov, 
4s iravra o? ireidSuevov.— App. 1. 3. 529. 



Csesar and entered into his books. This alarmed 
and shocked all honest men who saw the mischief, 
but knew no remedy : Antony had the power, and 
their own decree had justified it. Cicero complains 
of it heavily in many of his letters, and declares it 
a thousand times better to die than to suffer it m . 
" Is it so then ? " says he, " is all that our Brutus 
has done come to this, that he might live at last at 
Lanuvium ? That Trebonius might steal away 
through private roads to his province ? That all 
the acts, writings, sayings, promises, thoughts of 
Csesar should have greater force now than when 
he himself was living ? " All which he charges to 
that mistake of the first day in not summoning the 
senate into the capitol, where they might have 
done what they pleased when their own party was 
uppermost, and these robbers, as he calls them, 
dispersed and dejected". 

Among the other acts which Antony confirmed, 
on the pretence of their being ordered by Csesar, 
he granted the freedom of the city to all Sicily, and 
restored to king Deiotarus all his former domi- 
nions. Cicero speaks of this with great indignation. 
" O my Atticus," says he, " the ides of March 
have given us nothing but the joy of revenging 

ourselves on him whom we had reason to hate 

it was a brave act, but left imperfect you know 

what a kindness I have for the Sicilians ; that I 
esteem it an honour to be their patron : Csesar 
granted them many privileges which I did not dis- 
like, though his giving them the rights of Latium 
was intolerable ; yet that was nothing to what 
Antony has done, who for a large sum of money has 
published a law, pretended to be made by the dic- 
tator, in an assembly of the people, though we 
never heard a syllable of it in his lifetime, which 
makes them all citizens of Rome. Is not Deiota- 
rus's case just the same ? He is worthy indeed of 
any kingdom, but not by the grant of Fulvia ; 
there are a thousand instances of the same sort ." 
When this last act was hung up as usual in the 
capitol, among the public monuments of the city, 
the forgery appeared so gross that the people, in 
the midst of their concern, could not help laughing 
at it ; knowing that Csesar hated no man so much 
as Deiotarus. But the bargain was made in Fulvia's 
apartments for the sum of eighty thousand pounds, 
by the king's agents at Rome, without consulting 
Cicero or any other of their master's friends : yet 
the old king, it seems, was beforehand with them, 
and no sooner heard of Csesar's death than he 
seized upon his dominions again by force. " He 
knew it," says Cicero, " to be a universal right, 
that what tyrants had forcibly taken away, the 
true owners might recover whenever they were 
able : — he acted like a man, but we contemptibly, 
who whilst we hate the author, yet maintain his 
acts p." By these methods Antony presently 

m Ep. Fam. xii. 1 ; Ad Att. xiv. 9. 

n Itane vero ? hoc meus et tuus Brutus egit, ut Lanuvii 
esset? ut Trebonius itineribus deviis proficisceretur in 
provinciam? ut omnia facta, scripta, dicta, promissa, 
cogitata Cassaris plus valerent, quain si ipse viveret ?_&c. 
—Ad Att. xiv. 10. 

o Ad Att. xiv 12. 

P Syngrapha H. S. centies per legatos— sine nostra, sine 
reliquorum hospitum regis sententia, facta in gynaeceo: 
quo in loco plurhnae res venierunt, et veneunt— Rex enim 
ipse sua sponte, nullis commentariis Caesaris, simul atque 
audivit ejus interitum, suo marte res suas recuperavit. 
Sciebat homo sapiens, jus semper hoc fuisse, ut, quae 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



235 



amassed infinite sums of money ; for though at the 
time of Caesar's death he owed, as Cicero told 
him, above three hundred thousand pounds, yet 
within less than a fortnight after it he had paid off 
the whole debt*. 

There was another instance of his violence which 
gave still greater offence to the city ; his seizing the 
public treasure which Caesar had deposited for the 
occasions of the government, in the temple of 
Opis, amounting to above five millions and a half 
of our money ; besides what Calpurnia, Caesar's 
wife, from his private treasure had delivered into 
his hands, computed at about another million. 
This was no extraordinary sum if we consider the 
vastness of the mine from which it was drawn, the 
extent of the Roman empire, and that Caesar was 
of all men the most rapacious in extorting it : 
Cicero, alluding to the manner in which it was 
raised, calls it a bloody and deadly treasure, ga- 
thered from the spoils and ruin of the subjects ; 
which, if it were not restored, as it ought to be, to 
the true owners, might have been of great service 
to the public towards easing them of their taxes r . 

But Antony, who followed Caesar's maxims, 
took care to secure it to himself, the use of it was 
to purchase soldiers, and he was now in condition 
to outbid any competitor ; but the first purchase 
that he made with it was of his colleague Dolabella, 
who had long been oppressed with the load of his 
debts, and whom, by a part of this money, and the 
promise of a farther share in the plunder of the 
empire, he drew entirely from Cicero and the 
republican party into his own measures. This was 
an acquisition worth any price to him ; the gene- 
ral inclination both of the city and the country was 
clearly against him ; the town of Puteoli, one of 
the most considerable of Italy, had lately chosen 
the two Brutuses and Cassius for their patrons s , 
and there wanted nothing but a leader to arm the 
whole empire in that cause : Dolabella seemed to 
be that very person, till bribed, as Cicero says, by 
force of money, he not only deserted but overturned 
the republic*. 

These proceedings, which were preparatory to 
the appointed meeting of the senate on the first of 
June, began to open Brutus's eyes and convince 
him of the mistake of his pacific measures and 
favourable thoughts of Antony ; he now saw that 
there was no good to be expected from him, or 
from the senate itself under his influence, and 
thought it time, therefore, in concert with Cassius, 
fo require an explicit account of his intentions, and 
to expostulate with him gently in the following 
letter. 

tyranni eripuissent, ea tyrannis interfectis, ii quibus 
erepta essent, recuperarent— Ille vir fuit, nos quidem 
contenmendi, qui auctorem odimus, acta defendimus. — 
Phil. ii. 37- 

1 Tu autem quadringenties H.S. quod Idibus Martiis 
debuisti, quonam mode- ante Kalendas Aprilis debere 
desisti ?— Ibid. 

r Ubi est septies millies H.S. quod in tabulis, quae sunt 
ad Opis patebat? funestae illius quidem pecuniae, sed 
tamen, si iis, quorum erat, non redderetur, qua; nos a 
tributis posset vindicare.— Phil. ii. 37 ; Phil. i. 7 ; Plutarch, 
in Ant. 

s Vexavit Puteolanos, quod Cassium et Brutos patronos 
adoptassent. — Phil. ii. 41. 

t Ut ilium oderim, quod cum rempublicam me auctore 
defendere coepisset, non modo deseruerit, emptus pecunia, 
sed etiam quantum in ipso fuit, everterit. — Ad Att. xvi. 15. 



Brutus and Cassius, Prcetors, to M. Antonius, 
Consul. 

" If we were not persuaded of your sincerity and 
good-will to us we should not have written this to 
you, which, out of the kind disposition that you bear 
to us, you will take without doubt in good part. 
We are informed that a great multitude of veteran 
soldiers is already come to Rome, and a much 
greater expected there on the first of June. If we 
could harbour any suspicion or fear of you, we 
should be unlike ourselves ; yet surely, after we had 
put ourselves into your power, and by your advice 
dismissed the friends whom we had about us from 
the great towns, and that not only by public edict 
but by private letters, we deserve to be made 
acquainted with your designs, especially in an affair 
which relates to ourselves. We beg of you, there- 
fore, to let us know what your intentions are with 
regard to us. Do you think that we can be safe 
in such a crowd of veterans ? who have thoughts, 
we hear, even of rebuilding the altar, which no man 
can desire or approve who wishes our safety and 
honour. That we had no other view from the 
first but peace, nor sought anything else but the 
public liberty, the event shows. Nobody can 
deceive us but you, which is not certainly agreeable 
to your virtue and integrity ; but no man else has 
it in his power to deceive us. We trusted, and 
shall trust to you alone. Our friends are under the 
greatest apprehensions for us ; for though they are 
persuaded of your integrity, yet they reflect that a 
multitude of veterans may sooner be pushed on to 
any violence by others than restrained by you. 
We desire an explicit answer to all particulars, for 
it is silly and trifling to tell us that the veterans 
are called together because you intend to move the 
senate in their favour in June ; for who do you 
think will hinder it when it is certain that we shall 
not ? Nobody ought to think us too fond of life, 
when nothing can happen to us but with the ruin 
and confusion of all things u ." 

During Cicero's stay in the country, where he 
had a perpetual resort of his friends to him, and 
where his thoughts seemed to be always employed 
on the republic, yet he found leisure to write 
several of those philosophical pieces which still 
subsist both to the pleasure and benefit of man- 
kind. For he now composed his treatise on the 
Nature of the Gods, in three books, addressed to 
Brutus, containing the opinions of all the philoso- 
phers who had ever written anything on that 
argument ; to which he bespeaks the attention of 
his readers as to a subject of the last importance, 
which would inform them what they ought to think 
of religion, piety, sanctity, ceremonies, faith, oaths, 
temples, &c, since all these were included in that 
single question of the gods x . He drewup likewise his 
Discourse on Divination, or the foreknowledge and 
prediction of future events, and the several ways by 
which it was supposed to be acquired or communi- 
cated to man ; where he explains in two books 
whatever could be said for and against the actual 
existence of the thing itself. Both these pieces are 
written in the way of dialogue, of which he gives 
the following account. " Since Carneades," says 
he, " has argued both acutely and copiously against 
divination, in answer to the Stoics, I am now 
inquiring what judgment we ought to form con- 
» Ep. Fam. xi. 2. x De Nat. Deor. i. 6. 



236 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



cernifig it ; and for fear of giving my assent rashly 
to a thing, either false in itself or not sufficiently 
understood, I think it best to do what I have 
already done in my three books on the Nature of 
the Gods, weigh and compare diligently all the 
arguments with each other: for as rashness of assent 
and error is in all cases shameful, so most of all 
in that where we are to judge what stress is to be 
laid on auspices and things of a divine and religious 
nature ; for the danger is, lest either by neglecting 
them we involve ourselves in an impiety, or by 
embracing them, in an old woman's superstition >'." 
He now also wrote his piece on the advantages of old 
age, called " Cato," from the chief speaker in the 
dialogue : he addressed it to Atticus, as a lecture of 
common comfort to them both, in that gloomy 
scene of life on which they were entering ; " having 
found so much pleasure (he says) in writing it that 
it not only eased him of all the complaints of age, 
but made age itself even agreeable and cheerful to 
him z ." He added soon after another present of the 
same kind to Atticus, a treatise on Friendship : " a 
subject (he says) both worthy to be known to all, 
and peculiarly adapted to the case of their particu- 
lar intimacy ; for as I have already written of age, 
an old man to an old man, so now in the person of 
a sincere friend I write on friendship to my friend." 
This is written also in dialogue, the chief speaker 
of which is Lselius ; who, in a conversation with his 
two sons-in-law Fannius and Scsevola, upon the 
death of P. Scipio and the memorable friendship 
that had subsisted between them, took occasion, at 
their desire, to explain to them the nature and be- 
nefits of true friendship. Scsevola, who lived to a 
great age, and loved to retail his old stories to his 
scholars, used to relate to them with pleasure all the 
particulars of this dialogue, which Cicero having 
committed to his memory, dressed up afterwards 
in his own manner into the present form a . Thus 
this agreeable book, which when considered only 
as an invention or essay, is one of the most enter- 
taining pieces in antiquity, must needs affect us 
more warmly when it is found at last to be a his- 
tory, or a picture drawn from the life, exhibiting 
the real characters and sentiments of the best and 
greatest men of Rome. He now also wrote his 
discourse on Fate ; which was the subject of a 
conversation with Hirtius in his villa near Puteoli, 
where they spent several days together in May ; 
and he is supposed to have finished about the same 
time a translation of Plato's famous dialogue called 
Timseus, on the nature and origin of the universe. 

But he was employing himself also upon a work 
of a different sort which had been long upon his 
hands ; a history of his own times, or rather of 
his own conduct, full of free and severe reflections 
on those who had abused their power to the op- 
pression of the republic, especially Caesar and 
Crassus. This he calls his Anecdote ; a work not 
to be published, but to be shown only to a few 

> De Divin. i. 4. 

' ."Milii (|iiid( in it.i jiu ■inula lmjiis liliri ronfcetio fait, 
ut iimi niiidci uiiiiics abflteneril ncncctutis molestias, sod 

effeoerit mollam etlam ct juoundam Benectutem. — De 
Beneot, i. 

" Digna mihJ res turn omnium oognitionei tarn nostra 
familiaritate visa ail sad nt turn ad aenem Benex do 
Benectute, alo hoc libro ad amicus axniciasimuB de ami- 
cilia Bcripsl— el own Soaevola axpoauil nobia sermonem 

Lffilil de ainieitia. liabituiii ab Dlo mviiiii. it ruin altera 

genera 0, Fannio, are, De Amu it. i. 



friends, in the manner of Theopompus, an histo- 
rian famed for his severe and invective style b . 
Atticus was urging him to put the last hand to it, 
and to continue it down through Ceesar's govern- 
ment ; but he chose to reserve this last part for a 
distinct history, in which he designed to vindicate 
at large the justice of killing a tyrant. We meet 
with several hints of this design in his letters : in 
one to Atticus he says, " I have not yet polished 
my Anecdote to my mind ; as to what you would 
have me add, it will require a separate volume, but 
believe me, I could speak more freely and with less 
danger against that detested party, whilst the tyrant 
himself was alive than now when he is dead. For 
he, I know not why, indulged me wonderfully : but 
now, which way soever we stir, we are called back 
not only to Caesar's acts but to his very thoughts. 
Again, I do not well understand what you would 
have me write ; is it that the tyrant was killed 
according to the strict laws of justice ? Of that I 
shall both speak and write my thoughts fully on 
another occasion ." His other friends also seem 
to have had some notice of this work, for Trebo- 
nius, in a letter to him from Athens, after remind- 
ing him of his promise to give him a place in some 
of his writings, adds, " I do not doubt but that if 
you write anything on the death of Csesar, you will 
give me not the least share both of that act and of 
your afFection d ." Dion Cassius says, that he deli- 
vered this book sealed up to his son, with strict 
orders not to read or publish it till after his death ; 
but from this time he never saw his son, and left 
the piece probably unfinished : though some copies 
of it afterwards got abroad, from which his com- 
mentator, Asconius, has quoted several particu- 
lars e . 

In the end of May he began to move towards 
Rome, in order to assist at the senate on the first 
of June, and proposed to be at Tusculum on the 
twenty-sixth, of which he gave Atticus notice. 
There passed all the while a constant commerce of 
letters between him and Brutus, who desired a 
personal conference with him at Lanuvium, in 
which Cicero resolved to humour him, though he 
did not think it prudent at that time, when without 
any particular use it would only give jealousy to 
Antony. But the nearer he came to the city, the 
more he was discouraged from the thoughts of en- 
tering it : he understood that it was filled with 
soldiers ; that Antony came thither attended by a 
strong body of them ; that all his views were bent 
on war ; and that he designed to transfer the pro- 
vince of Gaul from D. Brutus to himself, by a 
vote of the peopled Hirtius dissuaded his going, 

b Ad Att. ii. (5; Dion. Hal. protiem. 1. 

*-• Librum memo Ilium avenSorov nondum. ut volui, 
perpolivL lata vera, quae tn oontexl vis, aliud quoddun 
separatum volumon exapeotant. Ego autom. rredas mini 
velim, minora perioulo existimo contra fflaa nefariaa 
partes vivo tyranno did potuiase, quam inortno. Die 
enim neacio quo paoto ferabal mo quidem mlrabiliter. 
Nunc quacunqus nos oommovimus, ad Caeaarianon modo 
acta, varum etlam cogitate revocamur. [Ad Att. xiv. 17.] 
Sod parum mtelligo quid mo vella aoribere— an alo nt in 

tyrannum jure Optima ca-Mim .' multa dicentur, nmlta 

Borlbentura nobis, Bed alio modoao tempore.— Ibid. w. .1. 
■' Namque lllud non dubito, quin, si quid do Interitu 

Csesaris scril>a>. non patiaria mo niinhnam partem ot rei 
el amorlatul ferre. — Bp. Fam \ii. Hi. 

< Dii>. p. 'X< ; it. ASOOZL in Tog. Candid. 

I Puto enim nobis Lanuvium eundum, non sine multo 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



237 



and resolved to stay away himself ; Varro sent him 
word that the veterans talked desperately against 
all those who did not favour them : Graeceius also 
admonished him, on the part of C. Cassius, to be 
upon his guard, for that certain armed men were 
provided for some attempt at Tusculum. All these 
informations determined him at last not to venture 
to the senate ; but to withdraw himself from that 
city, where he had not only flourished (he says) 
with the greatest, but lived even a slave with some 
dignity s. The major part of the senate followed 
his example and fled out of the city for fear of 
some violence, leaving the consuls, with a few of 
their creatures, to make what decrees they thought 
fit h . 

This turn of affairs made Cicero resolve to 
prosecute what he had long been projecting, his 
voyage to Greece, to spend a few months with his 
son at Athens. He despaired of any good from 
these consuls, and intended to see Rome no more 
till their successors entered into office, in whose 
administration he began to place all his hopes. He 
wrote, therefore, to Dolabella to procure him the 
grant of an honorary heutenancy ; and lest Antony, 
an angry man, as he calls him, should think him- 
self slighted, he wrote to him too on the same sub- 
ject. Dolabella immediately named him for one 
of his own lieutenants, which answered his purpose 
still better, for without obliging him to any service, 
or limiting him to any time, it left him at full 
liberty to go wherever he pleased ; so that he 
readily accepted it and prepared for his journey 1 . 
He heard in the meanwhile from Balbus that the 
senate would be held again on the fifth, when com- 
missions would be granted severally to Brutus and 
Cassius to buy up corn in Asia and Sicily for the 
use of the republic ; and that it would be decreed 
also at the same time, that provinces should be 
assigned to them with the other praetors at the 
expiration of the year k . 

Their case at this time was very remarkable, it 
being wholly new in Rome to see preetors driven 
out of the city, where their residence was absolutely 
sermone — Bruto enim placere, se a me conveniri. O rem 
odiosam et inexplicabilem ! puto me ergo iturum — An- 
tonii consilia narras turbulenta — sed mihi totum ejus con- 
silium ad bellum spectare videtur, si quidem D. Bruto 
provineia eripitur. — Ad Att. xv. 4. 

g Hirtius jam in Tuseulano est; mihique, ut absim, 
vehementer auctor est ; et ille quidem periculi causa— 
Varro autem noster ad ine epistolam inisit — in qua scrip - 
turn erat, veteranos eos, qui rejiciantur — improbissime 
loqui ; ut magno periculo Roma? sint futuri, qui ab eorum 
partibus dissentire videantur. — Ibid. 5. 

Graeceius ad me scripsit, C. Cassium ad se scripsisse, 
homines comparari, qui in Tusculanum armati mitteren- 
tur. — Id quidem mihi non videbatur ; sed cavendum 
tamen. — Ibid. xv. 8. 

Mihi vero deliberatum est, ut nimc quidem est, abesse 
ex ea urbe, in qua non modo florui cum summa, verurn 
etiani servivi cum aliqua dignitate.— Ibid. 5. 

h Kalendis Juniis cum in senatum, ut erat constitutum, 
venire vellemus, nietu perterriti repente diffugimus.— 
Phil. ii. 42. 

1 Etiam scripsi ad Antonium de legatione, he, si ad 
Dolabellam solum scripsissem, iracundus homo commo- 
veretur. [Ad Att. xv. 8.] Sed heus tu,— Dolabella me sibi 
legavit, &c— Ibid. 11. 

k A Balbo redditae mihi literae, fore Nonis senatum, ut 
Brutus in Asia, Cassius in Sicilia, f rumen turn emendum 
et ad urbem mittendum curarent. O rem miseram ! ait, 
eodem tempore decretum iri, uti is et reliquis prastoriis 
provincial decernantur.— Ibid. 9. 



necessary, and could not legally be dispensed with 
for above ten days in the year ; but Antony readily 
procured a decree to absolve them from the laws 1 ; 
being glad to see them in a situation so contempti- 
ble, stripped of their power and suffering a kind of 
exile, and depending, as it were, upon him for their 
protection : their friends, therefore, at Rome had 
been soliciting the senate for some extraordinary 
employment to be granted to them, to cover the ap- 
pearance of a flight and the disgrace of living in 
banishment, when invested with one of the first 
magistracies of the republic 111 . 

This was the ground of the commission just 
mentioned to buy corn, which seemed however to 
be below their character, and contrived as an affront 
to them by Antony, who affected still to speak of 
them always with the greatest respect 11 . But their 
friends thought anything better for them than to 
sit still in Italy, where their persons were exposed 
to danger from the veteran soldiers, who were all 
now in motion ; and that this employment would 
be a security to them for the present, as well as an 
opportunity of providing for their future safety, by 
enabling them to execute what they were now me- 
ditating, a design of seizing some provinces abroad 
and arming themselves in defence of the republic, 
which was what their enemies were most afraid of, 
and charged them with publicly, in order to make 
them odious. Cicero in the meantime, at their 
desire, had again recommended their interests to 
Hirtius, who gave him the following answer. 

" I wish that Brutus and Cassius could be pre- 
vailed with by you as easily to lay aside all crafty 
councils, as they can obtain by you from me what- 
ever they desire. They were leaving Italy, you 
say, when they wrote to you ? Whither, or where- 
fore ? do not let them go, I beseech you, my dear 
Cicero, nor suffer the republic to be wholly lost ; 
though/ overwhelmed indeed already by these ra- 
pines, burnings, murders. If they are afraid of any- 
thing, let them be upon their guard, but act nothing 
offensively ; they will not, I am confident, gain a 
tittle the more by the most vigorous, than the 
most pacific measures, if they use but caution. 
The things which are now stirring cannot last 
long, but if made the subject of war, will acquire 
present strength to hurt. Let me know your 
opinion of what may be expected from them." 
Cicero sent him word, that he would be answer- 
able for their attempting nothing desperate ;' and 
was informed, at the same time by Balbus, that 
Servilia, Brutus's mother, had undertaken that 
hey should not leave Italy . 

Servilia, though sister to Cato, had been one of 
Csesar's mistresses, and next to Cleopatra, the 
msot beloved of them all. In the civil war he 
gave her several rich farms out of his Pompeian 
confiscations, and is said to have bought a single 

1 Cur M. Brutus, te referente, legibus est solutus, si ab 
urbe plusquam decern dies abfuisset ?— Phil, ii 13. 

m Kal avTols els evTrpeiretav r\ jSovAt? g'itov (ppov- 
riarai Trpoa4Ta£ev,"i>a /at) to eu fiearco 5idaT7]/j.a (pevyeiv 
voiJ.i£oLVTO.—Appian. Bell. Civ. iv. 622 ; it. iii. 530. 

n Frumentum imponere — quodmunusinrepublica sordi- 
dius ? [Ad Att. xv. 10.] Patriae liberatores urbe carebant 
— quos tamen ipsi consules et in concionibus et in omni 
sermone laudabant. — Phil. i. 2. 

Cui rescripsi nihil illos callidius cogitare, idque confir- 
mavi — Balbus ad me — Serviliam confirmare non discessu- 
ros .— Ad Att. xv. 6. 



238 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



jewel for her at the price of about 50,000/. p She 
was a woman of spirit and intrigue, in great credit 
with the Caesarean party, and at this very time 
possessed the estate and villa of Pontius Aquila, 
one of the conspirators, which had been confis- 
cated and granted to her by Caesar. Cicero reckons 
it among the solecisms of the times, that the 
mother of the tyrant-killer should hold the estate 
of one of her son's accomplices i ; yet she had 
such a share in all the counsels of Brutus, that it 
made Cicero the less inclined to enter into them, 
or to be concerned with one whom he could not 
trust. " When he is influenced so much," says he, 
" by his mother's advice, or at least her entreaties, 
why should I interpose myself r ?" 

At their desire, however, he went over to them 
at Antium, to assist at a select council of friends, 
called to deliberate on what was proper for them 
to do with regard to this new commission. There 
were present among others, Favonius, Servilia, 
Porcia, Brutus's wife, and his sister Tertulla, the 
wife of Cassius. Brutus was much pleased at 
his coming, and after the first compliments, begged 
him to deliver his opinion to the company on the 
subject of their meeting. Upon which he pre- 
sently advised, what he had been considering on 
the road, " that Brutus should go to Asia, and 
undertake the affair of the corn : that the only 
thing to be done at present was, to provide for 
their safety ; that their safety was a certain benefit 
to the republic. Here Cassius interrupted him, 
and, with great fierceness in his looks, protested 
that he would not go to Sicily, nor accept as a 
favour what was intended as an affront, but would 
go to Achaia. Brutus said that he would go to 
Rome, if Cicero thought it proper for him ; but 
Cicero declared it impossible for him to be safe 
there. But supposing, says he, that I could be 
safe ? Why then, says Cicero, I should advise it 
by all means, as the best thing which you could 
do, and better than any province. After much 
discourse and complaining for the loss of their 
opportunities, for which Cassius laid all the blame 
on D. Brutus, Cicero said, that though that was 
true, yet it was in vain to talk of what was past ; 
and as the case then stood, he saw nothing left but 
to follow his advice, to which they all at last 
seemed to agree, especially when Servilia under- 
took by her mediation, to get the affair of the 
corn left out of their commission ; and Brutus 
consented that the plays and shows, with which 
he was to entertain the city shortly as praetor, 
should be given by proxy in his absence. Cicero 
took his leave, pleased with nothing in the con- 
ference but the consciousness of having done his 
duty : for as to the rest, he gave all, he says, for 
lost ; found the vessel not only broken, but shat- 
tered to pieces, and neither prudence, reason, or 
design in what they were doing ; so that if he 
had any doubt before, he had none now, but longed 
to get abroad as soon as possible s ." 

P Ante alias dilexit M. Bruti niatrem Serviliam,— cui 
sexagies II. S. margaritam inercatus est, &c— Sueton. in 
J. Caes. 50. 

q Quin etiam hoc ipso tempore multa viroaoXoiKa : 
Pontii Neapolitanum a matre tyrannoctoni possideri.— Ad 
Att. xiv. 21. 

r Matris consilio cum utatur, vel etiam precious, quid 
me interponam ? — Ad Att. xv. 10. 

« Ad Att. xv. 11, 12. 



Octavius, upon his coming to Rome, was very 
roughly received by Antony : who, despising his 
age and want of experience, was so far from treat- 
ing him as Caesar's heir, or giving him possession 
of his estate, that he openly threatened and 
thwarted him in all his pretensions ; nor would 
suffer him to be chosen tribune, to which he 
aspired, with the seeming favour of the people, in 
the room of that Cinna who was killed at Caesar's 
funeral 1 . This necessarily drew the regard of the 
republican party towards him, and Cicero began 
to take the more notice of him in proportion as 
Antony grew more and more formidable : at 
present he gives the following account of him. 
" Octavianus, I perceive, has parts and spirit, and 
seems to be affected, as we could wish, towards 
our heroes : but how far we may trust his age, 
name, succession, education, is a matter of great 
deliberation. His father-in-law, who came to see 
me at Astura, thinks not at all. He must be che- 
rished however, if for nothing else, yet to keep 
him at a distance from Antony. Marcellus acts 
nobly, if he instils into him a good disposition 
towards our friends. He seemed to be much in- 
fluenced by him, but to have no confidence in 
Pansa and Hirtius ; his natural disposition is good, 
if it does but hold^." 

In the midst of these affairs with which his 
mind, as he complains, was much distracted, he 
pursued his literary studies with his usual ardour ; 
and to avoid the great resort of company, which 
interrupted him, at his house near Baiae, he re- 
moved to his Pompeian villa, on the south.'side of 
Naples. Here he began his book of Offices, for 
the use and instruction of his son, designed, he, 
says, to be the fruit of this excursion ; he com- 
posed also an oration, adapted to the state of the 
times, and sent it to Atticus, to be suppressed or 
published at his discretion ; promising him withal 
to finish and send him in a short time his Secret 
History or Anecdote, in the manner of Heraclides, 
to be kept close in his cabinet x . 

Before he could leave Italy, he was obliged 
to return to Tusculum to settle his private 
affairs, and provide his equipage ; and wrote to 
Dolabella, to give orders for the mules and other 
necessaries, which the government used to furnish 
to those who went abroad with a public character T, 
Here Atticus and he took leave of each other, 
with all possible marks of the most sincere and 
tender affection. The unsettled condition of the 
times, and the uncertainty when, or in what cir- 
cumstances they should meet again, raised several 
melancholy reflections in them both, which, as 
soon as they parted, drew many tears from Atticus, 



1 In locum tribuni plebis forte demortui candidatum 
petitorem se ostendit — sed adversante conatibus suis M. 
Antonio consule — Sueton. in August. 10; Dio, p. 272; 
App. p. 506. 

« Ad Att. xv. 12. 

x Nos hie (pikoacxpoviieva (quidenimaliud?) etra irepl 
tov KaOrjKOvros magnifice explicamus, Trpoacpcovov/jLeu 
que Ciceroni ; qua de re enim potius pater filio? Deinde 
alia. Quid quaeres? Extabit opera peregrinationis hujus. 
—Ego autem in Pompeianum properabam, non quod hoc 
loco quidquam pulchrius, sed interpellatores illic minus 
molesti — 

Orationem tibi misi. Ejus custodiendas et proferendae 
arbitrium tuum— jam probo 'Hpa* Aeldiov, praesertim cum 
tu tantopere delectere — enitar igitur. — Ad Att. xv. 13, 14. 

y Ibid. 18. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



289 



of which he gave Cicero an account in his next 
letter, with a promise to follow him into Greece. 
Cicero answered him with equal tenderness : "It 
moved me," says he, "to hear of the tears which 
you shed after you left me ; had you done it in my 
presence, I should have dropt perhaps all thoughts 
of my journey. That part however pleases me, 
where you comfort yourself with the hopes of our 
meeting again shortly, which expectation indeed is 
what chiefly supports me ; I will write to you 
perpetually, give you an account of everything 
which relates to Brutus, send you very shortly my 
treatise on Glory, and finish for you the other 
work, to be locked up with your treasure, z " &c. 

These little passages from familiar letters, illus- 
trate more effectually the real characters of men, 
than any of their more specious and public acts. It 
is commonly thought the part of a statesman, to 
divest himself of everything natural, and banish 
every passion that does not serve his interest or 
ambition ; but here we see a quite different charac- 
ter : one of the greatest statesmen of the world 
cherishing and cultivating in himself the soft and 
social affections of love and friendship, as knowing 
them to be designed equally by nature for the com- 
fort as well of public as private life. 

Atticus likewise, whose philosophy was as incom- 
patible as ambition with all affections that did not 
terminate in himself, was frequently drawn by the 
goodness of his nature to correct the viciousness 
of his principle. He had often reproved Cicero 
for an excess of love to his daughter Tullia, yet 
he no sooner got a little Attica of his own than he 
began to discover the same fondness, which gave 
Cicero occasion to repay his raillery with great 
politeness. " I rejoice," says he, " to perceive that 
you take so much delight in your little girl. I 
love her already myself, and know her to be 
amiable, though I have never seen her. Adieu 
then to Patro, and all your Epicurean school." In 

z Te, ut a me discesseras, lacrymasse, moleste ferebam. 
Quod si me praesente fecisses, consilium totius itineris 
fortasse mutassem. Sed illud pra?clare, quod te consolata 
est spes brevi tempore congrediendi : qua? quidem exspec- 
tatio me maxime sustentat. Mese tibi literae non deerunt. 
De Bruto scribam ad te omnia. Librum tibi celeriter 
mittam de gloria. Excudam aliquid 'HpaxXeiSiov, quod 
lateat in thesauris tuis. — Ad Att. xv. 27. 

N. B. — The treatise here mentioned on Glory, which he 
sent soon after to Atticus, and published in two books, 
was actually preserved, and subsisting, long after the in- 
vention of printing, yet happened to perish unhappily for 
want of being produced into public light, by the help of 
that admirable art. — Raimundus Superantius made a pre- 
sent of it to Petrarch, who, as he tells the story in one of 
his epistles, lent it to his schoolmaster, who, being old and 
poor, pawned it for the relief of his necessities into some un- 
known hand, whence Petrarch could never recover it, upon 
the old man's death. About two centuries after, it appeared 
to have been in the possession of Bernardus Justinianus, 
and was mentioned in the catalogue of his books, which 
he bequeathed to a monastery of nuns ; but when it could 
not be found in that monastery after the strictest search, 
it was generally believed, that Petrus Alcyonius, who was 
physician to that house, and had the free use of the library,' 
had stolen it ; and. after transcribing as much of it as he 
could into his own writings, had destroyed the original for 
fear of a discovery ; it being observed by the critics, that 
in his book De Exilio, there were many bright passages, 
not well connected with the rest of the work, which seemed 
to be above his taste and genius.— Petrarch. Epist. xv. 1 ; 
Rer. Senilium. Paull. Manut. Not. ; Ad Att. xv. 27 ; Bayle 
Diet, in Alcionius ; Menagiana, v. iv. p. 86. 



another letter, u I am mightily pleased with the 
fondness that you express for your little daughter, 
and to see you feel at last, that the love of our 
children does not flow from habit or fashion, but 
from nature ; for if that be not so, there can be no 
natural conjunction between one man and another, 
without which all society must necessarily be dis- 
solved a ." 

There was now great expectation of the shows 
and plays which Brutus, as praetor of the city, 
was going to exhibit, according to annual custom, 
in honour of Apollo, on the third of July ; and 
all people were attentive and impatient to see in 
what manner they would be received. Brutus 
wrote to Cicero, to beg that he would grace them 
with his presence ; but Cicero thought the request 
absurd, nor at all agreeable to Brutus's usual pru- 
dence. His answer was, "that he was got too far 
upon his journey to have it now in his power, and 
that it would be very improper for him, who had not 
been in Rome since it was filled with soldiers, not 
so much out of regard to his danger as his dignity, 
to run thither on a sudden to see plays ; that in 
such times as these, though it was reputable for 
those to give plays whose office required it, yet 
for his seeing them, as it was not necessary, so 
neither would it be thought decent V He was 
heartily solicitous, however, that they might meet 
with all imaginable encouragement, and charged 
Atticus to send him a particular account of what 
passed on each day from their first opening. 

The success of them answered all their hopes, 
for they were received with an incredible applause 
by all ranks, though Antony's brother, Caius, as 
the next praetor in office, presided at them. One 
of the plays was " Tereus," a tragedy of Accius, 
which having many strokes in it on the characters 
and acts of tyrants, was infinitely clapped by the 
people. Atticus performed his part to Cicero, 
and sent him a punctual account of what passed 
every day, which he constantly communicated to 
Brutus, who was now in his neighbourhood ; in 
Nesis, a little isle on the Campanian shore, the 
seat of young Lucullus. In his answer to Atticus, 
" Your letters," says he, " were very acceptable to 
Brutus : I spent several hours with him, soon after 
I received them ; he seemed to be delighted with 
the account of ' Tereus,' and thought himself more 
obliged to the poet Accius who made it, than to 
the praetor Antony, who presided at it. But the 
more joy you send us of this sort, the more indig- 
nation it gives me to see the Roman people employ 
their hands in clapping plays, not in defending the 
republic. This perhaps may provoke our enemies 
to discover themselves before they intended it, yet 
if they be but mortified, I care not by what 

a Filiolam tibi jam Romas jucundam esse gaudeo ; eam- 
que, quam nunquam vidi, tamen et amo, et amabilemesse 
certo scio. Etiam atque etiam valete Patron et tui condis- 
cipuli.— Ad Att. v. 19 ; vii. 20. 

b In quibus unum alienum summa sua prudentia, id 
est illud, ut spectem ludos suos. Rescripsi scilicet, 
primum me jam profectum, ut non integrum sit. Dein 
aTOTrcoTarov esse, me, qui Romam omnino post base anna 
non accesserim, neque id tarn periculi mei causa fecerim, 
quam dignitatis, subito ad ludos venire. Tali enim tem- 
pore ludos facere illi honestum est, cui necesse est : spec- 
tare mihi, ut non est necesse, sic ne honestum quidem est. 
Equidem illos celebrari, et esse quam gratissiinos mirabi- 
liter cupio.— Ad Att. xv. 26. 



I?- 



240 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



means c ." In a speech made afterwards to the 
senate, he urges this judgment of the city as a pro- 
per lesson to Antony, to teach him the way to glory. 
" O happy Brutus !" says he, " who when driven 
from Rome by force of arms, resided still in the 
hearts and bowels of his citizens, who made them- 
selves amends for the absence of their deliverer, 
by their perpetual applauses and acclamations d ." 
But there was one thing which, through the 
inadvertency of Brutus's managers, or the contriv- 
ance of the prsetor Antony, gave Brutus some 
uneasiness : that in the edict for proclaiming his 
shows, the* month, instead of Quintilis, was styled 
July, by its new name lately given to it in honour 
of Csesar ; for it raised great speculation, and 
was thought strange, that Brutus by edict should 
acknowledge and, confirm an act, contrived to 
perpetuate the honour of tyranny. This little 
circumstance greatly disturbed him, imagining, 
that it would be reflected upon as a mean condes- 
cension ; and since it could not be remedied as to 
the plays, he resolved to correct it for the rest of 
the shows ; and gave immediate orders, that the 
hunting's of the wild beasts, which were to follow, 
should be proclaimed for the thirteenth of Quin- 
tilis e . 

While Cicero continued in these parts, he spent 
the greatest share of his time with Brutus ; and 
as they were one day together, L. Libo came to 
them, with letters just received from young S. 
Pompey, his son-in-law, with proposals of an ac- 
commodation addressed to the consuls, on which 
he desired their opinion. Cicero thought them 
drawn with great gravity and propriety of expres- 
sion, excepting a few inaccuracies, and advised 
only to change the address ; and instead of the 
consuls, to whom alone they were directed, to add 
the other magistrates, with the senate and people 
of Rome, lest the consuls should suppress them, 
as belonging only to themselves. These letters 
brought in substance, " that Pompey was now 
master of seven legions : that as he had just 
stormed a town called Borea, he received the news 
of Csesar's death, which caused a wonderful joy, 
and change of affairs through the province of 
Spain, and a concourse of people to him from all 
parts. The sum of his demands was, that all who 
had the command of armies should dismiss them ; 
but to Libo he signified, that unless his father's 
estate and house at Rome, which Antony now pos- 
sessed, were restored to him, he would agree to 
nothing f ." 

e Bruto tua? liters; grata; erant. Fui enim apud ilium 
multas horas in Neside, cum paullo ante tuas literas acce- 
pissem. Delectari mihi Tereo videbatur ; et habere majo- 
rem Accio, quam Antonio, gratiam. Mihi autem quo 
la;tiora sunt, eo plus stomachi et molestiae est, populum 
Romanum manus suas, non in defendenda republica sed 
in plaudcndo consumere. M ihi quidem videntur, istorum 
animi incendi ctiam ad repraesentandam improbitatem 
suam. Sed tamen dum modo doleant aliquid, doleant 
quodlibet.— Ad Att. xvi. 2. 

d Quid ? Apollinarium ludorum plausus, vel tcstimonia 
potius, et judicia populi Romani parum magna videban- 
tur? O beatos illos, qui cum adesse ipsis propter vim 
armorum non licebat, aderant tamen, et in medullis populi 
Romani ac visceribus lucrebant ! nisi forte Accio turn 
plaudi — et non Bruto putabatis, &c— Phil. i. 15. 

e Quam ille doluit de Nonis Juliis ! mirifice est contur- 
batus. Itaquc sese scripturum aiebat, ut venationem etiam, 
quae postridie ludos Apollinares futura est, proscriberent, 
iii. Id. Quint.— Ad. Att. xvi. 4. ' Ibid. 



This overture from Pompey was procured chiefly 
by the management of Lepidus & : who having the 
province of Spain assigned to him, where Pompey 
was very strong, had no mind to be engaged in a 
war at such a distance from Rome, and drawn off 
from attending to the main point in view, the event 
of affairs in Italy ; for which purpose, on pretence 
of the public quiet, he made the offer of a treaty 
on honourable terms to Pompey, and " that, on 
condition of laying down his arms, and quitting 
the province, he should be restored to all his 
estates and honours, and have the command of 
the whole naval power of Rome, in the same 
manner as his father had it before him ; all which 
was proposed and recommended to the senate by 
Antony himself V Where to preserve a due 
respect to Ceesar's acts, by which Pompey's estates 
had been confiscated, it was decreed that the same 
sum, for which they had been sold, should be given 
to him by the public, to enable him to purchase 
them again. This amounted to above five millions 
and a-half of our money, exclusive of his jewels, 
plate, and furniture ; which being wholly embez- 
zled, he was content to lose 5 . On these terms, 
ratified by the authority of the senate, Pompey 
actually quitted Spain, and came to Marseilles. 
The project was wisely concerted by Lepidus and 
Antony ; for, while it carried a show of modera- 
tion and disposition to peace, it disarmed a despe- 
rate enemy, who was in condition to give a great 
obstruction to their designs, and diversion to their 
arms, at a time when the necessity of their inte- 
rests required their presence and whole attention 
at home, to lay a firm foundation of their power in 
the heart and centre of the empire. 

There happened an incident at this time of a 
domestic kind, which gave some pleasure both to 
Cicero and Atticus : the unexpected conversion of 
their nephew Quintus. He had long ago deserted 
his father and uncle, and attached himself wholly 
to Csesar, who supplied him liberally with money. 
On Csesar's death he adhered still to the same 
cause, and was in the utmost confidence with 
Antony ; and, as Atticus calls him, his right 
hand k , or the minister of all his projects in the 
city ; but upon some late disgust, he began to make 
overtures to his friends of coming over to Brutus, 
pretending to have conceived an abhorrence of 
Antony's designs, and signifying to his father that 
Antony would have engaged him to seize some 
strong post in the city, and declare him dic- 
tator ; and upon his refusal, was become his 
enemy 1 . The father, overjoyed at this change, 
carried his son to Cicero, to persuade him of his 



e Phil. v. 13, 14, &c. ; it. Phil. xiii. 4, 5, &c. 

h App. p. 528 ; Dio, xlv. 275. 

i Salvis enim actis Cajsaris, qua: concordiae causa defen- 
dimus, Pompeio sua domus patebit, eamquo non minoris, 

quam Antonius emit, rcdimet decrevistis tantam pecu- 

niam Pompeio, quantam ex bonis patriis in prasdaj dissi- 
patione inimicus victor rcdegisset — nam argentum, vestem, 
supellectilem, vinum amittet a;quo animo, qua; ille helluo 
dissipavit — atque illud septies millies, quod adolescenti, 
Patres Conscripti, spopondistis, ita describetur, ut videatur 
a vobis Cn. Pompeii films in patrimonio suo collocatus. — 
Phil. xiii. 5. 

k Quintus Alius, ut scribis, Antonii est dextella.— Ad 
Att. xiv. 20. 

1 Quintus pater cxultat Isetitia. Scripsit enim Alius, se 
idcirco profugere ad Brutum voluisse, quod cum sibi nego- 
tium daret Antonius, ut cum dictatorem efficeret, presidium 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



241 



sincerity, and to beg his intercession also with 
Atticus, to be reconciled to him ; but Cicero, who 
knew the fickleness and perfidy of the youth, gave 
little credit to him : taking the whole for a con- 
trivance only to draw money from them ; yet in 
compliance with their request, he wrote what they 
desired to Atticus, but sent him another letter at 
the same time with his real thoughts on the 
matter. 

" Our nephew Quintus," says he, " promises to 
be a very Cato. Both his father and he have been 
pressing me, that I would undertake for him to 
you ; yet so, that you should not believe him, till 
you yourself had seen the effects of it. I shall 
give him therefore such a letter to you as he would 
have ; but let it not move you, for I have written 
this lest you should imagine that I am moved my- 
self. The gods grant that he may perform what 
he promises, for it will be a common joy to us all. 
I will say nothing more of it at present™, " &c. 

But young Quintus got the better, at last, of all 
Cicero's suspicions ; and after spending several 
days with him, convinced him, by his whole beha- 
viour and conversation, that he was in earnest : 
so that he not only recommended him very affec- 
tionately to Atticus, but presented him also to 
Brutus, to make the offer of his service to him in 
person. " If he had not wholly persuaded me," 
says he, " that what I am saying of him is certainly 
true, I should not have done what I am going to 
tell you, for I carried the youth with me to Bru- 
tus, who was so well satisfied with him, that he 
gave him full credit, without suffering me to be his 
sponsor ; in commending him, he mentioned you 
in the kindest manner, and at parting, embraced 
and kissed him. Wherefore, though there is reason 
rather to congratulate, than to entreat you, yet I 
beg, that whatever he may have done hitherto, 
through the weakness of age, with more levity than 
became him, you would believe it all to be now 
over 11 ," &c. 

Quintus kept his word with them ; and to give 
proof of his zeal and sincerity, was so hardy, 
before the end of the year, as to undertake to 
accuse Antony to the people, for plundering the 
temple of Opis . But this accident of changing 
his party, which gave so much joy at present to 
the whole family,. though owing rather to a giddi- 
ness of temper than any good principle, proved 
fatal not long after, both to the young man and his 
father : as it seems to have been the most probable 
cause of their being proscribed and murdered the 

occuparet, id recusasset ; recusasse autem se, ne patris ani- 
mum offenderet ; ex eo sibi ilium hostem. — Ad Att. xv. 21. 

m Quintus filius mihi pollicetur se Catonem. Egit autem 
et pater et filius, ut tibi sponderem : sed ita, ut turn ere- 
deres, cum ipse cognosces. Huic ego literas ipsius arbitratu 
dabo. Eae ne te moverint ; has scripsi in earn partem, ne 
me motum putares. Dii faxint, ut faciat ea, quae promittit. 
Commune enim gaudium. Sed ego nihil dico amplius.— 
Ad Att. xvi. 1. 

n Quod nisi fidem mihi fecisset, judicassemque hoc quod 
dico firmum fore, non fecissem id, quod dicturus sum. 
Duxi enim mecum adolescentem ad Brutum : sic ei pro- 
batum est, quod ad te scribo, ut ipse crediderit, me spon- 
sorem accipere noluerit. Eumque laudans amicissime tui 
mentionem fecerit. Complexus, osculatusque dimiserit. 
— Ad Att. xvi. 5. 

° Quintus scribit, se ex Nonis iis, quibus nos magna 
gessimus, aedem Opis explicaturum, idque ad populum. — 
Ibid. 14. 



year following, by Antony's order, together with 
Cicero himself. 

Cicero was now ready for his voyage, and had 
provided three little yachts or galleys to transport 
himself and his attendants ; but as there was a 
report of legions arriving daily from abroad, and 
of pirates also at sea, he thought it would be safer 
to sail in company with Brutus and Cassius, who 
had drawn together a fleet of good force, which 
now lay upon the coast?. He gave several hints 
of this design to Brutus, who received it more 
coldly than he expected, and seemed uncertain and 
irresolute about the time of his own going. He 
resolved, therefore, to embark without farther de- 
lay, though in some perplexity to the last, about 
the expediency of the voyage, and jealous of its 
being censured, as a desertion of his country. But 
Atticus kept up his spirits, by assuring him con- 
stantly in his letters that all people approved it at 
Rome, provided that he kept his word, of returning 
by the first of the new year^. 

He sailed slowly along the coast towards Rhe- 
gium, going ashore every night to lodge with some 
friend or client. He spent one day at Velia, the 
native place of Trebatius ; whence he wrote a kind 
letter to him, dated the nineteenth of July, advis- 
ing him " by no means to sell that family estate," 
as he then designed, " situated so healthfully and 
agreeably, and affording a convenient retreat from 
the confusion of the times, among a people who 
entirely loved him r ." At this place he began his 
treatise of "Topics," or the art of finding arguments 
on any question : it was an abstract of Aristotle's 
piece on the same subject, which Trebatius, hap- 
pening once to meet with in Cicero's Tusculan 
library, had begged of him to explain. But Cicero 
never found leisure for it till this voyage, in which 
he was reminded of the task by the sight of Velia ; 
and though he had neither Aristotle nor any other 
book to help him, he drew it up from his memory, 
and finished it as he sailed before he came to Rhe- 
gium ; whence he sent it to Trebatius, with a letter 
dated the twenty-seventh. He excuses the ob- 
scurity of it from the nature of the argument, 
requiring great attention to understand, and great 
application to reduce it to practice : in which, 
however, he promises to assist him, if he lived to 
return, and found the republic subsisting 8 . 

In the same voyage, happening to be looking 
over his treatise on the Academic Philosophy, he 

P Legiones enim adventare dicuntur. Haec autem navi- 
gatio habet quasdam suspiciones periculi. Itaque consti- 
tuebam uti ofioirXoia. Paratiorem offendi Brutum, quam 
audiebam. — Nam Cassii classem, quae plane bellaest, non 
numero ultra fretum. — Ad Att. xvi. 4. 

1 Bruto cum saepe injecissem de buoirKoia, non 
perinde atque ego putaram, arripere visus est — [Ibid. .'>.] 
Consilium meum quod ais quotidie magis laudari, non 
moleste fero ; expectabamque, si quid ad me scriberes. 
Ego enim in varios sermones incidebam. Quin etiam 
idcirco trahebam, ut quam diutissime integrum esset. 
[Ibid. 2 ; Ep. Fam. xi. 29.] Scribis enim in ccelum ferri 
profectionem meam, sed ita, si ante Kal. Jan. rcdeam. 
Quod quidem certe enitar. [Ibid. 6.] Ea mente discessi, 
ut adessem Kal. Jan. quod initium cogendi senatus fore 
videbatur.— Phil. i. 2. 

* Ep. Fam. vii. 20. 

s Itaque ut primum Velia navigareeo?pi, institui Topica 
Aristoteleaconscribere, abipsa urbecommonitus, amantis- 
sima tui. Eum librum tibi misi Rhegio, scriptum quam 
plenissime ilia res scribi potuit, &c— Ep Fam. vii. 19. 
R 



242 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



observed the preface of the third book to be the 
same that he had prefixed to his book on Glory, 
which he had lately sent to Atticus. It was his 
custom, it seems, to prepare at leisure a number of 
different proems adapted to the general view of his 
studies, and ready to be applied to any of his 
works which he should afterwards publish ; so that 
by mistake he had used this preface twice without 
remembering it : he composed a new one therefore 
on sbip-board for the piece on Glory, and sent it 
to Atticus, with orders to bind it up with his copy 
in the place of the former preface*. So wonderful 
was his industry and love of letters, that neither 
the inconvenience of sailing, which he always hated, 
nor the busy thoughts which must needs intrude 
upon him on leaving Italy in such a conjuncture, 
could disturb the calm and regular pursuit of his 
studies. 

From Rhegium, or rather Leucopetra, a promon- 
tory close by it, he passed over to Syracuse on the 
first of August, where he staid but one night, though 
in a city particularly devoted to him, and under his 
special protection : but he was unwilling to give um- 
brage or suspicion to those at Rome of having any 
views abroad which concerned the public 11 ; he set 
sail, therefore, again the next morning towards 
Greece, but was driven back by contrary winds to 
Leucopetra ; and, after a second attempt with no 
better success, was forced to repose himself in the 
villa of his friend Valerius, and wait for the oppor- 
tunity of a fair wind x . 



1 Nunc negligentiam meam cognosce, De Gloria librum 
ad te misi, at in eo procemium id est, quod in Academico 
tertio. Id evenit ob earn rem, quod habeo volumen pro- 
cemiorum : ex eo eligere soleo, cum aliquod avyypaixjj.a 
institui. Itaque jam in Tusculano, qui non meminissem 
me abusum isto procemio, conjeci id in eum librum, quem 
tibi misi. Cum autem in navi legerem Academicos, 
agnovi erratum meum, itaque statim novum procemium 
exaravi ; tibi misi. — Ad Att. xvi. 6. 

N.B. A collection of pre/aces prepared beforehand, and 
calculated indifferently for any treatise, will be thought 
perhaps a strange and fantastical way of composing : but 
though they had no necessary connection with the subject 
of any particular work, they were yet adapted to the gene- 
ral view of his writings, and contrived severally to serve 
the different ends which he proposed by the publication of 
them. Thus, in some he takes occasion to celebrate the 
praises of his principal friends, to whom they were 
addressed ; in others, to enter into a general defence of 
Philosophy, in answer to those who censured him for 
spending so much time upon it : in some, he represents 
the miserable state of the times, and subversion of the 
republic, in a manner proper to alarm his citizens, and 
rouse them to assert their ancient liberty ; in others, he 
contrives to give a beautiful description of some of his 
villas or gardens, where the scene of the dialogue was laid, 
all which the reader will find very agreeably executed in 
the prefaces of his philosophical pieces ; which are yet 
connected so artfully with the treatises that follow them, 
and lead us so naturally into the argument, as if they had 
been originally contrived for the sake of introducing it.— 
Tusc. Disp. init. ; De Div. ii. 1 ; De Fin. i. 1 ; DeLegib. ii. 1. 

" Kal. Sext. veni Syracusas— quae tamen urbs mihi con- 
junctissima, plus una me nocte cuptens retinere non potuit. 
Veritus sum, ne mens repentinus ad meos necessarios 
adventus suspicionis aliquid afi'erret, si essem commoratus. 
—Phil. i. 3. 

x Cum me ex Sicilia ad Leucopetram, quod est promon- 
torium agri Rhegini, venti detidissent ; ab eo loco con- 
scendi, ut transmitterem ; nee ita multum provectus, 
rejectus austro sum in eum ipsum locum — [Ibid.] ibi cum 
ventum expectarem : erat enim villa Valerii nostri, ut 
familiariter essem, et libenter. — Ad Att. xvi. 7. 



Here the principal inhabitants of the country 
came to pay him their compliments ; some of them 
fresh from Rome, who brought great news of an 
unexpected turn of affairs there towards a general 
pacification : ' ' That Antony seemed disposed to 
listen to reason ; to desist from his pretensions to 
Gaul, submit to the authority of the senate, and 
make up matters with Brutus and Cassius, who 
had written circular letters to all the principal se- 
nators to beg their attendance in the senate on the 
first of September ; and that Cicero's absence was 
particularly l'egretted, and even blamed at such a 
crisis ?." This agreeable account of things made 
him presently drop all thoughts of pursuing his 
voyage ; in which he was confirmed likewise by 
letters from Atticus, who, contrary to his former 
advice, pressed him now, in strong and pathetic 
terms, to come back again to Rome. 

He returned therefore by the same course which 
he had before taken, and came back to Velia on the 
seventeenth of August : Brutus lay within three 
miles of it with his fleet, and hearing of his arrival, 
came immediately on foot to salute him. " He de- 
clared himself exceedingly pleased with Cicero's 
return ; owned that he had never approved, though 
he had not dissuaded the voyage, thinking it inde- 
cent to give advice to a man of his experience ; but 
now told him plainly that he had escaped two great 
imputations on his character, — the one, of too hasty 
a despair and desertion of the common cause ; the 
other, of the vanity of going to see the Olympic 
games. This last, (as Cicero says,) would have 
been shameful for him in any state of the republic ; 
but in the present, unpardonable ; and professes 
himself therefore greatly obliged to the winds for 
preserving him from such an infamy, and, like 
good citizens, blowing him back to the service of 
his country 2 ." 

Brutus informed him likewise of what had passed 
in the senate on the first of August, and how Piso 
had signalised himself by a brave and honest speech, 
and some vigorous motions in favour of the public 
liberty, in which nobody had the courage to second 
him. He produced also Antony's edict, and their 
answer to it, which pleased Cicero very much : but 
on the whole, though he was still satisfied with his 
resolution of returning, yet he found no such rea- 
son for it as his first intelligence had suggested, nor 
any hopes of doing much service at Rome ; where 
there was not one senator who had the courage to 
support Piso, nor Piso himself the resolution to 
appear in the senate again the next day a . 

This was the last conference that he ever had 
with Brutus ; who, together with Cassius, left Italy 
soon after it. They were both to succeed of course, 

y Rhegini quidam, illustres homines eo venerunt, Roma 
sane recentes — haec afferebant, edictum Bruti et Cassii ; et 
fore frequentem senatum Kal. a Bruto et Cassio literas 
missas ad consulares et praetorios ; ut adessent, rogare. 
Summam spem nunciabant, fore, ut Antonius cederet, res 
conveniret, nostri Romam redirent. Addebant etiam me 
desiderari, subaccusari, <Sic. — Ad Att. xvi. 7. 

z Nam xvi. Kal. Sept. cum venisscm Veliam, Brutus 
audivit, erat enim cum suis navibus apud Ileletem flu- 
vium citra Veliam millia passuum iii. pedibus ad me 
statim. Dii immortales, quam valde ille reditu, vel potius 
reversione mea lsetatus est ? Effudit ilia omnia, quae 
tacuerat — se autem la^tari quod effugissem duas maximas 
vituperationes, &c. — Ad Att. xvi. 7 ; Ep. Fam. xii. 25, it. 
ad Brut. 15. 

a Ad Att. ibid. ; Phil. i. 4, 5 ; Ep. Fam. xii. 2. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



243 



as all praetors did at the expiration of their office, 
to the government of some province, which was 
assigned to them either by lot, or by an extraordi- 
nary decree of the senate. Caesar had intended 
Macedonia for the one, and Syria for the other ; 
but as these were two of the most important com- 
mands of the empire, and would throw a great 
power into their hands at a time when their ene- 
mies were taking measures to destroy them, so 
Antony contrived to get two other provinces de- 
creed to them of an inferior kind ; Crete to Brutus, 
and Cyrene to Cassius ; and by a law of the people, 
procured Macedonia and Syria to be conferred upon 
himself and his colleague Dolabella. In consequence 
of which, he sent his brother Caius in all haste to 
possess himself of the first, and Dolabella to secure 
the second, before their rivals could be in condition 
to seize them by force, of which they were much 
afraid ; taking it for granted that this was the pro- 
ject which Brutus and Cassius were now meditating. 
Cassius had acquired a great reputation in the East, 
by his conduct in the Parthian war ; and Brutus was 
highly honoured in Greece for his eminent virtue 
and love of philosophy : they resolved therefore to 
slight the petty provinces which were granted to 
them, and to try their fortunes in the more power- 
ful ones that Csesar had promised them ; and with 
that view had provided the fleets above-mentioned 
to transport themselves to those countries which 
they had destined for the scene of action: Brutus 
to Macedonia, Cassius to Syria, where we shall 
soon have occasion to give a farther account of 
their success b . 

Cicero in the mean while pursued his journey 
towards Rome, where he arrived on the last of the 
month. On his approach to the city, such multi- 
tudes flocked out to meet him, that the whole day 
was spent in receiving the compliments and con- 
gratulations of his friends as he passed along to his 
house c . The senate met the next morning, to 
which he was particularly summoned by Antony, 
but excused himself by a civil message, as being 
too much indisposed by the fatigue of his journey. 
Antony took this as an affront, and in great rage 
threatened openly in the senate to order his house 
to be pulled down, if he did not come immediately ; 
till, by the interposition of the assembly, he was 
dissuaded from using any violence d . 

The business of the day was to decree some new 
and extraordinary honours to the memory of Csesar, 
with a religious supplication to him as to a divinity. 
Cicero was determined not to concur in it, yet knew 
that an opposition would not only be fruitless, but 
dangerous ; and for that reason staid away. An- 
tony, on the other hand, was desirous to have him 
there, fancying that he would either be frightened 
into a compliance, which would lessen him with his 
own party, or, by opposing what was intended, make 
himself odious to the soldiery ; but as he was ab- 
sent, the decree passed without any contradiction. 

The senate met again the next day, when Antony 
thought fit to absent himself, and leave the stage 
clear to Cicero e ; who accordingly appeared, and 

b Plut. in Brut. ; App. 527, 533 ; Phil. ii. 13, 38. 

c Plut. in Cic." 

d Cumque de via languerem, mihique displicirem, misi 
pro amicitia qui hoc ei diceret, at ille, vobis audientibus, 
cum fabris se domum meam venturum esse dixit, &c. — 
Phil. i. 5. 

e Veni postridie, ipse non venit. — Phil. v. 7. 



delivered the first of those speeches which, in imi- 
tation of Demosthenes, were called afterwards his 
Philippics. He opens it with a particular account 
of the motives of his late voyage, and sudden re- 
turn ; of his interview with Brutus, and his regret 
at leaving him. " At Velia," says he, " I saw 
Brutus : with what grief I saw him, I need not tell 
you : I could not but think it scandalous for me to 
return to a city from which he was forced to retire, 
and to find myself safe in any place where he could 
not be so ; yet Brutus was not half so much moved 
with it as I, but, supported by the consciousness of 
his noble act, showed not the least concern for 
his own case, while he expressed the greatest for 
yours." He then declares, " that he came to se- 
cond Piso ; and in case of any accidents, of which 
many seemed to surround him, to leave that day's 
speech as a monument of his perpetual fidelity to 
his country f ." Before he enters upon the state of 
the republic, he takes occasion to complain of " the 
unprecedented violence of Antony's treatment of 
him the day before, who would not have been 
better pleased with him had he been present ; for 
he should never have consented to pollute the re- 
public with so detestable a religion, and blend the 
honours of the gods with those of a dead man." 
He " prays the gods to forgive both the senate and 
the people for their forced consent to it : that he 
would never have decreed it, though it had been to 
old Brutus himself, who first delivered Rome from 
regal tyranny, and, at the distance of five centuries, 
had propagated a race from the same stock to do 
their country the same service s." He " returns 
thanks to Piso for what he had said in that place 
the month before ; wishes that he had been present 
to second him ; and reproves the other consulars 
for betraying their dignity by deserting him." As 
to the public affairs, he dwells chiefly on Antony's 
abuse of their decree to confirm Caesar's acts : de- 
clares himself " still for the confirmation of them ; 
not that he liked them, but for the sake of peace ; 
yet of the genuine acts only, such as Caesar himself 
had completed ; not the imperfect notes and me- 
morandums of his pocket-books ; not every scrap 
of his writing, or what he had not even written, 
but spoken only, and that without a voucher." He 
charges Antony with " a strange inconsistency in 
pretending such a zeal for Caesar's acts, yet vio- 
lating the most solemn and authentic of them, his 
laws (of which he gives several examples) : thinks 
it intolerable to oblige them to the performance of 
all Caesar's promises, yet annul so freely what 
ought to be held the most sacred and inviolable of 
anything that he had done." He addresses him- 
self pathetically to both the consuls, though Dola- 
bella only was present ; tells them, " that they had 
no reason to resent his speaking so freely on the 
behalf of the republic : that he made no personal 
reflections ; had not touched their characters, their 
lives, and manners : that if he offended in that 
way, he desired no quarter h ; but if, according to 
his custom, he delivered himself with all freedom 
on public affairs, he begged, in the first place, that 
they would not be angry ; in the next, that if they 
were, they would express their anger as became 
citizens, by civil, not military methods : that he 
had been admonished, indeed, not to expect that 
the same liberty would be allowed to him, the 



' Phil. 



£ Ibid. 5, G. 



h Ibid. 7, It 
R 2 



2-14 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



enemy of Caesar, which had been indulged to Piso, 
his father-in-law ; that Antony would resent what- 
ever was said against his will, though free from 
personal injury; if so, he must bear it as well as 
he could." Then, after touching on their plunder- 
ing the temple of Opis of those sums which might 
have been of great service to the state, he observes, 
" that whatever the vulgar might think, money was 
not the thing which they aimed at ; that their souls 
were too noble for that, and had greater designs in 
view 1 : but they quite mistook the road to glory, if 
they thought it to consist in a single man's having 
more power than a whole people. That to be dear 
to our citizens, to deserve well of our country, to 
be praised, respected, beloved, was truly glorious ; 
to be feared and hated, always invidious, detestable, 
weak, and tottering. That Caesar's fate was a warn- 
ing to them how much better it was to be loved 
than to be feared : that no man could live happy 
who held life on such terms that it might be taken 
from him not only with impunity but with praiseV 
He puts them in mind of the many public demon- 
strations of the people's disaffection to them, and 
their constant applauses and acclamations to those 
who opposed them ; to which he begs them " to 
attend with more care, in order to learn the way 
how to be truly great and glorious." He concludes 
by declaring, " that he had now reaped the full fruit 
of his return, by giving this public testimony of his 
constant adherence to the interests of his country : 
that he would use the same liberty oftener, if he 
found that he could do it with safety ; if not, would 
reserve himself as well as he could to better times, 
not so much out of regard to himself as to the 
republic." 

In speaking afterwards of this day's debate, he 
says, that " whilst the rest of the senate behaved 
like slaves, he alone showed himself to be free ; and 
though he spoke indeed with less freedom than it 
had been his custom to do, yet it was with more 
than the dangers with which he was threatened 
seemed to allow 1 ." Antony was greatly enraged 
at his speech, and summoned another meeting of 
the senate for the nineteenth, where he again re- 
quired Cicero's attendance, being resolved to answer 
him in person, and justify his own conduct : for 
which end, he employed himself during the interval 
in preparing the materials of a speech, and declaim- 
ing against Cicero in his villa near Tibur. The 
senate met on the appointed day in the Temple of 
Concord, whither Antony came with a strong guard, 
and in great expectation of meeting Cicero, whom 
he had endeavoured by artifice to draw thither : but 
though Cicero himself was ready and desirous to go, 
yet his friends over-ruled and kept him at home, 
being apprehensive of some design intended against 
his life m . 

Antony's speech confirmed their apprehensions, 
in which he poured out the overflowings of his spleen 
with such fury against him, that Cicero, alluding to 

i Phil. i. 12. k Ibid. 14. 

1 Locutus sum de republica minus equidem libere, quam 
mea consuetudo, liberius tamen quam periculi minae pos- 
tulabant.— Phil. v. 7. 

In summa reliquorum 6ervitute liber unus fui.— Ep. 
Fam. xii. 25 

m Quo die , si per amicos mihi cupienti, in senatum 
venire licuisset, caedis initium fecisset a me. — Phil. v. 7. 

Meque cum elicere vellet in csedis causam, turn tentaret 
insidiis. — Ep. Fam. xii. 25. 



what he had done a little before in public, says, 
u that he seemed once more rather to spew than to 
speak n ." He produced Cicero's letter to him about 
the restoration of S. Clodius, in which Cicero ac- 
knowledged him not only for his friend, but a good 
citizen ; as if the letter was a confutation of his 
speech, and Cicero had other reasons for quarrel- 
ling with him now than the pretended service of the 
public . But the chief thing with which he urged 
him was, his being not only privy to the murder of 
Caesar, but the contriver of it, as well as the author 
of every step which the conspirators had since 
taken : by this he hoped to inflame the soldiers to 
some violence, whom he had planted for that pur- 
pose about the avenues of the temple, and within 
hearing even of their debates. Cicero, in his ac- 
count of it to Cassius, says, " that he should not 
scruple to own a share in the act, if he could have 
a share in the glory : but that if he had really been 
concerned in it, they should never have left the 
work half finishedP." 

He had resided all this while in Rome or the 
neighbourhood ; but as a breach with Antony 
was now inevitable, he thought it necessary for his 
security to remove to a greater distance, to some 
of his villas near Naples. Here he composed his 
second Philippic, by way of reply to Antony ; 
not delivered in the senate, as the tenor of it seems 
to imply, but finished in the country, nor intended 
to be published till things were actually come to 
extremity, and the occasions of the republic made 
it necessary to render Antony's character and 
designs as odious as possible to the people. The 
oration is a most bitter invective on his whole life, 
describing it as a perpetual scene of lewdness, 
faction, violence, rapine, heightened with all the 
colours of wit and eloquence — it was greatly ad- 
mired by the ancients, and shows, that in the 
decline of life Cicero had lost no share of that fire 
and spirit with which his earlier productions are 
animated : but he never had a cause more inte- 
resting or where he had greater reason to exert 
himself: he knew that in case of a rupture, for 
which alone the piece was calculated, either Antony 
or the republic must perish ; and he was deter- 
mined to risk his own life upon the quarrel, nor 
bear the indignity of outliving a second time the 
liberty of his country. 

He sent a copy of this speech to Brutus and 
Cassius, who were infinitely pleased with it : they 
now at last clearly saw that Antony meditated 
nothing but war, and that their affairs were growing 
daily more and more desperate ; and being re- 
solved therefore to leave Italy, they took occasion 
a little before their departure to write the following 
letter in common to Antony. 

Brutus and Cassius, Prcetors, to Antony, Consul. 
" If you are in good health, it is a pleasure to 
us. We have read your letter, exactly of a piece 
with your edict, abusive, threatening, wholly un- 
worthy to be sent from you to us. For our part, 

n Itaque omnibus est visus, ut ad te antea scripsi, vo- 
mere suo more, non dicere. — Ep .Fam. xii. 2. 

o Atque etiam literas, quas me sibi misisse diceret, 
recitavit, &c.— Phil. ii. 4. 

p Nullam aliam ob causam me auctorem fuisse Cjesaris 
interficiendi criminatur, nisi ut in me veterani incitentur. 
— Ep. Fam. xii. 2 ; iii. 4. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



245 



Antony, we have never done you any injury ; nor 
imagined that you would think it strange, that 
praetors and men of our rank should require any- 
thing by edict of a consul : but if you are angry 
that we have presumed to do it, give us leave to be 
concerned that you would not indulge that privilege 
at least to Brutus and Cassius : for as to our 
raising troops, exacting contributions, soliciting 
armies, sending expresses beyond sea; since you 
deny that you ever complained of it, we believe 
you ; and take it as a proof of your good intention : 
we do not indeed own any such practices, yet 
think it strange, when you objected nothing of 
that kind, that you could not contain yourself 
from reproaching us with the death of Caesar. 
Consider with yourself whether it is to be endured, 
that for the sake of the public quiet and liberty, 
praetors cannot depart from their rights by edict, 
but the consul must presently threaten them with 
arms. Do not think to frighten us with such 
threats : it is not agreeable to our character to 
be moved by any danger : nor must Antony pre- 
tend to command those by whose means he now 
lives free. If there were other reasons to dispose 
us to raise a civil war, your letter would have no 
effect to hinder it ; for threats can have no in- 
fluence on those who are free. But you know 
very well that it is not possible for us to be driven 
to anything against our will, and for that reason 
perhaps you threaten that whatever we do it may 
seem to be the effect of fear. These then are our 
sentiments : we wish to see you live with honour 
and splendour in a free republic : have no desire 
to quarrel with you : yet value our liberty more 
than your friendship. It is your business to con- 
sider again and again what you attempt and what 
you can maintain ; and to reflect, not how long 
Csesar lived, but how short a time he reigned : 
we pray the gods that your counsels may be salu- 
tary both to the republic and to yourself; if not, 
wish at least that they may hurt you as little as 
may consist with the safety and dignity of the 
republic i." 

Octavius perceived by this time that there was 
nothing to be done for him in the city against a 
consul armed with supreme power both civil and 
military ; and was so far provoked by the ill usage 
which he had received, that in order to obtain by 
stratagem what he could not gain by force, he 
formed a design against Antony's life, and actually 
provided certain slaves to assassinate him, who 
were discovered and seized with their poniards in 
Antony's house, as they were watching an oppor- 
tunity to execute their plot. The story was sup- 
posed by many to be forged by Antony to justify 
his treatment of Octavius, and his depriving him 
of the estate of his uncle : but all men of sense, as 
Cicero says, both believed and applauded it ; and 
the greatest part of the old writers treat it as an 
undoubted fact r . 

They were both of them equally suspected by the 

q Ep. Fam. xi. 3. 

r De quo multitudini fictum ab Antonio crimen videtur, 
ut in pecuniam adolescentis impetum faceret. Prudentes 
auteni et boni viri et credunt factum et probant. [Ep. 
Fam. xii. 23.] Insidiis M. Antonii consulis latus petierat. 
— Senec. De Clem. i. 9. 

Hortantibus itaque nonnullis percussores ei subornavit. 
Hac fraude deprehensa, &c— Sueton. in August. 10 ; Plu- 
tarcb. in Anton. 



senate ; but Antony more immediately dreaded on 
the account of his superior power, and supposed 
credit with the soldiers, whom he had served with 
through all the late wars and on several occasions 
commanded. Here his chief strength lay ; and to 
ingratiate himself the more with them, he began to 
declare himself more and more openly every day 
against the conspirators ; threatening them in his 
edicts, and discovering a resolution to revenge the 
death of Caesar, to whom he erected a statue in 
the rostra, and inscribed it ' To the most worthy 
parent of his country.' Cicero, speaking of this 
in a letter to Cassius, says, " Your friend Antony 
grows every day more furious, as you see from 
the inscription of his statue ; by which he makes 
you not only murderers but parricides. But why 
do I say you and not rather us ? for the madman 
affirms me to be the author of your noble act. I 
wish that I had been, for if I had he would not 
have been so troublesome to us at this time s ." 

Octavius was not less active in soliciting his 
uncle's soldiers, sparing neither pains nor money 
that could tempt them to his service \ and by out- 
bidding Antony in all his offers and bribes to them, 
met with greater success than was expected, so as 
to draw together in a short time a firm and regular 
army of veterans, completely furnished with all 
necessaries for present service. But as he had no 
public character to justify this conduct, which in 
regular times would have been deemed treasonable, 
so he paid the greater court to the republican chiefs, 
in hopes to get his proceedings authorised by the 
senate ; and by the influence of his troops procure 
the command of the war to himself : he now there- 
fore was continually pressing Cicero by letters and 
friends to come to Rome, and support him with 
his authority against their common enemy Antony ; 
promising to govern himself in every step by his 
advice. 

But Cicero could not yet be persuaded to enter 
into his affairs ; he suspected his youth and want 
of experience, and that he had not strength enough 
to deal with Antony ; and above all, that he had 
no good disposition towards the conspirators : he 
thought it impossible that he should ever be a 
friend to them, and was persuaded rather, that if 
ever he got the upper hand, his uncle's acts would 
be more violently enforced, and his death more 
cruelly revenged, than by Antony himself 1 . These 
considerations withheld him from a union with 
him, till the exigences of the republic made it 
absolutely necessary ; nor did he consent at last 
without making it an express condition that Octa- 
vius should employ all his forces in defence of the 
common liberty, and particularly of Brutus and his 
accomplices : where his chief care and caution 
still was, to arm him only with a power sufficient 
to oppress Antony, yet so checked and limited, 
that he should not be able to oppress the republic. 

8 Auget tuus amicus furorem indies, primum in statua, 
quam posuit in rostris, inscripsit, Parenti optime merito. 
Ut non modo sicarii, sed jam etiam parricide judicemini. 
Quid dico judicemini ? judicemur potius. Vestri enim 
pulcherrimi facti ille furiosus me principem dicit fuisse. 
Utinam quidem fuissem, molestus non esset. — Ep. Fam. 
xii. 3. 

1 Valde tibi assentior, si multum possit Octavianus, 
multo firmius acta tyranni comprobatum iri, quam in 
Telluris, atque id contra Brutum fore— sed in isto jus 
vene quanquam animi satis, auctoritatis parum est.— Ad 
Att. xvi. 14. 



246 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



This is evident from many of his epistles to 
Atticus : " I had a letter," says he, " from Oc- 
tavianus on the first of November : his designs 
are great : he has drawn over all the veterans of 
Casilinum and Calatia : and no wonder, he gives 
sixteen pounds a man. He proposes to make the 
tour of the other colonies : his view plainly is, to 
have the command of the war against Antony ; so 
that we shall be in arms in a few days. But which 
of them shall we follow ? — Consider his name, his 
age ; he begs to have a private conference with me 
at Capua or near it : 'tis childish to imagine that 
it could be private : I gave him to understand that 
it was neither necessary nor practicable. He sent 
to me one Csecina of Volaterree, who brought word 
that Antony was coming towards the city with the 
legion of the Alaudse u : that he raised contribu- 
tions from all the great towns, and marched with 
colours displayed : he asked my advice whether he 
should advance before 'him to Rome with three 
thousand veterans, or keep the post of Capua and 
oppose his progress there, or go to the three 
Macedonian .legions, who were marching along the 
upper coast, and are, as he hopes, in his interest 
— they would not take Antony's money, as this 
Csecina says, but even affronted and left him while 
he was speaking to them. In short he offers him- 
self for our leader, and thinks that w r e ought to 
support him. I advised him to march to Rome : 
for he seems likely to have the meaner people on 
his side ; and if he makes good what he promises, 
the better sort too. O Brutus, where art thou ? 
What an opportunity dost thou lose ? I did not 
indeed foresee this : yet thought that something 
like it would happen. Give me your advice : shall 
I come away to Rome ; stay where I am ; or 
retire to Arpinum, where I shall be the safest ? I had 
rather be at Rome, lest if anything should be done 
I should be wanted : resolve therefore for me : I 
never was in greater perplexity x ." 

Again : " I had two letters the same day from 
Octavius : he presses me to come immediately to 
Rome ; is resolved, he says, to do nothing without 
the senate — I tell him that there can be no senate 
till the first of January, which I take to be true : 
he adds also, 'nor without my advice.' In a word, 
he urges, I hang back : I cannot trust his age : 
do not know his real intentions ; will do nothing 
without Pansa ; am afraid that Antony may prove 
too strong for him ; and unwilling to stir from the 
sea ; yet would not have anything vigorous done 
without me. Varro does not like the conduct of 
the boy, but I do. He has firm troops and may 
join with D. Brutus : what he does, he does 
openly; musters his soldiers at Capua'; pays them: 
we shall have a war I see instantly^." 

u This legion of the Alaudce was first raised hy J. Caesar, 
and composed of the natives of Gaul, armed and disciplined 
after the Roman manner, to which he gave the freedom of 
Rome. He called it by a Gallic name, Alaudce ,• which 
signified a kind of lark, or little bird with a tuft or crest 
rising upon its head ; in imitation of which, this legion 
wore a crest of feathers on the helmet ; from which origin 
the word was adopted into the Latin tongue. Antony, out 
of compliment to these troops, and to assure himself of 
their fidelity, had lately made a judiciary law, by which he 
erected a third class of judges, to be drawn from the officers 
of this legion, and added to the other two of the senators 
and knights ; for which Cicero often reproaches him as a 
most infamous prostitution of the dignity of the republic. 
—Phil. i. 8. x Ad Att. xvi. 8. y Ibid. 9. 



Again : " I have letters every day from Octa- 
vianus ; to undertake his affairs ; to come to him 
at Capua ; to save the state a second time : he 
resolves to come directly to Rome. 

Urged to the fight, 'tis shameful to refuse, 
Whilst fear yet prompts the safer part to chuse . 

HOM. II. 7}'. 

He has hitherto acted, and acts still with vigour, 
and will come to Rome with a great force. Yet 
he is but a boy : he thinks the senate may be called 
immediately: but who will come? or if they do, 
who, in this uncertainty of affairs, will declare 
against Antony ? he will be a good guard to us on 
the first of January : or it may come perhaps to 
blows before. The great towns favour the boy 
strangely. They flock to him from all parts, and 
exhort him to proceed ; could you ever have thought 
it z ?" There are many other passages of the same 
kind, expressing a diffidence of Octavius, and in- 
clination to sit still and let them fight it out between 
themselves : till the exigency of affairs made their 
union at last mutually, necessary to each other. 

In the hurry of all these politics, he was pro- 
secuting his studies still with his usual appli- 
cation ; and besides the second Philippic already 
mentioned, now finished his book of Offices, or the 
duties of man, for the use of his son a . A work 
admired by all succeeding ages as the most perfect 
system of heathen morality, and the noblest effort 
and specimen of what mere reason could do towards 
guiding man through life with innocence and hap- 
piness. He now also drew up, as it is thought, 
his Stoical Paradoxes, or an illustration of the 
peculiar doctrines of that sect, from the examples 
and characters of their own countrymen, which he 
addressed to Brutus. 

Antony left Rome about the end of September, 
in order to meet and engage to his servive four 
legions from Macedonia, which had been sent 
thither by Caesar on their way towards Parthia, 
and were now by his orders returning to Italy. 
He thought himself sure of them, and by their help 
to be master of the city ; but on his arrival at 
Brundisium on the eighth of October, three of the 
legions, to his great surprise, rejected all his offers 
and refused to follow him. This affront so enraged 
him, that calling together all the centurions whom he 
suspected of being the authors of their disaffection, 
he ordered them tobemassacred in his own lodgings, 
to the number of three hundred, while he and his 
wife Fulvia stood calmly looking on, to satiate 
their cruel revenge by the blood of these brave 
men : after which he marched back towards Rome 
by the Appian road at the head of the single legion 
which submitted to him ; whilst the other three 
took their route along the Adriatic coast without 
declaring yet for any side b . 

z Ad Att. xvi. 11. a Ibid. 

b A. d. vii. Id. Oct." Brundisium erat profectus, An- 
tonius, obviam legionibus Macedonicis mr. quas sibi con- 
ciliare pecunia cogitabat, easque ad urbeni adducere. — 
Ep. Fam. xii. 23. 

Quippe qui in hospitis tectis Brundisii fortissimos viros, 
cives optimos, jugulari jusserit : quorum ante pedes ejus 
morientium sanguine os uxoris respersum esse constabat. 
—Phil. iii. 2. 

Cum ejus promissis legiones fortissimae reclamassent, 
domum ad se venire jussit centuriones, quos bene de 
republica sentire cognoverat, eosque ante pedes suos, 
uxorisque suae, quam secum gravis imperator ad exer- 
citum duxerat, jugulari coegit.— Phil. v. 8. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



247 



He returned full of rage both against Octavius 
and the republicans, and determined to make what 
use he could of the remainder of his consulship, in 
wresting the provinces and military commands out 
of the hands of his enemies, and distributing them 
to his friends. He published at the same time 
several fierce and threatening edicts, in which " he 
gave Octavius the name of Spartacus, reproached 
him with the ignobleness of his birth ; charged 
Cicero with being the author of all his counsels ; 
abused young Quintus as a perfidious wretch who 
had offered to kill both his father and uncle ; 
forbade three of the tribunes, on pain of death, to 
appear in the senate, Q. Cassius, the brother of 
the conspirator, Carfulenus, and Canutius c ." In 
this humour he summoned the senate on the 
twenty-fourth of October, with severe threats to 
those who should absent themselves ; yet he him- 
self neglected to come, and adjourned it by edict 
to the twenty-eighth : but while all people were in 
expectation of some extraordinary decrees from 
him, and of one particularly which he had pre- 
pared to declare young Csesar a public enemy d ; 
he happened to receive the news that two of the 
legions from Brundisium, the fourth, and that 
which was called the Martial, had actually declared 
for Octavius, and posted themselves at Alba, in 
the neighbourhood of Rome e . This shocked him 
so much, that instead of prosecuting what he had 
projected, he only huddled over what nobody op- 
posed, the decree of a supplication to Lepidus ; 
and the same evening, after he had distributed to 
his friends by a pretended allotment the several 
provinces of the empire, which few or none of them 
durst accept from so precarious a title, he changed 
the habit of the consul for that of the general, and 
left the city with precipitation, to put himself at the 
head of his army, and possess himself by force of 
Cisalpine Gaul, assigned to him by a pretended 
law of the people against the will of the senate f . 

On the news of his retreat Cicero presently 
quitted his books and the country and set out to- 
wards Rome : he seemed to be called by the voice 
of the republic to take the reins once more into 
his hands. The field was now open to him ; 
there was not a consul and scarce a single praetor 
in the city, nor any troops from which he could 
apprehend danger. He arrived on the ninth of 
December, and immediately conferred with Pansa, 
for Hirtius lay very ill, about the measures proper 

c Primum in Caesarem ut maledicta congessit — igno- 
bilitatem objicit C. Csesaris filio [Phil. iii. 6.] quem in 
edictis Spartacum appellat. [Ibid. 8.] Q,. Ciceronem, fratris 
mei filium compellat edicto — ailsus est scribere, hunc de 
patris et patrui parricidio cogitasse, [Ibid. 7-] quid autem 
attinuerit, Q,. Cassio — mortem denunciare si in senatum 
venisset. D. Carfulenum — e senatu vi et mortis minis 
expellere : Tib. Canutium — non templo solum, sed aditu 
prohibere capitolii. — Ibid. 9. 

d Cum senatum 'vocasset, adhibuissetque consularem, 
qui sua sententia C. Caesarem hostem judi caret. — Phil. v. 
9 ; App. 556. 

e Postea vero quam legio Martia ducem praestantis- 
simum vidit, nihil egit aliud, nisi ut aliquando liberi 
essemus: quam est imitata quarta legio.^Phil. v. 8. 

Atque ea legio consedit Albae, &c. — Phil. iii. 3. 

f Fugere festinans senatusconsultum de supplicatione 
per discessionem fecit — praeclara tamen senatusconsulta 
eo ipso die vespertina, provinciarum religiosa sortitio — 
L. Lentulus et P. Naso— nullarn se habere provinciam, 
nullam Antonii sortitionem fuisse judicarunt. — Phil. iii. 
9,10. 



to be taken on their approaching entrance into the 
consulship. 

Before his leaving the country Oppius had been 
with him, to press him again to undertake the 
affairs of Octavius and the protection of his troops: 
but his answer was, " that he could not consent to 
it, unless he were first assured that Octavius would 
not only be no enemy, but even a friend to Brutus : 
that he could be of no service to Octavius till the 
first of January, and there would be an opportu- 
nity before that time of trying Octavius's dispo- 
sition in the case of Casca, who had been named 
by Csesar to the tribunate, and was to enter upon 
it on the tenth of December : for if Octavius did 
not oppose or disturb his admission, that would be 
a proof of his good intentions?." Oppius under- 
took for all this on the part of Octavius, and 
Octavius himself confirmed it, and suffered Casca, 
who gave the first blow to Csesar, to enter quietly 
into his office. 

The new tribunes, in the mean time, in the 
absence of the superior magistrates, called a meet- 
ing of the senate on the nineteenth. Cicero had 
resolved not to appear there any more, till he 
should be supported by the new consuls ; but 
happening to receive the day before the edict of 
D. Brutus, by which he prohibited Antony the 
entrance of his province, and declared that he 
would defend it against him by force, and preserve 
it in its duty to the senate, he thought it necessary 
for the public service, and the present encourage- 
ment of Brutus, to procure, as soon as possible, 
some public declaration in his favour : he went, 
therefore, to the senate very early, which being 
observed by the other senators, presently drew 
together a full house, in expectation of hearing his 
sentiments in so nice and critical a situation of the 
public affairs h ." 

He saw the war actually commenced in the very 
bowels of Italy, on the success of which depended 
the fate of Rome : that Gaul would certainly be 
lost, and with it probably the republic, if Brutus 
was not supported against the superior force of 
Antony : that there was no way of doing it so 
ready and effectual, as by employing Octavius and 
his troops ; and though the entrusting him with 
that commission would throw a dangerous power 
into his hands, yet it would be controlled by the 
equal power and superior authority of the two 
consuls, who were to be joined with him in the 
same command. 

The senate being assembled, the tribunes ac- 
'• g Sed, ut scribis, certissimum esse video discrimen 
Cascae nostri tribunatum : de quo quidem ipsi dixi Oppio, 
cum me hortaretur, ut adolescentemque totamque causam, 
manumque veteranorum complecterer, me nullo modo fa- 
cere posse, ni mihi exploratum esset, eum non modo non 
inimicum tyrannoctonis, verum etiam amicum fore ; cum 
ill e diceret, ita f uturum. Quidigitur festinamus? inquam. 
1111 enim mea opera ante Kal. Jan. nihil opus est. Nos 
autem ante Id. Dec. ejus voluntatem perspiciemus in 

Casca. Mihi valde assensus est Ad Att. xvi. 15. 

h Cum tribuni plebis edixissent, senatus adesset ad diem 
xiii. Kal. Jan. haberentque in animo de prassidio consilium 
designatorum referre, quanquam statueram in senatum 
ante Kal. Jan. non venire : tamen cum eo ipso die edictum 
tuum propositum esset, nefas esse duxi, aut ita haberi 
senatum, ut de tuis divinis in rempublicam mentis silere- 
tur, quod factum esset, nisi ego venissem, aut etiam si 
quid de te non honorifice diceretur, me non adesse. Itaque 
in senatum veni mane. Quod cum esset animadversum, 
frequentissimi senatores convenerunt. — Ep. Fani. xi. 6. 



248 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



quainted them that the business of the meeting 
was to provide a guard for the security of the new 
consuls, and the protection of the senate in the 
freedom of their debates ; but that they gave a 
liberty withal of taking the whole state of the re- 
public into consideration. Upon this Cicero 
opened the debate, " and represented to them the 
danger of their present condition, and the necessity 
of speedy and resolute counsels against an enemy 
who lost no time in attempting their ruin. That 
they had been ruined indeed before, had it not 
been for the courage and virtue of young Csesar, 
who, contrary to all expectation, and without being 
even desired to do what no man thought possible 
for him to do, had, by his private authority and 
expense, raised a strong army of veterans, and 
baffled the designs of Antony ; that if Antony had 
succeeded at Brundisium, and prevailed with the 
legions to follow him, he would have filled the city 
at his return with blood and slaughter : that it was 
their part to authorise and confirm what Caesar 
had done, and to empower him to do more, by 
employing his troops in the farther service of the 
state, and to make a special provision, also, for 
the two legions which had declared for him against 
Antony 1 . As to D. Brutus, who had promised by 
edict to preserve Gaul in the obedience of the 
senate, that he was a citizen, born for the good of 
the republic — the imitator of his ancestors ; nay, 
had even exceeded their merit ; for the first Brutus 
expelled a proud king, he a fellow-subject far more 
proud and profligate : that Tarquin, at the time of 
his expulsion, was actually making war for the 
people of Rome ; but Antony, on the contrary, 
had actually begun a war against them. That it was 
necessary, therefore, to confirm by public autho- 
rity what Brutus had done by private, in preserv- 
ing the province of Gaul, the flower of Italy, and 
the bulwark of the empire k ." Then, after largely 
inveighing against Antony's character, and enume- 
rating particularly all his cruelties and violences, 
he exhorts them in a pathetic manner to act with 
courage in defence of the republic, or die bravely 
ill the attempt : that " now was the time either to 
recover their liberty or to live for ever slaves : that 
if the fatal day was come, and Rome was destined 
to perish, it would be a shame for them, the 
governors of the world, not to fall with as much 
courage as gladiators were used to do, and die with 
dignity, rather than live with disgrace." He puts 
them in mind of " the many advantages which they 
had towards encouraging their hopes and resolu- 
tion ; the body of the people alert and eager in the 
cause; young Csesar in the guard of the city; 
Brutus, of Gaul ; two consuls of the greatest pru- 
dence, virtue, concord between themselves ; who 
had been meditating nothing else, for many months 
past, but the public tranquillity ;" to all which he 
promises his own attention and vigilance, both day 
and night, for their safety 1 . On the whole, there- 
fore, he gives his vote and opinion, " that the ne«v 
consuls, C. Pansa and A. Hirtius, should take care 
that the senate may meet with security on the first 
of January ; that D. Brutus, emperor, and consul 
elect, had merited greatly of the republic, by de- 
fending the authority and liberty of the senate and 
people of Rome : that his army, the towns and 
colonies of his province, should be publicly thanked 

* Phil. iii. 1,2,3. k ibid. 4, 5. 

1 Ibid. 14, &c. 



and praised for their fidelity to him : that it should 
be declared to be of the last consequence to the 
republic that D. Brutus and L. Plancus (who com- 
manded the farther Gaul) emperor and consul 
elect, as well as all others who had the command 
of provinces, should keep them in their duty to 
the senate, till successors were appointed by the 
senate ; and since, by the pains, virtue, and con- 
duct, of young Csesar, and the assistance of the 
veteran soldiers who followed him, the republic had 
been delivered, and was still defended, from the 
greatest dangers ; and since the Martial and fourth 
legions, under that excellent citizen and qusestor 
Egnatuleius, had voluntarily declared for the autho- 
rity of the senate, and the liberty of the people, 
that the senate should take special care that due 
honours and thanks be paid to them for their emi- 
nent services ; and that the new consuls, on their 
entrance into office, should make it their first 
business to see all this executed in proper form :" 
to all which the house unanimously agreed, and 
ordered a decree to be drawn conformably to his 
opinion. 

From the senate he passed directly to the forum, 
and in a speech to the people, gave an account of 
what had passed : he begins, by signifying " his joy 
to see so great a concourse about him, greater than 
he had ever remembered, a sure omen of their good 
inclinations, and an encouragement both to his 
endeavours and his hopes of recovering the repub- 
lic." Then he repeats with some variation what he 
had delivered in the senate, of the praises of Caesar 
and Brutus, and the wicked designs of Antony : 
that " the race of the Brutuses was given to them by 
the special providence of the gods, for the perpe- 
tual defenders and deliverers of the republic" 1 : that 
by what the senate had decreed, they had in fact, 
thoughnot in express words, declared Antony a pub- 
lic enemy ; that they must consider him therefore 
as such, and no longer as consul ; that they had to 
deal with an enemy with whom no terms of peace 
could be made, who thirsted not so much after 
their liberty as their blood, to whom no sport was 
so agreeable as to see citizens butchered before his 
eyes — That the gods, however, by portents and 
prodigies, seemed to foretel his speedy downfall, 
since such a consent and union of all ranks against 
him could never have been effected but by a divine 
influence," &c. n 

These speeches, which stand the third and fourth 
in the order of his Philippics, were extremely well 
received both by the senate and people. Speaking 
afterwards of the latter of them to the same 
people, he says : " If that day had put an end to 
my life, I had reaped sufficient fruit from it, when 
you all with one mind and voice cried out that I 
had twice saved the republic ." As he had now 
broken all measures with Antony beyond the pos- 
sibility of a reconciliation, so he published pro- 
bably about this time his second Philippic, which 
had hitherto been communicated only to a few 
friends, whose approbation it had received. 

The short remainder of this turbulent year was 
spent in preparing arms and troops for the guard 
of the new consuls, and the defence of the state ; 

m Phil. iv. 3. n Ibid. 4, &c. 

o Quo quidem tempore, etiam si ille dies vita? finem 
mihi allaturus esset, satis magnum ceperam fructum, 
cum vos universi una inente ac voce iterum a me conser- 
vatam esse rempublicam conclamastis.— Phil. vi. 1. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



249 



and the new levies were carried on with the greater 
diligence, for the certain news that was brought 
to Rome, that Antony was actually besieging Mo- 
dena, into which Brutus, unable to oppose him 
in the field, had thrown himself with all his forces, 
as the strongest town of his province, and the best 
provided to sustain a siege. Young Csesar, in the 
meanwhile, without expecting the orders of the 
senate, but with the advice of Cicero, by which he 
now governed himself in every step, marched out 
of Rome at the head of his troops, and followed 
Antony into the province, in order to observe his 
motions, and take all occasions of distressing him, 
as well as to encourage Brutus to defend himself 
with vigour, till the consuls could bring up the 
grand army which they were preparing for bis 
relief. 



SECTION X. 



A. URB. 710 

cic. 64. 
coss. 

C. VIBIUS 
PANSA. 

a. h:.rtius. 



On the opening of the year, the city was in 
great expectation to see what measures their new 
consuls would pursue : they had been 
at school, as it were, all the summer 
to Cicero, forming the plan of their 
administration, and taking their les- 
sons of governing from him, and seem 
to have been brought entirely into 
his general view, of establishing the 
peace and liberty of the republic on the founda- 
tion of an amnesty. But their great obligations 
to Ceesar, and long engagements with that party, 
to which they owed all their fortunes, had left 
some scruples in them, which gave a check to 
their zeal, and disposed them to act with more 
moderation against old friends than the condition 
of times would allow ; and before the experiment 
of arms, to try the gentler method of a treaty. 
With these sentiments, as soon as they were inau- 
gurated, they entered into a deliberation with the 
senate on the present state of the republic, in 
order to perfect what had been resolved upon at 
their last meeting, and to contrive some farther 
means for the security of the public tranquillity. 
They both spoke with great spirit and firmness, 
offering themselves as leaders in asserting the 
liberty of their country, and exhorting the assembly 
to courage and resolution in the defence of so good 
a cause p ; and when they had done, they called upon 
Q. Fusius Calenus, to deliver his sentiments the 
first. He had been consul four years before by 
Ceesar's nomination, and was father-in-law to 
Pansa, which by custom was a sufficient ground for 
paying him that compliment. Cicero's opinion 
was already well known ; he was for the shortest 
and readiest way of coming at their end, by de- 
claring Antony a public enemy, and without loss 
of time acting against him by open force : but this 
was not relished by the consuls, who called there- 
fore upon Calenus to speak first ; that as he was a 
fast friend to Antony, and sure to be on the mo- 
derate side, he might instil some sentiments of that 
sort into the senate, before Cicero had made a 
contrary impression. Calenus's opinion therefore 

P Ut oratio consulum animum meum erexit, spemque 
attulit non modo salutis conservandje, verum etiam dig- 
nitatis pristine recuperanda*.— Phil. v. 1. 



was, that before they proceeded to acts of hostility 
they should send an embassy to Antony, to ad- 
monish him to desist from his attempt upon Gaul, 
and submit to the authority of the senate. Piso 
and several others were of the same mind, alleging 
it to be unjust and cruel to condemn a man till 
they had first heard what he had to say for him- 
self. 

But Cicero opposed this motion with great 
warmth, not only as " vain and foolish, but dan- 
gerous and pernicious. He declared it dishonour- 
able to treat with anyone who was in arms against 
his country, until he laid them down and sued for 
peace ; in which case no man would be more 
moderate or equitable than himself: that they had 
in effect proclaimed him an enemy already, and 
had nothing left but to confirm it by a decree, 
when he was besieging one of the great towns of 
Italy, a colony of Rome, and in it their consul- 
elect and general, Brutus :" he observed from what 
motives those other opinions proceeded ; " from 
particular friendships, relations, private obligations ; 
but that a regard to their country was superior to 
them all : that the real point before them was, 
whether Antony should be suffered to oppress the 
republic ; to mark out whom he pleased to destruc- 
tion ; to plunder the city, and enslave the citizens^." 
That this was his sole view, he showed from a long 
detail not only of his acts, but of his express de- 
clarations; for "he had said in the temple of Castor, 
in the hearing of the people, that whenever it came 
to blows no man should remain alive who did not 
conquer ; and in another speech, that when he 
was out of his consulship, he would keep an army 
still about the city, and enter it whenever he 
thought fit : that in a letter (which Cicero himself 
had seen) to one of his friends, he bade him to 
mark out for himself what estate he would have, 
and whatever it was he should certainly have it r : 
that to talk of sending ambassadors to such a one, 
was to betray their ignorance of the constitution of 
the republic, the majesty of the Roman people, 
and the discipline of their ancestors 5 : that what- 
ever was the purpose of their message, it would 
signify nothing : if to beg him to be quiet, he 
would despise it ; if to command him, he would 
not obey it : that without any possible good, it 
would be a certain damage ; would necessarily 
create delay and obstruction to the operations of 
the war ; check the zeal of the army ; damp the 
spirits of the people, whom they now saw so brisk 
and eager in the cause : that the greatest revolutions 
of affairs were effected often by trifling incidents ; 
and above all in civil wars, which were generally 
governed by popular rumour : that how vigorous 
soever their instructions were to the ambassa- 
dors, that they would be little regarded : the very 
name of an embassy implied a diffidence and fear 
which was sufficient to cool the ardour of their 
friends 1 : they might order him to retire from 
Modena, to quit the province of Gaul ; but this 
was not to be obtained by words, but extorted by 
arms : that while the ambassadors were going and 
coming, people would be in doubt and suspense 
about the success of their negotiation ; and under 
the expectation of a doubtful war, what progress 
could they hope to make in their levies ? that his 
opinion therefore was, to make no farther men- 

q Phil. v. 1, 2, 3. r Ibid. 8, 12. 

s Ibid. 9. * Ibid. 10. 



250 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



tion of an embassy, but to enter instantly into 
action : that there should be a cessation of all 
civil business ; a public tumult proclaimed ; the 
shops shut up ; and that instead of their usual 
gown they should all put on the sagum, or habit of 
war ; and that levies of soldiers should be made in 
Rome, and through Italy, without any exception 
of privilege or dismission from service : that the 
very fame of this vigour would restrain the mad- 
ness of Antony, and let the world see that the case 
was not, as he pretended, a struggle only of con- 
tending parties, but a real war against the com- 
monwealth : that the whole republic should be 
committed to the consuls, to take care that it 
received no detriment : that pardon should be 
offered to those of Antony's army who should re- 
turn to their duty before the first of February ; 
that if they did not come to this resolution now, 
they would be forced to do it afterwards, when it 
would be too late perhaps, or less effectual 11 ." 

This was the sum of what he advised as to their 
conduct towards Antony. He next proceeded to 
the other subject of their debate, the honours 
which were ordered to be decreed at their last 
meeting ; and began with D. Brutus, as consul- 
elect, in favour of whom, besides many high ex- 
pressions of praise, he proposed a decree to this 
effect : " Whereas D. Brutus, emperor and consul- 
elect, now holds the province of Gaul in the power 
of the senate and people of Rome, and, by the 
cheerful assistance of the towns and colonies of 
his province, has drawn together a great army in 
a short time ; that he has done all this rightly and 
regularly, and for the service of the state ; and 
that it is the sense therefore of the senate and 
people, that the republic has been relieved in a 
most difficult conjuncture, by the pains, counsel, 
virtue of D. Brutus, emperor, consul-elect, and by 
the incredible zeal and concurrence of the province 
of Gaul." He moved also for an extraordinary 
honour to M. Lepidus, who had no pretension to 
it indeed from past services, but being now at the 
head of the best army in the empire, was in con- 
dition to do the most good or ill to them of any 
man. This was the ground of the compliment ; 
for his faith being suspected, and his union with 
Antony dreaded, Cicero hoped, by this testimony 
of their confidence, to confirm him in the interests 
of the senate ; but he seems to be hard put to it 
for a pretext of merit to ground his decree upon : 
he takes notice, " that Lepidus was always mode- 
rate in power, and a friend to liberty ; that he gave 
a signal proof of it when Antony offered the dia- 
dem to Caesar ; for, by turning away his face, he 
publicly testified his aversion to slavery, and that 
his compliance with the times was through neces- 
sity, not choice ;— that since Caesar's death he had 
practised the same moderation ; and when a bloody 
war was revived in Spain, chose to put an end to it 
by the methods of prudence and humanity, rather 
than by arms and the sword, and consented to the 
restoration of S. PompeyV For which reason he 
proposed the following decree: "Whereas the 
republic has often been well and happily adminis- 
tered by M. Lepidus the chief priest, and the 
people of Rome have always found him to be an 
enemy to kingly government ; and whereas by his 
endeavours, virtue, wisdom, and his singular cle- 



« Phil. v. 10, 12. 



Ibid. 14. 



mency and mildness, a most dreadful civil war is 
extinguished ; and S. Pompey the Great, the son 
of Cnaeus, out of respect to the authority of the 
senate, has quitted his arms, and is restored to the 
city ; that the senate and people, out of regard to 
the many and signal services of M. Lepidus, 
emperor, and chief priest, place great hopes of 
their peace, concord, liberty, in his virtue, autho- 
rity, felicity ; and from a grateful sense of his 
merits, decree that a gilt equestrian statue shall be 
erected to him by their order in the rostra, or any 
other part of the forum which he shall choose V 
He comes next to young Csesar, and, after enlarg- 
ing on his praises, proposes, " that they should 
grant him a proper commission and command over 
his troops, without which he could be of no use to 
them ; and that he should have the rank and all 
the rights of a propraetor, not only for the sake of 
his dignity, but the necessary management of their 
affairs, and the administration of the war." And 
then offers the form of a decree : " Whereas C. 
Caesar, the son of Caius, priest, propraetor, has, in 
the utmost distress of the republic, excited and 
enlisted veteran troops to defend the liberty of the 
Roman people ; and whereas the Martial and fourth 
legions, under the leading and authority of C. 
Caesar, have defended and now defend the repub- 
lic, and the liberty of the Roman people ; and 
whereas C. Caesar is gone at the head of his army 
to protect the province of Gaul ; has drawn toge- 
ther a body of horse, archers, elephants, under his 
own and the people's power, and in the most dan- 
gerous crisis of the republic has supported the 
safety and dignity of the Roman people ; for these 
reasons the senate decrees that C. Caesar, the son 
of Caius, priest, propraetor, be henceforward a 
senator, and vote in the rank and place of a praetor ; 
and that in soliciting for any future magistracy, the 
same regard be had to him as would have been had 
by law if he had been quaestor the year before 2 ." 
As to those who thought these honours too great 
for so young a man, and apprehended danger from 
his abuse of them, he declares " their apprehensions 
to be the effect of envy rather than fear, since the 
nature of things was such, that he who had once 
got a taste of true glory, and found himself univer- 
sally dear to the senate and people, could never 
think any other acquisition equal to it :" he wishes 
that " J. Caesar had taken the same course when 
young of endearing himself to the senate and 
honest men ; but neglecting that, he spent the 
force of his great genius in acquiring a vain popu- 
larity, and having no regard to the senate and the 
better sort, opened himself a way to power which 
the virtue of a free people could not bear : that 
there was nothing of this kind to be feared from 
the son ; nor after the proof of such admirable 
prudence in a boy, any ground to imagine that his 
riper age would be less prudent ; for what greater 
folly could there be, than to prefer a useless 
power, an invidious greatness, the lust of reigning, 
always slippery and tottering, to true, weighty, 
solid glory ? If they suspected him as an enemy to 
some of their best and most valued citizens, they 
might lay aside those fears ; he had given up all 
his resentments to the republic, made her the mo- 
deratrixof all his acts ; that he knew the most inward 
sentiments of the youth ; would pawn his credit for 



y Phil. v. 15. 



* Ibid. 17- 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



2ol 



him to the senate and people ; would promise, 
engage, undertake, that he would always be the 
same that he now was, such as they should wish 
and desire to see him a ." He proceeds also to give 
a public testimonial of praise and thanks to L. 
Egnatuleius, for his fidelity to the republic, in 
bringing over the fourth legion from Antony to 
Csesar, and moves that it might be granted to him 
for that piece of service, to sue for and hold any ma- 
gistracy three years before the legal time b . Lastly, 
as to the veteran troops which had followed the au- 
thority of Csesar and the senate, and especially the 
Martial and fourth legions, he moved " that an 
exemption from service should be decreed to them 
and their children, except in the case of a Gallic or 
domestic tumult ; and that the consuls C. Pansa 
and A. Hirtius, or one of them, should provide 
lands in Campania, or elsewhere, to be divided to 
them ; and that as soon as the present war was 
over, they should all be discharged, and punctually 
receive whatever sums of money C. Csesar had pro- 
mised to them when they first declared for him." 

This was the substance of his speech, in the 
latter part of which, the proposal of honours, the 
senate readily agreed with him ; and though those 
which were decreed to Octavius seemed so extraor- 
dinary to Cicero himself that he thought it proper 
to make an apology for them, yet there were others 
of the first rank who thought them not great 
enough, so that Philippus added the honour of a 
statue ; Ser. Sulpicius and Servilius the privilege 
of suing for any magistracy still earlier than Cicero 
had proposed c . But the assembly was much 
divided about the main question of sending a depu- 
tation to Antony : some of the principal senators 
were warmly for it, and the consuls themselves 
favoured it and artfully avoided to put it to the 
vote d , which would otherwise have been carried by 
Cicero, who had a clear majority on his side. The 
debate being held on till night, was adjourned to the 
next morning, and kept up with the same warmth 
for three days successively, while the senate con- 
tinued all the time in Cicero's opinion, and would 
have passed a decree conformable to it, had not 
Salvius the tribune put his negative upon them e . 
This firmness of Antony's friends prevailed at last 
for an embassy, and three consular senators were 
presently nominated to it, S. Sulpicius, L. Piso, 
and L. Philippus : but their commision was strictly 
limited and drawn up by Cicero himself, giving 
them no power to treat with Antony, but to carry 
to him only the peremptory commands of the 
senate, to emit the siege of Modena, and desist 
from all hostilities in Gaul : they had instructions 
likewise after the delivery of their message to speak 
with D. Brutus in Modena, and signify to him and 
his army that the senate and people had a grateful 
sense of their services, which would one day be a 
great honour to them f . 

a Phil. v. 18. b Ibid. 19. 

c Statuam Philippus decrevit, celeritatem petitionis 
primo Servius, post majorem etiam Servilius : nihil turn 
nimium videbatur. — Ad Brut. 15. 

d Has in sententias meas si consules discessionem facere 
voluissent, omnibus istis latronibus auctoritate ipsa se- 
natus jampridem de manibus arma cecidissent. — Phil, 
xiv. 7- 

e Itaque hsec sententia per triduum sic valuit, ut quam- 
quani discessio facta non est, tamen praeter paucos, omnes 
mihi assensuri viderentur.— Phil. vi. 1 ; App. p. 559. 

f Quamquam non est ilia legatio, sed denunciatio belli, 



The unusual length of these debates greatly 
raised the curiosity of the city, and drew the whole 
body of the people into the forum to expect the 
issue ; where, as they had done also not long be- 
fore, they could not forbear calling out upon Cicero 
with one voice to come and give them an account 
of the deliberations £. He went therefore directly 
from the senate into the rostra, produced by Appu- 
leius the tribune, and acquainted them in a speech 
with the result of their debates : — " that the 
senate, excepting a few, after they had stood firm 
for three days to his opinion, had given it up at 
last with less gravity indeed than became them, yet 
not meanly or shamefully, having decreed not so 
much an embassy as a denunciation of war to 
Antony, if he did not obey it ; which carried indeed 
an appearance of severity, and he wished only that 
it had carried no delay : that Antony, he was sure, 
would never obey it, nor ever submit to their 
power, who had never been in his own : that he 
would do, therefore, in that place what he had 
been doing in the senate, testify, warn, and declare 
to them beforehand, that Antony would perform 
no part of what their ambassadors were sent to 
require of him : that he would still waste the 
country, besiege Modena, and not suffer the am- 
bassadors themselves to enter the town or speak 
with Brutus, — believe me," says he, " I know the 
violence, the impudence, the audaciousness of the 
man ; let our ambassadors then make haste, which 
I know they are resolved to do ; but do you pre- 
pare your military habit, for it is a part also of our 
decree that if he does not comply we must all put 
on that garb ; we shall certainly put it on ; he will 
never obey ; we shall lament the loss of so many 
days which might have been employed in action* 1 . 
I am not afraid, when he comes to hear how I have 
declared this beforehand, that for the sake of 
confuting me he should change his mind and sub- 
mit. He will never do it, will not envy me this 
glory, will choose rather that you should think 
me wise than him modest:" he observes, "that 
though it would have been better to send no mes- 
sage, yet some good would flow from it to the 
republic ; for when the ambassadors shall make the 
report, which they surely will make, of Antony's 
refusal to obey the people and senate, who can be 
so perverse as to look upon him any longer as a 
citizen ? Wherefore wait," says he, " with pa- 
tience, citizens, the return of the ambassadors, 
and digest the inconvenience of a few days ; if on 
their return they bring peace, call me prejudiced ; 
if war, provident'." Then after assuring them 
" of his perpetual vigilance for their safety, and 
applauding their wonderful alacrity in the cause, 
and declaring that of all the assemblies which he 
had seen, he had never known so full a one as the 
present," he thus concludes : " The season of 
liberty is now come, my citizens, much later indeed 
than became the people of Rome, but so ripe now 
that it cannot be deferred a moment. What we 

nisi paruerit — mittuntur enim qui nuncient, ne oppugnet 
consulem designatum, ne Mutinam obsideat, ne pro- 
vineiam depopuletur. — Phil. vi. 2. 

Dantuv mandata legatis, ut D. Brutum, militesque ejus 
adeant, &c.— Ibid. 3. 

g Quid ego de universo populo Romano dicam? qui 
pleno ac referto foro bis me una mente atque voce in con- 
cionein vocavit.— Phil. vii. 8. 

h Phil. vi. 1, 2, a » Ibid. 4, 6. 



252 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



have hitherto suffered was owing to a kind of 
fatality which we have borne as well as we could ; 
but if any such case should happen again, it must 
be owing to ourselves ; it is not possible for the 
people of Rome to be slaves, whom the gods'have 
destined to the command of all nations : the affair 
is now reduced to the last extremity ; the struggle 
is for liberty ; it is your part either to conquer, 
which will surely be the fruit of your piety and 
concord, or to suffer anything rather than live 
slaves ; other nations may endure slavery, but the 
proper end and business of the Roman people is 
liberty." 

The ambassadors prepared themselves imme- 
diately to execute their commission, and the next 
morning early set forward towards Antony, though 
Ser. Sulpicius was in a very declining state of 
health. Various were the speculations about the 
success of this message ; but Antony gained one 
certain advantage by it, of more time, either to 
press the siege of Modena or to take such measures 
as fresh accidents might offer ; nor were his friends 
without hopes of drawing from it some pretence 
for opening a treaty with him, so as to give room 
to the chiefs of the Csesarian faction to unite them- 
selves against the senate and republican party, 
which seemed to be inspired by Cicero, with a 
resolution of extinguishing all the remains of the late 
tyranny. For this purpose the partisans of that 
cause were endeavouring to obviate the offence 
which might be given by Antony's refusal to com- 
ply with what was enjoined ; contriving specious 
answers for him, and representing them as a reason- 
able ground of an accommodation, in hopes to cool 
the ardour of the city for the prosecution of the 
war: Calenus was at the head of this party, who kept 
a constant correspondence with Antony, and took 
care to publish such of his letters as were proper to 
depress the hopes and courage of his adversaries, 
and keep up the spirits of his friends k . 

Cicero, therefore, at a meeting of the senate 
called in this interval about certain matters of ordi- 
nary form, took occasion to rouse the zeal of the 
assembly by warning them of the mischief of these 
insinuations. He observed, " that the affairs then 
proposed to their deliberation were of little conse- 
quence, though necessary in the common course of 
public business, about the Appian-way, the coin, 
the Luperci, which would easily be adjusted ; but 
that his mind was called off from the consideration 
of them by the more important concerns of the 
republic — that he had always been afraid of sending 
the embassy — and now everybody saw what a 
languor the expectation of it had caused in people's 
minds, and what a handle it had given to the prac- 
tices of those who grieved to see the senate reco- 
vering its ancient authority ; the people united 
with them ; all Italy on the same side ; their armies 
prepared ; their generals ready to take the field — 
who feign answers for Antony and applaud them 
as if they had sent ambassadors not to give, but 
receive conditions from him." Then, after ex- 
posing the danger and iniquity of such practices, 
and rallying the principal abettor of them, Calenus, 
he adds, " that he who all his life had been the 
author and promoter of civil peace ; who owed 

' k Ille literas ad te mittat de spe sua secundarum rerum ? 
eas tu lastus proferas ? — describendas etiam des improbis 
civibus ? eorum augeas animos ? bonorum spem, virtu- 
temque debilites ? — Phil. vii. 2. 



whatever he was, whatever he had to it ; his ho- 
nours, interest, dignity ; nay, even the talents 
and abilities which he was master of ; yet I, (says 
he,) the perpetual adviser of peace, am for no 
peace with Antony" — where, perceiving himself to 
be heard with great attention, he proceeds to 
explain at large through the rest of his speech, — 
" that such a peace would be dishonourable, dan- 
gerous, and could not possibly subsist :" he exhorts 
the senate therefore to be " attentive, prepared 
and armed beforehand, so as not to be caught by a 
smooth or suppliant answer and the false appear- 
ance of equity : that Antony must do everj'thing 
which was prescribed to him before he could pre- 
tend to ask anything ; if not, that it was not the 
senate which proclaimed war against him, but he 
against the Roman people. But for you, fathers, 
I give you warning, (says he,) the question before 
you concerns the liberty of the people of Rome, 
which is entrusted to your care ; it concerns the 
lives and fortunes of every honest man ; it concerns 
your own authority, which you will for ever lose, 
if you do not retrieve it now — I admonish you too, 
Pansa, for though you want no advice in which 
you excel, yet the best pilots in great storms are 
sometimes admonished by passengers : never suffer 
that noble provision of arms and troops which you 
have made to come to nothing ; you have such an 
opportunity before you as no man ever had ; by 
this firmness of the senate, this alacrity of the 
equestrian order, this ardour of the people, you 
have it in your power to free the republic for ever 
from fear and danger 1 ." 

The consuls in the mean while were taking care 
that the expectation of the effect of the embassy 
should not supersede their preparations for war ; 
and agreed between themselves that one of them 
should march immediately to Gaul with the troops 
which were already provided, and the other stay 
behind to perfect the new levies which were carried 
on with great success both in the city and the 
country ; for all the capital towns of Italy were 
vying with each other in voluntary contributions 
of money and soldiers, and in decrees of infamy 
and disgrace to those who refused to list them- 
selves into the public service m . The first part fell 
by lot to Hirtius 11 , who, though but lately recovered 
from a dangerous indisposition, marched away 
without loss of time at the head of a brave army ; 
and particularly of the two legions, the Martial 
and the fourth, which were esteemed the flower 
and strength of the whole, and now put themselves 
under the command and auspices of the consul. 
With these, in conjunction with Octavius, he hoped 
to obstruct all the designs of Antony, and prevent 
his gaining any advantage against Brutus till Pansa 
could join them, which would make them superior in 
force and enable them to give him battle with good 
assurance of victory. He contented himself in the 
meanwhile with dispossessing Antony of some of 
his posts, and distressing him by straitening his 
quarters and opportunities of forage ; in which he 
had some success, as he signified in a letter to his 

1 Phil. vii. 

m An cum municipiis pax erit, quorum tanta studia 
cognoscuntur in decretis faeiendis, militibus dandis, 
pecuniis pollicendis — haec jam. tota Italia fiunt. — Phil. 
7, 8, 9. 

n Consul sortitu ad bellum profectus A. Hirtius. — Phil, 
xiv. 2. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



253 



colleague Pansa, which was communicated to the 
senate : " I have possessed myself (says he) of Cla- 
terna and driven out Antony's garrison ; his horse 
were routed in the action and some of them slain :" 
and in all his letters to Cicero he assured him that 
he would undertake nothing without the greatest 
caution ; in answer probably to what Cicero was 
constantly inculcating, not to expose himself too 
forwardly till Pansa could come up to him p. 

The ambassadors returned about the beginning 
of February, having been retarded somewhat longer 
than they intended by the death of Ser. Sulpicius, 
which happening when they were just arrived at 
Antony's camp, left the embassy maimed and im- 
perfect, as Cicero says, by the loss of the best and 
ablest man of the three^. The report which they 
made to the senate answered exactly in every point to 
what Cicero had foretold ; that Antony would per- 
form no part of what was required, nor suffer them 
even to speak with Brutus, but continued to batter 
the town with great fury in their presence : he 
offered, however, some conditions of his own which, 
contrary to their instructions, they were weak 
enough to receive from him and lay before the senate : 
the purport of them was, " that the senate should 
assign lands and rewards to all his troops, and 
confirm all the other grants which he and Dolabella 
had made in their consulship : that all his decrees 
from Caesar's books and papers should stand firm : 
that no account should be demanded of the money 
taken from the temple of Opis ; nor any inquiry 
made into the conduct of the seven commissioners 
created to divide the lands to the veteran soldiers ; 
and that his judiciary law should not be repealed : 
on these terms he offered to give up Cisalpine 
Gaul, provided that he might have the greater 
Gaul in exchange for five years with an army of 
six legions, to be completed out of the troops of 
D. Brutus 1 ." 

Pansa summoned the senate to consider the 
report of the ambassadors, which raised a general 
indignation through the city, and gave all possible 
advantage to Cicero towards bringing the house 
into his sentiments ; but contrary to expectation, 
he found Calenus's party still strong enough to 
give him much trouble, and even to carry some 
points against him, all tending to soften the rigour 
of his motions and give them a turn more favour- 
able towards Antony. He moved the senate to 
decree that a war or rebellion was actually com- 
menced : they carried it for a tumult : he urged 
them to declare Antony an enemy : they carried it 
for the softer term of adversary s . He proposed that 
all persons should be prohibited from going to 

° Dejeci presidium, Claterna potitus sum, fugati equites, 
praelium commissum, occisi aliquot.— Phil. viii. 2. 

P Hirtius nihil nisi considerate, ut mihi crebris Uteris 
significat, acturus videbatur.— Ep. Pam. xii. 5. 

1 Cum Ser. Sulpicius astate illos anteiret, sapientia 
omnes, subito ereptus e causa totam legationeni orbam 
et debilitatam reliquit— Phil. ix. J. 

r Ante consulis oculnsque legatorum tormentis Mutinam 
verberavit — ne punctum quidem temporis, cum legati 
adess nt, oppugnatio respiravit — cum illi contempti et 
rejecti revertissent, dixissentque senatui, non modo ilium 
e Gallia non discessisse, uti censuissemus, sed ne a Mutina 
quidem recessisse, potestatem sibi D. Bruti conveniendi 
non fuisse, &c— Phil. viii. 7, 8, 9. 

s Ego princeps Sagorum : ego semper hostem appellavi, 
cum alii adversarium : semper hoc bellum, cum alii 
tumultum, &c— Phil. xii. 7. 



Antony : they excepted Varius Cotyla, one of his 
lieutenants, who was then in the senate taking 
notes of everything which passed : in these votes 
Pansa himself and all the consular senators con- 
curred, even L. Caesar, who, though a true friend 
to liberty, yet being Antony's uncle, thought him- 
self obliged by decency to vote on the milder side 1 . 

But Cicero in his turn easily threw out, what 
was warmly pressed on the other side, the proposal 
of a second embassy ; and carried likewise the 
main question, of requiring the citizens to change 
their ordinary gown for the sagum or habit of war ; 
by which they decreed the thing while they rejected 
the name. In all decrees of this kind, the consular 
senators, on the account of their dignity, were 
excused from changing their habit ; but Cicero, to 
inculcate more sensibly the distress of the republic, 
resolved to waive his privilege and wear the same 
robe with the rest of the city u . In a letter to 
Cassius, he gives the following short account of the 
state of things at this time : " We have excellent 
consuls, but most shameful consulars : a brave 
senate, but the lower they are in dignity the 
braver : nothing firmer and better than the people, 
and all Italy universally : but nothing more detest- 
able and infamous than our ambassadors, Philip 
and Piso ; who, when sent only to carry the orders 
of the senate to Antony, none of which he would 
comply with, brought back of their own accord 
intolerable demands from him : wherefore all the 
world now flock about me, and I am grown popu- 
lar in a salutary cause," &c. x 

The senate met again the next day to draw into 
form and perfect what had been resolved upon in 
the preceding debate ; when Cicero in a pathetic 
speech took occasion to expostulate with them for 
their imprudent lenity the day before : " He 
showed the absurdity of their scruples about voting 
a civil war : that the word tumult, which they had 
preferred, either carried in it no real difference, or 
if any, implied a greater perturbation of all things ? : 
he proved from every step that Antony had taken, 
and was taking ; from everything which the senate, 
the people, the towns of Italy, were doing and de- 
creeing against him, that they were truly and 
properly in a state of civil war ; the fifth which had 
happened in their memory, and the most desperate 
of them all, being the first which was ever raised, 
not by a dissention of parties contending for a 
superiority in the republic, but against a union of 
all parties, to enslave and oppress the republic 2 ." 
He proceeds to expostulate with Calenus for his 
obstinate adherence to Antony, and exposes the 
weakness of his pretended plea for it, a love of 
peace and concern for the lives of the citizens : he 

1 Phil. viii. 1, 10. 

u Equidem, P. C. quamquam hoc honore usi togati solent 
esse, cum est in sagis civitas ; statui tamen a vobis, caete- 
risque civibus in tanta atrocitate temporis — non differre 
vestitu.— Phil. viii. 11. 

x Egregios consules habemus, sed turpissimos con- 
sulares : senatum fortem, sed infimo quemque honore 
fortissimum. Populo vero nihil fortius, nihil melius, 
Italiaque universa. Nihil autem foedius Philippo et 
Pisone legatis, nihil flagitiosius : qui cum cssent missi, ut 
Antonio ex senatus consulto certas res nunciarent : cum 
ille earum rerum nulli paruisset, ultro ab illo ad nos 
intolerabilia postulata retulerunt. Itaque ad nos concur- 
ritur : factique jam in re salutari populares sumus. — Ep. 
Fam. xii. 4. 

y Phil. viii. 1. * Ibid. 3. 



254 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



puts him in mind that " there was no juster cause 
of taking arms than to repel slavery ; that several 
other causes indeed were just, but this necessary ; 
unless he did not take himself to be affected by it, 
for the hopes of sharing the dominion with Antony : 
if so, he was doubly mistaken ; first, for preferring 
a private interest to the public ; secondly, for 
thinking anything secure or worth enjoying in a 
tyranny — that a regard for the safety of citizens was 
a laudable principle, if he meant the good, the use- 
ful, the friends to their country : but if he meant 
to save those who, though citizens by nature, were 
enemies by choice, what difference was there be- 
tween him and such citizens ? — that their ancestors 
had quite another notion of the care of citizens ; 
and when Scipio Nasica slew Tiberius Gracchus, 
when Opimius slew Caius Gracchus, when Marius 
killed Saturninus, they were all followed by the 
greatest and the best both of the senate and the 
people : — that the difference between Calenus's 
opinion and his was not trifling, or about a trifling 
matter ; the wishing well only to this or that man : 
that he wished well to Brutus ; Calenus to Antony ; 
he wished to see a colony of Rome preserved ; 
Calenus to see it stormed ; that Calenus could not 
deny this, who was contriving all sorts of delay, 
which could distress Brutus and strengthen An- 
tony a ." He then addressed himself to the other 
consulars, and reproached them for their shame- 
ful behaviour the day before, in voting for a second 
embassy, and said, that " when the ambassadors 
were sent against his judgment, he comforted him- 
self with imagining that as soon as they should 
return, despised and rejected by Antony, and 
inform the senate that he would neither retire from 
Gaul nor quit the siege of Modena, nor even suf- 
fer them to speak with Brutus ; that out of indig- 
nation they should all arm themselves immediately 
in the defence of Brutus ; but on the contrary, they 
were grown more dispirited to hear of Antony's 
audaciousness ; and their ambassadors, instead of 
courage, which they ought to have brought, had 
brought back nothing but fear to them b . Good 
gods ! " says he, " what is become of the virtue of 
our ancestors ? When Popilius was sent ambas- 
sador to Antiochus, and ordered him, in the name 
of the senate, to depart from Alexandria, which he 
was then besieging ; upon the king's deferring to 
answer and contriving delays, he drew a circle 
round him with his staff, and bade him give his 
answer instantly before he stirred out of that place 
or he would return to the senate without it." He 
then recites and ridicules the several demands 
made by Antony ; their arrogance, stupidity, ab- 
surdity : and reproves Piso and Philip, men of 
such dignity, for the meanness of bringing back 
conditions, when they were sent only to carry 
commands : he complains that " they paid more 
respect to Antony's ambassador, Cotyla, than he 
to theirs ; for instead of shutting the gates of the 
city against him, as they ought to have done, they 
admitted him into that very temple where the 
senate then sat; where the day before he was 
taking notes of what every man said, and was 
caressed, invited and entertained by some of the 
principal senators, who had too little regard to their 
dignity, too much to their danger. But what after 
all was the danger ? which must end either in 

a Phil. viii. 4— G. b Ibid. 7. 

c Ibid. 8, 9. 



liberty or death : the one always desirable, the 
other unavoidable : while to fly from death 
basely was worse than death itself: — that it used 
to be the character of consular senators, to be 
vigilant, attentive, always thinking, doing, or 
proposing something for the good of the public : 
that he remembered old Scsevola in the Marsic 
war, how in the extremity of age oppressed with 
years and infirmities, he gave free access to every- 
body ; was never seen in his bed ; always the first 
in the senate : he wished that they all would imi- 
tate such industry, or at least not envy those who 
did d : that since they had now suffered a six years' 
slavery, a longer term than honest and industrious 
slaves used to serve ; what watchings, what solici- 
tude, what pains ought they to refuse, for the sake 
of giving liberty to the Roman people ?" He con- 
cludes by adding a clause to their last decree : " to 
grant pardon and impunity to all who should 
desert Antony and return to their duty by the 
fifteenth of March : or if any who continued with 
him should do any service worthy of reward, that 
one or both the consuls should take the first op- 
portunity to move the senate in their favour : but 
if any person from this time should go over to An- 
tony, except Cotyla, that the senate would consider 
him as an enemy to his country." 

The public debates being thus adjusted, Pansa 
called the senate together again the next day, to 
deliberate on some proper honours to be decreed 
to the memory of Ser. Sulpicius, who died upon 
the embassy. He spoke largely in his praise, and 
advised to pay him all the honours which had 
ever been decreed to any who had lost their lives 
in the service of their country : a public funeral, 
sepulchre, and statue. Servilius, who spoke next, 
agreed to a funeral and monument, but was against 
a statue, as due only to those who had been killed 
by violence in the discharge of their embassies. 
Cicero was not content with this, but out of pri- 
vate friendship to the man, as well as a regard to the 
public service, resolved to have all the honours 
paid to him which the occasion could possibly 
justify. In answer therefore to Servilius, he showed 
with his usual eloquence, that " the case of Sul- 
picius was the same with the case of those who 
had been killed on the account of their embassies : 
that the embassy itself had killed him ; that he 
set out upon it in so weak a condition, that though 
he had some hopes of coming to Antony, he had 
none of returning ; and when he was just arrived 
to the congress, expired in the very act of execut- 
ing his commission e : that it was not the manner, 
but the cause of the death, which their ancestors 
regarded ; if it was caused by the embassy, they 
granted a public monument, to encourage their 
fellow citizens, in dangerous wars, to undertake 
that employment with cheerfulness : that several 
statues had been erected on that account, which 
none had ever merited better than Sulpicius ; that 
there could be no doubt but that the embassy had 
killed him, and that he had carried out death along 
with him, which he might have escaped by staying 
at home, under the care of his wife and children f . 
But when he saw, that if he did not obey the 
authority of the senate, he should be unlike to 
himself ; and if he did obey, must necessarily lose 
his life ; he chose, in so critical a state of the 

d Phil. viii. 10. e Phil. ix. 1. 

f Ibid. 3. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



255 



republic, rather to die than seem to decline any 
service which he could possibly do ; that he had 
many opportunities of refreshing and reposing 
himself in the cities through which he passed, 
and was pressed to it by his colleagues : but in 
spite of his distemper, persevered to death in the 
resolution of urging his journey, and hastening to 
perform the commands of the senate. That, if 
they recollected how he endeavoured to excuse 
himself from the task when it was first moved 
in the senate, they must needs think that this 
honour to him when dead, was but a necessary 
amends for the injury which they had done to 
him when living ; for though it was harsh to be 
said, yet he must say it, that it was they who 
had killed him, by overruling his excuse, when 
they saw it grounded, not on a feigned, but a 
real sickness ; and when, to their remonstrance, 
the consul Pansa joined his exhortation with a 
gravity and force of speech which his ears had 
not learnt to bear:" then, says he, " he took his 
son and me aside, and professed that he could not 
help preferring your authority to his own life ; 
we, through admiration of his virtue, durst not 
venture to oppose his will. His son was tenderly 
moved, nor was my concern much less, yet both 
of us were obliged to give way to the greatness 
of his mind ; and the force of his reasoning when, 
to the joy of you all, he promised that he would 
do whatever you prescribed, nor would decline 
the danger of that vote of which he himself had 
been the proposer. Restore life therefore to him, 
from whom you have taken it, for the life of the 
dead is in the memory of the living : take care 
that he, whom you unwillingly sent to his death, 
receive an immortality from you ; for if you decree 
a statue to him in the rostra, the remembrance of 
his embassy will remain to all posterity?." Then 
after illustrating the great virtues, talents, and 
excellent character of Sulpicius, he observes, 
" that all these would be perpetuated by their own 
merit and effects, and that the statue was the 
monument rather of the gratitude of the senate, 
than of the fame of the man ; of a public, rather 
than of a private signification ; an eternal testi- 
mony of Antony's audaciousness, of his waging 
an impious war against his country : of his re- 
jecting the embassy of the senate V For which 
reasons he proposed a decree, " that a statue of 
brass should be erected to him in the rostra by 
order of the senate, and the cause inscribed on 
the base : that he died in the service of the repub- 
lic ; with an area of five feet on all sides of it, for 
his children and posterity to see the shows of 
gladiators ; that a magnificent funeral should be 
made for him at the public charge, and the consul 
Pansa should assign him a place of burial in the 
Esquiline field, with an area of thirty feet every 
way, to be granted publicly, as a sepulchre for 
him, his children, and posterity." The senate 
agreed to what Cicero desired : and the statue 
itself, as we are told by a writer of the third 
century, remained to his time in the rostra of 
Augustus l . 

Sulpicius was of a noble and patrician family, 

of the same age, the same studies, and the same 

principles with Cicero, with whom he kept up a 

perpetual friendship. They went throu gh their 

S Phil. ix. 4, 5. h Ibid. 5, 6. 

• Pomponius de Origine Juris. 



exercises together when young, both at Rome and 
at Rhodes, in the celebrated school of Molo, 
whence he became an eminent pleader of causes, 
and passed through all the great offices of the 
state, with a singular reputation of wisdom, learn- 
ing, integrity ; a constant admirer of the modesty 
of the ancients, and a reprover of the insolence 
of his own times. When he could not arrive at 
the first degree of fame, as an orator, he resolved 
to excel in what was next to it, the character of 
a lawyer ; choosing rather to be the first in the 
second art, than the second only in the first : 
leaving therefore to his friend Cicero the field of 
eloquence, he contented himself with such a share 
of it as was sufficient to sustain and adorn the 
profession of the law. In this he succeeded to his 
wish, and was far superior to all who had ever 
professed it in Rome : being the first who re- 
duced it to a. proper science, or rational system, 
and added light and method to that, which all 
others before him had taught darkly and con- 
fusedly. Nor was his knowledge confined to the 
external forms, or the effects, of the municipal 
laws ; but enlarged by a comprehensive view of 
universal equity, which he made the interpreter of 
its sanctions, and the rule of all his decisions ; yet 
he was always better pleased to put an amicable 
end to a controversy, than to direct a process at 
law. In his political behaviour he was always a 
friend to peace and liberty ; moderating the vio- 
lence of opposite parties, and discouraging every 
step towards civil dissention ; and, in the late 
war, was so busy in contriving projects of an ac- 
commodation, that he gained the name of the 
peace-maker. Through a natural timidity of 
temper, confirmed by a profession and course of 
life averse from arms, though he preferred Pom- 
pey's cause as the best, he did not care to fight for 
it ; but taking Caesar's to be the strongest, suffered 
his son to follow that camp, while he himself 
continued quiet and neuter : for this he was 
honoured by Caesar, yet could never be induced 
to approve his government. From the time of 
Caesar's death, he continued still to advise and 
promote all measures which seemed likely to esta- 
blish the public concord, and died at last as he 
had lived, in the very act and office of peace- 
making 15 . 

k Non facile quern dixerim plus studii quam ilium et 
ad dicendum, et ad omnes bonarum rerum disciplinas 
adhibuisse: nam et in iisdem exercitationibus ineunte 
aetate fuimus ; et postea Rhodum una ille etiam profectus 
est, quo melior esset et doctior : et inde ut rediit, videtur 
mibi in secunda arte primus esse maluisse, quam in prima 
secundus — sed fortasse maluit, id quod est adeptus, longe 
omnium non ejusdem modo aetatis, sed eorum etiam qui 
f uissent, in jure civili esse princeps — juris civilis magnum 
usura et apud Scaevolam et apud multos fuisse, artem in 
hoc uno — hie enim attulit hanc artem — quasi lucem ad ea, 
quae confuse ab aliis aut respondebantur aut agebantur. — 
[Brut. 262, &c] Neque ille magis juris consultus, quam 
justitias fuit : ita ea quae proficiscebantur a legibus et a 
jure civili semper ad facilitatem aequitatemque referebat : 
neque constituere litium actiones malebat, quam contro- 
versias tollere. [Phil. ix. 5.] Servius vero Pacificator cum 
suo librariolo videtur obiisse legationem. [Ad Att. xv. Jr.] 
Cognoram enim jam absens, te ha?c mala multo ante pro- 
videntem, defensorem pacis et in consulatu tuo et post 
consulatum fuisse. — Ep. Fain. iv. 1. 

N.B.— The old lawyers tell a remarkable story of the 
origin of Sulpicius's fame and skill in the law : that going 
one day to consult Mucius Scaevola about some point, he 



256 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



The senate had heard nothing of Brutus and 
Cassius from the time of their leaving Italy, till 
Brutus now sent public letters to the consuls, 
giving a particular account of " his success against 
Antony's brother Caius, in securing Macedonia, 
Illyricum, and Greece, with all the several armies 
in those countries, to the interests of the repub- 
lic ; that C. Antony was retired to Apollonia, with 
seven cohorts, where a good account would soon 
be given of him ; that a legion under L. Piso had 
surrendered itself to young Cicero, the commander 
of his horse ; that Dolabella's horse, which was 
marching in two separate bodies towards Syria, 
the one in Thessaly, the other in Macedonia, had 
deserted their leaders, and joined themselves to 
him ; that Vatinius had opened the gates of Dyr- 
rhachium to him, and given up the town with his 
troops into his hands. That in all these transac- 
tions Q. Hortensius, the proconsul of Macedonia, 
had been particularly serviceable in disposing the 
provinces and their armies to declare for the cause 
of liberty 1 ." 

Pansa no sooner received the letters, than he 
summoned the senate to acquaint them with the 
contents, which raised an incredible joy through 
the whole city™. After the letters were read, 
Pansa spoke largely in the praises of Brutus, 
extolled his conduct and services, and moved that 
public honours and thanks should be decreed to 
him ; and then, according to his custom, called 
upon his father-in-law Calenus to declare his sen- 
timents the first, who, in a premeditated speech 
delivered from writing, "acknowledged Brutus's 
letters to be well and properly drawn ; but since 
what he had done was done without any commis- 
sion and public authority, that he should be 
required to deliver up his forces to the orders of 
the senate, or the proper governors of the pro- 
vinces 11 ." Cicero spoke next, " and began with 
giving the thanks of the house to Pansa, for 
calling them together on that day, when they had 
no expectation of it, and not deferring a moment 
to give them a share of the joy which Brutus's 
letters had brought. He observes that Pansa, 
by speaking so largely in the praise of Brutus, 
had shown that to be true which he had always 
taken to be so, that no man ever envied another's 
virtue who was conscious of his own. That he 
had prevented him to whom, for his intimacy 

was so dull in apprehending the meaning of Mucius's 
answer, that after explaining it to him twice or thrice, 
Mucius could not forbear saying, It is a shame for a 
nobleman, and a patrician, and a pleader of causes , to be 
ignorant of that law which he professes to understand. 
The reproach stung him to the quick, and made him 
apply himself to his studies with such industry, that he 
became the ablest lawyer in Rome ; and left behind him 
near a hundred and eighty books written by himself on 
nice and difficult questions of law.— Digest. 1. 1. tit. 2. 
parag. 43. 

The Jesuits Catrou and Rouille have put this Sulpicius 
into the list of the conspirators who killed Caasar : but a 
moderate acquaintance with the character of the man, or 
with Cicero's writings, would have shown them their 
error, and that there was none of consular rank but 
Trebonius concerned in that affair. — Hist. Rom. vol. 17. 
p. 343, not. a. 

1 Phil. x. 4, 5, G. 

m Dii immortales! qui ille nuncius, qua? ilia? literas, 
quae laetitia senatus, qua? alacritas civitatis erat ? — Ad 
Brut. ii. 7. 

" Phil. x. 1, 2, 3. 



with Brutus, that task seemed particularly to be- 
long, from saying so much as he intended on that 
subject." Then addressing himself to Calenus he 
asks, " What could be the meaning of that perpe- 
tual war which he declared against the Brutuses ? 
Why he alone was always opposing, when every 
one else was almost adoring them ? That to talk 
of Brutus's letters being rightly drawn, was not 
to praise Brutus, but his secretary. When did 
he ever hear of a decree in that style, that letters 
were properly written ? yet the expression did not 
fall from him by chance, but was designed, pre- 
meditated, and brought in writing °." He exhorts 
him " to consult with his son-in-law Pansa, oftener 
than with himself, if he would preserve his cha- 
racter ; professes that he could not help pitying 
him, to hear it given out among the people that 
there was not a second vote on the side of him 
who gave the first, which would be the case, he 
believed, in that day's debate. You would take 
away (says he) the legions from Brutus, even 
those which he has drawn off from the traitorous 
designs of C. Antony, and engaged by his own 
authority in the public service ; you would have 
him sent once more, as it were, into banishment, 
naked and forlorn ; but for you, fathers ! if ever 
you betray or desert Brutus, what citizen will you 
honour ? Whom will you favour, unless you 
think those who offer kingly diadems worthy 
to be preserved ; those who abolish the name of 
king, to be abandoned.'' He proceeds to display, 
with great force the merit and praises of Brutus ; 
" his moderation, mildness, patience of injuries : 
how studiously he had avoided every step which 
could give a handle to civil tumults ; quitting the 
city, living retired in the country, forbidding the 
resort of friends to him, and leaving Italy itself, 
lest any cause of war should arise on his account ; 
that as long as he saw the senate disposed to bear 
everything, he was resolved to bear too : but when 
he perceived them inspired with a spirit of liberty, 
he then exerted himself to provide them succours 
to defend it p ; that if he had not defeated the 
desperate attempts of C. Antony, they had lost 
Macedonia, Illyricum, and Greece : the last of 
which afforded either a commodious retreat to 
Antony, when driven out of Italy, or the best 
opportunity of invading it, which now, by Brutus's 
management, being strongly provided with troops, 
stretched out its arms as it were, and offered its 
help to Italy i. That Caius's march through the 
provinces was to plunder the allies, to scatter 
waste and desolation wherever he passed, to em- 
ploy the armies of the Roman people against the 
people themselves ; whereas Brutus made it a law, 
wheresoever he came, to dispense light, hope, and 
security to all around him : in short, that the one 
gathered forces to preserve, the other to overturn 
the republic. That the soldiers themselves could 
judge of this as well as the senate, as they had 
declai'ed by their desertion of C. Antony, who by 
that time either was, or would soon be, Brutus's 
prisoner 1, ; that there was no apprehension of 
danger from Brutus's power : that his legions, his 
mercenaries, his horse, and above all himself, was 
wholly theirs. Formed for the service of the 
republic, as well by his own excellent virtue as a 
kind of fatality derived from his ancestors, both 



o Phil, x 
q Ibid. 5. 



V Ibid. 3, 4. 
' Ibid. fa". 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



257 



on the father's and the mother's side ; that none 
could ever blame him for anything, unless for too 
great a backwardness and aversion to war, and his 
not humouring the ardour of all Italy in their 
eager thirst of liberty — that it was a vain fear, 
which some pretended to entertain, that the vete- 
rans would be disgusted to see Brutus at the head 
of an army, as if there were any difference between 
his army and the armies of Hirtius, Pansa, D. 
Brutus, Octavius ; all which had severally received 
public honours for their defence of the people 
of Rome ; that M. Brutus could not be more 
suspected by the veterans than Decimus, for 
though the act of the Brutuses, and the praise of 
it, was common to them both, yet those who dis- 
approved it were more angry with Decimus, as 
thinking him, of all others, the last who ought to 
have done it : yet what were all their armies now 
doing, but relieving Decimus from the siege s ? 
That if there was any real danger from Brutus, 
Pansa's sagacity would easily find it out : but as 
they had just now heard from his own mouth, he 
was so far from thinking his army to be dangerous, 
that he looked upon it as the firmest support of 
the commonwealth l ; that it was the constant art 
of the disaffected, to oppose the name of the vete- 
rans to every good design ; that he was always 
ready to encourage their valour, but would never 
endure their arrogance. "Shall we," says he, "who 
are now breaking off the shackles of our servitude, 
be discouraged if any one tells us, that the veterans 
will not have it so ? Let that then come out from 
me at last which is true, and becoming my charac- 
ter to speak : that if the resolutions of this body 
must be governed by the will of the veterans, if 
all our words and acts must be regulated by their 
humour, then it is high time to wish for death, 
which to Roman citizens was ever preferable to 
slavery"; that since so many chances of death 
surrounded them all both day and night, it was not 
the part of a man, much less of a Roman, to scru- 
ple the giving up that breath to his country, which 
he must necessarily give up to nature x . That An- 
tony was the single and common enemy of them 
all, though he had indeed his brother Lucius with 
him, who seemed to be born on purpose, that 
Marcus might not be the most infamous of all 
mortals ; that he had a crew also of desperate vil- 
lains, gaping after the spoils of the republic : that 
the army of Brutus was provided against these, 
whose sole will, thought, and purpose was, to pro- 
tect the senate and the liberty of the people — who 
after trying, in vain, what patience would do, 
found it necessary at last to oppose force to force?. 
That they ought, therefore, to grant the same pri- 
vilege to M. Brutus, which they had granted before 
to Decimus, and toX>ctavius, and confirm by public 
authority what he had been doing for them by his 
private counsel ;" for which purpose he proposed 
the following decree: " Whereas by the pains, 
counsel, industry, virtue of Q. Caepio Brutus z , 
proconsul, in the utmost distress of the republic, 
the province of Macedonia, Illyricum, and Greece, 



s Phil. x. 7. l Ibid. 8. 

" Ibid. 9. x ibid. 10. 

Y Ibid. 11. 

* M. Brutua, as appears from the style of this decree, 
had been adopted lately by his mother's brother, Q,. 
Servilius Caepio, whose name, according to custom, he 
now assumed with the possession of his uncle's estate. 



with all their legions, armies, horse, are now in 
the power of the consuls, senate and people of 
Rome ; that Q. Caepio Brutus, proconsul, has acted 
herein well, and for the good of the republic, 
agreeably to his character, the dignity of his an- 
cestors, and to his usual manner of serving the 
commonwealth, and that his conduct is and ever 
will be acceptable to the senate and people of 
Rome. That Q. Caepio Brutus, proconsul, be 
ordered to protect, guard, and defend the province 
of Macedonia, Illyricum, and all Greece: and 
command that army which he himself has raised. 
That whatever money he wants for military ser- 
vice, he may use and take it from any part of 
the public revenues, where it can best be raised, 
or borrow it where he thinks proper ; and impose 
contributions of grain and forage, and take care to 
draw all his troops as near to Italy as possible : 
and whereas it appears by the letters of Q. Caepio 
Brutus, proconsul, that the public service has been 
greatly advanced by the endeavours and virtue of 
Q. Hortensius, proconsul ; and that he concerted 
all his measures with Q. Caepio Brutus, proconsul, 
to the great benefit of the commonwealth. That 
Q,. Hortensius, proconsul, has acted therein rightly, 
regularly, and for the public good, and that it is 
the will of the senate, that Q. Hortensius, procon- 
sul, with his quaestors, proquaestors, and lieute- 
nants, hold the province of Macedonia, till a 
successor be appointed by the senate." 

Cicero sent this speech to Brutus, with that also 
which he made on the first of January, of which 
Brutus says, in answer to him : " I have read your 
two orations, the one on the first of January, the 
other on the subject of my letters against Calenus. 
You expect now, without doubt, that I should 
praise them. I am at a loss what to praise the 
most in them ; your courage or your abilities : I 
allow you now in earnest to call them Philippics, 
as you intimated jocosely in a former letter a ." — 
Thus the name of Philippics, which seems to have 
been thrown out at first in gaiety and jest only, 
being taken up and propagated by his friends, 
became at last the fixed and standing title of these 
orations, which yet for several ages were called, 
we find, indifferently either Philippics or Anto- 
nians b . Brutus declared himself so well pleased 
with these two which he had seen, that Cicero pro- 
mised to send him afterwards all the rest c . 

Brutus, when he first left Italy, sailed directly 
for Athens, where he spent some time in concert- 
ing measures how to make himself master of 
Greece and Macedonia, which was the great design 
that he had in view. Here he gathered about him 
all the young nobility and gentry of Rome who, 
for the opportunity of their education, had been 
sent to this celebrated seat of learning ; but of 
them all he took the most notice of young Cicero, 
and after a little acquaintance grew very fond of 
him, admiring his parts and virtue, and surprised 
a Legi orationes tuas duas, quarum altera Kal. Jan. 
usus es ; altera de literis meis, qua; habita est abs te 
contra Calenum. Nunc scilicet hoc expectas, dum eas 
laudem. Nescio animi an ingenii tui major in illis libcllis 
laus contineatur. Jam concedo, ut vol Philippine vocen- 
tur, quod tu quadam epistola jocans scripsisti. — Ad Brat. 
ii. 5. 

b M. Cicero in primo Antonianarum ita scriptum rcli- 
quit.— Aul. Gell. xiii. 1 . 

o Haec ad te oratio perferetur, quoniam te video de- 
lectari Philippicis nostris.— Ad Brut. ii. 4. 



258 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



to find in one so young such a generosity and 
greatness of mind, with such an aversion to 
tyranny d . He made him, therefore, one of his lieu- 
tenants, though he was but twenty years old ; gave 
him the command of his horse, and employed him 
in several commissions of great trust and import- 
ance, in all which the young man signalised both 
his courage and conduct, and behaved with great 
credit to himself, great satisfaction to his general, 
and great benefit to the public service ; as Brutus 
did him the justice to signify, both in his private 
and public letters to Rome. In writing to Cicero, 
"Your son," says he, "recommends himself to 
me so effectually by his industry, patience, activity, 
greatness of mind, and in short by every duty, that 
he seems never to drop the remembrance of whose 
son he is ; wherefore, since it is not possible for 
me to make you love him more than you do already, 
yet allow thus much to my judgment as to persuade 
yourself that he will have no occasion to borrow 
any share of your glory in order to obtain his 
father's honours." e This account, given by one 
who was no flatterer, may be considered as the real 
character of the youth, — which is confirmed like- 
wise by what Lentulus wrote of him about the 
same time. " I could not see your son," says he, 
" when I was last with Brutus, because he was gone 
with the horse into winter- quarters ; but, by my 
faith, it gives me great joy for your sake, for his, 
and especially my own, that he is in such esteem 
and reputation ; for as he is your son, and worthy 
of you, I cannot but look upon him as my bro- 
ther."' 

Cicero was so full of the greater affairs, which 
were the subject of his letters to Brutus, that he 
had scarce leisure to take notice of what was said 
about his son. He just touches it, however, in 
one or two letters : " As to my son, if his merit be 
as great as you write, I rejoice at it as much as I 
ought to do ; or if you magnify it out of love to 
him, even that gives me an incredible joy to per- 
ceive that he is beloved by you§\ Again, I desire 
you, my dear Brutus, to keep my son with you as 
much as possible : he will find no better school of 
virtue than in the contemplation and imitation of 
you." h 

Though Brutus intimated nothing in his public 
letters but what was prosperous and encouraging, 
yet in his private accounts to Cicero he signified a 

d Plut. in Brut. 

e Cicero filius tuus sic mihi se probat, industria, pa- 
tientia, labore, animi magnitudine, oinni denique officio, 
ut prorsus nunquam dimittere videtur cogitationem, 
cujus sit filius. Quare quoniam efficere non possum, ut 
pluris facias eum, qui tibi est carissimus, illud tribue 
judicio meo, ut tibi persuadeas, non fore illi abutendum 
gloria tua, ut adipiscatur honores paternos. Kal. Apr.— 
Ad Brut ii. 3. 

f Filium tuum, ad Brutum cum veni, videre non potui, 
ideo quod jam in hiberna, cum equitibus erat profectus. 
Sed medius fidius ea esse eum opinione, et tua et ipsius, et 
in primis mea causa gaudeo. Fratris enim loco mihi est, 
qui ex te natus, teque dignus est. Vale. mi. Kal. Jun.— 
Ep. Fam. xii. 14. 

e De Cicerone meo, et si tantum est in eo, quantum 
scribis, tantum scilicet quantum debeo, gaudeo: et si, 
quod amas eum, eo majora facis ; id ipsum incredibiliter 
gaudeo, a te eum diligi. — Ad Brut. ii. 6. 

h Ciceronem meum, mi Brute, velim quam plurimum 
tecum habeas. Virtutis disciplinam meliorem reperiet 
nullam, quam contemplationem atque imitationem tui. 
xjii. Kal. Maii.— Ibid. 7. 



great want of money and recruits, and begged to 
be supplied with both from Italy, especially with 
recruits, either by a vote of the senate, or if that 
could not be had, by some secret management, 
without the privity of Pansa. To which Cicero 
answered, "You tell me that you want two ne- 
cessary things, recruits and money : it is difficult 
to help you. I know no other way of raising 
money which can be of use to you but what 
the senate has decreed, of borrowing it from the 
cities. As to recruits, I do not see what can 
be done ; for Pansa is so far from granting any 
share of his army or recruits to you, that he is even 
uneasy to see so many volunteers going over to 
you. His reason I take it is, that he thinks no 
forces too great for the demands of our affairs in 
Italy: for as to what many suspect, that he has no 
mind to see you too strong, I have no suspicion 
of it."' Pansa seems to have been much in the 
right for refusing to part with any troops out of 
Italy, where the stress of the war now lay, on the 
success of which the fate of the whole republic 
depended. 

But there came news of a different kind about 
the same time to Rome, of Dolabella's successful 
exploits in Asia. He left the city, as it is said 
above, before the expiration of his consulship, to 
possess himself of Syria, which had been allotted 
to him by Antony's management, and taking his 
way through Greece and Macedonia, to gather what 
money and troops he could raise in those countries, 
he passed over into Asia in hopes of inducing that 
province to abandon Trebonius and declare for 
him. Having sent his emissaries therefore before 
him to prepare for his reception, he arrived before 
Smyrna, where Trebonius resided, without any 
show of hostility, or forces sufficient to give any 
great alarm, pretending to desire nothing more 
than a free passage through the country to his own 
province. Trebonius refused to admit him into 
the town, but consented to supply him with re- 
freshments without the gates : where many civilities 
passed between them, with great professions on 
Dolabella's part of amity and friendship to Tre- 
bonius, who promised in his turn that if Dolabella 
would depart quietly from Smyrna, he should be 
received into Ephesus in order to pass forward 
towards Syria. To this Dolabella seemingly agreed ; 
and finding it impracticable to take Smyrna by 
open force, contrived to surprise it by stratagem. 
Embracing, therefore, Trebonius's offer, he set for- 
ward towards Ephesus ; but after he had marched 
several miles, and Trebonius's men, who were 
sent after to observe him, were retired, he turned 
back instantly in the night, and arriving again at 
Smyrna before day, found it as he expected negli- 
gently guarded and without any apprehension of 
an assault, so that his soldiers, by the help of 
ladders, presently mounting the walls, possessed 
i Quod egere te duabus necessariis rebus scribis, supple- 
mento et pecunia, difficile consilium est. Non enim mihi 
occurrunt facultates, quibus uti te posse videam, praeter 
illas, quas senatus decrevit, ut pecunias a civitatibus 
mutuas sumeres. De supplemento autem non video, quid 
fieri possit. Tantum enim abest ut Pansa de exercitu suo 
aut delectu tibi aliquid tribuat, ut etiam moleste ferat, 
tam multos ad te ire voluntarios : quomodo equidem credo, 
quod his rebus quae in Italia decernuntur, nullas copias 
nimis magnas arbitretur: quomodo autem multi suspi- 
cantur, quod ne te quidem nimis firmum esse velit ; quod 
ego non suspicor.— Ad Brut. ii. 6. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



259 



themselves of it without opposition, and seized 
Trebonius himself in his bed before he knew any- 
thing of his danger k . 

Dolabella treated him with the utmost cruelty ; 
kept him two days under torture to extort a dis- 
covery of all the money in his custody, then 
ordered his head to be cut off and carried about on 
a spear, and his body to be dragged about the 
streets and thrown into the sea 1 . This was the 
first blood that was spilt on the account of Caesar's 
death, which was now revenged in kind upon one 
of the principal conspirators, and the only one who 
was of consular rank. It had been projected with- 
out doubt in concert with Antony, to make the 
revenge of Csesar's death the avowed cause of their 
arms, in order to draw the veterans to their side, 
or make them unwilling at least to act against 
them ; and it gave a clear warning to Brutus and 
his associates what they were to expect if their 
enemies prevailed, as well as a sad presage to all 
honest men of the cruel effects and merciless fury 
of the impending war. 

On the news of Trebonius's death the senate 
was summoned by the consul, where Dolabella was 
unanimously declared a public enemy, and his 
estate confiscated. Calenus himself first proposed 
the vote, and said that if anything more severe 
could be thought of, he would be for it. The in- 
dignation of the city was so inflamed that he was 
forced to comply with the popular humour, and 
hoped perhaps to put some difficulty upon Cicero, 
who, for his relation to Dolabella, would as he 
imagined be for moderating the punishment. But 
though Calenus was mistaken in this, he was con- 
cerned in moving another question which greatly 
perplexed Cicero, about the choice of a general to 
manage this new war against Dolabella. Two 
opinions were proposed ; the one that P. Servilius 
should be sent with an extraordinary commission, 
the other that the two consuls should jointly pro- 
secute that war, with the provinces of Syria and 
Asia allotted to them. This was very agreeable to 
Pansa ; and pushed therefore not only by his 
friends but by all Antony's party, who fancied that 
it would take off the attention of the consuls from 
the war of Italy, give Dolabella time to strengthen 
himself in Asia, raise a coldness between the con- 
suls and Cicero if he ventured to oppose it, and 
above all put a public affront upon Cassius, who 
by his presence in those parts seemed to have the 
best pretension to that commission. The debate 
continued through the first day without coming to 
any issue, and was adjourned to the next. In the 
meanwhile Cassius-'s mother-in-law Servilia, and 
other friends, were endeavouring to prevail with 
Cicero to drop the opposition for fear of alienating 
Pansa, — but in vain ; for he resolved at all hazards 
to defend the honour of Cassius ; and when the 
debate was resumed the next morning, exerted all 
his interest and eloquence to procure a decree in 
his favour. 

k Appian. iii. p. 542. 

1 Consecutus est Dolabella, nulla suspicione belli.— 
Secutae collocutiones familiares cum Trebonio ; complex- 
usque summae benevolentias— nocturnus introitus in Smyr- 
nam, quasi in hostium urbem : oppressus Trebonius — 
interficere captum statim noluit, ne nimis, credo, in 
victoria liberalis videretur. Cum vgrborum contumeliis 
optimum virum incesto ore lacerasset, turn verberibus ac 
tormentis quasstionem babuit pecuniae publico, idque per 



He began his speech by observing, " that in 
their present grief for the lamentable fate of 
Trebonius, the republic however would reap some 
good from it, since they now saw the barbarous 
cruelty of those who had taken arms against their 
country ; for of the two chiefs of the present war, 
the one by effecting what he wished had discovered 
what the other aimed at m . That they both meant 
nothing less than the death and destruction of all 
honest men, nor would be satisfied it seemed with 
simple death, for that was the punishment of 
nature, but thought the rack and tortures due to 
their revenge ; that what Dolabella had executed 
was the picture of what Antony intended ; that 
they were a true pair, exactly matched, marching 
by concert and equal paces in the execution of 
their wicked purposes." This he illustrates by 
parallel instances from the conduct of each ; and 
after displaying the inhumanity of Dolabella and 
the unhappy fate of Trebonius, in a manner proper 
to excite indignation against the one and compassion 
for the other, he shows, " that Dolabella was still 
the more unhappy of the two, and must needs 
suffer more from the guilt of his mind than Tre- 
bonius from the tortures of his body. What doubt 
(says he) can there be which of them is the most 
miserable ? — he whose death the senate and people 
are eager to revenge, or he who is adjudged to be 
a traitor by the unanimous vote of the senate ? 
For in all other respects it is the greatest injury to 
Trebonius to compare his life with Dolabella's. 
As to the one, everybody knows his wisdom, wit, 
humanity, innocence, greatness of mind in freeing 
his country ; but as to the other, cruelty was his 
delight from a boy, with a lewdness so shameless 
and abandoned, that he used to value himself for 
doing what his very adversaries could not object to 
him with modesty. Yet this man, good gods ! was 
once mine ; for I was not very curious to inquire 
into his vices, — nor should I now perhaps have 
been his enemy had he not shown himself an enemy 
to you, to his country, to the domestic gods and 
altars of us all, — nay, even to nature and humanity 
itself." n He exhorts them, " from this warning 
given by Dolabella, to act with the greater vigour 
against Antony ; for if he, who had about him but 
a few of those capital incendiaries, the ringleaders 
of rapine and rebellion, durst attempt an act so 
abominable, what barbarity were they not to ex- 
pect from Antony, who had the whole crew of them 
in his camp ? " — the principal of whom he describes 
by name and character; and adds, "that as he 
had often dissented unwillingly from Calenus, so 
now at last he had the pleasure to agree with him, 
and to let them see that he had no dislike to the 
man but to the cause ; that in this case he not only 
concurred with him, but thanked him for pro- 
pounding a vote so severe and worthy of the 
republic, in decreeing Dolabella an enemy and his 
estate to be confiscated. " ° Then as to the second 
point, which was of greater delicacy, the nomina- 
tion of a general to be sent against Dolabella, he 
proceeds to give his reasons for rejecting the two 
opinions proposed, — the one for sending Servilius, 
the other for the two consuls. Of the first, he 

biduum. Post cervicibus fractis caput abscidit, idque ad- 
fixum gestari jussit in pilo ; reliquum corpus tractum ac 
laniatum abjecit in mare, &c.— Phil, xi. 2, & 

n - Phil. xi. 1. n Ibid. 4. 

° Ibid. 5, 6. 

S 2 



260 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



says, "that extraordinary commissions were always 
odious where they were not necessary ; and where- 
ever they had been granted, it was in cases very 
different from this. That if the commission in 
debate should be decreed to Servilius, it would 
seem an affront to all the rest of the same rank, 
that being equal in dignity they should be thought 
unworthy of the same honour. That he himself 
indeed had voted an extraordinary commission to 
young Caesar, but Caesar had first given an extra- 
ordinary protection and deliverance to them. That 
they must either have taken his army from him or 
decreed the command of it to him, which could 
not therefore be so properly said to be given as not 
taken away ; but that no such commission had 
ever been granted to any one who was wholly idle 
and unemployed?. As to the second opinion, of 
decreeing that province to the consuls, he shows it 
to be both against the dignity of the consuls them- 
selves and against the public service. That when 
D. Brutus, a consul elect, was actually besieged, 
on the preservation of whom their common safety 
depended, and when a dreadful war was on foot, 
already entrusted to the two consuls, the very 
mention of Asia and Syria would give a handle to 
jealousy and envy ; and though the decree was not 
to take place till D. Brutus should first be relieved, 
yet a new commission would necessarily take off 
some part of their thoughts and attention from the 
old." Then addressing himself to Pansa, he says, 
" that though his mind, he knew, was intent on 
delivering D. Brutus, yet the nature of things 
would force him to turn it sometimes towards 
Dolabella, and that if he had more minds than one 
they should all be directed and wholly fixed on 
Modenai. That for his own part he had resigned 
in his consulship a rich and well-furnished province, 
that' nothing might interrupt his endeavours to 
quench that flame which was then raised in his 
country. He wished that Pansa would imitate 
him whom he used to commend ; that if the con- 
suls, however, desired to have provinces, as other 
great men had usually done, let them first bring 
D. Brutus safe home to them, — who ought to be 
guarded with the same care as the image that fell 
from heaven and was kept in the temple of Vesta, 
in the safety of which they were all safe. That 
this decree would create great delay and obstruction 
to the war against Dolabella, which required a 
general prepared, equipped, and already invested 
with command, — one who had authority, reputa- 
tion, an army, and a resolution tried in the service 
of his country r . That it must, therefore, either 
be Brutus or Cassius, or both of them. That 
Brutus could not be spared from Macedonia, where 
he was quelling the last efforts of the faction, and 
oppressing C. Antony, who, with the remains of a 
broken army, was still in possession of some con- 
siderable places. That when he had finished that 
work, if he found it of use to the commonwealth 
to pursue Dolabella he would do it of himself, as 
he had hitherto done, without waiting for their 
orders ; for both he and Cassius had on many oc- 
casions been a senate to themselves. That in such 
a season of general confusion, it was necessary to 
be governed by the times rather than by rules. 
That Brutus and Cassius ever held the safety and 
liberty of their country to be the most sacred rule 

P Phil. xi. 7, 8. 9 Ibid. 9. 

* Ibid. 10. 



of acting s . For by what law (says he) by what 
right have they hitherto been acting, the one in 
Greece the other in Syria, but by that which Jupiter 
himself ordained, that all things beneficial to the 
community should be esteemed lawful and just ? — 
for law is nothing else but right reason derived to 
us from the gods, enjoining what is honest, pro- 
hibiting the contrary. This was the law which 
Cassius obeyed when he went into Syria ; another 
man's province, if we judge by written law, but 
when these are overturned, his own by the law of 
nature." But that Cassius's acts might be confirmed 
also by the authority of the senate, he proposed a 
decree to this effect, "that whereas the senate has 
declared P. Dolabella to be an enemy of the Roman 
people, and ordered him to be pursued by open 
war, to the intent that he may suffer the punish- 
ment due to him both from gods and men ; it is 
the will of the senate that C. Cassius, proconsul, 
shall hold the province of Syria in the same man- 
ner as if he had obtained it by right of law ; and 
that he receive the several armies from Q. Marcius 
Crispus, proconsul, L. Statius Murcus, proconsul, 
A. Allienus, lieutenant, which they are hereby 
required to deliver to him. That with these and 
what other forces he can procure he shall pursue 
Dolabella both by land and sea. That for the 
occasions of the war he shall have a power to de- 
mand ships, seamen, money, and all things useful 
to him, from whomsoever he thinks fit, in Syria, 
Asia, Bithynia, Pontus ; and that whatever pro- 
vince he comes into in prosecuting the war he shall 
have an authority superior to that of the proper 
governor. That if king Deiotarus, the father or 
the son, shall assist C. Cassius, proconsul, with 
their troops, as they have oft assisted the Roman 
people in other wars, their conduct will be accept- 
able to the senate and people. That if any of the 
other kings, tetrarchs, and potentates, shall do the 
like, the senate and people will not be unmindful 
of their services. That as soon as the public affairs 
were settled, C. Pansa and A. Hirtius, the consuls, 
one or both of them, should take the first oppor- 
tunity of moving the senate about the disposal of 
the consular and praetorian provinces ; and that in 
the meanwhile they should all continue in the 
hands of those who now held them, till successors 
were appointed by the senate. 1 " 

From the senate, Cicero went directly into the 
forum, to give the people an account of the debate, 
and recommend to them the interests of Cassius : 
hither Pansa followed him ; and, to weaken the in- 
fluence of his authority, declared to the citizens 
that what Cicero contended for was against the will 
and advice of Cassius's nearest friends and rela- 
tions : of which Cicero gives the following account 
in a letter to Cassius. 

M. T. Cicero to C. Cassius. 
(t With what zeal I defended your dignity, both 
in the senate and with the people, I would have 
you learn rather from your other friends than from 
me. My opinion would easily have prevailed in 
the senate, had not Pansa eagerly opposed it. 
After I had proposed that vote, I was produced to 
the people by Servilius. the tribune, and said 
everything which I could of you with a strength 
of voice that filled the forum ; and with such a 



s Phil. xi. 11. 



Ibid. 12, &c. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



261 



clamour and approbation of the people, that I had 
never seen the like before. You will pardon me, 
I hope, for doing it against the will of your mother- 
in-law. The timorous woman was afraid that Pansa 
would be disgusted. Pansa indeed declared to the 
assembly that both your mother and brother were 
against it ; but that did not move me — I had other 
considerations more at heart : my regard was to the 
republic, to which I have always wished well, and 
to your dignity and glory. But there is one thing 
which I enlarged upon in the senate, and mentioned 
also to the people, in which I must desire you to 
make my words good ; for I promised, and in a 
manner assured them, that you neither had nor 
would wait for our decrees, but would defend the 
republic yourself in your own way : and though we 
had heard nothing, either where you were or what 
forces you had, yet I took it for granted that all 
the forces in those parts were yours ; and was con- 
fident that you had already recovered the province 
of Asia to the republic. Let it be your care to 
outdo yourself, in endeavouring still to advance 
your own glory. Adieu u ." 

As to the issue of the contest, some writers tell 
us that it ended as Cicero desired : but it is evi- 
dent, from the letter just recited, and more clearly 
still from other letters, that Pansa's authority pre- 
vailed against him for granting the commission to 
the consuls x . Cassius, however, as Cicero advised 
and declared, had little regard to what they were 
decreeing at Rome ; but undertook the whole affair 
himself, and soon put an end to Dolabella's tri- 
umphs, as will be mentioned hereafter in its proper 
place. 

The statue of Minerva, which Cicero, upon his 
going into exile, had dedicated in the capitol by 
the title of the Guardian of the City, was, about 
the end of the last year, thrown down and shattered 
to pieces by a tempest of thunder and lightning. 
This the later writers take notice of as ominous, 
and portending the fall of Cicero himself : though 
neither Cicero nor any of that time made any such 
reflection upon it. The senate, however, out of 
respect to him, passed a decree, in a full house, on 
the eighteenth of March, that the statue should be 
repaired and restored to its place?. So that it was 
now made by public authority what he himself had 
designed it to be — a standing monument to pos- 
terity that the safety of the republic had been the 
constant object of his counsels. 

D. Brutus was reduced by this time to such 
straits in Modena, that his friends began to be 
greatly alarmed for him ; taking it for granted, 
that if he fell into Antony's hands, he would be 
treated no better than Trebonius. The mention 
therefore of a pacification being revived in the se- 
nate, and recommended by Pansa himself, upon an 
intimation given by Antony's friends that he was 
now in a disposition to submit to reason, Cicero, 
out of a concern for Brutus' safety, consented to 
the decree of a second embassy, to be executed by 
himself and Servilius, together with three other 
consular senators : but finding upon recollection 



u Ep. Fam. xii. 7. 

x Quum consulibus decreta est Asia, et permissum est 
iis, ut dum ipsi venirent ; darent negotium qui ipsam ob- 
tineant, &c.— Ep. Fam. xii. 14. 

7 Eo die senatus decrevit, ut Minerva nostra, Custos 
Urbis, quam turbo dejecerat, restitueretur.— Ep. Fam. xii. 
25 ; Dio. xlv. p. 278. 



that there appeared no symptoms of any change in 
Antony, and that his friends produced no proofs of 
it, nor anything new in his conduct, he was con- 
vinced that he had made a false step, and that 
nothing more was intended than to gain time ; 
which was of great use to Antony, as it would 
retard the attempts of relieving Modena, and give 
an opportunity to Ventidius to join him, who was 
marching towards him at that time with three 
legions. At the next meeting therefore of the se- 
nate, he retracted his opinion, and declared against 
the late decree as dangerous and insidious ; and in 
a warm and pathetic speech pressed them to rescind 
it. He owns, " that it was indecent for one, whose 
authority they had so often followed in the most 
important debates, to declare himself mistaken and 
deceived ; yet his comfort was, that it was in com- 
mon with them all, and with a consul of the greatest 
wisdom : that when Piso and Calenus, who knew 
Antony's secret — the one of whom entertained his 
wife and children at his house, the other was per- 
petually sending and receiving letters from him, — 
began to renew what they had long intermitted, 
their exhortations to peace ; and when the consul 
thought fit to exhort the same thing, a man, whose 
prudence could not easily be imposed upon, whose 
virtue approved no peace but on Antony's submis- 
sion ; whose greatness of mind preferred death to 
slavery ; it was natural to imagine that there was 
some special reason for all this ; some secret 
wound in Antony's affairs which the public was un- 
acquainted with: especially when it was reported 
that Antony's family were under some unusual afflic- 
tion, and his friends in the senate betrayed a dejec- 
tion in their looks : for if there was nothing in it, 
why should Piso and Calenus above all others — 
why at that time — why so unexpectedly, so sud- 
denly, move for peace ? Yet now, when they had 
entangled the senate in a pacific embassy, they both 
denied that there was anything new or particular 
which induced them to it z : that there could be no 
occasion therefore for new measures when there 
was nothing new in the case itself; that they were 
drawn in and deceived by Antony's friends, who 
were serving his private, not the public interest : 
that he had seen it from the first, though but 
darkly, his concern for Brutus having dazzled his 
eyes ; for whose liberty, if a substitute could be 
accepted, he would freely offer himself to be shut 
up in his place : that if Antony would humble 
himself, and sue to them for anything, he should 
perhaps be for hearing him ; but while he stood to 
his arms, and acted offensively, their business was 
to resist force by force. But they would tell him, 
perhaps, that the thing was not in their power, 
since an embassy was actually decreed : but what 
is it (says he,) that is not free to the wise, which 
it is possible to retrieve ? It is the case of every 
man to err, but the part only of a fool to persevere 
in error. If we have been drawn away by false 
and fallacious hopes, let us turn again into the 
way ; for the surest harbour to a penitent is a 
change of his conduct*." He then shows how 
" the embassy, so far from being of service, would 
certainly hurt, nay, had already hurt the republic, 
by checking the zeal of the towns and colonies of 
Italy, and the courage of the legions which had de- 
clared for them, who could never be eager to fight 



z Phil. xii. 



» Ibid. 2. 



2C2 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



while the senate was sounding a retreat b . That 
nothing was more unjust than to determine any- 
thing about peace without the consent of those 
who were carrying on the war ; and not only with- 
out, but against their consent : that Hirtius and 
Csesar had no thoughts of peace ; from whom he 
had letters then in his hands, declaring their hopes 
of victory : for their desire was to conquer, and to 
acquire peace, not by treaty, but by victory . That 
there could not possibly be any peace with one to 
whom nothing could be granted : they had voted 
him to have forged several decrees of the senate ; 
would they vote them again to be genuine ? They 
had annulled his laws, as made by violence ; would 
they now consent to restore them ? They had de- 
creed him to have embezzled five millions of money : 
could such a waste be absolved from a charge of 
fraud ? That immunities, priesthoods, kingdoms, 
had been sold by him ; could those bargains be 
confirmed which their decrees had made void d ? 
That if they should grant him the farther Gaul and 
an army, what would it be else but to defer the 
war, not to make peace ? nay, not only to prolong 
the war, but to yield him the victory e . Was it for 
this (says he) that we have put on the robe of war, 
taken arms, sent out all the youth of Italy, that, 
with a most flourishing and numerous army, we 
should send an embassy at last for peace ? and 
must I bear a part in that embassy, or assist in 
that council, where, if I differ from the rest, the 
people of Rome can never know it ? so that what- 
ever concessions are made to Antony, or whatever 
mischief he may do hereafter, it must be at the 
hazard of my credit." He then shows, " that it 
an embassy must needs be sent, he, of all men, 
was the most improper to be employed in it : that 
he had ever been against any embassy ; was the 
mover of their taking the habit of war ; was always 
for the severest proceedings both against Antony 
and his associates : that all that party looked upon 
him as prejudiced ; and Antony would be offended 
at the sight of him f . That if they did not trouble 
themselves how Antony might take it, he begged 
them at least to spare him the pain of seeing Antony, 
which he should never be able to bear : who, in a 
speech lately to his parricides, when he was distri- 
buting rewards to the boldest of them, had promised 
Cicero's estate to Petissius : that he should never 
endure the sight of L. Antony, whose cruelty he 
could not have escaped, but by the defence of his 
walls and gates, and the zeal of his native town : 
that though he might be able to command himself, 
and dissemble his uneasiness at the sight of Antony 
and his crew, yet some regard should be had to his 
life,— not that he set any value upon it himself, but 
it ought not to be thought despicable by the senate 
and people of Rome : since, if he did not deceive 
himself, it was he who, by his watchings, cares, and 
votes, had managed matters so that all the attempts 
of their enemies had not hitherto been able to do 
them any harms. That if his life had been oft 
attempted at home, where the fidelity of his friends 
and the eyes of all Rome were his guard, what might 
he not apprehend from so long a journey ? that there 
were three roads from Rome to Modena,— the Fla- 
minian, along the upper sea ; the Aurelian, along 
the lower; the Cassian, in the middle : that they 



t> Phil. xii. 
d Ibid. 5. 
f Ibid. 7. 



<-■ Ibid. 4. 
e Ibid. 6. 
S Ibid. 8. 



were all of them beset by Antony's allies, his own 
utter enemies ; the Cassian, by Lento ; the Flami- 
nian, by Ventidius ; the Aurelian, by the whole 
Clodian family 11 . That he would stay therefore in 
the city, if the senate would give leave, which was 
his proper seat, his watch, and station : that others 
might enjoy camps, kingdoms, military commands ; 
he would take care of the city and the affairs at 
home, in partnership with them ; that he did not 
refuse the charge, but it was the people who refused 
it for him : for no man was less timorous, though 
none more cautious than he. That a statesman 
ought to leave behind him a reputation of glory in 
dying ; not the reproach of error and folly. Who 
(says he) does not bewail the death of Trebonius ? 
yet there are some who say, though it is hard indeed 
to say it, that he is the less to be pitied for not 
keeping a better guard against a base and detestable 
villain : for wise men tell us, that he who professes 
to guard the lives of others ought, in the first place, 
to keep a guard upon his own 1 . That if he should 
happen to escape all the snares of the road, that 
Antony's rage was so furious that he would never 
suffer him to return alive from the congress. That 
when he was a young volunteer in the wars of Italy, 
he was present at a conference of Cn. Pompey, the 
consul, and P. Vettius, the general of the Marsi, 
held between the two camps ; there was no fear, no 
suspicion, nor any violent hatred on either side : 
that there was an interview likewise between Sylla 
and Scipio, in their civil wars, where, though faith 
was not strictly observed, yet no violence was 
offered k . But the case was different in treating 
with Antony, where, if others could be safe, he at 
least could not : that Antony would never come 
into their camp, much less they into his : that if 
they transacted affairs by letter, his opinion would 
always be one and the same, — to reduce everything 
to the will of the senate ; that this would be misre- 
presented to the veterans as severe and perverse, 
and might excite them perhaps to some violence. 
Let my life, therefore, (says he,) be reserved to the 
service of my country as long as either dignity or 
nature will allow : let my death fall by the necessary 
course of fate ; or, if I must meet it sooner, let me 
meet it with glory. Since the republic then, to 
speak the most moderately, has no occasion for this 
embassy, fet, if I can undertake it with safety, I 
will go ; and in this whole affair will govern myself 
entirely, fathers, not by a regard to my own danger, 
but to the service of the state ; and, after the most 
mature deliberation, will resolve to do that which I 
shall judge to be most useful to the public interest." 

Though he did not absolutely refuse the employ- 
ment, yet he dissuaded it so strongly that the thing 
was wholly dropped ; and Pansa, about the end of 
the month, marched away towards Gaul, at the head 
of his new-raised army, in order to join Hirtius and 
Octavius, and without farther delay to attempt a 
decisive battle with Antony for the delivery of D. 
Brutus. 

Antony, at the same time, while he was perplex- 
ing the counsels of the senate by the intrigues of 
his friends, was endeavouring also by his letters to 
shake the resolution of Hirtius and Octavius, and 
draw them off from the cause which they were now 
serving ; but their answers seem to have been short 
and firm, referring him constantly to the authority 

h Phil. xii. 9. i Ibid. 10. 

k Ibid. 11. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



2G3 



of the senate : yet, as things were now drawing 
towards a crisis, he made one effort more upon 
them ; and in the following expostulatory letter 
reproached them with great freedom for deserting 
their true interest, and suffering themselves to be 
duped and drawn in by Cicero to revive the Pom- 
peian cause, and establish a power which in the 
end would destroy them. 

Antonius to Hirtius and Ccesar. 

" Upon the news of Trebonius's death, I was 
equally affected both with joy and with grief. It 
was matter of real joy to me to see a villain suffer 
the vengeance due to the ashes of the most illus- 
trious of men ; and that within the circle of the cur- 
rent year the divine providence has displayed itself 
by the punishment of parricide, inflicted already on 
some, and ready to fall upon the rest. But on the 
other hand, it is a subject of just grief to me that 
Dolabella should be declared an enemy because he 
has killed a murderer ; and that the son of a buffoon 
should be dearer to the people of Rome than Caesar, 
the father of his country : but the cruellest reflec- 
tion of all is, that you, Hirtius, covered with Caesar's 
favours, and left by him in a condition which you 
yourself wonder at, and you too, young man, who 
owe everything to his name, are doing all which is 
in your power that Dolabella may be thought justly 
condemned ; that this wretch be delivered from the 
siege ; and Cassius and Brutus be invested with all 
power. You look upon the present state of things 
as people did upon the past, call Pompey' s camp 
the senate ; have made the vanquished Cicero your 
captain ; are strengthening Macedonia with armies ; 
have given Africa to Varus, twice a prisoner ; have 
sent Cassius into Syria ; suffered Casca to act as 
tribune ; suppressed the revenues of the Julian 
Luperci ; abolished the colonies of veterans, estab- 
lished by law and the decree of the senate ; promise 
to restore to the people of Marseilles what was taken 
from them by right of war ; forget that a Pompeian 
was made incapable of any dignity by Hirtius's 
law ; have supplied Brutus with Appuleius's money ; 
applauded the putting to death Poetus and Mene- 
demus, Caesar's friends, whom he made free of the 
city ; took no notice of Theopompus, when stripped 
and banished by Trebonius he fled to Alexandria : 
you see Ser. Galba in your camp, armed with the 
same poniard with which he stabbed Caesar ; have 
enlisted my soldiers and other veterans on pretence 
of destroying those who killed Caesar, and then em- 
ploy them, before they know what they are doing, 
against their quaestor, or their general, or their 
comrades. What have you not done which Pompey 
himself, were he alive, or his son, if he could, would 
not do ? In short, you deny that any peace can be 
made, unless I set Brutus at liberty, or supply him 
with provisions : can this please those veterans who 
have not yet declared themselves ? for as to your 
part, you have sold yourselves to the flatteries and 
poisoned honours of the senate. But you come, 
you say, to preserve the troops which are besieged. 
I am not against their being saved, or going wherever 
you please, if they will but leave him to perish who 
has deserved it. You write me word, that the men- 
tion of concord has been revived in the senate, and 
five consular ambassadors appointed : it is hard to 
believe that those who have driven me to this extre- 
mity, when I offered the fairest conditions, and was 



willing to remit some part of them, should do 
anything with moderation or humanity : nor is it 
probable that the same men, who voted Dolabella 
an enemy for a most laudable act, can ever forgive 
me, who am in the same sentiments with hira. 
Wherefore it is your business to reflect which of the 
two is the more eligible or more useful to our com- 
mon interest ; to revenge the death of Trebonius, or 
of Caesar : and which the more equitable ; for us to 
act against each other, that the Pompeian cause, so 
often defeated, may recover itself; or to join our 
forces, lest we become at last the sport of our ene- 
mies ; who, which of us soever may happen to fall, 
are sure to be the gainers. But fortune has hitherto 
prevented that spectacle ; unwilling to see two 
armies, like members of the same body, fighting 
against each other, and Cicero all the while, like a 
master of gladiators, matching us, and ordering the 
combat ; who is so far happy, as to have caught 
you with the same bait with which he brags to have 
caught Caesar. For my part, I am resolved to suffer 
no affront either to myself or my friends ; nor to 
desert the party which Pompey hated ; nor to see 
the veterans driven out of their possessions, and 
dragged one by one to the rack ; nor to break my 
word with Dolabella ; nor to violate my league with 
Lepidus, a most religious man ; norto betray Plancus, 
the partner of all my counsels. If the immortal 
gods support me, as I hope they will, in the pursuit 
of so good a cause, I shall live with pleasure ; but 
if any other fate expects me, I taste a joy however 
beforehand in the sure foresight of your punish- 
ment : for if the Pompeians are so insolent when 
conquered, how much more they will be so when 
conquerors, it will be your lot to feel. In a word, 
this is the sum of my resolution : I can forgive the 
injuries of my friends, if they themselves are dis- 
posed either to forget them, or prepared in conjunc- 
tion with me to revenge the death of Caesar. 1 
cannot believe that any ambassadors will come ; 
when they do, I shall know what they have to de- 
mand 1 ." Hirtius and Caesar, instead of answering 
this letter, sent it directly to Cicero at Rome, to 
make what use of it he thought fit with the senate 
or the people. 

In this interval Lepidus wrote a public letter to 
the senate, to exhort them to measures of peace 
and to save the effusion of civil blood, by contriv- 
ing some way of reconciling Antony and his friends 
to the service of their country, without giving the 
least intimation of his thanks for the public honours 
which they had lately decreed to him. This was 
not at all agreeable to the senate, and confirmed 
their former jealousy of his disaffection to the 
republic and good understanding with Antony. 
They agreed, however, to a vote proposed by 
Servilius, " that Lepidus should be thanked for 
his love of peace and care of the citizens, yet should 
be desired not to trouble himself any further about 
it, but to leave that affair to them, who thought 
that there could be no peace unless Antony should 
lay down his arms and sue for it." This letter 
gave Antony's friends a fresh handle to renew their 
instances for a treaty, for the sake of obliging 
Lepidus, who had it in his power, they said, to 
force them to it ; which put Cicero once more to 
the trouble of confuting and exposing all their 
arguments. He told them, " that he was ever 

1 Phil. xiii. 10, &c. 



264 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



afraid from the first lest an insidious offer of peace 
should damp the common zeal for the recovery of 
their liberty. That whoever delighted in discord, 
and the blood of citizens, ought to be expelled 
from the society of human-kind ; yet it was to be 
considered whether there were not some wars 
wholly inexpiable, where no peace could be made, 
and where a treaty of peace was but a stipulation 
of slavery 111 . That the war now on foot was of 
this sort, undertaken against a set of men who 
were natural enemies to society, whose only plea- 
sure it was to oppress, plunder, and murder their 
fellow-creatures, — and to restore such to the city 
was to destroy the city itself 11 . That they ought 
to remember what decrees they had already made 
against them, such as had never been made against 
a foreign enemy or any with whom there could be 
peace. That since wisdom as well as fortitude 
was expected from men of their rank, though these 
indeed could hardly be separated, yet he was wil- 
ling to consider them separately and follow what 
wisdom the more cautious and guarded of the two 
prescribed. If wisdom then (says he) should com- 
mand me to hold nothing so dear as life, to decree 
nothing at the hazard of my head, to avoid all 
danger, though slavery was sure to be the conse- 
quence, I would reject that wisdom be it ever so 
learned ; but if it teaches us to preserve our lives, 
our fortunes, our families, yet so as to think them 
inferior to liberty, to wish to enjoy them no longer 
than we can do it in a free republic, not to part 
with our liberty for them, but to throw them all 
away for liberty, as exposing us only to greater 
mischief without it, I would then listen to her 
voice and obey her as a god°. That no man had 
a greater respect for Lepidus than himself; and 
though there had been an old friendship between 
them, yet he valued him not so much for that as 
his services to the public, in prevailing with young 
Pompey to lay down his arms and free his country 
from the misery of a cruel war. That the republic 
had many pledges of fidelity from Lepidus, — his 
great nobility, great honours, high priesthood ; 
many parts of the city adorned by him and his 
ancestors ; his wife, children, great fortunes, pure 
from any taint of civil blood ; no citizen ever hurt, 
many preserved by him, — that such a man might 
err in judgment, but could never wilfully be an 
enemy to his country. That his desire of peace 
was laudable if he could make such a peace for 
them now as when he restored Pompey to them. 
That for this they had decreed him greater honours 
than had been given before to any man, — a statue 
with a splendid inscription, and a triumph even in 
absence p. That by good fortune they had managed 
matters so that Pompey's return might consist 
with the validity of Caesar's acts, which for the 
sake of peace they had confirmed ; since they had 
decreed to Pompey the five millions and half which 
was raised by the sale of his estates, to enable him 
to buy them again. He desired that the task of 
replacing him in the possessions of his ancestors 
might be committed to him for his old friendship 
with his father. That it should be his first care 
to nominate him an augur, and repay the same 
favour to the son which he himself received from 
the father^. That those who had seen him lately 



m PUil. xiii. 1. 


" Ibid. 2. 


o Ibid. 3. 


p Ibid. 4. 


q Ibid. 5. 





at Marseilles brought word that he was ready to 
come with his troops to the relief of Modena, but 
that he was afraid of giving offence to the veterans ; 
which showed him to be the true son of that father 
who used to act with as much prudence as courage. 
That it was Lepidus's business to take care not to 
be thought to act with more arrogance than became 
him : that if he meant to frighten them with his 
army, he should remember that it was the army of 
the senate and people of Rome, not his own 1 . 
That if he interposed his authority without arms, 
that was indeed the more laudable, but would 
hardly be thought necessary. For though his 
authority was as great with them as that of the 
noblest citizen ought to be, yet the senate was not 
unmindful of their own dignity ; and there never 
was a graver, firmer, stouter senate than the pre- 
sent. That they were all so incensed against the 
enemies of their liberty, that no man's authority 
could repress their ardour or extort their arms 
from them. That they hoped the best, but would 
rather suffer the worst than live slaves s . That 
there was no danger to be apprehended from Le- 
pidus, since he could not enjoy the splendour of 
his own fortunes but with the safety of all honest 
men. That nature first makes men honest, but 
fortune confirms them ; for though it was the 
common interest of all to promote the safety of 
the public, yet it was more particularly of those 
who were happy in their fortunes. That nobody 
was more so than Lepidus, and nobody therefore 
better disposed ; of which the people saw a re- 
markable instance, in the concern which he ex- 
pressed when Antony offered a diadem to Caesar, 
and chose to be his slave rather than his colleague; 
for which single act, if he had been guilty of 
nothing else, he had richly deserved the worst 
punishment."' Then after inveighing, as usual, 
against Antony through several pages, he declared 
all thoughts of peace with him to be vain, and for 
a fresh proof of it produced his last letter to 
Hirtius and Octavius, and read it publicly to the 
assembly. " Not that he thought it worth reading," 
he says, "but to let them see his traitorous views 
openly avowed and confessed by himself." He 
read it to them paragraph by paragraph, with his 
own comment and remarks upon it ; rallying all 
along, with great wit and spirit, "the rage, the 
extravagance, the inconsistency, the folly, and the 
inaccuracy of each sentence." On the whole, he 
says, " that if Lepidus had seen it he would nei- 
ther have advised or thought any peace with him 
possible. That fire and water would soouer unite 
than the Antonys be reconciled to the republic. 
That the first and best thing therefore was to con- 
quer, — the second to decline no danger for the 
liberty of their country ; that there was no third 
thing, — but the last and worst of all, to submit to 
the utmost baseness through a desire of living." 
For which reasons he declared his concurrence 
with Servilius in the vote upon Lepidus's letters, 
and proposed an additional decree, either to be 
joined to the other or published separately, "That 
Pompey the Great, the son of Cnseus, in offering 
his service and his troops to the senate and people 
of Rome, had acted agreeably to the courage and 
zeal of his father and ancestors, and to his own 
virtue, industry, and good disposition to the re- 

* Phil. xiii. 6. s Ibid. 7- 

t Ibid. 8. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



2G5 



public ; and that the thing was grateful and 
acceptable to the senate and people, and would 
hereafter be an honour to himself." 

After the debate, which ended as Cicero wished, 
he sent the following short letter to Lepidus, which, 
by the coldness and negligence with which it is 
drawn, seems to be designed to let Lepidus see 
that they were perfectly easy and secure at Rome, 
whatever measures he might think fit to take. 

Cicero to Lepidus. 

11 While, out of the great respect which I bear to 
you, I am making it my particular care to advance 
your dignity as much as possible, it was a concern 
to me to see that you did not think it worth while 
to return your thanks to the senate for the extraor- 
dinary honours which they have lately conferred 
upon you. I rejoice, however, that you are so 
desirous of making peace among citizens. If you 
can separate that peace from slavery, you will con- 
sult both the good of the republic and your own 
dignity ; but if the effect of it be to restore a des- 
perate man to an arbitrary dominion, I would have 
you to know that all men of sense have taken a 
resolution to prefer death to servitude. You will 
act more wisely, therefore, in my judgment, if you 
meddle no farther with that affair of peace, — which 
is not agreeable either to the senate or the people, 
or to any honest man : but you will hear enough 
of this from others or be informed of it by letters, 
and will be directed by your own prudence what is 
the best for you to do. " u 

Plancus too, who commanded in Gaul, and now 
resided near Lyons, at the head of a brave army, 
enforced Lepidus's advice by a letter likewise to 
the senate on the same subject of peace, — to which 
Cicero wrote the following answer : — 

Cicero to Plancus. 

" The account which our friend Furnius brought 
of your affection to the republic was highly agree- 
able both to the senate and people of Rome ; but 
your letter, when read in the senate, did not seem 
to agree with Furnius's report : for you advised 
us to peace, when your colleague, a man of the 
greatest eminence, was besieged by most infamous 
plunderers, who ought either to sue for peace by 
laying down their arms, or if they demand it with 
sword in hand, it must be procured by victory, not 
treaty. But in what manner your letters, as well 
as Lepidus's also, were received, you will under- 
stand from that excellent man your brother, and 
from Furnius," &c. x 

C. Antony, whom we mentioned above to have 
retreated with seven cohorts to Apollonia, not 
daring to wait for Brutus's arrival, who was now 
advancing towards him, marched out to Buthrotum 
to seek his fortune elsewhere, in quarters more 
secure and remote : but being overtaken and at- 
tacked on his march by a part of Brutus's army, 
he lost three of his cohorts in the action, — and in 
a second engagement with another body of troops, 
which young Cicero commanded, was entirely 
routed and taken prisoner ; which made Brutus 
absolute master of the country without any farther 
opposition?. This fresh success gave occasion for 
a second letter from Brutus to the senate, of which 



u Ep. Fam. x. 27. 
7 Plut. in Brut. 



Ibid. G. 



Cicero makes the following mention : " Your 
letter," says he, " which was read in the senate, 
shows the counsel of the general, the virtue of your 
soldiers, the industry of your officers, and in par- 
ticular of my Cicero. If your friends had been 
willing to move the senate upon it, and if it had 
not fallen into most turbulent times, since the de- 
parture of Pansa, some just and proper honour 
would have been decreed for it to the gods. " z 

The taking C. Antony prisoner put Brutus under 
some difficulty in what manner he should treat 
him. If he set him at liberty, to which he was 
inclined, he had reason to apprehend fresh trouble 
from him, both to himself arfd the republic ; if he 
kept him prisoner in his camp, he was afraid lest 
some sedition might be raised, on his account and 
by his intrigues, in his own army, or if he put him 
to death that it would be thought an act of cruelty, 
which his nature abhorred. He consulted Cicero, 
therefore, upon it by letter. " C. Antony," says 
he, " is still with me ; but in truth I am moved 
with the prayers of the man, and afraid lest the 
madness of some should make him the occasion of 
mischief to me. I am wholly at a loss what to do 
with him. If I knew your mind I should be at 
ease ; for I should think that the best which you 
advised. " a Cicero's advice was to keep him under 
a safe guard till they knew the fate of D. Brutus 
in Modena. b Brutus, however, treated him with 
great lenity, and seemed much disposed to give 
him his liberty ; for which purpose he not only 
wrote to the senate about it himself, but permitted 
Antony to write too, and with the style of procon- 
sul, which surprised and shocked all his friends at 
Rome, and especially Cicero, who expostulates 
with him for it in the following terms : — 

" On the thirteenth of April (says he) your 
messenger Pilus brought us two letters, the one in 
your name the other in Antony's, and gave them 
to Servilius the tribune, he to Cornutus the prsetor. 
They were read in the senate. Antony proconsul 
raised as much wonder as if it had been Dolabella 
emperor, from whom also there came an express, 
but nobody, like your Pilus, was so hardy as to 
produce the letters or deliver them to the magis- 
trates. Your letter was read ; short indeed, but 
extremely mild towards Antony : the senate was 
amazed at it. For my part I did not know how 
to act. Should I affirm it to be forged ? What if 
you should own it ? Should I admit it to be 
genuine ? that was not for your honour. I chose 
therefore to be silent that day. On the next, 
when the affair had made some noise, and Pilus's 
carriage had given offence, I began the debate, said 
much of proconsul Antony ; Sextius performed 
his part, and observed to me afterwards in private 
what danger his son and mine would be liable to 

z Tuae liters, quae in senatu recitatae sunt, et impe- 
ratoris consilium et militum virtutem, et industriam 
tuorum, in quibus Ciceronis mei declarant. Quod si tuis 
placuisset de his Uteris referri, et nisi in tempus tur- 
bulentissimum post discessum Pansa? incidissent, honos 
quoque Justus ac debitus diis immortalibus decretus esset. 
—Ad Brut. ii. 7. 

a Antonius adhuc est nobiscum : sed medius fidius et 
moveor hominis precibus, et timeo ne ilium aliquorum 
furor excipiat. Plane aestuo. Quod si scirem quid tibi 
placeret-, sine sollicitudine essem. Id enim optimum esse 
persuasum esset mihi.— Ad Brut. ii. 5. 

b Quod me de Antonio consulis ; quoad Bruti exitum 
cognorimus, custodiendum puto.— Ibid. 4. 



266 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



if they had really taken up arms against a proconsul. 
You know the man; he did justice to the cause.. 
Others also spoke ; but our friend Labeo took 
notice that your seal was not put to the letter, nor 
any date added, nor had you written about it, as 
usual, to your friends, — from which he maintained 
the letter to be forged; and, in short, convinced 
the house of it. It is now your part, Brutus, to 
consider the whole state and nature of the war : 
you are delighted, I perceive, with lenity, and think 
it the best way of proceeding. This indeed is 
generally right, but the proper place of clemency 
is in cases and seasons very different from the 
present : for what are we doing now, Brutus ? 
we see a needy and desperate crew threatening the 
very temples of the gods, and that the war must 
necessarily decide whether we are to live or not. 
Who is it then whom we are sparing, or what is it 
that we mean ? Are we consulting the safety of 
those who, if they get the better, are sure not to 
leave the least remains of us ? For what difference 
is there between Dolabella and any one of the 
three Antonys ? If we spare any of these, we have 
been too severe to Dolabella. It was owing chiefly 
to my advice and authority that the senate and 
people are in this way of thinking, though the 
thing itself indeed also obliged them to it. If you 
do not approve this policy I shall defend your 
opinion, but cannot depart from my own : the 
world expects from you nothing either remiss or 
cruel. It is easy to moderate the matter by se- 
verity to the leaders, generosity to the soldiers. " c 

Cicero had now done everything that human 
prudence could do, towards the recovery of the 
republic ; for all that vigour with which it was 
making this last effort for itself was entirely owing 
to his counsels and authority. As Antony was the 
most immediate and desperate enemy who threat- 
ened it, so he had armed against him the whole 
strength of Italy, and raised up a force sufficient 
to oppress him. Young Octavius, next to Antony, 
was the most formidable to the friends of liberty ; 
but from the contrast of their personal interests, 
and their jealousy of each other's views, Cicero 
managed the opportunity to employ the one to the 
ruin of the other ; yet so as to provide at the same 
time against any present danger from Octavius, by 
throwing a superiority of power into the hands of 
the consuls, whom, from being the late ministers 
of Caesar's tyranny, he had gained over to the 
interests of liberty. But besides the difficulties 
which he had to struggle with at home, in bringing 
matters to this point, he had greater discourage- 
ments abroad, from the commanders of the several 
provinces : they were all promoted to those go- 
vernments by Csesar, the proper creatures of his 
power, and the abettors of his tyranny d , and were 
now full of hopes, either of advancing themselves 
to dominion, or to a share of it at least, by espous- 
ing the cause of some more powerful pretender. 
Men of this turn, at the head of great and veteran 
armies, could not easily be persuaded to submit to 
a senate which they had been taught to despise, or 
to reduce the military power, which had long 
governed all, to a dependence on the civil. Yet 
Cicero omitted no pains of exhorting them by 
letters, and inviting them by honours, to prefer 

c Ad Brut. ii. 7. 

d Vides tyranni satellites in imperiis: vides ejusdem 
exercitus in latere veteranos. — Ad Att. xiv. 5. 



the glory of saving their country to all other views 
whatsoever. Those whom he most distrusted, and 
for that reason most particularly pressed, were 
Lepidus, Pollio, and Plancus, who, by the strength 
of their armies, and their possession of Gaul and 
Spain, were the best qualified to serve or distress 
the republican cause. He had little hopes of the 
two first, yet managed them so well, by represent- 
ing the strength of the honest party, the unanimity 
of the senate, of the consuls, and all Italy, that he 
forced them at least to dissemble their disaffection, 
and make great professions of their duty ; and 
above all, to stand neuter till the affairs of Italy 
were decided, on which the fate of the republic 
seemed chiefly to depend. Nay, he seems to have 
drawn Plancus entirely into his measures — as 
appears from his account of him to Brutus e , and 
from Plancus' s own letters, in which he gives the 
strongest assurances of his fidelity, and offers to 
lead his troops to the relief of Modena, and was 
actually upon his march towards it, when he heard 
upon the road of Antony's defeat. — Not long before 
which, Cicero sent him the following letter. 

Cicero to Plancus. 

" Though I understood, from the account of 
our friend Furnius, what your design and resolution 
was, with regard to the republic, yet, after reading 
your letters, I was able to form a clearer judgment 
of your whole purpose. Wherefore, though the 
fate of the commonwealth depends wholly on one 
battle, which will be decided, I believe, when you 
are reading this letter, yet you have acquired great 
applause by the very fame, which was everywhere 
spread, of your good intentions ; and if there had 
been a consul at Rome, the senate, by decreeing 
some considerable honour to you, would have de- 
clared how acceptable your endeavours and prepa- 
rations were. But that time is not only not yet 
past, but was not in my judgment even ripe ; for 
after all, that alone passes with me for honour 
which is conferred on great men, not for the hopes 
of future, but the experience of past services. If, 
then, there be any republic in which honour can 
have its proper lustre, take my word for it, you 
shall have your share of the greatest ; though that 
which can truly be called honour is not an invita- 
tion to a temporary, but the reward of an habitual 
virtue. Wherefore, my dear Plancus, turn your 
whole thoughts towards glory — help your country 
— fly to the relief of your colleague — support this 
wonderful consent and concurrence of all nations : 
you will ever find me the promoter of your coun- 
sels, the favourer of your dignity, and on all occa- 
sions most friendly and faithful to you : for to all 
the other motives of our union, our mutual affec- 
tion, good offices, old acquaintance, the love of 
our country, which is now added, makes me prefer 
your life to my own. — Mar. 29th f ." 

Plancus in the mean time sent a second letter to 
the senate, to assure them of his zeal and resolu- 
tion to adhere to them, and to acquaint them with 
the steps which he had already taken for their 
service ; upon which they decreed him some extra- 
ordinary honours, at the motion of Cicero, who 
sent him the following account of it. 

e Planci animum in rempublicam egregium, legiones, 
auxilia, copias ex literis ejus, quarum exemplum tibi 
missum arbitror, perspicere potuisti. — Ad Brut. ii. 2. 

f Ep. Fam. x. 10. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



267 



Cicero to Plancus. 
"Though, out of regard to the republic, my 
greatest joy ought to be for your bringing such 
relief and help to it, in a time almost of extremity, 
yet may I so embrace you after victory and the 
recovery of our liberty, as it is your dignity that 
gives me the chief part of my pleasure, which 
already is, and ever will be, I perceive, as great as 
possible. For I would not have you think that 
any letters were ever read in the senate of greater 
weight than yours, both for the eminent merit of 
your services, and the gravity of your words and 
sentiments, which was not at all new to me, who 
was so well acquainted with you, and remembered 
the promises of your letters to me, and understood 
the whole purpose of your counsels from our 
Furnius ; but they appeared greater to the senate 
than was expected ; not that they ever had any doubt 
of your inclinations, but did not fully understand 
how much you were able to do, or how far you 
would expose yourself in . the cause. When M. 
Varisidius, therefore, brought me your letters very 
early, on the 7th of April, I was transported with 
joy upon reading them ; and as a great multitude 
of excellent citizens were then waiting to attend 
my going abroad, I instantly gave them all a part 
of my pleasure. In the mean while our friend 
Munatius, according to custom, came to join me : I 
presently showed him your letter, of which he 
knew nothing before ; for Varisidius came first to 
me, as you, he said, had ordered him : soon after, 
the same Munatius returned to me with the other 
two letters ; that which you had sent to him, and 
that to the senate : we resolved to carry the last 
directly to the praetor, Cornutus,who, by the custom 
of our ancestors, supplies the place of the consuls 
in their absence. The senate was immediately 
called ; and, upon the fame and expectation of 
your letters, made up a full house. After they 
were read, a scruple of religion was objected to 
Cornutus, from the report of the guardians of the 
chickens, that he had not duly consulted the 
auspices, which was confirmed likewise by our 
college ; so that the affair was adjourned to the 
next day. On that day I had a great contest about 
your dignity with Servilius, who procured by his 
interest to have his opinion declared the first ; but 
the senate left him, and all went the contrary way : 
but when they were coming into my opinion, 
which was delivered the second, the tribune Titius, 
at his request, interposed his negative ; and so the 
debate was put off again to the day following. 
Servilius came prepared to support his opposition, 
though against Jupiter himself, in whose temple 
the thing passed. In what manner I handled him, 
and what a struggle I had to throw off Titius's 
negative, I would have you learn rather from 
other people's letters : take this, however, from 
mine, that the senate could not possibly act with 
more gravity, firmness, aud regard to your honour, 
than it did on this occasion ; nor is the senate 
more friendly to you than the whole city ; for the 
body of the people, and all ranks and orders of 
men, are wonderfully united in the defence of the 
republic. Go on, therefore, as you have begun, 
and recommend your name to immortality ; and 
for all these things, which, from the vain badges of 
outward splendour, carry a show of glory, despise 
them ; look upon them as trifling, transitory, 



perishing. True honour is placed singly in virtue, 
which is illustrated with most advantage by great 
services to our country. You have the best oppor- 
tunity for this in the world ; which, since you have 
embraced, persevere, and go through with it, that 
the republic may not owe less to you than you to 
the republic. You will find me not only the 
favourer, but the advancer of your dignity : this I 
take myself to owe, both to the republic, which is 
dearer to me than my life, and to our friendship, 
&c. — April the eleventh s." 

Plancus answered him, not long after, to the 
following effect. 

Plancus to Cicero. 

"It is a pleasure to me to reflect that I have 
never promised anything rashly of myself to you ; 
nor you, for me to others. In this you have the 
clearer proof of my love, that I desire to make you 
acquainted with my designs before any man else. 
You already see, I hope, that my services to the 
public will grow greater every day : I promise that 
you shall soon be convinced of it. As for me, my 
dear Cicero, may the republic be so delivered by 
my help from its present dangers, as I esteem your 
honours and rewards equal to an immortality ; yet 
were I still without them, I would remit nothing 
of my present zeal and perseverance. If, in the 
multitude of excellent citizens, I do not distinguish 
myself by a singular vigour and industry, 1 desire 
no accession to my dignity from your favour ; but, 
in truth, I desire nothing at all for myself at pre- 
sent ; nay, am even against it, and willingly make 
you the arbiter both of the time and the thing 
itself: a citizen can think nothing late or little, 
which is given by his country. I passed the Rhone 
with my army by great journeys, on the 26th of 
April ; sent a thousand horse before me by a 
shorter way from Vienna. As for myself, if I am 
not hindered by Lepidus, none shall complain of 
my want of expedition. If he opposes me on my 
road, I shall take my measures from the occasion. 
The troops, which I bring are, for number, kind, 
and fidelity, extremely firm. I beg the continuance 
of your affection, as long as you find yourself 
assured of mine. AdieuV 

Pollio likewise, who now commanded the farther 
Spain, with three good legions, though he was An- 
tony's particular friend, yet made the strongest pro- 
fessions to Cicero of his resolution to defend the 
republic against all invaders. In one of his letters, 
after excusing himself for not having written earlier 
and oftener, he says : " Both my nature and studies 
draw me to the desire of peace and liberty ; for 
which reason I always lamented the occasion of the 
late war : but as it was not possible for me to be of 
no party, because I had great enemies everywhere, 
I ran from that camp where I could not be safe 
from the treachery of an enemy, and being driven 
whither I least desired, freely exposed myself to 
dangers, that I might not make a contemptible 
figure among those of my rank. As for Caesar 
himself, I loved him with the utmost piety and 
fidelity, because he treated me on the foot of his 
oldest friends, though known to him only in the 
height of his fortunes. When I was at liberty to 
act after my own mind, I acted so that the best 
men should most applaud me : what I was com- 



g Ep. Fam. x. \2. 



•» Ep. Fam. x. 9. 



268 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



manded to do, I did so as to show that it was done 
by command, and not by inclination. The unjust 
odium which I suffered on that account has suffi- 
ciently convinced me how sweet a thing liberty is, 
and how wretched is life under the dominion of 
another. If the contest then be, to bring us all 
again under the power of one : whoever that one 
be, I profess myself his enemy ; nor is there any 
danger which I would decline, or wish to avoid, 
for the sake of liberty. But the consuls have not, 
either by decree or letters, given me any orders 
what to do. I have had but one letter from 
Pansa since the ides of March, in which he exhorts 
me to signify to the senate that I and my army 
would be in their power ; but when Lepidus was 
declaring openly to his army, and writing to every- 
body, that he was in the same sentiments with 
Antony, that step would have been wholly absurd 
and improper for me ; for how could I get forage 
for my troops against his will, in marching through 
his province ? or if I had surmounted all other 
difficulties, could I fly over the Alps, which were 
possessed by his garrisons ? Nobody will deny 
that I declared publicly to my soldiers, at Corduba, 
that I would not deliver the province to any man, 
unless he were commissioned by the senate. — 
Wherefore you are to look upon me as one, who, 
in the first place, am extremely desirous of peace, 
and the safety of all the citizens ; in the second, 
prepared to assert my own and my country's 
liberty. I am more pleased than you can imagine 
that my friend Gallus is so dear to you : I envy 
him for walking and joking with you : you will ask, 
perhaps, at what rate I value that privilege : you 
shall know by experience, if ever it be in our power 
to live in quiet ; for I will never stir one step 
from you. I am surprised that you never signified 
in your letters how I should be able to do the most 
service, by staying in the province, or bringing my 
army into Italy. For my part, though to stay be 
more safe, and less troublesome, yet, since I see, 
that in such a time as this there is more want of 
legions than of provinces, which may easily be 
recovered, I am resolved, as things now stand, to 
come away with my army. — From Corduba, the 
fifteenth of March 1 ." 

There are several letters, also still extant, writ- 
ten at this time from Cicero to Cornificius, who 
governed Africa, exhorting him in the same man- 
ner to firmness in the defence of the republic, and 
to guard his province from all invaders who should 
attempt to extort it from him ; and this man, after 
all, was the only commander who kept his word 
with him, and performed his part to his country, 
and lost his life at last in maintaining that province 
in its allegiance to the republic k . 

P. Servilius, who has often been mentioned in 
the debates of the senate, was a person of great 
rank and nobility ; had been consul with J. Caesar, 
in the beginning of the civil war ; the son of that 
Servilius, who, by his conquests near mount Taurus, 
obtained the surname of Isauricus. He affected 
the character of a patriot ; but having had a par- 
ticular friendship with Antony, was much courted 
by that party, who took the advantage of his 
vanity, to set him up as a rival to Cicero in the 
management of public affairs, in which he frequently 
obstructed Cicero's measures, and took a pride to 

1 Ep. Fam. x. 31. 

k Ep. Fam. xii. 24, &c. ; App. iv. 621 : Dio, xlviii. 307- 



thwart and disappoint whatever he proposed : 
Cicero had long suffered this with patience, out of 
regard to the public service, till, provoked by his 
late opposition in the affair of Plancus, he could 
not forbear treating him with an unusual severity 
and resentment, of which he gives an account in a 
letter to Brutus. 

Cicero to Brutus. 

" From Plancus's letters, of which a copy, I 
imagine, has been sent to you, you will perceive 
his excellent disposition towards the republic, with 
the condition of his legions, auxiliaries, and whole 
forces. Your own people have informed you, I 
guess, by this time, of the levity, inconstancy, and 
perpetual disaffection of your friend Lepidus ; who, 
next to his own brother, hates you, his near rela- 
tions, the most. We are anxious with an expec- 
tation which is now reduced to the last crisis ; all 
our hopes are fixed on the delivery of D. Brutus ; 
for whom we have been in great apprehension. 
For my part, I have business enough on my hands 
at home with the madman Servilius, whom I have 
endured longer than became my dignity ; but I did 
it for the sake of the republic, lest I should give 
the disaffected a leader not well affected indeed 
himself, yet noble to resort to, which nevertheless 
they still do. But I was not for alienating him 
wholly from the republic ; I have now put an end 
to my forbearance of him, for he began to be so 
insolent that he looked upon no man as free. But 
in Plancus's debate he was strangely mortified ; 
and after two days' contest was so roughly handled 
by me, that he will be the modester, I dare say, 
for the future. In the midst of our contention on 
the nineteenth of April, I had letters delivered to 
me in the senate from our friend Lentulus in Asia, 
with an account of Cassius, the legions, and Syria, 
which when I read presently in public, Servilius 
sunk, and many more besides ; for there are some 
of eminent rank who think most wickedly: but 
Servilius was most sensibly chagrined, for the 
senate's agreeing to my motion about Plancus. The 
part which he acts is monstrous 1 ." 

The news which is mentioned in this letter to 
have been sent by Lentulus, of Cassius' success, 
was soon after confirmed by particular letters to 
Cicero, from Brutus and Cassius themselves ; sig- 
nifying, " that Cassius had possessed himself of 
Syria before Dolabella had arrived there : that the 
generals, L. Marcus and Q. Crispus had given up 
their armies to him : that a separate legion under 
Csecilius Bassus had submitted to him against the 
will of their leader : that four other legions, sent 
by Cleopatra from Egypt, to the assistance of 
Dolabella, under his lieutenant Allienus, had all 
declared for him :" and lest the first letter should 
miscarry, as they often did, from such a distance, 
by passing through the enemy's quarters, Cassius 
sent him a second, with a more full and distinct 
account of all particulars. 

Cassius, Proconsul, to his friend M. Cicero. 

" If you are in health, it is a pleasure to me ; I 
am also very well. I have read your letter in which 
I perceived your wonderful affection for me ; for 
you not only wish me well, which indeed you have 
always done, both for my own sake' and the 
1 Ad Brut. ii. 2. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



209 



republic's, but entertain an uncommon concern and 
solicitude for me. Wherefore, as I imagined, in 
the first place, that you would think it impossible 
for me to sit still and see the republic oppressed ; 
and in the second, that whenever you supposed me 
to be in action, you would be solicitous about my 
safety and success ; so, as soon as I was master of 
the legions which Allienus brought from Egypt, I 
immediately wrote to you, and sent several ex- 
presses to Rome : I wrote letters also to the senate, 
but forbade the delivery of them till they had been 
first shown to you. If these letters have not 
reached you, I make no doubt but that Dolabella, 
who, by the wicked murder of Trebonius, is mas- 
ter of Asia, has seized my messengers and inter- 
cepted them. I have all the armies which were in 
Syria under my command ; and having been forced 
to sit still awhile, till I had discharged my pro- 
mises to them, am now ready to take the field. I 
beg of you to take my honour and interests under 
your especial care : for you know that I have never 
refused any danger or labour for the service of my 
country : that by your advice and authority I took 
arms against these infamous robbers : that I have 
not only raised armies for the defence of the repub- 
lic and our liberty, but have snatched them from 
the hands of the most cruel tyrants ; which if Do- 
labella had seized before me, he would have given 
fresh spirit to Antony's cause, not only by the 
approach, but by the very fame and expectation of 
his troops : for which reasons take my soldiers, I 
beseech you, under your protection, if you think 
them to have deserved well of the state ; and let 
none of them have reason to repent that they have 
preferred the cause of the republic to the hopes of 
plunder and rapine. Take care, also, as far as it 
is in your power, that due honour be paid to the 
emperors Murcus and Crispus : for Bassus was 
miserably unwilling to deliver up his legion ; and 
if his soldiers had not sent a deputation to me in 
spite of him, would have held out Apamea against 
me, till it could be taken by force. I beg this of 
you, not only for the sake of the republic, which of 
all things was ever the dearest to you, but of our 
friendship also, which I am confident has a great 
weight with you. Take my word for it, the army 
which I have is the senate's, and every honest 
man's, and above all, yours : for by hearing perpe- 
tually of your good disposition, they have conceived 
a wonderful affection for you ; and when they come 
to understand that you make their interests your 
special care, they will think themselves indebted 
to you for everything. Since I wrote this, I have 
heard that Dolabella is come into Cilicia with all 
his forces : I will follow him thither, and take care 
that you shall soon be informed of what I have 
done. I wish only that my success may be answer- 
able to my good intentions. Continue the care of 
your health and your love to me m ." 

Brutus, who had sent this good news before to 
Cicero, as well as to his mother and sister Tertia, 
charged the latter not to make it public till they 
had first consulted Cicero, whether it was proper 
to do so or not n . He was afraid lest the great 
prosperity of Cassius might give umbrage to the 
Caesarian party, and raise a jealousy in the leaders 

m Ep. Fam. xii. 12 ; it. ibid. 11. 

n Ego scripsi ad Tertiam sororem et matrem, ne prius 
ederent hoc, quod optime ac felicissime gessit Cassius, 
quam tuum consilium cognovissent. — Ad Brut. ii. 5 



who were acting against Antony, that the repub- 
lican interest would grow too strong for them. 
But Cicero sent him word, that the news was 
already known at Rome before his letters arrived ; 
and though there was some ground for his appre- 
hensions, yet on the whole they thought it more 
advisable to publish than to suppress it . 

Thus Cicero, as he declared to the senate by his 
letters, expresses, and exhortations, was perpe- 
tually exciting all who had power or command in 
any part of the empire, to the common defence of 
their liberty p ; and for his pains, had all the rage 
and malice of the factious to struggle with at home. 
These were particularly troublesome to him at this 
time, by spreading false reports every day from 
Modena, of Antony's success, or what was more 
to be apprehended, of his union with the consuls 
against D. Brutus ; which raised such a terror 
through the city, that all honest men were prepar- 
ing to run away to Brutus or Cassius i. Cicero 
however was not disheartened at it, but in the gene- 
ral consternation appeared cheerful and easy ; and, 
as he sends word to Brutus, had a perfect confidence 
in the consuls, while the majority of his friends 
distrusted them ; and from the number and firm- 
ness of their troops, had but little doubt of their 
victory, if ever they came to a battle with Antony r . 
But what touched him more sensibly was a story, 
kept up for some days with great industry, that 
he had formed a design to make himself master of 
the city and declare himself dictator ; and would 
appear publicly with the fasces within a day or 
two. The report, as groundless as it was, seems 
to have disturbed him ; but when Appuleius, the 
tribune, one of his warm friends, was taking pains 
to confute it, and justify him in a speech to the 
people, they all cried out with one voice, that 
Cicero had never done, nor designed to do any- 
thing, but what was the best and most beneficial to 
the republic s : this gave him some comfort; but 
what brought him much greater was, the certain 
news of a victory gained over Antony at Modena, 
which arrived within a few hours after Appuleius 's 
speech*. 

The siege of Modena, which lasted near four 
months, was one of the most memorable in all 
antiquity, for the vigour both of the attack and 
the defence. Antony had invested it so closely and 
posted himself so advantageously, that no succours 

Video te veritum esse, id quod verendum fuit, ne 
animi partium Caesaris — vehementer commoverentur. Sed 
antequam tuas literas accepimus, audita res erat et per- 
vulgata. — Ad Brut. ii. 6. 

P Meis Uteris, meis nunciis, meis cohortationibus, omnes, 
qui ubique essent, ad patriae presidium excitatos.— Phil, 
xiv. 7- 

q Triduo vero aut quatriduo — timore quodam perculsa 
civitas tota ad te se cum conjugibus et liberis effundebat. 
—Ad Brut. 3 ; Ep. Fam. xii. 8. 

* Tristes enim de Bruto nostro literae, nunciique affere- 
bantur, me quidem non maxime conturbabant. His enim 
exercitibus, ducibusque quos habemus, nullo modo pote- 
ram diffidere. Neque assentiebar majori parti hominum. 
Fidem enim consulum non condemnabam, quae suspecta 
vehementer erat. Desiderabam nonnullis in rebus pru- 
dentiam et celeritatem. — Ad Brut. ii. 1. 

s Itaque P. Appuleius — doloris mei concionem habuit 
maximam — in qua, cum me — liberare suspicione fasci urn 
vellet ; una voce cuncta concio declaravit, nihil esse a me 
unquam de republica nisi optime cogitatum. — Phil. xiv. 6. 

1 Post hanc concionem duabus tribusve horis optatis- 
simi nuntii et literae venerunt.— Ibid. 



270 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



could be thrown into it; and Brutus, though 
reduced to the utmost straits, defended it still with 
the greatest resolution. The old writers have 
recorded some stratagems which are said to have 
been put in practice on this occasion : -' how Hir- 
tius provided men skilled in diving, with letters 
written on lead, to pass into the tower under the 
river which runs through it ; till Antony obstructed 
that passage by nets and straps placed under water ; 
which gave occasion to another contrivance, of 
sending their intelligence backwards and forwards 
by pigeons u ." 

Pansa was now upon the point of joining Hirtius 
with four legions of new levies, which he brought 
from Rome ; but when he was advanced within a 
few miles of Hirtius's camp, Antony privately 
drew out some of his best troops, with design to 
surprise him on the road before that union, and to 
draw him, if possible, to an engagement against 
his will. We have a particular account of the 
action, in a letter to Cicero from Ser. Galba, one 
of the conspirators against Caesar, who bore a 
principal part and command in it. 

Galba to Cicero. 
" On the fifteenth of April, the day on which 
Pansa was to arrive in Hirtius's camp, (in whose 
company I was, for I went a hundred miles to 
meet him, on purpose to hasten his march) Antony 
drew out two of his legions, the second and thirty- 
fifth, and two praetorian cohorts ; the one his own, 
the other Silanus's, with part of the Evocati x , and 
came forward towards us, imagining that we had 
nothing but four legions of new levies. But in the 
night, to secure our march to the camp, Hirtius 
had sent us the Martial legion which I used to 
command, and two praetorian cohorts. As soon as 
Antony's horse appeared in sight, neither the 
Martial legion nor the praetorian cohorts could be 
restrained from attacking them ; so that when we 
could not hold them in, we were obliged to follow 
them against our wills. Antony kept his forces 
within Castel-Franco ? ; and being unwilling to have 
it known that he had his legions with him, showed 
only his horse and light-armed foot. When Pansa 
saw the Martial legion running forward against 
his orders, he commanded two of the new-raised 
legions to follow him. As soon as we got through 
the straits of the morass and the woods, we drew 
up the twelve cohorts in order of battle. The 
other two legions were not yet come up. Antony 
immediately brought all his troops out of the village 
ranged likewise in order of battle, and without 
delay engaged us. At first they fought so briskly 
on both sides, that nothing could possibly be 
fiercer : though the right wing, in which I was, 
with eight cohorts of the Martial legion, put An- 
tony's thirty-fifth legion to flight at the first onset, 
and pursued it above five hundred paces from the 
place where the action began : wherefore observing 

u Frontin. De Stratagem, iii. 13 ; Plin. Hist. Nat. x. 37. 
Dio, p. 315. 

x The evocati were a choice body of veteran soldiers, 
who, after their dismission from service, being yet vigorous 
and fit for war, were invited to it again, as a sort of volun- 
teers, by the consul or general, and distinguished from the 
rest by peculiar privileges. 

y Ad 'Forum Gallorum : now called Castel-Franco, a small 
village on the iEmilian-way between Modena and Bologna. 
— Cluver. Ital. Ant. 1. i. c. 28. 



the enemy's horse attempting to surround our 
wing, I began to retreat, and ordered the light- 
armed troops to make head against the Moorish 
horse, and prevent their coming upon us behind. 
In the meanwhile I perceived myself in the midst 
of Antony's men, and Antony himself but a little 
way behind me : upon which, with my shield thrown 
over my shoulder, I pushed on my horse with all 
speed towards the new legion that was coming to- 
wards us from the camp : and whilst Antony's men 
were pursuing me, and ours by mistake throwing 
javelins at me, I was preserved, I know not how, 
by being presently known to our soldiers. Caesar's 
praetorian cohort sustained the fight a long time 
on the iEmilian road : but our left wing, which 
was the weaker, consisting of two cohorts of the 
Martial legion, and the praetorian of Hirtius, began 
to give ground, being surrounded by Antony's 
horse, in which he is very strong. When all our 
ranks had made good their retreat, I retreated 
myself the last to our camp. Antony, as the con- 
queror, fancied that he could take it ; but upon 
trial lost many of his men in the attempt, without 
being able to do us any hurt. Hirtius in the mean 
time, hearing of the engagement, marched out 
with twenty veteran cohorts, and meeting Antony 
on his return, entirely routed and put to flight his 
whole army, in the very same place where they 
had fought before at Castel-Franco. About ten 
at night Antony regained his camp at Modena, 
with all his horse. Hirtius retired to that camp 
which Pansa had quitted in the morning, and where 
he left the two legions which Antony attacked. 
Thus Antony has lost the greater part of his 
veteran troops, yet not without some loss of our 
praetorian cohorts and the Martial legion : we took 
two of Antony's eagles and sixty standards, and 
have gained a considerable advantage 2 ." 

Besides this letter from Galba, there came letters 
also severally, from the two consuls and Octavius, 
confirming the other account, with the addition 
of some farther particulars : that Pansa, fighting 
bravely at the head of his troops, had received two 
dangerous wounds, and was carried off the field to 
Bologna : that Hirtius had scarce lost a single man : 
and that to animate his soldiers the better, he took 
up the eagle of the fourth legion and carried it 
forward himself : that Caesar was left to the guard 
of their camp ; where he was attacked likewise by 
another body of the enemy, whom he repulsed 
with great loss a . Antony reproached him after- 
wards with running away from this engagement in 
such a fright, that he did not appear again till two 
days after, and without his horse or general's 
habit : but the account just mentioned was given 
by Cicero from letters that were read to the senate, 
in which Hirtius declared him to have acted with 
the greatest courage b . 

z Ep. Fam. x. 30. 

a Cum— ipse in primis Pansa pugnaret, duobus pericu- 
losis vulneribus acceptis, sublatus e praslio. — Phil. xiv. 9. 

Hirtius ipse, aquilam quartae legionis cum inferret, qua 
nullius pulchriorem speciem imperatoris accepimus, cum 
tribus Antonii legionibus, equitatuque conflixit. — Ibid. 10. 

Caesar — adolescens maximi animi, ut verissime scribit 
Hirtius, castra multarum legionum paucis cohortibus 
tutatus est, secundumque praelium fecit— Ibid. ; Appian. 
iii. .571. 

b Priore praslio Antonius eum fugisse scribit, ac sine 
paludamento equoque post biduum demum apparuisse. — 
Suet. in. Aug. 10. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



271 



The news reached Rome on the twentieth of 
April, where it raised an incredible joy ; and the 
greater, we may imagine, for the late terrors which 
they had suffered from contrary reports. The 
whole body of the people assembled presently 
about Cicero's house, and carried him in a kind of 
triumph to the capitol, whence, on their return, 
they placed him in the rostra to give them an 
account of the victory ; and then conducted him 
home with infinite acclamations : so that in a letter 
upon it to Brutus, he says, that he reaped on that 
day the full fruit of all his toils, if there be any 
fruit in true and solid glory c . 

The day following the senate was summoned 
by M. Cornutus, the prsetor, to deliberate on the 
letters of the consuls and Octavius. Servilius's 
opinion was, " that the city should now quit the 
sagum, and take the common gown again ; and 
that a public thanksgiving should be decreed jointly 
to the honour of the consuls and Octavius. Cicero 
spoke next, and declared strongly against quitting 
the sagum, till D. Brutus was first delivered from 
the siege ; that it would be ridiculous to put it off 
till they should see him in safety, for whose sake 
they had put it on ; that the motion for quitting it 
flowed from envy to D. Brutus : to deprive him of 
the glory that it would be to his name, to have it 
delivered to posterity that the people of Rome 
had put on the sagum for the danger, and resumed 
the gown for the preservation of one citizen. He 
advised them therefore to continue in their former 
mind, of thinking the whole danger and stress of 
the war to depend on D. Brutus, and though there 
was reason to hope that he was already safe, or 
would shortly be so, yet they should reserve the 
fruit of that hope to fact and the event, lest they 
should be found too hasty in snatching the favour 
of the gods, or foolish in contemning the power 
of fortune d ." Then as to the decree of the thanks- 
giving, he urges Servilius with omitting two things 
in his vote, which ought necessarily to have accom- 
panied it : the giving Antony the title of enemy, 
and their own generals, of emperors. " The swords 
of our soldiers are dyed," says he, " or rather 
moistened only as yet, with blood ; if it was the 
blood of enemies, it was an act of the utmost piety : 
if of citizens, the most detestable wickedness ; how 
long then shall he, who has outdone all enemies 
in villany, go without the name of enemy ? He 
is now waging an inexpiable war with four consuls, 
with the senate and people of Rome ; denounces, 
plagues, devastation, the rack and tortures to us 
all : confesses that Dolabella's horrid act, which 
no barbarians would own, was done by his advice : 
declares what he would have done to this city, by 
the calamity of the people of Parma ; honest and 
excellent men, firm to the interests of the senate 
and people, whom L. Antony, the portent and dis- 
grace of his species, put to death by all the methods 
of cruelty e ." That Hannibal was never so barba- 
rous to any city, as Antony to Parma. He conjures 
them to remember how much they had all been 
terrified for two days past by villanous reports 

c Cum hesterno die me ovantem ac prope triumphant tern 
populus Romanus in Capitolium domo tulerit ? domum 
inde reduxerit.— Phil. xiv. 5. 

Quo quidem die magnorum meorum lahorum, — fructum 
cepi maximum ; si modo est aliquis fructus ex solida 
veraque gloria, &c— Ad Brut. 3. 

d Phil. xiv. 1, 2. e Ibid- 3. 



spread about the city, and were expecting either a 
wretched death or lamentable flight, and could 
they scruple to call those men enemies, from whom 
they feared such dreadful things ? He then pro- 
posed to enlarge the number of days of the thanks- 
giving, since it was not to be decreed to one, but 
to three generals jointly ; to whom, in the first 
place, he would give the title of emperors, since 
there had not been a supplication decreed without 
it for twenty years past, so that Servilius should 
not either have decreed it at all, or allowed the 
usual honour to those, to -whom even new and 
unusual honours were due f . That if, according 
to the present custom, the title of emperor was 
commonly given for killing a thousand or two of 
Spaniards, Gauls, or Thracians, how could they 
refuse it now when so many legions were routed, 
and such a multitude slain ? for with what honours, 
(says he) and congratulations, should our deliverers 
themselves be received into this temple, when yes- 
terday, on the account of what they have done, 
the people of Rome carried me into the capitol in 
a kind of triumph ? for that, after all, is a just 
and real triumph, when, by the general voice of 
the city, a public testimony is given to those who 
have deserved well of the commonwealth. For if, 
in the common joy of the whole city, they congra- 
tulated me singly, it is a great declaration of their 
judgment : if they thanked me, still greater : if 
both, nothing can be imagined more glorious ; 
that he was forced to say so much of himself 
against his will, by the strange envy and injuries 
which he had lately suffered : that the insolence 
of the factious, as they all knew, had raised a 
report and suspicion upon him, of his aiming at a 
tyranny, though his whole life had been spent in 
defending the republic from it ; as if he, who had 
destroyed Catiline for that very crime, was of a 
sudden become a Catiline himself^. That if the 
report had found credit in the city, their design 
was, by a sudden assault upon his person, as upon 
a tyrant, to have taken away his life. That the 
thing itself was manifest, and the whole affair 
should be laid open in proper time. That he had 
said all this not to purge himself to them, to 
whom he should be sorry to want an apology, but 
to admonish certain persons of jejune and narrow 
minds, to look upon the virtue of excellent citi- 
zens as the object of their imitation, not of their 
envy, since the republic was a wide field, where 
the course of glory was open to many h . That if 
any man contested with him the first place in the 
government, he acted foolishly, if he meant to do 
it by opposing vice to virtue : that as the race was 
gained by running the fastest, so virtue was only 
to be conquered by a superior virtue ; that they 
could never get the better of him by bad votes — 
by good ones perhaps they might — and he himself 
should be glad of it : that the people of Rome 
were perpetually inquiring, how men of their 
rank voted and acted ? and formed their judg- 
ment of them accordingly. That they all remem- 
bered, how in December last he was the author 
of the first step towards recovering their liberty ; 
how from the 1st of January he had been conti- 
nually watching over the safety of the common- 
wealth : how his house and his ears were open 
day and night to the advices and informations of 



f Phil. xiv. 4. 



S Ibid. 5. 



h Ibid. 6. 



272 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



all who came to him. How his opinion always 
was, against an embassy to Antony : how he had 
always voted him an enemy, and their present 
state, a war, but as oft as he mentioned an enemy or 
a war, the consuls had always dropped his motion, 
from the number of those that were proposed 1 , 
which could not however be done in the present 
case, because he, who had already voted a thanks- 
giving, had unwarily voted Antony an enemy, 
since a thanksgiving had never been decreed but 
against enemies, and never asked or granted in 
what was properly a civil war : that they should 
either have denied it, or must of course decree 
those to be enemies, for whose defeat it was 
granted." Then after flourishing on the particular 
merit of the three generals, Pansa, Hirtius, Octa- 
vius ; and showing how well they had each 
deserved the name of emperor, he decrees a 
thanksgiviug of fifty days in the name of the three 
jointly k . In the last place, he proceeds to 
speak of the rewards due to the soldiers, and 
especially of the honours to be paid to those who 
had lost their lives in the defence of their country. 
For these he proposes " a splendid monument to 
be erected in common to them all, at the public 
charge, with their names and services inscribed;" 
and in recommending it, breaks out into a kind 
of funeral eulogium upon them : — " O happy 
death," says he, " which when due to nature, was 
paid to your country ! for I cannot but look upon 
you as born for your country, whose name is even 
derived from Mars : as if the same god who gave 
birth to this city, for the good of nations, had 
given birth also to you, for the good of this city. 
Death in flight is scandalous : in victory, glorious ; 
wherefore whilst those impious wretches, whom 
you slew, will suffer the punishment of their par- 
ricide in the infernal regions ; you, who breathed 
your last in victory, have obtained the place and 
seat of the pious. The life given to us by nature 
is short, but the memory of a life well spent, 
everlasting. If it were not longer than this life, 
who would be so mad, at the expense of the 
greatest pains and dangers, to contend for the 
prize of glory ? Your lot therefore is happy, O 
you, while you lived, the bravest, now the holiest 
of soldiers ; for the fame of your virtue can never 
be lost, either by the forgetfulness of those who 
are now alive, or the silence of those who shall 
come hereafter ; since the senate and people of 
Rome have raised to you, as it were with their own 
hands, an immortal monument. There have been 
many great and famous armies in the Punic, 
Gallic, Italic wars ; yet no such honour was ever 
done to any of them. I wish that we could still 
do greater, since you have done the greatest ser- 
vices to us ; you drove Antony mad with rage, 
from the city : you repulsed him, when he 
attempted to return. A fabric therefore shall 
be erected of magnificent work, and letters 
engraved upon it, the eternal witnesses of your 
divine virtue ; nor will those who see or hear of 
your monument, ever cease talking of you : so 
that, instead of this frail and mortal condition of 
life, you have now acquired an immortality 1 ." He 
then renews their former assurances to the old 
legions, " of the full and punctual payment of all 
which had been promised to them, as soon as the 

i Phil. xiv. 7. Mbid. 8, 9, 10, 11. 

1 Ibid. 12. 



war should be over ;" and for those, in the mean 
time, who had lost their lives for their country, 
he proposes that " the same rewards which would 
have been given to them if they had lived, should 
be given immediately to their parents, children, 
wives or brothers." All which he includes, as 
usual, in the form of a decree, which was ratified 
by the senate. 

Antony being cruelly mortified by this defeat, 
kept himself close within his camp, and resolved 
to hazard nothing farther, but to act only on the 
defensive ; except by harassing the enemy with his 
horse, in which he was far superior. He still hoped 
to make himself master of Modena, which was 
reduced to extremity, and, by the strength of his 
works, to prevent their throwing any relief into it. 
Hirtius and Octavius, on the other hand, elate with 
victory, were determined at all hazards to relieve it : 
and after two or three days spent in finding the 
most likely place of breaking through the entrench- 
ments, they made their attack with such vigour, 
that Antony, rather than suffer the town to be 
snatched at last out of his hands, chose to draw 
out his legions, and come to a general battle. The 
fight was bloody and obstinate, and Antony's men, 
though obliged to give ground, bravely disputed 
every inch of it : till D. Brutus, taking the oppor- 
tunity at the same time to sally out of the town at 
the head of his garrison, helped greatly to deter- 
mine and complete the victory. Hirtius pushed 
his advantage with great spirit, and forced his 
way into Antony's camp ; but when he had gained 
the middle of it, was unfortunately killed near 
the general's tent. Pontius Aquila, one of the 
conspirators, was killed likewise in the same 
place : but Octavius, who followed to support 
them, made good their attempt, and kept pos- 
session of the camp, with the entire defeat and 
destruction of Antony's best troops : while Antony 
himself, with all his horse, fled with great precipi- 
tation towards the Alps. Some writers give a 
different relation of this action, but from the facts 
and circumstances of it delivered by Cicero, this 
appears to be the genuine account. The consul 
Pansa died the day following of his wounds at 
Bologna m . 



a. urb. 710. 
cic. 64. 



SECTION XI. 

The entire defeat of Antony's army made all 
people presently imagine, that the war was at an 
end, and the liberty of Rome esta- 
blished, which would probably have 
been the case, if Antony had either 
perished in the action, or the consuls survived it. 
But the death of the consuls, though not felt so 
sensibly at first, in the midst of their joy for the 
victory, gave the fatal blow to all Cicero's schemes, 
and was the immediate cause of the ruin of the 
republic 51 . Hirtius was a man of letters and polite- 

m Cum alia laudo, et gaudeo accidisse, turn quod Bruti 
eruptio non solum ipsi salutaris fuit, sed etiam maximo 
ad victoriam adjumento. — Ad Brut. 4. 

Ibi Hirtium quoque periisse et Pontium Aquilam, &c. — 
Ep. Fam. x. 33 ; it. Ep. Fam. xi. 13 ; Appian. 1. 3. p. 372. 

a Hirtium quidem et Pansam— In consulatu reipublicje 
salutares, alieno sane tempore amisimus.— Ep. Fam. xii. 25. 

Pansa amisso, quantum detrimenti respublica aceeperit, 
non te praeterit. [Ep. Fam. xi. 9.] Quanto sit in periculo 



MARCUS TULL1US CICERO. 



273 



ness, intimately entrusted with Caesar's counsels, 
and employed to write his acts ; but as he was the 
proper creature of Caesar, and strongly infected with 
party, so his views were all bent on supporting the 
power that had raised him, and serving his patron, 
not the public. In the beginning therefore of the 
civil war, when he was tribune of the people, he 
published a law to exclude all who were in arms with 
Pompey from any employment or office in the 
state b ; which made him particularly obnoxious to 
the Pompeians, who considered him as their most 
inveterate enemy. Pansa, whose father had been 
proscribed by Sylla c , was attached with equal zeal 
to Caesar, as to the head and reviver of the Marian 
cause, and served him in all his wars with singular 
affection and fidelity : he was a grave, sincere, and 
worthy man ; and being naturally more moderate 
and benevolent than Hirtius, was touched with the 
ruin of his country, and the miseries of the op- 
pressed Pompeians ; many of whom he relieved 
by his humanity, and restored by his interest to 
the city and their estates d . This made him very 
popular, and gained him the esteem of all the 
honest : so that Cassius, in defending his Epicu- 
rism to Cicero, alleges Pansa as an example of 
those genuine Epicureans, who placed their 
pleasure or chief good in virtuous acts e . Be- 
fore their entrance into the consulship, Quintus 
Cicero gave a most wretched account of them 
both ; "as of a lewd, luxurious pair, not fit to be 
trusted with the command of a paltry town, much 
less of the empire ;" and says, that " if they were 
not removed from the helm, the republic would 
certainly be lost ; since Antony would easily draw 
them into a partnership of his crimes ; for when he 
served with them in Gaul, he had seen incredible 
instances of their effeminacy and debauchery, in 
the face even of the enemy f ." But we must 
charge a great part of this character to the peevish- 
ness and envy of Quintus : for whatever they had 
been before, they were certainly good consuls ; 
and out of their affection to Cicero, and regard to 
his authority, governed themselves generally in all 
great affairs by his maxims. They were persuaded 
that the design of revenging Caesar's death would 
throw the republic again into convulsions, and 
flowed from no other motive than the -ambition of 
possessing Caesar's place, and resolved therefore 
to quell by open force all attempts against the 
public peace. From their long adherence to 
Caesar, they retained indeed some prejudices in 
favour of that party, and were loath to proceed to 
extremities, till pacific measures were found inef- 
fectual. This gave Cicero some reason to blame, 
but never to distrust them ; to complain of their 

respublica quam potero brevissime exponam. Primum 
omnium, quantam perturbatfonem rerum urbanarum 
afferat obitus consilium, &c— Ep. Fam. x. 

t> Neminem Pompeianum qui vivat tenere lege Hirtia 
dignitates.— Phil. xiii. 16. 

c Dio, 1. xlv. 278. 

d Pansa, gravis homo et certus.— Ep, Fam. vi. 12. 

Quod multos miseriis levavit, et quod se in his malis 
hominem prsebuit, mirabilis eum virorum bonorum bene- 
volentia prosecuta est. — Ep.Fam. xv. 17. 

e Itaque et Pansa, qui 7]dovi,u sequitur, virtutem reti- 
net, &c— Ibid. 19. 

f Quos ego penitus novi libidinum et languoris effemina- 
tissimi animi plenos : qui nisi a gubernaculis recesserint, 
maximum ab universo naufragio periculum est, &c. — Ep. 
Fam. xvi. 27. 



phlegm and want of vigour, as detrimental to the 
common cause : yet while they were generally 
suspected by others, he always thought them 
sincere, though they did not in all cases act up 
to his wishes. The event confirmed his judgment 
of them : for they both not only exposed, but lost 
their lives with the greatest courage in the defence 
of the republic ; and showed themselves to be the 
very men which Cicero had constantly affirmed 
them to be ; and though he imputes some little 
blame to Hirtius, yet of Pansa he declares, " that 
he wanted neither courage from the first, nor 
fidelity to the last?." 

If they had lived to reap the fruits of their vic- 
tory, their power and authority would have been 
sufficient to restrain Octavius within the bounds of 
his duty, and sustain the tottering republic till 
Brutus and Cassius could arrive to their assist- 
ance ; and Plancus and D. Brutus unite themselves 
in the same cause, and give it a firm establishment 
in their consulship of the next year ; all whose 
armies, together with the African legions, were 
far superior to any force that could have been 
brought against them. But the death of the two 
consuls placed Octavius at once above control, 
by leaving him the master of both their armies ; 
especially of all the veterans, who were disaffected 
to D. Brutus, and could not be induced to follow 
him ; and it fell out so lucky and apposite to all 
Octavius' s views, as to give birth to a general per- 
suasion, that they had received foul play, and were 
both of them killed by his contrivance : for he was 
observed to be the first man who took up Hirtius's 
body in the camp, where some imagined him to 
have been killed by his own soldiers ; and Pansa's 
physician, Glyco, was actually thrown into prison 
by Torquatus, Pansa's quaestor, upon a suspicion 
of having poisoned his wounds h . But the chief 
ground of that notion seems to have lain in the 
fortunate coincidence of the fact with the interests 
of Octavius : for M. Brutus thought it incredible, 
and in the most pressing manner begged of Cicero 
to procure Glyco's enlargement, and protect him 
from any harm, as being a worthy, modest man, 
incapable of such avillany ; and who, of all others, 
suffered the greatest loss by Pansa's death'. 

S Quales tibi sa?pe scripsi consules, tales extiterunt. 
[Ad Brut. 3.] Erat in senatu satis vehemens et acer 
Pansa ; cum in caeteros hujus generis, turn maxime in 
socerum ; cui consuli non animus ab initio, non fides ad 
extremum defuit. Bellum ad Mutinam gerebatur ; nihil 
ut in Cassare reprehenderes, nonnulla in Hirtio. — Ibid. 1 0. 

N.B. Several medals were struck by the senate on the 
occasion of this victory; particularly one in honour of 
Pansa, exhibiting the head of the Goddess Liberty, crowned 
with laurel, and the inscription, Libertatis ; and on the 
reverse, Rome sitting upon the spoils of enemies, holding 
a spear in her right hand, and a dagger in her left, with 
her foot upon the globe, and victory flying towards her to 
crown her with laurel ; and the inscription,— C. Pansa. 
C.F.C.N.— See Morel. Fam. Rom. 

h Rumor increbuit, ambos opera ejus occisos : ut Anto- 
nio fugato, republica consulibus orbata, solus victores 
exercitus occupavet. Pansa? quidem adeo suspecta mors 
fuit, ut Glyco medicus custoditus sit, quasi venenum vul- 
neri indidisset. — Suet, in Aug. 11 ; Dio, 1. xlvi. 317 : 
Appian. p. 572. 

1 Tibi Glycona medicum Pansae— diligentissime com- 
mendo ; audimus eumvenisse in suspicionem Torquato de 
morte Pansae, custodirique ut parricidam. Nihil minus 
credendum, &c— Rogo te et quidem valde rogo, eripias 
eum ex custodia. — Ad Brut. 6. 
T 



274 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



Cicero was soon aware of the dangerous turn 
which this event was likely to give to their affairs ; 
and within a day or two after the news, intimates 
his apprehension of it to Brutus : " Young Csesar," 
says he, ' ' has a wonderful disposition to virtue ; I 
wish that I may govern him as easily, in all this 
height of honour and power, as I have hitherto 
done : the thing is now much harder ; yet I do 
not despair of it : for the youth is persuaded, and 
chiefly by me, that we owe our present safety to 
him : and in truth, if he had not at first driven 
Antony from the city, all had been lost k ." But 
as he found Octavius grow daily more and more 
untractable, so he began to exhort and implore 
Brutus, in every letter, to bring his army into 
Italy, as the only thing which could save them in 
their present circumstances : and to enforce his 
own authority, he procured a vote also of the 
senate, to call him home with his legions to the 
defence of the republic 1 . 

At Rome, however, the general rejoicings stifled 
all present attention to the loss of their consuls ; 
and Antony's friends were so dejected for some 
time, that they gave Cicero no more opposition in 
the senate ; where he poured out all imaginable 
honours on the deceased, Hirtius, Pansa, and 
Aquila, decreed an ovation to Csesar, and added a 
number of days to their thanksgiving in honour of 
D. Brutus ; whose deliverance happening to fall upon 
his birth-day, he decreed likewise that his name 
should be ascribed ever after to that day in the fasti 
or public calendars, for a perpetual memorial of 
the victory. Antony's adherents were also declared 
enemies : in which number Servilius himself in- 
cluded Ventidius ; and moved, to give Cassius the 
command of the war against Dolabella ; to whom 
Cicero joined Brutus, in case that he should find it 
useful to the republic" 1 . 

The decree of an ovation to Octavius was blamed 
by Brutus and his friends n ; yet seems to have 
been wisely and artfully designed : for while it 
carried an appearance of honour, it would regularly 
have stripped him of his power if he had made use 
of it : since his commission was to expire of course, 
and his army to be dissolved upon his first entrance 
into the city : but the confusion of the times made 
laws and customs of little effect with those who had 
the power to dispense with them. 

The commanders abroad were so struck with 
Antony's defeat, that they redoubled their assur- 
ances to Cicero of their firmness and zeal for the 
common cause. Lepidus especially, who had 

fc Caesaris vero pueri mirifica indoles virtutis. Utinam 
tarn facile eum fiorentem et honoribus et gratia regere ac 
tenere possimus, ut adhuc tenuimus ! est omnino illud 
difficilius : sed non diffidimus. Persuasum est enim ado- 
lescenti, et maxime per me, ejus opera nos esse salvos : et 
certe, nisi is Antonium ab urbe avertisset, periissent 
omnia. — Ad Brut. 3. 

1 Te, cognita senatus auctoritate, in Italiam adducere 
exercitum : quod ut faceres, idque maturares, magnopere 
desiderabat respublica.— Ad Brut. 10. 

m A.D. v. Kalend. Maias cum de iis, qui hostes judicati 
sunt, bello persequendis, sententiae dicerentur, dixit 
Servilius etiam de Ventidio, et ut Cassius persequeretur 
Dolabellam. Cui cum essem assensus, decrevi hoc amplius, 
ut tu, si arbitrarere utile — persequerere bello Dolabellam, 
&c.^Ad Brut. 5 ; it. 15. 

n Suspicor illud minus tibi probari, quod ab tuis famili- 
aribus — non probatur, quod ut ovanti introire Cassari lice- 
ret, decreverim. — Ad Brut. 15. 



suffered two of his lieutenants, Silanus and Culleo, 
to carry succours to Antony at Modena, labours 
to excuse it in a civil and humble strain, and to 
persuade Cicero, " That they had done it against 
his orders ; and though, for their former relation 
to him, he was unwilling to punish them with the 
last severity, yet he had not since employed them, 
or received them even into his camp. He acquaints 
him that Antony was arrived in his province with 
one legion, and a great multitude of men unarmed, 
but with all his horse, which was very strong ; and 
that Ventidius had joined him with three legions : 
that he was marching out against him with all his 
forces ; and that many of Antony's horse and foot 
daily deserted him : that for himself, he would 
never be wanting in his duty to the senate and the 
republic ; thanks him for not giving credit to 
the false reports which were spread of him : and 
above all, for the late honours that he had decreed 
to him ; begs him to expect everything from him 
which could be expected from an honest man, and 
to take him under his special protection ." 

Pollio still more explicitly, " That there was no 
time now for loitering, or expecting the orders of 
the senate ; that all who wished to preserve the 
empire, and the very name of the Roman people, 
ought to lend their present help ; that nothing 
was more dangerous than to give Antony leisure to 
recollect himself; that for his part, he would 
neither desert nor survive the republic ; was grieved 
only for his being at such a distance that he could 
not come so soon as he wished to its relief p," &c. 

Plancus sent word, "That he was taking all 
possible care to oppress Antony, if he came into 
that country ; that if he came without any con- 
siderable body of troops, he should be able to give 
a good account of him, though he should be re- 
ceived by Lepidus ; or if he brought any force with 
him, would undertake that he should do no harm 
in those parts till they could send him succours 
sufficient to destroy him ; that he was then in a 
treaty with Lepidus, about uniting their forces in 
the same cause, by the mediation of Laterensis 
and Furnius ; nor would be hindered by his private 
quarrel to the man, from concurring with his 
greatest enemy in the service of the common- 
wealth i." In another letter he speaks with great 
contempt of "Antony's shattered forces, though 
joined with those of Ventidius, the mule-driver (as 
he calls him) ; and is confident, that if he could 
have met with them, they would not have stood an 
hour before him r ." 

The conquerors at Modena were much censured 
in the mean time for giving Antony leisure to 
escape : but Octavius, from the beginning, had no 
thoughts of pursuing him : he had already gained 
what he aimed at ; had reduced Antony's power so 
low, and raised his own so high, as to be in con- 
dition to make his own terms with him in the 
partition of the empire, of which he seems to have 
formed the plan from this moment : whereas if 
Antony had been wholly destroyed, together with 
the consuls, the republican party would have pro- 
bably been too strong for him and Lepidus, who, 
though master of a good army, was certainly a 

o Ep. Fam. x. 34. P Ibid. 33. q Ibid. xi. 

r Mini enim si contigisset, ut prior occurrerem Antonio, 
non mehercule boram constitisset : tantum ego et mihi 
confido, et sicperculsas illius copias, Ventidiique mulionis 
castra despicio. — Ibid. 18. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



275 



weak general 13 : when he was pressed therefore to 
pursue Antony, he contrived still to delay it, till it 
was too late, taking himself to be more usefully 
employed in securing to his interests the troops of 
the consuls. 

Cicero was particularly disgusted at Antony's 
escape ; and often expostulates upon it with 
D. Brutus : he tells him, " That if Antony should 
ever recover strength again, all his great services 
to the republic would come to nothing. It was 
reported (says he) at Rome, and all people believed 
it, that he was fled with a few unarmed, dispirited 
men, and himself almost broken-hearted : but if it 
be so with him, as I hear it is, that you cannot 
fight him again without danger ; he does not seem 
to have fled from Modena, but to have changed 
only the seat of the war. Wherefore men are now 
quite different from what they were : some even 
complain that you did not pursue him, and think 
that he might have been destroyed if diligence had 
been used : such is the temper of people, and, 
above all, of ours, to abuse their liberty against 
those by whom they obtained it : it is your part, 
however, to take care that there be no real ground 
of complaint. The truth of the case is, he who 
oppresses Antony, puts an end to the war. What 
the force of that is it is better for you to consider, 
than for me to write more explicitly*." 

D. Brutus in his answer gives him the reasons 
why he could not follow Antony so soon as he 
wished : "I had no horse," says he ; "no car- 
riages ; did not know that Hirtius was killed ; had 
no confidence in Caesar before I met and talked 
with him ; thus the first day passed. The next 
morning early I was sent for by Pansa to Bologna, 
but on the road met with an account of his death : 
I ran back to my little army, for so I may truly 
call it ; it is extremely reduced, and in sad con- 
dition for want of all things : so that Antony 
gained two days of me, and made much greater 
journeys in flying than I could in pursuing ; for 
his troops went straggling, mine in order. Wherever 
he passed, he opened all the prisons, carried away 
the men, and stopped nowhere till he came to the 
Fords. This place lies between the Apennine and 
the Alps, a most difficult country to march 
through. When I was thirty miles from him, and 
Ventidius had already joined him, a copy of his 
speech was brought to me, in which he begs of his 
soldiers to follow him across the Alps ; and declares 
that he acted in concert with Lepidus : but the 
soldiers cried out, especially those of Ventidius, 
for he has very few of his own, that they would 
either conquer or perish in Italy ; and began to 
beg that he would go to Pollentia : when he could 
not overrule them, he put off his march to the next 
day. Upon this intelligence, I presently sent five 
cohorts before me to Pollentia, and followed them 
myself with the army : my detachment came to 
the place an hour before Trebellius, with Antony's 
horse : this gave me an exceeding joy, for I esteem 
it equal to a victory, 11 " &c. 

In another letter he says, " That if Caesar would 
have been persuaded by him to cross the Apen- 
nine, he could have reduced Antony to such straits 
that he must have been destroyed by want rather 
than the sword : but that they could neither com- 
s Cum et Lepido omnes imperatores forent meliores, et 
multis Antonius, dum erat sobrius.— Veil. Pat. ii. 63. 
1 Ep. Fain. xi. 12. u Ibid. 13. 



mand Caesar, nor Caesar his own troops ; both 
which circumstances were very bad x ," &c. This 
authentic account from D. Brutus confutes two 
facts, which are delivered by an old historian, and 
generally received by all the moderns ; first, that 
Octavius, after the victory, refused to have any 
conference with D. Brutus ; and that Brutus, for 
that reason, forbade him to enter his province, or 
to pursue Antony : secondly, that Pansa, in his 
last moments, sent for Octavius, and advised him 
to a union with Antony against the senate ?. For 
it is evident, that on the very day of the victory, 
there was actually a conference between the two 
first, which passed in so amicable a manner as to 
ease Brutus of the jealousy which he had before 
conceived of Octavius : and Pansa's death hap- 
pened so early the next morning, that it left no 
room for the pretended advice and speech which 
is made for him to Octavius ; especially since it 
appears on the contrary, that instead of Octavius, 
Pansa really sent for D. Brutus, when he found 
himself dying, as if disposed rather to communi- 
cate something for the service of that cause in 
which he had lost his life. But both the stories 
were undoubtedly forged afterwards, to save 
Octavius's honour, and give a better colour to that 
sudden change of measures which from this hour 
he was determined to pursue 2 . 

C. Antony was still a prisoner with M. Brutus, 
whose indulgence gave him an opportunity of 
practising upon the soldiers, and raising a sedition 
in the camp, which created no small trouble to 
Brutus. The soldiers, however, soon repented of 
their rashness, and killed the authors of it ; and 
would have killed Antony too, if Brutus would 
have delivered him into their hands : but he could 
not be induced to take his life, though this was 
the second offence of the same kind ; but pre- 
tending that he would order him to be thrown 
into the sea, sent him to be secured on ship-board 
either from doing or suffering any farther mischief a ; 
of which he wrote an account to Cicero, who re- 
turned the following answer. 

" As to the sedition in the fourth legion about 
C. Antony, you will take what I say in good part ; 
I am better pleased with the severity of the soldiers 
than with yours. I am extremely glad that you 
have had a trial of the affection of your legions 
and the horse. As to what you write, that I am 
pursuing the Antonys much at my ease, and praise 
me for it — I suppose you really think so : but I 
do not by any means approve your distinction, 

x Quod si me Caesar audisset, atque Apenninum transis- 
set, in tantas angustias Antonium compulissem, ut inopia 
potius quam ferro conficeretur. Sed neque Caesari inperari 
potest, nee Caesar exercitui suo : quod utrumque pessimum 
est.— Ep. Fam. x. 

y Appian. 1. iii. 573 ; it. Hist. Rom. par Catrou et 
Rouille, t. xvii. 1. iv. p. 433, &c. 

z There is an original medal still remaining that gives 
no small confirmation to this notion ; and was struck pro- 
bably at Rome, either by Pansa himself, upon his march- 
ing out towards Modena, or by the senate soon after Pansa's 
death, in testimony of the strict union that subsisted 
between him and D. Brutus Albinus. For on the one side 
there is the head of a Silenus, as it is called, or rather of 
Pan, which is frequent on Pansa's coins, with the inscrip- 
tion also of his name, C. Pansa : and on the other, Albinvs. 
Brvti. F. with two right hands joined, holding a caduceus. 
as an emblem of the strictest amity and concord.— See 
Famil. Vibia. in Vaillant or Morel. 

a Dio, 1. xlvii. p. 340. 

T 2 



276 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



when you say, that our animosity ought to be 
exerted rather in preventing civil wars, than in 
revenging ourselves on the vanquished. I differ 
widely from you, Brutus ; not that I yield to you in 
clemency, but a salutary severity is always pre- 
ferable to a specious show of mercy. If we are so 
fond of pardoning, there will be no end of civil 
wars : but you are to look to that ; for I can say 
of myself, what Plautus's old man says in the 
Trinummus, Life is almost over with me ; it is you 
who are the most interested in it. You will be 
undone, Brutus, believe me, if you do not take 
care : for you will not always have the people, nor 
the senate, nor a leader of the senate, the same as 
now. Take this, as from the Pythian oracle ; 
nothing can be more true b ." 

Brutus's wife, Porcia, notwithstanding the tragi- 
cal story which the old writers have dressed up, 
of the manner of her killing herself upon the news 
of her husband's unhappy fate c , died most probably 
about this time at Rome, of a lingering illness. 
She seems to have been in a bad state of health 
when Brutus left Italy, where she is said to have 
parted from him with the utmost grief and floods 
of tears, as if conscious that she was taking her 
last leave of him : and Plutarch says, " that there 
was a letter of Brutus extant in his days, if it was 
genuine, in which he lamented her death, and 
complained of his friends for neglecting her in 
her last sickness:" this however is certain, that 
in a letter to Atticus, he gives a hint of Porcia's 
indisposition, with a slight compliment to Atticus 
for his care of her d : and the following letter of 
condolence to him from Cicero, can hardly be 
applied to any other occasion but that of her 
death. 

Cicero to Brutus. 
11 I should perform the same office which you 
formerly did in my loss, of comforting you by 
letter, did I not know that you cannot want those 
remedies in your grief, with which you relieved 
mine. I wish only that you may now cure yourself 
more easily than at that time you cured me : for 
it would be strange in so great a man as you, not 
to be able to practise what he had prescribed to 
another. As for me, not only the reasons which 
you then collected, but your very authority, deterred 
me from indulging my sorrow to excess. For 
when you thought me to behave myself with greater 
softness than became a man, especially one who 
used to comfort others, you chid me with more 
severity than it was usual for you to express : so 
that, out of a revereuce to your judgment, I 
roused myself ; and by the accession of your 
authority, took everything that I had learned or 
read, or heard on that subject, to have the greater 
weight. Yet my part, Brutus, at that time, was 
only to act agreeably to duty and to nature : but 
yours, as we say, is to be acted on the stage, and 
before the people. For when the eyes, not only 
of your army, but of all the city, nay, of all the 
world, are upon you, it is wholly indecent for one, 
by whom we other mortals are made the stouter, 
to betray any dejection or want of courage. You 
have suffere d indeed a great los s (for you have lost 

b Ad Brut. 2. 

c App. 1. iv. 669 ; Dio, 1. xlvii. 356 ; Val. Max. iv. 6. 
d Valetudinem Portia meac tibi curac esse, non miror. 
—Ad Brut. 17. 



that which has not left its fellow on earth), and 
must be allowed to grieve under so cruel a blow, 
lest to want all sense of grief should be thought 
more wretched than grief itself : but to do it with 
moderation, is both useful to others and necessary 
to yourself. I would write more if this was not 
already too much : we expect you and your army ; 
without which, though all other things succeed to 
our wishes, we shall hardly ever be free e ." 

As the time of choosing magistrates now drew 
on, and particularly of filling up the colleges of 
priests, in which there were many vacancies, so 
Brutus was sending home many of his young nobles 
to appear as candidates at the election ; the two 
Bibuluses, Domitius, Cato, Lentulus, whom he 
severally recommends to Cicero's protection. 
Cicero was desirous that his son also should come 
with them, to be elected a priest ; and wrote to 
Brutus to know his mind about it, and, if he 
thought proper, to send him away immediately ; 
for though he might be chosen in absence, yet his 
success would be much easier if he was present f . 
He touches this little affair in several of his letters ; 
but finding the public disorders increase still every 
day, he procured the election of priests to be 
thrown off to the next year : and Brutus having 
sen£ him word in the mean while that his son had 
actually left him, and was coming towards Rome, 
he instantly despatched a messenger to meet him 
on the road, with orders to send him back again, 
though he found him landed in Italy : " since 
nothing," he says, " could be more agreeable either 
to himself, or more honourable to his son, than 
his continuance with Brutus £." 

Not long after the battle of Modena, the news 
of Dolabella's defeat, and death, from Asia, brought 
a fresh occasion of joy to Cicero, and his friends 
at Rome. Dolabella, after his success against 
Trebonius, having pillaged that province of its 
money, and of all things useful for war, marched 
forward to execute his grand design upon Syria ; 
for which he had been making all this preparation : 
but Cassius was beforehand with him, and having 
got possession of that country, and of all the armies 
in it, was much superior to him in force. Dola- 
bella, however, made his way with some success 
through Cilicia, and came before Antioch in Syria, 
but was denied admittance into it ; and after some 
vain attempts to take it, being repulsed with loss, 
marched to Laodicea, which had before invited, 
and now opened its gates to him. Here Cassius 
came up with him, and presently invested the 
place, where, after he had destroyed Dolabella's 
fleet, in two or three naval engagements, he shut 
him up closely by sea, as well as land ; till 
Dolabella, seeing no way to escape, and the town 
unable to hold out any longer, killed himself, to 
prevent his falling alive into Cassius's hands, and 
suffering the same treatment which he had shown 
to Trebonius ; but Cassius generously ordered his 

e Ad Brut. 9. 

f Sed quamvis liceat absentis rationem baberi, tamen 
omnia sunt praDsentibus faciliora. — Ad Brut. 5. 

S Ego autem, cum ad me de Ciceronis abs te discessu 
scripsisses, statim extrusi tabellarios, literasque ad Cice- 
ronem ; ut etiam si in Italiam venisset, ad te rediret. Nihil 
enim mibi jucundius, illi honestius. Quamquam aliquo- 
ties ei scripseram, sacerdotum comitia, mea summa con- 
tentione in alterum annum esse rejecta, &c.— Ad Brut. 
14: it. 5,6,7. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



277 



! body to be buried, with that of his lieutenant 
1 Octavius, who killed himself also with him h . 

D. Brutus was now at last pursuing Antony, or 
rather observing the motions of his flight : he had 
with him, besides his own forces, the new legions 
of the late consuls, while all the veterans put 
themselves under the command of Octavius : so 
that after Antony was joined by Ventidius with 
three legions, Brutus was hardly strong enough 
either to fight with him, or, what he rather aimed 
at, to hinder his crossing the Alps to Lepidus. 
He desired Cicero, therefore, to write to Lepidus 
not to receive him, "though he was sure," he 
says, " that Lepidus would never do anything that 
was right ;" and wishes likewise that Cicero would 
confirm Plancus ; since by some of Antony's 
papers which fell into his hands he perceived 
that Antony had not lost all hopes of him, and 
thought himself sure of Lepidus and Pollio ; of 
which he gave Plancus immediate notice, and 
signified, that he was coming forward with all 
expedition to join with him 1 . But he complains 
much in all his letters of .his want of money, and 
the sad condition of his .army; which was not 
contemptible for the number, but the kind of his 
troops, being for the most part new-raised men, 
bare and needy of all things k . " I cannot," says 
he, " maintain my soldiers any longer. When I 
first undertook to free the republic, I had above 
three hundred thousand pounds of my own in 
money ; but am now so far from having anything, 
that I have involved all my friends in debt for me. 
I have seven legions to provide for : consider with 
what difficulty. Had I the treasures of Varro, I 
could not support the expense 1 ." He desired 
therefore a present supply of money, and some 
veteran legions, especially the fourth and Martial, 
which continued still with Octavius. This was de- 
creed to him readily by the senate, at the motion 
of Drusus and Paullus, Lepidus's brother" 1 : but 
Cicero wrote him word, " that all who knew those 
legions the best, affirmed, that they would not be 
induced by any terms to serve under him : that 
money, however, should certainly be provided for 
him :" and concludes by observing, " that if Le- 
pidus should receive Antony, it would throw them 
again into great difficulties : but that it was Brutus's 
part to take care that they should have no cause 
to fear the event : for as to himself, that he could 
not possibly do more than he had already done ; 
but wished to see D. Brutus the greatest and most 
illustrious of men"." 

h Ep. Fam. 12, 13, 15 ; Appian. 1. iv. 625 ; Dio, 1. xlvii.344. 

» In primis rogo te, ad hominem ventosissimum Lepidum 
mittas, ne bellum nobis redintegrare possit, Antonio sibi 
conjuncto.— Mibi persuasissimum est, Lepidum recte fac- 
turum nunquam— Plancum quoque confirmetis, oro ; quern 
spero, pulso Antonio, reipublicae non defuturum.— Ep. 
Fam. xi. 9. 

Antonius ad Lepidum proficiscitur, ne de Planeo quidem 
spem adhuc abjecit, ut ex libellis suis animadverti, qui in 
me inciderunt Ibid. 11. 

k Cum sim cum tironibus egentissimis.— Ibid. 19. 

I Alere jam milites non possum. Cum ad rempublicam 
liberandam accessi, H.S. mihi fuit pecuniae cccc amplius. 
Tantum abest ut mea: rei familiaris liberum sit quidquam, 
ut omnes jam meos amicos sere alieno obstrinxerim. Sep- 
tenum numerum nunc legionum alo, qua difficultate, tu 
arbitrare. Non, si Varronis thesauros haberem, subsistere 
sumptui possem.— Ibid. 10. 

111 Ep. Fam. xi. 19. 

II Legionem Martiam et quartam negant, qui illas norunt, 



Plancus, as it is hinted above, was carrying on 
a negotiation with Lepidus to unite their forces 
against Antony : it was managed on Plancus' side 
by Furnius ; on Lepidus's byLaterensis, one of his i 
lieutenants, a true friend to the republic, and j 
zealous to engage his general to its interests ; and , 
Lepidus himself dissembled so well as to persuade 
them of his sincerity ; so that Plancus was march- 
ing forward in great haste to join with him, of 
which he gave Cicero a particular account. 

Plancus to Cicero. 

" After I had written my letters, I thought it of 
service to the public that you should be informed 
of what has since happened. My diligence, I hope, 
has been of use both to myself and to the com- 
monwealth : for I have been treating with Lepidus 
by perpetual messages ; that laying aside all 
former quarrels, he would be reconciled, and 
succour the republic in common with me, and 
show more regard to himself, his children, and 
the city, than to a desperate abandoned robber ; 
in which case he might depend on my service and 
assistance for all occasions : I transacted the affair 
by Laterensis. He pawned his faith, that if he 
could not keep Antony out of his province, he 
would pursue him by open war ; begged that I 
would come and join forces with him, and so much 
the more, because Antony was said to be strong 
in horse ; whereas Lepidus's could hardly be called 
indifferent : for not many days before, even out of 
his small number, ten, who were reckoned his best, 
came over to me. As soon as I was informed of 
this, I resolved without delay to support Lepidus 
in the execution of his good intentions : I saw of 
what benefit my joining him would be, either for 
pursuing and destroying Antony's horse with mine, 
or for correcting and restraining, by the presence of 
my army, the corrupt and disaffected part of 
Lepidus's. Having made a bridge therefore in 
one day over the Isere, a very great river in the 
territory of the Allobroges, I passed with my army 
on the twelfth of May : but having been informed 
that L. Antony was sent before with some horse 
and cohorts to Forum Julii, I had sent my brother 
the day before with four thousand horse to meet 
with him, intending to follow myself by great 
journeys with four legions and the rest of my horse, 
without the heavy baggage. If we have any tolerable 
fortune for the republic, we shall here put an end 
to the audaciousness of the desperate, and to all 
our own trouble : but if the robber, upon hearing 
of my arrival, should run back again into Italy, it 
will be Brutus's part to meet with him there : who 
will not be wanting, I know, either in counsel or 
courage : but if that should happen, I will send 
my brother also with the horse, to follow and pre- 
serve Italy from being ravaged by him. Take care 
of your health, and love me as I love you ." 

But Lepidus was acting all the while a treache- 
rous part, being determined at all hazards to sup- 
port Antony ; and though he kept him at a 
distance for some time, and seemed to be con- 
strained at last by his own soldiers to receive him, 
yet that was only to save appearances, till he could 

ul la conditione ad te posse perduci. Pecuniae, quam desi- 
deras, ratio potest haberi. eaque liabebitur — ego plus quam 
feci, facere non possum. Te tamen, id quod spero, omnium 
maximum et clarissimum videre cupio.— Ep. Fam. xi. 14. 
Ep. Fam. x. 15. 



278 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



do it with advantage and security to them both : his 
view in treating with Plancus was probably to amuse 
and draw him so near to them, that when he and 
Antony were actually joined, they might force him 
into the same measures, without his being able to 
help it, or to retreat from them. When he was upon 
the point therefore of joining camps with Antony, 
he sent word to Plancus, who was within forty miles 
of him, to stay where he then was till he should 
come up to him : but Plancus, suspecting nothing, 
thought it better still to march on ; till Laterensis, 
perceiving how things were turning, wrote him 
word in all haste that neither Lepidus nor his army 
were to be trusted, and that he himself was de- 
serted ; " exhorting Plancus to look to himself, 
lest he should be drawn into a snare, and to per- 
form his duty to the republic; for that he had dis- 
charged his faith by giving him this warning p," &c. 

Plancus gave Cicero a particular account of all 
these transactions : he acquaints him "that Lepidus 
and Antony joined their camps on the twenty-eighth 
of May, and the same day marched forward towards 
him : of all which he knew nothing till they were 
come within twenty miles of him : that upon the 
first intelligence of it he retreated in all haste, re- 
passed the Isere, and broke down the bridges which 
he had built upon it, that he might have leisure to 
draw all his forces together, and join them with his 
colleague D. Brutus, whom he expected in three 
days : that Laterensis, whose singular fidelity he 
should ever acknowledge, when he found himself 
duped by Lepidus, laid violent hands upon himself; 
but being interrupted in the act, was thought likely 
to live. He desires that Octavius might be sent to 
him with his forces ; or if he could not come in 
person, that his army however might be sent, since 
his interest was so much concerned in it : that as 
the whole body of the rebels was now drawn into 
one camp, they ought to act against them with the 
whole force of the republic," &c.i 

The day after his union with Antony, Lepidus 
wrote a short letter to the senate, wherein " he 
calls the gods and men to witness, that he had 
nothing so much at heart as the public safety and 
liberty ; of which he should shortly have given 
them proofs, had not fortune prevented him : for 
that his soldiers, by a general mutiny and sedition, 
had plainly forced him to take so great a multitude 
of citizens under his protection." He beseeches 
them, " that laying aside all their private grudges, 
they would consult the good of the whole republic ; 
nor in a time of civil dissention treat his clemency, 
and that of his army, as criminal and traitorous 1 ." 

D. Brutus on the other hand joined his army 
with Plancus, who acted with him for some time 
with great concord, and the affection of the whole 
province on their side : which being signified in 
their common letters to Rome; gave great hopes 
still and courage to all the honest there. In a 
letter of Plancus to Cicero, — " You know," says 
he, " I imagine, the state of our forces : in my 
camp there are three veteran legions, with one 
new, but the best of all others of that sort : in 
Brutus's one veteran legion, another of two years' 

P At Laterensis, vir sanctissimus, suo chirographo mittit 
mihi litems, in eisque dcsperans de se, de exercitu, de 
Lepidi fide, querenaquo se dcstitutum : in quibus aperte 
denuntiat, videam ne fallar: suam fidem solutam esse, 
reipublicae ne desim.— Ep. Fain. x. 21. 

<l Ibid. 23. r ibid. 35. 



standing, eight of new levies : so that our whole 
army is great in number, little in strength : for 
what small dependence there is on a fresh soldier 
we have oft experienced to our cost. If the 
African troops, which are veteran, or Caesar's, 
should join us, we should willingly put all to 
the hazard of a battle : as I saw Caesar's to be the 
nearest, so I have never ceased to press him, nor 
he to assure me, that he would come instantly, 
though I perceive that he had no such thought, 
and is quite gone off into other measures : yet I 
have sent our friend Furnius again to him, with 
letters and instructions, if he can possibly do any 
good with him. You know, my dear Cicero, that 
as to the love of young Caesar, it belongs to me in 
common with you : for on the account either of 
my intimacy with his uncle when alive, it was 
necessary for me to protect and cherish him ; or. 
because he himself, as far as I have been able to 
observe, is of a most moderate and gentle disposi- 
tion ; or that after so remarkable a friendship 
with C. Caesar, it would be a shame for me not to 
love him, even as my own child, whom he had 
adopted for his son. But what I now write, I 
write out of grief, rather than ill-will : that Antony 
now lives ; that Lepidus is joined with him ; that 
they have no contemptible army ; that they have 
hopes, and dare pursue them ; is all entirely 
owing to Caesar. I will not recall what is long 
since passed : but if he had come at the time 
when he himself declared that he would, the war 
would have been either now ended, or removed, 
to their great disadvantage, into Spain, a province 
utterly averse to them. What motive or whose 
counsels drew him off from a part so glorious, nay, 
so necessary too, and salutary to himself, and 
turned him so absurdly to the thoughts of a two 
months' consulship, to the terror of all people, I 
cannot possibly comprehend. His friends seem 
capable of doing much good on this occasion, both 
to himself and the republic ; and, above all others, 
you, to whom he has greater obligations than any 
man living, except myself ; for I shall never forget 
that I am indebted to you for the greatest. I 
have given orders to Furnius to treat with him on 
these affairs ; and if I had as much authority with 
him as I ought, should do him great service. 
We in the mean time have a very hard part to 
sustain in the war : for we neither think it safe to 
venture a battle, nor yet, by turning our backs, to 
give the enemy an opportunity of doing greater 
mischief to the republic : but if either Caesar would 
regard his honour, or the African legions come 
quickly, we shall make you all easy from this 
quarter. I beg you to continue your affection to 
me, and assure yourself that I am strictly yours s ." 
Upon the news of Lepidus's union with Antony, 
the senate, after some little time spent in con- 
sidering the effects of it, being encouraged by the 
concord of D. Brutus and Plancus, and depending 
on the fidelity of their united forces, voted Lepidus 
an enemy, on the thirtieth of June ; and de- 
molished the gilt statue which they had lately 
erected to him ; reserving still a liberty to him 
and his adherents of returning to their duty by 
the first of September'. Lepidus' s wife was 

s Ep. Fam. x. 24. 

1 Lepidus tuus affinis, meus familiaris, prid. Kal. Quint. 
sententiis omnibus hostis a senatu judicatus est ; caeterique 
qui una cum illo a republica defecerunt : quibus tamen ad 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



279 



M. Brutus' sister, by whom he had sons, whose 
fortunes were necessarily ruined by this vote, 
which confiscated the father's estate ; for which 
reason Servilia, their grandmother, and Cassius's 
wife, their aunt, solicited Cicero very earnestly 
either that the decree itself might not pass, or 
that the children should be excepted out of it : 
but Cicero could not consent to oblige them : for 
since the first was thought necessary, the second 
followed of course. He gave Brutus, however, a 
particular account of the case by letter. 

Cicero to Brutus. 

" Though I was just going to write to you 
by Messala Corvinus, yet I would not let our 
friend Vetus come without a letter. The republic, 
Brutus, is now in the utmost danger : and after 
we had conquered, we are forced again to fight, by 
the perfidy and madness of M. Lepidus. On 
which occasion, when for the care with which I 
have charged myself of the republic, I had many 
things to make me uneasy, yet nothing vexed me 
more than that I could not yield to the prayers of 
your mother and sister ; for I imagined that I 
should easily satisfy you, on which I lay the great- 
est stress. For Lepidus's case could not by any 
means be distinguished from Antony's ; nay, in all 
people's- judgment was even worse, since after he 
had received the highest honours from the senate, 
and but a few days before had sent an excellent 
letter to them, on a sudden he not only received 
the broken remains of our enemies, but now wages 
a most cruel war against us by land and sea, the 
event of which is wholly uncertain. When we are 
desired therefore to extend mercy to his children, 
not a word is said why, if their father should 
conquer (which the gods forbid), we are not to 
expect the last punishment from him. I am not 
ignorant how hard it is, that children should suffer 
for the crimes of their parents : but it was wisely 
contrived by the laws, that the love of their chil- 
dren should make parents more affectionate to their 
country. Wherefore it is Lepidus who is cruel to 
his children, not he who adjudges Lepidus an 
enemy ; for if, laying down his arms, he were to be 
condemned only of violence, in which no defence 
could be made for him, his children would suffer 
the same calamity by the confiscation -of his estate. 
Yet what your mother and sister are now soliciting 
against, in favour of the children, the very same 
and much worse Lepidus, Antony, and our other 
enemies, are at this very moment threatening to us 
all. Wherefore, our greatest hope is in you and 
your army. It is of the utmost consequence both 
to the republic in general, and to your honour and 
glory in particular, that, as I wrote to you before, 
you come as soon as possible into Italy ; for the 
republic is in great want not only of your forces, 
but of your counsels. I served Vetus with plea- 
sure as you desired me, for his singular benevolence 
and duty to you : I found him extremely zealous 
and affectionate both to you and the republic : I 
shall see my son, I hope, very soon, for I depend 
on his coming with you quickly to Italy u ." 

Brutus, before he had received this letter, having 
heard from other friends what they were designing 
at Rome against Lepidus, wrote about the same 
time, and on the same subject, to Cicero, 
sanitatem redeundi ante Kal. Sept. potestas facta est. — Ep. 
Fam. xii. 10. n Ad Brut. 12. 



Brutus to Cicero. 

" Other people's fears oblige me to entertain 
some apprehensions myself on Lepidus's account : 
if he should withdraw himself from us (which 
will prove, I hope, a rash and injurious suspicion 
of him), I beg and beseech you, Cicero, conjuring 
you by our friendship and your affection to me, to 
forget that my sister's children are Lepidus' sons, 
and to consider me in the place of their father. 
If I obtain this of you, you will not scruple, I am 
sure, to do whatever you can for them. Other 
people live differently with their friends, but I can 
never do enough for my sister's children, to satisfy 
either my inclination or my duty. But what is 
there in which honest men can oblige me (if in 
reality I have deserved to be obliged in anything), 
or in which I can be of service to my mother, 
sister, and the boys, if their uncle Brutus has not 
as much weight with you and the senate to pro- 
tect, as their father Lepidus to hurt them ? I 
feel so much uneasiness and indignation, that I 
neither can nor ought to write more fully to you ; 
for if, in a case so important and so necessary, 
there could be any occasion for words to excite 
and confirm you, there is no hope that you will do 
what I wish, and what is proper. Do not expect 
therefore any long prayers from me : consider only 
what I am ; and that I ought to obtain it either 
from Cicero, a man the most intimately united 
with me ; or without regard to our private friend- 
ship, from a consular senator of such eminence. 
Pray send me word as soon as you can what you 
resolve to do. July the lst x ." 

Cicero perceiving from this letter, what he had 
no notion of before, how great a stress Brutus laid 
on procuring this favour for his nephews, prevailed 
with the senate to suspend the execution of their 
act, as far as it related to them, till the times were 
more settled T. 

Lepidus and Antony were no sooner joined, 
than a correspondence was set on foot between 
them and Octavius, who, from the death of the 
consuls, showed but little regard to the authority 
of Cicero or the senate ; and wanted only a pre- 
tence for breaking with them. He waited however 
a while to see what became of Antony ; till finding 
him received and supported by Lepidus, he began 
to think it his best scheme to enter into the league 
with them, and to concur in what seemed to be 
more peculiarly his own part, the design of reveng- 
ing the death of his uncle. Instead therefore of 
prosecuting the war any farther, he was persuaded 
by his friends to make a demand of the consulship, 
though he was not yet above twenty years old. 
This step shocked and terrified the city ; not that 
the consulship could give him any power which 
his army had not already given, but as it indicated 
a dangerous and unseasonable ambition, grounded 
on a contempt of the laws and the senate ; and 
above all, raised a just apprehension of some 
attempt against the public liberty : since, instead 
of leading his army where it was wanted and de- 
sired, against their enemies abroad, he chose to 
march with it towards Rome, as if he intended to 
subdue the republic itself. 

* Ad Brut. 13. 

y Sororis tuae filiis quam diligenter consulam, spero te 
ex matris et ex sororis Uteris cogniturum, &c. — Ibid. 15 ; 
it. 18. 



280 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



There was a report spread in the mean while 
through the empire, that Cicero was chosen consul. 
Brutus mentioning it in a letter to him, says, " If I 
should ever see that day, I shall then begin to figure 
to myself the true form of a republic subsisting by 
its own strength 2 ." It is certain that he might have 
been declared consul by the unanimous suffrage of 
the people, if he had desired it ; but in times of 
such violence, the title of supreme magistrate, with- 
out a real power to support it, would have exposed 
him only to more immediate danger and insults 
from the soldiers ; whose fastidious insolence in 
their demands was grown, as he complains, insup- 
portable a . Some old writers say, what the moderns 
take implicitly from them, that he was duped, and 
drawn in by Octavius to favour his pretensions to 
the consulship, by the hopes of being made his 
colleague, and governing him in the office b . But 
the contrary is evident from several of his letters : 
and that of all men he was the most averse to 
Octavius's design, and the most active in dissuad- 
ing him from pursuing it. Writing upon it to 
Brutus : " As to Csesar, (says he) who has been 
governed hitherto by my advice, and is indeed of 
an excellent disposition and wonderful firmness, 
some people, by most wicked letters, messages, 
and fallacious accounts of things, have pushed him 
to an assured hope of the consulship. As soon as 
I perceived it, I never ceased admonishing him in 
absence, nor reproaching his friends who are 
present, and who seem to encourage his ambition ; 
nor did I scruple to lay open the source of those 
traitorous counsels in the senate : nor do I ever 
remember the senate or the magistrates to have 
behaved better on any occasion ; for it never hap- 
pened before, in voting an extraordinary honour to 
a powerful or rather most powerful man (since 
power is now measured by force and arms), that 
no tribune, or any other magistrate, nor so much 
as a private senator, would move for it : yet in 
the midst of all this firmness and virtue the city is 
greatly alarmed ; for we are abused, Brutus, both 
by the licentiousness of the soldiers, and the inso- 
lence of the general. Every one demands to have as 
much power in the state as he has means to extort 
it ; no reason, no moderation, no law, no custom, 
no duty, is at all regarded ; no judgment or opinion 
of the citizens, no shame of posterity, " &c. 

What Cicero says in this letter is very remark- 
able : that in all this height of young Caesar's 
a. urb. 710. power, there was not a magistrate, 

cic. 64. nor so much as a single senator, who 
coss. would move for the decree of his con- 

c. cvesar sulship : the demand of it therefore 

octavianus. was ma d e by a deputation of his offi- 
q. pkdius. cers . an( j w h en the senate received 
it more coldly than they expected, Cornelius, a 
centurion, throwing back his robe and showing 
them his sword, boldly declared that if they would 
not make him consul, that should. But Octavius 
himself soon put an end to their scruples, by 
marching with his legions in a hostile manner to 
the city d , where he was chosen consul with Q. 

z His Uteris scriptis, tc consulem factum audivimus; 
tuna vero incipiam proponere mihi rempublicam justam 
et jam suis nitentem viribus, si istlmc vidcro Ad Brut. 4. 

a Illudimur, Unite, cum militum deliciis, turn impcra- 
toris insolentia.— Ibid. 10. 

b Plut. in Cic. c Ad Brut. 10. 

'• Consulatum vigesimo aetatis anno invasit, admotis 



Pedius, his kinsman and co-heir, in part of his 
uncle's estate, in the month of Sextilis ; which, 
on the account of this fortunate beginning of his 
honours, was called afterwards, from his own 
surname, Augustus e . 

The first act of his magistracy was to secure 
all the public money which he found in Rome, 
and make a dividend of it to his soldiers. He 
complained loudly of the senate, " that instead 
of paying his army the rewards which they had 
decreed to them, they were contriving to harass 
them with perpetual toils, and to engage them in 
fresh wars against Lepidus and Antony ; and like- 
wise, that in the commission granted to ten 
senators to provide lands for the legions after 
the war, they had not named him f ." But there 
was no just ground for any such complaints ; for 
those rewards were not decreed, nor intended to 
be distributed, till the war was quite ended ; and 
the leaving Caesar out of the commission, was not 
from any particular slight, but a general exception 
of all who had the command of armies, as impro- 
per to be employed in such a charge : though Ci- 
cero indeed was of a different opinion, and pressed 
for their being taken in. D. Brutus and Plancus 
were excluded as well as Csesar, and both of them 
seem likewise to have been disgusted at it, so that 
Cicero, who was one of the number, in order to 
retrieve the imprudence of a step which gave such 
offence, Would not suffer his colleagues to do any- 
thing of moment, but reserved the whole affair 
to the arrival of Csesar and the rest s. 

But Csesar, being now wholly bent on changing 
sides and measures, was glad to catch at every 
occasion of quarrelling with the senate ; he 
charged them with calling him a boy, and treat- 
ing him as such h : and found a pretext also against 
Cicero himself, whom, after all the services received 
from him, his present views obliged him to aban- 
don ; for some busy informers had told him, that 
Cicero had spoken of him in certain ambiguous 
terms which carried a double meaning, either of 
advancing or taking him off, which Octavius was 
desirous to have reported everywhere, and believed 
in the worst sense. D. Brutus gave Cicero the 
first notice of it in the following letter : 

D. Brutus, Emperor, Consul elect, to M. T. 
Cicero. 
" What I do not feel on my own account, my 
love and obligations to you make me feel on yours : 
that is, fear. For after I had been often told what 
I did not wholly slight, Labeo Segulius, a man 
always like himself, just now informs me that he 
has been with Csesar, where there was much dis- 

hostiliter ad urbem legionibus, missisque, qui sibi exerci- 
tus nomine deposcerent. Cum quidem cunctante senatu, 
Cornelius centurio, princeps legationis, rejecto sagulo, 
ostendens gladii capulum, non dubitasset in curia dicere ; 
bic faciet, si vos non feceritis. — Sueton. in Aug. 26. 

e Sextilem mensem e suo cognomine nominavit, magis 
quam Septembrem, in quo erat natns, quia hoc sibi et 
primus consulatus, &c— Sueton. in Aug. 31. 

1 Appian. iii. 581. 

g Cum ego sensissem, de iisqui exercitus haberent, sen- 
tentiam ferri oportere, iidem illi, qui solent, reclamarunt. 
Itaque execpti etiam cstis, me vebementer repugnante — 
itaque cum quidam de collegis nostria agrariam curationem 
ligurircnt, disturbavi rem, totamque integram vobis rescr- 
vavi.— Ei>. Vain. xi. 21 ; it. 20, 23. 

k Dio, 1. xlvi. 318 ; Sueton. in Aug. 12. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



281 



course on you ; that Csesar himself had no other 
complaint against you but for a certain saying 
which he declared to have been spoken by you : 
' that the young man was to be praised, adorned, 
taken off » ;' but he would not be so silly, he said, 
as to put it into any man's power to take him off. 
This, I dare say, was first carried to him, or forged 
by Segulius himself, and did not come from the 
young man. Segulius had a mind likewise to per- 
suade me, that the veterans talk most angrily 
against you, and that you are in danger from them : 
and that the chief cause of their anger is, because 
neither Csesar nor I am in the commission of the 
ten, but all things transacted by your will and 
pleasure. Upon hearing this, though I was then 
upon my march, I did not think it proper to pass 
the Alps, till T could first learn how matters were 
going amongst you," k &c. 

To this Cicero answered : 

" The gods confound that Segulius, the greatest 
knave that is, or was, or ever will be. What ! 
do you imagine that he told his story only to you 
and to Csesar? he told the same to every soul 
that he could speak with. I love you however, 
my Brutus, as I ought, for acquainting me with 
it, how trifling soever it be : 'tis a sure sign of 
your affection ; for as to what Segulius says 
of the complaint of the veterans, because you 
and Csesar were not in the commission, I wish 
that I was not in it myself ; for what can be more 
troublesome ? But when I proposed that those 
who had the command of armies should be 
included in it, the same men who used to 
oppose everything remonstrated against it; so 
that you were excepted, wholly against my vote 
and opinion 1 ,'' &c. 

As for v the story of the words, he treats it, we 
see, as too contemptible to deserve an apology, 
or the pains of disclaiming it ; and it seems indeed 
incredible that a man of his prudence could ever 
say them. If he had harboured such a thought, 
or had been tempted on any occasion to throw out 
such a hint, we might have expected to find it in 
his letters to Brutus ; yet on the contrary, he 
speaks always of Octavius in terms highly advan- 
tageous, even where he was likely to give disgust 
by it. But nothing was more common than to 
have sayings forged for his, which he had never 
spoken : and this was one of that sort, contrived 
to instil a jealousy into Octavius, or to give him a 
handle at least for breaking with Cicero, which in 
his present circumstances he was glad to lay hold 
of: and when the story was once become public, 
and supposed to have gained credit with Octavius, 
it is not strange to find it taken up by the writers 
of the following ages, Velleius and Suetonius ; 
though not without an intimation from the latter 
of its suspected credit m . 

While the city was in the utmost consternation 
on Csesar's approach with his army, two veteran 
legions from Africa happened to arrive in the 
Tiber, and were received as a succour sent to them 
from heaven. But this joy lasted not long : for 
presently after their landing, being corrupted by 
the other soldiers, they deserted the senate, who 

1 Laudandum, adolescentem, ornandum, tollcndum. 
Which last word signifies, either to raise to honours, or 
take away life. 

k Ep. Fam. xi. 20. 1 Ibid. 21. 

™ Veil. Pat. ii. 62 ; Sueton. in Aug. 12. 



sent for them, and joined themselves to Csesar. 
Pollio likewise, about the same time, with two 
of his best legions from Spain, came to the 
assistance of Antony and Lepidus, so that all the 
veterans of the western part of the empire were 
now plainly forming themselves into one body, to 
revenge the death of their old general. The con- 
sent of all these armies, and the unexpected turn 
of Antony's affairs, staggered the fidelity of Plan- 
cus, and induced him also at last to desert his 
colleague D. Brutus, with whom he had hitherto 
acted with much seeming concord ; Pollio made 
his peace and good terms for him with Antony and 
Lepidus, and soon after brought him over to their 
camp with all his troops. 

D. Brutus, being thus abandoned and left to shift 
for himself, with a needy, mutinous army, eager to 
desert, and ready to give him up to his enemies, had 
no other way to save himself than by flying to his 
namesake in Macedonia ; but the distance was so 
great, and the country so guarded, that he was often 
forced to change his road, for fear of being taken, 
till having dismissed all his attendants, and wan- 
dered for some time alone in disguise and distress, 
he committed himself to the protection of an old 
acquaintance and host whom he had formerly 
obliged ; where, either through treachery or acci- 
dent, he was surprised by Antony's soldiers, who 
immediately killed him, and returned with his head 
to their general n . 

Several of the old writers have reproached his 
memory with a shameful cowardice in the manner 
of suffering his death : unworthy of the man who 
had killed Csesar, and commanded armies. But 
their accounts are so various, and so inconsistent 
with the character of his former life, that we may 
reasonably suspect them to be forged by those who 
were disposed to throw all kinds of contumely on 
the murderers of Csesar . 

But what gave the greatest shock to the whole 
republican party, was a law contrived by Caesar, 
and published by his colleague Pedius, to bring to 
trial and justice all those who had been concerned 
either in advising or effecting Csesar's death ; in 
consequence of which all the conspirators were 
presently impeached in form by different accusers, 
and as none of them ventured to appear to their 
citations, they were all condemned of course ; and 
by a second law interdicted from fire and water. 
Pompey also, though he had borne no part in that 
act, was added to the number, as an irreconcilable 
enemy to the Caesarian cause : after which Csesar, 
to make amends for the unpopularity of his law, 
distributed to the citizens the legacies which his 
uncle had left them by willp. 

Cicero foresaw that things might possibly take 
this turn, and Plancus himself prove treacherous ; 
and for that reason was constantly pressing Brutus 
and Cassius to hasten to Italy as the most effectual 
means to prevent it : every step that Csesar took 
confirmed his apprehensions, and made him more 
importunate with them to come, especially after 
the union of Antony and Lepidus. In his letters 
to Brutus, " Fly to us," says he, " I beseech you, 
and exhort Cassius to the same, for there is no 
hope of liberty but from your troops' 1 . If you 

n Veil. Pat. ii. 64 ; Appian. 1. iii. 588. 

Senec. Ep. 82. 543 ; Dio, 1. xlvi. 325 ; Val. Max. ix. 13. 
P Appian. 1. iii. 586 ; Dio, xlvi. 322. 

1 Quamobrem advola, obsecro — hortare idem per literas 



282 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



have any regard for the republic, for which you 
were bom, you must do it instantly ; for the war is 
renewed by the inconstancy of Lepidus ; and 
Caesar's army, which was the best, is not only of 
no service to us, but even obliges us to call for 
yours : as soon as ever you touch Italy, there is 
not a man whom we can call a citizen who will not 
immediately be in your camp. We have D. Brutus 
indeed happily united with Plancus : but you are 
not ignorant how changeable men's minds are, and 
how infected with party, and how uncertain the 
events of war : nay, should we conquer, as I hope 
we shall, there will be a want of your advice and 
authority to settle all affairs. Help us, therefore, 
for God's sake, and as soon as possible ; and assure 
yourself that you did not do a greater service to 
your country on the ides of March, when you 
freed it from slavery, than you will do by coming 
quickly r ." 

After many remonstrances of the same kind, he 
wrote also the following letter. 

Cicero to Brutus. 
" After I had often exhorted you by letters to 
come as soon as possible to the relief of the repub- 
lic, and bring your army into Italy, and never 
imagined that your own people had any scruples 
about it ; I was desired by that most prudent and 
diligent woman your mother, all whose thoughts 
and cares are employed on you, that I would come 
to her on the twenty-fourth of July ; which I did, 
as I ought, without delay. When I came, I found 
Casca, Labeo, and Scaptius, with her. She pre- 
sently entered into the affair, and asked my opinion 
whether we should send for you to Italy ; and 
whether I thought it best for you to come or to 
continue abroad. I declared, what I took to be the 
most for your honour and reputation, that without 
loss of time you should bring present help to the 
tottering and declining state. For what mischief 
may not one expect from that war, where the con- 
quering armies refused to pursue a flying enemy ? 
where a general unhurt, unprovoked, possessed of 
the highest honours, and the greatest fortunes, 
with a wife, children, and near relation to you, has 
declared war against the commonwealth ? I may 
add, where, in so great a concord of the senate and 
people, there resides still so much disorder within 
the walls ? but the greatest grief which I feel, 
while I am now writing, is to reflect that when the 
republic had taken my word for a youth, or rather 
a boy, I shall hardly have it in my power to make 
good what I promised for him. For it is a thing 
of much greater delicacy and moment, to engage 
oneself for another's sentiments and principles, 
especially in affairs of importance, than for money ; 
for money may be paid, and the loss itself be 
tolerable ; but how can you pay what you are 
engaged for to the republic, unless he for whom 
you stand engaged will suffer it to be paid ? yet I 
am still in hopes to hold him, though many are 
plucking him away from me : for his disposition 
seems good, though his age be flexible, and many 
always at hand to corrupt him ; who, by throwing 

Cassium. Spes libertatis nusquam nisi in vestrorum cas- 
troruin principiis est. — Ad Brut. 10. 

r Subvcni igitur, per deos, idque quam primum ; tibique 
persuade, non te Idibus Martiis, quibus servitutem a tuis 
civibus repulisti, plus profuisse patria?, quam, si mature 
veneris, prof uturum.— Ibid. 14. 



in his way the splendour of false honour, think 
themselves sure of dazzling his good sense and 
understanding. Wherefore to all my other labours 
this new one is added, of setting all engines at 
work to hold fast the young man, lest I incur the 
imputation of rashness. Though what rashness is 
it after all ? for, in reality, I bound him for whom 
I was engaged more strongly than myself ; nor has 
the republic as yet any cause to repent that I was 
his sponsor, since he has hitherto been the more 
firm and constant in acting for us, as well from his 
own temper as for my promise. The greatest diffi- 
culty in the republic, if I mistake not, is the want 
of money ; for honest men grow every day more 
and more averse to the name of tribute, and what 
was gathered from the hundredth penny, where 
the rich are shamefully rated, is all spent in reward- 
ing the two legions. There is an infinite expense 
upon us to support the armies which now defend 
us, and also yours, for our Cassius seems likely to 
come sufficiently provided, But I long to talk 
over this, and many other things with you in per- 
son, and that quickly. As to your sister's children, 
I did not wait, Brutus, for your writing to me : 
the times themselves, since the war will be drawn 
into length, reserve the whole affair to you; but from 
the first, when I could not foresee the continuance 
of the war, I pleaded the cause of the children in 
the senate, in a manner which you have been 
informed of, I guess, by your mother's letters : 
nor can there ever be any case where I will not 
both say and do, even at the hazard of my life, 
whatever I think agreeable either to your inclina- 
tion or to your interest. The twenty-sixth of 
July 8 ." 

In a letter likewise to Cassius, he says, u We 
wish to see you in Italy as soon as possible, and 
shall imagine that we have recovered the republic 
when we have you with us. We had conquered 
nobly if Lepidus had not received the routed, dis- 
armed, fugitive, Antony; wherefore Antony himself 
was never so odious to the city as Lepidus is now ; 
for he began a war upon us from a turbulent state 
of things, this man from peace and victory. We 
have the consuls-elect to oppose him, in whom 
indeed we have great hopes, yet not without an 
anxious care for the uncertain events of battles. 
Assure yourself, therefore, that all our dependence 
is on you and your Brutus ; that you are both 
expected, but Brutus immediately," &c.' 

But after all these repeated remonstrances of 
Cicero, neither Brutus nor Cassius seems to have 
entertained the least thought of coming with their 
armies to Italy. Cassius, indeed, by being more 
remote, could not come so readily, and was not so 
much expected as Brutus ; who, before the battle of 
Modena, had drawn down all his legions to the sea- 
coast, and kept them atApolloniaand Dyrrhachium 
waiting the event of that action, and ready to 
embark for Italy, if any accident had made his 
assistance necessary, for which Cicero highly com- 
mends him u . But upon the news of Antony's 
defeat, taking all the danger to be over, he marched 
away directly to the i - emotest parts of Greece and 
Macedonia, to oppose the attempts of Dolabella ; 

s Ad Brut. 18. * Ep. Fam. xii. 10. 

u Tuum consilium veliementer laudo, quod non prius 
exercitum Apollonia Dyrrhacbioque movisti, qiiam de 
Antonii fuga audisti, Bruti eruptione, populi Roniani vic- 
toria.— Ad Brut. 2. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



233 



and from that time seemed deaf to the call of the 
senate, and to all Cicero's letters, which urged him 
so strongly to come to their relief. It is difficult 
at this distance to penetrate the motives of his 
conduct : he had a better opinion of Lepidus than 
the rest of his party had ; and being naturally 
positive, might affect to slight the apprehensions of 
Lepidus' s treachery, which was the chief ground 
of their calling so earnestly for him. But he had 
other reasons also which were thought to be good ; 
since some of his friends at Rome, as we may 
collect from Cicero's letter, were of a different 
mind from Cicero, on the subject of his coming. 
They might suspect the fidelity of his troops ; and 
that they were not sufficiently confirmed and 
attached to him to be trusted in the field against 
the veterans in Italy ; whose example and invita- 
tion, when they came to face each other, might 
possibly induce them to desert as the other armies 
had done, and betray their commanders. But 
whatever was their real motive, D. Brutus, who 
was the best judge of the state of things at home, 
was entirely of Cicero's opinion : he saw himself 
surrounded with veteran armies, disaffected to the 
cause of liberty ; knew the perfidy of Lepidus ; the 
ambition of young Csesar ; and the irresolution of 
his colleague Plancus ; and admonished Cicero, 
therefore, in all his letters, to urge his namesake 
to hasten his march to them x . So that, on the 
whole, it seems reasonable to believe, that if Brutus 
and Cassius had marched with their armies to- 
wards Italy at the time when Cicero first pressed 
it, before the defection of Plancus and the death of 
Decimus, it must have prevented the immediate 
ruin of the republic. 

The want of money of which Cicero complains 
at this time, as the greatest evil that they had 
to struggle with, is expressed also very strongly 
in another letter to Cornificius, the proconsul of 
Africa, who was urging him to provide a fund for 
the support of the legions : " As to the expense," 
says he, " which you have made, and are making 
in your military preparations, it is not in my power 
to help you ; because the senate is now without a 
head, by the death of the consuls, and there is an 
incredible scarcity of money in the treasury, which 
we are gathering however from all quarters, to 
make good our promises to the troops that have 
deserved it of us, which cannot be done, in my 
opinion, without a tribute ?." This tribute was a 
sort of capitation-tax, proportioned to each man's 
substance, but had been wholly disused in Rome 
from the conquest of Macedonia by Paulus iEmilius, 
which furnished money and rents sufficient to ease 
the city ever after of that burden, till the neces- 
sity of the present times obliged them to renew 
it z . But from what Cicero intimates of the gene- 
ral aversion to the revival of it, one cannot help 
observing the fatal effects of that indolence and 

x De Bruto autem nihil adhuc certi. Quem ego, quem- 
admodum praecipis, privatis Uteris ad bellum commune 
vocare non desino.— Ep. Fam. xi. 25 ; it. 26". 

y De sumtu, quem te in rem militarem facere et feeisse 
dicis, nihil sane possum tibi opitulari, propterea quod et 
orbus senatus, consulibus amissis, et incredibiles angustise 
pecuniae publicae, &c— Ep. Fam. xii. 30. 

z At Perse rege devicto Paullus, cum Macedonicis opi- 
busveterem atque hereditariam urbis nostra? paupertatem 
eo usque satiasset, ut illo tempore primum populus Roma- 
nus tributi praestandi onere se liberaret.— Val. Max. iv. 3; 
it. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 3. 



luxury which had infected even the honest part of 
Rome ; who, in this utmost exigency of the 
republic, were shocked at the very mention of an 
extraordinary tax, and would not part with the 
least share of their money for the defence even of 
their liberty ; the consequence of which was, what 
it must always be in the like case, that by starving 
the cause, they found not only their fortunes, but 
their lives also soon after, at the mercy of their 
enemies. Cicero has a reflection in one of his 
speeches that seems applicable also to the present 
case, and to be verified by the example of these 
times. " The republic (says he) is attacked always 
with greater vigour than it is defended ; for the 
audacious and profligate, prompted by their natural 
enmity to it, are easily impelled to act upon the 
least nod of their leaders : whereas the honest, I 
know not why, are generally slow and unwilling to 
stir ; and neglecting always the beginnings of 
things, are never roused to exert themselves but 
by the last necessity : so that through irresolution 
and delay, when they would be glad to compound 
at last for their quiet, at the expense even of their 
honour, they commonly lose them both 3 ." 

This observation will serve to vindicate the con- 
duct of Cassius from that charge of violence and 
cruelty which he is said to have practised, in 
exacting money and other necessaries from the 
cities of Asia. He was engaged in an inexpiable 
war, where he must either conquer or perish with 
the republic itself, and where his legions were not 
only to be supported but rewarded : the revenues 
of the empire were exhausted ; contributions came 
in sparingly ; and the states abroad were all desirous 
to stand neuter ; as doubtful of the issue, and 
unwilling to offend either side. Under these diffi- 
culties, where money was necessary, and no way of 
procuring it but force, extortion became lawful ; 
the necessity of the end justified the means ; and 
when the safety of the empire and the liberty of 
Rome were at stake, it was no time to listen to 
scruples. This was Cassius's way of reasoning, 
and the ground of his acting ; who applied all his 
thoughts to support the cause that he had under- 
taken ; and kept his eyes (as Appian says) wholly 
fixed upon the war, as a gladiator upon his anta- 
gonist 1 *. 

Brutus, on the other hand, being of a temper 
more mild and scrupulous, contented himself gene- 
rally with the regular methods of raising money ; 
and from his love of philosophy and the politer 
studies, having contracted an affection for the 
cities of Greece, instead of levying contributions, 
used to divert himself, wherever he passed, with 
seeing their games and exercises, and presiding at 
their philosophical disputations, as if travelling 
rather for curiosity than to provide materials for a 
bloody war c . When he and Cassius, therefore, 
met, the difference of their circumstances showed 
the different effects of their conduct. Cassius, 
without receiving a penny from Rome, came rich 
and amply furnished with all the stores of war ; 
Brutus, who had received large remittances from 
a Pro Sextio, 47. 

b 'O fxkv Kdaaios a/aeTaa-TpeTrr), Kaddirep es Tbv 
ayiovtar^u ol fxovofxaxovvres , is (x6vov rbu ir6keiJ.ou 
a<pea>pa. — Appian. 1. iv. 667. 

c 'O Se Bpovros, onr) yiyvono, Kal (piAoded/nuv fy 
Kal (piA-fiicoos, a.T€ Kal (piAo<ro<pr}aas ovk ayevpus. — 
Ibid. 



284 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



Italy, came empty and poor, and unable to sup- 
port himself without the help of Cassius, who was 
forced to give him a third part of that treasure 
which he had been gathering with so much envy 
to himself for the common service d . 

While Cicero was taking all this pains, and 
struggling thus gloriously in the support of their 
expiring liberty, Brutus, who was naturally peevish 
and querulous, being particularly chagrined by the 
unhappy turn of affairs in Italy, and judging of 
counsels by events, was disposed at last to throw 
all the blame upon him ; charging him chiefly, 
that, by a profusion of honours on young Caesar, 
he had inspired him with an ambition incompatible 
with the safety of the republic, and armed him 
with that power which he was now employing to 
oppress it : whereas the truth is, that by those 
honours Cicero did not intend to give Caesar any 
new power, but to apply that which he had acquired 
by his own vigour to the public service and the 
ruin of Antony ; in which he succeeded even be- 
yond expectation, and would certainly have gained 
his end, had he not been prevented by accidents 
which could not be foreseen. For it is evident 
from the facts above-mentioned, that he was always 
jealous of Caesar, and instead of increasing, was 
contriving some check to his authority, till by the 
death of the consuls, he slipped out of his hands 
and became too strong to be managed by him any 
longer. Brutus, by being at such a distance, was 
not well apprised of the particular grounds of 
granting those honours ; but Decimus, who was all 
the while in Italy, saw the use and necessity of 
them, and seems to hint in some of his letters that 
they ought to have decreed still greater e . 

But whatever Brutus or any one else may have 
said, if we reflect on Cicero's conduct from the 
time of Caesar's death to his own, we shall find it 
in all respects uniform, great, and glorious ; never 
deviating from the grand point which he had in 
view, the liberty of his country : whereas, if we 
attend to Brutus's, we cannot help observing in it 
something strangely various and inconsistent with 
itself. In his outward manners and behaviour, he 
affected the rigour of a Stoic, and the severity of 
an old Roman ; yet by a natural tenderness and 
compassion, was oft betrayed into acts of an 
effeminate weakness. To restore the liberty of his 
country, he killed his friend and benefactor ; and 
declares, that for the same cause he would have 
killed even his father f : yet he would not take 
Antony's life, though it was a necessary sacrifice 
to the same cause. When Dolabella had basely 
murdered Trebonius, and Antony openly approved 
the act, he could not be persuaded to make repri- 
sals on C. Antony : but through a vain ostentation 
of clemency, suffered him to live, though with 
danger to himself. When his brother-in-law, 
Lepidus, was declared an enemy, he expressed an 
absurd and peevish resentment of it for the sake 
of his nephews, as if it would not have been in 
his power to have repaired their fortunes if the 

d Plutarch, in Brut. 

e Mirabiliter, mi Brute, lstor, mea consilia, measque 
sententias a te probari, de decemviris, de omando adoles- 
cente. — Ep. Fam. xi. 14 ; it. 20. 

i Non concesserim, quod in illo non tali, sed ne patri 

quide'm meo, si reviviscat, ut, patiente me, plus lcgibus ac 
senatu possit. [Ad Brut 16.] Sed dominum, ne parentem 
quidem, majores nostri voluerunt esse,— Ibid. 17. 



republic was ever restored ; or if not, in their 
father's. How contrary is this to the spirit of that 
old Brutus from whom he derived his descent, 
and whom in his general conduct he pretended to 
imitate ! He blames Cicero for dispensing honours 
too largely, yet claims an infinite share of them to 
himself; and when he had seized by his private 
authority what the senate at Cicero's motion 
confirmed to him, the most extraordinary com- 
mand which had been granted to any man, he 
declares himself an enemy to all extraordinary 
commissions, in what hands soever they were 
lodged s : this inconsistency in his character would 
tempt us to believe that he was governed in many 
cases by the pride and haughtiness of his temper, 
rather than by any constant and settled principles 
of philosophy, of which he is commonly thought 
so strict an observer. 

Cicero, however, notwithstanding the peevish- 
ness of Brutus, omitted no opportunity of serving 
and supporting him to the very last : as soon as he 
perceived Caesar's intention of revenging his uncle's 
death, he took all imaginable pains to dissuade him 
from it, and never ceased from exhorting him by 
letters to a reconciliation with Brutus, and the 
observance of that amnesty which the senate had 
decreed as the foundation of the public peace. 
This was certainly the best service which he could 
do, either to Brutus or the republic : and Atticus, 
imagining that Brutus would be pleased with it, 
sent him a copy of what Cicero had written on that 
subject ; but instead of pleasing, it provoked Brutus 
only the more : he treated it as base and dishonour- 
able to ask anything of a boy, or to imagine the 
safety of Brutus to depend on any one but himself; 
and signified his mind upon it, both to Cicero 
and Atticus, in such a style as confirms what 
Cicero had long before observed, and more than 
once declared of him, that his letters were gene- 
rally churlish, unmannerly, and arrogant ; and that 
he regarded neither what, nor to whom he was 
writing 11 . But their own letters to each other will 
be the best vouchers of what I have been remark- 
ing, and enable us to form the surest judgment of 
the different spirit and conduct of the men. After 
Brutus, therefore, had frequently intimated his 
dissatisfaction and dislike of Cicero's management, 
Cicero took occasion, in the following letter, to lay 
open the whole progress of it from the time of 
Caesar's death, in order to show the reasonableness 
and necessity of each step. 

Cicero to Brutus. 
" You have Messala now with you. It is not 
possible, therefore, for me to explain by letter, 
though ever so accurately drawn, the present state 
of our affairs so exactly as he, who not only knows 
them all more perfectly, but can describe them 
more elegantly than any man : for I would not 
have you imagine, Brutus (though there is no occa- 
sion to tell you what you know already yourself, 
but that I cannot pass over in silence such an 
excellence of all good qualities) ; I would not have 
you imagine, I say, that for probity, constancy, 
and zeal for the republic, there is any one equal to 
him : so that eloquence, in which he wonderfully 

S Ego certe — cum ipsa re bellum geram, hoc est cum 
regno, et imperiis extraordinariis et dominatione et poten- 
tia.—Ad Brut. 17- 

k Ad Att. vi. 1, 3. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



285 



excels, scarce finds a place among his other praises ; 
since even in that his wisdom shines the most 
eminent, by his having formed himself with so 
much judgment and skill to the truest manner of 
speaking. Yet his industry all the while is so 
remarkable, and he spends so much of his time in 
study, that he seems to owe but little to his parts, 
which still are the greatest. But I am carried too 
far by my love for him : for it is not the purpose 
of this epistle to praise Messala, especially to 
Brutus, to whom his virtue is not less known than 
to myself, and these very studies which I am prais- 
ing still more ; whom, when I could not part with 
without regret, I comforted myself with reflecting, 
that by his going away to you, as it were to my 
second self, he both discharged his duty, and 
pursued the surest path to glory. But so much 
for that 1 . I come now, after a long interval, to 
consider a certain letter of yours, in which, while 
you allow me to have done well in many things, 
you find fault with me for one ; that in conferring 
honours I was too free, and even prodigal. You 
charge me with this ; others probably with being 
too severe in punishing, or you yourself perhaps 
with both. If so, I desire that my judgment and 
sentiments on each may be clearly explained to 
you : not that I mean to justify myself by the 
authority of Solon, the wisest of the seven, and 
the only legislator of them all, who used to say 
that the public weal was comprised in two things, 

1 Publius Valerius Messala Corvinus, of whom Cicero 
here gives so fine a character, was one of the noblest as 
well as the most accomplished persons of his age, who lived 
long afterwards the general favourite of all parties, and a 
principal ornament of Augustus's court. Being in arms 
with Brutus, he was proscribed of course by the triumvi- 
rate, yet was excepted soon after by a special edict, but 
refused the benefit of that grace, and adhered to the cause 
of liberty, till he saw it expire with his friend. After the 
battle of Philippi, the troops that remained freely offered 
themselves to his command ; but he chose to accept peace, 
to which he was invited by the conquerors, and surren- 
dered himself to Antony, with whom he had a particular 
acquaintance. When Caesar was defeated not long after 
by S. Pompey, on the coast of Sicily, being in the utmost 
distress and danger of life, he committed himself with one 
domestic to the fidelity of Messala ; who, instead of reveng- 
ing himself on one who had so lately proscribed and set a 
price upon his head, generously protected and preserved 
him. He continued still in the friendship of Antony, till 
the scandal of Antony's life, and slavish obsequiousness to 
Cleopatra, threw him wholly into the interests of Caesar, 
by whom he was declared consul in Antony's place, greatly 
entrusted in the battle of Actium, and honoured at last 
with a triumph, for reducing the rebellious Gauls to their 
obedience. He is celebrated by all writers as one of the 
first orators of Rome ; and having been the disciple of 
Cicero, was thought by some to excel even his master in 
the sweetness and correctness of his style ; preserving 
always a dignity, and demonstrating his nobility, by the 
very manner of his speaking. To the perfection of his 
eloquence he had added all the accomplishments of the 
other liberal arts ; was a great admirer of Socrates, and the 
severer studies of philosophy, yet an eminent patron of all 
the wits and poets of those times. Tibullus was the con- 
stant companion of all his foreign expeditions, which he 
celebrates in his Elegies ; and Horace, in one of his odes, 
calls for his choicest wines, for the entertainment of so 
noble a guest. Yet this polite and amiable man, impaired 
by sickness, and worn out at last by age, is said to have 
outlived his senses and memory, till he had forgotten even 
his very name.— See Appian. p. 611, 736 ; Tacit. Dial. 18 ; 
Quintil. x. 1 ; Tibull. Eleg. i. 7 ; Hor. Carm. iii. 21 ; Plin. 
Hist. Nat. vii. 24. 



rewards and punishments ; in which, however, as 
in everything else, a certain medium and tempera- 
ment is to be observed. But it is not my design at 
this time to discuss so great a subject. I think it 
proper only to open the reasons of my votes and 
opinions in the senate from the beginning of this 
war. After the death of Caesar, and those your 
memorable ides of March, you cannot forget, 
Brutus, what I declared to have been omitted by 
you, and what a tempest I foresaw hanging over 
the republic. You had freed us from a great 
plague, wiped off a great stain from the Roman 
people, acquired to yourselves divine glory, yet all 
the equipage and furniture of kingly power was left 
still to Lepidus and Antony — the one inconstant, 
the other vicious ; both of them afraid of peace, 
and enemies to the public quiet. While these men 
were eager to raise fresh disturbances in the 
republic, we had no guard about us to oppose them, 
though the whole city was eager and unanimous in 
asserting its liberty : I was then thought too vio- 
lent, while you, perhaps more wisely, withdrew 
yourselves from that city which you had delivered, 
and refused the help of all Italy, which offered to 
arm itself in your cause. Wherefore, when I saw 
the city in the hands of traitors, oppressed by the 
arms of Antony, and that neither you nor Cassius 
could be safe in it, I thought it time for me to quit 
it too : for a city overpowered by traitors, without 
the means of relieving itself, is a wretched spectacle. 
Yet my mind, always the same, and ever fixed on 
the love of my country, could not bear the thought 
of leaving it in its distress. In the midst, there- 
fore, of my voyage to Greece, and in the very 
season of the Etesian winds, when an uncommon 
south wind, as if displeased with my resolution, had 
driven me back to Italy, I found you at Velia, and 
was greatly concerned at it ; for you were retreat- 
ing, Brutus — were retreating, I say, since your 
Stoics will not allow their wise man to fly. As 
soon as I came to Rome, I exposed myself to the 
wickedness and rage of Antony ; and when I had 
exasperated him against me, began to enter into 
measures in the very manner of the Brutuses (for 
such are peculiar to your blood), for delivering the 
republic. I shall omit the long recital of what 
followed, since it all relates to myself, and observe 
only, that young Caesar, by whom, if we will confess 
the truth, we subsist at this day, flowed from the 
source of my counsels. I decreed him no honours, 
Brutus, but what were due, none but what were 
necessary ; for as soon as we began to recover any 
liberty, and before the virtue of D. Brutus had yet 
shown itself so far that we could know its divine 
force, and while our whole defence was in the boy, 
who repelled Antony from our necks, what honour 
was not really due to him ! though I gave him 
nothing yet but the praise of words, and that but 
moderate. I decreed him indeed a legal command, 
which, though it seemed honourable to one of that 
age, was yet necessary to one who had an army ; for 
what is an army without the command of it ? Philip 
voted him a statue, Servius the privilege of suing 
for offices before the legal time, which was short- 
ened still by Servilius ; nothing was then thought 
too much ; but we are apt, I know not how, to be 
more liberal in fear than grateful in success. When 
D. Brutus was delivered from the siege, a day of 
all others the most joyous to the city, which hap- 
pened also to be his birth-day, I decreed that his 



286 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



name should be ascribed for ever to that day in 
the public calendars : in which I followed the 
example of our ancestors, who paid the same honour 
to a woman, Larentia, at whose altar you priests 
perform sacred rites in the velabrum. By giving 
this to D. Brutus, my design was to fix in the 
calendars a perpetual memorial of a most acceptable 
victory ; but I perceived on that day that there 
was more malevolence than gratitude in many of 
the senate. During these same days I poui'ed out 
honours (since you will have it so) on the deceased 
Hirtius, Pansa, and Aquila : and who can find 
fault with it but those who, when fear is once 
over, forget their past danger ? But besides the 
grateful remembrance of services, there was a use 
in it which reached to posterity ; for I was desirous 
that there should remain an eternal monument of 
the public hatred to our most cruel enemies. There 
is one thing, I doubt, which does not please you — 
for it does not please your friends here, who, though 
excellent men, have but little experience in public 
affairs — that I decreed an ovation to Csesar ; but 
for my part (though I may perhaps be mistaken, 
for I am not one of those who approve nothing 
but what is my own), I cannot but think that I 
have advised nothing more prudent during this 
war. Why it is so, is not proper to be explained, 
lest I be thought to have been more provident in 
it than grateful. But even this is too much. Let 
us pass, therefore, to other things. I decreed 
honours to D. Brutus — decreed them to Plancus. 
They must be men of great souls who are attracted 
by glory. But the senate also is certainly wise in 
trying every art that is honest by which it can 
engage any one to the service of the republic. But 
I am blamed in the case of Lepidus, to whom, 
after I had raised a statue in the rostra, I pre- 
sently threw it down. My view in that honour 
was, to reclaim him from desperate measures ; but 
the madness of an inconstant man got the better 
of my prudence ; nor was there yet so much harm 
in erecting, as good in demolishing, the statue. 
But I have said enough concerning honours, and 
must say a word or two about punishments ; for I 
have often observed, from your letters, that you 
are fond of acquiring a reputation of clemency, 
by your treatment of those whom you have con- 
quered in war. I can imagine nothing to be done by 
you but what is wisely done : but to omit the punish- 
ing of wickedness (which we call pardoning) though 
it be tolerable in other cases, I hold to be perni- 
cious in this war. Of all the civil wars that have 
been in my memory, there was not one in which, 
what side soever got the better, there would not 
have remained some form of a commonwealth ; yet 
in this, what sort of a republic we are like to have, 
if we conquer, I would not easily affirm ; but if we 
are conquered, we are sure to have none. My 
votes therefore were severe against Antony, severe 
against Lepidus, not from any spirit of revenge, 
but to deter wicked citizens at present from making 
war against their country, and to leave an example 
to posterity, that none hereafter should imitate 
such rashness. Yet this very vote was not more 
mine than it was everybody's ; in which there 
seems, I own, to be something cruel, that the 
punishment should reach to children, who have 
done nothing to deserve it : but the constitution is 
both ancient and of all cities ; for even Themis- 
tocles's children were reduced to want ; and since 



the same punishment falls ' upon citizens con- 
demned of public crimes, how was it possible for 
us to be more gentle towards enemies ? But how 
can that man complain of me, who, if he had 
conquered, must needs confess that he would have 
treated me even with more severity ? You have 
now the motives of my opinions in the case of 
rewards and punishments ; for as to other points, 
you have heard, I imagine, what my sentiments 
and votes have been. But to talk of these things 
now is not necessary : what I am going to say is 
extremely so, Brutus : — that you come to Italy 
with your army as soon as possible. We are in 
the utmost expectation of you : whenever you set 
foot in Italy, all the world will fly to you ; for 
whether it be our lot to conquer (as we had already 
done, if Lepidus had not been desirous to overturn 
all, and perish himself with his friends), there will 
be a great want of your authority, for the settling 
some state of a city amongst us ; or, if there be 
any danger and struggle still behind, hasten to us, 
for God's sake ; for you know how much depends 
on opportunity, how much on despatch. What 
diligence I shall use in the care of your sister's 
children you will soon know, I hope, from your 
mother's and sister's letters, in whose cause I have 
more regard to your will, which is ever most dear 
to me, than, as some think, to my own constancy. 
But it is my desire both to be and to appear con- 
stant in nothing so much as in loving you k ." 

Brutus to Cicero. 
" I have read a part of your letter, which you 
sent to Octavius, transmitted to m,e by Atticus. 
Your zeal and concern for my safety gave me no 
new pleasure ; for it is not only common, but 
our daily news, to hear something, which you have 
said or done with your usual fidelity, in the support 
of my honour and dignity. Yet that same part of 
your letter affected me with the most sensible grief 
which my mind could possibly receive. For you 
compliment him so highly for his services to the 
republic ; and in a strain so suppliant and abject 
that — what shall I say ? — I am ashamed of the 
wretched state to which we are reduced, — yet it 
must be said, — you recommend my safety to him, 
to which what death is not preferable ? and plainly 
show, that our servitude is not yet abolished, but 
our master only changed. Recollect your words, 
and deny them, if you dare, to be the prayers of a 
slave to his king. There is one thing you say 
which is required and expected from him, — that he 
would allow those citizens to live in safety, of 
whom all honest men and the people of Rome 
think well. But what if he will not allow it ? 
Shall we be the less safe for that ? It is better 
not to be safe, than to be saved by hinn For my 
part, I can never think all the gods so averse to 
the preservation of the Roman people, that 
Octavius must be entreated for the life of any one 
citizen, much less for the deliverers of the world. 
It is a pleasure to me to talk thus magnificently ; 
and it even becomes me to those, who know not 
either what to fear for any one, or what to ask of 
any one. Can you allow Octavius to have this 
power, and yet be his friend ? or if you have any 
value for me, would you wish to see me at Rome, 
when I must first be recommended to the boy, 



k Ad Brut. 15. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



287 



that he would permit me to be there ? what 
reason can you have to thank him, if you think it 
necessary to beg of him that he would grant and 
suffer us to live with safety ? or is it to be reckoned 
a kindness, that he chooses to see himself rather 
than Antony in the condition to have such 
petitions addressed to him ; one may supplicate 
indeed the successor, but never the abolisher of a 
tyranny, that those who have deserved well of the 
republic may be safe. It was this weakness and 
despair, not more blamable indeed in you than in 
all, which first pushed Csesar to the ambition of 
reigning, and, after his death, encouraged Antony 
to think of seizing his place ; and has now raised 
this boy so high that you judge it necessary to 
address your prayers to him for the preservation of 
men of our rank ; and that we can be saved only 
by the mercy of one scarce yet a man, and by no 
other means. But if we had remembered ourselves 
to be Romans, these infamous men would not be 
more daring to aim at dominion, than we to repel 
it : nor would Antony be more encouraged by 
Caesar's reign, than deterred by his fate. How 
can you, a consular senator, and the avenger of so 
many treasons (by suppressing which you have 
but postponed our ruin I fear for a time), reflect 
on what you have done, and yet approve these 
things, or bear them so tamely, as to seem at least 
to approve them ? for what particular grudge had 
you to Antony ? no other, but that he assumed 
all this to himself ; that our lives should be begged 
of him ; our safety be precarious, from whom he 
had received his liberty ; and the republic depend 
on his will and pleasure. You thought it neces- 
sary to take arms, to prevent him from tyran- 
nizing at this rate : but was it your intent, 
that by preventing him, we might sue to another 
who would suffer himself to be advanced into his 
place, or that the republic might be free and 
mistress of itself ? as if our quarrel was not perhaps 
to slavery, but to the conditions of it. But we 
might have had, not only an easy master in Antony, 
if we would have been content with that, but 
whatever share with him we pleased of favours 
and honours. For what could he deny to those 
whose patience he saw was the best support of his 
government? but nothing was of such value to us, 
that we would sell our faith and our liberty for it. 
This very boy, whom the name of Caesar seems 
to incite against the destroyers of Caesar, at what 
rate would he value it (if there was any room to 
traffic with him), to be enabled by our help to 
maintain his present power, since we have a mind 
to live, and to be rich, and to be called consulars ? 
but then Csesar must have perished in vain : for 
what reason had we to rejoice at his death, if after 
it we were still to continue slaves ? Let other 
people be as indolent as they please ; but may the 
gods and goddesses deprive me sooner of every- 
thing than the resolution, not to allow to the heir 
of him whom I killed what I did not allow to the 
man himself — nor would suffer, even in my father, 
were he living — to have more power than the laws 
and the senate. How can you imagine, that any 
one can be free under him, without whose leave 
there is no place for us in that city ? or how is it 
possible for you, after all, to obtain what you ask ? 
You ask, that he would allow us to be safe. Shall 
we then receive safety, think you, when we re- 
ceive life ? But how can we receive it, if we first 



part with our honour and our liberty ? Do you 
fancy, that to live at Rome is to be safe ? It is 
the thing, and not the place, which must secure 
that to me ; for I was never safe while Caesar 
lived, till I had resolved on that attempt ; nor can 
I in any place live in exile, as long as I hate slavery 
and affronts above all other evils. Is not this to 
fall back again into the same state of darkness ; 
when he, who has taken upon him the name of 
the tyrant (though in the cities of Greece, when 
the tyrants are destroyed, their children also perish 
with them), must be entreated, that the avengers 
of tyranny may be safe ? Can I ever wish to see 
that city, or think it a city, which would not accept 
liberty when offered, and even forced upon it, but 
has more dread of the name of their late king, in 
the person of a boy, than confidence in itself; 
though it has seen that very king taken off in the 
height of all his power by the virtue of a few ? 
As for me, do not recommend me any more to 
your Caesar, nor indeed yourself, if you will hearken 
to me. You set a very high value on the few 
years which remain to you at that age, if for the 
sake of them you can supplicate that boy. But 
take care after all, lest what you have done and are 
doing so laudably against Antony, instead of being 
praised, as the effect of a great mind, be charged 
to the account of your fear. For if you are so 
pleased with Octavius as to petition him for our 
safety, you will be thought not to have disliked a 
master, but to have wanted a more friendly one. 
As to your praising him for the things that he has 
hitherto done, I entirely approve it : for they 
deserve to be praised, provided that he undertook 
them to repel other men's power, not to advance 
his own. But when you adjudge him not only to 
have this power, but that you ought to submit to 
it so far as to entreat him that he would not 
destroy us, you pay him too great a recompense : 
for you ascribe that very thing to him which the 
republic seemed to enjoy through him : nor does 
it ever enter into your thoughts, that if Octavius be 
worthy of any honours, because he wages war with 
Antony ; that those who extirpated the very evil 
of which these are but the relics, can never be 
sufficiently requited by the Roman people ; though 
they were to heap upon them everything which 
they could bestow : but see how much stronger 
people's fears are than their memories, because 
Antony still lives, and is in arms. As to Caesar, 
all that could and ought to be done is past, and 
cannot be recalled : is Octavius then a person of 
so great importance, that the people of Rome are 
to expect from him what he will determine upon 
us ? or are we of so little, that any single man is to 
be entreated for our safety? As for me, may I never 
return to you if ever 1 either supplicate any man, 
or do not restrain those who are disposed to do it, 
from supplicating for themselves : or I will remove 
to a distance from all such who can be slaves, 
and fancy myself at Rome, wherever I can live 
free ; and shall pity you, whose fond desire of 
life neither age, nor honours, nor the example of 
other men's virtue, can moderate. For my part, 
I shall ever think myself happy as long as I can 
please myself with the persuasion that my piety 
has been fully requited. For what can be happier, 
than for a man, conscious of virtuous acts, and 
content with liberty, to despise all human affairs ? 
Yet I will never yield to those who are fond of 



. 



283 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



yielding, or be conquered by those who are willing 
to be conquered themselves, but will first try and 
attempt everything, nor ever desist from dragging 
our city out of slavery. If such fortune attends 
me as I ought to have, we shall all rejoice ; if not, 
I shall rejoice myself. For how could this life be 
spent better than in acts and thoughts which tend 
to make my countrymen free ? I beg and beseech 
you, Cicero, not to desert the cause through wea- 
riness or diffidence : in repelling present evils, 
have your eye always on the future, lest they in- 
sinuate themselves before you are aware. Con- 
sider, that the fortitude and courage with which 
you delivered the republic when consul, and now 
again when consular, are nothing without con- 
stancy and equability. The case of tried virtue, 
I own, is harder than of untried : we require 
services from it, as debts ; and if anything dis- 
appoints us, we blame with resentment, as if we 
had been deceived. Wherefore for Cicero to with- 
stand Antony, though it be a part highly com- 
mendable, yet because such a consul seemed of 
course to promise us such a consular, nobody 
wonders at it : but if the same Cicero, in the case 
of others, should waver at last in that resolution, 
which he exerted with such firmness and great- 
ness of mind against Antony, he would deprive 
himself not only of the hopes of future glory, but 
forfeit even that which is past : for nothing is 
great in itself but what flows from the result of 
our judgment : nor does it become any man more 
than you to love the republic, and to be the patron 
of liberty, on the account either of your natural 
talents or your former acts, or the wishes and 
expectation of all men. Octavius, therefore, must 
not be entreated to suffer us to live in safety. Do 
you rather rouse yourself so far as to think that 
city, in which you have acted the noblest part, free 
and flourishing, as long as there are leaders still 
to the people, to resist the designs of traitors 1 ." 

1 Ad Brut. 16. 

N.B. There is a passage indeed in Brutus's letter to Atti 
cus, where he intimates a reason of his complaint against 
Cicero, which was certainly a just one, if the fact of which 
he complains had been true — that Cicero had reproached 
Casca with the murder of Caesar, and called him an 
assassin. «• I do not know," says he, "what I can write 
to you but this, that the ambition and licentiousness of 
the boy has been inflamed rather than restrained by 
Cicero, who carries his indulgence of him to such a length, 
as not to refrain from abuses upon Casca, and such as must 
return doubly upon himself, who has put to death more 
citizens than one, and must first own himself to be an 
assassin before he can reproach Casca with what he 
objects to him." [Ep. ad Brut. 17.] Manutius professes 
himself unable to conceive how Cicero should ever call 
Casca a murderer ; yet cannot collect anything less from 
Brutus's words. But the thing is impossible, and incon- 
sistent with every word that Cicero had been saying, and 
every act that he had been doing from the time of Caesar's 
death : and in relation particularly to Casca, we have seen 
above, how he refused to enter into any measures with 
Octavius, but upon the express condition of his suffering 
Casca to take quiet possession of the tribunate : it is certain 
therefore, that Brutus had either been misinformed, or 
was charging Cicero with the consequential meaning of 
some saying which was never intended by him ; in advis- 
ing Casca perhaps to manage Octavius, in that height of 
his power, with more temper and moderation, lest he 
should otherwise be provoked to consider him as an assas- 
sin, and treat him as such : for an intimation of that kind 
would have been sufficient to the fierce spirit of Brutus, 
for taking it as a direct condemnation of Casca's act of 



If we compare these two letters, we shall per- 
ceive in Cicero's an extensive view and true judg- 
ment of things, tempered with the greatest polite- 
ness and affection for his friend, and an unwilling- 
ness to disgust where he thought it necessary even to 
blame. In Brutus's a churlish and morose arrogance, 
claiming infinite honours to himself, yet allowing 
none to anybody else ; insolently chiding and 
dictating to one, as much superior to him in I 
wisdom as he was in years ; the whole turning \ 
upon that romantic maxim of the Stoics, enforced ! 
without any regard to times and circumstances : | 
that a wise man has a sufficiency of all things 
within himself. There are indeed many noble 
sentiments in it worthy of old Rome, which Cicero 
in a proper season would have recommended as 
warmly as he ; yet they were not principles to 
act upon in a conjuncture so critical ; and the 
rigid application of them is the less excusable in 
Brutus, because he himself did not always practise 
what he professed ; but was too apt to forget both 
the Stoic and the Roman. 

Octavius had no sooner settled the affairs of 
the city, and subdued the senate to his mind, than 
he marched back towards Gaul to meet Antony 
and Lepidus, who had already passed the Alps, 
aud brought their armies into Italy, in order to 
have a personal interview with him, which had 
been privately concerted for settling the terms of 
a triple league, and dividing the power and pro- 
vinces of the empire among themselves. All the 
three were natural enemies to each other ; com- 
petitors for empire, and aiming severally to possess 
what could not be obtained but with the ruin of 
the rest : their meeting therefore was not to 
establish any real amity or lasting concord, for 
that was impossible, but to suspend their own 
quarrels for the present, and with common forces 
to oppress their common enemies, the friends of 
liberty and the republic : without which all their 
several hopes and ambitious views must inevitably 
be blasted. 

The place appointed for the interview was a 
small island, about two miles from Bononia, formed 
by the river Rhenus, which runs near to that city" : 
here they met, as men of their character must 
necessarily meet, not without jealousy and sus- 
picion of danger from each other, being all attended 
by their choicest troops, each with five legions, 
disposed in separate camps within sight of the 
island. Lepidus entered it the first, as an equal 
friend to the other two, to see that the place was 
clear and free from treachery ; and when he had 
given the signal agreed upon, Antony and Octavius 
advanced from the opposite banks of the river, 
and passed into the island by bridges, which they 
left guarded on each side by three hundred of 
their own men. Their first care, instead of 
embracing, was to search one another, whether 
they had not brought daggers concealed under 
their clothes ; and when that ceremony was over, 
Octavius took his seat betwixt the other two, in 
the most honourable place, on the account of his 
being consul. 

In this situation they spent three days in a close 
conference, to adjust the plan of their accommo- 
dation ; the substance of whic h was, that th e 

stabbing Caesar, to which Cicero had always given the 
highest applause. 
n Vide. Cluver. Ital. Antiq. 1. i. c. xxviii. p. 187. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



280 



three should be invested jointly with supreme 
power for the term of five years, with the title of 
Triumvirs, for settling the state of the republic : 
that they should act in all cases by common con- 
sent, nominate the magistrates and governors 
both at home and abroad, and determine all affairs 
relating to the public by their sole will and plea- 
sure : that Octavius should have for his peculiar 
province, Africa, with Sicily, Sardinia, and the other 
islands of the Mediterranean ; Lepidus, Spain, 
with the Narbonese Gaul ; Antony, the other two 
Gauls on both sides of the Alps : and to put them 
all upon a level, both in title and authority, that 
Octavius should resign the consulship to Ventidius 
for the remainder of the year : that Antony and 
Octavius should prosecute the war against Brutus 
and Cassius, each of them at the head of twenty 
legions ; and Lepidus, with three legions, be left 
to guard the city : and at the end of the war, that 
eighteen cities or colonies, the best and richest 
of Italy, together with their lands and districts, 
should be taken from their owners, and assigned 
to the perpetual possession of the soldiers, as the 
reward of their faithful services. These conditions 
were published to their several armies, and received 
by them with acclamations of joy, and mutual 
gratulations for this happy union of their chiefs ; 
which, at the desire of the soldiers, was ratified 
likewise by a marriage, agreed to be consummated 
between Octavius and Claudia, the daughter of 
Antony's wife, Fulvia, by her first husband, 
P. Clodius. 

The last thing that they adjusted was the list of 
a proscription, which they were determined to 
make of their enemies. This, as the writers tell 
us, occasioned much difficulty and warm contests 
amongst them, till each of them in his turn con- 
sented to sacrifice some of his best friends to the 
revenge and resentment of his colleagues. The 
whole list is said to have consisted of three hundred 
senators and two thousand knights, all doomed to 
die for a crime the most unpardonable to tyrants, 
their adherence to the cause of liberty. They 
reserved the publication of the general list to their 
arrival at Rome, excepting only a few of the most 
obnoxious ; the heads of the republican party, 
about seventeen in all, the chief of. whom was 
Cicero. These they marked out for immediate 
destruction ; and sent their emissaries away 
directly to surprise and murder them, before any 
notice could reach them of their danger : four of 
this number were presently taken and killed in 
the company of their friends, and the rest hunted 
out by the soldiers in private houses and temples, 
which presently filled the city with a universal 
terror and consternation, as if it had been taken 
by an enemy : so that the consul Pedius was 
forced to run about the streets all the night, to 
quiet the minds and appease the fears of the 
people ; and, as soon as it was light, published 
the names of the seventeen who were principally 
sought for, with an assurance of safety and in- 
demnity to all others : but he himself was so 
shocked and fatigued by the horror of this night's 
work, that he died the day following . 

We have no hint from any of Cicero's letters 

(for none remain to us of so low a date), what his 

sentiments were on this interview of the three 

o Appian. 1, iv. init. ; Dio, p. 326 ; Plut. in Anton, et Cic. ; 

Veil. Pat. ii. 65. 



chiefs, or what resolution he had taken in con- 
sequence of it. He could not but foresee that it 
must needs be fatal to him, if it passed to the 
satisfaction of Antony and Lepidus ; for he had 
several times declared, that he expected the last 
severity from them if ever they got the better. 
But whatever he had cause to apprehend, it is 
certain that it was still in his power to avoid it, 
by going over to Brutus in Macedonia : but he 
seems to have thought that remedy worse than 
the evil ; and had so great an abhorrence of enter- 
ing again, in his advanced age, into a civil war, 
and so little value for the few years of life which 
remained to him, that he declares it a thousand 
times better to die than to seek his safety from 
camps p : and he was the more indifferent about 
what might happen to himself, since his son was 
removed from all immediate danger by being 
already with Brutus. 

The old historians endeavour to persuade us that 
Caesar did not give him up to the revenge of his col- 
leagues without the greatest reluctance, and after a 
struggle of two days to preserve him - : but all that 
tenderness was artificial, and a part assumed, to 
give the better colour to his desertion of him. For 
Cicero's death was the natural effect of their union, 
and a necessary sacrifice to the common interest of 
the three : those who met to destroy liberty must 
come determined to destroy him, since his authority 
was too great to be suffered in an enemy ; and ex- 
perience had shown that nothing could make him a 
friend to the oppressors of his country. 

Caesar therefore was pleased with it undoubt- 
edly as much as the rest ; and when his pretended 
squeamishness was overruled, showed himself more 
cruel and bloody in urging the proscription than 
either of the other two r . " Nothing," says Vel- 
leius, " was so shameful on this occasion as that 
Caesar should be forced to proscribe any man, or 
that Cicero especially should be proscribed by 
him s ." But there was no force in the case : for 
though, to save Caesar's honour, and to extort as 
it were Cicero from him, Lepidus gave up his own 
brother, Paullus, and Antony his uncle, L. Caesar, 
who were both actually put into the list, yet neither 
of them lost their lives, but were protected from 
any harm by the power of their relations 1 . 

If we look back a little, to take a general view of 
the conduct of these triumvirs, we shall see Antony, 
roused at once by Caesar's death from the midst of 
pleasure and debauch, and a most abject obsequi- 
ousness to Caesar's power, forming the true plan of 
his interest, and pursuing it with a surprising vigour 
and address ; till, after many and almost insupera- 
ble difficulties, he obtained the sovereign dominion 
which he aimed at. Lepidus was the chief instru- 
ment that he made use of, whom he employed very 
successfully at home till he found himself in oondi- 



P Reipublicae vicem dolebo, qua? immortalis esse debet; 
mihi quidem quantulum reliqui est? [Ad. Brut. 10.] ireov 
ergo in caslra? millies mori melius, huic prsesertim setati : 
[Ad Att. xiv. 22.] sed abesse banc aetatem longo a sepuJ- 
chro negant oportere. — Ibid. xvi. 7. 

q Plut. in Cic. ; Veil. Pat. ii. 6G. 

r Restitit aliquandiu collegis, ne qua fieret proscriptio, 
sed inceptam utroque acerbius exercuit, &c— Suet, in A ug. 
27. 

s Nihil tarn indignum illo tempore fuit, quam quod aut 
Caesar aliquem proscribere coactus est, aut ab illo Cicero 
proscriptus est. — Veil. Pat. ii. 66. 

1 Appian. 1. iv. 610; Dio, 1. xlvii. 330. 
U 



290 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



tion to support his pretensions alone, and then sent 
to the other side of the Alps, that, in case of any 
disaster in Italy, he might be provided with a 
secure resource in his army. By this management, 
he had ordered his affairs so artfully, that, by con- 
quering at Modena, he would have made himself 
probably the sole master of Rome ; while the only 
difference of being conquered was, to admit two 
partners with him into the empire ; the one of 
whom at least he was sure always to govern . 

Octavius's conduct was not less politic or vigor- 
ous : he had great parts, and an admirable genius, 
with a dissimulation sufficient to persuade that he 
had good inclinations too. As his want of years 
and authority made it impossible for him to succeed 
immediately to his uncle's power, so his first busi- 
ness was to keep the place vacant till he should be 
more ripe for it, and to give the exclusion in the 
mean while to everybody else. "With this view, he 
acted the republican with great gravity ; put himself 
under &the direction of Cicero ; and was wholly 
governed by his advice as far as his interest carried 
him — that is, to depress Antony, and drive him out 
of Italy ; who was his immediate and most danger- 
ous rival. Here he stopped short, and paused 
awhile to consider what new measures this new 
state of things would suggest : when, by the unex- 
pected death of the two consuls, finding himself at 
once the master of everything at home, and Antony, 
by the help of Lepidus, rising again the stronger 
from his fall, he saw presently that his best chance 
for empire was to content himself with a share of 
it till he should be in condition to seize the whole ; 
and from the same policy with which he joined 
himself with the republic to destroy Antony, he 
now joined with Antony to oppress the republic as 
the best means of securing and advancing his own 
power. 

Lepidus was the dupe of them both ; a vain, 
weak, inconstant man, incapable of empire, yet 
aspiring to the possession of it, and abusing the 
most glorious opportunity of serving his country, 
to the ruin both of his country and himself. His 
wife was the sister of M. Brutus, and his true 
interest lay in adhering to that alliance : for if, by 
the advice of Laterensis, he had joined with Plancus 
and D. Brutus to oppress Antony, and give liberty 
to Rome, the merit of that service, added to the 
dignity of his family and fortunes, would necessa- 
rily have made him the first citizen of a free re- 
public. But his weakness deprived him of that 
glory : he flattered himself that the first share of 
power which he seemed at present to possess would 
give him likewise the first share of empire, not 
considering that military power depends on the 
reputation and abilities of him who possesses it : 
in which, as his colleagues far excelled him, so 
they would be sure always to eclipse, and, when- 
ever they thought it proper, to destroy him. This 
he found afterwards to be the case ;'when Caesar 
forced him to beg his life upon his knees, though 
at the head of twenty legions, and deposed him from 
that dignity which he knew not how to sustain u . 

Cicero was at his Tusculan villa, with his brother 
and nephew, when he first received the news of the 
proscription, and of their being included in it. It 
was the design of the triumvirate to keep it a secret 
if possible to the moment of execution, in order to 

i Spoliata, quam tueri non poterat, dignitas.— Veil. Pat. 
ii. 8. 



surprise those whom they had destined to destruc- 
tion before they were aware of the danger, or had 
time to escape. But some of Cicero's friends found 
means to give him early notice of it ; upon which 
he set forward presently with his brother and 
nephew towards Astura, the nearest villa which he 
had upon the sea, with intent to transport themselves 
directly out of the reach of their enemies. But 
Quintus being wholly unprepared for so sudden a 
voyage, resolved to turn back with his son to Rome, 
in confidence of lying concealed there till they could 
provide money and necessaries for their support 
abroad. Cicero in the mean while found a vessel 
ready for him at Astura, in which he presently 
embarked : but the winds being cross and turbu- 
lent, and the sea wholly uneasy to him, after he 
had sailed about two leagues along the coast, he 
landed at Circseum, and spent a night near that 
place in great anxiety and irresolution : the ques- 
tion was, what course he should steer, and whether 
he should fly to Brutus, or to Cassius, or to S. Pom- 
peius ; but after all his deliberations, none of them 
pleased him so much as the expedient of dying x : 
so that, as Plutarch says, he had some thoughts of 
returning to the city, and killing himself in Caesar's 
house, in order to leave the guilt and curse of his 
blood upon Caesar's perfidy and ingratitude : but 
the importunity of his servants prevailed with him 
to sail forwards to Cajeta, where he went again on 
shore to repose himself in his Formian villa, about 
a mile from the coast, weary of life a*id the sea ; 
and declaring that he would die in that country 
which he had so often saved y. Here he slept 
soundly for several hours ; though, as some writers 
tell us, " a great number of crows were fluttering 
all the while, and making a strange noise about his 
windows, as if to rouse and warn him of his ap- 
proaching fate ; and that one of them made its way 
into the chamber, and pulled away his very bed- 
clothes ; till his slaves,, admonished by this prodigy, 
and ashamed to see brute creatures more solicitous 
for his safety than themselves, forced him into his 
Utter, or portable chair," and carried him away 
towards the ship, through the private ways and 
walks of his woods ; having just heard that soldiers 
were already come into the country in quest of him, 
and not far from the villa. As soon as they were 
gone, the soldiers arrived at the house ; and per- 
ceiving him to be fled, pursued immediately towards 
the sea, and overtook him in the wood. Their 
leader was one Popilius Laenas, a.tribune, or colonel 
of the army, whom Cicero had formerly defended 
and preserved in a capital cause. As soon as the 
soldiers appeared, the servants prepared themselves 
to fight, being resolved to defend their master's life 
at the hazard of their own ; but Cicero commanded 
them to set him down, and to make no resistance 2 : 
then looking upon his executioners with a presence 
and firmness which almost daunted them, and 
thrusting; his' neck as forwardly as he could out of 

x Cremutius Cordus ait, Ciceroni, cum cogitasset, 
immune Brutum, an Cassium, an S. Pompeium peteret, 
omnia displicuisse prater mortem. — Senec. Suasor. 6. 

y Tscdium tandem eum et fugac: et vitac cepit : regressus- 
que ad superiorem villain, qua; paullo plus mille passibus 
amari abest, moriar inquit in patria, scepe servata.— 
Liv. Fragm. apud Senec. Suasor. 1 ; it. Plut. in Cic. 

z Satis constat servos fortiter fideliterque paratos fuisse 
ad dimicandum : ipsum deponi lecticam, et quietos pati, 
quod sors iniqua cogeret, jussisse.— Liv. Fragm. ibid. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



291 



the litter, he bade them do their work, and take 
what they wanted. Upon which they presently cut 
off his head and both his hands, and returned with 
them in all haste and great joy towards Rome, as 
the most agreeable present which they could possi- 
bly carry to Antony. Popilius charged himself with 
the conveyance, without reflecting on the infamy 
of carrying that head which had saved his own x . 
He found Antony in the forum, surrounded with 
guards and crowds of people ; but upon showing 
from a distance the spoils which he brought, he 
was rewarded upon the spot with the honour of a 
crown and about eight thousand pounds sterling. 
Antony ordered the head to be fixed upon the 
rostra, between the two hands : a sad spectacle to 
the city, and what drew tears from every eye ; to 
see those mangled members, which used to exert 
themselves so gloriously from that place in defence 
of the lives, the fortunes, and the liberties of the 
Roman people, so lamentably exposed to the scorn 
of sycophants and traitors. " The deaths of the 
rest," says an historian of that age, " caused only 
a private and particular sorrow ; but Cicero's, a 
universal one''." It was a triumph over the repub- 
lic itself ; and seemed to confirm and establish the 
perpetual slavery of Rome. Antony considered it 
as such ; and, satiated with Cicero's blood, de- 
clared the proscription at an end. 

He was killed on the seventh of December, about 
ten days from the settlement of the triumvirate ; 
after he had lived sixty-three years, eleven months, 
and five days 2 . 



SECTION XII. 

The story of Cicero's death continued fresh on 
the minds of the Romans for many ages after it ; 
and was delivered down to posterity, with all its 
circumstances, as one of the most affecting and 
memorable events of their history : so that the 
spot on which it happened seems to have been 
visited by travellers with a kind of religious rever- 
ence a . The odium of it fell chiefly on Antony ; yet 
it left a stain of perfidy and ingratitude also on 
Augustus : which explains the reason of that silence 
which is observed about him by the writers of that 
age ; and why his name is not so much as men- 
tioned either by Horace or Virgil. For though his 
character would have furnished a glorious subject 
for many noble lines, yet it was no subject for 
court poets ; since the very mention of him must 
have been a satire on the prince, especially while 
Antony lived, among the sycophants of whose court 
it was fashionable to insult his memory by all the 

* Ea sarcina, tanquam opimis spoliis, alacer in urbem 
reversus est. Neque ei scelestum portanti onus succurrit, 
illud se caput ferre, quod pro capite ejus quondam perora- 
verat. — Val. Max. v. 3. 

7 Caterorumque casdes privatos luctus excitaveruut ; ilia 
una comruunem. — [Cremutius Cordus, apud Senec.] Civi- 
tas lacrymas tenere non potuit, quum recisum Ciceronis 
caput in illis suis rostris videretur. — Flor. iv. 6. 

z Plut. in Cic. ; Veil. Pat. ii. 64 ; Liv. Fragrn. apud Senec. ; 
Appian. 1. iv. 601 ; Dio, 1. xlviL p. 330 ; Pighii Annal. ad 
A.U. 7H). 

a Sa?pe Clodio Ciceronem expellenti et Antonio occidenti, 
videmur irasci. — Sen. De Ira. ii. 2. 

KiKepcov — cpevywv ds tSiou xwptW, t naff laropiav 
rovSe rod trdQovs eldov.— App. p. 600. 



methods of calumny that wit and malice could in- 
vent : nay Virgil, on an occasion that could hardly 
fail of bringing him to his mind, instead of doing 
justice to his merit, chose to do an injustice rather 
to Rome itself, by yielding the superiority of elo- 
quence to the Greeks, which they themselves had 
been forced to yield to Cicero b . 

Livy however, whose candour made Augustus 
call him a Pompeian c , while, out of complaisance 
to the times, he seems to extenuate the crime of 
Cicero's murder, yet, after a high encomium of his 
virtues, declares, " that to praise him as he de- 
served, required the eloquence of Cicero himselfV 
Augustus too, as Plutarch tells us, happening one 
day to catch his grandson reading one of Cicero's 
books, which, for fear of the emperor's displeasure, 
the boy endeavoured to hide under his gown, took 
the book into his hands, and turning over a great 
part of it gave it back again, and said, " This was 
a learned man, my child, and a lover of his 
country e ." 

In the succeeding generation, as the particular 
envy to Cicero subsided by the death of those 
whom private interests and personal quarrels had 
engaged to hate him when living, and defame him 
when dead, so his name and memory began to 
shine out in its proper lustre : and in the reign 
even of Tiberius, when an eminent senator and 
historian, Cremutius Cordus, was condemned to 
die for praising Brutus, yet Paterculus could not 
forbear breaking out into the following warm ex- 
postulation with Antony on the subject of Cicero's 
death: "Thou hast done nothing, Antony ; hast 
done nothing, I say, by setting a price on that 
divine and illustrious head, and, by a detestable 
reward, procuring the death of so great a consul 
and preserver of the republic. Thou hast snatched 
from Cicero a troublesome being ; a declining age ; 
a life more miserable under thy dominion than 
death itself ; but so far from diminishing the glory 
of his deeds and sayings, thou hast increased it. 
He lives, and will live, in the memory of all ages ; 
and as long as this system of nature, whether by 
chance or providence, or what way soever formed, 
which he alone of all the Romans comprehended 
in his mind and illustrated by his eloquence, shall 
remain entire, it will draw the praises of Cicero 
along with it ; and all posterity will admire his 
writings against thee, curse thy act against him f ." 

From this period all the Roman writers, whether 
poets or historians, seem to vie with each other 
in celebrating the praises of Cicero as the most 



b— Orabunt causas melius, &c— ^En. vi. 849. 

<•' — T. Livius Cn. — Pompeium tantis, laudibus tulit, ut 
Pompeianum eum Augustus appellaret. — Tac. Ann. iv. 34. 

d Si quis tamen virtutibus vitia pensarit, vir magnus, 
acer, memorabilis fuit, et in cujus laudes sequendas Cice- 
rone laudatore opus fuerit. — Liv. Fragm. apud Senec. 
Suasor. 6. 

e Plut. in Cic. — There is another story of the same kind 
recorded by Macrobius, to show Augustus's moderation 
with regard also to Cato : that Augustus being one day in 
the house which had belonged to Cato, where the master 
of it, out of compliment to his great guest, took occasion 
to reflect on Cato's perverseness, he stopped him short by 
saying, that he who would svffer no change in the constitu- 
tion of his city, ivas a good citizen, and honest man: but 
by this character of Cato's honesty, he gave a severe wound 
to his own, who not only changed but usurped the govern- 
ment of his country. — Macrob. Saturn, ii. 4. 

f Veil. Pat. ii. 66." 

U 2 



_J 



292 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



illustrious of all their patriots, and the parent of 
the Roman wit and eloquence ; who had done more 
honour to his country by his writings than all their 
conquerors by their arms ; and extended the bounds 
of their learning beyond those of their empire £. So 
that their very emperors, near three centuries after 
his death, began to reverence him in the class of 
their inferior deities h : a rank which he would have 
preserved to this day, if he had happened to live in 
papal Rome, where he could not have failed, as 
Erasmus says, from " the innocence of his life, of 
obtaining the honour and title of a saint 1 ." 

As to his person, he was tall and slender, with a 
neck particularly long ; yet his features were regu- 
lar and manly, preserving a comeliness and dignity 
to the last, with a certain air of cheerfulness and 
serenity that imprinted both affection and respect k . 
His constitution was naturally weak, yet was so 
confirmed by his management of it as to enable 
him to support all the fatigues of the most active 
as well as the most studious life with perpetual 
health and vigour. The care that he employed 
upon his body consisted chiefly in bathing and rub- 
bing, with a few turns every day in his gardens for 
the refreshment of his voice from the labour of the 
bar 1 : yet, in the summer, he generally gave him- 
self the exercise of a journey, to visit his several 
estates and villas in different parts of Italy. But 
his principal instrument of health was diet and 
temperance : by these he preserved himself from 
all violent distempers ; and when he happened to 
be attacked by any slight indisposition, used to 
enforce the severity of his abstinence, and starve it 
presently by fasting m . 

In his clothes and dress, which the wise have 
usually considered as an index of the mind, he ob- 
served what he prescribes in his book of " Offices," 
a mddesty and decency adapted to his rank and 
character ; a perpetual cleanliness, without the 
appearance of pains ; free from the affectation of 
singularity ; and avoiding the extremes of a rustic 
negligence and foppish delicacy": both of which 
are equally contrary to true dignity — the one im- 
plying an ignorance, or illiberal contempt of it — 
the other, a childish pride and ostentation of pro- 
claiming our pretensions to it. 

In his domestic and social life, his behaviour 
was very amiable : he was a most indulgent parent, 
a sincere and zealous friend, a kind and generous 
master. His letters are full of the tenderest ex- 

% Facundite, latiarumque literarum parens — atque — 
omnium triumphorum lauream adepte majorem, quanto 
plus est ingenii Romani terminos in tantum promovisse, 
quam imperii. — Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 30. 

Qui effecit, ne quorum arma viceramus, eorum ingenio 
vinceremur. — Veil. Pat. ii. 34. 

h Lamprid. vit. Alex. Sever, c. xxxi. 

» Quern arbitror, si Christianam philosophiam didicisset, 
in eorum numero censendum fuisse, qui nunc ob vitam 
innocenter pieque transactam, pro Divis honorantur.— 
Erasm. Ciceronian, vers. Jin em. 

k Ei quideni facies decora ad senectutem, prosperaque- 
permansit valetudo. — Asin. Poll, apud Senec. Suasor.fi. 

1 Cum recreandae voculae causa, 1111111 necesse esset ambu- 
lare.— Ad Att. ii. 23 ; Plut. in Cic. 

m Cum quideni biduum ita jejunus fuissem, ut ne aquam 
quidem gustaram. — Ep. Fain. vii. 26 ; Plut. in Cic. 

" Adhibenda munditia non odiosa, neque exquisita 
nimis ; tantum quae fugiat agrestem et inhumanam negli- 
gentiam. Eadem ratio est habenda vestitus : in quo, sicut 
in plcrisque rebus, mediocritas optima est. — De Oflic. i. 



pressions of his love for his children ; in whose 
endearing conversation, as he often tells us, he 
used to drop all his cares, and relieve himself from 
all his struggles in the senate and the forum . 
The same affection, in an inferior degree, was 
extended also to his slaves, when by their fidelity 
and services they had recommended themselves to 
his favour. We have seen a remarkable instance 
of it in Tiro, whose case was no otherwise different 
from the rest than as it was distinguished by the 
superiority of his merit. In one of his letters to 
Atticus, " I have nothing more (says he,) to write ; 
and my mind, indeed, is somewhat ruffled at pre- 
sent, for Sositheus my reader is dead — a hopeful 
youth, — which has afflicted me more than one 
would imagine the death of a slave ought to do p." 

He entertained very high notions of friendship, 
and of its excellent use and benefit to human life, 
which he has beautifully illustrated in his entertain- 
ing treatise on that subject ; where he lays down no 
other rules than what he exemplified by his prac- 
tice. For in all the variety of friendships in which 
his eminent rank engaged him, he was never charged 
with deceiving, deserting, or even slighting any one 
whom he had once called his friend, or esteemed an 
honest man. It was his delight to advance their 
prosperity, to relieve their adversity ; the same 
friend to both fortunes ; but more zealous only in 
the bad, where his help was the most wanted, and 
his services the most disinterested ; looking upon 
it not as a friendship, but a sordid traffic and mer- 
chandise of benefits, where good offices are to be 
weighed by a nice estimate of gain and loss**. He 
calls gratitude the mother of virtues ; reckons it 
the most capital of all duties ; and uses the words 
grateful and good as terms synonymous, and inse- 
parably united in the same character. His writings 
abound with sentiments of this sort, as his life did 
with the examples of them 1 " ; so that one of his 
friends, in apologising for the importunity of a 
request, observes to him with great truth, that 
" the tenor of his life would be a sufficient excuse 
for it, since he had established such a custom of 
doing everything for his friends, that they no 
longer requested, but claimed a right to command 
him 8 ." 

1 et he was not more generous to his friends 
than placable to his enemies, — readily pardoning 
the greatest injuries upon the slightest submission; 
and though no man ever had greater abilities or 
opportunities of revenging himself, yet when it was 
in his power to hurt he sought out reasons to 

o Ut tantum requietis habeam, quantum cum uxore, 
et filiola, et mellito Cicerone^consumitur. — Ad Att.IL 18. 

V Nam puer festivus, anagnostes noster, Sositheus 
decesserat, meque plus quam servimors debere videbatur, 
commoverat. — Ad Att. i. 12. 

q Ubi ilia sancta amicitia ? si non ipse amicus per se 
amatur toto pectore. [De Leg. i. 18.] quam si ad fructum 
nostrum referemus, non ad illius commoda, quern diligi- 
mus, non erit ista amicitia, sed mercatura quaedam utili- 
tatum suarum— De Nat. Deor. i. 44. 

* Cum omnibus virtutibus me affectum esse cupiam, 
tamen nihil est quod malim, quam me et gratum esse et 
videri. Est enim base una virtus non solum maxima, sed 
etiam mater virtutum omnium — quae potest esse jucundi- 
tas vita? sublatis amicitiis? quae porro amicitia potest esse 
inter ingratos?— Pro Plane. 33 ; De Fin. ii. 22. 

s Nam quod ita consueris pro amicis laborare, non jam 
sic sperant abs te, sed etiam sic imperant tibi familiares. 
— Ep. Fain. vi. 7- 



MARCUS TULL1US CICERO. 



293 



forgive, and whenever he was invited to it never 
declined a reconciliation with his most inveterate 
enemies, of which there are numerous instances in 
his history. He declared nothing to be more 
laudable and worthy of a great man than placa- 
bility ; and laid it down for a natural duty to 
moderate our revenge and observe a temper in 
punishing, and held repentance to be a sufficient 
ground for remitting it : and it was one of his 
sayings, delivered to a public assembly, that his 
enmities were mortal, his friendships immortal'. 

His manner of living was agreeable to the dignity 
of his character, — splendid and noble ; his house 
was open to all the learned strangers and philoso- 
phers of Greece and Asia, several of whom were 
constantly entertained in it as part of his family, 
and spent their whole lives with him u . His levee 
was perpetually crowded with multitudes of all 
ranks ; even Pompey himself not disdaining to 
frequent it. The greatest part came, not only to 
! pay their compliments, but to attend him on days 
of business to the senate or the forum, where upon 
any debate or transaction of moment they constantly 
waited to conduct him home again ; but on ordinary 
days when these morning visits were over, as they 
usually were before ten, he retired to his books 
and shut himself up in his library, without seeking 
any other diversion but what his children afforded 
to the short intervals of his leisure x . His supper 
was his greatest meal, and the usual season with 
all the great of enjoying their friends at table, 
which was frequently prolonged to a late hour of 
the night; yet he was out of his bed every morning 
before it was light, and never used to sleep again 
at noon as all others generally did, and as it is 
commonly practised in Rome to this day?. 

But though he was so temperate and studious, 
yet when he was engaged to sup with others, either 
at home or abroad, he laid aside his rules and 
forgot the invalid, and was gay and sprightly, and 
the very soul of the company. When friends were 
met together, to heighten the comforts of social 
life, he thought it inhospitable not to contribute his 
share to their common mirth, or to damp it by a 
churlish reservedness. But he was really a lover 



* Est enim ulciscendi et puniendi modus. Atque hand 
scio, an satis sit, euni, qui lacessierit, injuria? suas pceni- 
tere. [De Offic. i. 11.] nihil enim laudabilius, nihil magno 
viro dignius, placabilitate et dementia. — Ibid. 25. 

Cum parcerevel laederepotuissem.ignoscendi quaerebam 
causas, non puniendi occasiones. — Fragm. Cic. ex Marcel- 
lino. 

Neque vero me poenitet mortales inimicitias, sempiter- 
nas amicitias habere. — Pro C. Rabir. Post. 12. 

u Doctissimorum hominum familiaritates, quibus sem- 
per domus nostra floruit, et principes. illi, Diodotus, Philo, 
Antiochus, Posidonius, a quibus iustituti sumus. — De Nat. 
Deor. i. 3. 

Eram cum Diodoto Stoico ; qui cum habitavisset apud 
me, mecumque vixisset, nuper est domi meae mortuus. — 
Brut. 433. 

x Cum bene completa domus est tempore matutino, cum 
ad forum stipati gregibus, amicorum descendimus. — Ad 
Att. i. 18. 

Mane salutamus domi bonos viros multos— ubi salutatio 
defluxit literis me involvo. [Ep. Fam. ix. 20.] Cum salu- 
tationi nos dedimus amicorum — abdo me in bibliothecam. 
— Ep. Fam. vii. 28. 

Post horam quartam molesti caeteri non sunt. — Ad Att. 
ii. 14. 

7 Nunc quidem propter intermissionem forensis opera?, 
et lucubrationes detraxi et meridiationes addidi, quibus 
uti antea non solebam*— De Div. ii. 58. 



of cheerful entertainments, being of a nature 
remarkably facetious, and singularly turned to 
raillery 2 , a talent which was of great service to him 
at the bar, to correct the petulance of an adversary, 
relieve the satiety of a tedious cause, divert the 
minds of the judges, and mitigate the rigour of 
a sentence, by making both the bench and audience 
merry at the expense of the accuser 3 . 

This use of it was always thought fair, and 
greatly applauded in public trials ; but in private 
conversations he was charged sometimes with 
pushing his raillery too far, and, through a con- 
sciousness of his superior wit, exerting it often 
intern perately, without reflecting what cruel wounds 
his lashes inflicted b . Yet of all his sarcastical 
jokes, which are transmitted to us by antiquity, we 
shall not observe any but what were pointed against 
characters either ridiculous or profligate, such as 
he despised for their follies or hated for their vices ; 
and though he might provoke the spleen and 
quicken the malice of enemies more than was con- 
sistent with a regard to his own ease, yet he never 
appears to have hurt or lost a friend, or any one 
whom he valued, by the levity of jesting. 

It is certain that the fame of his wit was as 
celebrated as that of his eloquence, and that several 
spurious collections of his sayings were handed 
about in Rome in his lifetime ; till his friend 
Trebcnius, after he had been consul, thought it 
worth while to publish an authentic edition of 
them in a volume which he addressed to Cicero 
himself d . Ceesar likewise, in the height of his 
power, having taken a fancy to collect the 
apophthegms or memorable sayings of eminent 
men, gave strict orders to all his friends who used 
to frequent Cicero, to bring him everything of that 
sort which happened to drop from him in their 
company e . But Tiro, Cicero's freedman, who 
served him chiefly in his studies and literary affairs, 
published after his death the most perfect collection 
of his sayings, in three books ; where Quintilian 
however wishes that he had been more sparing in 
the number and judicious in the choice of them f . 

z Ego autem, existimes quod lubet, mirifice capior 
facetiis, maxime nostratibus. [Ep. Fam. ix. 15.] Nee id 
ad voluptatem refero, sed ad communitatem vitae atque 
victus, remissionemque animorum, qua; maxime sermone 
efficitur familiari, qui est in conviviis dulcissimus [Ibid. 
24.] conviyio delector. Ibi loquor quod in solum, ut dicitur, 
et gemitum etiam in risus maximos transferor — Ibid. 26. 

a — Suavis est et vehementer saepe utilis jocus et facetia? 
— niultum in causis persaepe lepore et facetiis profici vidi. 
— De Orat. ii. 54. 

Quae risum judicis movendo et illos tristes solvit affectus, 
et animum ab intentione rerum frequenter avertit, et 
aliquando etiam reficit, et a satietate vel a fatigatione 
renovat. — Quint, vi. 3. 

b Noster vero non solum extra judicia, sed in ipsis etiam 
orationibus habitus est nimius risus affectator. — Ibid. ; 
Plut. in Cic. 

c Ais enim, ut ego discesserim, omnia omnium dicta — 
in me conferri. — Ep. Fam. vii. 32 ; it. ix. 16. 

d Liber iste, quern rnihi misisti, quantum habet decla- 
rationem amoris tui ? primum, quod tibi faeeturn videtur 
quicquid ego dixi, quod aliis fortasse non item : deinde, 
quod ilia, sive faceta sunt, sive sic fiunt, narrante te, 
venustissima. — Ep. Fam. xv. 21. 

e Audio Caesarem, cum volumina jam confecerit airo- 
(pBey/xdrccv, si quod afferatur pro mco, quod meum non 
sit, rojicere solere — haee ad ilium cum reliquis actis per- 
feruntur ; ita enim ipse mandavit. — Ep. Fam. ix. 16. 

1 Utinam libertus ejus Tiro, aut alius quisquis fuit, qui 



294 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



None of these books are now remaining, nor any 
other specimen of the jests but what are incidentally 
scattered in different parts of his own and other 
people's writings, which, as the same judicious 
critic observes, through the change of taste in 
different ages, and the want of that action or gesture 
which gave the chief spirit to many of them, could 
never be explained to advantage, though several 
had attempted it. How much more cold then and 
insipid must they needs appear to us, who are 
unacquainted with the particular characters and 
stories to which they relate, as well as the peculiar 
fashions, humour, and taste of wit in that age ? 
Yet even in these, as Quintilian also tells us, as 
well as in his other compositions, people would 
sooner find what they might reject than what they 
could add to them?. 

He had a great number of fine houses in different 
parts of Italy : some writers reckon up eighteen, — 
which, excepting the family-seat at Arpinum, seem 
to have been all purchased or built by himself. 
They were situated generally near to the sea, and 
placed at proper distances along the lower coast 
between Rome and Pompeii, which was about four 
leagues beyond Naples ; and for the elegance of 
structure and the delights of their situation, are 
called by him the eyes, or the beauties, of Italy 11 . 
Those in which he took the most pleasure and 
usually spent some part of every year, were his 
Tusculum, Antium, Astura, Arpinum ; hisFormian, 
Cuman, Puteolan, and Pompeian villas, all of them 
large enough for the reception not only of his own 
family but of his friends and numerous guests, 
many of whom of the first quality used to pass 
several days with him in their excursions from 
Rome. But besides these that may properly be 
reckoned seats, with large plantations and gardens 
around them, he had several little inns, as he calls 
them, or baiting-places on the road, built for his 
accommodation in passing from one house to an- 
other 1 . 

His Tusculan house had been Sylla's the dictator, 
and in one of its apartments had a painting of 
his memorable victory near Nola, in the Marsic 
war, in which Cicero had served under him as a 
volunteer k . It was about four leagues from Rome, 
on the top of a beautiful hill, covered with the 
villas of the nobility, and affording an agreeable 
prospect of the city and the country around it; 
with plenty of water flowing through his grounds 
in a large stream or canal, for which he paid a rent 
to the corporation of Tusculum 1 . Its neighbour- 
hood to Rome gave him the opportunity of a retreat 
at any hour from the fatigues of the bar or the 
senate, to breathe a little fresh air and divert him- 



tres hac de re libros edidit, parents dictorum numero 
indulsisset — et plus judicii in eligendis, quam in conge- 
rendis studii adhibuissct.— Quint, vi. 3. 

g Qui tamen nunc quoque, ut in omni ejus ingenio, 
facilius quid rejici, quam quid adjici possit, invenient.— 
Ibid. ; vide etiam Macrob. Sat. ii. 1 . 

h Quodque tcmporis in praxliolis nostris, et belle aedifi- 
catis, et satis amocnis consumi potuit, in peregrinatione 
consumjmus [Ad Att. xvi. 3.] cur ocellos Italiac, villulas 
meas non video ? — Ibid. (>'. 

* Ego accepi in diversoriolo Sinuessano, tuas litcras.— 
Ad Att. xiv. 8. 

k Idque etiam in villa sua Tusculana, que postea fuit 
CrcKRONis, Sylla pinxit. — Plin. Hist. Nat. xxii. (!. 

i EgoTusculanis pro Ai\\<a Crabra vectigal pendam, quia 
a municipio fundum accepi.— Con. Rull. iii. 2. 



self with his friends or family; so that this was the 
place in which he took the most delight and spent 
the greatest share of his leisure, and for that reason 
improved and adorned it beyond all his other 
houses 1 ". 

When a greater satiety of the city or a longer 
vacation in the forum disposed him to seek a calmer 
scene and more undisturbed retirement, he used 
to remove to Antium or Astura. At Antium he 
placed his best collection of books, and as it was 
not above thirty miles from Rome, he could have 
daily intelligence there of everything that passed in 
the city. Astura was a little island at the mouth 
of a river of the same name about two leagues 
farther towards the south, between the promontories 
of Antium and Circseum, and in the view of them 
both ; a place peculiarly adapted to the purposes 
of solitude and a severe retreat, covered with a 
thick wood cut out into shady walks, in which he 
used to spend the gloomy and splenetic moments 
of his life. 

In the height of summer the mansion-house at 
Arpinum and the little island adjoining, by the 
advantage of its groves and cascades, afforded the 
best defence against the inconvenience of the heats ; 
where, in the greatest that he had ever remembered, 
we find him refreshing himself, as he writes to his 
brother, with the utmost pleasure, in the cool 
stream of his Fibrenus". 

His other villas were situated in the more public 
parts of Italy, where all the best company of Rome 
had their houses of pleasure. He had two at 
Formise, a lower and upper villa, the one near to 
the port of Cajeta, the other upon the mountains 
adjoining ; he had a third on the shore of Baiae, 
between the lake Avernus and Puteoli, which he calls 
his Puteolan ; a fourth on the hills of old Cumse, 
called his Cuman villa ; and a fifth at Pompeii, 
four leagues beyond Naples, in a country famed 
for the purity of its air, fertility of its soil, and 
delicacy of its fruits. His Puteolan house was 
built after the plan of the Academy at Athens, and 
called by that name, being adorned with a portico 
and a grove, for the same use of philosophical 
conferences. Some time after his death it fell into 
the hands of Antistius Vetus, who repaired and 
improved it, when a spring of warm water, which 
happened to burst out in one part of it, gave occa- 
sion to the following epigram, made by Laurea 
Tullius, one of Cicero's freed men. 

Quo tua Roman a? vindex clarissime linguae 
Sylva loco melius surgere jussa viret, 

m Quae mini antea signa misisti, — ea omnia in Tuscu- 
lanum deportabo. [Ad Att. i. 4.] Kos ex omnibus labo- 
ribus et molestiis uno illo in loco conquiescimus. [Ibid. 5.] 
Nos Tusculano ita delectamur, ut nobismet ipsis turn 
denique, cum illo venimus. placcamus. — Ibid. (>. 

Tbe situation of tins Tusculan bouse, which had been 
built perhaps by Sylla, confirms what Seneca has observed 
of the villas of all the other great captains of Rome, 
Marius, Pompey, Caesar ; that they were placed always 
on hills, or the highest ground that they could find ; it 
being thought more military to command the view of the 
country beneath them, and that houses so situated had 
the appearance of a camp rather than a villa. [Sence. 
Epist. 51.] Rut this delightful spot is now possessed by a 
convent of monks, called Orotta Ferrata, whore they still 
show the remains of Cicero's columns and fine buildings, 
and the duets of water that flowed through his gardens. 

11 Ego ex magnis caloribus, non enim meminimus ma- 
jorcs, in Arpinati. suninia cum amoenitate fluminis, me 
refeci ludorum diebus. — Ad Quint. Frat. ii. 1. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



295 



Atque Academiae celebratam nomine villain 

Nunc reparat cultu sub potiore Vetus, 
Hie etiam apparent lymphae non ante repertas, 

Languida quae infuso lumina rore levant. 
Nimirum locus ipse sui Ciceronis honori 

Hoc dedit, hac fontes cum patefecit ope. 
Ut quoniam totum legitur sine fine per orbem, 

Sint plures, oculis quae medeantur, aquae °. 

Where groves, once tbine, now with fresh verdure bloom, 

Great parent of the eloquence of Rome, 

And where thy Academy, favourite seat, 

Now to Antistius yields its sweet retreat, 

A gushing stream bursts out, of wondrous power, 

To heal the eyes, and weaken'd sight restore. 

The place, which all its pride from Cicero drew, 

Repays this honour to his memory due, 

That since his works throughout the world are spread, 

And with such eagerness by all are read, 

New springs of healing quality should rise, 

To ease the increase of labour to the eyes. 

The furniture of his houses was suitable to the 
elegance of his taste and the magnificence of his 
buildings ; his galleries were adorned with statues 
and paintings of the best Grecian masters, and his 
vessels and moveables were of the best work and 
choicest materials. There was a cedar table of his 
remaining in Pliny's time, said to be the first which 
was ever seen in Rome, and to have cost him eighty 
pounds p. He thought it the part of an eminent 
citizen to preserve a uniformity of character in 
every article of his conduct, and to illustrate his 
dignity by the splendour of his life. This was the 
reason of the great variety of his houses, and of 
their situation in the most conspicuous parts of 
Italy, along the course of the Appian road, that 
they might occur at every stage to the observation 
of travellers, and lie commodious for the reception 
and entertainment of his friends. 

The reader, perhaps, when he reflects on what 
the old writers have said of the mediocrity of his 
paternal estate, will be at a loss to conceive whence 
all his revenues flowed that enabled him to sustain 
the vast expense of building and maintaining such 
a number of noble houses ; but the solution will be 
easy when we recollect the great opportunities that 
he had of improving his original fortunes. The 
two principal funds of wealth to the leading men 
of Rome were, first, the public magistracies and 

° Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxi. 2. 

This villa was afterwards an imperial palace, possessed 
by the emperor Hadrian, who died and was buried in it ; 
where he is supposed to have breathed out that last and 
celebrated adieu to his little pallid, frightened, fluttering 
soul l ; which would have left him with less regret, if, 
from Cicero's habitation on earth, it had known the way 
to those regions above, where Cicero probably still lives in 
the fruition of endless happiness 2 . 

p Extat hodie M. Ciceronis, in ilia paupertate, et quod 
magis mirum est, illo aevo empta H. S. x. [Plin. Hist. Nat. 
xiii. 15.] nullius ante Ciceronianam vetustior memoria est. 
—Ibid. 16. 



1 Animula vagula, blandula, 
Hospes, comesque corporis, 
Quae nunc abibis in loca, 
Pallidula, rigida, nudula, 
Nee, ut soles, dabis jocos. 

JEUi Spartian. Vita Hadr. 25. 
2 Ubi nunc agat anima Ciceronis, fortasse non est 
humani judicii pronunciare: me certe non admodum 
adversum habituri sint in ferendis calculis, qui sperant 
ilium apudsuperos quietamvitam agere. — Erasm. Procem. 
in Tusc. Quasst. ad Joh. Ulatten. 



provincial commands ; secondly, the presents of 
kings, princes, and foreign states, whom they had 
obliged by their services and protection : and though 
no man was more moderate in the use of these 
advantages than Cicero, yet to one of his prudence, 
economy, and contempt of vicious pleasures, these 
were abundantly sufficient to answer all his ex- 
penses^. For in his province of Cilicia, after all 
the memorable instances of his generosity, by which 
he saved to the public a full million sterling, which 
all other governors had applied to their private 
use, yet at the expiration of his year he left in the 
hands of the publicans in Asia near twenty thousand 
pounds, reserved from the strict dues of his govern- 
ment, and remitted to him afterwards at Rome r . 
But there was another way of acquiring money 
esteemed the most reputable of any, which brought 
large and frequent supplies to him, the legacies of 
deceased friends. It was the peculiar custom of 
Rome for the clients and dependants of families to 
bequeath at their death to their patrons some con- 
siderable part of their estates, as the most effectual 
testimony of their respect and gratitude ; and the 
more a man received in this way the more it re- 
dounded to his credit. Thus Cicei-o mentions it 
to the honour of Lucullus, that while he governed 
Asia as proconsul many great estates were left to 
him by will s ; and Nepos tells us, in praise of 
Atticus, that he succeeded to many inheritances of 
the same kind, bequeathed to him on no other 
account than of his friendly and amiable temper'. 
Cicero had his full share of these testamentary 
donations, as we see from the many instances of 
them mentioned in his letters' 1 ; and when he was 
falsely reproached by Antony with being neglected 
on these occasions, he declared in his reply, "that 
he had gained from this single article about two 
hundred thousand pounds, by the free and volun- 
tary gifts of dying friends, — not the forged wills of 
persons unknown to him, with which he charged 
Antony. " x 

His moral character was never blemished by the 
stain of any habitual vice ; but was a shining 
pattern of virtue to an age of all others the most 
licentious and profligate ?. His mind was superior 
to all the sordid passions which engross little souls; 
avarice, envy, malice, lust. If we sift his familiar 
letters we cannot discover in them the least hint 
of anything base, immodest, spiteful, or perfidious ; 
but a uniform principle of benevolence, justice, 
love of his friends and country, flowing through 
the whole, and inspiring all his thoughts and 
actions. Though no man ever felt the effects of 

1 Parva sunt, quae desunt nostris quidem moribus, et ea 
sunt ad explicandum expeditissima, modo valeamus. — 
Ad Quint. Frat, ii. 15. 

r Ego in cistophoro in Asia habeo ad H. S. bis et vicies, 
hujus pecuniae permutatione fidem nostram facile tuebere. 
—Ad Att. xi. 1. 

s Maximas audio tibi, L. Luculle, pro tua eximia libe- 
ralitate, maximisque beneficiis in tuos, venisse hereditates. 
—Pro Flacco, 34. 

1 Multas enim hereditates nulla alia re, quam bonitato 
est consecutus. — Corn. Nep. in vit. Attic. 21. 

« Ad Att. ii. 20 ; xi. 2. Pro Milone, 18. 

x Hereditates mini negasti venire— ego enim amplius 
II. S. ducenties acceptum hereditatibus retuli — me nemo, 
nisi amicus, fecit heredem — to is, quern tu vidisti nun- 
quam.— Phil. ii. 16". 

y Cum vita fuerit intcgra, nee intcgra solum scd etiam 
casta Erasm. Epist. ad Joh. Ulatten. 



296 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



other people's envy more severely than he, yet no 
man was ever more free from it. This is allowed 
to him by all the old writers, and is evident indeed 
from his works, where we find him perpetually 
praising and recommending whatever was laudable, 
even in a rival or an adversary ; celebrating merit 
wherever it was found, — whether in the ancients 
or his contemporaries, whether in Greeks or 
Romans, — and verifying a maxim which he had 
declared in a speech to the senate, that no man 
could be envious of another's virtue, who was 
conscious of his own 2 . 

His sprightly wit would naturally have recom- 
mended him to the favour of the ladies, whose 
company he used to frequent when young, and with 
many of whom of the first quality he was oft 
engaged in his riper years, to confer about the 
interests of their husbands, brothers, or relations, 
who were absent from Rome : yet we meet with no 
trace of any criminal gallantry, or intrigue with 
any of them. In a letter to Psetus, towards the end 
of his life, he gives a jocose account of his supping 
with their friend Volumnius, an Epicurean wit of 
the first class, when the famed courtesan, Cytheris, 
who had been Volumnius' slave, and was then his 
mistress, made one of the company at table : 
where, after several jokes on that incident, he says, 
that he never suspected that she would have been 
of the party ; and though he was always a lover of 
cheerful entertainments, yet nothing of that sort 
had ever pleased him when young, much less now, 
when he was old a . There was one lady, however, 
called Cserellia, with whom he kept up a particular 
familiarity and correspondence of letters ; on which 
Dio, as it has been already hinted, absurdly grounds 
some little scandal, though he owns her to have 
been seventy years old. She is frequently men- 
tioned in Cicero's letters as a lover of books and 
philosophy ; and on that account, as fond of his 
company and writings : but while, out of com- 
plaisance to her sex and a regard to her uncommon 
talents, he treated her always with respect ; yet by 
the hints which he drops of her to Atticus, it 
appears that she had no share of his affections, or 
any real authority with him b . 

His failings were as few as were ever found in 
any eminent genius ; such as flowed from his con- 
stitution, not his will ; and were chargeable rather 
to the condition of his humanity than to the fault 
of the man. He was thought to be too sanguine 
in prosperity, too desponding in adversity ; and apt 
to persuade himself, in each fortune, that it would 
never have an end c . This is Pollio's account 
of him, which seems in general to be true : Brutus 
touches the first part of it in one of his letters to 
him, and when things were going prosperously 
against Antony, puts him gently in mind that he 

* Declarasti verum esse id, quod ego semper sensi, 
neminem allerius, qui suae confideret, virtuti invidere.— 
Phil. x. 1 ; Plut. in Cic. 

» Me vero nihil istorum ne juvenem quidem movit un- 
quam, ne nunc senem. — Ep. Fam. ix. 2G. 

b Mirifice Cacrellia, studio videlicet philosophise flagrans, 
describit a tuis: istos ipsos de finibus habet. [Ad Att. 
xiii. 21.] Caerellia; facile satisfeci ; nee valde laborare visa 
est : et si ilia, ego certe non laborarem. — Ibid. xv. 1 ; it. 
xii. 51. 14. 19 ; Ep. Fam. xiii. 72 ; Quint, vi. 3 ; Dio, 303. 

c Utinam moderatius secundas res, et fortius adversas 
ferre potuisset ! namquc utrasque cum venerant ci, mutari 
eas non posse rebatur.— Asin. Poll, apud Sen. Suasor. 6. 



seemed to trust too much to his hopes d : and he 
himself allows the second, and says, that if any 
one was timorous in great and dangerous events, 
apprehending always the worst, rather than hoping 
the best, he was the man ; and if that was a fault, 
confesses himself not to be free from it e : yet in 
explaining afterwards the nature of this timidity, it 
was such (he tells us) as showed itself rather in 
foreseeing dangers than in encountering them ; an 
explication which the latter part of his life fully 
confirmed, and above all his death, which no man 
could sustain with greater courage and resolution f . 

But the most conspicuous and glaring passion 
of his soul was, the love of glory and thirst of 
praise : a passion that he not only avowed, but 
freely indulged ; and sometimes, as he himself 
confesses, to a degree even of vanity s. This often 
gave his enemies a plausible handle of ridiculing 
his pride and arrogance h ; while the forwardness 
that he showed to celebrate his own merits in all 
his public speeches, seemed to justify their cen- 
sures : and since this is generally considered as the 
grand foible of his life, and has been handed down 
implicitly from age to age, without ever being 
fairly examined, or rightly understood, it will be 
proper to lay open the source from which the 
passion itself flowed, and explain the nature of 
that glory, of which he professes himself so fond. 

True glory, then, according to his own definition 
of it, is a wide and illustrious fame of many and 
great benefits conferred upon our frends, our 
country, or the whole race of mankind 1 . ** It is 
not (he says) the empty blast of popular favour, or 
the applause of a giddy multitude, which all wise 
men had ever despised, and none more than himself, 
but the consenting praise of all honest men, and 
the incorrupt testimony of those who can judge of 
excellent merit, which resounds always to virtue 
as the echo to the voice ; and since it is the general 
companion of good actions, ought not to be rejected 
by good men. That those who aspired to this glory 
were not to expect ease or pleasure, or tranquillity 
of life for their pains, but must give up their own 
peace to secure the peace of others ; must expose 
themselves to storms and dangers for the public 
good, sustain many battles with the audacious and 
the wicked, and some even with the powerful : in 
short, must behave themselves so as to give their 
citizens cause to rejoice that they had ever been 
born k ." This is the notion which he inculcates 



d Qua in re, Cicero, vir optime ac fortissime, mihique 
merito et meo nomine et reipublicae carissime, nimis cre- 
dere videris spei tuae. — Brut, ad Cic. 4. 

e Nam si quisquam est timidus in magnis periculo- 
sisque rebus, semperque magis adversos rerum exitus 
metuens, quam sperans secundos, is ego sum : et si hoc 
vitium est, eo me non carere confiteor. — Ep. Fam. vi. 14. 

{ Parum fortis videbatur quibusdam : quibus optime 
respondit ipse, non se timidum in suscipiendis, sed in 
providendis periculis : quod probavit morte quoque ipsa, 
quam praestantissimo suscepit animo.' — Quint, xii. 1. 

S Nunc quoniam laudis avidissimi semper fuimus. [Ad 
Att. i. 15.] Quin ctiam quod est subinane in nobis, et 
non a(pi\6do^ou, bellum est enim sua vitia nosse. [Ibid, 
ii. 17.] Sum etiam ayidior etiam, quam satis est, glorias. 
— Ep. Fam. ix. 14. 

h Et quoniam hoc reprehendis, quod sol ere me dicas de 
me ipso gloriosus prasdieare. — Pro Domo, 35. 

> Si quidem gloria est illustris ac pervagata multorum et 
magnorum vel in suos, vel in patriam, vel in omne genus 
hominum fama meritorum.— Pro Marcello, 8. 

k Si quisquam fuit unquam remotus et natura, et magis 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



297 



everywhere of true glory, which is surely one of 
the noblest principles that can inspire a human 
breast ; implanted by God in our nature to dignify 
and exalt it, and always found the strongest in 
the best and most elevated minds ; and to which 
we owe everything great and laudable that history 
has to offer to us, through all the ages of the 
heathen world. " There is not an instance (says 
Cicero) of a man's exerting himself ever with praise 
and virtue in the dangers of his country, who was 
not drawn to it by the hopes of glory, and a regard 
to posterity 1 ." " Give me a boy (says Quintilian) 
whom praise excites, whom glory warms ;" for such 
a scholar was sure to answer all his hopes, and do 
credit to his discipline™. " Whether posterity will 
have any respect for me (says Pliny), I know not ; 
but am sure that I have deserved some from it : I 
will not say by my wit, for that would be arrogant ; 
but by the zeal, by the pains, by the reverence, 
which I have always paid to it n ." 

It will not seem strange to observe the wisest 
of the ancients pushing this principle to so great a 
length, and considering glory as the amplest re- 
ward of a well-spent life ; when we reflect that 
the greatest part of them had no notion of any 
other reward or futurity ; and even those who 
believed a state of happiness to the good, yet 
entertained it with so much diffidence, that they 
indulged it rather as a wish, than a well-grounded 
hope, and were glad, therefore, to lay hold on that 
which seemed to be within their reach, a futurity 
of their own creating ; an immortality of fame and 
glory from the applause of posterity. This, by a 
pleasing fiction, they looked upon as a propagation 
of life, and an eternity of existence ; and had no 
small comfort in imagining, that though the sense 
of it should not reach to themselves, it would extend 
at least to others ; and that they should be doing 
good still when dead, by leaving the example of 
their virtues to the imitation of mankind. Thus 

etiam, ut mihi quidem sentire videor, ratione atque doc- 
trina, ab inani laude et sermonibus vulgi, ego profecto is 
sum. — Ep. Fam. xv. 4. 

Est enim gloria— consentiens laus bonorum ; incorrupta 
vox bene judicantium de excellente virtute : ea virtuti 
resonat tanquam imago : quae quia recte factorum ple- 
rumque comes est, non est bonis viris repudianda. — Tusc. 
Quaest. iii. 2. 

Qui autem bonam famam bonorum, quae sola vera 
gloria nominari potest, expetunt, aliis otium quaerere 
debent et voluptates, non sibi. Sudandum est bis pro 
communibus commodis, adeundae inimicitiae, subeundae 
saepe pro republica tempestates. Cum multis audacibus, 
irnprobis, nonnunquam etiam potentibus, dimicandum. — 
Pro Sext. 66. 

Carum esse civem, bene de republica mereri, laudari, 
coli, diligi, gloriosum est — quare ita guberna rempublicam 
ut natum esse te cives tui gaudeant : sine quo nee beatus, 
nee clarus quisquam esse potest. — Phil. i. J 4. 

1 Neque quisquam nostrum in reipublicae periculis, cum 
laude ac virtute versatur, quin spe posteritatis, fructuque 
ducatur.— Pro C. Rabir. 10. 

m Mihi detur ille puer, quem laus exeitet, quern gloria 
juvet. Hie erit alendus ambitu— in hoc desidiam nunquam 
verebor. — Quint, i. 3. 

u — Posteris an aliqua cura nostri, nescio. Nos certe 
meremur ut sit aliqua : non dico, ingenio ; id enim super- 
bum ; sed studio, sed labore, sed reverentia posterum.— 
Plin. Ep. 

Sed tamen ex omnibus praemiis virtutis, si esset 
habenda ratio praemiorum, amplissimum esse praemimn 
gloriam. Esse banc unam, quae brevitatem vita? posteri- 
tatis memoria consolaretur.— Pro Milone, 35. 



Cicero, as he often declares, never looked upon 
that to be his life which was confined to this nar- 
row circle on earth, but considered his acts as 
seeds sown in the immense field of the universe, to 
raise up the fruit of glory and immortality to him 
through a succession of infinite ages : nor has he 
been frustrated of his hope, or disappointed of his 
end ; but as long as the name of Rome subsists, or 
as long as learning, virtue, and liberty preserve any 
credit in the world, he will be great and glorious 
in the memory of all posterity. 

As to the other part of the charge, or the proof 
of his vanity, drawn from his boasting so frequently 
of himself in his speeches both to the senate and 
the people, though it may appear to a common 
reader to be abundantly confirmed by his writings, 
yet if we attend to the circumstances of the times, 
and the part which he acted in them, we shall find 
it not only excusable, but in some degree even 
necessary. The fate of Rome was now brought 
to a crisis, and the contending parties were making 
their last efforts either to oppress or preserve it. 
Cicero was the head of those who stood up for its 
liberty, which entirely depended on the influence 
of his counsels : he had many years, therefore, 
been the common mark of the rage and malice of 
all who were aiming at illegal powers, or a tyranny 
in the state ; and while these were generally sup- 
ported by the military power of the empire, he had 
no other arms or means of defeating them but his 
authority with the senate and people, grounded on 
the experience of his services and the persuasion 
of his integrity, so that, to obviate the perpetual 
calumnies of the factious, he was obliged to incul- 
cate the merit and good effects of his counsels, in 
order to confirm people in their union and ad- 
herence to them, against the intrigues of those 
who were employing all arts to subvert them. 
"The frequent commemoration of his acts," says 
Quintilian, "was not made so much for glory as 
for defence ; to repel calumny, and vindicate his 
measures when they were attacked p." And this is 
what Cicero himself declared in all his speeches : 
" that no man ever heard him speak of himself 
but when he was forced to it : that when he was 
urged with fictitious crimes, it was his custom to 
answer them with his real services : and if ever he 
said anything glorious of himself, it was not through 
a fondness of praise, but to repel an accusation - : 
that no man who had been conversant in great 
affairs, and treated with particular envy, could refute 
the contumely of an enemy, without touching upon 
his own praises ; and after all his labours for the 
common safety, if a just indignation had drawn from 
him at any time what might seem to be vain glorious, 
it might reasonably be forgiven to him r : that 
when others were silent about him, if he could not 

v Vigesimus annus est, cum omnes scelerati me unum 
petunt.— Phil. xii. 10 ; vi. 6. 

At plerumque illud quoque non sine aliqua ratione fecit. 
— Ut illorum, quae egerat in consulatu frequens comme- 
moratio, possit videri non gloriae magis quam defensioni 
data — plerumque contra inimicos atque obtrectatores plus 
vendicat sibi; erant enim tuenda, cum objicerentur. — 
Quint, xi. 1. 

<l Quis unquam audivit, cum ego de me nisi coactus ac 
necessario dicerem ?— dicendum igitur est id, quod non 
dicerem nisi coactus : nihil enim unquam de me dixi 
sublatius asciscendae laudis causa potius, quam criminis 
depellendi.— Pro Domo, 35, 36. 

r Potest quisquam vir in rebus magnis cum invidia 



298 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



then forbear to speak of himself, that indeed would 
be shameful ; but when he was injured, accused, 
exposed to popular odium, he must certainly be 
allowed to assert his liberty, if they would not 
suffer him to retain his dignityV This, then, was 
the true state of the case, as it is evident from the 
facts of his history : he had an ardent love of glory, 
and an eager thirst of praise : was pleased, when 
living, to hear his acts applauded ; yet more still 
with imagining that they would ever be celebrated 
when he was dead : a passion which, for the reasons 
already hinted, had always the greatest force on the 
greatest souls : but it must needs raise our con- 
tempt and indignation to see every conceited 
pedant and trifling complainer, who know little of 
Cicero's real character, and less still of their own, 
presuming to call him the vainest of mortals. 

But there is no point of light in which we can 
view him with more advantage or satisfaction to 
ourselves, than in the contemplation of his learn- 
ing, and the surprising extent of his knowledge. 
This shines so conspicuous in all the monuments 
which remain of him, that it even lessens the dig- 
nity of his general character, while the idea of the 
scholar absorbs that of the senator, and by con- 
sidering him as the greatest writer, we are apt to 
forget that he was the greatest magistrate also of 
Rome. We learn our Latin from him at school ; 
our style and sentiments at the college : here 
the generality take their leave of him, and sel- 
dom think of him more, but as of an orator, a 
moralist, or philosopher of antiquity. But it is 
with characters as with pictures ; we cannot judge 
well of a single part, without surveying the whole, 
since the perfection of each depends on its pro- 
portion and relation to the rest ; while in viewing 
them altogether, they mutually reflect an additional 
grace upon each other. His learning, considered 
separately, will appear admirable, yet much more 
so, when it is found in the possession of the first 
statesman of a mighty empire : his abilities as a 
statesman are glorious ; yet surprise us still more, 
when they are observed in the ablest scholar and 
philosopher of his age : but a union of both these 
characters exhibits that sublime specimen of per- 
fection, to which the best parts with the best 
culture can exalt human nature 1 . 

No man, whose life had been wholly spent in 
study, ever left more numerous or more valuable 
fruits of his learning, in every branch of science 
and the politer arts ; in oratory, poetry, philosophy, 
law, history, criticism, politics, ethics ; in each of 
which he equalled the greatest masters of his 
time ; in some of them, excelled all men of all 
times u . His remaining works, as voluminous as 

versatus, satis graviter contra inimici contumeliam, sine 
sua laude respondere ? — 

Quanquam si me tantis laborious pro communi salute 
perfunctum efferret aliquando ad gloriam in refutandis 
maledictis improborum hominum animi quidam dolor, 
quis non ignosceret ?— De Harus. Resp. 8. 

s Si, cum cseteri do nobis silent, non etiam nosmet ipsi 
tacemus, grave. Scd si lacdimur, si accusamur, si in 
invidiam vocamur, profecto concedetis, ut nobis libertatem 
retinere liceat, si minus liceat dignitatem. — Pro Syll. 29. 

1 Cum ad naturam cximiam atque illustrem accesserit 
ratio quajdam, conformatioque doctrinac, turn illud nescio 
quid prseclarum ac singulare solere cxistere. — Pro Arcb. 7. 

* M. Cicero in libro, qui inscriptus est de jure civili in 
artem redigendo, verba hocc posuit— [Aul. Gell. i. 22.] M. 
Tullius non modo inter agendum nunquam est destitutus 



they appear, are but a small part of what he really 
published ; and though many of these are come 
down to us maimed by time and the barbarity of 
the intermediate ages, yet they are justly esteemed 
the most precious remains of all antiquity ; and 
like the Sibylline books, if more of them had 
perished, would have been equal still to any price. 
His industry was incredible, beyond the example 
or even conception of our days : this was the secret 
by which he performed such wonders, and recon- 
ciled perpetual study with perpetual affairs. He 
suffered no part of his leisure to be idle, or the 
least interval of it to be lost ; but what other 
people gave to the public shows, to pleasures, to 
feasts, nay, even to sleep, and the ordinary refresh- 
ments of nature, he generally gave to his books, 
and the enlargement of his knowledge x . On days 
of business, when he had anything particular to 
compose, he had no other time for meditating, but 
when he was taking a few turns in his walks, where 
he used to dictate his thoughts to his scribes, who 
attended him ?. We find many of his letters dated 
before day-light ; some from the senate, others 
from his meals, and the crowd of his morning 
levee z . 

No compositions afford more pleasure than the 
epistles of great men : they touch the heart of the 
reader, by laying open that of the writer. The 
letters of eminent wits, eminent scholars, eminent 
statesmen, are all esteemed in their several kinds ; 
but there never was a collection that excelled so 
much in every kind as Cicero's, for the purity of 
style, the importance of the matter, or the dignity 
of the persons concerned in them. We have about 
a thousand still remaining, all written after he was 
forty years old ; which are but a small part, not 
only of what he wrote, but of what were actually 
published after his death by his servant Tiro. For 
we see many volumes of them quoted by the 
ancients, which are utterly lost ; as the first book 
of his letters to Licinius Calvus ; the first, also, to 
Q. Axius ; a second book to his son ; a second, 
also, to Corn. Nepos ; a third book to J. Caesar ; 
a third to Octavius ; and a third, also, to Pansa ; 
an eighth book to M. Brutus ; and a ninth to 
scientia juris, sed etiam componere aliqua de eo coeperat. 
[Quint, xii. 3.] At M. Tullium, non ilium babemus 
Euphranorem, circa plurium artium species praestantem, 
sed in omnibus, quae in quoque laudantur, eminentissi- 
mum. — Ibid. 10. 

x Quantum cssteris ad suas res obeundas, quantum ad 
festos dies ludorum celebrandos, quantum ad alias volup- 
tates, et ipsam requiem animi et corporis conceditur tem- 
porum : quantum alii tribuunt tempestivis conviviis : 
quantum denique aleaa, quantum pilse, tantuni mihi ego- 
met ad hasc studia recolenda sumsero. — Pro Arch. 6. 

Cui fuerit ne otium quidem unquam otiosum. Nam 
quas tu commemoras legere te solere orationes, cum oti- 
osus sis, has ego scripsi ludis et feriis, ne omnino unquam 
essem otiosus. — Pro Plancio, 27. 

y Ita quicquid conficio aut cogito, in ambulationis fere 
tempus confero. [Ad Quint. Frat. iii. 3.] Nam cum vacui 
temporis nihil haberem, et cum recreandse voculae causa 
mihi necesse esset ambulare, hsec dictavi ambulans.— Ad 
Att. ii. 23. 

z Cum hsec scribebam antelucem. [Ad Quint. Frat. iii. 2. 
7.] Ante lucem cum scriberem contra Epicureos, de eodem 
oleo et opera exaravi nescio quid ad te, et ante lucem dedi. 
Deinde cum, somno repetito, simul cum sole experrectus 
essem. [Ad Att. xiii. 38.] Ilaec ad te scripsi apposita 
secunda mensa. [Ibid. 14. 6. 21. 15. 13.] Hoc paullulum 
exaravi ipsa in turba matutinsc salutationis. — Ad Brut, 
ii. 4. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



299 



A.Hirtius. Of all which, excepting a few to J. Caesar 
and Brutus, we have nothing more left than some 
scattered phrases and sentences, gathered from the 
citations of the old critics and grammarians a . 
What makes these letters still more estimable is, 
that he had never designed them for the public, 
nor kept any copies of them ; for the year before 
his death, when Atticus was making some inquiry 
about them, he sent him word that he had made 
no collection, and that Tiro had preserved only 
about seventy b . Here, then, we may expect to see 
the genuine man, without disguise or affectation ; 
especially in his letters to Atticus, to whom he 
talked with the same frankness as to himself; 
opened the rise and progress of each thought ; and 
never entered into any affair without his particular 
advice : so that these may be considered as the 
memoirs of his times ; containing the most authen- 
tic materials for the history of that age, and laying 
open the grounds and motives of all the great 
events that happened in it c : and it is the want of 
attention to them that makes the generality of 
writers on these times so superficial, as well as 
erroneous, while they choose to transcribe the dry 
and imperfect relations of the later Greek his- 
torians, rather than take the pains to extract the 
original account of facts from one who was a 
principal actor in them. 

In his familiar letters he affected no particular 
elegance or choice of words, but took the first that 
occurred from common use and the language of 
conversation d . Whenever he was disposed to joke, 
his wit was easy and natural, flowing always from 
the subject, and throwing out what came upper- 
most ; nor disdaining even a pun, when it served 
to make his friends laugh e . In letters of compli- 
ment, some of which were addressed to the greatest 
men who ever lived, his inclination to please is 
expressed in a manner agreeable to nature and 
reason, with the utmost delicacy, both of sentiment 
and diction, yet without any of those pompous 
titles and lofty epithets which modern custom has 
introduced into our commerce with the great, and 
falsely stamped with the name of politeness, though 
they are the real offspring of barbarism, and the 
effect of our degeneracy both in taste and manners. 
In his political letters, all his maxims are drawn 
from an intimate knowledge of men and things ; he 
always touches the point on which the affair turns ; 
foresees the danger, and foretells the mischief; — 
which never failed to follow upon the neglect of his 
counsels ; of which there were so many instances, 
that, as an eminent writer of his own time observed 
of him, " his prudence seemed to be a kind of 
divination, which foretold everything that after- 

a See the fragments of his letters in the editions of his 
works. 

t» Mearum epistolarum nulla est (Tvvaycoyf]. Sed habet 
Tiro instar septuaginta. — Ad Att. xvi. 5. 

c Q,uas qui legat non multum desideret historiam con- 
textam eorum temporum ; sic enini omnia de studiis 
principum, vitiis ducum, ac mutationibus reipublicas per- 
scripta sunt, ut nihil in his non appareat.' — Corn. Nep. in 
vit. Attic. 16. 

d Epistolas vero quotidianis verbis texere solemus.— Ep, 
Fam. ix. 21. 

e Quicquid in buccam venerit. [Ad Att. vii. 10; xiv. 
7.] In reproaching Antony for publishing one of his 
letters to him, " How many jests (says he) are often found 
in private letters, which, if made public, might be thought 
foolish and impertinent ! "—Phil. ii. 4. 



wards happened, with the veracity of a prophet f ." 
But none of his letters do him more credit than 
those of the recommendatory kind : the others 
show his wit and his parts, these his benevolence 
and his probity : he solicits the interests of his 
friends with all the warmth and force of words of 
which he was master, and alleges generally some 
personal reason for his peculiar zeal in the cause, 
and that his own honour was concerned in the 
success of its. 

But his letters are not more valuable on any 
account than for their being the only monuments 
of that sort which remain to us from free Rome. 
They breathe the last words of expiring liberty ; a 
great part of them having been written in the very 
crisis of its ruin, to rouse up all the virtue that was 
left in the honest and the brave, to the defence of 
their country. The advantage which they derive 
from this circumstance will easily be observed, by 
comparing them with the epistles of the best and 
greatest who flourished afterwards in imperial 
Rome. Pliny's letters are justly admired by men 
of taste : they show the scholar, the wit, the fine 
gentleman : yet we cannot but observe a poverty 
and barrenness through the whole, that betrays 
the awe of a master. All his stories and reflections 
terminate in private life ; there is nothing import- 
ant in politics ; no great affairs explained ; no 
account of the motives of public counsels : he had 
borne all the same offices with Cicero, whom in all 
points he affected to emulate 11 ; yet his honours 
were in effect but nominal, conferred by a superior 
power, and administered by a superior will ; and 
with the old titles of consul and proconsul, we 
want still the statesman, the politician, and the 
magistrate. In his provincial command, where 

f TJt facile existimari possit prudentiam quodammodo 
esse divinationem. Non enim Cicero ea solum, quae vivo 
se acciderunt, futura prasdixit, sed etiam, quas nunc usu 
veniunt, cecinit, ut vates.— Corn. Nep. in Vit. Attic. 16. 

S An objection may possibly be made to my character 
of these letters, from a certain passage in one of them, 
addressed to a proconsul of Africa, wherein he intimates, 
that there was a private mark agreed upon between them, 
which, when affixed to his letters, would signify, what 
real stress he himself laid upon them, and what degree of 
influence he desired them to have with his friend. [Ep. 
Fam. xiii. 6.] But that seems to relate only to the parti- 
cular case of one man, who having great affairs in Africa, 
was likely to be particularly troublesome both to Cicero 
and the proconsul, whose general concerns, however, he 
recommends in that letter with the utmost warmth and 
affection. But if he had used the same method with all 
the other proconsuls and foreign commanders, it seems 
not only reasonable, but necessary, that a man of his cha- 
racter and authority, whose favour was perpetually soli- 
cited by persons of all ranks, should make some distinction 
between his real friends, whom he recommended for 
their own sake, and those, whose recommendations were 
extorted from him by the importunity of others : which 
was frequently the case, as he himself declares in these 
very letters. " Your regard for me," says he, " is so 
publicly known, that I am importuned by many for recom- 
mendations to you. But though I give them sometimes 
to men of no consequence, yet for the most part, it is to 
my real friends." Again, " Our friendship, and your 
affection to me, is so illustrious, that I am under a 
necessity of recommending many people to you : but 
though it is my duty to wish well to all whom I recom- 
mend ; yet I do not live upon the same foot of friendship 
with them all," &c— Ep. Fam. xiii. 70, 71- 

h Lajtaris, quod honoribus ejus insistam, quem aemulari 
in studiis cupio.— Plin. Ep. iv. 8. 



.100 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



Cicero governed all things with a supreme autho- 
rity, and had kings attendant on his orders ; Pliny 
durst not venture to repair a bath, or punish a 
fugitive slave, or incorporate a company of masons, 
till he had first consulted and obtained the leave 
of Trajan 1 . 

His historical works are all lost : the comment- 
aries of his consulship in Greek ; the history of 
his own affairs, to his return from exile, in Latin 
verse ; and his Anecdotes ; as well as the pieces 
that he published on natural history, of which 
Pliny quotes one, upon the wonders of nature, and 
another on perfumes k . He was meditating, like- 
wise, a general history of Rome, to which he was 
frequently urged by his friends, as the only man 
capable of adding that glory also to his country, of 
excelling the Greeks in a species of writing which 
of all others was at that time the least cultivated by 
the Romans 1 . But he never found leisure to execute 
so great a task ; yet has sketched out a plan of it, 
which, short as it is, seems to be the best that can 
be formed for the design of a perfect history. 

He declares it to be " the first and fundamental 
law of history, that it should neither dare to say 
anything that was false, or fear to say anything 
that was true, nor give any just suspicion either of 
favour or disaffection : that in the relation of things 
the writer should observe the order of time, and 
add also the description of places : that in all great 
and memorable transactions, he should first explain 
the counsels, then the acts, lastly the events : that 
in the counsels he should interpose his own judg- 
ment on the merit of them : in the acts, should 
relate not only what was done, but how it was 
done ; in the events, should show what share 
chance, or rashness, or prudence, had in them : 
that in regard to persons, he should describe, not 
only their particular actions, but the lives and 
characters of all those who bear an eminent part 
in the story : that he should illustrate the whole 
in a clear, easy, natural style ; flowing with a per- 
petual smoothness and equability ; free from the 
affectation of points and sentences, or the rough- 
ness of judicial pleadings" 1 ." 

We have no remains, likewise, of his poetry, 
except some fragments occasionally interspersed 
through his other writings ; yet these, as I have 
before observed, are sufficient to convince us that 
his poetical genius, if it had been cultivated with 
the same care, would not have been inferior to his 
oratorial. The two arts are so nearly allied, that 
an excellency in the one seems to imply a capacity 
for the other ; the same qualities being essential 

» Prusenses, Domine, balneum habent et sordidum et 
vetus, id itaque indulgentia tua restituere desiderant.' — 
Plin. Ep. x. 34. 

Quorum ego supplicium distuli, ut te conditorem dis- 
cipline militaris, firmatoremque, consulerem de modo 
poena?.— Ibid. 38. 

Tu, Domine, despice an instituendum putes collegium 
Fabrorum, duntaxat hominum cl. — Ibid. 42. 

k Cicero in " Admirandis" posuit, &c. [Plin. Hist. Nat. 
xxxi. 2.] Quod " Admirandis " suis inseruit M. Cicero. 
[Ibid. 4.] In monumcntis M. Cioeronis invenitur; Un- 
guenta gratiora esse, quae terrain, quam quae crocum 
sapiant.' — Ibid. xiii. 3 ; xvii. 5. 

1 Postulatur a te jamdiu, vel flagitatur potius historia : 
sic enim putant, te illam tractante, effici posse, ut in hoc 
etiam genere Graeciae nihil cedamus — abest enim historia 
Uteris nostris. — De Leg. i. 2, 3. 

™ De Oratore, ii. 15. 



to them both ; a sprightly fancy, fertile invention, 
flowing and numerous diction. It was in Cicero's 
time that the old rusticity of the Latin muse first 
began to be polished by the ornaments of dress 
and the harmony of numbers ; but the height of 
perfection to which it was carried after his death 
by the succeeding generation, as it left no room for 
a mediocrity in poetry, so it quite eclipsed the fame 
of Cicero. For the world always judges of things 
by comparison ; and because he was not so great a 
poet as Virgil and Horace, he was decried as none 
at all ; especially in the courts of Antony and 
Augustus, where it was a compliment to the sove- 
reign, and a fashion consequently among their 
flatterers n , to make his character ridiculous, 
wherever it lay open to them : hence flowed that 
perpetual raillery, which subsists to this day, on 
his famous verses ; 

Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea linguae. 

O fortunatam natam me consule Romam. 

And two bad lines, picked out by the malice of 
enemies and transmitted to posterity, as a speci- 
men of the rest, have served to damn many thou- 
sands of good ones : for Plutarch reckons him 
among the most eminent of the Roman poets : 
and Pliny the younger was proud of emulating 
him in his poetic character ; and Quintilian 
seems to charge the cavils of his censurers to a 
principle of malignityP. But his own verses carry 
the surest proof of their merit : being written in 
the best manner of that age in which he lived, 
and in the style of Lucretius, whose poem he 
is said to have revised and corrected for its pub- 
lication, after Lucretius's deaths. This however 
is certain, that he was the constant friend and 
generous patron of all the celebrated poets of his 
time r : of Accius, Archias, Chilius, Lucretius, 
Catullus : who pays his thanks to him in the fol- 
lowing lines, for some favour that he had received 
from him : 

Tully, most eloquent by far 

Of all, who have been or who are, 

Or who in ages still to come 

Shall rise of all the sons of Rome, 

To thee Catullus grateful sends 

His warmest thanks, and recommends 

His humble muse, as much below 

All other poets he, as thou 

All other patrons dost excel, 

In power of words and speaking well s . 

n Postea vero quam triumvirali proscriptione con- 
sumptus est, passim qui oderant, qui invidebant, qui 
aemulabantur, adulatores etiam praesentis potential, non 
responsurum invaserunt. — Quint, xii. 10. 

Sed ego verear, ne me non satis deceat, quod decuit 
M. Tullium.— Plin. Ep. v. 3. 

P In carminibus utinam pepercisset, quae non desierunt 
carpere maligni. — Quint, xi. 1 . 

1 Euseb. Chronic. 

r Adjicis M. Tullium mira benignitate poetarum ingenia 
fovisse. [Plin. Ep. iii. 15.] Ut ex familiari ejus L. Accio 
poeta audire sum solitus. [Brut. 197-] Lucretii poemata, 
ut scribis, lita sunt multis luminibus ingenii, multae 
tamen artis. — Ad Quint. Fiat. ii. 11 ; Ad Att. i. 9.16. 
s Disertissime Romuli nepotum, 
Quot sunt, quotque fuere, Marce Tulli, 
Quotque post aliis crunt in annis; 
Gratias tibi maximas Catullus 
Agit, pessimus omnium poeta, 
Tanto pessimus omnium poeta 
Quanto tu optimus omnium patronus. 

Catull. 47. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



SOI 



But poetry was the amusement only, and relief 
of his other studies. Eloquence was his distin- 
guishing talent — his sovereign attribute. To this 
he devoted all the faculties of his soul, and attained 
to a degree of perfection in it, that no mortal ever 
surpassed : so that, as a polite historian observes, 
" Rome had but few orators before him whom it 
could praise : none whom it could admire 1 ." De- 
mosthenes was the pattern, by which he formed 
himself: whom he emulated with such success as 
to merit, what St. Jerome calls that beautiful 
eloge : " Demosthenes has snatched from thee the 
glory of being the first : thou from Demosthenes 
that of being the only orator u ." The genius, the 
capacity, the style and manner of them both, were 
much the same ; their eloquence of that great, 
sublime and comprehensive kind, which dignified 
every subject, and gave it all the force and beauty 
of which it was capable ; it was that roundness of 
speaking, as the ancients call it, where there was 
nothing either redundant or deficient : nothing 
either to be added or retrenched ; their perfections 
were in all points so transcendent, and yet so simi- 
lar, that the critics are not agreed on which side 
to give the preference. Quintilian indeed, the 
most judicious of them, has given it on the whole 
to Cicero ; but if, as others have thought, Cicero 
had not all the nerves, the energy, or, as he him- 
self calls it, the thunder of Demosthenes, he 
excelled him in the copiousness and elegance of 
his diction, the variety of his sentiments, and 
above all, in the vivacity of his wit, and smartness 
of his raillery. Demosthenes had nothing jocose 
or facetious in him, yet by attempting sometimes 
to jest, showed that the thing itself did not dis- 
please, but did not belong to him : for (as Longinus 
says) whenever he affected to be pleasant, he made 
himself ridiculous ; and if he happened to raise a 
laugh, it was chiefly upon himself. Whereas 
Cicero, from a perpetual fund of wit and ridicule, 
had the power always to please, when he found 
himself unable to convince : and could put his 
judges into good humour when he had cause to be 
afraid of their severity ; so that, by the opportu- 
nity of a well-timed joke, he is said to have 
preserved many of his clients from manifest ruin x . 

Yet in all this height and fame of his" eloquence, 
there was another set of orators at the same time 
in Rome : men of parts and learning, and of the 
first quality ; who, while they acknowledged the 
superiority of his genius, yet censured his diction 
as not truly Attic or classical ; some calling it 

* At oratio — ita universa sub principe operis 'sui erupit 
Tullio ; ut delectariante eum paucissimis, mirari vero ne 
minem possis. — Veil. Pat. i. 17. 

u Demosthenem igitur imitemur. O dii boni ! quid 
quasi nos aliud aghnus. aut quid aliud optamus. — Brut. 
417. 

M. Tullius, in quem pulcherrimum illud elogium est ; 
Demosthenes tibi praeripuit, ne esses primus orator; tu 
illi, ne solus.— Ad Nepotian. de Vita Clerieor. torn. iv. 
Edit. Bened. 

x Huic diversa virtus, quas risum judicis movendo — 
plerique Demostheni facultatem hujus rei defuisse credunt, 
Ciceroni modum — nee videri potest noluisse Demosthenes, 
cujus pauca admodum dicta, — ostendunt non displicuisse 
illi jocos, sed non contigisse — mihi vero — mira quaedam 
videtur in Cicerone fuisse urbanitas— [QUintil. vi. 3 ; Ibid, 
x. 1 ; Longin. de Sublim. c. 34.] Ut pro L. Flacco, quem 
repetundarum reum joci opportunitate de manifestissimis 
criminibus exemit, &c— Macrob. Sat. ii. 1. 



loose and languid : others tumid and exuberant y. 
These men affected a minute and fastidious correct- 
ness, pointed sentences, short and concise periods 
without a syllable to spare in them, as if the per- 
fection of oratory consisted in a frugality of words, 
and in crowding our seutiments into the narrowest 
compass z ! The chief patrons of this taste were 
M. Brutus, Licinius Calvus, Asinius Pollio, and 
Sallust, whom Seneca seems to treat as the author 
of the obscure, abrupt, and sententious style a . 
Cicero often ridicules these pretenders to Attic 
elegance, as judging of eloquence, not by the 
force of the art, but their own weakness ; and 
resolving to decry what they could not attain, and 
to admire nothing but what they could imitate b ; 
and though their way of speaking, he says, might 
please the ear of a critic or a scholar, yet it was not 
of that sublime and sonorous kind whose end was not 
only to instruct but to move an audience ; an elo- 
quence born for the multitude, whose merit was 
always shown by its effects of exciting admiration, 
and extorting shouts of applause, and on which there 
never was any difference of judgment between the 
learned and the populace c . 

This was the genuine eloquence that prevailed 
in Rome as long as Cicero lived. His were the 
only speeches that were relished or admired by the 
city ; while those Attic orators, as they called them- 
selves, were generally despised and frequently 
deserted by the audience in the midst of their 
harangues' 1 . But after Cicero's death and the 
ruin of the republic, the Roman oratory sunk of 
course with its liberty, and a false species univer- 
sally prevailed : when instead of that elate, copious, 
and flowing eloquence which launched out freely 
into every subject, there succeeded a guarded, dry, 
sententious kind, full of laboured turns and stu- 
died points, and proper only for the occasion on 
which it was employed : the making panegyrics, 
and servile compliments to their tyrants. This 
change of style may be observed in all their writers 
from Cicero's time to the younger Pliny, who car- 
ried it to its utmost perfection in his celebrated 
panegyric on the emperor Trajan, which as it is 
justly admired for the elegance of diction, the 

y Constat nee Ciceroni quidem obtrectatores defuisse, 
quibus inflatus et tumens, nee satis pressus, supra modum 
exultans, et superfluens, et parum Atticus videretur, &c. 
—Tacit. Dialog. 18; Quintil. xii. 1. 

z Mihi falli multum videntur, qui solos esse Atticos cre- 
dunt, tenues et lucidos et significantes, sed quadam elo- 
quentias frugalitate contentos, ac manum semper intra 
pallium continentes. — Quintil. xii. 10. 

a Sic Sallustio vigente, amputatae sentential, et verba 
ante expectatum cadentia, et obscura brevitas, fuere pro 
cultu.— L. Sen. Epist. 114. 

b Itaque nobis monendi sunt ii, — qui aut dici se deside- 
rant Atticos, aut ipsi Attice volunt dicere, ut mirentur 
Demosthenem maxime — eloquentiamque ipsius viribus, 
non imbecilitate sua, metiantur. Nunc enira tantum 
quisque laudat, quantum se posse sperat imitari. — Orator, 
248 ; Tuse. Quaest. ii. 1. 

c Sed ad Calvum revertamur : qui — metuens ne vitiosum 
colligeret, etiam verum sanguinem deperdebat. Itaque 
ejus oratio nimia religione attenuata, doctis et attente 
audientibus erat illustris ; a multitudine autem et a foro, 
cui nata eloquentia est, devorabatur. — Brut. 410. 

Itaque nunquam de bono oratore et non bono doctis 
hominibus cum populo dissensio fuit, &c. — Ibid. 297. 

d At cum isti Attici dicant, non modo a corona, quod 
est ipsum miserabile, sed etiam ab advocatis relinquuntur 
—Ibid. 417. 



302 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



beauty of sentiments, and the delicacy of its com- 
pliments, so is become in a manner the standard 
of fine speaking to modern times : where it is 
common to hear the pretenders to criticism des- 
canting on the tedious length and spiritless exuber- 
ance of the Ciceronian periods. But the superiority 
of Cicero's eloquence, as it was acknowledged by 
the politest age of free Rome, so it has received 
the most authentic confirmation that the nature of 
things can admit, from the concurrent sense of 
nations ; which, neglecting the productions of his 
rivals and contemporaries, have preserved to us 
his inestimable remains, as a specimen of the most 
perfect manner of speaking, to which the language 
of mortals can be exalted ; so that, as Quintilian 
declared of him even in that early age, he has 
acquired such fame with posterity, that Cicero is 
not reckoned so much the name of a man as of 
eloquence itself e . 

But we have hitherto been considering chiefly 
the exterior part of Cicero's character, and shall 
now attempt to penetrate the recesses of his mind, 
and discover the real source and principle of his 
actions, from a view of that philosophy which he 
professed to follow, as the general rule of his life. 
This, as he often declares, was drawn from the 
Academic sect, which derived its origin from So- 
crates, and its name from a celebrated gymnasium 
or place of exercise, in the suburbs of Athens, 
called the Academy, where the professors of that 
school used to hold their lectures and philoso- 
phical disputations f . Socrates was the first who 
banished physics ,out of philosophy, which till his 
time had been the sole object of it, and drew it off 
from the obscure and intricate inquiries into nature 
and the constitution of the heavenly bodies, to 
questions of morality, of more immediate use and 
importance to the happiness of man, concerning 
the true notions of virtue and vice, and the natural 
difference of good and ills ; and as he found the 
world generally prepossessed with false notions on 
those subjects, so his method was, not to assert 
any opinion of his own, but to refute the opinions 
of others and attack the errors in vogue, as the 
first step towards preparing men for the reception 
of truth or what came the nearest to it, proba- 

e Apud posteros vero id consecutus, ut Cicero jam non 
hominis, sed eloquentiae nomen habeatur.. — Quintil. x. I. 

f Illi autem, qui Platonis instituto in Academia, quod 
est alterum gymnasium, ccetus erant et sermones habere 
soliti, e loci vocabulo nomen habuerunt. — Academ. i. 4. 

N.B. This celebrated place, which Serv. Sulpicius calls 
the noblest gymnasium of the world, took its name from 
one Ecademus, an ancient hero, who possessed it in the 
time of the Tyndaridae. But famous as it was, it was 
purchased afterwards for about one hundred pounds, and 
dedicated to the public, for the convenience of walks and 
exercises for the citizens of Athens ; and was gradually 
improved and adorned by the rich, who had received 
benefit or pleasure from it, with plantations of groves, 
stately porticos, and commodious apartments, for the par- 
ticular use of the professors or masters of the Academic 
School, where several of them are said to have spent their 
lives, and to have resided so strictly, as scarce ever to have 
come within the city.— Ep. Pam. iv. 12 ; Plutarch, in 
Thes. 15 ; Diog. Laert. in Plato. §. 7 ; Plutarch. De Exil. 
603. 

S Socrates id quod constat inter omnes, primus a 

rebus . occultis, et ab ipsa natura involutis— avocavisse 
philosophiam et ad vitam communem adduxi*>se, ut de 
virtutibus et vitiis, omninoque de bonis rebus et malis 
quaereret, &c— Ibid. ; it. Tusc. Q,ua?st. v. 4. 



bility h . While he himself therefore professed to 
know nothing, he used to sift out the several doc- 
trines of all the pretenders to science, and then 
teaze them with a series of questions so contrived 
as to reduce them, by the course of their answers, 
to an evident absurdity and the impossibility of 
defending what they had at first affirmed 1 . 

But Plato did not strictly adhere to the method 
of his master Socrates, and his followers wholly 
deserted it : for instead of the Socratic modesty 
of affirming nothing, and examining every thing, 
they turned philosophy as it were into an art, and 
formed a system of opinions, which they delivered 
to their disciples as the peculiar tenets of their 
sect k . Plato's nephew, Speusippus, who was left 
the heir of his school, continued his lectures as his 
successors also did in the Academy, and preserved 
the name of Academics ; whilst Aristotle, the 
most eminent of Plato's scholars, retired to an- 
other gymnasium called the Lyceum, where from a 
custom which he and his followers observed, of 
teaching and disputing as they walked in the por- 
ticos of the place, they obtained the name of 
Peripatetics, or the walking philosophers. These 
two sects, though differing in name, agreed gene- 
rally in things, or in all the principal points of 
their philosophy : they placed the chief happiness 
of man in virtue, with a competency of external 
goods ; taught the existence of a God, a Provi- 
dence, the immortality of the soul, and a future 
state of rewards and punishments 1 . 

This was the state of the Academic school under 
five successive masters, who governed it after 
Plato : Speusippus, Xenocrates, Polemo, Crates, 
Grantor ; till Arcesilas the Sixth discarded at once 
all the systems of his predecessors, and revived 
the Socratic way of affirming nothing, doubting of 
all things, and exposing the vanity of the reigning 
opinions 111 . He alleged the necessity of making 
this reformation, from that obscurity of things 
which had reduced Socrates and all the ancients 
before him, to a confession of their ignorance ; he 
observed, as they had all likewise done, that the sen- 
ses were narrow, reason infirm, life short, truth 
immersed in the deep, opinion and custom every- 
where predominant, and all things involved in 
darkness 11 . He taught therefore,* " that there 

h E quibus nos id potissimum consecuti sumus, quo So- 
cratem usum arbitrabamur ; ut nostram ipsi sententiam 
tegeremus, errore alios levaremus ; et in omni disputatione, 
quid esset simillumum veri qusereremus. — Tusc. Quaest. v. 
4 ; it. i. 4. 

i Socrates enim percunctando atque interrogando elicere 
solebat opiniones eorum, quibuscum disserebat. — De Fin. 
ii. 1. 

k Illam autem Socraticam dubitationem de omnibus 
rebus, et nulla adfirmatione adhibita consuetudinem disser- 
endi reliquerunt. Ita facta est, quod minime Socrates 
probabat, ars quaedam philosophise, et rerum ordo et de- 
scriptio disciplinse. — Academ. i. 4. 

1 Sed idem fons erat utrisque, et eadem rerum expeten- 
darum, fugiendarumque partitio. [Academ. i. 4, 6, 8.] 
Peripateticos et Academicos, nominibus differentes, re 
congruentes. — Ibid. ii. 5. 

m Arcesilas primum, ex variis Platonis libris, sermoni- 
busque Socraticis hoc maxime arripuit, nihil esse certi, 
quod aut sensibus aut animo percipi possit.— De Orat. 
iii. 18. 

'i Non pertinacia sed earum rerum obscuritate, qua? ad 
confessionem ignorantia? adduxerant Socratem, et — omnes 
psene veteres ; qui nihil cognosci, nihil percipi, nihil sciri 
posse dixerimt ; angustos scnsus ; imbecillos aninios ; bre- 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



303 



was no certain knowledge or perception of any- 
thing in nature, nor any infallible criterion of 
truth and falsehood ; that nothing was so detest- 
able as rashness : nothing so scandalous to a 
philosopher as to profess what was either false or 
unknown to him ; that we ought to assert nothing 
dogmatically, but in all cases to suspend our 
assent, and instead of pretending to certainty, 
content ourselves with opinion grounded on proba- 
bility, which was all that a rational mind had to 
acquiesce in." This was called the new Academy, 
in distinction from the Platonic, or the old, which 
maintained its credit down to Cicero's time, by a 
succession of able masters, the chief of whom 
was Carneades, the fourth from Arcesilas, who 
carried it to its utmost height of glory, and is 
greatly celebrated by antiquity for the vivacity of 
his wit and force of his eloquence °. 

We must not however imagine, that these Acade- 
mics continued doubting and fluctuating all their 
lives in scepticism and irresolution, without any 
precise opinions, or settled principle of judging 
and acting? ; no, their rule was as certain and 
consistent as that of any other sect, as it is fre- 
quently explained by Cicero in many parts of his 
works. " We are not of that sort (says he) whose 
mind is perpetually wandering in error, without 
any particular end or object of its pursuit : for 
what would such a mind or such a life indeed be 
worth which had no determinate rule or method of 
thinking and acting ? But the difference between 
us and the rest is, that whereas they call some 
things certain, and others uncertain ; we call the 
one probable, the other improbable. For what 
reason then should not I pursue the probable, 
reject the contrary, and declining the arrogance of 
affirming, avoid the imputation of rashness, which 
of all things is the farthest removed from wis- 
dom i ?" Again : " we do not pretend to say, that 
there is no such thing as truth, but that all truths 
have some falsehoods annexed to them, of so near 
a resemblance and similitude, as to afford no 
certain note of distinction whereby to determine 
our judgment and assent : whence it follows also 
of course, that there are many things px'obable, 
which though not perfectly comprehended, yet on 
account of their attractive and specious appear- 
ance, are sufficient to govern the life of a wise 
man r ." In another place, " there is no difference" 
(says he) " between us and those who pretend to 
know things, but that they never doubt of the 
truth of what they maintain ; whereas we have 
many probabilities which we readily embrace, but 
dare not affirm. By this we preserve our judgment 
free and unprejudiced, and are under no necessity 

via curricula vitae ; in profundi) veritatem demersam ; 
opinionibus et institutis omnia teneri ; nihil veritati relin- 
qui : deinceps omnia tenebris circumfusa esse dixerunt. — 
Academ. i. 13. 

o Hanc Academiam novam appellant ;— qua? usque ad 
Carneadem perducta, qui quartus ab Arcesila fuit, in eadem 
Arcesilae ratione permansit. [Academ. i. 13.] Ut hase in 
philosophia ratio contra omnia disserendi, nullamquerem 
aperte judicandi, profecta a Socrate, repetita ab Arcesila, 
confirmata a Carneade, usque ad nostram viguit a^tatem. 
[De Nat. Deor. i. 5.] Hinc base recentior Academia emana- 
vit, in qua exstitit divina quadam celeritate ingenii, dicen- 
dique copia Carneades.— De Orat. iii. 18. 

P Neque enim Academic!, cum in utramque disserunt 
partem, non secundum alteram vivunt.— Quintil. xii. 1. 

q De Offic. ii. 2. r De Nat. Deor. i. 5. 



of defending what is prescribed and enjoined to 
us : whereas in the other sects men are tied down 
to certain doctrines, before they are capable of 
judging what is the best ; and in the most infirm 
part of fife, drawn either by the authority of a 
friend, or charmed with the first master whom 
they happen to hear, they form a judgment of 
things unknown to them : and to whatever school 
they chance to be driven by the tide, cleave to it 
as fast as the oyster to the rock s ." 

Thus the Academy held the proper medium 
between the rigour of the Stoic and the indifference 
of the sceptic. The Stoics embraced all their doc- 
trines as so many fixed and immutable truths, from 
which it was infamous to depart, and by making 
this their point of honour, held all their disciples 
in an inviolable attachment to them. The sceptics 
on the other hand observed a perfect neutrality 
towards all opinions, maintaining all of them to 
be equally uncertain : and that we could not affirm 
of anything that it was this or. that, since there 
was as much reason to take it for the one as for 
the other, or for neither of them, and wholly 
indifferent which of them we thought it to be ; 
thus they lived without ever engaging themselves 
on any side of a question, directing their lives in 
the mean time by natural affections and the laws 
and customs of their country *. But the Acade- 
mics, by adopting the probable instead of the 
certain, kept the balance in an equal poise between 
the two extremes, making it their general principle 
to observe a moderation in all their opinions ; 
and as Plutarch, who was one of them, tells us, 
paying a great regard always to that old maxim : 

MTjSev 'ayav ; ne quid nimisw. 

As this school then was in no particular opposi- 
tion to any, but an equal adversary to all, or rather 

s Academ. ii. 3. 

N.B. This sketch of the principles of the Academy may 
enable us to decide that famous contest among the critics, 
about the reading of the following passage in Cicero's trea- 
tise, " On the Nature of the Gods." [1. i. 1.] De qua tarn 
varies sunt doctissimorum hominum, tamque discrepantes 
sententice, ut magno argumento esse debeat, causam,idest, 
principium philosophies esse, scientiam; [inscientiam ;] 
prudenterque Academicos a rebus incertis assensionem 
cohibuisse. The question is, whether we should read 
scientiam or inscientiam : the greatest part of the editions 
and MSS. give us the first, but Aldus Manutius and Dr. 
Davies prefer the second, which I take to be the true 
reading. For Cicero's meaning in this place is, from the 
dissentions of the learned on a subject of so great import- 
ance, to illustrate a fundamental maxim of his sect, that 
the natural obscurity of things, and man's consciousness of 
his ignorance, was the first cause or incitement to the study 
of philosophy. Plato had expressed the same sentiment 
before him, where he says, that to wonder at things was 
the common affection of a philosopher, and what alone gave 
rise, or a beginning, to philosophy itself; [In Theaetet. p. 
155, edit. Serr.~\ whence Cicero draws this inference, which 
he frequently inculcates in other parts of his works, that 
the Academy therefore acted prudently, in withholding its 
assent, and maintaining, that there was no such thing as 
science, or absolute certainty, within the reach of man. If 
this then be the sense of the passage, as it appears evidently 
to be, it necessarily requires inscientiam to make it con- 
sistent. — See the translation of L'Abbe d'Olivct, and his 
notes on the place, and edit. Davis. Cantab. 

<■ Sext. Empirici, Pyrrhon. Hypotyp. ; A. Gell. xi. 5. 
u — jueAAco^ els iravra, TL/xiicreiv rb /X7]5ev &yav, 
iv 'AnadrifALa yevo/xevos, zircov — In lib. de EI apud 
Delph. 3«7 ; it', lib. de Primo Frigido./M. 



304 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



to dogmatical philosophy in general, so every other 
sect next to itself readily gave it the preference to 
the rest, which universal concession of the second 
place is commonly thought to infer a right to the 
first x ; and if we reflect on the state of the heathen 
world, and what they themselves so often complain 
of, the darkness that surrounded them, and the 
infinite dissentions of the best and wisest on the 
fundamental questions of religion and morality y ; 
we must necessarily allow, that the Academic man- 
ner of philosophising was of all others the most 
rational and modest, and the best adapted to the 
discovery of truth, whose peculiar character it was 
to encourage inquiry, to sift every question to the 
bottom, to try the force of every argument till it 
had found its real moment, or the precise quantity 
of its weight z - This it was that induced Cicero 
in his advanced life and ripened judgment to desert 
the old Academy, and declare for the new : when 
from a long experience of the vanity of those sects 
who called themselves the proprietors of truth and 
the sole guides of life, and through a despair of 
finding anything certain, he was glad, after all his 
pains, to take up with the probable a . But the 
genius and general character of both the Academies 
was in some measure still the same : for the old, 
though it professed to teach a peculiar system of 
doctrines, yet was ever diffident and cautious of 
affirming, and the new only the more scrupulous 
and sceptical of the two ; this appears from the 
writings of Plato, the first master of the old, in 
which, as Cicero observes, " nothing is absolutely 
affirmed, nothing delivered for certain, but all 
things freely inquired into, and both sides of the 
question impartially discussed b ." Yet there was 
another reason that recommended this philosophy 
in a peculiar manner to Cicero : its being of all 
others the best suited to the profession of an 
orator, since by its practice of disputing for and 
against every opinion of the other sects, it gave 
him the best opportunity of perfecting his orato- 
rial faculty, and acquiring a habit of speaking 
readily upon all subjects. He calls it therefore the 
parent of elegance and copiousness, and declares 
that he owed all the fame of his eloquence not to 
the mechanic rules of the rhetoricians, but to the 
enlarged and genero us principles of the Academy . 

x Academico sapienti ab omnibus caeterarum sectarum 
— secundas partes dantur— ex quo potest probabiliter con- 
fici, eum recte primum esse suo judicio, qui omnium 
casterorum judicio sit secundus.— Fragment. Academ. ex 
Augustin. 

7 De Nat. Deor. i. 1, 3 ; Academ. ii. 3 ; i. 13. 

2 Neque nostra? disputationes quicquam aliud agunt, 
nisi ut, in utramque partem disserendo, eliciant et tan- 
quam exprimant aliquid, quod aut verum sit, aut ad id 
quam proxime accedat.— Academ. ii. 3. 

a Relictam a te, inquit, veterem jam, tractari autem 
novam. [Ibid. 4.] Ultra enim quo progrediar, quam ut 
verisimilia videam, non habeo : certa dicent hi, qui et 
percipi ea posse dicunt, et se sapientes profitentur. [Tusc. 
Quaest. i. 9.] Sed ne in maximis quidem rebus, quidquam 
adhuc inveni firmius, quod tenerem, aut quo judicium 
meum dirigerem, quam id, quodcumque mihi simillimum 
veri videretur, cum ipsum illud verum in occulto lateret. 
— Orator, Jin. 

t> Cujus in libris nihil affirmatur, et in utramque partem 
multa disseruntur, de omnibus quasritur, nihil certi dici- 
tur .—Academ. i. 13. 

c Itaque mihi semper Academiae consuetudo, de omnibus 

rebus in contrarias partes disserendi, non ob earn causam 

i solum placuit, quod aliter non posset quid in quaque re 



This school however was almost deserted in 
Greece and had but few disciples at Rome, when 
Cicero undertook its patronage, and endeavoured 
to revive its drooping credit. The reason is 
obvious : it imposed a hard task upon its scholars 
of disputing against every sect and on every ques- 
tion in philosophy ; and "if it was difficult," (as 
Cicero says) "to be master of any one, how much 
more of them all?" which was incumbent on those 
who professed themselves Academics d . No wonder 
then that it lost ground everywhere, in propor- 
tion as ease and luxury prevailed, which naturally 
disposed people to the doctrine of Epicurus, in 
relation to which there is a smart saying recorded 
of Arcesilas : who being asked why so many of all 
sects went over to the Epicureans, but none ever 
came back from them, replied, " that men might 
be made eunuchs, but eunuchs could never become 
men again e ." 

This general view of Cicero's philosophy, will 
help us to account in some measure for that 
difficulty which people frequently complain of, 
in discovering his real sentiments, as well as for 
the mistakes which they are apt to fall into in that 
search ; since it was the distinguishing principle of 
the Academy to refute the opinions of others, rather 
than declare any of their own. Yet the chief 
difficulty does not lie here, for Cicero was not scru- 
pulous on that head, nor affected any obscurity in 
the delivery of his thoughts, when it was his busi- 
ness to explain them ; but it is the variety and 
different character of his several writings that per- 
plexes the generality of his readers, for wherever 
they dip into his works, they are apt to fancy 
themselves possessed of his sentiments, and to 
quote them indifferently as such : whether from 
his orations, his dialogues, or his letters, without 
attending to the peculiar nature of the work, or 
the different person that he assumes in it. 

His orations are generally of the judicial kind ; 
or the pleadings of an advocate whose, business it 
was to make the best of his cause ; and to deliver, 

verisimile sit inveniri, sed etiam quod esset ea maxima 

dicendi exercitatio [Tusc. Quasst. ii. 3 ; Quintil. xii. 2.] 

Ego autem fateor ; me oratorem, si modo sim, aut etiam 
quicumque sim, non ex rhetorum officinis, sed ex Acade- 
miae spatiis extitisse. [Orator, sub init.~] Nos ea philoso- 
phia plus utimur, quae peperit dicendi copiam.— Procem. 
Paradox. 

d Quam nunc propemodum orbam esse in Graecia intel- 
ligo — nam si singulas disciplinas percipere magnum est. 
quanto majus omnes ? quod facere iis necesse est, quibus 
propositum est, veri reperiendi causa, et contra omnes 
philosophos, et pro omnibus dicere.— De Nat. Deor. i. 5. 

e Diog. Laert. de Arcesila. — 

Diogenes Laertius, and some later writers, speak of a 
third or Middle Academy between the Old and the New, 
in which they are commonly followed by the moderns, who 
make Plato the founder of the Old ; Arcesilas of the Mid- 
dle ; Carneades of the New. [See Stanley's Lives of Phi- 
losoph. in Carneades.] But there was no real ground for 
such a distinction : since Cicero never mentions any other 
but the Old and the New : and expressly declares the last 
to have subsisted under that denomination, down to his 
own days, as well under Carneades, as Arcesilas : and so 
far from splitting them into three Academies, Cicero's 
master, Philo, maintained constantly in his books, that 
there never was in reality any more than one ; grounding 
his argument on what I have observed above ; the similar 
nature and genius of the two. [Academ. i. 4.] Perturbatri- 
cem autem harum omnium rerum Academiam, hanc ab 
Arcesila et Carneade recentem, exoremus ut sileat — De 
Leg. i. 13. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



305 



not so much what was true as what was useful to 
his client ; the patronage of truth belonging in such 
cases to the judge and not to the pleader f . It 
would be absurd therefore to require a scrupulous 
veracity or strict declaration of his sentiments in 
them : the thing does not admit of it ; and he him- 
self forbids us to expect it ; and in one of those 
orations frankly declares the true nature of them 
all — " That man," says he, " is much mistaken who 
thinks, that in these judicial pleadings he has an 
authentic specimen of our opinions : they are the 
speeches of the causes and the times ; not of the 
men or the advocates : if the causes could speak 
for themselves, nobody would employ an orator ; 
but we are employed to speak, not what we would 
undertake to affirm upon our authority, but what 
is suggested by the cause and the thing itself s." 
Agreeably to this notion, Quintilian tells us, "that 
those who are truly wise and have spent their time 
in public affairs, and not in idle disputes, though 
they have resolved with themselves to be strictly 
honest in all their actions, yet will not scruple to 
use every argument that can be of service to the 
cause which they have undertaken to defend h ." 
In his orations therefore, where we often meet with 
the sentences and maxims of philosophy, we cannot 
always take them for his own, but as topics applied 
to move his audience, or to add an air of gravity 
and probability to his speech 1 . 

His letters indeed to familiar friends, and espe- 
cially those to Atticus, place the real man before 
us, and lay open his very heart : yet in these some 
distinction must necessarily be observed ; for in 
letters of compliment, condolence, or recommen- 
dation, or where he is soliciting any point of 
importance, he adapts his arguments to the occa- 
sion, and uses such as would induce his friend the 
most readily to grant what he desired. But as his 
letters in general seldom touch upon any questions 
of philosophy, except slightly and incidentally, so 
they will afford very little help to us in the dis- 
covery of his philosophical opinions, which are the 
subject of the present inquiry, and for which we 
must wholly recur to his philosophical works. 

Now the general purpose of these works was, to 
give a history rather of the ancient philosophy than 
any account of his own ; and to explain to his 
fellow-citizens in their own language, whatever the 
philosophers of all sects, and in all ages, had 
taught on every important question, in order to 
enlarge their minds and reform their morals ; and 
to employ himself the most usefully to his country 
at a time when arms and a superior force had 
deprived him of the power of serving it in any 

f Judicis est semper in causis verum sequi ; patroni, 
nonnunquam verisimile, etiam si minus sit verum, de- 
fendere: quod scribere, pra2sertim cum de philosophia 
scriberem, non auderem, nisi idem placeret gravissimo 
Stoicorum Pansetio.^De Offic. ii. 14. 

g Sed errat vehementer, si quis in orationibus nostris, 
quas in judiciis habuimus, auctoritates nostras consignatas 
se habere, arbitrator .— Pro A. Cluent. 50. 

h Quint, xi. 1. 

1 Though his orations are not always the proper vouch- 
ers of his opinions, yet they are the best testimonies that 
can be alleged for the truth of facts: especially those 
which were spoken to the senate or the people ; where he 
refers to the acts and characters of persons then living, 
before an audience that was generally as well acquainted 
with them as himself ; and it is in such cases chiefly that 
I lay any great stress upon them. 



other way k . This he declares in his treatise called 
De Finibus, or on the chief good or ill of man ; in 
that upon the Nature of the Gods ; in his Tusculan 
Disputations ; and in his book on the Academic 
Philosophy : in all which he sometimes takes upon 
himself the part of a Stoic ; sometimes of an Epi- 
curean ; sometimes of the Peripatetic ; for the sake 
of explaining with more authority the different 
doctrines of each sect : and as he assumes the 
person of the one to confute the other, so in his 
proper character of an Academic, he sometimes 
disputes against them all : while the unwary reader, 
not reflecting on the nature of dialogues, takes 
Cicero still for the perpetual speaker ; and under 
that mistake, often quotes a sentiment for his that 
was delivered by him only in order to be confuted. 
But in these dialogues as in all his other works, 
wherever he treats any subject professedly, or gives 
a judgment upon it deliberately, either in his own 
person or that of an Academic, there he delivers 
his own opinions : and where he himself does not 
appear in the scene, he takes care usually to inform 
us to which of the characters he has assigned the 
patronage of his own sentiments ; who was gene- 
rally the principal speaker of the dialogue ; as 
Crassus in his treatise on the Orator ; Scipio, in 
that on the Republic ; Cato in his piece on old age. 
This key will let us into his real thoughts, and 
enable us to trace his genuine notions through 
every part of his writings ; from which I shall now 
proceed to give a short abstract of them. 

As to physics or natural philosophy, he seems to 
have had the same notion with Socrates, that a 
minute and particular attention to it, and the 
making it the sole end and object of our inquiries, 
was a study rather curious than profitable, and 
contributing but little to the improvement of human 
life 1 . For though he was perfectly acquainted 
with the various systems of all the philosophers of 
any name from the earliest antiquity, and has 
explained them all in his works ; yet he did not 
think it worth while, either to form any distinct 
opinions of his own, or at least to declare them. 
From his account however of those systems we 
may observe, that several of the fundamental prin- 
ciples of the modern philosophy which pass for the 
original discoveries of these later times, are the 
revival rather of ancient notions maintained by 
some of the first philosophers of whom we have 
any notice in history : as the motion of the earth ; 
the antipodes ; a vacuum ; and a universal gravi- 
tation, or attractive quality of matter ; which holds 
the world in its present form and order m . 

But in all the great points of religion and mo- 
rality which are of more immediate relation to 
the happiness of man, the being of a God ; a Pro- 
vidence ; the immortality of the soul ; a future 
state of rewards and punishments ; and the eternal 
difference of good and ill ; he has largely and 



k Nam cum otio langueremus, et is esset reipublicas 
status, ut earn unius consilio atque cura gubernari necesse 
esset, primum ipsius reipublicas causa philosophiam nos- 
tris hominibus explicandam putavi ; magni existimans 
interesse ad decus et ad laudem civitatis, res tarn graves, 
tamque praeclaras latinis etiam literis contineri. — De Nat. 
Deor. i. 4 ; it. Academ. i. 5 ; Tusc. Qusest. i. 1 ; De Finib. 
i. 3, 4. 

1 Ut enim modo dixi, omnibus fere in rebus, et maxime 
in physicis, quid non sit, citius, quam quid sit, dixerim. 
— De Nat. Deor. i. 21 ; Academ. ii. 39. 

111 De Nat. Deor. ii. 45 ; Academ. ii. 38, 39. 
X 



! 306 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



clearly declared his mind in many parts of his 
writings. He maintained, that there was one God 
or supreme Being ; incorporeal, eternal, self- 
existent ; who created the world by his power, and 
sustained it by his providence. This he inferred 
from the consent of all nations; the order and 
beauty of the heavenly bodies ; the evident marks 
of counsel, wisdom, and a fitness to certain ends, 
observable in the whole and in every part of the 
visible world ; and declares that person unworthy 
of the name of man who can believe all this to have 
been made by chance, when with the utmost stretch 
of human wisdom we cannot penetrate the depth 
of that wisdom which contrived it n . 

He believed also a divine Providence constantly 
presiding over the whole system, and extending its 
care to all the principal members of it, with a 
peculiar attention to the conduct and actions of 
men, but leaving the minute and inferior parts to 
the course of his general laws. This he collected 
from the nature and attributes of the Deity ; his 
omniscience, omnipresence, and infinite goodness ; 
that could never desert or neglect what he had 
once produced into being : and declares, that 
without this belief there could be no such thing as 
piety or religion in the world . 

He held likewise the immortality of the soul, 
and its separate existence after death in a state of 
happiness or misery. This he inferred from that 
ardent thirst of immortality which was always the 
most conspicuous in the best and most exalted 
minds, from which the truest specimen of their 
nature must needs be drawn : from its unmixed 
and indivisible essence, which had nothing sepa- 
rable or perishable in it : from its wonderful 
powers and faculties ; its principle of self-motion ; 
its memory, invention, wit, comprehension ; which 
were all incompatible with sluggish matter p . 

n Nee Deus ipse — alio modo intelligi potest, nisi mens 
soluta quaedam et libera, segregata ab omni concretione 
mortali, omnia sentiens et movens, ipsaque praedita motu 
sempiterno. [Tusc. Quaest. i. 27.] Sed omnes gentes, una 
lex et sempiterna et immortalis eontinebit, unusque erit 
quasi magister, et imperator omnium Deus.— Fragm. lib. 
iii. de Repub. — 

Ut porro firmissimum hoc adferri videtur, cur deos esse 
credamus, quod nulla gens tam fera,— eujus mentem non 
imbuerit deorum opinio — omni autem in re eonsensio 
omnium gentium lex naturae putanda est.— [Tusc. Quaest. 
i. 14.] Haec igitur et talia innumerabilia cum cernimus ; 
possumusne dubitare, quin his praesit aliquis vel effector, 
(si haec nata sunt, ut Platoni videtur,) vel, (si semper fue- 
runt, ut Aristoteli placet) moderator tanti operis et 
muneris. [Ibid. 28.] Id est primum, quod inter omnes, nisi 
admodum impios, convenit, mihi quidem ex animo exuri 
non potest, esse deos. [Nat. Deor. iii. 3.] Esse praestantem 
aliquam, aeternamque naturam, et earn suspiciendam, 
admirandamque hominum generi, pulchritudo mundi, 
ordoque rerum ccelestium cogit confiteri. [De Divin. ii. 72.] 
Quae quanto consilio gerantur, nullo consilio assequi pos- 
sumus. — De Nat. Deor. ii. 38. 

° De maxima autem re, eodem modo ; divina mente 
atque natura mundum universum atque maximas ejus 
partes administrari — [De Fin. iv. 5.] Quam vim animum 
esse dicunt mundi, eandemque esse mentem sapientiam- 
que pert ectam ; quern Deum appellant, omnium que rerum, 
quae sunt ei subjectae, quasi prudentiam quandam, procu- 
rantem ccelestia maxime, deinde in terrisea, quae pertinent 
ad homines. — Academ. i. 8 ; Nat. Deor. i. 2, 44 ; ii. 66 ; iii. 36. 

P Quod quidem ni ita se haberet, ut animi immortales 
essent, haud optimi cuj usque animus maxime ad immor- 
talitatem niteretur. [Cato. 23.] Num dubitas, quin speci- 
men naturae capi debeat ex optima quaque natura? — 



The Stoics fancied that the soul was a subtilised 
fiery substance, which survived the body after 
death and subsisted a long time, yet not eternally ; 
but was to perish at last in the general confla- 
gration. In which they allowed, as Cicero says, 
the only thing that was hard to conceive, its separate 
existence from the body ; yet denied what was not 
only easy to imagine, but a consequence of the 
other, its eternal duration i. Aristotle taught, that 
besides the four elements of the material world, 
whence all other things were supposed to draw 
their being, there was a fifth essence or nature, 
peculiar to God and the soul, which had nothing 
in it that was common to any of the rest 1 . This 
opinion Cicero followed and illustrated with his 
usual perspicuity in the following passage. 

"The origin of the human soul," says he, "is 
not to be found anywhere on earth ; there is nothing 
mixed, concrete, or earthly ; nothing of water, 
air, or fire in it. For these natures are not sus- 
ceptible of memory, intelligence, or thought ; have 
nothing that can retain the past, foresee the future, 
lay hold on the present ; which faculties are purely 
divine, and could not possibly be derived to man 
except from God. The nature of the soul therefore 
is of a singular kind ; distinct from these known 
and obvious natures : and whatever it be that feels 
and tastes, that lives and moves in us, it must be 
heavenly and divine, and for that reason eternal. 
Nor is God indeed himself, whose existence we 
clearly discover, to be comprehended by us in any 
other manner, but as a free and pure mind, clear 
from all mortal concretion ; observing and moving 
all things ; and indued with an eternal principle of 
self-motion : of this kind, and of the same nature, 
is the human soul s ." 

As to a future state of rewards and punishments, 
he considered it as a consequence of the soul's im- 
mortality ; deducible from the attributes of God, 
and the condition of man's life on earth ; and 
thought it so highly probable, "that we could 
hardly doubt of it," he says, "unless it should 
happen to our minds, when they look into them- 
selves, as it does to our eyes, when they look too 
intensely at the sun, that finding their sight dazzled 
they give over looking at all 1 . In this opinion he 
followed Socrates and Plato, for whose judgment 
he professes so great a reverence, that if they had 
given no reasons, where yet they had given many, 
he should have been persuaded (he says) by their 
sole authority 11 . Socrates therefore (as he tells us) 
[Tusc. Quaest. L 14.] Sic mihi persuasi, sic sentio, cum 
tanta celeritas animorum sit, tanta memoria praeterito- 
rum, futurorumque prudentia, tot artes, tot scientiae, tot 
inventa, non posse earn naturam, quae res eas contineat, 
esse mortalem : cumque semper agitetur animus, &c. — 
Cato. 21. Tusc. Quaest. i. 23, 25, 26, &c— De Amicit. 4. 

1 Zenoni Stoico animus ignis videtur. [Tusc. Quaest. i. 
9.] Stoici autem usuram nobis largiuntur, tanquam corni- 
cibus ; diu mansuros aiunt animos, semper negant — qui, 
quod in tota hac causa difficillimum est, suscipiunt, posse 
animum manere corpore vacantem : illud autem, quod 
non modo facile ad credendum est, sed, eo concesso quod 
volunt, consequens idcirco, non dant, utcum diu perman- 
serit ne intereat.— Ibid. i. 31 , 32. 

r Ibid. 10. s Ibid. 27. 

* Nee vero de hoc quisquam dubitare posset, nisi idem 
nobis accideret diligenter de animo cogitantibus, quod his 
saepe usu venit, qui acriter oculis deficientem solem intue- 
rentur, ut aspectum omnino amitterent, &c. — Tusc. Quaest. 
i. 30. 

« Ibid. 21 ; De Amicit. 4. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



307 



declared in his dying speech, " that there were two 
ways appointed to human souls at their departure 
from the body : that those who had been immersed 
in sensual pleasures and lusts, and had polluted 
themselves with private vices or public crimes 
against their country, took an obscure and devious 
road, remote from the seat and assembly of the 
gods ; whilst those who had preserved their integrity 
and received little or no contagion from the body, 
from which they had constantly abstracted them- 
selves, and in the bodies of men imitated the life 
of the gods, had an easy ascent lying open before 
them to those gods from whom they derived their 
being x ." 

From what has already been said, the reader will 
easily imagine what Cicero's opinion must have 
been concerning the religion of his country : for a 
mind enlightened by the noble principles just 
stated, could not possibly harbour a thought of 
the truth or divinity of so absurd a worship : and 
the liberty, which not only he, but all the old 
writers take, in ridiculing the characters of their 
gods, and the fictions of their infernal torments?, 
shows that there was not a man of liberal education, 
who did not consider it as an engine of state or 
political system, contrived for the uses of govern- 
ment, and to keep the people in order : in this 
light Cicero always commends it as a wise insti- 
tution, singularly adapted to the genius of Rome ; 
and constantly inculcates an adherence to its rites 
as the duty of all good citizens 2 . 

Their religion consisted of two principal branches; 
the observation of the auspices, and the worship of 
the gods : the first was instituted by Romulus, the 
second by his successor Numa : who drew up a 
ritual or order of ceremonies to be observed in the 
different sacrifices of their several deities : to these 
a third part was afterwards added ; relating to 
divine admonitions from portents, monstrous births, 
the entrails of beasts in sacrifice, and the pro- 

x De Amicit. 30. 

y Die, quaeso, num te ilia terrent ? triceps apud inferos 
Cerberus ? Cocyti fremitus ? transvectio Acherontis ?— 
adeone me delirare censes ut ista credam ? — [Ibid. i. 5, 6, 
21.] Quae anus tarn excors inveniri potest, quae ilia, quae 
quondam credebantur, apud inferos portenta extimescat ? 
— De Nat. Deor. ii. 2. 

z Ordiar ab haruspicina, quam ego reipublicae causa, 
communisque religionis, colendam censeo. [De Divin. ii. 
12.] Nam et majorum instituta tueri sacris caeremoniisque 
retinendis sapientis est.— Ibid. 72 ; De Leg. ii. 12, 13. 

N.B. There is a reflection in Polybius, exactly conform- 
able to Cicero's sentiments on this subject. " The greatest 
advantage," says he, "which the Roman government 
seems to have over other states, is in the opinion publicly 
entertained by them about the gods; and that very thing, 
which is so generally decried by other mortals, sustained 
the republic of Rome ; I mean, superstition. For this was 
carried by them to such a height, and introduced so effec- 
tually both into the private lives of the citizens, and the 
public affairs of the city, that one cannot help being sur- 
prised at it. But I take it all to have been contrived for 
the sake of the populace. For if a society could be formed 
of wise men only, such a scheme would not be necessary ; 
but since the multitude is always giddy, and agitated by 
illicit desires, wild resentments, violent passions, there 
was no way left of restraining them but by the help of such 
secret terrors and tragical fictions. It was not therefore 
without great prudence and foresight that the ancients 
took care to instil into them these notions of the gods and 
infernal punishments, which the moderns, on the other 
hand, are now rashly and absurdly endeavouring to 
extirpate."— Polyb. vi. p. 497. 



phecies of the Sibyls a . The college of augurs 
presided over the auspices, as the supreme inter- 
preters of the will of Jove, and determined what 
signs were propitious and what not : the other 
priests were the judges of all the other cases 
relating to religion ; as well of what concerned the 
public worship as that of private families b . 

Now the priests of all denominations were of the 
first nobility of Rome ; and the augurs especially 
were commonly senators of consular rank who had 
passed through all the dignities of the republic, 
and by their power over the auspices, could put an 
immediate stop to all proceedings, and dissolve at 
once all the assemblies of the people convened for 
public business. The interpretation, of the Sibyls' 
prophecies was vested in the decemviri, or guardians 
of the Sibylline books ; ten persons of distinguished 
rank, chosen usually from the priests : and the 
province of interpreting prodigies and inspecting 
the entrails, belonged to the haruspices, who were 
the servants of the public, hired to attend the 
magistrates in all their sacrifices, and who never 
failed to accommodate their answers to the views 
of those who employed them, and to whose pro- 
tection they owed their credit and their livelihood. 

This constitution of a religion among a people 
naturally superstitious, necessarily threw the chief 
influence in affairs into the hands of the senate, 
and the better sort ; who by this advantage fre- 
quently checked the violences of the populace, and 
the factious attempts of the tribunes ; so that it 
is perpetually applauded by Cicero as the main 
bulwark of the republic, though considered all the 
while by men of sense as merely political, and of 
human invention. The only part that admitted 
any dispute concerning its origin was augury, or 
their method of divining by auspices. The Stoics 
held that God, out of his goodness to man, had 
imprinted on the nature of things certain marks or 
notices of future events ; as on the entrails of 
beasts, the flight of birds, thunder, and other celes- 
tial signs, which, by long observation, and the 
experience of ages, were reduced to an art, by 
which the meaning of each sign might be deter- 
mined, and applied to the event that was signified 
by it. This they called artificial divination, in 
distinction from the natural, which they supposed 
to flow from an instinct or native power implanted 
in the soul, which it exerted always with the 
greatest efficacy when it was the most free and 
disengaged from the body, as in dreams and mad- 
ness d . But this notion was generally ridiculed by 
the other philosophers ; and of all the college of 

a Cum omnis populi Romani religio in sacra et in auspi- 
cia divisa sit, tertium adjunctum sit, si quid praedictionis 
causa ex portentis et monstris Sibyllas interpretes, haru- 
spicesve monuerunt. — De Nat. Deor. iii. 2. 

b — Cur sacris pontifices, cur auspiciis augures praesunt ? 
[Ibid. i. 44.] Est autem boni auguris, meminisse maximis 
reipublicae temporibus prassto esse debere, Jovique optimo 
maximo 6e consiliarium atque administrum datum. — De 
Leg. iii. 19. 

c Omnibus magistratibus auspicia — dantur, ut multos 
inutiles comitiatus, probabiles impedirent moras : saepe 
enim populi impetum injustum auspiciis dii immortales 
represserunt. — De Leg. iii. 12. 

d Duo sunt enim divinandi genera, quorum alteram 
artis est, alteram naturae — est enim visetnatura quaedam, 
quae cum observatis longo tempore significationibus, turn 
aliquo instinctu, inflatuque divino futura praenunciat.— 
De Div. i. 6 ; it. ib. 18. 

X 2 



308 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



augurs, there was but one at this time who main- 
tained it, Appius Claudius ; who was laughed at 
for his pains by the rest, and called the Pisidian e : 
it occasioned however a smart controversy between 
him and his colleague Marcellus, who severally 
published books on each side of the question ; 
wherein Marcellus asserted the whole affair to be 
the contrivance of statesmen ; Appius, on the 
contrary, that there was a real art and power in 
divining, subsisting in the augural discipline, and 
taught by the augural books f . Appius dedicated 
this treatise to Cicero s ; who, though he preferred 
Marcellus's notion, yet did not wholly agree with 
either, but believed that augury might probably 
be instituted at first upon a persuasion of its 
divinity ; and when, by the improvement of arts 
and learning, that opinion was exploded in suc- 
ceeding ages, yet the thing itself was wisely retained 
for the sake of its use to the republic 11 . 

But whatever was the origin of the religion of 
Rome, Cicero's religion was undoubtedly of hea- 
venly extraction, built, as we have seen, on the 
foundation of a God, a Providence, an immortality. 
He considered this short period of our life on earth 
as a state of trial, or a kind of school ; in which 
we were to improve and prepare ourselves for that 
eternity of existence which was provided for us 
hereafter : that we were placed therefore here by 
the Creator, not so much to inhabit the earth as to 
contemplate the heavens ; on which were imprinted 
in legible characters all the duties of that nature 
which was given to us. He observed, that this 
spectacle belonged to no other animal but man, to 
whom God, for that reason, had given an erect and 
upright form, with eyes not prone or fixed upon 
the ground, like those of other animals, but placed 
on high and sublime, in a situation the most proper 
for this celestial contemplation ; to remind him 
perpetually of his task, and to acquaint him with 
the place from which he sprung, and for which he 
was finally designed l . He took the system of the 
world, or the visible works of God, to be the pro- 
mulgation of God's law, or the declaration of his 
will to mankind ; whence, as we might collect his 
being, nature, and attributes, so we could trace 

e Quern irridebant college tui, eumque turn Pisidam, 
turn Soranum augurum esse dicebant — Ibid. 47. 

The Pisidians were a barbarous people of the lesser 
Asia ; famous for their superstitious observation of the 

auspices, or their divination by the flight of birds De Di- 

vin. i. 41, 42. 

f Sed est in collegio vestro inter Marcellum et Appium, 
optimos augures, magna dissensio :— cum alteri placeat, 
auspicia ista ad utilitatem reipublicae composita; alteri 
disciplina vestra quasi divinare prorsus posse videatur.— 
DeLeg. ii. 13. 

% Illo libro augurali, quem ad me amantissime scrip- 
turn, suavissimum misisti. — Ep. Fam. iii. 4. 

b Non enim sumus ii nos augures, qui avium, reliquo- 
rumque signorum observatione futura dicamus : et tamen 
credo ltomulum, qui urbem auspicato condidit, habuisse 
opinionem, esse in providendis rebus augurandiscientiam. 
Errabat multis in rebus antiquitas, &c— De Divin. ii. 33. 

1 Sed credo deos sparsisse animos in corpora humana, 
ut essent qui terras tuerentur, quique ccelestium ordinem 
contemplantes, imitarentur eum vita modo ct constantia, 
&c. [Cato. 21.] Nam cum caeteras animantes abjecisset 
ad pastum, solum hominem erexit, ad coelique quasi cog- 
nationis, domiciliique pristini conspectum excitavit. [De 
Leg. i. 9.] Ipse autemhomo ortus est admundum contem- 
plandum et imitandum, nullo modo perfectus, sed est qua> 
dam particula perfecti.— Nat. Deor. ii. 14, 56. 



the reasons also and motives of his acting ; till by 
observing what he had done, we might learn what 
we ought to do, and, by the operations of the 
divine reason, be instructed how to perfect our 
own, since the perfection of man consisted in the 
imitation of God. 

From this source he deduced the origin of all 
duty or moral obligation ; from the will of God, 
manifested in his works ; or from that eternal rea- 
son, fitness, and relation of things, which is dis- 
played in every part of the creation. This he calls 
the original, immutable law ; the criterion of good 
and ill ; of just and unjust ; imprinted on the 
nature of things, as the rule by which all human 
laws are to be formed ; which, whenever they 
deviate from this pattern, ought (he says) to be 
called anything rather than laws ; and are in effect 
nothing but acts of force, violence, and tyranny : 
that to imagine the distinction of good and ill not 
to be founded in nature but in custom, opinion, or 
human institution, is mere folly and madness; 
which would overthrow all society, and confound 
all right and justice amongst men k : that this was 
the constant opinion of the wisest of all ages ; who 
held that the mind of God, governing all things by 
eternal reason, was the principal and sovereign law ; 
whose substitute on earth was the reason or mind 
of the wise : to which purpose there are many 
strong and beautiful passages scattered occasionally 
through every part of his works 1 . 

" The true law," says he, "is right reason, con- 
formable to the nature of things ; constant, eternal, 
diffused through all ; which calls us to duty by 
commanding, deters us from sin by forbidding ; 
which never loses its influence with the good ; nor 
ever preserves it with the wicked. This cannot 
possibly be overruled by any other law, nor abro- 
gated in the whole or in part ; nor can we be 
absolved from it either by the senate or the people : 
nor are we to seek any other comment or inter- 
preter of it but itself ; nor can there be one law at 
Rome, another at Athens ; one now, another here- 
after ; but the same eternal, immutable law, com- 
prehends all nations at all times under one common 
Master and Governor of all, God. He is the 
inventor, propounder, enactor of this law ; and 

k Sed etiam modestiam quandam cognitio rerum cceles- 
tium adfert iis, qui videant, quanta sit etiam apud deos 
moderatio, quantus ordo ; et magnitudinem animi, deo- 
rum opera et facta cernentibus ; justitiam etiam, cum 
cognitum habeas, quid sit summi rectoris et domini 
numen, quod consilium, qua; voluntas ; cujusad naturam 
apta ratio vera ilia et summa lex a philosophis dicitur.— 
De Fin. iv. 5. 

Nos legem bonam a mala, nulla alia nisi naturae norma 
dividere possumus. Ncc solum jus et injuria natura diju- 
dicantur, sed omnino omnia honesta ac turpia; nam et 
communis intelligentia nobis notas res efficit, easque in 
animis nostris inchoat, ut honesta in virtute ponantur, in 
vitiis turpia. Ea auteni in opinione existimare, non in 
natura posita, dementis est. [De Leg. i. 16.] Erat enim 
ratio profecta a rerum natura ; ct ad recte faciendum im- 
pcllens, et a delicto avocans ; qua; non turn demum incipit 
lex esse, cum scripta est, sed turn, cum orta est : orta 
autem simul est cum mente divina : quamobrem lex vera, 
atque princeps, apta ad jubendum et ad vetandum, recta 
est ratio summi Jovis, &c — De Leg. ii. 4, 5, &c. 

1 Hanc igitur video sapientissimorum fuisse sententiam, 
legem neque hominum ingeniis excogitatam, nee scitum 
aliquod esse populorum, sed aeternum quiddam, quod uni- 
versum mundum rcgeret, imperandi, prohibendique sapi- 
entia, &c— Ibid. &c. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



309 



whosoever will not obey it, must first renounce 
himself and throw off the nature of man ; by doing 
which, he will suffer the greatest punishment, 
though he should escape all the other torments 
which are commonly believed to be prepared for 
the wicked" 1 ." 

In another place he tells us, that the study of 
this law was the only thing which could teach us 
that most important of all lessons, said to be pre- 
scribed by the Pythian oracle, to know ourselves ; 
that is, to know our true nature and rank in the 
universal system ; the relation that we bear to all 
other beings ; and the purposes for which we were 
sent into the world. "When a man," says he, "has 
attentively surveyed the heavens, the earth, the 
sea, and all things in them ; observed whence they 
sprung, and whither they all tend ; when and how 
they are to end ; what part is mortal and perish- 
able, what divine and eternal ; when he has almost 
reached and touched, as it were, the governor and 
ruler of them all, and discovered himself not to be 
confined to the walls of any certain place, but a 
citizen of the world, as of one common city; in this 
magnificent view of things, in this enlarged prospect 
and knowledge of nature, good gods ! how will he 
learn to know himself ! How will he contemn, 
despise, and set at nought all those things which the 
vulgar esteem the most splendid and glorious n ! " 

These were the principles on which Cicero built 
his religion and morality, which shine indeed 
through all his writings, but were largely and 
explicitly illustrated by him in his treatises on 
Government, and on Laws ; to which he added after- 
wards his book of Offices, to make the scheme 
complete : volumes, which, as the elder Pliny 
says to the emperor Titus, ought not only to be 
read, but to be got by heart . The first and 
greatest of these works is lost, excepting a few 
fragments, in which he had delivered his real 
thoughts so professedly, that in a letter to Atticus, 
he calls those six books on the Republic so many 
pledges given to his country for the integrity of 
his life, from which, if ever he swerved, he could 
never have the face to look into them again p. In 
his book of Laws, he pursued the same argument, 
and deduced the origin of law from the will of the 
supreme God. These two pieces therefore contain 
his belief, and the book of Offices his practice : 
where he has traced out all the duties of man, or a 
rule of life conformable to the divine principles, 
which he had established in the other two ; to 
which he often refers, as to the foundation of his 
whole system i. This work was one of the last 
that he finished for the use of his son, to whom he 
addressed it ; being desirous, in the decline of a 
glorious life, to explain to him the maxims by 
which he had governed it ; and teach him the way 
of passing through the world with innocence, 
virtue, and true glory, to an immortality of happi- 
ness : where the strictness of his morals, adapted 
to all the various cases and circumstances of human 

111 Fragm. lib. iii. De Repub. ex Lactantio. 
11 De Leg. i. 23. 

Qua; volumina ejus ediscenda non modo in manibus 
habenda quotidie, nosti.— Plin. Hist. Nat. prof. 

P Praesertim cum sex libris, tanquam praedibus, meip- 
sum obstrinxerim ; quos tibi tam valde probari gaudeo. 
[Ad Att. vi. 1 .] Ego audebo legere unquam, aut attingere 
eos libros, quos tu dilaudas, si tale quid fecero ?— Ibid. 2. 

1 De Offic. iii. 5, 6, 17. 



life, will serve, if not to instruct, yet to reproach 
the practice of most Christians. This was that 
law, which is mentioned by St. Paul to be taught 
by nature, and written on the hearts of the Gen- 
tiles, to guide them through that state of ignorance 
and darkness of which they themselves complained, 
till they should be blessed with a more perfect 
revelation of the divine will ; and this scheme of it 
professed by Cicero was certainly the most complete 
that the Gentile world had ever been acquainted 
with ; the utmost effort that human nature could 
make towards attaining its proper end ; or that 
supreme good for which the Creator had designed 
it : upon the contemplation of which sublime truths, 
as delivered by a heathen, Erasmus could not help 
persuading himself that the breast from which they 
flowed must needs have been inspired by the 
Deity r . 

But after all these glorious sentiments that we 
have been ascribing to Cicero, and collecting from 
his writings, some have been apt to consider them 
as the flourishes rather of his eloquence than the 
conclusions of his reason ; since in other parts of 
his works he seems to intimate not only a diffi- 
dence, but a disbelief of the immortality of the 
soul, and a future state of rewards and punish- 
ments ; and especially in his letters, where he is 
supposed to declare his mind with the greatest 
frankness s . But in all the passages brought to 
support this objection, where he is imagined to 
speak of death as the end of all things to man, as 
they are addressed to friends in distress by way of 
consolation, so some commentators take them to 
mean nothing more than that death is the end of 
all things here below, and without any farther sense 
of what is done upon earth : yet should they be 
understood to relate, as perhaps they may, to an 
utter extinction of our being ; it must be observed, 

r Quid aliis accidat nescio ; me legentem sic afficere solet 
M. Tullius, praesertim ubi de bene vivendo disserit, ut 
dubitare non possim, quin illud pectus, unde ista pro- 
dierunt, aliqua divinitas occuparit. — Erasm. Ep. ad Job. 
Ulattenum. 

s Saepissime et legi et audivi, nibil mali esse in morte ; 
in qua si resideat sensus, immortalitas ilia potius, quam 
mors ducenda est : sin sit amissus, nulla videri miseria 
debeat, quae non sentiatur. [Ep. Fam. v. 16.] Ut hoc 
saltern in maximis malis boni consequamur, ut mortem, 
quam etiam beati contemnere debeamus, propterea quod 
nullum sensum esset habitura, nunc sic affecti, non modo 
contemnere debeamus, sed etiam optare. [Ibid. 21.] Sed 
haec consolatio levis ; ilia gravior, qua te uti spero, ego 
certe utor : nee enim dum ero, angar ulla re, cum omni 
vacem culpa ; et si non ero, sensu omnino carebo. [Ibid, 
vi. 3.] Deinde — si jam vocem ad exitum vita 1 , non ab ea 
republica avellar, qua carendum esse doleam, praesertim 
cum id sine ullo sensu futurum sit. [Ibid. 4.] Una ratio 
videtur, quicquid evenerit, ferre moderate, praesertim cum 
omnium rerum mors sit extremum. [Ibid. 21.] Sed de 
ilia — fors viderit, aut si quis est, qui curet deus. — Ad Att. 
iv. 10. 

N.B. By this illustration of Cicero's moral principles we 
learn the force of that rule, which he frequently prescribes, 
of following nature, as the sure and unerring guide of life : 
[De Leg. i. 6 ; De Senect. 2 ; De Amic. 5 :] by which he 
means that law or will of God displayed in the nature of 
things ; not, as some are apt to interpret him, the dictates 
of our unruly passions, which are falsely called natural, 
being the motions only of vitiated appetites, and the crea- 
tures of habit not of nature ; the gratification of which, as 
he tells us, is more contrary to nature, and consequently 
more to be avoided, than poverty, pain, or even death 
itself.— De Offic. iii. 5, 6. 



310 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



that he was writing in all probability to Epicureans', 
and accommodating his arguments to the men, by 
offering such topics of comfort to them from their 
own philosophy as they themselves held to be the 
most effectual. But if this also should seem pre- 
carious, we must remember always that Cicero was 
an Academic ; and though he believed a future 
state, was fond of the opinion, and declares himself 
resolved never to part with it ; yet he believed it 
as probable only, not as certain u : and as proba- 
bility implies some mixture of doubt, and admits 
the degrees of more and less, so it admits also 
some variety in the stability of our persuasion : 
thus in a melancholy hour, when his spirits were 
depressed, the same argument would not appear to 
him with the same force, but doubts and difficulties 
get the ascendant, and what humoured his present 
chagrin, find the readiest admission. The passages 
alleged were all of this kind, written in the season 
of his dejection, when all things were going wrong 
with him, in the height of Csesar's power ; and 
though we allow them to have all the force that 
they can possibly bear, and to express what Cicero 
really meant at that time, yet they prove at last 
nothing more than that, agreeably to the character 
and principles of the Academy, he sometimes 
doubted of what he generally believed. But after 
all, whatever be the sense of them, it cannot surely 
be thought reasonable to oppose a few scattered 
hints, accidentally thrown out, when he was not 
considering the subject, to the volumes that he had 
deliberately written on the other side of the ques- 
tion x . 

As to his political conduct, no man was ever a 
more determined patriot, or a warmer lover of bis 
country than he : his whole character, natural 

t This will appear to be a very probable supposition, 
when we recollect that the generality of the Roman nobi- 
lity and of Cicero's friends were of the Epicurean sect ; 
and particularly the family of Torquatus, to whom two of 
these very letters are addressed. — Accurate quondam a 
L. Torquato, homine omni doctrina erudito, defensa est 
Epicuri sententia de voluptate, a meque ei responsum. — 
De Fin. i. 5. 

u Quod si in hoc erro, quod animos hominum immortales 
esse credam, lubenter erro. Nee mihi hunc errorem, quo 
delector, dum vivo, extorqueri volo. [Cato. 23.] Geram 
tibi morem, et ea, quae vis, ut potero, explicabo : nee tamen 
quasi Pythius Apollo, certa ut sint et fixa quae dixero : sed 
ut homunculus unus e multis, probabilia conjectura se- 
quens.— Tusc. Quaest. i. 9. 

x From this general view of Cicero's religion, one cannot 
help observing, that the most exalted state of human rea- 
son is so far from superseding the use, that it demonstrates 
the benefit of a more explicit revelation ; for though the 
natural law, in the perfection to which it was carried by 
Cicero, might serve for a sufficient guide to the few, such 
as himself, of enlarged minds and happy dispositions, yet 
it had been 60 long depraved and adulterated by the pre- 
vailing errors and vices of mankind, that it was not disco- 
verable even to those few, without great pains and study ; 
and could not produce in them at last anything more than 
a hope, never a full persuasion ; whilst the greatest part of 
mankind, even of the virtuous and inquisitive, lived with- 
out the knowledge of a God, or the expectation of a futu- 
rity ; and the multitude in every country was left to the 
gross idolatry of the popular worship. When we reflect 
on all this, we must needs see abundant reason to be thank- 
ful to God for the divine light of his Gospel, which has 
revealed at last to babes what was hidden from the wise ; 
and without the pains of searching, or danger of mistaking, 
has given us not only the hope, but the assurance of hap- 
piness ; and made us not only the believers, but the heirs 
of immortality. 



temper, choice of life and principles, made its true 
interest inseparable from his own. His general 
view, therefore, was always one and the same ; to 
support the peace and liberty of the republic in 
that form and constitution of it which their ances- 
tors had delivered down to them^. He looked 
upon that as the only foundation on which it could 
be supported, and used to quote a verse of old 
Ennius, as the dictate of an oracle, which derived 
all the glory of Rome from an adherence to its 
ancient manners and discipline. 

Moribus antiquis stat res Romana virisque 2 . 
It is one of his maxims which he inculcates in his 
writings, that as the end of a pilot is a prosperous 
voyage ; of a physician, the health of his patient ; 
of a general, victory ; so that of a statesman is, to 
make his citizens happy ; to make them firm in 
power, rich in wealth, splendid in glory, eminent 
in virtue ; which he declares to be the greatest and 
best of all works among men a : and as this cannot 
be effected but by the concord and harmony of the 
constituent members of a city b ; so it was his 
constant aim to unite the different orders of the 
state into one common interest, and to inspire 
them with a mutual confidence in each other ; so 
as to balance the supremacy of the people by the 
authority of the senate : that the one should enact, 
but the other advise ; the one have the last resort, 
the other the chief influence . This was the old 
constitution of Rome, by which it had raised itself 
to all its grandeur ; whilst all its misfortunes were 
owing to the contrary principle, of distrust and 
dissention between these two rival powers : it was 
the great object therefore of his policy to throw 
the ascendant in all affairs into the hands of the 
senate and the magistrates, as far as it was consist- 
ent with the rights and liberties of the people : 
which will always be the general view of the wise 
and honest in all popular governments. 

This was the principle which he espoused from 
the beginning, and pursued to the end of his life : 
and though in some passages of his history, he may 
be thought perhaps to have deviated from it, yet 
upon an impartial review of the case, we shall find 
that his end was always the same, though he had 
changed his measures of pursuing it ; when com- 
pelled to it by the violence of the times, and an 
overruling force, and a necessary regard to his 
own safety ; so that he might say with great truth, 
what an Athenian orator once said, in excuse of his 
inconstancy, that he had acted indeed on some 
occasions contrary to himself, but never to the 
republic d : and here also his Academic philosophy 
seems to have showed its superior use in practical, 

y Sic tibi, mi Paete, persuade, me dies et noctes nihil 
aliud agere, nihil curare, nisi ut mei cives salvi liberique 
sint.— Ep. Fam, i. 24. 

z Quern quidem ille versum vel brevitate vel veritate, 
tanquam ex oraculo mihi quodam effatus videtur, &c. — 
Fragm. de Repub. v. 

a Ut gubernatori cursus secundus — sic huic moderatori 
reipublicae beata civium vita proposita est, &c. — Ibid. 

b Quae harmonia a musicis dicitur in cantu, ea est in 
civitate concordia, arctissimum atque optimum omni in 
republica vinculum incolumitatis, &c. — Ibid. ii. 

c Nam — si senatus dominus sit publici consilii — possit, 
ex temperatione juris, cum potestas in populo, auctoritas 
in senatu sit, teneri ille moderatus et concors civitatis sta- 
tus.— De Leg. iii. 12 ; it. Ibid. 17. 

d Plutarch, de Demade. in Vit. Demosth. p. 851. Edit. 
Par. 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



on 



as well as in speculative life ; by indulging that 
liberty of acting which nature and. reason require ; 
and when the times and things themselves are 
changed, allowing a change of conduct, and a 
recourse to new means, for the attainment of the 
same end. 

The three sects which at this time chiefly en- 
grossed the philosophical part of Rome were, the 
Stoic, the Epicurean, and the Academic ; and the 
chief ornaments of each were, Cato, Atticus, and 
Cicero, who lived together in strict friendship, and 
a mutual esteem of each other's virtue ; but the 
different behaviour of these three will show, by fact 
and example, the different merit of their several 
principles, and which of them was the best adapted 
to promote the good of society. 

The Stoics were the bigots or enthusiasts in 
philosophy, who held none to be truly wise or good 
but themselves ; placed perfect happiness in virtue, 
though stripped of every other good ; affirmed all 
sins to be equal ; all deviations from right equally 
wicked ; to kill a dunghill-cock without reason, the 
same crime as to kill a parent ; that a wise man 
could never forgive ; never be moved by anger, 
favour, or pity ; never be deceived ; never repent ; 
never change his mind e . With these principles 
Cato entered into public life ; and acted in it (as 
Cicero says) as if he had lived in the polity of Plato, 
not in the dregs of Romulus f . He made no distinc- 
tion of times or things ; no allowance for the 
weakness of the republic, and the power of those 
who oppressed it ; it was his maxim to combat all 
power not built upon the laws, or to defy it at 
least, if he could not control it : he knew no way 
to his end but the direct, and whatever obstruc- 
tions he met with, resolved still to rush on, and 
either to surmount them or perish in the attempt : 
taking it for a baseness and confession of being 
conquered, to decline a tittle from the true road. 
In an age, therefore, of the utmost libertinism, 
when the public discipline was lost, and the govern- 
ment itself tottering, he struggled with the same 
zeal against all corruption, and waged a T perpetual 
war with a superior force ; whilst the rigour of his 
principles tended rather to alienate friends than 
reconcile enemies ; and by provoking the power 
that he could not subdue, helped to hasten that 
ruin which he was striving to averts \ so that after 
a perpetual course of disappointments and repulses, 
finding himself unable to pursue his old way any 
farther, instead of taking a new one, he was driven 
by his philosophy to put an end to his life. 

But as the Stoics exalted human nature too 
high, so the Epicureans depressed it too low ; as 
those raised it to the heroic, these debased it to 
the brutal state : they held pleasure to be the chief 
good of man, death the extinction of his being ; 
and placed their happiness consequently in the 

e Sapientem gratia nunquam moveri, nunquam cujus- 
quam delicto ignoscere : neminem misericordem esse, nisi 
stultum ; viri non esse, neque exorari, neque placari ; om- 
nia peccata esse paria — nee minus delinquere eum, qui 
gallum gallinaceum, cum opus non fuerit, quam eum, qui 
patrem suffocaverit : sapientem nihil opinari, nullius rei 
pcenitere, nulla in re falli, sententiam mutare nunquam. 
—Pro Muren. 29. 

f Dicit enim tanquam in Platonis iroXiTela, non tan- 
quam in Romuli faece, sententiam.— Ad Att. ii. 1, p. 178. 

e Pompeium et Caesarem, quorum nemo alterum offen- 
dere audebat, nisi ut alterum demeretur, [Cato] simul pro- 
vocavit.— Sen. Ep. 104. 



secure enjoyment of a pleasurable life ; esteeming 
virtue on no other account than as it was a hand- 
maid to pleasure, and helped to ensure the posses- 
sion of it, by preserving health and conciliating 
friends. Their wise man therefore had no other 
duty but to provide for his own ease ; to decline all 
struggles ; to retire from public affairs ; and to 
imitate the life of their gods ; by passing his days 
in a calm, contemplative, undisturbed repose ; in 
the midst of rural shades and pleasant gardens. 
This was the scheme that Atticus followed : he had 
all the talents that could qualify a man to be useful 
to society ; great parts, learning, judgment, can- 
dour, benevolence, generosity ; the same love of 
his country, and the same sentiments in politics 
with Cicero h ; whom he was always advising and 
urging to act, yet determined never to act himself, 
or never at least so far as to disturb his ease, or 
endanger his safety. For though he was so strictly 
united with Cicero, and valued him above all men, 
yet he managed an interest all the while with the 
opposite faction, and a friendship even with his 
mortal enemies, Clodius and Antony, that he might 
secure against all events the grand point which he 
had in view, the peace and tranquillity of his life. 
Thus two excellent men, by their mistaken notions 
of virtue, drawn from the principles of their philo- 
sophy, were made useless in a manner to their 
country ; each in a different extreme of life ; the one 
always acting and exposing himself to dangers, with- 
out the prospect of doing good ; the other, without 
attempting to do any, resolving never to act at all. 
Cicero chose the middle way between the 
obstinacy of Cato and the indolence of Atticus : 
he preferred always the readiest road to what was 
right, if it lay open to him ; if not, took the next, 
that seemed likely to bring him to the same end ; 
and in politics, as in morality, when he could not 
arrive at the true, contented himself with the 
probable. He oft compares the statesman to the 
pilot, whose art consists in managing every turn 
of the winds, and applying even the most perverse 
to the progress of his voyage ; so as by changing 
his course, and enlarging his circuit of sailing, to 
arrive with safety, though later, at his destined 
port 1 . He mentions likewise an observation, which 
long experience had confirmed to him, that none 
of the popular and ambitious, who aspired to 
extraordinary commands, and to be leaders in the 
republic, ever chose to obtain their ends from the 
people till they had first been repulsed by the 
senate J. This was verified by all their civil 
dissentions, from the Gracchi down to Ceesar : so 
that when he saw men of this spirit at the head of 
the government, who, by the splendour of their 
lives and actions, had acquired an ascendant over 

h In republica ita est versatus, ut semper optimarum 
partium et esset, et existimaretur ; neque tamen se civili- 
bus fluctibus committeret. — Corn. Nep. in Vit. Att. 6. 

i Nunquam enim pra?stantibus in republica gubernanda 
viris laudata est in una sententiaperpetuapermansio : sed 
ut in navigando tempestati obsequi artis est, etiamsi por- 
tum tenere non queas : cum vero id possis mutata velifica- 
tione assequi, stultum est eum tenere cursum cum periculo 
quern ceperis, potius quam, eo commutato, quo velis tan- 
dem pervenire, &c— Ep. Fam. i. 9. 

J Neminem unquam est hie ordo amplexus honoribus et 
beneficiis suis, qui ullam dignitatem praastabiliorem ea, 
quam per vos esset adeptus, putarit. Nemo unquam hie 
potuit esse princeps, qui maluerit esse popularis.— De Pro- 
vin. Consular. 16 ; it. Phil. v. 18. 



312 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



the populace, it was his constant advice to the 
senate to gain them by gentle compliances, and 
to gratify their thirst of power by voluntary grants 
of it, as the best way to moderate their ambition, 
and reclaim them from desperate counsels. He 
declared contention to be no longer prudent than 
while it either did service, or, at least, no hurt ; 
but when faction was grown too strong to be 
withstood, that it was time to give over fighting ; 
and nothing left but to extract some good out of 
the ill, by mitigating that power by patience which 
they could not reduce by force, and conciliating 
it, if possible, to the interests of the state k . This 
was what he advised, and what he practised ; and 
it will account in a great measure for those parts 
of his conduct which are the most liable to 
exception, on the account of that complaisance 
which he is supposed to have paid at different 
times to the several usurpers of illegal power. 

He made a just distinction between bearing 
what we cannot help, and approving what we 
ought to condemn 1 ; and submitted therefore, 
yet never consented, to those usurpations ; and 
when he was forced to comply with them, did it 
always with a reluctance that he expresses very 
keenly in his letters to his friends. But whenever 
that force was removed, and he was at liberty 
to pursue his principles, and act without control, 
as in his consulship, in his province, and after 
Caesar's death, (the only periods of his life in which 
he was truly master of himself,) there we see 
him shining out in his genuine character of an 
excellent citizen, a great magistrate, a glorious 
patriot : there we see the man who could declare 
of himself with truth, in an appeal to Atticus, as 
to the best witness of his conscience, that " he had 
always done the greatest services to his country 
when it was in his power ; or when it was not, had 
never harboured a thought of it but what was 
divine m ." If we must needs compare him, there- 
fore, with Cato, as some writers affect to do, it is 
certain, that if Cato's virtues seem more splendid 
in theory, Cicero's will be found superior in prac- 
tice : the one was romantic, the other rational ; 
the one drawn from the refinements of the schools, 
the other from nature and social life ; the one 
always unsuccessful, often hurtful ; the other always 
beneficial, often salutary, to the republic. 

To conclude : Cicero's death, though violent, 
cannot be called untimely, but was the proper end 
of such a life, which must have been rendered less 
glorious, if it had owed its preservation to Antony. 
It was therefore what he not only expected, but in 
the circumstances to which he was reduced, what 
he seems even to have wished". For he who before 



k Sed contentio tamdiu sapiens est, quamdiu aut proficit 
aliquid, aut si non proficit, non obest civitati : voluimus 
qu.-rdam, contendimus, experti surnus, non obtenta sunt. 
—Pro Corn. Balbo, 27. 

Sic ab hominibus doctis acccpimus, non solum ex malis 
cligcrc minima oportcro ; sed ctiam cxccrpere ex bis ipsis 
si quid inesset boni. — Do Ofiic. i. ] . 

I Non enim est idem, ferre si quid ferendum est, et pro- 
bare si quid probandum non est.— Ep. Fam. ix. 6. 

111 Prajclara igitur conseicntia sustentor, cum cogito me 
do republica aut meruisse optime cum potuerim ; aut certe 
nunquam nisi divine cogitassc.' — Ad Att. x. 4. 

II Nullum locum prsetermitto monendi, :igendi, provi- 
dciuLi ; lioc denique animo sum, ut si in bac cura atque 
iulniinistrationc, vita mibi ponenda sit, prsclare actum 
mecum putem.— Ep. Fam. ix. 24. 



had been timid in dangers and desponding in dis- 
tress, yet, from the time of Csesar's death, roused 
by the desperate state of the republic °, assumed 
the fortitude of a hero, discarded all fear, despised 
all danger ; and when he could not free his country 
from a tyranny, provoked the tyrants to take that 
life which he no longer cared to preserve. Thus, 
like a great actor on the stage, he reserved himself 
as it were for the last act, and, after he had played 
his part with dignity, resolved to finish it with 
glory. 

The character of his son Marcus has been de- 
livered down to us in a very disadvantageous light : 
for he is represented generally, both by the ancients 
and moderns, as stupid and vicious, and a proverb 
even of degeneracy p : yet, when we come to inquire 
into the real state of the fact, we shall find but 
little ground for so scandalous a tradition. 

In his early youth, while he continued under the 
eye and discipline of his father, he gave all imagin- 
able proofs both of an excellent temper and genius ; 
was modest, tractable, dutiful ; diligent in his 
studies, and expert in his exercises ; so that in the 
Pharsalic war, at the age of seventeen, he acquired 
a great reputation in Pompey's camp, by his dex- 
terity of riding, throwing the javelin, and all the 
other accomplishments of a young soldier**. Not 
long after Pompey's death, he was sent to Athens, 
to spend a few years in the study of philosophy 
and polite letters, under Cratippus, the most cele- 
brated philosopher of that time, for whom Cicero 
afterwards procured the freedom of Rome r . Here, 
indeed, upon his first sally into the world, he was 
guilty of some irregularity of conduct, and extrava- 
gance of expense, that made his father uneasy ; into 
which he was supposed to have been drawn by Gorgias , 
his masterof rhetoric, a lover of wine and pleasure, 
whom Cicero for that reason expostulated with 
severely by letter, and discharged from his attend- 
ance upon him. But the young man was soon 
made sensible of his folly, and recalled to his duty 
by the remonstrances of his friends, and particu- 
larly of Atticus, so that his father readily paid his 
debts and enlarged his allowance, which seems 
to have been about seven hundred pounds per 
annum s . 

From this time, all the accounts of him from 
the principal men of the place, as well as his 
Roman friends who had occasion to visit Athens, 
are constant and uniform in their praises of him, 
and in terms so particular and explicit, that they 
could not proceed from mere compliment, or a 
desire of flattering Cicero, as he often signifies with 
pleasure to Atticus 1 . Thus Trebonius, as he was 

o Sed plane animus, qui dubiis rebus forsitan fuerit 
infirmior, despcratis, confirmalus est multum. — Ep. Fam. 
v. 21. 

P Ciceronem filium qua? res consulem fecit, nisi pater? 
[Senec. De Benef. iv. 30.] Nam virtutcs omncs aberant ; 
stupor et vitia aderant. — Lipsii Not. ad locum. 

q Quo in bcllo cum tc, Pompeius ala? alteri prarfecissct, 
magnam laudem ct a summo viro, et ab excrcitu conscque- 
bare, cquitando, jaculando, omni militari labore tolerando. 
— De Ofiic. ii. li 

r Plutarcb. in Vit. Cic. 

s . — Ad Ciceronem ita scripsisti, ulli ut ncque severius, 
neque temperatius scribi potuerit, nee magis quam quem- 
admodum ego maxima vellem.— Ad Att. xiii. 1; it. Ibid, 
xvi. 1, 15 ; Plutarcb. in Vit. Cic. 

t Cffiteri prseclara scribunt. Leonidas tamen retinet 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



313 



passing into Asia, writes to him from Athens: " I 
came hither on the twenty-first of May, where I saw 
your son, and saw him, to my great joy, pursuing 
everything that was good, and in the highest credit 
for the modesty of his behaviour. — Do not imagine, 
my Cicero, that I say this to flatter you ; for 
nothing can be more beloved than your young man 
is by all who are at Athens ; nor more studious of 
all those arts which you yourself delight in, that is, 
the best. I congratulate with you, therefore, very 
heartily, which I can do with great truth, and not 
less also with myself; that he whom we were 
obliged to love, of what temper soever he had hap- 
pened to be, proves to be such a one as we should 
choose to love u ." 

But the son's own letters gave the most solid 
comfort to his father, as they were written not 
only with great duty and affection, but with such 
elegance also and propriety, " that they were fit," 
he says, " to be read to a learned audience ; and 
though in other points he might possibly be de- 
ceived, yet, in these he saw a real improvement 
both of his taste and learning x ." None of these 
letters are now extant, nor any other monument of 
young Cicero's talents, but two letters to Tiro, one 
of which I have chosen to transcribe, as the surest 
specimen both of his parts and temper, written, as 
we may imagine, to one of Tiro's rank, without 
any particular care, and in the utmost familiarity, 
from his residence at Athens, when he was about 
nineteen years old. 

Cicero the son to Tiro. 
" While I was expecting every day with im- 
patience your messengers from Rome, they came 
at last on the forty-sixth day after they left you. 
Their arrival was extremely agreeable to me ; for 
my father's most indulgent and affectionate letter 
gave me an exceeding joy, which was still highly 
increased by the receipt also of yours ; so that, 
instead of being sorry for my late omission of 
i writing, I was rather pleased that my silence had 
afforded me so particular a proof of your humanity. 
It is a great pleasure, therefore, to me, that you 
accepted my excuse so readily. I do not doubt, 
my dearest Tiro, but that the reports which are 
now brought of me give you a real satisfaction. It 
shall be my care and endeavour that this growing 
fame of me shall every day come more and more 
confirmed to you : and since you promise to be the 
trumpeter of my praises, you may venture to do it 
with assurance ; for the past errors of my youth have 
mortified me so sensibly, that my mind does not 
only abhor the facts themselves, but my ears can- 
not even endure the mention of them. I am 
perfectly assured, that in all this regret and solici- 
tude you have borne no small share with me : nor 
is it to be wondered at ; for though you wish me 
all success for my sake, you are engaged also to do 



illud suum adhuc, summis vero laudibus Herodes. [Ad 
Att. xv. 16.] Gratissimum, quod polliceris Ciceroni nihil 
defuturum ; de quo mirabilia Messala. — Ibid. 17- 

« Ep. Fam. xii. 16 ; it. 14. 

x A Cicerone mihi literas sane Treirivu/jLevai, et bene longs. 
Caetera autem vel fingi possunt : irtvos literarum significat 
doctiorem. [Ad Att. xiv. 7-] Mehercule ipsius literae sic et 
(piAopTopyus, et evirivoos scripts, ut eas vel in acroasi 
audeam legere : quo magis illi indulgendum puto.— Ibid, 
xv. 17 ; Ibid. 16. 



it for your own : since it was always my resolution 
to make you the partner of every good that may 
befal me. As I have before, therefore, been the 
occasion of sorrow to you, so it shall now be my 
business to double your joy on my account. You 
must know that I live in the utmost intimacy with 
Cratippus, and like a son rather than a scholar ; 
for I not only hear his lectures with pleasure, but 
am infinitely delighted with his conversation. I 
spend whole days with him, and frequently also 
a part of the night ; for I prevail with him as often 
as I can to sup with me ; and in our familiar chat, 
as we sit at table, the night steals upon us without 
thinking of it, whilst he lays aside the severity of 
his philosophy, and jokes amongst us with all the 
good, humour imaginable. Contrive, therefore, to 
come to us as soon as possible, and see this agree- 
able and excellent man. For what need I tell you 
of Bruttius ? whom I never part with out of my 
sight. His life is regular and exemplary, and his 
company the most entertaining : he has the art of 
introducing questions of literature into conversa- 
tion, and seasoning philosophy with mirth. I have 
hired a lodging for him in the next house to me, 
and support his poverty as well as I am able, out 
of my narrow income. I have begun also to 
declaim in Greek under Cassius, but choose to 
exercise myself in Latin with Bruttius. I live, 
likewise, in great familiarity, and the perpetual 
company of those whom Cratippus brought with 
him from Mitylene, who are men of learning, and 
highly esteemed by him. Epicrates also, the lead- 
ing man at Athens, and Leonidas, spend much of 
their time with me, and many others of the same 
rank. This is the manner of my life at present. 
As to what you write about Gorgias, he was useful 
to me indeed in my daily exercise of declaiming ; 
but I gave up all considerations for the sake of 
obeying my father, who wrote peremptorily that I 
should dismiss him instantly. I complied, there- 
fore, without hesitation, lest by showing any reluc- 
tance, I might raise in him some suspicion of me. 
Besides, I reflected that it would seem indecent in 
me to deliberate upon the judgment of a father. 
Your zeal, however, and advice upon it, are very 
agreeable to me. I admit your excuse of want of 
leisure, for I know how much your time is com- 
monly taken up. I am mightily pleased with your 
purchase of a farm, and heartily wish you joy of it. 
Do not wonder at my congratulating you in this 
part of my letter ; for it was the same part of 
yours in which you informed me of the purchase. 
You have now a place where you may drop all the 
forms of the city, and are become a Roman of the 
old rustic stamp. I please myself with placing your 
figure before my eyes, and imagining that I see you 
bartering for your country wares, or consulting 
with your bailiff, or carrying off from your table, 
in a corner of your vest, the seeds of your fruits 
and melons for your garden. But to be serious : 
I am as much concerned as you are that I happened 
to be out of the way, and could not assist you on 
that occasion : but depend upon it, my Tiro, I will 
make you easy one time or other, if fortune does 
not disappoint me : especially since I know that 
you have bought this farm for the common use of 
us both. I am obliged to you for your care in 
executing my orders ; but beg of you that a libra- 
rian may be sent to me in all haste, and especially 
a Greek one ; for I waste much of my time in 



314 



THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF 



transcribing the lectures and books that are of use 
to me. Above all things, take care of your health, 
that we may live to hold many learned conferences 
together. I recommend Antherus to you. Adieu V 

This was the situation of young Cicero when 
Brutus arrived at Athens, who, as it has been 
already said, was exceedingly taken with his virtue 
and good principles, of which he sent a high enco- 
mium to his father, and entrusted him, though but 
twenty years old, with a principal command in his 
army ; in which he acquitted himself with a singu- 
lar i-eputation, both of courage and conduct ; and 
in several expeditions and encounters with the 
enemy, where he commanded in chief, always came 
off victorious. After the battle of Philippi, and 
the death of Brutus, he escaped to Pompey, who 
had taken possession of Sicily with a great army, 
and fleet superior to any in the empire. This was 
the last refuge of the poor republicans : where 
young Cicero was received again with particular 
honours, and continued fighting still in the defence 
of his country's liberty, till Pompey, by a treaty of 
peace with the triumvirate, obtained, as one of the 
conditions of it, the pardon and restoration of all 
the proscribed and exiled Romans who were then 
in arras with him 2 . 

Cicero therefore took his leave of Pompey, and 
returned to Rome with the rest of his party, where 
he lived for some time in the condition of a private 
nobleman, remote from affairs and the court of the 
emperor ; partly through the envy of the times, 
averse to his name and principles ; partly through 
choice, and his old zeal for the republican cause, 
which he retained still to the last. In this uneasy 
state, where he had nothing to rouse his virtue or 
excite his ambition, it is not strange that he sunk 
into a life of indolence and pleasure, and the 
intemperate love of wine, which, began to be the 
fashionable vice of this age, from the example of 
Antony, who had lately published a volume on the 
triumphs of his drinking. Young Cicero is said 
to have practised it likewise to great excess, and to 
have been famous for the quantity that he used to 
swallow at a draught, " as if he had resolved," says 
Pliny, " to deprive Antony, the murderer of his 
father, of the glory of being the first drunkard of 
the empire a ." 

Augustus, however, paid him the compliment in 
the meanwhile to make him a priest or augur b , as 
well as one of those magistrates who presided over 
the coinage of the public money ; in regard to 
which there is a medal still extant, with the name 
of Cicero on the one side, and Appius Claudius on 
the other, who was one of his colleagues in this 
office c . But upon the last breach with Antony, 



y Ep. Fam. xvi. 21 . 

z Appian. p. 619, 713. 

a Nimirum hanc gloriam auferre Cicero voluit interfec- 
tori patris sui, Antonio. Is enim ante eum avidissime 
apprehenderat banc palm am ; edito etiam volumine de sua 
ebrietate.— Plin. Hist. Nat. xiv. 22. 

b Appian. p. 61!>. 

c And. Morell. Thesaur. Numism. inter Numm. Consul. 
Goltzii. Tab. xxxiii. 4. 

These superintendants of the public coinage were called 
Treviri, or Triumviri Mom-talc/;; and in medals and old 
inscriptions are described thus: III. VIR. A.A.A.F.F., that 
is, Auro, Arj/ento, JEre Flando, Feriundo. Their number 
had always been three, till J. Caesar, as it appears from 
several medals, enlarged it to four; whence in the coin of 
Cicero, just mentioned, we find him called II II. VIR. 



Augustus no sooner became the sole master of 
Rome, than he took him for his partner in the 
consulship ; so that his letters which brought the 
news of the victory at Actium, and conquest of 
Egypt, were addressed to Cicero the consul, who 
had the pleasure of publishing them to the senate 
and people, as well as of making and executing 
that decree, which ordered all the statues and 
monuments of Antony to be demolished, and that 
no person of his family should ever after bear the 
name of Marcus. By paying this honour to the 
son, Augustus made some atonement for his trea- 
chery to the father ; and by giving the family this 
opportunity of revenging his death upon Antony, 
fixed the blame of it also there ; while the people 
looked upon it as divine and providential, that the 
final overthrow of Antony's name and fortunes 
should, by a strange revolution of affairs, be reserved 
for the triumph of young Cicero d . Some honours 
are mentioned likewise to have been decreed by 
Cicero, in this consulship, to his partner Augustus ; 
particularly an obsidional crown, which though 
made only of the common grass that happened to 
be found upon the scene of action, yet in the times 
of ancient discipline, was esteemed the noblest 
reward of military glory, and never bestowed but 
for the deliverance of an army, when reduced to 
the last distress e . This crown, therefore, had not 
been given above eight times from the foundation 
of Rome ; but with the oppression of its liberty, 
all its honours were servilely prostituted at the will 
of the reigning monarch. 

Soon after Cicero's consulship, he was made 
proconsul of Asia, or as Appian says, of Syria, 
one of the most considerable provinces of the 
empire, from which time we find no farther men- 
tion of him in history. He died probably soon 
after, before a maturity of age and experience 
had given him the opportunity of retrieving the 
reproach of his intemperance, and distinguishing 
himself in the counsels of the state ; but from the 
honours already mentioned, it is evident that his 
life, though blemished by some scandal, yet was 
not void of dignity ; and amidst all the vices with 
which he is charged, he is allowed to have retained 
his father's wit and politeness f . 

There are two stories related of him, which show 
that his natural courage and high spirit were far 
from being subdued by the ruin of his party and 
fortunes : for being in company with some friends 
where he had drunk very hard, in the heat of wine 

There was another magistrate also of lower rank at Rome, 
called Treviri Capitales, who tried and judged all capital 
crimes among foreigners and slaves, or even citizens of in- 
ferior condition : in allusion to which Cicero has a pleasant 
joke, in one of his letters to Trebatius, when he was attend- 
ing Caesar in his wars against the Treviri, one of the most 
fierce and warlike nations of Gaul : " I admonish you," 
says he, " to keep out of the way of those Treviri .- they are 
of the capital kind, I hear : I wish rather that they were 
the coiners of gold and silver."— Ep. Fam. vii. 13. 

d Plutarch, in Cic. ; Dio, p. 456 ; Appian. p. 61!), 6JT2. 
" e Corona quideni nulla f nit graminea nobilior— nunquam 
nisi in desperatione suprema contigit ulli ; nisi ab universo 
exercitu servato decreta — eadem vocatur obsidionalis — da- 
fcatur hajc viridi e gramme, decerpto inde ubi obsessos 
scrvasset aliquis — Ipsum Augustum cum M. Cicerone con- 
sulem, idibus Septembribus senatus obsidionali donavit, 
&c— Plin. Hist. Nat. xxii. 3, 4, 5, 6. 

f Qui nihil ex paterno ingenio habuit, pra?ter urbanita- 
tem.— M. Senec Suasor. 6. 



_J 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



315 



and passion he threw a cup at the head of Agrippa 
who next to Augustus bore the chief sway in Rome s. 
He was provoked to it probably by some dispute in 
politics, or insult on the late champions and van- 
quished cause of the republic. At anotber time, 
during his government of Asia, one Cestius, who 
was afterwards praetor, a flatterer of the times and 
a reviler of his father, having the assurance to come 
one day to his table, Cicero, after he had inquired 
his name, and understood that it was the man who 
used to insult the memory of his father, and declare 
that he knew nothing of polite letters, ordered him 
to be taken away and publicly whipped h . 

His nature seems to have been gay, frank, and 
generous : peculiarly turned to arms and martial 
glory ; to which, by the unhappy fate of his coun- 
try, he had been trained very young ; and at an 
age, that is commonly dedicated to the arts of 
peace and studies of learning, had served, with 
much honour to himself, in three successive wars, 
the most considerable in all history ; of Pharsalia, 
Philippi, and Sicily. If his life, therefore, did not 
correspond with the splendour of his father's, it 
seems chargeable to his misfortune rather than his 
fault ; and to the miserable state of the times, 
which allowed no room for the attainment of his 
father's honours, or the imitation of his virtues : 
but if he had lived in better times and a free re- 
public, though he would not have been so eminent 
a scholar, or orator, or statesman as his father, yet 
he would have excelled him probably in that cha- 
racter which conferred a more substantial power 
and dazzling glory, the fame of a brave and accom- 
plished general. 

The characters of Q. Cicero, the brother, of his 
son Quintus, and of Atticus, have been so fre- 
quently touched in the course of this history, that 
there is but little occasion to add anything more 
about them. The two first, as we have already 
said, upon the news of their being proscribed, took 
their leave of Cicero in his flight towards the sea, 
and returned to Rome ; in order to furnish them- 
selves with money and other necessaries for a voy- 
age to Macedonia. They hoped to have executed 
this before the proscription could take effect, or to 
he concealed, at least, for a short time in the city, 
without the danger of a discovery : but the diligence 
of Antony's emissaries, and the particular instruc- 
tions that they had received to make sure of the 
Ciceros, eluded all their caution and hopes of con- 
cealment. The son was found out the first ; who 
is said to have been more solicitous for the preserv- 
ation of his father than to provide for his own safety : 
upon his refusal to discover where his father lay 
hid, he was put to the rack by the soldiers ; till 
the father, to rescue his son from torture, came 
out from his hiding-place, and voluntarily surren- 
dered himself; making no other request to his 
executioners, than that they would despatch him 
the first of the two. The son urged the same peti- 
tion, to spare him the misery of being the spectator 
of his father's murder ; so that the assassins, to 
satisfy them both, taking each of them apart, killed 
them by agreement at the same time 1 . 

As to Atticus, the difficulty of the times in which 

e Marcoque Agrippae a temulento scyphum impactum. 
— Plin. Hist. Nafr. xiv. 22. 
h M. Senec. Suasor. 6. 
i Dio, p. 333 ; Appian. 601 ; Plutarch, in Cic. 



he lived, and the perpetual quiet that he enjoyed 
in them, confirmed what has already been observed 
of him, that he was a perfect master of the prin- 
ciples of his sect, and knew how to secure that 
chief good of an Epicurean life, his private ease 
and safety. One would naturally imagine that his 
union with Cicero and Brutus, added to the fame 
of his wealth, would have involved him of course 
in the ruin of the proscription : he himself was 
afraid of it, and kept himself concealed for some 
time ; but without any great reason ; for, as if he 
had foreseen such an event and turn of things, he 
had always paid a particular court to Antony ; and, 
in the time even of his disgrace, when he was driven 
out of Italy, and his affairs thought desperate, did 
many eminent services to his friends at Rome ; 
and, above all, to his wife and children, whom he 
assisted, not only with his advice, but with his 
money also, on all occasions of their distress : so 
that, when Antony came to Rome, in the midst 
of the massacre, he made it his first care to find 
out Atticus ; and no sooner learned where he was, 
than he wrote him word with his own hand, to lay 
aside all fears, and come to him immediately ; and 
assigned him a guard, to protect him from any insult 
or violence of the soldiers k . 

It must be imputed likewise to the same prin- 
ciple of Atticus's caution, and a regard to his 
safety, that, after so long and intimate a corre- 
spondence of letters with Cicero, on the most im- 
portant transactions of that age, of which there are 
sixteen books of Cicero's still remaining, yet not a 
single letter of Atticus's was ever published : which 
can hardly be charged to any other cause but his 
having withdrawn them from Tiro, after Cicero's 
death, and suppressed them with a singular care ; 
lest, in that revolution of affairs and extinction of 
the public liberty, they should ever be produced to 
his hurt, or the diminution of his credit with their 
new masters. 

But his interest with the reigning powers was 
soon established on a more solid foundation than 
that of his personal merit, by the marriage of his 
only daughter with M. Agrippa ; which was first 
proposed and brought about by Antony. This 
introduced him into the friendship and familiarity 
of Augustus, whose minister and favourite Agrippa 
was ; and to whom he himself became afterwards 
nearly allied, by the marriage of his grand-daughter 
with his successor Tiberius 1 . Thus he added dig- 
nity to his quiet ; and lived to a good old age, in 
the very manner in which he wished ; happy and 
honourable ; and remote from all trouble, or the 
apprehension of danger. But that he still lives, 
in the fame and memory of ages, is entirely owing 

k Atticus, cum Ciceronis intima familiaritate uteretur, 
amicissimus esse Bruto ; non modo nihil iis indulsit ad 
Antonium violandum, sed e contrario familiares ejus ex 
urbe profugientes, quantum potuit, texit — ipsi autem 
Fulviae, cum litibus distineretur— sponsor omnium rerum 
fuerit — itaque ad adventum imperatorum de foro decesse- 
rat, timens proscriptionem — Antonius autem — ei, cum 
requisisset, ubinam esset, sua manu scripsit, ne timeret, 
statimque ad se veniret — ac ne quid periculum incideret — 
presidium ei misit Corn. Nep. in Vit. Attici, 10. 

1 Atque harum nuptiarum, non enim est, celandum, 
conciliator fuit Antonius. [Ibid. 12.] Nata est autem 
Attico neptis ex Agrippa. Hanc Caesar vix anniculam, 
Tibero Claudio Neroni, Drusilla nato, privigno suo despon 
dit. Quae conjunctio necessitudinem eorum sanxit. — 
Ibid. 19. 



31G 



HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



to the circumstance of his having been Cicero's 
friend : for this, after all, was the chief honour of 
his life : and, as Seneca truly observed, " it was 
the epistles of Cicero which preserved him from 
oblivion ; and neither his son Agrippa, nor grand- 
son Tiberius, nor great-grandson Drusus, would 
have been of any service to him, if Cicero's name, 



by drawing Atticus's along with it, had not given 
him an immortality 11 . 

n Nomen Attici perire Ciceronis epistol^ non sinunt. 
Nihil illi profuisset gener Agrippa, et Tiberius progener, 
et Drusus pronepos : inter tam magna nomina_taceretur, 
nisi Cicero ilium applicuisset.— Senec. Ep. 21. 



END OF THE LIFE OF CICERO, 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



A. 



Academy, a school of philosophy at Athens : an account 
of its name, origin, and situation, n. f , p. 302 ; its 
doctrines, ib. ; New Academy, its distinction from the 
old, 303 ; its principles and method of philosophising, 
ib. ; kept the proper medium between the Stoic and 
the Sceptic, ib. ; the most rational of all sects, 304; 
best adapted to the profession of an orator, ib. ; 
almost deserted in Cicero's time ; — why ; ib. ; the 
notion of a third or Middle Academy groundless, 
n. e , ib. ; the Academic principles the best calculated 
for practical life ; compared with those of the Stoics 
and the Epicureans, 311 

Aculeo, C, married Cicero's aunt, 1 ; his two sons bred 
up with Cicero, 3 

Adoption, the conditions and effects of it, 80 

iEdiles, the nature and duties of their office, 32 ; often 
ruined themselves by the expense of their shows, ib. 

iEdileship or tribunate, a necessary step to the superior 
dignities, 21 

jEschylus of Cnidos, an eminent rhetorician, attended 
Cicero in his travels, 13 

iEsopus, the tragedian, applies several passages of his 
parts, in acting, to the case of Cicero, 108 

Afranius, L. cons, his character, 75 

Agrarian laws, some account of them, 43 

Agriculture, the most liberal employment in old 
Rome, 2 

Ahenobarbus, L. Domitius, repulsed from the consul- 
ship by the triumvirate, 129 

Alaudse, the name of a legion raised by Caesar ; an ac- 
count of it, n. u , 246 

Albiuovanus, M. Tullius, a friend of Clodius, accuses 
P. Sextius of public violence, 123 

Allobroges, their ambassadors solicited to enter into 
Catiline's plot, 55 ; are examined in the senate, ib. 

Amanus, a mountainous part of Cilicia, subdued by 
Cicero, 160 

Antiochus, a philosopher of the Old Academy, with 
Avhom Cicero lodged at Athens, 12 

Antiochus, king of Comagene, his petition to the 
senate rejected by Cicero's influence, 134 ; sends 
notice to Cicero that the Parthians had passed the 
Euphrates, 157 

Autonins, C, candidate for the consulship ; guilty of 
open bribery— supported by Crassus and Caesar, 40; 
chosen consul with Cicero, and wholly managed by 
him, 42 ; sent out with an army against Catiline, 
52 ; is unwilling to fight, 61 ; condemned to exile 
for his oppressions in Macedonia, 79 ; defeated and 
taken prisoner by young Cicero, 265 ; raises a sedi- 
tion in Brutus's camp, confined by him on ship- 
board, 275 

Antonius, M., grandfather of the triumvir, his head 
fixed upon the rostra by C. Marius, 7 



Antonius, M., father of the triumvir, invades Crete, 
but is defeated, and dies with disgrace, 19 

Antonius, M., tribune, makes an invective oration 
against Pompey, 171 ; opposes all decrees against 
Caesar, ib. ; flies to Caesar's camp, ib. ; his character, 
ib. ; his flight the pretext of the war, 172 ; excludes 
all the Pompeians from Italy, except Cicero, 189 ; 
declared master of the horse to Caesar, 1 92 ; his 
luxurious manner of living ; — compelled by Caesar 
to pay for his purchase of Pompey 's houses, 213 ; 
made consul with Caesar ; quarrels with Dolabella, 
216 ; offers a regal diadem to Caesar, 217 ; preserved 
by the two Brutuses, when Caesar was killed, 220 ; 
dissembles his real views, manages Lepidus to his 
interests, deludes the conspirators, 225 ; contrives 
the tumult at Caesar's funeral, 226 ; makes a pro- 
gress through Italy, to solicit the veteran soldiers, 
229 ; his pernicious use of the decree for confirming 
Caesar's acts, 234 ; seizes the public treasure, 235 ; 
bribes Dolabella to his interests, treats Octavius with 
contempt, 238 ; recommends an accommodation with 
S. Pompey to the senate, 240 ; endeavours to extort 
the provinces of Macedonia and Syria from Brutus 
and Cassius, 243 ; threatens Cicero, ib. ; answers 
his first Philippic, 244 ; erects a statue to Caesar, 
245 ; puts three hundred centurions to death, 246 ; 
is enraged against Octavius, and Q. Cicero the son, 
247 ; resolves to possess himself of Cisalpine Gaul, 
and make war against D. Brutus, ib. ; besieges De- 
cimus in Modena, 249 ; receives an embassy from 
the senate, 251 ; refuses to comply with their de- 
mands, 253 ; reduces Modena to great straits, 261 ; 
tries to bring over Hirtius and Octavius to his mea- 
sures, 262 ; gains an advantage against Pansa, but 
is defeated by Hirtius, 270 ; entirely routed in a 
second battle by Octavius and Hirtius, flies to the 
Alps, 272 ; is received by Lepidus, 278 ; forms the 
league of the second triumvirate with Caesar and 
Lepidus; proscribes his uncle, 289; a summary view 
of his conduct from Caesar's death, ib. ; gives 8,000/. 
for Cicero's head, and orders it to be fixed upon the 
rostra, 291 

Appian, a copier of Plutarch, pref. xiii. 

Appius, Cicero's predecessor in his government, dis- 
pleased with Cicero's proceedings in it, 163; im- 
peached by Dolabella and acquitted, 164 ; exercises 
the censorship with rigour, 165 ; asserted the reality of 
divination as an augur, and was laughed at for it, 308 

Apuleius, tribune, makes a speech in defence of Cicero's 
measures, 369 

Aquilius, M., delivered up to Mithridates by the city 
of Mitylene, 14 

Aratus's Phaenomena, translated by Cicero, 5 ; and 
also his Prognostics, 76 

Arcesilas, the sixth successor of Plato in the Academic 
school, founded the New Academy, 302 



318 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



Archias, an eminent poet, the master of Cicero, lived 
with Lucullus, 4 ; defended hy Cicero, 71 

Ariobarzanes, king of Cappadocia, recommended to 
Cicero ; begs his assistance upon the discovery of a 
plot, 158; drained of his money by the Roman 
governors, ib. 

Aristotle, his works first brought into Italy by Sylla, 
9 ; the scholar of Plato, and founder of the Peripa- 
tetic sect, 302 ; held the nature of God, and the 
soul to be a fifth essence, 306 

Arpinum, the native city of Cicero and C. Marius, 
admitted to the freedom of Rome ; its territory rude 
and mountainous, 2 

Ateius, tribune, declares the expedition of Crassus 
prohibited by the auspices, 133 ; turned out of the 
senate for it by Appius, ib. 

Atticus, a surname given to T. Pomponius, of the 
Epicurean sect, 12 ; purchases for Cicero at Athens 
several statues and curiosities of Grecian sculpture, 
38 ; employs his slaves in copying all the best 
Greek writers, 39 ; refuses to follow Cicero in his 
exile, 97 ; chides him for his dejection, 99 ; supplies 
him with money, is thought too cold by him, 102; 
visits him at Dyrrhachium, 104 ; marries Pilia, 125; 
complains to Cicero of Quintus's usage of his sister 
Pomponia, 154; labours to reconcile Cicero to 
Caesar's administration, 212 ; his tenderness at part- 
ing from Cicero, 238 ; his good nature sometimes 
got the better of his philosophy, 239 ; his political 
conduct and principles compared with Cicero's and 
Cato's, 311 ; his life a true pattern of the Epicurean 
scheme, 315; why none of his letters to Cicero 
were ever published, ib. ; his daughter married to 
Agrippa, his grand-daughter to Tiberius ; but his 
chief glory was Cicero's friendship, ib. 

Augurs, their college, an account of it, 147 ; presided 
over the auspices, as the interpreters of the will of 
Jove, 307 ; their dignity and powers, ib. 

Auspices, often forged by Marius and Sylla to animate 
their soldiers, 14 

Autronius, P. Pcetus, convicted of bribery, forfeits the 
consulship, 37 ; banished for conspiring with Cati- 
line, 67 



B. 



Balbus, Com., defended by Cicero, his character, 
1 27 ; begs of Cicero to act the mediator between 
Caesar and Pompey, 178 ; and to stand neuter, 180 
Bayle, Mr., a mistake of his corrected ; n. p, 204 
Bestia, L., his character ; defended by Cicero, 122 
Bibulus, chosen consul with Caesar, 78 ; opposes 
Clodius's adoption, 80 ; injuriously treated by 
Caesar, ib. ; shuts himself up in his house, 81 ; pro- 
vokes the triumvirate by his edicts, 84 ; attacks 
Amanus, and is repulsed with loss, 161 ; obtains 
the decree of a supplication, 162 j aspires to a 
triumph, 169 
Bona Dea, her mysteries polluted by P. Clodius, 68 
Brutus, D., one of the conspirators against Caesar, his 
character, 219; seizes the province of Cisalpine 
Gaul, 227 ; forbids Antony the entrance of it, 247 ; 
defends Modcna against him with great vigour, 270; 
assists in the defeat of Antony, 272 ; pursues him, 
277 ; joins his army with Plancns, 278 ; is deserted 
by Plancus, 281 ; and killed by Antony's soldiers, ib. 
Brutus, M., father of him who stabbed Caesar, surren- 
ders himself to Pompey, and is killed by his order, 
15 
Brutus, M., one of the conspirators against Caesar, 



lends money to king Ariobarzanes, and to the Sala- 
minians, at an exorbitant interest; presses Cicero to 
solicit the payment of it, 158 ; joins with Pompey 
against Caesar, and acts with a particular zeal, 186 ; 
writes the life of Cato, 199 ; puts away his wife 
Claudia and marries Porcia, Cato's daughter, 208 ; 
makes an oration to Caesar in favour of king Deio- 
tarus, 215 ; chief of the conspiracy against Caesar, 
his character, 218 ; his descent from old L. Brutus 
asserted, and the story of his being Caesar's son con- 
futed, ib. n. * ; speaks to the people in the capitol 
after Caesar's death, 224 ; driven out of the city by 
Antony's management, retires with Cassius to Lanu- 
vium, 227 ; expostulates with Antony by letter, 
235 ; invites Cicero to a conference, 238 ; his 
shows and plays received with applause by the city, 
239 ; prepares to seize Macedonia by force, 243 ; 
sends an account of his success in that expedition, 
256 ; takes C. Antony prisoner, 265 ; treats him 
with lenity, ib. ; displeased with the ovation decreed 
to Octavius, 274 ; secures C. Antony on shipboard, 
275 ; cannot be persuaded to come to Italy, 282 ; 
his behaviour in Greece, 283 ; displeased with 
Cicero's measures, 284 ; his conduct compared with 
Cicero's, inconsistent with itself, ib. 

Brutus, L., a medal, with his head on one side and 
A hal a on the other, a conjecture on the reason of 
it, «. x , 223 

Bursa, T. Munatius Plancus, accused by Cicero, and 
condemned to banishment, 152 



Celius, M., his character ; defended by Cicero, 128 ; 
sends the news of Rome to Cicero, 156 ; chosen 
aedile, and desires Cicero to supply him with wild 
beasts for his shows, 166 ; presses Cicero to remain 
neuter in the civil war, 181 ; his death and cha- 
racter, 187 

Caerellia, a learned lady, and correspondent of Cicero, 
296 

Caesar, J., nearly allied to C. Marius ; marries Cor- 
nelia, Cinna's daughter, refuses to put her away, 
is deprived of her fortune and the priesthood by 
Sylla, 9 ; retires into the country ; is discovered by 
Sylla's soldiers, obtains his life with difficulty, 
Sylla's prediction of him, ib. ; gains a civic crown 
at the siege of Mitylene, 14 ; zealous to restore the 
power of the tribunes, 31 ; made use of them to 
overturn the republic, ib. ; excelled all men in the 
magnificence of his shows, 32 ; a zealous promoter 
of the Manilian law, 36 ; suspected of a conspiracy 
against the state, 37 ; revives the Marian cause ; 
prosecutes the agents of Sylla's cruelty, but spares 
Catiline, 41"; suborns T. Labienus to accuse C. 
Rabirius, 46 ; whom he condemns, ib. ; elected 
high priest, 47 ", votes for saving the lives of Cati- 
line's accomplices, 58 ; in danger of being killed 
for it, 62; supports Metellus against Cicero; his 
attempts against Catulus, 64 ; suspended from his 
office, ib. ; bis suspension reversed, ib. ; impeached 
by L. Vettins and Q. Curius of Catiline's plot, 66 ; 
takes his revenge on them both, 67 ; puts away bis 
wife, 69 ; his behaviour in the trial of Clodius, 70 ; 
invites Pompey to make himself master of the re- 
public, 71 ; supports Clodius against Cicero, 76 ; 
returns with glory from Spain, 78 ; chosen consul 
with Bibulus, ib. ; forms a triple league between 
Pompey, Crassus, and himself, ib. ; procures Clo- 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



319 



dius's adoption, 80 ; carries an agrarian law by vio- 
lence, 81 ; gains the favour of the knights ; sends 
Cato to prison, ib. ; ratifies Pompey's acts in Asia, 
and humbles Lucullus, ib. ; feigns a quarrel with 
Clodius, ib. ; provoked by the edicts of Bibulus, 84 ; 
suborns Vettius to swear a plot upon young Curio, 
and the nobles of the opposite party, 85 ; strangles 
Vettius in prison, ib. ; endeavours to force Cicero to 
a dependence upon him ; offers to make him his 
lieutenant in Gaul, 86 ; provoked by Cicero's re- 
fusal, assists Clodius, and throws the blame on 
Cicero, ib« ; reconciles Piso to Clodius, 88; con- 
demns the proceedings of Cicero against Lentulus, 
and the rest, 90 ; the legality of his acts questioned 
in the senate, 92 ; goes to his province of Gaul, ib.; 
congratulates Clodius upon his management of Cato, 
96; consents to Cicero's restoration, 103; has his 
province prolonged to him by Cicero's assistance, 
122 ; has an interview with Pompey at Luca, 123 ; 
reconciles Pompey and Crassus, 129; his second 
expedition into Britain, 137; extremely kind to 
Q. Cicero, 138 ; presses Cicero to defend Vatinius, 
140 ; and also Gabinius, 141 ; bears the loss of his 
daughter Julia with firmness, and prepares himself 
for a breach with Pompey, 144 ; alarms the city 
with the prospect of a civil war, 153 ; pleased with 
the coldness between Cicero and Cato ; labours to 
increase it, 162; puts an end to the Gallic war, 
165; bribes Paullus and Curio to his interests, 
167 ; ordered by the senate to dismiss his army, 
171 ; passes the Rubicon, 172; offers terms of 
peace, 173; is not sincere in it, 174 ; the nature 
of his attempt considered, ib. ; takes Corfinium, 
and treats his prisoners with generosity, 176 ; 
presses Cicero to stand neuter, 178, 181; seizes upon 
the public treasure, 182 ; marches into Spain, and 
defeats Pompey's lieutenants, 187 ; created dictator, 
makes himself consul, goes after Pompey, ib. ; 
besieges him at Dyrrhachium without success, quits 
the siege, ib. ; gains a complete victory at Pharsalia, 
188; his conduct and Pompey's compared, 191 ; 
declared dictator a second time, 192 ; writes kindly 
to Cicero, 194; has an interview with him, ib. ; 
disgusts the city by his manner of creating consuls, 
ib. ; embarks for Africa, ib. ; the time of his 
embarkment cleared from a seeming contradiction 
between Cicero and Hirtius, ib. , n. b ; he returns 
victorious, is extravagantly flattered by -the senate, 
196 ; his regard for Cicero, 198 ; answers Cicero's 
Cato, 199 ; pardons M. Marcellus, 200 ; reforms 
the calendar, 201 ; pardons Ligarius, 202 ; goes 
into Spain against Pompey's sons, 203 ; sends Cicero 
an account of his success, 212 ; publishes his Anti- 
Cato, 213 ; triumphs, ib. ; inclined to ruin king 
Deiotarus, whom Cicero and Brutus defend, 214 ; 
shocked by Brutus's freedom in that cause, 215 ; 
shortens the term of the consulship to oblige the 
more friends with it, 216 ; open to all kinds of 
flattery, and desirous of the title of king, ib. ; his 
death and character. 221 ; worshipped as a deity by 
the meaner sort, 229 

Calenus, the head of Antony's party, 252 ; carries 
several points against Cicero, 253 

Capitol, burnt down in Sylla's time, and rebuilt by 
Q. Lutatius Catulus, 32 

Carbo, Cn. Papirius, driven out of Italy by Sylla, 
killed by Pompey, 9 

Carneades, a professor of the New Academy, which 
he carried to its highest glory, 303 

Cassius, C, blocked up in Antioch by the Parthians, 



gains an advantage over them, 160; conspires against 
Caesar's life, his character, 218; retires with M. 
Brutus to Lanuvium, 227 ; chosen patron of Pute- 
oli with the two Brutuses, 235 ; expostulates by 
letter with Antony, ib. ; prepares for an attempt 
upon Syria, 243 ; his success in Syria, 276 ; defeats 
Dolabella, ib. ; his preparations for the war, and 
conduct vindicated, 283; compared with Brutus's, ib. 

Cassius, Q., the tribune, opposes all motions against 
Cajsar, 171 ; flies to Caesar's camp, ib. 

Catiline, disappointed of the consulship, enters into a 
conspiracy against the state, 37 ; accused for his 
oppressions in Africa ; solicits Cicero to undertake 
his cause, 39 ; bribes his accuser, P. Clodius, to 
betray it, ib. ; bribes openly for the consulship, 
supported by Crassus and Caesar, 40; cuts off the 
head of C. Marius Gratidianus, and presents it to 
Sylla ; accused by L. Paullus of murdering citizens 
in Sylla's proscription ; suspected of an incestuous 
commerce with Fabia, the vestal, 41 ; sues for the 
consulship a second time, 47 ; forms a design against 
Cicero's life, ib. ; his character, ib. ; the plan of his 
conspiracy, 48 ; fails in a design against Praeneste, 
49 ; leaves the city, 51 ; is declared a public enemy, 
52 ; blocked up by Q. Metellus and C. Antonius, 
61 ; defeated and killed, ib. 

Cato, C. Trib., his character, 118; declares himself 
against the restoration of king Ptolemy, ib. ; treats 
Pompey roughly, 121 ; makes himself ridiculous by 
the sale of his gladiators, 125 ; hinders the consuls 
from choosing magistrates, 129 

Cato, M. Porcius, his speech for putting Catiline's 
accomplices to death, 60 ; obtains a decree for that 
purpose in his own words, ib. ; declares Cicero the 
Father of his Country, 62 ; accepts the commission 
granted by Clodius's law to depose Ptolemy, king of 
Cyprus, 95 ; maintains the legality of Clodius's 
tribunate, 96 ; repulsed from the preetorship, 132 ; 
Augustus's moderation with regard to his character, 
n. 291 ; his political principles and conduct com- 
pared with Cicero's, 311, 312 

Censors, an account of them, 31 ; their office restored 
after an intermission of seventeen years, and exer- 
cised wMth severity, ib. 

Centuries, the division of the people into, 35 

Cethegus, one of Catiline's conspirators ; his character, 
48 ; put to death, 61 

Characters of persons, in what manner to be drawn, 
Pre/, x 

Character of Mithridates, 6 ; of C. Marius, 7 ; of 
Sylla, 14 ; of Roscius, the comedian, 16 ; of Ser- 
torius, 20 ; of M. Crassus, 21 ; of Catiline, 47 ; of 
Lentulus, 48 ; of Cethegus, ib. ; of Lucullus, 63 ; of 
P. Clodius, 68 ; of M. Pup. Piso, 71 ; of L. Calp. 
Piso, 88 ; of A. Gabinius, ib. ; of Piso, Cicero's son, 
110 ; of Trebatius, 136 ; of P. Crassus, 147 ; of Q. 
Hortensius, 168 ; of M. Antony, 171 ; of Pompey, 
191 ; of Curio, 192; of Cato, 311, 312 ; of Liga- 
rius, 203 ; of Tullia, 204 ; of M. Marcellus, 209 ; 
of Mamurra, n. \ 215; of M. Brutus, 218; of 
C. Cassius, ib. ; of D. Brutus, 219; of Trebonius, 
220 ; of J. Caesar, 221 ; of Matius, 233, n. k , 234 ; 
of Servilia, 237 ; of Sulpicius, 255, n. k ; of Hir- 
tius, 272 ; of Pansa, 273 ; of Messala, n. \ 285 ; 
of Octavius, 290 ; of Lepidus, ib. ; of Atticus, 239, 
311,315 

Cicero, M. the grandfather, some account of him ; had 
two sons, Marcus and Lucius, 2 

Cicero, M. the father, a man of letters and politeness, 
educates his children with great care under the 



320 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



direction of L. Crassus, 3 ; had a house in Rome, 
on Mount Palatine, ib. ; saw his son consul, 41 
Cicero, L. the cousin of Cicero, an account of him, 33 
Cicero, Q. the brother, obtains the government of Asia 
and quarrels 'with Atticus for refusing to be his lieu- 
tenant, 73 ; proposes to visit his brother at Thessa- 
lonica in his return from Asia, but is disappointed, 
98 ; arrives at Rome, 100 ; saves his life in a tumult 
by hiding himself under the bodies of the dead, 106 ; 
driven from his house by Clodius, 116 ; made one 
of Caesar's lieutenants in Gaul and Britain, 135, 
137 ; projects a poem on Caesar's British expedition, 
138 
Cicero, M. T. when born, 1 ; an account of his family, 
ib. ; called a New man, and why ; his family seat, 
2; now possessed by Dominican friars, ib. ; received 
the name of his father and grandfather, Marcus, the 
name of Cicero, whence derived, ib. ; educated with 
his cousins, the young Aculeo's, under the direction 
of L. Crassus, 3 ; placed in a public school under a 
Greek master, ib. ; committed to the poet Archias, 
much addicted to poetry, publishes a poem while a 
boy, takes the manly gown, 4 ; put under the care 
of Q. Muc. Scaevola the augur, afterwards of Scae- 
vola the high-priest, acquires a complete knowledge 
of the laws, 4 ; his manner of improving himself, 5 ; 
he translates Aratus's Phaenomena into Latin verse, 
publishes a poem in honour of C. Marius, another 
called Limon, his poetical genius scarce inferior to 
his oratorical, ib. ; studies philosophy, is fond of 
Phaedrus the Epicurean, deserts the principles of 
that sect, ib. ; makes a campaign with the consul 
Cn. Pompeius Strabo in the Marsic war, was pre- 
sent at a conference between the consul and the 
general of the Marsi, 6 ; serves as a volunteer under 
Sylla, relates a remarkable action at which he was 
present, ib. ; saw the entry of C. Marius into Rome, 
7 ; writes his rhetorical pieces, 8 ; scholar to Philo, 
the Academic ; resumes his oratorical studies under 
Molo, the Rhodian, ib. ; studies logic with Diodo- 
tus the Stoic, declaims in Latin and Greek with M. 
Piso and Q. Pompeius, ib. ; puts himself a second 
time under Molo, 10 : improves his language by the 
conversation of the ladies, ib. ; offers himself to the 
bar, ib. ; undertakes the cause of P. Quinctius, ib. ; 
defends S. Roscius of Ameria, 11 ; is applauded for 
it by the whole city, ib. ; defends the rights of cer- 
tain towns of Italy to the freedom of Rome, which 
Sylla had taken from them, 12 ; travels into Greece 
and Asia, ib. ; lodges at Athens with Antiochus, ib. ; 
meets there with Atticus, is initiated into the Eleu- 
sinian mysteries, pursues his rhetorical studies under 
Demetrius the Syrian, ib. ; goes over into Asia, 
where he is attended by the principal orators of that 
country, 13 ; visits Rhodes on his return, where he 
studies philosophy with Posidonius, and declaims in 
Greek with Molo, ib. ; comes back to Rome after 
an excursion of two years, ib. ; his travels the only 
scheme of travelling with credit, ib. ; the story of 
his journey to the Delphic Oracle suspected,15 ; he 
marries Tcrentia, 17 ; is made quaestor, pleads the 
cause of Roscius the comedian, 16 ; enters upon the 
quaestorship of Sicily, 18 ; greatly honoured by the 
Sicilians, pleads for some young officers of quality, 
ib. ; finds out the tomb of Archimedes, unknown 
to the Syracusians, ib. ; his return to Italy, 19; 
resolves to reside constantly in Rome, ib. ; strictly 
observes the Cincian law, 21 ; takes all the usual 
ways of recommending himself to the people, 22; 
is elected curule aedile, undertakes the prosecution 



of Verres, 23 ; goes to Sicily in search of facts and 
evidence against him, his reception at Syracuse, 24 ; 
and at Messana, ib. ; defeats all the projects of 
Verres by a new way of proceeding, and forces him 
into exile, 25 ; offends the nobility by it, ib. ; se- 
cures the affection of the citizens, is supplied with 
provisions during his sedileship by the Sicilians, 32 ; 
defends Caecina and Fonteius, 33 ; declared praetor 
in three different assemblies, 35 ; condemns Licinius 
Macer, ib. ; ascends the rostra the first time, in 
defence of the Manilian law, 36 ; defends A. 
Cluentius, ib. ; frequents the school of Gnipho, 
37 ; defends Manilius, ib. ; refuses to accept any 
province, ib. ; takes great pains in suing for the 
consulship, 38 ; employs Atticus to purchase statues 
and other curiosities for him at Athens, ib. ; defends 
C. Cornelius, 39 ; inclined to defend Catiline, ib. ; 
changes his mind, ib. ; appears a candidate for the 
consulship, 40 ; delivers his speech called In Toga 
Candida, defends Q. Gallius, ib. ; proclaimed consul 
by the acclamation of the whole people, 41 ; has a 
son born to him, 42 ; draws his colleague, C. An- 
tonius, from his old engagements to the interest of 
the republic, ib. ; unites the equestrian order with 
the senate, 43 ; opposes Rullus's agrarian law, ib. ; 
appeases the people in a tumult against Otho, 45 ; 
persuades the sons of the proscribed to bear their 
condition with patience, ib. ; defends C. Rabirius, 
ib. ; publishes a new law against bribery, 47 ; 
charges Catiline with traitorous designs, ib. ; is or- 
dered to take care that the republic receive no harm, 
ib. ; is informed by Curius of all Catiline's measures, 
49 ; summons the senate to the temple of Jupiter, 
decrees a reward to the first discoverer of the plot, 
ib. ; drives Catiline out of the city by a resolute 
speech, ib. ; his second speech against Catiline, 52; 
defends L. Murena, 53 ; and C. Piso, 54 ; instructs 
the ambassadors of the Allobroges how to convict 
the conspirators, 55 ; has public thanks and a sup- 
plication decreed to him for preserving the city, 56 ; 
his third speech against Catiline, ib. ; publishes 
copies of the trial and confession of the conspirators, 
57 J his fourth speech against Catiline, 58 ; stifles 
the information against Caesar, 62 ; declared the 
Father of his Country, receives honours from all the 
towns of Italy, ib. ; makes a law to limit the legatio 
libera, ib. ; helps to procure a triumph for L. Lu- 
cullus, 63 ; decrees a thanksgiving of ten days to 
Pompey, ib. ; not suffered by the tribune Metellus 
to speak to the people at the expiration of his con- 
sulship, ib. ; publishes an oration against Metellus, 
writes to Q. Metellus about his brother's treatment 
of him, 65 ; his letter to Pompey, 66 ; gives evi- 
dence against Autronius, 67 ; defends P. Sylla, ib.; 
buys a house on the Palatine hill with borrowed 
money, 68 ; gives testimony against Clodius, 70 ; 
defends the poet Archias, 71 ; his judgment of 
Cato, 74 ; moderates Pompey's agrarian law to the 
satisfaction of both parties, 75 ; not permitted to 
leave Rome when chosen by lot an ambassador to 
the Gallic cities, ib. ; publishes the memoirs of his 
consulship in Greek, ib. ; writes a Latin poem on 
his own history, 76 ; publishes his consular orations, 
and Aratus's Prognostics translated by him into 
Latin verse, ib. ; unites himself with Pompey, jus- 
tifies this step, 77 ; his conduct with regard to Caesar 
and the triumvirate, 78 ; defends C. Antonius, his 
colleague, 79 ; employs himself in pleading causes, 
82 ; defends L. Valerius Flaccus, ib. ; advises 
Pompey to a breach with Caesar, 85 ; is alarmed by 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



321 



Clodius's tribunate, presses Atticus to return to 
Rome, 86 ; refuses the honours offered by Caesar, 
ib. ; depends on Pompey, but finds reason to distrust 
him, 87 ; expresses an inclination to the augurate, 
but drops it, ib. ; is vindicated from an unjust cen- 
sure on that account, n. ib. ; conceives hopes of 
Piso and Gabinius, but is soon convinced of his 
mistake, 88 ; provides L. Ninnius, tribune, to op- 
pose Clodius's laws, but consents to let them pass, 
89 ; is reduced to the condition of a criminal, and 
changes his habit upon it, ib. ; is defended by the 
knights and young nobility, who perpetually attend 
him, ib. ; is deserted by Pompey, 91 ; submits to 
a voluntary exile, and consecrates a statue of Minerva 
in the temple of Jupiter, 92 ; repents his quitting 
the city, charges the advisers of it with perfidy, 94 ; 
explains the motives of his retreat, 95 ; spends 
several days at Vibo, not suffered to enter into 
Sicily by C. Virgilius the praetor, 96 ; honourably 
received by all the towns through which he passed, 
ib. ; presses Atticus to come to him, 97; lodges 
with M. Lenius near Brundisium, ib. ; his dream, 
ib. ; arrives at Dyrrhachium, is conducted to Thes- 
salonica by Cn. Plancius, 98 ; declines an interview 
with his brother, ib. ; his dejection in his exile, ib. ; 
uneasy for the publication of one of his invective 
orations, 101 ; returns to Dyrrhachium, 103 ; dis- 
pleased with the management of his friends at Rome, 
ib. ; his restoration decreed in Marius's monument, 
107 ; and confirmed by all the centuries, 110 ; his 
progress from Brundisium to Rome, ib. &c. ; returns 
thanks to the senate and people, 111 ; proposes a 
law for granting to Pompey the administration of all 
the corn and provisions of the republic, 112 ; pleads 
for the restitution of his palatine house, 113 ; re- 
builds his Tusculan villa, 116 ; takes down the acts 
of his banishment from the capitol, ib. ; is assaulted 
in the streets by Clodius, 117 ; labours to get the 
commission of restoring king Ptolemy granted to 
Lentulus, 119 ; unites himself with Pompey, 121 ; 
defends L. Bestia, 1 22 ; promotes a decree for pro- 
longing Caesar's command, ib. ; defends P. Sextius, 
ib. ; moves for reconsidering Caesar's act, for the 
division of the Campanian lands, but drops that 
motion, 123 ; the grounds of his conduct towards 
the triumvirate, &c. 124; rebuilds his houses, 125; 
made uneasy in his domestic affairs, ib. ; applies the 
answer of the haruspices to the violences of Clo- 
dius, 126; persuades the senate to recal Piso and 
Gabinius from their provinces, 1 27 ; defends Corn. 
Balbus and M. Caelius, ib. ; writes a poem in com- 
pliment to Caesar, 128 ; engages Lucceius to write 
the history of his acts, ib. ; speaks his invective ora- 
tion against Piso, 131 ; is present at Pompey's shows, 
and defends Gallus Caninius, 132; finishes his Pala- 
tine house, and prepares an inscription for it, and for 
the temple of Tellus, ib. ; his quarrel and reconci- 
liation with Crassus, 133 ; finishes his piece on the 
Complete Orator, ib. ; composes a treatise on Politics, 
135 ; enters into an intimacy with Caesar, ib. ; writes 
a series of letters to Trebatius in Gaul, 136 ; sends 
a Greek poem on his consulship to Caesar, and writes 
an epic poem in honour of him, 138 ; defends Plan- 
cius, 140 ; and Vatinius, ib. ; gives evidence against 
Gabinius, 141 ; defends him in a second trial, 142; 
apologises for that conduct, ib. ; defends C. Rabirius, 
143; accepts Pompey's lieutenancy in Spain, but 
resigns it, 144 ; begins a correspondence of letters 
with Curio, 146; elected into the college of augurs, 
147 ; uses his utmost endeavours in promoting Milo 



to the consulship, 147 ; not deterred from undertak- 
ing Milo's defence, 149; accuses the tribune Bursa, 
152 ; writes his treatise on Laws, ib. ; decides a dis- 
pute about the inscription prepared by Pompey for 
his new temple, 153 ; succeeds to the government of 
Cilicia against his will, ib. ; notpleased with his provin- 
cial government, 1 54 ; sets forward towards it, ib. ; 
sends an account to Atticus of Pomponia's behaviour 
to his brother, ib. ; has an interview with Pompey 
at Tarentum, 155 ; arrives at Athens, and lodges 
with Aristus, ib. ; writes to C. Memmius, in favour 
of the Epicureans, ib. ; rallies Trebatius on his 
turning Epicurean, 156 ; sets forward towards Asia, 
ib. , lands at Ephesus, 157; arrives at Laodicea, and 
enters upon his command, ib. ; forbids all expense 
to be made upon himself or company, by the cities 
through which he passed, ib. ; secures his province 
from the inroads of the Parthians, ib. ; takes king 
Ariobarzanes under his protection, 158; refuses to 
accept any present from him, ib. ; solicits him to 
pay his debt to Brutus with the money offered to 
himself, ib. ; frees the Salaminiaus from the oppres- 
sions of Scaptius, Brutus's agent, 159 ; complains of 
Brutus to Atticus, ib. ; saluted emperor by his army, 
160; takes Pindenissum, 161; receives hostages 
from the Tiburani, ib. ; entertains thoughts of a 
triumph, sends an account of his expedition to Cato, 
ib. ; has a public thanksgiving decreed to him, ib. ; 
is displeased with Cato, for refusing his vote to it, 
162 ; sends his son and nephew to king Deiotarus's 
court, ib. ; governs his province with singular mode- 
ration and probity, ib. ; disgusts his predecessor 
Appius by it, 163; resolves to assist Appius when 
impeached by his son-in-law Dolabella, 165 ; begs 
of the consuls by letter not to prolong his govern- 
ment, 167 ; commits his province to his quaestor, 
ib. ; calls at Rhodes on his return, 168 ; is much 
affected with the news of Hortensius's death, ib. ; 
arrives at Athens, ib. ; resolves to sue for a triumph, 
169 ; has an interview with Pompey, 170 ; solicits 
an accommodation between him and Caesar, 171 ; 
arrives at Rome, ib. ; has the command of Capua 
committed to him, but resigns it, 173 ; has an inter- 
view with Caesar, 180 ; pressed by Caesar, Antony, 
&c, not to follow Pompey, 181 ; resolves to go after 
him, 182 ; has a conference with Servius Sulpicius, 
184 ; goes to Pompey, 185 ; his behaviour in that 
camp, and sentiments of the war, 186 ; some of his 
jokes upon the management of it, n. u , ib. ; he 
refuses the command of it after the battle of Phar- 
salia, 189 ; had like to have been killed for it by 
young Pompey, ib. ; returns to Italy, ib.; finds his 
domestic affairs in great disorder, ib. ; uneasy in his 
residence at Brundisium, 192 ; received kindly by 
Caesar, returns to Rome, 194 ; resumes his studies, 
and enters into a strict friendship with Varro, 195 ; 
puts away his wife Terentia, ib. ; marries Publilia, 
196 ; his railleries on Caesar's administration, n. m , 
ib. ; caressed by Caesar and his friends, 197 ; writes 
a book in praise of Cato, 199 ; publishes his Orator, 
200 ; returns thanks to Caesar for the pardon of M. 
Marcellus, ib. ; defends Ligarius, 202 ; sends his 
son to Athens, 204 ; exceedingly afflicted by the 
death of his daughter, ib. ; resolves to build a temple 
to her, 207 ; his reasons for it, n. f , ib. ; applies 
himself closely to the study of philosophy, 210 ; 
publishes a piece called Hortensius, another on 
the Philosophy of the Academy, ib. ; his treatise 
De Finibus, 211 ; his Tusculan Disputations, ib. ; 
writes a funeral encomium on Porcia, Cato's sister, 
Y 



322 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



21 1 ; is pressed to "write something to Caesar, but 
discouraged by the difficulty of it, 212 ; defends king 
Deiotarus, 214 ; entertains Caesar at his house, 21 5 ; 
how far accessory to Caesar's death, 223 ; urges the 
conspirators to support that act by vigorous measures, 
225 ; leaves Rome, dissatisfied with the indolence 
of his friends, 227 ; disgusted with Cleopatra, in an 
interview with her, 228 ; endeavours to draw 
Hirtius and Pansa to the interests of the republic, 
230 ; writes his treatise on the Nature of the Gods, 
on Divination, 235 ; on the advantages of Old Age, 
on Friendship, 236 ; on Fate, his Anecdote, 236 ; 
approaches towards Rome, but is dissuaded from 
entering it, ib. ; obtains an honorary lieutenancy, 
and resolves to visit his son at Athens, 237 ; labours 
to reconcile Hirtius to the conspirators, ib. ; assists 
at a conference with Brutus and his friends, 238 ; 
begins to cherish Octavius as a check to Antony, ib. ; 
begins his Book of Offices, ib. ; and an oration 
adapted to the times, ib. ; takes his leave of Atticus 
with great tenderness, ib. ; sends him his piece on 
Glory, 239 ; some account of that piece, n. z , ib. ; 
sets forward towards Athens, 241 ; writes his Treatise 
of Topics at sea, ib. ; his manner of writing prefaces, 
n. *, 242 ; encouraged by good news from Rome, 
he drops the pursuit of his voyage, ib. ; has an inter- 
view with Brutus, ib. ; and arrives at Rome, ib. ; 
delivers the first of his Philippics, 243 ; retires to 
Naples, composes his second Philippic, 244 ; consents 
to support Octavius, on certain conditions, 245 ; 
finishes his Book of Offices, 246 ; writes his Stoical 
Paradoxes, ib. ; comes back to Rome upon Antony's 
leaving it, 247 ; speaks his third Philippic, 248 ; 
his fourth, ib. ; publishes his second Philippic, ib. ; 
speaks his fifth, 249 ; called for by the people to give 
them an account of the deliberations of the senate, 

251 ; speaks his sixth Philippic, ib. ; his seventh, 

252 ; opposed by Calenus in all his motions against 
Antony, procures a decree to put on the sagum, or 
habit of war, 253 ; speaks his eighth Philippic, ib. ; 
his ninth, 254 ; his tenth, 256 ; his eleventh, 259 ; 
his statue of Minerva dedicated in the capitol, struck 
by lightning, and repaired by the senate, 261 ; speaks 
his twelfth Philippic, ib. ; his thirteenth, 263 ; his 
noble, struggle in defence of the republic's liberty, 
266 ; his pains to engage Lepidus, Pollio, and Plan- 
cus, in the same cause, ib. ; mortifies Servilius in 
the senate, 268 ; disturbed by a report of his design- 
ing to make himself master of the city, 269 ; carried 
in triumph to the capitol, on the news of Antony's 
defeat, 271 ; speaks his fourteenth Philippic, ib. ; 
presses Brutus to come into Italy, 274 ; decrees an 
ovation to Octavius, with public honours to Hirtius, 
Pansa, Aquila, &c.,ib. ; expostulates with D. Brutus, 
on Antony's escape, 275 ; blames M. Brutus's cle- 
mency to C. Antony, ib. ; utterly averse to the 
consulship of Octavius, 280 ; presses Brutus and 
Cassius to hasten to Italy, 28 1 ; his conduct from 
the time of Caesar's death vindicated, and com- 
pared with Brutus's, 283, 288 ; his own account 
of it in a letter to Brutus, 284; cleared from 
a calumny, intimated in a letter of Brutus, n. e , 
288 ; proscribed by the triumvirate, 289 ; might 
have escaped into Macedonia, ib. ; had early notice 
of his danger, embarks at Asturia, 290 ; preferred 
death to the fatigues of camps and the sea, forced 
by his slaves to attempt a flight, overtaken by 
his pursuers, ib. ; orders his slaves not to resist, 
ib. ; meets his death witli the greatest firmness ; 
his head and hands cut off and placed upon the 



rostra, 291 ; the spot where he fell visited by tra- 
vellers, ib. ; why Virgil and Horace make no men- 
tion of him, ib. ; Livy's character of him, and 
Augustus's, ib. ; Paterculus's encomium of him, ib. ; 
all the succeeding writers vie with each other in 
praising him, ib. ; of his person, and care of his 
health, 292 ; his clothes and dress, ib. ; his domestic 
and social character, ib. ; his high notions of friend- 
ship ; of gratitude, 288 ; of placability to enemies, 
ib. ; his splendid manner of living, 293 ; his gay 
and sprightly temper, ib. ; thought to affect raillery 
too much, ib. ; as famous for wit as for eloquence, 
ib. ; a collection of his sayings published by Trebo- 
nius, ib. ; a more copious one by Tiro after his 
death, ib. ; an account of the number, situation, and 
condition of his several villas, 294 ; an epigram on 
his academy or Puteolan Villa, ib. ; his furniture 
rich and elegant ; a cedar table of his remaining 
in Pliny's time, 295 ; the source of his great wealth, 
ib. ; his moral character unblemished ; he had no 
intrigues with the ladies, 295, 296 ; was thought 
too sanguine in prosperity, desponding in adversity, 
296 ; the love of glory his chief passion, ib. ; the 
nature of that passion explained and vindicated, ib. ; 
his great learning in every branch of science, 298 ; 
his works the most precious remains of antiquity, ib. ; 
his industry incredible, ib. ; a character of his let- 
ters, familiar, jocose, political, recommendatory, ib. ; 
preferable to the letters of all who lived after him ; 
compared particularly with Pliny's, 299 ; his histo- 
rical works lost, 300 ; his plan for a general history, 
ib. ; no remains of his poetry but some scattered 
fragments, ib. ; these show a genius, ib. ; a character 
of his eloquence, 301 ; compared with that of De- 
mosthenes, ib. : and that of his contemporaries who 
pretended to an Attic taste, ib. ; his philosophy 
drawn from the Academy, 302 ; an account of it as 
explained by himself, 303 ; a judgment on a va- 
rious reading in his treatise on the Nature of the Gods, 
n. s , 303 ; he became a convert to the New Academy, 
304 ; the difficulty of discovering his real sentiments 
stated, ib. ; why they are not to be sought in his 
orations, ib. ; which yet are good testimonies of 
facts, n. *, 305 ; his letters lay open his heart, but 
with some exceptions, ib. ; his philosophical works 
give a history of the ancient philosophy, ib. ; the 
key to his proper sentiments, ib. ; he has declared 
'no precise opinions in natural philosophy, ib. ; yet 
was acquainted with some of the fundamental prin- 
ciples of it, which pass for the discoveries of modern 
ages, 305 ; he believed a God, a providence, the 
immortality of the soul, and a future state of rewards 
and punishments, 305, 306 ; his opinion of the reli- 
gion of Rome considered, 307 ; an observation of 
Polybius upon it, n. z , ib. ; his own religion divine, 
308 ; he deduced the origin of duty, moral obliga- 
tion, and the eternal difference of good and ill, from 
the will of God, ib. &c. ; his system of religion and 
morality, contained in his books on Government, on 
Laws, and on Offices, 309 ; the noblest system ever 
published to the heathen world, ib. ; an objection to 
his belief of it stated and answered, ib., &c. ; his 
rule of following nature explained, n. s , ib. ; his 
political principles and conduct illustrated, 310, &c. ; 
compared with Cato's, 311, 312; with Atticus's, 
311 ; his rule of managing the men of power, ib., 
&c. ; his true principles always displayed themselves 
when he was at liberty to exert them, 312 ; his 
death violent but not untimely, ib. ; what he seemed 
to have wished, ib. ; the last act of his life glorious, ib. 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



323 



Cicero, the son, invested with the " manly gown" at 
Arpinum, 180 ; carried by his father to Pompey's 
camp, 185 ; commands a wing of Pompey's horse, 
189 ; sent to Athens to study under Cratippus, 204 ; 
much commended and beloved by Brutus, 257 ; en- 
trusted with the command of his horse in Macedonia, 
258 ; defeats C. Antony and takes him prisoner, 
265 ; his character injuriously treated by posterity, 
ib. ; a true account of it, and a summary view of 
his life, 312, &c. 

Cicero, Q., attends his brother into Cilicia, as one of 
his lieutenants, 154 ; resolves to follow him into 
Pompey's camp, 1 85 ; obtains pardon from Caesar, 
] 89 ; reviles his brother in his letters and speeches 
to Caesar's friends, 190 ; gives a disadvantageous 
character of the consuls, Pansa and Hirtius, 273 ; 
is proscribed by the triumvirate, 290 ; conceals 
himself in Rome, but is discovered and killed, toge- 
ther with his son, 315 

Cicero, Q., the son, gives information to Caesar of his 
uncle's disaffection to him, 181 ; makes an oration 
against his uncle, 190 ; abuses both the uncle and 
his father to please Caesar's friends, 212 ; deserts 
Antony and is reconciled to his father and uncle, 
240 ; is presented to Brutus, 241 ; undertakes to 
accuse Antony to the people, ib. ; is abused by 
Antony in his edicts, 247 ; is proscribed, taken in 
Rome, and killed with his father, 315 

Cincius, M. Trib., his law prohibiting patrons to take 
money or presents from their clients, 16 

Cinna, the consul, driven out of Rome and deposed by 
his colleague Octavius, recalls Marius, enters Rome 
with a superior force and puts all his enemies to the 
sword, 7 ; killed in a mutiny of his soldiers, 9 

Cinna, L. Cornelius, praetor, applauds the act of killing 
Caesar in a speech to the people, 224 ; in danger of 
his life from Caesar's veteran soldiers, ib. 

Cinna, Helvius, tribune, mistaken for L. Cornelius 
Cinna, and torn to pieces by the rabble, 226 

Cispius, tribune, beaten by Clodius, 106 

Civic crown, what, Sec, 14 

Classical writers, why so called, 35 n. 

Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, flies from Rome upon the 
death of Caesar, 228 ; her conference there with 
Cicero, ib. 

Clodius, P., his character, 68 ; profanes the mysteries 
of the Bona Dea, ib. ; his trial for it, 69 ; becomes 
a declared enemy to Cicero, 71 ; his project to get 
himself chosen tribune by the means of an adoption , 
76 ; the law of his adoption carried by the assistance 
of Caesar and Pompey, 80 ; his pretended quarrel 
with Caesar, 81 ; is elected a tribune, and threatens 
Cicero, 86 ; promises Pompey to be at his devotion, 
ib. ; does not suffer Bibulus to speak to the people 
on laying down his consulship, 87 ; bargains with 
Piso and Gabinius to oppress Cicero, 88 ; endeavours 
to gain the people by popular laws, 89 ; insults 
Cicero, ib. ; produces the consuls to give their opi- 
nion on Cicero's consulship, 90 ; repeals the ^Elian 
and Fusian laws, 91 ; publishes a law for Cicero's 
banishment, 93 ; demolishes Cicero's houses, ib. ; 
persecutes his wife and children, 94 ; poisons Q. Seius 
Posthumus for refusing to sell his house to him, ib. ; 
procures a law to depose Ptolemy, king of Cyprus, 
charges Cato with the execution of it, 95 ; is con- 
gratulated upon it by Caesar, 96 ; affronts Pompey 
by seizing Tigranes his prisoner, 100 ; forms a plot 
against Pompey's life, ib. ; attacks the triumvirate 
and Gabinius, 104 ; drives Fabricius and Cispius 
the tribunes out of the forum with great slaughter, 



106 ; impeached by Milo, screened by Metellus, 

107 ; endeavours to raise fresh tumults against 
Cicero, 112 ; opposes the restitution of his Palatine 
house, 115 ; commits great outrages against Cicero 
and Milo, 116 ; chosen aedile, 120 ; impeaches Milo, 
ib. ; applies the answer of the haruspices to the 
case of Cicero, 126 ; impeaches the tribunes Suffe- 
nas, C. Cato, and Procilius, 140 ; killed by Milo, 
148 

Clodius, Sext., tried and banished for his violences at 

Clodius 's funeral, 151 
Consuls, the method of choosing them, 41 
Cornelius, C, tribune, raises great disorders in the city 
by the publication of new laws, 35 ; accused for 
practices against the state, defended by Cicero, 39 
Cornificius, proconsul of Africa, continued firm to the 

cause of liberty, 268 
Corradus, Seb., his Life of Cicero, what, pref. xiv 
Cotta, an orator of the first character, 16 ; his way of 
speaking, ib. ; obtains the consulship, 17; moves 
the senate to recall Cicero, 105 
Crassus, L. the first orator of his time, directed the 

method of Cicero's education, 3 
Crassus, M. obtains the decree of an ovation and laurel 
crown for putting an end to the Servile war, 20 ; his 
riches and manner of raising them, 21 ; chosen con- 
sul with Pompey, ib, ; supposed to be in a conspiracy 
with Catiline, Caesar, &c. , supports Piso against 
Pompey, 37 ; accused of a correspondence with 
Catiline, 62 ; corrupts the judges in Clodius's trial, 
70 ; discomposes Pompey by praising Cicero's acts, 
72 ; prepares for his Eastern expedition in defiance 
of the auspices, 133 ; reconciled to Cicero, ib.; his 
death, 146 
Crassus, P., the son, his death and character, 147 
Cratippus, the Peripatetic, praeceptor to young Cicero 

at Athens, 204, 312, 313 
Cremutius, Cordus, put to death by Tiberius for prais- 
ing Brutus, 291 
Crete, subjected to the Romans, 20 
Crown, laurel, the ornament of a triumph, 20 
Crown, myrtle, of an ovation, 20 
Curio, C. Scribonius, consul, an orator of a peculiar 

action and manner of speaking, 17 
Curio, the son, the most active opposer of the trium- 
virate, 84 ; clears himself from the charge of a plot, 
85 ; enters into a correspondence of letters with 
Cicero; his character, 146. 
Curio obtains the tribunate, changes his party and de- 
clares for Caesar, 167; flies to Caesar's camp, 171 ; 
drives Cato out of Sicily ; is destroyed with his 
whole army in Africa, 192 ; his character, ib. 
Curius, one of Catiline's conspirators, discovers their 
counsels to Cicero by Fulvia his mistress, 49 ; ac- 
cuses Caesar, and claims the reward decreed to the 
first discoverer of the plot, 66 



D. 



Damasippus, praetor of the city, kills the principal se- 
nators by order of young Marius, 9 

Decemviri, the guardians of the Sibylline books, 
who, 307 

Deiotarus, king of Galatia ; a faithful ally of Rome : 
prepares to join with Cicero against the Parthians, 
157; deprived of part of his dominions by Caesar, 
214 ; accused of a design against Caesar's life, ib. ; 
defended by Brutus and by Cicero, 215 ; purchased 
his dominions again of Antony, 234 
Y 2 



324 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



Demetrius, master of rhetoric to Cicero at Athens, 12 

Dictatorship, some account of that office, 10 

Dion Cassius ; the grounds of his malignity to Cicero, 

pre/, xiii 
Diodotus, a Stoic, lived with Cicero, 8 
Dionysius, of Magnesia, a famed rhetorician, attended 

Cicero in his travels, 13 
Dionysius, tutor to the two young Ciceros, 162 
Divination, artificial and natural ; what, 307 
Divination, a speech of Cicero so called ; why, 235 
Divorce, a custom mentioned on that occasion, 196, 

n. k 
Dolahella, P. Cornelius, his character; marries Cicero's 
daughter, 164 ; impeaches Appius, ib. ; solicits 
Cicero to desert Pompey, 189; raises great tumults 
in Rome, 190; is divorced from Tullia, ib. ; makes 
a speech in the senate against Antony, 216; assumes 
the consulship upon Caesar's death, 229 ; demolishes 
the altar erected to Caesar, and acts vigorously on 
the side of liberty, ib. ; bribed by Antony to sub- 
vert the republic, 235 ; leaves the city to get pos- 
session of Syria against Cassius, 258 ; surprises 
Smyrna by stratagem, and puts Trebonius to death, 
ib. ; is declared a public enemy, 259 ; pursued and 
defeated by Cassius ; kills himself, 276 
Domitius, taken and dismissed by Caesar at Corfinium, 

175 
Drusus, the tribune, assassinated, 5 



E. 



Eleusinian Mysteries, 12; some account of them, 
n. c , ib. 

Emperor, the signification of that title, n. \ 66 

Epicureans, their reverence for the ruins of Epicurus's 
walls, 155 ; many of them highly esteemed by 
Cicero, 156; the greatest part of the nobility and 
of Cicero's friends of that sect, n. *, 310 

Episcopus, a remark on the use of that name, n. \ 173 

Equestrian dignity, or the order of knights, what it 
was, n. h , 1 ; the judgment of causes taken from 
them and restored to the senate, 10 ; recover their 
right of judicature, 31 ; obtain distinct seats in the 
theatres by Otho's law, 34 

Erana, the capital of Amanus, makes a stout defence 
against Cicero, 160 

Evocati, what they were, n. x , 270 



F. 



Fabia, sister to Cicero's wife Terentia, one of the 

vestal virgins, tried for incest with Catiline and 

acquitted, 41 
Fabius, Q., chosen consul by Caesar, 214 ; triumphs, 

ib.; his death, 216 
Fabricius, Franc, his Life of Cicero what, pref. xiv 
Fabricius, the tribune, driven out of the forum by 

Clodius, 106 
Fathers, Latin, made great use of Cicero's writings, 

n. % 210 
Favonius, the mimic of Cato, 161 
Fever, pleuritic, the common distemper of ancient 

and modern Rome, n. &, 7 
Fibrenus, a little river running through Cicero's 

estate, 2 
Flaccus, L. Valerius, accused of mal-administration, 

defended by Cicero, 82 
Flaccus, M. Lenius, entertains Cicero in his exile, 97 



Flavius, the tribune, commits the consul Metellus to 

prison, 75 
Forum, the great square of Rome, 4 



G. 



Gabinius, A., tribune, proposes a law to grant an ex- 
traordinary commission to Pompey, 33 ; is chosen 
consul, 88 ; combines with Clodius to oppress 
Cicero, ib. ; his character, ib. ; rejects the petition 
of the knights in favour of Cicero, banishes L. Lamia 
for his zeal in Cicero's service, 89 ; brags of having 
been the favourite of Catiline, 93 ; fights for Pom- 
pey against Clodius, 100; goes to his province of 
Syria, 105 ; sends an account of his victory over 
Aristobulus, but is refused the honour of a thanks- 
giving, 126 ; recalled from his province by the 
senate, 127 ; restores king Ptolemy, ] 30 ; returns 
to Rome, is impeached of treason, &c, 141 ; is de- 
fended by Cicero, 142 

Gallius, Q., defended by Cicero, 40 

Gaul, Narbonese, the general character of its people 
by Cicero, 33 

Gellius, L. and Cn. Lentulus, exercise the office of 
censors with rigour, 31 

Gnipho, a celebrated rhetorician, kept a school in 
Rome, 37 

Gracchi, said to derive their eloquence from their 
mother Cornelia, 3 

Greeks, the best masters of eloquence, 3 

Greek learning, in great vogue at Rome, 10 

Greek writers, to be read with caution on Roman 
affairs, pref. xii 



H. 



Hadrian died in Cicero's Puteolan villa, n. 295 

Haruspices, their answer concerning certain prodigies, 
126 ; their office and character, 307 

Helvia, Cicero's mother, rich and well descended, 
never once mentioned by Cicero, a story told of her 
by Quintus, 1 

Hermathenae aud Hermeraclae, what sort of figures, 38 

Herophilus, an impostor, pretending to be the grandson 
of C. Marius, banished by Caesar, 210 ; put to death 
by Antony, 227 

Hirtius writes against Cicero's Cato, 199 ; sends 
Cicero an account of Caesar's success in Spain, 212; 
defends Cicero against his nephew Quintus, ib. ; 
marches with his army against Antony, 252 ; gains 
a considerable victory over him, 270 ; totally routs 
him in a second engagement, in which he himself 
was killed, 272 ; his character, 273 

History of the lives of great men, the most entertain- 
ing, pref. x. ; a plan for a general history drawn 
by Cicero, pref. xi. ; the author's method of com- 
piling the present history, pref. xii. ; a general rule 
of writing it, ib. xiii 

Horace, a passage in him illustrated, n. p, 138 

Hortensius, the reigning orator at the bar, a volunteer 
in the Marsic war, commands a regiment, 6; raises 
Cicero's emulation, 8; his way of speaking, 16; 
called the Player for his theatrical action, 22 ; the 
king of the forum, 23 ; opposes the Gabinian law, 
34 ; suspected by Cicero of treachery towards him, 
94 ; his death and character, 168 

Hypsacus, impeached of bribery and treated with in- 
humanity by Pompey, 152 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



325 



Idolatry, one of its sources intimated, n. f , 207 ; 

Jerusalem besieged and taken by Pompey, 72 

Jews, their number and credit at Rome, 83 ; zealously 

attached to Caesar, hated Pompey for his affront to 

their temple, 226 
Interrex, what sort of magistrate, 145 
Interregnum, the longest ever known in Rome, 146 
Juba, king, supports the Pompeians in Africa, 192 
Julia, Caesar's daughter and Pompey' s wife, dies in 

childbed ; the unhappy consequences of her death, 

144 



K. 



Kalendar, Roman, reformed by Caesar, n. m , 185 



Labienus, T., tribune, suborned by Caesar to accuse 
C. Rabirius, 46 ; opens Caesar's way to the high 
priesthood, 47 ; one of Caesar's lieutenants, revolts 
to Pompey, 173 

Laelia, the wife of Scaevola the augur, eminent for her 
elegance of speaking, 10 

Laterensis, lieutenant to Lepidus, informs Plancus of 
his treachery, 278 ; lays violent hands upon him- 
self, ib. 

Law, raised its professors to the highest honours, 4 ; 
Cincian, 16 ; Gabinian, 33 ; of L. Otho, 34 ; Cal- 
purnian, 35 ; Manilian, ib. ; Papian, 39 ; iElian 
and Fusian, 91 

Laws, some new ones occasion disturbances in the city, 
33 ; two proposed by Cicero, 62 

Legacies usually bequeathed by clients to their patrons, 
295 

Legatio libera, what, 62 

Lentulus, one of Catiline's conspirators, 48; his cha- 
racter, ib. ; strangled in prison, 61 

Lentulus, P. Cornelius, consul, moves the senate for 
the restoration of Cicero, 101 ; the chief promoter 
of Cicero's return, 111 ; ambitious of the commission 
of replacing king Ptolemy, 118; leaves his affairs 
to Cicero and sets out for Cilicia, 119 ; lays aside 
the thoughts of restoring Ptolemy, ib. ; taken at 
Corfmium and dismissed by Caesar, 176 

Lepidus, M., enters into a civil war against his col- 
league Q. Catulus, 15 ; managed by Antony; seizes 
the high -priesthood after Caesar's death, 225 ; offers 
honourable terms to S. Pompey, ib. ; writes to the 
senate to exhort them to a peace with Antony, 263 ; 
suspected of a secret understanding with him, ib. ; 
excuses his sending succours to him, 274 ; acts a 
treacherous part with Plancus, and joins camps with 
Antony, 277 ; declared a public enemy, 278 ; forms 
the league of the second triumvirate with Csesar and 
Antony, 288 ; proscribes his own brother in ex- 
change for Cicero, 289 ; a weak man, the dupe of 
his two colleagues, deserted his true interest, stripped 
of his dignity by Octavius, 290 

Letters of Cicero to Atticus,33, 38, 39, 73, 104, 154, 
158, 159,160,161,162, 163, 167,168,169, 170, 
171,172,173,175, 176,178,179, 180,183,184, 
190, 193, 195, 199, 204, 205, 207, 21 2, 213, 214, 
215, 223, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 234, 236, 238, 
239, 241, 242, 246, 247 ; to Q. Metellus Celer, 
65 ; to Pompey, 66 ; to Terentia, 102 ; to Gallus, 



117; to Lentulus, 124, 142 ; to Lucceius, 128 ; to 
M. Marius, 132; to J. Ceesar, 136 ; to Q. Cicero, 
141; to Curio, 146, 148; to Marius, 152; to 
Memmius, 155; to Trebatius, 156; to M. Caelius, 
156, 166; to Cato, 158; to Papirius Psetus, 161, 
196, 197, 198; to Appius, 164; to Curio, 167; 
to Tiro, 169; to Pompey, 177; to Caesar, 1/9; 
190; to Varro, 194, 195, 198; to Plancus, 196; 
to Ampius, 198; to Serv. Sulpicius, 200, 206; 
to Ligarius, 202; to Cassius, 213, 244, 253, 
260, 282; to Curius, 216; to Dolabella, 229; 
to Matius, 233 ; to Lepidus, 265 ; to Plancus, ib. 
266, 267; to M. Brutus, 258, 265, 268, 274, 
275, 276, 279, 281, 284 ; to D. Brutus, 275, 277, 
280 ; to Cornificius, 283 ; of M. Cauius to Cicero, 
156, 165, 181, 187; of Cato to Cicero, 162; of 
Pompey to Domitius, 175 ; to Cicero, 177; of 
Caesar to Cicero, 176, 179, 181 ; of Balbus to 
Cicero, 178, 180 ; of Balbus and Oppius to Cicero, 
179 ; of Antony to Cicero, 181, 183, 227 ; to Hir- 
tius and Octavius, 263 ; of Dolabella to Cicero, 
187 ; of Serv. Sulpicius to Cicero, 205, 208 ; of 
Cassius to Cicero, 212, 268 ; of Matius to Cicero, 
233 ; of Brutus and Cassius to M. Antony, 235, 
244 ; of Hirtius to Cicero, 237 ; of M. Brutus to 
the consuls, 256; to Cicero, 257, 279, 286; of 
Plancus to Cicero, 267, 274, 2/7, 278 ; of Pollio 
to Cicero, 267, 274 ; of Galba to Cicero, 270 ; of 
Lepidus to Cicero, 274 ; and to the senate, 278 ; 
of D. Brutus to Cicero, 275, 277, 280 ; of Tre- 
bonius to Cicero, 236, 313 ; of Cicero, the son, to 
Tiro, 313 
Letters of Cicero to Atticus, the memoirs of those 

times, pref. xv 
Ligarius, pardoned by Caesar, 202 ; his character, 203 
Livy, called a Pompeian by Augustus, 291 
Lollius, M., one of the chiefs in Clodius's mob, 112 
Lucceius, Cicero's friend, a celebrated writer, 128 ; 

undertakes the life of Cicero, ib. 
Lucullus, L., defeats the violences of the tribune L. 
Quinctius, 19 ; obtains the command of the Mithri- 
datic war, 20 ; drives Mithridates out of the king- 
dom of Pontus, and gains many glorious victories, 
36; his soldiers mutiny against him, ib. ; he tri- 
umphs, retires from public affairs, his character, 63 
Luperci, instituted in honour of Caesar, 217 
Lupus, tribuue, proposes the annulling of Caesar's act 

for the division of the Campanian lands, 118 
Lustrieal day, what it was, 2 

Lyceum, a gymnasium at Athens, where Aristotle 
opened his school, 302 



M. 



Macer, L., accused of oppression, and condemned by 
Cicero, the story of his death, 35 

Mamurra, commander of Caesar's artillery, his cha- 
racter, 7i. ! , 215 

Manilius, tribune, raises disturbances in the city by a 
new law, publishes a law to transfer the command 
of the Mithridatic war from Lucullus to Pompey, 
35 ; accused of corruption, and defended by Cicero, 
37 

Manlius, raises an army for the service of Catiline, 48 ; 
declared a public enemy, 52 

Manly gown, at what age given, &c. 4 

Marcellinus, consul, a firm opposer of the triumvirate, 
treats Pompey roughly, 121 ; endeavours to alarm 
the city with the danger of his power, 129 



326 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



Marcellus, M., consul, Caesar's great enemy, moves 
the senate for several decrees against him, 165; 
pardoned by Caesar after the battle of Pharsalia, 
200 ; stabbed by his friend and client Magius, 208 ; 
his character, 209 

Marcellus, C, consul, moves for a successor to Caesar, 
opposed by Paullus, his colleague, and Curio, the 
tflbune, 167 

Marius, his behaviour in the Marsic war, 6 ; endea- 
vours to get the command of the Mithridatic war 
transferred from Sylla to himself, forced to fly, 
plunges himself .into the marshes, where he is dis- 
covered and preserved by the people of Minturnum, 
transports himself to Africa, 7 ; the story of the 
Gallic soldier sent to kill him thought fabulous, n. 
ib. ; is recalled and enters Rome, exercises great 
cruelties, ib.; his death and character, ib. ; his 
remains thrown into the river Anio by Sylla, 1 5 

Marius, the son, besieged in Praeneste, puts an end to 
his own life, 9 

Marsic war, called the Italic and Social, some account 
of it, 5 

Marullus and Caesetius, deposed the tribunate by 
Caesar, 217 

Matins, an intimate friend of Caesar, laments his death, 
230 ; undertakes the management of Octavius' 
shows in honour of Caesar, 232 ; vindicates his con- 
duct in a letter to Cicero, 233 ; his character, n. k , 
234 

Memmius, C, informs the senate of a strange contract 
among the consular candidates, 139 

Menippus, of Stratonica, an Asiatic orator, accompanies 
Cicero in his travels, 13 

Merula, of Anagnia, erects a statue to Clodius, 96 

Messala, P. Valerius, his character, n. 1 , 285 

Metellus, subdues Crete, 20 ; baffled by Sertorius, ib. ; 
hinders the people from passing judgment on Rabi- 
rius, 46 

Metellus, Q. Nepos, tribune, will not suffer Cicero to 
speak to the people on laying down the consulship, 
63 ; supported by Caesar against Cicero, 64 ; sus- 
pended from his office, ib. ; flie3 to Pompey, ib. ; 
elected consul, promises to promote Cicero's resto- 
ration, 101 ; acts a double part, 108; consents at 
last to Cicero's return, ib. ; attacked by Clodius's 
mob, 112 ; endeavours to screen Clodius from a 
trial, 117 ; makes his peace with Cicero, and sets 
out for Spain, 119; endeavours to hinder Caesar 
from seizing the public treasure, 182 

Metellus, Q. Caecilius, consul, his character, 75 ; com- 
mitted to prison by Flavius the tribune, ib. ; declares 
his abhorrence of Clodius's adoption, 77 ; dies sud- 
denly, supposed to be poisoned, 87 

Milo, tribune, impeaches Clodius, 107 ; buys gladiators 
to defend himself against him, ib. ; endeavours to 
bring him to a trial, 117; is impeached by him, 
120 ; marries Fausta, the daughter of Sylla, 134 ; 
kills Clodius, 148; is defended by Cicero, 150; 
banished, 151 ; his death and character, 187 

Mithridatcs, king of Pontus, his character, makes war 
upon the Romans, 6; conquers Athens, 8 ; treats M. 
Aquilius with cruelty, 14 ; renews the war against 
Rome, 20 ; driven out of his kingdom of Pontus, 
36 ; his death, 63 

Mitylene, a city of Lesbos, destroyed by Q. Thurmus, 
restored by Pompey, 14 

Modeua, sustained a memorable siege against Antony 
272 

Molo, the Rhodian, a celebrated teacher of eloquence, 
gives lectures to Cicero, 8 ; the first who was ever 



permitted to speak to the Roman senate in Greek, 

10 
Mongault, Mr., his translation of the letters to Atti- 

cus commended, pre/, xv 
Mucia, the wife of L. Crassus, famous for a delicacy in 

the Latin tongue, 10 
Murena, L., consul elect, accused of bribery, defended 

by Cicero, 53 



N. 



Names of Roman families, an account of their origin, 2 
Ninnius, L., tribune, moves the senate to change their 

habit on Cicero's account, 89 ; makes a motion to 

recal him, 100 
Nomenclators, their office, 22 



O. 



Obsidional crown, what, 314 

Octavius, called afterwards Augustus, born in Cicero's 
consulship, 63 ; presented to Cicero by Hirtius and 
Pansa, 232 ; resolves to assert his rights against the 
advice of his mother, ib. ; makes a speech to the 
people from the rostra, ib. ; exhibits public shows 
in honour of his uncle, ib. ; thwarted in his preten- 
sions by Antony, 238 ; forms a design against 
Antony's life, 245 ; raises forces, and promises to 
be governed by Cicero, ib. ; espoused by the senate 
upon the recommendation of Cicero, 25 1 ; marches 
out at the head of his army against Antony, 252 ; 
gains a complete victory over him, 272; suspected 
of the deaths of Hirtius and Pansa, 273 ; has an 
ovation decreed to him, 274 ; forms the design of 
seizing the empire, ib. ; demands the consulship, 
280 ; chosen consul with Q. Pedius, ib. ; seeks 
occasions of quarrelling with the senate and Cicero, 
ib. ; provides a law to bring to justice all the con- 
spirators against Caesar, 281 ; forms the league of 
the second triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus, 
289 ; his reluctance to sacrifice Cicero feigned and 
artificial, ib. ; more cruel than his colleagues, a sum- 
mary view of his conduct from the time of Caesar's 
death, 290 

Octavius, Cn., deposes Cinna, and is killed, 7 

Orator, his profession what, 5 ; not mercenary, paid 
with the public honours and preferments, 16 

Oratory of Rome sank with its liberty, 301 ; a false 
species of it supported by the authority of Pliny, ib. 

Oratory and poetry nearly allied, 300 

Orestinus, L. Mucius, the tribune, hinders the pro- 
mulgation of a law against bribery, 40 ; joins with 
the enemies of Cicero after having been defended 
by him, ib. 

Osaces, the Parthian leader, mortally wounded, 160 

Otho, L., publishes a law for assigning separate seats 
in the theatres to the knights, 34 ; his appearance 
in the theatre occasions a riot, 45 



P. 



Pansa, consul, brought entirely into Cicero's views, 
249 ; lays Brutus's letters before the senate, 256 ; 
opposes Cicero's motion in favour of C. Cassius, 
260 ; recommends pacific measures, and a second 
embassy to Antony, 261 ; marches with his army 
against Antony, 262 ; engages with him, 270 ; his 
death and character, 273 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



827 



Papirius Paetus, an eminent wit, and correspondent of 
Cicero, 161 

Papius, C, publishes a law to oblige all strangers to 
quit the city, 39 

Parthians pass the Euphrates, 157 ; block up C. Cassius 
in Antioch,but are routed by him in their retreat, 160 

Patricians, the proper notions of them, n. h , 40 

Paullus L. iErnilius, consul, bribed by Caesar, 167 

Pedius, Q., consul, shocked by the terrors of the pro- 
scription, dies suddenly, 289 

Peripatetics, why so called ; their doctrines the same 
with those of the Old Academy, 302 

Perperna, Lieutenant to Sertorius, whom he kills by 
treachery, and usurps his place, is taken prisoner, 
and put to death by Pompey, 20 

Petreius urges Antony to fight with Catiline, destroys 
Catiline and his whole army, 61 

Phaedrus, the Epicurean, one of Cicero's first masters 
in philosophy, 5 

Philippus, sent ambassador to Antony, 251 ; returns 
with Antony's answer, 253 

Philo, an eminent Academic, master to Cicero, 8. 

Pindeuissum, besieged and taken by Cicero, 161 

Pisidians, famous for divining by auspices, n. f , 303 

Piso, Cn., obtains the government of Spain, enters into 
an engagement against the state with Caesar, is killed, 
37 

Piso, C, defended by Cicero, and acquitted, 54 

Piso, M. Pupius, consul, a favourer of P. Clodius, his 
character, 71 

Piso, L. Calpurnius, elected consul, father-in-law to 
Caesar, gives Cicero marks of his confidence, 88 ; 
joins with Clodius against him, his character, ib. ; 
is solicited by Cicero to espouse his cause, but 
excuses himself, 89 ; declares his resolution to sup- 
port Clodius, 91 ; boasts that he was cousin to 
Cethegus, 94 ; fights for Clodius against Pompey, 

101 ; obtains the province of Macedonia, 105; re- 
called from it by the senate, 127 ; returns to Rome, 

130 ; roughly treated by Cicero in an invective 
speech, 131 ; chosen censor with Appius, 165 ; sent 
ambassador to Antony, 251 ; returns, 253 

Piso, Cicero's son-in-law, zealously devoted to him, 

102 ; his death and character, 110 

Piso, Cn., a young nobleman, charges Pompey with 
many crimes against the state, 129 

Plancius, Cn., quaestor of Macedonia, receives Cicero 
at Dyrrhachium, and conducts him to Thessalonica, 
98 ; is defended by him, 140 

Plancus, proconsul of Gaul, recommends a peace with 
Antony, 265 ; makes strong professions of his fidelity 
to the republic, 266 ; passes the Rhone with his 
army, 267 ; sends repeated assurances to Cicero of 
his resolution to oppress Antony, 274 ; receives intel- 
ligence of Lepidus's treachery, 278 ; joins with D. 
Brutus, ib. ; deserts him, and goes over to Lepidus 
and Antony, 281 

Plato, the first master of the Academy, did not adhere to 
the Socratic method, which his followers deserted, 302 

Pliny, his letters compared with Cicero's, 299 ; his pane- 
gyric falsely reckoned the standard of eloquence, 301 

Plotius, first opened a Latin school at Rome, 3 

Plutarch mentions some prodigies at Cicero's birth, 1 ; 
loves to introduce them into history, ib. ; a charac- 
ter of him as a writer on Roman affairs, pref. xii 

Pollio promises Cicero to defend the liberty of the 
republic, 267 ; repeats the same promises, 274 ; joins 
with Antony and Lepidus, 281 

Pompeius, Cn. Strabo, consul, father of Pompey the 
Great, 6 



Pompeius, Cn., joins Syllawith three legions, 9 ; sends 
Carbo's head to Sylla, ib. ; returns victorious from 
Africa, saluted by Sylla with the title of Magnus, 
demands a triumph against Sylla's will, triumphs to 
the joy of the people, the first of the equestrian 
order who had received that honour, his triumphal 
car drawn by elephants, 14 ; joins with Q. Catulus 
in the war against M. Lepidus, orders M. Brutus 
to be killed, 15 ; joined with Q. Metellus in the 
war against Sertorius, 20 ; orders Perperna to be 
killed, and his papers to be burnt, triumphs a second 
time, though still a private citizen, is elected consul 
in his absence, and before the consular age, 21 ; 
restores the tribunitian power, 31 ; a great dissem- 
bler, 34 ; finishes the war against the pirates in four 
months, ib. ; obtains the command of the Mithri- 
datic war by the Manilian law, 36 ; finishes the 
piratic and Mitbridatic wars, and obtains a thanks- 
giving of ten days, 63 ; returns to Rome, slights 
the opportunity of making himself master of the 
republic, 71 ; an account of his conquests and 
honours, ib. ; his cautious behaviour, 72 ; called in 
raillery Cnaeus Cicero, makes L. Afranius consul 
against the inclination of the city, ib. ; his triumph, 
73 ; solicits the ratification of his acts and an agra- 
rian law, 75 ; secretly assists Clodius against Cicero, 
76 ; enters into a league with Caesar and Crassus, 
78 ; presides at the ratification of Clodius's adop- 
tion, 80 ; loses the affections of the public, 84 ; his 
mistaken policy in entering into the triumvirate, 85; 
gives Cicero the strongest assurances of his protec- 
tion, 87 ; is admonished to guard against Cicero, 
retires to his Alban villa, 91 ; receives Cicero's 
friends coldly, who came to implore his protection, 
ib. ; refuses his assistance to Cicero himself, ib. ; 
is insulted by Clodius, thinks of recalling Cicero, 
100 ; shuts himself up in his house, ib. ; is besieged 
by Damio, one of Clodius's freedmen, ib. ; proposes 
to recal Cicero by a law of the people, 106 ; renews 
the same motion in the senate, 108 ; recommends 
it to the people, 109 ; has the administration of 
the corn and provisions of the empire granted to him 
at Cicero's motion, 112; is desirous to obtain the 
commission for restoring king Ptolemy, 119 ; speaks 
in defence of Milo, 121 ; is roughly handled by 
Bibulus, Curio, Favonius, and C. Cato, joins with 
Cicero against them, ib. ; reconciled to Crassus by 
Caesar, and extorts the consulship from L. Domitius 
Ahenobarbus, 129 ; opens his new theatre, 131 ; 
and exhibits most magnificent shows in it, ib. ; urges 
Cicero to defend Gabinius, 142 ; concerned for the 
death of his wife Julia, 144 ; declared the single 
consul, and publishes several new laws, 149 ; ruins 
Milo, 150; marries Cornelia, preserves Scipio from 
an impeachment, treats Hypsaeus with inhumanity, 
152 ; defends Bursa, ib. ; prepares an inscription 
for his temple of Venus, 153 ; ready to break with 
Caesar, ib. ; extorts large sums from king Ario- 
barzanes, 159; his constitution peculiarly subject 
to fevers, 168 ; was publicly prayed for by all the 
towns of Italy, ib. ; confers with Cicero, 1 70 ; averse 
to an accommodation with Caesar, ib. ; secures 
Caesar's gladiators at Capua, 173 ; dissembles his 
design of quitting Italy, 175 ; his mistake in leaving 
the public treasure at Rome a prey to Caesar, 182 ; 
his management censured by Cicero, 185, 186 ; the 
difficult part which he had 'to act, 79 ; his conduct 
compared with Caesar" s, 188 ; is defeated at Pharsalia, 
189 ; his death and character, 190 

Pompey the son, attempts to kill Cicero, 189 ; Sextus 



328 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



and Cnaeusput to flight by Caesar, 212 ; Sextus sends 
proposals of an accommodation to the consuls, 240 

Pontinius, C, triumphs over the Allobroges, 144 

Popilius, Laenas, preserved by Cicero in a capital cause, 
is sent by Antony to kill him, 2.90 ; he cuts off his 
head and hands, carries them to Antony, and is re- 
warded for it, 291 

Porcia, Cato's daughter, Bibulus's widow, married to 
Brutus, 208 ; dies before him of a lingering illness, 
276 

Posidonius, a learned Stoic, master and friend of Cicero, 
13 ; a reflection on the story of his stoical fortitude, 
n. e , ib. 

Praetorship, some account of it, 35 

Priests, called together to determine the affair of 
Cicero's house, 114; the judges in all cases relating 
to religion, of the first nobility, 307 

Procilius, tribune, condemned for killing a citizen, 140 

Prodigies, that preceded Catiline's conspiracy, 40 ; a 
statue of Romulus and Remus struck with lightning, 
Cicero's and Virgil's description of it, n. ib. ; the 
story of a prodigy contrived by Cicero and Terentia, 
57 ; prodigies preceding the death of Caesar, 220 

Proscription of citizens, first invented by Sylla, 9 

Provinces, the government of them eagerly desired by 
the nobility, 153; their oppressive manner of govern- 
ing them, ib. 

Ptolemy, king of Cyprus, deposed by Clodius's law, 
puts an end to his life, 95 

Ptolemy, king of Egypt, solicits to be restored to his 
kingdom by a Roman army, 119 

Puteoli, the most celebrated port of Italy, 19 



Q. 



Qilestors, the nature of the office, the first step to 
the public honours, gives an admission into the 
senate, 17, 22 

Quinctius, L. a turbulent tribune, endeavours to get the 
acts of Sylla reversed, 1.9 

Quinctius, P., defended by Cicero, 11 



R. 



Rabirius, C. accused by T. Labienus, 45 ; defended 
by Cicero, 46 

Rabirius, Posthumus, defended by Cicero, 143 

Racilius, tribune, moves for the impeachment of Clodius, 
118 

Rebilus, C. Caninius, named consul by Caesar for a 
few houi'3, 216 

Religion of old Rome, an engine of state, a summary 
account of it, 307 ; its constitution contrived to sup- 
port the interests of the senate, ib. 

Religion, natural, the most perfect scheme of it does 
not supersede, but demonstrate the benefit of a divine 
revelation, 310, n. x 

Romans, exact in the education of their children, 3 ; a 
summary account of their constitution and govern- 
ment, pref. xvi. ; free from bribery, till after the 
times of the Gracchi, pref. xviii. ; their corruption 
in the government of provinces, 23; used to give 
answers to foreigners in Latin, n. f , 24 ; seldom used 
capital punishments, 58 

Roscius, a famed comedian, 11 ; his cause defended by 
Cicero, 16; a character of him by Cicero, his daily 
pay for acting, ib. 



Roscius, S. of Ameria, accused of the murder of his 
father, defended by Cicero, and acquitted, 11 

Rufus, Q. Pompeius, banished for the disorders of his 
tribunate, 152 

Rullus, P. Servilius, tribune, publishes an agrarian 
law, 43 ; opposed by Cicero, ib. 

Rutilius, consul, killed in the Marsic war, 6 



S. 



Sallust, the historian, turned out of the senate by 
Appius the censor, 165 ; his account of Catiline's 
conspiracy taken from Brutus's Life of Cato, n. d , 
199 

Sanga, Q. Fabius, informs Cicero of the practices of 
Catiline's confederates with the Allobroges, 55 

Sauffeius, M., one of Milo's confidants, twice defended 
by Cicero, and acquitted, 151 

Scaptius, Brutus's agent in Cyprus ; treated the Sala- 
minians with great cruelty, 159 ; deprived of his 
command there by Cicero, ib. 

Scaevola, Q. Mucius, augur, the best lawyer and states- 
man of his time, takes Cicero under his protection, 
4 ; his house the oracle of the city, 5 ; wrote an 
epigram in praise of Cicero's poem on C. Marius, ib. 

Scaevola, the high-priest, his singular probity, and skill 
in the law, 4 ; killed by Damasippus, 9 

Scipio, accused of bribery, but preserved from a trial 
by Pompey, 152 ; procures a decree for the dismis- 
sion of Caesar's army, 171 

Senators not held complete till enrolled in the list of 
the censors, 17; the vacancies supplied yearly by 
the quaestors, ib. 

Sergius, M., a leader of the mob under Clodius, 112 

Serranus, tribune, hinders the decree for Cicero's 
restoration, opposes the decree for restoring Cicero's 
• house, 116 

Sertorius maintains a war of eight years against the 
whole force of Rome, 20 ; his character and death, 
ib. 

Servilia, Brutus's mother, her character, 237 

Servilius prevails with Metellus to drop his opposition 
to Cicero's return, 108 

Servilius, P. an affected rival of Cicero, his character, 
268 

Sextius, P., quaestor, joins with Petreius in urging C. 
Antony to a battle with Catiline, 61 ; when tribune, 
procures Caesar's consent to Cicero's restoration, 
103 ; left for dead in the forum by Clodius, 106 ; 
accused by M. Tullius Albino vanus, and defended 
by Cicero, 123 

Shows and public games, magnificent and expensive, 32 

Ska entertains Cicero in his exile, 96 

Sicilians, made citizens of Rome by Antony, 234 

Sicily, the first province of Rome, 18 ; the granary of 
the republic, ib. ; famous for its school of eloquence, 
ib. 

Sicinius, a factious tribune, his jest upon the consuls 
Cn. Octaviusand C. Scribonius Curio, raises a sedi- 
tion, is slain by the contrivance of Curio, 17 

Silanus, consul elect, gives the first vote for putting 
Catiline's accomplices to death, 58 

Socrates, banished physics out of philosophy, and 
applied it to morality, his method of inculcating his 
notions, 302 

Sosigcnes, an astronomer, employed by Caesar to reform 
the calendar, 202 

Spartacus, general of the gladiatorsin the Servile War, 
killed at the head of his troops, 20 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



329 



Speech of J. Caesar on Catiline's accomplices, 58 ; of 

M. Cato, 60 
Speeches of Cicero : forRosciusAmerinus,l 1 ; for Ros- 
cius the comedian, 16 ; against Caccilius and Verres, 
23 ; for Fonteius, 33 ; for the Manilian law, 36 ; 
for Cluentius, 37 ; for Gallius, 40 ; against the 
Agrarian law, 43 ; on the tumult about Otho, 45 ; 
to the sons of the proscribed, ib. ; for Rabirius, 46 ; 
against Catiline, first, 49 ; second, 50 ; third, 56 ; 
fourth, 58 ; for Murena, 53 ; for Sylla, 67 ; for 
Flaccus, 82 ; to the senate upon his restoration, 111; 
to the people, ib. ; for the restitution of his house, 
1 14 ; for Sextius, 123 ; for Balbus, 127 ; for Cselius, 
128; against Piso, 131; for Plancius, 140; for 
Rabirius Posthumus, 143 ; for Milo, 151 ; for Mar- 
cellus, 201 ; for Ligarius, 202 ; for king Deiotarus, 
215 ; his first Philippic, 243 ; the second, 244 ; the 
third, 248; the fourth, ib. ; the fifth, 249 ; the sixth, 
251 ; the seventh, 252 ; the eighth, ib. ; the ninth, 
254 ; the tenth, 256 ; the eleventh, 259; the twelfth, 
261 ; the thirteenth, 264 ; the fourteenth, 271 
Speusippus, Plato's nephew and successor in the Aca- 
demy, 302 
Stoics, held the soul to be a subtle fiery substance, 
subsisting after the body, but not eternally, 306 ; 
believed the reality of divination, 307 
Sulpicius, Servius, desires a conference with Cicero, 
184 ; sent ambassador to Antony, 251 ; dies on his 
journey, 253 ; has a statue, &c. decreed to him by 
Cicero, 255 ; his character, ib. ; a story of his skill 
in the law, erroneously reckoned among Caesar's 
conspirators by Catrou and Rouille, n. k , 255 
Supper, the great meal of the Romans, 293 
Sylla, P. Corn., convicted of bribery, and forfeits the 
consulship ; accused of conspiring with Catiline, de- 
fended by Cicero, and acquitted, 67 
Sylla, L. Cornelius, his behaviour in the Marsic war, 
6 ; obtains the consulship, the province of Asia, the 
command of the Mithridatic war, 7 ; drives C. Ma- 
rin s out of Rome, ib. ; recovers Greece and Asia 
from Mithridates, declared a public enemy, makes 
peace with Mithridates, 8 ; brings the works of Aris- 
totle into Italy, lands at Brundisium, is joined by 
young Pompey, defeats Norbanus, draws Scipio's 
army from him, 9 ; gives Scipio his life, ib. ; the 
inventor of a proscription, deprives J. Caesar of the 
priesthood, ib. ; unwillingly grants him his life, his 
prediction concerning him, declared dictator, 10; 
makes great alterations in the state, distributes the 
confiscated lands among his soldiers, ib. ; gives Pom- 
pey the title of Magnus, is disgusted at Pompey's 
demand of a triumph, 14 ; his death and charac- 
ter, ib. 
Syracuse and Messana refuse to join with the other 

cities of Sicily in the impeachment of Verres, 23 
Senate, had the sole prerogative of distributing the 
provinces, till Caesar obtained them by a grant of the 
people, 86 



Tarquinius, his evidence against Crassus, voted to be 
false, 62 

Terentia, wife of Cicero, rich and noble, 18 ; jealous 
of Clodius' sister, urges Cicero to give evidence 
against him, 70 ; dragged from the temple of Vesta 
by Clodius's order, 94 ; bears the misfortunes of her 
family with great spirit, 101 ; offers her estate to 
sale to supply their necessities, 102 ; meets Cicero at 
Brundisium, 170; divorced from him, 195; her 



character, 195 ; lived to a remarkable age, n. k , 
196 

Theophrastu3, his works brought into Italy by Sylla, 9 

Thermus, Q., demolishes Mitylene, 14 

Tiburani, gives hostages to Cicero, 161 

Tiro, Cicero's favourite slave, some account of him, 
169 

Torquatus accuses P. Corn. Sylla of conspiring with 
Catiline, 67 

Translations of the classic writers, how to he per- 
formed, pref. xii 

Travels of Cicero, the pattern of beneficial travel- 
ling, 13 

Trebatius recommended to- Caesar by Cicero, 136; 
his character, ib. ; Rallied by Cicero for turning 
Epicurean, 156 

Trebonius, tribune, publishes a law for the assign- 
ment of provinces for five years to the consuls, 132 ; 
one of the conspirators against Caesar, his charac- 
ter, 220 ; goes to his government of Asia, 227 ; 
is taken by surprise, and cruelly murdered by Dola- 
bella, 259 

Tribunes, their power carried to the greatest excess 
by the Gracchi, pref. xviii. ; abridged by Sylla, 
10 ; restored by Pompey, 31 ; the common tools of 
the ambitious, ib. 

Triumphs, the nature and conditions of them, n. a , 
154 

Triumvirate, the first, by whom formed, and with 
what views, 78 ; second, the place and manner, in 
which the three chiefs met, 288 ; the conditions of 
their union, they proscribe Cicero, with sixteen more, 
and afterwards three hundred senators, and two 
thousand knights, 289 

Triumviri, or Treviri Monetales, what they were, n. c , 
314 

Tubero, Q., persecutes Ligarius, 202 

Tullia, Cicero's daughter, when born, 18 ; meets her 
father at Brundisium, 110; marries Crassipes, 125; 
separated from him by divorce, and marries Dola- 
bella, 164; divorced from Dolabella, 190; her death 
and character, 204 ; a story of her body being found 
on the Appian-way, n. h , 208 
Tullius, the name of Cicero's family, its derivation, 2 
Tusculan villa, preferred by Cicero to the rest of his 

villas, 38 
Tyrannio, a learned Greek entertained by Cicero, 125 



V. 



Varro, M. Terentius, enters into a strict union with 
Cicero, his character, 195 

Varrus, P., seizes Africa on the part of the republic, 
192 

Vatinius, the tribune, Caesar's creature, 79 ; heads 
Caesar's mob against Bibulus, 80 ; attacks the house 
of Bibulus, 84 ; appears a witness against P. Sextius, 
and is severely lashed by Cicero, 1 23 ; made praetor, 
to the exclusion of M. Cato, 132 ; defended by 
Cicero, 141 ; his character, ib. 

Verres, C, praetor of Sicily, accused by Cicero of 
great oppression and cruelty, 23 ; is convicted and 
banished, 25 ; a specimen of his crimes, ib. ; his 
death, 31 

Vettius, the general of the Marsi, holds a conference 
with the Roman consul, Cn. Pompeius, 6 

Vettius, L., accuses Caesar of Catiline's plot, 66 ; is 
imprisoned and miserably used by him, 67; em- 
ployed by him to charge Curio, &c, with a design 



330 



INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



against Pompey's life, 85 ; strangled by him in 
prison, ib. 

Victims in sacrificing found sometimes without a heart 
or liver, how accounted for, n. f , 220 

Villas of the Roman generals used to be on hills, n. 
294 

Virgilius, C, refuses to admit Cicero into Sicily, 96 

Vomiting, immediately before and after dinner, a cus- 
tom among the Romans, n. m , 215 

Vulturcius, one of Catiline's conspirators, 55 ; gives 
evidence to the senate against his accomplices, ib. 



W. 



War, Marsic, otherwise called Italic, Social, 5 ; part 
of the education of the nobility, a fame in it the 



surest way to the highest honours, 6 ; the first civil 
war among the Romans properly so called , 7 ; Octa- 
vian, ib. ; Servile, 20 ; Sertorian, ib. ; Mithridatic, 
36 ; Gallic, 75 
Witnesses in trials, a character of the Gallic, 33 ; and 
of the Grecian and Roman, n. 82 



X. 



Xenocles of Adramyttns, a rhetorician of Asia, attended 
Cicero in his travels, 13 



Y. 

Year, Roman, an account of it, 201 



END OF THE LIFE OF CICERO. 



THE 



LETTERS 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



WITH REMARKS 



BY WILLIAM MELMOTH. 



Quo fit ut omnis 

Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella 
Vita senis.— Hob. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The principal design of the following attempt, is to trace the conduct and inquire into the character 
of Cicero. For this purpose the present Letters were preferred to those which are written to Atticus, as 
they show the author of them in a greater variety of connexions, and afford an opportunity of considering 
him in almost every possihle point of view. 

This correspondence includes a period of ahout twenty years ; commencing immediately after Cicero's 
consulate, and ending a few months before his death. 



THE 



LETTERS 



OF 



MA ECUS TULLIUS CICERO 



SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



BOOK I 



LETTER L* 

To Pompey the Great, Imperahr h . 
Your letter to the senate afforded inexpressible 
satisfaction, not only to myself, but to the public 
in general ; as the hopes it brought us of 
a peace are agreeable to those expecta- 
tions which, in full confidence of your superior 
abilities, I had always encouraged the world to 
entertain . I must acquaint you, however, that it 
entirely sunk the spirits of that party, who, from 

a These letters are placed according to their supposed 
dates. The reader will find at the end an index, referring 
to the order in which they stand in the common editions. 

b The title of Imperator, during the times of the^repub- 
lic, did not hear the least relation to that idea which is 
affixed to it in modern language ; hut was merely honorary 
and occasional. It was conferred on the Roman generals 
by the acclamations of their army in the field, after some 
signal advantage gained by their courage and conduct ; and 
it was immediately dropped again as soon as they entered 
into Rome. 

c Pompey was at this time carrying on the war in Asia 
against Mithridates, king of Pontus; and the letter to 
which Cicero alludes, probably brought an account of the 
progress of the campaign. Mithridates was a cruel but 
brave prince, who had given employment to the Roman 
arms for more than forty years. Pompey, however, had 
the good fortune to complete what Sylla and Lucullus, his 
predecessors in this command, were obliged to leave unfi- 
nished : and he not only defeated Mithridates, but annexed 
to the Roman dominions all that part of Asia which is 
between the Red, the Caspian, and the Arabian seas.— 
Flor. iii. 5. 



being formerly your declared enemies, have lately 
become your pretended friends ; as it utterly 
disappointed their most sanguine hopes d . 

Notwithstanding the letter which you wrote to 
me by the same express discovered but very slight 
marks of your affection, yet I read it with pleasure. 
The truth is, I am always abundantly satisfied with 
the consciousness of having exerted my best 
offices towards my friends ; and if they do not 
think proper to make me an equal return, I am 
well contented that the superiority should remain 
on my side. But if my utmost zeal for your 
interests has not been sufficient to unite you to 
mine, I doubt not that our co-operating together 
upon the same patriot-principles, will be a means 
of cementing us more strongly hereafter. In the 
mean time, it would neither be agreeable to the 
openness of my temper, nor to the freedom of that 
mutual friendship we profess, to conceal what I 
thought wanting in your letter. I will acknow- 

d It is doubtful to whom Cicero here alludes. Some of 
the commentators suppose that he points at Lucullus, who, 
as he had been recalled from the command in which Pom- 
pey was now employed, would not, it may well be imagined, 
be greatly pleased with the success of his rival. — Others 
think that he had Caesar in view : and what renders this 
conjecture extremely probable is, that Cassarand Pompey, 
who had been long opposite in politics, were now, appa- 
rently, reconciled ; the former (for purposes which shall 
hereafter be explained) falling in with that party who were 
for conferring the highest and most unconstitutional 
honours on the latter. 



334 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



ledge, then, that the public services I performed 
during my late consulship, gave me reason to 
expect, from your attachment both to myself and 
to the commonwealth, that you would have sent 
me your congratulations ; and I am persuaded you 
would not have omitted them but from a tender- 
ness to certain persons e . Let me assure you, 
however, that what I have performed for the pre- 
servation of my country, has received the concurrent 
applauses of the whole world. You will find when 
you return hither, I conducted that important 
scene with so much spirit and policy, that you, 
like another Scipio, though far superior, indeed, to 
that hero in glory, will not refuse to admit me, 
like a second Laelius f , and not much behind him, 
I trust, in wisdom, as the friend and associate of 
your private and public transactions. Farewell. 



LETTER II. 

Quintus Metellus Celer s, Proconsul, to Cicero. 
As I persuaded myself that our reconciliation 
and friendship was mutually sincere, I never ima- 
fioi gioed I should have had occasion to com- 
plain of being marked out in my absence 
as the object of your ridicule 1 *. For the same 
reason I was equally far from supposing that you 
would have acted with so much bitterness against 

e Cicero was advanced to the consular office the year 
hefore the date of this letter ; that is, An. Urb. 690. He 
particularly alludes to the part he acted during his admi- 
nistration, with regard to the suppressing of Catiline's 
conspiracy. [See rem. P. p. 336, and rem. a . p. 338.] And he 
had undoubtedly cause to complain of Pompey's unex- 
pected coolness in the present instance : the occasion -of 
which seems to have been this. A very powerful party 
was now forming against Cicero by Caesar and Metellus 
the tribune ; and Pompey was considered as a proper per- 
son to support their designs of destroying the great autho- 
rity which Cicero had lately acquired. It is highly 
probable, therefore, from Pompey's reserve to our author, 
that he had received some overtures of this sort : and as 
he was jealous of every power that might obstruct his own, 
he was by no means disposed, it should seem, to advance 
Cicero's credit by gratifying him with those applauses 
which his conduct deserved.— Plut. in Vit. Cicer. 

f Scipio Africanus the younger, to whom Cicero here 
alludes, was consul in the year of Rome 605 ; as Laelius was 
in the year 612. The strict intimacy which subsisted 
between these distinguished Romans, is celebrated by seve- 
ral of the classic writers : but Cicero has paid it the highest 
honours in his Dialogue upon Friendship, Scipio and 
Laelius used to retire together from the business of the 
state, to a villa situated on the sea-shore, near Laurentum ; 
where these illustrious friends did not think it beneath 
their characters to descend to the humblest recreations. 
The virtus Scipiadce et mitis sapientia Lceli, the heroism 
of Scipio and the wisdom of Laelius could unbend in gather- 
ing shells and pebbles on the coast ; and perhaps it is some 
evidence of their merit, that they were capable of being 
thus easily diverted. Less virtuous minds generally have 
recourse to more agitated relaxations, and are seldom 
entertained without carrying their passions into their 
amusements.— Orat. pro Muraen. 36 ; Hor. Sat. ii. 1. ver. 
72 ; Cic. De Orat. ii. 6. 

g Quintus Metellus Celer exercised the office of praetor, 
the same year that Cicero was consul. Two years after the 
date of this letter, he was himself elected to that supremo 
dignity: and Cicero speaks of his administration with 
applause, lie was at this time governor of Cisalpine Gaul. 
—Ad Att. ii. 1. 

h The reader will find this explained by Cicero's answer 
in the following letter. 



my relation Metellus 1 , as to persecute him even to 
the loss of his fortunes and his dignities, merely 
for a single word. If the regard which is due to 
his own character could not protect him from the 
unjust resentment of the senate, at least the zeal I 
have ever shown for the interests of that illustrious 
order, the services I have rendered the common- 
wealth, and the consideration which is owing to 
our birth J, should have powerfully pleaded in his 
favour. But it has been his fate to be oppressed, 
as well as mine to be deserted, by those who ought 
to have treated us in a very different manner ; and 
the honour of that important command with which 
I am invested, cannot secure me, it seems, from 
having cause to lament the indignities which are 
offered both to myself and to my family. Since 
the senate have shown themselves to be so little 
influenced by the dictates of equity, or those 
principles of moderation which distinguished our 
ancestors, it will be no wonder if they should find 
reason to repent of their conduct. But as to your- 
self, I repeat it again, I never had the least suspi- 
cion that you were capable of acting with so much 
inconstancy to me and mine. However, neither this 
dishonour which has been cast upon my family, 
nor any injuries which can be done to me in my 
own person, shall ever alienate my affections from 
the republic. Farewell. 



LETTER III. 

To Quintus Metellus Celer, Proconsul. 
I have received your letter, wherein you tell me 
that, " you had persuaded yourself, you should 
a v 691 never nave bad occasion to complain of 
being marked out as the subject of my 
railleries." I must assure you, in return, that I 
do not well understand to what you allude. I 
suspect, however, you may have been informed of 
a speech I lately made in the senate, wherein I 
took notice there was a considerable party amongst 



i The person here alluded to, is Quintus Metellus Caeci- 
lius Nepos, at this time a tribune of the people. He had 
lately attempted to procure a law for recalling Pompey 
out of Asia ; pretending that his presence was necessary 
in order to quiet the commotions in the republic. But his 
real view was to destroy the great credit and authority 
which Cicero now possessed, by throwing the whole power 
into Pompey's hands. Cato, who was likewise tribune at 
the same time, most strenuously opposed this design of his 
colleague ; and the contests that arose between them, upon 
this occasion, were attended with great and dangerous 
disturbances. Metellus, however, being at length obliged 
to desist, retired in disgust with his complaints to Pompey. 
After he had thus withdrawn himself, it was proposed, 
that the censure of the senate should be passed upon his 
turbulent conduct, as also that he should be deposed from 
his office ; and it was these proceedings, together with the 
part that Metellus Celer supposed Cicero to have borne in 
them, which occasioned the warm remonstrances of the 
letter before us. Plutarch asserts it was owing to the pru- 
dence and moderation of Cato, that the motion against 
Metellus Kepos was not carried. Suetonius, on the other 
hand, expressly says that he was actually suspended : and 
indeed the following answer of Cicero renders it extremely 
probable that some decreeof that kind had been voted, and 
afterwards repealed.— Plut. in Vit. Caton. ; Suet, in Vit. 
Jul. Caes. 16. 

J Within the space of twelve years, there had been no 
less than twelve of this family who were either consuls, 
censors, or distinguished with the honours of a triumph. — 
Veil. Pat. Ii. 11. 



TO SEVERAL OF PUS FRIENDS. 



335 



us, who regretted that the commonwealth should 
have owed its preservation to my hands. I added, 
I confess, that, in compliance with the request 
" of some of your relations, whose desires you 
could by no means refuse, you suppressed the 
applause with which you intended to have honoured 
me in that illustrious assembly." I mentioned, at 
the same time, that " we had shared between us the 
glory of having saved the republic : and that whilst 
I was protecting Rome from the wicked designs 
of her intestine enemies, you were defending Italy 
from the open attacks and secret conspiracies of 
those who had meditated our general ruin. But 
that some of your family, nevertheless, had endea- 
voured to weaken this our illustrious association, 
and were unwilling you should make any return on 
your part, for those high honours with which you 
had been distinguished on mine." As this was an 
open confession how much I was mortified in not 
receiving the applause I expected, it raised a 
general smile in the house : not indeed at you, but 
at myself, for ingenuously acknowledging my disap- 
pointment. And surely what I thus said cannot 
but be considered as highly to your credit ; since 
it was an evidence that, amidst the highest honours, 
I still thought my glory incomplete, without the 
concurrence of your approbation. 

As to what you mention concerning a mutual 
affection, I know not what you may esteem as a 
mark of that disposition. But, according to my 
apprehension, it consists in an equal return of those 
good offices which one friend receives from another. 
If, as a proof of this gratitude on my part, I were 
to tell you that I gave up my pretensions to your 
present government, you might well suspect my 
veracity. The truth is, I renounced it as being 
inconsistent with that plan of conduct I had laid 
down to myself k : and I find every day more and 
more reason to be satisfied with having taken this 
resolution. But this, with strict sincerity, I can 
affirm, that I no sooner relinquished my claim to 
your province than I considered how to throw it 
into your hands. I need not mention the manage- 
ment which was employed in order to secure the 
lot in your favour ; but this much I will say, that 
I hope you do not imagine the part my colleague 
acted in that affair was, in any of its circumstances, 
without my privity and consent. Let me desire 
you to recollect with what expedition I assembled 
the senate immediately after the balloting was 
over, and how fully I spoke upon that occasion in 
your applause. Accordingly you then told me that 
I had not only paid a high compliment to yourself, 
but at the same time cast a very severe reproach 

k Cicero here alludes to the resolution he took of not 
accepting any government at the expiration of his consu- 
lar office; a resolution, it must be owned, worthy of a 
generous and disinterested patriot. Accordingly, in a 
speech which he made in the senate on the day of his 
inauguration, he declared he would receive no honours at 
the close of his ministry which it was in the power of the 
tribunes to obstruct ; and indeed it was in their power 
to obstruct every honour the senate could decree. As the 
authority of these popular magistrates could thus disap- 
point the ambition of the consuls, it had often influenced 
them in the exercise of their functions. But by this self- 
denying renunciation which Cicero made, he had nothing 
to hope from their favour, or to fear from their resentment : 
and consequently divested himself of every motive that 
could check a vigorous opposition to their factious mea- 
sures.— Orat. cont. Rull. i. 8. 



upon your colleagues. I will add, that so long as 
the decree shall subsist, which the senate passed 
at that juncture, there will not be wanting a public 
and conspicuous monument of my good offices 
towards you. Remember likewise the zeal with 
which I supported your interest in the senate ; the 
encomiums with which I mentioned you in the 
assemblies of the people; and the affectionate letters 
I wrote to you after your departure. And when 
you have laid these several circumstances together, 
I may safely leave it to your own determination, 
whether your behaviour to me, upon your last 
return to Rome, was suitable to these instances of 
my friendship. However, I know not what you 
mean by our " reconcilement : " an expression, it 
should seem, which cannot, with any propriety, be 
applied where there never was any formal rupture. 
With respect to your relation, whom I ought 
not, you tell me, to have persecuted so severely in 
resentment of a single expression, I have this to 
say : In the first place, I most highly applaud the 
affectionate disposition you discover towards him : 
and, in the next, I hope you would pardon me, if 
that duty which I owe my country, and to which 
no man is more strongly devoted, had, at any time, 
obliged me to oppose his measures. But if I have 
only defended myself against his most cruel attacks, 
have you not reason to be satisfied that I never 
once troubled you with my complaints ? On the 
contrary, when I perceived he was collecting the 
whole force of his tribunitial power in order to 
oppress me, I contented myself with endeavouring 
to divert him from his unjust purpose, by applying 
to your wife 1 and sister" 1 ; as the latter had often ' 
indeed, in consideration of my connexions with 
Pompey, exerted her good offices in my behalf. 
Nevertheless (and I am sure you are no stranger 
to the truth of what I am going to say) upon 
laying down my consular office, he prevented me 
from making the usual speech to the people : and 
thus, what had never been denied to the lowest and 
most worthless of our magistrates, he most injuri- 
ously refused to a consul who had preserved the 
liberties of his country. This insult, however, 
proved greatly to my honour ; for, as he would 
only suffer me to take the oath n , I pronounced the 
sincerest and most glorious of asseverations with 
an uncommon exertion of voice ; and the whole 
assembly of the people as loudly called the gods to 
witness, that what I had sworn was most religi- 
ously true . But though I received this signal 
affront from your cousin, yet I had the very same 
day sent an amicable message to him by our com- 

1 Sister to Clodius : a woman of most abandoned lewd- 
ness, and suspected of having poisoned Metellus, who died 
in 694, a few years after this letter was written.— Cicero, 
who attended him in his last moments, represents them as 
truly heroic. Metellus saw the approaches of death with- 
out the least concern upon his own account, and only 
lamented that he should lose his life at a time when his 
friend and his country would have most occasion for his 
services. — Pro Ccelio, 24. 

111 Mucia : she was married to Pompey, but aftewards 
divorced from him on occasion of her gallantries with Czesar. 
—Ad Att. i. 12 ; Plut. in Vit. Pomp. 

n The consuls, at the expiration of their office, took an 
oath that they had faithfully and zealously discharged 
their trust.— Manutius. 

Cicero did not confine himself to the usual terms of 
the oath ; but swore that he had preserved Rome and the 
1 republic from destruction.— Plut. in Vit. Cicer. 



336 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



mon friends, with the hopes of persuading him 
into a better temper. The answer he returned was, 
that all applications of this kind were now too late. 
He had, indeed, asserted, some days before, in a 
speech which he made in a general assembly of the 
people, " that the man who had punished others 
without suffering them to be heard p, ought to be 
denied the privilege of being heard in his turn." 
Excellent and judicious patriot indeed ! to main- 
tain that the same punishment which had been 
decreed, and with the approbation too of every 
honest man in Rome, to those rebels and incen- 
diaries who had attempted to involve their country 
in the most dreadful calamities, was due to him 
who had preserved the senate, the city, and all 
Italy in general from destruction. These were the 
provocations that induced me to oppose your 
cousin openly and before his face : and accordingly 
in a debate on the first of January concerning the 
state of the republic, I thought proper to let him 
see that he had declared war against a man who 
did not want resolution to return his attack. In a 
speech which he made a few days afterwards, he 
was pleased to throw out several menacing expres- 
sions against me ; and it was evidently his deter- 
mined purpose to effect my ruin, not by bringing 
my actions to a fair and impartial trial, but by the 
most illegal methods of violence. Had I not acted 
then with spirit in opposition to his ill-considered 
measures, would not the world have thought (and 
^thought too with reason) that the courage I exerted 
in my consulate was merely accidental, and not the 
result of a steady and rational fortitude ? If you 
are ignorant of these instances of your cousin's 
deportment, he has concealed a very material 
article of his conduct. On the other hand, if he 
apprised you of them, you have reason to look 
upon me as having acted with great temper and 
forbearance in never interrupting you with my 
expostulations. In a word, you will find my com- 
plaint against him was not founded on a single 
expression, as you call it, but on a continued series 
of malevolence. Let me now, therefore, show you 
that my conduct in return was influenced by prin- 
ciples of the greatest good-nature : if good-nature 
it may be deemed, not to exert a proper resent- 
ment against injuries of so atrocious a kind. The 
truth is, I never once made a motion in the senate 
to his prejudice ; on the contrary, as often as any 
question arose in which he was concerned, I always 
voted on the most favourable side. I will add 
P The principal conspirators concerned with Catiline 
being taken into custody, Cicero convened the senate ; when 
it was debated in what manner to proceed against the pri- 
soners, Silanus, the consul-elect, advised that they should 
all be put to death. But this was against an express law, 
which prohibited the taking away the life of any citizen 
without a formal process. The proposal of Silanus was 
opposed by Caesar, as being a stretch of the senate's power 
which might be productive of very dangerous consequences 
in a free state. It was his opinion, therefore, that the 
estates of the conspirators should be confiscated, and their 
persons closely imprisoned. Cicero, as Dr. Middleton 
observes, delivered his sentiments with all the skill both 
of the orator and the statesman ; and while he seemed to 
show a perfect neutrality, and to give equal commendation 
to both the opinions, was artfully labouring to turn the 
scale in favour of Silanus's, which he considered as a ne- 
cessary example of severity in the present circumstances 
of the republic. A vote accordingly passed that the con- 
spirators should suffer death ; which Cicero immediately 
put in execution.— Life of Cic. p. 59—61 ; see rem. a , p. 338. 



(though it is a circumstance, indeed, in which I 
ought not to have concerned myself) that I was so 
far from being displeased with the decree which 
passed in his favour, that, in consideration of his 
being related to you, I actually promoted it to the 
utmost of my power. 

Thus you see that, far from being the aggressor, 
I have only acted a defensive part. Nor have I, 
as you accuse me, betrayed a capricious disposition 
with regard to yourself : on the contrary, notwith- 
standing your failure in some amicable offices on 
your side, I have still preserved the same unvaria- 
ble sentiments of friendship on mine. Even at this 
very instant when I have before me, I had almost 
called it your threatening letter, yet I will tell you 
that I not only excuse, but highly applaud the 
generous warmth you express in your cousin's 
behalf; as I know, by what passes in my own 
breast, the wonderful force of family affection. I 
hope then you will judge of my resentment with 
the same candour, and acknowledge that if, with- 
out the least provocation on my part, I have been 
most cruelly and outrageously treated, by any of 
your relations, I had a right, I will not only say to 
defend myself, but to be supported in that defence 
if it were necessary, even by your whole army. 
Believe me, I have ever been desirous of making 
you my friend ; as I have endeavoured to convince 
you, upon all occasions, that I was entirely yours ; 
sentiments which 1 still retain, and shall continue 
to retain just as long as you desire. To say all in 
one word, I am much more disposed to sacrifice 
my resentment against your cousin to my friend- 
ship towards yourself, than to suffer the former, 
in any degree, to impair our mutual affection. 
Farewell. 



LETTER IV. 

To Caius Antonius, Imperator i. 
I had determined not to trouble you with my 
letters, unless of the recommendatory kind : not 

691 tnat * na( * reason to ex P ect m y solicita- 
tions would have much weight with you ; 
but as being unwilling it should appear to those 
who might apply for them, that any coolness had 
arisen between us. However, as our common 
friend Atticus, who has been a particular witness 
of the warmth with which I have ever promoted 
your interest, is coming into your province, I can- 
not forbear conveying a letter to you by his hand ; 
especially as he very strongly importuned me for 
that purpose. 

Were I to claim even your highest services, the 
demand could by no means be thought unreason- 
able, after having contributed everything on my 
part for the advancement of your ease, your inte- 
rest, and your honours r . But I may safely appeal 
to your own conscience, whether you have ever 
made me the least return : so far from it, indeed, 
that I have heard (for I dare not say I have been 

<l The person to whom this letter is addressed, was 
uncle to the celebrated Mark Antony. He had been consul 
the year before with Cicero, and was now governor of 
Macedonia. 

r The consuls, at the expiration of their office, used to 
draw lots to which of the provinces they should respect- 
ively succeed asgovernors. This which Antonius possessed, 
one of the most desirable in all the Roman empire, having 
fallen to Cicero, he resigned it to his colleague. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



33i 



informed 5 , as it is an expression, it seems, which 
you frequently, though, I am sure, injuriously, 
object to me,) I have heard then that you have 
intimated something as if— but I leave it to Atticus 
to tell you the rest : as the report 1 has given him 
no less concern than it gave myself. In the mean 
time, I will only say, that the senate and the whole 
Roman people have been witnesses of that uncom- 
mon zeal with which I have entered into your 
interest. What sentiments of gratitude this has 
impressed upon your mind, you yourself are the 
best judge ; how much you owe me in consequence 
of it, let others determine. It was friendship that 
first engaged my good offices in your favour ; and 
I afterwards was induced to continue them merely 
from a principle of constancy. But, believe me, 
your present" affairs require a much larger propor- 
tion of my zeal and pains : the utmost exertion of 
which shall not be wanting, provided I may have 
reason to think that they are not entirely thrown 
away. For I shall never be so absurdly officious, 
as to employ them where they are not acceptable. 
Atticus will inform you in what particular instances 
you may, probably, have occasion for my good 
offices: in the meanwhile, I very warmly recom- 

s This alludes to an expression which Cicero had often 
occasion to employ in the affair of Catiline's conspiracy. 
As his principal intelligence arose -from some of the con- 
spirators themselves, who communicated to him, from time 
to time, the designs of their associates, he was obliged to 
conceal the authors of these discoveries: and, therefore, 
in laying his allegations before the senate or the people, he 
was under the necessity of speaking only in general terms, 
and of assuring them that he had been informed of the 
particular articles he mentioned. But though the event 
proved that his informations were true : yet, in general, 
this method of accusation was extremely odious, and of 
dangerous example. Cicero's enemies, therefore, did not 
fail to take advantage of this popular objection, and were 
perpetually repeating the phrase, / am informed, when- 
ever they were disposed to reproach his conduct in this 
transaction. — See Mongault, rem. 19, on the 19th letter 
of the first book to Atticus; Plut. in Vit. Cicer. ; Sallust ; 
Declam. in Cicer. 2. 

* This report was of a very unfavourable kind indeed : 
for it charged Cicero with having a share in the money 
which Antonius raised by his exactions on the unhappy 
people of his province. The very judicious French trans- 
lator of the epistles to Atticus, seems to imagine there was 
some foundation for this report ; as he thinks it probable 
that Antonius had agreed to pay Cicero a certain sum in 
consideration of his having relinquished to him the govern- 
ment of Macedonia : but this is a conjecture altogether 
unsupported by any evidence. Thus much, however, is 
certain ; in the first place, that Cicero had some demands 
upon Antonius, of a nature which he did not choose should 
be known; as, whenever he hints at them to Atticus, it is 
always in a very dark and enigmatical manner : and, in 
the next place, that he sacrificed his own judgment and 
the good opinion of the world, in order to support Anto- 
nius in his present government. From which facts the 
reader is left to draw the conclusion that he shall judge 
reasonable. — Ad Att. xii. 13, 14. See the following remark. 

u Pompey had declared his intentions of very strenu- 
ously insisting that Antonius should be recalled from his 
government, in order to give an account of his administra- 
tion : which, it seems, had been extremely oppressive. It 
was upon this occasion that Cicero promised him his ser- 
vice: and it seems, by the following letter, that he kept 
his word. But if he had not, his honour, perhaps, would 
not have been the more questionable : tor it appears, from 
a letter to Atticus, that Cicero could not undertake the 
defence of Antonius without suffering in the opinion, not 
only of the populace, but of every worthy man in Rome. — 
Ad Att. i. 12. See rem. z on the following letter. 



mend him to yours. I am well persuaded, indeed, 
that his own interest with you is his best advocate : 
however, if you have any remaining affection for 
me, let me entreat you to show it (and it is the 
most obliging manner in which you can show it) 
by your services to my friend. Farewell. 



LETTER V. 
To Publius Sestius, Qucestor". 

I could scarce credit your freedraan Decius, 
as highly as I think of his fidelity and attachment 
a u 692 *° y° ur mterest > when he requested me, 
in your name, to use my endeavours that 
you may not at present be recalled. Remembering, 
indeed, the very different strain in which all the 
letters I had before received from you were written, 
I could not easily be induced to think that you had 
so greatly altered your mind. But after Cornelia's 
visit to my wife, and the discourse which I had my- 
self with Cornelius, I could no longer doubt of this 
change in your inclinations : and accordingly I 
never failed to attend in your behalf, at every sub- 
sequent meeting of the senate. The question, 
however, did not come on till January last, w T hen 
we carried it without much opposition ; though 
I found some difficulty in persuading Quintus 
Fusius w , and the rest of your friends, to whom you 
had written upon this subject, to believe me rather 
than your own letters. 

I had not agreed with Crassus for his house, 
when you wished me joy of the purchase ; but I 
was so much encouraged by your congratulations, 
that I soon afterwards bought it at thirty-five hun- 
dred thousand sesterces*. I am now, therefore, so 

v Every proconsul, or governor of a province, had a 
quasstor under him, who acted as a sort of paymaster- 
general to the provincial forces, and as superintendant 
likewise of the public revenues. Sestius was at this time 
exercising that office under Antonius, in Macedonia. Some 
further account will be occasionally given of him in the 
progress of these remarks. 

w One of the tribunes of the people. 

x About 23,00<tf. Cicero, it is said, borrowed a consi- 
derable part of this sum from a man whose cause he had 
undertaken to defend. But eloquence was not as yet pro- 
fessedly venal in Rome ; and it was looked upon as highly 
dishonourable for an advocate, not only to receive any 
reward, but even a loan of his client. Cicero, therefore, 
being publicly reproached with this transaction, most con- 
fidently denied the charge ; declaring at the same time 
that he had not the least intention of making this purchase. 
However, he soon afterwards completed his bargain : when 
being taxed in the senate with this unworthy falsehood, he 
endeavoured to laugh it off, by telling his censurers that, 
" they must know very little of the world indeed, if they 
imagined any prudent man would raise the price of a com- 
modity, by publicly avowing his intentions of becoming a 
purchaser." It is Aulus Gellius who gives us this story, 
which Dr. Middleton supposes he might have picked up 
from some spurious collection of Cicero's jokes : and many 
such, it is certain, were handed about, even in Cicero's 
lifetime. As every reader of taste and learning must wish 
well to the moral character of so invaluable an author as 
Cicero, one cannot but regret that neither his own general 
regard to truth, nor the plea of his ingenious advocate, 
seem sufficient to discredit this piece of secret history. 
That Cicero was capable of denying facts, where it was not 
for his advantage they should be discovered, will appear, 
perhaps, beyond controversy in the progress of these re- 
marks. In the meantime a very strong instance of this 
may be produced from one of his letters to Atticus. Cicero 
Z 



838 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



deeply involved in debt as to be full ripe, you must 
know, for a plot, if any malcontent will be so cha- 
ritable as to admit me into one. But the misfor- 
tune is, this sort of patriots are all disposed to 
exclude me from their society : and whilst I am 
the aversion of some of them, as the avowed avenger 
of conspiracies ; others suspect that I only plead 
poverty with a view of gaining their confidence, in 
order to betray them. They think it incredible, 
indeed, that the man who rescued the bags of all 
the usurers in Rome from a general attack, should 
ever be in distress for moneys. The truth of the 
matter is, there is enough to be raised at six per 
cent, and I have gained this much, by the services 
I have done my country, that I am considered by 
your money-lenders as a good man. 

I must not forget to mention that I have lately 
looked over your house and buildings, and am much 
pleased with the improvements you are making. 

Notwithstanding all the world is sensible that 
Antonius has, by no means, acted towards me with 
the gratitude he ought, yet it did not prevent me 
from being his advocate lately in the senate : when, 
by the influence of my authority, and the force of 
what I said, I greatly disposed the house in his 
favour 2 . I will only add my wishes that you would 
write to me oftener. Farewell. 

had written an invective against some person whose inter- 
est he had occasion to make use of in the affair of his 
restoration. This piece of satire had stolen into the world, 
it seems, without his know ledge ; but as he never had any 
formal quarrel with the man against whom it was levelled, 
and as it was drawn up in a style by no means equal to 
the usual correctness of his performances, it might easily, 
he tells Atticus, be proved not to have come from his hand : 
puto posse probari non esse meant. The truth of it is, sin- 
cerity does not seem to have been the virtue upon which 
Cicero was very solicitous of establishing his character. 
Thus, Plutarch assures us, that our author having made a 
speech in public, full of the highest encomiums on Cras- 
sus, he did not scruple a few days afterwards to reverse 
the panegyric, and represent him before the same audience 
in all the darkest colours of his invective. Cicero being 
reminded, upon this occasion, of his former harangue, 
very gravely replied, " it was only byway of an oratorical 
exercise, and in order to try the force of his eloquence upon 
so bad a subject."— Aul. Gell. xii. 12; Life of Cicero, p. 68; 
Ad Att. iii. 12 ; Plut. in Vit. Cicer. 

y The chief of those who engaged in Catiline's rebellion, 
were men of the same desperate fortunes as himself: Qui- 
cunque bona patria laceraverat, says the historian of this 
conspiracy, quicunque alienum ces grande conflaverat, 
were the worthy associates of Catiline in this infamous 
enterprise : and though liberty was, as usual, the pretence, 
the true motive of their taking up arms was, in order to 
make war upon their creditors.— Sallust. Bell. Cat. 14. 

z The question in this debate probably turned on the 
rccal of Antonius — a question which seems either to have 
been carried in his favour, or to have been dropped during 
a considerable time For it appears, by a letter to Atticus, 
written two years after the date of the present, that Anto- 
nius was still in his government : and Dion Cassius assures 
us, that he was not brought upon his trial till the consu- 
late of Caesar ; that is, not till the Year of Rome 694. He 
was then arraigned for his ill-conduct in Macedonia, and 
as being concerned likewise in Catiline's conspiracy. This 
last article of the impeachment could not be proved, but 
the truth of it, nevertheless, was generally believed ; how- 
ever, he was convicted of the former, and condemned to 
perpetual banishment. Cicero appeared as his advocate 
upon this occasion ; and it was an occasion which contri- 
buted more, perhaps, than any other, to his future misfor- 
tunes. For, in the warmth of his speech, he indiscreetly 
threw out some reflections upon Caesar, which, although 



LETTER VI. 

To Terentia, to my dearest Tullia, and to my Son 6 : 

If you do not hear from me so frequently as you 

might, it is because I can neither write to you, nor 

on „ read your letters, without falling into a 
A. u. 695. , 3 . ' ., T ° ,. , 

greater passion ot tears than 1 am able to 

support ; for though I am at all times, indeed, 

completely miserable, yet I feel my misfortunes 

with a particular sensibility upon those tender 

occasions. 

Oh ! that I had been more indifferent to life ! 
Our days would then have been, if not wholly 
unacquainted with sorrow, yet by no means thus 
wretched. However, if any hopes are still reserved 
to us of recovering some part, at least, of what we 
have lost, I shall not think that I have made alto- 
gether so imprudent a choice. But, if our present 
fate is unalterably fixed — ah ! my dearest Terentia, 
if we are utterly and for ever abandoned by those 
gods whom you have so religiously adored, and by 
those men whom I have so faithfully served ; let 
me see you as soon as possible, that I may have 
the satisfaction of breathing out my last departing 
sigh in your arms. 

I have spent about a fortnight at this place b , 
with my friend Marcus Flaccus. This worthy man 
did not scruple to exercise the rites of friendship 
and hospitality towards me, notwithstanding the 
severe penalties of that iniquitous law against those 
who should venture to give me reception . May 
that great master of his passions did not think proper at 
that time openly to resent, it is probable he never forgave. 
Dion Cassius, at least, informs us, that it was upon this 
account he secretly instigated Clodius to those violent 
measures which soon afterwards terminated in Cicero's 
exile.— Ad Att. ii. 2 ; Dio, xxxvii. See rem. u on the pre- 
ceding letter. 

a There is an interval of two years between the date of 
this and the foregoing letter ; the correspondence which 
Cicero carried on during the intermediate period being 
entirely lost, except that which he held with Atticus. The 
following letters to Terentia, were written in our author's 
exile, and will prove, either that Cicero was a philosopher 
only in speculation, or that philosophy itself pretends to 
more than it has power to perform. Perhaps, they will 
prove both ; for, as on the one hand they discover the most 
unmanly dejection of spirit ; so it is certain, on the other, 
that much weaker minds have been able, with the assist- 
ance of better principles, to support with fortitude far 
severer trials. Those in which Cicero was at present exer- 
cised, were occasioned by Clodius, who procured himself 
to be elected tribune with the single view of destroying 
this his avowed adversary. It has already been observed 
in rem. P, on the third letter of this book, that Cicero, 
in his consulate, had put to death some of the con- 
spirators concerned with Catiline, without any formal 
trial, and upon no other authority than a decree of the 
senate. And it was upon this charge that Clodius founded 
his impeachment. Cicero's conduct upon this occasion, 
has also been arraigned by a la to very accurate and judicious 
historian ; and it must be acknowledged that, as far as we 
can be competent judges of it at this distance from the 
time and scene of action, it seems to have been attended 
with some circumstances not easily reconcilable to the 
principles either of justice or good policy. — Hooke's Roman 
History, vol. iii. p. .'31(>. 

b Brundisium : a maritime town in the kingdom of 
Naples, now called Brindisi. Cicero, when he first with- 
drew from Rome, intended to have retired into Sicily, but 
being denied entrance by the governor of that island, he 
changed his direction, and came to Brundisium, in his 
way to Greece. — Pro Plane. 40, 41. 

c As soon as Cicero had withdrawn from Rome, Clodius 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



339 



I one day have it in my power to make him a 
return to those generous services, which I shall 
ever most gratefully remember. 

I am just going to embark, and purpose to pass 
through Macedonia, in my way to Cyzicum d . And 
now, my Terentia, thus wretched and ruined as I 
am, can I entreat you, under all that weight of pain 
and sorrow with which, I too well know, you are 
oppressed, can I entreat you to be the partner and 
companion of my exile ? But must I then live 
without you ? I know not how to reconcile myself 
to that hard condition ; unless your presence at 
Rome may be a mean of forwarding my return ; if 
any hopes of that kind should indeed subsist. But 
should there, as I sadly suspect, be absolutely 
none, come to me, I conjure you, if it be possible : 
for never can I think myself completely ruined, 
whilst I shall enjoy my Terentia's company. But 
how will my dearest daughter dispose of herself? 
A question which you yourselves must consider : 
for, as to my own part, I am utterly at a loss what 
to advise. At all events, however, that dear un- 
happy girl must not take any measures that may 
injure her conjugal repose e , or affect her in the 
good opinion of the world. As for my son — let 
me not, at least, be deprived of the consolation of 
holding him for ever in my arms. But I must lay 
down my pen a few moments : my tears flow too 
fast to suffer me to proceed. 

I am under the utmost solicitude, as I know not 
whether you have been able to preserve any part of 
your estate, or (what I sadly fear) are cruelly robbed 
of your whole fortune. I hope Piso f will always 
continue, what you represent him to be, entirely 
ours. As to the manumission of the slaves, I think 
you have no occasion to be uneasy. For, with re- 
gard to your own, you only promised them their 
liberty as they should deserve it : but, excepting 
Orpheus, there are none of them that have anv 
great claim to this favour. As to mine, I told 
them, if my estate should be forfeited, I would give 
them their freedom, provided I could obtain the 
confirmation of that grant : but, if I preserved my 
estate, that they should all of them, excepting only 
a few whom I particularly named, remain in their 
present condition. But this is a matter of little 
consequence. 

With regard to the advice you give me of keep- 
ing up my spirits, in the belief that I shall again 
be restored to my country, I only wish that I 
may have reason to encourage so desirable an ex- 
pectation. In the mean time, I am greatly miser- 
able, in the uncertainty when I shall hear from you, 
or what hand you will find to convey your letters. 
I would have waited for them at this place, but the 
master of the ship on which I am going to embark, 
could not be prevailed upon to lose the present 
opportunity of sailing. 

For the rest, let me conjure you, in my turn, to 
bear up under the pressure of our afflictions with 



procured a law, which, among other articles, enacted, that 
" no person should presume to harbour or receive him on 
pain of death."— Life of Cicero, p. 93. 

d A considerable town in an island of the Propontis, 
which lay so close to the continent of Asia, as to be joined 
with it by a bridge. 

e Tulliawas at this time married to Caius Piso Frugi ; a 
young nobleman of one of the best families in Rome. See 
rem. ▼ on letter 9 of this book. 

f Cicero's son-in-law, mentioned in the last note. 



as much resolution as possible. Remember that 
my days have all been honourable ; and that I now 
suffer not for my crimes, but my virtues. No, my 
Terentia, nothing can justly be imputed to me, but 
that I survived the loss of my dignities. However, 
if it was more agreeable to our children that I 
should thus live, let that reflection teach us to 
submit to our misfortunes with cheerfulness ; 
insupportable as upon all other considerations they 
would undoubtedly be. But, alas ! whilst I am 
endeavouring to keep up your spirits, I am utterly 
unable to preserve my own ! 

I have sent back the faithful Philetserus, as the 
weakness of his eyes made him incapable of render- 
ing me any service. Nothing can equal the good 
offices I receive from Sallustius. Pescennius, like- 
wise, has given me strong marks of his affection : 
and I hope he will not fail in his respect also to 
you. Sica promised to attend me in my exile, but 
he changed his mind, and has left me at this place. 

I entreat you to take all possible care of your 
health, and be assured, your misfortunes more 
sensibly affect me than my own. Adieu, my Te- 
rentia, thou most faithful and best of wives ! adieu. 
And thou, my dearest daughter, together with that 
other consolation of my life, my dear son, I bid you 
both most tenderly farewell. 

Brundisium, April the 30th. 



LETTER VII. 

To Terentia, to my dearest Tullia, and to my Son. 

Imagine not, my Terentia, that I write longer 

letters to others than to yourself : be assured, at 

. ■., rnz least, if ever I do, it is merely because 
a. u. 695. ' ' * 

those I receive from them require a more 

particular answer. The truth of it is, I am always 

at a loss what to write ; and, as there is nothing in 

the present dejection of my mind that I perform 

with greater reluctance in general, so I never 

attempt it with regard to you and my dearest 

daughter, that it does not cost me a flood of tears. 

For how can I think of you without being pierced 

with grief, in the reflection, that I have made those 

completely miserable whom I ought, and wished, 

to have rendered perfectly happy ? And I should 

have rendered them so, if I had acted with less 

timidity. 

Piso's behaviour towards us in this season of our 
afflictions, has greatly endeared him to my heart ; 
and I have, as well as I was able in the present 
discomposure of my mind, both acknowledged his 
good offices and exhorted him to continue them. 

I perceive you depend much upon the new 
tribunes ; and if Pompey perseveres in his present 
disposition, I am inclined to think that your hopes 
will not be disappointed ; though I must confess I 
have some fears with respect to Crassus. In the 
meanwhile I have the satisfaction to find, what 
indeed I had reason to expect, that you act with 
great spirit and tenderness in all my concerns. 
But I lament it should be my cruel fate to expose 
you to so many calamities, whilst you are thus 
generously endeavouring to ease the weight of 
mine. Be assured it was with the utmost grief I 
read the account which Publius sent me, of the 
opprobrious manner in which you were dragged 
from the temple of V esta to the office of Valerius g. 

S Terentia had taken sanctuary in the temple of Vesta, 
Z 2 



340 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



Sad reserve indeed ! that thou, the dearest object 
of my fondest desires, that my Terentia, to whom 
such numbers were wont to look up for relief, 
should be herself a spectacle of the most affecting 
distress ! and that I, who have saved so many 
others from ruin, should have ruined both myself 
and my family by my own indiscretion ! 

As to what you mention with regard to the area 
belonging to my house, 1 shall never look upon 
myself as restored to my country, till that spot of 
ground is again in my possession 11 . But this is a 
point that does not depend upon ourselves. Let 
me rather express my concern for what does, and 
lament that, distressed as your circumstances 
already are, you should engage yourself in a share 
of those expenses which are incurred upon my 
account. Be assured if ever I should return to 
Rome, I shall easily recover my estate : but should 
fortune continue to persecute me, will you, thou 
dear unhappy woman, will you fondly throw away, 
in gaining friends to a desperate cause, the last 
scanty remains of your broken fortunes ! I conjure 
you then, my dearest Terentia, not to involve 
yourself in any charges of that kind : let them 
be borne by those who are able, if they are willing, 
to support the weight. In a word, if you have 
any affection for me, let not your anxiety upon my 
account injure your health : which, alas ! is already 
but too much impaired. Believe me you are the 
perpetual subject of my waking and sleeping 
thoughts : and as I know the assiduity you exert 
in my behalf, I have a thousand fears lest your 
strength should not be equal to so continued a 
fatigue. I am sensible at the same time that my 
affairs depend entirely upon your assistance : and 
therefore that they may be attended with the success 
you hope and so zealously endeavour to obtain, 
let me earnestly entreat you to take care of your 
health. 

I know not whom to write to unless to those 
who first write to me, or whom you particularly 
mention in your letters. As you and Tullia are of 
opinion that I should not retreat farther from 
Italy, I have laid aside that design. Let me hear 
from you both as often as possible, particularly if 
there should be any fairer prospect of my return. 
Farewell, ye dearest objects of my most tender 
affection, Farewell ! 
Thessalonica 5 , Oct. the 5th. 



LETTER VIII. 

To Terentia, to my dearest Tullia, and to my Son. 
I learn, by the letters of several of my friends 
as well as from general report, that youdiscover 
a u 695 the S reatest fortitude of mind, and that 
" you solicit my affairs with unwearied ap- 
plication. Oh, my Terentia, how truly wretched 
am I to be the occasion of such severe misfortunes 
to so faithful, so generous, and so excellent a 

but was forcibly dragged out from thence by the directions 
of Clodius, in order to be examined at a public office, con- 
cerning her husband's effects. — Ross. 

h After Clodius had procured the law against Cicero 
already taken notice of, he consecrated the area where his 
house in Rome stood, to the perpetual service of religion, 

and erected a temple upon it to the goddess Liberty. 

Life of Cicero, p. 93. 

1 A city in Macedonia, now called Salonichi. 



woman ! And my dearest Tullia too ! — That she 
who was once so happy in her father, should now 
derive from him such bitter sorrows ! But how 
shall I express the anguish I feel for my little boy ! 
who became acquainted with grief as soon as he 
was capable of any reflection^. Had these afflictions 
happened, as you tenderly represent them, by an 
unavoidable fate, they would have sat less heavy on 
my heart. But they are altogether owing to my 
own folly in imagining I was loved where I was 
secretly envied k , and in not joining with those 
who were sincerely desirous of my friendship 1 . 
Had I been governed indeed by my own sentiments, 
without relying so much on those of my weak or 
wicked advisers, we might still, my Terentia, have 
been happy m . However, since my friends encourage 



J Cicero's son was at this time about eight years of age. 
— Manutius. 

k The persons to whom he alludes are, Hortensius, 
Arrius, and others of that party, who (if we may believe 
Cicero's complaints to Atticus) took advantage of his fears, 
and advised him to withdraw from Rome on purpose to 
ruin him. But persons under misfortunes are apt to be 
suspicious, and are frequently therefore unjust: as Cicero 
seems to have been with respect to Hortensius at least, 
who does not appear to have merited his reproaches — 
Ad Att. iii. 9, 14 ; Ad Quint. Frat. i. 3. See Mongault, 
remarks, vol. ii. p. 44. 

1 Caesar and Crassus frequently solicited Cicero to unite 
himself to their party, promising to protect him from the 
outrages of Clodius, provided he would fall in with their 
measures. — Life of Cicero, p. 79, 86. 

m Cicero is perpetually reproaching himself in these 
letters to Terentia. and in those which he wrote at the 
same time to Atticus, for not having taken up arms and 
resolutely withstood the violences of Clodius- He after- 
wards, however, in several of his speeches, made a merit 
of what he here so strongly condemns, and particularly in 
that for Sextius, he appeals to Heaven, in the most solemn 
manner, that he submitted to a voluntary exile in order 
to spare the blood of his fellow-citizens, and preserve the 
public tranquillity. " Te, te, patria, testor, (says he) et 
vos penates patriique Dii, me vestrarum, sedum templo- 
rumque causa, me propter salutem meorum civium, quaa 
mini semper fuit mea earior vita, dimicationem ca?demque 
fugisse." But Cicero's veracity, in this solemn asseve- 
ration, seems liable to be justly questioned. It is certain 
that he once entertained a design of taking up arms in his 
own defence : and the single motive that appears to have 
determined him in the change of this resolution was, his 
finding himself most perfidiously deserted by Pompey : — 
" Si — quisquam fuisset (says he, in a letter to Atticus) 
qui me Pompeii minus liberali responso perterritum, a 
turpissimo consilio revocaret ; — aut occubuissem honeste, 
aut victores hodie viveremus." — [Ad Att. iii. 15.] Dion 
Cassius asserts, that Cicero, notwithstanding this unex- 
pected desertion of Pompey, was preparing to put himself 
in a posture of defence; but that Cato and Hortensius 
would not suffer him to execute his purpose : eVexetp^tre 
/j.ev oirXa apaadcu, KooAvdu* 5e vtt6 Te tov Koltovos 
Kal tov 'OpTT]atov, &c. 1. xxxviii. Perhaps this author 
may be mistaken as to his having actually made any 
formal preparations of this kind : but that he had it in his 
intentions seems clear beyond all reasonable contradiction. 
The French historian of our author's banishment has 
relied, therefore, too much upon Cicero's pompous profes- 
sions after his return, when he maintains that nothing 
could be farther from his thoughts than a serious oppo- 
sition [Hist, de l'Exil de Cicer. p 148.] The contrary 
appears most evidently to have been the case ; and that 
the patriot-motive which he so often assigns in his sub- 
sequent orations for leaving his country, was merely an 
after-thought, and the plausible colouring of artful elo- 
quence. Why else, it may be asked, is there not the least 
hint of any such generous principle of his conduct, in all 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



341 



me to hope, I will endeavour to restrain my grief, 
lest the effect it may have upon my health should 
disappoint your tender efforts for my restoration. 
I am sensible, at the same time, of the many diffi- 
culties that must be concpaered ere that point can 
be effected ; and that it would have been much 
easier to have maintained my post than it is to 
recover it. Nevertheless, if all the tribunes are in 
my interest ; if Lentulus is really as zealous in my 
cause as he appears ; and if Pompey and Caesar 
likewise concur with him in the same views, I ought 
not, most certainly, to despair. 

With regard to our slaves, I am willing to act 
as our friends, you tell me, advise. As to your 
concern in respect to the plague which broke out 
here, it is entirely ceased : and I had the good 
fortune to escape all infection. However, it was 
my desire to have changed my present situation 
for some more retired place in Epirus, where I 
might be secure from Piso and his soldiers". But 
the obliging Plancius was unwilling to part with 
me ; and still indeed detains me here in the hope 
that we may return together to Rome . If ever I 
should live to see that happy day ; if ever I should 
be restored to my Terentia, to my children, and to 
myself, I shall think all the tender solicitudes we 
have suffered, during this sad separation, abun- 
dantly repaid. 

Nothing can exceed the affection and humanity 
of Piso'sP behaviour towards everyone of us : and 
I wish he may receive from it as much satisfaction, 
as I am persuaded he will honour. — I was far from 
intending to blame you with respect to my brother : 
but it is much my desire, especially as there are so 
few of you, that you should live together in the most 
perfect harmony. — I have made my acknowledg- 

the letters he wrote during this period ? Why else is he 
perpetually reproaching his friends for having suffered 
him to take that measure ? And why, in a word, does he 
call it, as in the passage above-cited, turpissimum con- 
silium, the effect of a most ignominious resolution ? But 
were it to be admitted that a regard to his country deter- 
mined him to withdraw from it ; still, however, he could 
not, with any degree of truth, boast of his patriotism upon 
that occasion ; for the most partial of his advocates must 
acknowledge, that he no sooner executed this resolution, 
than he heartily repented of it. The truth is, how unwil- 
ling soever he might be to hazard the peace of his country 
in maintaining his post, he was ready to renounce all ten- 
derness of that kind in recovering it ; and he expressly 
desires Atticus to raise the mob in his favour, if there were 
any hopes of making a successful push for his restoration : 
■ — " Oro te ut, si quae spes erit posse studiis bonorum, 
auctoritate, multitudine comparata, rem confici, des ope- 
rant ut uno impetu perfringatur." — Ad Att. iii, 23. 

11 Lucius Calphurnius Piso, who was consul this year 
with Gabinius : They were both the professed enemies of 
Cicero, and supported Clodius in his violent measures. 
The province of Macedonia had fallen to the former, and 
he was now preparing to set out for his government, where 
his troops were daily arriving. Cicero has delineated the 
characters at large of these consuls in several of his ora- 
tions: but he has, in two words, given the most odious 
picture of them that exasperated eloquence, perhaps, ever 
drew, where he calls them duo reipublicce portenta ac 
pane funera : an expression for which modern language 
can furnish no equivalent. De Prov. Consul. — See rem. 
<l on letter 17, book ii, and rem. f on letter 3, book vii. 

Plancius was, at this time, quaestor in Macedonia, 
and distinguished himself by many generous offices to 
Cicero in his exile.— Pro Plane, passim. See rem. v on 
letter 2, book viii. 

p Cicero's son-in-law. 



ments where you desired, and accpuainted the 
persons you mention that you had informed me 
of their services. 

As to the estate you propose to sell ; alas ! my 
dear Terentia, think well of the consequence : 
think what would become of our unhappy boy, 
should fortune still continue to persecute us. But 
my eyes stream too fast to suffer me to add more: 
nor would I draw the same tender flood from 
yours. I will only say, that if my friends should 
not desert me, I shall be in no distress for money: 
and if they should, the money you can raise by the 
sale of this estate will little avail. I conjure you 
then, by all our misfortunes, let us not absolutely 
ruin our poor boy, who is well nigh totally undone 
already. If we can but raise him above indigence, 
a moderate share of good-fortune-and merit will be 
sufficient to open his way to whatever else we can 
wish him to obtain. Take care of your health, 
and let me know by an express how your nego- 
ciations proceed, and how affairs in general stand. 
— My fate must now be soon determined. I ten- 
derly salute my son and daughter, and bid you all 
farewell. 
Dyrrachium 1, November 26. « 

P.S. — I came hither, not only as it is a free 
city 1 and much in my interest, but as it is situated 
likewise near Italy s . But if I should find any 
inconvenience from its being a town of such great 
resort, I shall remove elsewhere, and give you due 
notice. 



LETTER IX. 

To Terentia. 

I received three letters from you by the hands 

of Aristocritus, and have wept over them till they 

are almost defaced with my tears. Ah ! 

u ' ' my Terentia, I am worn out with grief : 
nor do my own personal misfortunes more severely 
torture my mind, than those with which you and 
my children are oppressed. Unhappy indeed as 
you are, I am still infinitely more so ; as our 
common afflictions are attended with this aggra- 
vating circumstance to myself, that they are justly 
to be imputed to my imprudence alone. I ought 
most undoubtedly either to have avoided the danger 
by accepting the commission 1 which was offered 
me ; or to have repelled force by force ; or bravely 
to have perished in the attempt. Whereas nothing 



q A city in Macedonia, now called Durazzo, in the 
Turkish dominions. This letter, though dated from 
Dyrrachium, appears to have been wholly written, except 
the postscript, at Thessalonica. 

r That is, a city which had the privilege, though in the 
dominions of the Roman republic, to be governed by its 
own laws. 

s Besides the reasons here mentioned, there was another 
and much stronger, which induced Cicero to leave Thes- 
salonica : for he had received intelligence that Piso's troops 
were approaching towards that city. — Ad Att. iii. 22. 

t As it answered Caesar's purposes either to gain Cicero, 
or to ruin him, he artfully laid his measures for both. 
And accordingly, after having instigated Clodius to pursue 
Cicero, he offered to take him into Gaul in the quality of 
his lieutenant, as a means of protecting him from that 
vengeance he had secretly inflamed. But Cicero, being 
more disposed to try his strength with his adversary, im- 
prudently declined the proposal.— Bio, xxxvii. ; Ad Att. 
ii. 1«, 19. 



342 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



could have been more unworthy of my character, 
or more pregnant with misery, than the scheme I 
have pursued 11 . I am overwhelmed, therefore, 
not only with sorrow but with shame : yes, my 
Terentia, I blush to reflect that I did not exert 
that spirit I ought for the sake of so excellent a 
wife and such amiable children. The distress in 
which you are all equally involved, and your own 
ill state of health in particular, are ever in my 
thoughts ; as I have the mortification, at the same 
time, to observe, that there appear but slender 
hopes of my being recalled.* My enemies are many ; 
while those who are jealous of me are almost innu- 
merable : and though they found great difficulty in 
driving me from my country, it will be extremely 
easy for them to prevent my return. However, 
as long as you have any hopes that my restoration 
may be effected, I will not cease to co-operate 
with your endeavours for that purpose ; lest my 
weakness should seem, upon all occasions, to 
frustrate every measure in my favour. In the 
meanwhile, my person (for which you are so ten- 
derly concerned) is secure from all danger : as, in 
truth, I am so completely wretched, that even my 
enemies themselves must wish in mere malice to 
preserve my life. Nevertheless I shall not fail to 
observe the caution you kindly give me. 

I have sent my acknowledgments by Dexippus 
to the persons you desired me, and mentioned, at 
the same time, that you had informed me of their 
good offices. I am perfectly sensible of those 
which Piso exerts towards us with so uncommon a 
zeal : and indeed it is a circumstance which all the 
world speaks of to his honour. Heaven grant I 
may live to enjoy, with you and our children, the 
common happiness of so valuable a relation' ! 

The only hope I have now left arises from the 
new tribunes ; and that too depends upon the steps 
they shall take in the commencement of their office : 
for if they should postpone my affair, I shall give 
up all expectations of its ever being effected. 
Accordingly I have despatched Aristocritus, that 
you may send me immediate notice of the first 
measures they shall pursue, together with the 
general plan upon which they propose to conduct 
themselves. I have likewise ordered Dexippus to 
return to me with all expedition, and have written 
to my brother to request he would give me frequent 
information in what manner affairs proceed. It is 
with a view of receiving the earliest intelligence 
from Rome, that I continue at Dyrrachium : a 
place where I can remain in perfect security, as I 
have, upon all occasions, distinguished this city by 
my particular patronage. However, as soon as I 
shall receive intimation that my enemies w are 
approaching, it is my resolution to retire into 
Epirus. 

u See rem. m on the preceding letter. 

v He had the great misfortune to be disappointed of this 
wish : for Piso died soon after this letter was written. 
Cicero mentions him in several parts of his writings, with 
the highest gratitude and esteem. He represents him as a 
young nobleman of the greatest talents and application, 
who devoted his whole time to the improvement of his 
mind, and the exercise of eloquence : as one whose moral 
qualifications were no less extraordinary than his intel- 
lectual, and, in short, as possessed of every accomplish- 
ment and every virtue that could endear him to his friends, 
to his family, and to the public— Pro Sext. 31 ; De Clar. 
Orator. 271 ; Ad Quirites, 3. 

w The troops of Piso. See rem. n on the former letter. 



In answer to your tender proposal of accompa- 
nying me in my exile, I rather choose you should 
continue in Rome ; as I am sensible it is upon you 
that the principal burthen of my affairs must rest. 
If your generous negociations should succeed, my 
return will prevent the necessity of that journey : 
if otherwise — But I need not add the rest. The 
next letter I shall receive from you, or at most the 
subsequent one, will determine me in what manner 
to act. In the meantime I desire you would give 
me a full and faithful information how things go 
on: though indeed I have now more reason to 
expect the final result of this affair than an account 
of its progress. 

Take care of your health I conjure you ; assuring 
yourself that you are, as you ever have been, the 
object of my fondest wishes. Farewell, my dear 
Terentia ! I see you so strongly before me whilst I 
am writing, that I am utterly spent with the tears 
I have shed. Once more, farewell x . 
Dyrrachium, Nov. the 30th. 



LETTER X. 

To Quintus Metellus Nepos, the Consul?. 
The letters I received both from my brother and 
my friend Atticus, strongly encouraged me to hope 
that you were not less disposed than your 
' colleague to favour my recall. In conse- 
quence of this persuasion, I immediately wrote to 
you in terms suitable to my present unfortunate 
circumstances ; acknowledging my grateful sense 
of your generous intentions, and entreating your 
future assistance. But I afterwards learned, not 
indeed so much by any hint of this kind from my 
friends, as from the report of those who passed 
this way, that you did not continue in the same 
favourable sentiments 2 : for which reason I would 

x " This great man, who had been the saviour of his 
country, who had feared, in the support of that cause, 
neither the insults of a desperate party, nor the daggers of 
assassins ; when he came to suffer for the same cause, sunk 
under the weight. He dishonoured that banishment which l 
indulgent Providence meant to be the means of rendering j 
his glory complete. Uncertain where he should go, or 
what he should do, fearful as a woman, and fro ward as a 
child, he lamented the loss of his rank, of his riches, and 
of his splendid popularity. His eloquence served only to 
paint his misery in stronger colours. He wept over the 
ruins of his fine house, which Clodius had demolished ; 
and his separation from Terentia, whom he repudiated not 
long afterwards, was, perhaps, an affliction to him at this 
time. Everything becomes intolerable to the man who 
is once subdued by grief. He regrets what he took no 
pleasure in enjoying, and, overloaded already, he shrinks 
at the weight of a feather. Cicero's behaviour, in short, 
was such, that his friends, as well as his enemies, believed 
him to have lost his senses. Cassar beheld, with a secret 
satisfaction, the man, who had refused to be his lieutenant, 
weeping under the rod of Clodius. Pompey hoped to find 
some excuse for his own ingratitude in the contempt which 
the friend, whom he had abandoned, exposed himself to. 
Nay, Atticus judged him too nearly attached to his former 
fortune, and reproached him for it. Atticus, even Atticus 
blushed for Tully, and the most plausible man alive 
assumed the style of Cato." — Bolingbroke, Reflections on 
Exile, p. 253. 

y This is the same person, who, when he was tribune, 
gave occasion, by his ill-treatment of Cicero, to the second 
and third letters of this book. He was now consul with 
Publius Cornelius Lentulus. 

z Whilst the friends of Cicero were exerting their endea- 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



343 



not venture to importune you any farther. My 
brother, however, having transmitted me a copy of 
the speech you lately made in the senate, I found 
it animated with such a spirit of candour and mo- 
deration, that I was induced to write to you once 
more. Let me earnestly request you then to con- 
sider rather the interests than the passions of your 
family a , lest, by falling in with their unjust and 
cruel opposition to me, you should open a way by 
which they themselves may be oppressed in their 
turn. Is it possible, indeed, that you, who gained 
such a glorious conquest over yourself, as to sacri- 
fice your own private enmities b to the welfare of 
the republic, should be prevailed upon to add 
strength to a resentment in others, which evidently 
tends to its destruction ? If you think proper then 
to afford me your assistance in this conjuncture, 
you may, upon all occasions, depend on my utmost 
services in return. On the other hand, should that 
lawless violence, which has wounded the common- 
wealth through my side, be suffered still to prevail, 
it imports you to reflect, whether, if you should 
hereafter be inclined to recal the opportunity of 
preserving our general liberties, you will not have 
the misfortune of finding it much too late c . Fare- 
well. 



LETTER XL 

To Fabius Gallus*. 

I have been attacked with a disorder in my 
bowels, which continued with great violence during 
ten days ; but as it was not attended with 
a fever, I could not persuade those who 
had occasion for my services, that I was really 
indisposed. In order, therefore, to avoid their 
yours to procure his restoration, Clodius was opposing their 
designs by every method of artifice and violence : in which 
he was protected by Metellus, notwithstanding he had 
given intimations of a disposition to favour Cicero's inte- 
rest. — Life of Cicero, p. 108. 

a Clodius was cousin to Metellus.— Post Red. in Sen. 10. 

b The first step that Lentulus took when he entered 
upon the administration of his office, was to move the 
senate that Cicero might be recalled. Upon which occa- 
sion, his colleague Metellus made the concession to which 
Cicero seems here to allude, declaring that he was willing 
to sacrifice his private resentment against -Cicero to the 
general inclinations of the senate and the people. Never- 
theless, he still continued to support Clodius, as has been 
already observed in the note above. — Pro Sext. 32 ; Post 
Red. in Sen. 4. See rem. v on letter 17, book ii. 

c Notwithstanding that Pompey, Caesar, and indeed all 
the principal persons of the republic now concurred in 
favouring Cicero's return, yet the practices of Clodius pre- 
vented a decree for that purpose, till the first of June. 
Nor was it till the 4th of August following, that this decree 
passed into a general law : in consequence of which, Cicero 
soon afterwards made his triumphant entry into Rome. 
Metellus joined in procuring this decree ; a change of sen- 
timents which Cicero imputed to a most pathetic speech 
which Servilius Isauricus delivered in the senate upon this 
occasion, and which so softened Metellus, it seems, that he 
melted into tears. But the true cause is mere probably to 
.be ascribed to the influence of Caesar and Pompey : who, 
in order to mortify Clodius, whose power now began to be 
troublesome to them, thought it convenient, for their pur- 
poses, that Cicero should be restored.— Pro Sext. 31. 62 ; 
Ad Quirites, 7. 

d Gallus is only known by three or four letters which 
Cicero has addressed to him : from which, however, nothing 
particular can be collected concerning his history or cha- 
racter. 



importunities, I retired to Tusculanum ; having 
observed so strict an abstinence for two days 
before, as not to have tasted even a drop of water. 
Reduced then, as I am, by my illness and my 
fasting, I had more reason to hope for a visit from 
you, than to imagine you expected one from me. 

Distempers of every kind I greatly dread, but 
particularly of that sort for which the Stoics have 
censured your favourite Epicurus, where he com- 
plains 6 of being violently afflicted with the dysentery 
and the strangury ; as the former, they assert, is 
the consequence of table indulgences, and the 
latter of a more shameful intemperance. I had, 
indeed, great reason to apprehend a dysentery; but 
whether it be from change of air, or a relaxation 
from business, or that the distemper had almost 
spent itself, I know not, but I am somewhat better 
since I came hither. You will wonder, perhaps, 
what excesses I have been guilty of, to bring upon 
myself this disorder. I must inform you then, that 
I owe it to the frugal regulations of the sumptuary 
law f . The products of the earth being excepted 
out of the restrictions of that act ; our elegant 
eaters, in order to bring vegetables into fashion, 
have found out a method of dressing them in so 
high a taste, that nothing can be more palatable. 
It was immediately after having eaten very freely 
of a dish of this sort, at the inauguration feast of 
Lentulus £, that I was seized with a diarrhoea, which 
has never ceased till this day. Thus you see, that 
I, who have withstood all the temptations that the 
noblest lampreys and oysters could throw in my 
way, have at last been overpowered by paltry beets 
and mallows : but it has taught me, however, to be 
more cautious for the future. As Anicius found 
me in one of my sick fits, you must undoubtedly 
have heard of my illness ; I was in hopes, therefore, 
you would not have contented yourself with inquir- 
ing after my welfare, but would have given me the 
satisfaction of a visit. I purpose to continue here 
till I shall have re-established my health, for I am 
extremely weakened and emaciated. But if I can 
once get the better of my disorder, I hope I shall 
find no difficulty in recovering all the rest. Farewell. 



LETTER XII. 

To Publius Lentulus, Proconsul^. 
I find it much easier to satisfy the world than 
myself, in those sacred offices of friendship I exert in 



u. 697. 



your behalf. Numberless, indeed, are the 
obligations you have conferred upon me, 
and as you persevered with tmwearied zeal till you 

c In a letter which he wrote during his last sickness ; a 
translation of which is given us by Cicero, in his treatise 
De Finibus, ii. 31. 

f Manutius conjectures, that the law alluded to is one 
which is ascribed by Aulus Gellius to Marcus Licinius 
Crassus, and which passed in the year of Rome 643. By 
this law the expenses of the table were regulated both in 
regard to ordinary and extraordinary occasions, with the 
express exception mentioned by Cicero in the next sen- 
tence, concerning the article of vegetables.— Aul. Gell. 
ii. 24. 

S He was son of Publius Cornelius Lentulus, one of the 
consuls of the present year, to whom the next letter and 
several of the following ones in this and the subsequent 
book are written. He gave this entertainment on occa- 
sion of his being chosen a member of the college of augurs. 
—Manutius. 

h Publius Lentulus was consul together with Quintus 



344 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



had effected my recal from exile, I esteem it the 
greatest mortification of my life, that I cannot act 
in your affairs with the same success. The truth 
is, Ammonius, who resides here as ambassador 
from Ptolemy', defeats all my schemes by the most 
shameless and avowed bribery, and he is supplied 
with money for this purpose, from the same quarter 
as when you were in Rome. The party in the 
king's interest (though their number, it must be 
owned, is inconsiderable) are all desirous that 

Metellus Nepos, A. U. 696, the year before this letter was 
written. During his administration of that office, he dis- 
tinguished himself by his zeal in promoting Cicero's recal 
from banishment ; which, after many difficulties thrown 
in the way by Clodius, he at length effected. At the expi- 
ration of his consulate, he succeeded to the government of 
Cilicia, one of the most considerable provinces in Asia 
Minor, now called Carmania ; and the following correspon- 
dence was carried on with him whilst he continued in that 
province. Caesar had, upon many important occasions, 
given him very signal instances of his friendship, particu- 
larly in gaining him an entrance into the pontifical col- 
lege : in procuring him the province of Lower Spain, after 
he had passed through the office of praetor ; and by assist- 
ing him in obtaining the consulship. Yet these obligations 
were not so powerful in the sentiments of Lentulus, as to 
supersede those more important ones which he owed to his 
country. Accordingly he opposed the illegal and dangerous 
demands of Caesar, with great warmth and indignation, in 
the senate ; and, upon the breaking out of the civil war, 
joined himself with Pompey. He steadily persevered in 
following the cause and the fortune of that unhappy chief, 
notwithstanding Caesar generously gave him his life and 
his liberty, when he fell into his hands upon the surrender 
of Corfinium. For it appears, by a letter in this collection, 
that he was afterwards at the battle of Pharsalia, from 
whence he fled with Pompey to Rhodes, and this is the 
farthest we can trace him. He is mentioned by Cicero 
among the celebrated orators of his age ; though his merit 
of this kind was, it seems, more owing to his acquired than 
his natural talents.— Caes. De Bell. Civ. i. ; Plut. in Vit. 
Jul. Caes. ; Cic. Ep. Fam. xii. 14 ; Cic. De Opt. Gen. Die. 

5 King of Egypt, and father of the celebrated Cleopatra. 
He was surnamed Auletes, in allusion to his skill in play- 
ing upon a certain musical instrument called by the Greeks 
Aulos. The title of this prince to his throne being preca- 
rious, he found means, by the interest of Caesar and Pom- 
pey, to be declared an ally of the Roman republic, about 
two years before the date of this letter, for which piece of 
service they were to receive no less a reward than one mil- 
lion one hundred sixty-two thousand five hundred pounds. 
The heavy taxes Ptolemy was obliged to impose in order 
to raise this immense tribute, together with other acts of 
tyranny and oppression, occasioned such a general discon- 
tent among his people, that they took up arms and drove 
him out of Egypt. In this exigency he had recourse to the 
republic, in virtue of the alliance just mentioned. His 
subjects likewise sent an embassy to Rome, composed of 
an hundred of their principal citizens, to plead their cause 
before the senate ; but Ptolemy having notice of this depu- 
tation, procured part of them to be assassinated on their 
way thither ; others as soon as they arrived ; and the rest 
he silenced by proper applications to their fears and their 
avarice. This, together with his immense and open pro- 
fusions among the venal part of the republic, rendered him 
generally detested at Rome ; insomuch, that notwithstand- 
ing he was zealously supported by Pompey, who actually 
obtained a decree in his favour, yet the opposition was so 
strong, that the senate, after various debates, thought pro- 
per to let the affair wholly drop. His last resource, there- 
fore, was to apply himself to Gabinius, proconsul of Syria. 
Accordingly, Gabinius, upon the promise of 10,000 talents, 
! and at the recommendation of Pompey, boldly undertook, 
' and effected his restoration, without being authorised by 
any legal commission for that purpose. — Dio, xxxix. ; Liv. 
I Epit. 105; Cic. Orat. in Pison. See rem. w , j). 353. 



Pompey may be employed to reinstate him in his 
dominions. The senate, on the other hand, fall in 
with the pretended oracleJ, not, indeed, as giving 
any credit to its predictions, but as being in general 
ill-inclined to this prince, and detesting his most 
corrupt practices. In the meanwhile, I omit no 
opportunity of admonishing Pompey with great 
freedom, and conjuring him not to act such a part 
in this affair, as would cast the deepest stain upon 
his character. I must do him the justice, at the 
same time, to acknowledge, that so far as his own 
conduct is concerned, there does not appear the 
least foundation for any remonstrances of this sort. 
On the contrary, he is perpetually expressing the 
highest zeal for your interest : and he lately sup- 
ported it in the senate, with the utmost force of 
eloquence, and the strongest professions of friend- 
ship. Marcellinus k , I need not tell you, is a good 
deal displeased at your soliciting this commission ; 
in all other respects, I dare venture to say he will 
very strenuously promote your interest. We must 
be content to take him in his own way, for I per- 
ceive it is impossible to dissuade him from proposing 
that the injunctions of the oracle shall be complied 
with. And, in fact, he has already made several 
motions to that purpose. 

I wrote this early on the 13th, and I will now 
give you an account of what has hitherto passed in 
the senate. Both Hortensius and Lucullus agreed 
with me in moving, that the prohibition of the 
oracle should be obeyed ; and, indeed, it does not 
seem possible to bring this matter to bear upon 
any other terms. But we proposed, at the same 
time, that in pursuance of the decree 1 which was 

J Caius Cato, a relation of the celebrated M . Porcius Cato, 
who killed himself at TJtica, was in the number of those 
who most strenuously opposed the restoration of Ptolemy. 
He was a young man of a turbulent and enterprising dis- 
position, which he supported with some degree of eloquence. 
This, at least, is the character which Fenestella gives of 
him, as that annalist is cited by Nonius ; but if he was 
never engaged in an opposition less reasonable than the 
present, history has not done him justice. Among other 
expedients which he employed to obstruct the designs of 
those who favoured Ptolemy, he had recourse to a prophecy 
which he pretended to have found in the Sibylline books, 
and which contained a severe denunciation against the 
state, if the Romans assisted a king of Egypt with their 
troops in recovering his throne. This had, in some mea- 
sure, its desired effect ; for the senate (which in general was 
in the same sentiments, as to this point, with Cato) voted 
it dangerous to the interests of the republic, to employ any 
force in favour of Ptolemy. 

The Sibyls were certain supposed prophetesses, concern- 
ing whom there is a great variety of opinions, historians 
being by no means agreed as to their number, their country, 
or the age in which they lived. Those who are inclined to 
read a very ridiculous story, may find an account in Aulus 
Gellius, of the manner by which the Romans are said to 
have possessed themselves of these oracular writings. 
These prophecies were carefully deposited in the capitol, 
and consulted upon certain extraordinary occasions. There 
are some ancient writings still extant which pass under 
the name of the Sibylline oracles ; but these oracles " seem 
to have been all, from first to last, and without any excep- 
tion, mere impostures." — Ad Quint. Fiat. ii. 2 ; Aul. Gell. 
i. 19 ; Jortin, Remarks on Eccles. Hist. p. 284. 

k One of the present consuls. 

1 Before Lentulus set out for his government, the senate 
had come to a resolution of assisting Ptolemy with a body 
of troops ; and (as has already been observed) a decree had 
actually passed for that purpose. It was voted at the same 
time that the consul, whose lot it should prove to adminis- 
ter the province of Cilicia, should be charged with this 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



345 



made on your own motion, you should be appointed 
to re-establish Ptolemy in his kingdom ; the situa- 
tion of your province lying so conveniently for that 
purpose. In a word, we consented that the array 
should be given up, in deference to the oracle ; but 
insisted, nevertheless, that you should be employed 
in effecting this restoration. Crassus, on the other 
side, was for having this commission executed by 
three persons, to be chosen from among our gene- 
rals, and consequently he did not mean to exclude 
Pompey. Marcus Bibulus joined with him as to 
the number, but thought that the persons to be 
nominated should not bear any military command. 
All the rest of the consulars were in the same 
sentiments, except Servilius, Afranius, and Volca- 
tius. The first absolutely opposed our engaging in 
Ptolemy's restoration upon any terms whatsoever : 
but the two last were of opinion, that agreeably to 
the motion of Lupus, this commission should be 
given to Pompey. This circumstance has increased 
the suspicion concerning the real inclinations of the 
latter, as his most particular friends were observed 
to concur with Volcatius. They are labouring this 
point with great assiduity, and I fear it will be 
carried against us. Libo and Hypsams are openly 
soliciting for Pompey ; and, in truth, the conduct 
of all his friends at this juncture makes it generally 
believed that he is desirous of the office. Yet the 
misfortune is, that those who are unwilling it should 
fall into his hands, are not the more inclined to 
place it in yours, as they are much displeased at 
your having contributed to the late advancement of 
his power m . For myself, I find I have the less 
influence in your cause, as it is supposed that I am 
solely governed by a principle of gratitude ; at the 

commission ; and accordingly fortune decided it in favour 
of Lentulus. But the artifices of Caius Cato, taken notice 
of in the note ahove, prevented this decree from heing car- 
ried into execution. — Orat. pro Rabir. 

m Lentulus, during his consulate, proposed and carried 
a law in favour of Pompey, which, in effect, invested him 
with the whole power of the Roman empire. For, under 
a pretended scarcity of corn (as some of the historians 
seem to represent it, though Dion Cassius, indeed, speaks 
of it as real) he was commissioned to provide the republic 
with that commodity, by which means all those who were 
concerned in the naval, the commercial, and landed inte- 
rest, either in Italy or the provinces, became his tributaries 
and dependants. By another law, Pompey was authorised, 
during the space of five years, to exercise proconsular 
power throughout all the Roman dominions ; and it is to 
these extravagant grants that Cicero seems to allude. 
The former, indeed, of these two laws, Cicero himself very 
zealously promoted, in return to the services he had lately 
received from Pompey in the affair of his restoration. 
And though the latter invested that aspiring chief with a 
power much too exorbitant (as is intimated in a letter to 
Atticus) to be endured in a free state, yet Cicero suffered 
it to pass without the least opposition. We learn, from 
his own confession, the mean motive of this unworthy 
silence. As the pontifical college, it seems, had not yet 
mode their report concerning the validity of Clodius's 
consecration of his area, (see rem. h , p. 340,) he thought it 
unsafe to withstand any of Pompey's demands, lest he 
might influence their decision to his prejudice : — " Nos 
tacemus, et eo magis, quod de dnmo nostra nihil adhuc 
pontifices responderunt." Lentulus, on the other hand, 
was suspected of procuring these laws in view of his own 
designs, and in order to divert Pompey from the thoughts 
of being employed in re-establishing Ptolemy on his throne. 
Thus were the liberties of Rome sacrificed to the private 
purposes of her pretended patriots !— Plut. in Vit. Pomp. ; 
Dio, xxxix. ; Ad Att. iv. 1. 



same time, the notion which prevails that this affair 
affords an opportunity of obliging Pompey, renders 
my applications likewise not altogether so effectual 
as they might otherwise prove. It is thus I am 
labouring in this perplexed business, which the king 
himself, long before you left Rome, as well as the 
friends and dependants of Pompey, had artfully 
embarrassed. To this I must add the avowed 
opposition I meet with from the consulars, who 
represent our assisting Ptolemy with an army, as a 
measure that would highly reflect upon the dignity 
of the senate. Be assured, however, I shall employ 
every means in my power of testifying both to the 
world in general, and to your friends in particular, 
the sincerity of that affection I bear you. And, 
were there any honour in those who ought to have 
shown themselves influenced by its highest and 
most refined principles, I should not have so many 
difficulties to encounter. Farewell. 



LETTER XIII. 

To Quintus Valerius Orca a . 
You remember, I doubt not, that when I attended 
you on your way towards your province, I took 
occasion, in the presence of Publius Cus- 
/- pius, to desire you would consider every 
friend of his whom I should recommend to you, as 
in the number of my own ; and that I afterwards 
repeated this request in the strongest manner. You 
then assured me, with great generosity and polite- 
ness, and agreeably to that affectionate regard with 
which you have ever distinguished me, that you 
would comply with my request. I am to inform 
you, then, that Cuspius, having been twice in Africa 
during the time that he had the direction of the 
affairs of the company which farms the revenues of 
that province, contracted some acquaintance in that 
part of the world whom he greatly loves : and, as 
no man is more zealous to serve his friends, he 
very warmly espouses their interest. I am always 
ready to assist him for that purpose, to the utmost 
of my credit and influence : which I mention as a 
reason for my recommending his African friends in 
general to your protection. For the future, there- 
fore, I shall only acquaint you that the person in 
whose behalf I may happen to write, is a friend of 
Cuspius ; and then add the distinguishing mark we 
agreed upon . But my present recommendation 
is of the strongest kind : as it is in compliance with 
the most earnest desire of Cuspius, that I entreat 
your good offices to Lucius Julius. If I were to 
request them in the terms that are usually employed 
in the sincerest solicitations of this nature, I should 
scarce satisfy, I believe, the zeal of my friend. He 
requires something more new and singular in the 
manner of my present address, and imagines I am 
master of a certain art that renders me extremely 
well qualified for the task. I promised, therefore, 

n He had been praetor the year before, and very instru- 
mental in procuring Cicero's recal from exile. At the 
expiration of his pragtorship, he obtained the government 
of Africa ; and this letter seems to have been written to 
him soon after his arrival in that province.— Pigh. Annal. 
ii. 384. 

To distinguish those recommendations which were 
written merely in compliance with solicitations he could 
not refuse, from others that were the sincere dictates of 
his heart. 



346 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULL1US CICERO 



to recommend his friends to you, by all the most 
skilful and insinuating methods of persuasion. 
But as I find myself incapable of executing this 
promise, I can only entreat you to give him reason 
to imagine, that there was something wonderfully 
efficacious in this letter. Now this he will cer- 
tainly suppose if you exercise towards Julius every 
generous act that your politeness and your station 
enable you to confer ; not only by distant services, 
but by your personal notice and distinction ; for 
you cannot imagine, as you have not been long 
enough in your post to know it by your own obser- 
vation, how great an advantage it is to a man to 
have the countenance of the governor of his pro- 
vince. I am persuaded that Julius well deserves 
every mark of your friendship upon his own 
account ; not only because Cuspius has assured 
me that he does, (which of itself, indeed, would be 
a very sufficient reason for my thinking so) but 
because I know the great judgment of the latter hi 
the choice of his friends. 

Time will soon discover the effects which this 
letter shall produce ; and they will be such, I con- 
fidently trust, as to demand my acknowledgments. 
In the mean while, you may depend upon my best 
services here, in every instance wherein I shall 
imagine you would desire them. Farewell. 

P.S. — Publius Cornelius, the bearer of this letter, 
is one whom I likewise recommend to you at the 
request of Cuspius ; and how much I am bound, 
both by inclination and gratitude to do everything 
for his sake that is in my power, is a circumstance 
of which I have already sufficiently informed you. 
Let me entreat you, therefore, that he may very 
soon and very frequently have the strongest reasons 
to thank me for this my recommendation of his 
friend. Farewell. 



LETTER XIV. 

To Publius Lentulus, Proconsul. 
The senate met on the 13th of January, but 
came to no resolution ; the greatest part of that 
a u. 697. °* a y navm g Deen spent in some warm con- 
tests which arose between MarcellinusP, 
the consul, and Caninius, one of the tribunes of the 
people. I had myself also a very considerable share 
in the debates ; and I represented the zeal you have 
always shown towards the senate in terms that 
influenced them, I am persuaded, much to your ad- 
vantage. The next day, therefore, we thought it 
sufficient briefly to deliver our opinions ; as I per- 
ceived, not only by the favourable manner in which 
I was heard the day before, but also by inquiring into 
the sentiments of each particular member, that the 
majority was clearly on our side. The business of 
the day opened with reporting to the house the 
several opinions of Bibulus, Hortensius, and Vol- 
catius. The respective questions therefore were, in 
the first place, whether three commissioners should 
be nominated for restoring the king, agreeably to 
the sentiments of Bibulus ; in the next, whether, 
according to those of Hortensius, the office should 
be conferred upon you, but without employing any 
forces ; or, lastly, whether, in conformity to the ad- 
vice of Volcatius, this honour should be assigned 

p Cneius Lentulus MarceUinus, who was consul this year 
with L. Martins Philippus. 



to Pompey. The points being thus stated, it was 
moved rhat the opinion of Bibulus might be refer- 
red to the deliberation of the house in two separate 
questions'!. Accordingly, as it was now in vain to 
oppose his motion, so far as it related to paying 
obedience to the declaration of the oracle, the 
senate in general came into his sentiments : but as 
to his proposal of deputing three commissioners, it 
was rejected by a very considerable majority. The 
opinion next in order was that of Hortensius : but 
when w T e were going to divide upon it, Lupus, a 
tribune of the people, insisted that, in virtue of his 
office, he had the privilege of dividing the house 
prior to the consuls, and therefore demanded that 
the voices should be first taken upon the motion he 
had made in favour of Pompey. This claim was 
generally and strongly opposed ; as, indeed, it was 
both unprecedented and unreasonable. The consuls 
themselves, however, did not greatly contest that 
point, nor did they absolutely give it up : their 
view was to protract the debates, and they suc- 
ceeded accordingly. They perceived, indeed, that 
notwithstanding the majority affected to appear on 
the side of Volcatius, yet, upon a division, they 
would certainly vote with Hortensius. Neverthe- 
less, several of the members were called upon to de- 
liver their opinions, though, in truth, much against 
the inclinations of the consuls, who were desirous 

that the sentiments of Bibulus should prevail 

These debates continuing till night, the senate broke 
up without coming to any resolution. I happened 
to pass the same evening with Pompey ; and as I 
had that day supported your cause in the senate with 
more than ordinary success, I thought it afforded 
me the most favourable opportunity of speaking to 
him in your behalf. And what I said seemed to 
make so strong an impression, that I am persuaded 
I have brought him wholly over to your interest. 
To say the truth, whenever I hear him mention this 
affair himself, I entirely acquit him of being secretly 
desirous of this commission. On the other hand, 
when I observe the conduct of his friends of every 
rank, I am well convinced (and indeed it is now 
evident likewise to the whole world) that they have 
been gained by the corrupt measures which a cer- 
tain party, with the consent of Ptolemy and his 
advisers, have employed. I write this before sun- 
rise on the 1 6th of January, and the senate is to 
meet again on this very day. I hope to preserve 
my authority in that assembly, as far at least as is 
possible amidst such general treachery and corrup- 
tion which has discovered itself upon this occasion. 
As to what concerns the bringing this matter before 
the people, I think we have taken such precautions 
as will render it impracticable, unless by actual vio- 
lence, or in direct and open contempt both of our 
civil and religious institutions. For this purpose, 
a very severe order of the senate 1- (which I imagine 



q " When an opinion was proposed to the senate which 
was thought too general, and to include several distinct 
articles, it was usual to require that each part might be 
propounded and voted separately. Thus Bibulus moved, 
that they might submit to the Sibylline oracle, and appoint 
three private senators to restore the king. Hut the house 
required that, they might vote separately upon these two 
questions : and the event was, they unanimously agreed to 
the former, hut rejected the latter."— Ross, Remarks on 
Cii'. Famil. Bpist. vol. i. p. .348. 

r "When an act passed the senate in a full house, held 
according to the prescribed forms, and without any oppo- 
sition from the tribunes, (who had the privilege of putting 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



347 



was immediately transmitted to you) was entered 
yesterday in our journals, notwithstanding the tri- 
bunes, Cato s and Caninius, interposed their nega- 
tives. 

You may depend upon my sending you a faithful 
account of every other occurrence which may arise 
in this affair : and be assured I shall exert the 
utmost of my vigilance and my credit to conduct it 
in the most advantageous manner for your interest. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XV. 

To the same. 
AuLUsTrebonius, whoisanoldand intimate friend 
of mine, has some important affairs in your province 
which require immediate despatch. His 
own illustrious character, together with the 
recommendations of myself and others, have, upon 
former occasions of this kind, obtained for him the 
indulgence of your predecessors. He is strongly 
persuaded, therefore, from that affection and those 
mutual good offices which subsist between you and 
me, that this letter will not prove a less effectual 
solicitor in his behalf : and let me earnestly entreat 
you not to disappoint him in this his expectation. 
Accordingly I recommend his servants, his freed- 
men, his agents, and in short his concerns of every 
kind, to your patronage : but particularly I beg you 
would confirm the decree which Titus Ampius 1 
passed in his favour. In one word, J hope you wall 
take all opportunities of convincing him that you 
do not consider this recommendation as a matter of 
common and unmeaning form. Farewell, 



a. u. 697. 



LETTER XVI. 

To the same. 

When the senate met on the 1 6th of this month u , 
your affair stood in a very advantageous posture. We 
a u 697 k ac * succeeded the day before against the 
motion of Bibulus for appointing three 
commissioners, and had now only to contend with 
Volcatius ; when our adversaries prevented the ques- 
tion from being put, by artfully protracting the de- 
bates. For they saw we had, in a very full house, 
and amidst great contrariety of opinions, carried our 
point, to the considerable mortification of those who 
were for taking the king's affairs nut of your direc- 
tion, and transferring them to another hand. Curio 
opposed us upon this occasion with extreme warmth, 
while Bibulus spoke with more temper, and indeed 
seemed almost inclined to favour our cause. But 
Cato and Caninius absolutely refused to suffer any 
decree to pass till a general assembly of the people 
should be convened. 

By the Pupian law, as you well know, there can- 
not be another meeting of the senate till the first 
of February ; nor, indeed, throughout that whole 

a negative upon all proceedings in the senate^ it was called 
a senatas consullum, a decree of the senate. But if any of 
these essentials were wanting, or a tribune interposed, it 
was then only styled a senatus auctoritas, an order of the 
Benate, and considered as of less authority.— Manutius. 

8 See rem. J, p. 344. 

* The predecessor of Lentulus in this government.— Pigh. 
Annal. U. C. 696. 

u January. 



month, unless all the foreign ambassadors should 
have received, or be refused, audience. In the 
mean while, a notion prevails among the people, 
that your adversaries have insisted upon this pre- 
tended oracle, not so much with an intent of 
obstructing your particular views, as in order to 
disappoint the hopes of those who may be desirous 
of this expedition to Alexandria merely from the 
ambition of commanding an army. The whole 
world is sensible, indeed, of the regard which the 
senate has shown to your character : and it is 
notoriously owing to the artifices of your enemies, 
that the house did not divide upon the question 
proposed in your favour. But should the same 
persons, under a pretended zeal for the public, 
(though, in fact, from the most infamous motives,) 
attempt to bring this affair before a general assem- 
bly of the people, we have concerted our measures 
so well, that they cannot possibly effect their de- 
signs without having recourse to violence, or at 
least without setting the ordinances of our country, 
both civil and religious, at avowed defiance v . — But 
I will neither ostentatiously display my own endea- 
vours to assist you in this conjuncture, nor dwell 
upon the unworthy treatment you have received 
from others. What merit, indeed, can I thence 
claim to myself, who could not acquit half the 
obligations I owe you, were I even to sacrifice rny 
life to your service ? On the other hand, what 
avails it to disquiet my mind with complaining of 
those injuries which I cannot reflect upon without 
the deepest concern ? I will therefore only add, 
if methods of violence should be employed, I can- 
not pretend, in this general contempt of all legal 
authority, to answer for the event. In every other 
respect, I will venture to assure you that both the 
senate and the people will pay the highest attention 
to your dignity and character. Farewell. 



LETTER XVII. 

To the same. 
There is nothing I more ardently wish than to 
convince both yourself and the world with how 
697 much gratitude I retain the remembrance 
of your services. I cannot, however, but 
extremely regret that your affairs should have taken 
such a turn since your absence, as to give you occa- 
sion of trying the affection and fidelity of your 
friends. You are sensible, as I perceive by your 
last letter, that you have been treated with the 
same insincerity by those who ought to have con- 
curred in supporting your dignities, as I formerly 

v It was no very difficult matter for the contending par- 
ties in the republic, when they were disposed to obstruct 
the designs of an opposite faction, to find an expedient for 
that purpose. One cannot but wonder, indeed, that any 
public business could be carried on, when nothing more 
was necessary to embarrass the proceedings, than to pro- 
cure some tribune to interpose his negative, or any magis- 
trate to observe the heavens. This latter was a species of 
divination practised among the Romans, in order to deter- 
mine whether any scheme under deliberation would be 
prejudicial or advantageous to the state. It consisted in 
remarking certain appearances in the heavens, or par- 
ticular modes in the voice or flight of birds, which were 
supposed intimations of good or ill success. "While this 
ceremony was performing, no assembly of the people could 
be legally held, nor any act pass into a law. To both these 
methods, it is probable, Cicero here alludes. 



348 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



experienced from some of my pretended friends in 
the affair of my banishment. Thus, whilst I was 
exerting the utmost efforts of my vigilance, my 
policy, and my interest, in order to serve you in 
the article relating to Ptolemy, I was unexpectedly 
alarmed in a point of much more important con- 
cern, by the infamous law which Cato has lately 
proposed to your prejudice w . Where affairs are 
thus embroiled, everything is undoubtedly to be 
feared : yet my principal apprehension, I confess, 
arises from the treachery of your false friends. But 
however that may be, I am earnestly endeavouring 
to counteract the malevolent designs of Cato. 

As to the Alexandrian commission, both your- 
self and your friends will, I trust, have abundant 
reason to be satisfied with my conduct. But at the 
same time I must say, I greatly fear it will either 
be taken out of your hands, or entirely dropped ; 
and I know not which of these alternatives I should 
least choose. However, we have another expedient 
in reserve, which (should we be driven to it) neither 
Selicius nor myself disapprove. By this scheme 
we shall, on the one hand, prevent the senate from 
refusing to assist Ptolemy, and, on the other, remove 
all appearance of our being disappointed, if that 
person should be employed, who, it is more than 
probable, will now obtain this commission. To be 
short, I shall take such precautions that, should 
our designs fail, you may not seem to have suffered 
the disgrace of a repulse : yet, at the same time, I 
shall remit nothing of my best efforts to support 
your claim so long as there shall be the least pro- 
spect of success. But which ever way this point 
may finally be determined, it will be agreeable to 
those wise and elevated sentiments you possess, to 
consider the true glory of your character as result- 
ing entirely from the dignity of your actions and 
the virtues of your heart. And should the perfidi- 
ousness of a certain party deprive you of some of 
those honours which fortune has conferred upon 
you, be assured it will cast a much darker shade 
on their characters than on yours. In the mean- 
while, your affairs are the constant subject of my 
thoughts ; and I neglect no opportunity of acting 
in them for your best advantage. I concert all my 
measures for this purpose with Selicius ; as indeed 
I know not any one of your friends who has a 
greater share of good sense, or a more affectionate 
zeal for your service. Farewell. 



LETTER XVIII. 

To the same*. 
You are informed, I imagine, by many hands, of 
what passes here : I will leave it therefore to your 
a. u 697 other f" en ds to supply you with an ac- 
count of our transactions, and content 
myself with only sending you my conjectures. To 
this end I must previously acquaint you, that, on 
the 6th of February, Pompey made a speech in a 
general assembly of the people in favour of Milo, 

w Caius Cato, in order to cut off all hopes at once from 
Lcntulus of being employed in this contested commission, 
proposed a law to the people for recalling him from his 
government.— Ad Quint. Frat. i. 3. 
' x This and the foregoing letter are blended together in 
the common editions, but they are here separated upon the 
authority of Manutius and Gronovius. 



during which he was insulted with much clamour 
and abuse. Cato afterwards inveighed in the senate 
against Pompey with great acrimony, and was heard 
with the most profound silence and attention : both 
which circumstances seem to have affected him very 
sensibly. Now from hence I surmise, that he has 
entirely laid aside all thoughts of being employed 
in the Alexandrian expedition. That affair remains 
as yet entirely open to us ; for the senate has 
hitherto determined nothing to your prejudice but 
what they are obliged, in deference to the oracle, 
to refuse to every other candidate for this office. 
It is my present hope, therefore, as well as endea- 
vour, that the king may throw himself into your 
hands, when he shall find that he cannot, as he 
expected, be restored by Pompey ; and that unless 
he is replaced upon his throne by your assistance, 
his affair will be entirely dropped. And this step 
he will undoubtedly take, if Pompey should give 
the least intimation of its being agreeable to him. 
But I need not tell you of the difficulty of discover- 
ing the sentiments of a man of his reserve. How- 
ever, I shall omit no method in my power to effect 
this scheme, as I shall easily, I trust, be able to 
prevent the injurious designs of Cato. 

I do not find that any of the consulars are in 
your interest, except Hortensius and Lucullus : all 
the rest of that rank either openly, or in a more 
concealed manner, oppose your views. Neverthe- 
less, my friend, be not discouraged ; on the con- 
trary, let it be still your hope, notwithstanding 
the attempts of the worthless Cato, that you will 
again shine out in all your former lustre f. Fare- 
well. 

— ♦ — 

LETTER XIX. 

To the same. 

You will receive a full account from Pollio of 
all that has been transacted in your affair ; as he 

697 was not on ty P resem % Dut a principal 
manager. Believe me, I am much con- 
cerned at the unfavourable aspect of this business. 
However, it affords me a very sensible consolation 
that there is strong reason to hope the prudence 
of your friends will be able to elude the force of 
those iniquitous schemes which have been pro- 
jected to your prejudice. Even time itself will, 
probably, contribute to this end ; f as it often wears 
out the malevolence of those who, either profess- 
edly, or in a disguised manner, mean one ill. I am 
yet farther confirmed in these pleasing hopes, 
whenever I reflect upon the faction that was for- 
merly raised against myself; of which I see a very 
lively image in the present opposition to you. In 
the latter instance, indeed, the attack is by no 
means so extensive, or so dangerous, as that which 
was made upon me; nevertheless, there is, in 
general, a strong similitude between the two cases: 
and you must pardon me, if I cannot fear, upon 
your account, what you never thought reasonable 
to be apprehensive of on mine. But whatever may 
be the event, convince the world that you are 
influenced by those principles for which I have 
admired you from your earliest youth : and believe 
me, my friend, the malice of your enemies will 
only serve to render your character so much the 

y See rem. w , on the preceding letter. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



349 



jojj- more illustrious. In the mean time, do me the 

, justice to hope, from my affection, whatever the 

, warmest friendship can effect ; and be assured, I 

shall not disappoint your expectations. Farewell. 



LETTER XX. 

To Lucius Lucceius 7 -. 
I have frequently had it in my intentions to 
talk with you upon the subject of this letter ; but 
rq7 a certain awkward modesty has always 
restrained me from proposing in person, 
what I can, with less scruple, request at this dis- 
tance ; for a letter, you know, spares the confusion 
of a blush. I will own, then, that I have a very 
strong, and, I trust, a very pardonable passion of 
being celebrated in your writings ; and though you 
• have more than once given me assurance of your 
intending me that honour, yet, I hope you will 
excuse my impatience of seeing your design exe- 
i cuted. I had always, indeed, conceived a high 
expectation of your performances in this kind : but 
the specimen I have lately seen of them, is so far 
superior to all I had figured in my imagination, 
j that it has fired me with the most ardent desire of 
I being immediately distinguished in your glorious 
annals. It is my ambition, I confess, not only to 
; live for ever in the praises of future ages, but to 
{ have the present satisfaction, likewise, of seeing 
myself stand approved in the authoritative records 
of my ingenious friend. I am sensible, at the 
same time, that your thoughts are already deeply 
engaged in the prosecution of your original design. 
But, as I perceive you have almost completed 
your account of the Italic and Marian civil wars a , 

z It is very little that is known of Lucceius, more than 
what the following letter informs us. Cicero, in one of his 
orations, speaks of his moral character with the highest 
applause, representing him as a man of the greatest huma- 
nity, and of the most unblemished honour. All that has 
been transmitted down to us of his public transactions is, 
that he was joint candidate with Caesar in soliciting the 
consulship, in opposition to Bibulus : in which, however, 
he did not succeed. In the civil war which afterwards 
broke out, he took part with Pompey, if not actively, at 
least by his good wishes and advice : for it appears, by a 
passage in Caesar's Commentaries, that the former was 
wholly guided by his counsels. It is unnecessary to men- 
tion the high reputation he had gained by his literary abi- 
lities, as this part of his character will be sufficiently laid 
open to the reader in the present letter.— Orat. pro Coelio ; 
Suet, in Vit. Jul. Caes. 19 ; Caes. De Bell. Civ. iii. 

a The Italic war, which broke out An. Urb. 663, owed its 
rise to a rejected claim of the Italian provinces to be admit- 
ted into the freedom of the city. It employed the arms of 
the republic for more than two years, and occasioned greater 
bloodshed and devastation than those wars in which she 
had been engaged with Hannibal and Pyrrhus. Towards 
the close of it, Cicero, who was at that time about eighteen 
years of age, served as a volunteer under the father of 
Pompey the Great. [FJor. iii. 18; Philip, xii.] The Ma- 
rian civil war immediately succeeded the Italic, and was 
occasioned by the insatiable ambition of Marius. This 
haughty Roman, envying Sylla the honour of leading the 
army of the republic against Mithridates, to which he had 
been appointed by the senate, procured a law for divesting 
him of that command, and transferring it into his own 
hands. This war was carried on between the two contend- 
ing chiefs and their adherents, with various success, and 
the most unparalleled cruelty on both sides, till it termi- 
nated in the perpetual dictatorship of Sylla.— Flor. iii. 21 ; 
Plut. in Vit. Mar. et Syll. 



and remember you proposed to carry on the re- 
mainder of our history in a regular series, I cannot 
forbear recommending it to your consideration, 
whether it would be best to weave the relation of 
Catiline's conspiracy into the general texture of 
your performance, or cast it into a distinct work. 
It is certain, several of the Greek historians will 
justify you in this latter method. Thus Calli- 
sthenes wrote a narrative of the siege of Troy, as 
both Timaeus and Polybius did of the Pyrrhic and 
Numantine wars, in so many detached pieces from 
their larger histories 15 . As to the honour that will 
arise to me, it will be much the same, I must own, 
upon whichever scheme you may determine to 
proceed : but I shall receive so much the earlier 
gratification of my wishes, if, instead of waiting till 
you regularly advance to that period of our annals, 
you should enter upon it by this method of antici- 
pation. Besides, by keeping your mind attentive 
to one principal scene and character, you will treat 
your subject, I am persuaded, so much the more 
in detail, as well as embellish it with higher graces. 
I must acknowledge, it is not extremely modest 
thus to impose a task upon you which your occu- 
pations may well justify you in refusing ; and then 
to add a further request that you would honour my 
actions with your applause : an honour, after all, 
which you may not think perhaps they greatly 
deserve. However, when a man has once trans- 
gressed the bounds of decency, it is in vain to 
recede ; and his wisest way is to push on boldly in 
the same confident course, to the end of his pur- 
pose. I will venture, then, earnestly to entreat 
you not to confine yourself to the strict laws of 
history, but to give a greater latitude to your 
encomiums than, possibly, you may think my 
actions can claim. I remember, indeed, you de- 
clare, in one of your very elegant prefaces, that 
you are as inflexible to all the pleas of affection as 
Xenophon represents Hercules to have been to 
those of pleasure . Let me hope, nevertheless, if 
friendship should too strongly recommend my 



b Callisthenes lived in the times of Alexander the Great, 
and attended that illustrious commander in his expedition 
into Persia. Timaeus was, by birth, a Sicilian, and flou- 
rished about the year of Rome 471 : he appears, by the 
character which Cicero gives of him in another part of his 
writings, to have been a very learned and elegant historian : 
and he was an author in great esteem with Atticus. Plu- 
tarch, however, speaks of him with much contempt, for 
having affected to rival Thucydides ; and he is noted by 
Longinus as a writer that abounded with cold and puerile 
conceits. He acknowledges, nevertheless, that Timaeus 
had a flowing imagination, and, upon some occasions, rose 
up to the true sublime. Polybius, who died about seven- 
teen years before Cicero came into the world, wrote a 
general history in forty books : only five of which have 
reached these times. But he is not more distinguished by 
his composition, than by the friendship he enjoyed with 
Scipio and Laelius.— De Orat. ii. 5, 8; Ad Att. vi. 1 ; Plut. 
in Vit. Niciae ; Longin. sect. 4 ; Voss. de Hist. Graec. i. 9, 
12, 19. 

c The story to which Cicero here alludes is this: Her- 
cules, when he was yet a youth, as Prodicus relates the 
fable, retired into a place of undisturbed solitude, in order 
to determine, with himself, what course of life he should 
pursue. Whilst he was in the midst of his contemplations, 
Pleasure and Virtue appeared to him under the figures of 
two beautiful women, and each accosted him in her turn. 
He heard their respective pleas with great attention: but 
Virtue gained her cause, and entirely won the heart of the 
future hero. If the English reader is disposed to know this 
story in all its circumstances, he will find it wrought up 



350 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



actions to your approbation, you will not reject 
her generous partiality ; but give somewhat more 
to affection than rigorous truth perhaps can justly 
demand. 

If I should prevail upon you to fall in with my 
proposal, you will find the subject, I persuade 
myself, not unworthy of your genius and your 
eloquence. The entire period from the rise of 
Catiline's conspiracy to my return from banish- 
ment, will furnish, I should imagine, a moderate 
volume. It will supply you likewise with a noble 
occasion of displaying your judgment in politics, 
by laying open the source of those civil disorders, 
and pointing out their proper remedies, as well as 
by giving your reasons for approving or condemn- 
ing the several transactions which you relate. 
And should you be disposed to indulge your usual 
spirit of freedom, you will have an opportunity of 
pointing out, at the same time, with all the severity 
of your indignation, the treachery and perfidious- 
ness of those who laid their ungenerous snares for 
my destruction. I will add, too, that this period 
of my life will furnish you with numberless inci- 
dents which cannot but draw the reader's attention 
in a very agreeable manner : as nothing is more 
amusing to the mind than to contemplate the 
various vicissitudes of fortune. And though they 
were far, it is true, from being acceptable in expe- 
rience, they cannot fail of giving me much enter- 
tainment in description : as there is an inexpressible 
satisfaction in reflecting:, at one's ease, on distresses 
we have formerly suffered. There is something 
likewise in that compassion, which arises from 
reading an account of the misfortunes which have 
attended others, that casts a most agreeable melan- 
choly upon the mind. Who can peruse the relation 
of the last moments of Epaminondas at the battle 
of Mantinea, without finding himself touched with 
a pleasing commiseration ? That glorious chief, 
you may remember, would not suffer the dart to 
be drawn out of his side till he was informed that 
his shield was safe from the hands of his enemies : 
and all his concern amidst the anguish of his wound 
was, to die with glory d . What can be more inter- 
esting, also, than the account of the flight and 
death of Themistocles e ! The truth of it is, a mere 
narrative of general facts affords little more enter- 
tainment to the reader than he might find in 

into a very beautiful poem by the Rev. Mr. Lowth, and 
inserted in Polymetis, p. 135. 

•' Epaminondas headed the forces of the Thebans in a 
battle which they fought with the Lacedemonians at Man- 
tinea, a town in Arcadia. The Thebans gained the victory, 
but lost their invaluable commander : whose death was 
attended with the circumstances which Cicero here men- 
tions.— Justin, vi. 7, 8. 

c Themistocles, after having distinguished himself among 
his countrymen, the Athenians, by his military virtues, 
particularly in the wars in which they were engaged with 
Xerxes, had rendered himself so popular, that it was 
thought necessary to remove him: and accordingly he was 
obliged to withdraw from Athens. As the historians men- 
tion nothing of his return, Manutius proposes an emenda- 
tion, suggested to him by one of bis friends, who imagined, 
that instead of reditu it should he read inter itu. This 
would agree very well witli the account which is given of 

his death : for having been received in his exile by Arta- 

xerxes. he was appointed to command a body of forces in 

an expedition which that prinoe was preparing against the 
Grecians. Hut Themistocles, rather than turn his arms 
against his country, chose to put an end to his life by a 
draught of poison.— Plut. in Vit. Thcmist. 



perusing one of our public registers'. Whereas, 
in the history of any extraordinary person, our fear 
and hope, our joy and sorrow, our astonishment 
and expectation, are each of them engaged by turns. 
And if the final result of all should be concluded 
with some remarkable catastrophe, the mind of the 
reader is filled with the highest possible gratifica- 
tion. For these reasons I am the more desirous 
of persuading you to separate my story from the 
general thread of your narration, and work it up 
into a detached performance ; as, indeed, it will 
exhibit a great variety of the most interesting and 
affecting scenes. 

When I tell you it is my ambition to be cele- 
brated by your pen, I am by no means apprehensive 
you will suspect me of flattery. The consciousness 
of your merit must always incline you to believe, 
it is envy alone that can be silent in your praise : 
as, on the other side, you cannot imagine me so 
weak as to desire to be transmitted to posterity by 
any hand, which could not secure to itself the same 
glory it bestowed. When Alexander chose to have 
his picture drawn by Apelles &, and his statue 
formed by Lysippus h , it was not in order to ingra- 
tiate himself with those distinguished artists ; it 
was from a firm persuasion that the works of these 
admired geniuses would do equal credit both to his 
reputation and their own. The utmost, however, 
that their art could perform, was to perpetuate 
the persons only of their celebrated contempora- 
ries : but merit needs not any such visible exhibi- 
tions to immortalise its fame. Accordingly, the 
Spartan Agesilaus, who would never suffer any 
picture or statue of him to be taken 1 , is not less 
universally known than those who have been most 
fond of having their persons copied out for pos- 
terity. The single treatise which Xenophon has 
written in praise of that renowned general, is more 
to his glory than all the pictures and statues of all 
the artists in the universe. It would be a much 
higher satisfaction to me, therefore, as it would be 
a far greater honour, to be recorded by your hand 
than that of any other ; not only because your 

f These originally were books preserved in the pontifical 
college, wherein the several divisions of the Roman year 
were marked out as they were regulated by Nuxna, and the 
particular festivals noted upon which it was unlawful to 
transact any public affairs. These registers, in the later 
ages of the republic, were much enlarged, and contained a 
sort of journal of the most memorable events, both civil 
and religious, that happened in every year. — Liv. i. 1!), 20; 
Dissert, sur les Fastes par Coulure, dans les Mem. de Lit. 
de l'Aeadem. de Bel. Let. i. 67- 

S See an account of this celebrated Grecian painter, in 
rem, 7, On letter 17. book ii. 

h A famous statuary, of whom Demetrius, as cited by 
Quintilian, remarks, that he was more celebrated for 
taking a strong than an agreeable likeness. — Quint. Inst. 
Orat. \ii. 10. 

I Agesilaus, kingof Sparta, was one of the most consider- 
able persons of his age, both for civil and military virtues; 
insomuch that he justly acquired the appellation of Agesi- 
laus thegreat* But though nature had been uncommonly 

liberal to him in the nobler endowments of the mind, she 
had treated him very unfavourably in those of the body, 
lie was remarkably low of stature, had one leg shorter 
than the other, and so very despicable a countenance, 
that he never failed of raising contempt in those who were 
unacquainted with his moral and intellectual excellences. 
It is no wonder, therefore, that he was unwilling to be 
delivered down to posterity, under the disadvantages of so 
unpromising a figure.— Pint in Vit. Agesil. ; Corn. Nep. in 
Vit. Agesil. !!. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



351 



genius would rise and adorn my actions with the 
same advantage as TimseusJ has displayed those of 
Timoleon k , or Herodotus 1 those of Themistocles m ; 
but because of the additional credit I shall receive 
from the applause of so illustrious, so experienced, 
and so approved a patriot. By this means I shall 
enjoy, not only the same glorious privilege which, 
as Alexander observed when he was at Sia;eum, 
Achilles received from Homer 11 ; but what is still 
more important, the powerful testimony of a man 
who is himself distinguished by the noblest and 
most uncommon virtues. Accordingly, I have 
been always wonderfully pleased with the sentiment 
which Naevius puts into the mouth of Hector, 
where that hero, speaking of the approbation he 
had received from his illustrious father, adds, that 
it gave him so much the more satisfaction, as 
coming from one who was, himself, the great object 
of universal applause. But should want of leisure, 
(for it would be an injustice to our friendship to 
suppose it can be want of inclination,) should your 
occupations then prevent your compliance with 
this my request ; I may, perhaps, be obliged to 
take a method, which, though often condemned, 
is supported, nevertheless, by several considerable 
examples : I mean, to be the historian of my own 
transactions. But you are sensible there are two 
inconveniences which attend this scheme ; for a 
man must necessarily be more reserved in setting 
forth those parts of his conduct which merit 
approbation, as he will be inclined entirely to pass 
over others which may deserve reproach. I must 
add, likewise, that what a writer says to his own 
advantage always carries with it a less degree of 
force and authority than when it comes from any 
other pen. In a word, the world in general is 

J The works of Timaeus are lost. 

k Timoleon is one of the noblest characters in all anti- 
quity, and distinguished not only by his private virtues, 
but by approving himself, upon every occasion, the great 
asserter of public liberty. He was employed by the Corin- 
thians as general of those forces which they sent to the 
relief of the Syracusans, against the execrable tyranny of 
Dionysius. He executed this commission with great 
honour and success ; for having driven Dionysius out of 
Sicily, and restored the inhabitants to their rights and 
privileges, he resigned the supreme command. He con-, 
tinued, however, to live among the Syracusans- as a private 
man, enjoying, as Plutarch observes, the glorious satisfac- 
tion of seeing so many cities owe their ease and happiness 
to his generous and heroic labours — Plut. in Vit. Timol. 

1 Herodotus flourished about 440 years before the birth 
of Christ, under the reigns of Xerxes and Artaxerxes, kings 
of Persia. 

m See above, rem. e , p. 350. 

n Alexander being elected commander-in-chief of the 
confederate troops which the Grecians sent against Xerxes, 
crossed the Hellespont with his army, and landed at 
Sigeum, a promontory near Troy, where he visited the 
tomb of Achilles. Upon this occasion, he is said to have 
broken out into the following exclamation: "O happy 
youth ! in having found a Homer to celebrate thy vir- 
tues."— Plut. in Vit. Alex. ; Cic. pro Arch. Poet. 

A dramatic poet who died at Rome An. Urb. 550, about 
203 years before the Christian era : some fragments of his 
works still remain. The sentiment here quoted from him 
is truly noble ; as there is not, perhaps, a more certain 
indication of a low and little mind, than to be elevated by 
undistinguishing applause, or depressed by vulgar censure. 
Trophies of honour, or monuments of disgrace, are not the 
works of every hand. Some men are incapable of blasting 
a reputation, but by approving it ; and are never satirists, 
but when they mean to be panegyrists. 



little disposed to approve any attempt of this kind. 
On the contrary, one often hears the more modest 
method of the poets at the Olympic games recom- 
mended upon such occasions, who, after they have 
crowned the several victors, and publicly called 
over their names, always employ some other per- 
son to perform the same office to themselves, that 
they may not be the heralds of their own applause. 
This imputation, therefore, I would willingly 
avoid ; as I certainly shall, if you should comply 
with my request, and take this employment out of 
my hands. 

You will be surprised, perhaps, that I spend so 
much time and pains in soliciting you for this 
purpose, after having so often heard you declare 
your intentions of giving the world a very accurate 
history of my administration. But you must 
remember the natural warmth of my temper, and 
that I am fired, as I told you in the beginning of 
my letter, with an impatient desire of seeing this 
your design carried into execution. To own the 
whole truth, I am ambitious of being known to the 
present generation by your writings, and to enjoy, 
in my lifetime, a fore-taste of that little share of 
glory which I may expect from future ages. If it 
be not too much trouble, therefore, I should be 
glad you would immediately let me know your 
resolution. And should it prove agreeable to my 
request, I will draw up some general memoirs of 
my transactions for your use : if otherwise, I will 
take an opportunity of discoursing further with you 
upon this affair in person. In the mean time, 
continue to polish the work you have begun, and 
to love me as usualP. Farewell. 

P Pliny has made a request to Tacitus, of the same nature 
with that which is the subject of the letter before us ; and 
though it is by no means enlivened with so much spirit, it 
is dictated, however, by a far less extravagant passion. He 
confesses himself fond, indeed, of being transmitted to 
posterity, by the pencil of that celebrated historian : but 
adds, at the same tin^e, that he is far from desiring him to 
paint his actions in colours more strong than fact will jus- 
tify. [Plin. Let. vol. ii. p. 432, rein, c] This express 
restriction seems to glance at that most extraordinary pas- 
sage in the present epistle, where Cicero entreats his friend 
" not to confine himself to the sirict laws of history, but 
to give a greater latitude to his encomiums than Lucceius 
might possibly think his actions could claim." And never 
did vanity, it must be acknowledged, utter or conceive a 
more ridiculous and contemptible wish ! The voice of 
praise can alone be justly pleasing, when it harmonises 
with conscious merit : and the applause that does not 
accord with truth, must, of all dissonances, surely prove 
the most offensive to a well-formed ear. But it is extremely 
observable how much Cicero's judgment was at variance 
with his practice : for he has himself shown, in very strong 
terms, the absurdity of claiming more reputation than a 
man has merit to support. It is solid worth alone, he 
justly remarks, that can secure a lasting fame ; for nothing 
can be durable that is fictitious. The former, says he, 
strikes its root deep, and spreads far ; while the latter soon 
withers and dies away, like the beauties of a transient 
flower. " Vera gloria radices agit, et propagatur : ficta 
omnia celeriter, tanquam flosculi, decidant ; nee simula- 
tum potest esse quidquam diuturnum."— De Offic. ii. 12. 



852 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XXI. 

Quintus Metellus Neposi to Cicero. 
Those calumnies with which the most virulent, 
surely, of the human race 1 * is perpetually loading 
a u 697 me * n n * s P UD ^ C harangues, are well com- 
pensated by the satisfaction I receive 
from your obliging offices. When I consider, 
indeed, the worthless hand from whence these ar- 

'l It is impossible to determine exactly when this letter 
was written, as it carries no internal marks sufficient to 
point out its date with precision. Ragazonius, who has 
taken the pains to settle the order of these epistles, places 
it under the present year, and supposes it to have been 
written by Metellus, when he was governor in Spain : to 
which province he went as proconsul after the expiration 
of his consulship. 

r The commentators suppose that the person here alluded 
to is Clodius, who was now aedile, and employing the power 
which that office gave him, to the same factious purposes 
as he had exercised his late tribuneship. But this conjec- 
ture appears altogether groundless. For Cicero taking 
notice to Atticus of the death of Metellus, which seems to 
have happened soon after this letter was written, tells him 



rows take their flight, I look upon them with the 
contempt they deserve ; and am very willing he 
should cease to act as a relation, since I have the 
pleasure to see you assume that character in his 
stead. To say the truth, notwithstanding I had 
formerly so much regard for him as to have twice 
preserved him, even in spite of himself, I should 
now be glad to forget there is such a person in the 
world. 

That I might not trouble you too frequently 
with my letters, I have written to Lollius concern- 
ing my affairs, who will let you know what mea- 
sures I am desirous may be taken in regard to the 
accounts of this province s . If it be possible, let 
me still enjoy a place in your affection. Farewell. 

it was probable that he had appointed Clodius his heir— a 
circumstance utterly inconsistent with the supposition 
above-mentioned. The same letter may be produced as an 
evidence, likewise, that, whatever were the good offices 
which Metellus here acknowledges, they did not proceed 
from the suggestions of Cicero's heart ; for he speaks of 
him to Atticus as of one whose character and conduct he 
greatly disapproved. — Ad Att. iv. 7« 
8 Spain. 



BOOK II. 



LETTER I. 

To Quintus Ancharius 1 , Proconsul. 
I recommend the two sons of my very excellent 
friend Aurelius as well deserving your esteem. 
a u 698 They are adorned, indeed, with every 
polite and valuable qualification : as they 
are in the number, likewise, of those with whom I 
most intimately converse. If ever then my re- 
commendation had any weight with you (and 
much, I am sensible, it ever had), let it prevail, I 
conjure you, in the present instance. And be 
assured, the honours with which you shall distin- 
guish these, my friends, will not only indissolubly 
unite to you two excellent and grateful young men, 
but, at the same time, confer a very singular 
obligation upon myself. Farewell. 



LETTER II. 

To Publius Lentulus, Proconsul. 
I have received your letter, wherein you assure 
me, that the frequent accounts I send you of your 
a u 69R affairs, together with the convincing proofs 
I have given you of my friendship, are 
circumstances extremely agreeable to you. I should 
ill deserve, indeed, those singular favours you have 
conferred upon me, if I were capable of refusing 
you my best services: and nothing is more pleasing 
to me, in this long and very distant separation, 

t Quintus Ancii.iriiis was tribune An lib. (i!M. ^ hen he 
distinguished himself by his resolute opposition to the fac- 
tious measures <>f hi* colleague Vatinius, in the year 697 
he was chosen praetor ; and, at the expiration of thai office, 
he succeeded Piso In the government <>f Macedonia) in 
which province this letter is addressed to him.— Orat. pro 
Sext. 53; in Pison. 3G; ROSS, Remarks OS the Bpist. of 
Cic. 



than thus to converse with you as often as possible. 
If you do not hear from me as frequently as you 
wish, it is solely because I dare not trust my letters 
to every conveyance. But whenever I shall be 
able to put them into hands upon which I may 
safely rely, be assured I shall- not suffer the oppor- 
tunity to slip by me. 

It is not easy to give a satisfactory answer to 
your inquiry concerning the sincerity of your pro- 
fessed friends, and the disposition of others in 
general towards you. This only I will venture to 
say, that a certain party, and particularly those 
who have the strongest obligations, as well as the 
greatest abilities, to distinguish themselves in your 
service, look upon you with envy: that (agreeably 
to what I have myself experienced upon a different 
occasion) those whom, in justice to your country, 
you have necessarily offended, are your avowed 
opposers ; as others, whose interests and honours 
you have generously supported, are much less 
inclined to remember your favours than to oppose 
your glory. These are circumstances, indeed, which 
I long suspected, and have often intimated to you, 
but of which I am now most thoroughly convinced. 
I observed upon the same occasion (and I believe 
I told you so in a former letter), both Hortensius 
and Lucullus to be extremely in your interests ; 
as among those who were in the magistracy, Lucius 
Racilius appeared very sincerely and affectionately 
to espouse your cause : but, excepting the two 
former, 1 cannot name any of the consnlara who 
discovered the least degree of friendship towards 
you when your affair was before the senate. As 
for my own endeavours, they might, perhaps, be 
generally considered as flowing rather from those 
singular favours 1 have received at your hands, 
than from the uninfluenced dictates of my real 
sentiments. \\ itli regard to Pompey, he seldom 
attended the house at that season : but I must do 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



353 



him the justice to say, he often takes an oppor- 
tunity, without my previously leading him into 
the subject, of discoursing with me concerning 
your affair, as well as very willingly enters into 
the conversation whenever I start it myself. "Your 
last letter, I perceived, was extremely agreeable to 
him ; and I could not but observe, with equal 
admiration and pleasure, the polite and most 
judicious manner in which you addressed him. 
Before he received this letter, he seemed a little 
inclined to suspect, that the notion which some had 
entertained of his inclination to be your competitor, 
had alienated you from him. But you have now 
wholly fixed that excellent man in your interest ; 
who, in truth, had all the antecedent reasons for 
being so, that an uninterrupted series of the 
highest services could possibly give him". I must 
confess he always appeared to me, even when the 
conduct of Caninius had raised the strongest suspi- 
cions of the contrary v , to favour your views. But 
I can now assure you, that I found him, after 
he had perused your letter, entirely disposed to 
promote whatever may contribute either to your 
interest or your honours. You may consider then 
what I am going to offer as his immediate senti- 
ments and advice, as indeed it is the result of 
frequent consultations which we have held together. 
Accordingly we are of opinion that it maybe proper 
for you to consider whether any advantages may be 
derived from your being in possession of Cilicia 
and Cyprus. For if there should appear a sufficient 
probability of being able to make yourself master 
of Alexandria and Egypt, we think it equally for 
your own honour and that of the republic w to 
u See rem. m , p. 345. 

v It was a usual artifice with Pompey to employ his 
friends in soliciting those honours in his behalf, to which 
he affected to appear himself perfectly indifferent, or even 
averse. This was his policy in the present instance ; and 
at the same time that he pretended to serve Lentulus in 
this affair, his creature Caninius, a tribune of the people, 
was practising every stratagem in order to procure this 
commission for Pompey. " And though Cicero," as Mr. 
Ross observes, "either out of a tenderness for Lentulus, or 
out of an apprehension of displeasing Pompey, to whom he 
was at this time making his court, represents him in this 
place as acting an honest and friendly part, yet, in a letter 
to his brother, where he may be supposed to deliver his 
real sentiments, he speaks quite differently :— ' nam quod 
de Pompeio Caninius agit, sane quam refrixit : neque enim 
res probatur ; et Pompeius noster in amicitia P. Lentuli 
vituperatur, et hercule non est idem.' [Ep. vi. L. 2.] The 
truth of the case is this, when Pompey found it was impos- 
sible for him to procure this commission, he pretended a 
friendship for Lentulus, and joined with Cicero in giving 
the advice which makes a great part of this letter." 

w A general sketch of Ptolemy's character has already 
been given in the notes on the preceding book ; and it ap- 
pears from thence, that nothing could be less to the honour 
of the commonwealth, than to interpose in the behalf of 
this justly-rejected monarch. Cicero himself represents 
him, in one of his orations, as unworthy of the crown he 
wore: — " Eura," says he, " neque genere neque animo regis 
esse, inter omnes fere video convenire." [In Rull. ii.] Put 
what is still more extraordinary, Cicero makes the very 
measures which he here so strongly recommends to Len- 
tulus, an article of his charge against Antony. It was 
by the persuasion of the latter that Gabinius undertook 
(as has already been observed) the restoration of Ptolemy ; 
and Antony commanded the Roman cavalry in that 
expedition. This affords a topic of great indignation in 
one of the Philippics; and Cicero there speaks of this 
transaction (as he ought always to have spoken of it) as a 
most impudent violation of all authority both sacred and I 



march thither with your army, supported by your 
fleet ; having first left the king at Ptolemais, or 
some other convenient place in that neighbour- 
hood. By these means, when you shall have 
quieted the disturbances in Alexandria, and secured 
it by a proper number of forces, Ptolemy may 
safely take possession of his kingdom. Thus he 
will be restored by you, as the senate had once x 
decreed ; and restored too without an army, agree- 
ably to the sentiments of those who insist upon 
observing the injunctions of the oracle. We are 
the rather confirmed in recommending this measure, 
as there is no decree of the senate subsisting which 
particularly prohibits you from replacing Ptolemy 
on his throne. As to the order which absolutely 
forbids all assistance whatsoever to be given to 
him, you know it was not only protested against 
when it was voted, but is generally looked upon 
rather as the warm dictates of an exasperated 
faction, than as having the full authority of a 
decree of the senate. However, we deem it neces- 
sary to add, that we are sensible the world will 
judge of the propriety of this scheme entirely by 
the event. Should it succeed as we wish, your 
policy and resolution will universally be applauded; 
on the other hand, should it miscarry, it will 
undoubtedly be condemned as an action of ill- 
considered and unwarrantable ambition. How far 
this enterprise may be practicable you, who are 
situated almost within view of Egypt, are the most 
competent judge. If, therefore, you are well 
satisfied of being able to render yourself master of 
that kingdom, we are clearly of opinion you should 
not delay your march one moment ; but, if you 
are doubtful of the success, it is our advice that 
you by no means make the attempt. This I will 
venture to assure you, that, should you execute 
this project in the manner we wish, there will be 
a very considerable party to give it applause, even 
during your absence, as all Rome will unite in the 
same approbation the moment you shall return 
amongst us. Nevertheless I am persuaded if this 
scheme should not take the desired effect, it may 
be attended with very disagreeable consequences 
to yourself, not only on account of that order of 
the senate which I just now mentioned, but like- 
wise in regard to the oracle. When, therefore, I 
recommend such measures as you shall have full 
assurance will terminate in your glory, I must at 
the same time strongly dissuade you from engaging 
in them, if you should have the least reason to 
apprehend an opposition. For (I repeat it again) 
the world will be determined in their opinion of 
this whole transaction, not as it is reasonable, 
but as it shall prove successful. If the method 
here proposed should appear too dangerous to be 
hazarded in your own person, we think it may at 
least be advisable to assist the king with a number of 
yourforces, provided he shall give sufficient security 
to your friends in the province, for repaying them 
the money they have advanced in support of his 

civil: — " Inde iter," says he, "ad Alexandrian! contra 
senatus auctoritatem, contra rempublicam et religiones." 
[Philip, ii. J 9.] But what opinion must every unpreju- 
diced reader conceive of our author, when he thus finds 
him condemning and approving the same transaction, and 
advising his friend to pursue a step which he afterwards 
publicly and justly reproached in his adversary 
rem. >, p. 344. 
x See rem. 1 ,p. 344. 

A A 



354 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



cause. And, indeed, the circumstances and situation 
of your government render it extremely easy either 
to promote or obstruct his restoration as you shall 
see proper. After all, you are the best judge 
what method 'will be most expedient to pursue ; I 
thought it my part, however, to inform you of 
these our concurrent sentiments. 

You congratulate me on the prosperous situa- 
tion of my affairs in general, and particularly on 
the friendship of Milo, together with the vain and 
ineffectual schemes of the worthless Clodius. It is 
no wonder you should rejoice in these the generous 
effects of your own amicable offices. But to say 
truth, such an incredible perverseness (not to give 
it a more severe appellation) prevails amongst a 
certain party, that they rather choose to alienate 
me by their jealousies from the common cause, 
than to retain me in that interest by their favour 
and encouragement^. I will own to you, their 
malice has almost driven me from those principles 
which I have so long and so invariably pursued. 
At least, if they have not provoked me so far as to 
make me forget the dignity of my character, they 
have taught me that it is high time I should act 
with a view likewise to my own security. I might, 
consistently with the strictest duties of patriotism, 
reconcile both these distinct ends, were there any 
honour or fortitude in those of consular rank. 
But such a meanness of spirit prevails in general 
among them, that, instead of applauding the re- 
solution with which my actions have been ever 
uniformly directed in the cause of the common- 
wealth, they look with envy upon those dignities 
to which my public services have advanced me. 
I the rather mention this as it is to you that I am 
principally indebted, not only for the happiness of 
being restored to my country, but almost for my 
very first successful steps in the paths of patriot- 
ism and of glory. I perceive this opposition does 
not proceed (as I formerly suspected) from my 
not being of noble birth 2 , since they were actuated, 
1 have observed, by the same malignant spirit against 
yourself, who are confessedly descended from one 
of the first families in Rome. Accordingly, though 
your enemies are contented to see you among those 
of principal rank in the republic, they will by no 
means suffer you to soar higher. I rejoice that 
the parallel between us extends no farther ; and 
though we have met with an equal degree of malice 
from the world, that the respective consequences, 
however, have proved extremely different. For a 
wide difference there surely is between suffering 
some diminution in point of honours, and being 
abandoned to total ruin. If I have not greater 
reason to lament this cruel outrage of my adver- 
saries it must be attributed to your generous 
interposition, as it was by your means it proved, 

y Cicero was, at this time, acting a part which gave great 
and just offence to those who were in the true interest of 
their country, for lie was falling in with the measures of 
Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. lie endeavours, therefore, 
to palliate this unworthy conduct as well as he can ; but 

as lie enters more fully into the motives of this step, in 
the 17th letter of this book, the reader is referred to the 
observations upon that epistle. 

z Nobility among the Romans was considered (as Manu- 
tius observes upon this passage) not in opposition to the 
plebeian rank, for many plebeian famine, were noble, but 
in contradistinction to those w hose ancestors hail not borne 
any of the honourable magistracies in Rome. And of this 
number was Cicero. 



in the final event, of far more advantage to my 
reputation than of prejudice to my fortune?. Suffer 
me, then, from a principle of gratitude ab well as 
affection, to exhort you earnestly to pursue the 
dictates of that well-regulated ambition with which 
you were inflamed from your earliest youtn ; nor 
let any injurious treatment depress that heroism 
of your mind which I have ever admired and 
valued. The world, believe me, entertains the 
highest opinion of your merit, and loudly pro- 
claims that enlarged and generous spirit wh ; ch 
distinguishes all your actions ; and it particularly 
remembers, to your immortal honour, the pariot- 
ism of your illustriousconsulship. You are sensible, 
therefore, how much the least additional glory, 
which shall accrue to you from your civil and 
military conduct in the government of your pro- 
vince, will increase and strengthen this general 
lustre of your reputation. But let me express my 
wishes at the same time, in the first place, that 
you would not engage in any enterprise with your 
army without having long and maturely examined 
it in all its consequences, nor without being suffici- 
ently prepared to carry it into execution ; and in the 
next, that you would be persuaded, of what I'doubt 
not you are already sensible, that you will find it 
extremely easy to continue in the possession of 
that pre-eminence amongst your fellow-citizens to 
which you have always aspired. That you may 
not imagine, however, I am offering the idle tribute 
of unnecessary advice, I must add, that I could not 
reflect upon the treatment we have both received, 
without thinking it proper to exhort yon <vell to 
consider, for the future, on whom you repo. 1 your 
confidence. 

As to your inquiry concerning the si aation of 
public affairs, there are great divisions amongst 
us ; but the zeal and prudence of the several 
parties are by no means equal. Those who enjoy 
the largest share of wealth and power 1 *, have gained 
a superiority of credit likewise, by the folly and 
instability of their antagonists ; for they have 
obtained from the senate, with very little opposi- 
tion, what they had no hopes of receiving, even 
from the people, without raising great disturbances. 
Accordingly the House has voted Csesar a sum of 
money for the payment of his army, together with 
a power of nominating ten lieutenants : as they 
have also, without the least difficulty, dispensed 
with the Sempronian law for appointing him a 
successor 1 '. I do but slightly touch upon these 

a Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. 

b These immoderate and fatal concessions to Caesar's 
ambition, were absolutely unconstitutional, and most evi- 
dently tended to the subversion of the republic. But if 
the reader is surprised at so mean and so impolitic a com- 
pliance on the part of the senate, how much higher will 
his wonder rise, when he is informed that Cicero himself 
was the chief ad\ iser and promoter of these very measures 
which he lure condemns? if this were a fact which stood 

Upon the credit of historians, the passage before us would 
strongly incline one to suspect that they had misrepre- 
sented the truth. Hut we have a testimony to produce, 
which, though of undoubted authority, is the last one 
Should have expected in the case, for it is the testimony 
of Cicero himself. In a speech which he pronounced at 
the bar either a little before, or soon after the date of this 
letter, he mentions each of these particular grants, which 
lie enumerates to l.entnlus. and then adds: — «■ Harum 
ego sententiarum ct Princeps ct Auctor fui."— Orat. pro 
Balbo, 27. 

The Sempronian law here spoken of, was procured byC 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



355 



particulars, as I cannot reflect on our affairs with 
any satisfaction. However, I mention them as 
suggesting a useful caution to both of us, to pre- 
serve a proper poise between our interest and our 
honour, and not to advance one by an undue de- 
pression of the other. A maxim this which I have 
learned, not so much from my favourite philosophy 
as from sad experience, and which I would recom- 
mend to you, ere you are taught it by the same 
unpleasing method of conviction. 

Your congratulations on my daughter's marriage 
with Crassipes c are agreeable to your usual polite- 
ness : I hope and believe this alliance will yield 
me great satisfaction. — Your son is a youth of so 
promising a turn, that I cannot forbear conjuring 
you to train him up in those refined arts which 
have ever been your peculiar taste and study ; but 
chiefly in that best and noblest discipline, the imi- 
tation of your exalted virtues. Believe me, I greatly 
love and esteem him, not only in return to the 
singular affection he has ever shown me, but par- 
ticularly as he is the son, and the worthy son, too, 
of my valuable friend. Farewell. 



LETTER III. 

To Fabius Gallus A . 
I received your letter immediately upon my 
return from Arpinum, together with one likewise 
a u 698 f rom Avianus e , in which he very gene- 
rously offers to give me credit as long as 
I shall require. Now, let me desire you to imagine 
yourself in my situation, and then tell me whether 
I can, with a good grace, ask him to allow me 
even the least time for the payment of this money, 
much less above a year ? Indeed, my dear friend, 
I should not have been in this difficulty, if you had 
not exceeded the limits of my commission, both in 
the particulars and the sum. However, I am not 
only willing to ratify the agreement you have made 
for the statues you mention, but am likewise much 
obliged to you. I am sensible, indeed, that in the 
zeal of your friendship you have purchased for me 
what pleased your own eye, and what you imagined 
would be worthy of mine ; and I always considered 
you as a man of the most judicious and elegant 
taste in every kind. Nevertheless, I shall be 
extremely glad if Damasippus f should continue in 
the resolution of taking these figures off my hands ; 
for, to own the plain truth, I have no sort of 

Sempronius Gracchus, a tribune of the people, A. U. 631, 
and enacted that the senate should annually appoint suc- 
cessors to the consular provinces. 

c Tullia, when she married Crassipes, was the widow of 
Piso. surnamed Frugi, of whom an account has been given 
in the notes on the former book. This second match did 
not prove so satisfactory as Cicero here promises himself ; 
for Crassipes soon took a disgust to Tullia, which ended in 
a divorce. As he is very seldom and but slightly mentioned 
in Cicero's writings, all that we know of him is, that he 
was a nobleman of the first rank. 

d The same person to whom the 11th letter of the fore- 
going book is written. 

e He seems to have been the proprietor of the statues 
mentioned below. 

f Damasippus was a celebrated virtuoso of these times, 
who, after having ruined his fortunes by his extravagant 
passion for antiques, turned Stoic. Horace has ridiculed 
his character and his conversation with great humour, in 
one of his satires.— Horat. Sat. ii. 3. 



inclination to them myself. As you were not 
apprised of my intentions, you have actually con- 
sented to pay more for these four or five pieces of 
sculpture &, than I would have given for all the 
statues in the universe. You compare the images 
of the priestesses of Bacchus to those of the Muses, 
which I bought of Metellus. But surely, my friend, 
the two instances are by no means parallel. For, 
in the first place, the Muses themselves would have 
condemned me, if I had ever rated them at so 
extravagant a price : and in the next, I purchased 
the figures you mention as bearing an allusion to 
my studies, and affording a suitable ornament to 
my library. But where can I, with any propriety, 
place these Bacchanals ? That they are. as you 
assure me, extremely beautiful, I know full well ; 
for I have frequently seen them, and, therefore, I 
should particularly have named them to you, if 
they had suited my purpose. The purchases which 
I usually make of this kind are such only as are 
proper to embellish my Palaestra 11 in the same 
manner as the public gymnasia are generally deco- 
rated. But would it not be absurd enough, my 
good friend, if I, who upon all occasions, you 
know, have distinguished myself as the friend of 
peace, should erect a statue of the god of war ? It 
is well there was not a Saturn, too ; for how could 
I have expected to have been out of debt, whilst I 
had lived under the aspect of two such unlucky 
divinities 1 ? Mercury would have been a much more 
welcome guest ; for I should have hoped, by his 
influence, to have made a more advantageous bar- 
gainJ with Avianus. As to the figure designed for 
the support of a table, which you intended to 
reserve for your own use, you shall have it, if you 
still remain in the same mind ; if not, I am ready 
to take it myself. Upon the whole, however, I had 
much rather have employed this money in the 
purchase of a little lodge at Tarracina k , that I 
might not always trouble my friend and host. But 
this mistake is partly owing to the carelessness of 
my freedman, in not observing the instructions I 
gave him, and partly also to Junius, whom 1 sup- 
pose you know, as he is a particular friend of 
Avianus. As I have lately built some additional 
apartments to my little portico at Tusculanum 1 , I 

g These statues appear, by what follows, to have been 
three Bacchanals, a Mars, and some figure designed for the 
support of a table. 

h The Palaestra was properly a part of those public build- 
ings which the Grecians (from whom the Romans took 
them) called Gymnasia, which were originally designed 
for exercises of various kinds, and in which, in after-times, 
the philosophers, likewise, held their schools. What Cicero 
here calls his Palaestra, seems to be the same building 
which, in a letter to Atticus, he terms his Academia, and 
which appears to have been some apartments, or, perhaps, 
a distinct building, of his Tusculan villa, appropriated 
principally to the purposes of study, but adapted also to 
those bodily exercises which the ancients seldom passed a 
day without practising.— Ad Att. i. 5, 6, 9. 

1 Alluding (as Mauritius observes) to the notions of the 
judicial astrologers, who pretended that Mars and Saturn 
were unlucky planets. 

J Mercury was supposed to preside over commerce, from 
whence it is probable that the Mercuriales, mentioned in 
a letter of Cicero to his brother, were a company of mer- 
chants—Ad Quint. Prat. ii. 5. 

k It is now called Terracina, a town in the Campagna 
di Roma. It lay in the road from Home to Cicero's villa 
at Formiae. 

1 Cicero, if we may credit the invective ascribed to Sal- 
A A 2 



356 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



was desirous of adorning them with a few pictures ; 
for if J take pleasure in anything of this kind, it is 
in paintings. However, if I must have these 
statues, let me know where they are, when they 
will arrive, and by what conveyance you propose to 
send them. For, if Damasippus should change his 
intentions of buying them, I shall find, perhaps, 
some pretender to his taste who may be glad of the 
purchase, and I should be willing to part with them 
even at a loss. 

When I received your first letter concerning the 
house you want to take, belonging to Cassius, I 
was just setting out from Rome, and therefore I 
left your commission with my daughter. However, 
I took an opportunity myself of talking upon this 
affair with your friend Nicia, who, you know, is 
very intimate with Cassius. At my return hither, 
and before I had opened your last letter, I inquired 
of Tullia what she had done in this matter. She 
told me she had applied to Licinia to speak to her 
brother Cassius ; but I believe he is not upon very 
good terms with his sister. The answer which 
Licinia gave my daughter was, that her husband 
being gone into Spain, she durst not remove" 1 in 
his absence and without his knowledge. I am 
greatly obliged to you for being so desirous of my 
company as to be impatient to get into a house 
where you may not only be near me, but actually 
under the same roof. Be assured I am no less 
desirous of having you for my neighbour ; and as 
I am sensible how much it will contribute to our 
mutual satisfaction, I shall try every expedient for 
that purpose. If I should have any success, I will 
let you know ; in the mean while, I beg you would 
return me a particular answer to this letter, and 
tell me, at the same time, when I may expect to 
see you. Farewell. 



LETTER IV. 

To Publius Lentulus, Proconsul. 
Marcus Pl^etorius will fully inform you of 
the promises we have received from Pompey, 
a. u. 698. to g etner with every other circumstance 
that has been either attempted or effected 
in your favour. He was not only present, but, 
indeed, a principal agent throughout the whole 
proceedings, and he acted in every article of your 
concerns agreeably to what might be expected from 
a judicious, a vigilant, and an affectionate friend. 
To him, likewise, I must refer you for an account 
of public affairs, not well knowing what to say of 
them myself. This much, however, I can assure 
you, that they are in the hands (and in the hands 
they are likely to remain) of our professed friends \ 
As for myself, both gratitude and prudence, together 
with your particular advice, have determined me, 
as they ought, to join in his interest, whom you 
were formerly desirous of associating with you in 

lust, expended immense sums in this his favourite villa, 
which, probably, was a very fine one when it came into 
his possession, as it originally belonged to Bylla the dicta- 
tor. Some considerable remains of it are still shown at 
Grotta Perrata.— Sallust. Deolam. in Cioer. 63; Plin. Hist. 
Nat. xxii. 

■ ra This lady seems to have been the tenant of the house 
which (iallns wanted either to buy or hire. 

n Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. 

° Pompey. 



mine. You are sensible, nevertheless, how difficult 
it is to renounce our old and habitual notions of 
politics, especially under a full persuasion of their 
rectitude. However, I conform myself to his 
system, since I cannot, with any decency, oppose 
him ; and, whatever some may perhaps imagine, I 
am by no means acting in this a counterfeit part. 
The truth of it is, Pompey has gained such an 
absolute possession of my esteem, that I begin to 
look upon everything as just and reasonable which 
falls in with his interest or inclination p. I should 
think, too, it would be no imprudent resolution, 
even in his adversaries themselves, to desist from 
an opposition to which they are evidently unequal. 
In the mean time, I have the satisfaction to find 
the world in general agreed that my character 
requires I should support, or at least not obstruct, 
the measures of Pompey, while some are even 
of opinion I may reasonably retire from all public 
business, to my favourite pursuits of a literary 
kind. And, indeed, were I not prevented by my 
friendship to Pompey, I should most certainly 
adopt this latter scheme, as of all others the most 
suitable to my inclinations. For I can now no 
longer maintain that dignity in the senate, and 
that freedom in the commonwealth, which was the 
single motive of my ambition, and the sole end I 
proposed to myself in all my labours : a misfortune, 
however, which is not peculiar to myself, but 
extends to every Roman in general. In a word, I 
am under the sad necessity either of tamely sub- 
mitting to the sentiments of those few who lead the 
republic, or of imprudently joining in a weak and 
fruitless opposition i. I the rather mention this, 
that you may deliberate, before you return amongst 
us, what part it may be advisable for you to act 
in the present conjuncture. To speak freely, the 
measures, both of those of senatorian and eques- 
trian rank, and indeed the whole system of the 
commonwealth in general, are totally changed. 
All, therefore, that I have now to wish is, the pre- 
servation of the public tranquillity, which those 
who are in the administration seem to give us a 
prospect of enjoying, if a certain party could be 
prevailed upon to submit with less impatience to 
their power. As to any hopes of supporting in the 
senate that true consular character of a firm and 
inflexible patriot, it is in vain now to expect it ; 
every mean for that purpose is totally lost, by the 
mistaken conduct of those who disobliged Pompey 1 ", 

P See rem. m on letter 17.- book ii. 

q A determined patriot could not have been reduced to 
the alternative which Cicero here mentions ; as there was 
a third expedient which every man of strict political 
integrity, who dared to act up to his principles, would 
undoubtedly have embraced. " An honest physician," says 
Sir William Temple, " is excused for leaving his patient, 
when he finds the disease growing desperate, and can, by 
his attendance, expect only to receive his own fees, with- 
out any hopes or appearance of deserving them.'' Our 
author, in one of his orations, mentions it to the immortal 
honour of the celebrated Metellus, that </<■ civitatedeCi <h'rc 
quam de sententia maluit .- and he who is actuated by the 
same sublime patriotism, will never find himself under 
the poor necessity of justifying wrong measures by the 
impossibility of enforcing right ones. See rem. >■, on letter 
17, book ii. 

* Pompey was very desirous of having the several grants 
which he had made to the cities of Asia, after his defeat of 
Mitbridates, confirmed by the senate, in which he was 
strongly opposed by Cato, Metellus Celer, Lucullus, and 
others. This occasioned a breach between Pompey and 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



357 



and dissolved that strong union which subsisted 
between the senate and the equestrian order s . 

But to return to what more immediately relates 
to your own private affairs ; — Pompey is extremely 
your friend ; and, by all that I can observe, you 
may obtain anything you shall desire during bis 
consulship 1 . At least I shall solicit him very 
strenuously for that purpose ; and you may rely 
upon my most active offices in every instance 
where you are concerned. I am well persuaded 
my assiduity \tpon this occasion will not be dis- 
agreeable to him : on the contrary, he will receive 
it with pleasure, were it for no other reason than 
as affording him a proof of my grateful disposition. 
In the mean time, I entreat you to believe, that 
whatever bears the least connexion with your 
interests is of more importance to me than my 
own. From these sentiments it is, that I despair 
not only of being able to return, but even suffi- 
ciently to acknowledge, the infinite obligations I 
owe you ; though, at the same time, I am conscious 
of having exerted upon all occasions the most un- 
wearied endeavours in your service. 

It is rumoured here that you have obtained a 
complete victory, and we impatiently expect an 
express with the confirmation of this agreeable 
news. I have already talked with Pompey upon 
this subject, and as soon as your courier arrives, I 
shall employ my utmost diligence in convening the 
senate. In fine, were I to perform much more 
for your interest than lies within the compass of 
my present power, I should still think I had 
fallen far short of what you have aright to expect. 
Farewell. 



LETTER V. 
To Marcus Marius u . 
If your general valetudinary disposition pre- 
vented you from being a spectator of our late public 
A v 698 entertainments, v it is more to fortune 
than to philosophy chat I am to impute 
your absence. But if you declined our party for 

the senate, and gave Caesar an opportunity of establishing 
an interest with the former, which, at that juncture, he 
found necessary for his purposes. Accordingly, being soon 
after elected consul, he procured a law from the people to 
ratify these acts.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cses. 19. 

s The farmers of the public revenues, who were com- 
posed of the principal persons among the equestrian order, 
having, as they pretended, rented some branch of the 
finances at too high a rate, applied to the senate for relief. 
Their demands, it seems, were unreasonable : however, in 
the situation wherein public affairs then stood, it was 
thought prudent by the more moderate party not to dis- 
oblige so considerable a body of men. But Cato obstinately 
opposed their demands : and, by his means, the senate, 
after keeping them in suspense for several months, at 
length rejected their petition. But Caesar, who knew 
how to turn every incident to his advantage, took up the 
interests of these knights ; and, in his consulship, obtained 
from the people a remission of one-t'iird part of the stipu- 
lated rent. This single piece of policy (as one of the Greek 
historians observes) gave him a more considerable accession 
of power, even than he had before acquired by means of 
the people, as it gained over a much more important order 
to his party.— Ad Att. ii. 1 ; Suet, in Vit. Jul. Caes. 20; 
Appian. De Bell. Civ. ii. 

1 Pompey and Crassus were at this time consuls. 

u The person to whom this letter is addressed, seems to 
have been of a temper and constitution, that placed him 
far below the ambition of being known to posterity. But 



no other reason than as holding in just contempt 
what the generality of the world so absurdly 
admire, I must at once congratulate you both on 
your health and your judgment. I say this upon 
a supposition, however, that you were enjoying 
the philosophical advantages of that delightful 
scene, in which I imagine you were almost wholly 
deserted. At the same time that your neighbours 
probably were nodding over the dull humour of 
our trite farces, my friend, I dare say, was indulg- 
ing his morning meditations in that elegant apart- 
ment, from whence you have opened a prospect to 
Sejanum, through the Stabian hills w . And whilst 
you are employing the rest of the day in those 
various polite amusements which you have the 
happy privilege to plan out for yourself, we, alas ! 
had the mortification of tamely enduring those 
dramatical representations to which Msetius x , it 

a private letter from Cicero's hand has been sufficient to 
dispel the obscurity he appears to have loved, and to ren- 
der his retirement conspicuous. 

v They were exhibited by Pompey, at the opening of 
his theatre, one of the most magnificent structures of 
ancient Rome, and so extensive as to contain no less than 
80,000 spectators. It was built after the model of one 
which he saw at Mitylene, in his return from the Mithri- 
datic war ; and adorned with the noblest ornaments of 
statuary and painting. Some remains of this immense 
building still subsist. — Liv. xxxix. ; Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 
3 ; Plut. in Vit. Pomp. 

w Sejanum (if that be the true reading, for the MSS. dif- 
fer extremely) is found in no other ancient author. Stabiae 
was a maritime town in Campania, situated upon the bay 
of Naples, from whence the adjoining hills here mentioned 
took their name. One may figure the philosophical Marius 
as looking down upon the world from this his delightful 
retirement, with reflections of the same kind as those which 
the poet has so exquisitely imaged, in the following beau- 
tiful lines : 

Here, on a single plank, thrown safe on shore, 
I hear the tumult of the distant throng, 
As that of seas remote, or dying storms, 
And meditate on scenes more silent still. 
Here, like a shepherd gazing from his hut, 
Touching his reed, or leaning on his staff, 
Eager ambition's fiery chase I see : 
I see the circling hunt of noisy men 
Burst law's inclosure, leap the mounds of right, 
Pursuing and pursued ; each other's prey ; 
As wolves for rapine, as the fox for wiles : 
Till death, that mighty hunter, earths them all ! 

Young. 
x This person is supposed, by the commentators, to be 
the same to whose judgment Horace advises the Pisos to 
refer their poetical compositions : 

Si quid tamen olim 

Scripseris, in Maeti descendat judicis aures. 

De Arte Poet. 386. 
But the compliment paid in these lines to the taste of 
Maetius, ill agrees with the contemptuous manner in which 
Cicero here speaks of Pompey's Dramatic Censor. 

It appears by an ancient scholiast on Horace, that Augus- 
tus instituted a kind of poetical court of judicature, con- 
sisting of five judges, the chief of which was Maetius Tarpa, 
mentioned in the verses above quoted. They held their 
assemblies in the temple of Apollo, and no poet was per- 
mitted to bring his play upon the stage without their ap- 
probation. Domitian seems to have improved upon this 
establishment, and extended it into an academy that dis- 
tributed prizes to those who excelled, not only in poetical, 
but i rose compositions. We have seen societies of this 
sort formed among our neighbour nations, with good effect : 
and, perhaps, if, in this instance, as well as in some others, 
we were to follow their example, it might prove a mean, 
not only of refining our language, and encouraging a spirit 



358 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



seems, our professed critic, had given his infallible 
sanction ! but as you will have the curiosity, per- 
haps, to require a more particular account, I must 
tell you, that though our entertainments were 
extremely magnificent indeed, yet they were by no 
means such as you would have relished : at least if 
I may judge of your taste by my own. Some of 
those actors who had formerly distinguished them- 
selves with great applause, but had long since 
retired, I imagined, in order to preserve the reput- 
ation they had raised, were now again introduced 
upon the stage, as in honour, it seems, of the 
festival. Among these was my old friend iEsopus?, 
but so different from what we once knew him, that 
the whole audience agreed he ought to be excused 
from acting any more ; for when he was pro- 
nouncing the celebrated oath — 
" If I deceive, be Jove's dread vengeance hurl'd," &c. 

the poor old man's voice failed him, and he had not 
strength to go through with the speech. As to the 
other parts of our theatrical entertainments, you 
know the nature of them so well, that it is scarcely 
necessary to mention them. They had less, indeed, 
to plead in their favour than even the most ordinary 
representations of this kind can usually claim. The 
enormous parade with which they were attended, 
and which, I dare say, you would very willingly 
have spared, destroyed all the grace of the perform- 
ance. What pleasure could it afford to a judicious 
spectator, to see a thousand mules prancing about 
the stage, in the tragedy of " Clytgemnestra ;'' or 
whole regiments accoutred in foreign armour in 
that of the "Trojan Horse?" In a word, what 
man of sense could be entertained with viewing a 
mock army drawn up on the stage in battle array ? 
These, I confess, are spectacles extremely well 
adapted to captivate vulgar eyes ; but undoubtedly 
would have had no charm in yours. In plain truth, 
my friend, you would have received more amuse- 
ment from the dullest piece that Protogenes could 

of polite literature, but of calling off our minds from those 
political speculations, which, though the privilege, in- 
deed, are not always the happiness of every idle Briton. — 
Dacier, Remarques sur la x. Sat. du 1. liv. dllorace; 
Suet, in Vit. Domit. 4. 

y He excelled in tragedy, and was the most celebrated 
actor that had ever appeared upon the Roman stage. 
Cicero experienced the advantage of his friendship and 
his talents during his exile ; for iEsopus being engaged in 
a part upon the stage, wherein there were several passages 
that might be applied to our author's misfortunes, this 
excellent tragedian pronounced them with so peculiar and 
affecting an emphasis, that the whole audience immediately 
took the allusion : and it had a better effect, as Cicero 
acknowledges, than anything his own eloquence could 
have expressed for the same purpose. But it is not in this 
instance alone that Cicero was obliged to iEsopus, as it 
was by the advantage of his precepts and example, that lie 
laid the foundation of his oratorical fame, and improved 
himself in the art of elocution. The high value which the 
Romans set upon the talentsof this pathetic actor, appears 
by the Immense estate which he acquired in his profession, 
for he died worth almost SsOO,OOW sterling. lie left a son 
behind him, whose remarkable extravagance is recorded 
by the Roman satirist. This youth having received a 
present from a favourite lady of a pearl out of her ear, 
worth a million of sesterces, or about 8,0002. of our money, 
dissolved it in a liquid, and gallantly drank it oil': to the 
health, we may suppose, of his generous mistresa Pliny 
the naturalist, who likewise mentions this story, adds, 
that he presented, at the same time, to each of bis guests, 
a cup of the same valuable ingredient.— Orat. pro Sext. 56 ; 



possibly have read to you z (my own orations, how- 
ever, let me always except) than we met with at 
these ridiculous shows- I am well persuaded, at 
least, you could not regret the loss of our Oscian 
and Grecian farces a . Your own noble senate will 
always furnish you with drollery sufficient of the 
former kind b ; and as to the latter, I know you 
have such an utter aversion to everything that 
bears the name of Greek, that you will not even 
travel the Grecian road to your villa c . As I re- 
member you once despised our formidable gladia- 
tors' 1 , I cannot suppose you would have looked 

Plut. in Vit. Cicer. ; Macrob. Saturn, ii. 10 ; Hor. Sat. ii. 3, 
ver. 239 ; Plin. Hist. Nat. x. 51. 

z It was usual with persons of distinction among the 
Romans to keep a slave in their family, whose sole business 
it was to read to them. Protogenes seems to have attended 
Marius in that capacity. 

a The Oscian farces were so called from the Osci, an 
ancient people of Campania, from whom the Romans 
received them. They seem to have been of the same kind 
with our Bartholomew drolls, and to have consisted of 
low and obscene humour. As to the nature of the Greek 
farces, the critics are not agreed. Manutius supposes they 
differed only from the former, as being written in the 
Greek language. But it does not appear that Greek plays 
were ever represented upon the Roman stage : and the 
most probable account of them is, that they were a sort 
of pantomimes in imitation of those on the Grecian theatre. 
— Liv. vii. 2 ; Mong. Rem. sur les Lett, a Att. vi. 449. 

b The municipal or corporate towns in Italy were 
governed by magistrates of their own, who probably made 
much the same sort of figure in their rural senate, as 
our burgesses in their town-hall. This, at least, seems to 
have been the case in that corporation to which Marius 
belonged, and to have given occasion to our author's 
raillery. 

c Perhaps the Grecian road might be much out of 
repair, and little frequented at the time when this letter 
was written: and on that circumstance Cicero, it is pos- 
sible, may have founded his witticism. Among the many 
instances of Roman magnificence, that of their public 
roads is particularly observable. They were formed at an 
immense cost, and extended to a great distance from all 
sides of the city. Lipsius computes the Appian way at 
350 miles, some part of which still remains as entire as 
when it was first made; though it has now subsisted above 
1800 years. It is twelve feet broad, and chiefly composed 
of blue stones, about a foot and a half square. Criminals 
of a less atrocious sort were generally employed in those 
useful works: and, perhaps, it might be well worthy the 
consideration of the legislature, whether punishments of 
this kind in delinquencies of the same nature, might not, 
in all respects, be of more advantage to the public, than 
that which seems to have so little effect hi restraining the 
violences that are daily committed among us. — Lips, de 
Magnif. Rom. ; Burnet's Trav. let. iv. ; Plin. Epist. x. 33. 

d Grajvius supposes (and it is a conjecture extremely 
probable) that this alludes to some services whfrh Cicero 
had received from Marius, in defending him against the 
outrages of Clodius's mob. 

The first show of gladiators exhibited in Rome was 
given by the Bruti, in honour of their father's obsequies : 
about 200 years before the date of this letter. Originally 
the unhappy wretches who were exposed in this manner 
were either prisoners taken in war, or public criminals : but 
in process of time it grew into a profession, and there were 
men who hired themselves out for this purpose. Attieus, 
who seems to have omitted no opportunity of improving 
his finances, had a band of gladiators which he let out on 
public occasions, to those who were not rich enough to 
maintain them at their own expense. The passion for 
these combats became at length so immoderate, that it was 
usual to exhibit matches of gladiators at their private 
entertainments: and not only men of the first quality, 
but even women, entered these list.-- Reason, most un- 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



359 



with less contempt on our athletic e performers: 
and, indeed, Pompey himself acknowledges, that 
they did not answer the pains and expense they had 
cost him. The remainder of our diversions con- 
sisted in combats of wild beasts f , which were ex- 
hibited every morning and afternoon during five 
days successively ; and, it must be owned, they 
were magnificent. Yet, after all, what entertain- 
ment can possibly arise to an elegant and human- 
ised mind, from seeing a noble beast struck to the 
heart by its merciless hunter, or one of our own 
weak species cruelly mangled by an animal of much 
superior strength ? But were there anything really 
worth observing in spectacles of this savage kind, 
they are spectacles extremely familiar to you, and 
those 1 am speaking of had not any peculiar novelty 
to recommend them. The last day's sport was 
composed entirely of elephants, which, though they 
made the common people stare, indeed, did not 
seem, however, to afford them any great satisfac- 
tion. On the contrary, the terrible slaughter of 
these poor animals, created a general commisera- 
tion : as it is a prevailing notion that these creatures, 
in some degree, participate of our rational faculties ?. 
That you may not imagine I had the happiness 
of being perfectly at my ease during the whole of 
this pompous festival, I must acquaint you, that 
while the people were amusing themselves at the 
plays, I was almost killed with the fatigue of plead- 
ing for your friend Gallus Caninius. Were the 
world as much inclined to favour my retreat as 
they showed themselves in the case of iEsopus, 
believe me, I would for ever renounce my art, and 
spend the remainder of my days with you and some 
others of the same philosophical turn. The truth 

doubtedly, cannot but rise up against spectacles of this 
sanguinary kind. It is observable, however, that they 
were not introduced among the Romans till they began to 
be civilised : and their passion for these cruel combats 
seems to have gathered strength in proportion as their 
manners, in all other respects, became more refined. There 
is, indeed, a wonderful disposition in human nature, to 
be pleased w ith sights of horror : which even the most 
polite nations, in their highest periods of improvement, 
have not been able entirely to subdue. A very ingenious 
French writer imagines, that if we did not profess a 
religion which absolutely forbids the wanton destruction 
of our species, we should soon convert our prize-fighters 
into gladiators, and be as sanguinary in our diversions as 
the Romans themselves. — Liv. xxxix. 22 ; Ad Att. iv. 8 ; 
Strab. v. p. 173; Stat. Sylv. i. 6. ver. 53; Suet. in.Vit. Jul. 
Ca?s. 3.0 ; Reflex, sur la Poes. et sur la Peint. i. 18. 

e The athletic games were of a less cruel kind than those 
described in the preceding note, as they principally con- 
sisted of running, wrestling, and boxing matches. It 
sometimes happened, indeed, that one of the combatants 
lost his life; but this was contrary to the laws of the 
sport : and if it appeared to have been the effect of design 
in his adversary, though he was not punished w ith death, 
he was punished in a way still more dreaded, by being 
deprived of the crown that would otherwise have been 
due to his victory. Pausanias mentions an athletic com- 
batant, who, having incurred this penalty, was so affected 
by the disgrace, that he lost his senses. 

f Beasts of the wildest and most uncommon kinds were 
sent for. upon these occasions, from every corner of the 
known world ; and Dion Cassius relates, that no less than 
500 lions were killed at these hunting-matches, with which 
Pompey entertained the people. — Dio, xxxix. 

S This was not merely a vulgar opinion, but entertained 
by some of the learned among the ancients, as appears from 
the last cited historian ; who likewise takes notice how 
much the spectators of Pompcy's shows were affected by 
the mcurnful cries of these poor animals. — Dio, xxxix. 



of it is, I began to grow weary of this employment, 
even at a time when youth and ambition prompted 
my perseverance : and I will add, too, when I was 
at full liberty to exercise it in defence of those only 
whom I was inclined to assist. But, in my present 
circumstances, it is absolute slavery. For, on the 
one side, I never expect to reap any advantage 
from my labours of this kind ; and, on the other, 
in compliance with solicitations which I cannot 
refuse, I am sometimes under the disagreeable 
necessity of appearing as an advocate in behalf of 
those who ill deserve that favour at my hands h . 
For these reasons I am framing every possible pre- 
tence for living hereafter according to my own 
taste and sentiments : as I highly both approve 
and applaud that retired scene of life which you 
have so judiciously chosen. I am sensible, at the 
same time, that this is the reason you so seldom 
visit Rome. However, I the less regret that you 
do not see it oftener, as the numberless unpleasing 
occupations in which I am engaged would prevent 
me from enjoying the entertainment of your con- 
versation, or giving you that of mine : if mine, 
indeed, can afford you any. But if ever I should 
be so fortunate as to disentangle myself, in some 
degree at least, (for I am contented not to be wholly 
released,) from these perplexing embarrassments, I 
will undertake to show, even my elegant friends, 
wherein the truest refinements of life consist. In 
the meanwhile, continue to take care of your 
health, that you may be able, when that happy 
time shall arrive, to accompany me in my litter to 
my several villas. 

You must impute it to the excess of my friend- 
ship, and not to the abundance of my leisure, that 
I have lengthened this letter beyond my usual 
extent. It was merely in compliance with a request 
in one of yours, where you intimate a desire that. I 
would compensate in this manner what you lost by 
not being present at our public diversions. I shall 
be extremely glad if I have succeeded; if not, 1 
shall have the satisfaction, however, to think that 
you will for the future be more inclined to give us 
your company on these occasions than to rely on 
my letters for your amusement. Farewell. 



LETTER VI. 

To Quintus Philippus, ProconsuP. 
Though I am too well convinced of your friend- 
ship and esteem, to suspect that you are unmindful 
u (J98 °^ m y f° rmer application in behalf of my 
friends Oppius and Eguatius ; yet, I can- 
not forbear again recommending their joint affairs 

h Cicero was now wholly under the influence of Pompey 
and Cassar : but the particular instances of his unworthy 
submission to which he here only alludes, are mentioned 
more fully in a subsequent letter to Lentulus, and will be 
considered in the remarks on that epistle. See letter 17 of 
this book, rem. v , d , andJ. 

i The person to whom this letter is addressed, and the 
time when it was written, are equally unknown. PighillS 
supposes he was governor of Asia, in the year of Rome 708. 
But, in this instance, the usual accuracy of that laborious 
annalist seems to have failed him. For it appears, by a 
letter of congratulation which Cicero writes to Philippus 
upon his return from the province, that he must have 
been proconsul at some period previous to the civil war : 
•• Gratulor tibi (says he) quod ex proviucia salvum te ad 
tuos recepisti incolumi fama et republica." — Ep. Fain. xiii. 
73. See letter 22 of this book. 



360 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



to your protection. My connexion, indeed, with 
the latter, is of so powerful a kind, that I could not 
be more solicitous for my own personal concerns. 
I entreat you, therefore, to give him proofs of my 
enjoying that share of your affection, which I per- 
suade myself I possess ; and be assured you cannot 
show me a more agreeable instance of your friend- 
ship. Farewell. 



LETTER VII. 

To Marcus Licinius Crassush 
I am persuaded that all your friends have in- 
formed you of the zeal with which I lately both 
a u 699 defended and promoted your dignities k : 
as, indeed, it was too warm and too con- 
spicuous to have been passed over in silence. The 
opposition I met with from the consuls 1 , as well 
as from several others of consular rank, was the 
strongest I ever encountered, and you must now 
look upon me as your declared advocate upon all 
occasions where your glory is concerned. Thus 
have I abundantly compensated for the intermis- 
sion of those good offices which the friendship 
between us had long given you a right to claim ; 
but which, by a variety of accidents, have lately 
been somewhat interrupted. There never was a 
time, believe me, when I wanted an inclination to 
cultivate your esteem, or promote your interest. 
Though, it must be owned, a certain set of men, 
who are the bane of all amicable intercourse, and 
who envied us the mutual honour that resulted 
from ours, have, upon some occasions, been so 
unhappily successful as to create a coolness be- 
tween us m . It has happened, however, (what I 

J He liad been twice consul in conjunction with Pompey, 
and was at this time governor of Syria : to which province 
he succeeded at the expiration of his second consulate, the 
year preceding the date of this letter. He was esteemed 
among the considerable orators of his age : but his prin- 
cipal distinction seems to have been his immense wealth, 
the greatest part of which he acquired by sharing in the 
confiscated estates of those unhappy victims who fell a 
sacrifice to the cruel ambition of Sylla. In his first con- 
sulate he gave a general treat to the people upon ten thou- 
sand tables, and, at the same time, distributed to them a 
largess of three months' provision of corn.— Plut. in Vit. 
Crassi ; Dio, xxxix. 

k Crassus accepted the province of Syria merely with a 
design of making war upon the Parthians : for which, 
however, there was no other pretence than what his 
boundless avarice and ambition suggested. Accordingly, 
some of the tribunes endeavoured to obstruct his levies 
for this expedition : and when that attempt failed, Atcius, 
one of their number, had recourse to certain superstitious 
ceremonies of their religion, and devoted him in form to 
destruction. It was a general persuasion that none ever 
escaped the effect of those mysterious execrations: and, 
in the present instance, the event happened to correspond 
with this popular in lief. PorCrassus, together with his 
army, perished in this enterprise The judicious Manutius 
conjectures, that after Crassus had left Rome, somemotion 
was made in the senate for recalling him, which gave 

Occasion to Cicero's services and to the present letter. 

This supposition, however, though indeed highly probable, 
is not supported bj any of the historians.— Plut. in Vit. 

Crassi ; Dio, xxxix. ; Ycl. Pat. ii. 46. 

1 The consuls of this year were L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, 

and Appius Claudius I'uleher. 

"> How effectually soever Cioero might have served 
Crassus upon the occasion to Which this Letter relates; it 



rather wished than expected) that I have found an 
opportunity, even when your affairs were in the 
most prosperous train, of giving a public testimony 
by my services to you, that I always most sincerely 
preserved the remembrance of our former amity. 
The truth is, I have approved myself your friend, not 
only to the full conviction of your family in par- 
ticular, but of all Rome in general. In conse- 
quence of which, that most valuable of women, your 
excellent wife", together with those illustrious models 
of virtue and filial piety, your two amiable sons, 
have perpetual recourse to my assistance and ad- 
vice ; and the whole world is sensible that no one 
is more zealously disposed to serve you than myself. 

Your family correspondents have informed you, 
I imagine, of what has hitherto passed in your 
affair, as well as of what is at present in agitation. 
As for myself, I entreat you to do me the justice 
to believe, that it was not any sudden start of 
inclination, which disposed me to embrace this 
opportunity of vindicating your honour ; on the 
contrary, it was my ambition, from the first mo- 
ment I entered the forum, to be ranked in the 
number of your friends . I have the satisfaction 
to reflect that I have never, from that time to this 
hour, failed in the highest sentiments of esteem for 
you ; and, I doubt not, you have always retained 
the same affectionate regard towards me. If the 
effects of this mutual disposition have been inter- 
rupted by any little suspicions, (for suspicions only 
I am sure they were,) be the remembrance of them 
for ever blotted out of our hearts. I am persuaded, 
indeed, from those virtues which form your cha- 
racter, and from those which I am desirous should 
distinguish mine, that our friendly union, in the 
present conjuncture, cannot but be attended with 
is most certain his good offices did not proceed from a prin - 
ciple of friendship. It is extremely probable, indeed, that 
his supporting the cause of Crassus in the senate is one of 
those instances of our author's subjection, of which he 
complains in the preceding letter : and that it was entirely 
in compliance with the inclinations of Cresar and Pompey, 
with whom Crassus was now united. The coolness, here 
mentioned, seems to have subsisted ever since the affair 
of Catiline ; in whose conspiracy, as one of the witnesses 
examined upon that occasion deposed, Crassus was con- 
cerned. There were few, indeed, who gave credit to this 
evidence, and the senate, upon the motion of Cicero, 
voted it false and malicious. Crassus. nevertheless, assured 
Sallust (as that historian declares) that this affront was 
thrown upon him by the artifices of Cicero himself. But 
whether Crassus had any just ground for this suspicion, or 
whether it was suggested to him by the false insinuations 
of those to whom Cicero here alludes, is a question by no 
means capable of being determined by any circumstance 
in the history or character of the two men. It is cer- ] 
tain that Crassus, from this time, conceived a strong and 
lasting aversion to our author ; as on the other hand, that 
Cicero, after the death of Crassus. published an oration in 
which he expressly charged him w ith being engaged in this 
conspiracy. However, a formal reconciliation had lately 
passed between them, and w lien Crassus set out for his 
Eastern expedition, they parted with all the exterior 
marks of a sincere friendship.— Ad Att. iv. 13; Sallust. 
Hell. Cat. 49: Pint in Vit. ( rassi ; Kp. Fam. i. 9. 

" This lady's name was Tertulla : and, if Suetonius may 
be credited, she was better acquainted with some of Ca- ar's 
talents than was altogether consistent W ith her being (what 
Cicero here calls her) the most valuable qf 'all women.— Suet. 
in \ it. .). CflBS. 50. 

" Crassus was almost ten years older than Cicero; so 
that when the latter first appeared at the bar, the former 
had already established a character by his oratorical 
abilities. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



361 



equal honour to us both. What instances you may 
be willing to give me of your esteem, must be left 
to your own determination ; but they will be such, 
I natter myself, as may tend most to advance my 
dignities. For my own part, I faithfully promise 
the utmost exertion of my best services, in every 
article wherein I can contribute to increase yours. 
Many, I know, will be my rivals in these amicable 
offices, but it is a contention in which all the world, 
I question not, and particularly your two sons, will 
acknowledge my superiority. Be assured I love 
them both in a very uncommon degree ; though I 
will own that PubliusP is my favourite. From his 
infancy, indeed, he discovered a singular regard to 
me, as he particularly distinguishes me at this time 
with all the marks even of filial respect and affection. 
Let me desire you to consider this letter, not as 
a strain of unmeaning compliment, but as a sacred 
and solemn covenant of friendship, which I shall 
most sincerely and religiously observe^. I shall now 
persevere in being the advocate of your honours, 
not only from a motive of affection, but from a 
principle of constancy, and without any application 
on your part, you may depend on my embracing 
every opportunity, wherein I shall think my ser- 
vices may prove agreeable to your interest, or your 
inclinations. Can you once doubt, then, that any 
request to me for this purpose, either by yourself 
or your family, will meet with a most punctual 
observance ? I hope, therefore, you will not scruple 
to employ me in all your concerns, of what nature 
or importance soever, as one who is most faithfully 
your friend : and that you will direct your family 
to apply to me in all their affairs of every kind, 
whether relating to you or to themselves, to their 
friends or their dependants. And be assured, I 
shall spare no pains to render your absence as little 
uneasy to them as possible. Farewell. 

P Whatever sincerity might he wanting in our author's 
professions of friendship to the father, it is certain he had 
a very unfeigned affection for the son ; as, indeed, Cicero 
had been greatly obliged to his zealous services when he 
was persecuted hy Clodius. Soon after this letter was 
written, Publius followed his father with a body of Gallic 
cavalry into Parthia, where he behaved with uncommon 
hravery, but perished in that unfortunate expedition. 
He fell not, indeed, by the enemy, but hy the hand of one 
of his attendants, who stahbed him hy his own orders, 
as scorning to survive so shameful a defeat. — Cic. in|Brut. ; 
Plut. in Vit. Crassi. 

q It has heen asserted in these remarks, that Cicero 
acted a counterfeit part in his professions of friendship to 
Crassus, but as he here very strongly affirms the contrary, 
it will be proper to produce the evidence. This, indeed, is 
Cicero himself, who, in a letter to Atticus, written not 
long before the present, and wherein he gives an account 
of the departure of Crassus, for his Parthian expedition, 
speaks of him in a style utterly irreconcileable with the 
sentiments he here professes, and in terms of the utmost 
contempt. " Crassum nostrum, (says he) minore dignitate 
aiunt profectum paludatum, quam olim — L. Paulum. O 
homincm nequam ! " It must be owned, at the same time, 
that it is highly probable the heart of Crassus was as little 
concerned in their pretended reconcilement as that of 
Cicero ; for Crassus generally regulated his attachments 
by his interest, and was no farther a friend or an enemy 
than as it suited with his avarice and ambition. — Ad Att. 
iv. 13; Plut. in Vit. Crassi, 



LETTER VIII. 

To Julius Ccesar T . 
I am going to give you an instance how much 
I rely upon your affectionate services, not only 
a u 6^9 ^ owar ^ s m yself> but in favour also of my 
friends. It was my intention, if I had 
gone abroad in any foreign employment, that Tre- 
batius s should have accompanied me ; and he would 
not have returned without receiving the highest and 
most advantageous honours I should have been able 
to have conferred upon him. But as Pompey, I 
find, defers setting out upon his commission longer 
than I imagined 1 , and I am apprehensive likewise 
that the doubts you know I entertain in regard to 
my attending him, may possibly prevent, as they 
will certainly at least delay, my journey, I take the 
liberty to refer Trebatius to c your good offices, for 
those benefits he expected to have received from 
mine. I have ventured, indeed, to promise that 
he will find you full as well-disposed to advance 
his interest, as I have always assured him he would 
find me ; and a very extraordinary circumstance 
occurred, which seemed to confirm this opinion I 
entertained of your generosity. For, in the very 
instant I was talking with Balbus upon this subject, 
your letter was delivered to me ; in the close of 
which you pleasantly tell me, that " in compliance 
with my request, you will make Orfius king of Gaul, 
or assign him over to Lepta, and advance any other 
person whom I should be inclined to recommend." 
This had so remarkable a coincidence with our 
discourse, that it struck both Balbus and myself as 
a sort of a happy omen, that had something in it 
more than accidental". As it was my intention, 
therefore, before I received your letter, to have 

r Caesar was at this time in Gaul, preparing for his first 
expedition into Britain, which, as Tacitus observes, he 
rather discovered than conquered. 
s See an account of him in the following letter. 
* A law had lately passed, by which Pompey was in- 
vested with the government of Spain during five years ; 
and it was upon this occasion that Cicero had thoughts of 
attending him as his lieutenant. Pompey, however, instead 
of going to his province, chose to continue in Italy ; though 
he seems to have amused Cicero with a notion of his in- 
tending the contrary. For it appears, hy a letter to Atticus 
written towards the latter end of this year, that our 
author had fixed the day for his departure. — Plut. in Vit. 
Pomp.; Ad Att. iv. 18. 

i Among the various kinds of omens observed with 
much superstition hy the Romans, that of words hap- 
pening to coincide with any particular subject under con- 
sideration, was esteemed of singular regard. A remarkable 
instance of this sort is recorded by Livy. After the burning 
of Rome by the Gauls, it was debated whether the capital 
city should not he removed into the country of the Veii. 
This point was long and warmly discussed, till, at length 
the question was decided hy an officer of the guards, who, 
accidentally passing by the senate-house with his company, 
called out to the ensign, Signifer, statue sign urn : hie mane- 
bimus optime. These words being heard by the fathers in 
council, were considered as a divine intimation : and it 
was immediately and unanimously agreed to rebuild the 
city on its former site. Caesar, of all the Roman his- 
torians, has most avoided the marvellous of this kind : and 
it is observable, that he does not mention a single prodigy 
throughout his whole Commentaries, except in his relation 
of the battle of Pharsalia. Upon that occasion, indeed, 
he very artfully falls in with this popular superstition, 
and gives an account of many predictive intimations of 
that day's important event. And nothing, in truth, could 
be more to his purpose than this indirect manner of per- 



362 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



transmitted Trebatius to you,' so I now consign 
him to your patronage, as upon your own invita- 
tion. Receive him then, my dear Caesar, with 
your usual generosity, and distinguish him with 
every honour that my solicitations can induce you 
to confer. I do not recommend him in the manner 
you so justly rallied when I wrote to you in favour 
of Orfius : but I will take upon me to assure you, 
in true Roman sincerity, that there lives not a man 
of greater modesty and merit. I must not forget 
to mention also (what, indeed, is his distinguishing 
qualification) that he is eminently skilled in the 
laws of his country v , and happy in an uncommon 
strength of memory. I will not point out any par- 
ticular piece of preferment which I wish you to 
bestow upon him : I will only, in general, entreat 
you to admit him into a share of your friendship. 
Nevertheless, if you should think proper to distin- 
guish him with the tribunate or prefecture w , or 
any other little honours of that nature, I shall have 
no manner of objection. In good earnest, I entirely 
resign him out of my hands into yours, which never 
were lifted up in battle, or pledged in friendship, 
without effect. But I fear I have pressed you 
farther upon this occasion than was necessary ; 
however, I know you will excuse my warmth in 
the cause of a friend. Take care of your health, 
and continue to love me. Farewell. 



LETTER IX. 

To Trebatius*. 
I never write to Caesar or Balbus without taking 
occasion to mention you in the advantageous terms 
a u 699 y° u Reserve 5 an d this in a style that evi- 
dently distinguishes me for your sincere 
well-wisher. I hope, therefore, you will check this 
idle passion for the elegancies of Rome, and reso- 
lutely persevere in the purpose of your journey, till 

suading his countrymen that the gods were parties in his 
cause.— Liv. v. 55 ; Ca?s. De Bell. Civ. iii. 85. 

v The profession of the law was held among the Romans, 
as it is with us, in great esteem ; but this body of men 
6eem in general to have acted rather in the nature of our 
chamber counsel, than as advocates at the bar. The law 
was properly the province of those whom they called their 
orators : and for which every man of good sense, a ready 
utterance, and a general knowledge of the constitutions of 
his country, was thought qualified.— Cic. De Off. ii. 19 ; De 
Orat. 55, &c. 

w The military tribunes were next in rank to the 
lieutenants or commanders-in-chief under the general ; as 
the prcp/ectus lepiunis was the most honourable post in 
the Roman armies after that of the military tribunes. 
The business of t: e former was, among other articles, to 
decide all controversies that arose among the soldiers ; 
and that of the latter was to carry the chief standard of 
the legion. 

x This is the same person in whose behalf the foregoing 
letter to Caesar is written, and which seems to have had so 
good an effect, that we find him mentioned by Suetonius 
as in the number of Caesar's particular favourites. lie 
appears, in this earlier part of bis life-, to have been of a 
more gay and indolent disposition than is consistent with 
making a figure in business : but he afterwards, however, 
became a very celebrated law vim-: and one of the most 

agreeable satires of Horace is addressed to him under that 
honourable character. If the English reader is desirous 
of being acquainted with the spirit of that performance, 
be will find it preserved, and even improved, among Mr. 
Pope's excellent imitations of Horace. — Suet, in Vit. Jul. 
Caes. ; Ilor. Sat. ii. 1 ; Pope's Poems, vol. ii. p. 109. 



your merit and assiduity shall have obtained the 
desired effect. In the mean time, your friends here 
will excuse your absence, no less than the ladies of 
Corinth did that of Medea in the play ?, when she 
artfully persuades them not to impute it to her as 
a ciime that she had forsaken her country. For, 
as she tells them, 

" There are who distant from their native soil, 
Still for their own and country's glory toil : 
While some, fast rooted to their parent spot, 
In life are useless, and in death forgot." 

In this last inglorious class you would most cer- 
tainly have been numbered, had not your friends 
all conspired in forcing you from Rome. But 
more of this another time : in the meanwhile, let 
me advise you, who know so well how to manage 
securities for others, to secure yourself from the 
British charioteers z . And since I have been playing 
the Medea, let me make my exit with the following 
lines of the same tragedy, which are well worth 
your constant remembrance : 

" His wisdom, sure, on folly's confines lies, 
Who, wise for others, for himself 's unwise." 

Farewell. 



LETTER X. 

To the same. 
I take all opportunities of writing in your 
favour : and I shall be glad you would let me know 
with what success. My chief reliance is 
A " u " ' ' on Balbus: in my letters to whom I fre- 
quently and warmly recommend your interest. ' But 
why do you not let me hear from you every time 
my brother despatches a courier ? 

I am informed there is neither gold nor silver in 
all Britain a . If that should be the case, I would 

y Medea being enamoured of Jason, assisted him in 
obtaining the golden fleece, and then fled with him from 
her father's court. He afterwards, however, deserted her 
for Creusa, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth, whom 
Medea destroyed by certain magical arts. Ennius, a 
Roman poet, who flourished about a century before the 
date of this letter, formed a play upon this story ; from 
which performance the following lines are quoted. 

z The armies of the ancient Britons were partly com- 
posed of troops who fought in open chariots, to the axle- 
trees of which were fixed a kind of short scythe, — Caes. 
De Bell. Gall. iv. 29: Sir William Temple's Introduction 
to the Hist, of England. 

a A notion had prevailed among the Unmans, that 
Britain abounded in gold and silver mines : and this re- 
port, it is probable, first suggested to Caesar the design of 
conquering our island. It was soon discovered, however, 
that these sources of wealth existed only in their own 
imaginations : and all their hopes of plunder ended in the 
little advantage they could make by the sale of their 
prisoners. Cicero, taking notice of this circumstance to 
Atticus, ridicules the poverty and ignorance of our British 
ancestors; which gives occasion to the ingenious historian 
of his life, to breakout into the following pertinent and 
useful observations : •• From their railleries of this kind 
(says Dr Middleton) one cannot help reflecting on the 
surprising fate and revolutions of kingdoms: how Home, 
once the mistress Of the world, the seat of arts, empire, 
and glory, now lies sunk in sloth, ignorance, and poverty ; 
enslaved to the most cruel as well as to the most con- 
temptible of tyrants, superstition and religious imposture : 
while this remote country, anciently the jest and contempt 
of the polite Romans, is become the happy seat of liberty, 
plenty, and letters, flourishing in all the arts and refine- 
ments of civil life ; yet running perhaps the same course 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



363 



advise you to seize one of the enemy's military 
cars, and drive back to us with all expedition. But 
if you think you shail be able to make your fortune 
without the assistance of British spoils, by all 
means establish yourself in Caesar's friendship. 
To be serious ; both my brother and Balbus will 
be of great service to you for that purpose : but, 
believe me, your own merit and assiduity will 
prove your best recommendation. You have every 
favourable circumstance indeed for your advance- 
ment that can be wished. On the one hand, you 
are in the prime and vigour of your years : as on 
the other, yon are serving under a commander 
distinguished for the generosity of his disposition, 
and to whom you have been recommended in the 
strongest terms. In a word, there is not the least 
fear of your success, if your own concurrence be 
not wanting. Farewell. 



LETTER XL 

To the same. 

I have received a very obliging letter from Caesar, 

wherein he tells me, that though his numberless 

occupations have hitherto prevented him 

a. a. 099. c a. x. - %. 

from seeing you so often as he wishes, 

he will certainly find an opportunity of being better 

acquainted with you. I have assured him in return, 

how extremely acceptable his generous services to 

you would prove to myself. But surely you are 

much too precipitate in your determinations : and 

I could not but wonder that you should have 

refused the advantages of a tribune's commission, 

especially as you might have been excused it seems 

from the functions of that post. If you continue 

to act thus indiscreetly, I shall certainly exhibit 

an information against you to your friends Vacerra 

and Manilius. I dare not venture, however, to 

lay the case before Cornelius: for as you profess to 

have learned all your wisdom from his instructions, 

to arraign the pupil of imprudence would be a 

tacit reflection, you know, upon the tutor. But 

in good earnest, I conjure you not to lose the 

fairest opportunity of making your fortune, that 

probably will ever fall again in your way. 

I frequently recommend your interests to Pre- 

cianus whom you mention ; and he writes me word 

that he has done you some good offices. Let me 

know of what kind they are. I expect a letter 

upon your arrival in Britain. Farewell. 



LETTER XII. 

To the same. 
I have made your acknowledgments to my 
brother, in pursuance of your request : and am glad 
to have an occasion of applauding vou for 
• " being fixed at last in some settled reso- 
lution. The style of your former letters, I will 
own, gave me a good deal of uneasiness. And 

which Rome itself had run' before it ; from virtuous 
industry to wealth ; from wealth to luxury ; from luxury 
to an impatience of discipline, and corruption of morals; 
till, by a total degeneracy and loss of virtue, being: grown 
ripe for destruction, it falls a prey at last to some hardy 
oppressor, and, with the loss of liberty, losing everything 
else that is valuable, sinks gradually again into its original 
barbarism."— Ad Att. iv. ; Life of Cicero, p. 137. 



allow me to say, that in some of them you disco- 
vered an impatience to return to the polite refine- 
ments of Rome, which had the appearance of much 
levity : that in some I regretted your indolence, 
and in others your timidity. They frequently, 
likewise, gave me occasion to think that you were 
not altogether so reasonable in your expectations 
as is agreeable to your usual modesty. One would 
have imagined indeed you had carried a bill of 
exchange upon Caesar, instead of a letter of recom- 
mendation : for you seemed to think you had 
nothing more to do than to receive your money 
and hasten home again. But money, my friend, 
is not so easily acquired : and I could name some 
of our acquaintance who have been obliged to 
travel as far as Alexandria in pursuit of it, without 
having yet been able to obtain even their just 
demands b . If my inclinations were governed solely 
by my interest, I should certainly choose to have 
you here : as nothing affords me more pleasure than 
your company, or more advantage than your advice 
and assistance. But as you sought my friendship 
and patronage from your earliest youth, I always 
thought it incumbent upon me to act with a disin- 
terested view to your welfare ; and not only to 
give you my protection, but to advance, by every 
means in my power, both your fortunes and your 
dignities. In consequence of which I dare say 
you have not forgotten those unsolicited offers I 
made you, when I had thoughts of being employed 
abroad c . I no sooner gave up my intentions of 
this kind, and perceived that Caesar treated me 
with great distinction and friendship, than I recom- 
mended you in the strongest and warmest terms to 
his favour, perfectly well knowing the singular 
probity and benevolence of his heart. Accordingly 
he showed, not only by his letters to me, but by 
his conduct towards you, the great regard he paid 
to my recommendation. If you have any opinion 
therefore of my judgment, or imagine that I sin- 
cerely wish you well, let me persuade you to 
continue with him. And notwithstanding you 
should meet with some things to disgust you ; as 
business perhaps, or other obstructions, may render 
him less expeditious in gratifying your views than 
you had reason to expect ; still however persevere, 
and trust me, you will find it prove in the end both 
for your interest and your honour. To exhort you 
any farther might look like impertinence : let me 
only remind you, that if you lose this opportunity 
of improving your fortunes you will never meet 
again with so generous a patron, so rich a province, 
or so convenient a season for this purpose. And 
( to express myself in the style of you lawyers) 
Cornelius has given his opinion to the same effect. 
I am glad, for my sake as well as yours, that you 
did not attend Caesar into Britain, as it has not 
only saved you the fatigue of a very disagreeable 
expedition, but me likewise that of being the per- 
petual auditor of your wonderful exploits. Let me 
know in what part of the world you are likely to 
take up your winter-quarters, and in what post 
you are, or expect to be, employed. Farewell. 

h This alludes to those who supplied Ptolemy with 
money when he was soliciting his affairs in Rome ; an 
account of which has already been given in the notes on 
the foregoing book. — See rem. i , p. 344. 

c See rem. t, p. 361. 



; 364 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XIII. 

To the same. 

It is a considerable time since I have heard any 

thing from you. As for myself, if I have not 

written these three months, it was because, 

' u ' * after you were separated from my brother, 
I neither knew where to address my letters, nor by 
what hand to convey them. I much wish to be 
informed how your affairs go on, and in what part 
of the world your winter-quarters are likely to be 
fixed. I should be glad they might be with Caesar : 
but as I wouldnot venture, in his present affliction* 1 , 
to trouble him with a letter, I have written upon 
that subject to Balbus. In the meanwhile, let me 
entreat you not to be wanting to yourself : and for 
my own part, I am contented to give up so much 
more of your company, provided the longer you 
stay abroad the richer you should return. There 
is nothing I think particularly to hasten you home, 
now that Vacerra is dead. However you are the 
best judge, and I should be glad to know what you 
have determined. 

There is a queer fellow of your acquaintance, 
one Octavius or Cornelius (I do not perfectly 
recollect his name) who is perpetually inviting me, 
as a friend of yours, to sup with him. He has not 
yet prevailed with me to accept his compliment : 
however, I am obliged to the man. Farewell. 



LETTER XIV. 

To Munatius e . 
Lucius Livineius Trypho is the freedman of 
my very intimate friend Regulus : and though the 
misfortunes of the latter cannot raise him 
higher in my affection, they have, however, 
rendered me more assiduous to testify it in every 
instance wherein he is the least concerned. But I 
have still a farther reason to interest myself in 
behalf of his freedman, as I experienced his services 
at a season when I had the best opportunity of 
proving the sincerity of my friends. I recommend 
him therefore to your protection with all the warmth 
of the most sensible gratitude ; and I shall be 
extremely obliged to you for showing him that you 
place to your own account those many dangerous 
winter voyages he formerly undertook upon mine. 
Farewell. 



a. u. 699. 



d Caesar about this time lost his daughter Julia, who 
died in child-bed. She was married to Pompey, who was 
so passionately fond of her, that she seems, during the 
short time they lived together, to have taken entire pos- 
session of his whole heart, and to have turned all his 
ambition into the single desire of appearing amiable" in 
her eye. The death of tins young lady proved a public 
calamity, as it dissolved the only forcible bond of union 
between her father and her husband, and hastened that 
rupture which ended in the destruction of the common- 
wealth. It is in allusion to this that the elegant Pater- 
culus calls hw medium male coheerentis inter Pompeium 
et Ccesarem concordat' pignus. — Plut. in Vit. Pomp, et 
Caes. ; Veil. Pat. i. 47. 

e The person to whom this letter is addressed is un- 
known, as is the precise time, likewise, when it was 
written. It seems probable, however, not to have been 
very long after Cicero's return from banishment. For by 
the expression, his nostris temporibus, he undoubtedly 
alludes (as Mr. Ross observes) to the misfortunes which 
were brought upon him by Clodius. 



LETTER XV. 

To Trebatius. 

I perceive by your letter, that my friend Csesar 
looks upon you as a most wonderful lawyer ; and 
are you not happy in being thus placed 
' in a country w 7 here you make so consider- 
able a figure upon so small a stock f ? But with 
how much greater advantage would your noble 
talents have appeared had you gone into Britain ? 
Undoubtedly there would not have been so pro- 
found a sage in the law throughout all that extensive 
island. 

Since your epistle has provoked me to be thus 
jocose, I will proceed in the same strain, and tell 
you there was one part of it I could not read without 
some envy ; and how indeed could it be otherwise, 
when I found that, whilst much greater men were 
in vain attempting to get admittance to Caesar, you 
were singled out from the crowd, and even sum- 
moned to an audience?? But after giving me an 
account of affairs which concern others, why were 
you silent as to your own, assured as you are that 
I interest myself in them with as much zeal as if 
they immediately related to myself. Accordingly, 
as I am extremely afraid you will have no employ- 
ment to keep you warm in your winter-quarters, 1 
would by all means advise you to lay in a sufficient 
quantity of fuel. Both Mucius and Manilius h have 
given their opinions to the same purpose ; espe- 
cially as your regimentals, they apprehend, will 
scarce be ready soon enough to secure you against 
the approaching cold. We hear, however, there 
has been hot work in your part of the world, which 
somewhat alarmed me for your safety ; but I com- 
forted myself with considering that you are not 
altogether so desperate a soldier as you are a lawyer. 
It is a wonderful consolation indeed to your friends 
to be assured that your passions are not an over- 
match for your prudence. Thus, as much as I 
know you love the water, you would not venture 1 , 

I The ludicrous author of the " Tale of a Tub" has 
applied this passage with more humour, perhaps, than it 
was first conceived. He is accounting for the propagation 
of the several absurd doctrines of philosophy and religion 
that have prevailed in the world, by supposing that every 
system-maker is always sure of finding a set of disciples 
whose tone of understanding is exactly pitched to the 
absurdity or extravagance of his tenets. " And in this one 
circumstance," says he, " lies all the skill or luck of the 
matter. Cicero understood this very well, when writing 
to a friend in England, with a caution, among other 
matters, to beware of being cheated by our hackney- 
coachmen, (who, it seems, in those days, were as errant 
rascals as they are now) has these remarkable words : 
est quod gaud eas te in ista loca venisse, ul>i aliquid sapere 
viderere. For, to speak a bold truth, it is a fatal mis- 
carriage, so ill to order affairs, as to pass for a fool in one 
company, when in another you might be treated as a 
philosopher ; which I desire some certain gentlemen of 
my acquaintance to lav up in their hearts as a very sea- 
sonable innuendo." — Tale of a Tub, p. 164. 

8 Trebatius. it is probable, had informed Cieero, in the 
letter to which this is an answer, that he had been sum- 
moned by Cesar to attend him as his assessor upon some 
trial ; which seems to have led our author into the railleries 
of this and the preceding passages. 

h Mucins and Manilius, it must be supposed, were two 
lawyers, and particular friends of Trebatius, as the humour 
of tills witticism evidently consists in an allusion to that 
profession. 

1 In the original it is studiosissimus homo natandi, the 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



3C5 



I find, to ci-oss it with Csesar ; and though nothing 
could keep you from the combats J in Rome, you 
were much too wise I perceive to attend them in 
Britain k . 

But pleasantry apart : you know without my 
telling you with what zeal I have recommended 
you to Csesar ; though perhaps you may not be 
apprised, that I have frequently as well as warmly 
written to him upon that subject. I had for some 
time indeed intermitted my solicitations, as I would 
not seem to distrust his friendship and generosity ; 
however, I thought proper in my last to remind 
him once more of his promise. I desire you would 
let me know what effect my letter has produced, 
and at the same time give me a full account of 
every thing that concerns you. For I am exceed- 
ingly anxious to be informed of the prospect and 
situation of your affairs, as well as how long you 
imagine your absence is likely to continue. Be 
persuaded that nothing could reconcile me to this 
separation, but the hopes of its proving to your 
advantage. In any other view, I should not be so 
impolitic as not to insist on your return ; as you 
would be too prudent I dare say to delay it. The 
truth is, one hour's gay or serious conversation 

ambiguity of which could not have been preserved in a 
more literal translation. The art of swimming was among 
the number of polite exercises in ancient Rome, and 
esteemed a necessary qualification for every gentleman. 
Thus we find Cato the elder himself instructing his son in 
this accomplishment; as Augustus likewise performed 
the same office in the education of his two grandsons, 
Caius and Lucius. It was, indeed, one of the essential arts 
in military discipline, as both the soldiers and officers had 
frequently no other means of pursuing or retreating from 
the enemy. Accordingly the Campus Martius, a place 
where the Roman youth were taught the science of arms, 
was situated on the banks of the Tiber; and they con- 
stantly finished their exercises of this kind by throwing 
themselves into the river. — This shows the wonderful pro- 
priety of those noble lines which Shakspeare puts into the 
mouth of Cassius, in that masterly scene where he is 
endeavouring to sound the sentiments, and fire the indig- 
nation of Brutus towards Cassar. 

We can both 
Endure the winter's cold as well as he. 
For once upon a raw and gusty day, 
The troubled Tiber chafing with his shores, 
Cassar says to me, " Darest thou, Cassius, now 
Leap in with me into this angry flood, 
And swim to yonder point ? " Upon the word, 
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in, 
And bade him follow : so indeed he did. 
The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it 
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside, 
And stemming it with hearts of controversy. 
But ere we could arrive the point proposed, 
Csesar cried, " Help me, Cassius, or I sink ! " 
I, as ./Eneas, our great ancestor, 
Did from the flames of Troy, upon his shoulder, 
The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber 
Did I the tired C'gesar : and this man 
Is now become a God, &c. 
Monsieur Dacier observes, that this passage of Cicero dis- 
covers the justness of those verses in Horace, where 
Trebatius is represented as advising the Roman satirist to 
swim across the Tiber, as an excellent remedy against his 
poetical propensity : since, like other physicians, he pre- 
scribed a regimen, it seems, most agreeable to his own 
taste and practice.— Plut. in Vit. Cato. Censor. ; Suet, in 
Vit. August. 64 ; Veget. de Re Milit. i. 10 ; Dacier, Rem. 
but la Sat. i. du liv. ii. d'Horace. 
J Alluding to his fondness of the gladiatorial games. 
k See rem. r, p. 361. 



together is of more importance to us than all the 
foes and all the friends that the whole nation of 
Gaul can produce. I intreat you therefore to send 
me an immediate account in what posture your 
affairs stand ; and be assured, as honest Chremes 
says to his neighbour in the play 1 , 
" Whatever cares thy lab 'ring bosom grieve, 
My tongue shall soothe them, or my hand relieve." 

Farewell. 



LETTER XVI. 

To the same. 

You remember the character given of the Phry- 
gians in the play m , " that their wisdom ever came 
too late :" but you are resolved, my dear 
' cautious old gentleman 11 , that no impu- 
tation of this kind shall be fixed upon you. Thank 
heaven, indeed, you wisely subdued the romantic 
spirit of your first letters, as you were not so obsti- 
nately bent upon new adventures, as to hazard a 
voyage for that purpose into Britain ; and who, in 
troth, can blame you ? It is the same disposition, I 
imagine, that has immovably fixed you in your win- 
ter-quarters, and certainly there is nothing like acting 
with circumspection upon all occasions. Take my 
word for it, prudence is the safest shield. 

If it were usual with me to sup from home, most 
undoubtedly I could not refuse your gallant friend 
Octavius. I will own, however, I love to mortify 
the man's vanity ; and whenever he invites me I 
always affect to look with some surprise, as not 
seeming to recollect his person. Seriously, he is a 
wondrous pretty fellow ; what pity it is that you 
did not take him abroad with you . 

Let me know how you are employed, and whether 
there is any probability of seeing you in Italy this 
winter. Balbus assures me, that you will certainly 
return immensely rich ; but whether he means in 
the vulgar sense, or agreeably to the maxim of his 
friends the Stoics, who maintain, you know, "that 
every man is rich who has the free enjoyment of 
earth and air," is a doubt which time will clear 
up. 

I find, by those who come from your part of the 
world, that you are grown wonderfully reserved ; 
for they tell me you answer no queries?. However, 
it is on all hands a settled point, (and you have 

1 In Terence's play called the " Self-tormentor." 

m A tragedy called the " Trojan Horse," which seems, 
by Cicero's frequent quotations from it, to have been in 
great esteem. 

n The celebrated Monsieur Dacier produces this passage 
as a proof that Trebatius must have been more than four- 
score years of age, when Horace addressed the satire to 
him mentioned in the remarks on the preceding letter. 
But that learned critic has been led into this error by 
taking in a serious sense, what Cicero most evidently 
meant in a ludicrous one. 

See the conclusion of let. xiii. p. 364. 

P The witticism of this passage consists in the double 
sense of the verb respondere, which, besides its common 
acceptation, signifies likewise the giving an opinion as a 
laicyer. This conceit, such as it is, seems to have been a 
favourite one with our author, for he repeats it in a sub- 
sequent letter, where he is rallying another of his friends 
upon an occasion of the same nature.— See ran. h on letter 
23 of this book. But— 

Antoni gladios potuit contemnere, si sic 
Omnia dixisset ! Juv. 



366 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



reason, certainly, to congratulate yourself upon it,) 
that you are the most profound sage in the law 
throughout the whole city of Samarobrivai. Fare- 
well. 



LETTER XVII. 

To Lentulus. 

It is with singular pleasure I perceive, by your 
letter, that you are sensible, I will not say of ray 
affection only, but of my devotion towards 
a. u. 699. y 0U Even that sacred term, indeed, can 
but ill express the sentiments you merit from me ; 
and if you esteem yourself (as you would persuade 
me) obliged by my endeavours to serve you, it is 
your friendship alone which can make you think 
so. I am sure, at least, I could not refuse you my 
best good offices without being guilty of the most 
unpardonable ingratitude. You would have ex- 
perienced, however, much stronger and more 
powerful instances of my friendship if, instead of 
being thus long separated from each other, we had 
passed this interval together at Rome. It is not 
only in the particular article you mention, and in 
which no man is more qualified to shine, that I 
impatiently wish to receive you as my coadjutor ; it 
is not, I say, in the senate alone that our amicable 
concurrence would have been distinguished, — it 
would have appeared conspicuous, my friend, in 
every act of public concernment. Suffer me then 
to add, previously to the information you request 
me to give you of my political sentiments and 
situation, that if fortune had not thus divided us I 
should have enjoyed in you a wise and faithful 
guide, as you would have found in me a kind, a 
friendly, and, perhaps, no unexperienced associate. 
However, I rejoice (as undoubtedly I ought) at 
the honourable occasion of your absence, and in 
which your military conduct and success has 
procured you the illustrious title of imperator*. 
Nevertheless, I must repeat it again, it is owing to 
this circumstance that you have not received far 
more abundant and efficacious fruits of that friend- 
ship to which you have so undisputed a claim. 
In particular, I should most strenuously have 
united with you in taking just vengeance on those 
whose ill offices you have experienced, partly in 
resentment of your having supported and protected 
me in my adversity, and partly as they envy you 
the glory of so generous an action. One of them, 
however, has sufficiently anticipated our revenge, 
and drawn down by his own hands the chastisement 
he merits from ours. The person I mean is that 
man who has ever distinguished himself by oppos- 
ing his benefactors, and who, after having received 
from you the highest services, singled you out as 
the object of his impotent malice. This man, in 
consequence of being detected in his late infamous 
attempts, has entirely and irretrievably lost at once 
both his honour and his liberty s . As to yourself, 

1 A principal town in Gaul, now called Amiens, and 
where Trebatius seems to have had his winter-quarters. 

r History is altogether silent as tp the occasion upon 
which Lentulus was saluted by his army with this title. 

s The conjecture of Manutius seems highly probable, 
that the person to whom Cicero alludes is Caius Cato, 
whose ill offices to Lentulus have been often mentioned in 
the preceding letters. But what the secret practices were 
which had been discovered so much to his disgrace, is a 
point in which history does not afford any light. 



though I had much rather you should gain ex- 
perience by my misfortunes than your own, yet it 
affords me some consolation, under your present 
disappointment 1 , that you have not paid so severe 
a fine as I did for being taught the little dependence 
there is upon the professions of the world : a 
reflection this which may very properly serve as 
an introduc ion to the account you require of the 
motives of my late transactions. 

You are informed then, it seems, that I am 
reconciled with Caesar and Appius u ; a step, you 
assure me, which you do not disapprove. But you 
are at a loss to guess what reasons could induce 
me to appear at the trial of Vatinius, not only as 
an advocate but as a witness in his favour 7 . To 
set this matter in the clearest light, it will be 
necessary to trace back the motives of my conduct 
to their original source. Let me observe then, my 
Lentulus, that when I was recalled from exile by 
your generous offices, T considered myself as restored 
not only to my friends and to my family but to the 
commonwealth in general. And as you had a right 
to the best returns of my affection and gratitude 
for the distinguished part you acted in that affair, 
so I thought there was something more than 
ordinary due from me to my country, which had so 
singularly co-operated with you upon this occasion. 
I often took an opportunity during your consulate 
of publicly declaring these my sentiments in the 
senate, as I always, you well know, expressed 
myself to the same purpose in our private conver- 
sations. Nevertheless, I had many reasons at that 
time to be highly disgusted. I could not in truth 
but observe the disguised malice of some, and the 
coolness of others, when you were endeavouring to 
procure a decree for restoring the inscription of 
that honourable monument of my public services 
which had been erected by the senate w . But it 

* In not obtaining the commission to replace Ptolemy on 
his throne. 

«• He was embroiled with Appius, as being the brother of 
his inveterate enemy, Clodius. 

v It was customary at trials for the person arraigned to 
produce witnesses to his character, who were called lauda- 
tores, and ten was the number requisite for this purpose. 
Vatinius was tribune of the people in the consulate of 
Ca?sar, and had been in the number of Cicero's most invet- 
erate enemies, as he was his constant opposer likewise in 
politics. He was a man of a most abandoned character, 
and whose person (as Paterculus assures us) was not less 
deformed than his mind. A very learned and polite author, 
Avhose just esteem for Cicero's writings has betrayed him, 
perhaps, into some partiality towards his actions, acknow- 
ledges tl) at "the defence of Vatinius gave a plausible 
handle for some censure upon Cicero." The truth of it is, 
the censure was more than plausible, for nothing certainly 
could discover more meanness of spirit than thus, in com- 
pliance with those in power, not only to defend Vatinius 
as an advocate, but to bear public testimony likewise to 
his general good conduct. Some colourable excuse, 
indeed, may be given for the former, by considering it in 
the light which Valerius Maximus has placed it, as an 
instance of Cicero's generosity towards his enemies; but 
the latter seems to stand beyond the reach even of a 
plausible justification. — Veil Pat. ii. 69; Val. Max. iv. 2. 

w The expression which Cicero makes use of in this 
place is ambiguous : — " neque do monummtis meis ab iis 
adjutus, es," &c. The commentators have supposed that 
this relates to Cicero's house : but Mr. Ross, with much 
greater probability, imagines it alludes to the Atrium 
Liber tatis, which had been erected by order of the senate, 
as a memorial of Cicero's services in rescuing the common- 
wealth from the dangerous conspiracy of Catiline. For 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



367 



was not only in this instance that those who had 
many obligations to concur in your good offices 
towards me, acted a part I had little reason to 
expect. They looked indeed with much ungener- 
ous indifference on the cruel outrage which was 
offered to my brother and myself under our own 
roof x , and the estimate they made, in pursuance of 
the senate's order, of the damages I had sustained 
by these acts of violence, was far unequal to my 
real loss^. This last article of their injustice, 
though least indeed in my concern, I could not but 
very sensibly feel amidst the general wreck of my 
fortunes. But though these mortifying marks of 
their disposition towards me were much too notor- 
ious to escape my observation, they could not 
efface the more agreeable impressions of their 
former friendship. For this reason, notwithstand- 
ing those high obligations I had to Pompey, of 
which you yourself were witness and have often 
mentioned, notwithstanding also the affection and 
esteem which I always entertained for him, yet I 
still firmly adhered to my political principles, nor 
suffered these considerations of private amity to 
influence me in favour of his public measures. 
Accordingly, when Vatinius (who at the trial of P. 
Sextius z was examined as a witness against him) 
intimated that Caesar's successes had reconciled 
me to his party, I told him, in the presence of 
Pompey, that I preferred the fate of Bibulus, un- 
happy as he might esteem it, to all the splendid 
triumphs of the most victorious general 3 -. I 

Clodius had erased the original inscription, and placed his 
own name in its stead.— See rem. w on this letter, p. 370. 

x Clodius, after having procured a law which declared 
it treason to vote or take any step towards recalling Cicero 
from his banishment, proceeded to pillage and burn all his 
houses both in town and country. Cicero, however, being 
restored in the manner which he himself will relate, in a 
subsequent part of this letter, the senate decreed that his 
houses should be rebuil t at the public expense. But while 
the workmen were employed on his Palatine house, and 
had carried it up almost to the roof, Clodius made a 
second attack, and after driving them off, set fire to the 
adjoining edifice, which belonged to Cicero's brother, and 
wherein he himself likewise at that time was ; so that 
they were both obliged to make their escape with the 
utmost precipitation. — Ad Att. iv. ; Orat. post. Red. 

y His house upon the Palatine hill in Rome, together 
with his Tusculan and Formian villas, were jointly esti- 
mated at 22,0001. a valuation universally condemned as 
extremely unequitable. But "those who had dipt his 
wings (as he expresses himself in a letter to Atticus upon 
this occasion) were not disposed they should grow again." 
It seems highly probable that Lentulus himself was in this 
number ; as it appears, by a letter of our author to his 
brother, that he had reasons to be dissatisfied with his 
conduct towards him. But though, in the passage before 
us, he speaks of the injustice that had been done him, as 
arising solely from those who were concerned with Len- 
tulus in taking an estimate of his losses ; yet, at the same 
time, he expresses himself in such a manner, as to throw 
a very artful reproach upon the latter.— Ad Att. iv. 2 ; Ad 
Quint. Fiat. ii. 2. 

z " P. Sextius was a tribune of the people A. U. 696 in 
the consulship of Lentulus, and a great instrument in 
restoring Cicero. He resisted the faction of Clodius by 
force of arms, and was upon that account, in the following 
year, accused of public violence by M. Tullius Albinovanus. 
Cicero defended him in an excellent oration, which is SlM 
extant, and he was acquitted by the suffrages of all the 
judges." — Ross. 

a M. Calpurnius Bibulus was joint consul with J.Ca?sar 
A. U. 694. The senate secured the election of the former, 
in order to his being a check to the ambitious designs of 



asserted, likewise, upon another occasion (and 
asserted too in the hearing of Pompey,) that the 
same persons who confined Bibulus to his house 
had driven me from mine. Indeed, the whole 
series of those interrogatories 15 , which I put to 
Vatinius at this trial, was entirely designed as an 
invective against his tribunate ; and I particularly 
exposed, with much freedom and indignation, his 
contempt of the auspices, his corrupt disposal of 
foreign kingdoms , together with the rest of his 
violent and illegal proceedings. But it was not 
only upon this occasion that I spoke thus unre- 
servedly, I frequently avowed my sentiments with 
the same resolute spirit in the senate. Thus, when 
Marcellinus and Philippus were d consuls, I carried 
a motion that the affair of the Campanian lands e 
should be referred to the re-consideration of a full 
house f , on the 15th of May following. Now tell 

his colleague ; and it was thought of so much importance 
to the republic that he should be chosen, thai even Cato 
did not scruple upon this occasion to employ methods of 
bribery for that purpose. But Bibulus, after many vain 
efforts of patriotism, and being grossly insulted in the 
forum by Caesar's mob, at length withdrew from the func- 
tions of his office, and voluntarily confined himself (as 
Suetonius relates) to his own house ; though by the expres- 
sion which Tully here uses, it rather seems as if Ca?sar 
had employed some force in keeping him there. After 
which, as the same historian informs us, Ca?sar governed 
the republic without control. — Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cass. c.20. 

b " Cicero, instead of examining Vatinius upon the 
facts in his evidence against Sextius, put to him a series 
of questions in such an artful manner, that he exposed all 
the intrigues and iniquity of his tribunate. This exami- 
nation is still extant, under the title of Interrogate in 
Vatinium." — Ross. 

c It is wholly uncertain to what particular facts Cicero 
alludes, when he imputes to Vatinius what he calls the 
donatio regnoruni: however, by comparing this expression 
with the oration to which it refers, and with a passage in 
a letter to Atticus, it seems probable that Vatinius, when 
he was tribune, had been bribed to procure a confirmation 
from the people of some disputed regal title, or perhaps 
to obtain assistance from the republic, in transferring a 
contested crown from its rightful possessor into the hands 
of a usurper. It is certain at least that such unworthy 
methods were frequently practised at this time, in order 
to gratify the insatiable avarice and profusion of these 
degenerate Romans. — Orat. in Vatin. ; Ad Att. ii. 9. 

d They were consuls, A. U. 697. 

e The lands in Campania, a district in Italy, now called 
the Terra di Lavoro, in the kingdom of Naples, were partly 
appropriated to the use of the republic, and partly in 
private hands. Cassar had procured a law for dividing 
the former among 25,000 poor citizens, and for purchasing 
the latter in order to distribute them in the same man- 
ner. Both these designs seem to have been very artfully 
calculated by Caesar to promote and facilitate his grand 
purpose of usurping the supreme power. For by parcel- 
ling out these lands among the common people which 
belonged to the republic, he secured the populace to his 
interest, and, at the same time, deprived the government of 
those very considerable supplies, both of money and corn, 
which it derived from its demesnes in Campania ; as on 
the other side, by purchasing the remainder of these 
estates, he must necessarily have weakened those public 
treasures which were already much impoverished, and 
consequently rendered the commonwealth less capable of 
opposing his ambitious measures. — Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cass. 
20 ; Cic. Agrar. ii. 29. 

f A decree of the senate had not its complete force, 
unless it passed in a full house; that is, when a com- 
petent number of the members were present. It seems, 
by a passage which Manutius quotes from Dio, 1. 54, that 
before the times of Augustus, who made some alteration 



368 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



me, my friend, could I possibly have made a 
bolder or more formidable attack upon this 
party ? Could I possibly have given a more 
convincing evidence that I had not departed from 
my old principles, notwithstanding all I had for- 
merly suffered for their sake? The truth of it is, 
this motion greatly exasperated not only those 
whom it was reasonable to expect it would offend, 
but others upon whom I did not imagine it would 
have had any such effect. Pompey, soon after 
this decree had passed, set forward upon his expe- 
dition into Sardinia and Africa s, without giving 
me the least intimation of his being disgusted. In 
his way thither he had a conference with Caesar at 
Lucca 1 ', who made great complaints of this motion. 
He had before, it seems, been informed of it by 
Crassus at Ravenna 1 , who took that opportunity of 
incensing him against me : and it appeared after- 
wards that Pompey was likewise much dissatisfied 
upon the same account. This I learned from 
several hands, but particularly from my brother, 
who met him in Sardinia a few days after he had 
left Lucca. Pompey told him he was extremely 
glad of that accidental interview, as he wanted 
much to talk with him. He began with saying, 
that as my brother stood engagedJ for my conduct 
he should expect him to exert all his endeavours 
to influence me accordingly. Pompey then pro- 
ceeded very warmly to remonstrate against my late 
motion in the senate ; reminding my brother of his 
services to us both, and particularly of what had 
passed between them concerning Caesar's edicts, 
and of those assurances, he said, my brother had 
given him of the measures I would pursue with 
respect to that article. He added, that my brother 
himself was a witness that the steps he had formerly 
taken for procuring my recal were with the full 
consent and approbation of Caesar. Upon the 
whole, therefore, he entreated him, if it were either 

therein, the number requisite to make an act valid was 
400. 

S This expedition of Pompey into Sardinia and Africa, 
was in pursuance of the commission with which he had 
been invested for supplying the public magazines with 
corn. See rem. m , p. 345. 

h Lucca was a frontier town in Caesar's province of 
Cisalpine Gaul, adjoining to Italy : it still subsists under 
the same name, and is a celebrated republic. It was 
Caesar's policy, at the end of every campaign, to fix his 
winter-quarters as near Italy as possible, in order to be 
within observation of Avhat passed at Rome. A numerous 
court was immediately formed around him in these places 
of his residence, consisting of the most distinguished per- 
sons in Rome, and the neighbouring provinces, and no less 
than 200 senators have been observed among the attend- 
ants upon these-occasions. Candidates for offices ; young 
men who had run out their estates ; and, in a word, all 
whose affairs of any kind were embarrassed, flocked to 
him in these cities; and by liberal concessions to their 
respective wants and interests, he strengthened his fac- 
tion, and forwarded his grand enterprise. It was thus 
(as the judicious Plutarch observes) lie had the address to 
employ the forces of the republic against Gaul, and the 
spoilsof Caul against the republic— Plut. in Vit. Jul. Caes. 
et Pomp. ; Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cass. 

' A city in Cisalpine Caul, still subsisting under the 
same name, in the Pope's dominions. 

J This alludes to those engagements which Quintus 
Cicero entered into in behalf of his brother, in order to 
induce Pompey to favour his recal from banishment. 
And it appears by what follows, that he promised, on the 
part of Cicero, an unlimited resignation to the measures 
of that ambitious chief. 



not in my power or my inclination to support the 
interest and dignity of the latter, that he would at 
least prevail with me not to oppose them. The 
account which my brother gave me of this conver- 
sation, together with a message I had before 
received from Pompey by Vibullius, to request 
that 1 would not proceed any farther in the affair 
of the Campanian lands till his return, threw me 
into a very serious train of reflections. I could 
not but think, after having performed and suffered 
so much for my country, that I might now at least 
be permitted to consider what was due to gratitude 
and to the honour of my brother ; and as I had 
ever conducted myself with integrity towards the 
public, I might be allowed, I hoped, to act the 
same honest part in my more private connexions k . 

During the time I was engaged in these votes 
and other proceedings with which Pompey appeared 
thus dissatisfied, I was informed of what passed in 
the conversations of a set of men whom you will 
now guess without my naming. This party, though 
they approved of my public measures as being 
agreeable to what had ever been their professed 
sentiments, were yet so ungenerous as to express 
great satisfaction in believing that my conduct 
would by no means oblige Pompey, at the same 
time that it would highly exasperate Csesar. Well 
might I resent, indeed, so injurious a treatment, — 
but much more when I saw them, even before my 
face, maliciously encouraging and caressing my 
avowed enemy 1 . Mine do I call him ? Rather 
let me say an enemy to the laws and tranquillity 
of his country, and to every character of worth and 
virtue amongst us. 

Their malevolence, however, had not the effect 
they intended, and it could not warm me into those 
transports of indignation of which my heart is now, 
indeed, no longer susceptible. On the contrary, 
it only induced me to examine my situation in all 
its various circumstances and relations with the 
greatest coolness and impartiality ; the process and 
result of which I will lay before you in as few 
words as I am able. 

There have been times, as experience no less 

k The destructive views of Caesar, in procuring the law 
in question, have been already considered in these notes : 
weak, therefore, undoubtedly, is the reason which Cicero 
here assigns, for renouncing an opposition so evidently 
important to the true interest of his country. Had Cffisar 
and Pompey, indeed, been ever so much his real friends, 
no considerations of amity ought to have prevailed with 
him, to have acquiesced in a scheme which was contrary to 
the sentiments of all the real patriots of the republic, 
and contrary likewise to his own ; a scheme which he 
himself tells Atticus was formed for the destruction of the 
commonwealth. [Ad Att. ii. 17-] Had he attended to the 
indisputable maxim which he himself lays down in one 
of his philosophical treatises, it would have decided at 
once the conduct which became him to observe upon an 
occasion where private friendship interfered with more 
extensive obligations : — " Hsec prima lex in amicitia 
sanciatur (says he) ut Deque rogemus res turpes ; nee 
faciamus rogati." Rut the truth of it is. private friend- 
ship was not concerned in the ease ; for he well knew that 
neither Pompey nor Cesar had any attachments to him 
of that kind. It was fear alone that determined his reso- 
lution ; and, having once already suffered in the cause of 
liberty, he did not find himself disposed to be twice a 
martyr. The awkward manner, however, in which he 
attempts to justify himself throughout this letter, very 
evidently shows how impossible it is to bid farewell to 
integrity with a good grace. 1 Clodius. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



300 



than history has taught me, when the power of 
the commonwealth was in worthless and wicked 
hands. In such a conjuncture, no hope of interest 
(which I have at all times most heartily contemned) 
nor fear of danger (which upon some occasions, 
however, has influenced the greatest minds) should 
prevail with me to co-operate in their measures ; 
no, not though I were attached to them by the 
strongest ties of friendship and gratitude. But 
when a man of Pompey's distinguished character 
presides over the republic ; a man who has ac- 
quired that eminence of power and honour by the 
most heroic actions and the most signal services ; I 
could not imagine it would be imputed to me as a 
levity of disposition if, in some few instances, I 
declined a little from my general maxims and 
complied with his inclinations" 1 . But my justifi- 
cation, I thought, would still rise in strength when 
it should be remembered that I favoured his credit 
and dignity even from the earliest part of my life, as 
I particularly promoted them in my prsetorship and 
consulate ; when it should be remembered that he 
not only assisted me with his vote and his influence 
in the senate during my adversity, but joined his 
counsels and his efforts with yours for the same 
generous purpose ; in a word, when it should be 
remembered that he has no other enemy in the 
whole commonwealth, except the man who is my 
professed adversary 11 . In consequence of these 
sentiments, it was absolutely necessary for me, you 
see, to unite with Caesar, as one who was joined in 
the same views and the same interest. His friend- 
ship, likewise, which you are sensible my brother 
and I have long shared, together with his humane 
and generous disposition, which I have abundantly 
experienced both by his late letters and his good 
offices towards me, contributed greatly to confirm 
me in these resolutions. To which I must add, 
that the commonwealth in general seemed to be 
most strongly averse from giving any opposition to 
these extraordinary men ; more especially after 
Caesar had performed such great and glorious 
exploits for the honour of his country. But what 
had still a farther and very powerful weight in my 
deliberations, was Pompey's having engaged his 
word for me to Csesar, as my brother had given 
the same assurances to Pompey. 

Plato, I remembered, lays it down as a maxim, 
in his divine writings, that " the people generally 
model their manners and their sentiments by those 
of the great ;" a maxim which, at this juncture, I 

m It appears by what has already been remarked, that 
Cicero's compliance can by no means be considered in the 
favourable light in which he here represents it; but was 
in reality a concession most injurious to his honour and 
fatal to the liberties of Rome. It is certain, likewise, that 
it was not from any advantageous opinion of Pompey's 
political character and designs, that he was induced to 
fall in with his measures. On the contrary, Cicero most 
undoubtedly had no esteem for him ; and, as to his poli- 
tical views, he saw and acknowledged, long before the date 
of this letter, that they were turned on the destruction of 
the republic ; 'O/xoXoyov/j.^ucos (says he in one of the 
epistles to Atticus) rvpavviSa avcrKevd^erai*. as in 
another, written upon the breaking out of the civil war, 
he calls him hominem anoXiTiKdoraTou, a man utterly 
unacquainted with the arts of government.— Ad Att. ii. 17 ; 
viii. 16. 

n Clodius, after having driven Cicero out of Rome, 
entered most strenuously into the opposition against 
Pompey and Caesar.— Manutius. See below, rem. *. 



thought merited my particular attention. I was 
convinced, indeed, of its truth when I reflected on 
the vigorous resolutions which were taken in the 
senate on the memorable nones of December ; 
and it seemed no wonder so noble a spirit should 
appear in that assembly, after the animating exam- 
ple I had given them upon my first entering on 
the consular office. I reflected, also, that, during 
the whole time which intervened between the 
expiration of my consulship and that of Csesar and 
Bibulus p, when I still retained a very considerable 
authority in the senate, all the better part of the 
republic were united in their sentiments. On the 
other hand, about the time you took possession of 
your government in Spain, the commonwealth 
could not so properly be said to be under the ad- 
ministration of consuls as of infamous barterers of 
provinces'!, and the mean vassals and ministers of 
sedition. It was then that discord and faction 
spread through all ranks amongst us ; and I was 
marked out as the victim of party rage. In this 
critical season, however, not only every man of 
worth, but the greater part of the senators, and 
indeed all Italy in general, rose up with remarkable 
unanimity in my cause 1- . What the event proved, 
I forbear to mention ; as, in truth, it is to be 
imputed to a complication of errors and artifices. 
But this I will say, it was not forces, so much as 
leaders to conduct them, that were wanting to me 
at this crisis. I must add, that whatever censure 

° The fifth. It was on this day, in the consulship of 
Cicero and Antonius, A. U. 690, that the senate came to a 
resolution of inflicting capital punishment on all those 
who were concerned in Catiline's conspiracy : " And it is 
certain (as the learned and polite historian of Cicero's life 
observes), that Rome was indebted to him on this day for 
one of the greatest deliverances which it had ever received 
since its foundation ; and which nothing, perhaps, but his 
vigilance and sagacity could have so happily effected." — 
Life of Cicero, p. 61. 

P Cicero was chosen consul in the year of Rome 690. 
Csesar and Bibulus in the year 694. 

q The consuls to whom Cicero alludes, are Lucius Cal- 
purnius Piso, whose daughter Csesar had married, and 
Aulus Gabinius, a dependant and favourite of Pompey. 
They succeeded Caesar and Bibulus in this office in 695, 
the year when Cicero went into exile. ' ' Clodius secured 
them to his measures by a private contract to procure for 
them, by a grant from the people, two of the best govern- 
ments of the empire : Piso was to have Macedonia, with 
Greece and Thessaly ; Gabinius, Cilicia. For this price 
they agreed to serve him in all his designs, particularly in 
the oppression of Cicero."— Life of Cicero, p. 8H. 

r " Clodius procured a law, importing, 'that whoever 
had taken the life of a citizen uncondemned, and without a 
trial, should be prohibited from fire and water.' Though 
Cicero was not named, yet he was marked out by this law. 
His crime was, the putting Catiline's accomplices to death ; 
which, though not done by his single authority, but by a 
general vote of the senate, and, after a solemn hearing and 
debate, was alleged to be illegal, and contrary to the liber- 
ties of the people. Cicero, finding himself thus reduced to 
the condition of a criminal, changed his habit upon it, as 
was usxial in the case of a public impeachment, and ap- 
peared about the streets in a mourning gown, to excite the 
compassion of his fellow-citizens ; whilst Clodius, at the 
head of his mob, contrived to meet and insult him at every 
turn. But Cicero soon gathered friends enough to secure 
him from such insults ; and the whole body of the knights, 
together with the young nobility, to the-number of 20,000, 
headed by Crassus the son, all changed their habit, and 
perpetually attended him about the city to implore the 
protection and assistance of the people."— Plut. in Vit. 
Cicer. ; Orat. post Red. ; Life of Cicero, p. 89. 
B B 



370 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



may justly fall on those who refused me their 
assistance, most certainly they who first promised 
it and then deserted me are not less to be blamed s . 
In a word, if some of my friends may well be 
reproached for the timid, though sincere, counsels 
they gave me, how much more severe must their 
condemnation prove, who artfully alarmed me with 
their pretended fears ? Let it be noted at the 
same time to my honour, that zealous as my fellow- 
citizens showed themselves to rise up in the defence 
of a man who had formerly stood forth in theirs, 
yet I would not suffer them to be exposed (unsup- 
ported as they were by those who ought to have 
been their protectors) to the barbarous insults of 
a lawless banditti. On the contrary, I rather chose 
the world should judge by the power of my friends 
in recalling me from my exile, what their honest 
unanimity could have effected, had I permitted 
them to have drawn their swords to prevent it. 

You were sensible of this general zeal in my 
favour, when you undertook my cause, and you 
not only encouraged, but confirmed it, by your 
influence and authority. I shall always most wil- 
lingly acknowledge, that you were assisted upon 
this occasion by some of the most considerable 
persons in Rome 1 ; who, it must be owned, exerted 
themselves with much greater vigour in procuring 
my return, than in preventing my banishment. 
And had they persisted in the same resolute 
disposition, they might have recovered their own 
authority at the same time that they obtained my 
restoration. The spirits, in truth, of the aristo- 
cratical part of the republic were, at this juncture, 
greatly raised and animated by the inflexible pa- 
triotism of your conduct during your consulship, 
together with Pompey's concurrence in the same 
measures. Caesar, likewise, when he saw the senate 
distinguishing his glorious actions by the most 
singular and unprecedented honours, joined in 
adding weight to the authority of that assembly. 
Had these happy circumstances, therefore, been 
rightly improved, it would have been impossible 
for any ill-designing citizen to have violated the 
laws and liberties of the commonwealth. But let 
me entreat you to reflect a moment on the subse- 
quent conduct of my political associates. In the 
first place, they screened from punishment that 
infamous intruder on the matron-mysteries, who 
showed no more reverence for the awful ceremonies 



s In this number was Pompey himself, who, though he 
had given Cicero the most solemn assurances that he 
would, at the hazard of his life, protect him against Clo- 
dius ; yet, when afterwards our author solicited the execu- 
tion of this promise, he treated him with much rudeness, 
as well as great treachery, and absolutely refused to don- 
cern himself in the affair. [Ad Att. ii. 20 ; x. 4.] It seems 
altogether unaccountable, that Cicero should be so inju- 
dicious as to touch upon a circumstance that destroys the 
whole force of his apology, so far, I mean, as he intended 
to justify his conduct by his friendship to Pompey. For 
it exceeds all power of credulity to imagine, that he could 
really be influenced by a motive of that kind with respect 
to a man, whose insincerity he had so lately and so severely 
experienced. 

1 Clodius was so elated with his success against Cicero, 
that he had no sooner driven him out of Rome, than he 
conceived hopes of rendering himself no less formidable to 
Caesar and Pompey. Accordingly, he entered into an open 
opposition against them both ; which he carried on with 
so much warmth and petulance, that at length they found 
it expedient for their purposes to mortify him by recalling 
Cicero. 



of the goddess in whose honour these sacred 
solemnities are celebrated, than for the chastity of 
his three sisters 11 . And thus, by preventing a 
worthy tribune of the people from obtaining that 
justice upon Clodius which he endeavoured to pro- 
cure, they deprived future times of a most salutary 
example of chastised sedition v . Did not they suffer, 
likewise, that monument, that glorious monument, 
which was erected, not indeed with the spoils I 
had gained in foreign wars, but by the generosity 
of the senate for my civil services ; did they not 
most shamefully suffer it to be inscribed with the 
name of the cruel and avowed enemy of his coun- 
try w ? Obliged most certainly I am to them for 
having restored me to the commonwealth ; but I 
could wish they had conducted themselves, not 
only like physicians, whose views terminate merely 
in the health of their patients, but like the Alipt8e x 

u Clodius (as Plutarch relates the story) had an intrigue 
with Pompeia, Caesar's wife ; but as he could not easily gain 
access to her, he took the opportunity, while she was cele- 
brating the mysteries of the bona Dea at her own house, 
to enter disguised in a woman's habit. While he was 
waiting in one of the apartments for Pompeia, he was dis- 
covered by a maid-servant of Caesar's mother, who imme- 
diately giving the alarm, he was driven out of this female 
assembly with great indignation. The bona Dea, as the 
same author informs us, was supposed to have been a 
dryad with whom the god Faunus had an amour. These 
rites were held in the highest veneration, and conducted 
with the most profound secrecy. They were celebrated 
annually by women, at the house of the consul or praetor, 
and it was not lawful for any male to be present. Seneca 
tells us, they carried this precaution so far, that if there 
happened to be a picture of any male animal in the room 
where these mystic ceremonies were performing, it was 
thought necessary it should be veiled. — Plut. in Yit. Caes. ; 
Sen. Ep. 97- 

Clodius was suspected of having a criminal commerce 
with his three sisters. 

v Lentulus, immediately upon entering on his consular 
office, A. U. 696, moved the senate that Cicero might be 
restored ; in which he was seconded by Pompey with much 
zeal, and the whole house unanimously concurred in the 
motion. Serranus, however, a tribune of the people, in- 
terposing his negative, no decree could pass at that time : 
nevertheless, it was with one consent resolved, that, on 
the 22d of the same month, a law should be proposed to 
the people for Cicero's recal. When the appointed day 
arrived, the friends of Cicero found the forum in the 
possession of Clodius, who had planted his mob there 
over-night, in order to prevent the promulgation of this 
law. A very bloody skirmish ensued, in which several 
lives were lost, and many other outrages committed ; in 
consequence of which, Clodius was impeached by Milo as 
a disturber of the public peace. But Metellus, the col- 
league of Lentulus, together with Appius the praetor, and 
Serranus the tribune, determined to screen Clodius ; and 
accordingly, by a most dangerous exercise of their autho- 
rity, they published their several edicts, commanding all 
farther proceedings in this prosecution to be discontinued. 
It was a very impolitic power (as a late ingenious writer 
upon government observes) which was lodged in the tri- 
bunes, of thus preventing the execution of the laws as well 
as the passing of them, and which caused infinite mischiefs 
to the republic.— Orat. pro Sext. 34, 35, 41 ; L'Esprit des 
Loix, i. 223. 

w " After the suppression of Catiline's conspiracy, the 
senate decreed that a temple should be erected to Liberty, 
as a public monument of their late happy deliverance. 
This temple was raised at the foot of Mount Palatine, 
near Cicero's house. And as the inscription fixed thereon 
undoubtedly mentioned Cicero with honour, Clodius erased 
those words, and placed his own name in their stead." — 
Manutius. 

x The Aliplte were persons who prepared the bodies of 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



371 



also, who endeavour to establish the spirits and 
vigour of those under their care. Whereas they 
have acted with regard to me, as Apelles did in 
relation to his celebrated picture of Venus y : they 
have finished one part of their work with great skill 
and accuracy, but left all the rest a mere rude and 
imperfect sketch. 

In one article, however, I had the satisfaction to 
disappoint my enemies. They imagined my banish- 
ment would have wrought the same effect on me, 
which they falsely supposed a calamity of a like 
kind produced formerly in Quintus Metellus. This 
excellent person (whom I look upon to have been 
a man of the greatest fortitude and magnanimity 
of any in his times) they represented as broken 
and dispirited after his return from exile 2 . But if 



the athletic combatants, by unctions and other proper 
methods, for rendering them vigorous and active in their 
gymnastic exercises. 

Y Apelles, one of the greatest masters of painting in 
ancient Greece, Avas a native of Coos, and flourished in the 
112th Olymp. or about 332 years before Christ. His prin- 
cipal excellency consisted in the inimitable grace which 
distinguished all his performances. Pliny the elder has, 
by a very strong expression, informed us of the amazing 
force of his pencil ; pinxit (says that author) quce pingi 
non possunt, tonitrua, fulgura etfulgetra. He could even 
convey ideas which seemed impossible to be raised by 
colours, and animate his sublime pieces with all the ter- 
rors of thunder and lightning. His capital performance 
was a figure of Venus, which appears to have been at Rome 
in the times of Augustus. The lower parts of this picture 
being damaged, no painter would venture to retouch it. 
Something of the same kind is mentioned to the honour of 
Raphael, whose paintings in the little Farnese, at Rome, 
being somewhat spoiled, it was with the greatest difficulty 
that even Carlo Maratti was prevailed upon to restore 
them. Apelles began a second figure of Venus, which he 
intended should excel his first : but he died before he had 
proceeded any farther in that design than the head and 
shoulders.— Quintil. xii. 10 ; Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxv. 10 ; 
Reflex, sur la Poes. et sur la Peint. 

z Q. Caecilius Metellus was in the number of those who 
opposed the faction of Caius Marius ; in consequence of 
which he was at length driven into exile. The immediate 
occasion, however, of his sentence was this : Saturninus, a 
tribune of the people, and creature of Marius, proposed a 
law in the year 653, which, among other things enacted, 
that "the senators should swear to ratify whatever the 
people ordained." This oath, Metellus, with the true spi- 
rit of ancient Rome, resolutely refused to take, and when 
his friends represented to him the dangerous consequences 
which would probably attend his persevering in that honest 
resolution, he nobly replied, " It is the characteristic of a 
man of virtue and honour to act rightly, whatever conse- 
quences may ensue." Accordingly, a decree passed in an 
assembly of the people for his banishment : and Avhen his 
friends offered him their assistance to withstand this piece 
of public injustice, he generously refused their aid : — 
" For," said he, " either public measures will be changed, 
and the people will repent of the injury they have done 
me; and then I shall be recalled with honour : or they will 
continue in the same sentiments; and in that case banish- 
ment will be a happiness." He greatly chose, therefore, 
to withdraw himself "from the destructive politics of his 
country ; and, retiring to Rhodes, he calmly spent his time 
in philosophical studies. His virtues, however, prevailed 
at last over the iniquity of his persecutors, and he was 
restored to the republic, notwithstanding all the opposition 
of Marius. Cicero has recorded a circumstance relating 
to Metellus, that gives one the highest idea of the character 
he enjoyed amongst his countrymen. He was accused, it 
seems, by the Marian faction, of having been guilty of 
public extortion ; but when he entered upon his defence, 
and produced his accounts, the judges refused to inspect 
them, as being well convinced that Metellus had a soul 



broken he really were, it could not be the effect of 
his adversity ; as it is certain he submitted to his 
sentence without the least reluctance, and lived 
under it, not only with indifference, but with 
cheerfulness. The truth is, no man ever equalled 
him in the strength and heroism of his mind ; no, 
not even the celebrated Marcus Scaurus a . Never- 
theless, such as they had heard, or, at least, chose 
*o imagine Metellus to have been, they figured me 
to themselves, or, if possible, indeed, even yet more 
abject. The reverse, however, proved to be the 
case, and that general concern which the whole 
republic expressed at my absence, inspired me with 
more vigorous spirits than I had ever before enjoyed. 
The fact is, that the sentence of banishment against 
Metellus was repealed by a law proposed only by 
a single tribune of the people ; whereas, I was 
recalled from mine upon the motion of the consul 
himself b , and by a law in which every magistrate of 
Rome concurred. Let me add, likewise, that each 
order and degree in the commonwealth, headed by 
the senate, and supported by all Italy, zealously 

much too enlarged to be capable of anything so mean as 
injustice. I cannot forbear mentioning likewise a noble 
expression of this great man, in a letter written during his 
banishment, as it shows the spirit with which he bore his 
misfortune. UK (inimici sc.) jure et honestate interdicti ; 
ego neqae aqua neque igni careo, et summa gloria frunis cor. 
" Whilst my enemies," says he, " vainly hoped to banish 
me from the common benefits of society, which, however, 
I still enjoy, together with the highest glory, they have 
much more severely banished from their own breasts all 
sentiments of justice and honour." One cannot but ac- 
knowledge with regret, that neither the enemies nor the 
friends of Cicero did him justice, when they compared him 
to Metellus ; for, besides the great superiority of the latter 
in the present instance, he, upon all occasions, acted con- 
sistently with his avowed political principles, and pre- 
served a uniform and unsullied reputation to the end of 
his days.— Prut, in Vit. C. Mar. ; Ad Att. i. 16 ; Orat. pro 
Balbo, in princip. ; Aul. Gel. xvii. 2 ; Sallust. Bell. Ju- 
gurth. 47. 

a M. iEmilius Scaurus was advanced a second time to 
the honour of the consular office, in the year of Rome 646, 
having enjoyed that dignity eight years before. He is men- 
tioned by Cicero among the orators of that age ; but there 
was more of force and authority in what he delivered, than - 
of grace in his manner, or elegance in his expression, 
lie Avas accused, in his latter days, of having carried on a 
traitorous correspondence with Mithridates. The short 
speech which he made in his defence is extremely remark- 
able, and gives one a lively image of that manly contempt 
Avith which a mind, conscious of its integrity, ought ever 
to treat the calumnies of an accuser, whose known charac- 
ter affords the best and most expeditious antidote against 
his malice. The venerable old man stood forth in the 
midst of the assembly, and addressing himself to theAvhole 
audience, spake to this effect : " It is somewhat hard, my 
countrymen, that I should be obliged to give an account 
to the present generation, of Avhat I transacted before they 
Avere born. But, notAvithstanding the greater part of this 
assembly are too young to have been Avitnesses of the ser- 
vices and honours of my former life, I will venture to rest 
the Avhole of my defence upon a single question. Varius, 
then, asserts, that Scaurus Avas bribed to betray his coun- 
try ; Scaurus, on the other hand, utterly denies that he 
ever was tainted Avith a crime of this nature. Noav lay 
your hands upon your hearts, and tell me, my fellOAV-citi- 
zens, to Avhich of these two men you will give credit ? " 
The people AA'ere so struck Avith the honest simplicity of 
this speech, that Scaurus Avas dismissed Avith honour, and 
his infamous accuser hissed out of the assembly. — De Clar. 
Orat. 110, 111 ; Val. Max. iii. 7 ; Sallust. Bell. Jugurth. ; 
Orat. pro Fonteio ; In Verr. i. 
b Lentulus, the person to Avhom this letter is addressed. 
B B 2 



372 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



united in one common effort for recovering me to 
my country. Yet, high as these unexampled ho- 
nours were, they have never elated my heart with 
pride, or tempted me to assume an air which could 
give just offence even to the most malevolent of 
my enemies. The whole of my ambition is, not to 
be wanting either in advice or assistance to my 
friends ; or even to those whom I have no great 
reason to rank in that number. It is this, perhaps, 
which has given the real ground of complaint to 
those who view only the lustre of my actions, but 
cannot be sensible of the pains and solicitude they 
cost me. But whatever the true cause may be, the 
pretended one is, my having promoted the honours 
of Caesar ; a circumstance which they interpret, it 
seems, as a renunciation of my old maxims. The 
genuine motives, however, of my conduct, in this 
instance, are not only what I just before mentioned, 
but particularly what I hinted in the beginning of 
my letter, and will now more fully explain. 

You will not find then, my friend, the aristocra- 
tical part of the republic disposed to pursue the 
same system as when you left them. That system, 
I mean, which I endeavoured to establish when I 
was consul, and which, though afterwards occasion- 
ally interrupted, and at length entirely overthrown, 
was again fully restored during your administration. 
It is now, however, totally abandoned by those 
who ought most strenuously to have supported it. 
I do not assert this upon the credit only of appear- 
ances, in which it is exceedingly easy to dissemble ; 
I speak it upon the unquestionable evidence of 
i facts, and the public proceedings of those who were 
1 styled patriots in my consulate. The general 
scheme of politics, therefore, being thus changed, 
it is time, most certainly, for every man of pru- 
dence (in which number I have the ambition to be 
justly accounted) to vary likewise his particular 
plan. Accordingly that chief and favourite guide 
of my principles, whom I have already quoted, the 
divine Plato himself, advises not to press any 
political point farther than is consonant with the 
general sense of the community ; for methods of 
violence, he maintains, are no more to be used to- 
wards one's country than one's parent. Upon this 
maxim, he tells us, he declined engaging in public 
affairs ; and, as he found the people of Athens 
confirmed, by long habit, in their mistaken notions 
of government, he did not think it lawful to attempt 
by force what he despaired of effecting by persua- 
sion. My situation, however, is, in this respect, 
different from Plato's ; for, on the one hand, as I 
have already embarked in public affairs, it is too 
late to deliberate whether I should now enter upon 
them or not : so, on the other, the Roman people 
are by no means so incapable of judging of their 
true interest, as he represents the Athenians. 1 1 
is my happiness, indeed, to be able by the same 
measures, to consult at once both my own and my 
country's welfare c . To these considerations I 
'■ If Cicero was sincere in what he here asserted, and 
really imagined that by falling in with the schemes of 
Caesar and Pompey, he could more effectually serve his 
country as well as himself, his policy, as far as we can 
judge of it at this distance, seems to have been very extra- 
ordinary.— To have supported the one in opposition to the 
other, might perhaps have been a probable method of 
defeating the designs of both, as they could neither of 
them have advanced to so formidable a height, if they had 
not mutually assisted in raising each other. But to join 
in their coalition, was in effect to be accessary in cement- 



must add those uncommon acts of generosity which 
Ceesar has exerted both towards my brother and 
myself ; so much, indeed, beyond all example, that, 
even whatever had been his success, I should have 
thought it incumbent upon me at least to have 
defended him. But now, distinguished as he is by 
such a wonderful series of prosperity, and crowned 
with so many glorious victories, I cannot but 
esteem it a duty which I owe the republic, ab- 
stracted from all personal obligations to himself, 
to promote his honours as far as lies in my power. 
And believe me, it is at once my confession and 
my glory, that, next to you, together with the other 
generous authors of my restoration, there is not a 
man in the world from whom I have received such 
amicable offices. 

And now, having laid before you the principal 
motives of my conduct in general, I shall be the 
better able to satisfy you concerning my behaviour 
with respect to Crassus and Yatinius in particular: 
for as to Appius and Caesar, I have the pleasure to 
find that you acquit me of all reproach. 

My reconciliation then with Vatinius d was ef- 
fected by the mediation of Pompey, soon after the 
former was elected praetor. I must confess, when 
he petitioned to be admitted a candidate for that 
office, I very warmly opposed him in the e senate ; 

ing an union most evidently calculated for the ruin of the 
commonwealth. This reasoning is not built merely upon 
distant speculation, but is supported by the express testi- 
mony of one who was not only an actor in this important 
scene, but well understood the plot that was carrying on. 
" You are mistaken," said Cato, to those who were lament- 
ing the breach that afterwards happened between Pompey 
and Caesar, " you are mistaken in charging our calamities 
on that event ; they owe their rise to another cause, and 
began, not when Pompey and Caesar became enemies, but 
when they were made friends." The difficulty of justify- 
ing Cicero in this measure, grows still stronger, when it is 
remembered that he must have been sensible at this very 
time how much was to be dreaded from the power of these 
his pretended friends. For he assures Atticus, in a letter 
which was written at the breaking out of the civil war, 
that he foresaw the storm that had been gathering to 
destroy the republic, fourteen years before it fell, and calls 
the union of these ambitious chiefs, sceleratce consensionis 
fides, a wicked confederacy. To which he adds, that they 
had upon all occasions preferred the interest of their fami- 
lies and the advancement of their power to the honour 
and welfare of their country.— Plut. in Vit. Pomp. ; Ad 
Att. x. 4. 

d Some observations have already been made upon 
Cicero's conduct with regard to Vatinius: see above, rem. 
», p 366. 

e The passage in the original, it is acknowledged, does 
not absolutely imply the sense which is given to it in the 
translation. It runs thus :— " cum quidem ego ejus peti- 
tionem gravissimis in senatu sententiis oppugnassem." 
But it is not easy to conceive in what manner the compe- 
tition between Cato and Vatinius, in relation to the office 
of praetor, could come before the senate, unless the autho- 
rity of that assembly were some way necessary in nomi- 
nating or recommending the candidates to the people. 
This interpretation seems to be favoured by a passage in 
one of Pliny's letters, — " Meo suffragio," says he, speak- 
ing of a friend, for whom, not being legally qualified to sue 
for the tribunate, he had obtained a dispensation from the 
emperor for that purpose, "Meo suffragio pervenit ad 
justribunatum petendi, quern nisi obthietin senatu , vereor 
ne decepisse Ca?sarem videar." — ii. 9. That the senate ori- 
ginally claimed this prerogative with respect to the election 
of kings, is indisputable. " Patres decreverunt," as Livy 
informs us, " ut cum populus regem jussisset, id sicratum 
esset, si patres auctores fierent." — i. 17. It is equally clear 
likewise, that the senate exercised a privilege of the same 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



373 ] 



but it was much less from my resentment to the 
man himself, than in order to support the honour 
and interest of Cato f . Soon after this he was im- 
peached, and it was in compliance with the earnest 
solicitation of Caesar that I undertook his defence. 
But you must not inquire why I appeared at this 
trial, or, indeed, at any other of the same kind, as 
a witness in favour of the accused, lest I should 
hereafter have an opportunity of retorting the ques- 
tion upon you. Though, to say truth, I may fairly 
ask it even now ; for do you not remember, my 
friend, in whose behalf it was that you formerly 
transmitted certain honourable testimonials, even 
from the utmost limits of the Roman empire ? You 
need not scruple, however, to acknowledge the fact, 
for I have acted, and shall continue to act, the same 
part towards those very persons. But to return to 
Vatinius : besides the reasons I have already 
assigned, I was provoked to engage in his defence, 
by an opposition of the same sort which the para- 
site recommends to the amorous soldier in the 
plays. The obsequious Gnatho, you know, advises 
his friend, the captain, whenever his mistress en- 
deavours to pique his jealousy, by mentioning his 
rival Phaedria, to play off Pamphila upon her 
in return. Thus, as I told the judges at this trial, 
since certain honourable persons, who were for- 
merly much in my interest, had thought proper, 
by many little mortifying instances in the senate, 
to caress my avowed enemy before my face, I 
thought it but equitable to have a Clodius on my 
part, in opposition to the Clodius on theirs. Ac- 
cordingly, I have upon many occasions acted 
suitably to this declaration, and all the world ac- 
knowledges I have reason* 1 . 

kind, after the republican government was established ; 
for Cicero, taking notice in one of his orations of an unsuc- 
cessful attempt that had been formerly made by that 
august assembly in order to extend their power, adds, 
" turn enim magistratum non gerebat is qui ceperat, si 
patres auctoresnon erant facti." — [Orat. pro Plane. 3.] But 
the difficulty is, this speech was delivered in the very same 
year in which the present letter was written ; so that the 
passage quoted from it seems to imply that no such right 
subsisted at the time under consideration, and indeed Dr. 
Chapman produces it in confirmation of this notion. 
[Essay on R. S. p. 317.] The difficulty, however, may per- 
haps be solved by supposing that Cicero's meaning is to be 
taken restrictively, and that the prerogative of the senate 
in the nomination of candidates for the several magistra- 
cies, or at least in confirming their election, was abolished 
only with respect to the election of aediles, which it is cer- 
tain he had principally in view, but remained nevertheless 
in its usual force as to all others. Conjectures are allow- 
able in points of so much obscurity, and in which neither 
critics nor commentators afford any light; but what 
solidity there may be in that which runs through the 
present remark, is submitted to the judgment of more suc- 
cessful inquirers. 

f Cato, the year before the date of this letter, had solicited 
the praetorship in order to arm himself with the authority 
of that important office against the dangerous designs of 
Crassus and Pompey, who were at that time consuls. But 
they were too well aware of the honest purposes of this 
inflexible patriot, not to obstruct his election, and accord- 
ingly they carried it against him in favour of the pliant 
and worthless Vatinius, whose pretensions they supported 
by every infamous method of artifice, corruption, and vio- 
lence.— Plut. in Vit. Caton. 

s "The Eunuch" of Terence. 

h The conduct of Cicero with regard to Vatinius, appears 
by no means parallel with that of the aristocratical party 
towards Clodius. The latter was now at variance with 
Caesar and Pompey, and it was undoubtedly a just and 



Having thus explained my conduct with regard 
to Vatinius, I will now lay before you those motives 
which determined me in respect to Crassus'. I 
was willing, for the sake of the common cause, to 
bury in oblivion the many and great injuries I had 
formerly received from him. Agreeably to this 
disposition, as we were then upon good terms, I 
should have borne his unexpected defence of Ga- 
binius J, (whom he had very lately with so much 
warmth opposed) if he had avoided all personal 
reflections on myself. But when, with the most 
unprovoked violence, he broke in upon me whilst 
I was in the midst of my speech, I must confess 
it raised my indignation ; and, perhaps, I took fire 
so much the sooner, as possibly there still remained 
in my heart some latent sparks of my former re- 
sentment. However, my behaviour in the senate 
upon this occasion was much and generally ap- 
plauded. Among the rest, I was complimented 
likewise by the same men whom I have often 
hinted at in this letter, and who acknowledged I 
had rendered a very essential service to their cause, 
by that spirit which I had thus exerted. In short, 
they affected to speak of me in public, as being 
now, indeed, restored to the commonwealth in the 
best and most glorious sense. Nevertheless, they 
had the malice in their private conversations (as 
I was informed by persons of undoubted honour) 
rational policy to take advantage of that dissention and 
endeavour by an artful management to gain him over to 
the cause of liberty. But Cicero's engaging in the support 
of Vatinius cannot be justified by any political reasons of 
this nature, and to speak truth it seems to be altogether 
without excuse. For Vatinius was actually in league with 
the enemies of his country ; to espouse his cause, therefore, 
was to strengthen their faction, and sacrifice public inter- 
est to private pique. 

1 See the remarks on the 7th letter of this book, particu- 
larly rems. J, and m . . 

J Aulus Gabinius was consul the same year in which 
Cicero was so outrageously persecuted by Clodius, with 
whom (as has been observed in the notes above) Gabinius 
most zealously concurred. To give his character as Cicero 
himself has drawn it in several of his orations, he was effe- 
minate in his mien, dissolute in his principles, and a pro- 
fessed libertine in every kind. After the expiration of his 
consulate in <j96, he went governor into Syria, from whence 
he was recalled the following year by a decree of the senate. 
Cicero spoke very warmly in favour of the decree, and it 
is probable that the dispute here mentioned between him 
and Crassus happened in the debates which arose upon 
this occasion. Not many months after the date of this 
letter, Gabinius was impeached for mal-practices during 
the administration of his proconsular government, and 
Cicero was now so entirely at the disposal of Caesar and 
Pompey, that in compliance with their request he meanly 
undertook his defence. But it was not without great 
struggles with'himself, that he submitted to an office so 
unworthy of his principles and his character. However, 
he endeavoured to represent it to the world as an act of 
pure generosity ; and, indeed, the sentiment with which 
lie defended himself from the censure that passed upon 
him on this occasion, is truly noble : " Neque me vero 
pcenitet mortales inimicitias, sempiternas amicitias ha- 
bere." But Gabinius was by no means entitled to the 
benefit of this generous maxim, nor was it true (as will 
incontestably appear by a passage I shall presently have 
occasion to produce) that Cicero was governed by it in the 
case under consideration. Cicero's conduct, indeed, upon 
this occasion, is so utterly indefensible, that his very inge- 
nious and learned advocate, Dr. Middleton himself, is 
obliged to confess, that it was " contrary to his judgment, 
his resolution, and his dignity."— Orat. pro iSext. ; In 
Pison. ; De Prov. Consular. ; Pro Rabir. ; Plut. in Vit. 
Caton. Uticin. ; Life of Cicero, p. 144. See rem. o below. 



374 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



to express singular satisfaction in the new variance 
that had thus happened between Crassus and my- 
self; as they pleased themselves with imagining it 
would for ever throw me at a distance from those 
who were joined with him in the same interest k . 
Pompey, in the mean time, employed incredible 
pains to close this breach ; and Csesar also men- 
tioned it in his letters as an incident that gave him 
much concern. Upon these considerations, there- 
fore, I thought it expedient to act agreeably both 
to the dictates of my natural temper, and to that 
experience which I had gained by my former mis- 
fortunes. In pursuance of these sentiments, I 
consented to a ^reconcilement ; and, in order to 
render it more conspicuous to the world, Crassus 
set out for his government 1 almost from under my 
roof ; for, having invited himself to spend the pre- 
ceding night with me, we supped together in the 
gardens of my son-in-law Crassipes m . It was for 
these reasons that I thought my honour obliged 
me to defend his cause in the senate", and I con- 
fess, I mentioned him with that high applause of 
which, it seems, you have been informed. 

Thus I have given you a full detail of the several 
views and motives by which I am governed in the 
present conjuncture, as well as of the particular 
disposition in which I stand with respect to the 
slender part I can pretend to claim in the adminis- 
tration of public affairs. And, believe me, I should 
have judged and acted entirely in the same manner 
had I been totally free from every sort of amicable 
bias. For, on the one hand, I should have esteemed 
it the most absurd folly to have attempted to oppose 
so superior a force ; and, on the other, supposing 
it possible, I should yet have deemed it imprudent 
to weaken the authority of persons so: eminently 
and so justly distinguished in the commonwealth . 

k Caesar and Pompey. The former (who was undoubt- 
edly as much superior to the rest of his contemporaries in 
genius as in fortune) , finding it necessary for his purposes 
that Crassus and Pompey should act in concert, procured 
a reconciliation between them ; and by this means, says 
Plutarch, formed that invincible triumvirate which ruined 
the authority both of the senate and the people ; and of 
which he alone received the advantage.— Plut. in Vit. Crass. 

1 The province of Syria was allotted to Crassus, for which 
he set out a month or two before the expiration of his con- 
sulate, in the year 698, and from whence he never returned, 
as has already been observed in the notes on the 7th letter 
of this book. See p. 360. 

» These gardens were situated a small distance from 
Rome, on the banks of the Tiber.— Ad Att. iv. 12 ; Ad 
Quint. Frat. iii. 7- » See rem. k n letter 7, of this book. 

« It will appear very evident, perhaps, from the fore- 
going observations, that what Cicero here asserts could not 
possibly be his real sentiments. That it was not practica- 
ble to bring down Caesar and Pompey from that height of 
power to which they were now arrived, will not, probably, 
be disputed ; though, at the same time, it is very difficult 
to set limits to what prudence and perseverance may effect. 
This, at least, seems undeniable, that if their power were 
absolutely immoveable, Cicero's conduct was in the num- 
ber of those causes which contributed to render it so. 
However, one cannot but be astonished to find our author 
seriously maintain, that, granting it had not been impos- 
sible, it would yet have been impolitic, to have checked 
these towering chiefs in their ambitious flight. For it is 
plain, from a passage already cited, out of his letters to 
Attieus, (see above, rem. <',) that he long foresaw their 
immoderate growth of power would at last overturn the 
liberties of tho commonwealth. It had already, indeed, 
destroyed his own ; and this, too, by the confession of him- 
self. For, in a letter which he writes to his brother, taking 



Besides, it appears to me to be the dictates of 
sound policy to act in accommodation to particular 
conjunctures, and not inflexibly pursue the same 
unalterable scheme when public circumstances, 
together with the sentiments of the best and wisest 
members of the community, are evidently changed. 
In conformity to this notion, the most judicious 
reasoners on the great art of government have 
universally condemned an obstinate perseverance in 
one uniform tenor of measures. The skill of the pilot 
is shown in weathering the storm at least, though 
he should not gain his port ; but if shifting his sails 
and changing his direction will infallibly carry him 
with security into the intended harbour, would it 
not be an instance of most unreasonable tenacious- 
ness to continue in the more hazardous course 
wherein he began his voyage ? Thus (and it is a 
maxim I have often had occasion to inculcate) the 
point we ought all of us to keep in view in our 
administration of the commonwealth is the final 
enjoyment of an honourable repose ; but the method 
of securing to ourselves this dignity of retreat is, 
by having been invariable in our intentions for the 
public welfare, and not by a positive perseverance 
in certain favourite modes of obtaining it?. To 
repeat therefore what I just now declared, had 
I been absolutely uninfluenced by every motive of 
friendship, I should still have pursued the same 
public measures in which I am now engaged. But 
when gratitude and resentment both conspire in 
recommending this scheme of action to me, I can- 
not hesitate a moment in adopting it, especially 
since it appears most conducive to the interests of 
the republic in general as well as to my own in 
particular. To speak freely, I act upon this princi- 
ple so much the more frequently and with the less 
reserve, not only as my brother is lieutenant under 
Csesar, but as the latter receives the slightest 
action or even word of mine in his favour, with 
an air that evidently shows he considers them as 
obligations of the most sensible kind ; and in fact 
I derive the same benefit from that popularity and 
power which you know he possesses, as if they 
were so many advantages of my own. The sum 
of the whole in short is this : I imagined that I 
had no other method of counteracting those per- 
fidious designs with which a certain party were 
secretly contriving to undermine me, than by thus 
uniting the friendship and protection of the men 
in power, with those internal aids which have 
never yet been wanting to my supports 
notice of the strong applications that Pompey had made 
to him to defend Gabinius, he declares he never will com- 
ply with that unworthy request, so long as he retained the 
least spark of liberty. But comply, however, he actually 
did ; equally, in truth, to his own disgrace, and to the con- 
futation of the doctrine he here advances.— Ad Quint. 
Frat. iii. 1. See above, rem. J, p. 373. 

P The reasoning which Cicero here employs is certainly 
just, considered abstractedly, but by no means applicable 
to the present case. The question between the aristocra- 
tical party, and ithose who were favourers of Caesar and 
Ponipey, was, not what road should be taken to the same 
end, but whether Pome should be free or enslaved. Let 
who would then have changed their sentiments on this 
point, it became not the Father of his Country to increase 
the number. But as Cicero acquired that most honourable 
of all appellations, by Catiline, he lost it again by Clodius; 
or, to express the same thing in his own words, — " Non 
recordor (as ho confesses to Attieus) unde ceciderim, sed 
unde surrexerim. — Ad Att. iv. 16. 

i There is no character in all antiquity, perhaps, that 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



375 



I am well persuaded had you been in Rome you 
would have concurred with me in these sentiments. 
I know indeed the candour and moderation of 
your temper ; and I know too that your heart not 
only glows with friendship towards me, but is wholly 
untainted with malevolence towards others ; in a 
word, I know that as you possess every sublime and 
generous affection, you are incapable of anything 
so mean as artifice and disguise. Nevertheless, 
even this elevated disposition has not secured you 
from the same unprovoked malice which I have 
experienced in my own affairs. I doubt not there- 
fore if you had been an actor in this scene, the same 
motives would have swayed your conduct which 
have governed mine. But however that may be, 
I shall most certainly submit all my actions to 
your guidance and advice whenever I shall again 
enjoy your company ; and I am sure you will not 
be less attentive to the preservation of my honour 
than you formerly were to that of my person. Of 
this at least you may be persuaded, that you will 
find me a faithful friend and associate in all your 
counsels and measures, as it will be the first and 
daily purpose of my life, to supply you with ad- 
ditional and more powerful reasons for rejoicing 
in those obligations you have conferred upon me. 

As you desire me to send you those compositions 
which I have written since you left Rome, I shall 
deliver some orations into the hands of Menocrates 
for that purpose. However, not to alarm you, 
their number is but inconsiderable ; for I withdraw 
as much as possible from the contention of the 
bar, in order to join those more gentle Muses which 
were always my delight, and are particularly so at 
this juncture. Accordingly I have drawn up three 
dialogues upon oratory, wherein I have endeavoured 
to imitate the manner of Aristotle. I trust they 
will not prove altogether useless to your son, as I 
have rejected the modern precepts of rhetoric and 
adopted the ancient Aristotelian and Isocratic rules. 
To this catalogue of my writings I must also add 
an historical poem which I have lately composed in 
three cantos, upon the subject of my banishment 1 , 
and as a lasting memorial likewise of your friendship 
and my gratitude. This I should long since have 
transmitted to you had it been my immediate in- 
tention to make it public. But I am discouraged 

lies so open to discovery as that of Cicero ; and yet there is 
none, at the same time, which seems to be less generally 
understood. Had there been no other of his writings ex- 
tant, however, but this single letter, the patriot character, 
one should have imagined, would have been the last that 
the world would ever have ascribed to our author. It is 
observable, (and it is an observation for which I am obliged 
to a gentleman, who, amidst far more important occupa- 
tions, did not refuse to be the censurer of these papers) 
that " the principles by which Cicero attempts to justify 
himself in this epistle, are such as will equally defend the 
most abandoned prostitution and desertion in political con- 
duct. Personal gratitude and resentment ; an eye to private 
and particular interest, mixed with a pretended regard to 
public good ; an attention to a brother's advancement and 
farther favour ; a sensibility in being caressed by a great 
man in power ; a calculation of the advantages derived 
from the popularity and credit of that great man to one's 
own personal self, are very weak foundations indeed, to 
support the superstructure of a true patriot's character. 
Yet these are the principles which Cicero here expressly 
avows and defends ! " 

r This poem Cicero delivered, sealed up, to his son ; 
enjoining him, at the same time, not to publish or read it 
till after his death.— Man utius. 



from this design at present, not indeed as fearing 
the resentment of those who may imagine them- 
selves the objects of my satire (for in this respect 
I have been extremely tender), but as finding it 
impossible to make particular mention of every 
one from whom I received obligations at that 
season. However, when I shall meet with a proper 
opportunity, I will send it to you ; submitting my 
writings as well as my actions entirely to your 
judgment. I know indeed these literary medita- 
tions have ever been the favourite employment of 
your thoughts no less than of mine s . 

Your family concerns, which you recommend to 
me, are so much a part of my own that I am sorry 
you should think it necessary even to remind me 
of them. I could not therefore read your solicita- 
tions for that purpose without some uneasiness. 

I find you were prevented by an indisposition 
from going the last summer into Cilicia, which 
was the occasion it seems of your not settling my 
brother's affairs in that province. However, you 
give me assurance that you will now take all 
possible methods of adjusting them. You cannot 
indeed oblige him more ; and he will think himself 
as much indebted to you for procuring him this 
additional farm, as if you had settled him in the 
possession of his patrimony. In the meantime I 
entreat you to inform me frequently and freely of 
all your affairs, and particularly give me an account 
of the studies and exercises in which your son is 
engaged. For be well persuaded, never friend was 
more agreeable or more endeared to another than 
you are to me ; and of this truth I hope to render 
not only you but all the world, and even posterity 
itself, thoroughly sensible. 

Appius* has lately declared in the senate (what 
he had before indeed often intimated in conver- 
sation) that if he could get his proconsular com- 
mission confirmed in an assembly of the Curiae u , 
he would cast lots with his colleague for the par- 
ticular province to which they should respectively 
succeed ; if not, that by an amicable agreement 
between themselves, he had resolved upon yours v . 
He added, that in the case of a consul it was not 

s To turn from the actions of Cicero to his writings, is 
changing our point of view, it must be acknowledged, 
extremely to his advantage. It is on this side, indeed, 
that his character can never be too warmly admired ; and 
admired it will undoubtedly be, so long as manly eloquence 
and genuine philosophy have any friends. Perhaps there 
is something in that natural mechanism of the human 
frame necessary to constitute a fine genius, which is not 
altogether favourable to the excellencies of the heart. It 
is certain, at least, (and let it abate our envy of uncommon 
parts) that great superiority of intellectual qualifications, 
has not often been found in conjunction with the much 
nobler advantages of a moral kind. 

* Appius Claudius Pulcher, one of the present consuls. 
See rem. « on letter 3, book iii. 

u Romulus divided the city into a certain number of 
districts called curias, which somewhat resembled our 
parishes. When the people were summoned together, to 
transact any business agreeably to this division, it was 
called an assembly of the curia; : where the most votes in 
every curiae was considered as the voice of the whole dis- 
trict, and the most curias as the general consent of the 
people.— Kennctt, Rom. Antiq. 

v The senate annually nominated the two provinces to 
which the consuls should succeed at the expiration of their 
office ; but it was left to the consuls themselves to deter- 
mine, either by casting lots, or by private agreement, which 
of the particular provinces so assigned they should respec- 
tively administer.' — Manutius, De Leg. c. x. 



376 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



absolutely necessary, though perhaps it might be 
expedient, to procure a law of this kind ; and as a 
government had been appointed him by a decree of 
the senate, he was entitled, he said, in consequence 
of the Cornelian law, to a military command till 
the time of his entrance into Rome w . I know not 
what accounts you may have received of this matter 
from your other friends ; but I find the sentiments 
of the world are much divided. Some are of opinion 
that you are not obliged to resign your government 
if your successor should not be authorised by an 
assembly of the Curias ; whilst others maintain 
that notwithstanding you should think proper to 
leave the province, you may nevertheless depute a 
person to preside in your absence. As to myself, 
I am not altogether so clear with respect to the law 
in question ; though I must own at the same time 
that my doubts are by no means considerable. Of 
this however I am perfectly sure, that it is agree- 
able to your honour, and to that generosity of 
conduct in which I know you place your highest 
gratification, quietly to yield up your province to 
your successor, especially as you cannot in this 
instance oppose his ambitious views without in- 
curring the suspicion of being influenced by the 
same motives yourself. But be that as it will, I 
thought it incumbent upon me to inform you of 
my sentiments, as I shall certainly defend yours 
whichever way they may determine you to act. 

After I had finished my letter, I received your 
last concerning the farmers of the revenues x . Your 
decision appears to me, I must own, perfectly 
equitable ; yet, at the same time, I cannot but 
wish you might be so happy as not to disgust a 
body of men whose interest you have hitherto 
always favoured. However, you may be assured I 
shall support the decrees you have made upon this 
occasion, though you well know the temper and 
disposition of these people, and what formidable 
enemies they proved to the excellent Quintus 
Scsevola^. I would recommend it to you therefore 



w Though the nomination of the proconsular provinces 
was a privilege reserved to the senate, yet it was the pre- 
rogative of the people to confer on the proconsuls the power 
of executing the military functions, and likewise, it should 
seem, to grant the necessary appointments for conveying 
them to their respective governments. By a law, however, 
which was made hy Cornelius Sylla, during his dictator- 
ship, in the year 672, it was enacted, that, whatever 
magistrate, at the expiration of his office, should obtain a 
province by a decree of the senate, he should be invested 
with the full power of a proconsul, notwithstanding his 
commission were not confirmed by an assembly of the 
curia*. But Sylla's dictatorship being considered as a 
usurpation, it is probable, from the passage before us, that 
this law was not generally esteemed valid. Appius, never- 
theless, endeavoured to avail himself of it, from an appre- 
hension that he might meet with some obstruction in the 
usual method of applying for a ratification of his powers : 
and, indeed, it may be collected from a letter to Atticus, 
that he at last set forward to his government without the 
sanction of the people.— Manutius, De Leg. ; Grsev. prsef. 
in Antiq. 1 ; Ad Att. iv. 16. 

x The society of farmers of the public revenues, among 
the Romans, was a body of men in high repute, as being 
composed of the principal persons of the equestrian order : 
"Flos equitum Romanorum, (says Cicero,) ornamentum 
civitatis, firmamentum reipublicaa, publicanorum ordine 
continetur." [Pro Plane] Disputes frequently arose be- 
tween these and the tributary provinces : and it is to some 
difference of this kind wherein Lentulus had given judg- 
ment against them, that Cicero seems to allude. 

y There were two very eminent persons of this name in 



if possible, to recover their good graces, or at 
least to soften them. The task, I confess, is 
difficult ; but prudence, I think, requires you 
should use your best endeavours for that purpose. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XVIII. 

To Lucius Culleohts, Proconsul 7 -. 

It was with the warmest expressions of grati- 
tude that my friend Lucceius a acquainted me you 
a u 699 ^ generously assured his agents of your 
assistance, as indeed I know not a man 
in the world who has a heart more sensible of 
obligations. But if your promises only were thus 
acceptable to him, how much more will he think 
himself indebted to you when you shall have 
performed (as I am well persuaded you will most 
faithfully perform) these your obliging engage- 
ments ? 

The people of Bullis b have intimated a disposi- 
tion to refer the demands in question between 
Lucceius and themselves to Pompey's arbitration ; 
but as the concurrence of your influence and 
authority will be necessary, I very strongly entreat 
you to exert both for this purpose. 

It affords me great satisfaction to find that your 
letter to Lucceius, together with your promises to 
his agents, have convinced them that no man has 
more credit with you than myself ; and I earnestly 
conjure you to confirm them in these sentiments 
by every real and substantial service in your power. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XIX. 

To the same. 

You could never have disposed of your favours 

where they would be more gratefully remembered 

6 qq than on my friend Lucceius. But the 

obligation is not confined to him only ; 

Pompey likewise takes a share in it : and whenever 

Cicero's time. The first, the most celebrated lawyer and 
politician of his age, is distinguished by the title of augur. 
The other, who was high-priest, was slain at the entrance 
of the temple of Vesta, as he was endeavouring to make 
his escape from that general massacre of the senators 
which was perpetrated by the orders of the young Marius. 
To which of these Tully alludes is uncertain. Manutius 
supposes to the former, but without assigning his reasons. 
It seems not unlikely, however, to be the latter, as there 
is a passage in Valerius Maximus, by which we find that 
he exercised his Asiatic government with so much honour 
and integrity, that the senate, in their subsequent decrees 
for nominating the proconsuls to that province, always 
recommended him as an example worthy of their imita- 
tion. It appears, by a fragment of Diodorus Siculus, that 
he endeavoured, during his administration in Asia, to 
reform the great abuses which were committed by the 
farmers of the revenues in his province, and imprisoned 
many of them for their cruel oppressions of the people. 
This drew upon him their indignation : but in what par- 
ticular instance he was a sufferer by it, history does not 
mention. — Liv. epit. 86 ; Val. Max. viii. 15. 

z The person to whom this letter is addressed, and the 
province of which he was proconsul, are equally unknown. 

a An account of Lucceius has already been given in 
rem. z on letter 20, book i. 

b Geographers are not agreed as to the situation of this 
city, some placing it in Illyria, others in Macedonia. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



I see him (as I often do) he never fails to express 
in very strong terms how much he thinks himself 
indebted to you. To which I will add (what I 
know will give you great satisfaction) that it 
afforded me also a very sensible pleasure. As you 
cannot now discontinue these obliging offices with- 
out forfeiting your character of constancy, I doubt 
not of your persevering in the same friendly services 
for your own sake, which you at first engaged in 
for ours. I cannot forbear, nevertheless, most 
earnestly entreating you to proceed in what you 
have thus generously begun, till you shall have 
perfectly completed the purposes for which we 
requested your assistance. You will by these means 
greatly oblige not only Lucceius but Pompey ; and 
never, I will venture to assure you, can you lay out 
your services to more advantage. I have nothing 
further to add, having given you my full sentiments 
of public affairs in a letter which I wrote to you a 
few days ago by one of your domestics. Farewell. 



LETTER XX. 

To Curius, Proconsul c . 
I have long been intimately connected with 
Quintus Pompeius by a variety of repeated good 
a u 699 °^ ces - As he has upon many former oc- 
casions supported his interests, his credit, 
and his authority in your province by my influence, 
so, now the administration is in your hands, he ought 
undoubtedly to find, by the effects of this letter, that 
none of your predecessors have ever paid a greater 
regard to my recommendations. The strict union 
indeed that subsists between you and myself gives 
me a right to expect that you will look upon every 
friend of mine as your own. But I most earnestly 
entreat you to receive Pompeius in so particular a 
manner into your protection and favour, as to con- 
vince him that nothing could have proved more to 
his advantage and his honour than my applications 
to you in his behalf. Farewell. 



LETTER XXI. 

To Basilius d . 
I congratulate both you and myself on the 
present joyful occasion. All your affairs here are 
a u 699 mucn m Y concern, as your person is infi- 
nitely dear to me. Love me in return, 
and let me know what you are doing, and what is 
going forward in your part of the world. Farewell. 

c The person to whom this letter is addressed, and the 
time when it was written, are unknown. 

d If Basilius he the true name of the person to whom 
this letter is inscribed, (and, indeed, all the editions agree 
in calling him so,) no account can be given concerning 
him. But, if we may he allowed to suppose the genuine 
reading to be Bacilus, he was praetor in the year 708 : and 
Ca?sar not having given him a province, as was usual, at 
the expiration of his office, he was so mortified with the 
affront, that he put an end to his life.— Dio, xliii. p. 237- 



LETTER XXII. 

To Quintus Philippus, Proconsul e . 

I congratulate your safe return from your 
province, in the fulness of your fame, and amidst 
a u 699 *^ e g enera l tranquillity of the republic. 
If I were in Rome, I should have waited 
upon you for this purpose in person, and in order, 
likewise, to make my acknowledgments to you for 
your favours to my friends Egnatius and Oppius. 

I am extremely sorry to hear that you have taken 
great offence against my friend and host, Antipater. 
I cannot pretend to judge of the merits of the case ; 
but I know your character too well not to be per- 
suaded that you are incapable of indulging an 
unreasonable resentment. I conjure you, however, 
by our long friendship, to pardon, for my sake, his 
sons, who lie entirely at your mercy. If I imagined 
you could not grant this favour consistently with 
your honour, I should be far from making the re- 
quest ; as my regard for your reputation is much 
superior to all considerations of friendship which I 
owe to this family. But, if I am not mistaken, 
(and, indeed, I very possibly may) your clemency 
towards them will rather add to your character than 
derogate from it. If it be not too much trouble, 
therefore, I should be glad you would let me know 
how far a compliance with my request is in your 
power ; for that it is in your inclination, I have not 
the least reason to doubt. Farewell. 



LETTER XXIII. 

To Lucius Valerius*, the Lawyer: 

For?, why should I not gratify your vanity with 

that honourable appellation ? Since, as the times 

a u 669 £°> m y fri en d> confidence will readily pass 

upon the world for skill. 

I have executed the commission you sent me, 

and made your acknowledgments to Lentulus. But 

I wish you would render my offices of this kind 

unnecessary, by putting an end to your tedious 

absence. Is it not more worthy of your mighty 

ambition to be blended with your learned brethren 

at Rome, than to stand the sole great wonder of 

wisdom, amidst a parcel of paltry provincials 11 ? 

But I long to rally you in person, for which merry 

e See rem. » on letter 6, of this book. 

f Valerius is only known by this letter and another, 
wherein Cicero recommends him to Appius as a person 
who lived in his family, and for whom he entertained a 
very singular affection. By the air of this epistle he seems 
to have been one of that sort of lawyers who may more 
properly be said to be of the profession than the science. 
But, as the vein of humour which runs through this letter 
partly consists in playing upon words, it is not very easy, 
perhaps it is impossible, to be preserved in a translation ; 
and, as it alludes to circumstances which are now alto- 
gether unknown, it must necessarily lose much of its 
original spirit. 

£ The abrupt beginning of this letter has induced some 
of the commentators to suspect that it is not entire. But 
Manutius has very justly observed, that it evidently refers 
to the inscription : and he produces an instance of the 
same kind from one of the epistles to Atticus — Ad Att. 
iii. 20. 

h After this passage in the original, Cicero goes on in 

the following strain: — " Quanquam qui istinc veniunt, 

partim te superbum esse dicunt, quod nihil respondeat: 

I partim eontumeliosuni, quod male respondeat." The trans- 



373 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULL1US CICERO 



purpose I desire you would hasten hither as expe- 
ditiously as possible. I would by no means, how- 
ever, advise you to take Apulia in the way, lest 
some disastrous adventure in those unlucky regions 
should prevent our welcoming your safe arrival. 
And, in truth, to what purpose should you visit 
this your native province 1 ? For, like Ulysses, 



lator, however, has ventured to omit this witticism, upon 
the advice of Horace. 

" Quae 

Desperat tentata nitescere posse, relinquit." 
It is a pun, indeed, which has already occurred in one of 
the preceding letters to Trebatius, where our author plays 
in the same manner upon the equivocal sense of the verb 
respondere. [See rem. p on letter 16 of this book.] Voiture 
has managed an allusion of this kind much more success- 
fully. " Si vous pretendez (says that agreeable writer to 
his friend the plenipotentiary at Munster) que la dignite 
de plenipotentiare vous dispense de respondre, Papinian 
avoit a sa charge toutes les affaires de l'empire romain, 
et je vous monstrerai en cent lieux dans de gros livres, 
Papinianus respondit, et respondit Papinianus. Les plus 
sages et les plus prudens etoient ceux qui avoient accous- 
tume de respondre, et de la responsa sapientum, et pru- 
dentum responsa. Les oracles memes, quand vous en 
seriez un, respondoient ; et il n'est pas qu'aux choses 
inanimees, qui ne se mettent quelquefois en devoir de 
respondre : — 

• Les eaux et les rochers et les bois lui respondent.' " 
Let. de Yoit. i. 165. 
> Manutius imagines that Cicero means to rally the 
obscurity of his friend's birth. Perhaps it would be nearer 
the truth to acknowledge that it is impossible to know 
what he means : yet, as this sense is as consistent with the 
original as any other, it is adopted in the translation. 
But if this very learned commentator be right in his 
general notion of this passage, he is certainly deceived in 
his interpretation of tanquam Ulysses, cognosces tuorum 
neminem, with which the letter concludes. For he takes 
the verb cognosco in its usual acceptation : by which means 
he makes Cicero mistake so well known a story as that of 
the behaviour of Ulysses upon his first return to Ithaca. 
However, he is persuaded that this is a designed misre- 
presentation in his author : and discovers I know not 
what improvement of the humour by this very perversion 
of the fable. The labours of this penetrating commentator 
have cast such a light upon the writings of Cicero, that 
even his errors deserve to be treated with respect, other- 
wise one might justly laugh at a notion so exactly in the 
true spirit of a fanciful critic, who refines upon his own 



when he first returned to his Ithaca, you will be 
much too prudent, undoubtedly, to lay claim to 
your noble kindred. Farewell. 

mistakes. It is a mistake, nevertheless, in which all the 
succeeding commentators concur with him, except Mr. 
Ross, who has removed the whole difficulty of the passage, 
by explaining cognosco in the sense of agnosco. This 
sense (in which indeed it is not unfrequently used) recon- 
ciles the allusion to the truth of the fact : and where a 
word has several significations, it would be out of all rule 
of criticism to understand it in an application the least 
favourable to an author's meaning. It is not always so 
easy however to justify Cicero with respect to Homer ; 
and he has, in one instance at least, been betrayed into an 
error in quoting that poet. The instance occurs in his 
Tusculan disputations, where he takes notice of that 
passage in the seventh Iliad, in which Ajax is described 
as going forth to accept the challenge of Hector. " Vide- 
mus (says he) progredientem apud Homerum, Ajacem 
multa cum hilaritate cum depugnaturus esset cum Hec- 
tore ; cujus, ut arma sumpsit, ingressio laetitiam attulit 
sociis, terrorem autem hostibus: ut ipsum Hectorem, 
quemadmodum est apud Homerum, toto pectore tremen- 
tem, provocasse ad pugnam poeniteret." — [Tusc. Disp. iv. 
22.] But Homer by no means represents Hector thus 
totally dismayed at the approach of his adversary : and, 
indeed, it would have been inconsistent with the general 
character of that hero to have described him under such 
circumstances of terror. 

Tbi> 5e not 'Apyeloi ftey iyfjQeov elaopocovr^s' 
Tpoas 5e rpo/xos aivbs virr\\vQz "yvia etcao-Toi/, 
"EicTopi t' auT<£ 6v/xbs ivl arr,6eaai- Trdraao-cu. 

Ver. 214. 
But there is a great difference (as Br. Clarke observes, in 
his remarks upon these lines) between 6v[xb? ivl o~T7]decro~iv 
Trdracro-ev, and Kapdir] e£&> (Trrjdewv idpcfxritei, or rpofios 
alvbs irnr]\vQe yv?a. The Trojans, says Homer, trembled 
at the sight of Ajax ; and even Hector himself felt some 
emotion in his breast ; or to express it in the same spirit 
of poetry which distinguishes the original, 

Thro' ev'ry Argive heart new transport ran : 
All Troy stood trembling at the mighty man. 
E'en Hector paused ; and, with new doubt opprest, 
Felt his great heart suspended in his breast.' — Pope. 
Perhaps this slip of attention in so great an author may 
not be improperly pointed out, as engaging the candour 
of the reader towards those errors of the same nature, 
which he will too probably meet with in the course of 
this attempt. 



BOOK III. 



LETTER I. 

To Cuius CurioK 

Though I am sorry you should suspect me of 

neglecting you, I will acknowledge that I am not 

a v. 700 so mucn concerned at your reproaches for 

my not writing, as I am pleased to find 

that you are desirous of hearing from me. Con- 

j Curio was a young nobleman of great parts, spirit, and 
eloquence ; but addicted, beyond all modesty or measure, 
to the prevailing luxury and gallantries of a most dissolute 
age. After having dissipated his fortune by extravagant 
indulgences, for which no estate could suffice, he fell an 
easy prey to corruption. Accordingly, Crrsarpaid his debts, 
amounting to almost 500,000/., and by that means gained 
him over from the cause of liberty, to become one of the 



scious, indeed, of not meriting your friendly 
accusation, the instance it afforded me that my 
letters were acceptable to you, was a very agreeable 
proof of the continuance of that affection which I 
have already so frequently experienced. Believe 
me, I have never omitted writing whenever any 
person offered whom I imagined likely to convey 
my letters into your hands ; and, which of your 
accmaintance, I will venture to ask, is a more punc- 

warmest and most active of his partisans. It is generally 
imagined that Virgil glances at him in those well-known 
lines, vendidit hie auro patriam, &c. though, indeed, they 
are applicable to so many others of his contemporaries, 
that there seems no great reason to imagine the poet had 
Curio particularly in his view. Lucan mentions him as 
one whoso talents would probably have been of the highest 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



379 



fcual correspondent than myself? In return, how- 
ever, I have scarcely received more than one or 
two letters from you since you left Rome, and 
those two extremely concise. Thus, you see, I can 
justly retort your charge ; you must not, therefore, 
pass too severe a sentence on your part, if you hope 
to receive a favourable one on mine. But I will dwell 
no longer on this article than to assure you, that 
since you are disposed to accept these memorials 
of my friendship, I doubt not of acquitting myself 
to your full satisfaction. 

Though I regret extremely the being thus long k 
deprived of your very agreeable company, yet I 
cannot but rejoice at an absence which has contri- 
buted so much to your honour ; as fortune indeed 
has, in all that concerns you, answered my warmest 
wishes. I have only to offer you one short piece 
of advice, and I offer it in compliance with the 
sincere dictates of that singular affection I bear 
you. Let me earnestly, then, entreat you to come 
well-prepared at your return, to act up to those 
great ideas which the world has, with so much 
reason, conceived of your spirit and talents. And 
as nothing can ever wear out the deep impressions 
your good offices have stamped upon my mind 1 , so, 
I hope you will not forget, on your side, that you 
could not have attained those honours or advan- 
tages that attend you, if you had not, in the 
earlier part of your life, complied with my faithful 
and affectionate admonitions m . Have I not reason, 
then, to expect in return, that as the weight of old 
age now begins to bend me down 11 , you will suffer 
me to repose my declining years upon your youth 
and friendship ? Farewell. ' 

honour and benefit to his country, if he had lived in times 
of less contagious depravation : 

" Haud alium tanta civem tulit indole Roma, 
Aut cui plus leges deberent, recta sequenti. 
Perdita tunc urbi nocuerunt secula, postquam 
Ambitus et luxus, et opum metuenda facultas, 
Transverso mentem dubiam torrente tulerunt." 
" A soul more form'd to aid his country's cause, 
Avenge her insults, and support her laws, 
Rome never knew ; but ah ! in evil hour, 
Fate bade thee live when virtue was no more ! 
When lawless lust of power, and avarice dread, 
And baneful luxury the land o'erspread. 
Thy wav'ring mind the torrent ill withstood, 
Borne, scarce resisting, down the impetuous flood." 
He distinguished himself with great bravery in support of 
Caesar's cause in Africa, where Varus commanded on the 
part of the republic. But, after some successful engage- 
ments, he lost his life before the battle of Pharsalia, in an 
action against the troops of Juba, near TJtica. At the 
time when this letter, and the rest that are addressed to 
him in the present book, were written, he resided in Asia, 
where, as Manutius conjectures, he was employed in 
quality of quaestor to Caius Clodius.— Veil. Pat. ii. 48 ; Plut. 
in Vit. Caes. ; Val. Max. ix. 6 ; Virg. JEn. vi. 620 ; Luc. iv. 
814; Liv.epit.110. 

k " Curio had been most probably absent from Rome 
about two years ; for Caius Clodius, to whom he is sup- 
posed to have been quaestor, obtained the government of 
Asia A. u. 698 ; Pigh. Annal."— Ross. 
1 Curio assisted him in his contest with Clodius. 
,u Curio, when he was a very young man, had entered 
into a commerce of the most criminal and detestable kind 
with Antony. His father, in order to break off this in- 
famous intercourse, was obliged to call in Cicero to his 
assistance ; who, by his prudent and friendly advice, 
weaned the son from a passion not less expensive it seems 
than it was execrable ; and, by this means, (as Cicero 
reproaches Antony in one of his Philippics) he saved an 



LETTER II. 

To Trebativs. 
If you were not already in the number of our 
absentees, undoubtedly you would be tempted to 

a u. 700. * eave us at tn ^ s J uncture 5 for what busi- 
ness can a lawyer expect in Rome during 
this long and general suspension of all juridical 
proceedings ! Accordingly, I advise my friends, 
who have any actions commenced against them, to 
petition each successive interrex p for a double en- 
largement of the usual time for putting in their 
pleas : and is not this a proof how wonderfully I 
have profited by your sage instructions in the lawi? 
But tell me, my friend, since your letters, I observe, 
have lately run in a more enlivened strain than 
usual, what is it that has elevated you into so gay 
a humour ? This air of pleasantry I like well ; it 
looks as if the world went successfully with you, 
and I am all impatience to know what it is that has 
thus raised your spirits. You inform me, indeed, 
that Csesar does you the honour to advise with you. 
For my own part, however, I had rather hear that 
he consulted your interest than your judgment. 
But, seriously, if the former is really the case, or 
there is any probability of its proving so, let me 
entreat you to continue in your present situation, 
and patiently submit to the inconveniences of a 
military life ; as, on my part, I shall support my- 
self under your absence with the hopes of its turning 
to your advantage. But, if all expectations of this 
kind are at an end, let us see you as soon as pos- 
sible ; and, perhaps, some method may be found 
here of improving your fortunes. If not, we shall 
at least have the satisfaction of enjoying each 
other's company, and one hour's conversation toge- 
ther is of more value to us, my friend, than the 
whole city of Samarobriva r . Besides, if you return 
illustrious family from utter ruin. — Plut. in Vit. Anton. ; 
Cic. Phil. ii. 18. 

n Cicero was at this time in the 54th year of his age.— 
Manutius. 

° The feuds in the republic were raised to so great a 
height towards the latter end of the preceding year and 
the beginning of the present, that the office of the late 
consuls had expired several months before new ones could 
be elected. In exigencies of this kind, the constitution 
had provided a magistrate called an Interrex, to whom 
the consular power was provisionally delegated. But 
public business, however, was at a stand, and the courts 
of judicature, in particular, were shut up during this 
interregnum: a circumstance from which Cicero takes 
occasion to enter into his usual vein of pleasantry with 
Trebatius, and to rally him in perpetual allusions to his 
profession. — Dio, xl. 

P This office of Interrex continued only five days; at 
the expiration of which, if consuls were not chosen, a new 
Interrex was appointed for the same short period. And 
in this manner the succession of these occasional magis- 
trates was carried on, till the elections were determined. 

«l The minute forms of law-proceedings among the 
Romans, are not sufficiently known to distinguish pre- 
cisely the exact point on which Cicero's humour in this 
passage turns; and, accordingly, the explanations which 
the commentators have offered, are by no means satis- 
factory. It would be foreign to the purpose of these 
remarks to lay before the reader their several conjectures ; 
it will be sufficient in general to observe, that there was 
some notorious impropriety in the advice which Cicero 
here represents himself as having given to his friends, and 
in which the whole force of his pleasantry consists. 

r A city in Belgic Gaul, and probably the place wherein 
Trebatius had his present quarters. 



380 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



soon, the disappointment you have suffered may 
pass unremarked ; whereas, a longer pursuit to no 
purpose would be so ridiculous a circumstance, 
that I am terribly afraid it would scarcely escape 
the drollery of those very arch fellows s , Laberius, 
and my companion Valerius*. And what a bur- 
lesque character would a British lawyer furnish out 
for the Roman stage ! You may smile, perhaps, 
at this notion ; but though I mention it in my 
usual style of pleasantry, let me tell you it is no 
jesting matter. In good earnest, if there is any 
prospect that my recommendations will avail in 
obtaining the honours you deserve, I cannot but 
exhort you, in all the sincerity of the warmest 
friendship, to make yourself easy under this ab- 
sence, as a means of increasing both your fortunes 
and your fame : if not I would strongly advise 
your return. I have no doubt, however, that your 
own merit, in conjunction with my most zealous 
services, will procure you every advantage you can 
reasonably desire. Farewell. 



LETTER III. 

To Appius Pulcher^. 

If the Genius of Rome were himself to give you 

an account of the commonwealth, you could not be 

A v ^ 00 more fully apprised of public affairs, than 

by the information you will receive from 

Phanias : a person, let me tell you, not only of 

s Laberius was a Roman knight, who distinguished 
himself by his comic humour, and he had written several 
farces which were acted with great applause. He was pre- 
vailed upon by Caesar to take a part himself in one of his 
own performances, and the prologue which he spoke upon 
that occasion is still extant. The whole composition is 
extremely spirited, and affords a very advantageous speci- 
men of his genius ; but there is something so peculiarly 
just and beautiful in the thought of the concluding lines, 
that the reader perhaps will not regret the being carried 
out of his way in order to observe it. Laberius was sixty 
years of age, when, in complaisance to Caesar, he thus made 
his first entrance upon the stage ; and, in allusion to a 
circumstance so little favourable to his appearing with 
success, he tells the audience, 

" Ut hedera serpens vires arboreas neeat ; 

Ita me vetustas amplexu annorum enecat ; 

Sepulchri similis. nihil nisi nomen retineo !" 
" While round the oak the fraudful ivy twines, 

Robb'd of its strength, the sapless tree declines, 

Thus envious age, advanced with stealing pace, 

Clasps my chill'd limbs, and kills with cold embrace. 

Like empty monuments to heroes' fame, 

Of all I was retaining but the name ! 

Macrob. Saturn, ii. 7- 
* This Valerius is supposed by some of the commentators 
to be Quintus Valerius Catullus, a celebrated poet, who, 
as appears by his works, which are still extant, was 
patronised by Cicero. But the opinion of Manutius is 
much more probable, that the person here meant is the 
same to whom the 13th letter of the first book in this 
collection is addressed, and who is likewise mentioned in 
the following epistle. 

u Appius Clodius Pulcher had been consul the preceding 
year, and was at this time governor of Cilicia. The parti- 
cular traits of his character will be occasionally marked 
out in the observations on the several letters addressed to 
him in this and the subsequent books. In the mean time 
it may be sufficient to observe that Cicero very zealously 
cultivated his friendship, not from any real opinion of 
his merit, but as one whose powerful alliances rendered 
him too considerable to be despised as an enemy. For one 



consummate politics, but of infinite curiosity. I 
refer you, therefore, to him, as to the shortest and 
safest means of being acquainted with our situation. 
I might trust him likewise with assuring you, at 
the same time, of the friendly disposition of my 
heart towards you ; but that is an office which I 
must claim the privilege of executing with my own 
hand. Be persuaded, then, that I think of you 
with the highest affection: as, indeed, you have a 
full right to these sentiments, not only from the 
many generous and amiable qualities of your mind, 
but from that grateful sensibility, with which, as I 
am informed, both by your own letters and the 
general account of others, you receive my best ser- 
vices. I shall endeavour, therefore, by my future 
good offices, to compensate for that long intermis- 
sion which unhappily suspended our former inter- 
course v . And, since you seem willing to renew 
our amicable commerce, I doubt not of engaging 
in it with the general approbation of the world w . 

Your freedman Cilix, was very little known to 
me before he delivered your obliging letter into my 
hands : the friendly purport of which he confirmed 
with great politeness. The account, indeed, he 
gave me of your sentiments, as well as of the fre- 
quent and favourable mention you are pleased to 
make of my name, were circumstances which I 
heard with much pleasure. In short, during our 
two days' conversation together, he entirely won 
my heart : not to the exclusion, however, of my 
old friend Phanias, whose return I impatiently 
expect. I imagine you will speedily order him 
back to Rome ; and I hope you will not dismiss 
him without sending me, at the same time, your 
full and unreserved commands. 

I very strongly recommend to your patronage 
Valerius the lawyer x , even though you should 
discover that he has but a slender claim to that 
appellation. I mention this, as being more cau- 
tious in obviating the flaws in his title than he 
usually is in guarding against those of his clients. 
But, seriously, I have a great affection for the man : 
as, indeed, he is my particular friend and compa- 
nion. I must do him the justice to say, that he is 
extremely sensible of the favours you have already 
conferred upon him. Nevertheless, he is desirous 
of my recommendation, as he is persuaded it will 
have much weight with you. I entreat you to 
convince him that he is not mistaken. Farewell. 

of Appius's daughters was married to Pompey's son. and 
the other to Brutus. — See Life of Cicero, p. lb'3 ; Ep. Fam. 
ii. 13. 

v Appius was brother to Cicero's declared enemy, the 
turbulent Clodius, which occasioned that interruption of 
their friendship to which he here alludes. It appears by 
a passage in the oration for Milo, that Clodius, in the 
absence of his brother, had forcibly taken possession of an 
estate belonging to Appius ; and the indignation which 
this piece of injustice must necessarily raise in the latter, 
rendered him, it is probable, so much the more disposed 
to a re-union with Cicero. — Orat. pro Mil. :'7- 

w The whole passage in the original stands thus:— 
" Idque me, quoniam tu ita vis, puto non invita Minerva 
facturum : quam quidem ego, si forte de litis smnpsero, 
non solum Pallada, sed etiam Appiada nominabo." The 
former part of this sentence is translated agreeably to the 
interpretation of the learned Gronovius : but the latter is 
wholly omitted. For notwithstanding all the pains of the 
commentators to explain its difficulties, it is utterly 
unintelligible : at least I do not scruple to confess it is 
so to me. 

s See rem. f on letter 2;», book ii. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



381 



LETTER IV. 

To Caius Memmius?. 

Your tenant, Caius Evander, is a person with 
whom I am very intimate : as his patron, Marcus 

u ^ (}() iEmilius, is in the number of my most 
particular friends. I entreat your per- 
mission, therefore, that he may continue some 
time longer in your house, if it be not inconve- 
nient to you : for, as he has a great deal of work 
upon his hands, he cannot remove so soon as the 
first of July, without being extremely hurried. I 
should be ashamed to use many words in soliciting 
a favour of this nature at your hands ; and I am 
persuaded that, if it is not very much to your pre- 
judice, you will be as well inclined to grant me this 
request as I should be to comply with any of yours. 
I will only add, therefore, that your indulgence 
will greatly oblige me. Farewell. 



LETTER V. 

To Trebatius. 
I was wondering at the long intermission of 
your letters, when my friend Pansa accounted for 
a v 700 y our insolence, by assuring me that you 
were turned an Epicurean. Glorious 
effect, indeed, of camp-conversation ! But, if a 
metamorphosis so extraordinary has been wrought 
in you amidst the martial air of Samarobriva, what 
would have been the consequence had I sent you 
to the softer regions of Tarentum z ? I have been 
in some pain for your principles, I confess, ever 
since your intimacy with my friend Seius. But 
how will you reconcile your tenets to your profes- 
sion, and act for the interest of your client, now 
that you have adopted the maxim of doing nothing 
but for your own ? With what grace can you insert 
the usual clause in your deeds of agreement : ' ' The 
parties to these presents as becomes good men and 
true," &c. ? For neither truth nor trust can there 
be in those who professedly govern themselves upon 
motives of absolute selfishness ? I am in some 
pain, likewise, how you will settle the law con- 
cerning the partition of " rights in common :" as 
there can be nothing in common between those who 
make their own private gratification the sole crite- 
rion of right and wrong. Or can you think it 
proper to administer an oath, while you maintain 
that Jupiter is incapable of all resentment ? In a 
word, what will become of the good people of 
Ulubrse a who have placed themselves under your 
protection, if you hold the maxim of your sect, 
" that a wise man ought not to engage himself in 
public affairs?" In good earnest I shall be ex- 
tremely sorry, if it is true that you have really 
y See an account of him in rem. c on the 27th letter of 
this book. 

z Tarentum was a city in Italy distinguished for the 
softness and luxury of its inhabitants. Geographers inform 
us that the greatest part of their year was consumed in the 
celebration of stated festivals. — Bunon. Comment, in Clu- 
verii Geograph. 

a " Cicero jocosely speaks of this people, as if they 
belonged to the most considerable town in Italy ; whereas 
it was so mean and contemptible a place, that Horace, in 
order to show the power of contentment, says, that a 
person possessed of that excellent temper of mind, may be 
happy even at Ulubrae : 
' Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit aequus.' " — Ross. 



deserted us. But if your conversion is nothing 
more than a convenient compliment to the opinions 
of Pansa, I will forgive your dissimulation, pro- 
vided you let me know soon how your affairs go 
on, and in what manner I can be of any service in 
them. Farewell. 



LETTER VI. 

To Caius Curio. 

Our friendship, I trust, needs not any other 
evidence to confirm its sincerity than what arises 
a u "00 from the testimony of our own hearts. I 
cannot, however, but consider the death 
of your illustrious father as depriving me of a most 
venerable witness to that singular affection I bear 
you b . I regret that he had not the satisfaction of 
taking a last farewell of you before he closed his 
eyes : it was the only circumstance wanting to 
render him as much superior to the rest of the 
world in his domestic happiness as in his public 
fame c . 

I sincerely wish you the happy enjoyment of 
your estate : and, be assured, you will find in me 
a friend who loves and values you with the same 
tenderness as your father himself conceived for 
you. Farewell. 



LETTER VII. 
To Trebatius. 

Can you seriously suppose me so unreasonable 
as to be angry, because I thought you discovered 
a u 700 t0 ° i nconstant a disposition in your im- 
patience to leave Gaul ? And can you 
possibly believe it was for that reason I have thus 
long omitted writing ? The truth is, I was only 
concerned at the uneasiness which seemed to have 
overcast your mind : and I forbore to write upon 
no other account, but as being entirely ignorant 
where to direct my letters. I suppose, however, 
that this is a plea which your loftiness will scarcely 
condescend to admit. But tell me then, is it the 
weight of your purse, or the honour of being the 
counsellor of Caesar, that most disposes you to be 
thus insufferably arrogant ? Let me perish if I 
do not believe that thy vanity is so immoderate, as 
to choose rather to share in his councils than his 
coffers. But should he admit you into a participa- 
tion of both, you will undoubtedly swell into such 
intolerable airs, that no mortal will be able to en- 
dure you : or none, at least, except myself, who 
am philosopher enough, you know, to endure any- 
thing. But I was going to tell you, that as I 
regretted the uneasiness you formerly expressed, 
so I rejoice to hear that you are better reconciled 
to your situation. My only fear is, that your 
wonderful skill in the law will little avail you in 
your present quarters ; for I am told, that the 
people you have to deal with, 

b See rem. •" on the first letter of this book. 

c Hewas consul in the year of Rome 676, when he acted 
with great spirit in opposition to the attempts of Sicinius, 
for restoring the tribunitial power, which had been much 
abridged by Sylla. In the following year he went governor 
into Macedonia, and by his military conduct in that pro- 
vince obtained the honour of a triumph. He distinguished 
himself among the friends of Cicero when he was attacked 
by Clodius.— Freinshem. Supplem. in Liv. xci. ciii. 



38: 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



" Rest the strength of their cause on the force of their 
might, 
And the sword is supreme arbitrator of right d ." 

As I know you do not choose to be concerned in 
forcible entries, and are much too peaceably dis- 
posed to be fond of making assaults, let me leave a 
piece of advice with my lawyer, and by all means 
recommend it to you to avoid the Treviri e ; for I 
hear they are most formidable fellows. I wish 
from my heart they were as harmless as their name- 
sakes round the edges of our coin f . But I must 
reserve the rest of my jokes to another opportunity : 
in the mean time let me desire you would send me 
a full account of whatever is going forward in your 
province. Farewell. 
March the 4th. 

$ — 

LETTER VIII. 

To CornificiusS. 

Your letter was extremely agreeable to me in 
all respects, except that I was sorry to find by it, 
you had slighted my lodge at Sinuessa. 
A ' u ' I shall not excuse the affront you have 
thus passed upon my little hovel, unless you give 
me double satisfaction by making use both of my 
Cuman and Pompeian villas. Let me entreat you 
then to do so, and to preserve me likewise in your 
affection. I hope you will provoke me to enter 
into a literary contest with you, by some of your 
writings ; as I find it much easier to answer a 
challenge of this kind, than to send one. However, 
if you should persevere in your usual indolence, I 
shall venture to lead the way myself, in order to 
show you that your idleness has not infected me. 

I steal a moment to write this whilst I am in the 
senate ; but you shall have a longer letter from me 
when I shall be less engaged. Farewell. 



LETTER IX. 

To Trebatius. 
I am giving you an instance, that those who 
love are not easily to be pleased, when I assure you, 
that though I was very much concerned 
when you told me that you continued in 
Gaul with reluctance, yet I am no less mortified 
now your letter informs me, that you like your 
situation extremely well. To say the truth, as I 
regretted you should not approve a scheme which 
you pursued upon my recommendation ; so I can 
ill bear that any place should be agreeable to you 
where I am not. Nevertheless, I had much rather 
endure the uneasiness of your absence, than suffer 
you to forego the advantages with which I hope 
it will be attended. It is impossible, therefore, to 
express how much I rejoice in your having made a 
friendship with a man of so improved an under- 
standing and so amiable a disposition as Matius : 

d Ennius. 

e The Treviri were a most warlike people, bordering on 
Germany. They were defeated about this time by La- 
bienus, one of Caesar's lieutenants in Gaul. — Cass. De Bell. 
Gall. viii. 

f The public coin was under the inspection of three 
officers called Treviri monetales : and several pieces of 
money are still extant in the cabinets of the curious, 
inscribed with the names of these magistrates. — Petri 
Bembi Epist. apud Manut. 

s See an account of him in letter 24, book xi. rem. \ 



a. v. 700. 



whose esteem, I hope, you will endeavour to culti- 
vate by every means in your power. For believe 
me, you cannot' bring home a more valuable 
acquisition. Farewell. 



LETTER X. 

To Caius Curio. 
You must not impute it to any neglect in Rupa, 
that he has not executed your commission ; as he 
omitted it merely in compliance with the 
opinion of myself and the rest of your 
friends. We thought it most prudent that no 
steps should be^taken during your absence which 
might preclude you from a change of measures after 
your return ; and therefore that it would be best 
he should not signify your intentions of entertain- 
ing the people with public games b . I may perhaps, 
in some future letter, give you my reasons at large 
against your executing that design ; or rather, that 
you may not come prepared to answer my objec- 
tions, I believe it will be the wisest way to reserve 
them till we meet. If I should not bring you over 
to my sentiments, I shall have the satisfaction at 
least, of discharging the part of a friend ; and 
should it happen (which I hope, however, it will 
not) that you should hereafter have occasion to 
repent of your scheme, you may then remember 
that I endeavoured to dissuade you from it. But 
this much I will now say, that those advantages 
which fortune, in conjunction with your own indus- 
try and natural endowments, have put into your 
possession, supply a far surer method of opening 
your way to the highest dignities than any ostenta- 
tious display of the most splendid spectacles. The 
truth of it is, exhibitions of this kind, as they are 
instances of wealth only, not of merit, are by no 
means considered as reflecting any honour on the 
authors of them ; not to mention that the public 
is quite satiated with their frequent returns — But 
I am fallen unawares into what I designed to have 
avoided, and pointing out my particular reasons 
against your scheme. I will waive all farther dis- 
cussions therefore of this matter, till we meet, and 
in the mean time inform you that the world enter- 
tains the highest opinion of your virtues. Whatever 
advantages may be hoped from the most exalted 
patriotism united with the greatest abilities, the 
public, believe me, expects from you. And should 
you come prepared (as I am sure you ought and I 
trust you will) to act up to these its glorious 
expectations, then indeed you will exhibit to your 
friends and to the commonwealth in general, a 
spectacle of the noblest and most affecting kind 1 . 
In the meanwhile, be assured no man has a greater 
share of my affection and esteem than yourself. 
Farewell. 



h Curio's pretence for exhibiting these games, was to 
pay an honour to the memory of his father, lately deceased : 
but his principal motive was to ingratiate himself with the 
people, who were passionately attached to entertainments 
of this kind. As Cicero well knew the profusion of Curio's 
temper, and that the scheme he was meditating could not 
be executed without great expense, he acted a very judi- 
cious and honest part, in labom-ing to turn him aside from 
a project that would contribute to embarrass his finances, 
and most probably therefore impair the foundation of his 
integrity. 

1 Curio was not of a disposition to listen to this prudent 
counsel of his friend ; but in opposition to all the grave 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



383 



LETTER XL 

To Trebatius. 

Two or three of your letters which lately came 

to my hands at the same time, though of different 

dates, have afforded me great pleasure ; 

U ' ' as they were proofs that you have recon- 
ciled yourself, with much spirit and resolution, to 
the inconveniences of a military life. I had some 
little suspicion, I confess, of the contrary ; not that 
I questioned your courage, but as imputing your 
uneasiness to the regret of our separation. Let me 
entreat you then to persevere in your present tem-^ 
per of mind, and believe me, you will derive many 
and considerable advantages from the service in 
which you are engaged. In the mean while I shall 
not fail to renew my solicitations to Caesar in your 
favour upon all proper occasions, and have herewith 
sent you a Greek letter to deliver to him for that 
purpose ; for in truth you cannot be more anxious 
than I am that this expedition may prove to your 
benefit. In return, I desire you would send me a 
full relation of the Gallic war, for you must know 
I always depend most upon the accounts of those 
who are least engaged in the action. 

As I do not imagine you are altogether so consi- 
derable a person as to retain a secretary in your 
service, I could not but wonder you should trouble 
yourself with the precaution of sending me several 
copies of the same letter. Your parsimony, how- 
ever, deserves to be applauded, as one of them, I 
observed, was written upon a tablet that had been 
used before. I cannot conceive what unhappy 
composition could be so very miserable as to deserve 
to give place upon this occasion, unless it were one 
of your own conveyances. I flatter myself at least, 
it was not any sprightly epistle of mine that you 
thus disgraced, in order to scribble over it a dull 
one of your own. Or was it your intention to 
intimate affairs go so ill with you, that you could 
not afford any better materials ? If that should be 
your case you must even thank yourself for not 
leaving your modesty behind you. 

I shall recommend you in very strong terms to 
Balbus when he returns into Gaul. But you must 
not be surprised if you should not hear from me 
again so soon as usual, as I shall be absent from 
Rome during all this month. I write this from 
Pomptinus, at the villa of Metrilius Philemon, 
where I am placed within hearing of those croak- 
ing clients whom you recommended to my protec- 
tion ; for a prodigious number it seems of yourJ 
Ulubrean frogs are assembled in order to compli- 
ment my arrival among them. Farewell. 

April the 8th. 

P.S I have destroyed the letter I received from 

you by the hands of Lucius Aruntius, though it was 
much too innocent to deserve so severe a treatment : 
for it contained nothing that might not have been 

advice of Cicero, he persevered in his resolution, and 
executed it with great magnificence. The consequence 
was just what Cicero foresaw and dreaded : he contracted 
debts which he was incapable of discharging, and then sold 
himself to Caesar, in order to satisfy the clamours of bis 
creditors. — See rem. i on the first letter of this book. 

J Cicero ludicrously gives the inhabitants of Ulubrae this 
appellation, in allusion to the low and marshy situation of 
their town.— See rem. a , p. 381. 



proclaimed before a general assembly of the people. 
However, it was your express desire I should de- 
stroy it, and I have complied accordingly. I will 
only add, that I wonder much at not having heard 
from you since, especially as so many extraordinary 
events have lately happened in your province. 



A . u. 700. 



LETTER XII. 

To Cains Curio. 

Numberless are the subjects which may enter 
into a correspondence of the epistolary kind ; but 
the most usual, and which indeed gave 
the first rise to this amicable commerce 
is, to inform an absent friend of those private affairs 
which it may be necessary, either for his interest 
or our own, that he should know. You must not 
however expect any thing of the latter sort from me, 
as your family correspondents, I am sensible, com- 
municate to you what relates to your own concerns, 
and nothing new has happened in mine. There 
are two other species of letters with which I am 
particularly pleased ; those I mean that are written 
in the freedom and pleasantry of common conver- 
sation, and those which turn upon grave and moral 
topics. But in which of these it would be least 
improper for me to address you at this juncture, is 
a question not easily determined. Ill indeed would 
it become me to entertain you with letters of 
humour, at a season when every man of common 
sensibility has bidden adieu to mirth k . And what 
can Cicero write that shall deserve the serious 
thoughts of Curio, unless it be on public affairs ? 
My situation, however, is such, that I dare not 
trust my real sentiments of those points in a letter 1 : 
and none other will I ever send you m . Thus pre- 
cluded as I am from every other topic, I must 
content myself with repeating what I have often 
urged, and earnestly exhort you to the pursuit of 
true and solid glory. Believe me, it will require 
the utmost efforts of your care and resolution, to 
act up to those high and uncommon expectations 
which the world has conceived of your merit. There 
is indeed but one possible method that can enable 
you to surmount this arduous task. The method 
I mean is, by diligently cultivating those qualities 
which are the foundation of a just applause ; of that 
applause, my friend, which I know is the constant 
object of your warmest ambition. I might add 

k Affairs at Rome were at this time in the utmost con- 
fusion, occasioned (as has already been observed in the 
notes above) by the factious interruption that was given 
to the usual election of the magistrates. [See rem. °, p. 
379.] This state of tumult, or indeed to speak more pro- 
perly of almost absolute anarchy, was however somewhat 
composed tOAvards the latter end of the present year, by 
the election of Domitius Calvinus and Valerius Messala to 
the consular office. — Dio, xl. p. 141. 

1 The disturbances mentioned in the preceding note, 
were artfully fomented by Caesar and Pompey, in order to 
turn them to the advantage of their ambitious purposes. 
But this was too delicate a circumstance for Cicero to 
explain himself upon : especially as he was now culti- 
vating a friendship with both. 

m The text in the original is evidently defective : " atque 
in hoc genere hac mea causa est, ut neqne ea quae non 
sentio velim scribere." The sense is supplied in the trans- 
lation, in a way that seemed to coincide best with this 
mutilated sentence. 



«84 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



much more to this purpose, but I am sensible you 
stand not in need of any incitements ; and indeed 
I have thrown out these general hints far less with 
a view of inflaming your heart, than of testifying 
the ardency with which I give you mine. Fare- 
well. 



LETTER XIII. 

To Memmius. 
I claim the promise you gave me when we met 
last, and desire you to treat my very intimate and 
zealous friend Aulus Fusius, in the man- 
ner you assured me you would. He is a 
man of letters as well as great politeness, and 
indeed in every view of his character he is highly 
deserving your friendship. The civilities you shall 
show him will be extremely agreeable to me, as 
they will at the same time for ever attach to your 
interest a person of a most obliging and friendly 
disposition. Farewell. 



a. u. 700. 



u. 700. 



LETTER XIV. 

To Caius Curio. 

Public affairs are so circumstanced that I dare 
not communicate my sentiments of them in a letter. 
This however I will venture in general to 
say, that I have reason to congratulate 
you on your removal from the scene in which we 
are engaged. But I must add, that in whatever 
part of the world you might be placed, you would 
still (as I told you in my last n ) be embarked in the 
same common bottom with your friends here. I 
have another reason likewise for rejoicing in your 
absence, as it has placed your merit in full view of 
so considerable a number of the most illustrious 
citizens and allies of Rome, and indeed the reputa- 
tion you have acquired is universally and without 
the least exception, confirmed to us on all hands. 
But there is one circumstance attending you, upon 
which I know not whether I ought to send you my 
congratulations or not ; I mean with respect to 
those high and singular advantages which the com- 
monwealth promises itself from your return amongst 
us. Not that I suspect your proving unequal to 
the opinion which the world entertains of your 
virtues, but as fearing that whatever is most worthy 
of your care will be irrecoverably lost ere your 
arrival to prevent it ; such, alas, is the weak and 
well-nigh expiring condition of our unhappy repub- 
lic ! But prudence, perhaps, will scarce justify 
me in trusting even this to a letter ; for the rest, 
therefore, I must refer you to others : in the 
meanwhile, whatever your fears or your hopes of 
public affairs may be, think, my friend, incessantly 
think on those virtues which that generous patriot 
must possess, who in these evil times, and amidst 
such a general depravation of manners, gloriously 
purposes to vindicate the ancient dignity and liber- 
ties of his oppressed country. Farewell. 

n The letter to which Cicero refers is not extant. 



LETTER XV. 

To Trebatius. 

If it were not for the compliments you sent me 
byChrysippus, thefreedman of Cyrus the architect, 
a u 700 * should have imagined I no longer pos- 
sessed a place in your thoughts. But 
surely you are become a most intolerable fine 
gentleman, that you could not bear the fatigue of 
writing to me, when you had the opportunity of 
doing so, by a man whom you know I look upon 
as one almost of my own family. Perhaps, how- 
ever, you may have forgotten the use of your pen ; 
and so much the better, let me tell you, for your 
clients, as they will lose no more causes by its 
blunders. But if it is myself only that has escaped 
your remembrance, I must endeavour to refresh it 
by a visit, before I am worn out of your mind 
beyond all power of recollection. After all, is it 
not the apprehensions of the next summer's cam- 
paign that has rendered your hand too unsteady 
to perform its office ? If so, you must e'en play 
over again the same gallant stratagem you practised 
last year, in relation to your British expedition, 
and frame some heroic excuse for your absence. 
However, I was extremely glad to hear, by Chry- 
sippus, that you are much in Csesar's good graces. 
But it would be more like a man of equity, me- 
thinks, as well as more agreeable to my inclinations, 
if you were to give me frequent notice of what 
concerns you by your own hand : a satisfaction 
I should undoubtedly enjoy, if you had chosen to 
study the laws of good fellowship rather than those 
of contention. You see I rally you as usual in your 
own way, not to say a little in mine. But to end 
seriously : be assured, as I greatly love you, I am 
no less confident than desirous of your affection in 
return. Farewell. 



LETTER XVI. 

To Publius Sexlius . 
I hope you will not imagine by my long silence 
that I have been unmindful of our friendship, or 
A u * 00 that I had any intention of dropping my 
usual correspondence with you. The 
sincere truth is, I was prevented from writing 
during the former part of our separation, by those 
calamities in which the general confusion of the 
times had involved me : as I afterwards delayed it, 
from an unwillingness to break in upon you, whilst 
your own severe and unmerited injuries were yet 
fresh upon your mind. But when I reflect that a 

o The commentators are greatly divided as to the time 
when this letter was written, and the person to whom it 
is addressed. To examine the several reasons upon which 
they support their respective opinions, would be leading 
the English reader into a field of criticism, which could 
afford him neither amusement nor instruction. The sub- 
ject, indeed, of this letter, which is merely consolatory, to 
a friend in exile, is not of consequence enough to merit 
any pains in ascertaining (if it were possible to ascertain) 
its precise date : and it is sufficient to observe, that it con- 
tains nothing but what perfectly coincides with the circum- 
stances both of Cicero's affairs and those of the republic in 
the present year. As to the person to whom this letter is 
written, it is impossible to determine anything concerning 
him ; for the MSS. and printed copies are by no means 
agreed as to his name, some calling him Titius, others 
Sitius, and others Scxtius. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



185 



sufficient time has elapsed to wear off the first 
impressions of your misfortunes : and consider, 
likewise, the virtues and magnanimity of your 
heart : I think I may now write to you consist- 
ently with my general caution of avoiding an un- 
seasonable officiousness. 

You are sensible, my dear Sextius, that I warmly 
stood forth your advocate, when a prosecution was 
formerly commenced against you in your absence ; 
as afterwards, when you were involved in that 
accusation which was brought against your friend, 
I exerted every means in my power for your 
defence. Thus, likewise, upon my return into 
Italy p, though I found your affairs had been 
managed in a very different manner than I should 
have advised, yet I omitted no opportunity of 
rendering you my utmost services. And upon this 
occasion, when the clamour that was raised against 
you on account of the corni, by those that were 
the enemies, not only of yourself, but of all who 
endeavoured to assist you : when the general cor- 
ruption of the judges, and, in short, when many 
other public iniquities had prevailed to your con- 
demnation against all truth and justice, I was not 
wanting in my best good offices of every kind 
towards your son. Having, therefore, thus faithfully 
performed every other sacred duty of friendship, I 
would not omit this likewise of entreating and 
exhorting you to bear your afflictions as becomes a 
man of your distinguished spirit and fortitude. 
In other words, let me conjure you to support with 
resolution those common vicissitudes of fortune 
which no prudence can prevent, and for which no 
mortal is answerable ; remembering that in all 
popular governments, as well as in our own, it has 
been the fate of many of the best and greatest men 
to fall a sacrifice to the injustice of their country. 
I will add (and I wish I could, with truth, be con- 
tradicted) that the injurious sentence you lament 
has only banished you from a commonwealth in 
which no rational mind can receive the least satis- 
faction. 

If I were to say nothing of your son, it would 
look as if I were inattentive to that general applause 
which his virtues so justly receive : on the other 
hand, were I to tell you all that I hear and think 
of him, I am afraid I should only renew your 
grief for being thus separated from his company. 
However, you should wisely consider his uncommon 
virtues as a possession which inseparably attends 
you, in whatever part of the world you may be 
placed. For surely the objects of the mind are not 
less intimately present with us than those of the 
eye. The reflection, therefore, on his singular 
merit and filial piety, the fidelity of myself and the 
rest of those friends whom you have found, and 
will ever find, to be the followers, not of your 
fortune, but of your virtue ; and, above all, the 
consciousness of not having deserved your suffer- 
ings, are circumstances which ought to administer 
the highest consolation to you. And they will 
more effectually do so, if you consider that it is 
guilt, and not misfortune; one's own crimes, and 

P Probably, when he returned from exile, in the year 
696. 

<i It was the business of the sediles, amongst other parts 
of their duty, to superintend the markets and public maga- 
zines of corn. It seems probable, therefore, from this pas- 
sage, that Sextius was banished for some real or pretended 
misconduct in the administration of that office. 



not the injustice of others, which ought to disturb 
the serenity of a well-regulated mind. In the mean 
time be assured, that in compliance, with the dic<- 
tates of that friendship I have long entertained for 
you, and of that esteem which I bear for your son, 
I shall neglect no opportunity, both of alleviating 
your afflictions, and of contributing all I can to 
support you under them. In a word, if, upon any 
occasion, you should think it necessary to write to 
me, you shall find that your application was not 
made in vain. Farewell. 



LETTER XVII. 

To Curio. 

I despatch Sextus Villius, a domestic of my 

friend Milo, to meet you with this letter, notwith- 

. .. -r.A standing we have received no account of 

A. U. 1 00. . ° . . . T , 

your being yet advanced near Italy. 
However, we are assured that you are set forward 
from Asia r ; and as it is generally believed it will 
not be long ere you arrive in Rome, I persuade 
myself that the importance of the affair which 
occasions you this application will justify my 
desire of making it as early as possible. 

If I estimated my services towards you by the 
same enlarged standard that you gratefully measure 
them yourself, I should be extremely reserved in 
requesting any considerable favour at your hands. 
It is painful indeed to a man of a modest and 
generous mind to solicit great obligations from 
those whom he has greatly obliged, lest he should 
seem to claim the price of his good offices, and ask 
a matter of right rather than of grace. But I can 
have no scruples of this sort with respect to you ; 
as the services you have conferred upon me, and 
particularly in my late troubles, are not only of the 
highest, but most conspicuous nature. An ingenu- 
ous disposition, where it already owes much, is 
willing to owe more ; and it is upon this principle 
that I make no difficulty of requesting your assist- 
ance in an article of the last importance to me. I 
have no reason, indeed, to fear that I should sink 
under the weight of your favours, even if they were 
to rise beyond all number, as I trust there is none 
so considerable that I should not only receive with 
gratitude, but return with advantage. 

I am exerting the utmost efforts of my care, my 
industry, and my talents, in order to secure the 
election of Milo to the consulate ; and I think 
myself bound upon this occasion to give a proof to 
the world of the more than common affection with 
which I enter into his interest. I am persuaded 
no man ever was so anxious for the preservation of 
his own person and fortunes, as I am that Milo 
may obtain this honour : an event upon which the 
security of my own dignities, I am sensible, depends. 
Now, the assistance which it is in your power to 
give my friend is so very considerable, that it is all 
we want to be assured of victory ; for thus our 
forces stand. In the first place, Milo's conduct 
towards me in his tribunate s has gained him (as I 
hope you perfectly well know) the affections of all 
our patriots, as the liberality of his temper and the 

r See rem. i, p. 378, towards the end. 

s Milo was tribune in the year of Rome 696: at which 
time he conferred very singular obligations on Cicero, by 
most zealously exerting all his power and credit in pro- 
moting his recal from exile. — Orat pro Mil. 
C C 



38(5 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



magnificence of his shows have secured to him the 
favour of the populace*. In the next place, all the 
young part of the republic, together with those who 
have the most influence in elections, are wholly in 
his interest, as having received, or expecting to 
receive, the benefit of his own popularity and active 
offices upon occasions of a like nature. I will add, 
likewise, that he has my suffrage ; which, though 
it may not draw after it any considerable effects, is, 
however, universally approved as a tribute which 
is justly his due ; and so far perhaps it may be 
considered as of some weight with the public. All, 
therefore, that we farther require is, a person to 
appear as the leader of these our rude forces, and 
to unite them together under one head ; and had 
we the choice of the whole world, we could not fix 
upon a man so well qualified for this purpose as 
yourself. If you believe, then, that I have any 
worth or gratitude, or can even infer it from these 
my earnest endeavours to serve Milo ; in a word, 
if you esteem me deserving of your favours, I 
entreat you to co-operate with me in this affair, 
upon which my character or (to come still nearer to 
the truth) upon which almost my very preservation 
depends 11 . With regard to Milo himself, I will 
only assure you that you never can oblige a man 
of a more solid turn of mind, of a more resolute 
spirit, or one who, if you should embrace his in- 
terest, will receive your good offices with a more 
affectionate gratitude. You will at the same time 
also confer so singular an honour upon myself, as 
to convince me that you have no less regard for the 
support of my credit than you formerly showed for 
the safety of my person. I should enlarge much 
farther upon this subject, if I were not persuaded 
that you are perfectly sensible of the infinite obli- 
gations I have received from Milo, and that it is 
incumbent upon me to promote his election with 
my utmost zeal, and even at the hazard of my life v . 

1 Milo had dissipated three very considerable estates in 
the extravagant shows which, upon different occasions, he 
had exhibited to the people ; as he was likewise at this time 
proposing to entertain them in the same magnificent man- 
ner, at the expense of 250,000Z.— Orat. pro Mil. 25; Ad 
Quint. Frat. iii. 9. 

u Cicero was particularly concerned to secure Milo's 
election, not only from a principle of gratitude, but of 
self-preservation. For Clodius, our author's implacable 
enemy, was now soliciting the office of praetor : and if Milo 
were rejected from the consulship, it would fall into the 
hands of Plautus Hypsaeus and Metellus Scipio, who were 
both under the influence of Clodius, By these means, the 
latter would once again have been armed with the princi- 
pal authority of the commonwealth ; and Cicero knew, by 
sad and recent experience, that he had everything to fear 
from such an enemy when he could add power to malice. 
His interest, therefore, conspired with his friendship in 
supporting the pretensions of Milo, who had, upon all 
occasions, opposed the designs of Clodius with great warmth 
and 6pirit ; and who, in the present instance, would have 
proved a counter-balance, if Clodius should have attempted 
a second time to fall with his whole weight upon Cicero.— 
Orat. pro Mil. passim. 

» In this declining state of the republic, the elections 
were carried on, not only by the most shameful and 
avowed bribery, but by the several mobs of the respective 
candidates. These, it may well be imagined, were both 
disposed and prepared to commit every outrage that the 
cause of their leaders should require. Accordingly, the 
party of Milo, and that of his competitors, had such fre- 
quent and bloody engagements with each other, as to 
raise a general apprehension of a civil war.— Plut. in Vit. 
Caton. 



I will only, then, in one word, recommend this 
affair, and therein the most important of my con- 
cerns, to your favour and protection : and be 
assured I shall esteem your compliance with my 
request as an obligation superior, I had almost 
said, even to that for which I am so greatly indebted 
to Milo. The truth of it is, it would give me more 
pleasure to make him an effectual return for the 
very considerable part he bore in my restoration, 
than I received even from the benefit of his good 
offices themselves. And this, I am confident, your 
single concurrence will fully enable me to per- 
form w . Farewell. 



LETTER XVIII. 

To Titus Fadius*. 
I know not any event which has latelyhappened, 
that more sensibly affects me than your disgrace. 
a v "00 ^ ar ' tnere f° re > from being capable of 
giving you the consolation I wish, I 
greatly stand in need of the same good office my- 
self. Nevertheless, I cannot forbear not only to 
exhort, but to conjure you likewise by our friend- 
ship, to collect your whole strength of reason, in 
order to support your afflictions with a firm and 
manly fortitude. Remember, my friend, that cala- 
mities are incident to all mankind, but particularly 
to us who live in these miserable and distracted 
times. Let it be your consolation, however, to 
reflect, that you have lost far less by fortune than 
you have acquired by merit : as there are few under 
the circumstances of your birth who ever raised 
themselves to the same dignities ; though there are 
numbers of the highest quality who have sunk into 
the same disgrace. To say truth, so wretched is 
the fate which threatens our laws, our liberties, 
and our constitution in general, that well may he 
esteem himself happily dealt with who is dismissed 
from such a distempered government upon the least 
injurious terms. As to your own case in particular, 
when you reflect that you are still undeprived of 

w Soon after this letter was written, an unfortunate 
adventure disconcerted all Cicero's measures in behalf of 
his friend, and obliged him, instead of soliciting any longer 
for Milo as a candidate, to defend him as a criminal. It 
happened that Milo and Clodius having met, as they were 
travelling the Appian road, a rencounter ensued, in which 
the latter was killed. Milo was arraigned for this murder ; 
and, being convicted, was sentenced to banishment. Cicero, 
in his defence, laboured to prove, by a variety of circum- 
stances, that this meeting could not have been premeditated 
on the part of his client : and, indeed, it seems probable 
that it was not. But, however casual that particular inci- 
dent might have been, Milo, it is certain, had long before 
determined to assassinate Clodius: and it appears, too, 
that Cicero himself was apprised of the design. This is 
evident from a letter to Atticus, written about four years 
antecedent to the fact of which I am speaking : — " Reum 
Publium (nisi ante occisus erit) fore a Milone puto. Si se 
inter viam obtulerit, occisum iri ab ipso Milone video. 
Non dubitat facere ; pwe se fert."— Dio, xl. p. 143, 146 ; 
Orat. pro Mil. ; Ad Att. iv. 3. 

x It is altogether uncertain to whom this letter is ad- 
dressed ; as there is great variety in the several readings of 
its inscription. If the title adopted in the translation be 
the true one, (and it is that which has the greatest number 
of commentators on its side,) the person to whom it is 
written was quaestor to Cicero in his consulate ; and after- 
wards one of those tribunes who, in the year of Rome 696, 
promoted the law by which lie was restored to his country. 
—Ad Att. iii. 23. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



887 



your estate ; that you are happy in the affections 
of your children, your family, and your friends ; 
and that in all probability you are only separated 
from them for a short interval : when you reflect, 
that among the great number of impeachments 
which have lately been carried on?, yours is the 
only one that was considered as entirely groundless ; 
that you were condemned by a majority only of 
one single vote ; and that, too, universally supposed 
to have been given in compliance with some power- 
ful influence. These, undoubtedly, are considera- 
tions which ought greatly to alleviate the weight 
of your misfortune. I will only add, that you may 
always depend upon finding in me that disposition 
both towards yourself and your family, as is agree- 
able to your wishes, as well as to what you have a 
right to expect. Farewell. 



LETTER XIX. 

To Titus Titius*. 
It is by no means as suspecting that my former 
recommendation was not sufficient, that I give you 
a u ''OO **" s second trouble, but merely in com- 
pliance with the request of my friend 
A vianus Flaccus ; to whom I neither can nor indeed 
ought to refuse anything. The truth is, notwith- 
standing your very obliging answer, when I men- 
tioned his affair to you in person, and that I have 
already written to you in strong terms upon the 
same subject, yet he imagines I cannot too often 
apply to you in his behalf. I hope, therefore, you 
will excuse me, if in thus yielding to his inclina- 
tions I should seem to forget that you are incapable 
of receding from your word ; and again entreat you 
to allow him a convenient port, and sufficient time 
for the exportation of his corn. Both these favours 
I obtained for him when Pompey had the com- 
mission in which you are now employed ; and the 
term he granted him was three years. To say all 
in one word, you will very sensibly oblige me by 
convincing Avian us that I enjoy the same share 
in your affection which he justly imagines he pos- 
sesses of mine. Farewell. 



LETTER XX. 

To Trebatius. 
I acquainted you with the affair of Silius. 
He has since been with me, when I informed him 
a u 700 ^at it was your opinion we might safely 
enter into the usual recognizance. But 
he has consulted, he tells me, with Servius, who 
assures him, that where a testator has no power to 
make a will, it must be considered, to all intents 



and purposes, as if it had never subsisted ; and 
Offilius, it seems, agrees in this opinion. He told 
me, at the same time, that he had not applied to 
you upon this subject ; but desired I would recom- 
mend both himself and his cause to your protection. 
I do not know a worthier man than Silius, nor any 
one, excepting yourself, who is more my friend. 
You will extremely oblige me, therefore, my dear 
Trebatius, by calling upon him in order to give him 
the promise of your assistance : and I earnestly 
entreat you, if you have any regard for me, to pay 
this visit as soon as possible. Farewell. 



y The circumstance here mentioned renders it probable 
that the letter before us was written in the present year. 
For Pompey being at this time appointed sole consul, 
made several salutary regulations with respect to the 
method of trials, and encouraged prosecutions against 
those who had been guilty of illegal practices in order to 
secure their elections. Accordingly, many persons of the 
first rank in Rome were arraigned and convicted: and 
Fadius seems to have been one of that number. — Plut. in 
Vit. Pomp, et Caton. 

z The person to whom this letter is inscribed, is wholly 
unknown : and the occasion upon which it was written is 
not of importance enough to deserve any animadversions. 



LETTER XXL 

To Marcus Marius. 

I shall punctually execute your commission. 
But is it not a most wonderful specimen of your 
,- 00 sagacity, thus to employ a man in making 
a purchase for you, whose interest it is 
to advance the price as high as possible ? Above 
all, I most admire the wisdom of your restriction, 
in confining me to a particular sum. For had you 
trusted me with an unlimited order, I should have 
thought myself obliged, in point of friendship, to 
have settled this affair with my coheirs upon the 
most advantageous terms in your behalf: whereas, 
now I know your price, you may depend upon it, 
I shall rather set up a fictitious bidder than suffer 
the estate to be sold for less than the money you 
mention. But, jesting apart, be assured I shall 
discharge the commission you have assigned me, 
with all the care I ought. 

I know you are well pleased with my victory over 
Bursa a , but why then did you not more warmly 
congratulate me upon the occasion ? You were 
mistaken in imagining the character of the man to 
be much too despicable to render this event a 
matter of any great exultation. On the contrary, 
the defeat of Bursa has afforded me a more pleas- 
ing triumph even than the fall of Clodius. Much 
rather, indeed, would I see my adversaries van- 
quished by the hand of justice than of violence : 
as I would choose it should be in a way that does 
honour to the friends of my cause, without exposing 
them, at the same time, to any uneasy consequences. 
But the principal satisfaction I derive from this 
affair, is in that honest and xmdaunted zeal with 

a Munatius Plancus Bursa was tribune the year before 
this letter was written, and had distinguished himself by 
inflaming those disturbances in Rome, which were occa- 
sioned by the assassination of Clodius. The body of Clodius 
being produced before the people in the forum, Bursa, 
together with one of his colleagues, infused such a spirit of 
riot into the populace, that, snatching up the corpse, they 
instantly conveyed it to the curia hostilia, (a place in 
which the senate sometimes assembled,) where they paid 
it the funeral honours. This they executed in the most 
insolent and tumultuous manner, by erecting a funeral 
pile with the benches, and setting fire to the senate-house 
itself. Bursa, not satisfied with these licentious outrages, 
endeavoured likewise to instigate the mob to fall upon 
Cicero, the avowed friend and advocate of Milo, by whom 
Clodius had been killed. Cicero, therefore, as soon as 
Bursa was out of his office, (for no magistrate could be 
impeached during his ministry,) exhibited an information 
against him, for this violation of the public peace ; and 
Bursa, being found guilty, was sentenced to suffer banish- 
ment.— Dio, xl. p. 143, 146; Ascon. Argument, in Orat. pro 
Mil. 

C C 2 



388 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



which I was supported against all the incredible 
efforts of a very great man b , who most warmly- 
exerted his power in favour of my antagonist. I 
will mention another circumstance, likewise, that 
recommends this victory to me, and which, though 
perhaps you will scarcely think it a probable one, 
is, nevertheless, most assuredly the case. I have 
conceived a much stronger aversion to this man, 
than I ever entertained even against Clodius him- 
self. To speak truth, I had openly declared war 
against the latter : whereas, I have been the advo- 
cate and protector of the former. Besides, there 
was something enlarged, at least, in the views of 
Clodius, as he aimed, by my destruction, at over- 
turning the whole commonwealth: and, even in 
lais, he acted less from the motions of his own 
Dreast, than by the instigations of a party! who 
were sensible they could never be secure whilst I 
had any remaining credit. But the contemptible 
Bursa, on the contrary, singled me out for the 
object of his malice, in mere gaiety of heart ; and, 
without the least provocation, offered himself to 
some of my enemies as one who was entirely at 
their service upon any occasion wherein they could 
employ him to my prejudice. Upon these con- 
siderations, my friend, I expect that you warmly 
congratulate my success, as, indeed, I esteem it an 
event of very considerable importance. Never, in 
truth, did Rome produce a set of more -inflexible 
patriots than the judges who presided at this trial : 
for they had the honest courage to pass sentence 
against him, in opposition to all the power and 
influence of the very person by whom they were 
appointed to this honourable office. And, un- 
doubtedly, they would not have acted with such 
uncommon spirit, had they not considered the 
insults I suffered from this man as so many indig- 
nities offered to themselves. 

I have at present a great deal of troublesome 
business upon my hands ; as several considerable 
impeachments are going forward, and many new 
laws are in agitation. It is my daily wish, there- 
fore, that no intercalation* 1 may protract these 
affairs beyond the usual period, and prevent the 
pleasure 1 propose to myself, of paying you a visit 
very soon. Farewell. 

b Pompey.— Dio, p. 146. 
• <•• Pompey, in his late consulship, made some alterations 
with respect to the method of choosing the judges, and 
elected a certain number out of the three orders of the state, 
for the cognizance of civil and criminal causes. — Manut. 
De Leg. p. 122 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 76. 

d The Roman months being lunar, a proper number of 
supplemental days were added every two years, in order 
to adjust their reckoning to the course of the sun. This 
was called an intercalation, and was performed by the 
pontifical college at their own discretion. Accordingly 
they often exercised this important trust as interest or 
ambition dictated ; and by their arbitrary intercalations, 
either advanced or retarded the stated times for transacting 
civil or religious affairs, as best suited the private pur- 
poses of themselves or their friends. By these means, 
these unworthy observers of the heavenly motions had 
introduced so great a confusion into their calendar, that, 
when Caesar undertook its reformation, all the seasons 
were misplaced ; and the appointed festivals for harvest 
and vintage were no longer found in the summer and 
autumn quarters.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Ca?s. 40 ; Macrob. 
Saturn. 1. 



LETTER XXII. 

To Trebatius. 
You laughed at me yesterday when I asserted, 
over our wine, that it was a question among the 
a u 700 l aw y ers > whether an action of theft could 
be brought by an heir for goods stolen 
before he came into possession. Though it was 
late when I returned home, and I had drunk pretty 
freely, I turned to the place where this question is 
discussed, and have sent you an extract of the 
passage, in order to convince you, that a point 
which you imagined had never been maintained by 
any man, was actually holden by Sextus iElius, 
Marcus Manlius, and Marcus Brutus e . But, not- 
withstanding these great names, I agree in opinion 
with Sceevola and Trebatius f . Farewell. 



LETTER XXIII. 

To Appius Pulcher. 
I find myself obliged, contrary, indeed, to my 
expectation, as well as my wishes, to accept the 
a u 700 government of your province s. Amidst 
the numberless uneasy thoughts and occu- 
pations which this circumstance occasions me, it 
is my single consolation, that I could not have 
succeeded any man in this employment who would 
be more disposed than yourself to deliver it up to 
me as little embarrassed as possible. I hope you 
entertain the same opinion of my disposition with 
regard to you : and, be assured, I shall never dis- 
appoint you in this expectation. I most earnestly 

e These were all of them lawyers of great note in their 
respective generations, and whose writings in the science 
they professed were in much esteem. The two former 
flourished about the year of Rome 545, and 600 : the latter 
about the year 630. — Pompon. De Orig. Juris. 

1 Scasvola was one of the names of Trebatius, as appears 
by a letter to Atticus wherein he is so called. There was 
likewise a Quintus Mucius Scaevola, a lawyer of very con- 
siderable eminence, who lived about fifty years before the 
present date, and who compiled a body of laws in eighteen 
volumes. Manutius imagines, therefore, that in allusion 
to this person, Cicero jocularly separates the names Scce- 
vola and Trebatius by an intervening copulative, as if he 
were speaking of two different men. though he only means 
his friend to whom he is writing. 

S The great commotions that had been raised the last 
year in Rome, on account of the elections, have already 
been mentioned in the notes above. In order, therefore, 
to remedy these evils for the future, by abating the intem- 
perate ardour with which the magistracies were pursued, 
it was thought expedient to deprive the pra?torship and 
consulate of one of their principal and most tempting 
advantages. This consisted in the government of pro- 
vinces ; to which those magistrates, of course, succeeded 
at the expiration of their respective administrations. For 
these governments not only secured them from any im- 
peachments during the time they continued in them, but 
were likewise inexhaustible sources of wealth to those 
who were not scrupulous in the means of obtaining it. 
Accordingly a law passed, by which it was enacted, that 
no future pra?tor or consul should be capable of a provincial 
charge, till five years after the expiration of his office : and, 
in the meantime, that the provinces should be supplied 
from among thosL> of pra?torian and consular rank, who 
had laid down their offices without succeeding to any 
government. Cicero was of this number : and it is proba- 
ble, there were so few of them, that he was not at liberty 
to refuse, what it is very certain he had no inclination to 
accept.— Dio, xl. p. 142. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



389 



then entreat you, by all the ties of our friendship 
in particular, as well as by that uncommon gene- 
rosity which distinguishes your actions in general, 
to render me, upon this occasion, every good office 
in your power ; as undoubtedly there are many. 

You will observe, from the decree of the senate, 
that I was under a necessity of accepting the 
government of some province : and, I must repeat 
it once more, the ease with which I shall pass 
through the functions of my ministry depends 
upon your smoothing, as far as in you lies, the 
difficulties at myiirst entrance. You are the best 
judge in what particular instances you can contri- 
bute to this end : I will only, in general, beseech 
you to do so in every article wherein you imagine 
your services may avail me. I might enlarge on 
this subject, if either your own generous temper, 
or our mutual friendship, would suffer me to dwell 
upon it any longer ; and I may add, too, if the 
nature of my request did not sufficiently speak for 
itself. I will only, therefore, assure you, that if I 
should not make this application in vain, you may 
depend upon receiving a strong and lasting satis- 
faction from the faithful returns of my gratitude. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XXIV. 

To the same. 

I arrived on the 22nd of May at Brundisium, 
where I found your lieutenant 11 Quintus Fabius ; 
700 w k°> agreeably to your orders, informed 
me, that itis highly expedient Ciliciashould 
be strengthened with an additional number of forces. 
This was conformable, not only to my own senti- 
ments, who am more immediately concerned in the 
security of that province, but to the opinion like- 
wise of the senate ; who thought it reasonable that 
both Bibulus 1 and myself should reinforce our 
respective legions with recruits from Italy. But it 
was strongly opposed by SulpiciusJ the consul ; 
though not without very warm remonstrances on 
our parts. However, as it seemed to be the general 
inclination of the senate that we should hasten our 
departure, we were obliged to submit : and we set 
forward accordingly. 

Let me now repeat the request I made in my 
last from Rome, and again entreat you to favour 
me in all those instances wherein one friend can 
oblige another who succeeds to his government. 
In short, let it be your care to convince the world 
that I could not have followed a more affectionate 
predecessor ; as it shall be mine to give conspi- 
cuous proofs, that you could not have resigned 
your province to one more sincerely devoted to 
your interest. 

h Every proconsul, or governor of a province, was accom- 
panied with a certain number of lieutenants, in proportion 
to his rank and quality. These officers served him as a 
kind of first ministers in civil affairs ; and they commanded 
in chief under him when he took the field. 

» Some account has already been given of Bibulus in the 
notes on the preceding book. [See rem. a , p. 3b'7.] He 
was appointed governor of Syria, a province bordering on 
that of Cilicia; (o which Cicero was on his way when he 
wrote the present letter, and all the subsequent ones in 
this book. 

J Servius Sulpicius Rufus was consul this year, together 
with Marcus Claudius Marcellus. For a more particular 
account of the former, see letter 12, book vii., rem. F, and 
of the latter, rem. n, letter 35, of this book. 



I understood, by the copy which you communi- 
cated to me of those dispatches you sent to the 
senate, that you had actually disbanded a consi- 
derable part of your army. But Fabius assures 
me, this was a point which you only had in your 
intention ; and that, when he left you, the whole 
number of your legions was complete. If this be 
the case, you will greatly oblige me by keeping the 
few forces under your command entire ; as I sup- 
pose the decree of the senate which passed in rela- 
tion to this article has already been transmitted 
to you. To comprise all in one word, I pay so 
great a deference to your judgment, that, whatever 
measures you may think proper to pursue, I shall, 
undoubtedly, believe them reasonable ; though I 
am persuaded, at the same time, you will pursue 
such only as shall appear to be for my benefit. 

I am waiting at Brundisium for my lieutenant 
Caius Pontinius, whom I expect here on the 1st of 
June ; and I shall take the earliest opportunity, 
after his arrival, of proceeding on my voyage. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XXV. 

Ccelius k to Cicero. 
Agreeably to my promise when we parted, I 
have sent you a full account of every event that has 
a v 702 happened since you left Rome. For this 
purpose I employed a person to collect 
the news of the town : and am only afraid you will 
think he has executed his office much too punctu- 
ally. I am sensible, at the same time, that you 
are a man of infinite curiosity ; and that travellers 
take pleasure in being informed of every little cir- 
cumstance transacted at home. But, I hope, you 
will not impute it to any want of respect, that I 
assigned over this employment to another hand. 
On the contrary, as much engaged as I really am, 
and as little fond of writing as you know me to be, 
I should with great pleasure execute my commis- 
sion, which gave me occasion to think of you. I 

k Manutius has, with great industry, drawn together the 
several scattered passages in the ancient historians, relating 
to Ccelius : and it is but a piece of justice due to that learned 
critic to acknowledge, that the following account is ex- 
tracted from those materials, which his labours spared me 
the trouble of collecting. 

Marcus Ccelius was tribune of the people the year before 
this letter was written. He distinguished himself in that 
office by zealously and boldly supporting the claims of the 
senate and the interests of the aristocratical party, against 
the attacks of the opposite faction. When the civil war 
broke out between Pompey and Caesar, he affected at first 
to stand neuter : he afterwards, however, thought proper 
to join with the latter. But Caesar not gratifying his am- 
bition in the manner he expected, he changed sides, and 
raised great disturbances in Rome in favour of Pompey. 

Ccelius applied himself early to the art of oratory ; and, 
for that purpose, was introduced by his father to the 
acquaintance of Cicero, under whose direction he formed 
his eloquence. His parts and genius soon distinguished 
him in the forum : but, though his speeches were conceived 
with peculiar spirit and vivacity, his language was thought 
forced, and the harmony of his periods too much neg- 
lected. His morals were suitable to the degenerate ago 
in which he lived, luxurious and dissolute ; as his temper 
was remarkably inflammable, and apt to kindle into the 
most implacable resentments.— Cic. Orat. pro Ccelio; Caes. 
De Bell. Civ. hi.; Yell. Pat. ii. ; Dialog, de Caus. corrupt. 
Eloquent. ; Senec. De Ira, iii. See letter 17, book vii. 
reins. v and b . 



390 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



trust, however, when you cast your eye upon this 
volume of news, you will very readily admit my 
excuse ; as I know not, indeed, who else, except 
the compiler, could find leisure, I will not say to 
transcribe, but even to peruse, such a strange 
medley. It contains a collection of decrees of the 
senate and rumours of the people ; of private tales 
and public edicts. Should it happen, nevertheless, 
to afford you no sort of entertainment, give me due 
notice, that I may not put myself to this prodigious 
expense only to be impertinent. If any events of 
more importance should arise, and which are above 
the force of these hackney-news writers, I will 
take the relation upon myself, and give you a full 
account of the sentiments and speculations of the 
world concerning it : but, at present, there is little 
of this kind stirring. 

As to the report which was so current when we 
were at Cumse 1 , of enfranchising the colonies on 
the other side the Po m , it does not seem to have 
travelled beyond that city : at least, I have heard 
no mention of this affair since my return to Rome. 

Marcellus not having yet moved that Caesar may 
be recalled from his government in Gaul, and 
intending to defer it, as he told me himself, to the 
1st of June, it has occasioned the revival of those 
suspicions to his disadvantage, which so strongly 
prevailed when you were here 11 . 

If you had an interview with Pompey (as I 
remember it was your intention) let me know the 
conversation that passed between you, and what 
you could discover of his designs : for, though he 
seldom speaks his real sentiments, he has not arti- 
fice enough to conceal them p. As to Caesar, we 
have frequent, and no very favourable, reports con- 
cerning him : however, they are at present nothing 
more than rumours. Some say he has lost all his 
cavalry ; and I believe this is the truth of the case : 
others, that the seventh legion has been entirely 
defeated, and that he himself is so surrounded by 

1 A city in Campania, situated upon the sea-coast ; near 
which Cicero had a villa. 

m Cisalpine Gaul was divided into two parts by the river 
Po ; and, accordingly, as the inhabitants were situated 
with respect to Italy, either on one side or the other of 
that river, they were called Cispadani, or Transpadani. 
Caesar had a scheme of putting the latter on the same foot 
with the municipal towns of Italy ; the chief magistrates 
whereof had a right of suffrage in the assemblies of the 
Roman people, and were capable of being elected to the 
offices of the republic. This seems to be the circumstance 
to which Ccelius here alludes ; as Cicero obscurely hints 
at it likewise in one of his letters to Atticus.— Ad Att. v. 
2 ; and the remark of Mongault upon that passage. 

n Marcellus, the present consul, distinguished himself 
throughout his whole administration by a warm opposition 
to Caesar ; as he afterwards actually made the motion of 
which Ccelius here speaks. He was not, however, so for- 
tunate as to succeed in it, being opposed by his colleague 
Sulpicius, in conjunction with some of the tribunes.— Dio, 
xli. p. 148. See his character in rem. » on the 35th letter 
of this book. 

" Pompey was at this time at Tarentum, a maritime 
city of Calabria, where Cicero spent a few days with him 
in his way to Cilicia, while he waited the arrival of his 
lieutenant Pontinius. — Ad Att. v. (i. 

P Cicero in his letters to Atticus often mentions the 
difficulty of penetrating into Pompey's real designs : but 
if Ccelius may be credited, he was, it seems, one of those 
over-refined dissemblers, who, as our f British Horace 
observes, are 

So very close, they're hid from none. — Pope. 



the Bellovaci^, that he cannot possibly receive any 
succours from the main body of his army. But 
this news is not publicly known : on the contrary, 
it is only the whisper of a party which I need not 
name, and who mention it with great caution ; 
particularly Domitius r , who tells it in your ear 
with a most important air of secrecy. 

A strong report prevailed here that you were 
assassinated upon the road on the 24th of May, 
by Quintus Pompeius s . I heartily cursed the idle 
authors of this alarm : however, it did not give me 
any great disturbance, as I knew -Pompeius to be 
then at Baulis 1 , where the poor man is reduced to 
exercise the miserable office of a pilot, to keep 
himself from starving. May you ever be as secure 
from all other dangers as you were from this ! 

Your friend u Plancus is at Ravenna ; and, not- 
withstanding the very considerable benefaction he 
has lately received from Caesar v , the man is still 
in distress. 

Your political treatise w is universally read and 
much admired. Farewell. 



LETTER XXVI. 

To Appius Pulcher. 
I received your letter at this place x on the 
4th of June, by which I am informed that you 
\ u 702 ^ ave c ^ ar g e( i Lucius Clodius with a mes- 
sage to me. I am, therefore, waiting for 
his arrival, that I may hear as early as possible 
whatever he has to say on your part. In the mean 
time, notwithstanding I have already by many 
instances convinced you, I hope, of my friendship ; 
yet, let me assure you, that I shall particularly 
endeavour to show it upon every occasion, by the 
most tender regard for your character. I have the 
satisfaction in return to be informed, not only by 
Fabius and Flaccus, but particularly by Octavius, 
of the share you allow me in your esteem. I had 
before, indeed, many reasons for believing I en- 
joyed that privilege ; but chiefly by that very agree- 
able present of your treatise upon augury, which 



q A most martial and powerful people in Belgic Gaul, 
against whom Caesar was at this time making war. 

r Lucius Domitius iEnobarbus, one of Caesar's avowed 
enemies. A particular account will be given of him in 
the remarks on the letter addressed to him in this col- 
lection. 

s Quintus Pompeius Ruf us was tribune the last year, and 
a principal author of those disturbances which ensued upon 
the death of Clodius. [See rem. », p. 387-] At the expi- 
ration of his office, therefore, being convicted of these 
misdemeanours, he was banished from Rome. — Dio, xl. 
p. 146. * A city in Campania. 

u Munatius Plancus Bursa : of whom an account has been 
given in rem. a , p. 387. Ccelius speaks ironically, when he 
calls him Cicero's friend. 

v See rem. h , on letter 17, book ii. 

w "It was drawn up in the form of a dialogue, in which 
the greatest persons of the republic were introduced. From 
the fragments of this work which still remain, it appears 
to have been a noble performance, and one of his capital 
pieces ; where all the important questions in politics and 
morality were discussed with the greatest elegance and 
accuracy.''— Life of Cicero, p. 135. 

x Brundisium. This letter was written but a few days 
after the last addressed to Appius, which is likewise dated 
from this place, where Cicero continued about a fortnight, 
lie was prevented from embarking sooner, not only as he 
waited the arrival of his lieutenant Pontinius, but also by 
a slight indisposition.— Ad Att. v. 8. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



291 



you have so affectionately addressed to me^. No 
testimony shall be wanting on my part, likewise, 
of the singular friendship I bear you. The truth 
is, you have continually risen in my affection ever 
since you first distinguished me with yours : but 
you are now still more endeared to me from that 
regard I entertain for those illustrious persons with 
whom you have formed a family alliance 2 . For 
Pompey and Brutus, though so distant from each 
other in point of age, have both of them the same 
high rank in my esteem. I must add, that the 
connexion between us as fellow-members of the 
same sacred college*, especially after the honour- 
able applause I have lately received from you b , is 
a very powerful cement of our mutual friendship. 

If I should have an interview with Clodius, 
whom I shall endeavour to see as soon as possible, 
I shall have occasion to write to you more fully. 
I will at this time, therefore, only farther assure 
you, that I read with great pleasure that part of 
your letter where you tell me, your single reason 
for continuing in the province is, in order to give 
me a meeting. Farewell. 



LETTER XXVII. 

To Caius Memmius . 

I am doubtful whether I have more reason to 

regret or rejoice that I did not find you, as I 

A 7Q9 expected, in Athens' 1 . On the one hand, 

if that meeting would have renewed my 

y This treatise was drawn up in vindication of the augu- 
ral science, or the art of foretelling events, from certain 
signs which Providence was supposed to have intended as 
intimations of futurity. This science was generally ex- 
ploded by the wiser part of their philosophers, as having 
no foundation in reason or experience : but Appius was so 
weakly credulous, it seems, as seriously to believe and 
maintain the contrary. — Life of Cicero, p. 308. 

z See the latter end of rem. u , on letter 3, of this book. 

a The college of augurs, of which Cicero and Appius 
were members, consisted at this time of fifteen fellows, (if 
that term may be allowed, ) who were all of them persons 
of the first distinction in Rome. Their office was to 
determine whether ihe omens, which were always con- 
sulted previously to the transacting of any public business, 
were favourable for that purpose, or observed in a proper 
manner. This gave them a very considerable authority 
in the commonwealth ; as it was in their power to obstruct 
the most important affairs of the state, by declaring that 
they were unwarranted by the auspices. Cicero, about 
two years before the date of the present letter, was elected 
into this college, in the place of young Crassus, who 
j perished (as has already been observed) in the unfor- 
tunate expedition which his father undertook against the 
Parthians. 

b This alludes to the treatise mentioned above, which 
Appius inscribed to Cicero. 

c The family of Caius Memmius was esteemed one of 
the most ancient in all Rome ; being descended, it was 
said, from Mnestheus, a companion of ^Eneas in his 
expedition into Italy. Memmius, having passed through 
the offices of tribune and praetor, offered himself as a 
candidate for the consulship, in the year of Rome 699: 
and the iniquitous engagement into which he entered, in 
order to secure his election, affords a very remarkable 
specimen, not only of his own character, but of the un- 
paralleled degeneracy of the age in which he lived. The 
consuls of that year were Domitius JEnobarbus, and 
Appius Pulcher, the person to whom the preceding letter, 
and several others in this book, are addressed. It was 
stipulated between these worthy magistrates, and the two 
associates who were joint-candidates to succeed them, that 



concern for the injustice 6 which has been done you, 
I should have had the satisfaction, on the other, of 
being a witness of your supporting it with the 

they should mutually assist each other in their respective 
views. On the part of the consuls it was agreed, that 
they should promote the election of Memmius and his 
friend Calvinus, with all their credit and power. These, 
in return, entered into a bond in the penalty of somewhat 
more than 3,0001. by which they obliged themselves to 
procure three augurs, who should attest, that they were 
present in the comitia when a law passed to invest these 
consuls with the military command in their provinces. 
The contract farther added, that they would also produce 
three persons of consular rank, who should likewise depose, 
that they were not only present in the senate, but actually 
in the number of those who signed a decree, by which the 
usual proconsular appointments were granted to Appius and 
JEnobarbus. The truth, however, was, that so far from 
any law or decree of this nature ever having passed, it had 
not even been proposed either to the people or the senate. 

, « En, 

Romanos rerum dominos, gentemque togatam ! 
Extraordinary as this infamous association was, it is still 
more surprising that Memmius should have had the front 
publicly to avow it, by becoming himself the informer of 
the whole transaction. Yet so the fact is : and, in com- 
pliance with the persuasions of Pompey, he laid open the 
whole of this shameful agreement to the senate. It is 
difficult to imagine the motive that could induce Memmius 
to make a discovery which must show him to the world, 
in every view, so completely abandoned. But Pompey, 
it is highly probable, instigated him to this resolution, 
with the hope that the rendering public so unexampled a 
violation of all that ought to be held most sacred in 
society, would add strength to those flames which now 
raged in the commonwealth. For most of the historians 
agree, that Pompey secretly fomented the present tumults, 
in order to reduce the republic to the necessity of investing 
him with the supreme authority. What resolutions were 
taken in the senate, upon this occasion, do not clearly 
appear : for those passages in the letters to Atticus wherein 
their proceedings in relation to this affair seem to be hinted 
at, are extremely dark ; and rendered still more obscure 
by the negligence of the transcribers, in blending epistles 
together of different and distant dates. It is certain, 
however, that Memmius lost his election : some time after 
which, being impeached, and sentenced to banishment, 
he retired to Athens ; where he seems to have spent the 
remainder of his days. He was a man of greater parts 
than application, and would have proved an excellent 
orator, if he had trusted less to the strength of his natural 
genius : or rather, indeed, if he had not been too indolent 
to improve his faculties of this kind, by an habitual exer- 
cise. He was not too lazy, however, to employ them with 
the ladies : in which he was extremely successful : parti- 
cularly with the wife of Marcus Lucullus, brother to the 
celebrated Lucius Lucullus, so well known to every reader 
of the Roman story. He seems, in truth, to have been 
one of that sort of men, who, in the language of Shak- 
speare, is formed to make woman false ; at least if a poet 
may be supposed no flatterer in the picture he draws of 
his patron. For Lucretius, who inscribed his poem to 
Memmius, represents -Venus, in his invocation to that 
goddess, as having bestowed upon this her favourite, every 
charm that could render him the most graceful and accom- 
plished of the sons of men :— 

" Te sociam studeo scribundis versibus esse, 
Quos ego de Rerum Natura pangere conor 
Memmiadae nostro : quam tu, Dea, tempore in onine 
Omnibus ornatum voluisti excellere rebus.'' 
" Thy aid, celestial Queen of beauty, bring, 
While Nature's laws in vent'rous verse I sing ; 
To Memmius sing : the man by thee designed, 
With ev'ry grace and ev'ry art refined, 
To shine the first and fairest of his kind." 
Gifanii Prolegom. in Lucret. de Gent. Memmia ; Ad Att. 



392 



THE LETTERS OF MARCOS TULLIOS CICERO 



most philosophical magnanimity. Upon the whole, 
however, I cannot but lament that I did not see 
you : for the uneasiness I feel at your unmerited 
sufferings is too great to have admitted of much 
increase by that interview ; and, in all other re- 
spects, it would have added very considerably to 
my pleasure. It is a pleasure, therefore, in which 
I shall, without scruple, indulge myself the first 
convenient opportunity. In the mean time, so 
much of the purpose of my intended visit as may 
be explained, and, I should hope, settled too, in a 
letter I will now lay before you. The favour I am 
going to request, though of little consequence to 
you, is of much importance to me : however, ere I 
enter upon the subject, let me previously assure 
you, that I do not desire you to comply with my 
inclinations any farther than it shall be agreeable 
to your own. I must inform you, then, in the 
first place, that I am most intimately united with 
Patro, the Epicurean, in every article I mean 
except his philosophy : for there, indeed, we are at 
a great distance. I received the first marks of his 
esteem so long ago as when he distinguished him- 
self at Rome by his singular attachment to you and 
your family ; and in the cause which he lately 
gained in our courts, I was a principal advocate 
both for him and his associates. I must add, that 
he was recommended to me by my very worthy 
friend f Phsedrus ; a man whom, long before I be- 
came acquainted with Philo£, and indeed from my 
childhood, I always highly valued. The first quality 
that recommended him to my esteem was his 
philosophical abilities ; as I afterwards had reason 
to admire him for his moral and social virtues. 
Before I left Rome, I received a letter from Patro 
requesting me, in the first place, to intercede with 
you to be reconciled to him ; and in the next, that 
you would make him a grant of an old ruinous 
edifice which belongs, it seems, to the college of 
Epicurus h . I forbore writing to you, however, 
upon this subject, as being unwilling to interrupt 
you in the design which I then thought you enter- 
iv. 18 ; Suet, in Vit. Aug. 40 ; Virgil. .En. i. 286 ; I)e Clar. 
Orat. 70 ; Ad Att. i, 18 ; Lucret. i. 25. 

d Cicero took Athens in his way to Cilicia: and Memmius 
left that city the day before his arrival. Manutius supposes 
that he withdrew on purpose to avoid our author, with 
whom, he imagines, Memmius was disgusted for not having 
given him his assistance at his trial. But this is merely 
conjecture ; and has so much the less foundation, as there 
is not the least hint of this kind in the letter to Atticus, 
wherein Cicero acquaints him with the circumstance of 
his not meeting with Memmius.— Ad Att. v. 10. 

e It is by no means certain upon what occasion Memmius 

was banished. The principal commentators, indeed, are 

of opinion, that it was in consequence of a prosecution 

that was commenced against him for those corrupt 

! practices mentioned in the first remark on this letter. 

1 But it seems to appear from Cicero's epistles to his brother, 

i either that Memmius and his associates were all acquitted 

of that impeachment, or that their several prosecutions 

were dropped.— Ad Quint. Frat. iii. 2, 3. 8. 

f Phaedrus, it is supposed, was the predecessor of Patro 
in the Epicurean college. 

g Cicero, in another part of his writings, mentions an 
Academic philosopher of this name, whose lectures he 
attended. If the same person be meant in both places, as 
indeed is highly probable, Mr. Ross is undoubtedly right 
in charging the learned Manutius with a mistake, in 
imagining Philo to have been an Epicurean, and prede- 
cessor to Phcedrus. 

h Memmius had obtained a grant of this edifice from the 
Athenians, in order to build a house for his own use. 



tained, of building upon that spot. But I now 
comply with his solicitation, as he has assured me, 
since my arrival in Athens, that it is the general 
opinion of your friends, that you have totally laid 
aside this scheme. Should this prove to be the 
real case, and your particular interest should no 
longer interfere, let me prevail with you to grant 
his petition. And if you should have taken any 
little prejudice against my friend by the ill offices 
of his countrymen, (whose capricious tempers I am 
well acquainted with,) I entreat you to renounce 
your resentment, not only for my sake, but in 
compliance also with the suggestions of your own 
generous nature. Shall I freely own to you my 
real sentiments ? To confess the truth, then, there 
does not appear any just reason either for his being 
so earnest in pressing this affair of the edifice, or 
for your persisting in your refusal. This, at least, 
is most evident, that it is much more suitable to a 
man of his character than of yours, to be obstinate 
in trifles. You are well apprised, I know, of the 
plea which Patro alleges, to justify his warmth 
upon this occasion. I need not mention, there- 
fore, that he urges the honour and reverence which 
is due to the last injunctions of Epicurus 1 ; the 
particular regard he owes to the earnest request of 
Pheedrus, together with that veneration which 
ought to be paid to a mansion impressed with 
the footsteps of so many celebrated philosophers. 
One cannot, indeed, condemn his zeal in this in- 
stance, without deriding, at the same time, the 
whole system of his philosophy. But neither you 
nor I are such enemies to those of his sect as not 
to be inclined to pardon an enthusiasm of this sort, 
especially as it is a prejudice (if it be a prejudice) 
that arises from the weakness, not the wickedness, 
of his heart. But I must not forget to mention 
another inducement which engaged me to apply 
to you in his favour. I will introduce it by assuring 
you that I look upon Atticus as my brother : and 
indeed there is no man who has a more consider- 
able share of my heart, or from whose friendship 
I derive greater satisfaction J. It is in pursuance 
of his most earnest entreaty, as well as of Patro's, 
that I make the present application. And though 
Atticus is by no means of a temper to be importu- 
nate, nor has any ambitious purposes of his own 
to gratify ; yet he has desired me, with all the 
ardour imaginable, to exert my utmost interest 
with you in this affair. Not that he is influenced 
by his particular attachment to this sect, for he has 
too muchlearning,as well as judgment, to be a bigot 
to their unphilosophical tenets : but he is swayed 
entirely by his friendship for Patro, and the esteem 
he entertained for his predecessor in this college, 
the worthy Phaedrus. He is persuaded that my 
influence with you is so great, that the slightest 

» *« Diogenes Laertius hath preserved, in his life of 
Epicurus, the will of that great philosopher. In the first 
article, the schools and gardens, and everything belonging 
to them, are entailed upon his successors in that sect of 
philosophy, which should be called after his name."— 
Ross. 

J The friendship which subsisted between Cicero and 
Atticus is so well known, even to the most common reader, 
that it would be impertinent to make it the subject of a 
note ; as it would be foreign to the purpose of these re- 
marks, to enter into the character of that celebrated 
Roman, who is only mentioned incidentally in this place, 
and bears no part in the correspondence contained in the 
present collection. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



393 



intimation from me would prevail with you to re- 
linquish your right to this edifice, even though 
you had intended to make use of it for your own 
purposes. If he should hear, therefore, that not- 
withstanding you have no such design, I have, 
nevertheless, proved unsuccessful in my applica- 
tion ; he will have a worse opinion of my friendship 
than of yours, and imagine I did not sufficiently 
enforce his request. I entreat you then to signify 
to your agents at Athens your consent to the 
repeal of the decree of the Areopagites k , which 
has been made in relation to this structure. Never- 
theless, I will end as I began, and again assure 
you, that although nothing will be more acceptable 
to me than your compliance in the present in- 
stance, yet I press it no farther than as it may 
coincide with vour own inclinations. Farewell. 



LETTER XXVIII. 

To Marcus C alius 1 . 

Could you seriously then imagine, my Mend, 
that I commissioned you to send me the idle news 
_ 02 of the town ; matches of gladiators, ad- 
journments of causes, robberies, and the 
rest of those uninteresting occurrences which no 
one ventures to mention to me, even when I am in 
the midst of them at Rome ? Far other are the 
accounts which I expect from your hand, as I 
know not any man whose judgment in politics I 
have more reason to value. I should esteem it a 
misemployment of your talents, even were you to 
transmit to me those more important transactions 
that daily arise in the republic, unless they should 
happen to relate immediately to myself. There are 
other less penetrating politicians who will send me 
intelligence of this sort, and I shall be abundantly 
supplied with it likewise by common fame. In 
short, it is not an account either of what has lately 
been transacted, or is in present agitation, that I 
require in your letters : I expect, as from one whose 
discernment is capable of looking far into futurity, 
your opinion of what is likely to happen. Thus, 
by seeing a plan, as it were, of the republic, I shall 
be enabled to judge what kind of structure will 
probably arise. Hitherto, however, I have no 
reason to charge you with having been negligent in 
communicating to me your prophetic conjectures. 
For the events which have lately happened in the 
commonwealth were much beyond any man's pene- 
tration : I am sure, at least, they were beyond 
mine. 

I passed several days with Pompey m in conver- 
sation upon public affairs ; but it is neither prudent 
nor possible to give you the particulars in a letter. 
In general, however, I will assure you, that he is 
animated with the most patriot sentiments 11 , and is 



k The Areopagites were magistrates who presided in the 
supreme council and court of judicature at Athens, called 
the Areopagus. 

1 This letter, as well as the preceding one, was written 
from Athens, and is an answer to the 25th of this book. 

m See rem. ° on letter 25 of this book. 

n Cicero so often changed his opinion, or, at least, his 
language, in regard to Pompey, that it is difficult to deter- 
mine what his true sentiments of him were. It is pro- 
bable, however, that he here speaks the dictates of his 
real thoughts, not only as he gives the same account to 
Atticus, but because Pompey received him with particular 



prudently prepared as well as resolutely determined 
to act as the interest of the republic shall require. 
I would advise you, therefore, wholly to attach 
yourself to him ; and, believe me, he will rejoice 
to embrace you as his friend. He now, indeed, 
entertains the same opinion both with you and my- 
self, of the good and ill intentions of the different 
parties in the republic. 

I have spent these last ten days at Athens, from 
whence I am this moment setting out. During 
my continuance in this city, I have frequently en- 
joyed the company of our friend Gallus Caninius . 

I recommend all my affairs to your care and 
protection, but particularly (what indeed is my 
principal concern) that my residence in the province 
may not be prolonged?. I will not prescribe the 
methods you should employ for that purpose, as 
you are the most competent judge by what means | 
and by whose intervention it may be best effected. 
Farewell. 

July the 6th. 



LETTER XXIX. 

Marcus Callus^ to Cicero. 
Yes, my friend, Messala r is most certainly ac- 
quitted, and acquitted, too, not only by a majority 
„ 02 in the several orders s which compose the 
bench of judges, but by every individual 
member of each respective class. I give you this 

civility ; a circumstance which seems at all times to have 
had a very considerable influence upon Cicero's judgment, 
concerning the characters and designs of men —Ad Att. v. 
6,7- 

It appears, by the fifth letter of the preceding book, 
that when Pompej r was exhibiting his entertainments at 
the opening of his celebrated theatre, Cicero was engaged 
in the defence of one Gallus Caninius. Manutius con- 
jectures, that this is the same person who, in consequence 
of that impeachment, was now, he supposes, an exile at 
Athens. 

V The succession to the several provinces was usually 
annual. As Cicero entered upon his government much 
against his inclinations, he was extremely uneasy, lest, by 
any accidental circumstances of the republic, he should 
be continued in it beyond the expiration of his year. The 
province was a scene by no means suitable to his temper 
or talents ; and he was impatient to return to the forum, 
and the senate, where he imagined he could shine with a 
much more advantageous lustre. His conduct, however, 
was in no part of his life so unquestionably laudable, as 
in his administration of Cilicia, as will appear, perhaps, 
from the remarks on the following book.— Ad Att. v. 10. 15. 

q It seems probable, from one of the epistles to Atticus, 
that Cicero received this letter at Gyarus, a little island 
in the iEgean sea, at which he touched in his voyage to 
Cilicia.— Ad Att. v. 12. 

r Marcus Valerius Messala was consul in the year of 
Rome 700. The corrupt measures which he, as well as 
the rest of those who were joint-candidates with him, 
pursued, in order to secure their election, were so extra- 
vagantly profuse, as to occasion the interest of money to 
advance to double the usual rate. It was for those illegal 
practices that he was this year brought upon his trial. — 
Ad Att. iv. 15. 

s The bench of judges, by a late regulation of Pompey, 
was composed of senators, knights, and certain officers 
always chosen from among the plebeians, called Tribuni 
cerarii, who, in modern language, might, perhaps, be 
styled auditors of the treasury, These judges (somewhat 
in the nature of our juries) were divided into three classes, 
agreeably to their respective orders, and gave their verdict 
by ballots. 



394 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



as a fact within my own knowledge, for I was pre- 
sent when their verdict was delivered. You must 
not imagine, however, that the world is convinced 
of his innocence : on the contrary, never was there 
an event more unexpected, or which raised so uni- 
versal an indignation. For my own part, even 
with all my prejudices in his favour, I was under 
the utmost astonishment when I heard him pro- 
nounced not guilty ; and indeed it was a circum- 
stance I so little expected, that I was actually 
preparing to condole with him on the reverse. 
What must have been the surprise, then, of others 
less biassed in his behalf ! The whole assembly, 
in truth, warmly exclaimed against the judges, and 
very strongly intimated, that they looked upon 
them as guilty of the most insufferable corruption. 
My friend, in the mean time, is in much greater 
danger than he was before, as he will now most 
assuredly be indicted on the Licinian law l . I must 
not forget to add, that the day after his trial, his 
advocate Hortensius u appeared in Curio's theatre v , 
with a view, as I suppose, of receiving the general 
congratulations. But he no sooner entered than, lo ! 

" The hiss contemptuous, and indignant roar, 
With thunder harsh the rending concave tore." 

This circumstance is so much the more observable, 
as Hortensius has passed on to a good old age 
without ever having before been thus insulted. 
But it broke out upon him with so much violence 
in the present instance, that it might well suffice 
for a whole life ; as I am persuaded, indeed, it 
occasioned him heartily to repent of the victory he 
had obtained. 

I have no political news to send you. Marcellus 
has dropped the design w , upon which he was lately 
so intent ; but not so much from indolence, I 
believe, as prudence. It is wholly uncertain wbo 
will be our succeeding consuls. As to my own 
pursuits, there are two competitors with me for 
the sedileship ; the one really is, and the other 
would fain be thought, a man of quality. In short, 
Marcus Octavius x and Caius Hirrus^ are candi- 



' The author of this law was M. Licinius Crassus, when 
he was consul with Pompey, a. u. 698. It was called Be 
Sodalitiis, by which seems to have been understood an 
unlawful making of parties at elections. — Kennett, Rom. 
Antiq., p. 177. 

11 Hortensius was uncle to Messala, and the only orator 
of this age whose eloquence stood in any degree of com- 
petition with Cicero's.— See book vi., letter 8, rem. g. 

v This theatre was erected by Curio on occasion of those 
games which he exhibited in honour of his father's memory. 
—See rem. h on letter 10 of this book. 

w Ccelius in this instance was not so happy in his con- 
jectures, as Cicero represents him in the foregoing letter. 
For Marcellus had not dropped the design to which Ccelius 
here alludes; as appears, not only from the authority 
cited in rem. », p. 390, but also from one of his own sub- 
sequent epistles. See the 7th letter of the following book. 

* No particular account can be given of the person here 
mentioned. It is certain, however, he was not the same 
Octavius who was father of Augustus Caesar. For it 
appears by the epistles to Atticus that the latter was 
governor of Macedonia long before the time when this 
letter was written, and consequently could not now be a 
candidate for the office of aedile. 

y Hirrus was a warm partisan of Pompey ; but if Cicero, 
who was his declared enemy, may be credited, he was of a 
character more likely to prejudice than advance any cause 
he should espouse, for he represents him as an empty 
conceited coxcomb, who had the mortification to stand 
unrivalled in the good opinion he entertained of his own 



dates with me for that office 2 . I mention this, as 
I know your contempt for the latter will raise 
your impatience to be informed of the event of 
this election. I entreat you, as soon as you shall 
hear that I am chosen, to give proper directions 
about the panthers 3 ; and, in the mean time, that 
you would endeavour to procure the sum of money 
which is due to me on the bond of Sittius. 

I sent my first collection of domestic news by 
Lucius Castrinius Psetus, and I have given the 
subsequent part to the bearer of this letter. Fare- 
well. 



LETTER XXX. 

From the same. 

Own the truth, my friend : have I not verified 
what I could not persuade you to believe when you 
A u ^ left Rome, and written to you as fre- 
quently as I promised ? I am sure, at 
least, if all my letters have reached your hands, 
you must acknowledge that I have been a more 
punctual correspondent than yourself. I am the 
more regular in my commerce of this kind, as it is 
the only method I have of amusing those few vacant 
hours I can steal from business, and which I used 
to take so much pleasure in passing with you. I 
greatly, indeed, lament your absence, and look 
upon it not only as having reduced me, but all 
Rome in general, to a state of total solitude. 
When you were within my reach, I was careless 
enough to let whole days slip by me without seeing 
you : but now you are absent, I am every moment 
regretting the loss of your company. Thanks to 
my noble competitor, Hirrus, for giving me an 
additional reason thus frequently to wish for you. 
It would afford you high diversion, in truth, to 
observe with what a ridiculous awkwardness this 
formidable rival of yours b endeavours to conceal 
his mortification, in finding that my interest in 
the approaching election is much stronger than 
his own. Believe me, however, it is more for your 
gratification than mine that I am desirous you 
may soon receive such an account of his success 
in this pursuit as I know you wish. For, as to 

merit and importance. " O Dii ! (says he, speaking of 
Hirrus in a letter to his brother) O Dii ! quam ineptus ; 
quam se ipse amans sine rivali !" Yet a time came when 
Cicero did not scruple to court the friendship of this man, 
whom he so much affected to despise ; and when he was 
making interest to obtain the honour of a triumph for his 
exploits in Cilicia, we find him applying to Atticus for 
his good offices, in order to close the breach between 
Hirrus and himself. Cicero seems, indeed, upon many 
occasions, to have recollected too late, that in popular 
governments, a man who is not superior to the ambition 
and interests of the world, can scarcely make a con- 
temptible enemy. — Ad Quint. Frat. iii. 8 ; Ad Att. vii. 1. 

z The sediles were of two kinds, plebeian and curule ; 
and it was the latter office that Ccelius was at this time 
soliciting. They had the care of the temples, theatres, and 
other public structures ; they were the judges, likewise, in 
all causes relative to the selling or exchanging estates. — 
Rosin. Antiq. 

a It was customary for the axliles to entertain the people 
with public shows twice, during their office. The principal 
part of these entertainments consisted in combats of wild 
beasts of the most uncommon kind. — Manutius. 

b Hirrus stood in competition with Cicero for the office 
of augur, when the latter was chosen. 

c See the preceding letter. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



395 



myself, his disappointment may possibly prove a 
means of my being chosen in conjunction with a 
colleague, whose superior finances will draw me, I 
fear, into much inconvenient expense. But, how- 
ever that may be, I shall rejoice if Hirrus should 
be thrown out, as it will supply us with an inex- 
haustible fund of mirth. And this appears likely 
enough to prove the case ; for the disgust which 
the people have conceived against the other candi- 
date, Marcus Octavius, does not seem to have any 
great effect in lessening their many objections to 
Hirrus. 

As to what concerns the behaviour of Philotimus, 
in relation to Milo's estate d , I have endeavoured 
that he shall act in such a manner as to give full 
satisfaction to Milo and his friends, and at the 
same time clear your character from all imputation. 

And now I have a favour to beg in my turn : 
let me entreat you, when your leisure shall permit 
(as I hope it soon will), to give me an instance of 
your regard, by inscribing to me some of your 
literary performances. You will wonder, perhaps, 
at the oddness of this request ; but I am very de- 
sirous, I confess, that posterity should see, among 
the many ingenious monuments you have erected 
to friendship, some memorial likewise of the amity 
which subsisted between us. You, who possess the 
whole circle of science, will best judge what would 
be the most proper subject for this purpose ; but I 
should be glad it might be of a kind that will take 
in the greatest number of readers, and at the same 
time bear a proper relation to my own studies and 
character. Farewell. 



LETTER XXXI. 

To Appius Pulcher. 
I arrived at Tralles e on the 27th of July, 
where I found Lucilius waiting for me with your 
7 letter, which he delivered, together with 
your message. You could not have em- 
ployed upon this occasion a more friendly hand, or 
one who is better qualified to give me light into 
those affairs concerning which I was so desirous of 
being informed. Accordingly I listened to his 
account with great attention, as I read your letter 
with much pleasure. I will not remind you of the 
numerous good offices which have passed between 

d Milo having been sentenced to banishment, (see rem. w , 
p. 386,) his estate was sold for the benefit of his creditors. 
Philotimus, a freedman of Cicero, bought this estate, in 
partnership with some others, at an undervalue. It was 
thought strange that Cicero should suffer Philotimus, who 
acted as a sort of steward in his family, to engage in a, 
i purchase of this kind, which was always looked upon as 
odious, and was particularly so in the present case : for 
Cicero had received great obligations from Milo. Accord- 
ingly the latter complained of it, in the letters he wrote to 
his friends at Rome. This alarmed Cicero for his reputa- 
tion, and he seems to have written to Ccelius, as he did to 
several others of his correspondents, to accommodate this 
affair in the way that would be most to his honour. It 

I was not easy, however, entirely to vindicate him upon this 
article: for though he pleaded in his justification an intent 
of serving Milo, yet it appears very evidently, from his 
letters to Atticus upon this subject, that he shared with 
Philotimus in the advantages of the purchase— Ascon. in 
Orat. pro Mil. ; Ad Att. v. 8. vi. 4, 5. See also Mong. Rem. 
sur les Let. a Att. vol. iii. p. 48. 
c A city in Asia Minor. 



us ; since that part of my last, you tell me, though 
extremely agreeable to you, was by no means neces- 
sary. I entirely agree with you, indeed, that a well- 
confirmed friendship needs not to be animated with 
any memorials of this nature. You must allow me, 
however, to return those acknowledgments I so 
justly owe you, for the obliging precautions which 
I find by your letter you have taken, in order to 
ease me in the future functions of my government. 
Highly acceptable to me as these your generous 
services are, can I fail of being desirous to con- 
vince both you and the world that I am most 
warmly your friend ? If there be any who pretend 
to doubt of this truth, it is rather because they wish 
it otherwise, than because it is not sufficiently evi- 
dent. If they do not yet perceive it, however, they 
certainly shall ; as we are neither of us so obscure 
that our actions can pass unregarded ; and the proofs 
I purpose to give will be too conspicuous not to 
force themselves upon their observation. But I 
will not indulge myself any farther on this subject, 
choosing to refer you to my actions rather than my 
professions. 

As I find the route I proposed to take has raised 
some doubt in you whether you shall be able to 
give me a meeting, I think it necessary to explain 
that matter. In the conversation which I had with 
your freedman, Phanias, at Brundisium, I told him 
I would land in any part of the province that should 
be most convenient to you. Accordingly he men- 
tioned Sida, as being the port, he said, where you 
intended to embark. It was my resolution, there- 
fore, to have sailed thither ; but meeting afterwards 
with our friend Clodius at Corey ra f , he dissuaded 
me from that design, assuring me that you would 
be at Laodicea on my arrival. I should have pre- 
ferred the former, as being much the nearest port, 
and indeed the most agreeable to me, especially as 
I imagined it would be so to you. But you have 
since, it seems, altered your plan, and therefore 
you now can best settle the measures for our inter- 
view. As for myself, I propose to be at Laodicea s 
about the first of August, where I shall continue a 
few days, in order to get my bills exchanged. From 
thence I intend to go to the army ; so that I hope 
to reach Iconium h towards the 13th of the same 
month. But if any accident should prevent or 
retard these designs, (as, indeed, I am at present 
far distant both from the places and the purposes 
of my destination,) I will take care to give you as 
frequent and as expeditious notice as possible of 
the several times and stages of my journey. I 
neither ought, nor in truth desire, to lay you under 
any difficulties : however, if it might be effected 
without inconvenience to yourself, it seems greatly 
for our mutual interest that we should have a con- 
ference before you leave the province. Nevertheless, 
if any disappointment should obstruct our interview, 
you may still rely upon my best services, and with 
the same security as if we had met. In the mean 
while I shall forbear to enter upon the subject of 
our affairs by letter till I despair of talking them 
over with you in person. 

( An island in the Ionian sea, at which Cicero touched 
in his voyage to Cilicia. It is now called Corfuu, and 
belongs to the republic of Venice. 

S A city in Phrygia, situated on the river Lye us. 

h A principal city in the province of Cilicia. It still sub- 
sists under the name of Cogni, and belongs to the Turkish 
dominions. 



39G 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



I spent the three days I continued at Ephesus ' 
with Sceevola J. But though we entered very freely 
into conversation, he did not mention the least 
word of your having desired him to take upon him- 
self the government of the province during the 
interval between your leaving it and my arrival. 
I wish, however, it had been in his power (for I 
cannot persuade myself it was not in his inclina- 
tion) to have complied with your request. Fare- 
well. 



LETTER XXXII. 

Marcus Ccelius to Cicero. 
You are certainly to be envied, who have every 
day some new wonder to enjoy ; as your admira- 
a u 702 ^ on recerves constant supplies in the 
accounts of those strange events that 
happen amongst us. Thus, with what astonishment 
will you hear that Messala k , after having been 
acquitted of his first impeachment, was condemned 
on a second ; that Marcellus l is chosen consul ; 
that Calidius m , after having lost his election, was 
immediately impeached by the two Galli ; and that 
Dolabella 11 is appointed one of the quindecimvirs ! 
In one article, however, you are a loser by your 
absence ; as it deprived you of a most diverting 
spectacle in the rueful countenance which Lentu- 
lusP exhibited when he found himself disappointed 

» A very celebrated city in Ionia, situated not far from 
Smyrna. 

J He was probably either quaestor, or lieutenant, to 
Appius. 

k He was cousin to the present consul, Marcus Marcellus. 
The reader will find an account of him in the farther pro- 
gress of these remarks. 

1 In the text he is called Marcus Claudius : but Manutius 
and Corradus both agree in the reading here adopted, 
which is likewise confirmed by Pighius. He was competitor 
for the consulate with Marcellus, mentioned in the pre- 
ceding note. The wonder, therefore, in these two instances, 
was, (as Mr. Ross observes,) that Marcellus should be 
chosen consul, who was an avowed enemy to Cassar ; while 
Calidius, though supported by the Caesarian party, lost his 
election. 

111 Calidius was one of the most agreeable orators of his 
age, as Cicero, who has drawn his character at large, 
informs us. His sentiments were conceived with uncom- 
mon delicacy, as they were delivered in the most correct, 
perspicuous, and elegant expression. His words were so 
happily combined together, and accorded with each other 
in such a well-adjusted arrangement, that Cicero, by a 
very strong image, compares his style to a piece of beau- 
tiful inlaid- work. His metaphors were so justly imagined 
and so properly introduced, that they rather seemed to 
arise spontaneously out of his subject, than to have been 
transplanted from a foreign soil. His periods, at the same 
time, were exquisitely musical. They did not, however, 
lull the ear with one uniform cadence ; but were artfully 
diversified with all the various modulations of the most 
skilful harmony. In short, if to instruct and to please had 
been the single excellences of an orat«r, Calidius would have 
merited the first rank in the Roman forum. But he forgot 
that the principal business of his profession was to animate 
and to inflame. — Cic. de Clar. Orat. 274. 

n A particular account will be given of him in the notes 
on the following book. 

o They were the presiding magistrates at the Apol- 
linarian and secular games, and entrusted likewise with 
the care of tho Sibylline oracles. See Ross on this epistle. 

P There is some variation amongst the MSS. in the read- 
ing of this name. The best commentators, however, sup- 
pose, that this person is the same who was advanced to the 
consulship two years after the date of this letter : that is, 



of his election. It was an event for which he was 
so little prepared, that he entered the field in all 
the gay confidence of victory ; whilst his competitor 
Dolabella, on the contrary, was so diffident of suc- 
cess, that if our friends of the equestrian order had 
not been too wise to have suffered him, he would 
have tamely retreated without the least contest. 
But as much disposed as you may be to wonder at 
our transactions, you will not be surprised, I dare 
say, when I inform you that Servius, the tribune 
elect, has been tried and convicted; and that Curio i 
is a candidate to succeed him. This last circum- 
stance greatly alarms those who are unacquainted 
with the real good qualities of Curio's heart. I 
hope, and indeed believe, he will act agreeably to 
his professions, and join with the senate in sup- 
porting the friends of the republic. I am sure, at 
least, he is full of these designs at present : in 
which Caesar's conduct has been the principal 
occasion of engaging him. For Caesar, though he 
spares no pains or expense to gain over even the 
lowest of the people to his interest', has thought 
fit to treat Curio with singular contempt. The 
latter has behaved with so much temper upon this 
occasion, that he, who never acted with artifice in 
all his life s , is suspected to have dissembled his 
resentment in order the more effectually to defeat 
the schemes of those who oppose his election : I 
mean the Lselii and the Antonii, together with the 
rest of that wonderful party. 

I have been so much engaged by the difficulties 
which have retarded the several elections, that I 
could not find leisure to write to you sooner : and, 
indeed, as I every day expected they would be 
determined, I waited their conclusion that I might 
give you at once an account of the whole. But it 
is now the first of August, and they are not yet 
over, the elections of praetors having met with 
some unexpected delays. As to that in which I 
am candidate, I can give you no account which 
way it is likely to be decided ; only it is generally 
thought that Hirrus will not be chosen. This is 
collected from the fate that has attended Yinici- 
anus, who was a candidate for the office of plebeian 
sedile 1 . That foolish project of his for the nomina- 
tion of a dictator" (which we formerly, you may 

in the year of Rome 704. It appears he was a competitor 
with Dolabella for the office of quindecimvir. 

q See rem. J, p. 378. 

r The account which Dion Cassius gives of Caesar, exactly 
corresponds with what Coelius here asserts. For it appears, 
from this historian, that Casar, when he could not by 
direct means secure the master in his interest, insinuated 
himself by proper applications into the good graces of the 
favourite slave: and, by condescensions of this political 
kind, he gained over many persons of principal rank in 
Rome.— Dio, xl. p. 149. 

s If Curio did not act with artifice in the present in- 
stance, (of which, however, there is great reason to doubt.) 
it is certain, at least, that he was far from being so inca- 
pable of assuming that character, as Ccelius here represents 
him. On the contrary, it appears by the concurrent testi- 
mony of the ancient historians, that he secretly favoured 
the cause of Caesar, long before he avowed his party. And 
Dion Cassius, in particular, assures us, that Curio, at the 
same time that he pretended to act in concert with the 
enemies of Csesar, was only gaining their confidence, in 
order to betray them.— Veil. Pat. ii. 48 ; Dio, xl. p. 149. 

1 The plebeian oedilcs were chosen out of the commons, 
and were, in some respects, a sort of coadjutors to the 
tribunes. 

u The dictator was a magistrate invested with supreme 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



397 



remember, exposed to so much ridicule,) suddenly- 
turned the election against him ; and the people 
expressed the loudest acclamations of joy at his 
repulse : at the same time, Hirrus was universally 
called upon by the populace to give up his preten- 
sions at the ensuing election. I hope, therefore, 
you will very soon hear that this affair is determined 
in the manner you wish with respect to me, and 
which you scarce dare promise yourself v , I know, 
with regard to Hirrus. 

As to the state of the commonwealth, we begin 
to give up all expectation that the face of public 
affairs will be changed. However, at a meeting of 
the senate, holden on the 22d of the last month in 
the temple of Apollo, upon a debate relating to the 
payment of the forces commanded by Pompey w , 
mention was made of that legion, which, as appeared 
by his accounts, had been lent to Csesar : and he 
was asked, of what number of men it consisted, 
and for what purposes it was borrowed. In short, 
Pompey was pushed so strongly upon this article, 
that he found himself under a necessity of pro- 
mising to recal this legion out of Gaul : but he 
added at the same time, that the clamours of his 
enemies should not force him to take this step too 
precipitately. It was afterwards moved, that the 
question might be put concerning the election of a 
successor to Csesar. Accordingly the senate came 
to a resolution that Pompey (who was just going 
to the army at Ariminum x , and is now actually 
set out for that purpose,) should be ordered to 
return to Rome with all expedition, that the affair 
relating to a general election of new governors for 
all the provinces might be debated in his presence. 
This point, I imagine, will be brought before the 
senate on the 13th of this month ; when, if no 
infamous obstacles should be thrown in the way by 
the tribunes ?, the house will certainly come to 
some resolution : for Pompey, in the course of the 
debate, let fall an intimation that he " thought 
every man owed obedience to the authority of that 
assembly." However, I am impatient to hear what 
Paulus, the senior consul elect, will say when he 
delivers his opinion upon this question, 
and absolute power ; but was never created unless on 
emergencies of great and sudden danger, which required 
the exertion of an extraordinary authority. Accordingly, 
it was on occasion of the disturbances that happened at 
Rome in the year 700, [see rem. v , p. 386, and rem. a , p. 
307,] that some of the friends and flatterers of Pompey 
proposed him for this office. Vinicianus and Hirrus were 
the principal promoters of this scheme : but it was so 
unacceptable to the people in general, that this single 
circumstance, it appears, turned the election against the 
former; and, probably, was the chief reason that the 
latter was likewise disappointed of the aedileship. See 
letter 29 of this book, p. 393 ; Ad Quint. Frat. iii. 8. 

v Because Hirrus was supported by Pompey. 

w Pompey, though he remained in Rome, was at this 
time governor of Spain : which had been continued to him 
for four years at the end of his late consulship. It was the 
payment of his troops in that province, which was under 
the consideration of the senate. — Plut. in Vit. Pomp. 

* Now called Rimini, situated upon the Rubicon: a 
river which divided Italy from that part of the - Roman 
province called Cisalpine Gaul. The army here mentioned, 
is supposed to be part of those four legions which were 
decreed to Pompey for the support of his government in 
Spain.— Plut. ibid. 

7 Some of the tribunes, together with Sulpicius, one of 
the present consuls, were wholly in Caesar's interest. — 
They thought, or pretended to think, that it was highly 
unjust to divest Caesar of his government, before the time 



I repeat my former request in relation to the 
money due to me on the bond of Sittius ; and I do 
so that you may see it is an article in which I am 
greatly interested. I must again likewise entreat 
you to employ the Cybiratse z , in order to procure 
me some panthers. I have only to add, that we 
have received certain accounts of the death of 
Ptolemy a . Let me know, therefore, what measures 
you would advise me to take upon this occasion ; 
in what condition he has left his kingdom ; and 
in whose hands the administration is placed. — 
Farewell. 
August the first. 



LETTER XXXIII. 

From the same. 
How far you may be alarmed at the invasion b 
which threatens your province and the neighbour- 
a u 702 * n £ coun t"es, I know not ; but for myself, 
I confess, I am extremely anxious for the 
consequence. Could we contrive indeed that the 
enemy's forces should be only in proportion to the 
number of yours, and just sufficient to entitle you 
to the honour of a triumph , there could not be a 
more desirable circumstance. But the misfortune 
is, if the Parthians should make any attempt, I 
well know it will be a very powerful one : and I 
am sensible, at the same time, that you are so little 
in a condition to oppose their march, that you have 
scarce troops to defend a single defile. But the 
world in general will not be so reasonable as to 
make the proper allowances for this circumstance. 
On the contrary, it is expected from a man in your 
station, that he should be prepared for every occur- 
rence that may arise, without once considering 
whether he is furnished with the necessary supplies 
for that purpose. I am still the more uneasy upon 
your account, as I foresee the contests concerning 
affairs in Gaul will retard the nomination of your 
successor : and though I dare say you have already 
had this contingency in your view, yet I thought 
proper to apprise you of its probability, that you 
might be so much the more early in adjusting your 
measures accordingly. I need not tell you that 
the usual artifices will undoubtedly be played off. 

was completed for which it had been decreed, and of which 
there now remained about two years unexpired. — Dio, xl. 
p. 148. 

1 " Cibyrawas a city of Phrygia Major, situated upon 
the banks of the river Meander, and gave name to one of 
the three Asiatic dioceses, which were under the jurisdic- 
tion of the governor of Cilicia." — Ross. 

a Ptolemy Auletes, of whom an account has been given 
in the notes on the first book. By the following inquiries 
which Ccelius makes, it is probable he was one of those 
who had lent money to that king when he was at Rome, 
soliciting the senate to assist him with troops for the reco- 
very of his dominions. See rem. », p. 344. 

•> The Parthians, having lately obtained a most signal 
victory over Crassus, (an account of whose unfortunate 
expedition has already been given in the course of these 
notes,) were preparing to make an incursion in the Roman 
provinces that lay contiguous to their dominions.— Accord- 
ingly they soon afterwards executed this design by invading 
Syria and Cilicia ; as will be related at large in the letters 
of the following book. 

The kingdom of Parthia is now included in the empire 
of Persia, of which it makes a very considerable province. 

c No general could legally claim this honour, unless he 
! had destroyed 5,000 of the enemy in one engagement.— 
i Val. Max. ii. 8. 



308 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



A day will be appointed for considering of a 
successor to Caesar : upon which some tribune d 
will interpose his negative ; and then a second will 
probably declare, that unless the senate shall be at 
liberty to put the question freely concerning all 
the provinces in general, he will not suffer it to 
be debated with regard to any in particular. And 
thus we shall be trifled with for a considerable 
time : possibly, indeed, two or three years may be 
spun out by these contemptible artifices. 

If anything new had occurred in public affairs I 
should, as usual, have sent you the account, together 
with my sentiments thereupon : but at present the 
wheels of our political machine seem to be altogether 
motionless. Marcellus is still pursuing his former 
designs concerning the provinces ; but he has not 
yet been able to assemble a competent number of 
senators. Had e this motion been brought on the 
preceding year, and had Curio at the same time 
been tribune, it would probably have succeeded : 
but as affairs are now circumstanced, you are sensible 
how easy it will be for Caesar, regardless as he is 
of the public interest when it stands in competition 
with his own, to obstruct all our proceedings. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XXXIV. 

From the same. 

Will you not be surprised when I tell you of 
the victory I have gained over Hirrus f ? But if 
a u 70? you knew how easy a conquest he proved, 
you would blush to think that so power- 
less a competitor once ventured to stand forth as 
your rivals His behaviour since this repulse 
affords us much diversion, as he now affects upon 
all occasions to act the patriot and vote against 
Caesar. Accordingly, he insists upon Caesar's being 
immediately recalled; and most unmercifully in- 
veighs against the conduct of Curio. In a word, 
as little conversant as he is in the business of the 
Forum, he is now become an advocate professed, 
and most magnanimously pleads the cause of 
liberty 11 . You are to observe, however, that it is 
only in a morning he is seized with these violent 
fits of patriotism ; for he is generally much too 
elevated in an afternoon to descend into so grave 
a character. 

I mentioned in one of my former, that the affair 
of the provinces would come before the senate on 
the 13th of the last month : nevertheless, by the 
intervention of Marcellus, the consul elect, it was 
put off to the first of this instant. But when the 
day arrived, they could not procure, a sufficient 

d See rem. y, on the foregoing letter. 

e There is an obscurity in the original, which the com- 
mentators have endeavoured to dissipate by various read- 
ings. None of their conjectures, however, appear so much 
to the purpose as that of an ingenious gentleman, to whose 
animadversions I have already acknowledged myself in- 
debted. [See rem. 1, p. 374.] My judicious friend supposes 
that some words of the same import with those which are 
distinguished by italics in the translation, have been 
omitted by the carelessness of transcribers ; a supposition 
extremely probable, and which solves the principal diffi- 
culty of the text. 

f At the election for curule aediles. See letter 29 of this 
book. 

K As a candidate with Cicero for the office of augur. 

h Instead of agit causae liberalis, as in the common edi- 
tions, I read with Gronovius, agit causam libertatis. 



number of senators to be present. It is now the 
second of September, and nothing has yet been 
done in this business : and I am persuaded it will 
be adjourned to the following year. As far as I 
can foresee, therefore, you must be contented to 
leave the administration of your province in the 
hands of some person whom you shall think proper 
to appoint for that purpose, as I am well convinced 
you will not soon be relieved by a successor. For 
as Gaul must take the same fate with the rest of the 
provinces, any attempt that shall be made for 
settling the general succession will certainly be 
obstructed by Caesar's party. Of this I have not 
the least doubt, and therefore I thought it neces- 
sary to give you notice, that you may be prepared 
to act accordingly. 

I believe I have reminded you of the panthers in 
almost every one of my letters; and surely you will 
not suffer Patiscus to be more liberal in this article 
than yourself. He has made Curio a present of no 
less than half a score : great therefore will be your 
disgrace if you should not send me a much larger 
number. In the mean time, Curio has given me 
those he received from Patiscus, together with as 
many more from Africa : for you are to know it is 
not only in granting away the lands of the 1 public 
that the generous Curio displays his liberality. As 
to yourself, if you can but charge your memory 
with my request, you may easily procure me as 
many of these animals as you please : it is only 
sending for some of the Cybiratae to hunt them, 
and issuing forth your orders likewise into Pam- 
phylia, where I am told they are taken in great 
abundance. I am the more solicitous upon this 
article, as I believe my colleague and I shall exhibit 
our games separately; so that the whole preparation 
for them must lie singly upon myself. I know 
you love ease as well as I do ; but I should be glad 
if you could by any means prevail with yourself to 
part with a little of it upon the present occasion. 
In good earnest, you will have no other trouble 
than merely to give your commands ; as my people, 
whom I have sent into your province in order to 
recover the money due to me from Sittius, will be 
ready to receive the panthers and convey them into 
Italy. It is probable likewise, if you should give 
me any hopes of succeeding in my request, that I 
may send a reinforcement to assist them. 

I recommend Marcus Feridius, a Roman knight, 
to your protection and friendship, who comes into 
Cilicia to transact some business relating to his 
private affairs. He is a young man of great worth 
and spirit ; and his father is my very particular 
friend. He holds an estate under certain cities in 
your government, of which he is desirous to procure 
the enfranchisement ; and I am persuaded he may 
easily obtain his point by the intervention of your 
good offices. Your employing them upon this oc- 
casion will indeed be doing an honour to yourself, 
as it will oblige two men of great merit, who, I will 
venture to assure you, are not capable of proving 
ungrateful. 

You were mistaken when you imagined that 
FavoniusJ was opposed by the more contemptible 

' This seems to allude to some attempts which Curio 
had lately made to revive the Agrarian law. See rem. e , 
p. 367. 

J He was a great admirer and imitator of the virtues 
and manners of Cato, as he was also in the number of 
those who assassinated Ca?sar. Manutius conjectures that 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



399 



part of the people : on the contrary, it was all the 
better sort that voted against him. Your friend 
Pompey openly declares that Caesar ought not to 
be admitted as a candidate for the consulship while 
he retains his command in the province k . He 
voted, however, against passing a decree for this 
purpose at present. Scipio 1 moved that the first 
of March next might be appointed for taking into 
consideration the nominating a successor in the 
Gallic provinces ; and that this matter should be 
proposed to the house separately, and without 
blending it with any other question. Balbus 
Cornelius™ was much discomposed at this motion ; 
and I am well assured he has complained of it to 
Scipio in very strong terms. 

Canidius defended himself upon his trial with 
much eloquence ; but in the impeachment which 
he afterwards exhibited he supported his charge 
with little force or spirit. Farewell. 



LETTER XXXV. 

To Marcus Marcellus n , Consul. 
I very warmly congratulate you on your re- 
lation, Caius Marcellus, being elected to succeed 
a u "Q? y° u ' as I s ^ ncere ly rejoice in your having 
received this happy fruit of your pious 
affection to your family, of your patriot zeal to 

he was at this time chosen prastor. — Plut. in Vit. Pomp. ; 
Dio, xlvii. p. 356. 

k Pompey, who contributed more than any man to the 
advancement of Caesar's power, had lately procured a law, 
by which the personal appearance of the latter was dis- 
pensed with in soliciting the consular office. But Pompey 
now began to repent of a concession so entirely unconsti- 
tutional : not that his own designs were more favourable 
to the liberties of Rome than those of Caesar, but as disco- 
vering at last that they could not both subsist together. 
His present opposition, however, was as impotent as his 
former compliances were impolitic, and only tended to 
bring on so much the sooner his own destruction, together 
with that of the republic— Ad Att. viii. 3. 

1 Metellus Scipio : he was chosen consul by Pompey the 
latter end of the last year, agreeably to a power with 
which he was invested by the senate, for nominating his 
colleague. Pompey likewise married his daughter, the 
amiable Cornelia, who added to the charms of her person 
every moral and intellectual qualification that could render 
her the most estimable and accomplished of her sex. And 
yet, with all these extraordinary endowments, she was 
still more distinguished by that singular modesty and hu- 
mility with which they were accompanied. It is Plutarch 
who gives her this character ; upon which Monsieur Dacier 
remarks: — " Je dois etre plus persuade qu'un autre, que 
l'eloge que Plutarque donne a Cornelie peut n'etre point 
flatte. J'ai un exemple domestique, qui prouve que beau- 
coup d'esprit et de savoir, et de grands talens, peuvent se 
trouver dans une femme, et etre accompagnes d'une modes- 
tie aussi grande et plus estimable encore que ses talens." 
May I add my suffrage to that of this celebrated critic, by 
declaring, from the same domestic experience, that un- 
common knowledge and a superior understanding are 
perfectly consistent with those more valuable qualities of 
the heart, which constitute the principal grace and orna- 
ment of the female character. — Plut. in Vit. Pomp. ; Les 
Vies dePlut. par Dae. vol. v. p. 498, rem. 89. 

m He was inviolably attached to Caesar, and seems to 
have been the principal manager of his affairs at Rome. 

n He was distinguished by a long line of ancestors, who 
had borne the most honourable offices in the republic ; as 
he himself was advanced to the consular dignity this year, 
in conjunction with Servius Sulpicius Rufus. It is men- 
tioned to the credit of both these illustrious magistrates, 



your country, and of your illustrious deportment 
in the consular office. 1 can easily imagine the 
sentiments which your address upon this occasion 
has created in Rome : and as to myself, whom you 
have sent to these far distant parts of the globe, 
believe me I speak of it with the highest and most 
unfeigned applause. I can with strict truth assure 
you, that I have ever had a particular attachment 
to you from your earliest youth ; and I am sensible 
you have always shown, by your generous offices 
in promoting my dignities, that you deemed me 
worthy of the most distinguished honours. But 
this late instance of your judicious management in 
procuring the consulship for Marcellus, together 
with the proof it affords of the favour in which you 
stand with the republic, has raised you still higher 
in my esteem. It is with great complacency, there- 
fore, that I hear it observed, by men of the first 
distinction for sense and merit, that,in all our words 
and actions, our tastes and studies, our principles 
and pursuits, we bear a strong resemblance to each 
other. The only circumstance that can render 
your glorious consulate still more agreeable to me, 
will be your procuring a successor to be nominated 
to this province as soon as possible. But if this 
cannot be obtained, let me entreat you, at least, 
not to suffer my continuance here to be prolonged 
beyond the time limited by your decree and the 
law which passed for that purpose. In a word, I 
hope upon all occasions to experience in my ab- 
sence the benefit of your friendship and protection. 
Farewell. 

P. S. — I have received some intelligence con- 
cerning the Parthians, but as it is not at present 
sufficiently confirmed, I forbear to communicate 
the particulars to you ; for, as I am writing to a 
consul, my letter perhaps might be considered as 
an information to the senate. 



LETTER XXXVI. 

To Caius Marcellus , Consul elect. 
I received great pleasure in hearing of your 
advancement to the consulate. May the gods give 
a u 702 y° u success ^ the enjoyment of this 
honour, and may you discharge its im- 
portant duties in a manner worthy of your own 



that they were chosen without having employed those cor- 
rupt and violent measures which were at this period so 
generally practised : and Marcellus, in particular, had 
recommended himself to the people by the superior grace 
and energy of his eloquence. It has already been observed 
in these remarks, that he was extremely zealous in pro- 
moting the decree by which Caesar was recalled from his 
province, and which forwarded the flames of that unhappy 
civil war, which soon afterwards broke out to the destruc- 
tion of the commonwealth. Upon that occasion Marcellus 
took the part of Pompey. But after the battle of Pharsa- 
lia, he threw down his arms, and withdrew to Mitylenae, 
the capital of Lesbos, where he purposed to devote the 
remainder of his days to a philosophical retirement. But 
being persuaded by his friends, and particularly by Cicero, 
to accept the clemency of the victor, he, at length, yielded 
to their solicitation, and was preparing to return home, 
when he was cruelly assassinated by a man who had been 
in the number of his clients. The reader will find a 
particular account of this murder, together with some 
other circumstances concerning Marcellus, in the farther 
progress of these letters and remarks. — Suet, in Vit. Tiber. 
1 ; Dio, xl. p. 148 ; Cicer. de Clar. Orat. 250 ; Ep. Fam. 
iv. 12. 
° He was cousin-german to Marcus Marcellus, to whom 



400 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



illustrious character and that of your excellent 
father ! You have my hest wishes indeed upon 
this occasion, not only from affection, but gratitude, 
and in return to those warmest instances of your 
friendship which I have ever experienced in all the 
various incidents of my life. Many and important 
are the obligations likewise which I have received 
from your father, both as my protector in adversity 
and as having contributed to adorn my prosperity. 
I must add also to this family-list of my benefac- 
tors your worthy mother, whose zealous services 
in behalf both of my person and dignities have 
risen much higher than could have been expected 
from one of the tender sex. Being then, as I most 
certainly ought, entirely devoted to your family, 
let me earnestly entreat your friendship and pro- 
tection in my absence. Farewell. 



LETTER XXXVII. 

To Caius Marcellus?. 
The advancement of your son to the consular 
dignity, and your enjoying a pleasure you so much 
702 wished to obtain, are circumstances which 
afford me a very uncommon satisfaction. 
They do so not only upon his account, but yours, 
whom I esteem as highly deserving of every advan- 
tage that Fortune can bestow. Let me acknowledge 
at the same time that I have experienced your 
singular good-will towards me, both in the adverse 
and prosperous seasons of my life : and, indeed, my 
welfare and honours have been the zealous concern 
of your whole family. I shall be extremely obliged 



the preceding letter is addressed, and by whose interest, 
in conjunction with that of Pompey, he was elected to 
succeed him in the consular office. He pursued the poli- 
tics of his illustrious relation and predecessor, by firmly 
opposing the views of Caesar. — Dio, xl. 

p Father of Caius Marcellus, to whom the foregoing letter 
is written. 



to you, therefore, for making my sincere and par-, 
ticular congratulations upon this occasion to that 
excellent woman, your wife. To which request I 
will only add, that I entreat the continuance of 
your friendship and protection in my absence. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XXXVIII. 

To Lucius Paulusi, Consul elect. 

Though I never once doubted, that in consi- 
deration of your most illustrious family, and of those 
A v 709 important services you have yourself like- 
wise rendered to the commonwealth, you 
would be unanimously elected consul ; yet, the con- 
firmation of this desirable news afforded me an 
inexpressible satisfaction. It is my sincere wish 
that the gods may give success to your adminis- 
tration, and that you may acquit yourself of this 
honourable and important trust as becomes your 
own character and that of your distinguished family. 
I should have thought myself extremely happy to 
have been present at your election, and to have 
contributed those services which your extraordinary 
favours to me require. But, as the unexpected 
government of this province has deprived me of 
that pleasure, I hope I shall have the satisfaction of 
seeing you at least in the worthy exercise of your 
consular office. For this purpose, I most earnestly 
entreat you not to suffer me to be injuriously con- 
tinued in this province beyond the expiration of my 
year ; a favour which I shall esteem as a very con- 
siderable addition to those instances of friendship 
I have already received at your hands. Farewell. 

1 He was colleague with Caius Marcellus, mentioned in 
the last note. He set out in his administration, it was 
thought, with principles agreeable to those of his associate. 
But Caesar perfectly well knew how to make him change 
his sentiments ; and, by proper applications to his avarice 
and profusion, he added him to the number of his supple 
mercenaries. — Plut. in Vit. Pomp. 



BOOK IV. 



A. u. 702. 



LETTER I. 

To the Consuls, the Prcetors, the Tribunes of the 
People, and the Senate. 
The many obstructions I met with in my way 
to this province r , both by sea and land, prevented 
me from reaching it sooner than the last 
of July. I thought it my first duty, on 
my arrival, to see that the militia and garrisons 
were in good order ; being articles in which the 
interest of the republic is principally concerned. 
Accordingly, I have taken all proper measures to 
that end ; though I cannot forbear adding, that I 
have been enabled to effect this more by my own 
care and diligence than from any supplies I was 
furnished with for that purpose. Having thus 
adjusted my military preparations, and receiving 

* Cicero's province comprehended not only Cilicia, but 
Pamphylia, Lycaonia, part of Phrygia, and the island of 
Cyprus, together with some other less considerable appen- 
dages. Cilicia was first added to the Roman provinces by 
Publius Servilius, surnamed Isauricus, in the year of Rome 
680.— Ad Att. v. 21 ; Ammian. Marcellin. xiv. 8. 



daily intelligence that the Parthians had actually 
invaded Syria, I thought it advisable to move with 
my forces through Lycaonia, Isaurica, and Cappa- 
docia. It seemed highly probable, indeed, if the 
enemy had any design of attempting an irruption 
into my province, that they would direct their 
route through Cappadocia, as being a country that 
could give them the least opposition. I marched, 
therefore, into that part of Cappadocia which lies 
contiguous to Cilicia, and encamped at Cybistra, a 
town at the foot of Mount Taurus. I had a double 
view in leading my troops to this place. The first 
was, that in whatever disposition Artuasdes, king 
of Armenia, stood towards us, he might be sensible 
that a Roman army was not far from his frontiers ; 
and in the next place that I might be as near as 
possible to Deiotarus s , — a prince, I well knew, 

s He was prince of Galatia, a country bordering on 
Phrygia. He distinguished his zeal for the republic in all 
the Asiatic wars in which the Romans were engaged during 
his reign, and was particularly serviceable to Pompey in 
his expedition against Mithridates ; for which he was ho- 
noured by the senate with the title of king. Some time 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



401 



extremely our friend, and whose counsel and 
assistance might prove of great advantage in the 
present conjuncture. As soon as I had finished 
my encampment, I detached my cavalry before me 
into Cilicia. This I did in order to confirm the 
several cities in that part of my province in their 
allegiance, by giving them notice of my arrival, and 
likewise that I might have the earliest intelligence 
of what was transacting in Syria. During the 
three days that I continued in this camp, I was 
engaged in discharging a commission equally ne- 
cessary and important. I had received your express 
commands to take the worthy and faithful Ario- 
barzanes* under my particular protection, and to 
defend both his person and his kingdom to the 
utmost of my power. In your decree, which passed 
for this purpose, a clause was inserted declaring 
that " the welfare of this province was much the 
concern of the people and senate of Rome ;" an 
honour which was never before paid to any poten- 
tate. For this reason I thought it became me to 
signify to him in person the distinction which you 
had conferred upon him. I acquainted him, there- 
fore, in the presence of my council, with the 
instructions you had given me in his behalf ; and 
called upon him to let me know if there was any 
instance in which he had occasion for my service. 
I assured him at the same time, on my own part, 
that I offered him my protection with the utmost 
zeal and fidelity. He began his speech with ex- 
pressing a proper sense of the high honour thus 
conferred upon him by the people and senate of 
Rome. He then addressed his acknowledgments 
to me in particular, for having executed my com- 
mission in such a manner as to convince him both 
of the sincerity with which I proffered him my 
good offices, and of the strong injunctions I had 
received from the republic for that purpose. 

It gave me great satisfaction to hear him say, in 
this our first interview, that he neither knew, nor 
indeed suspected, any designs to be carrying on 
either against his life or his crown. After I had 

after the battle of Pharsalia, (in which he joined with 
Pompey,) his own grandson came to Rome with an im- 
peachment against him. He pretended that Deiotarus 
formed a design, when Caesar was his guest, as he lately 
passed through his dominions, of assassinating that gene- 
ral. This cause seems to have been pleaded in Caesar's 
own house, where both Cicero and Brutus appeared as 
advocates for Deiotarus. The speech which the former 
made upon this occasion is still extant : and if an orator 
may be credited in the character he gives of his client, 
this prince was endowed with every royal virtue. — Orat. 
pro Deiot. 

1 The kingdom of Cappadocia, of which Ariobarzanes 
was monarch, was of a very large extent, comprehending 
the greater part of those countries, at present under the 
Ottoman dominion, which are now called Amasia, Genec, 
and Tocat. It appears, however, by the letters to Atticus, 
that this kingdom was so extremely impoverished, that 
the crown was almost wholly destitute of any revenues— 
a circumstance to which Horace alludes in one of his 
epistles : 

Mancipiis locuples eget aeris Cappadocum rex. 
The instance that Plutarch gives of the great scarcity of 
money among these people is indeed almost incredible, if 
what the ancient geographers assert be true, that then- 
country abounded in silver mines : for that historian tells 
us, that when Lucullus was carrying on the war against 
Mithridates, in this part of the world, an ox sold in Cap- 
padocia for about fourpence, and a slave for sixpence.— Ad 
Att. vi. 1 ; Hor. Ep. i. 6 ; Plut. in Vit. Luculli. 



congratulated him upon so happy a circumstance, 
and exhorted him, in remembrance of his father's 
fate, carefully to observe the admonitions of the 
senate in being particularly cautious of his person, 
he took his leave and returned to Cybistra. The 
next day, however, he paid me a second visit in 
my tent, accompanied by his brother Ariarathes, 
together with several venerable old ministers of his 
late father, who, in a very plaintive and affecting 
manner, all joined with him in imploring my pro- 
tection. Upon my inquiring, with much surprise, 
what sudden accident had occasioned this unex- 
pected visit, he told me that he had just received 
certain information of a design to seize his crown ; 
that those who were apprised of this conspiracy 
had not the courage to disclose it till my arrival, 
but in confidence of my protection had now ven- 
tured to lay open to him the whole plot ; and that 
the disaffected party had actually made treasonable 
applications to his brother, of whose singular 
loyalty and affection he expressed at the same time 
the strongest assurance. This account was con- 
firmed to me by Ariarathes himself, who acknow- 
ledged that he had been solicited to accept the 
government ; which in effect, he said, was avowing 
their intention of destroying Ariobarzanes, as he 
could never reign during his brother's life. He 
added, that he had not acquainted the king with 
these treasonable overtures before, as being appre- 
hensive for his own person if he had ventured to 
reveal them sooner. When he had finished, I 
exhorted Ariobarzanes to take all proper precautions 
for his security ; and then turning to the approved 
and experienced ministers of his father's and 
grandfather's reign, I reminded them of the cruel 
fate that had attended their late sovereign, and 
admonished them to be so much the more particu- 
larly vigilant in protecting their present. 

The king requested me to supply him with some 
troops both of horse and foot ; which, however, I 
refused, notwithstanding I was empowered and 
indeed directed to do so by your decree. The 
truth is, the daily accounts I received of what was 
transacting in Syria, rendered it expedient, for the 
interest of the republic, that I should march my 
whole army, with all expedition, to the borders of 
Cilicia. Besides, as the conspiracy against Ario- 
barzanes was now fully detected, he appeared to be 
in a condition of defending his crown without the 
assistance of a Roman army. I contented myself, 
therefore, with giving him my advice ; and recom- 
mended it to him, as the first art of government, 
to found his security on the affections of his people. 
With this view, I persuaded him to exert his royal 
authority in the present conjuncture no farther 
than necessity should require, and against those 
only whom he perceived to be most deeply engaged 
in the plot : as for the rest, that he should grant 
them a free and general pardon. To which I added, 
that the best use he could make of my army was, 
to intimidate the guilty from persevering in their 
designs, rather than actually to turn it against 
them ; and that, when the decree of the senate in 
his favour should be generally known, the disaf- 
fected party would be well convinced that I should 
not fail of assisting him, pursuant to your orders, 
if occasion required. 

Having thus encouraged him, I struck my tents, 
and am now proceeding on my march to Cilicia. 
I had the satisfaction, in leaving Cappadocia, to 

D D 



402 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



reflect that my arrival had wonderfully, and indeed 
almost providentially, delivered that monarch from 
a conspiracy which was upon the very point of 
taking effect. This reflection was so much the 
more agreeable to me, as you had not only volun- 
tarily, and without any application for that purpose, 
honoured Ariobarzanes with the acknowledgment 
of his regal title, but had particularly recommended 
him to my protection, and expressly declared in 
your decree that his security was highly your con- 
cern. I judged it proper, therefore, to send you 
this minute account of what has passed in relation 
to Ariobarzanes, that you might see with how 
much prudence you had long before provided 
against a contingency which had well nigh hap- 
pened. And this I the rather do, as that prince 
appears to be so faithfully attached to the republic, 
as well as endowed with such great and excellent 
qualities, as to justify the extraordinary zeal you 
have shown for his interest. 



LETTER II. 

To Thermus, Propraetor^. 
Lucius Genucilius Curvus has been long in 
the number of my most intimate friends ; and, 
indeed, no man possesses a worthier or 
more grateful heart. I recommend him, 
therefore, most warmly and entirely to your pro- 
tection ; beseeching you to assist him upon every 
occasion that shall not be inconsistent with your 
honour and dignity. This is a restriction, however, 
which I might well have spared ; as I am sure he 
will never make you a request unworthy either of 
your character or his own. But I must particu- 
larly entreat your favour in relation to his affairs 
in Hellespontus. In the first place, then, I beg 
you would confirm the grant of certain lands which 
was made to him by the city of Parion v , and which 
he has hitherto enjoyed without molestation : in 
the next place, that if any inhabitant of Helles- 
pontus should controvert his rights of this kind, you 
would direct the cause to be heard in that district. 
But, after having already assigned him wholly to 
your patronage, it is unnecessary to point out par- 
ticular articles wherein I request your good offices. 
To say all then in one word : be assured I shall 
consider every instance wherein you shall advance 
either his honour or his interest as so many imme- 
diate favours conferred upon myself. Farewell. 



LETTER III. 

To Appius Pulcher. 

Though I am by no means disposed to be more 

favourable to myself than to you, in judging of the 

part we have respectively acted towards 

each other; yet, when I reflect on our 

late mutual behaviour, I have far greater reason to 

be satisfied with my own conduct than with yours. 



u Quintus Minucius Thermus was prastor in the year 
of Rome 701. At the expiration of his office, he was ap- 
pointed propraetor, or governor of that part of the Asiatic 
continent, styled Asia proper, which included Lydia, Ionia, 
Caria, Mysia, and part of Phrygia. Cicero speaks of him 
in a letter to Atticus, as exercising his administration with 
great integrity. — Ad Att. vi. 1. 

v A city in Hellespont. 



As I knew the high rank which Phanias justly 
possesses in your confidence and esteem, I inquired 
of him when we met at Brundisium in what part 
of the province he imagined you chose I should 
receive the resignation of your government. He 
assured me it would be extremely agreeable to you I 
if I landed at Sida w . For this reason, notwith- i 
standing I could not have made so splendid an I 
entrance from that city, and it was inconvenient to 
me, likewise, upon many other accounts, yet I told i 
him I would certainly comply with your inclinations. 
Some time afterwards I had a conference with your 
friend Clodius, at Corcyra, and I always consider 
myself as talking to you whenever I am conversing 
with him. I repeated, therefore, the same promise 
I had given to Phanias, and assured him that I 
intended to pursue the route which the latter had 
marked out to me. Clodius made many acknow- 
ledgments upon this occasion in your name, but 
entreated me to change my design and proceed 
directly to Laodicea. For it was your purpose, he ' 
said, to advance towards the maritime part of the 
province in order to embark as soon as possible. 
He added, at the same time, that it was from your 
great desire to see me that you had deferred your 
departure ; for, had any other person been your 
successor, you would not have waited his arrival. 
And this, indeed, corresponded with the letters I ! 
received from you at Rome, by which I perceived \ 
your great impatience to leave the province. I \ 
informed Clodius that I would comply with his | 
request and with much more willingness, I told 
him, than if I had been to have executed my first 
engagement with Phanias. I therefore changed 
my plan, and immediately gave you notice of it 
with my own hand, — -which, I find by your letter, 
you received in due time. When I reflect upon 
my conduct in this instance, I have the satisfaction 
to be assured that it is perfectly consonant to the 
strictest friendship. And now let me desire you 
to consider your behaviour in return. You were 
so far then from waiting in that part of the 
province which would have given us the earliest 
opportunity of an interview, that you withdrew* to 
such a distance as to render it impossible for me 
to reach you within the thirty days limited (if I 
mistake not) by the Cornelian law?, for your de- 
parture. This proceeding (to speak of it in the 
softest terms) must look with no friendly aspect 
in the eye of those who are unacquainted with our 
real sentiments towards each other, — as it has the 
appearance of your industriously avoiding a con- 
ference : whereas mine, on the contrary, must 
undoubtedly be deemed conformable to whatever 
could be expected from the strongest and most 
intimate union. 

w A sea-port town of considerable note in Pamphylia. 

x It was usual for the governors of provinces, when they 
entered upon their administration, to publish what they 
styled an edict ; which was a kind of code or formulary of 
laws, by which they intended to proceed in the dispensa- 
tion of justice. Cicero's institutes of this sort were founded 
upon maxims so extremely different from those by which 
Appius had regulated himself, that the latter looked upon 
them as so many indirect reflections upon his own unwor- 
thy conduct And this seems to have been the occasion of 
his treating Cicero in the manner of which he here, and 
in other subsequent letters, so much and so justly com- 
plains.— Ad Att. vi. 1 . 

Y This law was so called from its author, Cornelius Sylla, 
the dictator. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



403 



la the letter I received from you before my 
arrival in the province, though you mentioned your 
design of going to Tarsus 2 , you still flattered me 
with hopes of a meeting. In the mean time, there 
are some who have the malice (for malice, I sup- 
pose, is their motive, as that vice indeed is widely 
diffused among mankind) to lay hold of this plau- 
sible pretence to alienate me from you, little aware 
that I am not easily shaken in my friendships. 
They assure me, that when you had reason to be- 
lieve I was arrived in the province, you held a 
court of judicature at Tarsus, and exercised such 
other acts of authority as even those who have yet 
some little time unexpired in their ministry do not 
usually choose to discharge. Their insinuations, 
nevertheless, are far from making any impression 
upon me. On the contrary, I rather consider you 
as having kindly eased me of part of my approach- 
ing trouble ; and I rejoice that you have thus 
abridged me of one fatiguing month out of the 
twelve I must pass through in my government. 
To speak freely, however, there is a circumstance 
that gives me concern ; and I cannot but regret to 
find, that out of the small number of forces in the 
province, there are no less than three complete 
cohorts wanting, and I know not in what part they 
are dispersed. But my principal uneasiness is, 
that I cannot learn where I shall see you ; and I 
should have sooner told you so if I had not con- 
cluded, from your total silence, both as to what 
you were doing and where you proposed to give 
me an interview, that I might daily expect your 
arrival. I have, therefore, despatched my brave and 
worthy friend Antonius, praefect of the Evocati a , 
with this letter ; and, if you think proper, you may 
deliver up to him the command of the troops, that 
I may be able to enter upon some action ere the 
season is too far advanced. I had reason to hope, 
both from our friendship and your letters, to have 
had the benefit of your advice upon this occasion ; 
and indeed I will not even yet despair of enjoying 
that advantage. However, unless you give me 
notice, it is impossible I should discover either 
when or where I am to have that satisfaction. In 
the mean while, I shall endeavour to convince even 
the most uncandid, as well as the equitable part 
of the world, that I am sincerely your friend. I 
cannot forbear saying, nevertheless, that those who 
are not .disposed to judge in the most favourable 
manner, have some little cause to imagine that you 
do not bear the same amicable disposition towards 
me, and I shall be much obliged to you for endea- 
vouring to remove their suspicions. 

That you may not be at a loss what measures to 
take in order to our meeting consistently b with 

z The capital city of Cilicia. It is celebrated by Strabo, 
for having once vied with Athens and Alexandria in polite 
and philosophical literature ; but it is far more worthy of 
notice as being the birth-place of that great apostle of the 
Gentiles, St. Paul. 

a These were troops composed of experienced soldiers, 
who had served out their legal time, or had received their 
dismission as a reward of their valour. They usually guard- 
ed the chief standard, and were excused from the more 
servile employments of the military functions. 

b It appears by what follows, that this time was already 
elapsed. Mr. Ross was aware of this difficulty, and has 
solved it by supposing that Cicero "must mean some place 
without the limits of the province." For otherwise Cicero's 
request cannot be reconciled, that commentator observes, 
to the terms of the Cornelian law. 



u. 702. 



the terms of the Cornelian law, I think it necessary 
to inform you, that I arrived in the province on 
the last day of July ; that I marched from Iconium 
on the 3 1 st of August, and am now advancing to 
Cilicia by the way of Cappadocia. After having 
thus traced out my route, you will let me know, in 
case you should think proper to meet me, what 
time and place will be most convenient to you for 
that purpose. Farewell. 



LETTER IV. 

To Marcus Cato c . 
I thought it agreeable to our friendship to 
communicate to you the intelligence I have lately 
received. I am to inform you, then, that 
envoys from Antiochus, king of Comma- 
gene d , arrived in my camp at Iconium, on the 30th 
of August. They brought me advice that the king 
of Parthia's son, who is married, it seems, to a 
sister of the king of Armenia, was advanced to the 
banks of the Euphrates ; that he was at the head 
of a very considerable army, composed of his own 
nation, together with a large body of foreign auxi- 
liaries ; that he had actually begun to transport his 
troops over the river ; and that it was reported the 
king of Armenia had a design to invade Cappa- 
docia. I have forborne to acquaint the senate with 
this news for two reasons. The first is, because the 
Commagenian envoys assured me that Antiochus 
had immediately despatched an express to Rome 
with this account ; and, in the next place, knowing 
that the proconsul Marcus Bibulus e had sailed 
from Ephesus with a favourable wind about the 
13th of August, I imagined he had by this time 
reached his province, and would be able to give 
the senate a more certain and particular intelli- 
gence. 

As to my own situation with respect to this im- 
portant war, it is my utmost endeavour to find that 
security from the clemency of my administration, 
and the fidelity of our allies, which I can scarce 
expect from the strength and number of my troops. 
I have only to add my entreaties that you would 
continue, as usual, to favour me with your friendly 
offices in my absence. Farewell. 



LETTER V. 

To Thermits, Propraetor. 
Cluvius Puteolanus distinguishes me, upon 
all occasions, with the highest marks of esteem ; 
a u 702 indeed, we are united in the strictest 
bands of amity. He has some affairs in 
your province, and, unless he should be able by my i 
means to settle them during your administration, 
he looks upon them as utterly desperate. This 
task, my very obliging friend having assigned 
to my care, I take the liberty (in confidence of that 
most amicable disposition you have ever discovered 
towards me) of transferring it to yours ; with this 
restriction, nevertheless, that it do not engage you 

c Some account will be given of this great and celebra- 
ted patriot, in the notes on the first letter of the following 
book. 

d Commagene was a part of Syria not subjected to the 
Roman dominion. 

e Proconsul of Syria. 

D D 2 



■104 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



in too much trouble. I am to inform you, then, 
that the corporations of Mylata and Alabanda f are 
respectively indebted to Cluvius ; and that Euthy- 
demus assured me, when I saw him at Ephesus, 
he would take care that syndics s should be sent to 
Rome from the former, in order to adjust the 
matters in controversy between them. This, 
however, has not been performed : on the con- 
trary, I hear they have commissioned deputies to 
negotiate this affair in their stead.* But syndics 
are the proper persons, and therefore I entreat 
you to command these cities to despatch those 
officers to Rome, that this question may be soon 
and finally determined. I am farther to acquaint 
you, that Philotes, of Alabanda, has assigned cer- 
tain effects to Cluvius by a bill of sale. But the 
time for payment of the money, for which they are 
a security, being elapsed, I beg you would compel 
him either to discharge the debt, or to deliver the 
goods to the agents of Cluvius. My friend has 
likewise some demands of the same kind upon the 
cities of Heraclea and Bargylos h . I beseech you, 
therefore, either to procure him satisfaction by an 
immediate payment, or to oblige them to put him 
in possession of a proportionable part of their 
demesnes. The corporation of Caunus' is also 
indebted to Cluvius : but they insist that, as the 
money has been ready for him, and actually lodged 
in the temple for that purpose, he is not entitled 
to any interest beyond the time the principal was 
so deposited K I entreat the favour of you to 

f Two cities of Caria, in Asia Minor. 

S These officers were a kind of solicitors to the treasury 
of their respective corporations. 

h In Caria. 

1 This city was likewise in Caria. 

J This passage is rendered in a sense very different from 
that in which all the commentators have understood it. 
They take the expression, aiunt se pecuniam depositam 
habuisse, to mean, that the Caunians pretended the money 
in dispute was a deposite ; and, therefore, that they were 
not liable to pay interest. But if we suppose the question 
between the Caunians and Cluvius to have been, whether 
the sum he demanded was or was not a deposite, the 
request which Cicero afterwards makes must be highly 
unjust:— "si intellexeris eos neque ex edicto neque ex 
decreto depositam habuisse, des operam ut usurse Cluvio 
conserventur." For if they were merely trustees, it could 
make no equitable difference whether the money came to 
them by a judicial decree, or from a private hand ; and in 
either case it must have been equally oppressive to oblige 
them to pay interest. Now this difficulty will be entirely 
removed by supposing that the expression depositam 
habuisse, is periphrastical, and to be resolved into deposu- 
isse. And this is agreeable to the idiom of the Latin 
language, as well as to the manner in which Cicero 
expresses himself upon other occasions. Thus in his trea- 
tise " De Clar. Orat." (147,) habere cognitum Sccevolam, 
is equivalent to cognoscere : as in Plautus vobis hanc habeo 
edictionem, is the same as edico.— [Pseud, i. ii. 39.] But if 
pecuniam depositam habuisse, is a circumlocution for 
deposuisse, some substantive must be understood to com- 
plete the sense ; and accordingly a passage in the letters to 
Atticus will not only point out the word required, but 
prove likewise th-dtdeponois used in this elliptical manner. 
—Cicero, giving an account to Atticus of a transaction 
relating to the claim of a debt clue from the city of Salamis, 
in Cyprus, tells him that deponere valebant— {Ad. Att. vi. 
1.] which, in another letter where he is speaking of the 
very same affair, he expresses at full length : " ut infano 
deponerentpostulantibus, (sayshe,)nonconcessi." [Ad Att. 
v. 21.] And the last-cited passages will not only justify, 
but explain, the sense contended for ; as they prove that it 
was usual where any controversy arose concerning the 



enquire into the truth of the fact ; and if it shall 
appear that the sum in question was not paid into 
the sacred treasury either in conformity to the 
general edict k , or special decree, of the praetor, 
to direct that Cluvius may have such a rate of in- 
terest allowed him, as is agreeable to the laws you 
have established in these cases. 

I enter with so much the more warmth into 
these affairs, as my friend Pompey likewise makes 
them his own, and, indeed, seems more solicitous 
for their success than even Cluvius himself. As I 
am extremely desirous that the latter should have 
reason to be satisfied with my good offices, I most 
earnestly request yours upon this occasion. Fare- 
well. 



LETTER VI. 

To the Consuls, the Prcetors, the Tribunes of the 
People, and the Senate. 

The first intelligence I received that the Par- 
thians had passed the greatest part of their army 
a u 70? over ^ e Euphrates was extremely posi- 
tive. However, as I imagined the pro- 
consul, Marcus Bibulus, could give you a more 
certain account of this event, I did not think it 
necessary to charge myself with the relation of what 
more immediately concerned the province of an- 
other. But, since my last despatch, I have been 
farther and more satisfactorily assured of this fact, 
by several expresses and deputations that have 
been sent to me for that purpose. When I con- 
sider, therefore, the great importance of this news 
to the republic ; that it is uncertain, likewise, 
whether Bibulus is yet arrived in Syria ; and that 
I am almost equally concerned with him in the 
conduct of this war ; I deem myself obliged to 
communicate to you the purport of my several 
informations. 

The first advice I received was from the ambas- 
sadors of Antiochus, king of Commagene, who 
acquainted me that theParthians had actually begun 
to transport a very considerable body of forces over 
the Euphrates. But, as it was the opinion of some 
of my council that no great credit was to be given 
to any intelligence that came from this quarter, I 
thought proper to wait for better information. Ac- 
cordingly, on the 19th of September, whilst I was 
on my march towards Cilicia, I was met by a 
courier on the frontiers of Lycaonia and Cappado- 
cia, with an express from 1 Tarcondimotus; a prince 
esteemed the most faithful of our allies on that side 

quantum of a debt, for the defendant to apply for leave 
to pay the money into some temple ; from which time it 
no longer carried interest. Thus Cicero tells Atticus that 
the interest upon the debt due from the city of Salamis 
ought to have ceased, consistere usura debuit: and assigns 
this reason for it — deponere volebant: theywere ready and 
desirous to have lodged it in the sacred treasury. But in 
the case of Cluvius, if the Caunians had paid in the money 
without giving him notice, (which might very possibly 
have been the fact if they had not acted under a judicial 
order,) it was no unreasonable request to desire they might 
be compelled to pay the whole interest up to the time 
when Cluvius should receive the principal. 

k By the term edict is meant, in this place, that formu- 
lary of provincial laws explained in rem. x , p. 402. 

1 His dominions lay on the southern side of Mount Tau- 
rus, in a part of Cilicia which the Romans had not thought 
proper to annex to their province. A coin of this prince 
is still extant. — See Biblioth. Raisonnee, torn. xii. 



» | II Milt 

p. 329. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



405 



the Taurus, and extremely in the interest of the 
Romans. The purport of his despatches was to 
inform me that a powerful body of horse, com- 
manded by Pacorus, the son of Orodes, king of 
Parthia, had passed the Euphrates, and were en- 
camped at Tyba, and that the province of Syria was 
in great commotion. The same day I received an 
express likewise to this purpose from Jamblichus, 
an Arabian phylarch m , and one who has the gene- 
ral reputation of being a friend to the republic. 
Upon the whole, therefore, I came to a resolution 
of leading my army to Tarsus", I was sensible that 
our allies in general were far from being warm in 
our interest, and were only waiting the opportunity 
of some favourable revolution to desert us. I flat- 
tered myself, however, that the lenity and modera- 
tion of my conduct towards such of them through 
whose territories I had already passed, would 
render them better inclined to the Romans, as I 
hoped to strengthen Cilicia in its allegiance, by 
giving that part of my province an opportunity of 
experiencing also the same equitable administra- 
tion. But I had still a farther inducement : I 
determined upon this march, not only in order to 
chastise those who had taken up arms in Cilicia, 
but also to convince our enemies in Syria that the 
army of the Romans, far from being disposed to 
retreat upon the news of their invasion, were so 
much the more eager to advance. 

If my advice, then, has any weight, let me ear- 
nestly exhort and admonish you to take proper 
measures for the preservation of these provinces ; 
measures, indeed, which ought to have been con- 
certed long before, as you were well apprised of 
those dangers which are now almost within my 
view. I need not inform you in what manner you 
thought proper to equip me when I was sent into 
this part of the world, under a full expectation of 
being engaged in so important a war. If I did not, 
however, refuse this commission, it was not because 
I was so weak as to be insensible how ill provided 
I was to execute it in a proper manner, but merely 
in submissive deference to your commands. The 
truth is, I have at all times willingly exposed my- 
self to the utmost hazards, rather than not testify 
my implicit obedience to your authority. But the 
plain fact is, that if you do not speedily send a very 
powerful reinforcement into these provinces, the 
republic will be in the greatest danger of losing 
the whole of her revenues in this part of the world. 
If your reliance is upon the provincial militia, be 
assured you will be extremely disappointed; as they 
are very inconsiderable in point of numbers, and 
such miserable dastards as to run away upon the 
first alarm. The brave Marcus Bibulus is so sen- 
sible of the nature of these Asiatic troops, that he 
has not thought proper to raise any of them, though 
he had your express permission for that purpose. 
As to the assistance that may be expected from our 
allies, the severity and injustice of our government 
has either so greatly weakened them as to put it 
out of their power to be of much service to us, or 
so entirely alienated their affections as to render 
it unsafe to trust them. The inclinations, however, 
and the forces too (whatever they be ) of king 

m The lord or chief of a clan. 

n In the original it is ad Taurum ; hut Mr. Ross with 
good reason supposes there is an error in the text, and that 
it should be read ad Tars it m. 

o It is probable that Cicero did not at this time know 



Deiotarus, I reckon as entirely ours. Cappadocia 
is wholly unfurnished with any place of strength : 
and as to those other neighbouring princes, our 
allies, they are neither willing nor able to afford us 
any considerable succours. Ill provided, however, 
as I am with troops, my courage, you may be 
assured, shall not be wanting ; nor, I trust, my 
prudence. What the event may prove is altogether 
uncertain : I can only wish that I may be in a con- 
dition to defend myself with as much success as I 
certainly shall with honour. 



a. u. 702. 



LETTER VII. 

Marcus Coelius to Cicero. 

Though I have some political news to commu- 
nicate to you, yet I can acquaint you with nothing, 
I believe, that will give you more pleasure 
than what I am going previously to 
mention. You are to know then that Rufus p, your 
favourite Sempronius Rufus, has been lately con- 
victed of false accusation -, to the singular joy of 
the whole city. This prosecution was occasioned 
by the following circumstance. Rufus, soon after 
the exhibition of the Roman games 1 ", was impeached 
by Marcus Tuccius ; and being sensible that the 
charge would be proved against him, and that his 
trial must unavoidably come on this year, unless 
some other of a higher nature s intervened, he de- 
termined upon an expedient for that purpose. 
Accordingly, as no one, he thought, had so good a 
title to the honour of this precedence as his prose- 
cutor, he preferred an accusation upon the Plotian 
law 1 against Tuccius, for a violation of the public 
their number ; but they were by no means inconsiderable. 
For it appears by a letter to Atticus, that they amounted 
to 12,000 foot, armed in the Roman manner, and 2,000 
horse.— Ad Att. vi. 1 . 

P Cicero mentions this person in a letter to Atticus, as a 
man who had failed in the civilities he owed him, by not 
waiting upon him before he set out for Cilicia ; but at the 
sametimeexpresses a satisfaction in having, by that means, 
been spared the trouble of a very disagreeable visitor. The 
epithet, therefore, which Coelius here gives to Rufus must 
be understood ironically. — Ad Att. v. 2. 

q " The Roman laws were particularly severe against 
those who were discovered to have offended in this point. 
In criminal causes they inflicted banishment, and ordinis 
a?nissio (the loss of rank). In civil causes the plaintiff 
generally deposited a sum of money, which he forfeited if 
he was found guilty of bringing a vexatious suit. Cicero 
alludes to another punishment of marking a letter upon 
the forehead of the false informer, ' Pro Rose. Am. 20.' It 
was the letter K which was impressed upon them, that 
being the first letter, according to the old orthography, in 
the word Kalumnia." — Ross. 

r These games were instituted by Tarquinius Priscus, 
A.U. 138, in honour of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Their 
annual celebration commenced on the 9th of September, 
and continued nine days. 

s It is probable, as Manutius observes, that the judges 
of the present year were in general no friends to Rufus, 
which made him endeavour to postpone his trial. The 
same learned commentator remarks, that all trials were 
brought on in a regular rotation, unless in accusations that 
were connected with some other cause that had been imme- 
diately before adjudged, or in the case of impeachments 
for the violation of the public peace. These he proves, by 
several instances, were always determined preferably to 
all other causes whatsoever. 

1 The author of this law was P. Platius, or Plautins, 
tribime of the people, A. U. 675 ; and the penalty inrlieted 
by it was banishment. 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



peace; a charge, however, which he could not prevail 
with a single person to subscribe 11 . As soon as I 
was apprised of this affair, I flew to the assistance 
of Tuccius without waiting his request. But when 
I rose up to speak, I forbore entering into a parti- 
cular defence of my friend, contenting myself with 
displaying the character of his adversary in all its 
true and odious colours, in which you may be sure 
I did not forget the story concerning Vestorius, 
and his unworthy conduct towards you. 

I must inform you, likewise, of another trial which 
at present greatly engages the forum. Marcus 
Servilius had been convicted of extortion in his 
office v , and I ventured to be his advocate, notwith- 
standing the popular clamour was strongly against 
him. Servilius, however, having dissipated his 
whole estate, and being utterly insolvent, Pausa- 
nius w petitioned the praetor Laterensis (and I 
spoke likewise in support of this petition) that he 
might be empowered to pursue the sum in question 
into whose hands soever it should appear to have 
been paid x . But this petition was dismissed ; the 
praetor alleging that Pilius, a relation of our friend 
Atticus, had also exhibited articles of impeachment 
against my client for a crime of the same kind. 
This news immediately spread throughout Rome ; 
and it was generally said in all conversations, 
that Pilius would certainly make good his charge. 
Appius, the younger, was much disturbed at this 
report, as having a claim upon Servilius of eighty- 
one hundred thousand sesterces?, a sum which he 
scrupled not to avow had been deposited in the 
hands of Servilius, in order to be paid over to the 
prosecutor in an information against his father, 
provided the informer would suffer himself to be 
nonsuited. If you are surprised at the weakness 
of Appius in thus acknowledging so shameful a 
bargain, how much higher would your astonishment 
have risen, if you had heard his evidence upon the 
trial of that very ill-judged action which he brought 
against Servilius for this money ? He most clearly 

u It seems to have been customary for the prosecutor in 
capital causes to procure some of his friends to join with 
him in signing the articles of his impeachment. These 
were styled subscriptores, and acted as a sort of seconds to 
him in this judicial combat. They could not, however, be 
admitted into this association without a special licence 
from the judges for that purpose. — Hottom. in Q,. Caecil. 
Divin. 15. 

v The whole account of the following transactions con- 
cerning Servilius is extremely (perhaps impenetrably) 
obscure in the original, and has exercised the ingenuity of 
all the commentators to enlighten. The translator, how- 
ever, has ventured in some instances to depart from them, 
though he acknowledges, at the same time, that he is scarce 
more satisfied with his own interpretation than with 
theirs. 

w "Who this person was, or in what manner concerned 
in the present cause, is altogether undiscoverable. Perhaps, 
as Mr. Ross conjectures, he might have been the prosecu- 
tor. 

x It appears by a passage which Manutius produces from 
the oration in defence of Rabirius, that in convictions of 
this kind the money was recoverable by the Julian law 
from any hand into which it could be proved to have 
been paid.— Pro'Rabir. Post. 4. ; 

y About 65,3671. of our money. This sum must appear 
excessive if considered only with respect to the wealth of 
the present times. But Appius might well be enabled to 
give it, and it might have been extremely prudent in him, 
likewise, to have done so, if this prosecution was (what 
seems highly probable) on account of his father's having 
plundered some province committed to his administration. 



indeed made appear, to the full satisfaction of the 
whole court, both his own folly and his father's 
guilt. To complete the absurdity of his conduct 
upon this occasion, he was so imprudent as to 
summon the very same judges upon this cause, who 
tried the information I just now mentioned to have 
been brought against his father. It happened, how- 
ever that their voices were equally divided 2 . But 
the praetor, not knowing how the law stood in this 
case, declared that Servilius had a majority of the 
three classes of judges in his favour, and accord- 
ingly acquitted him in the usual form. At the 
rising of the court, therefore, it was generally 
imagined that the acquittal of Servilius would be 
enrolled. But the praetor thinking it advisable to 
look into the laws upon this point before he made 
up the record, found it expressly enacted, that " in 
all causes sentence shall be pronounced according 
to the majority of the votes in the whole collective 
number* of judges a ." Instead, therefore, of regis- 
tering the acquital of Servilius, he only inserted in 
the roll the number of voices as they stood in each 
respective class. Appius, in consequence of this 
mistake, re-commenced his suit ; while the praetor, 
by the intervention of Lollius, promised to amend 
the record, and enter a proper judgment. But the 
hapless Servilius, neither entirely acquitted nor 
absolutely condemned, is at length to be delivered 
over, with this his blasted character, to the hands 
of Pilius. For Appius not venturing to contend 
with the latter, which of their actions should have 
the priority, has thought proper to waive his prose- 
cution. He himself is likewise impeached by the 
relations of Servilius for bribery : as he has also 
another accusation laid against him by one Titius, 
a creature of his own, who has charged him with a 
breach of the peace. And thus are these two 
worthy combatants most equally matched. 

As to public affairs : we had waited several days 
in expectation that something would be determined 
concerning Gaul, frequent motions having been 
made in the senate for this purpose, which were 
followed by very warm debates. At length, how- 
ever, it plainly appearing, agreeable to Pompey's 
sentiments, that Caesar's command in Gaul should 
not be continued longer than the first of March, 
the senate passed the following orders and decrees b . 

" By authority of the senate, held in the temple 
of Apollo, on the 30th day of September. Signed c : 
L. Domitius Ahenobarbus ; Q. Caecilius ; Metullus 
Pius Scipio ; L. Villius Annalis ; C. Septimius ; 
Caius Lucceius Hirrus ; C. Scribonius Curio ; L. 

z In this case the Roman law determined by the most 
favourable presumption, and absolved the defendant. 

a It has already been observed in the foregoing remarks 
that the judges were divided into three classes. [See rem. s , 
p. 393.] It is obvious, therefore, that there might have 
been a majority in two of the classes out of the three, in 
favour of Servilius, and yet that the voices considered with 
respect to the whole number of judges might have been 
equal. But it is inconceivable that a magistrate of praeto- 
rian rank could possibly be ignorant of a practice which 
one can scarce suppose the most common citizen of Rome 
to have been unacquainted with. Notwithstanding, there- 
fore, Coelius ascribes the praetor's conduct to ignorance, it 
seems much more probable to have arisen from design. 

l> With regard to the difference between an order and a 
decree of the senate, see rem. r , p. 346. 

<-• The decrees of the senate were usually signed in this 
manner by those who were the principal promoters of the 
question. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



407 



Atteius Capito ; M. Oppius. Whereas a motion 
was made by Marcus Marcellus, the consul, con- 
cerning the consular provinces, it is ordered, that 
Lucius Paulus and Caius Marcellus, consuls elect, 
shall, on the first of March next, following their 
entering upon their office, move the senate con- 
cerning the consular provinces, at which time no 
other business shall be proceeded upon, nor any- 
other motion made in conjunction therewith. And 
for this purpose the senate shall continue to 
assemble, notwithstanding the comitial days d , and 
until a decree shall be passed." 

11 Ordered, that when the consuls shall move the 
senate upon the question aforesaid, they shall be 
empowered to summon such of the three hundred 
judges who are members of the senate to attend e ." 

" Resolved, that if any matters shall arise upon 
the question aforesaid, which shall be necessary to 
be laid before the people, that Servius Sulpicius 
and Marcus Marcellus, the present consuls, together 
with the praetors and tribunes of the people, or 
such of them as shall be agreed upon, shall call an 
assembly of the people for this purpose : and if the 
magistrates aforesaid shall fail herein, the same 
shall be proposed to the people by their successors." 

" The thirtieth day of September, in the temple 
of Apollo. Signed : L. Domitius Ahenobarbus ; 
Q. Csecilius ; Metullus Pius Scipio ; L. Villius 
Annalis ; C. Septimius ; C. Scribonius Curio ; M. 
Oppius. 

" The consul, Marcus Marcellus, having moved 
the senate concerning the provinces, 

" Resolved, that it is the opinion of the senate, 
that it will be highly unbecoming any magistrate 
who has a power of controlling their proceedings, 
to occasion any hindrance whereby the senate may 
be prevented from taking the aforesaid motion into 
consideration as soon as possible : and that whoso- 
ever shall obstruct or oppose the same shall be 
deemed an enemy to the republic. 

" Ordered, that if any magistrate shall put a 
negative upon the foregoing resolution, the same 
shall be entered as an order of the senate, and again 
referred to the consideration of this house." 

This resolution was protested against by Caius 
Ccelius, Lucius Vinicius, P. Publius Cornelius, and 
Caius Vibius Pansa. 

" Resolved, that the senate will take into consi- 
deration the case of such of the soldiers under 
Caesar's command who have served out their legal 
time, or who, for other reasons, are entitled to a 
discharge, and make such order thereupon as shall 
be agreeable to equity f ." 

d The comitial days were those on which the comitia, or 
assemblies of the people, were held ; and on these the law 
prohibited the senate to be convened. The senate, how- 
ever, in the present instance, and agreeably to a preroga- 
tive which they claimed and exercised upon many other 
occasions, took upon themselves to act with a dispensing 
power. — Mid. on the Rom. Sen. p. 121. 

e This clause was inserted in order to secure a full house, 
a certain number of senators being necessary to be present 
for making a decree valid. [See rem. f , p. 3G7.] The cor- 
rection of Manutius has been adopted in the translation, 
who, instead of sex abducere liceret, reads eos abducere, 
&c. 

f A Roman soldier could not be compelled to bear arms 
after having been in the service ten years. As the strength 
of Caesar's army in Gaul consisted principally in his vete- 
rans, this clause was added, as Gronovius observes, with a 
view of drawing off those soldiers from his troops. 



" Resolved, that if any magistrate shall put his 
negative upon the foregoing decree, the same shall 
stand as an order of senate, and be again referred 
to the consideration of this house." 

This resolution was protested against by Caius 
Ccelius and Caius Pansa, tribunes of the people. 

" Ordered, that such of the present praetors who 
have never held any provincial command, shall draw 
lots to succeed respectively to the government of 
Cilicia and the eight remaining Praetorian s pro- 
vinces. But if there shall not be a sufficient 
number' 1 of these to fill up the aforesaid govern- 
ments ; then, and in this case, the deficiency shall 
be supplied by lot out of the first college' of praetors, 
among those who have never held a foreign govern- 
ment. And if there shall not be found a sufficient 
number among these last, so qualified as aforesaid, 
the same shall be supplied from the members of 
each preceding college, till the whole number 
required be completed. 

" Resolved, that if any magistrate shall put his 
negative upon the foregoing decree, the same shall 
stand as an order of the senate." 

This decree was protested against by Caius 
Ccelius and Caius Pansa, tribunes of the people. 

In the debates which preceded these decrees, 
Pompey let fall an expression that was much ob- 
served, and gave us very confident hopes of his 
good intentions. " He could not, without great 
injustice, he said, determine anything in relation 
to the provinces under Caesar's command, before 
the first of March : but after that time, he assured 
the senate he should have no sort of scruple." 
Being asked, " what if a negative should then be put 
upon a decree of the senate for recalling Caesar ?" 
he declared that he should look upon it as just the 
same thing, whether Caesar openly refused to obey 
the authority of the senate, or secretly procured 
some magistrate to obstruct their decrees. "But 
suppose," said another member, " Caesar should 
pursue his pretensions to the consulate, and retain his 
command abroad at the same time." — " Suppose," 
replied Pompey, with great temper, " my own son 
should lay violent hands upon me ?" From expres- 
sions of this kind the world has conceived a notion 
that a rupture will undoubtedly ensue between 
Pompey and Caesar. I am of opinion, however, 
that the latter will submit to one of these two con- 
ditions : either to give up his present pretensions 
to the consulate, and continue in Gaul, or to quit 
the province, provided he can be assured of his 
election. — Curio is preparing most strongly to 
oppose his demands. What he may be able to 
effect, I know not ; but sure I am, that a man who 
acts upon such patriot principles, must gain honour 
at least, if he gain nothing else. He treats me 
upon all occasions with great generosity ; and 
indeed, in a late instance, has been more liberal 
than I could have wished ; as his civility has drawn 
upon me a trouble, which perhaps I might otherwise 

S The provinces of lesser note were usually assigned to 
the praetors, and from thence they were distinguished by 
the name of the praetorian provinces. 

h The number of praetors varied in different periods of 
the republic. In the times of Cicero this magistracy was 
composed of eight persons, as Cellarius remarks in his note 
upon this passage. 

' Every annual set of praetors were distinguished by col- 
leges, styled the 1st, 2d, 3d, &c. according to their several 
removes from the current year. 



408 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



have escaped. He has presented me with some 
African panthers, which he had procured for his 
own games, and by that means laid me under a 
necessity of makinguse of tbemJ. I must, therefore, 
remind you of what I have often mentioned already, 
and entreat you to send me some of these animals 
from your part of the world ; and I again likewise 
recommend to your care the bond of Sitius. 

I have had occasion to despatch my freedman, 
Philo, together with Diogenes, a Greek, into your 
province. I hope you will afford your patronage 
both to them and their commission ; as you will 
find, by the letter they are to deliver to you on my 
part, that it is an affair k in which I am deeply 
interested. Farewell. 



A. u. 702. 



LETTER VIII. 

To Publius Silius 1 , Proprcetor. 
You are apprised, I imagine, of the friendship 
that subsisted between Titus Pinnius and myself. 
He has sufficiently declared it indeed 
by his will, wherein he not only ap- 
pointed me one of the guardians to his son, but 
left me the contingent reversion also of his estate. 
My ward (who is a youth of uncommon modesty, 
as well as great application to his studies) has a 
very considerable demand upon the city of Nicsea, 
amounting to eight millions of sesterces m : and the 
corporation, I am told, are inclined to pay off part 
of this sum the first debt they shall discharge. 
Now, as not only the rest of the trustees who know 
the regard you bear me, but the young man him- 
self, is persuaded that you will not refuse anything 
to my request, I shall be exceedingly obliged to you 
for employing your good offices, (as far, I mean, as 
maybe consistent with your dignity and character,) 
that they pay off as large a proportion of this 
demand as possible. Farewell. 



LETTER IX. 

To Marcus Coelius, Curule-JEdile elect. 
I congratulate you on the honourable post 
you have lately obtained 11 , and on the prospect 
a. u. 702. wn i ca > by this mean, is open to you, of 
advancing still higher in the dignities of 
the republic. I am somewhat late, I confess, in 
my compliments : however, you must not impute 
it to any intentional neglect, but merely to my 

J In the games he was preparing to exhibit as aedile. 

k This affair seems to be explained by an epistle to Atti- 
cus, wherein Cicero mentions the receipt of a very pressing 
letter from Coelius, by the hands of his freedman. The 
purport of it appears to have been to solicit Cicero to levy 
a contribution upon his province, towards the expense of 
those public games, which Coelius as aedile was obliged to 
exhibit. This oppressive tax had been frequently raised 
by the governors of provinces in favour of their friends at 
Rome, and was, indeed, almost established into a custom. 
—Hut Cicero, notwithstanding he seems to have had a sin- 
cere affection for Coelius, would by no means be prevailed 
upon to break through the equitable maxims of his admi- 
nistration, and with great integrity refused his request. — 
Ad Att. vi. 1. ; Ad Quint. Frat. i. f). 

1 lie was at this time propra?tor, or governor, of Bithynia 
and Bontus in Asia, where ho discharged the provincial 
functions with great applause. — Ad Att. vi. 8. 

m About 70,0(K>/. sterling. " The a?dileship. 



ignorance of what passes at Rome. For, partly 
from the great distance of my situation, and partly 
from those banditti which infest the roads, it is a 
considerable time before I can receive any intelli- 
gence from Italy. And now I know not where to 
find words sufficiently strong to give you joy upon 
this occasion, or to express my thanks for your 
having thus "furnished me (as you termed it in 
one of your former letters) with a subject of per- 
petual ridicule." When I first received the news 
of your victory, I could not forbear mimicking a 
certain worthy friend of ours, and imitating the 
droll figures those gallant youths exhibited, of 
whose interest he had so confidently boasted". 
But it is not easy to give you in description a 
complete idea of this my humorous sally. I must 
tell you, however, that I next figured you to myself, 
and accosted you, as if present, in the words of the 
comic poet : 

Far less, my good friend, I rejoice at your deed, 

As exceeding whatever before did exceed, 

Than as mounting aloft o'er my hopes the most high ; 

And for this, " By my troth 'tis amazing," I cry. 

Upon which I broke out into a most immoderate 
fit of laughter ; and, when some of my friends 
reproved my mirth, as deviating almost into down- 
right folly, I excused myself by the old verse, 

Excessive joy is not exceeding wise. 
In short, whilst I ridiculed this noble friend of 
ours, I became almost as ridiculous as himself. 
But you shall hear farther upon this subject 
another opportunity: for, in truth, I have many 
things to say both of you and to you, whenever I 
shall find more leisure for that purpose. In the 
mean time be assured, my dear Coelius, that I sin- 
cerely love you. I consider you, indeed, as one 
whom fortune has raised up to advance my glory, 
and avenge my wrongs : and, I doubt not, you will 
give both those who hate and those who envy me 
sufficient reason to repent of their folly and their 
injustice. Farewell. 



LETTER X. 

To Publius Silius, Proprcetor. 
Your good offices in the affair of Atilius afford 
me an additional motive for giving you my affection. 
A u „ 09 Late, indeed, as I applied to you in his 
behalf, I have, however, by your generous 
intervention, preserved a most worthy Roman 
knight from ruin. The truth is, I always looked 
upon my friendship with Lamia as giving me a 
claim to yours. In the first place, then, I return 
you thanks for easing my mind of all its disqui- 
etude with respect to Atilius ; and, in the next, 
after thus acknowledging your last favour, I have 
the assurance to request another : and it is a favour 

11 A mere modern reader, who judges of past ages by the 
modes that prevail in his own, must undoubtedly conceive 
a very low opinion of Cicero from the account which he 
here gives of his behaviour. But mimicry was not esteemed 
by the Romans, as it is with us, a talent becoming only a 
comedian or a buffoon. On the contrary, this species of 
humour was thought worthy of the gravest characters even 
upon the gravest occasions : and it was practised by their 
orators, as well as recommended by their rhetoricians, as a 
quality, under certain restrictions, of singular grace and 
efficacy in the whole business of public eloquence. — Cic. de 
Orat. ii. 59, 60. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



409 



which I shall repay with the utmost returns of my 
esteem and gratitude. Let me entreat you, then, 
if I have any share in your heart, to allow my 
brother an equal enjoyment of the same privilege ; 
which will be adding a very considerable obligation 
to that important one I so lately received at your 
hands. Farewell. 



LETTER XL 

To Appius Pulcher. 

By all that I can collect from your last letter, 
this will find you in the suburbs of Rome. But, 
a u "02 though the impotent calumnies of these 
paltry provincials will probably be sub- 
sided ere this reaches your hands, yet, I think it 
necessary to return some answer to the long epistle 
I received from you upon that subject ; and I shall 
do so in as few words as possible. 

As to the accusation contained in the two first 
paragraphs of your letter, it is conceived in such 
vague and general terms, that it is impossible to 
give it a direct reply. The whole that I can gather 
from it is, that I am accused of having discovered, 
by my countenance and my silence, that I was by 
no means your friend ; a discovery which I made, 
it seems, upon some occasion in the courts of judi- 
cature, and, likewise, at certain public entertain- 
ments. I am very sure there is not the least 
ground for this imputation ; but as you do not 
point out the particular instances, I know not in 
what manner to vindicate myself from the charge. 
This, however, I most undoubtedly know, that I 
have mentioned you upon all occasions, both public 
and private, with the highest applause, and with 
the warmest professions of friendship. As to the 
affair of the deputies p, I will appeal to your own 
breast, whether I could possibly have acted with 
more probity and discretion than to lessen the 
expenses of these impoverished cities, without any 
diminution, at the same time, of those honours 
which they proposed to pay you ; especially as it 
was in compliance with their own immediate 
request ? And, indeed, I was wholly unapprised 
of the particular purposes of that deputation, which 
was going to Rome with the customary compli- 
mental address to the senate upon your account. 

Appius at his return from Cilicia demanded a triumph 
as the reward of his military exploits in that province, 
and accordingly took up his residence without the city. 
For those who claimed this honour were not admitted 
within the walls of Rome till their petition was either 
granted or rejected, or they chose to drop it themselves. 
The latter was the case with respect to Appius, as will 
hereafter appear. 

P " It was a custom for the governors of provinces, upon 
their retirement from their government, to procure ambas- 
sadors to be sent to Rome from the several cities under 
their jurisdiction to praise the integrity and equity of their 
administration. The origin of this custom was undoubt- 
edly good, and in some few instances we find that it was 
undertaken voluntarily ; but it was generally extorted by 
force, and a great burden to the miserable inhabitants, 
who perhaps had been already fleeced by the rapine and 
plunder of that very person whose lenity and moderation 
they Avere compelled to extol. Appius had taken care, 
before he left Cilicia, to secure this compliment to be paid 
to himself, though as undeserving of it as any of his pre- 
decessors. But Cicero, who set out upon a more frugal 
plan than other governors, prevented it, out of compas- 
sion to the poverty and indigence of the province." — Ross. 



When I was at Apameai, some of the principal 
inhabitants of several different cities complained 
to me of the excessive appointments that were 
decreed to their deputies; assuring me, that their 
respective communities were by no means in a 
condition to support the assessments levied upon 
them for that purpose. This suggested to my 
thoughts various reflections : and I imagined, that 
a man of your refined sentiments could not be 
extremely fond of honours of this unsubstantial 
nature. Accordingly, it was at Synnada, I think, 
that I took occasion to say from the tribunal, (and 
I expatiated very largely upon the subject,) " that 
the approved merit of Appius was sufficient, with- 
out the testimony of the Midensians (for it was in 
their city r that the proposal first arose) to recom- 
mend him to the esteem of the senate and the 
Roman people ; that I had often, indeed, seen 
instances of this kind of deputations, but did not 
remember they were ever admitted to an audience ; 
that, however, I applauded the gratitude they had 
thus shown for your merit towards them, but 
thought the particular instance in question was 
wholly unnecessary ; that if any of them were 
willing to undertake this commission at their own 
expense, I should highly commend their zeal ; and 
I would even consent it should be performed at the 
public charge, provided they did not exceed a rea- 
sonable sum ; but, beyond that, I would in no sort 
give my permission." 

I am persuaded there is nothing in what I thus 
said, that can possibly give you offence : and, 
indeed, your principal complaint is levelled, I per- 
ceive, against my edict s . For there were some, it 
seems, who thought it manifestly drawn up with a 
view of preventing these legations. I cannot for- 
bear saying, that, to give attention to these ground- 
less insinuations, is no less injurious to me than 
to be the author of them. The truth of it is, I 
settled this edict before I left Rome ; and the 
single addition that I made to it afterwards, was 
at the instance of the farmers of the revenues, 
who, when they met me at Samos 1 , desired I would 
transcribe a paragraph out of your edict and insert 
it into mine. It was that article which restrains 
the public expenses, and contains several new and 
very salutary regulations, which I greatly approved. 
But as to that particular section which gave rise, I 
find, to the suspicion that I framed it with a design 
of striking at you, it is copied entirely from the old 
precedents. I was not, indeed, so absurd as to 
think (what I perceive you imagine) that some 
private affair was concerned in this deputation ; 
well knowing that it was sent from a public body 
in relation to your public character, and addressed 
to that great council of the whole world, the senate 
of Rome. Nor did I, (as you object,) when I pro- 
hibited any person from going out of the province 
without my permission, exclude all those from the 
possibility of obtaining that leave, who could not 

1 A city in that part of Phrygia which was annexed to 
Cicero's province : as was Synnada, likewise, mentioned a 
few lines below. 

r A town in the neighbourhood of Synnada. In the ori- 
ginal it is Myndensium .- but Quartier has given good 
reasons for the reading here followed. 

s The nature of these proconsular edicts has already been 
explained in rem. x , p. 402. 

1 An island near the coast of Ionia, lying opposite to the 
city of Ephesus. Cicero touched at this island in his voy- 
age to the province. 



410 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



follow me to the camp and beyond Mount Taurus ; 
an imputation, I must needs say, the most ridicu- 
lous of any in your whole letter. For where, let 
me ask, was the necessity that any person should 
follow me for this purpose to the camp, or beyond 
Mount Taurus, when I regulated my journey from 
Laodicea to Iconium in such a manner, that all the 
magistrates and deputies of the several cities in 
that district might have an opportunity of meeting 
me ? They could not, therefore, be under the diffi- 
culty you charge me with having thrown in their 
way, unless they had taken up the design of going 
to Rome after my having passed Mount Taurus ; 
which most undoubtedly was not the case. For, 
during my stay at Apamea, Synnada, Philomelum u , 
and Iconium, all affairs of that nature were entirely 
settled. 

I must farther assure you, that I decreed nothing 
concerning the abating or abolishing the appoint- 
ments of the deputies, but at the express request 
of the principal inhabitants of several cities ; and 
their -view was, to prevent any unnecessary exactions 
that were occasioned by the farming of the subsidies 
imposed for this purpose, and raising them in that 
cruel method of capitation with which you are so 
well acquainted. Compassion, indeed, as well as 
justice, inclined me to ease the. calamities of these 
unhappy cities, oppressed, as they chiefly were, by 
their own magistrates v : and when I was engaged 
in a design of that nature, I could not possibly 
overlook an expense which appeared so extremely 
superfluous as that of the appointments of these 
deputies. It was but a piece of justice therefore 
due to me, not to have listened to any idle tales 
that might be related to you upon this subject. 
But if it should prove, after all, that you attribute 
to the reports of others what, in truth, receive 
their rise merely from your own suspicions, you 
certainly make use of a sort of figure which the 
language of friendship will by no means authorise. 
Had it ever, indeed, been my design to derogate 
from your reputation in the province, I should 
scarcely have acted in the manner I did ; I should 
not have referred it to your son-in-law at Rome, 
to your freedman at Brundisium, and to the com- 
mander of your artillery when I saw him at Cor- 
cyra, to name the place which they thought would 
be most agreeable to you for our meeting. In 
short, I wish you would remember the maxim 
which those great authors have laid down, who 
have written so excellently upon friendship ; that 
" to accuse and to defend are terms which ought 
for ever to be banished from intercourses of this 
amicable kind." 

But do you imagine that I have had no oppor- 



u A city in Phrygia Major, situated on the frontiers 
towards Galatia. The situation of the other cities men- 
tioned in this place has already been occasionally noted as 
they occurred in the preceding letters. 

v It appears from the letters to Atticus, to whom it was 
that the grievances of these unhappy cities were principally 
owing. Their own magistrates, it is true, had some share 
in them ; hut their chief oppressor was Appius himself. 
The desolation he had brought upon this plundered pro- 
vince was so dreadful, that one would rather imagine, says 
Cicero, some savage monster had been let loose upon them, 
than that they had been trusted to the care of any human 
creature. And in another letter he tells Atticus, that he 
had sufficient employment in applying remedies to those 
wounds which had been given to this province by his pre- 
decessor. — Ad Att. v. Hi, 17- 



tunities of listening, in my turn, to accusations of 
the same nature against yourself ? Was it never 
told me, do you think, that after you had appointed 
me to meet you at Laodicea, you retired beyond 
Mount Taurus ? That, at the very time I was 
employed in my juridical office at Apamea, Syn- 
nada, and Philomelum, you took the liberty to 
exercise the same authority at Tarsus ? But I 
forbear to enter farther into these particulars, that 
I may not follow your example in the very instance 
of which I am complaining. This, however, I will 
say, (and I say it with great sincerity,) that if you 
are really persuaded of the truth of these reports, 
you do me much injustice ; and you are not entirely 
without reproach, if you only suffered them to be 
related to you. The truth is, it will appear that I 
have acted towards you in one uniform tenor of 
friendship. And let those who impute artifice to 
me say, whether it is probable that, after having 
paid the utmost attention to your interest during 
your absence from Rome, and at a time when I 
had not the least expectation of its ever being in 
your power to return me the same favour, I should 
give you just reason to abandon me now that I 
have so many occasions for your good offices. I 
must, however, acknowledge that there is one 
article wherein I may not, perhaps, have regulated 
myself altogether agreeably to your inclinations. 
I am sensible you would be displeased with any 
liberties that should be taken with the characters 
of those who acted in office under you ; and I will 
own that I have heard very unfavourable repre- 
sentations of some of them. But, I must add, that 
no persons were ever mentioned upon this occasion, 
or any greater irregularities laid to their charge, 
than those which your friend Clodius himself named 
to me when I saw him at Corcyra, who lamented, 
I remember, that you had been some sufferer in 
your reputation by the malpractices of those officers w . 
Reports of this kind (and many such indeed there 
are) I never in the least encouraged : but I will 
frankly acknowledge, likewise, that I never greatly 
endeavoured to repress them ; well persuaded as I 
am, that they can, in no sort, affect your character. 
w A particular instance of the cruelty of one of these 
officers under Appius is mentioned in the letters to Atti- 
cus. Scaptius, who commanded a troop of horse in Cyprus, 
surrounded their senate with his forces in order to compel 
them, it is probable, to comply with some unjust demands, 
and kept them thus besieged till five of the members 
perished with hunger. When the government of this pro- 
vince came into the hands of Cicero, the Cyprians, as their 
island lay within his jurisdiction, petitioned that these 
troops might be withdrawn, and he veiy humanely com- 
plied with their request. He relieved them, likewise, as 
well as other cities under his government, from the immo- 
derate interest which they paid for the money which their 
necessities had obliged them to borrow in Rome, reducing 
it from 4 per cent., paid monthly, to 1 per cent. This 
equitable reduction very considerably affected Brutus, who 
was concerned in these loans ; and he seems to have com- 
plained of it to Atticus. But notwithstanding the latter 
strongly pressed Cicero to favour Brutus in this affair, and 
Brutus himself likewise had written to Cicero for the same 
purpose ; yet he resolutely withstood their united solicita- 
tions. " If Brutus," says he, " resents my conduct upon 
this occasion, 1 shall be sorry; but much more so, to find 
him a different man from what J always thought him." 
And if Cicero, I will add, had spoken and acted upon every 
other occasion with the same spirit and integrity as he 
certainly did in the present, he would have merited all the 
encomiums which the warmest of his admirers could have 
bestowed.— Ad Att. vi. 1, 2. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



411 



Whoever attempts to persuade you that there is 
no such thing as a perfect reconcilement between 
friends whose affections have once been alienated, 
discovers the perfidy of his own heart, instead of 
proving the dissimulation of mine ; at the same 
time that it is evident that he has not a worse 
opinion of my sincerity than he must necessarily 
entertain of yours. But if any man has taken 
offence at the measures I pursue in my government, 
as not exactly coinciding with yours, I am per- 
fectly unconcerned at the loss of his friendship. 
To say truth, we have both acted in the manner we 
ought, though we have not both followed the same 
plan. The instances you gave of your diffusive 
liberality in this province were suitable to a man 
of your quality. Though, indeed, even you your- 
self were obliged, the last year, in compliance with 
the calamities of the season, a little to restrain the 
munificence of your natural disposition. But if 
mine, on the contrary, flows in a somewhat more 
limited channel, let not those to whom the benefit 
of that stream has not reached, wonder that I 
rather choose they should suffer from the necessary 
restrictions of my bounty, than that I should, from 
the just reproaches of my conscience. I have 
ever, indeed, been extremely reserved in dispensing 
largesses at another's cost ; as I cannot but be 
sensibly affected with distresses that extend them- 
selves throughout a whole community. 

I am much obliged to you for the account you 
gave me of affairs at Rome, and particularly for 
the assurance of your faithfully executing all my 
requests. What I principally recommend to your 
care is, that neither the business nor the period of 
my administration may be enlarged. To this end, 
I beg you would entreat our common friend and x 
colleague Hortensius, that if ever he was disposed 
to comply with my inclinations, he would not per- 
sist in my continuing two years in this govern- 
ment, than which he cannot do me a more unfriendly 
office. 

As to the information you desire concerning my 
own motions ; I marched from Tarsus in my way 
to Amanus, on the seventh of October ; and I write 
this the day following, from my camp in the plains 
of Mopsuhesta?. If any action should happen, I 
shall not fail of giving you notice ; and you may 
depend upon my enclosing a letter to you, when- 
ever I send one to my family. With respect to 
the Parthians whom you inquire after, I am per- 
suaded that none ever appeared. They were only 
a troop of Arabians, armed after the Parthian 
manner. But these, it is said, are all returned 
home, and I am assured there is now no appear- 
ance of an enemy in Syria. I entreat you to write 
to me as often as possible, not only as to what 
regards your own and my private affairs, but as to 
those likewise of the republic. I am more than 
ordinarily, indeed, solicitous concerning the latter, 
as I find by your letter that Pompey is going into 
Spain 2 . Farewell. 

x In the augural college. 

y A city in Cilicia, situated upon the banks of the river 
Pyramus. 

z The government of Spain had been renewed to Pompey 
for five years at the end of his consulate in the preceding 
year : which province, however, he administered by his 
lieutenants, whilst he himself still continued in Rome. — 
Dio, xli. p. 148. 



LETTER XIL 

To Publius Silius, Proprietor. 
I did not imagine I should ever have found 
myself at a loss for expressions : yet at a loss 
a u. 702 Del ^ eve me I am > to recommend Marcus 
Lsenius to you in the terms he deserves. 
I must content myself, therefore, with explaining 
the business of this letter in few words ; but in 
such, however, as may render you sufficiently 
sensible of my inclinations. It is incredible how 
great an esteem both my dearest brother and myself 
entertain for Laenius : an esteem which is founded 
not only on the many good offices he has conferred 
upon us, but on the exalted integrity of his heart, 
and the singular modesty with which all his virtues 
are accompanied. It was with the utmost regret, 
therefore, that I consented to part with him, as I 
receive much advantage from his counsels, as well 
as great entertainment from his company. But if 
I should expatiate any farther in his praise, will 
you not think that, far from wanting words, as I 
just now complained, I have employed more than 
are necessary ? To be short, then, I recommend 
Lsenius to your protection with all that warmth 
which you must be sensible I ought, after what I 
have here said. Let me earnestly entreat you to 
expedite the business which has called him into 
your province, and to favour him likewise with 
your advice in the conduct of it. You will find 
him, be assured, a man of a most generous and 
well-natured disposition : for which reason I beg 
you will send him back to us with the satisfaction 
of having finished his affairs by your means, as 
soon as possible. Your compliance with this re- 
quest will extremely oblige both my brother and 
myself. Farew r ell. 



LETTER XIII. 

To Marcus Coelius, Curule-Mdile elect. 
I wish you would inquire the reason that your 
letters miscarry ; for I cannot be induced to think 
a. u. 702. ^at y° u ^ ave not once wr i t<; en to me 
since your election a . I am persuaded, on 
the contrary, that you would not have omitted to 
communicate a piece of news I so much wished 
with regard to yourself, and so little expected in 
relation to Hirrus. The truth, however, is, that 
I have not heard from you since that glorious and 
joyful event; which gives me some uneasiness, lest 
my letters should have had no better success in find- 
ing their way to your hand. But be assured I have 
never written to my family without accompanying 
my packet with a letter for you ; as, indeed, there 
is no man whom I more sincerely and tenderly 
value. But to turn to the principal purpose of this 
epistle. Your wish has succeeded, and I have 
just had employment enough of the military kind 
to entitle me to a triumph. You were under some 
apprehensions, I perceive, about the Parthians, as 
being diffident of my forces. I must acquaint you, 
then, that having received advice that the Parthians 
had committed hostilities, I took the advantage of 
some defiles, and of the neighbouring mountains, 
to lead my army, supported by a tolerable number 
of auxiliaries, to Amanus. The reputation of my 

a Into the office of a;dile. 



412 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



name was of some benefit to me likewise in my 
march : for you cannot imagine of what importance 
it is, in places of this kind, to have the populace 
ask, Is this the consul that saved Rome ? Is this 
he that was so honoured by the senate ? together 
with other questions of the same import, which I 
need not add. When I approached to Amanus, a 
mountain which separates Cilicia from Syria, I had 
the satisfaction to hear that Cassius b had obliged 
the enemy to abandon the siege of Antiochea, and 
that Bibulus had taken upon himself the command 
of the province. However, I employed my army 
in harassing the Amanienses, our eternal enemies ; 
and having put many of them to the sword, as well 
as taken a great number of prisoners, and entirely 
dispersed the rest, I surprised and burnt some of 
their fortresses. Having thus obtained a complete 
victory, I was saluted with the title of Imperator 
by the whole army at Issus c ; the very place (as 
your favourite historian Clitarchus d has often, I 
have heard you say, informed you) where Alexander 
defeated Darius. From thence I marched into the 
most infested parts of Cilicia, where I am now 
before Pindenessum, a city of great strength, and 
which I have already been battering above these 
three weeks. The garrison makes a most obstinate 
and vigorous defence ; so that nothing seems want- 
ing to complete the glory I shall here obtain, but 
that the name of this place were less obscure. If 
I should make myself master of it (as I trust I 
shall), I will send an immediate express to the 
senate. In the mean time I have given you this 
general account of my operations, to let you see 
there is some foundation to hope that your good 
wishes will take effect. But to return to the Par- 
thians. This summer's campaign has proved, you 
find, tolerably successful : I am in great pain, how- 
ever for the next. Let me entreat you, therefore, 
my dear friend, to endeavour that a successor be 
appointed to my government : but if that should 
prove a matter of too much difficulty, (as you inti- 
mate in one of your letters, and as 1 am myself 
inclined to suspect,) be careful at least to guard 
against what may easily be prevented ; I mean the 
prolongation of my residence. 

I expect from your letters (as I mentioned in 
one of my former), not merely an account of what is 
at present going forward in the republic, but a clear 
prospect also of what is likely to happen. For 
which purpose I entreat you to inform me fully of 
everything that concerns the public. Farewell. 



LETTER XIV. 

Marcus Ccelius to Cicero. 

We e have received an express from Caius Cassius, 

and another from Deiotarus, which greatly alarm 

a. u. 702. us# '^ ne f° rmer writes that the Parthian 

army has passed the Euphrates ; and the 

latter, that they are actually marching towards your 

b He was lieutenant to Crassus, in Syria, after whose 
death the command of the province devolved upon him, 
till Bibulus, who was appointed successor to Crassus, 
arrived. A more particular account will be given of him 
in the farther progress of these remarks. 

e A city which stood on the frontiers of Cilicia and 
Syria. 

? A Greek historian, who attended Alexander in his 
Persian expedition. 

e This letter appears to have been written before any of 



province, by the way of Commagene. As I well 
know how ill provided you are with troops, the 
principal concern I feel from this invasion, with 
respect to you, is lest you should be a loser by it 
in point of reputation. Had you been better pre- 
pared, indeed, to receive the enemy, I should have 
been in great pain for your life i but as the very 
small number of your forces will incline you, I 
imagine, rather to think of a retreat than an engage- 
ment, I am only anxious concerning your honour. 
For how far the world may consider the necessity 
of the case, and approve of your thus declining a 
battle, is a point, I confess, which gives me much 
uneasy reflection. In short, I shall be in continual 
anxiety till I hear of your arrival in Italy. In the 
mean time, this news of the Parthians has occa- 
sioned a variety of speculations. Some are of 
opinion that Pompey ought to be sent to oppose 
them ; and others, that it is by no means convenient 
he should leave Rome. A third party is for 
assigning this expedition to Csesar and his army, 
whilst a fourth names the consuls f as the most 
proper persons to be employed. But all agree, 
however, in being silent as to any decree of the 
senate for placing this command in private hands s. 
The consuls, in the apprehension that they shall 
either be nominated to a commission which they 
do not relish, or suffer the disgrace of its being 
given from them, forbear to convene the senate, 
and by this mean incur the censure of neglecting 
the public interest. But whether indolence or 
pusillanimity be the real motive of their declin- 
ing the conduct of this war, it is concealed under 
the specious appearance, however, of modesty. 

As we have received no courier from you, it was 
suspected, till the despatch from Deiotarus arrived, 
that the whole was an invention of Cassius, who, 
it was thought, in order to cover his own rapine, 
had suffered a parcel of Arabs to make an incursion 
into the province, and then represented them to 
the senate as a formidable body of Parthians. 
Whatever, therefore, may be the true state of 
the affair, let me persuade you to be extremely 
circumspect in giving a faithful and accurate 
account of it to the senate, that you may neither be 
reproached with magnifying matters in order to 
gratify the private purposes of Cassius, nor with 
concealing anything which may be of importance 
for the public to know. 

It is now the eighteenth of November ; and as 
we are advanced thus far towards the end of the 
year, I do not see that anything can be done in 
this affair before the first of January 1 '. For you 
know how slow and inactive Marcellus is upon all 
occasions, and are no stranger to the dilatory dis- 
position of Sulpicius. You will easily judge, there- 
fore, what is to be expected from two men of this 
un performing cast ; and that they who usually 
act with so much coldness, as to make one doubt 
their inclinations, even in points they really desire 
to effect, will not be very warm in forwarding a 
business from which they are certainly averse. 

Cicero's despatches, concerning the Parthians, had reached 
Rome ; and consequently before Coelius had received the 
preceding epistle. 

( Marcus Marcellus, and Servius Sulpicius. 

S That is, in the hands of those who were not invested 
with some public command. 

h When the consuls elect entered upon the administra- 
tion of then- office. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



413 



If the Parthian war should become a serious 
matter, the new magistrates will be engaged, for 
the first two or three months of their office, in 
adjusting the proper measures to be taken in this 
conjuncture. On the other hand, if it should appear 
to be an invasion of no consequence, or such, at 
least, that, with the supply of a few additional 
troops, may easily be repelled by you and the other 
proconsuls already in those provinces, or by your 
successors, Curio, I foresee, will begin to play his 
double game : that is, he will in the first place 
attempt to weaken the authority of Csesar 1 ; and 
in the next, endeavour to throw some little advan- 
tages on the side of Pompey. As for PaulusJ, he 
declares most vehemently against suffering Csesar 
to continue in Gaul ; and our friend Furnius is the 
only tribune whom I suspect of obstructing his 
measures for that purpose. You may depend upon 
these articles as certain ; but beyond these I cannot 
with any assurance pronounce. Time, indeed, may 
produce much ; as many schemes, I know, are con- 
certed : but they all turn upon the points I have 
already specified. I forgot to mention that Curio 
designs to make an attempt to procure a division 
of the lands in Campania k . It is pretended that 
Caesar does not concern himself in this matter: 
certain, however, it is, that Pompey is very desirous 
of having the distribution settled before Caesar's 
return, that he may be precluded from applying 
them to his own purposes. 

As to what concerns your leaving the province, 
I dare not promise that you shall be relieved by a 
successor ; but you may rely upon my endeavour- 
ing all I can that your administration shall not be 
prolonged. Whether you will think proper to 
remain in your government, if affairs should be so 
circumstanced as to render it indecent for me to 
oppose any decree of the senate for that purpose, 
depends upon yourself to determine, as it does 
upon me to remember, how warmly you made it 
your request when we parted, that I would pre- 
vent any such resolution from being taken. Fare- 
well. 



LETTER XV. 

To Publius Silius, Proprcetor. 

It was with the warmest and most grateful 
acknowledgment of your favours that my friend 
a. u 702 Nero assured me you have distinguished 
him with every honour in your power. 
You may depend upon the most efficacious in- 
stances of his friendship in return, as there is not a 
man in the world of a more grateful and generous 
disposition. You have conferred, at the same time, 
a very singular obligation upon myself, for I know 
not any man amongst all our nobility who stands 
higher in my esteem a nd affection. Your good 

1 Curio had not as yet pulled off the mask, and declared 
himself openly in favour of Caesar. 

J One of the consuls elect. See rem. <1, p. 400. 

k Caesar, when he was consul, A. TJ. 694, had procured 
a law for the distribution of these lands, and part of them 
had actually been distributed accordingly. The remaining 
part was what Curio had in his view, which were to be 
purchased of the private possessors with the public 
money, and parcelled out amongst the poor citizens in 
the same manner as those had been which were already 
divided.— See rem. e, p. 367. Vide etiam Manut. in Ep. 
Fam. i. 9. 



offices to him, therefore, in the following instances, 
wherein he desired I would particularly request 
them, will be highly agreeable to me. In the first 
place, I beg you to defer the affair of Pausanias, 
an inhabitant of Alibanda, till Nero arrives in your 
province ; and as this is a point in which I perceive 
he is exceedingly solicitous, it is with a proportion- 
able degree of zeal that I entreat your compliance. 
The next favour I am to ask is, your particular i 
protection for the citizens of Nysa. Nero is greatly 
attached to the interest of this corporation, and I 
hope you will show them that nothing can be 
more to their advantage than his patronage. I 
have frequently had occasion of recommending 
Strabo Servilius to you ; but I renew my applica- 
tions with so much the more ardour, as Nero takes 
a share in his concerns. We jointly then entreat 
you to settle his affair, and not leave an innocent 
man to be a prey, perhaps, to one who may succeed 
to your government with a turn of mind far different 
from that generosity which distinguishes yours. 
This will be acting in a manner highly agreeable 
to myself, and suitable at the same time to your 
usual humanity. In a word, the purport of my 
present application amounts to this : that you 
would upon all occasions continue to distinguish 
Nero with your most peculiar regard. The truth 
is, your province has, in this respect, greatly the 
advantage over mine, as it affords you full scope 
of doing honour to so noble, so ingenious, and so 
virtuous a youth. Your perseverance in the same 
generous offices with which you have thus far 
assisted my friend, will give him an opportunity 
of confirming and strengthening those illustrious 
clientships which have been delivered down to him 
from his ancestors. And let me add, that it will 
be placing your favours with great judgment in 
respect to Nero, as well as bestowing them in the 
most obliging manner likewise with regard to 
myself. Farewell. 



LETTER XVI. 

To Curio, Tribune of the People. 
The congratulations of a friend are not usually 
considered as too late if they are paid as early as 
a u "02 P oss ibl e: my great distance therefore from 
Rome, together with the slow progress 
with which news travels into this corner of the 
world, will excuse me for not sooner sending you 
mine. But I now sincerely give them you, and 
most ardently wish that you may obtain immortal 
honour by your administration of the tribunate. 
To this end, I must exhort you not to suffer yourself 
to be turned aside from your' natural bias, in com- 
pliance with the sentiments and advice of others : 
on the contrary, let me entreat you to be directed 
in your ministry by the faithful light of your own 
superior wisdom. No man, indeed, is capable of 
giving you more prudent counsels than will arise 
from the suggestions of your own good sense ; and 
believe me, you can never be misguided so long as 
you pursue the honest dictates of your uninfluenced 
judgment. I say not this inconsiderately, but as 
perfectly well knowing the genius and principles 
of him to whom I am addressing myself. Yes, 
my friend, I can never be apprehensive that you 
will act either weakly or irresolutely whilst you 
support the measures your heart approves. It was 



414 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



neither chance nor ignorance that led you to solicit 
this magistracy in so important a crisis. It was 
a deliberate and well-considered resolution that 
engaged you in this design, and you were perfectly 
sensible of the great and general confusion in which 
the commonwealth is involved, together with the 
utter uncertainty in what manner these our unhappy 
divisions will finally be terminated. You frequently 
reflect, I doubt not, on the vain, the treacherous, 
and the pliant dispositions of the present generation. 
To repeat, then, what I just now mentioned, let me 
conjure you steadfastly to persevere in your old 
principles ; to consult the dictates of your own 
breast, and faithfully to comply with its wise and 
worthy admonitions. Hardly, perhaps, is any man 
more qualified than yourself to direct the conduct 
of others ; — none, I am sure, to steer your own. 
Good gods ! why am I thus prevented from being 
a witness of your glorious actions, and an associate 
in your patriot designs ? The latter, I am per- 
suaded, you are far from wanting : however, the 
strength and warmth of my affection might possibly 
render the conjunction of my counsels with yours 
not altogether unprofitable. 

You will hear from me again very soon, as I 
purpose in a few days to send an express to the 
senate with a particular account of the success of 
my arms during the last summer's campaign. In 
the mean time you will perceive, by the letter which 
I delivered to your freedman Thraso, with what 
zealous pains I have solicited your election to the 
pontifical dignity; an election, indeed, that will be 
attended with much difficulty. I conjure you in 
return, my dear Curio, not to suffer this my 
very troublesome provincial administration to be 
lengthened out beyond the usual period, and I 
entreat it by all the strong and tender ties of our 
mutual friendship. When I first made this request 
to you in person, and several times afterwards 
repeated it by letter, I had not the least imagination 
of your being tribune. I then, indeed, onlyentreated 
your good offices as an illustrious senator, and as 
one who stood high in the favour and esteem of 
every Roman. But I now apply to Curio not only 
as my noble friend, but as a powerful tribune. I 
do not desire, however, (what indeed would be more 
difficult to obtain,) that anything unusual should be 
decreed in my favour ; but, on the contrary, that you 
would support that decree, and maintain those laws 
by which I was appointed to this government. In 
a word, my single and most earnest request is, that 
the terms upon which I set out for this province 
may not be changed. Farewell. 



LETTER XVII. 

To Thermits, Proprcetor. 
I found you perfectly well inclined to employ 
every good office in your power for my lieutenant 



a. u. 702. 



Marcus Anneius, when I mentioned his 



affair to you at Ephesus. However, as 
my affection will not suffer me to omit any circum- 
stance which may tend to his advantage, I write to 
you in the belief that this letter will considerably 
add to the favourable disposition in which you 
already stand towards him. He has long enjoyed 
a share in my friendship ; as, indeed, I have suffi- 
ciently shown the good opinion I entertain of him, 
by having appointed him my lieutenant in prefer- 



ence to so many others who solicited for that office. 
The war in which I was soon afterwards engaged 
gave me occasion of experiencing his military 
abilities ; and the prudence, the courage, and the 
fidelity with which he executed his commission, 
together with the extraordinary marks he gave me 
of his affection, have raised him to the highest 
possible degree of my esteem. I informed you at 
Ephesus, that there were some points in controversy 
between him and the city of Sardis 1 , the particulars 
of which you will best learn when the cause shall 
come before you. And here, I must confess, I have 
been long debating with myself what I should 
farther say to you. The world universally acknow- 
ledges and admires your impartial administration 
of justice, and my friend's claim is so well founded 
as to require no other protection than that of 
your usual equity. However, as I am sensible of 
the great authority which naturally attends the 
praetorian office, especially where it. is exercised 
with so much honour, lenity, and wisdom, as are 
well known to distinguish your administration, I 
entreat you to exert that influence in such a manner 
upon this occasion as may convince Anneius that 
you are his friend. He is already indeed persuaded 
that you are so, and has often mentioned you 
to me in that character. Nevertheless, I cannot 
forbear conjuring you, by those reciprocal good 
offices which have equally passed between us, to 
let him see that this letter has rendered you still 
more inclined to serve him. Be assured, the whole 
extent of your provincial power cannot supply you 
with an opportunity of more effectually obliging 
me. It is unnecessary I should add, that you 
cannot better dispose of your favours than by con- 
ferring them on Anneius ; and I am persuaded you 
have too high an opinion of his merit and gratitude 
to entertain the least doubt upon that article. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XVIII. 

To VoIumnius m . 
The familiar manner in which your letter to me 
was addressed, though extremely agreeable indeed 
a u 702 to ^ e i n timacy that subsists between us, 
made me at first doubt whether it did not 
come from my very good friend, your namesake, 
the senator. But I soon found, by that lively 
and elegant humour with which it was distinguished, 
that it could be the produce of no other hand than 
yours. I was exceedingly pleased with it in every 
respect, but that I perceived you had not suffici- 
ently discharged your trust and defended the credit 
of my possessions as a wit. For you tell me, that 
since I left Rome, every paltry joke, even those of the 
dull Sextius himself, is placed to my account. And 
did you suffer your friend to be thus dishonoured 

1 In Lydia. 

m The person to whom this letter is addressed was a 
Roman knight, extremely admired for his wit and plea- 
santry. It was this quality, it is probable, that recom- 
mended him to Antony, with whom he appears to have 
been in some credit, as he was likewise employed by him 
in the civil wars. Atticus also was in the number of 
Volumnius's friends ; and after the battle of Modena, 
when Antony's faction was supposed to be irrecoverably 
ruined, he generously protected him from the violences 
of the successful party.— Ad Att. xv. 8 ; Com. Ncp. in Vit. 
Attici. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



415 



without heroically standing forth in vindication of 
his genius ? I was in hopes that my wit was 
stamped with such distinguishing marks as to 
prevent the possibility of its being mistaken. But 
it seems there is such a general depravation of 
taste in Rome, that no man's conceits are so execra- 
bly vile as not to meet with admirers. As you 
value my reputation, then, assert boldly that every 
low thing which is repeated of this sort is none of 
mine. And unless it be some smart pun or elegant 
hyperbole, some striking paragram 11 , or some arch 
and unexpected turn — in a word, unless it answers 
the character of true humour?, as described in my 
dialogue on oratory, I desire you would do me the 
favour most vehemently to swear that mine you 
are ^confident it is not. With regard to those little 
pretenders to eloquence of whom you complain, as 
having usurped my place in the forum, I am much 
less concerned. Fare it as it may with plaintiffs and 
defendants of every kind, I am nothing disturbed ; 

« The hyperbole is a figure of speech by which anything 
is extravagantly magnified or diminished beyond the 
truth ; as a paragram is a species of the pun, which con- 
sists in changing the initial letters of a name. It would 
be needless to produce any example in explanation of the 
former ; and an instance of the latter kind will occur to 
every English reader in the well-known reply which Crom- 
well made to the judges, when they reminded him of Magna 
Charta. 

o Of this kind is what the Duke of Buckingham once said 
to a noble earl : — ' ' My lord, you will certainly be damned." 
" How, my lord ! " returned the earl, with some warmth. 
" Nay," replied the duke, " there's no help for it : for it is 
positively said, Cursed is he of whom all men speak well." 
— Tatler, vol. i. No. 17- 

P Cicero, in the treatise to which he here refers, intro- 
duces one of his speakers as pointing out the principal 
sources of oratorical humour, among which he makes very 
honourable mention of the pun. There is scarce an author, 
indeed, of any note among the ancients, that has not, in 
some part or other of his writings, tried his genius at a 
conceit : and it is remarkable, that there is one in particu- 
lar which runs through almost the whole set of Roman 
classics. The first that appears to have started it is that 
venerable censor, Cato the elder, who, in a grave speech 
recorded by Livy, taking notice of those fine statues that 
had been lately transported into Italy, after the conquest 
of Greece, expresses his concern — " ne ilia? magis res nos 
ceperint quam nos illas." Horace was so well pleased with 
this witticism, that he has transplanted it into one of his 
epistles : — 

Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes 
Intulit agresti Latio. 
And even the majestic Virgil could not secure himself from 
the infection of this contagious ambiguity : — ■ 
Num capti potuere capi ? 

a quibble, which was afterwards taken up by Quintus 
Curtius : though it seems to be somewhat damaged in 
passing through his hands: — " plures captivi (says that 
historian, speaking of one of Alexander's victories,) quam 
qui caperent, erant." When it is considered how early 
this species of false wit appeared in the world ; with what 
difficulty it has been subdued ; that some of the best writers 
have not been able entirely to abstain from it ; and that it 
was the favourite of so unquestionable a genius as Cicero ; 
one cannot forbear thinking with the inimitable Mr. Ad- 
dison, " that the seeds of punning are in the minds of all 
men." It is the business, therefore, of criticism, to root 
out a weed, which the best as well as the worst soil, it 
seems, is so strongly disposed to produce : as it cannot 
spread without checking the nobler growth of true wit and 
just imagination.— Cic. DeOrat. ii. 38 ; Liv. xxxiv. 4 ; Hor. 
Ep. ii. 1, 157; Virg. Mn. vii. 295; Quint. Curt. v. 13; 
Addison, Bpect. i. No. 61. 



no, not though the worthless Selius himself should be 
deemed eloquent enough to persuade the world that 
he is not an arrant slave. But in the article of wit, 
my friend, there indeed I am much too jealous not 
to assert my prerogative. It is an article, however, 
in which I stand in fear of no other competitor 
but yourself: for your pretensions, doubtless, are 
formidable. Yet when I say this, you will modestly 
suspect perhaps that I am bantering ; and who 
but must own that Volumnius is a man of penetra- 
tion ? To speak seriously, a most agreeable and 
lively vein of wit runs throughout your whole 
letter. I will confess, however, that what you 
mention concerning our friend i, though you repre- 
sented it in a very droll light, did not once make 
me smile. It is much my desire, I must own, 
that he should conduct himself through his tribu- 
nitial office with dignity, not only for his own 
sake, as you know he is a man I value, but for 
the sake likewise of my country, which, however ill 
it has treated me, I shall never cease to love. 

And now, my dear Volumnius, I hope you will 
continue the agreeable correspondence you have 
begun, and give me frequent accounts of affairs 
both private and public : for, be assured, your letters 
are extremely pleasing to me. I entreat you, like- 
wise, to endeavour to gain Dolabella entirely to 
my interests, by confirming him in that amicable 
disposition towards me which I know he is inclined 
to entertain. Not that I suspect he wants any 
applications of this sort ; but as I am very desirous 
to make him my friend, it is a point, I think, that 
cannot be too much laboured. Farewell. 



LETTER XIX. 

To Crassipes*. 
I took occasion, before I left Rome, of recom- 
mending the Bithynia s company to you in the 
„ ()2 strongest terms I was able ; and I had 
the pleasure to find you perfectly well 
disposed, not only from my instances but your own 
inclinations, to do them all the good offices in your 
power. However, as those who are concerned 
in the affairs of this society think it may be 
to their advantage that I should thus repeat my 
assurances of the regard I bear them, I make no 
difficulty of yielding to their solicitations. Be well 
persuaded, then, that I have ever been desirous of 
rendering to this whole order in general my best 
services ; to which, indeed, the important obligations 
they have conferred upon me give them an un- 
doubted right. But my attachments are more 
particularly strong to that branch of them con- 
cerned in the finances of Bithynia ; as this company, 
from the rank and character of its members, forms 
one of the most considerable bodies in the whole 
republic. It is composed, indeed, out of all the 
other companies, and happens to consist of several 
of my most intimate friends. In this number their 

<i This seems to allude to Curio. 

r He was quaestor in Bithynia, and, probably, at the 
same time when P. Silius was governor of that province. 
See rem. \ p. 408. 

s The revenues of the republic arising from the foreign 
provinces were farmed by the Roman knights, who were 
divided into several companies distingiushed by the name 
of the particular province whose taxes they rented. Sec 
rem. x , p. 376. 



416 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



governor Publius Rupilius holds the principal rank ; 
the most important part of whose function is con- 
cerned in my present address. T make it, then, my 
earnest request (and it is a request you may very 
easily comply with) that you assist and protect 
their agent Pupius in discharging his services to 
the satisfaction of the company ; and, in general, 
that you would promote their interest by all those 
means which, I well know, are in the power of a 
quaestor. Your compliance in this instance will 
greatly oblige me ; and I will add too, what I can 
affirm from my own experience, that you cannot 
confer your good offices upon a society that will 
more gratefully remember them. Farewell. 



LETTER XX. 

To Publius Sllius, Proprietor. 
Publius Terentius Hispo, who is deputy-receiver- 
general of the customs arising from pasture and 
a u 702 cat ^ e i n your province, is a person for 
whom I have a very particular friendship : 
as, indeed, many important good offices have mu- 
tually passed between us. The settling his accounts 
with the several cities under his department which 
yet remain unadjusted, is a point wherein his cha- 
racter, you are sensible, is greatly concerned. This 



I attempted in his behalf with regard to the inha- 
bitants of Ephesus ; but my attempts, I must 
confess, proved unsuccessful. It is the general 
opinion of the world, however, and what I am 
firmly assured of myself, that the justice and cle- 
mency of your administration has gained you such 
an ascendant over the people of Greece, that you 
may easily obtain of them anything you shall re- 
quest. I entreat you then to employ your interest 
with them in favour of Hispo : and I ask it as a 
point in which my honour is peculiarly concerned. 
The truth is, not only the whole company in this 
branch of the revenues has placed itself under my 
protection, but I have particular intimacies with 
many of its members. Your compliance therefore 
with my request will strengthen my interest with 
this society in general, and will also give me the 
satisfaction and credit of having obtained your 
good offices for my friend. To this I will add, that 
you may depend on receiving great complacency, 
both from the grateful returns of Hispo in particu- 
lar, and from the interest you will establish with 
this illustrious company in general. You will like- 
wise oblige me in a most sensible manner : for, be 
assured, the whole extent of your government 
cannot supply you with an opportunity of render- 
ing me a more acceptable service. Farewell. 



BOOK V. 



LETTER I. 

To Marcus Cato x 



The great authority you bear in the republic, 
together with the high esteem I have ever enter- 
a. u. 703. Gained for your uncommon virtues, make 
me look upon it as a point of much conse- 
quence to me, that you should be apprised of the 



1 This illustrious Roman was great-grandson to Marcus 
Cato, the Censor, to whom he was no less allied in virtue 
than in blood. He had all his merit, indeed, without any 
of his failings ; and with the same determined inflexibility 
in his public conduct, he was far more amiable in the 
common intercourses of private life. Perhaps a character 
equally perfect is nowhere to be found in the whole annals 
of profane history ; and it may well be questioned whether 
human philosophy ever produced, either before or since, 
so truly great and good a man. It is a just observation of 
Seneca,— " magnam rem puta, unum hominem agere;" 
and it is this uncommon consistency of action that marks 
the character of Cato with its most distinguishing beauty. 
All the parts of his conduct accord with each other, and 
are the regular result of one steady and invariable prin- 
ciple : — 

Patriae— impendere vitam : 

Nee sibi, sed toti genitum se credere mundo. 
This was the glorious object of his ambition from his first 
appearance in the world to the last moment of his life ; 
and he undauntedly pursued it through all the various 
insults and opposition that Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey 
could contrive to traverse and perplex his way. He reso- 
lutely, indeed, opposed the progress of their power, in 
every step of its unconstitutional advancement ; and, with 
a most consummate prudence, perpetually forewarned his 
countrymen of those calamities which they afterwards 
experienced. Cicero, nevertheless, has said (and it has 
been often repeated after him) that there was more of 
probity than of prudence in Cato's politics, and particu- 



success of my arms ; of the disinterested protection 
I have given to our allies ; and of the integrity of 
my administration in general. And I doubt not, 
when you shall be informed of these several articles, 
I shall find the less difficulty in persuading you to 
comply with the request I am going to make. 

I arrived in this province on the last of July ; 
and, as the season of the year rendered it necessary 
for me to hasten to the army, I continued only two 
days at Laodicea, four at Apamea, three at Syn- 
nadae, and as many at Philomelum. I found great 

larly instances his treatment of the Roman knights in a 
very nice case, wherein they petitioned the senate for 
redress. [See rem. s , p. 357.] Perhaps Cato's firmness in 
this article cannot be justified: but certainly it would not . 
be reasonable to pronounce, from a particular article, | 
that he did not, in the general tenor of his public actions, 
discover great abilities. Cicero speaks of them, it is true, 
upon other occasions also, with some diminution : but it 
is no wonder he should represent that conduct as injudi- 
cious, which was almost in every respect the very reverse 
of his own. One cannot easily, indeed, believe that Cato's j 
talents were unequal to his virtues, when one considers | 
the perpetual jealousy with which he was looked upon by 
the first triumvirate, the violent measures they employed 
to prevent his being elected praetor, and that they would 
never suffer him to attain the consular office. Integrity 
under the direction of much inferior abilities, could not, 
surely, have been thns formidable, especially in an age 
the most venal and unprincipled that ever darkened the 
annals of human corruption. Hut whatever may be deter- 
mined as to the measure of his intellectual qualities, he 
unquestionably possessed the patriot virtues in their 
highest perfection ; and (as a noble author justly observes) 
" if he could not save, he prolonged the life of liberty." — 
Plut. inVit. Caton. ; Senec. Ep. 120; Lucan. ii. 382; Ad 
Att. i. 18, 11, 5 ; Let. on the Spirit of Patriotism, p. 35. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



417 



numbers of people assembled in tbese several towns 
in expectation of my arrival : and, during my stay 
in each, I relieved many cities from the oppressive 
taxes they laboured under, reduced the exorbitant 
interest they paid for the money they had been 
obliged to borrow, and discharged them from the 
unjust demands of their usurious creditors. Before 
I arrived in my government, a mutiny had arisen 
in the army, and the soldiers had dispersed them- 
selves into different parts of the provinces : five 
cohorts, in particular, were retired to Philomelum, 
without a single officer to command them. I 
therefore ordered my lieutenant Anneius to conduct 
these scattered regiments to the main body in 
Lycaonia, and to assemble the whole army at Ico- 
nium, where I directed him to encamp. These 
orders he very diligently executed ; and I joined the 
troops on the 26th of August. In the interval, I 
employed myself, agreeably to the injunctions of 
the senate, in raising a strong body of evocati", 
together with a proper number of cavalry, as also 
in assembling those auxiliary forces which the free 
as well as regal states in alliance with the republic 
had voluntarily offered me. As soon as the junc- 
tion of all the troops was completed, I reviewed 
the whole army ; and, on the 30th of August, we 
began to move towards Cilicia. In the mean time, 
envoys from the king of Commagene arrived with 
a very confused indeed, but, however, as it ap- 
peared afterwards, a very true account, that the 
Parthians had invaded Syria. This news greatly 
alarmed me, not only for the danger to which that 
province, but my own, was exposed ; and which 
threatened, likewise, all Asia in general. I thought 
it advisable, therefore, to lead my troops through 
that part of Cappadocia which borders on Cilicia. 
If, indeed, I had marched directly into Cilicia, I 
could easily have protected that district of my pro- 
vince from any invasion on the side of Syria ; as it 
cannot be entered from thence without traversing 
Mount Amanus, over which there are only two 
narrow denies, that might be defended by a very 
small force. In short, nothing can be more impreg- 
nable than Cilicia is from that quarter, by the for- 
tifications with which nature has secured it. But 
my chief concern was for Cappadocia, which lies 
entirely open towards Syria : and besides, there 
are several little kingdoms in its neighbourhood, 
which, though in friendship with the Romans, yet 
dare not openly act against the Parthians. These 
considerations, therefore, determined me to lie 
with my army on the borders of Cappadocia ; and 
accordingly I encamped at Cybistra, a town situated 
not far from Mount Taurus. By these means, I 
was in a condition of protecting Cilicia, at the same 
time that, by possessing myself of Cappadocia, I 
prevented the contiguous states from entering into 
any measures to our prejudice. 

Whilst affairs were in this commotion, and there 
was reason to apprehend a general war, king Deio- 
tarus sent an embassy to my camp with an offer of 
joining me with all his forces. I was extremely 
sensible of this instance of his zeal and friendship, 
and immediately returned him a letter of acknow- 
ledgments, with my pressing exhortation, at the 
same time, that he would hasten his march. I 
cannot but observe, upon this occasion, that 
Deiotarus justly merits those peculiar marks of 

u See rem. a . on letter 3. book iv. 



_ 



favour and esteem, with which both you and I in 
particular, as well as the senate in general, have 
ever distinguished him. He discovers, indeed, a 
remarkable fidelity and affection to the republic, 
together with an uncommon presence and greatness 
of mind both in action and in council. 

I found it necessary, for the better concerting 
my plan of operations, to continue five days at 
Cybistra. During my stay there, I had the satis- 
faction to be of singular service to Ariobarzanes ; 
a prince particularly assigned to my protection by 
the senate, in consequence of your motion for that 
purpose. I delivered him from a very dangerous 
conspiracy, which was just upon the point of being 
carried into execution. I did more indeed ; and 
not only preserved his person, but strengthened 
his authority. For this purpose J procured Metras 
and Athenseus (the latter of whom you strongly 
recommended to my care) not only to be recalled 
from that exile into which the intrigues of the 
cruel Athenais had driven them, but to be restored 
to their former favour and credit with the king. 
And as it would have produced a very terrible civil 
war if the high priest v , who was among the disaf- 
fected party, had taken up arms, as was generally 
supposed to be his intention, I found means of 
obliging him to depart the kingdom. This young 
man abounded both in money and troops, and pos- 
sessed every other advantage that could render 
him of importance to those who were inclined to 
attempt a revolution. In a word, I recovered the 
authority of Ariobarzanes, without occasioning the 
least bloodshed or disturbance, and firmly established 
him in his royal dignity. 

In the mean time, I was informed, by various 
expresses, that a considerable army of Parthians 
and Arabians were advanced to the city of Antio- 
chia w ; and that a large body of their cavalry which 
had penetrated into Cilicia, were entirely cut to 
pieces by a detachment of mine, supported by the 
praetorian x cohort in garrison at Epiphanea*'. Per- 
ceiving, therefore, that the Parthians had turned 
off from Cappadocia, and were approached within 
a small distance of the frontiers of Cilicia, I con- 
ducted the army with all possible expedition to 
Amanus. Upon my arrival, I found the enemy 
was retired from Antiochia, and that Bibulus had 
taken possession of the city. I sent an express, 
therefore, to Deiotarus, who was upon full march 
with all his forces to join me, acquainting him that 
I did not at present see occasion of drawing him 
out of his dominions ; but that if any new occur- 
rence should arise, I would immediately give him 
notice. 

My principal view in advancing to Amanus was, 
that I might be ready to assist either Cilicia or 
Syria, as circumstances should require. I had 
likewise another design, which I had before medi- 
tated, and now prepared to execute, as being of 
great importance to both provinces : I mean, to 

v It appears, by a passage which Manutius cites from 
Hirtius, that the high priest of the temple of Bellona, at 
Commana, a city in Cappadocia, was next in rank and 
power to the king himself.— Hirt. De Bell. Alexand. 

w In Syria. 

x The praetorian cohort composed a sort of body-guard to 
the proconsul, or general, and consisted of a select number 
chosen out of the evocati. The nature of the latter has 
been already explained in remark a , p. 403. 

y A city in Cilicia. 

E E 



418 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



quell the insurrection of these highlanders, and 
extirpate an enemy that was perpetually infesting 
us. To this end I made a feint of retiring towards 
anotherpart of Cilicia; and, having actually returned 
a day's march, I encamped at Epiphanea. But, on 
the 12th of October, in the evening, I struck my 
tents, and, by a long march during the whole night, 
I arrived early the next morning at Amanus. I 
immediately formed in order of battle, heading part 
of the troops myself, in conjunction with my bro- 
ther, and distributing the command of the rest 
amongst my other lieutenants. The enemy being 
thus surrounded by surprise, were taken and de- 
stroyed in great numbers. Meanwhile, my lieute- 
nant Pontinius attacked Sepyra, Commons, and 
Erana ; the latter of which is the principal town on 
these mountains, and indeed considerable enough 
to be called a city. They each made a very obsti- 
nate resistance ; and, notwithstanding the attack 
began before day-break, they did not surrender till 
night, nor without having suffered a prodigious 
slaughter. In this action we took six fortresses, 
and burnt many more. 

Having thus successfully completed this expedi- 
tion, we encamped at the foot of Mount Amanus, 
near Alexander's 2 Altars, where I continued four 
days. During the whole time I remained here, I 
was employed in extirpating the rest of these 
mountaineers, and destroying that part of their 
lands which lies within my province. From hence 
I sat down before Pindinessum, a city in the terri- 
tories of that part of Cilicia which has never 
submitted to the Romans. This was a place of 
great strength, and inhabited by a stubborn people 
who had preserved themselves un conquered, even 
by the neighbouring kings. It was a harbour, 
likewise, for fugitives of every kind, and they were 
greatly also in the interest of the Parthians, whose 
approach they impatiently expected. Upon these 
considerations, I thought it for the honour of my 
arms to restrain their insolence ; especially, as I 
should by this means the more easily subdue the 
spirit of those other cantons which were equally 
averse to the Roman government. In consequence 
of this resolution, I invested the town ; and, having 
raised six large fortresses, I began to play my 
battering engines against their walls. They held 
out, however, fifty-seven days ; but at length find- 
ing the flames had seized several parts of the town, 
"and that other quarters were laid .in ruins, they 
surrendered at discretion, after having occasioned 
me an infinite fatigue. I had the satisfaction to 
complete this enterprise without occasioning our 
allies the least inconvenience or expense. After 
having thus reduced Pindinessum, and received 
hostages from the Tiburani, a neighbouring people 
equally bold and insolent, I sent my army into 
winter-quarters. This care I assigned to my bro- 
ther, and ordered him to canton the troops amongst 
those towns we had lately taken, or that were most 
disposed to revolt. 

And now, if a motion should be made in the 
senate concerning the honours due to the success 
of my arms, I shall esteem it the highest glory to 
be supported in my pretensions by your suffrage. 
I am sensible it is usual for the gravest characters 
to request, as well as to be requested, for favours 

z A place near lssus, where Alexander, having defeated 
Darius, consecrated three altars to Jupiter, Hercules, and 
Minerva, as memorials of his victory. — Quint. Curt. iii. 



of this nature in the strongest terms ; but I per- 
suade myself it will be more proper for me to 
remind, than to solicit you, in the present instance. 
You have frequently, indeed, not only distinguished 
me with your vote, but with your highest applause, 
both in the senate and in the assemblies of the 
people a . And believe me, I have ever thought 
there was so much weight and authority in all you 
uttered, that a single word of yours in my favour 
was the highest honour I could possibly receive. I 
remember, upon a certain occasion, when you 
refused to vote for a public thanksgiving b which 
was proposed in favour of a very worthy and illus- 
trious citizen ; you told the senate that you should 
willingly have given your suffrage in support of the 
honour in question, had it been designed as a reward 
for any civil services which that consul had per- 
formed in Rome. Agreeably to this maxim, you 
formerly concurred in voting that a public thanks- 
giving should be decreed to me ; not, indeed, for 
having advanced the glory of our country by my 
military achievements, (for that would have been a 
circumstance nothing uncommon,) but for having, 
in a most singular and unexampled manner, pre- 
served the liberties of the whole commonwealth c 
without drawing a sword. I forbear to mention 
the generous share you have taken in all the envy, 
the difficulties, and the dangers to which my life 
has been exposed ; and a far greater you were 
willing to have taken, if I could have been pre- 
vailed upon to have consented. I forbear to men- 
tion, likewise, that 3'ou considered my enemy d as 
your own ; and that, in order to give me a con- 
vincing proof of your great regard, you scrupled 
not to show your approbation even of his death, by 
defending Milo in the senate. In return, (and I 
speak of it not as a favour for which you are in- 
debted to me, but as a tribute which I owed to 
truth,) I have been no silent admirer of your virtues; 
for who, indeed, can suppress his applause of them ? 
In all my speeches, both in the forum and the 
senate, as well as in the several pieces I have pub- 
lished, either in our own language or in Greek, I 
have ever represented your character as superior, 
not only to the noblest amongst our contemporaries, 
but to the most celebrated in history. 

After all, you will wonder, perhaps, what should 
induce me to set so high a value upon these little 
transient honours of the senate. I will acknow- 
ledge, then, the whole truth, and lay open my heart 
before you with a freedom becoming that philo- 
sophy we cultivate, and that friendship we profess ; 
a friendship delivered down to us from our parents, 
and improved by many reciprocal good offices. 

Let me previously observe, that if ever any man 
was a stranger to vain-glory, and a desire of vulgar 

a Cicero, soon after the expiration of his consulate, had 
very particular obligations to Cato, of the kind he men- 
tions. For the latter being tribune at that time, procured 
him a confirmation, from an assembly of the people, of the 
glorious title of father of his country.— Plut. in Vit. 
Cicer. 

!» This honour was usually decreed to a general after 
some signal advantage obtained by his arms. It consisted 
in appointing a solemn festival, in order to return thanks 
to the gods for the public success; at which time the 
senate went in solemn procession to the principal temples 
in Rome, and assisted at the sacrifices instituted for such 
occasions. 

c By the suppression of Catiline's conspiracy. 

d Clodius. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



419 



admiration, it is myself ; and this frame of mind, 
which I possess by temper, has been still strength- 
ened (if I am not deceived) by reason and philo- 
sophy. As an evidence of this, I appeal to my 
consulate ; in which, as in every other part of my 
life, though I pursued that conduct, I confess, 
from whence true honours might be derived, yet I 
never thought they were of themselves an object 
worthy of my ambition. On "the contrary, I 
refused the government of a very noble province e ; 
and, notwithstanding it was highly probable I 
might have obtained a triumph, yet I forbore to 
prosecute my pretensions of that kind. I forbore, 
too, the offering myself as a candidate for the office 
of augur, though you are sensible, I dare say, that 
I might have succeeded without much difficulty. 
But I will acknowledge that the injurious treatment 
I afterwards suffered, though you always speak of 
it, indeed, as a circumstance which reflects the 
highest honour upon my character, and as a mis- 
fortune only to the republic, has rendered me 
desirous of receiving the most distinguished marks 
of my country's approbation. For this reason I 
solicited the office of augur, which I. had before 
declined ; and, as little as I once thought the mili- 
tary honours deserved my pursuit, I am now ambi- 
tious of that distinction which the senate usually 
confers on its successful generals. I will own I 
have some view, by this mean, of healing the 
wounds of my former unmerited disgrace ; and, 
therefore, though I just now declared that I would 
not press you upon this article, I recal my words, 
and most earnestly conjure your suffrage and assist- 
ance. I make this request, however, upon the 
supposition that what I have performed in this 
campaign shall not appear contemptible in your 
eye, but, on the contrary, far superior to the actions 
of many of those generals who have obtained the 
most glorious rewards from the senate. 

I have observed, (and you are sensible I always 
listen with great attention whenever you deliver 
your opinions,) that, as often as any question of 
this nature has come before the senate, you were 
less inquisitive into the military than civil conduct 
of the proconsul. It was the political ordinances 
he had established, and the moral qualities he had 
displayed, that seemed to have the principal weight 
in determining your vote. If you should examine 
my pretensions in this view, you will see that, with 
a weak and inconsiderable army, I found a strong 
resource against the danger of a very formidable 
invasion in the lenity and justice of my govern- 
ment. By these aids I effected what I never could 
by the most powerful legions : I recovered the 
friendship of our alienated allies ; firmly strength- 
ened their allegiance to the republic ; and conci- 
liated their affections at a time when they were 
waiting the opportunity of some favourable con- 
juncture to desert us. 

But perhaps I have expatiated farther upon 
this subject than is necessary ; especially to you, 
before whom all our allies in general are accus- 
tomed to lay their complaints'. To them, there- 

e Macedonia ; to which he had a right by lot to have 
succeeded at the expiration of his consulate. See rem. k, 
p. 335. 

f Cato settled a correspondence throughout the whole 
Roman provinces, and received constant intelligence of 
the conduct of the several governors in their respective 
commands, so attentive was this vigilant patriot to what- 



fore, I refer you for an account of the benefits they 
have received by my administration. They will 
all of them, as with one voice, I am persuaded, 
give you the most advantageous testimony in my 
favour ; but particularly those illustrious clients of 
yours, the Cyprians & and Cappadocians, to whom I 

ever concerned the interest of the commonwealth ! — Plut. 
in Vit. Caton. 

S Cyprus had a particular claim to the patronage of 
Cato, as he had been employed in executing a commission 
by which that island was annexed to the dominions of 
the republic. This commission was artfully contrived by 
Clodius in his tribunate, in order to remove Cato out of 
his way ; but the precise nature of it is nowhere distinctly 
explained. It should seem, by what may be collected from 
Plutarch, that it was only an embassy in which Cato was 
appointed to claim, on behalf of the republic, the domi- 
nions of Ptolemy, king of Cyprus, and to offer him, at the 
same time, the high-priesthood of the temple of Venus, in 
the island of Paphos, which in those days might have been 
no disadvantageous exchange. Cato, however, has been 
severely censured by some modern historians, for having 
accepted this office ; and Dr. Middleton, in particular, 
thinks he cannot be justified. But none of the ancient 
historians speak of it as in the least unworthy of Cato's 
virtue : and, indeed, one of the most moral writers in all 
antiquity mentions it upon an occasion which evidently 
shows that it was by no means thought inconsistent with 
that character of rigid justice which this illustrious Roman 
had so deservedly obtained. Seneca, in his letter of conso- 
lation, addressed to Marcia, on the loss of her son, taking 
notice of the advantages of an early death, instances, 
among other examples, those calamities which a more 
extended period had brought upon Cato. — " Marcum Cato- 
nem (says he) si a Cypro et hereditatis regiee dispensatione 
redeuntem mare devorasset, — nonne illo bene actum foret ? 
■ — Nunc annorum adjectio paucissimorum, virum libertati 
non suae tantum sed publicae natum, coegit Cassarem fugere, 
Pompeium sequi." It is evident, then, that this action was 
so far from being deemed unjustifiable in the opinion of 
the ancients, (by which alone it can be fairly examined,) 
that the noblest of their moralists has chosen it to com- 
plete the glory and grace the exit of his favourite hero. 
It must unquestionably, therefore, have been founded 
upon some circumstances that reconciled it to that law of 
nations which then prevailed in the world. Accordingly, 
it appears, by some passages in Cicero's orations, that the 
republic had an ancient claim to these dominions. For 
Alexander, king of Egypt, to whose territories Cyprus 
belonged, appointed the Roman commonwealth his general 
heir ; and though the senate did not judge proper, at that 
juncture, to assert their full right under his will, they 
thought it, however, a sufficient title to possess themselves 
of Alexander's effects. From that time down to the date 
of Cato's commission, frequent attempts had been made 
in the senate to enforce their right under the will, and a 
decree had actually passed for that purpose. But as this 
decree was protested against by some tribune, it had never 
been carried into execution. Thus far it should seem that 
Cato's commission was not foimded upon a mere arbitrary 
exertion of power, but on a right which had long before 
received the sanction of the senate, and which had already 
in part been vindicated to the public. In the next place, 
the inhabitants of Cyprus were extremely oppressed under 
the government of Ptolemy, and desirous of transferring 
their subjection to the Romans. Paterculus represents 
this prince as one who well deserved the punishment he 
suffered : — ' ; omnibus morum vitiis (says he) earn contu- 
meliam meritum." And Dion Cassius expressly declares, 
that the Cyprians received Cato, " ovk aecovvius hoping 
that, from slaves, as they were before, they should be 
raised into the number of the friends and allies of Rome." 
But to consider this question in another view : what pro- 
bable reason of personal interest can be assigned for Cato's 
undertaking this office ? It could not be from a spirit of 
avarice : for it is unanimously confessed that he discharged 
it with the most unspotted integrity. It could not be from 
E E 2 



420 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



may likewise add your great and royal friend h , 
prince Deiotarus. If thus to act is a merit of the 
most superior kind, if in all ages the number has 
been far less considerable of those who knew how 
to subdue their desires than to vanquish their ene- 
mies, he that has given an instance of both, cannot, 
certainly, but be deemed, in Cato's estimation at 
least, to have strengthened his claim to the honours 
of his country, and to have improved the splendour 
of his military achievements by the more unusual 
lustre of his civil conduct. 

Let me, in the last place, and as in diffidence of 
my own solicitations, call in Philosophy for my 
advocate ; than which nothing has ever afforded 
me a more sensible satisfaction. The truth is, she 
is one of the noblest blessings that the gods have 
bestowed on man. At her shrine we have both of 
us, from our earliest years, paid our joint and equal 
adorations ; and while she has been thought by 
some the companion only of indolent and sechided 
speculatists, we (and we alone, I had almost said) 
have introduced her into the world of business, and 
familiarised her with the most active and important 
scenes. She, therefore, it is that now solicits you 
in my behalf ; and when Philosophy is the sup- 
pliant, Cato surely can never refuse. To say all 
in one word, be well assured, if I should prevail 
with you to concur in procuring a decree I so much 
wish to obtain, I shall consider myself as wholly 
indebted for that honour to your authority and 
friendship. Farewell. 



LETTER II. 

Marcus Cato to Cicero. 

The affection I bear both to you and to the 
republic induces me, very sincerely, to rejoice in 
a u 70S finding that you exercise the same in- 
tegrity and vigilance in the conduct of 
our arms abroad as distinguished your administra- 
tion of our most important affairs at home. I have, 
therefore, paid your actions that honour which was 
most consistent with my judgment ; and, in speak- 
ing to this question before the senate, as well as 
afterwards when I assisted in drawing up the 
decree that has passed in your favour, I applauded 
the probity and prudence with which you have 
protected your province, preserved the crown and 
person of Ariobarzanes, and conciliated the affec- 
tions of our allies in general. 

If you rather choose, however, that we should 
ascribe to the gods those advantages which the 
republic has gained entirely by your own consum- 
mate wisdom and probity, I am glad the senate 

a motive of ambition ; for he refused all the honours, upon 
this occasion, which his country would have paid him. 
It could not be from a servile compliance with the power 
of Clodius ; for he died rather than submit even to that of 
Caesar. Upon the whole, therefore, it seems reasonable 
to assert, that Cato acted in this instance, as in all others, 
upon a principle of disinterested patriotism, and consis- 
tently with the strictest maxims of pagan morality.— Plut. 
in Vit. Caton. ; Orat. in Rul. i. 1. 11. 16; Veil. Pat. ii. 45 ; 
Dio, p. 101 ; Senec. Consol. ad Marc. 20. 

h Cato took a voyage into Asia, in order to inform himself 
of the strength and disposition of these eastern provinces ; 
and it was upon this occasion that he entered into a per- 
sonal friendship with Deiotarus, who paid him the honours 
of his court with singular marks of esteem and considera- 
tion.— Plut. in Vit Caton'. 



has passed a decree for that purpose. But if you 
are willing that fortune should have the credit of 
your actions, as supposing a public thanksgiving 
necessarily opens your way to a triumph, I must 
observe that the latter is not always a consequence 
of the former. Yet, granting it were, is it not 
far more to the honour of a general, to have it 
declared, by a vote of the senate, that he preserved 
his province by the mildness and equity of his 
administration, than that he owed it either to the 
strength of his troops, or to the peculiar inter- 
position of Providence ? Such, at least, were my 
sentiments when this question came before the 
house ; and if I have employed more words than 
usual in explaining them, it was from a desire of 
convincing you, that, though I proposed to the 
senate what I thought would be most for the 
advantage of your reputation, I rejoice that they 
have determined what is most agreeable to your 
wishes. I have only to request the continuance of 
your friendship, and to entreat you steadily to 
persevere in those paths of integrity which you 
have hitherto pursued both in respect to our allies 
and the republic 1 . Farewell. 



LETTER III. 

To Caius Marcellusi, Consul. 
Nothing could be more agreeable to my wishes, 
than that the question concerning the honours due 
- „ to my military services should come 
before the senate at a time when you are 
consul, as it will afford you an opportunity of 
gratifying that uncommon zeal for my interests 
which I have upon all occasions experienced from 
every branch of your family. Let me entreat you, 
therefore, when the letter I have addressed to the 
senate shall be laid before that assembly, to exert 
your influence in procuring a decree in my favour 
of the most distinguished kind. I persuade myself 
you will find no difficulty in complying with this 
request, as the senate, I trust, will by no means 
be averse to my pretensions. If there were any of 
your family whose friendship I enjoyed in a higher 
degree than yours, I should have applied to you 
by their intervention. But though no man ever 
entered more warmly into my interests than your 
father ; though the esteem which your relation 
Marcus Marcellus has long entertained for me is 
conspicuous to the whole world; and, in a word, 
though all your family, in general, have ever 
honoured me with the most signal marks of their 
regard ; yet there is not one of them who hath 
afforded me stronger instances of affection than 
yourself. I conjure you, then, to distinguish me 
with the highest honours ; and let me experience, 

» This letter (to speak in the virtuoso language) is a 
unique, and extremely valuable, as being the only compo- 
sition that has been transmitted to us from the hands of 
Cato. It confirms what Plutarch expressly asserts, that 
Cato's manners were by no means of a rough and unpolished 
cast, as no refusal could have been drawn up in more 
decent and civil terms. A judicious eye, however, cannot 
but discern, through this veil of politeness, the nice touches 
of a delicate and concealed raillery, which Cicero, never- 
theless, thought proper to dissemble, as will appear by 
his answer to this letter in the following book. See letter 
10, book vi. 

J See rem. °,p. 3.09. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



421 



in the affair of my thanksgiving, as well as in every 
other wherein the glory of my reputation is con- 
cerned, that I want no solicitor to recommend me 
to your good offices. Farewell. 



LETTER IV. 

To Lucius Paulus^, Consul. 
Among many reasons for wishing myself with 
you at Rome, the principal was, that I might, both 
a u 70"* a * y our election and in the course of your 
consular ministry, have given you proofs 
of that zeal to which you have so undoubted a right. 
I am sensible, at the same time, that the unanimity 
with which you were chosen, (and of which, indeed, 
I never entertained the least doubt,) would have 
rendered my assistance in that article altogether 
unnecessary : and I sincerely wish you may have 
as little occasion for it in the subsequent discharge 
of your office. However, I should have had the 
satisfaction, at least, of seconding your views in 
both. It is a great concern to me, I confess, when 
I reflect that, notwithstanding I experienced many 
important instances of your affection during my 
consulship, I am yet utterly incapable of making 
any return in yours. And what renders this reflec- 
tion still more mortifying, is, that you were but a 
young man when you thus generously displayed 
the effects of your friendship : whereas, I am at a 
time of life when much greater advantages might 
well be expected from mine. I know not, in truth, 
by what fatality it is that you have continually had 
opportunities of advancing my dignities, and that 
I have never been able to contribute anything but 
ineffectual good wishes to yours. Thus, as not 
only in the instance I just now mentioned, but in 
the article of my restoration, I was indebted to you 
for the highest honours, so a fresh occasion now 
presents itself to you of distinguishing me, as my 
military achievements have happened to fall within 
the period of your consulate. The dignity of that 
office with which you are invested, and the import- 
ance of those honours I am suing for, might well 
require that I should address you in all the warmth 
of solicitation ; but I dare not venture thus to press 
you, lest it should look as if I forgot, or at least 
imagined that you had forgotten, your usual dis- 
position to serve me. I will make my request, 
therefore, in few words : and it will be treating 
you in a manner more agreeable, I dare say, to 
your own inclinations, as well as to those favours 
which all the world is sensible I have received at 
your hands. If any others, indeed, than you and 
your colleague were in possession of the consular 
office, you are the first man whose mediation I 
should have employed in order to render the 
consuls favourable to my pretensions. But as this 
high authority is vested in you, with whom I have 
the strongest and most conspicuous connexions, I 
cannot scruple to conjure your assistance in speeds 
ily procuring a decree of the most illustrious kin-i 
in my favour ; an honour which you will find, >y 
the letter I have addressed to the senate, that my 
arms are not unworthy of receiving. I recommend 
then my reputation, and, indeed, my concerns of 
every sort, to your generous patronage. But, above 
all, I beseech you (and it is a request I mentioned 

k See rem. 1, p. 400. 



in my former letter) that you would not suffer the 
time of my continuance here to be prolonged. It 
is much my desire, in truth, to see you in your 
consular office ; and I doubt not of obtaining from 
your administration every advantage, both here and 
in Italy, that I most wish to enjoy. Farewell. 



LETTER V. 

Marcus Coelius to Cicero. 
You have been informed, I doubt not, that 
Dolabella has exhibited articles of impeachment 
a u 703 a § a ^ nst Appius 1 ; and this prosecution 
seems to be more agreeable to the world 
in general than I imagined. Appius, however, has 
acted with great prudence upon the occasion : for 
as soon as his adversary had lodged his information, 
he withdrew his petition for a triumph, and imme- 
diately entered the city m . By these means he 
silenced the reports to his disadvantage ; as he 
appeared more willing to take his trial than his 
prosecutor expected. Appius relies greatly in this 
conjuncture upon your assistance ; and I am per- 
suaded you are not disinclined to serve him. You 
have it now in your power 11 to do so as far as you 
shall think proper ; though, I must add, you would 
be more at liberty to limit your good offices towards 
him, if you and he had never been upon ill terms 
together. But, as the case now stands, were you 
to measure out your services by the right he has to 
demand them, it might be suspected that you were 
not sincere in your reconcilement : whereas, you 
can hazard no censure by obliging him ; as you 
will show that you are not to be discouraged from 
acting a generous part, even where friendship 
might incline you to the contrary. This reminds 
me of acquainting you that Dolabella's wife ob- 
tained a divorce just upon the commencement of 
this prosecution. I remember the commission p 
you left with me when you set out for the province; 
as I dare say you have not forgotten what I after- 
wards wrote to you concerning that affair. I have 
not time to enlarge upon it at present : only let 
me advise you, how much soever you may relish 
the scheme, to wait the event of this trial before 
you discover your sentiments. If, indeed, your 
inclinations should be known, it will raise a very 
invidious clamour against you ; and should you 
give Dolabella the least intimation of them, they 

1 He was prosecuted by Dolabella in two distinct im- 
peachments. The first was, for being guilty of treason 
in his government of Cilicia ; and the other, for bribery 
and corruption in his election to the consulate.— Ep. Fam. 
iii. 11. 

m See rem. °, ;;. 409. 

n As one of Dolabella's impeachments against Appius 
was for his mal-practices in Cilicia, it was extremely in 
the power of Cicero to serve Appius in those examinations 
which were necessary to be taken in his province. 

° To Dolabella. 

P It seems probable, from this passage, that there was 
some prospect of a divorce between Dolabella and his wife 
before Cicero left Rome ; and that the latter had commis- 
sioned Coelius, in case this event should happen, to take 
some measures for procuring a match between Dolabella 
and his daughter Tullia. There will be occasion to make 
great use of this circumstance in a remark upon a letter 
in the following book : and, therefore, it is here pointed 
out for the reader's particular observation. See rem. S, on 
letter 1, book vi. 



422 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



will certainly become more public than will be con- 
venient either for your interest or your honour. 
He would, undoubtedly, be unable to conceal a 
circumstance so advantageous to his present views, 
and which would give so much credit to the pro- 
secution in which he is engaged ; and I am per- 
suaded he would scarcely refrain from making it 
the subject of his conversation, notwithstanding he 
were sure the discovery would prove to his pre- 
judice. Pompey, I am told, interests himself ex- 
tremely in behalf of Appius ; insomuch, that it is 
generally imagined he has a design of sending one 
of his sons in order to solicit you in his favour. 
Meanwhile, we are in the humour here of acquit- 
ting all criminals : nothing, in truth, so base or so 
villanous can be perpetrated that is not sure of 
escaping punishment. You will perceive how 
wondrously active our consuls are in their office, 
when I tell you that they have not yet been able to 
procure a single decree of the senate, except one 
for appointing the Latiani festivals. Even our 
friend Curio has not hitherto acted with any spirit 
in his tribunate ; as, indeed, it is impossible to 
describe the general indolence that has seized us. 
If it were not for my contests with the vintners 
and the surveyors of the public aqueducts, all 
Rome would appear in a profound lethargy. In 
short, I know not to what degree the Parthians 
may have animated you ; but, as for us, in this 
part of the world, we are fast asleep. But how 
much soever we may want to be awakened, I hope 
it will not be by the Parthians. It is reported, 
nevertheless, though I know not on what founda- 
tion, that they have gained some slight advantage 
over the troops of Bibulus, near Mount Amanus. 

Since I wrote the above, I must recal what I said 
concerning Curio. The cold fit is at length expelled 
by the warmth of those censures to which the levity 
of his conduct has exposed him. For, not being able 
to carry his point with respect to the intercalation 1 , 
he has deserted the interest of the senate, and 
harangued the people in favour of Csesar s . He 
threatens, likewise, to propose a Viarian law, 
somewhat of the same tendency with the Agrarian 
one which was formerly attempted by Rullus 1 ; as 

1 This festival was instituted by Tarquin, in memory of 
his conquest of Etruria. 
* See rem. <*, p. 388. 

s It has already been observed, in the course of these 
remarks, that Curio secretly favoured the interest of 
Cffisar, at the same time that he affected to act in concert 
with the friends of the senate. But circumstances being 
now mature for throwing aside the mask, he seized the 
first opportunity of quarrelling with his party. With this 
view he applied to the pontifical college for an intercalation, 
in order to lengthen out the period of his tribunitial minis- 
try. This he knew would not be granted, as having before 
raised, it is probable, some suspicion of his real designs. 
The refusal, however, furnished him with the pretence he 
wanted, and gave a colour (such as it was) to the desertion 
he had long meditated. — Dio, p. 149. 

t Rullus was tribune of the people in the consulate of 
Cicero, by whose address and eloquence the law which 
Rullus attempted to introduce was rejected. " These laws," 
as Dr. Middleton observes, "used to be greedily received 
by the populace, and were proposed, therefore, by factious 
magistrates as often as they had any point to carry with 
the multitude against the public good : but this law (of 
Rullus) was of all others the most extravagant, and, by a 
show of granting more to the people than had ever been 
given before, seemed likely to be accepted. The purpose 
of it was to createadecemvirate, or ten commissioners, with 



also another, empowering the sediles to distribute 
corn among the people. 

If you should determine (as I think you ought) 
to employ your good offices in behalf of Appius, I 
beg you would take that opportunity of recom- 
mending me to his favour. Let me prevail with 
you, likewise, not to declare yourself with respect 
to Dolabella ; as your leaving that point at large 
will be of singular importance not only to the affair 
I hint at, but also in regard to the opinion the 
world will entertain of your justice and honour. 

Will it not be a high reflection upon you if 
I should not be furnished with some Grecian 
panthers ? Farewell. 



LETTER VI. 

From the same. 

I know not how soon you may wish to resign 
your government ; but, for my own part, my im- 
patience for your return is in proportion 
'to the good fortune that has hitherto 
attended your arms. Whilst you continue in the 
province, therefore, I shall be under perpetual 
apprehensions lest some unlucky reverse should 
damp the joy I take in your late successful expe- 
dition. 

I have time to write but a very few words, as I 
convey this by the hands of the courier to the 
farmers of the revenue, who is just setting out ; 
and, indeed, I sent you a long letter yesterday by 
your freedman. Nothing has since occurred worth 
communicating ; unless you should have curiosity 
enough to think (as I imagine you will) that the 
following articles deserve notice. In the first place, 
then, Cornificius is upon the point of being married 
to the youngest daughter of Sylla; and in the next, 
Paula Valeria, on the very day her husband was 
expected from his government, procured a divorce, 
without alleging the least cause. She is to be 
married to Decimus Brutus. Several very extra- 
ordinary incidents of the same kind have happened 
during your absence. But would you have sus- 
pected that Servius Ocella was so well with the 
ladies, as to have been twice discovered in close 
gallantry within the space of three short days ? If 
you ask me where the scene of this amorous ad- 
venture was laid ? in sad truth, my friend, where 
I least wished ; but for the rest, I leave you 
to inquire of others 11 . And a pleasant piece of 
intelligence it will be for our noble general to learn 
in whose fair quarters the luckless Ocella was 
seized ! Farewell. 



absolute power for five years over all the revenues of the 
republic, to distribute them at pleasure to the citizens ; to 
sell and buy what lands they thought fit ; to determine the 
rights of the principal possessors ; to require an account 
from all the generals abroad, except Pompey, of the spoils 
taken in their wars ; to settle colonies wheresoever they 
judged proper, and particularly at Capua ; and, in short, to 
command all the money and forces in the empire." — Life 
of Cicero, p. 43. 

u One would almost suspect from the reserved manner 
in which Ccelius relates this adventure, that he had a 
staring reason on his broiv (as the poet humorously calls 
it) for not being more explicit. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



423 



A. u. 703. 



LETTER VII. 
To Appius Pulcher. 

I will answer your letter more fully than I can 
at present, the very first moment I shall have 
more leisure. In the mean while I snatch 
the opportunity of sending this by the 
hands of some domestics of Brutus, who just now 
called upon me at Laodicea, and are returning with 
all expedition to Rome. They are in so much haste, 
that 1 have only time to write this, and another to 
Brutus. 

The deputies from Apamea delivered your long 
letter to me, wherein you very unjustly accuse me 
of having obstructed by my mandates the public 
monument v which that city proposed to raise. 
You desire I would suffer them to proceed imme- 
diately upon the execution of that design, lest they 
should be prevented by the winter ; and very 
severely reproach me for having suspended the 
assessments for that purpose till I should be able 
to inquire into the justice of raising them. This, 
you tell me, was in some sort an absolute prohibi- 
tion ; since the winter would necessarily be set in 
before I could return out of Ciiicia in order to 
examine into that affair. Having thus stated the 
several articles of your charge, I will now show 
you that they are altogether unreasonable. In the 
first place, then, as I had received complaints on 
the part of those who thought themselves aggrieved 
by excessive taxes, where was the injustice if I 
forbade these subsidies to be levied till I could 
examine into the merits of the case ? But this, it 
seems, I could not be able to effect till the winter. 
Yet why not ? let me ask : since it was the part of 
those who made these complaints to wait upon me, 
rather than mine to attend them. But you will 
object, perhaps, to the reasonableness of laying 
these people under the difficulty of taking so long 
a journey. Yet this journey you yourself must 
necessarily have designed they should take, when 
you gave them your letter to deliver to me. And 
deliver it they accordingly did : but they timed it 
so absurdly, that though it was to desire they might 
be permitted to begin their work during the summer, 
they did not bring it to me till that' season was 
expired. I must acquaint you, however, that far 
the greater part of these very citizens are averse to 
the levying this tax in question. Nevertheless, I 
shall take such measures for that purpose, as I 
imagine will prove most agreeable to your inclina- 
tions. And thus much for this Apamean business. 

I am informed, by Pausanias, a freedman of 
Lentulus, and one of my accensors", that you 
complained to him of my having treated you with 
great haughtiness and incivility by not coming to 

v It was usual with these Asiatic provinces to consecrate 
temples to their Roman governors, and associate them 
with the gods in the. same common ceremonies of religious 
worship. Probably, therefore, the building which the city 
of Apamea proposed to erect, was some compliment to 
Appius of this sacred kind. The very ingenious Monsieur 
Mongault has shown, in a learned dissertation which he 
read before the Royal Academy of Belles Lettres at Paris, 
that the divine honours which were paid to the Roman 
emperors, were only a continuance of the same infamous 
prostitution which had been practised during the times of 
the republic— Plut. in Vit. Flamin. ; Memoires de Litt£- 
rat. vol. i. p. 369. 

w The accensors were officers who attended on the pro- 
consular magistrates in their courts of justice. 



meet you in your approach to Iconium. The fact, 
however, is this : I received a message from you 
late at night, acquainting me that you proposed to 
give me an interview in that city before the next 
morning ; but your servant could not inform me 
which of the two roads you intended to take. In 
order, therefore, that I might be ready to attend 
you, I despatched your friend Varro, together with 
Lepta, the captain of my artillery, directing them 
to take different roads, and whichever should meet 
you first, to return with immediate notice. Ac- 
cordingly Lepta came back with great expedition ; 
and assuring me that you had actually passed the 
camp, I instantly went to Iconium. What fol- 
lowed I need not mention. And now is it probable 
that I, who am rather apt to be more assiduous in 
offices of this kind than my station and character 
require, should neglect to pay the accustomed 
honours to Appius Claudius ; to one dignified with 
the august title of imperator, and, what is still 
stronger, to my friend ? But not to dwell any 
longer upon this article, I cannot forbear taking 
notice of an expression you made use of to the 
same person. " A compliment of this kind, you 
told him, had mutually passed between you and 
Lentulus x ; and did Cicero take upon himself to 
act towards a person of your quality with less 
ceremony ?" But can it be true that so weak an 
expression should drop from a man of your im- 
proved understanding and knowledge of the world : 
I will add too, (what the Stoics justly rank in the 
number of social virtues,) of your refined good 
breeding ? Can you possibly believe me so mean 
as to be influenced more by the distinctions of 
birth than of merit ? I have ever, indeed, held 
the founders of illustrious families as truly great ; 
but never could I esteem the splendid names they 
transmitted to their posterity as objects of my 
admiration. These were my sentiments even 
before I had myself attained what the world con- 
siders as the highest honours. But now, after 
having filled the most distinguished posts in the 
commonwealth with a character that leaves nothing 
more for my ambition to wish, though I am far 
from thinking myself superior to those of your 
rank, I hoped, however, that I might be deemed 
their equal. I am persuaded at least that I have 
been always regarded as such, not only by Lentulus, 
to whom I yield the preference to myself in every 
respect, but by Pompey likewise, whom I look 
upon as the greatest man the world has ever pro- 
duced. But if you differ from them in this opinion, 
I would recommend the writings of Athenodorus^ 
to your attentive perusal, — as they will teach you 
to form a more just distinction between high birth 
and true nobility 2 . 

But, not to deviate farther from the purpose of 
my letter, I beg you would do me the justice to 
believe, not only that I am your friend, but that I 
am most affectionately so ; the truth of which I 
shall endeavour to evince by every means in my 
power. Nevertheless, if you are disposed to make 
the world suspect that you have less reason to take 
my interest under your protection during my 
absence than 1 had to act for yours in the same 
circumstance, I willingly spare you the trouble : 

x Lentulus was predecessor to Appius in the government 
of Ciiicia, as Appius was to Cicero. 
Y He was preceptor to Augustus Caesar. — Manutius. 
z See rem. z , p. 354, 



424 



TPIE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



There want not chiefs in such a cause to fight, 
And Jove himself shall guard a monarch's right a . 

But, notwithstanding you should give me reason 
to think that yo u are of a temper too apt to take 
offence, you will not, however, extinguish my desire 
of exerting my best services in your behalf ; you 
will only render me less solicitous in what manner 
you may receive them. 

Thus I have opened my heart to you with a 
freedom that results from the conscious sincerity 
of my friendship towards you, and which, as it was 
founded on dispassionate judgment, I shall preserve 
just as long as may be agreeable to your own in- 
clinations. Farewell. 



l. u. 703. 



LETTER VIII. 

To Caius Cassius h , Proqucestor. 

My own inclinations have anticipated your re- 
commendation : I have long since received Marcus 
Fabius into the number of my friends. 
He has extremely endeared himself to 
me, indeed, by his great politeness and elegance of 
manners, but particularly by the singular affection 
I have observed he bears towards you. Accord- 
ingly, though your letter in his behalf was not 
without effect, yet my own knowledge of the regard 
he entertains for you had somewhat more : you 
may be assured, therefore, I shall very faithfully 
confer upon him the good offices you request. 

Many reasons concurred to make me wish you 
could have given me an interview. In the first 
place, I was desirous, after so tedious a separation, 
to see a friend whom I have long esteemed. In 
the next place, I should have been glad to have 
expressed those congratulations in person which I 
have already paid you in a letter. I wanted, like- 
wise, an opportunity of conferring with you upon 
our mutual affairs, as well as of confirming a 

a Homer, Pope's translation. These lines are taken from 
the speech of Agamemnon to Achilles, in the first Iliad, 
where the latter threatens to withdraw his forces from 
the common cause. Cicero seems to apply them in parti- 
cular allusion to his interest with Pompey, who at this 
time was the great idol of his devotion, and the political 
Jove, at whose shrine he most devoutly howed. 

b He attended Crassus into Syria as his quaestor, who, 
heing killed in an engagement against the Parthians, as 
has been related in rem. k , p. 360 , the administration 
devolved upon Cassius. He seems, Avhen this letter was 
written, to have been setting out, if not actually upon the 
road, from that province. Soon after his return to Rome, 
the civil war broke out, in which he commanded a very 
considerable fleet on the side of Pompey ; but upon the 
defeat of that general in the plains of Pharsalia, he sur- 
rendered botli himself and his ships to the conqueror. [See 
letter 36, book vii. rem. *.] It is unnecessary to mention 
the part which Cassius afterwards acted towards his bene- 
factor, as everybody knows that he was the principal 
contriver and manager of the conspiracy against Caesar. 
Plutarch asserts that he engaged in this design from his 
passionate love of liberty, but the contemporaries of Cassius 
thought otherwise, and it was generally believed in Rome 
that he was actuated upon that occasion more by pique 
than patriotism. It is probable, indeed, that the former 
was hisstrongest.if not his single motive ; for his oppressive 
and tyrannical conduct, during his administration of the 
province of Syria, renders it not very reasonable to suppose 
that he was a real friend to the natural rights of mankind. 
— Plut. in Vit. Brut. ; Cic. Ep. Fam. viii. 10 ; see letter 14, 
book iv. 



friendship founded on many reciprocal good offices, 
though interrupted, indeed, by a long absence. 
But, since I could not obtain the pleasure of a 
nearer conference, let me take the advantage at 
least of this more distant communication, and 
which, in most respects, will answer the same pur- 
pose. There is one or two, however, I must 
except, as it can neither afford me a satisfaction 
equal to that of seeing you, nor a mean of rendering 
you so sensible of the joy I feel in your late success. 
But though I have already expressed my congratu- 
lations in a former letter, I will here again assure 
you that I very sincerely rejoice, not only in the 
illustrious actions you have performed e , but at 
yotir very opportune departure amidst the general 
esteem and applauses of the whole province. 

And now, what I had farther to say, if we bad 
met, related to our mutual affairs ; a point, how- 
ever, which may full as well be discussed in this 
manner. With regard to your own, when I con- 
sider your interest in general, I cannot but advise 
you to hasten to Rome. When I left the city, there 
was not the least appearance of any designs to 
your prejudice ; and I am persuaded your returning 
thither, while the success of your arms is fresh 
upon the minds of the people, will ensure you a 
reception greatly to your honour. The reason for 
hastening your journey will hold still stronger, if 
you are convinced that you shall be able to defeat 
those prosecutions which you are apprehensive, 
it seems, may be brought against some of your 
officers ; as nothing will place your character in a 
more advantageous light than a victory of this 
kind. But if you imagine the charge can be made 
good against them, it merits your consideration 
whether your arrival in Rome will not happen in a 
conjuncture very unfavourable for such a circum- 
stance. Upon the whole, you yourself are most 
capable of determining this question, as you are 
the best judge of your own strength. If you think 
you shall triumph over your adversaries, it is a 
circumstance, undoubtedly, that will raise your 
general credit ; but if you are clear that the reverse 

e Cassius, after the death of Crassus and the total defeat 
of his army, conducted back the remains of the Roman 
troops into Syria, and shut himself up in Antiochia. But 
upon the approach of the Parthians towards that city he 
sallied out, and by his bravery and conduct having 
repulsed the enemy, he continued harassing their retreat 
till he drove them entirely out of Syria. It is upon this 
success that Cicero's congratulations are founded ; but they 
are congratulations in which he was by no means sincere. 
For in some letters to Atticus written about this time, he 
speaks of Cassius as having magnified his actions to the 
senate much beyond the truth, and even claims a share 
with him in the glory of repulsing the Parthians. It was 
the news, he says, of his being upon the march in order to 
assist Cassius, that animated his courage, and spread such 
terror among the enemy as induced them to retreat. But I 
this (as the very ingenious French translator of the let- I 
tersto Atticus observes) was ascribing to himself anhonour 
to which he had certainly no right. For Cicero was at a 
great distance from Antiochia when the Parthians re- 
treated from that city, which the bravery of Cassius, 
together with their own inexperience in the nature of regu- 
lar sieges, were the only causes of their abandoning. An 
observation, therefore, of Cicero's own may serve perhaps 
as a proper conclusion to this remark: — " Defurme est 
de seipso prcedicare> /also prcesertim ,■ et cum irrisionc 
audienlium imitari militem <jloriosum."—D\o, p. 134 ; Ad 
Att. v. 20, 21 ; Mong. Traduct. vol. iii. p. 148, rem. 9 ; De | 
Offic. i. 38. 

I 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



425 



will prove the case, you will certainly be less mor- 
tified by the distant reflections of the world, than if 
you were placed within the hearing of their mali- 
cious censures. 

As to my own affairs, I must repeat the request 
of my last, and entreat you to exert your utmost 
endeavours that my continuance here may not be 
extended beyond the period limited by the senate 
and the people. I urge this request as one upon 
which all my hopes depend, and entreat you to act 
in it with a proportionable zeal. You will find 
Paulus d extremely well disposed to co-operate with 
you upon this occasion ; as also both Curio and 
Furnius e . 

I have only to add the last article I mentioned, 
' as an inducement for desiring an interview ; I mean, 
in order to renew and confirm the pledges of our 
mutual friendship. I persuade myself it will not 
be necessary to employ many words for that pur- 
pose. You discovered, indeed, an early disposition 
to be thus united with me, as on my part I always 
considered it as my particular honour. I found it 
too my great support, in the season of my misfor- 
tunes. Let me add, in farther claim to its con- 
tinuance, that I have contracted, since your absence, 
a great intimacy with your relation Brutus f . I 
promise myself much satisfaction from the society 
of two such ingenious friends, as well as very high 
advantages from your united services : suffer me 
not, I conjure you, to conceive this hope in vain. 
In the mean time, I beg to hear from you imme- 
diately, as I desire, likewise, you would write to 
me very frequently when you return to Rome. 
Farewell. 



LETTER IX. 

To Marcus Ccelius, Curule-JEdile. 

The very worthy and learned Marcus Fabius & 
is a person with whom I am most intimately con- 
a u. 703 necte( l. He strongly, indeed, engages my 
affection, not only by his superior genius 
and erudition, but by that uncommon modesty 
which adorns them. I entreat you, therefore, to 
undertake his cause with the same warmth as if it 
were my own. I know you fine orators are so 
much employed, that a man must have committed 
murder at least, ere he can hope that his affairs are 
of significancy enough to claim your assistance. 
In the present instance, however, I will take no 
excuse : and if I have any share in your regard, 
you will give up all other business when Fabius 
requires your services. 

The severity of the winter has prevented my 
receiving any despatches from Rome a considerable 
time. I am extremely impatient, therefore, to 
hear what is going forward amongst you, and par- 
ticularly what my friend Coelius is doing. Fare- 
well. 

d One of the present consuls. 

e Tribunes of the people. 

f Brutus was at this time married to Junia, the sister of 
Cassius. 

% This seems to be the person mentioned in the foregoing 
letter, in whose behalf Cassius had written to Cicero. The 
following epistle is likewise in favour of the same friend, 
and upon the same occasion. 



LETTER X. 

To Curtius Peducceanus, Prcetor h . 
I have long enjoyed an intimacy with Marcus 
Fabius, for whom 1 sincerely profess the most 
. , t,o tender regard. I do not, however, desire 

A. V. /VS. • n l i 

to influence your judgment m the suit 
which he has depending before you, as I am sure 
you will not depart from those rules of equity which 
your honour obliges you to observe, and which you 
prescribed to yourself when you first entered upon 
your office 1 . My only request is, (and it is a re- 
quest I most earnestly make) that you would allow 
him to wait upon you, and would favour his claim 
so far as justice is on his side. In a word, let me 
entreat you to show him that my friendship can 
avail him even at this distance. Farewell. 



LETTER XL 

To Appius Pulcher. 
I have at last received a letter from you, writ- 
ten in a spirit worthy of yourself, as it is conceived 

703 * n terms ^ u ^ °^ a g enerous an( i candid 
friendship. It should seem, indeed, that 
the very view of Rome had an immediate effect 
upon your temper, and restored you to the agree- 
able possession of your usual good humour and 
politeness. I am sure, at least, that the two com- 
plaining letters you wrote to me on your journey, 
ere you had left Asia, were such as I could not 
read without reluctance. I will own, too, that, 
conscious of the inviolable attachment which I have 
ever preserved to your interests, I could not for- 
bear answering them with some warmth. The 
letter, indeed, which you delivered to my freedman 
Philotimus, left me no room to doubt that there 
were some persons in this province who were no 
well-wishers to our union. But I have the satis- 
faction to find, that as soon as you came to Rome, 
or rather as soon as you were met by your friends 
and family, you were convinced of that warm and 
constant testimony I gave of my friendship and 
esteem for you upon all occasions during your 
absence. You will easily imagine, then, with how 
much pleasure I read your assurances, that if any 
incident should arise wherein my reputation may 
be concerned, you will endeavour to make me an 
equal return. And though you doubt whether you 
shall be able effectually to do so, most certainly 
there is no reason to question it : for there is 
nothing, my friend, which a sincere and zealous 
affection is not capable of performing. 

Notwithstanding I was well persuaded, in my 
own judgment, and had received frequent assur- 
ances likewise by the letters of my friends, that 
you would undoubtedly be honoured with a triumph, 
yet it afforded me a singular pleasure to be con- 
firmedJ in this persuasion by your own hand. 
Believe me, however, I by no means rejoice in it 



h The praetors were next in rank and power to the con- 
suls, and their office somewhat resembled that of our 
chief justices.— See rem. h , p. 407. 

i The several praetors, before they entered upon their 
office, drew up and published a sort of formulary, which 
they intended to observe in their respective administra- 
tions of justice. — Rosin. Antiq. Horn. vii. 700. 

J When Cicero wrote this epistle, he had not received the 
letter from Ccelius, wherein he gives him an account of 



426 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



from a selfish Epicurean principle, and as it may 
probably facilitate my own pretensions of the same 
kind, but as taking a sincere and disinterested 
share in every increase of your dignities. 1 entreat 
you, then, as you have more frequent opportunities 
of writing into this province than any other of my 
fdends, that you would give me immediate notice 
as soon as you shall have obtained the decree, which 
you have so much reason to expect, and which I so 
unfeignedly wish you. If the tedious resolutions 
of the long bench, as our friend Pompey calls the 
senate, should delay your hopes a few days, (and 
more than a few days they surely cannot delay 
them,) be confident, however, that they will at 
length distinguish you with those honours which 
are so justly your due. Again, therefore, I conjure 
you, as you give me your affection, or would pre- 
serve mine, to let me participate in the joy of this 
good news as early as possible. 

To this request I will join another, and remind 
you of executing your promise of sending me the 
completion of your treatise on augury k . I ask 
this, not only as being desirous of informing myself 
in the rites and principles of the sacred college, 
but as I receive with uncommon satisfaction every 
mark of your favour. As to the request you made 
me on your part of returning you a compliment in 
the same kind, it is a point I must well consider. 
For it would ill become an author whom you have 
so often applauded for the pains 1 he bestows upon 
his compositions, to suffer any crude and indigested 
performance to come forth from his hands, espe- 
cially upon an occasion that would justly expose 
him to the censure, not only of being guilty of 
negligence, but of a most ungrateful disrespect. 
However, I may find some opportunity, perhaps, of 
satisfying both you and myself upon this article. 
In the mean time, I hope you will endeavour, in 
conformity to your promise, that a public thanks- 
giving of the most distinguished kind be decreed, 
as soon as possible, on account of my late victories ; 
and I am persuaded you will act with that zeal 
which is agreeable to your sincerity, and to the 
friendship which has long subsisted between us. I 

Appius having dropped his petition for a triumph.. — See 
the 5th letter of this book. 

k See rem. 7, p. 391. 

1 " Tis strange to see how differently the vanity of man- 
kind runs in different times and seasons. 'Tis at present 
the boast of almost every enterpriser in the Muses' art, 
that, by his genius alone and a natural rapidity of style 
and thought, he is able to carry all before him ; that he 
plays with his business, does things in passing, at a ven- 
ture, and in the quickest period of time. In the days of 
Attic elegance, as works were then truly of another form 
and turn, so workmen were of another humour, and had 
their vanity of a quite contrary kind. They became rather 
affected in endeavouring to discover the pains they had 
taken to be correct. They were glad to insinuate how 
laboriously, and with what expense of time, they had 
brought the smallest work of theirs (as perhaps a single 
ode, or satire, an oration, or panegyric) to its perfection. 
When they had so polished their piece, and rendered it so 
natural and easy that it seemed only a lucky flight, a hit 
of thought, or flowing vein of humour, they were then 
chiefly concerned, lest it should in reality pass for such, 
and their artifice remain undiscovered. They were willing 
it should be known how serious their play was, and how 
elaborate their freedom and facility; that they might say, 
as the agreeable and polite poet, glancing on himself, 

Ludentis speciem dabit et torquebitur." — 
Shaftesbury's Characteristics, i. 233. 



was somewhat later in my public despatches for 
this purpose, than I wished ; and as they were 
delayed likewise by the difficulty of navigation at 
that season, they did not, I suppose, arrive before 
the senate was prorogued. It was the influence 
which your advice always has upon my judgment 
that induced me to defer them ; and I am satisfied 
it was perfectly right not to acquaint the senate of 
my being saluted with the title of Imperator, till 
I had gained still farther advantages by my arms, 
and entirely completed the campaign. I confidently 
rely, therefore, upon the assistance you have pro- 
mised me, and recommend to your protection 
whatever else concerns either my affairs or my 
family. Farewell. 

■ — ♦ — 

LETTER XII. 

To Marcus Coelius. 

Would you imagine that I should ever be at a 
loss for words ! I do not mean of that chosen and 

u "03 elegant kind which are the privilege of 
you celebrated orators, but those of ordi- 
nary and common use. Yet, believe me, I am 
utterly incapable of expressing the solicitude I feel 
concerning the resolutions that may be taken in the 
senate in regard to the provinces. I am extremely 
impatient, indeed, to return to my friends at Rome, 
among which number you are principally in my 
thoughts. I will confess, likewise, that I am quite 
satiated of my government. For, in the first 
place, I have more reason to apprehend that 
some reverse of fortune may deprive me of the 
glory I have here acquired, than to expect I 
shall be able to raise it higher. And, in the next 
place, I cannot but look upon the whole business 
of this scene as much inferior to my strength, 
which is both able and accustomed to support a far 
more important weight. I will acknowledge, too, 
that I am uneasy in the expectation of a very ter- 
rible war m , which is likely to be kindled in this 
part of the world, and which I may probably escape 
if I should obtain my dismission at the stated 
time. 

I do not forget the panthers you desired, and 
have given my orders to the persons usually em- 
ployed in hunting them : but these animals are 
exceedingly scarce with us. They take it so unkind, 
you must know, that they should be the only crea- 
tures in my province for whom any snares are laid, 
that they have withdrawn themselves from my 
government, and are marched into Caria. How- 
ever, the huntsmen, and particularly honest Pa- 
tischus, are making very diligent inquiry after 
their haunts ; and all the game they can meet with 
shall certainly be yours : but what the number will 
prove is altogether uncertain. Be well assured the 
honour of your sedileship is much my care ; and 
this day particularly reminds me of it, as it is the 
festival of the Megalesian games". 

m With the Parthians. 

n The Megalesian games were under the conduct of the 
curulc a?dilcs, as well as those called the Roman. The 
learned Manutius, therefore, conjectures that the anniver- 
sary of the former reminded Cicero of the panthers which 
Ccclius requested, in order to grace those shows he was to 
exhibit at the latter, which were celebrated with greater 
pomp and magnificence. The nature of the Roman games 
has already been explained in rem. r , p. 405. The Megale- 
sian games were instituted in honour of the mother of the 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



427 



I hope you will send me a minute detail of our 
public affairs, as I have an entire dependence on 
the accounts which are transmitted to me by your 
hand. Farewell. 



LETTER XIII. 
• To Thermus, Proprcetor. 
Your very generous treatment of Marcus Mar- 
cilius, the son of my friend and interpreter , is a 
a v 703 most obliging instance, among many 
others, of the regard you pay to my re- 
commendations. He came to me at Laodicea, and 
expressed the highest gratitude for the good offices 
you had conferred upon him at my request. As 
you see, therefore, that your favours are not 
bestowed upon those who are insensible of their 
value, I hope you will be the more inclined to 
continue them. I entreat you, then, to interpose, 
as far as your honour will permit, in preventing a 
prosecution wherein the motber-in-law of this 
young man is likely to be involved. And though 
I strongly recommended Marcilius to you in my 
former letter, yet it is with still greater warmth 
that I do so in this ; as I have since received very 
singular, and, indeed, almost incredible proofs of 
his father's probity and fidelity during the many 
months he has been engaged in my service. Fare- 
well. 



LETTER XIV. 

To the same. 

The report of a very considerable war being 
kindled in Syria, is confirmed to me by daily 
a u 703. ex P resses - I talce the liberty, therefore, 
in confidence of our mutual friendship, 
to press you so much the more strongly to dismiss 
my lieutenant Anneius as soon as possible. His 
military abilities, indeed, will render his advice 
and assistance of singular advantage in this con- 
juncture, both to myself and to the republic. 
Nothing could have induced him to leave me at 
this critical season, or, in truth, have prevailed 
with me to consent to his absence, but an affair of 
the last importance to his interest. However, as 
I purpose to go into CiliciaP about the beginning 
of May, it is absolutely necessary he should return 
before that time. 

I will take this opportunity of most earnestly 
renewing the request I made to you in person, and 
which I afterwards repeated in a letter, that you 
would employ your good offices in settling his 
contest with the city of Sardis, agreeably to the 
justice of his cause, and the dignity of his charac- 
ter. I had the pleasure, when I talked with you 

gods, and were so called from Megalesia, (scil. o vabs tzjs 
fjLeyd\ri5 0eas,)a temple in Phrygia, from whence the 
statue and worship of that goddess Avas brought to Rome. 
This festival commenced on the 4th of April, and conti- 
nued six days. 

The governors of provinces were prohibited from using 
any other language than; the Latin, in the functions of their 
ministry, for which reason they were always attended with 
interpreters.— Val. Max. ii. 2. 

V Besides the province of Cilicia, properly so called, there 
were three other adjoining districts annexed to Cicero's 
government, in one of which he appears to have been at 
the time of writing this letter. 



upon this subject at Ephesus, to find you perfectly 
well disposed to assist him upon his own account. 
Let me add, however, that your adjusting this 
affair to his satisfaction, will be performing the 
most acceptable service likewise to myself. I con- 
jure you, therefore, to despatch it with all possible 
expedition. Farewell. 



LETTER XV. 

To Marcus Ccelius, Curule-Mdile. 
Your very agreeable letters visit me but seldom : 
perhaps, by some accident or other, they lose their 
a u 703 wa 7* How full was the last i, which came 
to my hands, of the most prudent and 
obliging advice ! I had determined, indeed, to act 
in the manner you recommend : but it gives an 
additional strength to one's resolutions, to find 
them conformable to the sentiments of so faithful 
and so judicious a friend. I have often assured 
you of my extreme affection for Appius ; and I 
had reason to believe, after our mutual reconcile- 
ment, that he entertained the same favourable 
disposition towards me. For he distinguished me 
in his consulate with great marks of honour and 
amity, and appeared willing upon all occasions to 
gratify my requests even in favour of others. I 
must appeal to you (since the droll Phania 1 is, I 
think, no more) that I was not wanting on my 
part in a suitable return ; and, indeed, he stood so 
much the higher in my esteem, as I was sensible 
of the affection he had conceived for you. Add to 
this, that I am, as you well know, wholly devoted 
to Pompey, and tenderly attached also to Brutus s . 
Can I then want a reason of uniting myself with 
Appius, thus supported as he is by the most pow- 
erful friends and alliances, and flourishing in every 
other advantage that can be derived from affluent 
possessions in conjunction with great abilities' ! 
But, besides these considerations, 1 must mention, 
likewise, the connexion that subsists between us as 
members of the same sacred college, and the 
honour he has publicly paid me in his learned 
treatise concerning its institutions. I mark out 
these several circumstances the more particularly, 

q The fifth letter of this book. 

r A favourite freedman of Appius. 

8 That Cicero was wholly devoted to Pompey, cannot 
be doubted : but that he was sincere in this declaration 
with respect to Brutus, may well be questioned. It ap- 
pears, indeed, that they were neither of them perfectly 
satisfied with each other at this time : and Cicero com- 
plains to Atticus of having received some very haughty 
and disrespectful letters from Brutus, even when the latter 
was soliciting his good offices in favour of Appius. — " Nul- 
las unquam (says he) ad me literas misit Brutus, ne 
proxime quidem de Appio, in quibus non esset arrogans, 
aicotvwvr]Tbv aliquid. — Plane parum cogitat, quid scribat, 
aut ad quern."— Ad Att. vi. 3; vide etiam vi. 1; v. 21. 
See rem. «', p. 410. 

t These were the true, and perhaps the only reasons 
which induced Cicero to endeavour to be upon good terms 
with Appius. For that he had a real affection for him, as 
he pretends in this epistle, is by no means probable. On 
the contrary, in a letter to Atticus he speaks of his dis- 
position towards Appius, in terms of much lower import, 
and discovers, at the same time, the principal motive that 
engaged him in his interest : — " Pro Appio nos hie omnia 
faciemus ; honeste tamen, sed plane libenter. Nee enim 
ipsum odimus ; et Pompeius mirifice a me contendit." — 
Ad Att. vi. 2. 



428 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



as your letter seemed to intimate a doubt in what 
manner I was inclined towards him. This leads 
me to suspect that some idle tale or other has been 
reported to the disadvantage of my sentiments 
respecting Appius : but, be assured, whatever you 
have heard of that nature is utterly false. I must 
confess, at the same time, that his maxims and 
mine in the administration of this province have 
been somewhat different ; and it may from thence, 
perhaps, have been suggested that I acted counter 
to his measures, more from a spirit of opposition 
than from any real disagreement of principles. 
But, believe me, I have never said or done the 
least thing throughout the whole course of my 
government with a view of prejudicing his reputa- 
tion. And now that my friend Dolabella has so 
rashly attacked him, I am exerting all my good 
offices to dissipate the rising storm with which he 
is threatened. 

You mentioned something of a lethargic inac- 
tivity that had seized the republic. I rejoiced, no 
doubt, to hear that you were in a state of such 
profound tranquillity, as well as that our spirited 
friend u was so much infected with this general 
indolence as not to be in a humour of disturbing it. 
But the last paragraph of your letter, which was 
written, I observed, with your own hand, changed 
the scene, and somewhat, indeed, discomposed me. 
Is Curio really, then, become a convert to Caesar ? 
But, extraordinary as this event may appear to 
others, believe me it is agreeable to what I always 
suspected. Good gods ! how do I long to laugh 
with you at the ridiculous farce which is acting in 
your part of the world ? 

I have finished my juridical circuit, and not 
only settled the finances of the several cities upon 
a more advantageous basis, but secured to the 
farmers of the revenues the arrears due on their 
former agreements, without the least complaint 
from any of the parties concerned. In short, I 
have given entire satisfaction to all orders and 
degrees of men in this province. I propose, there- 
fore, to set out for Cilicia v on the 7th of May, from 
whence, after having just looked upon the troops 
in their summer cantonment, and settled some 
affairs relating to the army, I intend, agreeably to 
the decree of the senate for that purpose, to set 
forward to Rome. I am extremely impatient, 
indeed, to return to my friends, but particularly 
to you, whom I much wish to see in the adminis- 
tration of your aedileship. Farewell. 



LETTER XVI. 

To Quintus Thermus, Proprcetor. 

It is with great pleasure I perceive that my 
services to Rhodo and others of your friends, as 
a u 703 we ^ as those likewise which I have per- 
formed to yourself, prove acceptable to a 
man of your grateful disposition. Be assured you 
will find me still more and more desirous of ad- 
vancing your credit and reputation : though I must 
add, that the lenity and justice of your government 
seem already to have raised them as high as possible. 

The more I reflect upon your affairs, (and they 
are the daily subject of my thoughts,) the more I 
am confirmed in that advice I communicated to 



u Curio. 



v Sec rem. v. p. A-27. 



you by Aristo. I am well persuaded, indeed, that 
you will draw upon yourself very powerful enemies, 
if you should put any slight upon a young noble- 
man of your quaestor's rank and interest. And a 
slight it will undoubtedly be, if you should not at 
your departure commit the administration of the 
province to his hands, as there is no other person 
to whom you can trust it of superior quality. But, 
abstracted from all considerations of this kind, he 
has an unquestionable right, as your quaestor, to be 
preferred to any of your lieutenants, whose blame- 
less and worthy conduct, however, I must at the 
same time in justice acknowledge. I am perfectly 
sensible that you have nothing to fear from the 
resentment of any man. I could wish, neverthe- 
less, that you would not incur the displeasure, and 
especially with just reason, of three such distin- 
guished persons as your quaestor and his brothers ; 
for they are all of them men of some eloquence, as 
well as great spirit ; to which I must add, that I 
am persuaded they will successively be tribunes 
of the people w during the three next following 
years. Now who can tell what turn public 
affairs may take ? For my own part, I think there 
is much appearance of great commotions arising in 
the commonwealth. I should be sorry, therefore, 
that you should render yourself obnoxious to so 
formidable a power as the tribunitial ; especially 
since you may easily avoid it without offending 
any person, by justly preferring your quaestor to 
your lieutenants. And should his conduct as your 
vicegerent in the province, prove worthy of his 
glorious ancestors, as I hope and believe, it will 
reflect, in some degree, an honour upon yourself. 
But, on the contrary, should he deviate from their 
illustrious examples, the whole discredit will fall 
singly upon his own character, without involving 
yours in any part of the reproach. 

I am this moment setting out for Cilicia* ; so 
that I have only time to write these loose hints just 
as they occur. I thought it incumbent upon me, 
however, to send you my general sentiments of a 
point wherein your interest is so nearly concerned. 
May the gods give success to whatever you shall 
determine ! But if my advice has any weight, 
you will avoid raising to yourself unnecessary ene- 
mies, and prudently consult your future repose. 
Farewell. 

— ♦ — 

LETTER XVII. 

To C. Titius Rvfus, Prcetor. 

Lucius Custidius is not only of the same tribe ? 

and corporation 7 - with myself, but is likewise my 

703 particular friend. As he has a cause 

which he purposes to bring before you, I 

recommend his interest to your protection, but no 

w Pighius with great probability conjectures, from the 
circumstances here mentioned, compared with other pas- 
sages in Cicero's writings, that Caius Antonius, second 
brother to Mark Antony, was quaestor to Thermus.— 
Pighii Annal. anno 703. 

x See rem. v, p. A-27- 

y Romulus divided his citizens into three tribes, each of 
which were subdivided into ten curia, or wards. These 
tribes were, in after-times, gradually increased, till they 
amounted to the number of thirty-five. 

" The corporate or municipal towns were those which 
were allowed to govern themselves by their own laws and 
constitutions, and at the same time were honoured with 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



429 



farther, however, than is consistent with your 
honour and my own good manners. All I request, 
therefore, is, that you would allow him freely to 
wait upon you as often as he shall have occasion ; 
that you would comply with his desires as far as 
they shall appear equitable ; and, in a word, that 
you would convince him that my friendship can 
effectually avail, even at this distance. Farewell. 



LETTER XVIII. 

To Silius. 
Will you not think that I am employed in a 
very unnecessary office, when I take upon me to 
a u 703 recommen d a man to your friendship who 
already, I know, enjoys that privilege ? 
Let it be a proof, however, that I am with passion, 
as well as esteem, devoted to his interest. I most 
earnestly entreat you, then, to convince Egnatius, 
by the good effects which this letter shall produce 
in his favour, both of your affection for me, and of 
mine for him. And, be assured, your compliance 
with this request will be the most agreeable of all 
the many and great instances I have received of 
your disposition to oblige me. 

The pleasing hopes I entertained of public affairs 
are now totally vanished. However, whilst we 
I wish things were better, let us support ourselves 
i with the trite consolation, that we must submit to 
what cannot be remedied. But this is a subject 
I will reserve to our meeting. In the mean time, 
continue to give me your friendship, and be well 
persuaded of mine. Farewell. 

the privileges of Roman citizens. Cicero was a native 
i of one of these corporations, called Arpinum, situated in 
| a district of Italy which now makes part of the kingdom 
of Naples. 



u. 703. 



LETTER XIX. 

To Publius Ccbsius. 

I most earnestly recommend to your favour my 
very intimate friend Publius Messienus, a Roman 
knight, who is distinguished by every 
valuable endowment. I entreat you, by 
the double ties of that amity which I enjoy with 
you and your father, to protect him both in his 
fame and his fortunes. Be assured you will by 
this means conciliate the affection of a man highly 
deserving of your friendship, as well as confer a 
most acceptable obligation upon myself. Farewell. 



LETTER XX. 

To the Magistrates of Fregellce*. 

If my connexions with Quintus Hippius were 
not of the strongest and most amicable kind, I 
_ 03 should not depart from the rule I have 
laid down to myself of not troubling you 
with my applications. This maxim, you will bear 
me witness, I have hitherto strictly observed, 
though I was ever persuaded, at the same time, 
that there is nothing you would refuse to my re- 
quest. However, I now most earnestly entreat 
your generosity in behalf of my friend's son, and 
that you would do me the honour to show so much 
regard to my inclinations as to enfranchise the 
estate he has purchased of your corporation. I 
shall esteem your compliance with this request as 
a very singular favour. Farewell. 

a It is supposed to be the same town which is now called 
Caperaro in the Campagna di Roma. 



BOOK VI. 



LETTER I. 



To Appius Pulcher. 
When I first received an account of the ill- 
judged prosecution which has been commenced 
a u 703 a g ams t y oub > it gave me great concern; 
and, indeed, nothing could possibly have 
happened that I less expected. But as soon as I 
had recovered from my surprise, I was well satis- 
fied that you will easily disappoint the malice of 
your enemies : for I have the highest confidence in 
your own judicious conduct on this occasion, as 
well as a very great one in that of your friends. I 
see many reasons, indeed, to believe that the envy 
of your adversaries will only brighten that character 
they mean to sully : though I cannot but regret that 
they should have thus snatched from you an honour 
you so justly merit, and of which you had so well- 
grounded an assurance ; the honour, I mean, of a 
triumph . However, you will show your judgment 
if you should consider this pompous distinction in 
the light it has ever appeared to my own view ; and 
at the same time enjoy a triumph of the completest 
kind in the confusion and disappointment of your 
b See rem. \ p. 421. c See rem. °. p. 40i>. 



enemies : as I am well convinced that the vigorous 
and prudent exertion of your power and influence 
will give them abundant reason to repent of their 
violent proceedings. As for myself, be well assured j 
(and I call every god to witness the sincerity of what | 
I promise) that I will exert my utmost interest in 
support — I will not say of your person, which I 
hope is in no danger, — but of your dignities and 
honour. To this end, I shall employ my best good 
offices for you in this province, where you once 
presided ; and employ them with all the warmth of 
an intercessor, with all the assiduity of a relation, 
with all the influence of a man who, I trust, is dear 
to these cities, and with all the authority of one 
who is invested with the supreme command. In 
a word, I hope you will both ask and expect of me 
every service in my power : and believe me, I shall 
give you greater proofs of my affection than you 
are disposed perhaps to imagine. Notwithstand- 
ing, therefore, that the letter I received from you 
by the hands of Quintus Servilius was extremely 
short, yet I could not but think it much too long : 
for it was doing an injury to the sentiments of my 
heart, to suppose you had any occasion to solicit 
my assistance. I am sorry you should have an 



430 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



opportunity of experiencing, by an incident so little 
agreeable to you, the rank you bear in my affection, 
the esteem which I entertain for Pompey, whom I 
justly value indeed above all men, and the measure 
of my unfeigned regard for Brutus : circumstances, 
I should hope, of which our daily intercourse had 
rendered you sufficiently sensible. However, since 
it has so happened, I should think that I acted a 
most unworthy, not to say a criminal part, if I 
were to omit any article wherein my services can 
avail you. 

Pontinius remembers the singular instances of 
friendship he has received from 3^ou, and of which 
I myself was a witness d , with all the gratitude and 
affection to which you have so undoubted a right. 
The urgency of his affairs had obliged him, though 
with great reluctance, to leave me. Nevertheless, 
having been informed, just as he was going to em- 
bark at Ephesus, that his presence in this province 
might be of advantage to your cause e , he immedi- 
ately returned back to Laodicea. I am persuaded 
you will meet with numberless such instances of 
zeal upon this occasion: can I doubt, then, that 
this troublesome affair will prove in the conclusion 
greatly to your credit ? 

If you should be able to bring on an election of 
censors f , and should exercise that office in the 
manner you certainly ought, and for which you are 
so perfectly well qualified, you can never want that 
authority in the republic which will afford at once 
a protection both to yourself and your friends. 
Let me entreat, therefore, your most strenuous en- 
deavours to prevent my administration from being 
prolonged ; that, after having filled up the measure 
of my affectionate services to you here, I may have 
the satisfaction also of presenting them to you at 
Rome. 

I read with pleasure, though by no means with 
surprise, the account you gave me of thatfgeneral 
zeal which all orders and degrees of men have 
shown in your cause, — a circumstance of which I 
had likewise been informed by my other friends. 
It affords me great satisfaction to find, that a man 
with whom I have the honour and pleasure to be 
so intimately united is thus distinguished with that 

d Pontinius was prastor in the consulate of Cicero, and 
at this time one of his lieutenants in the province. He 
distinguished himself in the affair of Catiline : and having 
quelled the insurrection of the Allohroges, who took up 
arms on that occasion, he demanded a triumph. But he 
met with so strong an opposition to this claim, and par- 
ticularly from Cato, that it was four years before his 
petition was granted. Appius was at that time consul ; by 
whose interest it chiefly was, that Pontinius at length 
succeeded: and it is to this circumstance that Cicero 
seems to allude.— Liv. Epit. 103 ; Dio, xl. ; Ad Att. iv. 16. 

e See rem. «, p. 421. 

f The office of censor was the most honourable post in 
the Roman republic ; though its authority was not so con- 
siderable as that of the consul. The two principal branches 
of his duty consisted in taking a general survey of the 
people, in order to range them in their proper classes; 
and in watching over the public manners. Appius, toge- 
ther with Piso, whose daughter Cccsar had married, were 
chosen censors soon after the date of this letter ; and they 
were the last (as Dr. Middleton observes) " who bore that 
office during the freedom of the republic :" if the republic, 
indeed, could with any propriety bo said to have enjoyed 
freedom at this period, when all was faction and misrule. 
—Rosin, de Antiq. Rom. 699 ; Life of Cicero, p. 165. See 
rem. °, and the passage to which it refers, letter 16 of this 
book. 



universal approbation he justly deserves. But I 
rejoice in this upon another consideration likewise ; 
as it is a proof that there still remains a general 
disposition in Rome to support the cause of illus- 
trious merit : a disposition which I have myself 
also experienced upon every occasion as the honour- 
able recompense of my pains and vigils in the public 
service. But I am astonished that Dolabella, a 
young man whom I formerly rescued with the 
utmost difficulty from the consequences of two 
capital impeachments, should so ungratefully forget 
the patron to whom he owes all that he enjoys, as 
to be the author of this ill-considered prosecution 
of my friend. And what aggravates the folly of 
his conduct is, that he should thus venture to 
attack a man who is distinguished with the highest 
honours, and supported by the most powerful 
friendships ; at the same time, that he himself (to 
speak of him in the softest terms) is greatly defi- 
cient in both these respects. I had received an 
account from our friend Ccelius, before your letter 
reached my hand, of the idle and ridiculous report 
he has propagated, and on which you so largely 
expatiate. There is so little ground, however, for 
what he asserts, that be assured I would much 
sooner break off all former friendship with a man 
who had thus declared himself your enemy, than 
be prevailed upon to engage with him in any new 
connexions £. 

gr Nothing could be more distant from Cicero's heart 
than what he here pretends. For there is the strongest 
evidence to believe, that it was his fixed intention, at this 
very time, to enter into an alliance with Dolabella : and, 
in fact, Tullia was married to him soon after the date of 
this letter. Cicero affirms, I must acknowledge, in an 
epistle to Atticus, what he likewise asserts in a subsequent 
one to Appius, " that this transaction was entirely with- 
out his knowledge :" but he seems to have dealt as insin- 
cerely upon this occasion with his bosom friend, as he too 
frequently did with all the world beside. Accordingly, he 
assures Atticus, he so little expected the news of his 
daughter's match, that he was actually in treaty for the 
disposal of her to another person. But if the latter part 
of this assertion were true, it aggravates his dissimulation ; 
as the former most evidently was not. For, not to mention 
the great probability there is, that he left a commission 
with Ccelius when he set out for the province, relating to 
the marriage in question, [see let. 5, p. 421], it appears 
that he had received more than one letter from him upon 
this subject, before he wrote the last-mentioned to Atticus ; 
and, consequently, that he could not have been so much 
a stranger to the affair as he chose to represent himself. 
Cicero's answer to the letter of Ccelius concerning this 
treaty with Dolabella is extant : and it cannot be dated 
later than the beginning of May in the present year; 
because he mentions the seventh of that month as a 
future day, on which he proposed to return from another 
part of his province into Cilicia. But the letter to Atticus 
must have been written in the latter end of the same year, 
because he takes notice in it of the death of Hortensius. 
Now he was not informed of that event till he came to 
Rhodes, in his voyage from Cilicia ; as he himself tells us, 
in the introduction of his oratorical treatise inscribed to 
Brutus. If Cicero then was capable of thus disguising the 
truth concerning Dolabella to the nearest and most valu- 
able of his friends, it is no wonder he should not scruple to 
act a still more counterfeit part in all that he says of him 
to Appius. And this dissimulation he very freely acknow- 
ledges to Coslius ; who, indeed, was in the whole secret of 
the affair : as it was by his intervention that it seems to 
have been principally conducted. Accordingly, Cicero 
taking notice to Coelius of the letter now before us, which 
lie tells him was written in consequence of the information 
he had received from him, in the 5th of the foregoing 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



431 



You have not the least reason to doubt of my 
zeal to serve you ; of which I have given many 
conspicuous testimonies in this province as well as 
at Rome. Your letter, nevertheless, intimates 
some sort of suspicion of the contrary. It would 
be improper at this juncture to reproach you with 
indulging so injurious a thought ; but it is neces- 
sary I should convince you that it is altogether 
without foundation. Tell me, then, wherein did I 
obstruct the deputation which was intended to be 
sent to Rome with the complimental addresses to 
you of this province ? Had I been your avowed 
enemy, I could not have indulged my spleen by a 
more impotent piece of malice : and most cer- 
tainly, if I had meant to act with a disguised 
malevolence, I could not have chosen an occasion 
that would have rendered my sentiments more 
notorious. Were I as perfidious as the authors of 
these unjust insinuations, yet surely I should not 
have been so weak either to discover my enmity 
where I designed to conceal it, or to show a strong 
inclination of injuring you by instances utterly 
ineffectual. I remember, indeed, that some com- 
plaints were made to me concerning the excessive 
appointments allowed to the deputies from this 
province. In answer to which, I rather advised 
than directed that all expenses of this kind should 
be regulated by the Cornelian law h . But far was 
I from insisting even upon this, as may appear by 
the public records of the several cities. For when 
they afterwards passed their accounts before me, I 
suffered them to charge to the article of their 
deputations whatever sum they thought proper. 
Yet what falsehoods have not these worthless 
informers imposed upon you ? They have affirmed, 
it seems, not only that I absolutely prohibited all 
expenses of this kind, but even obliged the agents 
of those deputies, who were actually set forward in 
their way to Rome, to refund the appointments that 
were lodged in their hands ; and by these means 
discouraged several others from undertaking the 
same commission. I might here, with great justice, 
complain of your giving credit to these calumnies ; 
but I forbear, as I said before, in tenderness to your 
present disquietude, thinking it more proper, at this 
season, to vindicate my own conduct than to reproach 
yours. I will only, therefore, remind you of a few 
reasons that ought to have secured me against 
suffering in your opinion from these groundless 
imputations. If ever, then, you experienced the 
probity of my heart, or observed a disposition in 
me worthy of those sublime contemplations to 
which I have devoted myself from my earliest 
youth ; if ever you discovered, by my conduct in 
the most important transactions, that I was neither 
void of spirit nor destitute of abilities, you ought 
to have believed me incapable of acting a low and 
little part towards my friends, much more a base 

book ; he expresses himself in the following remarkable 
words: "Quid si meam (sc. epistolam) legas, quam ego 
turn ex tuis literis misi ad Appium ? sed quid agas? sic 
vivitur :" which in plain English amounts to this, that if 
a man would be well with the world, he must submit to 
the lowest and most contemptible hypocrisy. And it must 
be owned that Cicero, in the present instance, as well as 
in most others, acted up to the full extent of his maxim, — 
Ad Att. vi. 6 ; Ep. Fam. viii. 6 ; De Clar. Orator. 1 ; Ep. 
Fam. ii. 15. 

h This law was enacted, it is probable, in order to 
restrain the immoderate sums which were expended in 
these complimental deputations. — Manutius. 



and a treacherous one. But if artifice be the cha- 
racter, after all, in which I must needs be repre- 
sented, could anything, let me ask,be less consistent 
with such a temper, than either to slight the friend- 
ship of a man of your high rank and credit, or to 
oppose your glory in an obscure and remote pro- 
vince, after having openly supported it in view of 
the whole world at Rome ? Can anything have 
less the appearance of artifice than to discover an 
impotent malevolence, and betray to very little 
purpose a strong propensity of doing an injury ? 
But what possible motive could induce me to 
cherish so implacable a spirit toward you, who was 
far from showing yourself my enemy, (and I speak 
it upon the information of my own brother,) even 
at a time when you were almost under an indis- 
pensable obligation of appearing so 1 ? And after 
our reconciliation had been effected, agreealfly to 
our mutual desires for that purpose, did you once, 
throughout the whole period of your consulate, 
make a single request to me in vain ? or which of 
the commands that you left with me, when I 
attended you to PuteolseJ, did I not execute with a 
zeal and assiduity even beyond your expectations ? 
But were I really the artful man I am represented, 
and if it be the characteristic of that disposition to 
act entvrely with a view to interest, nothing surely 
could be more conducive to mine than the friend- 
ship of one, from whose rank and abilities, from 
whose power, family, and alliances, I might hope 
to derive the highest honours and advantages : con- 
siderations, I will own, that rendered me ambitious 
of your friendship, not from any low unworthy 
cunning, but from those principles of prudence 
which Wisdom will surely justify. But these were 
not the only considerations that attached me to 
your interest : I was drawn by others §f a higher 
and more prevailing influence with me — by a simili- 
tude of taste and studies, by the pleasing habitudes 
of familiar intercourse, and by the same common 
researches into the most concealed and unfrequented 
paths of philosophy. To these inducements of a 
private kind, I may add those of a more popular 
and public nature. For after having rendered our 
mutual reconcilement conspicuous to the whole 
world, I could not even undesignedly act counter 
to your interest without incurring a suspicion of 
my sincerity. Let me mention also those obliga- 
tions which result from my being associated with 
you in the college of augurs : obligations which 
our ancestors esteemed of so sacred a nature, that 
they not only held it impious to violate them, but 
would not even suffer a candidate to be elected into 
this society who was known to be at variance with 
any of its members. But abstractedly from these 
numerous and powerful motives, there is one which 
of itself might be sufficient to evince the disposition 
in which I stand towards you : for tell me, did ever 
any man possess, or had reason to possess, so high 
an esteem for another as that which you know I 

» This alludes to the services which Cicero received from 
Appius in his recal from banishment. " For Appius (as 
Mr. Ross observes) was at that time prastor : and though 
he at first supported his brother Clodius, and opposed 
the repeal of his law, yet he afterwards deserted him, and 
joined with the friends of Cicero." — Cic. pro Rom. 33. 

J A maritime city in Campania, in the kingdom of 
Naples, now called Pozzuoli. "When the proconsuls Bet 
out for their governments, they were usually escorted by 
their friends to some distance from Rome. 



432 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



entertain for the illustrious J father-in-law of your 
daughter ? If personal obligations, indeed, can give 
him a title to these sentiments, do I not owe to 
Pompey the enjoyment of my country, my family, 
my dignities, and even my very self k ? If friendship 
may be supposed to have any effect, is there an 
instance amongst all our consulars of a more inti- 
mate union than his and mine ? If confidence can 
create affection, what has he not committed to my 
care, or communicated to my secrecy? Whenever 
he was absent from Rome, was there any other man 
whom he preferred to be the advocate of his interest 
in the senate ? And what honour is there which he 
has not endeavoured to confer upon me in the most 
distinguished manner ? In fine, with how much 
temper did he suffer my zeal in the cause of Milo, 
notwithstanding the latter had upon some occasions 
joined in the opposition to his measures ? And how 
generously did he protect me by his counsel, his 
authority, and even his arms, from the insults and 
the dangers to which I exposed myself in that 
defence l ? And I cannot but here observe, that 
far from being disposed, as you have shown your- 
self in this affair of the deputies, to listen to the 
little idle tales that might be propagated to my 
disadvantage by any paltry provincial, he nobly 
scorned to give attention to the malicious reports 
which were dealt about to my prejudice by the most 
considerable persons in Rome m . Upon the whole, 
then, as you are united not only by alliance, but 

J Pompey. 

k Cicero by no means thought himself so much obliged 
to Pompey as he here pretends : and all these extravagant 
professions were a mere artifice (and a thin one, it must be 
owned) to make Pompey believe that he had forgotten the 
ill usage he had formerly received from him. [Ad Att. 
ix. 13.] The, truth of it is, Cicero had just the same sort 
of obligation to Pompey for the enjoyments he mentions, 
as he would have had to a highwayman, who, after having 
taken his purse, should have restored it again : for if Pom- 
pey had not acted a treacherous and dishonest part in the 
affair of Clodius, to which our author here alludes, Cicero 
would never have been deprived of his country, his family, 
and his dignities. But if Pompey restored him to these, he 
could not restore him to himself : for, as the elegant Mon- 
gault, hi his remarks on the epistles to Atticus, justly 
observes, if he rose after his fall, he always appeared, how- 
ever, to be somewhat stunned by the blow. 

1 If Dion Cassius may be credited in what he relates 
concerning the circumstances which attended Milo's trial, 
Cicero had as little reason to acknowledge his obligations 
to Pompey in the present instance, as in that mentioned 
in the preceding remark. For Pompey being apprehensive 
that Milo's party might attempt some violent measures in 
order to obstruct the course of justice, surrounded the 
court with his troops; which so intimidated Cicero, that it 
utterly disconcerted his eloquence, and he made a very 
languid defence of his friend. Accordingly the oration 
which Cicero published, and which is still extant, was not 
spoken, as Dion assures us, at the trial, but was the after- 
produce of his more composed thoughts. But whether the 
historian's assertion is to be corrected by Cicero, or Cicero's 
to be discredited by the historian, is a point I shall not 
venture to decide. Though I must in justice add, that 
Asconius, a much earlier writer than Dion Cassius, and 
one who was a greater admirer of Cicero, accounts in a 
different manner for the disorder which seized the Roman 
orator upon this occasion : for he ascribes it to the cla- 
mours with which he was insulted by the party against 
Milo, when he rose up to speak in his defence. — Dion, xl. 
p. 145, 146 ; Ascon. Argument, in Milon. 

m Milo was suspected, or at least his adversaries pre- 
tended to suspect him, of having a design against Pompey's 
life : and perhaps Cicero's enemies endeavoured to persuade 



by affection, to my illustrious friend, what are the 
sentiments, do you imagine, that I ought to bear 
towards you ? The truth of it is, were I your pro- 
fessed enemy, as I am most sincerely the reverse, 
yet, after the letter which I lately received from 
Pompey, I should think myself obliged to sacrifice 
my resentment to his request, and be wholly 
governed by the inclinations of a man to whom I 
am thus greatly indebted. But I have said enough, 
and perhaps more than was necessary, upon this 
subject : let me now, therefore, give you a detail 
both of what I have effected and am still attempt- 
ing for your interest". ***** 
*******-*« 

This, my friend, is what I have performed, or 
am endeavouring to perform, in support of your 
character, I will rather say, than in defence of your 
person. But I expect every day to hear that you 
are chosen censor : the duties of which office, as 
they require the highest fortitude and abilities to 
execute, so, I am sure, they far better deserve your 
attention than any services I am capable of render- 
ing to you in this province. Farewell. 



LETTER II. 

To Papirius Pcetus . 
Your letter has rendered me a most complete 
general. I protest I did not imagine you were so 
a. u. 703. won derfully skilled in the art military. 
But I perceive you are an absolute adept, 
and deeply studied in the tactics of king PyrrhusP 
and his minister Cineas. I have some thoughts, 
therefore, of following your most curious precepts, 
and indeed of improving upon them. For as I am 
assured that the best armament against the Par- 
thian cavalry is a good fleet, I am designing to 
equip myself accordingly. Seriously, you cannot 
imagine what an expert commander you have un- 
dertaken to tutor : for after having worn out 
Xenophon's life of Cyrus with reading it at Rome, 
I have now fairly practised it out in the province. 
But I hope soon to joke with you in person. In 
the mean time, attend with submission due to my 
high behests. You are not ignorant, I suppose, 
of the particular intimacy that subsists between 
Marcus Fabius and myself. I value him, indeed, 
Pompey, that our author was privy to that design. — Orat. 
pro Milon. 24. 

n The particular instances of Cicero's services to Appius 
are omitted in the original ; and, probably, were so by the 
first editor of these letters, as not being thought proper, 
perhaps, for public inspection. 

Lucius Papirius Paetus appears to have been a person 
of great wit and humour, and in close friendship with 
Cicero. " He was an Epicurean, and, in pursuance of the 
plan of life recommended by the principles of that sect, 
seems to have sacrificed his ambition to his ease. He had 
sent some military instructions by way of raillery to Cicero, 
who returns an answer to this letter in the same jocose 
manner. " — R oss. 

P Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who flourished about 300 
years before the date of this letter, was esteemed by the 
ancients as one of the greatest soldiers that ever appeared 
in the world. His whole thoughts and application were 
turned to the art of war: upon which subject he published 
some treatises, that wore extant in Plutarch's time. Cineas 
was one of the generals who commanded under this heroic 
prince ; and who, as it should seem from this passage, had 
likewise distinguished himself by his military writings. — 
Plut. in Vit. Pyrrhi. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



433 



extremely, not only for the singular integrity and 
modesty of his heart, but as he is a most excellent 
second to me in those contests wherein I am some- 
times engaged with certain jovial Epicurean com- 
panions of yours. He lately joined me at Lao- 
dicea, where I am very desirous of detaining him : 
but he received an unexpected letter, which has 
given him great uneasiness. The purport of it is, 
that his brother has advertised his intentions of 
selling an estate at Herculaneum'i, in which they 
are both equally interested. This news exceedingly 
alarms my friend, and as his brother's understand- 
ing is not extremely strong, he is inclined to think 
he has been instigated by some of their common 
enemies, to take this very extraordinary measure. 
Let me then entreat you, my dear Pectus, if you 
have any friendship for me, to ease Fabius of the 
trouble of this affair, by receiving the whole bur- 
den of it upon yourself. We shall have occasion 
for your authority, your advice, and your interest :, 
and I hope you will exert them all, in order to 
prevent these two brothers from the disgrace of 
appearing as adversaries in a court of justice. I 
must not forget to tell you, that the persons whom 
Fabius suspects to be the malicious authors of this 
advice to his brother, are Mato and Pollio. To say 
all in one word, I shall think myself inexpressibly 
obliged, if you ease my friend of this troublesome 
affair ; a favour, he persuades me, entirely in your 
power. Farewell. 



LETTER III. 

To Ccelius Caldus T , Qucestor elect. 
When I received the very acceptable news of 
your being elected my quaestor, I was well per- 



a. u. 703. 



suaded that the longer you continued with 
me in this province, the more I should 
have occasion to be satisfied with that choice. It 
is of importance to the public relation which has 
thus arisen between us that it should be improved 
by a nearer intercourse. But, having received no 
account, either from yourself or any other of my 
friends, of your being set forward on your way 
hither, I began to be apprehensive (what I still 
fear) that 1 should leave this province before your 
arrival. I was favoured, 'tis true, with a most 
obliging and polite letter from you, on the 22d of 
June, whilst I was encamped in Cilicia ; and it 
afforded me a very pleasing instance both of your 
abilities and friendly disposition. But it was with- 
out any date, nor did it mention when I might 
expect you. The person, likewise, that delivered 
it, not having received it immediately from your 

q The famous city near Naples, which was swallowed up 
hy an earthquake in the reign of Vespasian ; and which is 
now furnishing the literary world with so many invaluable 
treasures of antiquity. 

r He was a young man of a noble family, and this seems 
to have been the whole of his merit. For, notwithstanding 
Cicero addresses him in this letter, as one of whose talents 
and virtues he had conceived a favourable opinion, it is 
certain his real sentiments of him were far different. 
This appears from an epistle to Atticus, where both the 
morals and understanding of Caldus are mentioned in 
terms greatly to his disadvantage. " Nos provincise prac- 
ficimus Coelium : puerum inquies, et fortasse fatuum, et 
non gravem, et non continentem. Assentior : fieri non 
potuit aliter."— Ad Att. vi. 6. See the 13th letter of this 
book. 



own hands, could give me no information either 
when or from what place it was written. Never- 
theless, I thought proper to despatch my couriers 
and lictors with this express ; and if it reaches you 
time enough, you will greatly oblige me by meeting 
me in Cilicia as soon as possible. 

The strong letters I received in your behalf, 
from vour relations, Curius and Virgilius, had all 
the influence which is due to the recommendations 
of such very intimate and very worthy friends ; 
but your own letter had still a greater. Believe me, 
there is no man whom I should have rather wished 
for my quaestor ; and I shall endeavour to shojt " 
the world, by distinguishing you with every honour 
in my power, that I pay all the regard which is so 
justly due to your own personal merit, as well as 
to that of your illustrious ancestors. But this I 
shall the more easily be enabled to effect, if you 
should meet me in Cilicia : a circumstance in which 
not only the public interest and mine, but particu- 
larly your own, is, I think, nearly concerned. 
Farewell. 



LETTER IV. 

To Marcus Coeiius, Curule-JEdile. 

I am extremely anxious concerning affairs at 
Rome, as I hear there have been great disturbances 
* „ in the general assemblies of the people s , 
and that the festival of Minerva 1 was 
celebrated in a most riotous manner. But my in- 
telligence goes no lower than that period, and I am 
altogether uninformed of anything which has since 
passed. Yet nothing mortifies me more than being 
prevented the pleasure of laughing with you at j 
several ridiculous incidents which attended, I am j 
told, these public tumults ; but they are of such a j 
delicate nature, that I dare not mention them in a i 
letter. I am a good deal uneasy, likewise, at not 
having received any account of these commotions | 
from yourself. For which reason, notwithstanding j 
I shall be set out for Italy before this reaches your 
hand, yet I hope I shall meet a letter from you ! 
upon the road, that I may not arrive an utter j 
stranger to the state of public affairs ; as I am sure 
no man is more capable of instructing me concern- 
ing them than yourself. 

Your agent, the worthy Diogenes, together with 
your freedman Philo u , parted from me at Pessinus v , 
in order to proceed on their journey to the king 
of Galatia w ; though with little hopes of succeeding 
at a court neither very able nor very willing to 
comply with the purposes of their embassy. 

Rome, my friend, Rome alone, is the object that 

s Manutius conjectures that this alludes to the disturb- 
ances which some of the tribunes occasioned at Rome, in 
opposing the attempts of the Pompeian party to divest 
Caesar of his government in Gaul. At the head of these 
tribunes, Curio, who had lately changed sides, now chose 
to distinguish himself. — Ad Att. vi. 2. 

1 This festival was celebrated on the 19th of March, and 
continued five days. 

u Ccelius mentions these persons in a former letter, as 
being employed by him to execute some commission in 
this part of the world ; but the nature of the business with 
which they were charged, does not appear. — Ep. Fam. 
viii. 8. 

v A city in Phrygia, within the jurisdiction of Cicero's 
government. 

w Deiotarus. 

F F 



434 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



merits your attention ; and may you ever live within 
the splendour of that illustrious scene ! All foreign 
employments (and it was my sentiments from my 
first entrance into the world) are below the ambi- 
tion of those who have talents to distinguish them- 
selves on that more conspicuous theatre. And 
would to God, as I was ever well convinced of this 
truth, that I had always acted accordingly ! Be 
assured, the pleasure of a single walk with you 
would afford me more satisfaction than all the 
advantages I can derive from my government. I 
hope, indeed, I shall receive the applause of having 
conducted myself throughout my administration 
with an untainted integrity ; however, I should 
have merited as much honour by refusing the 
government of this province, as by having thus 
preserved it from the hands of our enemies. " But 
where, then," you will ask, perhaps, " had been 
the hopes of a triumph ?" Believe me, I should 
have deemed that loss well compensated by escaping 
so long and so tedious a separation from all that 1 
hold most valuable. But I hope I shall now soon 
be with you. In the mean time, let me meet a letter 
from you, worthy of your political penetration*. 
Farewell. 



LETTER V. 

To Appius Pulcher. 
Whilst I lay encamped on the banks of the 
Pyramusy, I received two letters from you, and 



a. u. 703. 



both at the same time, which Quintus 



Servilius forwarded to me from Tarsus. 
One of them was dated on the 5th of April, but 
the other, which seemed to have been written later, 
was without any date. I will answer the former, 
therefore, in the first place, wherein you give me 
an account of your having been acquitted of the 
impeachment exhibited against you for mal-admi- 
nistration in this province. I had before been 
apprised of many circumstances of this event by 
various letters and expresses as well as by general 
report ; as, indeed, there never was any occurrence 
more particularly known. Not that it was in the 
least unexpected, but because the world is usually 
very minute in its accounts of all that concerns the 
honour of so distinguished a character. But, not- 
withstanding your letter was thus in some measure 
anticipated, yet it heightened my satisfaction to 
receive the same good news from your own hand. 
My information was by this means not only more 
full than what I had learned from common fame, 
but it brought you nearer to my imagination, and 
rendered you in some sort present to those senti- 
ments of joy which arose upon this occasion in my 
heart. Accordingly, I embraced you in my thoughts, 
and kissed the letter that gave me so much reason 
to rejoice, upon my own account, as well as upon 
yours. I say upon my own account, because I look 

x In the original it is only said, " mini mitte epistolas 
te dignas."— But it seems evident what Cicero had in his 
thoughts, by a passage a little higher in this letter :— 
" obviae mini velim sint literae tuac, quae me erudiant de 
omni republica." And our author frequently speaks of 
Coelius as one of that sort of discerning politicians, who, 
in the language of Shatspeare, 

. — -can look into the seeds of time, 

And say which grain will grow, and which will not. 

Macbeth. 

y A river in Cilicia. 



upon those honours which are thus paid by the 
general voice of my country, to virtue, industry, 
and genius, as paid to myself; being too much dis- 
posed, perhaps, to imagine that these are qualities 
to which my own character is no stranger. But 
though I am by no means surprised that this trial 
should have ended so much to your credit, yet I 
cannot forbear being astonished at that mean and 
unworthy spirit which induced your enemies 2 to 
engage in this prosecution. 

But you will tell me, perhaps, that I am pre- 
mature in my congratulations ; for, while there is 
a charge still subsisting against you, what imports 
it, you will possibly ask, of which impeachment 
you are first acquitted ? And I must confess it is 
a point of no consequence with respect to your 
character ; for you are not only perfectly innocent 
of both accusations, but are so far from having 
committed any action injurious to the honour of 
the republic, that you have greatly contributed to 
raise and extend its glory a . However, there is this 
advantage gained by your present victory, that the 
principal difficulty of the whole contest is now 
over. For, by the terms in which Sylla's law is 
drawn up concerning offences against the state, and 
upon which your first prosecution was founded, it 
is easy for any man to give a colour to the most 
groundless charge. Whereas an information of 
bribery turns upon a fact in its own nature notori- 
ous, as no man can be guilty of this crime un- 
observed by the public ; and consequently either 
the prosecutor, or the person accused, must evi- 
dently, and beyond all power of artifice, appear 
infamous. But who ever entertained even the 
slightest suspicions of your having obtained the 
high dignities through which you have passed by 
illegal methods ? How do I regret that I could not 
be present at these prosecutions, that I might have 
exposed them to all the ridicule they so justly 
deserve ! 

You mentioned two circumstances which attended 
your trial that afforded me particular satisfaction. 
The one is, that general zeal which was expressed 
by the whole republic in your behalf ; the other, 
that generous and friendly part which both Pompey 
and Brutus have acted towards you in this conjunc- 

z It may be unnecessary, perhaps, to remind the reader 
that this alludes to Dolabella, whose friendship and alliance 
Cicero was at this time courting. 

a Cicero himself will furnish the most proper comment 
upon this passage. For, in a letter to Atticus, written not 
many months before the present, he describes the conduct 
of Appius, in Cilicia, in terms which show that he was 
far from being unjustly arraigned by Dolabella. He re- 
presents him as having spread desolation through the pro- 
vince by fire and sword ; as having left nothing behind 
him which he could possibly carry away ; and as having 
suffered his officers to commit all kinds of violences which 
lust and avarice could suggest. " And I am going," says 
he, " this very morning to repeal several of his iniquitous 
edicts." Appius, " cum 0; a<paip4(T€cos provinciam cura- 
rit, sanguinem miserit, quidquid potuit detraxerit, mihi 
tradiderit enectam, &c. — Quid dicam de illius praefectis, 
comitibus, legatis? etiam de rapinis, de libidinibus, de 
contumeliis ! — Eo ipse die, quo haec ante lucem scribebam, 
cogitabam ejus multa inique constituta et acta tollere." 
It is pleasant to observe, upon some occasions, the different 
colours in which the same character is painted by different 
hands : but one has not so frequently the opportunity of 
hearing the same conduct thus abused and thus applauded 
by the same man, and almost, too, in the same breath. — 
AdAtt. vi. 1. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



435 



ture. With regard to the first, it would undoubtedly 
have been the interest of the commonwealth, even 
in the most flourishing periods of heroic virtue, to 
have distinguished a citizen of your exalted merit ; 
but it is more especially so in the present age, when 
there are so few of the same patriot character to 
whom she can look up for protection. And as 
to the latter, I sincerely rejoice that your two 
relations, and my very particular friends, have 
thus warmly and zealously exerted themselves in 
your cause. The truth of it is, I look upon Pom- 
pey as the most considerable man that any age or 
nation has ever produced 1 * : and Brutus, I am per- 
suaded, will soon rise to the same honourable pre- 
eminence above his fellow-citizens in general, which 
now distinguishes him among our youth in parti- 
cular. 

With regard to those witnesses who were suborned 
to give evidence against you, it shall be my care, 
when I pass through Asia (if Flaccus has not 
already prevented me) to bring them to condign 
punishment. And now let me turn to your second 
letter. 

I received great pleasure from the judicious 
sketch you communicated to me of public affairs. 
It appears that the dangers of the commonwealth 
are much less considerable, as well as her resources 
much more powerful, than 1 imagined, since the 
principal strength of Rome is united (as you in- 
form me) under Pompey. It afforded me much 
satisfaction, at the same time, to remark that 
spirit of patriotism which animates your letter : 
and I am infinitely obliged to you, likewise, that 
you should suspend your own more important oc- 
cupations, in order to teach me what judgment to 
form of our political situation. As to your treatise 
upon Augury c , I beg you would reserve it to a 
season when we shall both of us be more disen- 
gaged. When I reminded you of that design, I 
b In the last remark I took occasion to contrast Cicero 
with himself, in respect to his sentiments and his profes- 
sions of Appius. The present passage affords an opportu- 
nity of showing him in the same opposition with regard 
to Pompey. The author, then, of this encomium, has else- 
where said of the hero of his present panegyric, that " he 
was artful and ungenteel in his common intercourse ; and 
as to his political conduct, that was altogether void of 
everything great or disinterested, and utterly unworthy of 
a man who meant well to the liberty of his country." 
" Nihil come, nihil simplex, nihil iv ro?s itoXltikoTs 
honestum, nihil illustre, nihil forte, nihil liberum." This 
character, 'tis true, was drawn several years before the 
date of the present letter ; and different sentiments of the 
same man, at different times, are perfectly reconcilable, 
no doubt, with truth and sincerity. But there is extant a 
letter to Atticus, written after this to Appius, and at the 
distance too of not many months, wherein Cicero expresses 
the same contemptible opinion of Pompey. " Ego hominem 
airohiTiKLOTarov (says he) omnium jam ante cognoram, 
nunc vero etiam ao-TparrjyLKdoTaTOU." And in another 
still more recent letter to Atticus, he asserts, that Pom- 
pey's political conduct had been full of mistakes during 
the last ten years :■ — " Ut enim alia decern annorum pec- 
cata omittam," &c. The truth of it is, Cicero seldom con- 
tinues long in the same sentiments, or at least the same 
language, of Pompey ; and if he raises a trophy to his fame 
in one letter, we may be almost sure of seeing it reversed 
in another. If our author's judgment and penetration 
were less unquestionable, these variations from himself 
might be imputed to a more favourable cause than can 
now, perhaps, be reasonably assigned.— Ad Att. i. 13 ; viii. 
16; vii. 13. 

c See letter 36, book iii. rem. 7. 



imagined you were wholly unemployed and waiting 
in the suburbs of Rome the determination of your 
petition d . But I shall now expect your orations e 
in its stead ; and hope, agreeably to your promise, 
that you will send me such of those performances 
as have received your last hand. 

Tullus, whom you charged, it seems, with a 
commission to me, is not yet arrived ; nor have I 
any other of your friends with me except those of 
my own train, every one of whom I may with strict 
propriety call yours. 

I do not well know what particular letters you 
mean by those which you call my angry ones. I 
have written twice, 'tis true, in order fully to justify 
myself against your suspicions, as well as tenderly 
to reprove you, for too hastily crediting reports to 
my disadvantage ; and I thought I acted in this 
agreeably to the strictest friendship ; but since you 
seem to be displeased with what I said, I shall not 
take the same liberty for the future. However, if 
these letters were not, as you tell me, marked with 
my usual vein of eloquence, I desire you would 
consider them as none of mine. For, as Aristar- 
chus f insisted that every verse in Homer was 
spurious which he did not approve, I desire you 
would in the same manner look upon • every line 
which you think unrhetorical, as not the produce 
of my pen. You see I am in a humour to be jocose. 
Farewell : and if you are (as I sincerely hope ) in 
the possession of the censorial office, reflect often 
on the virtues of your illustrious ancestor s. 



LETTER VI. 

From Marcus Coelius. 
We met with a difficulty that greatly embarrassed 
our schemes for procuring you a thanksgiving ; but 
a u 703 a difficulty, however, which we were not 
long in surmounting. For Curio, not- 
withstanding he is much in your interest, declared 
that, as all his attempts for convening a general 
assembly of the people had been obstructed 11 , he 

d For a triumph. 

e Appius maintained some rank in the republic as an 
orator, and was well skilled likewise in the laws and anti- 
quities of his country. The orations which Cicero inquires 
after were probably those which Appius spoke in defence 
of himself on these trials. — De Clar. Orat. 297. 

f A celebrated critic, who flourished at Alexandria 176 
years before Christ. He is said to have left two sons behind 
him, both of them fools ; but they will not, perhaps, be 
thought to have degenerated very greatly from their father, 
if what is reported of him be true, that he wrote above a 
thousand commentaries upon different authors. Miser si 
tarn multa supervacua legisset! 

g The commentators suppose that Cicero alludes to 
Appius Claudius Cceeus, who was censor in the year of 
Rome 442. He distinguished himself in his office by two 
works of great utility to the public ; for he made that 
famous road called the Via Appia, part of which subsists 
to this day, and was the first, likewise, that supplied the 
city of Rome with water, by conveying the river Anio 
through an aqueduct of eleven miles in length. — Liv. 
ix. 29. 

h Paulus, one of the present consuls, not having yet 
sacrificed his integrity to his interest, very warmly opposed 
the attempts of Curio, who was endeavouring to procure 
certain laws from the people in favour of Caesar's present 
designs. Curio, in revenge, would not suffer any business 
to proceed in the senates — a power with which he was 
invested as tribune of the people. 
F F 2 



436 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



would by no means suffer the senate to pass any 
decree of the kind in question. If he were to 
depart, he said, from this resolution, it would 
look like giving up the advantages he had gained 
by the indiscreet zeal of the consul Paulus, and he 
should be considered as deserting the cause of the 
public. In order, therefore, effectually to remove 
this objection, we entered into an agreement with 
him, that if he would suffer the decree for your 
thanksgiving to pass, no other thanksgiving should 
be proclaimed during the remainder of this year ; 
to which the consuls likewise consented. Your 
acknowledgments are accordingly due to them 
both, but particularly to Paulus ; for he came 
wholly and readily into our proposal in the most 
obliging manner ; whereas Marcellus somewhat 
lessened the merit of his compliance, by telling us 
that " the affair of these thanksgivings was an 
article upon which he laid no sort of stress." 
After having thus adjusted matters with Curio, 
we were informed that Hirrus intended to defeat 
our measures, by lengthening out the debates 1 , 
when the question should come before the senate. 
Our next business, therefore, was to make our 
applications on that side, which we so successfully 
did, that we not only prevailed with him to drop 
this design, but when the question was moved 
concerning the number of the enemy's forces, and 
he might easily have prevented the decree, by re- 
quiring a list of the slain J, he sat entirely silent. 
Indeed, the single opposition he gave to us was by 
voting with Cato, who, though he would not assent 
to this motion, spoke of your conduct, however, in 
very honourable terms. I must not forget to 
mention Favonius, likewise, as a third in this 
party. You will distribute your thanks, therefore, 
as they are respectively due : — to the three last, 
for not preventing this decree, when it was both 
in their inclination and their power to have done 
so ; and to Curio, for making an exception in your 
favour to the general rule he had laid down to him- 
self. Furnius and Lentulus laboured in this affair, 
as they ought, with as much zeal as if it had been 
their own, and went about with me in all my appli- 
cations to solicit votes. It is but justice to Balbus 
Cornelius k to name him too in the catalogue of 
your active friends. He exerted himself, in truth, 
with great spirit in gaining over Curio : to whom 
he warmly remonstrated, that if he continued to 
obstruct the senate in this article, it would affect 
the interest of Csesar 1 , and consequently render 
his own sincerity suspicious m . Among those who 



1 A very singular custom prevailed in the Roman senate, 
with regard to their method of debating ; for when a sena- 
tor was required to deliver his sentiments on the point in 
question, he was at liberty to harangue on any other sub- 
ject as long as he thought proper. This method was fre- 
quently employed to postpone a decree by those of an 
opposite party, when they found the majority was likely 
to be against them. 

J The number of slain necessary to entitle a general to 
the honour of a triumph, was 5000; but, asapublic thanks- 
giving was a distinction of an inferior nature, perhaps a 
less number might be sufficient. — Val. Max. ii. !). 

k I have already had occasion to observe, that Balbus 
acted as a kind of superintendant of Cesar's political affairs 
at Rome. 

1 As Cicero's popular talents could not but render him of 
service to any party he should espouse, he was at this time 
courted both by Pompey and Caesar. 

m That is, with respect to Caesar : in whose interest 
Curio had lately declared himself. 



voted in your favour, there were some that in their 
hearts, nevertheless, were by no means well-wishers 
to the decree. In this number were the Domitii 
and the Scipios : in allusion to which Curio made 
them a very smart reply, when they affected to be 
extremely importunate with him to withdraw his 
protest. "lam the more inclined," said he, " to do 
so, as I am sure it would be a terrible disappoint- 
ment to some who have voted on the other side." 
As to political affairs, the efforts of all parties 
are at present directed to a single point ; and the 
general contest still is in relation to the provinces. 
Pompey seems to unite in earnest with the senate, 
that the 13th n of November may be limited for 
Caesar's resigning his government. Curio, on the 
contrary, is determined to oppose this to the 
utmost, and accordingly has relinquished all his 
other schemes, in order to apply his whole strength 
to the affair in question. As to our party , you 
well know their irresolution, and consequently will 
readily believe me when I tell you they have not 
the spirit to push their opposition to the last 
extremity. The whole mystery of the scene, in 
short, is this : Pompey, that he may not seem to 
oppose Caesar, or to aim at anything but what the 
latter shall think perfectly equitable, represents 
Curio as acting in this affair merely upon his own 
authority, and with no other view than to create 
disturbances. It is certain, at the same time, that 
Pompey is much averse to Caesar's being elected 
consul, before he shall have delivered up his go- 
vernment, together with the command of the army ; 
and indeed he seems to be extremely apprehensive 
of the consequences, if it should prove otherwise. 
In the meanwhile, he is severely attacked by Curio, 
who is perpetually reproaching him with deviating 
from the principles upon which he acted in his 
second consulship. Take my word for it, notwith- 
standing all the difficulties they may throw in 
Curio's way, Caesar will never want a friend to rise 
up in his cause : and if the whole turns, as' they 
seem to fear, upon his procuring some tribune to 

n The commencement of Caesar's government in Gaul 
cannot be dated higher than the year of Rome 695 ; for it 
is unanimously agreed by all the ancient historians, that 
he was consul in the year 694. This government was at 
first granted to him for five years, and afterwards enlarged 
for five more. Agreeably to this computation, therefore, 
the legal period of his administration could not expire till 
the year 705 ; yet Cicero, in a letter to Atticus, written in 
the very beginning of the year 704, speaks of it as abso- 
lutely completed. Csesar, on the contrary, in the harangue 
which he made to his army, just before his march into 
Italy, in the commencement of the same year, expressly 
says, that they had served under him nine years : and it 
appears, by what he mentions soon afterwards, that there 
wanted six months to complete his decennial period when 
he was recalled from his government. The historians, 
likewise, are neither agreed with themselves, nor with 
each other, in their account of the continuance of Cesar's 
administration in Gaul. For Suetonius in one place calls 
it nine years, and in another ten : whereas. Dion Cassius 
expressly says it was but eight. As the decision of this 
difficulty would prove very little entertaining to the gene- 
rality of English readers, it is only marked out for the 
consideration of those who may think the solution worth 
their inquiry.— Ad Att. vii. 9 : Os. De Bell. Civil, i. 7, 
9; Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cses. 25, 69 ; Dio, xliv. p. 263. 

° This party was what they called the optimates, and 
which, in modern language, might be termed the "country 
party." Thoy wanted not only spirit, but unanimity, to 
act to any effectual purpose : " non enim boni, ut putant, 
consentiunt," says Cicero, in a letter to Atticus, vii. 5. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



437 



interpose his negative to their decrees, I will venture 
to pronounce that he may remain in Gaul as long 
as he shall think proper. 

You will find the several opinions of the senators 
j in relation to this affair, in the newspaper which I 
herewith send to you. I leave you to select such 
articles as you may think worthy of notice ; for 
though I have omitted all the idle stories of such a 
man being hissed p at the public games, of another 
being buried with great funeral pomp, together 
with various impertinences of the same uninterest- 
ing kind ; it still abounds with many paragraphs 
of little moment. However, I chose to err on the 
right side, and had rather hazard informing you of 
what you may not, perhaps, desire to hear, than 
pass over anything material. 

I am glad to find that your care has not been 
wanting to procure me satisfaction from Sittius ; 
and since you suspect that affair is not in very safe 
hands, I entreat you to take it altogether into your 
own. Farewell. 



LETTER VII. 

To C animus Sallustiust, Proqucestor. 

Your courier delivered both your letters to me 
at Taurus, on the seventeenth of July, which I will 
a. u. 703. answer > as y° u seem to desire, according 
to their respective dates. 

I have heard no news of my successor ; and 
indeed I am inclined to believe that none will be 
appointed. Nevertheless, I see no occasion for my 
continuance in this province after the expiration of 
my year r , especially now that all our fears are over 
with respect to the Parthians. I do not propose 
to stay at any place in my return ; though, perhaps, 
I may visit Rhodes, in order to show that city to 
my son and nephew s ; but of this I am not yet 
determined. The truth is, I am desirous of reach- 
ing Rome as soon as possible : however, I shall 
regulate my journey according to the posture of 
public affairs. But I am afraid it will be impossible 
for your successor to be so expeditious, as to give 
you an opportunity of joining me in Asia. 

As to what you mention concerning your 
accounts, it may save you, I confess, some trouble, 
to make use of the dispensation which Bibulus, it 
seems, is willing to grant. But I think you can 
scarce neglect delivering them in, without violating 

P It was usual with the populace, when any person, 
who had incurred their displeasure, entered the places of 
public entertainments, to express their resentments by a 
general hiss. An instance of this kind, which happened 
with regard to the celebrated Hortensius, is mentioned in 
the 29th letter of the third book. 

<1 Nothing more is known of this person than what may 
be collected from the present letter : by which it appears, 
that he was quasstor to Bibulus in Syria. 

* That period was now within a few days of expiring ; 
for the letter before us could not have been written sooner 
than the 17th of July, and Cicero's administration ended 
on the last day of the same month, computing it from the 
time he entered his province.— Ep. Fam. xv. 2. 

8 " The island of Rhodes is situated in the Mediterra- 
nean, not far from the coast of Lycia and Caria- It had a 
city of the same name, which was at this time much 
celebrated and resorted to, on account of its schools of 
eloquence and philosophy. Cicero himself, in the course 
of his travels, resided some time here, and applied himself 
to the study of oratory under the direction of Molo, who 
was both an experienced pleader and fine writer."— Ross. 



the Julian law* ; and though Bibulus may have his 
particular reasons" for not paying obedience to that 
ordinance, I cannot but strongly advise your ob- 
serving its injunctions. 

I find you agree with some others of my friends 
in thinking that I ought not to have drawn the 
troops out of Apamea : and I am sorry I should 
have given occasion by that step to the malicious 
censures of my enemies. But you are singular in 
doubting whether the Parthians had at that time 
actually repassed the Euphrates. It was in full 
confidence of a fact so universally confirmed, that 
I evacuated the several garrisons of those brave and 
numerous troops with which I had filled them. 

It is by no means reasonable that I should trans- 
mit my quaestor's accounts to you ; nor indeed are 
they yet settled. I intend, however, to deposit a 
copy of them at Apamea. In answer to what you 
mention concerning the booty we took from the 
Parthians in this war, let me assure you that no man 
shall touch any part of it, except the city quaestors 
on behalf of the public. I purpose to leave the 
money at Laodicea which shall arise from the sale 
of those spoils, and to take security for its being 
paid in Rome, in order to avoid the hazard both 
to myself and the commonwealth, of conveying it 
in specie. As to your request concerning the 
100,000 drachmas v , it is not in my power to 
comply with it. For the chests of money taken 
in war fall under the direction of the prsefects, in 
the same manner as all other plunder ; and the 
particular share that belongs to myself is in the 
hands of the quaestor. In return to your question, 
What my thoughts are concerning the legions 
which have received orders to march into Syria, 
— I always doubted of their arrival ; but I am now 
fully persuaded, if it should be known at Rome 
that everything is quiet in your province, before 
those forces enter Syria, that they will certainly 
be countermanded. And as the senate has ap- 
pointed your successor, Marius, to conduct those 
troops, I imagine it will be a considerable time 
before you see him. Thus far in reply to your first 
letter : I am now to take notice of your second. 

I want no inclination to recommend you, as you 
desire, in the strongest manner to Bibulus. But 
I must take this opportunity of chiding you a 
little for having never acquainted me of the ill, 
though unmerited, terms on which I stand with 
him w . You are indeed the only one of my friends 
among his officers who omitted to inform me that 
when the city of Antiochia was in a general con- 

1 Julius Cffisar procured a law in his first consulate, by 
which it was enacted that the several magistrates in the 
provinces should deposit a copy of their respective ac- 
counts in the two principal cities of their government. — 
Pigh. Annal. i. 352. 

u Bibulus, in the year of Rome 694, was elected joint 
consul with Ca?sar, by whom he was treated with great 
contempt and indignity for endeavouring to withstand the 
violent measures of his administration. [See rem. a , p. 
367-] It is probable, therefore, that Bibulus, in resent- 
ment of these injuries, refused to acknowledge the vali- 
dity of the law mentioned in the preceding note : as not 
having been passed, perhaps, with all the necessary for- 
malities. 

v About 3000?. of our money. 

w Notwithstanding Cicero represents the disgust which 
Bibulus had conceived against him to have been alto- 
gether without foundation, yet (as •Manutius justly 
observes upon this passage) he had great reason to be 
offended : for Cicero had been a principal promoter of 



438 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



sternation from the late invasion of the Parthians 
(and their great hopes depended upon me and my 
army), that Bibulus often declared he would suffer 
the last extremity rather than be obliged to my 
assistance. However, I was not offended at ysur 
silence, as I imputed it to that particular and 
powerful connexion in which you stood related to 
him as his qusestor, though I was not ignorant, at 
the same time, of the manner in which he treated 
you. But his unfriendly disposition appeared 
likewise in another instance ; for though he de- 
spatched a courier to Thermus with an account of 
the irruption of the Parthians, he did not think 
proper to communicate any intelligence of that 
kind to me, notwithstanding he well knew that 
I was particularly concerned in the consequence 
of that invasion x . The single letter I received 
from him was to desire my interest when his 
son was soliciting the office of augur ; to which, 
in compliance with those sentiments I ever bore 
towards him, and in tenderness to the affliction 
under which he then laboured?, I endeavoured to 
return him the most civil and friendly answer I 
was capable. If this behaviour proceeded from a 
general moroseness of temper (which I confess I 
never took to be his disposition) I have the less 
reason to complain ; but if it arose from any par- 
ticular coolness to myself, my recommendations can 
nothing avail you. I am inclined to suspect the 
latter, from the whole tenor of his conduct towards 
me. For in his late despatches to the senate, he 
is pleased to usurp the entire credit of an affair in 
which I was jointly concerned with him : and 
assures that venerable assembly that "he had taken 
proper care to settle the exchange 7 - in such a man- 
ner as would be most advantageous to the public." 
He mentions, at the same time, as his own act, 
what was solely and absolutely mine ; and says, 
that "in order to ease the people of the burden 
of maintaining the Lombard troops a , he forbore 
to demand them." On the other hand, he thought 
proper to give me part in an action which belongs 
altogether to himself, and names me in the letter I 
am speaking of as "joining in his application for a 
larger allowance of corn for the use of the auxiliary 
troops." To point out another instance, also, 
which betrays the meanest and most contemptible 
malevolence : — Ariobarzanes having been particu- 
larlyrecommended by the senate to my protection 13 , 
and it being by my means they were prevailed upon 
to acknowledge his regal title, Bibulus constantly 
speaks of him, throughout his letter, under the 
degrading appellation of " the son of the late 
king.'' My recommendation, therefore, to a person 
thus ill-disposed towards me, would only render 
him so much the more disinclined to serve you. 

those excessive honours which had been paid to Caesar. 
See rem. u , above. 

x Cicero's province being contiguous to that of Syria. " 

y Two of his sons had lately been murdered at Alexan- 
dria by some Roman soldiers. Seneca mentions the beha- 
viour of Bibulus, upon this occasion, as an example of 
philosophical magnanimity ; for the very next day after 
he had received this afflicting news, he had the resolution 
to appear in the public exercise of his proconsular office. 
— Val. Max. iv. 1 ; Senec. Consol. ad Marc. 14. 

z Of the public money which was to be remitted from 
Cilicia and Syria, to the treasury at Rome. 

a Which were raised in order to be sent against the 
Parthians. 

b See letter 1 , book iv. 



Nevertheless I herewith enclose a letter which 
I have written to him in compliance with your 
request ; and I leave it to your own discretion to 
make what use of it you shall think proper. — 
Farewell. 



LETTER VIII. 

Marcus Ccelius to Cicero. 

I congratulate you on your alliance with 
so worthy a man as Dolabella ; for such I sincerely 
A v 703 think him. His former conduct, it is true, 
has not been altogether for his own ad- 
vantage. But time has now worn out those little 
indiscretions of his youth : at least, if any of them 
should still remain, the authority and advantage of 
your advice and friendship, together with the good 
sense of Tullia, will soon, I am confident, reclaim 
him. He is by no means, indeed, obstinate in his 
errors ; and it is not from any incapacity of discern- 
ing better, whenever he deviates from the right 
path. To say all in one word, I infinitely love him. 

Do you know, my dear Cicero, what a victory 
Curio has lately obtained in relation to the pro- 
vinces ? The senate, in pursuance of a former 
order, having assembled to consider of the obstruc- 
tion which some of the tribunes had given to their 
decree 11 , Marcus Marcellus moved, that application 
might be made to those magistrates to withdraw 
their protest : but it was carried in the negative by 
a considerable majority. Pompey is at present in 
such delicate circumstances, that he will scarcely 
find any measures, I believe, perfectly to his satis- 
faction. The senate, however, seem to intend, by 
the resolution I just now mentioned e , that Csesar 
shall be admitted as a candidate for the consulship, 
notwithstanding he should refuse to resign his 
government. What effect this may have upon 
Pompey you shall know as soon as I can discovert 
In the mean time, it imports you wealthy veterans 
to consider what methods to pursue, in case the 
latter should appear either unable or unwilling to 
support the republic. 

Hortensiuss lies at the point of death. Farewell. 

c See rem. S on the first letter of this book. " 

d This decree, together with the protest of the tribunes 
here mentioned, is inserted at large in the 7th letter of the 
4th book. 

e Cicero speaks of this resolution in a letter to Atticus, 
and produces it as a proof that the intentions of the senate 
were not true to the interest of the commonwealth. For 
had the motion of Marcellus been vigorously supported, 
Curio's opposition, he says, would have been in vain, and 
Caesar must necessarily have resigned his command. — Ad 
Att. vii. 7. 

f There is evidently some error in the Latin text : which 
runs thus, " Quemadmodum hoc laturus Pompeius sit, 
cum cognoscat, quidnam reipublicae futurum sit, si aut 
non curet, vos senes,"&c. I have ventured, though un- 
supported by any of the manuscripts or commentators, to 
read this passage in the following manner: " Quemad- 
modum hoc Pompeius laturus sit, cum cognoscam, te cer- 
tiorari faciam. Quidnam reipublicae futurum sit, si aut 
non possit, aut non curet, vos," &c. 

S Hortensius would have been considered as the noblest 
orator that ever shined in the Roman forum, if Cicero had 
not risen with superior lustre. There was a peculiar 
eloquence in his manner, as well as in his expression : and 
it was difficult to determine whether his audience beheld 
the grace of his action, or listened to the charms of his 
rhetoric, with greater admiration and pleasure. Cicero 
often celebrates him for the prodigious strength of his 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



439 



LETTER IX. 

To Appius Pulcher. 
That I may answer your letter in due form, 
let me pay my congratulations to you in the first 
. , „„„ place, and then turn to what concerns 

A. U. /03. r ' 

myself. 
Be assured the account you gave me concerning 
the event of your trial on the information for 
bribery 11 , afforded me great pleasure. Not because 
you were acquitted, for I never entertained the 
least doubt of the contrary, but to find that there 
was not a single judge who dared throw in a nega- 
tive upon your innocence, even under all the secrecy 
and safety which the method of balloting would 
have secured to his malice. This is a circumstance 
altogether extraordinary : a circumstance, indeed, 
so little agreeable to the general principles and 
purposes of the present depraved generation, that 
II the more I reflect on your high rank, on your 
public and private virtues, and on the distinguished 
honours to which they have exalted you, the more 
I consider it with astonishment. I can truly say, 
no occurrence has happened for a considerable 
time that surprised me more. 

And now, let me entreat you to imagine yourself, 
for a moment, in my situation with respect to the 
affair you mentioned 1 , and, if you should then find 
that you are under no difficulties, I will not desire 
you to excuse mine. You will allow me to join in 
your own good-natured wishes that an alliance 
which was conducted without my knowledge, may 
prove happy both to me and to my daughter. I 
will venture to hope, too, that something may be 
derived not altogether unfavourable to my wishes ■>, 
even from the particular conjuncture wherein this 
transaction has happened ; though I must add, 
that nothing encourages me in this hope so much 
as the sentiments I entertain of your candour and 
good sense. What farther to say I know not. On 
the one hand, it would not become me to speak 
with more despondency of an affair to which you 
have kindly given your favourable presages ; on 
the other, there are some lights in which I cannot 
view it without uneasiness. I am apprehensive, 
indeed, lest you should not be sufficiently persuaded 
memory : of which the elder Seneca has recorded a remark- 
able instance. He undertook, it seems, as a proof of its 
force, to attend a whole day at a public auction, and give 
an exact account of everything that was put up to sale, of 
the price at which it was sold, and of the name of every 
particular purchaser : and this he accordingly executed 
without failing in a single article. Cicero received the 
news of his death with real concern : for though there was 
a perpetual emulation, there was a mutual friendship 
nevertheless between them. This harmony, so unusual 
with those who contend together for the same prize, was 
greatly owing to the good offices of Atticus ; who seems, 
indeed, upon all occasions (and it is the most amiable part 
of his very singular character) to have employed the 
remarkable influence he enjoyed with all parties, in 
reconciling differences and cementing friendships. Hor- 
tensius was about six years older than Cicero : and died 
in the 63d year of his age.— Val. Max. viii. lu ; Cic. de Clar. 
Orator. 301 ; Senec. Controvers. i. in procem. ; Ad Att. vi. 
6 ; viii. 8 ; Corn. Nep. in Vit. Att. 5. 

h See rem. l on letter 5, book v. 

i The marriage of Cicero's daughter with Dolabella. 

J What Cicero seems to intimate in this passage is, that 
he might, probably, be enabled, by the influence which 
his alliance would give him with Dolabella, to infuse into 
him a more favourable disposition towards Appius. 



that this treaty was managed without my privity k ; 
as, in truth, it was by some of my friends, .to whom 
I gave a general commission to act in my absence 
as they should judge proper, without referring 
themselves at this great distance to me. But, if 
you ask what measures I would have taken had I 
been present, I will freely own I should have 
approved of the match 1 , though, as to the time of 
consummating it, I should certainly have done 
nothing either without your advice or contrary to 
your inclination. 

You have already discovered, I dare say, how 
terribly I am perplexed between apologising for a 
step which I am obliged to defend, and avoiding, 
at the same time, saying anything that may give 
you offence. Have so much charity, therefore, I be- 
seech you, as to ease me of this embarrassment ; for, 
in fair truth, I never pleaded a more difficult cause. 
Of this, however, be well persuaded, that, had I 
not, ere I was informed of this alliance, completed 
my good offices in your service, it would have 
induced me to defend your reputation, not, 
indeed, with more zeal, (for that would have been 
impossible,) but certainly with so much the more 
conspicuous and significant testimonies of my 
friendship. 

The first notice that was given me of this mar- 
riage, was by a letter which I received on the 3rd 
of August upon my arrival at Sida ; at which city 
I touched in my voyage from the province. Your 
friend Servilius, who was then with me, seemed a 
good deal concerned at the news ; but I assui'ed 
him that the only effect it would have, with respect j 
to myself, would be to give an additional strength 
to my future services in your behalf. To be short, 
though it cannot increase my affection for you, it 
has increased my endeavours of rendering that 
affection more evident : and as our former dis- 
union made me so much the more cautious to 
avoid affording the least suspicion that my recon- 
cilement with you was not thoroughly sincere, so 
this alliance will heighten my care not to give the 
world reason to think that it has in any degree 
impaired the strength of that perfect friendship I 
bear you. Farewell. 



LETTER X. 

To Marcus Cato m . 
" Praise from thy lips 'tis mine with pride to boast: 
He best can give it who deserves it most :" 

as Hector, I think, says to the venerable Priam, in 
one of Nsevius's plays. Honourable, indeed, is that 
^ 03 approbation which is bestowed by those 
who have themselves been the constant 
object of universal applause. Accordingly, I esteem 
the encomiums you conferred upon me in the 

k See rem. S on letter 1 of this book. 

1 Cicero had surely forgotten what he said to Appius in 
a former letter. For taking notice of the report which 
Dolabella had spread concerning this match, he affirms 
there was so little of truth in it, that he would much 
sooner renounce all former correspondence with Dolabella, 
than enter into a new connexion with a man who had 
declared himself the enemy of Appius. " Ego citius cum 
eo, qui tuas inimicitias suscepissit, veterem conjunctionem 
diremissem, quam novam conciliassem." — Ep. Fam. iii. 
10. See the first letter of this book. 

» This letter is an answer to the second in the preceding 
book. 



440 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



senate, together with your congratulatory letter, as a 
distinction of the highest and most illustrious kind n . 
Nothing could be more agreeable to my wishes, as 
nothing could be more glorious for my reputation, 
than your having thus freely given to friendship 
whatever you could strictly give to truth. Were 
Rome entirely composed of Catos, or could it pro- 
duce many (as it is surprising it can furnish even 
one) of that venerable character, my desires would 
be amply satisfied, and I should prefer your single 
approbation to all the laurels and all the triumphal 
cars in the universe. In my own judgment, indeed, 
and according to the refined estimate of true phi- 
losophy, the honours you paid me in the senate, 
and which have been transmitted to me by my 
friends, is undoubtedly the most significant dis- 
tinction I can possibly receive. I acquainted you 
in my former letter with the particular motives 
which induced me to be desirous (for I will not 
call it ambitious) of a triumph ; and, if the reasons 
I there assigned will not, in your opinion, justify a 
warm pursuit of that honour, they must prove, at 
least, that I ought not to refuse it if the senate 
should make me the offer : and I hope that assem- 
bly, in consideration of my services in this province, 
will not think me undeserving of a reward so usu- 
ally conferred. If I should not be disappointed in 
this hope, my only request is, (what indeed you 
kindly promise,) that, as you have paid me the 
honours you thought most to my glory, you would 
rejoice in my obtaining those which are most to 
my inclination. And this disposition you have 
already very sincerely shown, n ot only by your 
n Cicero was at this time well pleased with the part 
which Cato had acted towards him : for he tells Atticus, 
what he likewise says in this letter, that " he looked upon 
the applauses which the former had conferred upon him, 
in the senate, as preferable to all the triumphs in the 
world." But he soon changed his language : and, in his 
subsequent letters to Atticus, he expresses himself with 
great warmth and indignation against Cato's behaviour in 
this very article. Cato, it seems, had granted to Bibulus 
what he refused to Cicero, and voted that a general thanks- 
giving should be appointed, for the success of the former 
in Syria. This was a preference which Cicero could not 
digest, and he complains of it to Atticus in terms to the 
following purpose. " Cato," says he, « has given me his 
applauses, which I did not desire, but refused me his 
suffrage, though I earnestly requested it. Yet this un- 
grateful man has voted that a thanksgiving shall be 
appointed for twenty days, in honour of Bibulus. Pardon 
me for saying it ; but I neither can nor will forgive so 
injurious a treatment." Cicero ascribes this conduct of 
Cato to envy ; and his ingenious translator, Monsieur Mon- 
gault, imputes it to partiality. On the contrary, I am 
persuaded it flowed neither from the one nor the other, 
but was the pure result of that impartial justice which 
seems upon all occurrences to have invariably determined 
his actions. For Cicero had undoubtedly no claim to the 
honour he demanded : and for this reason, among others, 
because the number of the slain on the side of the enemy 
was not so great as the laws in these cases required. 
[En. lam. vin. 11.] But it is probable that the claim of 
Bibulus was supported by all the legal requisites. For 
though the Parthians were driven out of Syria before his 
arrival in the province ; yet Cassius, by whose bravery 
they were repulsed, acted under the auspices of Bibulusl 
sub ejus auspicio res gestae erant, as they expressed it 
Now the success of the lieutenant, or other subordinate 
officer, was always imputed to thegeneral, notwithstanding 
he were not actually present; as being supposed to arise 
irom the effect of these auspicia, or sacred rites, which he 
previously performed ere lie set out on his intended expe- 
dition.-Ad Att. vii. 1,2,3; Rosin. Antiq. Bom. %{j 



letter, but by having signed the decree that has 
passed in my favour ; for decrees of this kind, I 
know, are usually subscribed by those who are 
most in the interest of the person to whose honour 
they are voted. I will only add, that I hope to 
see you very shortly ; and may I find the republic 
in a happier situation than I have reason to fear ! 
Farewell. 



LETTER XI. 

To Cuius Marcellus, Consul. 

I am informed, by the letters of all my friends, 
what, indeed, I was sufficiently sensible of by the 
a u 703 en?ects » tna * y° u ftave exerted the same 
generous zeal in promoting my honours , 
now that you are consul, which you always dis- 
covered, in conjunction with your whole family, in 
every preceding station of your life. There is no 
good office, therefore, which you have not a full 
right to claim at my hands, as there is none which 
I shall not at all times be most warmly and joyfully 
ready to return. It is a point of much importance 
from whom one receives an obligation ; but, believe 
me, there is not a man in the world I would rather 
choose be obliged to you than yourself. For, not to 
mention that I have been attached to you by a simili- 
tude of studies, and by the many generous services 
I have received both from yourself and your father ; 
there is an additional inducement which, in my 
estimation, is, of all others, the most engaging ; I 
mean the manner in which you act, and have ever 
acted, in the administration of public affairs. As 
nothing, then, is more dear to me than the com- 
monwealth, can I scruple to be as much indebted 
to you in my own particular, as I am in common 
with every friend to the republic ? And may your 
patriot labours be attended, as I trust they will, 
with all the success they deserve. 

If the Etesian winds p, which usually begin to 
blow about this season of the year, should not 
retard my voyage, I hope to see you very speedily. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XII. 

To Appius Pulcher. 
When the question concerning the military 
honours to be paid to your arm si was formerly 
a u 703 debated m * ne senate, I supported the 
cause of your glory with as much warmth 
and zeal as if I had foreseen that I should one day 
have occasion for your good offices of the same 
kind to myself. Truth obliges me, however, to 
acknowledge that you have returned much more 
than you received. All my letters, indeed, from 
Rome agree in assuring me that you not only 
supported my interest by the authority of your 
eloquence, and the credit of your vote, (which was 
as much as I could in reason desire from a man of 



o This alludes to the good offices of Marcellus, in relation 
to the general thanksgiving which had lately been voted 
for the success of Cicero's arms in Cilicia. See the 6th 
letter of this book. 

P Periodical winds, which constantly blow the same way 
during a certain number of months every year. 

q In Cilicia, probably; in which province Appius, as the 
reader has been informed, was predecessor to Cicero. This 
letter is upon the same subject with the preceding. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



441 



your rank and character,) but that, by contributing 
your advice, by assisting at the meetings which 
were held upon my account, by your personal 
applications, and, in short, by your assiduity in 
general, you rendered the good offices of the rest 
of my friends altogether superfluous. These are 
circumstances far more to my credit than the ho- 
nour itself for which you thus generously laboured. 
The latter, indeed, has frequently been obtained 
by those who had done nothing to deserve it, but 
no man was ever supported with so much zeal by an 

j advocate thus illustrious, without merit to justify 
his claim. But the great benefit that I propose 

j to myself by your friendship, arises entirely from 
the advantages which naturally flow from an inter- 
course of this kind ; as nothing, in truth, can be 
attended with greater, especially between two per- 
sons, who, like you and me, are united by the same 
common pursuits ; for I profess to act with you 
upon the same political principles in which our 
sentiments are perfectly agreed, as well as to be 

i joined with you in an equal attachment to the same 
arts and sciences which we mutually cultivate. I 
sincerely wish that fortune had as strongly con- 
nected us in every other respect, and that you 
could think of all who belong to me 1 with the 
same friendly sentiments I entertain for those who 
stand related to you. But I do not despair that even 

] this may be effected. It is a point, however, in 

j which you are no way concerned, and which it is 
my part alone to manage. In the meantime I beg 
you would be persuaded, as you will most certainly 
experience, that this alliance has, if possible, rather 
augmented than diminished the warmth of my zeal 

i for your service. 

But, as I hope I am now writing to a censor s , I 

I must have the modesty to shorten my letter, that 

' I may not be guilty of a breach of respect to a 
magistrate who is the great superintendant of good 
manners. Farewell. 



LETTER XIII. 

To Marcus Ccelius, Curule-JEdile. 

Nothing could be more judicious, nor more 
carefully conducted, than your management of 
a u 703 Curio in relation to the thanksgiving*. 
Indeed, the circumstances of that whole 
affair have proved entirely conformable to my 
wishes ; not only as it passed the senate with so 
much expedition, but as our mutual competitor, 
the angry Hirrus, expressed his assent to those 
divine encomiums with which Cato honoured my 
actions. I am inclined to flatter myself, therefore, 
that this will lead to a triumph ; and I desire you 
j would be prepared accordingly. 

It is with great pleasure I find that Dolabella 
enjoys the happiness of your esteem and friendship. 
I was at no loss to guess the circumstance to which 
you alluded, when you mentioned your hopes that 
the prudence of my daughter Tullia would temper 
his conduct. But what would you have said had 
you seen the letter I wrote u to Appius immediately 

r This alludes to Dolabella, whose conduct to Appius 
has been so often mentioned in these remarks. 
. s See rem. i on the first letter of this book. 

* See the sixth letter of the present book, to which this 
is an answer. 

u The letter to which Cicero alludes is the first of the 
present book. 



after I received yours upon that subject ? Yet 
thus we must act, my friend, if we would live in 
the world v . I hope the gods will give success to 
this match, and that I shall have reason to be well 
satisfied with my son-in-law ; I am sure, at least, 
your amicable offices will extremely contribute to 
that end. 

The dark prospect of public affairs fills me with 
great disquietude. I am well inclined towards 
Curio ; it is my wish that Caesar's achievements 
may meet with the honourable rewards they de- 
serve ; and I would willingly sacrifice my life in 
support of Pompey ; still, however, none of my 
affections are superior to that which I feel for my 
country. But, I perceive, you do not take any 
great part in her contests ; being divided, I suppose, 
between the different obligations of a patriot and a 
friend. 

Upon my departure from the province, I left 
the administration in the hands of Caldus w . You 
will be surprised, perhaps, that I should commit 
so great a trust to so young a man. But you will 
remember that he was my quaestor ; that he is a 
youth of a noble family, and that I am justified in 
my choice by a practice almost universal. Besides, 
I had no other person near me of superior rank ; 
for Pontinius had long before quitted the province, 
and, as to my brother, I could by no means have 
prevailed upon him to accept the employment. 
Indeed, if I had placed the administration in his 
hands, the malicious part of the world would pro- 
bably have said, that, instead of resigning my 
government in obedience to the decree of the 
senate, I still continued it in the person of one 
who may justly be considered as my second self. 
They might perhaps have added, too, that the 
intentions of the senate were, that those only 
should command in the provinces who had never 
enjoyed a government before x ; whereas, my bro- 
ther had actually presided in Asia^ during three 
whole years. The method I have taken, therefore, 
secures me from all censure ; whereas, if I had 
substituted my brother, there is no abuse I should 
not have had reason to expect. In fine, I was 
induced, I will not say to court, but, at least, to 
avoid disobliging, a young man of Caldus's quality, 
not only by my own inclination, but by the ex- 
ample also of our two great potentates z ; who, in 
the same manner, and for the same reason, distin- 
guished their respective quaestors, Cassius and 
Antonius a . Upon the whole, my friend, I expect 
that you approve of my choice, for it is now out of 
my power to recal it. 

The hint you dropped concerning Ocella was so 
extremely obscure b that I could make nothing of 
it, and I find no mention of it in your newspaper. 

You are become so wonderfully celebrated, that 

v See rem. S on letter 1 of this book. 

w The person to whom the third letter of this book is 
addressed. 

x The particular decree to which Cicero alludes, may be 
found among those which are inserted in the seventh letter 
of the fourth book. It stands the last. 

y He was elected governor of Asia Minor, in the year of 
Rome 692. 

z Cesar and Pompey. 

a Quintus Cassius, brother to the celebrated Caius Cassius, 
was quicstor to Pompey, in Spain ; as Mark Antony Served 
under Caesar in the same quality, when he presided as pro- 
praetor in that province. 

b See the sixth letter of the fifth book, p. 422. 



442 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



the fame of your conduct in relation to Matrinius 
has travelled beyond Mount Taurus. 

If I should not be delayed by the Etesian winds, 
I hope to embrace you and the rest of my friends 
very soon. Farewell. 



LETTER XIV. 

Marcus Ceelius to Cicero. 

I am ashamed to own how much occasion I have 
to complain of Appius. This ungrateful man 
singled me out as the object of his secret 
spleen, for no other reason but because 
he has received greater obligations from me than 
his narrow spirit would suffer him to return. How- 
ever, he could not carry on his malicious purposes 
with so much concealment, as to prevent my 
receiving an intimation of them ; and indeed I had 
myself observed that he certainly did not mean me 
well. Accordingly, I found that he had been tam- 
pering with his colleague to my prejudice ; as he 
soon afterwards openly avowed his injurious designs 
to some others of his friends. I discovered also, 
that he had entered into some consultations of the 
same kind with Lucius Domitius ; who is lately, I 
must inform you, become my most bitter enemy. 
In short, I perceived that he was endeavouring to 
recommend himself to Pompey by his ill offices to 
me. Nevertheless I could not submit to enter 
into any personal remonstrances or intercessions 
with a man whom I had reason to consider as 
indebted to me even for his life. I contented myself 
therefore with complaining to some of our common 
friends, who had been witnesses to the obligations 
he had received at my hands. But as this method 
I found was to no purpose, and that he would not 
deign to give me the least satisfaction, I determined 
to apply to his colleague. I rather chose indeed 
to ask a favour of the latter, (notwithstanding I 
was sensible that my connexions with you d had 
rendered him far from being my friend,) than 
undergo the mortification of engaging in a personal 
confidence with so ridiculous and contemptible a 
mortal as Appius. This step extremely exasperated 
him, and he was no sooner apprised of it, than he 
warmly complained that I was seeking a pretence 
to quarrel with him, merely in resentment, he said, 
for his not having fully gratified my avaricious 
expectations. Soon after this he openly endea- 
voured to procure Servius to exhibit articles of 
impeachment against me, and entered into several 
consultations with Domitius for that purpose. But 
when they perceived that they could not succeed 
in their intended charge, they dropped this design, 
and resolved to encourage a prosecution of another 
kind ; though at the same time they well knew 
that there was not the least shadow of evidence to 
support their accusation. However, towards the 
close of m y Circensian games e , these shameless 

c Lucius Oalphumius Piso, the father-in-law of Caesar, 
was colleague with Appius in the censorial office. 

d An enmity had subsisted between Piso and Cicero, 
ever since the consulate of the former, who concurred with 
Clodius in those violent measures which terminated in 
Cicero's exile. — See rem. n , p. 341 , and rem. q, p. 369. 

c Circensian games is a general name for those shows of 
various kinds, which were exhibited at different seasons to 
the people in the Circus ; a place in Rome set apart for 
those purposes. But the particular games alluded to in 
this passage, are most probably (as Manutius, with great 



confederates caused me to be indicted on the Scan- 
tinian law f . But Pola, whom they had spirited 
up to be the informer, had scarce entered his action 
when I lodged an information against our worthy 
censor & himself, for the very same crime. And 
nothing in truth could have been more happily 
concerted ; for this retaliation was so universally 
applauded, and by the better sort too among the 
people, that the general satisfaction they have 
expressed, has mortified Appius even more than the 
disgrace of the information itself. I have charged 
him likewise with appropriating a little chapel to 
his private use, which belongs to the public h . 

It is almost six weeks since I delivered my former 
letter to the slave who now brings you both ; and 
I am extremely vexed at the fellow's delay. — I 
think I have no farther news to send you, except 
that Domitius ' is in great pain for the success of 
his approaching election. 

As I earnestly wish to see you, I expect your 
arrival with much impatience. I will only add my 
request that you would show the world you are as 
sensible of the injuries done to me, as I have ever 
warmly resented those which have at any time been 
offered to yourself. Farewell. 



LETTER XV. 

From the same. 
If you had taken the king of Parthia himself 
prisoner and sacked his metropolis, it would not 
make you amends for your absence from 
these diverting scenes. You have lost 
indeed a subject of inexhaustible mirth, by not 
being a spectator of the very ridiculous figure which 
the luckless Domitius displayed when he lately 
found himself disappointed of his election J. The 



a. u. 703. 



reason, conjectures) those which they called the Roman. 
For these were exhibited by the aediles in September ; and 
this letter seems to have been written some time in that or 
the following month. The nature of these games has been 
explained in a former note. 

f The author of this law was Marcus Scantinius, who 
was tribune of the people in the year of Rome 601. It 
prohibited that horrid and unnatural commerce, which, 
in after-ages of more confirmed and shameless corruption, 
became so general as to be openly avowed even by those 
who affected, in other respects, a decency of character. 
Horace and Pliny the consul are both instances of this 
kind, and afford a very remarkable evidence, that the best 
dispositions are not proof against fashionable vices, how 
detestable soever, without a much stronger counterpoise 
than a mere moral sense can supply. 

g Appius. 

h Manutius, in his remark upon this place, produces a 
passage from Livy, by which he proves, that it was the 
business of. the censors to take care that these public 
chapels should not be shut up by private persons from the 
general and common use to which they were originally 
erected. Ceelius, therefore, informed against his adversary 
for having practised himself what it was incumbent upon 
him, by the duties of his office, to punish in others. — 
Manutius in loc. 

» This person, it is probable, is the same who is men- 
tioned before in this letter. The commentators suppose 
that the election of which Ceelius speaks was for a mem- 
ber of the augural college, in the room of Hortensius, 
lately deceased. For it is said, in the next letter, that 
Mark Antony was his competitor ; and it appears, from 
Ilirtius, that the former was chosen augur about this time. 
— I-Iirt. De Bell. Gall. vii. 50. 

J See the last note of the preceding letter. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



443 



assembly of the people was exceedingly numerous 
upon this occasion : but the force of party bore 
down all before it k , and even carried away many 
of the friends of Domitius from his interest. This 
circumstance he imputes to my management : and 
as he considers the preference which has been thus 
given to his competitor as a real injury done to 
himself, he honours me with the same marks of his 
displeasure with which he distinguishes the most 
intimate of his friends. He is at present indeed a 
very diverting spectacle of indignant wrath : which 
he impotently discharges, in the first place against 
myself for promoting the election of Mark Antony, 
and in the next against the people, for expressing 
so much satisfaction in his repulse. 

Under this article of news relating to Domitius, 
I must not forget to mention, that his son has 
commenced a prosecution against Saturninus : a 
man, it must be owned, whose conduct in the 
former part of his life has rendered him extremely 
odious. The public is waiting with great impatience 
for the event of this trial : but since the infamous 
Peduceeus has been acquitted, there is a fair prospect 
that Saturninus will not meet with more inexorable 
judges. 

As to political affairs, I have often mentioned 
to you that I imagined the public tranquillity could 
not possibly be preserved beyond the present year : 
and the nearer we approach to those contentions 
which must inevitably arise, the more evident this 
danger appears. For Pompey is determined most 
strenuously to oppose Caesar's being consul unless 
he resigns his command : and Caesar, on the con- 
trary, is persuaded that he cannot be safe upon 
those terms 1 . He has offered however to throw 
up his commission, provided Pompey will do the 
same. And thus their very suspicious friendship 
and alliance will probably end at last in an open 
war. For my own part I shall be extremely per- 
plexed in what manner to act in that conjuncture : 
and I doubt you will likewise find yourself under 
the same embarrassment. On the one hand I have 
an interest and connexion with Pompey's party : 
and on the other, it is Caesar's cause alone and not 
his friends that I dislike. You are sensible, I dare 
say, that so long as the dissentions of our country 
are confined within the limits of debate, we ought 
ever to join with the more righteous side ; but that 
as soon as the sword is drawn, the strongest party 
is always the best m . With respect to our present 
divisions, I foresee that the senate, together with 
the whole order of judges", will declare in favour of 
k Mark Antony was supported by all the interest and 
credit of Caesar : who exerted himself very strenuously 
upon this occasion, by going in person to the several 
municipal towns of Italy that lay nearest to his province 
of Gaul, in order to engage them in favour of his friend. 
For these cities being admitted to the freedom of Rome, 
had a right of voting at elections.— Hirt. De Bell. Gall, 
viii. 50. 

1 Caesar had acted in a very arbitrary and illegal manner 
during his first consulate: he apprehended, therefore, and 
with just reason, that if he should divest himself of his 
command, and return to Rome in a private character, his 
enemies would immediately arraign him for his mal-admi- 
nistration. — Dio, p. 148. 

'" It were to be wished that every man who embraces 
this maxim, were as little scrupulous of acknowledging it 
as the author of this letter : for of all noxious creatures, a 
knave without a mask is by far the least dangerous. 

" The expression in the original is, quique resjudicant: 
which Dr. Middleton has translated, and all who judge of 



Pompey : and that all those of desperate fortunes, 
or who are obnoxious to the laws, will list them- 
selves under the banners of Caesar. As to their 
armies, I am persuaded there will be a great 
inequality. But I hope we shall have time enough 
to consider the strength of their respective forces, 
and to declare ourselves accordingly. 

I had almost forgotten to mention a piece of 
news much too remarkable to be omitted. You 
must know that our worthy censor Appius is become 
the very prodigy of reformers, and is most out- 
rageously active in restraining our extravagances 
in pictures and statues, in limiting the number of 
our acres, and abolishing usurious contracts . The 
man imagines, I suppose, that the censorship is a 
kind of specific for discharging the stains of a 
blemished reputationP. But I have a notion he 
will find himself mistaken : for the more pains he 
takes of this sort to clear his character, the more 
visibly the spots will appear. — In the name of all 
the gods, my dear Cicero, hasten hither to enjoy 
the diverting spectacle of Appius sitting in judgment 
on extravagance, and Drusus^ on debauchery ! It 
is a sight, believe me, well worth your expedition. 

Curio is thought to have acted very prudently 
in withdrawing his protest against the decree for 
the payment of Pompey's-troops. — But to answer 
your question in few words concerning my senti- 
ments of public affairs : if one or other of our 
chiefs should not be employed against the Parthians, 
I am persuaded great dissentions will soon ensue : 
dissentions, my friend, which nothing can terminate 
but the sword, and which each of them seem well- 
inclined and prepared to draw. In short, if your 
own safety were not deeply concerned, I should 
say that Fortune is going to open to you a most 
entertaining scene r . Farewell. 

things. But this explanation is contrary to the concurrent 
sentiments of the best commentators, who agree that qui 
res judicant is a circumlocution for judices. The phrase, 
it must be owned, is singular : and so is the style of Ccelius 
in general. But what principally confirms the sense here 
adopted is, that it is most agreeable both to credibility 
and to fact. For it is by no means probable that every 
man of judgment was an enemy to Caesar : and it is most 
certain that the whole order of judges were friends to 
Pompey. — Ad Att. viii. 16 ; Life of Cicero, p. 65. 

It is probable that Appius had himself as remarkably 
transgressed the rules of moderation in this last article, as 
he undoubtedly had in the other two : for avarice is an 
attendant that seldom fails of accompanying luxury. It 
is certain, at least, that his own possessions were far above 
mediocrity : for Cicero frequently speaks of him in the 
preceding letters as a man who, by his wealth as well as 
by his alliances and abilities, was of great weight in the 
republic. And as to his extravagance of the virtuoso kind, 
it appears that when he intended to offer himself as a 
candidate for the office of aedile, he plundered all the 
temples of Greece, as well as other less sacred repositories, 
in order to make a .collection of pictures and statues for 
the decoration of the games which were annually exhibited 
by those magistrates.— Ep. Fam. iii. 10 ; Pro Domo, 43 ; 
Vido et Pigh. Annal. in anno 696. 

P The batteries of ridicule are never more properly 
pointed, than when they arc thus levelled at counterfeit 
virtue : as there is nothing that more justly raises con- 
tempt and indignation than those reforming hypocrites, 

Qui Curios simulant et Bacchanalia vivunt.— Juven. 

1 It is supposed from what Ccelius here says of him, that 
he was one of the praetors this year.— Pigh. Annal. 703. 

r The meaning of this seems to be (as one of the com- 
mentators has explained it) that if Cicero himself were 
not in danger from the dissention between Caesar and 



444 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



A. u. 703. 



LETTER XVI. 

To Terentia and Tullia. 

The amiable young Cicero and myself are per- 
fectly well, if you and my dearest Tullia are so. 
We arrived here s on the 14th of this 
month, after a very tedious and dis- 
agreeable passage, occasioned by contrary winds. 
Acastus* met me upon my landing, with letters 
from Rome, having been so expeditious as to 
perform his journey in one-and-twenty days. In 
the packet which he delivered to me, I found 
yours, wherein you express some uneasiness lest 
your former letters should not have reached my 
hands. They have, my Terentia : and I am ex- 
tremely obliged to you for the very full accounts 
you gave me of everything I was concerned to know. 

I am by no means surprised at the shortness of 
your last, as you had reason to expect us so soon. 
It is with great impatience I wish for that meeting : 
though I am sensible at the same time of the 
unhappy situation in which I shall find the republic. 
All the letters indeed which I received by Acastus, 
agree in assuring me that there is a general tend- 
ency to a civil war : so that when I come to Rome 
I shall be under a necessity of declaring myself 
on one side or the other. However, since there is 
no avoiding the scene which fortune has prepared 
for me, I shall be the more expeditious in my 
journey, that I may the better deliberate on the 
several circumstances which must determine my 
choice. Let me entreat you to meet me as far on 
my way as your health will permit. 

The legacy which Prescius has left me is an 
acquisition that I receive with great concern : as I 
tenderly loved him, and extremely lament his death. 
If his estate should be put up to auction before my 
arrival, I beg you would recommend my interest in 
it to the care of Atticus : or in case his affairs 
should not allow him to undertake the office, that 
you would request the same favour of Camillus. 
And if this should not find you at Rome, I desire 
you would send proper directions thither for that 
purpose. As for my other affairs, I hope I shall be 
able to settle them myself: for I purpose to be in Italy, 
if the gods favour my voyage, about the 13th of 
November. In the mean time I conjure you, my 
amiable and excellent Terentia, and thou my 
dearest Tullia, I conjure you both, by all the tender 
regards you bear me, to take care of your healths. 
Farewell. 

Athens, October the 18th. 



LETTER XVII. 

To Tiro\ 
I did not imagine I should have been so little 
able to support your absence : but indeed it is 

a u 703 more than * can wel1 bear - Accordingly, 

* notwithstanding it is of the last impor- 

Pompey, it must afford him great diversion to see these 
two chiefs, who had both of them used him ill, revenging 
his quarrel upon each other. 
8 Athens. 

* A frcedman belonging to Cicero. 

» He was a favourite slave of Cicero, who trained him 
up in his family, and formed him under his own imme- 
diate tuition. The probity of his manners, the elegance of 



tance to my interest 7 that I should hasten to Rome, 
yet I cannot but severely reproach myself for 
having thus deserted you. However, as you seemed 
altogether averse from pursuing your voyage till 
you should re-establish your health, I approved of 
your scheme : and I still approve of it, if you con- 
tinue in the same sentiments. Nevertheless, if after 
having taken some refreshment, you should think 
yourself in a condition to follow me, you may do 
so or not, as you shall judge proper. If you should 
determine in the affirmative, I have sent Mario to 
attend you : if not, I have ordered him to return 
immediately. Be well assured there is nothing I 
more ardently desire than to have you with me, 
provided I may enjoy that pleasure without pre- 
judice to yourself. But be assured too, that if 
your continuing somewhat longer at Patrse w should 
be thought necessary, 1 prefer your health to all 
other considerations. If you should embark im- 
mediately, you may overtake meat Leucas x . But 
if you are more inclined to defer your voyage till 
your recovery shall be better confirmed, let me 
entreat you to be very careful in choosing a safe 
ship ; and that you would neither sail at an improper 
season nor without a convoy- I particularly 
charge you also, my dear Tiro, by all the regard 
you bear me, not to suffer the arrival of Mario, or 
anythiug that I have said in this letter, in the least 
to influence your resolution. Believe me, whatever 
will be most agreeable to your health, will be most 
agreeable likewise to my inclinations : and therefore 
I desire you would be wholly governed by your own 

his genius, and his uncommon erudition, recommended 
him to his master's peculiar esteem and affection: of 
which the letters addressed to him in this collection are a 
lasting and remarkable memorial. They are many of 
them written, indeed, in a style so different from the 
ordinary language of friendship, that they probably gave 
strength and currency to a suspicion highly disadvan- 
tageous to Cicero's moral character. This imputation 
seems to have been first propagated by the son of the cele- 
brated Asinius Pollio ; who, in a treatise which he pub- 
lished in order to magnify his father's eloquence at the 
expense of Cicero's, inserted a wanton sonnet, which he 
pretended was composed by the latter on Tiro. But to 
speak impartially, there does not seem, from all that can 
be traced of Cicero's private conduct, the least sufficient 
evidence to charge him with having been infected with 
this execrable vice of his degenerate countrymen. In 
passing judgment, therefore, on these letters to Tiro, it 
should be remembered that Cicero's temper was more than 
commonly warm : which infused a peculiar heat into all 
his expressions, whether of friendship or of enmity. This, 
together with those notions of amity which were carried 
by the ancients, in general, so much higher than they 
have risen in modern ages, may account, perhaps, for 
those overflowings of tenderness which are so very observ- 
able in the letters to Tiro.— Aul. Gell. xiii. 9 ; Plin. Epist. 
vii. 4. 

v As Cicero was full of the hopes of obtaining a triumph, 
he was desirous of hastening to Pome before the dissentions 
between Caesar and Pompey should be raised to so great a 
height as to render it impossible for him to enjoy that 
honour. 

w A city in Peloponnesus, which still subsists under the 
name of Patras. Cicero had left Tiro indisposed in this 
place, the day before the date of the present letter. 

x A little Grecian island in the Ionian sea, now called 
Saint Maure. It was on this island that the celebrated 
promontory stood, from whence the tender Sappho is said 
to have thrown herself in a fit of amorous despair ; and 
which the inimitable Addison has rendered still more 
celebrated by his ingenious papers on the Lover's Leap. — 
See Spectator, vol. iii. No. 223, 233. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



445 



prudence. It is true I am extremely desirous of 
your company, and of enjoying it as early as pos- 
sible : but the same affection which makes me wish 
to see you soon, makes me wish to see you well. Let 
your health therefore be your first and principal care ; 
assuring yourself, that among all the numberless 
good offices I have received at your hands, I shall 
esteem; this by far the most acceptable, 
November the 3d. 



LETTER XVIII. 

To the same. 

I cannot describe to you (nor would I indeed 

if it were in my power) the uneasy situation of my 

70 „ mind. I will only say, that your speedy 

recovery and return to me will afford 

infinite satisfaction to both of us. 

The third day after we parted brought me to this 
placed It lies within a hundred and twenty stadia 2 
of Leucas, where I promise myself that we shall 
meet, or at least that I shall find Mario there with 
a letter from you. In the mean while let me 
entreat you to be careful of your health, in propor- 
tion to the mutual tenderness we bear towards each 
other. Farewell. 
Alyzia, Nov. the 5th. 



LETTER XIX. 

To the same. 
I despatched a letter to you yesterday from 
this place, where I continued all that day in order 

a u "03 to wa ^ ^ e arI *i va l °f m y brother ; and I 
write this before sunrise, just as we are 
setting out. If you have any regard for us, but 
particularly for me, show it by your care to re- 
establish your health. It is with great impatience 
I expect to meet you at Leucas ; but if that cannot 
be, my next wish is that I may find Mario there 
with a letter. We all of us indeed, but more 
especially myself, earnestly long to see you ; how- 
ever, we would by no means, my Tiro, indulge 
ourselves in that pleasure, unless it may be con- 
sistent with your health. There is no necessity 
therefore of hastening your journey, as' there will 
be days enough to enjoy your company when once 
you shall be thoroughly recovered. I can easily 
indeed forego your services ; but your health, my 
dear Tiro, I would fain preserve, for your own 
sake in the first place, and in the next for mine. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XX. 

To the same. 
Your letter produced very different effects on 
my mind, as the latter part somewhat alleviated 
_ 03 the concern which the former had occa- 
sioned. I am now convinced that it will 
not be safe for you to proceed on your voyage till 
your health shall be entirely re-established ; and 
I shall see you soon enough, if I see you perfectly 
recovered. 

I find by your letter that you have a good 

r Alyzia, a city of Acarnia in Greece. 
z About fifteen miles, 



opinion of your physician, and I am told he deserves 
it. However, I can by no means approve of the 
regimen he prescribed ; for soups cannot certainly 
be suitable to so weak a stomach. I have written 
to him very fully concerning you, as also to Lyso. 
I have done the same likewise to my very obliging 
friend Curius ; and have particularly requested 
him, if it should be agreeable to yourself, that he 
would remove you into his house. I am appre- 
hensive indeed that Lyso will not give you proper 
attendance ; in the first place, because carelessness 
is the general characteristic of all his countrymen 3 ; 
and in the next, because he has returned no answer 
to my letter. Nevertheless, * you mention him 
with esteem, I leave it to you to continue with him 
or not just as you shall think proper. Let me 
only enjoin you, my dear Tiro, not to spare any 
expense that may be necessary towards your re- 
covery. To this end I have desired Curius to 
supply you with whatever money you shall require ; 
and I think it would be proper, in order to render 
your physician the more careful in his attendance, 
to make him some present. 

Numberless are the services I have received 
from you, both at home and abroad ; in my public 
and my private transactions ; in the course of my 
studies and the concerns of my family. But w r ould 
you crown them all ? Let it be by your care that 
I may see you (as I hope I soon shall) perfectly 
recovered. If your health should permit, I think 
you cannot do better than to take the opportunity 
of embarking with my qusestor Mescinius ; for he 
is a good-natured man, arid seems to have conceived 
a friendship for you. The care of your voyage 
indeed is the next thing I would recommend to 
you, after that of your health. However, I would 
now by no means have you hurry yourself, as my 
single concern is for your recovery. Be assured, 
my dear Tiro, that all my friends are yours ; and, 
consequently, as your health is of the greatest im- 
portance to me as well as to yourself, there are 
numbers who are solicitous for its preservation. 
Your assiduous attendance upon me has hitherto 
prevented you from paying due regard to it. But 
now that you are wholly at leisure, I conjure you 
to devote all your application to that single object ; 
and I shall judge of the affection you bear me by 
your compliance with this request. Adieu, my 
dear Tiro, adieu ! adieu ! may you soon be restored 
to the perfect enjoyment of your health. 

Lepta, together with all your other friends, salute 
you. Farewell. 

Leucas, Nov. the 7th. 



LETTER XXI. 

To the same. 

Though it was but an hour or two that you and 
I spent with Xenomenes at Thyreum b , yet he has 
a u 703 conce i ve d as strong an affection for you 
as if he had conversed with you his whole 
life, so wonderfully engaging is my Tiro ! Accord- 
ingly he has promised to assist you in all your 
occasions ; and it is a promise, I am well persuaded, 
he will punctually perform. 

I should be glad, if you find yourself better, that 
you would remove to Leucas, in order to perfect 



* The Grecians. 



A city of Peloponnesus. 



446 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



your recovery. Nevertheless, I would not have 
you change your present situation without taking 
the sentiments of Curius and Lyso, together with 
those of your physician. 

I had some thoughts of sending Mario back to 
you, whom you might return to me with a letter as 
soon as your health should be somewhat mended. 
But I considered that this would be only securing 
the pleasure of hearing from you once ; whereas, I 
hope to receive that satisfaction frequently. And 
if you have any regard for me, you may easily give 
it me by sending Acastus every day to the quay, 
where he cannot fail of meeting with many who 
will readily charge themselves with conveying a 
letter to me. You may be assured, in return, that 
I shall not suffer any opportunity to escape me of 
sending a line or two by those who are going to 
Patrse. 

I rely entirely upon the care of Curius for your 
recovery ; as nothing, I am sure, can exceed either 
his friendship to myself or his humanity in general. 
I desire therefore you would be wholly resigned to 
his direction. As I am willing to sacrifice the 
pleasure of your company to the advantage of your 
health, I entreat you to have no other concern but 
what relates to your recovery ; all the rest, be 
assured, shall be mine. Again and again I bid 
you farewell. I am this moment leaving Leucas. 
Nov. the 7th. 



LETTER XXII. 

To the same. 
This is the third letter I have written to you 
within these four-and-twenty hours ; and I now 

a u 703 ta ^ e U P m y P en more * n compliance with 
my usual custom than as having anything 
new to say. I can only repeat indeed what I have 
often requested, that you would proportion the 
care of your health to the affection you bear me. 
Yes, my Tiro, I conjure you to add this to the 
numberless good offices you have conferred upon 
me, as the most acceptable of them all. When 
you have taken, as I hope you will, all necessary 
measures for that purpose, my next desire is, that 
you would use the proper precautions likewise to 
secure to yourself a safe voyage. In the mean 
time, you will not fail to write to me as often as 
you shall meet with any person who is coming into 
Italy, as I shall take all occasions of doing the same 
on my part, by those who maybe going to Patras. 
In one word, take care of yourself, my dear Tiro, 
I charge you ; and since we have been thus pre- 
vented from pursuing our voyage together, there 
is no necessity for resuming yours in haste. . Let 
it be your single care to re-establish your health. 
Again and again farewell. 
Actium d , Nov. the 7th, in the evening. 



LETTER XXIII. 

To the same. 

I have been detained here this whole week by 

contrary winds, which have likewise confined my 

a ij 703 brother an( * ms son at Buthrotum f . I 

' • ' "am full of anxiety about your health, 

d A city in Epirus. e In Corcyra. f A city in Epirus. 



though by no means surprised at not hearing from 
you, as the same winds which delay my voyage 
prevent the arrival of your letters. 

Let me entreat you to exert your utmost care 
in regaining your health ; and I hope, as soon as 
the season of the year and your recovery shall 
render it convenient for you to embark, you will 
return to him who infinitely loves you. Your 
arrival will be impatiently expected by numberless 
others as well as by myself ; for all who bear any 
affection for me are tender well-wishers to you. 
Again and again, my dear Tiro, I conjure you to 
take care of your health. Farewell. 

Corcyra, Nov. the 16th. 



LETTER XXIV. 

To the same. 

We parted, you know, on the second of Novem- 
ber ; on the sixth I arrived at Leucas, from whence 
a. u. 703 * reacne d Actium the following day. I 
was detained there by contrary winds till 
the next morning, when I sailed for Corcyra, where 
I arrived on the ninth, after having had a very 
favourable passage. The weather proving extremely 
tempestuous, I was obliged to continue in that 
place till the sixteenth, when I again proceeded on 
my voyage ; and on the seventeenth I entered the 
bay of Cassiope, a maritime town in Corcyra, 
situated about a hundred and twenty stadia from 
my former port. Here, the wind shifting, I was 
detained till the 23d. In the mean time, those 
ships that had accompanied me thither, and were 
so impatient as immediately to put to sea again, 
were many of them lost. However, on the evening 
of the day I last mentioned we weighed anchor ; 
and, having sailed all that night and the next day 
with a fair gale from the south and a very clear 
sky, we gained with great ease the port of Hydruns 
in Italy. The same wind carried us the following 
day, being the twenty-fifth, to Brundisium. I 
was met at this place by Terentia (who desires me 
to assure you of her esteem), and we entered the 
town together. On the twenty -seventh, a slave 
of Plancius arrived here with your very acceptable 
letter, dated the thirteenth of this month ; which, 
though it did not entirely answer my wishes, con- 
tributed greatly to alleviate the uneasiness I was 
under upon your account. I had the satisfaction 
likewise of hearing at the same time from your 
physician, who confirms me in the hope that you 
will soon be well. 

And now, as I perfectly well knowyour prudence, 
your temperance, and the affection you bear me, 
can it be necessary that I should entreat you to 
employ your utmost care to re-establish your 
health ? I am persuaded indeed you will do every 
thing in your power to return to me as soon as 
possible ; however, I would by no means have you 
more expeditious than your strength will bear. I 
am sorry you accepted Lyso's invitation to his 
concert, lest your going abroad so soon should 
occasion a relapse on the fourth critical week*. 



g The ancients entertained a variety of superstitions 
notions concerning the mystical power of numbers, parti- 
cularly the number seven with its several multiplications 
and divisions. Cicero, n one of his philosophical treatises 
calls this number rerum omnium fere nodus ; and it is to 
its particular influence with regard to the crisis of distem- 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



447 



But, since you were willing to hazard your health 
rather than appear deficient in point of politeness, 
I hope you will guard against any ill consequence 
that may attend your complaisance. 

I have written to Curius to request he would 
make a proper acknowledgment to your physician, 
and supply you likewise with whatever money your 
occasions} shall require, which I will repay to his 
order. You will find a horse and a mule at Brun- 
disium, which I have left there for your service. I 
am proceeding on my journey to Rome, where I 
expect to see great commotions upon the entrance 
of the new consuls into their office h . However, 
pers, that he alludes in the present passage. Macrohius 
has retailed abundance of absurd learning in relation to 
this wonder-working number, which he concludes with the 
following reflections :— " Undenon immeritohic numerus 
totius fabrics dispensator et dominus, aegris quoque cor- 
poribus periculum sanitatemve denuntiat." This opinion 
however is not altogether inconsistent with a more un- 
proved philosophy, and experience shows that the 7th, the 
14th, &c. days, are frequently attended with certain deter- 
mining symptoms in the progress of acute diseases.— 
Macrob. in Somn. Scip. i. 6. 

h The consuls entered upon their office on the first day 
of the new year. 



BOOK VII. 



LETTER I. 



To Tiro. 

Notwithstanding that I feel the want of your 
services in every place and upon all occasions, yet 
a u 704 k e assured your illness gives me far less 
concern, on my own account, than on 
yours. However, since it has terminated, as Curius 
informs me, in a quartan ague, I hope, if you are 
not wanting in proper care, that it will prove a 
means of more firmly establishing your 1 health. Be 
so just, then, to the regard you owe me, as not to 
suffer any other concern to employ your thoughts 
but what relates to your recovery. I am sensible, 
at the same time, how much you suffer from this 
absence ; but, believe me, all will be well whenever 
you are so. I would by no means, therefore, have 
you in so much haste to return to me, as to expose 
yourself to the dangers of a winter voyage ; nor, 
indeed, to the fatigue of a sea-sickness, before you 
shall have sufficiently recovered your strength. 

I arrived in the suburbsJ of Rome on the fourth 
of January, and nothing could be more to my 
honour than the manner in which I was met on 
my approach to the city. But I am unhappily 
fallen into the very midst of public dissention ; or 
rather, indeed, I find myself surrounded with the 
flames of a civil war. It was my earnest d esire to 

1 A quartan ague was supposed by the ancients to be 
extremely salutary in its consequences. Aulus Gellius 
mentions a contemporary orator and philosopher who 
wrote a serious panegyric upon this wholesome distemper, 
wherein he supported his opinion upon the authority of a 
passage in some writings of Plato, which are now lost. — 
Noct. Att. xvii. 12. 

J As Cicero claimed the honour of a triumph, he was 
obliged, till his pretensions should be determined, to take 
up his residence without the walls of the city, agreeably 
to a custom which has been frequently mentioned in the 
preceding observations. 



it is my resolution not to engage in the violent 
measures of either party. 

I have only to add my most earnest request, 
that you would not embark without taking all 
prudent precautions to secure a safe voyage. The 
masters of ships, I know, who are governed entirely 
by their hopes of gain, are always in haste to sail. 
But I entreat you, my dear Tiro, not to be too 
hazardous ; and remember that you have a wide 
and dangerous sea to traverse. I should be glad 
you would, if possible, take your passage with j 
Mescinius, who is never disposed to run any im- I 
prudent risks in expeditions of this kind. But if ' 
your health should not permit you to embark so 
soon, let me desire you would look out for some j 
other companion in your voyage, whose public 
character may give him an authority with the com- 
mander of your ship. In a word, you cannot more 
effectually oblige me than by exerting your utmost 
care to return to me safe and well. Again and 
again, my dear Tiro, I bid you adieu. 

I have recommended you in the strongest terms 
to the care both of Curius and Lyso, as well as of 
your physician. Adieu. 



have composed these dangerous ferments ; and I 
probably might, if the passions of some, in both 
parties, who are equally eager for war, had not 
rendered my endeavours ineffectual. My friend 
Caesar has written a very warm and menacing letter 
to the senate k . He has the assurance, notwith- 
standing their express prohibition, to continue at 
the head of his army, and in the government of his 
province ; to which very extraordinary measures he 
has been instigated by Curio. The latter, in con- 
junction with Quintus Cassius and Mark Antony, 
without the least violence having been offered to 
them 1 , have withdrawn themselves to Caesar. 
They took this step immediately after the senate 
had given it in charge to the consuls'", the praetors, 
and the tribunes of the people, together with those 

k The purport of Caesar's letter was, that he declared 
himself willing to resign his command, provided Pompey 
did the same ; but if this were not complied with, that he 
would immediately march into Italy, and revenge the 
injuries done both to himself and to the liberties of the 
republic. — Appian. De Bell. Civ. ii. 

1 The letter mentioned in the last note was received by 
the senate with great indignation, and considered as an open 
declaration of war. Accordingly they voted, that if Ca?sar 
did not resign his command by a certain day named in their 
decree for that purpose, he should be deemed an enemy to 
his country. This decree was protested against by Curio, 
Quintus Cassius Longinus, and Mark Antony, in virtue of 
their prerogative as tribunes of the people ; and while the 
senate were deliberating in what manner to punish the 
authors of this protest, they were advised by the consul 
Lentulus to withdraw before any decree against them had 
actually passed. \ Perhaps this is all that Cicero moans 
when he asserts, that " no violence had been offered to 
these tribunes," for, otherwise, his assertion would be 
contradicted by the unanimous testimony of all the ancient 
historians.— Appian. De Bell. Civ. ii. ; Cses. De Bell. Civ. 
i. 5. ; Dio, xli. p. 153. 

m The consuls of this year were Clodius Marcellus, and 
Cornelius Lentulus Crus. 



448 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



of us who are invested with proconsular power, to 
take care of the interests of the republic . And 
never, in truth, were our liberties in more imminent 
danger ; as those who are disaffected to the com- 
monwealth never were headed by a chief more capa- 
ble or better prepared to support them. We are 
raising forces with all possible diligence, under the 
authority and with the assistance of Pompey, who 
now begins, somewhat too late I fear, to be appre- 
hensive of Caesar's power. In the midst, however, of 
these alarming commotions, the senate demanded, 
in a very full house, that a triumph should be im- 
mediately decreed to me. But the consul Lentulus, 
in order to appropriate to himself a greater share 
in conferring this honour, told them that he would 
propose it himself in proper form, as soon as he 
should have despatched the affairs that were neces- 
sary in the present conjuncture. In the mean 
time I act with great moderation ; and this con- 
duct renders my influence with both parties so 
much the stronger. The several districts of Italy 
are assigned to our respective protections ; and 
Capua is the department I have taken for mine. 

I thought it proper to give you this general in- 
formation of public affairs, to which I will only add 
my request, that you would take care of your 
health, and write to me by. every opportunity. 
Again and again I bid you farewell. 
Jan. the 12th. 



LETTER II. 

To Rufus . 

I should have used my utmost endeavours to 
have given you a meeting, if you had continued in 
a u 704 y° ur resomt i° n °f g° m g to the place you 
first appointed ; and though you were 
willing to spare me that trouble, yet be assured I 
should, upon the least notice, have shown you that 
I prefer your convenience to my own. 

If my secretary, Marcus Tullius, were not absent 
I should be able to send you a more explicit answer 
to your letter. This, however, I will assure you, 
that, with regard to exhibiting the accounts p you 
mention (for I will not venture to be so positive as 
to any other instance), he has not intentionally 
taken any step injurious either to your interest or 
your reputation. As to my own share in this 
transaction, had the law formerly observed in mat- 
ters of this kind been still in force, I should not, 
most certainly, have laid my accounts before the 
treasury, without having, agreeably to those con- 

n By this decree, the magistrates therein named were 
invested with a discretionary power of acting as they 
should judge proper in the present exigency of public 
affairs ; a decree to which the senate never had recourse 
but in^cases of the utmost danger and distress.— Cass. De 
Hell. Civ. i. 5. 

P Lucius Mescinius Rufus, the person to whom this 
letter is addressed, was qua?stor to Cicero in Cilicia. His 
conduct in that office seems to have given occasion to the 
character we find of him in the letters to Atticus, where 
he is represented as a man of great levity, and of a most 
debauched and avaricious turn of mind.— Ad Att. iv. 3. 

P These were Cicero's accounts relating to the public 
expenses of his government in Cilicia; in which there 
seem to have been articles inserted not altogether favour- 
able to the reputation of Rufus as quaestor, and which he 
was desirous therefore should have been altered or sup- 
pressed before they had been delivered into the treasury 
at Rome. 



nexions that subsist between usi, previously exa- 
mined and adjusted them with you. But the 
ancient usage in these cases being now superseded 
by the Julian law r , which obliged me to leave 
a stated account in the province, and exhibit an 
exact copy of it to the treasury ; I paid you that 
compliment in Cilicia, which I should otherwise 
have paid you at Rome. Nor did I at that time by 
any means endeavour to control your accounts by 
mine ; on the contrary, I made concessions to you, 
of which, I dare say, you will never give me reason to 
repent. The fact is, I resigned my secretary (whose 
conduct you now, it seems, suspect) entirely to your 
directions : and it was Tullius, together with your 
brother, (who you desired might be joined with him,) 
that settled these accounts with you in my absence. 
I concerned myself, indeed, no farther than just 
to cast my eye over them ; and I considered the 
copy, which I thus received from my secretary, as 
coming immediately from your brother's own hand. 
In this whole transaction I have treated you with 
all possible respect and confidence ; and it was not 
in my power to have employed a person to make 
up these accounts, who would have been more 
cautious than my secretary that nothing should 
appear to your disadvantage. That I have paid a 
necessary obedience to the Julian law, by deposit- 
ing a copy of my stated accounts in the two prin- 
cipal cities of the province, is most certain. But 
though I had many reasons for being desirous of 
passing them as expeditiously as possible ; yet I 
should have waited your return to Rome, had I not 
considered their being thus deposited in the pro- 
vince as just the same thing, with respect to you, 
as if they had been actually carried into the treasury 
at Rome. 

As to the article you mention relating to Volusius, 
it could by no means be inserted in the account. 
For I am informed by those who are conversant in 
business of this kind, particularly by my most 
judicious friend Camillus, that Volusius cannot 
stand charged with the sum in question, instead of 
Valerius s ; but that the sureties of the latter are 
necessarily liable to the payment of this debt. It 
amounts, however, to no more than nineteen 
thousand sesterces 1 , and not to thirty thousand 11 , 
as you state it in your letter. For I had recovered 
part of it from Valerius, and it is only the re- 
mainder that I have charged. But you are unwil- 
ling, it should seem, to allow me the credit of 
having acted upon this occasion either with gene- 
rosity in regard to my friends, or (what, indeed, I 
less value myself upon) even with common caution 
with respect to myself. Why else should you 
suppose that my lieutenant and praefect owe it to 
my secretary, rather than to myself, that they are 
eased of a very severe, and, in truth, a very uncon- 
scionable burden? and why else should you imagine 

q As proconsul and quaestor. 

r See rem. l , on letter 7- book vii. 

s The nature of this affair concerning Valerius and 
Volusius is utterly inexplicable, as it refers to a transac- 
tion of which we know neither the full circumstances, nor 
the particular laws to which it relate*. Vain, therefore, 
would be the task of retailing the several opinions of the 
commentators upon this and the following passages, 
or the attempt to clear them up by any additional con- 
jectures: as it is better to remain quietly in the dark, 
than to blunder about in quest of a light which is no 
where to be found. 

t About 1582. sterling. « About 240/. sterling. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



44.9 



me so negligent in a point wherein both my duty 
and interest were equally and greatly concerned, 
as to suffer my secretary to settle this account just 
as he thought proper, without requiring him even 
to read it over to me ? In short, though I flatter 
myself that I have taken no imprudent measures in 
this business, yet you will not believe, it seems, 
that I have bestowed upon it even a single thought. 
The truth, however, is, that the scheme of throwing 
off this debt from Volusius was entirely my own ; 
as I am endeavouring, likewise, to discharge the 
sureties of Valerius, and even Marius himself, 
from so severe a penalty. And I have the satisfac- 
tion to find this my design not only generally 
approved, but applauded ; though, to tell you the 
whole truth, it is not, I perceive, greatly relished 
by my secretary. Nevertheless, I thought it the 
duty of an honest man to spare the fortunes of such 
numbers of his friends and fellow-citizens, when 
he could do so without prejudicing the public 
interest. 

In regard to what you mention concerning Luc- 
ceius, I have acknowledged , that the money was 
deposited in the temple by my orders, in pursuance 
of Pompey's advice. The latter has received this 
sum for the public use v , as Sestius possessed him- 
self of that which you had deposited in the same 
place. I am very sensible that this is an affair in 
which you are in no sort concerned. However, I 
should be extremely sorry that I omitted to parti- 
cularize this circumstance, if it did not most au- 
thentically appear, by the decree of the senate, and 
by the letters which passed between us, for whose 
use it was delivered into the hands of Sestius. It 
•was the notoriety of this fact, and the certainty 
that it was of no importance to you, which pre- 
vented me from making particular mention of it. 
But since you wish that 1 had, I wish so too. I 
agree with you in thinking that it is proper you 
should insert this article into your accounts; nor will 
they by that mean appear in the least inconsistent 
with mine ; as you will only add what I omitted, 
and vouch my express orders. I have no reason, 
most certainly, to deny them ; nor should I indeed, 
if I had, when you desired the contrary. 

As to the nine hundred thousand sesterces w , 
they are specified in the manner that you, or your 
brother, at least, required. And if there is any 
item in respect to my lieutenant which you are 
dissatisfied with, and which (after having renounced 
the privilege I was entitled to by the decree of the 
senate x ) it is in my power to rectify, I will endea- 
vour to do so as far as I legally may^. In the mean 



v For the purposes, perhaps, of the war which he was now- 
preparing to carry on against Caesar. 

w About 72631. of our money. 

x It seems probable from this passage, that there was 
some decree of the senate which indulged the proconsuls 
with a longer time for bringing in their accounts, than 
they'were entitled to by the law ; which privilege Cicero 
thought proper to waive.— Manutius. 

y There is a passage in the original between this and the 

next sentence which is omitted in the translation. It runs 

thus : ■' Tu certepecunia exacta ita efferre ex meis ratio- 

nibus relatis non oportuit, nisi quid me fall it : sunt enim 

alii peritiores." The principal difficulty of this period lies 

in the words exacta and efferre ; which the commentators 

• have endeavoured to remove by various readings and con- 

| jectures. But as neither their readings nor conjectures 

i offer anything satisfactory, I leave it to the explanation 

of some more successful interpreter, applauding, in the 



time, be well assured I shall take no step in this 
affair, if I can possibly avoid it, that may prove 
inconsistent either with your interest or your incli- 
nation. 

In answer to your inquiry concerning my hono- 
rary list z , I must acquaint you, that I have only 
delivered in the names of my prefects and military 
tribunes, together with those who attended me as 
proconsular companions a . I had conceived a notion 
that no certain time was limited for this purpose : 
but I have since been informed, that it is necessary 
to present this list within thirty days after ex- 
hibiting the accounts. I am sorry you had not the 
benefit of paying this compliment, as I have no 
ambitious views to serve by taking it upon myself. 
But it is still open to you, with respect to the cen- 
turions and the companions of the military tribunes, 
the law not having fixed any time for presenting a 
list of that sort. 

I have nothing farther, I think, to observe upon 
your letter, except in relation to the hundred 
thousand sesterces b . I remember you wrote to 
me upon this subject before, in a letter dated from 
Myrina c , and acknowledged it to be an error of 
your own : though, if there be any error in the 
case, it seems rather chargeable on your brother and 
my secretary. But, be that as it will, the mistake 
was discovered too late to be corrected : for I had 
then quitted the province and deposited my 
accounts. I believe, therefore, that the answer I 
returned was agreeable to the disposition in which 
I always stand towards you, and to those hopes I 
had then conceived of my finances. I do not, 
however, remember that I carried my complaisance 
so far as to make myself your debtor for that 
sum, any more than I imagine that you intended 
this part of your letter as one of those importunate 
memorials so frequent in these times of general 
distress. You will consider, that I left in the 
hands of the farmers of the revenues at Ephesus 
all the money which legally accrued to me from 
my government ; and that this whole sum, amount- 
ing to no less than two millions two hundred thou- 
sand sesterces d , was seized for the use of Pompey. 
Whatever effect this great loss may have upon me, 
I am sure you ought not to be discomposed at 
yours : and you should only look upon it as a dish 
the less at your table, or an inconsiderable diminu- 

mean time, the modesty of Graevius, who closes his remark 
upon this place with the following ingenuous acknowledg- 
ment, so unusual in a critic by profession : " Nihil in re 
tarn obscura definio, (says he) nee mihi ipse satisfacio." 

z The proconsuls, upon their return to Rome, after the 
expiration of their provincial ministry, used to present a 
list of such of their officers and attendants who had parti- 
cularly distinguished themselves by their zeal and fidelity 
in their respective functions. — Manutius. 

a These were generally young noblemen who attended 
the proconsul into his government as a sort of volunteers, 
in order to gain experience and acquaint themselves with 
business. — Manutius. b About 800?. 

c A maritime city in iEolia, a province of Asia. 

d One may judge from hence what immense wealth those 
rapacious governors of the Roman provinces acquired, who 
did not scruple to oppress the people committed to their 
charge by every method of extortionthat avarice could sug- 
gest. For Cicero, who professed to conduct himself with 
the most exemplary disinterestedness in his province, was 
yet able, it appears, to acquire so large a sum in a single 
year as about 17,600Z. of our money, and thattoo from a pro- 
vince by no means the most considerable of the republic's 
dominions. 

G G 



450 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



tion of what you might otherwise have expected 
from my liberality. But had you actually advanced 
these hundred thousand sesterces to me out of your 
own purse, yet, to be sure, you are too complaisant 
to insist upon a security ; and as to paying them, 
were I ever so well disposed for that purpose, you 
must know it is not in my power. You see I 
answer you in the same spirit of pleasantry in 
which I suppose that part of your letter was written 
to which this refers. But to be serious : if you 
think that Tullius can be of any service to you in 
this affair, I will send him as soon as he returns 
from the country. I have no objection to your 
destroying this letter when you shall have read it. 
Farewell. 



LETTER III. 

To Terentia and to Tullia. 
In what manner it may be proper to dispose of 
yourselves during the present conjuncture, is a 
a u 704 q uest i on which must now be decided by 
your own judgments as much as by mine. 
Should Caesar advance to Rome without commit- 
ting hostilities, you may certainly, for the present 
at least, remain there unmolested : but if this mad- 
man should give up the city to the rapine of his 
soldiers, I much doubt whether even Dolabella's 
credit and authority will be sufficient to protect 
you. I am under some apprehension, likewise, 
lest, while you are deliberating in what manner to 
act, you should find yourselves so surrounded with 
the army as to render it impossible to withdraw, 
though you should be ever so much inclined. The 
next question is, (and it is a question which you 
yourselves are best able to determine,) whether any 
ladies of your rank venture to continue in the city ; 
if not, will it be consistent with your character to 
appear singular in that point ? But, be that as it 
will, you cannot, I think, as affairs are now situated, 
be more commodiously placed than either with me 
or at some of our farms in this district : supposing, 
I mean, that I should be able to maintain my 
present post. I must add, likewise, that a short 
time, it is to be feared, will produce a great scarcity 
in Rome. However, I should be glad you would 
take the sentiments of Atticus, or Camillus, or any 
other friend whom you may choose to consult 
upon this subject. In the mean while, let me con- 
jure you both to keep up your spirits. The coming 
over of Labienus e to our party, has given affairs 
a much better aspect. And Piso having withdrawn 
himself from the city, is likewise another very 
favourable circumstance : as it is a plain indication 
that he disapproves the impious measures of his 
son-in-law f . 



e Labienus was one of Caesar's principal and most favour- 
ite lieutenants in Gaul, where he greatly distinguished 
himself by his military conduct. The Pompeian party 
therefore were very assiduous in their applications to gain 
him over to their cause, as they promised themselves great 
advantages from his accession. But none however appears 
to have attended it ; and he, who in Caesar's camp had been 
esteemed a very considerable officer, seemed to have lost 
all his credit the moment he went over to Pompey's. 

i Fortis in armis 

Caesaris Labienus erat, nunc transfuga vilis. 
Hirt. De Bell. Gall. viii. 52 ; Ad Att. viii. 2 ; Lucan. v. 345. 

{ Cicero, as has been observed in a former note, has 
painted the character of Piso in the darkest and most 



I entreat you, my dearest creatures, to write to 
me as frequently as possible, and let me know how 
it is with you, as well as what is going forward in 
Rome. My brother and nephew, together with 
Rufus, affectionately salute you. Farewell. 

Minturnaeg, Jan. the 25th. 



LETTER IV. 

To the same. 

It well deserves consideration, whether it will 
be more prudent for you to continue in Rome, or 
704 remove to some secure place within 
my department : and it is a considera- 
tion, my dearest creatures, in which your own 
judgments must assist mine. What occurs to my 
present thoughts is this. On the one hand, as 
you will probably find a safe protection 11 in Dola- 
bella, your residing in Rome may prove a mean of 
securing our house from being plundered, should 
the soldiers be suffered to commit any violences of 
that kind. But, on the other, when I reflect that 
all the worthier part of the republic have with- 
drawn themselves and their families from the city, 
I am inclined to advise you to follow their example. 
I must add likewise, that there are several towns 
in this canton of Italy under my command which 
are particularly in our interest ; as also, that great 
part of our estate lies in the same district. If, 
therefore, you should remove hither, you may not 
only very frequently be with me, but whenever we 
shall be obliged to separate, you may be safely 
lodged at one or other of my farms. However, I 
am utterly unable to determine at present which of 
these schemes is preferable : only let me entreat 
you to observe what steps other ladies of your 
rank pursue in this conjuncture ; and be cautious 
likewise that you be not prevented from retiring, 
should it prove your choice. In the mean time, 
I hope you will maturely deliberate upon this point 
between yourselves, and take the opinion also of 
our friends. At all events, I desire you would 
direct Philotimus to procure a strong guard to 
defend our house : to which request I must add, 
that you would engage a proper number of regular 
couriers, in order to give me the satisfaction of 
hearing from you every day. But, above all, let 
me conjure you both to take care of your healths 
as you wish to preserve mine. Farewell. 

Formiae », the 25th. 

odious colours. But satires and invectives are not gene- 
rally the most faithful memoirs, and it is evident, from 
Piso's conduct upon this occasion, that he was by no means 
what our author represents him in one of his orations, 
portentum ctpcene fitnus rcipublicce : at least if Caesar's 
measures were really more unfavourable to liberty than 
those of Pompey.— See letter 8, book i. rem. n . 

g A town in Campania, This letter, in some of the Latin 
editions, bears date in July ; in others no month is specified. 
But it was undoubtedly written in January, as it appears 
by a letter to Atticus that Cicero's wife and daughter came 
to him at Formiae on the 2d of February.— Ad Att. vii. 18. 

h This epistle seems to have been a sort of duplicate of 
the former, and though it is dated from a different place, 
it was probably written on the same day, and conveyed by 
some unexpected opportunity that occurred after he had 
despatched the foregoing. 

> A maritime city in Campania, not far from Minturnae, 
the place from whence the preceding letter is dated. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



451 



LETTER V. 

To Tiro. 

You will easily judge of our distress, when I tell 
you that myself and every friend of the republic 
A „q. have abandoned Rome, and even our 
country, to all the cruel devastations of 
fire and sword. Our affairs, indeed, are in so 
desperate a situation, that nothing less than the 
powerful interposition of some favourable divinity, 
or some happy turn of chance, can secure us from 
utter ruin. It has been the perpetual purpose of 
all my speeches, my votes, and my actions, ever 
since I returned to Rome, to preserve the public 
tranquillity. But an invincible rage for war had 
unaccountably seized not only the enemies, but 
even those who are esteemed the friends, of the 
commonwealth : and it was in vain I remonstrated, 
that nothing was more to be dreaded than a civil 
war. Caesar, in the mean time, unmindful of his 
former character and honours, and driven, it should 
seem, by a sort of frenzy, has taken possession of 
Ariminum, Pisaurum, Ancona, and Arretum. In 
consequence of this, we have all deserted the city ; 
but how prudently, or how heroically, it now avails 
not to examined Thus you see our wretched situa- 
tion ! Caesar, however, has offered us the following 
conditions : in the first place, that Pompey shall 
retire to his government in Spain ; in the next, 
that the army we have raised shall be disbanded, 
and our garrisons evacuated. Upon these terms 
he promises to deliver up the farther Gaul into 
the hands of Domitius, and the nearer into those 
of Confidius Nonianus, the persons to whom these 
provinces have been respectively allotted. He 
farther engages to resign his right of suing for the 
consulship in his absence, and is willing to return 
to Rome in order to appear as a candidate in the 
regular form k . We have accepted these proposi- 
tions, provided he withdraws his forces from the 
several towns above mentioned, that the senate 
may securely assemble themselves at Rome in 
order to pass a decree for that purpose 1 . If he 
should think proper to comply with this proposal, 

J So long as Caesar kept himself within the limits of his 
province, Pompey treated his designs of invading Italy 
with the utmost contempt : but Caesar had no sooner passed 
the Rubicon and possessed himself of those several towns 
mentioned in this letter, than it appeared that Pompey 
was utterly unprepared to oppose him. Accordingly, he 
withdrew from Rome into the more southern parts of Italy 
with great precipitation, in order, as he pretended, to 
assemble the troops in those quarters. But his real inten- 
tion seems to have been to retreat gradually to Brundisium, 
and from thence to draAV the war into Greece. The proba- 
ble reason of this conduct will be explained in a subsequent 
note. See rem. J, on letter 14 of this book. Ad Att. vii. 8 ; 
Dio, xli. 

k In the original it is se prcesentem trinundinum petitu- 
rum. Manutius conjectures, from this expression, that it 
was usual to proclaim the names of the candidates on three 
market-days, at which time the candidates themselves, it 
is probable, were required to be present. 

1 The expression in the text is somewhat ambiguous: 
— " ut sine metu de iis conditionibus Roma senatus haberi 
possit." But the sense is determined by the following pas- 
sage in a letter to Atticus, where, speaking of these propo- 
sals of Caesar, and of the terms upon which they were 
accepted, he adds, " id si fecisset (sc. Ccesar) responsum 
est ad urbem nos redituros esse et rem per senatum con- 
fecturos."— Ad Att. vii. 14. 



there are hopes of peace; not indeed of a very 
honourable one, as the terms are imposed upon 
us : yet anything is preferable to our present cir- 
cumstances. But if he should refuse to stand to 
his overtures, we are prepared for an engagement : 
but an engagement which Csesar, after having 
incurred the general odium of retracting his own 
conditions, will scarce be able to sustain™ 1 . The 
only difficulty will be to intercept his march to 
Rome : and this we have a prospect of effecting, as 
we have raised a very considerable body of troops ; 
and we imagine that he will scarce venture to 
advance, lest he should lose the two Gauls ; every 
part of those provinces, excepting only the Trans- 
padani, being utterly averse to him. There are, 
likewise, six of our legions from Spain, commanded 
by Afranius and Petreius, and supported by a very 
powerful body of auxiliaries that lie in his rear. In 
short, if he should be so mad as to approach, there 
is great probability of his being defeated, if we can 
but preserve Rome from falling into his hands. It 
has given a very considerable blow to his cause, 
that Labienus, who had great credit in his army, 
refused to be an associate with him in his impious 
enterprise". This illustrious person has not only 
deserted Csesar, but joined himself with us : and it 
is said that many others of the same party intend 
to follow his example. 

I have still under my protection all the coast 
that extends itself from Formise. I did not choose 
to enter more deeply at present into the opposition 
against Csesar, that my exhortations, in order to 
engage him to an accommodation, might be attended 
with the greater weight. If war, however, must, 
after all, be our lot, it will be impossible for me, 
I perceive, to decline the command of some part 
of our forces . To this uneasy reflection 1 must 
add another : my son-in-law Dolabella has taken 
party with Csesar. 

I was willing to give you this general information 
of public affairs ; but suffer it not, I charge you, to 
make impressions upon your mind to the disadvan- 
tage of your health. I have strongly recommended 
you to Aulus Varro, whose disposition to serve you, 
as well as whose particular friendship to myself, I 
have thoroughly experienced. I have entreated 
him to be careful both of your health and of your 
voyage ; and, in a word, to receive you entirely 
under his protection. I have full confidence that 
he will comply with my request, as he gave me 
his promise for that purpose in the most obliging 
manner. 

As I could not enjoy the satisfaction of your 
company at a season when I most wanted your 
faithful services, I beg you would not now hasten 
your return, nor undertake your voyage either 
during the winter, or before you are perfectly 
recovered : for, be assured, I shall not think I see 
you too late, if I see you safe and well. I have 



m The favourable prospect which Cicero gives in this and 
the following passages of the senate's affairs, is so little 
consistent with the despondency he expresses in the former 
part of this letter, that one would be apt to suspect they 
were two distinct epistles, which some negligent transcri- 
ber had blended together. 

n See rem. e, on letter 3 of this book. 

o This, however, Cicero contrived to avoid ; and though, 
after much hesitation, he followed Pompey into Greece, he 
would accept of no command in his army, nor was he pre- 
sent at any engagement. 

GG2 



45: 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



>i 



heard nothing of you since the letter I received by 
Marcus- Volucius ; but indeed I do not wonder at 
it, as I imagine the severity of the winter has like- 
wise prevented my letters from reaching your 
hands. Take care of yourself, I conjure you, and 
do not sail till your health and the season shall be 
favourable. My son is at Formise ; but Terentia 
and Tullia are still at Rome. Farewell. 
Capua, January the 29th. 



LETTER VI. 

Quintus Cicero? to Tiro. 
Your ill state of health occasions us great uneasi- 
ness ; for though we have the satisfaction to hear 
a u 704 * na ^ ^ * s not tended with any dangerous 
symptoms, yet we are informed that your 
cure must be the work of time. But we cannot 
think, without much concern, of being longer 
separated from one whose agreeable company we 
learn to value by the regret we feel at his absence. 
However, notwithstanding I wish most earnestly 
to see you, yet I conjure you not to undertake so 
long a voyage till the season and your health shall 
render it safe. A tender constitution can ill defend 
itself against the severity of the weather even when 
sheltered under the covert of a warm roof, much 
less when exposed to all the inclemencies both of 
sea and land. 

Foes to the weak are chilling blasts severe : 
as Euripides i assures us. What credit you may 
give to that divine poet, I know not ; but for my- 
self, I look upon his verses as so many indubitable 
maxims. In short, if you have any value for me, 
endeavour the re-establishment of your health, that 
you may as soon as possible return to us perfectly 
recovered. Farewell : and continue to love me. — 
My son salutes you. 



LETTER VII. 

Marcus Ccslius to Cicero. 
Was there ever a more absurd mortal than your 
friend Pompey, to act in so trifling a manner, after 
a u 704 navm S raised such terrible commotions ? 



Let 



on the other hand, whether 



P The brother of our author. Quintus Cicero, after 
having passed through the office of praetor, in the year of 
Rome 692, was elected governor of Asia, where he presided 
three years with little credit. He distinguished himself 
in Gaul as one of Caesar's lieutenants, but at the breaking 
out of the civil war, he followed the fortune of Pompey. 
However, after the battle of Pharsalia, he made his peace 
with Caesar, and returned into Italy. He appears to have 
been of a haughty, imperious, petulant temper, and, in 
every view of his character, altogether unamiable. But 
what gives it a cast of peculiar darkness, is his conduct 
towards Cicero, whom he endeavoured to prejudice in the 
opinion of Caesar at a time when they were both the sup- 
plicants of his clemency. This, as far as can be collected 
from the letters to Atticus, was an instance of the basest 
and most aggravated ingratitude ; for whatever Cicero's 
failings might be in other respects, he seems to have had 
none with regard to Quintus, but that of loving him with 
a tenderness he ill deserved.— Ad Att. i. 15 ; vi. 6 ; xi. 8. 

q A celebrated Greek dramatic poet, whose death is said 
to have been occasioned by excessive joy for having 
obtained the poetic prize at the Olympic games. He 
flourished about 400 years before the Christian era. 



you ever heard or read of a general more undaunted 
in action, or more generous in victory, than our 
illustrious Caesar ? Look upon his troops, my 
friend, and tell me whether one would not imagine, 
by the gaiety of their countenances, that, instead of 
having fought their way through the severest cli- 
mates in the most inclement Season, they had been 
regaling themselves in all the delicacies of ease and 
plenty ! And, now, will you not think that I am 
immoderately elated ? The truth of it is, if you 
knew the disquietude of my heart, you would laugh 
at me for thus glorying in advantages in which I 
have no share. But I cannot explain this to you 
till we meet, which I hope will be very speedily : 
for it was Csesar's intention to order me to Rome 
as soon as he should have driven Pompey out of 
Italy ; and this I imagine he has already effected, 
unless the latter should choose to suffer a blockade 
in Brundisium. 

My principal reason for wishing to be at Rome 
is in order to pour forth the fulness of my heart 
before you : for full, believe me, it is. And yet 
the joy of seeing you may perhaps make me, as 
usual, forget .all my complaints, and banish from 
my thoughts whatever I intended to say. In 
the mean while, I am obliged (as a punishment, I 
suppose, for my sins) to march back towards the 
Alps. I am indebted for this agreeable expedition 
to a foolish insurrection of the Intemelii r . Bel- 
lienus, whose mother was a slave in the family of 
Demetrius, and who commands the garrison there, 
was bribed by the opposite faction to seize and 
strangle a certain nobleman of that place, called 
Domitius, a person connected with Csesar by the 
rites of hospitality s . The citizens, in resentment 
of this outrage, have taken up arms ; and I have 
the mortification to be commanded to march 
thither, through a deep snow, with four cohorts, 
in order to quell them. Surely the Domitii are a 
curse wherever they exist. I wish, at least, that 

r The inhabitants of Intemelium, a maritime city in 
Liguria, now called Vintimiglia, in the territories of Genoa. 

s Hospitality was considered from the earliest ages as 
in the number of the primary social duties. The sacred 
historian has recorded a remarkable instance of this kind 
in the story of Lot, who would rather have sacrificed his 
own daughters to the flagitious demands of his infamous 
fellow-citizens, than give up the supposed travellers whom 
he had invited to rest under the shadow cf his roof. Agree- 
ably to this Eastern practice, Homer frequently inculcates 
the maxim, that strangers are to be received as guests 
from heaven : 

irphs yap Aibs <do\v diravTes 
aelvoi. 
And Horace mentions the hospitable connexion among 
those of nearest and most tender regard : 

Quo sit amore parens, quo frater amandus et hospes. 
It will appear by several passages in the following letters, 
that this generous virtue subsisted among the Romans 
when every other was almost utterly extinct. The custom, 
indeed, of receiving strangers was so^generally established, 
that travellers were scarce ever reduced to the necessity of 
taking up their lodgings at an inn. Those who were thus 
entertained, or who exercised the same rites of humanity 
towards others, were called hospitcs, and they mutually 
exchanged certain tokens which were termed tessei'a hos- 
pitali talis. These were preserved in families, and carefully 
transmitted from father to son as memorials and pledges 
of the same good offices between their descendants. — Pen- 
tat. Gen. xix. ; Homer. Odyss. xiv. 207. Hor. Ars Poet. 
313. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



453 



u. 704. 



our heaven-descended 1 chief had acted like this 
other u of more humble lineage, and had treated 
Domitius at Corfinium v in the same manner that 
his namesake has been treated at Intemelium. I 
salute your son. Farewell. 

LETTER VIII. 

To Tiro. 
I shall think myself indebted to you for all 
that I most value, whenever you give me the satis- 
faction of seeing you perfectly recovered. 
In the mean time, I am in the utmost 
impatience for the return of Menander, whom I 
lately despatched with a letter to you. I conjure 
you, if you have any affection for me, to take care 
of your health, and let me see you as soon as it 
shall be thoroughly re-established. Farewell. * 
April the 10th. 

LETTER IX. 

To the same. 

Menander returned a day later than I expected, 
which caused me to pass a miserable night in the 
most disquieting apprehensions. But 
though your letter did not remove my 
uncertainty as to your health, it in some measure, 
however, dispelled the gloom which had overcast 
my mind, as it was an evidence at least that you 
were still in being. 

I have bidden adieu to all my literary amuse- 
ments of every kind; nor shall I be capable of 
resuming them again till I see you here. Mean- 
while, I desire you would give orders that your 
physician's demands may be satisfied ; for which 
purpose I have likewise written to Curius. The 
former, I am told, attributes your distemper to 
that anxiety which I hear you indulge. But if 
you have any regard for me, awaken in your breast 
that manly spirit of philosophy for which I so 
tenderly love and value you. It is impossible you 
should recover your health if you do not preserve 
your spirits ; and I entreat you to keep them up 
for my sake as well as your own. I desire you 
likewise to retain Acastus, that you may be the 
more conveniently attended. In a word, my Tiro, 
preserve yourself for me. 

Remember the time for the performance of my 

t Caesar affected to be thought a descendant from ^Eneas, 
who, it is well known, was supposed to have received his 
birth from Venus. Accordingly, in allusion to this pre- 
tended divinity of his lineage, he always wore a ring, on 
which was engraven the figure of that goddess, and with 
which he used to seal his most important despatches. The 
propagating a belief of this kind must necessarily have 
proved of singular service to Caesar's purposes, as it im- 
pressed a peculiar veneration of his person upon the minds 
of the populace. Antony very successfully made use of 
it to instigate them against the conspirators, when he 
reminded them, in the funeral oration which he spoke over 
Caesar's body, that he derived his origin on one side from 
the ancient kings of Italy, and on the other from the im- 
mortal gods.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Caes. 6 ; Dio, xliv. p. 235, 
259. 

u Bellienus, commander of the garrison at Intemelium ; 
and who, as appears from this letter, was the son of a 
female slave. 

v Domitius Enobarbus, a little before the date of this 
letter, was besieged in Corfinium by Cassar, to whom he 
was at length obliged to surrender the town. Caesar treated 
him with great generosity, and not only gave him his 



promise w is approaching ; but if you return to 
Italy before the day I fixed for that purpose, I 
will execute it immediately. Again and again I 
bid you farewell. 

LETTER X. 

To the same. 

JEgypta returned hither on the 12th of April. 
But though he assured me that you had lost your 
a u 704 f ever ' an( * were muc h mended, it gave me 
great uneasiness to find that you were 
not yet able to write ; and the more so, as Hermia, 
whom I expected the same day, is not yet arrived. 
The concern I feel on account of your health is 
beyond all belief. Free me from this disquietude, 
I conjure you, and in return I will ease you of all 
yours. I would write a longer letter, if I thought 
you were in a disposition to read one. I will 
therefore only add my request, that you would 
employ that excellent understanding, for which I 
so greatly esteem you, in studying what methods 
may best preserve you both to yourself and me. I 
repeat it again and again, take care of your health. 
Farewell. 

Since I wrote the above, Hermia is arrived. He 
delivered your letter to me, which is written, I 
perceive, with a very unsteady hand. However, I 
cannot wonder at it, after so severe an illness. I 
despatch iEgypta with this ; and as he is a good- 
natured fellow, and seems to have an affection for 
you, I desire you would keep him to attend you. 
He is accompanied with a cook, whom I have like- 
wise sent for your use. Farewell. 

LETTER XI. 

Quintus Cicero to the same x . 
I have strongly reproached you in my own 
mind for suffering a second packet to come away 
a u 704 without inclosing a letter to me. All 
your own rhetoric will be insufficient to 
avert the punishment you have incurred by this 
unkind neglect ; and you must have recourse to 
some elaborate production of your patron's elo- 
quence to appease my wrath. Though I doubt 
whether even his oratory will be able to persuade 
me that you have not been guilty of a very unpar- 
donable omission. I remember it was a custom of 
my mother to put a seal upon her empty casks, in 
order, if any of her liquors should be purloined, 
that the servants might not pretend the vessel had 
been exhausted before. In the same manner, you 
should write to me though you have nothing to 
say, that your empty letters may be a proof, at 
least, that you would not defraud me of what I 
value. I value all, indeed, that come from you, as 
the very sincere and agreeable dictates of your 
heart. Farewell, and continue to love me. 

liberty, but restored to him a sum of money which he had 
lodged in the public treasury of the city. Some account 
of the occasion of this inveterate enmity which Coelius 
expresses towards Domitius, may be seen in the 15th letter 
of the preceding book. Caes. De Bell. Civ. i. 23. 

w The commentators suppose, with great probability, 
that this alludes to a promise which Cicero had made to 
Tiro, of giving him his freedom. 

x The time when this letter was written is altogether 
uncertain, and it is placed under the present year, not 
because there is any good reason for it, but because there 
is none against it. 



45 4 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XII. 

To Servius Sulpicius y. 

I am informed by a letter from my friend 
Trebatius that you lately inquired after me, and 
a. u. 704 ex P resse(1 , at the same time, much con- 
cern that your indisposition had prevented 
you from seeing me when I was in the suburbs of 
Rome. To which he adds, that you are desirous, if 
I should approach the city, of having a conference 
with me, in order to deliberate in what manner it 
becomes us to act in this critical season. I sin- 
cerely wish it had been in our power to have con- 
ferred together ere our affairs were utterly ruined, 
as I am persuaded we might have contributed 
somewhat to the support of our declining constitu- 
tion. For, as you had long foreseen these public 
calamities, so I had the pleasure to hear, whilst I 
was in Cilicia, that both during your consulate and 
afterwards, you always stood forth an advocate for 
the peace of our country z . But, though I totally 
concurred with you in these sentiments, yet, upon 
my return to Rome, it was too late to enforce 
them. I was, indeed, wholly unsupported in my 
opinion, and not only found myself among a set of 
men who were madly inflamed with a thirst of war, 
but was considered likewise as one who, by a long 
absence, was utterly unacquainted with the true 
state of the commonwealth. But, though it seems 
in vain to hope that our united counsels can now 
avail the republic, yet, if they can in any degree 
advantage ourselves, there is no man with whom I 
should more willingly confer. Not indeed with 
any view of securing the least part of our former 
dignities, but to consider in what manner we may 
most worthily deplore their loss ; for I well know 
that your mind is amply stored with those exam- 
ples of the great, and those maxims of the wise, 
which ought to guide and animate our conduct in 
this important conjuncture. 

I should have told you before now that your 
presence in the senate, or, to speak more properly, 
in the convention of senators", would be altogether 
ineffectual, if I had not been apprehensive of giving 
offence to that person who endeavoured, by in- 
stating your example, to persuade me to join them. 
I very plainly assured him, however, when he 
applied to me for this purpose, that if I went to 

y Servius Sulpicius Rufus was descended from one of 
the noblest and most considerable families in Rome, seve- 
ral of his ancestors having borne the highest offices and 
honours of the republic. He was elected to the consular 
dignity in the year of Rome 702 ; to which his eminent skill 
in the law principally contributed.— Suet, in Vit. Tiberii ; 
Dio, xli. p. 148. See rems. e and \ letter 1, book ix. 

z Sulpicius was well aware that the recalling Caesar from 
his government in Gaul before the expiration of the time 
for which it was granted him, together with the refusing 
him the privilege, which he had obtained by an express 
law, of suing for the consulate in his absence, would ine- 
vitably draw on a civil war. And, accordingly, he exerted 
himself with great zeal in opposing his colleague, Marcus 
Claudius Marcellus,in the several attempts whichhemade 
for that purpose. — Dio, ubi sup. 

* The meeting of the senate, to which Cicero alludes, 
was held in Rome, after Pompey had deserted Italy. 
Cicero calls it " a convention of senators," as not admit- 
ting the legality of its assembling ; both the consuls 
together with the principal magistrates of the republic, 
having withdrawn themselves, together with Pompey, 
into Greece. 



the senate, I should declare the same opinion con- 
cerning peace, and his expedition into Spain, which 
you had already delivered as yours b . 

The flames of war, you see, have spread them- 
selves throughout the whole Roman dominions, 
and all the world have taken up arms under our 
respective chiefs. Rome, in the mean time, des- 
titute of all rule or magistracy, of all justice or 
control, is wretchedly abandoned to the dreadful 
inroads of rapine and devastation. In this general 
anarchy and confusion, I know not what to expect ; 
I scarcely know even what to wish. But, notwith- 
standing I had determined to retire to a farther 
distance from Rome, (as, indeed, I cannot even 
hear it named without reluctance,) yet I pay so 
great a regard to your judgment, that, if you think 
any advantage may arise from our interview, I am 
willing to return. In the mean time, I have re- 
quested Trebatius to receive your commands, if 
you should be desirous of communicating any to 
me by his mouth. I should be glad, indeed, that 
you would employ either him or any other of your 
friends whom you can trust upon this occasion, as 
I would not lay you under the necessity of going 
out of Rome, or be myself obliged to advance much 
nearer to it. Perhaps I attribute too much to my 
own judgment, though I am sure I do not to yours, 
when I add, that I am persuaded the world will 
approve whatever measures we shall agree upon. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XIII. 

Marcus Ccelius to Cicero. 

The melancholy cast of your letter affects me 
with the deepest concern ; and though you do not 
a u 704 declare your intentions in direct and ex- 
plicit terms, yet you leave me no room 
to doubt of what kind they are c . I thus instantly, 
therefore, take up my pen, in order to conjure you, 
my dear friend, by the tenderness you bear to your 
children, and by all that is most valuable in your 
esteem, not to resolve upon any measures so totally 
inconsistent with your true welfare. Heaven and 
earth will be my witness that I have offered you 
no advice, nor sent you any prophetic admonitions, 
which I had not well and maturely considered. It 
was not, indeed, till after I had an interview with 
Csesar, and had fully discovered his sentiments, 
that I informed you in what manner he would most 
assuredly employ his victory. If you imagine he 
will be as easy in pardoning his enemies as he was 
reasonable in offering them terms of accommoda- 

b Cicero had an interview with Caesar, in the return of 
the latter from Brundisium, after Pompey had abandoned 
that city and fled into Greece. Caesar laboured to prevail 
with our author to return to Rome and take his seat in 
the senate. But Cicero acted upon this occasion with a 
spirit which we cannot but regret should have ever 
deserted him : he declared he would not attend the 
senate, but upon the terms of being at full liberty to deliver 
his sentiments, which, he confessed, were utterly against 
carrying the war into Spain, and altogether in favour of 
peace. Caesar as plainly assured him, that this was what 
he could not suffer; and recommending it to him to think 
better of the matter, the conference ended, " very little," 
says Cicero, " to the satisfaction of Caesar, and very much 
to my own." — Ad Att. ix. 18. 

c That Cicero had formed a resolution of following Pom- 
pey into Greece. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



455 



tion, believe me, you will find that you have made 
a very erroneous calculation. His heart and his 
expressions breathe the severest resentment ; and 
he left Rome highly incensed both against the 
senate and tribunes d . In plain truth, he is by no 
means in a disposition to show the least favour to 
his adversaries. If you have any tenderness, there- 
fore, to yourself, to your son, or to your family in 
general ; if either my friendship, or the alliance of 
that worthy man who has married e your daughter, 
can give us a claim to some influence over you, let 
me conjure you not to disconcert the measures we 
have taken to preserve our fortunes, nor lay us 
under the miserable alternative of either abandon- 
ing a cause upon which our own safety depends, 
or of impiously wishing well to one which must 
necessarily be inconsistent with yours. Consider, 
you have already disgusted Pompey, by this your 
delay in joining him ; and would it not be utterly 
impolitic, after having so cautiously avoided giving 
offence to Caesar, when his affairs were yet doubtful, 
to declare against him now that they are attended 
with such uncommon success ? Would it not be 
the highest indiscretion to join with those who are 
fleeing before his troops, after having refused to 
act in concert with them when they seemed inclined 
to resist ? In fine, my friend, let me entreat you, 
whilst you are endeavouring to escape the imputa- 
tion of being deficient in patriotism, to be careful 
lest you incur the censure of being deficient in 
prudence. But, after all, if I cannot wholly dis- 
suade you from your resolution, suffer me at least 
to prevail with you to suspend the execution of it 
till the event of our expedition into Spain, which 
I shall venture, however, to assure you, will most 
certainly fall into our hands upon the very first ap- 
pearance of Caesar's troops. And what hopes the 
opposite party can possibly entertain after the loss 
of that province, I am perfectly unable to discover. 
As far, likewise, is it beyond my penetration, what 
motive can induce you to join with those whose 
affairs are thus evidently desperate. This design, 
which you so obscurely intimated in your letter, 
had reached the knowledge of Caesar ; and the first 
thing he said, after the usual salutations had passed 
between us, was to inform me of what he had heard 
concerning you. I professed myself entirely igno- 
rant that you had any such thoughts ; but if you 
had, I said, it was my request that he would write 
to you in such terms as might most probably pre- 
vail with you to renounce them. I have received 
his commands to attend him into Spain ; otherwise 
I would instantly have come to you, wherever you 

d Caesar, upon his return to Rome, after the siege of 
Brundisium, proposed to the senate that an embassy 
should be sent to Pompey, with proposals of peace. This 
the house agreed to ; but when the question was moved 
concerning the persons to be appointed for this purpose, 
none of the members would undertake that commission. 
Caesar endeavoured, likewise, to procure a law for granting 
him the money in the public treasury, in order to carry 
on the war against Pompey. But Metellus, the tribune, 
interposing his negative, Caesar obtained his purpose by a 
shorter method. For, breaking open the temple of Saturn, 
in which this money was preserved, he first plundered his 
country of her patrimony, (says Floras,) and then of her 
liberty. Having thus possessed himself of an immense 
wealth, he immediately set out upon his expedition 
against Afranius and Petreius, the lieutenants of Pompey 
in Spain.— Caes. De Bell. Civ. i. 33 ; Dio, xli. Flor. iv. 2. 

e Dolabella. 



had been, in order to have pressed these reasons 
upon you in person, and, indeed, to have retained 
you in Italy by absolute force. Consider well your 
scheme, my dear Cicero, ere you carry it into exe- 
cution, lest you obstinately, and against all remon- 
strances, involve both yourself and your family in 
utter and irrecoverable ruin. But if you are 
affected by the reproaches of those who style them- 
selves patriots, or cannot submit to be a witness of 
the insolence of some in the opposite party, let me 
advise you to retreat into a neutral city, till our 
contests shall be decided. This will be acting 
with a prudence which I cannot but own to be a 
laudable one, and which Caesar, I am sure, will by 
no means disapprove. Farewell. 



LETTER XIV. 

Cicero to Marcus Coslius. 
I should have been extremely affected by your 
letter, if reason had not banished from my heart 
704 all its disquietudes, and despair of seeing 
better days had not long since hardened 
it against every new impression of grief. Yet, 
strong as I must acknowledge my despondency to 
be, I am not sensible, however, that I said any- 
thing in my last which could justly raise the 
suspicion you have conceived. What more did 
my letter contain than general expressions of dis- 
satisfaction at the sad prospect of our affairs ? a 
prospect which cannot, surely, suggest to your own 
mind less gloomy apprehensions than it presents to 
mine. For I am too well persuaded of the force 
of your penetration, to imagine that my judgment 
can discover consequences which lie concealed from 
yours. But I am surprised that you, who ought 
to know me perfectly well, should believe me 
capable of acting with so little policy as to abandon 
a rising fortune for one in its decline, at least, if 
not utterly fallen; or so variable as not only to 
destroy at once all the interest I have established 
with Caesar, but to deviate even from myself, by 
engaging at last in a civil war, which it has hitherto 
been my determined maxim to avoid. Where, then, 
did you discover those unhappy resolutions you 
impute to me ? Perhaps you collected them from 
what I said of secluding myself in seme sequestered 
solitude. And, indeed, you are sensible how ill I 
can submit, I do not say to endure, but even to be 
a witness of the insolences of the successful party ; 
a sentiment, my friend, which once, I am sure, 
was yours no less than mine. But in vain would 
I retire, whilst I preserve the title f with which I 
am at present distinguished, and continue to be 
attended with this embarrassing parade of lictors &. 
Were I eased of this troublesome honour, there is 
no part of Italy so obscure in which I should not 
be well contented to hide myself. Yet these my 
laurels, unwelcome as they are to myself, are h the 

f That of lmperator. See rem. •>, on letter 1, book i. 

g The lictors were a sort of beadles, who carried the 
ensigns of magistracy before the consuls, proconsuls, and 
other supreme officers of the state. These lictors conti- 
nued to attend the proconsul after his return from his 
government, if he aspired (as Cicero did) to the honour of 
a triumph. 

h Cicero undoubtedly gave, upon this occasion, but too 
much colour to the censuro of his enemies : for it could 



456 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



object both of the envy and the raillery of my 
malevolent enemies. Nevertheless, under all these 
temptations of withdrawing from so disgusting a 
scene, I never once entertained a thought of leaving 
Italy without the previous approbation of yourself 
and some others. But you know the situation of 
my several villas, and as it is among these I am 
obliged to divide my time, that I may not incom- 
mode 1 my friends, the preference I give to those 
which stand on the sea-coast, has raised a suspicion 
that I am meditating a flight into Greece. If peace, 
indeed, were to be found in that country, I should 
not, perhaps, be unwilling to undertake the voyage : 
but to enter upon it in order to engage in a war, 
would be altogether inconsistent, surely, with my 
principles and character ; especially, as it would 
be taking up arms, not only against a man who, I 
hope, is perfectly well satisfied with my conduct, 
but in favour of one whom it is now impossible I 
should ever render so. In a word, as I made no 
secret to you, when you met me at my Cuman 
villa, of the conversation which had passed between 
Ampius and myself, you could not be at a loss to 
guess my sentiments upon this head : and, indeed, 
you plainly saw how utterly averse I was to the 
scheme of Pompey's deserting Rome. Did I not 
then affirm that there was nothing I would not 
suffer, rather than be induced to follow the civil 
war beyond the limits of Italy J ? And has any 
event since happened, that could give me just 
reason of changing my sentiments ? On the con- 
not but have a very strange appearance, that he should 
preserve the thoughts of a triumph, at a time when his 
country was bleeding with a civil war. But as he was 
extremely ambitious of this honour, he was equally unwil- 
ling to renounce it ; still flattering himself, perhaps, that 
some accommodation between Caesar and Pompey would 
afford him an opportunity of enjoying what he so strongly 
desired. 

1 That is, by continuing in the suburbs of Rome ; where, 
as -he had no house of his own, he must necessarily be a 
guest to some of his friends. For he could not enter the 
city without relinquishing his claim to a triumph. 

J Cicero perpetually condemns the conduct of Pompey, 
in first retiring from Rome, and afterwards removing the 
seat of war out of Italy. But with regard to the former, 
it appears, even from our author himself, that it was 
attended with a very good effect, and which Pompey, it is 
probable, had in view when he resolved upon that measure. 
For it raised a more general indignation against Caesar to 
see Pompey thus fleeing before him, and rendering the 
people more averse from favouring his cause. " Fugiens 
Pompeius mirabiliter homines movet. Quid qussris ? alia 
causa facta est : nihil jam concedendum putant Caesari." 
[Ad Att, vii. 11.] And as to Pompey's leaving Italy, he 
seems, as far as can be judged at this distance of time, to 
have acted upon a very rational plan. Pompey's forces 
were much inferior to Caesar's; and even the few troops 
which he had, were such as he could by no means depend 
upon. As he was master of a very considerable fleet, there 
was great probability of his being able to prevent Caesar 
from following him into Greece : at the same time that 
Afranius and Petreius were in the rear of Caesar, with an 
army composed of approved and veteran forces. Italy was 
supplied with corn from the eastern provinces, especially 
from Egypt; which Pompey was in hopes of cutting off by 
means of his fleet. These provinces, together with the 
neighbouring kings, were likewise greatly in his interest ; 
and he had reason to ex pcct very large subsidies from them, 
both of men and money. Perhaps, therefore, when these 
several circumstances shall be duly weighed, it will not 
appear that Pompey determined injudiciously, when he 
resolved to cross the Adriatic.— Ad Att. vii. 13 ; ix. 9; x. 
fi ; Dio, xli. p. 158. 



trary, has not every circumstance concurred to fix 
me in them k ? 

Be assured (and I am well persuaded it is what 
you already believe) that the single aim of my 
actions, in these our public calamities, has been to 
convince the world that my great and earnest desire 
was to preserve the peace of our country : and 
when this could no longer be hoped, that there was 
nothing I wished more than to avoid taking any 
part in the civil war. And I shall never, 1 trust, 
have reason to repent of firmly persevering in these 
sentiments. It was the frequent boast, I remember, 
of my friend Hortensius, that he had never taken 
up arms in any of our civil dissentions. But I 
may glory in the same honest neutrality with a 
much better grace : for that of Hortensius was 
suspected to have arisen from the timidity of his 
temper ; whereas mine, I think, cannot be imputed 
to any motive of that unworthy kind. Nor am I 
in the least terrified by those considerations with 
which you so faithfully and affectionately endeavour 
to alarm my fears. The truth of it is, there is no 
calamity so severe to which we are not all of us, 
it should seem, in this universal anarchy and con- 
fusion, equally and unavoidably exposed. But if 
I could have averted this dreadful storm from the 
republic at the expense of my own private and 
domestic enjoyments, even of those, my friend, 
which you so emphatically recommend to my care, 
I should most willingly have made the sacrifice. 
As to my son, (who I rejoice to find has a share 
in your concern,) I shall leave him a sufficient 
patrimony in that honour with which my name 
will be remembered so long as the republic shall 
subsist : and if it be destroyed, I shall have the 
consolation, at least, to reflect that he will suffer 
nothing more than must be the common lot of 
every Roman. With regard to that dear and ex- 
cellent young man my son-in-law. whose welfare 
you entreat me to consider, can you once doubt, 
knowing as you perfectly do the tenderness I bear, 
not only for him, but for Tullia, that I am infi- 
nitely anxious upon his account ! I am the more 
so, indeed, as it was my single consolation, amidst 
these general distractions, that they might possibly 
prove a means of protecting him from those incon- 
veniences in which his too generous spirit had 
unhappily involved him 1 . How much he suffered 

k Notwithstanding Cicero's strong assertions that h e 
had no thoughts of joining Pompey, he had actually deter" 
mined to do so a few days before he received the preceding 
letter from Ccelius ; as, appears by an epistle to Atticus, 
wherein he expressly tells him that he was only waiting 
for a fair wind. But before he wrote the present letter, 
he had received some news not altogether favourable to 
Pompey's party ; in consequence of which he renounced 
his former design, and was now determined (though he 
does not think proper to own it in this letter) to retire to 
Malta, as a neutral island. This resolution, however, he 
soon afterwards rejected, and resumed his first intentions 
of following Pompey into Greece. And this scheme he at 
length executed.— Ad Att. x. 8, 9. See rem. t on letter 15 
of this book. 

1 It should seem, by this passage, that Dolabella, who 
had contracted very considerable debts, was at this time 
under some difficulties from his creditors, from whom 
Cicero flattered himself that Caesar's power would have 
protected him. Some commentators, however, instead of 
liberalitate, adopted in this translation, read libertate, 
and suppose that Cicero alludes to the prosecution in 
which Dolabella had been engaged against Appius, of 
which a detail has been given in the preceding remarks. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



457 



from them during the time he continued in Rome, 
as well as how little that circumstance was to my 
credit, are points which I choose to leave to your 
inquiry. 

Affairs in Spain, I doubt not, will terminate in 
the manner you mention. But I neither wait the 
event of them in order to determine my conduct m , 
nor am I acting in any other respect with the least 
artifice. If the republic should be preserved, I 
shall certainly hold my rank in it : but if it should 
be subverted, you yourself, I dare say, will join me 
in my intended solitude. But this latter supposition 
is perhaps the vain and groundless surmise of a 
disturbed imagination ; and affairs, after all, may 
take a happier turn than I am apt to presage. I 
remember the despondency which prevailed in my 
earlier days amongst our patriots of more advanced 
years n : possibly my present apprehensions may 
be of the same cast, and no other than the effect of 
a common weakness incident to old age. Heaven 
grant they may prove so ! And yet you have heard, 
1 suppose, that a robe of magistracy is in the looms 
for Oppius ; and that Curtius has hopes of being 
invested with the double-dyed purple ° : but the 
principal workman, it seems, somewhat delays him p. 
I throw in this little pleasantry to let you see that I 
can smile in the midst of my indignation. 

Let me advise you to enter into the affair which 
I formerly mentioned concerning Dolabella, with 
the same warmth as if it were your own. I have 

But whichever he the true word, the sentiment is observ- 
able. For surely it was utterly unworthy of Cicero, to 
find the least consolation amidst the calamities of his 
country, in the hope that they might prove a screen to 
Dolabella, either from the justice of his creditors, or the 
malice of his enemies. 

™ The contrary of this was the truth : for Cicero was, 
at this time, determined to wait the event of Caesar's expe- 
dition against the lieutenants of Pompey in Spain. And 
for this purpose he had thoughts of retiring to Malta : — 
" Melitum, opinor, capessamus (says he to Atticus) dum 
quid in Hispania."— Ad Att. x. 9. 

n This alludes to the contentions between Sylla and 
Marius, which, notwithstanding the probability of their 
terminating in the total subversion of the constitution, the 
republic however survived. 

° Oppius and Curtius were persons who probably had 
distinguished themselves in no other manner than as being 
the servile instruments of Caesar's ambition. The former, 
however, appears to have been in high credit during Caesar's 
usurpation ; but the latter is often mentioned in the letters 
to Atticus with great contempt. Servius, in his comment 
on the 7th book of the JSneid, informs us that the colour 
of the augural robe was a mixture of purple and scarlet : 
it is probable, therefore, from the expression which Cicero 
employs, that Curtius had a promise of being advanced 
into the sacred college. It might well discourage Cicero's 
hopes of better days, when he saw men of this character 
singled out to fill the most important dignities of the 
republic. And, indeed, it was an earnest of what Caesar 
afterwards practised, when he became the sole fountain of 
all preferment ; which he distributed in the most arbitrary 
manner, without any regard to rank or merit. " Nullos 
non honores (says one of the historians) ad libidinem cepit 

et dedit. Civitate donatos, et quosdam e semibarbaris 

Gallorum, recepit in curiam." — Suet, in Vit. Jul. Caes. 76. 

P " Sed eum infector moratur." This witticism, which 
turns upon the equivocal sense of the word infector, could 
not be preserved in the translation. It is probable that 
Caesar had gained Curtius, as he had many others, by some 
seasonable application to his wants or his avarice : for 
Cicero seems to use this word in allusion to the verb from 
whence it is derived, as well as in its appropriated mean- 
ing ; ivjicio signifying both to corrupt and to dye. 



only to add, that you may depend upon it I shall 
take no hasty or inconsiderate measures. But to 
whatever part of the world I may direct my course, 
I entreat you to protect both me and mine, agreeably 
to your honour and to our mutual friendship. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XV. 

To Servius Sulpicius. 

I received your letter at my Cuman villa, on 
the 29th of April. I find you shortened it upon 
the supposition that Philotimus would 
deliver it into my hands ; whom, it seems, 
you had instructed to give me a more full and 
explicit information. But he did not execute his 
commission with the care he ought ; for, instead of 
bringing your letter to me himself, he sent it by 
another person. However, this omission was 
supplied by a visit from your wife and son, who 
are both of them extremely desirous you should 
come hither, and indeed pressed me to write to 
you for that purpose. 

You desire to know what measures I would 
recommend to you in this critical conjuncture. 
Believe me, I am in a situation of mind which 
renders me much more in need of a guide myself, 
than capable of conducting another. But were it 
otherwise, how should I venture to offer my advice 
to a man of your distinguished wisdom and dignity ? 
This, however, I will say, that if the question be, in 
what manner it becomes us to act, the answer is 
plain and obvious : but what will be most expedient 
for our interest, is a point far less easy to determine. 
In short, if we think, as I am sure we ought, that 
honour and true interest must ever point the same 
way, there can be no dispute what path we have to 
pursue. 

You imagine that we are both of us in the same 
circumstances ; and most certainly we both com- 
mitted the same mistake, when we honestly declared 
our opinions in favour of peace. All our counsels 
indeed equally tended to prevent a civil war ; and 
as this was the true interest of Csesar, we thought 
he would consider himself as obliged to us for 
supporting pacific measures. How much we were 
deceived is evident, you see, from the present 
posture of affairs. But you look, I know, much 
farther, and take into your view not only what has 
already happened or is now transacting, but the 
whole future progress and final tendency of these 
commotions. If, then, you should determine to 
remain in Rome, you must either approve the 
measures which are there carrying on, or be present 
at a scene which your heart condemns. But the 
former seems an unworthy part, and the latter, I 
think, altogether an unsafe one. My opinion is 
consequently for retiring : and the single point is, 
whither to direct our course ? But as public affairs 
were never in a more desperate situation, so never 
was there a question attended with greater difficul- 
ties : whichever way one turns it, some important 
objection occurs. If you have resolved upon any 
scheme which is not consistent with mine, I could 
wish you would spare yourself the trouble of a 
journey hither : but if you are inclined to parti- 
cipate of my measures, 1 will wait your arrivals 

<i Sulpicius had an interview with Cicero at his Cuman 
villa, soon after the date of this letter ; but the former was 
so much dispirited and so full of fears, that Cicero could 



453 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



I beg you would be as expeditious for that purpose 
as you conveniently can : a request in which both 
Servius and Posthumia equally join r . Farewell. 



LETTER XVI. 

To Rufus s . 
Though I never once doubted that I enjoyed 
the highest rank in your friendship, yet every day's 
experience strengthens me in that per- 
suasion. You assured me, I remember, 
in one of your letters, that you should be more 
assiduous in giving me proofs of your affection now, 
than when you were my quaestor, as they would 
more indisputably appear to be the free result of a 
disinterested esteem. And though nothing, I thought, 
could exceed your good offices to me in the province, 
yet you have since fully evinced the sincerity of 
this promise. Accordingly, it was with great 
pleasure I observed the friendly impatience with 
which you expected my arrival in Rome when I 
had thoughts of going thither, as well as the joy 
you afterwards expressed at my having laid aside 
that design when affairs had taken a different turn 
from what you imagined. But your last letter 
was particularly acceptable to me, as an instance 
both of your affection and your judgment. It 
afforded me much satisfaction, indeed, to find, on 
the one hand, that you consider your true interest 
(as every great and honest mind ought always to 
consider it) as inseparably connected with a rec- 
titude of conduct ; and on the other, that you 
promise to accompany me whithersoever I may 
determine to steer. Nothing can be more agreeable 
to my inclination, nor, I trust, to your honour, than 
your executing this resolution. Mine has been 
fixed for some time, and it was not with any design 
of concealing it from you that I did not acquaint 
you with it before. My only reason was, that in 
public conjunctures of this kind, the communication 
of one's intentions to a friend looks like admo- 
nishing, or rather indeed pressing him to share in 
the difficulties and the dangers of one's schemes. 
I cannot, however, but willingly embrace an offer 
which proceeds from so affectionate and generous 
a disposition : thoughl must add, at the same time, 
(that I may not transgress the modest limits I have 
set to my requests of this nature,) that I by no 
means urge your compliance. If you shall think 
proper to pursue the measures you propose, I shall 
esteem myself greatly indebted to you : if not, I 
shall very readily excuse you. For though I shall 
look upon the former as a tribute which you could 
not well refuse to my friendship, yet I shall consider 
the latter as the same reasonable concession to your 
fears. It must be owned, there is great difficulty 
how to act upon this occasion. It is true, what 
honour would direct is very apparent; but the pru- 
dential part is far from being a point so clear. 
However, if we would act up, as we ought, to the 

not bring him to any determination. They broke up their 
conference, therefore, without coming to any explicit reso- 
lution : for though Cicero's was already formed, he did not 
think proper to avow his design of joining Pompey, to a 
man whom he found in so timid and fluctuating a state of 
mind. — Ad Att. x. 14. 

* The son and wife of Sulpicius. Posthumia was one of 
those many ladies who found Ca?sar as irresistible a gallant 
as he was a soldier.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Caes. 50. 

s See rem. °, n. 448. 



dictates of that philosophy we have mutually cul- 
tivated, we cannot once hesitate in thinking that 
the worthiest measures must, upon the whole, be 
the most expedient. If you are inclined, then, to 
embark with me, you must come hither imme- 
diately : but if it should not suit you to be thus 
expeditious, I will send you an exact account of 
my route. To be short, in whatever manner you 
may decide, I shall always consider you as my 
friend ; but much more so if you should determine 
as I wish. Farewell. 



LETTER XVII. 

To Terentia and Tullia. 
I am entirely free from the disorder in my 
stomach ; which was the more painful, as I saw it 
occasioned both you and that dear girl 
A " " whom I love better than my life so much 

uneasiness. I discovered the cause of this complaint 
the night after I left you, having discharged a 
great quantity of phlegm. This gave me so imme- 
diate a relief, that I cannot but believe I owe my 
cure to some heavenly interposition : to Apollo, no 
doubt, and iEsculapius. You will offer up your 
grateful tributes therefore to these restoring powers 
with all the ardency of your usual devotion. 

I am this moment embarked 1 , and have procured 

t In order to join Pompey in Greece, who had left Italy 
about three months before the date of this letter. A late 
learned and most able panegyrist of Cicero assures us, that 
he took this measure, as choosing to " follow the cause 
which he thought to be the best, and preferring the consi- 
deration of duty to that of his safety." Cicero deserves so 
highly from every friend to genius and literature, that it is 
no wonder Dr. Middleton should not always speak of him 
with the cool impartiality of an unbiassed historian, But 
it is the principal purpose of these remarks to inquire, 
without prejudices of any kind, into the real merit of 
Cicero's political character: and as his conduct during 
this important crisis will evidently show the strength and 
measure of his patriotism, I shall trace it from the break- 
ing out of the civil war to the present period, and then leave 
the facts to speak for themselves. 

Upon the news that Caesar was marching into Italy, 
Pompey was appointed general-in-chief of the republican 
forces, and the principal magistrates, together with those 
who were invested with proconsular power, were distri- 
buted into different cantons of Italy in order to raise 
troops for the defence of the common cause. Cicero had 
his particular district assigned him among the rest ; but 
instead of executing this important commission with spirit 
and vigour, he remained altogether inactive at his several 
villas in that part of Italy. And this he signified to Caesar, 
by means of their common friend Trebatius, who had 
written to him in Caesar's name, in order to prevail with 
him to return to Rome. " Rescripsi ad Trebatium quam 
illud hoc tempore esset difficile : me tamen in praediis 
meis esse, neque delectum ullum, neque negotium sus- 
cepisse."— [Ad Att. vii. 37-] Pompey, in the mean time, 
was pressing Cicero to join him : but he excused himself 
by representing that whilst he was actually on the road 
for that purpose, he was informed that he could not pro- 
ceed without the danger of being intercepted by Caesar's 
troops. [Epist. 2 ; Cicer. ad Pomp, apud Epist. ad Att. 
viii.] Cicero, however, is so ingenuous as to acknowledge, 
in the same letter to Pompey, that so long as there were 
hopes that the negotiations for a peace would be attended 
with success, he thought it a justifiable piece of prudence 
not to be too active in forwarding the preparations that 
were carrying on against Caesar ; remembering, he says, 
how much he had formerly suffered from the resentment 
of the latter in the affair of his exile. This was explaining, 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



459 



a ship which I hope is well able to perform her 
voyage. As soon as I shall have finished this letter, I 
propose to write to several of my friends, recom- 
mending you and our dearest Tullia in the strongest 
terms to their protection. In the mean time I 
should exhort you to keep up your spirits, if I did 
not know that both of you are animated with a 
more than manly fortitude. And, indeed, I hope 
there is a fair prospect of your remaining in Italy 
without any inconvenience, and of my returning to 
the defence of the republic, in conjunction with 
those who are no less faithfully devoted to its 
interest. 

After earnestly recommending to you the care of 
your health, let me make it my next request, that 
you would dispose of yourself in such of my villas 
as are at the greatest distance from the army. And 
if provisions should become scarce in Rome, I 
should think you will find it most convenient to 
remove with your servants to Arpirmm u . 

at once, the true principle of his whole conduct, and he 
avows it more expressly in a letter to Atticus. " Non 
simul cum Pompeio mare transierimus ? Omnino non 
poterimus ; exstat ratio dierum, sed tamen (fateamur enim 
quod est) fefellit ea me res, quae fortasse non dehuit, sed 
fefellit ; pacem putavi fore : quae si esset, iratum mihi 
Caesarem esse, cum idem amicus esset Pompeio, nolui. 
Senseram enim quam idem essent. Hoc verens in hanc 
tarditatem incidi." [Ad Att. x. 8.] Pompey, however, 
had no sooner set sail for Greece, than Cicero was struck 
with the consciousness of his having acted an unworthy 
part: — "Postquam Pompeius et consules ex Italia, exi- 

erunt, non angor (says he) sed ardeo dolore non sum, 

inquam, mihi crede, mentis compos, tantum mihi dedeco- 
ris admisisse videor." [Ad Att. ix. 6.] After several deli- 
berations, therefore, he was determined, he tells Atticus, 
to follow Pompey, without waiting the event of Caesar's 
arms in Spain. [Ad Att. ix. 19 ; x. 8.] This resolution, 
nevertheless, soon gave way to a second ; for having 
received some accounts which contradicted a former report 
that had been spread concerning the advantageous posture 
of Pompey's affairs, Cicero renounced his intention of 
joining him, and now purposed to stand neuter. [Ad Att. 
x. 9.] But a new turn in favour of Pompey seems to have 
brought Cicero back to his former scheme : for, in a sub- 
sequent letter to Atticus, wherein he mentions some 
reasons to believe that Pompey's affairs went well in 
Spain, and takes notice, likewise, of some disgust which 
the populace expressed towards Caesar in the theatre, Ave 
find him resuming his design of openly uniting with 
Pompey ; and accordingly he resolved to join those who 
were maintaining Pompey's cause in Sicily. [Ad Att. x. 
12.] It does not appear, by any of his letters, upon what 
motive he afterwards exchanged his plan for that of 
sailing directly to Pompey's camp in Greece ; which, after 
various debates with himself, he at length, we see, exe- 
cuted. There is a passage, however, in Caesar's Commen- 
taries, which, perhaps, will render it probable that the 
news which, about this time, was confidently spread at 
Rome, that Caesar's army had been almost totally defeated 
in Spain, was the determining reason that sent Cicero to 
Pompey. The fact was, that Afranius and Petreius had 
gained some advantages over Caesar ; but as they magnified 
them, in their letters to Rome, much beyond the truth, 
several persons of note, who had hitherto been fluctuating 
in their resolutions, thought it was now high time to 
declare themselves, and went off immediately to Pompey. 
— " Haec Afranius, Petreiusque, et eorum amici, pleniora 
etiam atque uberiora Romam ad suos perscribebant. 
Multa rumor fingebat: ut pene bellum confectum vide- 

retur. Quibus Uteris nunciisque Romam perlatis multi 

ex Italia ad Cn. Pompeium proficiscebantur ; alii ut prin- 
cipes talem nunciam attulisse ; alii nee eventum belli 
expectasse, aut ex omnibus novissimi venisse viderentur." 
— Caes. De Bell. Civ. i. 53. 
u A city in the country of the Volsci, a district of Italy 



The amiable young Cicero most tenderly salutes 
you. Again and again I bid you farewell. 



June the I lth. 



LETTER XVIII. 

Marcus Coslius to Cicero. 

Was v it for this that I followed Caesar into Spain? 

Why was I not rather at Formiee, that I might have 

„„. accompanied you to Pompev ? But I 
a. u. 704. . K. . , j , ., l - 

was infatuated ; and it was my aversion 

to Appius w , together with my friendship for Curio, 
that gradually drew me into this cursed cause. 
Nor were you entirely unaccessary to my error : 
for that night, when I called upon you in my way 
to Ariminum x , why did you forget the friend when 
you were gloriously acting the patriot, and not 
dissuade me from the purpose of my journey, at 
the same time that you commissioned me to urge 
Caesar to pacific measures ? Not that I have an 
ill opinion of the cause ; but, believe me, perdition 
itself were preferable to being a witness of the in- 
sufferable behaviour of these his insolent partisans ?. 
They have rendered themselves so generally odious, 
that we should long since have been driven out of 
Rome, were it not for the apprehensions which 
people have conceived of the cruel intentions of 
your party 2 . There is not, at this juncture, a 
man in Rome, except a few rascally usurers % who 
does not wish well to Pompey ; and I have already 
brought over to your cause not only those among 



which now comprehends part of the Campagna di Roma, 
and of the Terra di Lavoro. Cicero was born in this town, 
which still subsists under the name of Arpino. 

v This letter confirms the character that has been given 
of Coelius in a former remark 1 , [See rem. k , p. 389,] and 
shows him to have been of a temper extravagantly 
warm and impetuous. The resentment and indignation 
with which it is animated, was owing to some disappoint- 
ment that he had met with from Caesar, who had not dis- 
tinguished him agreeably to his expectations. Coelius, 
therefore, who was one of the praetors for the present 
year, endeavoured to take his revenge by opposing the 
execution of certain laws which Caesar had procured. His 
attempts for this purpose having created great disturbances 
in Rome, he was not only deposed from his office, but 
expelled the senate ; and the present letter seems to have 
been written immediately upon that event.— Dio, xlii. p. 
195 ; Caes. De Bell. Civ. iii. 20. 

w Appius engaged on the side of Pompey, as Curio was 
a warm partisan of Caesar. For the occasion of Ccelius's 
resentment against Appius, see book vi. letter 14. 

x In order to join Caesar. Coelius was one of the party 
with Curio and Antony, when they fled to Caesar. [Dio, 
xli. p. 153.]— See the first letter of this book, and rem. l on 
the same. 

7 The chiefs of Caesar's party at Rome. 

z When Pompey left Rome, upon the approach of Caesar, 
he declared that he should treat all those as enemies who 
did not follow him : a declaration, it was imagined, which 
he would most rigorously have fulfilled, if fortune had put 
it in his power.— Caes. De Bell. Civ. i. ; Cic. Epist. passim. 

a As great numbers of those who embraced the party of 
Caesar were deeply involved in debt, it was apprehended 
that they would procure a law for a general discharge 
from their creditors. But Caesar adjusted matters by a 
more prudent method, and in such a manner as to faci- 
litate the payment of these loans with little prejudice to 
those who had advanced them. It appears that Caesar 
rendered himself, by these means, extremely acceptable to 
those persons at Rome who dealt in this sort of pecuniary 
commerce.— Caes. De Bell.' Civ. i. 



460 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



the plebeian families who were in the interest of 
Csesar, hut the whole populace in general. But 
you will ask, perhaps, what can this avail us now ? 
Wait the event, my friend : victory shall attend 
you in spite of yourselves b . For surely a profound 
lethargy has locked up all the senses of your party, 
as they do not yet seem sensible how open we lie 
to an attack, and how little capable we are of 
making any considerable opposition. It is by no 
means from an interested motive that I offer my 
assistance, but merely in resentment of the un- 
worthy usage I have received ; and resentment is 
a passion which usually carries me, you know, the 
greatest lengths. — But what are you doing on the 
other side the water c ? Are you imprudently 
waiting to give the enemy battle ? What Pompey's 
forces may be, I know not ; but Caesar's, I am sure, 
are accustomed to action, and inured to all the 
hardships of the most severe campaigns. Farewell. 



LETTER XIX. 

Dolabella A to Cicero. 

I shall rejoice to hear you are well: I have 
the satisfaction to inform you, that both Tullia 
and myself are perfectly so. Terentia, 
A ' u ' / ' indeed, has been somewhat indisposed, 
but is now, I am assured, perfectly recovered. As 
to the rest of your family, they are all of them in 
the state you wish. 

It would be doing me great injustice to suspect 
that I have at any time advised you to join with 
me in the cause of Csesar, or at least to stand 
neuter, more with a view to the advantage of my 
own party than of your interest. But now that' 
fortune has declared on our side e , it is impossible I 
should be supposed to recommend this alternative 
for any other reason but because the duty I owe 
you will not suffer me to be silent. Whether my 
advice, therefore, shall meet with your approbation 
or not, you will at least be so just as to believe 
that it proceeds, my dear Cicero, from an honest 
intention, and from a heart most sincerely desirous 
of your welfare. 

You see that neither the lofty title with which 
Pompey is distinguished 5 , nor the credit of his 
former illustrious actions, nor the advantages he 
so frequently boasted of having kings and nations 
in the number of his clients, have anything availed 

b This boast of Ccelius ended in nothing but his own 
destruction. For, not succeeding in his attempts at Rome, 
he withdrew to Thurii, a maritime town on the gulf of 
Terentum ; where, endeavouring to raise an insurrection 
in favour of Pompey, he was murdered by the soldiers of 
Caesar's faction.*— Dio, xlii. p. 196. 

c Cicero was at this time in Pompey's camp in Greece. 

d The reader has already been apprised, in the foregoing 
remarks, that Dolabella was son-in-law to Cicero. He was 
a young man of a warm, enterprising, factious disposition, 
and one of the most active partisans of Caesar's cause. His 
character, conduct, and fortune will be more particularly 
marked out, as occasion shall offer, in the farther progress 
of these observations. 

c Caesar having defeated Afranius and Petreius, the 
lieutenants of Pompey, in Spain, was at this time with his 
army before Dyrrachium, a maritime city in Macedonia, 
now called Durazzi. 

{ When he was a very young man. he was honoured by 
Sylla with the title of Pompey the Great ; a title which he 
ever afterwards assumed. 



him. On the contrary, he has suffered a disgrace 
which never, perhaps, attended any other Roman 
general. For, after having lost both the Spainss, 
together with a veteran army, and after having also 
been driven out of Italy, he is now so strongly 
invested on all sides, that he cannot execute what 
the meanest soldier has often performed, — he can- 
not make even an honourable retreat h . You will 
consider, then, agreeably to your usual prudence, 
what hopes can possibly remain either to him or 
to yourself; and the result will evidently point out 
the measures which are most expedient for you to 
pursue. Let me entreat you, if Pompey has already 
extricated himself out of the danger in which he 
was involved, and taken refuge in his fleet, that 
you would now at least think it time to consult 
your own interest .in preference to that of any other 
man. You have performed everything which gra- 
titude and friendship can expect, or the party you 
approved can require. What remains, then, but 
to sit down quietly under the republic, as it now 
subsists, rather than, by vainly contending for the 
old constitution, to be absolutely deprived of both ? 
If Pompey, therefore, should be driven from his 
present post and obliged to retreat still farther, I 
conjure you, my dear Cicero, to withdraw to 
Athens, or to any other city unconcerned in the 
war. If you should comply with this advice, I beg 
you would give me notice, that I may fly to embrace 
you, if by any means it should be in my power. 
Your own interest with Caesar, together with the 
natural generosity of his temper, will render it 
extremely easy for you to obtain any honourable 
conditions you shall demand ; and 1 am persuaded 
that my solicitations will have no inconsiderable 
weight for this purpose. 

I rely upon your honour and your humanity to 
take care that this messenger may safely return to 
me with your answer. Farewell. 



LETTER XX. 

To TerentiaK 

I am informed, by the letters of my friends, as 

well as by other accounts, that you have had a 

sudden attack of a fever. I entreat you, 

a. u. 704. t j iere f ore> t0 employ the utmost care in 

re-establishing your health. 

The early notice you gave me of Coesar's letter 
was extremely agreeable to me ; and let me desire 
you would send me the same expeditious intelli- 
gence, if anything should hereafter occur that 
concerns me to know. Once more I conjure you 
to take care of your health. Farewell. 

June the 2d. 

g This country was divided by the Romans into the 
Nearer and the Farther Spain ; that part which lay near 
the Pyrenees and the river Ibro being comprehended under 
the former appellation, and all beyond that river, under 
the latter. 

h It is probable that some slight success which Caesar had 
obtained before Dyrrachium, had been greatly magnified 
at Home : for Pompey was so far from being in the situa- 
tion which Dolabella here represents him, that Caesar found 
himself obliged to abandon the siege of this city, and to 
retire into Thessaly. — Dio, xli. p. 177. 

1 " This letter was written by Cicero, in the camp at 
Dyrrachium ; for there is one extant to Atticus later than 
this, and dated from the camp. Ad Att. xi. 18." — Ross. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



461 



LETTER XXI. 

To the sameh 
I entreat you to take all proper measures for 
the recovery of your health. Let me request, 
likewise, that you would provide whatever 
A ' u ' may be necessary in the present con- 
juncture, and that you would send me frequent 
accounts how everything goes on. Farewell. 



LETTER XXII. 

To the same. 

I have seldom an opportunity of writing, and 
scarce anything to say that I choose to trust in a 
letter. I find, by your last, that you 
A * u * ' " cannot meet with a purchaser for any of 
our farms. I beg, therefore, you would consider 
of some other method of raising money, in order 
to satisfy that person who, you are sensible, I am 
very desirous should be paid k . 

I am by no means surprised that you should 
have received the thanks of our friend, as I dare 
say she had great reason to acknowledge your 
kindness. 

If Pollex 1 is not yet set out, I desire you would 
exercise your authority, and force the loiterer to 
depart immediately. Farewell. 
July the 15th. 



LETTER XXIII. 

To the same. 
May the joy you express at my safe arrival in 
Italy" 1 

a. u. 704, 



be never interrupted ! But my mind was 
so much discomposed by those atrocious 
injuries I had received 11 , that I have 



J This letter was probably written soon after the forego- 
ing, and from the same place. 

k This letter, as well as the two former, was written 
while Cicero was with Pompey in Greece. The business 
at which he so obscurely hints, has been thought to relate 
to the payment of part of Tullia's portion to Dolabella. 
But it seems evident from the 4th epistle of the 11th book 
to Atticus, that Cicero was not at this time come to any 
resolution concerning the second payment of his daughter's 
portion ; for, in a postscript, he desires the sentiments of 
Atticus upon that subject. " De pensione altera (says he) 
oro te omni cura considera quid faciendum sit." [Ad Att. 
xi. 4.] Now that this letter to Atticus was written about 
the same time, with the present to Terentia, appears from 
hence, that Cicero plainly refers in it to the same epistle 
to which this before us is an answer. " Ex proximis cog- 
novi praedia non venisse:" [Ad Att. ibid.] which tallies 
with what he says in the letter under examination : — " ex 
tuis Uteris, quas proxime accepi, cognovi praedium nullum 
venire potuisse ;" and proves that the date of each must 
have been nearly, if not exactly, coincident. For these 
reasons, it seems necessary to look out for another inter- 
pretation of the present passage ; and, from the cautious 
circumstance of the name being suppressed, it may be 
suspected that Caesar is the person meant. It is certain, 
at least, that Cicero owed him a sum of money ; concern- 
ing which, he expresses some uneasiness to Atticus, upon 
the breaking out of the civil war ; as he could not, indeed, 
continue in Caesar's debt with any honour, after he had 
joined the party against him.— Ad Att. vii. 3. 

1 It appears, by a letter to Atticus, that this person 
acted as a sort of steward in Cicero's family. — Ad Att. 
xiii. 47. 



taken a step, I fear, which may be attended with 
great difficulties . Let me, then, entreat your 
utmost assistance ; though I must confess, at the 
same time, that I know not wherein it can avail 
me. 

I would by no means have you think of coming 
hither; for the journey is both long and dangerous, 
and I do not see in what manner you could be of 
any service. Farewell. 
Brundisium, Nov. the 5th. 

LETTER XXIV. 

To the same. 
The ill state of health into which Tullia is fallen, 
is a very severe addition to the many and great 
disquietudes that afflict mymindi 



A. P. 704. 



But 
I need say nothing farther upon this 



m After the battle of Pharsalia, Cicero would not engage 
himself any farther with the Pompeian party ; but, having 
endeavoured to make his peace with Caesar by the media- 
tion of Dolabella, he seems to have received no other answer 
than an order to return immediately into Italy. And this 
he accordingly did a few days before the date of the present 
letter.— Ad Att. xi. 7. 

n Cicero, who was somewhat indisposed and much out 
of humour, did not attend Pompey when he marched from 
Dyrrachium in order to follow Caesar. Cato was likewise 
left behind, with fifteen cohorts, to conduct the baggage ; 
but upon the news of Pompey's defeat in the plains of 
Pharsalia, he pressed Cicero to take upon himself the com- 
mand of those troops, as being of superior rank in the 
republic. Cicero, who had all along declined accepting 
any commission in Pompey's army, was not disposed, it 
may well be imagined, to be more active against Caesar, 
when the latter had just obtained a most signal victory. 
Accordingly, he absolutely refused this offer which Cato 
made ; declaring, at the same time, his resolution of with- 
drawing from the common cause. This exasperated the 
young Pompey and his friends to such a degree, that they 
would have killed Cicero upon the spot, if Cato had not 
generously interposed, and conducted him safely out of the 
camp. It is probably to this outrage that he here alludes. 
—Ad Att. xi. 4 ; Plut. in Vit. Cicer. 

It has been observed, that Cicero scarce ever executed 
an important resolution of which he did not immediately 
repent. This, at least, was the situation of his mind in 
the present instance ; and he was no sooner arrived in 
Italy, than he began to condemn himself for having too 
hastily determined upon that measure. The letters which 
he wrote to Atticus at this period, and which comprise 
almost the 11th book of those epistles, contain little else I 
than so many proofs of this assertion. Cicero imagined, 
after the decisive action that had lately happened in the 
plains of Pharsalia, that the chiefs of the Pompeian party 
would instantly sue for peace. But Caesar, instead of 
directly pursuing his victory, suffered himself to be diverted 
by a war altogether foreign to his purpose, and in which 
the charms of Cleopatra, perhaps, carried him farther than 
he at first intended. This gave the Pompeians an oppor- 
tunity of collecting their scattered forces, and of forming 
a very considerable army in Africa. As this circumstance 
was utterly unexpected by Cicero, it occasioned him infi- 
nite disquietude, and produced those reproaches which he 
is perpetually throwing out upon himself in the letters 
above-mentioned to Atticus. For, if the republican party 
should, after all, have returned triumphant into Italy, he 
knew he should be treated as one who had merited their 
utmost resentment. 

This and the following letters in this book to Terentia 
were written during the interval of Cicero's arrival at 
Brundisium, and Caesar's return into Italy, which contains 
a period of about eleven months. 

P The anxiety which Cicero laboured under, at this 
juncture, was undoubtedly severe. Besides the uneasiness 



462 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



subject, as I am sure her welfare is no less a part 
of your tender concern than it is of mine. 

I agree both with you and her in thinking it 
proper that I should advance nearer to Rome** ; 
and I should have done so before now, if I had not 
been prevented by several difficulties which I am 
not yet able to remove. But I am in expectation 
of a letter from Atticus, with his sentiments upon 
this subject ; and I beg you would forward it to 
me by the earliest opportunity. Farewell. 



LETTER XXV. 

To the same. 
In addition to my other misfortunes, I have 
now to lament the illness both of Dolabella and 
Tullia. The whole frame of my mind is, 
A * u " ' ' indeed, so utterly discomposed, that I 
know not what to resolve, or how to act, in any of 
my affairs. I can only conjure you to take care 
of yourself and of Tullia. Farewell. 



LETTER XXVI. 

To the same. 
If anything occurred worth communicating to 
you, my letters would be more frequent and much 
longer. But I need not tell you the situ- 
A ' ' ation of my affairs ; and as to the effect 

they have upon my mind, I leave it to Lepta and 
Trebatius to inform you. I have only to add my 
entreaties that you would take care of your own 
and Tullia's health. Farewell. 



LETTER XXVII. 

To Titius*. 
There is none of your friends less capable than 
I am to offer consolation to you under your present 
affliction, — as the share I take in your 
loss s renders me greatly in need of the 
same good office myself. However, as my grief 
does not rise to the same extreme degree as yours, 
I should not think I discharged the duty which 
my connexion and friendship with you require if I 
remained altogether silent at a time when you are 
thus overwhelmed with sorrow. I determined, 



u. 704. 



mentioned in the last remark, be was, likewise, under 
great disquietude from the uncertainty of the disposition 
in which Caesar stood towards him. And, to add yet more 
J to the discomposure of his mind, it was at this time that 
he received the cruel usage from his brother, of which an 
account has been given in rem. P, p. 452. He had still 
greater misfortunes of a domestic kind to increase the 
weight of his sorrows, which will be pointed out as they 
shall occasionally offer themselves in the remaining letters 
to Terentia. 

q Cicero was still at Brundisium, from which place all 
the following letters in this book to Terentia, except the 
last, seem to have been written. 

r It is altogether uncertain who the person is to whom 
this letter is addressed ; perhaps the same to whom the 
16th of the third book is written. [See rem. °, p. 384.] 
The precise date, likewise, is extremely doubtful : how- 
ever, the opinion of Dransfeld is here followed, who, in 
his edition of these epistles, has placed it under the present 
year. 

s Of his son. 



therefore, to suggest a few reflections to you which 
may alleviate, at least, if not entirely remove, the 
anguish of your heart. 

There is no maxim of consolation more common, 
yet at the same time there is none which deserves 
to be more frequently in our thoughts, than that we 
ought to remember, " We are men," — that is, 
creatures who are born to be exposed to calamities 
of every kind ; and, therefore, " that it becomes 
us to submit to the conditions by which we hold 
our existence, without being too much dejected by 
accidents which no prudence can prevent." In a 
word, that we should learn, by " reflecting on the 
misfortunes which have attended others, that there 
is nothing singular in those which befal ourselves." 
But neither these, nor other arguments to the same 
purpose which are inculcated in the writings of the 
philosophers, seem to have so strong a claim to 
success as those which may be drawn from the 
present unhappy situation of public affairs, and 
that endless series of misfortunes which is rising 
upon our country. They are such, indeed, that 
one cannot but account those to be most fortunate 
who never knew what it was to be a parent ; and 
as to those persons who are deprived of their 
children in these times of general anarchy and mis- 
rule, they have much less reason to regret their loss 
than if it had happened in a more flourishing period 
of the commonwealth, or while yet the republic 
had any existence. If your tears flow, indeed, 
from this accident, merely as it affects your own 
personal happiness, it may be difficult perhaps en- 
tirely to restrain them. But if your sorrow takes its 
rise from a more enlarged and benevolent principle, 
if it be for the sake of the dead themselves that 
you lament, it may be an easier task to assuage 
your grief. I shall not here insist upon an argu- 
ment which I have frequently heard maintained in 
conversations, as well as often read, likewise, in 
treatises that have been written upon this subject. 
"Death," say those philosophers, " cannot be 
considered as an evil; because, if any consciousness 
remains after our dissolution, it is rather an entrance 
into immortality than an extinction of life ; and if 
none remains, there can be no misery where there 
is no sensibility*." Not to insist, I say, upon any 
reasonings of this nature, let me remind you of an 
argument which I can urge with much more confi- 
dence. He who has made his exit from a scene 
where such dreadful confusion prevails, and where 

1 The notion of a future state of positive punishment, 
seems to have been rejected by the ancient philosophers in 
general, both by those who maintained the eternal, and 
those who only held the temporary duration of the soul 
after death. Thus Cicero and Seneca, though of different 
sects, yet agree in treating the fears of this sort as merely 
a poetical delusion: [Tuscul. Disput. 1. 21, 30; Senec. 
Consolat. ad Marc. 19.] and even Socrates himself affixes 
no other penalty to the most atrocious deviations from 
moral rectitude, than that of a simple exclusion from the 
mansions of the gods. This shows how impotent the 
purest systems of the best philosophers must have been 
for the moral government of mankind, since they thus 
dropped one of the most powerful of all sanctions for that 
purpose, the terrors of an actual chastisement. The com- 
parative number of those is infinitely small, whose conduct 
does not give reason to suspect that they would be willing 
to exchange spiritual joys in reversion, for the full gratifi- 
cation of an importunate appetite in present ; and the 
interest of virtue can alone be sufficiently guarded by the 
divine assurance of intense punishment as well as of com- 
plete happiness hereafter. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



463 



so many approaching calamities are in prospect, 
cannot possibly, it should seem, be a loser by the 
exchange. Let me ask, not only where honour, 
virtue and probity, where true philosophy and the 
useful arts, can now fly for refuge, but where even 
our liberties and our lives can be secure ? For my 
own part, I have never once heard of the death of 
any youth during all this last sad year, whom I have 
not considered as kindly delivered by the immortal 
gods from the miseries of these wretched times. 
If, therefore, you can be persuaded to think that 
their condition is by no means unhappy whose loss 
you so tenderly deplore, it must undoubtedly prove 
a very considerable abatement of your present 
affliction ; for it will then entirely arise from what 
you feel upon your own account, and have no re- 
lation to the persons whose death you regret. Now 
it would ill agree with those wise and generous 
maxims which have ever inspired your breast, to be 
too sensible of misfortunes which terminate in your 
own person, and affect not the happiness of those 
you love. You have upon all occasions, both 
public and private, shown yourself animated with 
the firmest fortitude ; and it becomes you to act 
up to the character you have thus justly acquired. 
Time necessarily wears out the deepest impressions 
of sorrow ; and the weakest mother that ever lost 
a child has found some period to her grief. But 
we should wisely anticipate that effect which a 
certain revolution of days will undoubtedly produce, 
and not wait for a remedy from time which we may 
much sooner receive from reason. 

If what I have said can anything avail in lessening 
the weight of your affliction, 1 shall have obtained 
my wish ; if not, I shall at least have discharged 
the duties of that friendship and affection which, 
believe me, I ever have preserved, and ever shall 
preserve towards you. Farewell. 



LETTER XXVIII. 

To Terentia. 

My affairs are at present in such a situation, that 
I have no reason to expect a letter on your part, 
7 „ and have nothing to communicate to you 
A " U ' on mine. Yet I know not how it is, I 
can no more forbear flattering myself that I may 
hear from you, than I can refrain from writing to 
you whenever I meet with a conveyance. 

Volumnia ought to have shown herself more 
zealous for your interest; and in the particular 
instance you mention, she might have acted with 
greater care and caution. This, however, is but a 
slight grievance amongst others which I far more 
severely feel and lament. They have the effect 
upon me, indeed, which those persons undoubtedly 
wished u , who compelled me into measures utterly 
opposite to my own sentiments. Farewell. 

December the 31st. 



u The commentators are divided in their opinions con- 
cerning the persons to whom Cicero here alludes, as they 
are likewise as to the year when this letter was written. 
There are two periods, indeed, of Cicero's life, with which 
this epistle will equally coincide : the time when he was in 
banishment, and the time when he returned into Italy, 
after the defeat of Pompey. The opinion, however, of 
Victorius has been followed, in placing this letter under 
the present year ; who supposes, not without probability, 
that the persons here meant are the same of whom Cicero 
complains in the 23d letter of this book. 



LETTER XXIX. 

To Acilius, Proconsul". 
Lucius Manlius Sosis was formerly a citizen 
of Catina w ; but having afterwards obtained the 
a u 706 f ree d° m °f Naples, he is at present one 
of the members of their council. He is 
likewise a citizen of Rome ; having been admitted 
to that privilege with the rest of the Neapolitans, 
in consequence of the general grant which was 
made for that purpose to our allies and the inhabit- 
ants of Latium. He has lately succeeded to an 
estate at Catina by the death of his brother, and is 
now in actual possession. But though I do not 
imagine that his right is likely to be controverted ; 
yet, as he has other affairs of consequence in Sicily, 
I recommend his concerns of every kind in that 
island to your protection. But I particularly re- 
commend himself to you as a most worthy man ; 
as one with whom I am intimately connected ; and 
as a person who excels in those sciences I princi- 
pally admire. Whether, therefore, he shall think 
proper to return into Sicily or not, I desire you 
would consider him as my very particular friend, 
and that you would treat him in such a manner as 
to convince him that this letter proved greatly to 
his advantage. Farewell. 



LETTER XXX. 

To Terentia. 
Tullia arrived here x on the 12th of this month?. 
It extremely affected me to see a woman of her 
a u 706 sm & u l ar an( * amiable virtues reduced (and 
reduced too by my own negligence) to a 
situation far other than is agreeable to her rank and 
filial piety 2 . 

I have some thoughts of sending my son, accom- 



v He was governor of Sicily ; which is all that is known 
of his history. The laborious and accurate Pighius places 
his administration of that island under the present year ; 
and Mr. Ross assigns a very good reason for being of the 
same opinion. For it appears (as that gentleman observes) 
that Cicero's correspondence with Acilius was carried on 
when the latter was proconsul of Sicily, and during the 
time that Caesar had the supreme authority. It is proba- 
ble, therefore, that these letters were written in the present 
year ; because, in all the others that fall within that period, 
the persons who severally presided in Sicily are known to 
have been Posthumius Albinus, Aulus Allienus, and Titus 
Fursanius. See Mr. Ross's Remarks on the Epist. Famil. 
vol. ii. p. 502. 

"' A maritime city in Sicily, now called Catania. It con- 
tinued to be a town of considerable note, till the eruptions 
of mount .(Etna in 1669 and 1693, which almost entirely 
laid it in ruins. 

x Brundisium, where Cicero was still waiting for Caesar's 
arrival from Egypt. 

y June. 

z Dolabella was greatly embarrassed in his affairs ; and 
it seems by this passage as if he had not allowed Tullia a 
maintenance, during his absence abroad, sufficient to sup- 
port her rank and dignity. The negligence with which 
Cicero reproaches himself, probably relates to his not hav- 
ing secured a proper settlement on his daughter, when he 
made the second payment of her fortune to Dolabella. 
For in a letter written to Atticus about this time, he ex- 
pressly condemns himself for having acted imprudently in 
that affair. " In pensione secunda (says he) caeci fuimus." 
—Ad Att. xi. 19. 



464 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



panied by Sallustius, with a letter to Csesar a ; and 
if I should execute this design, I will let you know 
wheu he sets out. In the mean time, be careful of 
your health, I conjure you. Farewell. 



LETTER XXXI. 

To the same. 

I had determined, agreeably to what I mentioned 
in my former, to send my son to meet Csesar on 
A> v y 0g his return to Italy; but I have since 
altered my resolution, as I hear no news 
of his arrival. For the rest I refer you to Sicca, 
who will inform you what measures I think neces- 
sary to be taken ; though I must add, that nothing 
new has occurred since I wrote last. Tullia is still 
with me. — Adieu, and take all possible care of your 
health. 

June the 20th. 



LETTER XXXII. 

To Acilius, Proconsul. 

Catus Flavixjs, an illustrious Roman knight, 
of an honourable family, is one with whom I live 
A u y 06 in great intimacy ; he was a very particu- 
lar friend likewise of my son-in-law Piso. 
Both he and his brother Lucius show me the 
strongest instances of their regard. I shall receive 
it, therefore, as an honour done to myself, if you 
will treat Caius with all the marks of favour and 
distinction that shall be consistent with your cha- 
racter and dignity ; and be assured you cannot, in 
any article, more effectually oblige me, than by 
complying with this request. I will add, that the 
rank which he bears in the world, the credit in 
which he stands with those of his own order, 
together with his polite and grateful disposition, 
will afford you reason to be extremely well satisfied 
with the good offices you shall confer upon him. 
When I say this, believe me I am not prompted 
by any interested motives, but speak the sincere 
dictates of truth and friendship. Farewell. 



LETTER XXXIII. 

To Terentia. 

I wrote to Atticus (somewhat later indeed than 

I ought) concerning the affair you mention. When 

you talk to him upon that head, he will 

inform you of my inclinations ; and I need 

not be more explicit here, after having written so 

fully to him b . Let me know as soon as possible 

what steps are taken in that business ; and acquaint 

me at the same time with everything else which 

concerns me. I have only to add my request, 

that you would be careful of your health. Farewell. 

July the 9th. 

a In order to supplicate Caesar's pardon, for having en- 
gaged against him on the side of Pompey. 

b Mr. Ross supposes that the letter to which Cicero refers 
is the 19th of the 11th book to Atticus. If this conjecture 
be fight, (as it is highly probable,) the business hinted at 
concerned the making of Terentia's will, and also the 
raising of money towards the support of Tullia, by the sale 
of some plate and furniture.— Ad Att. xi. 19, 20. 



LETTER XXXIV. 

To the same. 

In answer to what you object concerning the 

divorce I mentioned in my last c , I can only say, 

a u 706 tnat ■"■ am P er f ec tly ignorant what power 

Dolabella may at this time possess, or 

what ferments there may be among the populace d . 

However, if you think there is anything to be 

apprehended from his resentment, let the matter 

rest ; and perhaps the first proposal may come 

from himself e . Nevertheless, I leave you to act 

as you shall judge proper; not doubting that you 

will take such measures in this most unfortunate 

affair as shall appear to be attended with the fewest 

unhappy consequences. Farewell. 

July the! 0th. 



LETTER XXXV. 

To Acilius, Proconsul. 
Marcus and Caius Clodius, together with 
Archagathus and Philo, all of them inhabitants of 
A c y 06 the noble and elegant city of Halesa, are 
persons with whom I am united by every 
tie of friendship and hospitality. But I am afraid 
if I recommend so many at once to your particular 
favour, you will be apt to suspect that I write 
merely from some motive of an interested kind ; 
though, indeed, both myself and my friends have 
reason to be abundantly satisfied with the regard 
you always pay to my letters of this nature. Let 
me assure you, then, that both Archagathus and 
Philo, as also the whole family of the Clodii, have, 
by a long series of affectionate offices, a right to 
my best assistance. I very earnestly entreat you, 
therefore, as an obligation that will be highly 
agreeable to me, that you would promote their 
interest upon all occasions, as far as the honour 

and dignity of your character shall permit 

Farewell. 



c Between Tullia and Dolabella. The occasion of this 
divorce is so darkly hinted at in the letters to Atticus, 
that it is altogether impossible to penetrate into the rea- 
sons that produced it ; one, however, seems to have arisen 
from an intrigue that was carrying on between Dolabella 
and Metella. This lady was wife to Lentulus Spinther (to 
whom several letters in the first and second book of this 
collection are addressed), and is supposed to be the same 
person whom Horace mentions to have had a commerce 
of gallantry with the son of the celebrated tragedian 
JEsopus.— See rem. 7, p. 358 ; Ad Att. xi. 20. 

d Dolabella was at this time tribune of the people, and 
employing the power and credit with which he was 
invested by that office to the most seditious purposes. 
Among other attempts, he endeavoured to procure a law 
for the general cancelling of all debts, and likewise to 
oblige the proprietors of houses in Rome to remit one 
year's rent to their respective tenants. The disturbances 
ran so high, that the senate was under a necessity of suffer- 
ing Antony to enter Rome with a body of troops, and no 
less than eight hundred citizens lost their lives upon this 
occasion. But nothing proved effectual for quieting these 
commotions, till it was known that Ca?sar, after having 
finished the war in Egypt, was actually upon his return 
into Italy.— Plut. in Vit. Anton. ; Dio, xlii. Liv. Epit. 113. 

e The passage in the original is extremely corrupt. The 
translator has adopted the reading proposed by Mr. Ross: 
— "sed si metuendus iratus est : quiesce ; turn ab illo for- 
tasse nasscetur." 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



465 



LETTER XXXVI. 

To Cassius. 

It was the hope that peace would be restored to 

our country, and the abhorrence of spilling the 

blood of our fellow-citizens, that equally 

u ' ' ' induced both you and myself to decline 
an obstinate perseverance in the civil war f . But 
though these sentiments were common to us both, 
yet, as I am considered as having been the first to 
inspire you with them, it is more my part, perhaps, 
to render you satisfied with having adopted them, 
than it is yours to perform the same friendly office 
towards me. But, to say the truth, (and it is a 
circumstance upon which I frequently reflect,) we 
mutually convinced each other in the free conver- 
sations we held upon this subject, that a single 
battle, if it should not wholly determine our cause, 
ought to be the limits, however, of our particular 
opposition. And these sentiments have never 
seriously been condemned by any but by those 
alone who think it more eligible that our constitu- 
tion should be totally destroyed, than in any degree 
impaired. But my opinion was far otherwise : 
for I had no views to gratify by its extinction, and 
had much to hope from its remains. As to the 
consequences which have since ensued, they lay 
far beyond the reach of human discernment ; and 
the wonder is, not so much how they escaped our 
penetration, as how it was possible they should have 
happened. I must confess my own opinion always 
was, that the battle of Pharsalia would be decisive ; 
and I imagined that the victors would act with a 
regard to the common preservation of all, and the 
vanquished to their own. But both the one and 
the other, I was well aware, depended on the 
expedition with which the conquerors should pursue 
their success. And had they pursued it immedi- 
ately, those who have since carried the war into 
Africa? would have experienced (and experienced 
too, if I do not flatter myself, by my intercession) 
the same clemency with which the rest of our 
party have been treated, who retired into Asia and 
Achaia. But the critical opportunity (that season 
so important in all transactions, and especially in a 
civil war) was unhappily lost; and a whole year 
intervening, it raised the spirits of some of our 
party to hope they might recover the victory, and 
rendered others so desperate as not to dread the 
reverse. Fortune, however, must be answerable 
for the whole train of evils which this delay has 
produced. For who would have imagined either 

{ Caesar, after the battle of Pharsalia, crossed the Helles- 
pont in pursuit of Pompey. Cassius, who was at the same 
time sailing in those straits with a very considerable 
fleet, might with great ease have destroyed him, as Caesar 
was in no condition to have resisted so powerful an arma- 
ment. But Cassius chose to act a most unworthy and 
treacherous part, by deserting with his whole fleet to the 
conqueror. Some of the historians account for this con- 
duct by assuring us that he was struck with a kind of 
panic at the amazing; fortune of Caesar, which rendered 
him incapable of making any farther resistance. Whereas 
itappears, by the present letter, to have been in consequence 
of a very extraordinary resolution he had formed in concert 
with Cicero, of resting the cause of liberty— for so they 
called it — upon a single engagement. — Suet, in Vit. Jul. 
Caes. 63. Appian. De Bell. Civ. 483. 

S See rem. °, p. 461. 



that the Alexandrine war could have been drawn 
out to so great a length, or that the paltry Phar- 
naces, could have struck such a terror throughout 
Asia h ? 

But though we both acted by the same measures, 
our present situations, however, are extremely 
different. The scheme which you thought proper 
to execute, has given you admission into Caesar's 
councils, and opened a prospect to you of his future 
purposes ; an advantage, most certainly, that must 
spare you all the uneasiness which attends a state 
of doubt and suspense. Whereas, for myself, as 
I imagined that Ciesar would immediately after the 
battle of Pharsalia have returned into Italy, I 
hastened hither in order to encourage and improve 
that pacific disposition which he had discovered by 
his generosity to so many of his illustrious enemies : 
by which means I have ever since been separated 
from him by an immense distance. Here, in truth, 
I sit the sad witness of those complaints 1 that are 
poured forth in Rome, and throughout all Italy : 
complaints which both you and I, according to our 
respective powers, might contribute somewhat to 
remove, if Csesar were present to support us. 

I entreat you, then, to communicate to me, 
agreeably to your wonted friendship, all that you 
observe and think concerning the present state of 
affairs ; in a word, that you would inform me what 
we are to expect, and how you would advise me to 
act. Be assured, I shall lay great stress upon your 
sentiments ; and had I wisely followed those you 
gave me in your first letter from Luceria j , I might, 
without difficulty, have still preserved my dignities. 
Farewell. 

h Pharnaces was son of the famous Mithridates, king 
of Pontus. [See rem. c, p. 333.] This young prince, taking 
advantage of Caesar's being engaged in the Alexandrine 
war, made an incursion into Cappadocia and the Lesser 
Armenia, the dominions of Deiotarus, a tributary king 
to the Romans. Domitius Calvinus, whom Caesar had 
appointed to command in Asia and the neighbouring pro- 
vinces, having received notice of this invasion, marched 
immediately to the assistance of Deiotarus. The two armies 
came to an engagement, in which Pharnaces had the supe- 
riority. Calvinus, at the same time, being called away by 
Caesar, who had occasion for those troops to complete the 
conquest of Alexandria, Pharnaces took that opportunity 
of entering Pontus, which he seized as his hereditary 
dominions, and where he committed great cruelties and 
devastation. This letter seems to have been written soon 
after the transaction above related, and probably while 
Caesar himself was on the march in order to chastise the 
insolence of Pharnaces. It was in giving an account of 
this expedition that Caesar made use of that celebrated 
expression in a letter to one of his friends, Veni, vidi,vici. 
— Hirt. De Bell. Alexand. 31 ; Plut. in Vit. Caesar. 

» Caesar, after the battle of Pharsalia, sent Mark Antony 
intoltaly , ashis master ,of the horse ; an office, in the absence 
of the dictator, of supreme authority in the common- 
wealth : but Antony abused the power with which he was 
thus invested, and taking advantage of the disturbances 
mentioned in rem. <*, p. 464, turned them to his private 
purposes, by enriching himself with the spoils of his fellow 
citizens. This seems to have been the occasion of those 
general complaints to which Cicero here alludes.— Plut. in 
Vit. Anton. ; Cic. Phil. ii. 24, 25. 

J Now called Lucera, a city of Italy, situated in the 
Capitinata, a part of the ancient Apulia. 



H H 



466 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XXXVII. 

To Acilius, Proconsul. 
There is no man of the same rank as Otacilius 
Naso, with whom I more intimately converse ; as, 
indeed, the polite and virtuous cast of his 
mind renders my daily intercourse with 
him extremely pleasing to me. After having thus 
acquainted you with the terms upon which we live 
together, I need add nothing further to recommend 
him to your good opinion. He has some affairs in 
your province which he has entrusted to the ma- 
nagement of his freedmen. Hilarus, Antigonus, and 
Demostratus : these, therefore, together with all 
the concerns of Naso, I beseech you to receive 
under your protection. I ask this with the same 
warmth as if I were personally interested ; and be 
assured, I shall think myself highly obliged if I 
should find that this letter shall have had great 
weight with you. Farewell. 



LETTER XXXVIII. 

To Terentia. 
I have not yet heard any news either of Csesar's 
arrival, or of his letter which Philotimus, I was 
a u 706 m f° rme d> had in charge to deliver to me. 
But be assured, you shall immediately 
receive the first certain intelligence I shall be able 
to send you. Take care of your health. Adieu. 
August the Ilth. 



LETTER XXXIX. 

To the same. 
I have at last received a letter from Caesar, and 
written in no unfavourable terms k . It is now said 

a. u 706. ^ at ^ e w *^ ^ e * n I ta ly m "ch sooner than 
was expected. I have not yet resolved 
whether to wait for him here, or to meet him on 
his way ; but, as soon as I shall have determined 
that point, I will let you know. 

I beg you would immediately send back this 
messenger ; and let me conjure you, at the same 
time, to take all possible care of your health. 
Farewell. 
August the 12th. 



LETTER XL. 

To Acilius, Proconsul. 

I have been an old and hereditary guest 1 at the 
house of Lyso, of Lilybseum" 1 , ever since the time 
a. u. 70G. °. f llis g randf ather, and he accordingly dis- 
tinguishes me with singular marks of his 

k This letter is not extant; but Cicero mentions the pur- 
port of it in one of his orations, by which it appears, that 
Caesar therein assured our author, that he would preserve 
to him his former state and dignities Pro Ligar. 3. 

1 Cicero was proqusestor of Sicily in the year of Rome 
678, and he afterwards visited that island in order to fur- 
nish himself with evidence against Verres, the late gover- 
nor, whom he had undertaken to impeach for his oppressive 
and cruel administration of that province. It Mas proba- 
bly upon these occasions that he had been entertained at 
the house of Lyso, as well as of several others whom he 



respect ; as, indeed, I have found him to be worthy 
of that illustrious ancestry from which he descends. 
For this reason, I very strenuously recommend 
both himself and his family to your good offices, 
and entreat you to let him see that my recommen- 
dation has proved much to his honour and advan- 
tage. Farewell. 



LETTER XLI. 

To Terentia. 
I am in daily expectation of my couriers, whose 
return will, perhaps, render me less doubtful what 
course to pursue 11 . As soon as they shall 
A " v ' ' arrive, I will give you immediate notice. 
Meanwhile be careful of your health. Farewell. 
September the 1st. 



LETTER XLIL 

To the same. 
I purpose to be at my Tusculan villa about the 
7th or 8th of this month . I beg that everything J 
A „ may be ready for my reception, as I shall, 

' perhaps, bring several friends with me ; 

and I may probably, too, continue there some time. 
If a vase is wanting in the bath, let it be supplied 
with one : and I desire you would, likewise, provide 
whatever else may be necessary for the health and 
entertainment of my guests. Farewell. 

VenusiaP, October the 1st. 



LETTER XLIII. 

To Acilius, Proconsul. 
Caius Avianus Philoxenus is my old host. 
But, besides this connexion, he is, likewise, my 
a. u 706 P ar fcicular friend ; and it was in con- 
sequence of my good offices that Csesar 
admitted him into the corporation of Novocomum. 
It was upon this occasion he assumed the family 
name of his friend Flaccus Avianus, whom I believe 
you know to be, likewise, extremely mine. I 
mention these circumstances as so many proofs 
that my recommendation of Philoxenus is not 
founded upon common motives. I entreat you, 
then, to receive him into the number of your 
friends ; to assist him in every instance that shall 
not break in upon your own convenience ; and, in 
a word, to let him see that this letter proved of 
singular service to him. Your compliance with 
this request will be obliging me in the most sensible 
manner. Farewell. 

recommends in his letters to Acilius as persons to whom 
he was indebted for the rites of hospitality. 

«n A sea-port town in Sicily, now called Marsala. 

" Whether to wait at Brundisiuzn the arrival of Caesar, 
or to set out in order to meet him. 

o <■ Cicero continued at Brundisium till Ca?sar arrived in 
Italy, who came much sooner than was expected, and 
landed at Tarcntum some time in September. They had 
an interview with each other, which ended much to the 
satisfaction of Cicero, who, intending to follow Caesar 
towards Rome, wrote this letter to his wife, to prepare for 
his reception at his Tusculan villa." — Ross, Remarks on 
Cio. Epistles. 

P Now called Venosa, a town in the kingdom of Naples, 
situated at the foot of the Apennine mountains. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



407 



LETTER XLIV. 

To Trebonius*. 
I read your letter, but particularly the treatise 
that attended it r , with great pleasure. It was a 
- nfi pleasure, nevertheless, not without its 
alloy ; as I could not but regret that you 
should leave us at a time when you had thus in- 
flamed my heart, I do not say with a stronger 
affection (for that could admit of no increase), but 
with a more ardent desire of enjoying your com- 
pany. My single consolation arises from the hope 
that we shall endeavour to alleviate the pain of this 
absence by a mutual exchange of long and frequent 
letters. Whilst I promise this on my part, I 
assure myself of the same on yours ; as indeed you 
have left me no room to doubt how highly I stand 
in your regard. Need I mention those public 
instances I formerly received of your friendship, 
when you showed the world that you considered 
my enemies as your own ; when you stood forth 
my generous advocate in the assemblies of the 
people ; when you acted with that spirit which the 
consuls ought to have shown, in maintaining the 
cause of liberty, by supporting mine ; and, though 
only a quaestor, yet refused to submit to the supe- 
rior authority of a tribune, whilst your colleague, 
at the same time, meanly yielded to his measures s ? 
Need I mention (what I shall always, however, 
most gratefully remember) the more recent instances 
of your regard to me, in the solicitude you expressed 

1 He was tribune in the year of Rome 698, at which time 
he distinguished himself by being the principal promoter 
of those unconstitutional grants that were made by the 
people to Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus, for the enlarge- 
ment of their power and dignities. After the expiration 
of his tribunate, he went into Gaul, in quality of Caesar's 
lieutenant ; and on the breaking out of the civil war, he 
was honoured by Caesar with the command at the siege of 
Marseilles. In the year before the date of this letter, he 
was elected to the office of praetor, in which he discovered 
great spirit and judgment in opposing the factious mea- 
sures of his colleague, the turbulent Ccelius, of whose 
attempts mention has been made in rem. v , p. 459. In the 
present year he was appointed proconsul of Spain, to which 
province he was either just setting out or actually upon the 
road when this letter was written. — Dio, xxxix. p. 105 ; 
Caesar De Bell. Civ. i. 36; iii. 20; Hirt. De Bell. Afric. 64. 
For a farther account of Trebonius, see rem. s , below, and 
letter 10, book xii., rem. h . 

r A collection of Cicero's bons mots. 

s Trebonius was quaestor in the year of Rome 693, when 
Lucius Afranius and Quintus Metellus Celer were consuls. 
It was at this time that Clodius (desirous of obtaining 
the tribunate, in order to oppress Cicero with the weight 
of that powerful magistracy) made his first effort to obtain 
a law for ratifying his adoption into a plebeian family, 
none but plebeians being entitled to exercise that office. 
The tribune to whom Cicero here alludes is Herennius, 
whom Clodius had prevailed upon to propose this law to 
the people, and whose indigence and principles qualified 
him for undertaking any work for any man that would 
give him his price. Both the consuls were likewise favour- 
ers of this law when it was first proposed ; but Metellus, 
when he discovered the factious designs which Clodius had 
in view, thought proper, afterwards, most strongly to 
oppose it. The colleague of Trebonius in the quaestorship 
was Quintus Caecilius Nepos, of whose particular enmity 
to Cicero an account has been given in rem. >, on letter 
2, of book i., and by Cicero himself in the third letter of 
the same book.— -Ad Att. i. 18, 19 ; Dio, xxxvii. p. 53 ; 
Pigh. Annal. 693. 



for my safety when I engaged in the late war ; in 
the joy you showed when I returned into Italy 1 ; 
in your friendly participation of all those cares and 
disquietudes with which I was at that time op- 
pressed 11 ; and, in a word, in your kind intent of 
visiting me at Brundisium v , if you had not been 
suddenly ordered into Spain ? To omit, I say, these 
various and inestimable proofs of your friendship, is 
not the treatise you have now sent me a most con- 
spicuous evidence of the share I enjoy in your 
heart ? It is so, indeed, in a double view; and, 
not only as you are so partial as to be the constant, 
and, perhaps, single, admirer of my wit, but as you 
have placed it, likewise, in so advantageous a light 
as to render it, whatever it may be in itself, ex- 
tremely agreeable. The truth of it is, your manner 
of relating my pleasantries is not less humorous 
than the conceits you celebrate, and half the reader's 
mirth is exhausted ere he arrives at my joke. In 
short, if I had no other obligation to you for 
making this collection than your having suffered 
me to be so long present to your thoughts, I should 
be utterly insensible if it were not to impress upon 
me the most affectionate sentiments. When I 
consider, indeed, that nothing but the warmest 
attachment could have engaged you in such a work, 
I cannot suppose any man to have a greater regard 
for himself than you have thus discovered for me. 
I wish it may be in my power to make you as 
ample a return in every other instance, as I most 
certainly do in the affection of my heart ; a return 
with which I trust, however, you will be perfectly 
well satisfied. 

But to return from your performance to your 
very agreeable letter : full as it was, 1 may yet 
answer it in few words. Let me assure you, then, 
in the first place, that I no more imagined the letter 
which I sent to Calvus w would be made public, 
than I suspect that this will ; and you are sensible 
that a letter designed to go no farther than the 
hand to which it is addressed, is written in a very 
different manner from one intended for general 
inspection. But you think, it seems, that I have 
spoken in higher terms of his abilities than truth 
will justify. It was my real opinion, however, that 
he possessed a great genius, and, notwithstanding 
that he misapplied it by a wrong choice of that par- 
ticular species of eloquence which he adopted, yet 
he certainly discovered great judgment in his exe- 
cution. In a word, his compositions were marked 
with a vein of uncommon erudition ; but they 
wanted a certain strength and spirit of colouring 
to render them perfectly finished. It was the 
attainment, therefore, of this quality that I endea- 
voured to recommend to his pursuit ; and the 
seasoning of advice with applause, has a wonderful 

«• After the battle of Pharsalia. 

" Heerem. °, p. 461. 

v When he was waiting the arrival of Caesar. 

w A very celebrated orator, who, though not much above 
thirty when he died, (which was a short time before this 
letter was written), yet left behind him a large collection 
of orations ; he was concerned with Cicero in most of the 
principal causes that came into the forum during the 
short time in which he flourished. The letter here men- 
tioned was probably part of a correspondence carried on 
between Cicero and Calvus on the subject of eloquence, 
the whole of which was extant long after the death of 
our author, though none of these epistles have reached 
our times.— Quint. Inst. x. 1 ; Auct. Dialog, de Caus. cor- 
rupt. Eloquent. 18, 21. 

H H 5 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



efficacy in firing the genius and animating the 
efforts of those one wishes to persuade x . This was 
the true motive of the praises I bestowed upon 
Calvus, of whose talents I really had a very high 
opinion. 

I have only farther to assure you, that my affec- 
tionate wishes attend you in your journey ; that I 
shall impatiently expect your return ; that I shall 
faithfully preserve you in my remembrance ; and 
that I shall soothe the uneasiness of your absence 
by keeping up this epistolary commerce. Let me 
entreat you to reflect, on your part, on the many 
and great good offices I have received at your 
hands ; and which, though you may forget, I never 
can, without being guilty of a most unpardonable 
ingratitude. It is impossible, indeed, you should 
reflect on the obligations you have conferred upon 
me, without believing, not only that I have some 
merit, but that I think of you with the highest 
esteem and affection. Farewell. 



LETTER XLV. 

To Acilius, Proconsul. 
I have long had obligations to Demetrius Magus 
for the generous reception he gave me when I was 
70fi in Sicily? : indeed there is none of his coun- 
trymen with whom I ever entered into so 
strong a friendship. At my particular instances, 
Dolabella prevailed with Ceesar to grant him the 
freedom of Rome, and I assisted at the ceremony of 
his admission ; accordingly he now takes upon him- 
self the name of Publius Cornelius. The ill use 
which some men, of a mean and avaricious turn, had 
made of Caesar's confidence, by exposing privileges 
of this kind to sale, induced him to make a general 
revocation of these grants. However, he assured 
Dolabella, in my presence, that he had no reason 
to be under any apprehension with respect to 
Magus ; for his benefaction, he said, should still 
remain to him in its full force. I thought proper 
to mention this, that you might treat him with 
the consideration which is due to a Roman citizen ; 
and it is with the utmost zeal that I recommend 
him to your favour in all other respects. You 
cannot, indeed, confer upon me a higher obligation 
than by convincing my friend that this letter pro- 
cured him the honour of your peculiar regard. — 
Farewell. 

x "It is but allowing a man to be what be would have 
the world think him, (says Sir Richard Steele,) to make 
him anything else that one pleases." This judicious piece 
of flattery, however, deserves to be highly applauded in 
the present instance, as it proceeded entirely from a desire 
of benefiting the person on whom it was employed. — But 
what renders it more remarkably generous is, that Cal- 
vus contested, though very unequally indeed, the palm 
of eloquence with Cicero. Yet the latter, we see, gene- 
rously endeavoured to correct the taste of his rival, and 
improve him into a less inadequate competitor. For 
Cicero was too conscious of his sublime abilities, to be 
infected with that low jealousy so visible in wits of an 
inferior rank, who seem to think they can only rise in 
fame in proportion as they shall be able to sink the merit 
of contemporary geniuses.— Senec. Controvers. iii. 19. 
y See rem. \p. 466. 



LETTER XLV1. 

To Sextilius Rufus z , Quastor. 
I recommend all the Cyprians in general to 
your protection, but particularly those belonging 
a u 706 *° ^ e district °f Paphos a : and I shall 

hold myself obliged to you for any in- 
stance of your favour that you shall think proper 
to show them. It is with the more willingness I 
apply to you in their behalf, as it much imports 
your character (in which I greatly interest myself) 
that you, who are the first qusestor that ever held 
the government of Cyprus b , should form such 
ordinances as may deserve to be followed as so many 
precedents by your successors. It will contribute, 
I hope, to this end, if you shall pursue that edict 
which was published by your friend Lentulus 1 ", to- 
gether with those which were enacted likewise by 
myself* 1 , as your adopting them will prove, I trust, 
much to your honour. Farewell. 



LETTER XLVII. 

To Acilius, Proconsul. 
' I strongly recommend my friend and host 
Hippias to your good offices : he is a citizen of 
a u 706 Calactina, and the son of Philoxenus. 
His estate (as the affair has been repre- 
sented to me) has been illegally seized for the use 
of the public; and ifvthis should be the truth, 
your own equity, without any other recommenda- 
tion, will sufficiently incline you to see that justice 
is done him. But, whatever the circumstances of 
his case may be, I request it as an honour to my- 
self, and an honour too of the most obliging kind, 
that you would in this, and in every other article 
in which he is concerned, favour him with your 
assistance ; so far, I mean, as shall not be inconsist- 
ent with the honour and dignity of your character. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XLVIII. V ; ' 
To the same. 
Lucius Bruttius, a young man of equestrian 
rank, is in the number of those with whom I am 
706 most particularly intimate : there has 
been a great friendship, likewise, between 
his father and myself, ever since I was qusestor in 
Sicily. He distinguishes me by peculiar marks of 
his observance, and is adorned with every valuable 
accomplishment. He is at present my guest ; but 
I most earnestly recommend his family, his affairs, 
and his agents, to your protection. You will con- 
fer upon me a most acceptable obligation, by 
giving him reason to find (as, indeed, I have ven- 
tured to assure him he undoubtedly will) that this 
letter proved much to his advantage. Farewell. 

z He was appointed governor of the island of Cyprus, as 
appears by the present letter. And this, together with his 
commanding the fleet under Cassius, in Asia, after the 
death of Cassar, is the whole that is known of him. 

a A city in the island of Cyprus. 

b Before this time it was always annexed (as Manutius 
observes) to the province of Cilicia. 

c Lentulus Spinther, to whom several letters in the first 
and second books of this collection are addressed. See 
rem. h , p. 343. 

d Cicero succeeded Appius in the government of Cilicia. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



46y 



LETTER XLIX. 

To Lucius Papirius Pcelus e . 

Is it true, my friend, that you look upon your- 
self as having been guilty of a most ridiculous piece 

u 706 of folly, in attempting to imitate the 
thunder, as you call it, of my eloquence ? 
With reason, indeed, you might have thought so, 
had you failed in your attempt : but, since you 
have excelled the model you had in view, the dis- 
grace surely is on my side, not on yours. The 
verse, therefore, which you apply to yourself, from 
one of TrabeaV comedies, may with much more 
justice be turned upon me, as my own eloquence 
falls far short of that perfection at which I aim. 
But tell me what sort of figure do my letters make? 
are they not written, think you, in the true fami- 
liar ? They do not constantly, however, preserve 
one uniform manner, as this species of composition 
bears no resemblance to that of the oratorical 
kind ; though, indeed, in judicial matters, we vary 
our style according to the nature of the causes in 
which we are engaged. Those, for example, in 
which private interests of little moment are con- 
cerned, we treat with a suitable simplicity of dic- 
tion ; but where the reputation or the life of our 
client is in question, we rise into greater pomp and 
dignity of phrase. But, whatever may be the sub- 
ject of my letters, they still speak the language of 
conversation. 

How came you to imagine that all your family 
have been plebeians, when it is certain that many 
of them were patricians, of the lower order s ? To 
begin with the first in this catalogue, I will instance 
Lucius Papisius Magillanus, who, in the year of 
Rome 312, was censor with Lucius Sempronius 
Atratinus, as he before had been his colleague in 
the consulate. At this time your family name was 
Papisius. After him there were thirteen of your an- 
cestors who were curule magistrates 11 , before Lucius 
Papirius Crassus, who was the first of your family 
that changed the name of Papisius. This Papirius, 
in the year 315, being chosen dictator, appointed 
Lucius Papirius Castor to be his master of the 
horse, and four years afterwards he was elected 
consul, together with Caius Duilius. Next in this 
list appears Cursor, a man highly honoured in his 
generation ; and after him we find Lucius Masso, 
the sedile, together with several others of the same 
appellation : and I could wish that you had the 
portraits of all these patricians among your family- 
pictures. The Carbones and the Turdi follow next. 
This branch of your family were all of them ple- 

e See rem. °, on letter 2, book vi. 

i The time when this poet flourished is uncertain. His 
dramatic writings seem to have been in great repute, as 
Cicero frequently quotes them in his Tusculan Disputa- 
tions. 

S The patrician families were distinguished into the 
higher and the lower order. Of the former sort were those 
who derived their pedigree from the two hundred senators 
that composed the senate, as it was originally established 
by Romulus: of the latter, were the descendants of the 
members which, above a century afterwards, were added 
to this celebrated council, by Tarquinius Priscus. — Rosin. 
Antiquit. Rom. p. 687. 

h The curule magistrates were those particular officers 
of the state who had the privilege of being drawn in a car. 
These were the consuls, the censors, the praetors, and 
curule aediles. 



beians, and they by no means reflect any honour 
upon your race. For, excepting Caius Carbo, who 
was murdered by Damasippus, there is not one of 
his name who was not an enemy to his country. 
There was another Caius, whom I personally 
knew, as well as the buffoon, his brother : they 
were both of them men of the most worthless cha- 
racters. As to the son of Rubria, he was my friend, 
for which reason I shall pass him over in silence, 
and only mention his three brothers, Caius, Cneius, 
and Marcus. Marcus, having committed number- 
less acts of violence and oppression in Sicily, was 
prosecuted for those crimes by Publius Flaccus, 
and found guilty : Caius being, likewise, impeached 
by Lucius Crassus, is said to have poisoned himself 
with cantharides. He was the author of great 
disturbances during the time that he exercised the 
office of tribune, and is supposed to have been 
concerned in the murder of Scipio Africanus. As 
to Cneius, who was put to death by my friend 
Pompey 1 , at Lilybseum, there never existed, I be- 
lieve, a more infamous character. It is generally 
imagined that the father of this man, in order to 
avoid the consequences of a prosecution which was 
commenced against him by Marcus Antonius, put 
an end to his life by a draught of vitriol. Thus, my 
friend, I would advise you to claim your kindred 
among the patricians ; for you see the plebeian part 
of your family were but a worthless and seditious 
raceJ. Farewell. 



a. u. 706. 



LETTER L. 

To Acilius, Proconsul. 

I have long had a friendship with the family of 
the Titurnii ; the last surviving branch of which is 
Marcus Titurnius Rufus. He has a 
claim, therefore, to my best good offices, 
and it is in your power to render them effectual. 
Accordingly I recommend him to your favour, in 
all the most unfeigned warmth of my heart ; and 
you will extremely oblige me by giving him strong 
proofs of the regard you pay to my recommenda- 
tion. Farewell. 

» This Cneius Papirius Carbo was three times consul ; 
the last of which was in the year of Rome 671- Having 
exercised his power in a most oppressive and tyrannical 
manner, he was deposed, to the great satisfaction of the 
republic, by Sylla, who was immediately declared dietator. 
Carbo soon afterwards appeared, with a considerable 
fleet, upon the coast of Sicily ; and being taken prisoner 
by Pompey, whom Sylla had sent in pursuit of him, he 
was formally arraigned before the tribunal of Pompey, and 
publicly executed by his orders at Lilybasum. — Plut. in 
Vit. Pomp. 

J It may be proper to apprise the reader, in this place, 
that there is one epistle from Cicero to Paetus, which is 
omitted in this translation. Cicero takes occasion, in this 
rejected letter, to explain to his friend the notion of the 
Stoics concerning obscenity ; and, in order to illustrate 
their absurd reasoning upon this subject, he introduces a 
great variety "of double-cntendrcs* which, as they turn 
upon ambiguities that hold only in the Latin language, it 
is utterly impossible to translate. But, had they been 
reconcileable to our idiom, the translator would never- 
theless have declined the office of being their interpreter ; 
as he would not have deprived himself of the satisfaction 
to think that there is nothing in this volume unlit for 
the perusal of the fair part of his readers.— Ep. Fam. ix. 
22. 



470 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



BOOK VIII. 



LETTER I. 

To Marcus Marius k . 
Whenever I reflect, as indeed I frequently do, 
on those public calamities we have thus long 
a. u 707 encm red, and are still likely to endure, it 
always brings to my thoughts the last 
interview we had together. It made so strong an 
impression upon my mind, that I can name the 
very day ; and I perfectly well remember it was 
on the tenth of May, in the consulate of Lentulus 
and Marcellus 1 , that, upon my arrival at my Pom- 
peian villa™, I found you waiting for me with the 
most friendly solicitude. Your generous concern 
arose from a tenderness both for my honour and 
my safety ; as the former you feared would be 
endangered if I continued in Italy ; and the latter, 
if I went to Pompey. I was myself, likewise, as 
you undoubtedly perceived, so greatly perplexed as 
to be incapable of determining which of these 
measures was most advisable. However, I resolved 
to sacrifice all considerations of personal safety to 
the dictates of my honour ; and accordingly I joined 
Pompey in Greece. But I no sooner arrived in his 
army than I had occasion to repent of my resolu- 
tion ; not so much from the danger to which I was 
myself exposed, as from the many capital faults I 
discovered among them. In the first place, Pom- 
pey's forces were neither very considerable in point 
of numbers 11 , nor by any means composed of war- 
like troops ; and in the next place, (I speak, how- 
ever, with exception of Pompey himself, and a few 
others of the principal leaders,) they carried on the 
war with such a spiritof rapaciousness, and breathed 
such principles of cruelty in their conversation, 
that I could not think even upon our success 
without horror. To this I must add, that some of 
the most considerable officers were deeply involved 
in debt ; and, in short, there was nothing good 
among them but their cause. Thus despairing of suc- 
cess, I advised (what, indeed, I had always recom- 
mended) that proposals of accommodation should 
be offered to Caesar ; and when I found Pompey 
utterly averse to all measures of that kind, I endea- 
voured to persuade him, at least, to avoid a general 
engagement. This last advice he seemed sometimes 
inclined to follow, and probably would have fol- 
lowed, if a slight advantage, which he soon after- 
wards gained , had not given him a confidence in 

k See rem. «, p. 357. 

1 An. Urb. 704, about two years before the date of this 
letter, which was probably written very early in the pre- 
sent year. 

m " This villa of Cicero was situated near Pompeii, upon 
the eastern coast of the bay of Naples, and at no great 
distance from the villa of Marius."— Ross. 

n Pompey's army, at the battle of Pharsalia, was more 
than double in number to that of Csesar, whose forces 
amounted only to about 22,000 men — Plut. in Vit. Pomp. 

Before the walls of Dyrrachium. Notwitbstanding 
Cicero speaks with some sort of contempt of this advan- 
tage which Pompey gained over the troops of Caesar, yet 
it appears to have been very considerable. It was thought 
bo at least by Cassar himself, who observed to some of his 



his troops. From that moment all the skill and 
conduct of this great man seems to have utterly 
forsaken him ; and he acted so little like a general, 
that, with a raw and inexperienced army, he impru- 
dently gave battle p to the most brave and martial 
legions. The consequence was, that he suffered a 
most shameful defeat ; and, abandoning his camp 
to Csesar, he was obliged to run away, unaccom- 
panied even with a single attendants This event 
determined me to lay down my arms, being per- 
suaded that if we could not prevail with our united 
forces, we should scarce have better success when 
they were broken and dispersed. I declined, there- 
fore, to engage any farther in a war, the result of 
which must necessarily be attended with one or 
other of the following unhappy consequences : 

friends, after the action was over, that the enemy would 
have obtained a complete victory, had they been com- 
manded by a general that knew how to conquer. — Plut. in 
Vit. Pomp. 

P In the plains of Pharsalia. The principal officers of 
Pompey's army were so elated by their late success before 
Dyrrachium, that they pursued Csesar as to certain con- 
quest ; and, instead of concerting measures for securing 
their victory, were employed in warmly contesting among 
themselves their several proportions of the spoils. Pompey 
was not less confident of success than the rest; and he 
had the imprudence to declare, in a council of war, which 
was holden a few days before this important battle, that 
he did not doubt of entirely defeating Cassar by the single 
strength of his cavalry, and without engaging his legions 
in the action.— Cses. De Bell. Civ. iii. 83, 86. 

It is very observable, that the day on which this memo- 
rable battle was fought is nowhere recorded, and that it 
was not known even in Lucan's time : — 

m ' ' Tempora signavit leviorum Roma malorum, 
Hunc voluit nescire diem." — Lucan, vii. 410. 

1 Plutarch resembles Pompey's flight to that of Ajax 
before Hector, as described in the 1 1 th Iliad : — 

" Zeus Se irarfyp MavQ'' v\pl£oyos iv <p6@ov wpae' 

2T7J 5e TCMpCtil/," K. T. A. 

. " Partial Jove, espousing Hector's part, 

Shot heav'n-bred horror thro' the Grecian's heart ; 
Confused, unnerved in Hector's presence grown, 
Amazed he stood, with horrors not his own. 
O'er his broad back his moony shield he threw, 
And, glaring round, by tardy steps withdrew." — Pope. 
In fact, however, it was attended with all the circum- 
stances of disgrace which Cicero mentions. Pompey, after 
various deliberations, resolved to take shelter in Egypt, 
where he had reason to hope for a protector in Ptolemy, 
whose father he had formerly assisted in recovering his 
dominions. [See rem. > on letter 12, book i.] But Theo- 
dotus, a sort of tutor to this young prince, not think- 
ing it prudent either to receive Pompey, or to refuse 
him admittance, proposed, as the best policy, that he 
should be destroyed. Accordingly the persons who were 
sent to conduct him from his ship had directions to be his 
executioners ; which they performed, by stabbing him, as 
he was stepping out of the boat, in order to land. These 
assassins, having severed Pompey's head, left his body on 
the shore, where it was burned with the planks of an old 
fishing-boat', by a faithful freedman, who had been the 
unhappy spectator of this affecting tragedy. Pompey's 
ashes were afterwards conveyed to his wife Cornelia, who 
deposited them in a family monument near his Alban 
villa.— Plut. in Vit. Pomp. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



471 



either to perish in the field of battle, to be taken 
prisoner by the conquerors, to be sacrificed by 
treachery r , to have recourse to Juba s , to live in a 
sort of voluntary exile, or to fall by one's own 
hand. Other choice most certainly there was none, 
if you would not, or durst not, trust to the cle- 
mency of the victor. Banishment, it must be 
owned, to a mind that had nothing to reproach 
itself with, would have been the most eligible of 
all these evils ; especially under the reflection of 
being driven from a commonwealth, which presents 
nothing to our view but what we must behold with 
pain. Nevertheless, I chose to remain with my 
own ; if anything now, indeed, can with propriety 
be called our own ; a misfortune which, together 
with every other calamity that this fatal war has 
produced, I long since foretold. I returned, there- 
fore, to Italy, not as to a situation perfectly 
desirable, but in order, if the republic should in 
any degree subsist, to enjoy somewhat that had, at 
least, the semblance of our country ; and if it were 
utterly destroyed, to live as if I were to all essential 
purposes in a real state of exile. But though I 
saw no reason that could justly induce me to be 
my own executioner, I saw many to be desirous of 
death. For it is an old and true maxim, that " life 
is not worth preserving when a man is no longer 
what he once was." A. blameless conscience, how- 
ever, is undoubtedly a great consolation ; especially 
as I can add to it the double support that arises to 
my mind, from a knowledge of the noblest sciences, 
and from the glory of my former actions ; one of 
which can never be torn from me so long as I live ; 
and of the other, even death itself has not the 
power to deprive me. 

I have troubled you with this minute detail, from 

r This seems to allude to the fate of Pompey. 
s He was a very considerable prince, whose dominions 
extended not only over that part of Africa which is now 
called the coast of Barbary, but southward beyond mount 
Atlas, and from the Straits' mouth along the Atlantic 
ocean to the Canary islands. Upon the first breaking out 
of the civil war, he distinguished himself in supporting the 
Pompeian party, in Africa, against the army commanded 
by Curio, whom he entirely defeated. [See rem. J on letter 
1, book iii.] Lucan has given a very poetical description 
of the several tributary nations which, upon this occasion, 
he led to battle : — 

" Autololes, Numidseque vagi, semperque paratus 

Inculto Gaetulus equo," &c. 
" With him unn umber 'd nations march along, 
Th' Autololes with wild Numidians throng ; 
The rough Gaetulian, with his ruder steed ; 
The Moor, resembling India's swarthy breed : 
Poor Nasamons, and Garamantines join'd, 
With swift Marmaridans that match the wind ; 
The Marax bred the trembling dart to throw, 
Sure as the shaft that leaves the Parthian bow ; 
With these Massylia's nimble horsemen ride ; 
They nor the bit, nor curbing rein provide, 
But with light rods the well-taught courser guide. 
From lonely cots the Libyan hunters came, 
Who still unarm'd invade the salvage game, 
And with spread mantles tawny lions tame."— Rowe. 
After the battle of Pharsalia, Scipio, who commanded the 
remains of Pompey's army that had assembled in Africa, 
applied to Juba for assistance; who, accordingly, joined 
him with a very considerable body of men. But their 
united forces were not sufficient to withstand the fortune 
of Caesar; who, having defeated their combined troops, 
Juba was too high-spirited to survive the disgrace, and, at 
his own request, was stabbed by one of his attendants. — 
Lucan, iv. 670 ; Hirt. De Bell. Afric. 94. 



a full persuasion of the tender regard you bear both 
to myself and to our country. I was desirous, 
indeed, to apprise you fully of the principles by 
which I have steered, that you might be sensible it 
was my first and principal aim that no single arm 
should be more potent than the whole united com- 
monwealth ; and, afterwards, when there was one 
who, by Pompey's mistaken conduct, had so firmly 
established his power as to render all resistance 
vain, that it was my next endeavour to preserve 
the public tranquillity. I was desirous you should 
know, that after the loss of those troops, and that 
general* wherein all our hopes were centred, I 
attempted to procure a total cessation of arms ; 
and when this advice proved ineffectual, that I 
determined, at least, to lay down my own. In a 
word, I was desirous you should know, that if our 
liberties still remain, I also am still a citizen of the 
republic ; if not, that I am no less an exile nor 
more conveniently situated than if I had banished 
myself to Rhodes or Mitylene u . 

I should have been glad to have said this to you 
in person ; but as I was not likely to meet with an 
opportunity for that purpose so soon as I wished, 
I thought proper to take this earlier method of 
furnishing you with an answer, if you should fall 
in the way of those who are disposed to arraign my 
conduct. For, notwithstanding that my death could 
in no sort have availed the republic, yet I stand 
condemned, it seems, by some for not sacrificing 
my life in its cause. But they are those only, I 
am well assured, who have the cruelty to think that 
there has not been blood enough spilt already. If 
my advice, however, had been followed, those who 
have perished in this war might have preserved 
their lives with honour, though they had accepted 
of peace upon ever so unreasonable conditions. 
For they would still have had the better cause, 
though their enemies had the stronger swords. 

And now, perhaps, I have quite tired your 
patience : I shall think so, at least, if you do not 
send me a longer letter in return. I will only add, 
that if I can despatch some affairs which I am de- 
sirous of finishing, I hope to be with you very 
shortly. Farewell. 

* Pompey. 

u Rhodes, the metropolis of an island in the Mediter- 
ranean, and Mitylene, the principal city of Lesbos, an 
island in the iEgean sea, were places to which Marcellus 
and some others of the Pompeian party retired after the 
battle of Pharsalia. These cities were esteemed by the 
ancients for the delightful temperature of their respective 
climates, and for many other delicacies with which they 
abounded ; and, accordingly, Horace, in bis ode to Plan- 
cus, mentions them in the .number of those which were 
most admired and celebrated by his countrymen : — 

" Laudabunt alii claram Rhoden, aut Mitylenen," &c. 
Both Vitruvius and Cicero, likewise, speak of Mitylene in 
particular, with the highest encomiums on the elegance, 
beauty, and magnificence of its buildings. It should seem, 
therefore, that the text is corrupted in this place ; and 
that, instead of — non incommodiore loco, the true reading 
is — non commodiore. Cicero, indeed, would make use of a 
very odd sort of justification, if we suppose him to have 
said that he had not chosen a more inconvenient place for 
his residence than those who retired to Rhodes or Mity- 
lene ; whereas it was much to his purpose to assert, that 
the exiles in those cities were full as conveniently situated 
as himself. For the rest, it will appear in the progress of 
these letters, that Cicero was far from living at Rome as 
in a state of exile, during Ca:sar's usurpation.— Hor. Od. i. 
7; Vitruv. i. ; Cic. de Leg. Agra. ii. lb'. 



472 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER II. 

To Cneius Plancius*. 
I AM indebted to you for two letters, dated from 
Corcyra. You congratulate me in one of them on 
A v jffj the account you have received, tnat I 
still preserve my former influence in the 
commonwealth, and wish me joy in the other of 
my late marriage w . With respect to the first, if 
to mean well to the interest of my country, and to 
approve that meaning to every friend of its liberties, 
may be considered as maintaining my influence,the 
account you have heard is certainly true. But if it 
consists in rendering those sentiments effectual to 
the public welfare, or, at least, in daring freely to 
support and enforce them, alas ! my friend, I have 
not the least shadow of influence remaining. The 
fact is, it will be sufficient honour if I can have so 
much influence over myself as to bear with patience 
our present and impending calamities ; a frame of 
mind not to be acquired without difficulty, when it 
is considered that the present war x is such, that if 
one party is successful, it will be attended with an 
infinite effusion of blood ; and if the other, with a 
total extinction of liberty. It affords me some 
consolation, however, under these dangers, to reflect 
that I clearly foresaw them when I declared how 
greatly I dreaded our victory as well as our defeat : 
I was perfectly aware of the hazard to which our 
liberties would be exposed, by referring our politi- 
cal contentions to the decision of the sword. I 
knew, indeed, if that party should prevail which I 
joined, not from a passion for war, but merely with 
the hopes of facilitating an accommodation, what 
cruelties were to be expected from their pride, 
their avarice, and their revenge. On the contrai-y, 
should they be vanquished, I was sensible what 
numbers of the best and most illustrious of our 
fellow-citizens would inevitably perish. And yet, 
when I forewarned these men of our danger, and 
justly advised them to avoid it, instead of receiving 
my admonitions as the effect of a prudential caution, 

v Cneius Plancius was of an equestrian family. He was 
early initiated into public affairs by Aulus Torquatus, 
whom he attended when he was proconsul in Africa. He 
afterwards served under Quintus Metellus, in his expedi- 
tion against Crete; and, in the year of Cicero's banish- 
ment, was quaestor in Macedonia. This gave him an op- 
portunity of distinguishing his friendship for our author, 
by the many good offices he exerted towards him as he 
passed through that province. Cicero very gratefully re- 
membered them, as appears by his oration in defence of 
Plancius, when he was accused of illicit practices in 
obtaining the office of aedile. He seems, in the earlier 
part of his life, to have indulged himself in the prevailing 
vices of the fashionable world ; but, upon the whole of 
his character, to have been a man of strict honour and 
integrity. Cicero particularly celebrates him for his filial 
piety, and that general esteem in which he lived with all 
his relations. At the time when this letter was written, 
he was in Corcyra, a little island in the Ionian sea, now 
called Corfu. It is probable he retreated thither, with 
some others of the Pompeian party, after the total over- 
throw of their army in the plains of Pharsalia.— Orat. pro 
Plane. 7. 11, 12. 

w See below, note Y. 

x Between Caesar, and the remains of the Pompeian 
party under the command of Scipio, who had assembled a 
very considerable army in Africa. Caesar set out upon 
this expedition towards the end of December, in the pre- 
ceding year, about three or four months after his return 
from the Alexandrine war. 



they chose to treat it as the dictates of an unrea- 
sonable timidity. 

But to turn to your other letter : I am obliged 
to you for your good wishes in regard to my mar- 
riage y, as I am well persuaded that they are per- 
fectly sincere. I should have had no thoughts, in 
these miserable times, of entering into any new 
engagement of this sort, if I had not, upon my 
return into Italy, found my domestic affairs in no 
better a situation than those of the republic. 
"When I discovered that, through the wicked prac- 
tices of those whom I had infinitely obliged, and 
to whom my welfare ought to have been infinitely 
dear, that there was no security for me within my 
own walls, and that I was surrounded by treachery 
on all sides, I thought it necessary to protect myself 
against the perfidiousness of my old connexions, by 
having recourse to a more faithful alliance. — But 
enough of my private concerns : and perhaps too 
much. As to those which relate to yourself, I 
hope you have the opinion of them which you 
justly ought, and are free from all particular unea- 
siness on your own account. For I am well 
persuaded, that whatever may be the event of 
public affairs, you will be perfectly secure : as one 
of the contending parties, I perceive, is already 
reconciled to you ; and the other you have never 
offended. With respect to my own disposition 
towards you : though I well know the narrow 
extent of my power, and how little my services 
can now avail, yet you may be assured of my most 
zealous endeavours, at least, upon every occasion 
wherein either your character or your interest is 
concerned. In the mean time, let me know as soon 
as possible how it fares with you, and what mea- 
sures you purpose to pursue. Farewell. 



LETTER III. 

To Toranius z . 
Although I imagine this miserable war is either 
already terminated by some decisive engagement 3 , 
a u 707 or at ^ eas * * s a PP roacnm g to its conclu- 



sion ; yet ' 



********** 



I fre- 



y Cicero had very lately divorced his wife Terentia, on 
occasion of some great offence she had given him in her 
economical conduct. The person to whom he was now 
married, was called Publilia, a young lady to whom he had 
been guardian, and of an age extremely disproportionate 
to his own. His principal inducement to this match 
seems to have been her fortune, which, it is said, was very 
considerable. However, he did not long enjoy the benefit of 
it ; for, finding himself uneasy, likewise, under this second 
marriage, he soon parted with his young wife, and conse- 
quently with her portion. This very unequal match ex- 
posed Cicero to much censure ; and Calenus warmly 
reproaches him with it, in that bitter invective which he 
delivered, as Dio, at least, pretends, in reply to one of 
Cicero's against Mark Antony — Ad Att. xiii. 34 ; Dio. lx. 
p. 303. 

z Suetonius mentions a person of this name, who was 
elected into the office of aedile with Octavius, the father 
of Augustus, and who afterwards, notwithstanding he 
had been guardian to Augustus himself, was in the num- 
ber of those who perished by the sanguinary proscriptions 
of that emperor. One of the commentators upon that 
historian supposes him to be the same person to whom 
this letter is addressed ; and indeed the conjecture is 
extremely probable. However, all that can be affirmed 
with any certainty concerning Toranius is, that he took 
part in the civil war on the side of Pompey, and that, 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



473 



quently reflect that there was not a man throughout 
all the numerous army of Pompey who agreed with 
you and me in our opinion. We were the only 
persons, indeed, who were sensible, if there should 
be no hope of an accommodation, how pregnant 
with mischief that war must prove, in which tor- 
rents of blood would be the consequence, if we 
were vanquished, and slavery, if we proved vic- 
torious . I was represented at that time, by such 
wise and heroic spirits as your Domitii and your 
Lentuli, as a man altogether under the dominion 
of fear : and fear, I will confess, I did, that those 
calamities would happen which have since ensued. 
But I am now totally void of all farther appre- 
hensions ; and I stand prepared to meet with 
indifference whatever it be that fortune may have 
in reserve. While prudence, indeed, could anything 
avail, I lamented to see her dictates neglected. 
But now that counsel can profit nothing, and that 
the republic is utterly overturned, the only rational 
part that remains, is to bear with calmness what- 
ever shall be the event : especially when it is con- 
sidered that death is the final period of all human 
concerns. In the mean time, I have the satisfac- 
tion to be conscious that I consulted the dignity of 
the republic, whilst it was possible to be preserved ; 
and when it could no longer be maintained, that 
my next endeavour was to save the commonwealth 
from being utterly destroyed. I mention this, not 
to indulge a vanity in talking of myself, but that 
you, who were entirely united with me in the same 
sentiments and disposition, may be led into the 
same train of reflections. For it must undoubtedly 
afford you great consolation to remember, that 
whatever turn affairs might have taken, your coun- 
sels were perfectly right. May we yet live to see the 
republic, in some degree at least, again restored ! 
and may we have the satisfaction of one day com- 
paring together the anxiety we mutually suffered, 
when we were looked upon as men that wanked 
spirit, merely because we declared that those con- 
sequences would happen which have accordingly 
taken place ! Meanwhile, I will venture to assure 
you, that you have nothing to apprehend upon 
your own account, exclusive of the general sub- 
version of the commonwealth. As for myself, be 
persuaded that I shall at all times, as far as lies in 
my power, be ready to exert my utmost services 
towards you and your family. Farewell. 

after the battle of Pharsalia, he retired to Corcyra, as he 
appears to have been in that island when this letter was 
written.— Suet, in Vit. August. 27. See the remark of Mr. 
Ross, on the Epist. Famil. vol. i. p. 498. 

a See rem. x on the foregoing letter. 

l> The first period of this letter in the original runs 
thus: " Etsi cum haec ad te scribebam, aut appropin- 
quare exitus hujus calamitosissimi belli, aut jam aliquid 
actum et confectum videbatur ; tamen quotidie comme- 
morabam, te unum in tanto exercitu mihi fuisse assen- 
tarem, et me tibi." The etsi and the tamen in this sen- 
tence seem to be as absolutely incoherent as if Cicero 
had said, that " although iEneas settled in Italy, yet 
Caesar was a consummate general." It should seem, there- 
fore, that there is some error in the text. Perhaps the 
proper connecting words that followed tamen, have been 
dropped by the transcribers, and that Quotidie was the 
beginning of a new sentence. The translator has ven- 
tured, at least, to proceed upon this conjecture : and the 
place of the supposed omission is marked by asterisks. 

c This is explained by what he says of Pompey in a sub- 
sequent letter.— See letter 19, book ix. 



LETTER IV. 

To Marcus Terentius Varro d . 
Atticus lately read a letter to me that he had 
received from you, by which I was informed where 

a u 707. y° u are ' anc ^ m wnat ma nner employed : 
but it mentioned no circumstance that 
could lead me to guess when we might expect to 
see you. I hope, however, that the time of your 
coming hither is approaching, and that your com- 
pany will afford me consolation under our general 
misfortunes : though, indeed, they are so numerous 
and so severe, that it is a folly to expect anything 
will be sufficient for that purpose. Nevertheless, 
there are some instances, perhaps, in which we may 
prove of rmitual assistance to each other. For 
since my return to Rome, you must know, I am 
reconciled to those old companions of mine, my 
books. Not that I was estranged from them out 
of any disgust ; but that I could not look upon 
them without some sort of shame. It seemed, 
indeed, that I had ill observed their precepts, when 
I joined with perfidious associates in taking part 
in our public commotions. They are willing, how- 
ever, to pardon my error, and invite me to renew 
my former acquaintance with them ; applauding, 
at the same time, your superior wisdom, in never 
having forsaken their society e . Thus restored, 
theretore, as I am, to their good graces, may I not 
hope, if I can unite your company with theirs, to 
support myself under the pressure of our present 
and impending calamities ? Wherever, then, you 
shall choose I should join you, be it at Tusculum, 
at Cumae f , or at Rome, I shall most readily obey 
your summons. The place I last named would, 
indeed, be the least acceptable to me. But it is 
of. no great consequence where we meet ; for if we 
can but be together, I will undertake to render the 
place of meeting equally agreeable to both of us. 
Farewell. 

d Marcus Terentius Varro had been lieutenant to Pompey 
in the piratic war ; in which he distinguished himself with 
so much advantage, as to be honoured with a naval crown : 
an honour usually conferred on those who had signalised 
their valour in a sea engagement. He was afterwards ap- 
pointed, in conjunction with Afranius and Petreius, lieu 
tenant to Pompey in Spain ; and he was serving in that 
quality, when the civil war broke out. He was at that 
time at the head of two legions in the farther Spain : 
but his colleagues having been defeated by Caesar, he found 
himself in no condition to resist, and accordingly surren- 
dered himself and his army into the hands of the conqueror. 
He seems from that time to have withdrawn from public 
affairs, and to have consecrated the remainder of his life 
(which he is said to have preserved, with all his senses 
entire, to the age of a hundred) wholly to philosophical 
studies. His genius and talents, indeed, were principally 
of the literary kind ; in which he was universally acknow- 
ledged to hold the first rank among his contemporaries. 
He published many treatises in all the various branches of 
human science; one or two of the least considerable of 
which, and those not entire, are the whole that now 
remain of his numberless compositions. — Caes. De Bell. Civ. 
. 7, &c. ; Val. Max. viii. 7 ; Cic. Academ. i. 3. 

e Varro's books were his companions, it seems, in the 
camp as well as in the closet ; and he was never wholly 
separated from them, it appears, even amidst the most 
active engagements of public life. 

f Varro had a villa near each of these places. 



474 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER V. 
To Toranius. 

As I wrote to you three days ago by some 

domestics of Plancius, I shall be so much the 

A u ^ shorter at present; and as my former*? 

was a letter of consolation, this shall be 

one of advice. 

I think nothing can be more for your advantage 
than to remain in your present situation, till you 
shall be able to learn in what manner you are to 
act. For, not to mention that you will by this 
mean avoid the danger of a long winter-voyage 
in a sea that affords but few harbours, there is this 
very material consideration, that you may soon 
cross over into Italy, whenever you shall receive 
any certain intelligence. Nor do I see any reason 
for your being desirous of presenting yourself to 
Caesar's friends in' their return. In short, I have 
many other objections to your scheme, for the 
particulars of which I refer you to our friend Chilo. 
You cannot, indeed, in these unfortunate times, be 
more conveniently placed than where you now are ; 
as you may, with great facility and expedition, 
transport yourself from thence to whatever other 
part of the world you shall find it necessary to 
remove. If Csesar should return at the time he is 
expected 11 , you may be in Italy soon enough to 
wait upon him ; but should anything happen (as 
many things possibly may) to prevent or retard 
his march, you are in a place where you may 
receive an early information of all that occurs. To 
repeat it therefore once more, I am altogether of 
opinion that you should continue in your present 
quarters. I will only add, (what I have often ex- 
horted you in my former letters to be well persuaded 
of,) that you have nothing to fear beyond the 
general danger to which every citizen of Rome is 
equally exposed. And though this, it must be 
owned, is sufficiently great, yet we can both of us 
look back with so much satisfaction upon our past 
conduct, and are arrived at such a period of life 1 , 
that we ought to bear with particular fortitude 
whatever unmerited fate may attend us. 

Your family here are all well, and extremely 
regret your absence, as they love and honour you 
with the highest tenderness and esteem. Take care 
of your health, and by no means remove without 
duly weighing the consequences. Farewell. 



LETTER VI. 

To Domitius*. 

If you have not heard from me since your arrival 

in Italy, it is not that I was discouraged from 

a. u. 707. writin g on my part, by the profound 

silence you have observed on yours. The 

g Probably the third letter of this book. 

h From Africa. See rem. *, p. 472. 

» Cicero was at this time about 62 years of age. 

J The person to whom this letter is addressed, is sup- 
posed to have been the son of Domitius iEnobarbus, who 
commanded the garrison of Corfinium at the breaking 
out of the civil war. [See letter 7, book vii, rem. v .] 
The father was killed in his flight from the battle of 
Pharsalia: [Caes. De Bell. Civ. iii. 9!i.] after which his son, 
as it should seem by this letter, returned into Italy. He 
js mentioned in the list of those who were concerned in 



single reason was, that I could find nothing to say. 
For, on the one hand, I was in every respect too 
much distressed, as well as too much at a loss how to 
act myself, to offer you either assistance or advice ; 
and, on the other, I knew not what consolation to 
suggest to you under these our severe and general 
misfortunes. However, notwithstanding public 
affairs are so far from being in a better situation 
at present, that they are growing every day more 
and more desperate ; yet I could not satisfy my- 
self with being silent any longer, and rather chose 
to send you an empty letter than not to send you 
any. 

If you were in the number of those who tena- 
ciously persevere in the defence of the republic 
beyond all possibility of success, I should employ 
every argument in my power to reconcile you to 
those conditions, though not the most eligible 
indeed, which are offered to our acceptance. But, 
as you judiciously terminated the noble struggle 
you made in support of our liberties, by those 
limits which fortune herself marked out to our 
opposition, let me conjure you, by our long and 
mutual amity, to preserve yourself k for the sake of 
your friends, your mother, your wife, and your 
children : for the sake of those, in short, to whom 
you have ever been infinitely dear, and whose 
welfare and interest depend entirely upon yours. 
Let me entreat you to call to your aid, in this 
gloomy season, those glorious precepts of philoso- 
phy in which you have been conversant from your 
earliest youth ; and to support the loss of those 
with whom you were united by the most tender 
ties of affection and gratitude 1 , if not with a mind 
perfectly serene, at least with a rational and manly 
fortitude. 

How far my present power may reach, I know 
not ; or rather, indeed, I am sensible that it cannot 
extend far. This, however, I will assure you, (and 
it is a promise which I have likewise made to that 
excellent woman your affectionate mother,) that, 
in whatever instance I imagine my services can 
avail either to your honour or your welfare, I 
shall exert them with the same zeal which you 
have always shown in regard to myself. If there 
is anything, therefore, in which you shall be de- 
sirous to employ them, I beg you will let me 
know, and I will most punctually perform your 
commands. Indeed, without any such express 
request, you may depend upon my best offices on 
every occasion wherein I shall be capable of pro- 
moting your interest. Farewell. 

assassinating Caesar. " But he managed his affairs (as 
Mr. Ross observes) with so much address, that, after the 
death of Brutus and Cassius, he first made his peace with 
Antony, and then, upon the decline of his power, took 
an occasion to leave him and join himself with Augustus. 
And though he did not live long enough to enjoy the 
benefit of that union, yet he left a son, who recovered 
the ancient splendour of the family, and laid a foundation 
for the empire, which took place in the person of his 
grandson Nero."— Suet, in Vit. Neron. &c. ; Veil. Pat. 
ii. 72. 

k It looks by this passage as if Domitius had been 
suspected at this time of an intention to destroy him- 
self. 

1 The father and friends of Domitius, who had perished 
in the civil war. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



475 



LETTER VII. 

To Cneius Plancius™. 
I have received your very short letter, which 
informs me of what I never once questioned, but 
A u 7 07 leaves me entirely ignorant in a point I 
was extremely desirous of knowing. I 
had not the least doubt, indeed, of the share I 
enjoy in your friendship, but wanted much to hear 
with what resolution you submit to our common 
calamities ; a circumstance, of which if I had been 
apprised, I should have adapted my letter accord- 
ingly. However, though I mentioned in my last 
what I thought necessary to say upon that subject, 
yet it may be proper at this juncture just to caution 
you again, not to imagine that you have anything 
particular to fear. It is true, we are every one of 
us in great danger : but the danger, however, is 
general and equal 11 . You ought not, therefore, to 
complain of your own fortune, or think it hard to 
take your part in calamities that extend to all. 
Let us then, my friend, preserve the same mutual 
disposition of mind which has ever subsisted be- 
tween us. I am sure I shall on my part, and I 
have reason to hope that you will do so likewise 
on yours. Farewell. 



LETTER VIII. 

To Lucius Plancus . 
You are sensible, I dare say, that, amongst all 
those friends whom you claim as a sort of paternal 
A u 7 07 inheritance, there is not one so closely 
attached to you as myself. I do not 
mean in consideration only of those more conspi- 
cuous connexions of a public kind in which I was 
engaged with your father ; but in regard, likewise, 
to that less observable intercourse of private friend- 
ship which I had the happiness, you well know, 
of enjoying with him in the highest degree. As 
this was the source from whence my affection for 
the son originally took its rise, so that affection, 
in its turn, improved and strengthened my union 
with the father ; especially, when I observed you 
, distinguishing me with peculiar marks .of respect 
and esteem as early as you were capable of forming 
: any judgment of mankind. To this I must add, 
I (what is of itself, indeed, a very powerful cement,) 
I the similitude of our tastes and studies : and of 
: those particular studies, too, which are of a nature 
most apt to create an intimacy between men of the 
ame general cast of temper?. And, now, are you 

m See rem. v , p. 472. 

n See the second letter of this book. 

o He was brother to Plancus Bursa, the great enemy 
of Cicero, and of whom an account has been given in rem. 
a , p. 387- Plancus does not seem to have figured in the 
commonwealth ; at least, history does not take much 
notice of him till after the death of Caesar, at which time 
he was at the head of a considerable army in the farther 
Gaul, as governor of that province. But as there are 
several letters in this collection which passed between him 
and Cicero at that period , the particulars of his character 
will be best remarked in the observations that will arise 
upon his conduct in that important crisis. In the mean 
time, it may be sufficient to observe, that when tins 
letter was written, he was probably an officer under 
Caesar in the African war. See letter 20, book xii. rem. K 

P The studies to which Cicero here alludes are, pro- 
bably, those of the philosophical kind. 



not impatient to learn the purpose of this long 
introduction ? Be assured, then, it is not without 
just and strong reason that I have thus enumerated 
the several motives which concur in forming our 
amity ; as it is in order to plead before you with 
more advantage the cause of my very intimate 
friend Ateius Capitol I need not point out to 
you the variety of fortune with which my life has 
been chequered ; but, in all the honours and dis- 
graces I have experienced, Capito has ever most 
zealously assisted me with his power, his interest, 
and even with his purse. Titus Antistius, who 
was his near relation, happened to be quaestor in 
Macedonia (no person having been appointed to 
succeed him) when Pompey marched his army 
into that province 17 . Had it been possible for 
Antistius to have retired, it would have been his 
first and most earnest endeavour to have returned 
to Capito, whom he loved with all the tenderness 
of a filial affection : and, indeed, he was so much 
the more desirous of joining him, as he knew the 
high esteem which Capito had ever entertained for 
Caesar. But, finding himself thus unexpectedly in 
the hands of Pompey, it was not in his power 
wholly to decline the functions of his office : how- 
ever, he acted no farther than he was absolutely 
constrained. I cannot deny that he was concerned 
in coining the silver at Apollonia s . But he was 
by no means a principal in that affair ; and two or 
three months were the utmost that he engaged in 
it. From that time he withdrew from Pompey's 
camp, and totally avoided all public employment. 
I hope you will credit this assertion, when I assure 
you that I know it to be fact: for, indeed, Antis- 
tius saw how much I was dissatisfied with the war, 
and consulted with me upon all his measures. 
Accordingly, that he might have no part in it, he 
withdrew as far as possible from Pompey's camp, 
and concealed himself in the interior parts of 
Macedonia. After the battle of Pharsalia, he 
retired to his friend Aulus Plautius 1 , in Bithynia. 
It was here that he had an interview with Caesar u , 
who received him without the least mark of dis- 
pleasure, and ordered him to return to Rome. 
But he soon afterwards contracted an illness, which 
he carried with him into Corcyra, where it put an 
end to his life. By his will, which was made at 
Rome in the consulate of Paulus and Marcellus, 
he has left ten -twelfths of his estate to Capito. 
The remaining two parts, amounting to 300,000 
sesterces v , he has devised to those for whose 
interest no mortal can be concerned ; and, there- 
fore, I am not in the least solicitous whether 
Caesar shall think proper, or not, to seize it as for- 
feited to the public. But I most earnestly conjure 
you, my dear Plancus, to consider the cause of 
Capito as my own, and to employ your influence 

1 Pighius supposes that this is the same Ateius Capito 
who devoted Crassus to destruction when he set out upon 
his Parthian expedition : of which the reader has already 
met with an account in rem. k , p. 360.— Pigh. Annal. iii. 
389. 

r When Pompey retreated before Caesar, and abandoned 
Italy. 

s For the payment of Pompey's army. Apollonia was a 
city in Thrace : a part of Greece annexed to the province of 
Macedonia. 

1 At that time governor of Bithynia, an Asiatic province 
situated on the Euxine sea. 

u Probably in his return from the Alexandrine war. 

v About 2400J. of our money. 



476 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



with Caesar, that my friend may be permitted to 
inherit this legacy, agreeably to the will of his 
relation. I entreat you by all the various ties of 
our friendship, as well as by those, likewise, which 
subsisted between your father and myself, to exert 
your most zealous and active offices for this pur- 
pose. Be assured, if you were to grant me all 
that lies within the compass of your extensive 
credit and power, you could not more effectually 
oblige me than by complying with my present 
request. I hope it may be a means of facilitating 
your success upon this occasion, that Capito, as 
Caesar himself can witness, has ever held him in 
the highest esteem and affection. But Caesar, I 
know, never forgets anything : I forbear, therefore, 
to furnish you with particular instances of Capito's 
attachment to him, and only desire you to make a 
proper use of those which are fresh in Caesar's 
memory. It may not, however, be unnecessary to 
point out one proof of this sort, which I myself 
experienced : and I will leave it to your own judg- 
ment to determine how far the mentioning of it 
may avail. I need not tell you by what party my 
interest had been supported, nor whose cause I 
espoused in our public divisions. But, believe me, 
whatever measures I pursued in this war, which 
, were unacceptable to Caesar, (and I have the satis- 
faction to find that he is sensible of it himself,) 
were most contrary to my own inclinations, and 
merely in compliance with the persuasions and 
authority of others. But, if I conducted myself 
with more moderation than any of those who were 
joined with me in the same cause, it is principally 
owing to the advice and admonitions of Capito. 
To say truth, if the rest of my friends had been 
influenced by the same spirit with which he was 
actuated, I might have taken a pare that would 
have proved of some advantage, perhaps, to my 
country ; I am sure, at least, of much to myself w . 
In one word, my dear Plancus, your gratifying my 
present request will confirm me in the hope that I 
possess a place in your affection, and, at the same 
time, extremely contribute to your own advantage, 
in adding, by a very important obligation, the most 
grateful and worthy Capito to the number of your 
friends. Farewell. 

w The part which Cicero here accuses his friends (and 
surely with some want of generosity), that they would not 
suffer him to act, seems to have been that of standing 
neuter in the war between Pompey and Caesar. And it 
must be owned that this conduct would have been far 
less exceptionable, if, instead of faintly joining with one 
side, he had determined to engage with neither. This too, 
as the event proved, might have been most prudential in 
point of interest : for a neutrality was all that Caesar de- 
sired of him. But that it could in any sort have advan- 
taged his country, appears to be a notion altogether impro- 
bable, and advanced only to give a colour to his not having 
entered with more spirit into the cause of the republic. 
Cicero often intimates, indeed, that by preserving a neu- 
trality, he might have been more likely to have facilitated 
an accommodation between Pompey and Caesar. But it is 
utterly incredible, from the temper and character of these 
contending chiefs, that either of them entertained the 
least disposition for this purpose : as it is certain, from 
Cicero's own confession in his letters to Atticus, that he 
was well persuaded Pompey would never listen to any 
pacific overtures.— Ad Att. vii. 8 ; viii. 15. 



LETTER IX. 

To Allienus, Proconsul*. 
Democritus of Sicyon is not only my hosty, 
but (what I can say of few of his countrymen 
a. u 707 Des ide) he is likewise my very intimate 
friend. He is a person, indeed, of the 
highest probity and merit, and distinguished for 
his most generous and polite hospitality towards 
those who come under his roof; in which number 
I have received particular marks of his affection 
and esteem. In one word, you will find him a man 
of the first and most valuable character amongst 
his fellow-citizens, I had almost said in all Achaia. 
I only mean, therefore, by this letter, to introduce 
him to your acquaintance ; for I know your senti- 
ments and disposition so well, that I am persuaded 
nothing more is necessary to make you think him 
worthy of being received both as your guest and 
friend. Let me entreat you, in the mean time, to 
favour him with your patronage, and to assure him 
that, for my sake, he may depend upon all the 
assistance in your power. If after this you should 
discover (as I trust you will) that his virtues render 
him deserving of a nearer intercourse, you cannot 
more sensibly oblige me than by admitting him into 
your family and friendship. Farewell. 



LETTER X. 

To Lucius Mescinius*. 
Your letter afforded me great pleasure, as it 
gave me an assurance (though indeed I wanted 
a u 707. none ) tna t y° u earnestly wish for my 
company. Believe me, I am equally de- 
sirous of yours ; and, in truth, when there was 
a much greater abundance of patriot citizens and 
agreeable companions who were in the number 
of my friends, there was no man with whom I 
rather chose to associate, and few whose company 
I liked so well. But now that death, absence, or 
change of disposition has so greatly contracted 
this social circle, I should prefer a single day with 
you to a whole life with the generality of those 
with whom I am at present obliged to live a . Soli- 
tude itself, indeed, (if solitude, alas ! I were at 
liberty to enjoy,) would be far more eligible than 
the conversation of those who frequent my house ; 
one or two of them, at most, excepted. I seek my 
relief, therefore, (where I would advise you to look 
for yours,) in amusements of a literary kind, and 
in the consciousness of having always intended 
well to my country. I have the satisfaction to 
reflect, (as I dare say you will readily believe,) that 
I never sacrificed the public good to my own pri- 
vate views ; that, if a certain person (whom for 
my sake, I am sure, you never loved,) had not 

x He was at this time proconsul, or governor of Sicily, 
and distinguished himself by his care and diligence in 
transporting the troops which Caesar received from thence 
in order to carry on the present war in Africa. There 
is a silver coin still extant, on which is inscribed, A. 
ALLIENVS. PRO. COS. and on the reverse, C. CuESAR. 
IMP. COS. ITER.— Pigh. Annal. iii. 453. 

y See rem. s on letter 7, book vii. 

z Sec rem. °, p. 448. 

a The chiefs of the Caesarean party; with whom Cicero 
now found it convenient to cultivate a friendship, in order 
to ingratiate himself with Casar. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



477 



looked upon me with a jealous eye b , both himself 
and every friend to liberty had been happy ; that I 
always endeavoured that it should not be in the 
power of any man to disturb the public tranquillity ; 
and, in a word, that when I perceived those arms, 
which I had ever dreaded, would prove an over- 
match for that patriot-coalition I had myself 
formed in the republic, I thought it better to 
accept of a safe peace, upon any terms, than impo- 
tently to contend with a superior force. But I 
hope shortly to talk over these, and many other 
points, with you in person. Nothing, indeed, de- 
tains me in Rome but to wait the event of the war 
in Africa ; which, I imagine, must now be soon 
decided. And though it seems of little import- 
ance on which side the victory shall turn, yet I 
think it may be of some advantage to be near my 
friends when the news shall arrive, in order to 
consult with them on the measures it may be 
advisable for me to pursue d . Affairs are now 
reduced to such an unhappy situation, that though 
there is a considerable difference, it is true, between 
the cause of the contending parties, I believe there 
will be, very little as to the consequence of their 
success. However, though my spirits were too 
much dejected, perhaps, whilst our affairs remained 
in suspense, I find myself much more composed 
now that they are utterly desperate. Your last 
letter has contributed to confirm me in this dis- 
position, as it is an instance of the magnanimity 
with which you support your unjust disgrace e . It 
is with particular satisfaction I observe, that you 
owe this heroic calmness, not only to philosophy, 
but to temper. For I will confess, that I imagined 
your mind was softened with that too delicate sen- 
sibility which we, who passed our lives in the ease 

*> Pompey ; who being jealous of the popularity which 
Cicero had acquired during his consulship, struck in with 
the designs of Caesar, and others, who had formed a party 
against our author. It was by these means that Pompey 
laid the principal foundation of Caesar's power, which, 
witbout the assistance of the former, could never have 
prevailed to the destruction both of himself and of the 
republic. [See rem. e , p. 334.] The censure which Cicero 
here easts upon Pompey's conduct towards him, is undoubt- 
edly just : but it is a proof, at the same time, how un- 
worthily he flattered that great man in the plenitude of 
his power, when he professed to have received obligations 
from him, that gave him the most unquestionable right to 
his highest gratitude. — See rem. k , p. 432. 

c Cicero probably alludes to the coalition he formed 
during his consulship, of the equestrian order with that of 
the senate: which, indeed, was one of the most shining 
parts of his administration. "This order (as Dr. Middle- 
ton observes) consisted, next to the senators, of the richest 
and most splendid families in Rome : who, from the ease 
and affluence of their fortunes, were naturally well affected 
to the prosperity of the republic ; and being also the con- 
stant farmers of all the revenues of the empire, had a great 
part of the inferior people dependent upon them. Cicero 
imagined that the united weight of these two orders would 
always be an overbalance to any other power in the state, 
and a secure barrier against any attempts of the popidar 
and ambitious upon the common liberty." — Life of Cicero, 
p. 43. 

d Cicero would have had great occasion for the advice of 
his friends, if the remains of Pompey's army had defeated 
Caesar's in Africa. For he had reason to expect, and would 
probably have experienced, the severest effects of their 
resentment, if they had returned victorious into Italy. — 
Ep. Fam. ix. 6. 

e Mescinius, it is probable, was banished by Ca;sar, as a 
partisan of Pompey, to a certain distance from Rome. 



and freedom of Rome, were apt in general to con- 
tract. But as we bore our prosperous days with 
moderation, it becomes us to bear our adverse 
fortune, or more properly, indeed, our irretrievable 
ruin, with fortitude. This advantage we may, at 
least, derive from our extreme calamities, that they 
will teach us to look upon death with contempt ; 
which, even if we were happy, we ought to despise, 
as a state of total insensibility f ; but which, under 
our present afflictions, should be the object of our 
constant wishes. Let not any fears then, I conjure 
you by your affection for me, disturb the peace of 
your retirement ; and, be well persuaded, nothing 
can befal a man that deserves to raise his dread 
and horror, but (what I am sure ever was, and 
ever will be, far from you) the reproaches of a 
guilty heart. 

I purpose to pay you a visit very soon, if nothing 
should happen to make it necessary for me to 
change my resolution : and if there should, I will 
immediately let you know. But I hope you will 
not, whilst you are in so weak a condition, be 
tempted by your impatience of seeing me, to remove 
from your present situation : at least, not without 
previously consulting me. In the mean time, con- 
tinue to love me, and take care both of your health 
and your repose. Farewell. 

f Cicero expresses himself to the same purpose, in two 
or three other of these letters. Thus, in one to Torquatus ; 
— " si non ero, sensu omnino carebo : " and in another to 
Toranius; — "Una ratio videtur, quicquid evenerit ferre 
moderate ; praesertim cum omnium rerum mors sit extre- 
mum." From whence it has been inferred, that Cicero, in 
his private opinion, rejected the doctrine of the soul's 
immortality. In answer to which it may be observed, in 
the first place, that these passages, without any violence 
of construction, may be interpreted as affirming nothing 
more, than that death is an utter extinction of all sensi- 
bility with respect to human concerns : as it was a doubt 
with some of the ancients whether departed spirits did not 
still retain a knowledge of what passed in this world. In 
the next place, admitting these several passages to be so 
many clear and positive assertions, that the soul perishes 
with the body ; yet it would by no means follow, that this 
was Cicero's real belief. It is usual with him to vary his 
sentiments in these letters, in accommodation to the prin- 
ciples or circumstances of his correspondents. Thus, in a 
letter to Dolabella, he does not scruple to say, " sum 
avidior quam satis est gloriae :" but in writing to Cato, he 
represents himself of a disposition entirely the reverse: 
" ipsam quidem gloriam per se nun quam putavi expeten- 
dam." In a letter to Torquatus, when he is endeavouring 
to reconcile him to his banishment from Rome, he lays it 
down as a maxim, that " in malis omnibus acerbius est 
videre quam audire :" but, in another letter to Marcellus, 
written in order to persuade him to return to Rome, he 
reasons upon a principle directly opposite, and tells him, 
— " non est tuum uno sensu ocidorum moveri : cum idem 
illud auribus percipias, quod etiam ma jus videri solet," 
&c. Other instances of the same variation from himself 
might be produced : but these, together with those that 
have already been occasionally pointed out in the course 
of these remarks, are sufficient, perhaps, to evince, that 
Cicero's real sentiments and opinions cannot be proved by 
any particular passages in these letters. In those to Atticus, 
indeed, he was generally, though not always, more sincere : 
and Mr. Ross has cited a passage from one of them, in 
which Cicero very expressly mentions his expectations of a 
future state : " tempus est nos de Ma perpelua jam, (s;iys 
he,) non de hac exigua vita cogitare." But Cicero's specu- 
lative notions are best determined by looking into his 
philosophical writings ; and these abound with various and 
full proofs that he was strongly persuaded of the soul's 
immortality.— Ep. Fam. ix. 14 ; xv. 4 ; vi. 4 ; iv. 9 ; Ad 
Att. x. 3 ; see also Life of Cicero, p. 306 



478 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XL 

To Allienus, Proconsul. 
As you are no stranger, I imagine, to the esteem 
I entertained for Avianus Flaccus ; so I have often 
a u 707 near( l n ^ m acknowledge the generous 
manner in which you formerly treated 
him ; as, indeed, no man ever possessed a more 
grateful or better heart. His two sons, Caius and 
Marcus, inherit all the virtues of their father ; and 
I most warmly recommend them to your protec- 
tion, as young men for whom I have a very singular 
affection. Caius is now in Sicily, and Marcus is 
at present with me. I entreat you to show every 
mark of honour to the former, and to take the 
affairs of both under your patronage ; assuring 
yourself, that you cannot render me in your govern- 
ment a more acceptable service. Farewell. 



LETTER XII. 

To Varro. 
Though I have nothing to write, yet I could 
not suffer Caninius to pay you a visit without 
7fV7 taking the opportunity of conveying a 
letter by his hands. And now I know 
not what else to say, but that I propose to be with 
you very sooo : an information, however, which I 
am persuaded you will be glad to receive. But 
will it be altogether decent to appear in so gay a 
scene &, at a time when Rome is in such a general 
flame ? And shall we not furnish an occasion of 
censure to those who do not know that we observe 
the same sober philosophical life, in all seasons, 
and in every place ? Yet, after all, what im- 
ports it ? since the world will talk of us in spite 
of our utmost caution. And, indeed, whilst our 
censurers are immersed in every kind of flagitious 
debauchery, it is much worth our concern, truly, 
what they say of our innocent relaxations ! In just 
contempt, therefore, of these illiterate barbarians, 
it is my resolution to join you very speedily. I 
know not how it is, indeed, but it should seem that 
our favourite studies are attended with much greater 
advantages in these wretched times than formerly : 
whether it be that they are now our only resource, 
or that we were less sensible of their salutary 
effects when we were in too happy a state to have 
occasion to experience them. But this is sending 
owls to Athens h , as we say, and suggesting reflec- 

g Varro seems to have requested Cicero to give him a 
meeting at Baiae, a place much frequented by the Romans 
on account of its hot baths ; as the agreeableness of its 
situation on the bay of Naples rendered it, at the same 
time, the general resort of the pleasurable world. The 
tender Proper tins has addressed some pretty lines to his 
Cynthia at this place, which sufficiently intimate in what 
manner the Roman ladies were amused in that dangerous 
scene of gallantry and dissipation. 

" Tu modo quam primum corruptas desere Baias, 
Multis ista dabunt littora dissidium : 
Littora qua- fuerant castis inimica puellis," &c. 
" Fly, fly, my love, soft Baiae's tainted coast, 
Where many a pair connubial peace have lost ; 
Where many a maid shall guilty joys deplore : 
Ah fly, my fair, detested Baiae 's shore !'* 
h A proverbial expression of the same import with that 
of " sending coals to Newcastle." It alludes to the Athenian 



tions which your own mind will far better supply. 
All that I mean by them, however, is, to draw a 
letter from you in return, at the same time that I 
give you notice to expect me soon. Farewell. 



LETTER XIII. 

To the same. 

Our friend Caninius paid me a visit, some time 
ago, very late in the evening, and informed me that 
a u 707 ^ e P ur P ose d to set out for your house the 
next morning. I told him I would give 
him two or three lines to deliver to you, and 
desired he would call for them in the morning. 
Accordingly I wrote to you that night 1 : but as he 
did not return, I imagined he had forgotten his 
promise ; and should, therefore, have sent that 
letter by one of my own domestics, if Caninius had 
not assured me of your intention to leave Tusculum 
the next morning. However, after a few days had 
intervened, and I had given over all expectations 
of Caninius, he made me a second visit, and ac- 
quainted me that he was instantly setting out to 
you. But, notwithstanding the letter I had written 
was then become altogether out of date, especially 
after the arrival of such important newsJ, yet, as I 
was unwilling that any of my profound lucubra- 
tions should be lost, I delivered it into the hands 
of that very learned and affectionate friend of yours, 
who, I suppose, has acquainted you with the con- 
versation which passed between us at the same 
time. 

I think it most prudent for both of us to avoid 
the view at least, if we cannot so easily escape the 
remarks, of the world : for those who are elevated 
with this victory look down upon us with an air 
of triumph, and those who regret it are displeased 
that we did not sacrifice our lives in the cause. 
But you will ask, perhaps, (as it is in Rome that 
we are particularly exposed to these mortifications,) 
why I have not followed your example in retiring 
from the city ? But tell me, my friend, superior 
as your judgment confessedly is, did you never 
find yourself mistaken ? Or who is there, in times 
of such total darkness and confusion, that can 
always be sure of dh-ecting his steps aright ? I 
have long thought, indeed, that it would be happy 
for me to retire where I might neither see nor hear 
what passes in Rome. But my groundless suspi- 
cions discouraged me from executing this scheme; 
as I was apprehensive that those who might acci- 
dentally meet me on my way would put such con- 
structions upon my retreat as best suited with their 
own purposes. Some, I imagined, would suspect, 
or at least pretend to suspect, that I was either 
driven from Rome by my fears, or withdrew in 
order to form some revolution abroad; and perhaps, 
too, would report, that I had actually provided a 
ship for that purpose. Others, I feared, who knew 
me best, and might be disposed to think most 
favourably of my actions, would be apt to impute 
my recess to an abhorrence of a certain party k . It 
is these apprehensions that have hitherto, contrary 

coin, which was stamped (as Manutius observes) with the 
figure of an owl. 

» Probably the preceding letter. 

J Concerning Caesar's defeat of Scipio in Africa. 

k The Caesareans. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



479 



to my inclinations indeed, detained me in Rome : 
but custom, however, has familiarised the unpleas- 
ing scene, and gradually hardened me into a less 
exquisite sensibility. 

Thus I have laid before you the motives which 
induce me to continue here. As to what relates to 
your own conduct, I would advise you to remain 
in your present retirement, till the warmth of our 
public exultation shall be somewhat abated, and it 
shall certainly be known in what manner affairs 
abroad are terminated : for terminated, I am well 
persuaded, they are 1 . Much will depend on the 
general result of this battle, and the temper in 
which Caesar may return. And though I see, 
already, what is abundantly sufficient to determine 
my sentiments as to that point, yet I think it most 
advisable to wait the event. In the mean time, 
I should be glad you would postpone your journey 
to Baise, till the first transports of this clamorous 
joy is subsided ; as it will have a better appearance 
to meet you at those waters, when I may seem to 
go thither rather to join with you in lamenting the 
public misfortunes, than to participate in the plea- 
sures of the place. But this I submit to your more 
enlightened judgment : only let us agree to pass 
our lives together in those studies which were once, 
indeed, nothing more than our amusement, but 
must now, alas ! prove our principal support. Let 
us be ready, at the same time, whenever we shall 
be called upon to contribute not only our counsels, 
but our labours, in repairing the ruins of the 
republic. But if none shall require our services 
for this purpose, let us employ our time and our 
thoughts upon moral and political inquiries. If 
we cannot benefit the commonwealth in the forum 
and the senate, let us endeavour, at least, to do so 
by our studies and our writings ; and after the 
example of the most learned among the ancients, 
contribute to the welfare of our country, by useful 
disquisitions concerning laws and government. 

And now, having thus acquainted you with my 
sentiments and purposes, I shall be extremely 
obliged to you for letting me know yours in return. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XIV. 

To the same. 
You must know, my friend, that I am one of 
those philosophers who hold the doctrine of Dio- 
a u 707 dorus concerning contingencies™. Ac- 
cordingly I maintain, that if you should 
make us a visit here, you are under an absolute 
necessity of so doing ; but if you should not, that 
it is because your coming hither is in the number 
of those things which cannot possibly happen. — 

1 When this letter was written, there seems to have 
heen only some general accounts arrived of Ca?sar's suc- 
cess in Africa ; but the particulars of the battle were not 
yet known. 

m Diodorus was a Greek philosopher who lived in the 
court of Ptolomaeus Soter, and flourished about 280 years 
before the Christian era. He is said to have died with 
grief for not being able immediately to solve a philoso- 
phical question which that prince put to him in conver- 
sation. He maintained that nothing could be contingent ; 
but that whatever was possible must necessarily happen. 
Cicero ludicrously applies this absurd doctrine to the in- 
tended visit of his friend Cic. de Fato, 7. 



Now tell me which of the two opinions you are 
most inclined to adopt : whether this of the philo- 
sopher I just now mentioned, whose sentiments, 
you know, were so little agreeable to our honest 
friend Diodotus 11 , or the opposite one of Chrysip- 
pus° ? But we will reserve these curious specula- 
tions till we shall be more at leisure : and this, I 
will agree with Chrysippus, is a possibility which 
either may or may not happen. 

I am obliged to you for your good offices in my 
affair with CocceiusP, which I likewise recom- 
mend to Atticus. If you will not make me a visit, 
I will pay you one ; and as your library is situated 
in your garden, I shall want nothing to complete 
my two favourite amusements — reading and walk- 
ing. Farewell. 



LETTER XV. 

To Apuleius, Proquaestor i. 
Lucius Egnatius, a Roman knight, is a very 
particular friend of mine, whose affairs in Asia, 
a u 707 together with his slave Ancbialus, who 
"-» superintends them, I recommend to you 
with as much zeal as if they were my own. For 
be assured we are united to each other, not only 
by a daily intercourse of the highest friendship, 
but by many good offices that have been mutually 
exchanged between us. As he has not the least 
doubt of your disposition to oblige me, let me ear- 
nestly entreat you to convince him, by your 
services in his favour, that 1 warmly requested 
them. Farewell. 

n Diodotus was a Stoic philosopher, under whom Cicero 
had been educated, and whom he afterwards entertained 
for many years in his house. He died about thirteen years 
before the date of this letter, and left his friend and pupil 
a considerable legacy. — Cic. Academ. ii. ; Ad Att. ii. 20. 
, ° Chrysippus was successor to Zeno, the celebrated 
founder of the Stoic school. It appears, by a list of some 
of his writings, which Laertius has given, that he pub- 
lished a treatise on Fate ; and probably it was in this book 
that he opposed the ridiculous notions of Diodotus. Seneca 
represents him as a penetrating genius, but one whose 
speculations were somewhat too subtle and refined. He 
adds, that his diction was so extremely close, that he 
never employed a superfluous word ; a character he could 
scarce deserve, if what is reported of him be true, that he 
published no less than 311 treatises upon logic, and above 
400 upon other subjects. — One cannot hear, indeed, of such 
an immoderate flux of pen, without being in some danger 
of suffering the same fate that attended this inexhaustible 
genius, who is said to have died in a fit of excessive 
laughter.— Laertius in Vit. ; Senec. de Benefic. i. 3 ; Stan- 
ley's Hist, of Philos. 487- 

P In the text he is called Costius ,• but, perhaps, (as one 
of the commentators imagines,) it should be Cocceius. 
For Cicero, in a letter to Atticus, supposed to have been 
written about the same time with the present, requests 
his assistance in procuring the payment of a sum of 
money owing to him from Cocceius ; which is not un- 
likely to be the same affair he alludes to in this passage.— 
Ad Att. xii. 13. 

q It is wholly uncertain both who this person was, and 
when he exercised the office of proquaestor. 



480 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XVI. 

To Varro. 

The 7th seems to be a very proper time, not 

only in consideration of public affairs, but in regard 

A v - 07 also to the season of the year : I approve, 

therefore, of the day you have named, 

and will join you accordingly. 

I should be far from thinking we had reason to 
reproach ourselves for the part we have lately 
acted, even were it true that those who pursued a 
different conduct had not repented of their mea- 
sures. It was the suggestions of duty, not of 
interest, that we followed, when we entered into 
the war ; and it was a cause utterly desperate, not 
the duty we owed our country, that we deserted 
when we laid down our arms. Thus we acted, on 
the one hand, with greater honour than those who 
would not leave Italy in order to follow the war 
abroad ; and, on the other hand, with more pru- 
dence than those who, after having suffered a total 
defeat r , would not be prevailed upon to return 
home. But there is nothing that I can bear with 
less patience than the affected severity of our 
inglorious neuters : and, indeed, whatever might be» 
the final event of affairs, I should be much more 
inclined to venerate the memory of those mistaken 
men who obstinately perished in battle, than to be 
in the least concerned at the reproaches of those 
who only lament that we are still alive. 

If I should have time, I purpose to call upon 
you at Tusculum before the 7th : if not, I will 
follow you to Cumse, agreeably to your appoint- 
ment. But I shall not fail to give you previous 
notice, that your bath may be prepared. Farewell. 



LETTER XVII. 



To the same. 

Your letters to Seius and myself were delivered 
to us, whilst we were at supper together, in his 
a v 707 nouse * I agree with you in thinking that 
this is a very proper time for your in- 
tended expedition ; which, to own my artifice, I 
have hitherto endeavoured to retard by a thousand 
pretences. I was desirous, indeed, of keeping you 
near me, in case any favourable news should have 
arrived s . For, as Homer sings, 

" The wise new wisdom from the wise acquire."* 
But now that the whole affair is decided, beyond all 
doubt, you should set forward with the utmost speed. 

When I heard of the fate that has attended Lucius 
Caesar u , I could not forbear saying to myself, with 

»" At the battle of Pharsalia. 

s Concerning the success of the Pompeian party against 
Caesar, in Africa ; an event, if it had taken place, that 
would extremely have embarrassed Cicero. For which 
reason he was desirous of keeping Varro within his reach, 
that he might immediately have consulted with him in 
what manner to act.— See rem. °, p. 461. 

* II. X. 224, Pope's translation. 

u He was a distant relation of Julius Caesar ; whom, 
however, he had constantly opposed throughout the civil 
war.— Lucius, being taken prisoner at the late battle of 
Thapsus, where Caesar gained a complete victory over the 
combined troops of Scipio and Juba, obtained the con- 
queror's pardon ; but Caesar afterwards changed his mind, 



the old man in the play, "What tenderness then 
may not I expect v !" For this reason, I am a 
constant guest at the tables of our present poten- 
tates ; and what can I do better, you know, than 
prudently swim with the current of the times ? 
But, to be serious, (for serious, in truth, we have 
reason to be,) 

" See vengeance stalk o'er Afric's trembling plain ; 
And one wide waste of horrid ruin reign w ! " 

A circumstance that fills me with very uneasy 
apprehensions. 

I am unable to answer your question, when 
Caesar will arrive, or where he proposes to land. 
Some, I find, doubt whether it will be at Baias ; 
and they now talk of his coming home by the way 
of Sardinia. It is certain, at least, that he has not 
yet visited this part of his demesnes ; and though 
he has not a worse farm* upon all his estate, he is 
far, however, from holding it in contempt. For 
my own part, I am more inclined to imagine he 
will take Sicily in his return. But these doubts 
will soon be cleared up, as Dolabella? is every 
moment expected. I believe, therefore, I must 
take my instructions from my disciple 7 , as many 
a pupil, you know, has become a greater adept 
than his master. However, if I knew what you 
had determined upon, I should chiefly regulate my 
measures by yours ; for which purpose I expect a 
letter from you with great impatience. Farewell. 

and gave private orders to have him assassinated.— Dio, 
xliii. p. 219. 

▼ This alludes to a passage in the " Andria " of Terence, 
where Simo, the father of Pamphilus, giving an account of 
his son's tender behaviour at the funeral of Chrysis, could 
not forbear reflecting, he says,—" Quid mihi hie faciet 
patri!" But Cicero applies it in a different sense, and 
means that, if Caesar acted towards his own relations with 
so much cruelty, he had little reasou to expect a milder 
treatment. 

w These lines are quoted from Ennius, a poet, of whom 
some account has been given in the foregoing remarks. 
The troops of Caesar pursued their victory over those 
of Scipio with great cruelty :— " acrior Caesarianorum 
impetus fuit (says Florus) indignantium post Pompeium 
crevisse helium." Numbers, indeed, of Scipio 's army must 
necessarily have been massacred in cool blood : for the 
historians agree that Caesar's loss amounted only to 50 
men ; whereas 10,000 were killed on the side of Scipio, 
according to the account which Hirtius gives of this 
action, and five times that number if we may credit 
Plutarch.— Flor. iv. 2; Hirt. De Bell. Afric. fll>; Plut. 
in Vit. Caesar. 

x The island of Sardinia was, in the time of the Romans, 
(what it still is,) extremely barren and unwholesome. 
Martial has a pretty allusion to this latter circumstance, 
in one of his epigrams : — 

" Nullo fata loco possis excludere : cum mors 

Venerit, in medio Tibure Sardinia est."— iv. 60. 

y Dolabella attended Caesar in the African war. 

z Cicero means that he should learn from Dolabella 
where Caesar purposed to land, and in what temper he was 
returning into Italy, together with such other circum- 
stances as it was necessary he should be apprised of, in 
order to pay his personal congratulations to the conqueror 
in the most proper and acceptable manner. It seems pro- 
bable, from this passage, that Dolabella had formed his 
eloquence under Cicero, agreeably to an excellent custom 
which prevailed in Rome, of introducing the youth, upon 
their first entrance into business, to the acquaintance and 
patronage of some distinguished orator of the forum, 
whom they constantly attended in all the public exercises 
of his profession.— Auct. Dialog, de Caus. corrupt. Eloquent. 
34. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



481 



LETTER XVIII. 

To Apuleius, Proqucestor. 
Lucius Zoilus was appointed, by the will of his 
patron, coheir in conjunction with me. I mention 
A m Q7 this, not only to show you the occasion of 
my friendship with him, but as an evi- 
dence likewise of his merit, by being thus distin- 
guished by his patron. I recommend him, there- 
fore, to your favour as one of my own family ; and 
you will oblige me in letting him see that you were 
greatly influenced to his advantage by this letter. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XIX. 

To Varro. 
Our friend Caninius acquainted me with your 
request that I would write to you whenever there 
>. m was any news which I thought it con- 
" ' ' cerned you to know. You are already 
informed that we are in daily expectation of Csesar a : 
but I am now to tell you that as it was his intention, 
it seems, to have landed at Alsium b , his friends 
have written to dissuade him from that design. 
They think that his coming on shore at that place 
will prove extremely troublesome to himself, as 
well as very much incommode many others ; and 
have therefore recommended Ostia c as a more 
convenient port. For my own part, I can see no 
difference. Hirtius d , however, assures me that 
himself as well as Balbus e , and Oppius, f (who, let 
me observe by the way, are every one of them greatly 
in your interest,) have written to Csesar for this pur- 
pose. I thought proper, therefore, to send you this 
piece of intelligence for two reasons. In the first 
place, that you might know where to engage a 
lodging ; or rather, that you might secure one in 
both these towns ; for it is extremely uncertain at 
which of them Caesar will disembark. And in the 
next place, in order to indulge a little piece of 
vanity, by showing you that I am so well with 
these favourites of Csesar as to be admitted into 
their privy council. To speak seriously, I see no 
reason to decline their friendship ; for, surely, 
there is a wide difference between submitting to 
evils we cannot remedy, and approving measures 
that we ought to condemns". Though, to confess 

a Caesar returned victorious from Africa, about the 26th 
of July, in the present year ; so that this letter was pro- 
bably written either in the beginning of that month, or 
the latter end of June.— Hirt. De Bell. Afric. .98. 

b The situation of this place is not exactly known : some 
geographers suppose it to be the same town which is now I 
called Severa, a sea-port about twenty-five miles distant j 
from Rome, on the western coast of Italy. 

c It still retains its ancient name, and is situated at the 
mouth of the Tiber. 

d He lived in great intimacy with Csesar, and had served j 
under him in quality of one of his lieutenants in Gaul. It ! 
appears, by this passage, that he did not attend Caesar into j 
Africa ; so that if the history of that war annexed to j 
Caesar's Commentaries was really written, as is generally 
supposed, by Hirtius, he was not an eye-witness of what he 
relates ; a circumstance which considerably weakens the 
authority of his account. 

e See rem. m , p. 399. f See rem. °, p. 457. 

s To cultivate friendships with the leaders of a successful 
faction, has surely something in it that much resembles the 



the truth, I do not know there are any that I can 
justly blame, except those which involved us in the 
civil wars ; for these, it must be owned, were alto- 
gether voluntary. I saw, indeed, (what your dis- 
tance from Rome prevented you from observing 11 ,) 
that our party were eager for war ; while Csesar, 
on the contrary, appeared less inclined than afraid 
to have recourse to arms. Thus far, therefore, 
our calamities might have been prevented, but all 
beyond was unavoidable ; for one side or the other 
must necessarily prove superior. Now, we both of 
us, I am sure, always lamented those infinite mis- 
chiefs that would ensue, whichever general of the 
two contending armies should happen to fall in 
battle ; as we were well convinced, that of all the 
complicated evils which attend a civil war, victory 
is the supreme. I dreaded it, indeed, even on that 
side which both you and I thought proper to join, 
as they threatened most cruel vengeance on those 
who stood neuter, and were no less offended at 
your sentiments than at my speeches. But had 
they gained this last battle, we should still more 
severely have experienced the effects of their power, 
as our late conduct had incensed them to the highest 
degree. Yet what measures have we taken for our 
own security, that we did not warmly recommend 
for theirs ? And how have they more advantaged 
the republic by having recourse to Juba and 
his elephants', than if they had perished by their 
own swords, or submitted to live under the present 
system of affairs, with some hopes, at least, if not 
with the fairest. But they may tell us, perhaps, 
(and, indeed, with truth,) that the government 
under which we have chosen to live is altogether 
turbulent and unsettled. Let this objection, how- 
ever, have weight with those who have treasured 
up no stores in their minds to support themselves 
under all the possible vicissitudes of human affairs ; 
a reflection which brings me round to what I prin- 
cipally had in view when I undesignedly wandered 
into this long digression. I was going to have 
said, that as I always looked upon your character 
with great admiration, so nothing raises it higher 
in my esteem than to observe that you are almost 
the only person, in these tempestuous days, who 
has wisely retreated into harbour, and are enjoying 
the happy fruits of those important studies which 
are attended with more public advantage, as well 
as private satisfaction, than all the ambitious ex- 
ploits or voluptuous indulgences of these licentious 
victors. The contemplative hours you spend at 
your Tusculan villa are, in my estimation, indeed, 
what alone deserve to be called life ; and I would 
willingly renounce the whole wealth and splendour 
of the world to be at liberty to pass my time in the 
same philosophical manner. I follow your exam- 
approving of measures which we ought to condemn ; and 
though it may be policy, most certainly it is not patriotism. 
It ill agrees, at least, with that sort of abstracted life 
which Cicero, in the first letter of this book, declares he 
proposed to lead, if the republic should be destroyed. — 
Ep. Fam. vii. 3. 

h Varro, at the breaking out of the civil war. was in 
Spain : where he resided in quality of one of Pompey's 
lieutenants. 

5 These elephants were drawn up in the front of the 
right and left wing of Scipio's army. But being driven 
back upon the line behind them, they put the ranks into 
great confusion ; and, instead of proving of any advantage 
to Scipio, contributed to facilitate his defeat.— Hirt. De 
Bell. Afric. 83. 

I I 



482 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



pie, however, as far as the circumstances in which 
I am placed will permit, and have recourse, with 
great satisfaction of mind, to my favourite studies. 
Since our country, indeed, either cannot or will 
not accept our services, who shall condemn us for 
returning to that contemplative privacy which many 
philosophers have thought preferable (I will not 
say with reason, however, they have preferred,) 
even to the most public and patriot labours ? And 
why should we not indulge ourselves in those learned 
inquiries, which some of the greatest men have 
deemed a just dispensation from all public employ- 
ments, when it is a liberty, at the same time, 
which the commonwealth itself is willing to allow 
us ? But I am going beyond the commission which 
Caninius gave me : and while he only desired that 
I would acquaint you with those articles of which 
you were not already apprised, I am telling you 
what you know far better than I can inform you. 
For the future I shall confine myself more strictly 
to your request, and will not fail of communicating 
to you whatever intelligence I may learn, which I 
shall think it imports you to know. Farewell. 



LETTER XX. 

To Papirins Pcetus'h 
Your letter afforded me a very agreeable instance 
of your friendship, in the concern it expressed lest 
A u y Q M I should be uneasy at the report which 
had been brought hither by Silius k . I 
was before, indeed, perfectly sensible how much 
you were disturbed at this circumstance, by your 
care in sending me duplicates of a former letter 
upon the same subject ; and I then returned such 
an answer as I thought would be sufficient to 
abate, at least, if not entirely remove, this your 
generous solicitude. But, since I perceive, by 
your last letter , how much this affair still dwells 
upon your mind, let me assure you, my dear Psetus, 
that I have employed every artifice (for we must 
now, my friend, be armed with cunning as well as 
prudence,) to conciliate the good graces of the 
persons you mention ; and, if I mistake not, my 
endeavours have not proved in vain. I receive, 
indeed, so many marks of respect and esteem from 
those who are most in Caesar's favour, that I 
cannot but flatter myself they have a true regard 
for me. It must be confessed, at the same time, 
that a pretended affection is not easily discernible 
from a real one, unless in seasons of distress. For 
adversity is to friendship what fire is to gold, the 
only infallible test to discover the genuine from the 
counterfeit ; in all other circumstances they both 
bear the same common signatures. I have one 
strong reason, however, to persuade me of their 
sincerity ; as neither their situation nor mine can by 
any means tempt them to dissemble with me. As 
to that person 1 in whom all power is now centred, 
I am not sensible that I have anything to fear from 
him ; or nothing more, at least, than what arises 
from that general precarious state in which all 
things must stand where the fence of laws is broken 
down ; and, from its being impossible to pronounce 



J See rem. ° on letter 2, book vi. 

k Silius, it should seem, had brought an account from 
the army, that some witticisms of Cicero had been reported 
to Caesar, which had given him offenco. 

1 Caesar. 



with assurance concerning any event which depends 
wholly upon the will, not to say the caprice, of 
another. But this I can with confidence affirm, 
that I have not, in any single instance, given him 
just occasion to take offence ; and, in the article 
you point out, I have been particularly cautious. 
There was a time, it is true, when I thought it well 
became me, by whom Rome itself was free™, to 
speak my sentiments with freedom ; but now that 
our liberties are no more, I deem it equally agree- 
able to my present situation, not to say anything 
that may disgust either Caesar or his favourites. 
But were I to suppress every rising raillery that 
might pique those at whom it is directed, I must 
renounce, you know, all my reputation as a wit. 
And, in good earnest, it is a character upon which 
I do not set so high a value as to be unwilling to 
resign it if it were in my power. However, I am in 
no danger of suffering in Caesar's opinion, by being 
represented as the author of any sarcasms to which 
I have no claim ; for his judgment is much too 
penetrating ever to be deceived by any imposition 
of this nature. I remember your brother Servius, 
whom I look upon to have been one of the most learned 
critics that this age has produced, was so conversant 
in the writings of our poets, and had acquired such 
an excellent and judicious ear, that he could imme- 
diately distinguish the numbers of Plautus from 
those of any other author. Thus Caesar, I am 
told, when he made his large collection of apoph- 
thegms 11 , constantly rejected any piece of wit that 
was brought to him as mine, if it happened to be 
spurious ; a distinction which he is much more 
able to make at present, as his particular friends 
pass almost every day of their lives in my com- 
pany. As our conversation generally turns upon a 
variety of subjects, I frequently strike out thoughts 
which they look upon as not altogether void, 
perhaps, of spirit or ingenuity. Now, these little 
sallies of pleasantry, together with the general 
occurrences of Rome, are constantly transmitted 
to Csesar, in pursuance of his own express direc- 
tions ; so that, if anything of this kind is mentioned 
by others as coming from me, he always disregards 
it. You see, then, that the lines you quote with 
so much propriety from the tragedy of CEnomaus , 

m Alluding to his services in the suppression of Catiline's 
conspiracy. 

11 This collection was made by Caesar when he was very 
young, and probably it was a performance by no means to 
his honour. For Augustus, into whose hands it came 
after his death, would not suffer it to be published.— Suet, 
in Vit. Jul. Cass. 56. 

° Written by Accius, a tragic poet, who flourished about 
the year of Rome 617- The subject of this piece, probably, 
turned upon the death of (Enomaus, king of Elis, and the 
marriage of his daughter Ilippodamia. This prince being 
informed, by an oracle, that he should lose his life by his 
future son-in-law, contrived the following expedient to dis- 
appoint the prophecy. Being possessed of a pan- of horses 
of such wonderful swiftness, that it was reported they 
were begotten by the winds, he proposed to the several 
suitors of his daughter, that whoever of them should beat 
him in a chariot-race should be rewarded with Hippo- 
damia, upon condition that they consented to be put to 
death if they lost the match. Accordingly, thirteen of 
these unfortunate rivals entered the list: and each of 
them, in their turn, paid the forfeiture of their lives. 
But Pelops, the son of Tantalus, king of Phrygia, being 
more artful than the rest, bribed the charioteer of CEno- 
maus to take out the linch-pin of his chariot-wheel ; by 
which means CEnomaus was dashed to pieces in the course, 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



483 



contain a caution altogether unnecessary. For tell 
me, my friend, what jealousies can I possibly 
create ? Or who will look with envy upon a man 
in my humble situation? But, granting that I 
were in ever so enviable a state, yet let me observe, 
that it is the opinion of those philosophers who 
alone seem to have understood the true nature of 
virtue, that a good man is answerable for nothing 
farther than his own innocence. Now, in this 
respect, I think myself doubly irreproachable : in 
the first place, by having recommended such public 
measures as were for the interest of the common- 
wealth ; and in the next, that, finding I was not 
sufficiently supported to render my counsels effec- 
tual, I did not deem it advisable to contend for 
them by arms against a superior strength. Most 
certainly, therefore, I cannot justly be accused of 
having failed in the duty of a good citizen. The 
only part, then, that now remains for me, is to be 
cautious not to expose myself, by any indiscreet 
word or action, to the resentment of those in 
power ; a part which I hold likewise to be agree- 
able to the character of true wisdom. As to the 
rest ; what liberties any man may take in imputing 
words to me which I never spoke ; what credit 
Caesar may give to such reports ; and how far 
those who court my friendship are really sincere ; 
these are points for which it is by no means in my 
power to be answerable. My tranquillity arises, 
therefore, from the conscious integrity of my 
counsels in the times that are past, and from the 
moderation of my conduct in these that are present. 
Accordingly, I apply the simile you quote from 
AcciusP, not only to Envy, but to Fortune; that 
weak and inconstant power, whom every wise and 
resolute mind should resist with as much firmness 
as a rock repels the waves. Grecian story will 
abundantly supply examples of the greatest men, 
both at Athens and Syracuse, who have, in some 
sort, preserved their independency amidst the 
general servitude of their respective communities. 
May I not hope, then, to be able so to comport 
myself, under the same circumstances, as neither 
to give offence to our rulers on the one hand, nor 
to injure the dignity of my character on the other? 
But to turn from the serious to the .jocose part 
of your letter. — The strain of pleasantry you break 
into, immediately after having quoted the tragedy 
of (Enomaus, puts me in mind of the modern 
method of introducing at the end of those graver 
dramatic pieces the humour of our mimes, instead 
of the old Atellan farces 1 Why else do you talk 
of your paltry polypus r , and your mouldy cheese ? 
In pure good nature, it is true, I formerly sub- 
mitted to sit down with you to such homely fare ; 
but more refined company has improved me into 
a better taste. For Hirtius and Dolabella, let me 

and Pelops carried off the beautiful Hippodamia.— Hygin. 
Fab. 83. 

P The poet mentioned in the preceding remark. 

<1 These Atellan farces, which, in the earlier periods of 
the Roman stage, were acted at the end of the more serious 
dramatic performances, derived their name from Atella, 
a town in Italy, from whence they were first introduced 
at Rome. They consisted of a more liberal and genteel 
kind of humour than the mimes — a species of comedy which 
seems to have taken its subject from low life.— Manutius, in 
loc. 

r A sea-fish so extremely tough, that it was necessary to 
beat it a considerable time before it could be rendered fit 
for the table.— Bruyer. De Re Cibar. xxi. 14. 



tell you, are my preceptors in the science of the 
table ; as, in return, they are my disciples in that 
of the bar. But I suppose you have already heard, 
at least if all the town-news is transmitted to you, 
that they frequently declaim at my house s , and 
that I as often sup at theirs. You must not, how- 
ever, hope to escape my intended visit, by plead- 
ing poverty in bar to the admission of so luxurious 
a guest. Whilst you were raising a fortune, indeed, 
I bore with your parsimonious humour ; but now 
that you are in circumstances to support the loss 
of half your wealth, I expect that you receive me 
in another manner than you would one of your 
compounding debtors '. And though your finances 
may somewhat suffer by my visit, remember it is 
better they should be impaired by treating a friend 
than by lending to a stranger. I do not insist, 
however, that you spread your table with so un- 
bounded a profusion as to furnish out a splendid 
treat with the remains : I am so wonderfully mo- 
derate as to desire nothing more than what is 
perfectly elegant and exquisite in its kind. I 
remember to have heard you describe an enter- 
tainment which was given by Phameas. Let yours 
be the exact copy of his : only I should be glad 
not to wait for it quite so long. Should you still 
persist, after all, to invite me, as usual, to a penu- 
rious supper, dished out by the sparing hand of 
maternal economy ; even this, perhaps, I may be 
able to support. But I would fain see that hero 
bold who should dare to set before me the villanous 
trash you mention, or even one of your boasted 
polypuses, with a hue as florid as vermilioned 
Jove u . Take my word for it, my friend, your 
prudence will not suffer you to be thus adventurous. 
Fame, no doubt, will have proclaimed at your 
villa my late conversion to luxury, long before my 
arrival ; and you will shiver at the sound of her 
tremendous report. Nor must you flatter yourself 
with the hope of abating the edge of my appetite 
by your cloying sweet-wines before supper : a silly 
custom, which I have now entirely renounced ; 
being much wiser than when I used to damp my 
stomach with your antepasts of olives and Leu- 
canian sausages. — But not to run on any longer 
in this jocose strain ; my only serious wish is, that 
1 may be able to make you a visit. You may 
compose your countenance, therefore, and return 
to your mouldy cheese in full security ; for my 
being your guest will occasion you, as usual, no 
other expense than that of heating your baths. As 

s Cicero had lately instituted a kind of academy for 
eloquence in his own house, at which several of the lead- 
ing young men in Rome used to meet in order to exercise 
themselves in the art of oratory. Cicero himself will 
acquaint the reader with his motives for instituting this 
society, in the 22d letter of the present book. 

1 This alludes (as Manutius observes) to a law which 
Cassar passed in favour of those who had contracted debts 
before the commencement of the civil war. By this law, 
as appears from the passages which that commentator has 
cited, commissioners were appointed to take an account of 
the estate and effects of these debtors, which were to be 
assigned to their respective creditors according to their 
valuation before the civil war broke out : and whatever 
sums had been paid for interest, was to be considered as in 
discharge of the principal. By this ordinance, Partus, it 
seems, had been a particular sufferer. — Caes. De Bell. Civ. 
iii. 1 ; Suet, in Vit. Jul. Caes. 42. 

u Pliny, the naturalist, mentions a statue of Jupiter, 
erected in the Capitol, which, on certain festival days, it 
was customary to paint with vermilion. — Manutius. 
I T 2 



484 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



for all the rest, you are to look upon it as mere 
pleasantry. 

The trouble you have given yourself about 
Selicius's villa u is extremely obliging, as your 
description of it was excessively droll. I believe, 
therefore, from the accounts you give me, I shall 
renounce all thoughts of making that purchase : 
for though the country, it seems, abounds in salt, 
the neighbourhood, I find, is but insipid. Farewell. 



LETTER XXI. 

To Volumnius v . 
You have little reason, believe me, to regret the 
not being present at my declamations w ; and if you 

707 should really envy Hirtius, as you assure 
me you should, if you did not love him, 
it must be much more for his own eloquence than 
as he is an auditor of mine. In truth, my dear 
Volumnius, either I am utterly void of all genius, 
or incapable of exercising it to my satisfaction, now 
that I have lost those illustrious fellow-labourers 
at the bar that fired me with emulation when I 
used to gain your judicious applause. If ever, 
indeed, I displayed the powers of eloquence with 
advantage to my reputation, let me send a sigh 
when I reflect with the fallen Philoctetes x in the 
play, that 

These potent shafts, the heroes' wonted dread, 

Now spend on meaner war their idle force ; 

Aim'd at the wing'd inhabitants of air ! 
However, if you will give me your company here, 
my spirits will be more enlivened, though I need 
not add that you will find me engaged in a multitude 
of very important occupations. But if I can once 
get to the end of them (as I most earnestly wish), 
I shall bid a long farewell both to the forum and 
the senate, and chiefly devote my time to you and 
some few others of our common friends. In this 
number are Cassius and Dolabella, who are united 
with us in the same favourite studies, and to whose 
performances I with great pleasure attend. But 
we want the assistance of your refined judgment, 
and of that uncommon erudition which has often 
struck me with awe when I have been delivering 
my sentiments before you. I have determined, 
then, if I should obtain the consent, or at least the 
permission of Csesar, to retire from that stage on 
which I have frequently performed a part that he 

u In Naples. v See rem. m , on letter 18, bookiv. 

w See rem. s, on the preceding letter. 

x Philoctetes was the friend and companion of Hercules, 
who, when he was dying, presented him with his quiver of 
arrows which had been dipped in the hydra's gall. When 
the Grecian princes assembled in order to revenge the cause 
of Menelaus, they were assured by an oracle that Troy 
could never be taken without the assistance of these arrows. 
An embassy therefore was sent to Philoctetes to engage 
him on their side, who accordingly consented to attend 
their expedition. But being disabled from proceeding with 
these heroes in their voyage, by an accidental wound 
which he received in the foot from one of his own arrows, 
they ungenerously left him on a desolate island, and it was 
here that he was reduced to the mortifying necessity of 
employing these formidable shafts in the humble purposes 
of supplying himself with food. The lines here quoted are 
taken from Accius, a dramatic poet who flourished about 
the year of Rome 623, and who probably had formed a 
tragedy upon the subject of this adventure.— Ser v. in JEn. 
iii. 402. 



himself has applauded. It is my resolution, indeed, 
totally to conceal myself in the secret shades of 
philosophy, where I hope to enjoy, with you, and 
some others of the same contemplative disposition, 
the honourable fruits of a studious leisure. 

I am sorry you shortened your last letter in the 
apprehension that I should not have patience to 
read a longer. But assure yourself for the future, 
that the longer yours are, the more acceptable they 
will always prove to me. Farewell. 



LETTER XXII. 

To Papirius Pcetus. 

Your very agreeable letter found me wholly 
disengaged at my Tusculan villa. I retired hither 
A v 707 during the absence of my pupils ?, whom 
'I have sent to meet their victorious 
friend 2 , in order to conciliate his good graces in 
my favour. 

As Dionysius the tyrant, after he was expelled 
from Syracuse, opened a school, it is said, at 
Corinth a ; in the same manner, being driven from 
my dominions in the forum, I have erected a sort 
of academy in my own house ; and I perceive, by 
your letter, that you approve the scheme. I have 
many reasons for approving it too, and principally 
as it .affords me what is highly expedient in the 
present conjuncture, a mean of establishing an 
interest with those b in whose friendship I may 
find a protection. How far my intentions in this 
respect may be answered, I know not : 1 can only 
say, that I have hitherto had no reason to prefer 
the different measures which others of the same 
party with myself have pursued ; unless, perhaps, 
it would have been more eligible not to have sur- 
vived the ruin of our cause. It would so, I confess, 
had I died either in the camp c or in the field : but 
the former did not happen to be my fate ; and as to 
the latter, I never was engaged in any action. But 
the inglorious manner in which Pompey d , together 
with Scipio e , Afranius f , and your friend Lentuluss, 

y Hirtius and Dolabella. 

z Caesar, in his return from the African war. 

a He was expelled from Sicily about 340 years before the 
birth of our Saviour, on account of his oppressive govern- 
ment ; when, retiring to Corinth, he employed himself in 
exercising the humbler tyranny of a pedagogue. It is 
supposed that he engaged in this office the more effectually 
to conceal the schemes he was still meditating of recovering 
his dominions. — Justin, xxi. 5. 

b Particularly Hirtius and Dolabella. 

c The expression in the original is extremely concise.— 
"Inlectulo? Fateor: sed non accidit." This seems to 
allude to the sickness with which Cicero was attacked in 
the camp of Dyrrachium, and that prevented him from 
being present at the battle of Pharsalia, or at least fur- 
nished him with a plausible excuse for his absence. — Plut. 
in Vit. Cicer. 

d An account of the manner and circumstance of Pom- 
pey's death has already been given in rem. 1, p. 470. 

e Scipio, after the unfortunate battle of Thapsus [see 
rem. w , p. 480.] endeavouring to make his escape into 
Spain, was driven back upon the coast of Africa, where he 
fell in Avith a squadron of Caesar's fleet, commanded by 
Hirtius. Scipio was soon overpowered by the strength 
and number of the enemy's ships, and himself, together 
with the few vessels that attended him, were all sunk. — 
Hirt. De Bell. Afric. 96. 

f Afranius had been one of Pompey's lieutenants in 
Spain, and had a command in Scipio's army in Africa. He 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



485 



severally lost their lives, will scarcely, I suppose, 
be thought a more desirable lot. As to Cato's 
death h , it must be acknowledged to have been 
truly noble ; and I can still follow his example, 
whenever I shall be so disposed. Let me only 
endeavour, as in fact I do, not to be compelled to 
it by the same necessity' : and this is my first 
reason for engaging in my present scheme. My 
next is, that I find it an advantage, not only to my 
health^, which began to be impaired by the inter- 



was taken prisoner in attempting to make his escape after 
the defeat of that general, and murdered by the soldiers. 
— Hirt. De Bell. Afric. 95. 

g This is not the same person to whom the letters in the 
first and second book of this collection are addressed ; but 
Lucius Lentulus, who was consul with Marcellus A. U. 
704, the year in which the civil war broke out. After the 
defeat at Pharsalia, he fled to the island of Cyprus, where 
receiving intelligence that Pompey was gone into Egypt, he 
immediately set sail in order to join him. He arrived on 
the next day after that unfortunate general had been 
cruelly assassinated, and being seized the moment he 
landed, he underwent the same fate with that of his illus- 
trious friend, in pursuance of an order for that purpose 
from Ptolemy.— Plut. in Vit. Pomp. ; Caes. De Bell. Civ. 
iii. 102, 104. 

k The manner and circumstances of Cato's having 
destroyed himself, are too well known to be particularised 
in this place. A late noble writer is of opinion that Cato 
abandoned the cause of liberty too soon, and that he would 
have died with a better grace at Munda than at Utica. 
This censure, it must be owned, has the appearance of 
being just, if we consider it only in respect to the event ; 
but if there had been a real foundation for the reproach, it 
can scarce be supposed that it should have escaped every 
one of the ancient writers who speak of this illustrious 
Roman's exit ; and that Cicero, in particular, who most 
certainly did not love Cato, should have made an honour- 
able exception of his death, out of that list which he here 
condemns. It is true the republican party, after the defeat 
of Scipio in Africa, made a very powerful struggle against 
Ca?sar under the command of young Pompey in Spain. 
But it is highly probable that there was not the least 
rational expectation of this circumstance, when Cato 
thought it became him to put an end to his life. For it 
appears from Plutarch that he would have defended Utica 
to the last, if he could have persuaded the principal 
Romans in that garrison to have supported him ; and it 
was not till after all his remonstrances for that purpose 
proved utterly ineffectual, and that he had secured the 
retreat of those who did not choose to surrender them- 
selves to Cassar, that this exemplary patriot fell upon his 
own sword. Thus died this truly great and virtuous 
Roman ! He had long stood forth the sole uncorrupted 
opposer of those vices that proved the ruin of this degene- 
rate commonwealth, and supported, as far as a single arm 
could support, the declining constitution. But when his 
services could no farther avail, he scorned to survive what 
had been the labour of his whole life to preserve, and 
bravely perished with the liberties of his country. This is 
the purport of that noble eulogy which Seneca, in much 
stronger language, has justly bestowed upon Cato :— " Ad- 
versusvitia degenerantis,civitatis(says he),stetit,soZ(w,et 
cadentem rempublicam, quantum, modo una retrain manic 
poterat, retinuit ; donee comitem se diu sustentatas ruinae 
dedit : simulque extincta sunt quae nefas erat dividi. Neque 
enim Cato postlibertatemvixit, nee libertas post Catonem." 
—Lord Bolingbroke's Letter on Patriotism, p. 36 ; Plut. in 
Vit. Caton ; Senec. De Constant. Sapient. 2. 

1 The only necessity which Cato was under of putting 
an end to his life, arose from that uniform opposition he 
had given to the dangerous designs of the conqueror ; and 
it must be allowed that Cicero took sufficient care not to 
fall under the same. 

J A mere English reader will be surprised to hear Cicero 
talk of eloquence as an exercise. There is nothing indeed 



mission of exercises of this kind, but also to my 
oratorical talents, if any I ever possessed, which 
would have totally lost their vigour if I had not 
had recourse to this method of keeping them in 
play. The last benefit I shall mention (and the 
principal one, I dare say, in your estimation) is, 
that it has introduced me to the demolishing of a 
greater number of delicious peacocks k than you 
have had the devouring of paltry pigeons in all 
your life. The truth of it is, whilst you are humbly 
sipping the meagre broths of the sneaking Aterius, 
I am luxuriously regaling myself with the savoury 
soups of the magnificent Hirtius. If you have any 
spirit, then, fly hither, and learn, from our elegant 
bills of fare, how to refine your own : though, to 
do your talents justice, this is a sort of knowledge 
in which you are much superior to our instructions. 
However, since you can get no purchasers for your 
mortgages, and are not likely to fill those pitchers 
you mention with denarii 1 , it will be your wisest 
scheme to return hither ; for it is a better thing, 
let me tell you, to be sick with good eating at 
Rome, than for want of victuals at Naples m . In 
short, I plainly perceive that your finances are 
in no flourishing situation ; and I expect to hear 
the same account of all your neighbours : so 
that famine, my friend, most formidable famine, 
must be your fate, if you do not provide against it 
in due time. And since you have been reduced 
to sell your horse, e'en mount your mule (the only 
animal, it seems, belonging to you which you have 
not yet sacrificed to your table), and convey your- 
self immediately to Rome. To encourage you to 
do so, you shall be honoured with a chair and 
cushion next to mine, and sit the second great 
pedagogue in my celebrated school. Farewell. 

more indolent and immovable than a British orator : for if 
he ventures into action, his gestures are generally such as 
would render the finest speech that Demosthenes or Cicero 
ever delivered absolutely powerless or ridiculous. " You 
may see many a smart rhetorician (says the inimitable 
Mr. Addison) turning his hat in his hands, moulding it 
into several different cocks, examining sometimes the 
lining and sometimes the button, during the whole course 
of his harangue. A deaf man would think he was cheap- 
ening a beaver ; when, perhaps, he is talking of the fate of 
the British nation." But among the orators of Greece and 
Rome it was far otherwise : they studied the eloquence of 
action as much as that of diction, and their rhetoricians 
have laid down rules for the graceful management of the 
shoulders, the arms, the hands, and the feet, which were 
each of them engaged by turns in the emphatical exercise 
of ancient elocution.— Spectator, vi. p. 50 ; Quint, xi. 3. 

k This bird was esteemed by the Romans amongst the 
most refined delicacies of the table, and no entertainment 
was thought completely elegant where a peacock did not 
make one of the dishes. Thy bore a most incredible price : 
Varro assures us that a hundred peacocks produced to 
the owner the annual profit of about three hundred pounds 
sterling. — Var. De Re Rustic, iii. 6. 

1 The denarius was a silver coin, equivalent to about 
eight-pence of our money. Cicero's raillery alludes to the 
loss which Pa?tus had suffered by the late edict of Caesar 
concerning debtors ; of which an account has been given 
in rem, ', p. 483. 

m Paetus had a house in Naples, where ho appears to 
have been when this letter was written. 



486 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XXIII. 

To the same. 

Your satirical humour, I find, has not yet 
forsaken you ; and I perfectly well understand 
a u. 707. y° ur ra il' ei 7> when you gravely tell me 
that Balbus contented himself with your 
humble fare. You insinuate, I suppose, that since 
these our sovereign 1 rulers are thus wonderfully 
temperate, much more does it become a discarded 
consular 111 to practise the same abstemiousness. 
But do you know, my friend, that I have artfully 
drawn from Balbus himself the whole history of 
the reception you gave him ? He came directly to 
my house the moment he arrived in Rome : a 
circumstance, by the way, somewhat extraordinary. 
Not that I am surprised at his wanting the polite- 
ness to call first at yours ; but my wonder is, that 
he should not go directly to his own". However, 
after the two or three first salutations had passed, 
I immediately inquired what account he had to 
give of my friend Psetus. " Never (he protested) 
was n*e better entertained in his whole life." Now, 
if you merited this compliment by your wit, I 
desire you to remember that I shall bring as 
elegant a taste with me as Balbus himself. But if 
he alluded to the honours of your table, let it never 
be said that the family of the stammerers were 
more splendidly regaled by Psetus than the sons of 
elocution. 

Business has prevented me, from time to time, 
in my design of paying you a visit : but if I can 
despatch my affairs, so as to be able to come into 
your part of the world, I shall take care that you 
shall have no reason to complain of my not having 
given you timely notice. Farewell. 



LETTER XXIV. 

To the same. 
Are you not a pleasant mortal to question me 
concerning the fate of those estates p you mention, 
a. v. 707. wnen Balbus had just before been paying 
you a visit ? It is from him, indeed, that 
I derive my whole fund of intelligence ; and you 
may be assured, that where he is ignorant, I have 
no chance of being better informed. I might with 
much more propriety desire you would tell me what 
is likely to be the fate of my own possessions, since 

1 Balbus was a sort of prime minister and chief confidant 
of Ca?sar. 

m The consulars were those who had passed through the 
office of consul. 

n There is undoubtedly some raillery in this passage, 
cither upon Paetus or Balbus ; but, it is impossible todiscover 
of what nature, as it alludes to circumstances utterly 
unknown. 

o In the original it is, " no pluris esse Balbos, quam 
disertos putes : " a witticism which could not possibly be 
preserved in the translation. For it turns upon the equi- 
vocal sense of the word Balbus, which was not only the 
name of the person of whom Cicero is speaking, but signi- 
fies likewise a man who labours under that defect of speech 
called stuttering. 

P Probably the estates of the Pompcians that lay about 
Naples, where Partus seems to have been when this letter 
was written. It appears that Psetus had been alarmed 
with a rumour that Caesar intendod to seize these estates, 
and thcrcforo had applied to Cicero to learn the truth of 
this report. 



you have so lately had a person 1 under your roof, 
from whom, either in or out of his cups, you might 
certainly have discovered that secret. But this, my 
dear Psetus, is an article that makes no part of my 
inquiry ; for, in the first place, I have reason to be 
well satisfied, having now almost these four years* 
been indulged with my life, if life or indulgence it 
maybe called, to be the sad survivorof our country's 
ruin. In the next place, I believe it is a question I 
may easily answer myself. For I know it will be just 
as it shall seem meet to the men in power ; and the 
men in power, my friend, will ever be those whose 
swords are the most prevailing. I must rest con- 
tented, therefore, with whatever grace it shall be 
their pleasure to show me ; for he who could not 
tamely submit to such wretched terms ought to 
have taken refuge in the arms of death. Notwith- 
standing, therefore, that the estates about Veii and 
Capena s are actually dividing out, (and these, you 
know, are not far distant from Tusculum 1 ,) yet it 
gives me no sort of disquietude. I enjoy my pro- 
perty whilst I may, and please myself with the hope 
that I shall never be deprived of that privilege. 
But should it happen otherwise, still, however, 
since it was my noble maxim (hero and philosopher 
as I was) that life is the fairest of all possessions, 
I cannot, undoubtedly, but love the man u by whose 
bounty I have obtained the continuance of that 
enjoyment. It is certain, at the same time, that 
how much soever he may be disposed, perhaps, to 
restore the republic (as we ought all of us most 
certainly to wish), yet he has entangled himself in 
such a variety of different connexions, that he is 
utterly embarrassed in what manner to act. But 
this is going farther into these points than is neces- 
sary, considering the person to whom I am writing. 
Nevertheless, I will add, that our chief himself is 
as absolutely ignorant what measures will finally be 
resolved upon, as I am, who have no share in his 
councils. For Csesar is no less under the control 
of circumstances than we are under the control of 
Csesar ; and it is as much impossible for him to 
foresee what these may require, as it is for us to 
penetrate into what he may intend. 

You must not impute it to neglect (a fault, you 
are sensible, of which I am seldom guilty in the 
article of writing) that I have not said thus much 
to you before. The single reason for my not sooner 
answering your inquiry was, that as I could only 
speak from conjecture, I was unwilling, without a 
just foundation, either to increase your fears, or to 
encourage your hopes. But this I can with truth 
assure you, that I have not heard the least hint of 

q Balbus. 

r One of the commentators, who conceals his true name 
under that of Ragazonius, collects from this passage, that 
the present letter was written A. U. 707; whereas it seems 
to prove, on the contrary, that its date cannot be placed 
earlier than the year 709. For Cicero appears, evidently, 
to allude to the pardon he had received from Cassar. Now 
this could not have been till after the battle of Pharsalia, 
A. TJ. 705 ; and the fourth year from that period brings us 
down to 709. In the beginning, therefore, of that year, 
this letter ought to have been placed ; but the error of its 
present situation was not discovered till it was too late to 
be rectified. 

■ Veii and Capena were cities in that part of Italy called 
Etruria, which is now comprehended under the name of 
Tuscany. 

t Where Cicero had a villa. 

u Csesar. • 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



487 



the danger you apprehend. A man of your philo- 
sophy, however, ought to hope for the best, to be 
prepared for the worst, and to bear with equanimity 
whatever may hnppen. Farewell. 



LETTER XXV. 

To the same. 
Your letter gave me a double pleasure : for it 
not only diverted me extremely, but was a proof, 
a u 707 likewise, that you are so well recovered 
as to be able to indulge your usual gaiety. 
I was well contented, at the same time, to find 
myself the subject of your raillery ; and, in truth, 
the repeated provocations I had given you were 
sufficient to call forth all the severity of your satire. 
My only regret is, that I am prevented from taking 
my intended journey into your part of the world, 
where I purposed to have made myself, I do not 
say your guest, but one of your family. You would 
have found me wonderfully changed from the man 
I formerly was, when you used to cram me with 
your cloying antepasts v . For I now more.prudently 
sit down to table with an appetite altogether unim- 
paired, and most heroically make my way through 
every dish that comes before me, from the egg w 
that leads the van, to the roast veal that brings up 
the rear x . The temperate and unexpensive guest 
whom you were wont to applaud is now no more : 
I have bidden a total farewell to all the cares of the 
patriot, and have joined the professed enemies of 
my former principles ; in short, I am become an 
absolute Epicurean. You are by no means, how- 
ever, to consider me as a friend to that injudicious 
profusion which is now the prevailing taste of our 
modern entertainments : on the contrary, it is that 
more elegant luxury I admire which you formerly 
used to display when your finances were most 
flourishing^, though your farms were not more 
numerous than at present. Be prepared, therefore, 
for my reception accordingly ; and remember you 
are to entertain a man who has not only a most 
enormous appetite, but who has some little know- 
ledge, let me tell you, in the science of elegant 
eating. You know there is a peculiar air of self- 
sufficiency that generally distinguishes those who 
enter late into the study of any art. You will not 
wonder, therefore, when I take upon me to inform 
you, that you must banish your cakes and your 
sweetmeats, as articles that are now utterly dis- 
carded from all fashionable bills of fare. I am 
become, indeed, such a proficient in this science, 

▼ These antepasts seem to have been a kind of collation 
preparatory to the principal entertainment. They gene- 
rally consisted, it is probable, of such dishes as were pro- 
vocatives to appetite ; but prudent economists, as may be 
collected from the turn of Cicero's raillery, sometimes con- 
trived them in such a manner as to damp rather than 
improve the stomach of their guests. 

w The first dish at every Roman table was constantly 
eggs, which maintained their post of honour even at the 
most magnificent entertainments : 

Nee dum omnis abacta 

Pauperis epulis regum : nam vilibus ovis 
est— hodie locus. Hor. Sat. ii. 2. 

The humble egg at lordly feasts we see : 
This still remains of old simplicity ! 
x It appears, by a passage which Manutius cites from 
Tertullian, that the Romans usually concluded their feasts 
with broiled or roasted meat, 
y See rem. *, p. 483. 



that I frequently venture to invite to my table 
those refined friends of yours, the delicate Verrius 
and Camillus. Nay, I am bolder still, and have 
presumed to give a supper even to Hirtius himself ; 
though, I must own, I could not advance so far 
as to honour him with a peacock 2 . To tell you the 
truth, my honest cook had not skill enough to 
imitate any other part of his splendid entertain- 
ments, except only his smoking soups. 

But to give you a general sketch of my manner 
of life ; I spend the first part of the morning in 
receiving the compliments of several both of our 
dejected patriots and our gay victors ; the latter of 
whom treat me with great marks of civility and 
esteem. As soon as that ceremony is over, I retire 
to my library, where I employ myself either with 
my books or my pen. And here I am sometimes 
surrounded by an audience who look upon me as 
a man of most profound erudition, for no other 
reason, perhaps, than because I am not altogether 
so ignorant as themselves. The rest of my time 
I wholly devote to indulgences of a less intellectual 
kind. I have sufficiently, indeed, paid the tribute 
of sorrow to my unhappy country ; the miseries 
whereof I have longer and more bitterly lamented 
than ever tender mother bewailed the loss of her 
only son. 

Let me desire you, as you would secure your 
magazine of provisions from falling into my hands, 
to take care of your health ; for I have most un- 
mercifully resolved that no pretence of indisposition 
shall preserve your larder from my depredations. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XXVI. 

To the same. 
I arrived yesterday at Cumae a , and perhaps I 
may pay you a visit to-morrow ; but I shall take care 
a u 707 ^° &* ve y° u a s h° 1 't ; no ti ce beforehand. I 
am determined, indeed, not only to see 
you, but to sup with you too. For though I had the 
mortification to be informed by Marcus Ceparius, 
whom I met on the road, that you were laid up 
with the gout, yet I suppose your cook is not dis- 
abled as well as his master. You may expect, 
therefore, very speedily to receive a guest who, as 
he is remarkable for having a wondrous puny 
stomach, is equally famous likewise for being an 
irreconcileable enemy to all sumptuous entertain- 
ments. Farewell. 



LETTER XXVII. 

To Marcus Marius. 
I arrived at Cumse on the 24th, accompanied 
by our friend Libo, and purpose to be at my Pom- 
a u 707 P e i an v ili ab ver y shortly : but I will give 
you previous notice when I shall have 
fixed the day. I wish you the enjoyment of your 
health at all times, but particularly whilst I am 
your neighbour. If you have an assignation, there- 
fore, with your old companion, the gout, pray 
contrive to put it off to some other opportunity. 
In good earnest, let me desire you to take care of 
your health, and expect to see me in two or three 
days. Farewell. ^___ 

* See rem. k , p. 485. 

» Where he had a country-houso. 

i> See rem. m , p. 470. 



488 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



BOOK IX. 



LETTER I. 

To Servius Sulpicins . 
I am continually receiving accounts from various 
hands, that you are in a more than common degree 
a. u. 707. a ^ ecte( i by the general calamities of our 
country. This is by no means a matter 
of surprise to me, as it in some measure corres- 
ponds with what passes in my own bosom. Never- 
theless, I cannot but regret that a man of your 
superior understanding should not rather enjoy his 
own good fortune, than vainly disquiet himself 
with the misery of others. As for myself, there 
is none who has more bitterly lamented the general 
desolation of the commonwealth : yet there are 
many reflections from which I now derive great 
relief, particularly from a consciousness of the 
integrity of my former counsels. I long foresaw, 
as from some advantageous eminence, the storm 
that was gathering around us : and I foresaw it not 
ODly by the force of my own discernment, but 
much clearer by the assistance of your prophetic 
admonitions. For though I was absent during the 
greater part of your consulate d , yet I was not un- 
apprised how often you foretold this fatal war, and 
what measures you recommended for its prevention. 
In the commencement, indeed, of your consular 
administration, I was myself present in the senate 
when you prudently endeavoured to awaken our 
fears by enumerating those civil wars that had 
happened within our own memories e . And if the 
authors of these, you told the house, unsupported 
by a single example of the same kind, to give a 
colour to their conduct, had exercised such dread- 
ful cruelties f , whoever in future times should suc- 
cessfully turn his arms against the republic, would 
most assuredly prove a much more intolerable 
tyrant. For they that act by precedent, you ob- 
served, generally think they act by right, and in 
cases of this nature seldom fail of improving upon 
their model. You should remember, therefore, that 
those who refused to follow your judicious advice 
owe their destruction entirely to their own impru- 
dence. But you will ask, perhap s, " what relief can 
c Some account has already been given of Sulpicins, in 
rem. y, p. 454. Upon the breaking out of the civil war he 
was a considerable time in suspense on which side to de- 
clare himself, [see rem. q, p. 457,] but at length he deter- 
mined to join Pompey. However, soon after the battle of 
Pharsalia, be made his peace with Cassar, and was ap- 
pointed by him governor of Greece. It was during his 
administration of this province that the present letter, 
together with the rest of those which are addressed to him 
in this and the following book, Mere written. 

d Sulpicins was consul in the year 702; and it was about 
the latter end of April, or the beginning of May, in the 
same year, that Cicero left Home, in order to proceed to 
his government in (ilicia.— Ad Att. v. 2. 

e About two-and-twenty years before the date of this 
letter, the dissentions between Marius and Bylla broke out 
into an open civil war, which terminated in the perpetual 
dictatorship of the latter. 

1 Uoth Marius and Bylla perpetrated, in their turns, the 
most horrid outrages against the partisans of each other ; 
but particularly ^ylla, whose sanguinary proscriptions, 
during his usurpation, afford the most dreadful instances, 
perhaps, of human cruelty, that are to be met with in tho 
whole annals of despotic power.— Sallust. BelL Cat 61. 



this consideration afford to your mind, amidst the 
universal wreck of the republic?" It must be 
acknowledged, indeed, that our misfortunes will 
scarce admit of consolation : so total and so irre- 
coverable is the ruin we deplore ! However, Caesar 
himself, as well as every citizen of Rome besides, 
looks upon you as shining forth, amidst this general 
extinction of the great lights of the republic, in all 
the lustre and dignity of wisdom and virtue. These 
considerations, therefore, ought greatly to alleviate 
the generous disquietude of your heart. 'Tis true 
you are absent from your friends and family ; but 
this you have the less reason to regret, as you are 
removed at the same time from many very disagree- 
able circumstances. I would particularly point them 
out to you, but that I am unwilling you should have 
the pain of hearing what you are so happy as not 
to see : an advantage which renders your situation, 
I think, so much the more eligible than ours. 

I have thus far laid before you, in the warmest 
friendship of my heart, those reasons which may 
justly contribute to lighten and compose your un- 
easiness. The rest are to be found within yourself; 
and they are consolations which I know, by daily 
experience, to be of the best and most efficacious 
kind. I well remember that you passionately 
cultivated the whole circle of sciences from your 
earliest youth, and carefully treasured up in your 
mind whatever the wisest philosophers have deli- 
vered concerning the best and happiest regulation 
of human life. Now these are contemplations both 
useful and entertaining, even in seasons of the 
greatest calm and prosperity ; but in the present 
calamitous situation of public affairs, there is 
nothing else that can soothe and compose our minds. 
I would not be so arrogant as to take upon myself 
to exhort a man of your sense and knowledge to 
have recourse to those studies to which I know 
you have your whole life been devoted. I will only 
say with respect to myself, (and I hope I shall be 
justified by your approbation,) that I consecrated all 
my time and attention to philosophy, when I per- 
ceived there was no farther employment either in 
the forum or the senate for my favourite art?. 
Scarce more room is there for the exercise of that 
excellent science in which you, my friend, are so 
eminently distinguished' 1 . I am persuaded, there- 
fore, that I have no occasion to admonish you to 
apply your thoughts to the same philosophical 
contemplations ; which, if they were attended with 
no other advantage, would have this, at least, to 

% Oratory. 

h Sulpicins distinguished himself by his superior skill in 
the laws of his country, to the knowledge and practice of 
which science he principally devoted the Btudies and the 
labours of his life. He was the first, indeed, among the 
Romans who seems to have traced and explained the 
principles of civil law, and to have reduced that branch 
of knowledge from the vague and confused manner in 
which it had been formerly treated, into a regular and 
rational system. The number of treatises which he is said 
to have composed amount to above a hundred and fifty; 
but nothing of his hand remains, except two very elegant 
and interesting letters, addressed to Cicero, in the eleventh 
book of the present collection. See letters 3 and 10, book : 
xi. ; Cic. de Clar. Orator. 152 ; Pompon, de Orig. Juris. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



489 



recommend them, that they divert the mind from 
dwelling on its anxieties. 

Your son applies himself to all the polite arts in 
general with great success : but he particularly 
excels in those philosophical studies from whence 
I just now professed to derive the principal conso- 
lation of my life. I know not any man, except 
yourself, for whom I have conceived a stronger af- 
fection : and, indeed, he very amply returns the 
warmth of my friendship : but he evidently shows, 
at the same time, that in distinguishing me with 
the marks of his respect and esteem, he imagines 
that he is acting in the most agreeable manner to 
your inclinations. Farewell. 



LETTER II. 

To Publius Servilius Isauricus' 1 , Proconsul. 

I received the account you sent me of your 
voyage with much pleasure, as it was a proof that 
a u. 707. y° u are not unmm dful of our friendship ; 
than which nothing, be assured, can 
afford me a more real satisfaction. Would you still 
oblige me more ? let it be by freely communicating 
to me the state of your province, and the plan of 
government upon which you proceed. For though 
the fame of your administration will undoubtedly 
reach me by many other ways, yet I shall be most 
pleased in being made acquainted with it by your 
own hand. As for myself, the hazards to which my 
letters are exposed will not suffer me to be so 
frequent in giving you my sentiments of public 
affairs, as I shall be in apprising you of what passes 
amongst us. I have hopes, however, that our 
colleague CsesarJ intends, and, indeed, that he ac- 
tually has it under his consideration, to establish a 
republican form of government of some kind ; and 
it is of much importance that you should be pre- 
sent in his council for this purpose. But if it be 
more for your own glory to preside over Asia, and 
preserve that ill-affected part of the republic in its 
allegiance, I ought to regulate my inclinations by 
yours, and prefer what will most contribute to the 
advancement of your interest and your honour. 
Be assured, I shall employ my utmost zeal to pro- 
mote both by every mean that shall appear con- 
ducive to that end ; among which, it shall be my 
principal care to distinguish your illustrious 
father k with all possible marks of my observance. 

1 Caesar nominated him joint consul with himself, in 
the year 705 ; and Servilius exercised the consular func- 
tions at Rome, whilst his colleague was employed in car- 
vying on the war against Pompey in Macedonia. He was, 
at this time, proconsul of Asia Minor, to which province 
he succeeded at the expiration of his consulate.— Caes. De 
Bell. Civ. iii. 1. 

J Caesar was a fellow-member of the college of augurs 
with Cicero and Servilius. 

k Servilius the father, after having passed through the 
office of consul in the year 673, was elected governor of 
Cilicia, where he greatly distinguished himself in several 
obstinate and successful engagements with the piratic 
nations that infested the Roman commerce in this part 
of the eastern world. He particularly turned his arms 
against the Isauri, a people situated between Cilicia and 
Lycaonia ; and having penetrated as far as their capital, 
he not only laid it level with the ground, but demolished 
several strong forts which the pirates possessed in the 
maritime parts of that kingdom. It was upon this occa- 
sion that he obtained the title of Isauricus,- and at his 
return to Rome, he was honoured, likewise, with a triumph. 
He died not long after this letter was written, in an ex- 



This, indeed, is what I justly owe him, not only in ! 
regard to his high character, and the friendship in j 
which we have been long united, but in return, 
likewise, to the many favours which you and he 
have conferred upon me. Farewell. 



LETTER III. 
To Nigidius Figulus K 

Though I have long been looking out for an 
occasion of writing to you, yet I have not only been 
a u 707 unaD l e to meet with any particular subject 
for that purpose, but find myself utterly 
at a loss even to furnish out a common letter. The 
calamities of our country have spoiled me for those 
jocose epistles with which, in happier days, I used 
to entertain my friends ; as fortune has rendered 
me incapable of writing, or, in truth, of thinking, 
upon any subject of a cheerful nature. There 
remains another species of letters of a grave and 
serious cast, peculiarly adapted to these miserable 
times. But, as a letter of this kind ought to contain 
either some promise of assisting you to surmount 
your misfortunes, or some arguments to support 
you under them ; from these, too, I am likewise 
excluded. Sunk, indeed, as I am, into the same 
abject fortune as yourself, what assistance can I 
possibly offer you ? In sad truth, I am obliged to 
have recourse myself to the aid of others, and I 
have much more reason to lament that I live upon 
these disgraceful terms, than to rejoice that I am 
still in being. I say not this from any extraordinary 
injuries which I have suffered in my own person ; 
indeed, there is nothing which, in the present con- 
juncture, I could wish for myself, that Caesar has 
not voluntarily offered me. Nevertheless, the sor- 
rows that oppress my heart are of so severe a 
nature, that I think myself guilty of a crime in still 
continuing to five. For I live deprived of many of 
my most intimate friends, whom death, or those 
public calamities which have driven them from their 
country, have separated from me ; as I have, like- 
wise, lost by the same means all those whose good- 



treme old age, and is said to have preserved his health and 
senses entire to his last moments.— Liv. Epit. 93 ; Flor. iii. 
6 ; Dio, xlv. p. 277. 

1 Nigidius Figulus was a person of great distinction, not 
only in the civil, but literary world. He had passed through 
the offices of tribune and praetor, with much honour ; and 
was at this time in the number of those who were suffer- 
ing exile for having taken up arms on the side of Pompey. 
He was extremely well versed in all the liberal sciences, 
but his studies were principally consecrated to moral and 
natural knowledge ; in the latter of which he seems to have 
made such extraordinary discoveries, as to have occasioned 
a suspicion that he practised the magic art. He was 
much addicted to judicial astrology ; and it is said, that 
being informed of the birth of Octavius, he immediately 
pronounced that he was destined to empire. Lucan has 
celebrated him for his learning of this kind, and repre- 
sents him as prophetically declaring the future calamities 
of his country : 

At Figulus, cm" cura deos secretaque coeli 

Nosse fuit, &c. 
One of the commentators asserts, (though it does not ap- 
pear upon what authority,) that Figulus died in exile, the 
year following the date of this letter.— Ad Quint. Fiat. i. 
2 ; Cic. Fragm. de Univer. in Printip. ; Dio, xlv. p. 270 ; 
Suet, in Vit. Aug. 94 ; Lucan. i. 693. 



490 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



will I formerly conciliated, when, by your assist- 
ance" 1 , I successfully stood forth in defence of the 
republic. I have the unhappiness, at the same 
time, to be placed in the midst of the general 
wreck and plunder of their fortunes ; and not only 
have the pain to hear, but (what is far more affect- 
ing) am a spectator of the dissipation of the estates 
which belonged to those illustrious associates who 
assisted me in extinguishing the flames of that 
dangerous conspiracy. In a word, I have the mor- 
tification to find myself utterly divested of all credit, 
authority, and honours in that republic, where I 
once flourished in the full possession of those 
glorious distinctions. Caesar, 'tis true, acts to- 
wards me with the utmost generosity ; but his 
generosity cannot restore what I have lost by the 
general violence and confusion of the times. Thus 
bereaved of those advantages to which I was habi- 
tuated by genius, by inclination, and by custom, I 
imagine that the world is no less dissatisfied with 
me than I am with myself, Formed, indeed, as I 
was by nature, to be perpetually engaged in the 
noblest and most important occupations, I am now 
deprived of every mean, not only of acting, but of 
thinking, to any public purpose. There was a time 
when my assistance could have raised the obscure, 
and protected even the guilty ; but now I cannot so 
much as send a favourable promise to Nigidius ; to 
the virtuous, the learned Nigidius ; to the man who 
once flourished in the highest credit, and who was 
always my warmest friend ! Thus you see that I 
am totally disqualified from writing letters to you 
of this kind. 

The only subject that remains to me, then, is to 
endeavour to draw off your mind from its inquiet- 
udes, by laying before you such arguments as may 
afford you a well-grounded consolation. But, if 
ever any man was peculiarly qualified to employ 
the strongest reasonings of this nature, either for 
his own use or for that of others, most undoubt- 
edly it is yourself. Such, therefore, as may be 
drawn from the refined sources of philosophy, I 
will not pretend to touch ; but shall leave them 
entirely to your own suggestions. Whatever is 
worthy of a man of true wisdom and fortitude ; 
whatever is agreeable to that character you have 
sustained in the world, and to those studies in 
which you so early excelled ; whatever, in short, is 
expected from a great and exalted mind in the cir- 
cumstances wherein you are placed, your own 
reflections will best supply. I will only take upon 
myself, therefore, to inform you of what I have 
been able to discover from my being situated in 
Rome, and giving a particular attention to every 
occurrence that passes. I will venture, then, with 
confidence to assure you, that your present troubles 
(perhaps, too, I might add, that those of the 
republic itself) will not be of long continuance. 
For, in the first place, Caesar seems well inclined 
to recal you from exile ; and trust me, I speak this 
from no hasty conjecture. On the contrary, I 
examine his sentiments and dispositions so much 
the more strictly, as I am less biassed in his favour 
by any particular connexions. I am persuaded, 
then, that the single reason for his delaying to 
restore you, is, that he may with a better grace 

m This alludes to the affair of Catiline's conspiracy ; in 
which, as in every other article of public concern, Cicero 
was principally determined in his conduct by the senti- 
ments and advice of Nigidius. — Plut. in Vit. Cicer. 



refuse the same favour to others against whom he 
is more warmly incensed. I am sure, at least, 
that all his most intimate friends and favourites 
both think and speak of you highly to your ad- 
vantage. 

In the next place, the populace, or rather, I 
should say, the whole community in general, are 
strongly in your interest. And, let me add, that 
the republic herself, whose power at present, it 
must be confessed, is certainly inconsiderable, but 
who must necessarily, however, recover some degree 
of credit ; the republic herself, believe me, will 
soon obtain your restoration from those who at 
this time hold her in subjection. In this respect, 
therefore, I may venture even to promise you some 
assistance. With this view, I shall closely attach 
myself to Caesar's favourites, who are all of them, 
indeed, extremely fond of me, and spend much of 
their time in my company ; as I shall insinuate 
myself into an intimacy with Caesar, to which my 
own modesty has hitherto proved the single obstruc- 
tion 11 . In short, I shall pursue every probable 
mean of this kind, (and some, too, that I dare not 
commit to paper,) in order to obtain your return. 
As to other articles of assistance, I am sensible 
there are many who are perfectly well inclined to 
offer you their services ; but you may depend upon 
me as the first and forwardest in that number. 
The sincere truth is, there is no part of my estate 
which is not as freely at your disposal as it is at 
mine. But I will say the less upon this subject, 
as I would rather encourage you to hope, (what I 
am well persuaded will be the case,) that you will 
soon have it in your power to make use of your 
own. In the mean while, let me conjure you to 
preserve a firm and unbroken spirit, remembering 
not only the sublime precepts you have received 
from other celebrated philosophers, but those like- 
wise which have been the produce of your own 
judicious reflections. If you attend to these, they 
will teach you to hope the best, and, at the same 
time, to meet whatever may happen with a wise 
composure of mind . But these are sentiments 
which no man is so capable to suggest to you as 
yourself. I will only add, then, that you may be 
assured of my carefully and zealously embracing 

n It requires, perhaps, no ordinary portion of faith to 
believe it was modesty that kept Cicero at a distance from 
Caesar. The true reason, indeed, appears from Cicero's 
own account in the last paragraph of the following letter, 
where he touches upon this article in a more ingenuous 
manner than he thought proper in the present instance. 
See the 17th and 22d letters of this book. 

• Nigidius published many treatises on different branches 
of human and theological science, the subjects of which 
Manutius, with his usual learning and industry, has col- 
lected from the several ancient writers wherein they are 
cited. It is probable, from the present passage, that he 
had published also some treatise concerning fortitude, upon 
the Pythagoric principles. It is certain, at least, that 
Nigidius (and it is a circumstance greatly to the honour of 
his character) attempted to bring the philosophy of Pytha- 
goras into credit with his countrymen, which, after having 
nourished in Italy during some centuries, was now grown 
almost entirely out of repute. It is no wonder, indeed, 
that a system which, in many of its precepts, seems to 
have approached very near to the divine morality of the 
Christian institution, was rejected in an age in which the 
only fashionable principles were, to acquire wealth by 
every means of avarice and injustice, and to dissipate it 
by every method of luxury and prof usion.— Cie. Fragm. de 
Univ. in Princip. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



491 



every opportunity of promoting your welfare ; as I 
shall always retain a grateful remembrance of the 
generous services you conferred upon me during 
my severe afflictions p. Farewell. 



LETTER IV. 

To Marcus Marcellus*. 
I will not venture to condemn, though I have 
not myself pursued those measures in which I find 

a u "0" y° u st ^ P erseverer i as I nave too high an 
opinion of your judgment to think the 
preference is due to my own. The friendship, 
however, in which we have so long been intimately 
united, together with those singular marks of affec- 
tion you have shown towards me from your earliest 
youth, induce me to recommend to you what seems 
conducive to your interest, at the same time that 
it appears by no means inconsistent with your 
honour. 

I am sensible that you long foresaw, no less than 
myself, those calamities that have fallen upon our 
country ; and I well remember the patriot conduct 
you displayed during your glorious administration 
of the consular office. But I remember, too, that 
you disapproved of the manner in which the civil 
war was conducted ; and that, far from being satis- 
fied either with the strength or nature of Pompey's 
forces, you were always extremely diffident of their 
success ; in which, I need not add, I entirely agreed 
with you. In conformity to these our mutual sen- 
timents, as you did not enter very far into the war 
on your part, so I always endeavoured as much as 
possible to avoid it on mine. The point in contest 
between the adverse parties was not to be decided, 
indeed, by the force of their counsels, and the 
justice of their cause, in which we had undoubtedly 
the advantage, but by the single strength of their 
swords, wherein we were evidently inferior. Van- 
quished, therefore, we accordingly are ; or, if 
virtue never can be vanquished, yet certainly, at 
least, we are fallen. Your conduct cannot but be 
greatly and universally applauded, in having 
renounced the spirit of contention, when you lost 
the hopes of success ; and you showed, by your 
own example, that as a wise and honest patriot will 
always enter into a civil war with reluctance, so he 
will never choose to carry it on to its last desperate 
extremity. Those who did not pursue the same 
measures formed themselves into two different 
parties ; and while some retreated into Africa, in 
order to renew the war, others, and myself among 
the rest, submitted to the conqueror. But you 
thought proper to steer a middle course, imagining, 
perhaps, that it was mean to yield, and obstinacy 
to resist. In this, I must confess, you are thought 
by many (I might say by the world in general) to 
have given a proof of your virtue ; while there are 



P This alludes to Cicero's banishment, in the year 694, 
at which time Nigidius was praetor.' — Pigh. Annal. ii. 361. 

q For a particular account of the character and conduct 
of Marcellus, see rem. n on letter 35, book iii. 

r This alludes to the different conduct of Cicero and 
Marcellus, after the battle of Pharsalia ; the former (as 
has already been remarked) having immediately returned 
into Italy, in order to throw himself at the feet of the con- 
queror, the latter retiring to Mitylene, the capital of Les- 
bos. In this city Marcellus probably resided, when the 
present letter was written. 



numbers who admire it likewise as an instance of 
great magnanimity s . Nevertheless, there is a time, 
it should seem, when this measure may cease to 
be any longer justifiable ; especially as nothing, I 
am persuaded, is wanting to establish you in the 
full possession of your fortunes but your own 
concurrence. For he in whom all power is cen- 
tred 1 has no other objection, I find, to granting 
you this favour, but that he is apprehensive you 
are by no means disposed to think it one. What my 
own sentiments are as to that point, is too evident 
by my conduct to render it necessary to explain 
them. But this, however, I will say, that although 
you should prefer a state of perpetual exile rather 
than be a spectator of what you cannot but disap- 
prove, yet you should reflect that it is impossible, 
in any part of the world, to be placed out of the 
reach of his power whom you desire to avoid. And, 
even granting it probable that he should suffer you 
to live free and unmolested in a voluntary banish- 
ment, yet it deserves your consideration, whether 
it would not be more eligible, whatever the situa- 
tion of public affairs may be, to spend your days 
in Rome than at Rhodes or Mitylene. But, since 
that power which we dread extends itself over every 
part of the globe, is it not better to live securely 
under your own roof, than in perpetual danger 
under that of another ? For myself, at least, if 
even death were my resolution, yet I would rather 
choose to expire in my own country and in my 
own mansion, than at a stranger's house and in a 
foreign land. 

All who love you (and your illustrious virtues 
have rendered that party extremely numerous) join 
with me in these sentiments. In this we have a 
regard likewise to the preservation of your estate, 
which we should be sorry to see dissipated. For 
though neither that person who governs the republic, 
nor, indeed, the republic itself, would suffer any 
injuries of this kind to remain always unredressed, 
yet 1 would not, in the mean time, have your estate 
exposed to the depredations of certain lawless 
invaders, whom I should not scruple to name, if I 
were not persuaded that you perfectly well know 
to whom I allude. 

Your very excellent relation Caius Marcellus u 
discovers a singular zeal in his frequent and earnest 
applications to Caesar on your behalf. And, though 
I am not in a situation to second these his solicita- 
tions, I claim, however, the next rank in my 
anxiety for your welfare. The truth is, I have 

s It is probable that Brutus was in the number of those 
who were in Cicero's thoughts upon this occasion, as may 
be collected from a passage in Seneca. This noble moralist 
relates, that Brutus, in a treatise which he wrote concerning 
virtue, mentioned his having paid a visit to Marcellus at 
Mitylene, where he found him in the utmost tranquillity, 
pursuing, with all his usual taste and spirit, the moral 
and polite arts. " And I could not forbear thinking," 
added Brutus, " when I took my leave of Marcellus in 
order to return to Rome, that it was I myself, and not my 
friend, who deserved to be lamented as the exile." Seneca 
takes occasion from hence to introduce a soliloquy, which 
he puts into the mouth of this illustrious exile ; and he 
concludes it with a sentiment that raises the highest idea 
both of Brutus and Marcellus. " Let conquered nations 
(he supposes Marcellus to have said to himself) look with 
wonder upon Caesar ; but live thou, Bruto miratore con- 
tentus, satisfied with having gained the admiration of 
Brutus ! "— Senec. Consol. ad Helvid. 9. 

1 Caesar. 

u An account has been given of him in rem. °, p. 399. 



492 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 






stood too much in need of an advocate myself, to 
take the liberty of acting that part for another ; as 
all the merit I can plead, is to have yielded after 
having been conquered 11 . Nevertheless, as far as 
my advice and endeavours can be of any avail in 
your affairs, they are not wanting to Caius. The 
rest of your family do not think proper to consult 
me, though they may always be assured of finding 
me ready to exert my best services wherever your 
interest is concerned. Farewell. 



LETTER V. 

To Trebianus v . 
I should have written to you sooner, if it had 
been either in my power to have promised you any 
707 effectual assistance, or necessary to have 
offered you any consolation ; one or the 
other being the part of every friend in so unhappy 
a conjuncture as the present. But I forbore the 
latter, as I was informed by many hands of the 
resolute and philosophical spirit with which you 
support the unjust persecution you are suffering 
from the violence of the times, and of the strong 
consolation you receive from the consciousness of 
that integrity by which all your counsels and actions 
towards the public were directed. If this account 
be true, (and let me earnestly exhort you to verify 
it,) you reap the happy fruits of those noble con- 
templations in which, I well know, you have ever 
been conversant. I will venture at the same time 
to assure you, (how unnecessary soever that assur- 
ance may be to a man so perfectly well acquainted 
with the present age, and so thoroughly versed in 
the annals of all the past,) that the cruel injuries 
under which you are oppressed cannot possibly 
continue long. And this conjecture you may safely 
take from one who, if he is less a politician in 
theory, perhaps, than he wishes, is certainly much 
more so by experience than he desires. Caesar, 
indeed, seems to be every day more and more 
inclined to adopt those equitable measures which 
our public circumstances require. The cause, like- 
wise, for which you suffer is of such a nature, that 
it must necessarily revive and flourish with the 
republic ; which most undoubtedly cannot always 
remain in its present state of subjection. To which 
I will add, that Caesar is continually giving proofs 
of greater moderation and generosity than we once 
imagined he would have shown. But as instances 
of this kind are generally produced by particular 
conjunctures, and frequently too depend upon very 
minute circumstances, I shall watch every favour- 
able moment, and endeavour to improve it to your 
best advantage ; for you may be assured I shall 
neglect no opportunity of assisting and alleviating 
your misfortunes. I hope likewise that the time 
is approaching when I shall be enabled to promise 
you some more effectual service ; of which, how- 
ever, I had much rather give you proofs than pro- 

u See rem. " on the preceding letter. 

v The person to whom this letter is inscribed is men- 
tioned by no other ancient writer ; so that nothing more 
is known of him than what may be collected from this and 
two more epistles addressed to him in the present book. 
It appears he was at this time in exile, as having taken 
part against Caesar in the civil war, and that he was soon 
afterwards restored to his country by the good offices of 
Dolabella. 



fessions. In the mean while, be persuaded that, as 
far as I have been capable of observing, there is no 
man who either is or has been under the same 
misfortune with yourself that can boast of so many 
zealous and faithful friends ; in which number I 
claim the principal rank. 

Let me conclude with entreating you to preserve 
a firm and unbroken fortitude ; for this is a pos- 
session which depends entirely upon yourself. As 
to what is in the disposal of fortune, it must be 
governed by particular circumstances ; and I shall 
exert all my prudence to turn them in the most 
advantageous manner for your interest. Farewell. 



LETTER VI. 

To Gallus w . 
I am much surprised at your reproaches, as I 
am sure they are altogether without foundation. 
TT hril . But were they ever so just, they would 

A. U. 7O7. -i.1 -11 * 1. 

come with a very ill grace from you, who 
ought to have remembered those marks of distinc- 
tion you received from me during my consulate. 
It seems, however, (for so you are pleased to inform 
me,) that Caesar will certainly restore you. I know 
you are never sparing of your boasts ; but I know, 
too, that they have the ill luck never to be credited. 
It is in the same spirit you remind me, that you 
offered yourself as a candidate for the tribunitial 
office merely in order to serve me x . Now, to show 
you how much I am in your interest, I wish you 
were a tribune still ; as in that case you could not 
be at a loss for an intercessor?. You go on to 
reproach me with not daring to speak my senti- 
ments. In proof, however, of the contrary, I need 
only refer you to the reply I made when you had 
the front to solicit my assistance. 

Thus, (to let you see how absolutely impotent 
you are, where you most affect to appear formida- 
ble,) I thought proper to answer you in your own 
style. If you had made your remonstrances in the J 
spirit of good manners, I should with pleasure, as 
I could with ease, have vindicated myself from 
your charge ; and, in truth, it is not your conduct, 
but your language, that I have reason to resent. 
I am astonished, indeed, that you, of all men living, 
should accuse me of want of freedom, who are sen- 
sible it is by my means that there is any freedom 

w Manutius conjectures, that this Gallus is the same 
with Publius Scstius, to whom the fifth letter of the first 
book is addressed ; whose family name he supposes (from 
a passage which he cites out of the oration for Milo) to 
have been Gallus. That learned commentator supports 
this opinion with some very plausible reasons : but as the 
point in question is of little consequence, the reader will 
readily excuse me that I save him the trouble of consider- 
ing them. Gallus seems to have been in the number of 
the Pompcian exiles, and to have drawn upon himself 
this letter, in answer to one wherein he had reproached 
Cicero with ingratitude in refusing to assist him with his 
good offices. 

* Probably during Cicero's exile. 

y Cicero's witticism in this passage turns upon the 
double sense of the word intercessor, which, besides its 
general meaning, has relation likewise to a particular pri- 
vilege annexed to the tribunitial office. For every tribune 
had the liberty of interposing his negative upon the pro- 
ceedings of the senate ; which act was called intercessio, 
and the person who executed it was said to be the inter- 
cessor of the particular law, or other matter in deliberation. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



493 



left in the republic z . I say, you of all men living ; 
because, if the informations you gave me concern- 
ing Catiline's conspiracy were false, where are the 
services of which you remind me ? If they were 
true, you yourself are the best judge how great 
those obligations are which I have conferred upon 
every Roman in general. Farewell. 



LETTER VII. 

To P. Servilius Isauricus, Proqucestor. 
Whilst T was proconsul of Cilicia, (to which, 
you know, three Asiatic departments a were an- 

„ m nexed,) there was no man with whom I 
' ' ' entered into a stricter intimacy than with 
Andro, the son of Artemon, of Laodicea. I was 
his guest during my residence in that city, as his 
temper and manner of life extremely well accorded 
with mine. But my esteem for him rose still higher 
after I left the province, having, upon many sub- 
sequent occasions, experienced the gratitude with 
which he preserved me in his remembrance. Ac- 
cordingly, it was with great pleasure I lately saw 
him in Rome : as you will easily believe, who know, 
by the many good offices you have yourself con- 
ferred upon his countrymen, how few of them are 
disposed to be thus sensible of obligations. I 
mention these circumstances to show you, in the 
first place, that it is not without reason I interest 
myself in his concerns ; and in the next, that his 
merit well entitles him to a generous reception 
under your roof. I shall be greatly indebted to 
you, therefore, for giving him a proof of the 
regard you bear me, by receiving him into your 
protection, and assisting him in all his affairs : so 
far, I mean, as may be consistent with your con- 
venience and your honour. And this I most ear- 
nestly request, as an instance of your friendship 
that will be exceedingly agreeable to me. Farewell. 



LETTER VIII. 
To Trebianus. 
I am no less sensible of the share you allow me 
in your friendship, than I am conscious of tbat 



l. u. 707- 



affection which I have ever entertained 



for you in return. Agreeably to these 
sentiments, I always lamented that it was your 
choice, or rather, I should say, your fate, to perse- 

z Alluding to his having suppressed Catiline's conspi- 
racy. 

a The classic writers speak of Asia in three different 
senses, which, if not carefully distinguished, are apt to 
create great confusion. Sometimes they comprehend under 
the denomination of Asia, that vast tract of land which 
made up the third part in their general division of the 
whole globe ; sometimes they mean only so much of that 
continent which was terminated by the bay of Issus and 
the Pontus ; and sometimes they confine it to a still more 
limited portion, and understand by Asia that kingdom 
which Attalus Philometer, king of Pergamus, bequeathed 
to the Romans, containing Mysia, Phrygia, Ionia, Ly- 
caonia, &c. In the two former of these senses, Cilicia was 
a province of Asia ; in the latter it was not. It is with 
respect, therefore, to this last division that Cicero calls 
the three districts annexed to his government of Cilicia, 
Asiatic ; in one of which the city of Laodicea was included. 
— Sigon. de Jur. Provinc. i. 10. 



vere in our civil wars ; and I now feel the same j 
concern at the unjust delay you meet with in being 
restored to your estate and honours, as you have 
always shown in my misfortunes. I have frequently 
and fully opened my heart upon this subject, not 
only to Posthumulenus, to Sestius, and to our com- 
mon friend Atticus, but lately also to your freed- 
man Theuda ; to each of whom I have given 
repeated assurances that it is my earnest desire to 
serve both you and your children to the utmost of 
my ability. I beg, therefore, when you write to 
the latter, that you would assure them they may 
most readily command me, upon every occasion 
wherein my purse, my pains, or my sincere advice, 
(for these, at least, are still in my power) can be 
of any advantage to their affairs. If I enjoyed that 
influence and authority in the commonwealth to 
which the public services I have performed most 
justly entitle me, you, who deserve every honour 
that can be conferred, as well as confessedly the 
first of that illustrious order to which you belong b , 
should retain the same distinguished rank in the 
republic you once possessed. But since we both 
of us fell at the same time and in the same cause c , 
I can only promise you what yet remains in my 
power : the small assistance I mentioned above, 
together with that little degree of credit which I 
still, perhaps, have in some sort preserved from 
the general wreck of my former dignities. I have 
reason, indeed, from many instances, to believe ■ 
that Caesar is not averse to me : and almost all his 
principal favourites, who happen to be persons to 
whom I have formerly rendered very considerable 
services, distinguish me with peculiar marks of their 
esteem and consideration. If, therefore, I should 
find a favourable opportunity of applying to Caesar 
in your behalf (which I am more and more inclined 
to hope, from what I can discover by the conver- 
sation of these my friends), I shall not fail very 
strenuously to solicit him in person for your restor- 
ation, as it is upon the obtaining of this point that 
the recovery of your estate must depend. It is 
unnecessary to enter into particulars upon this 
article : let me only assure you, in one word, that 
I am wholly and most affectionately devoted to 
your service. But as it much imports me that all 
your family should be apprised of this truth, I" 
hope your letters will acquaint them that Trebi- 
anus may command whatever is in the power of 
Cicero to perform. I particularly mention this, as 
I am desirous they should be persuaded that there 
is nothing so difficult which I should not with plea- 
sure undertake, in order to render you any service. 
Farewell. 



LETTER IX. 

To Quintus Gallius*. 

Though I hope to receive many instances 

hereafter of the regard you bear me (of which, 

-^ indeed, you have long since rendered me 

sufficiently sensible), yet there is one 

which at present occurs, wherein you may give me 

a very convincing proof of your friendship. Lucius 

t> The equestrian. c That of Pompey. 

(1 Who this person was, is entirely unknown. He seems 
to have been setting out for the government of one of the 
eastern provinces when this letter was written. 



494 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



Oppius, the son of Marcus, is a merchant in Philo- 
melium c , with whom I am extremely intimate. 
But, besides warmly recommending him as a man 
I love, I must likewise claim your kindness to him, 
as he is an agent for Egnatius Rufus, a Roman 
knight, with whom I am most affectionately con- 
nected, not only by a daily intercourse, but by 
many and great good offices. I beseech you, then, 
to take the person of Oppius, together with the 
affairs of Egnatius, into your protection : a request 
which I make with as much zeal as if my own 
interest were concerned. Again and again, there- 
fore, I entreat your compliance. I beg, likewise, 
that you would give two or three lines to be pre- 
sented to you as a memorandum, when you shall 
arrive in your province. But I desire you would 
express them in such terms as may strongly remind 
you how very earnestly I applied in behalf of these 
my friends. Farewell. 



LETTER X. 

To Marcus Marcellus. 

I dare not pretend to advise, or to animate a 
man of your distinguished judgment and magna- 
a u. 707. mrmt y » much less shall I attempt to send 
you any consolation. If it be true, 
indeed, that you bear the sad events which have 
lately happened in the manner I am informed, I 
have more reason to congratulate your fortitude 
than to soothe your affliction. But were the fact 
entirely otherwise, and you had sunk under the 
pressure of our public misfortunes, yet I am so 
far from being qualified to alleviate your sorrows, 
that I am altogether incapable of assuaging my 
own. The single testimony, therefore, that I can 
give you of my friendship is, to convince your 
family, by my readiness in complying with all their 
requests, that there are no services so great which 
they have not reason to expect from me on your 
account. 

But, notwithstanding I just now disclaimed all 
right of sending you my admonitions, yet I can- 
not forbear saying (and you may consider it either 
as my advice, my opinion, or what my friendship 
would not suffer me to suppress) that I wish you 
would prevail with yourself to adopt the same 
measures which I have pursued, and return to 
Italy. I wish, indeed, you would be persuaded to 
think, that if the republic should in any degree 
subsist, you ought to live in it, as one who, though 
justly, and in the general estimation of the world, 
is deserving of the highest rank, yet wisely sub- 
mitted to the irresistible necessity of the times ; 
and if the republic should be totally destroyed, 
that you would look upon Rome as the most 
proper scene of exile. For, tell me, my friend, if 
liberty be the object of our pursuit, what part of 
the world is exempted from the present dominion ? 
or if some place of retirement be what we seek, 
where can we find a more eligible retreat than in 
our native country ? And, believe me, he who holds 
the supreme power is not only a friend to genius 
and literature, but disposed, as far as the circum- 

e A city of Phrygia, upon the borders of Galatia. 
f The family of Marcellus was one of the noblest in 
Rome. — See rem. n , p. 399. 



stances^ and situation of his affairs will permit, to 
pay a particular regard to those who are f distin- 
guished by their birth and dignities. But this is 
going farther than I intended. To return, there- 
fore, to the single purpose of my letter : let me 
assure you that I am wholly yours, and ready to 
co-operate with your relations in every instance 
wherein they shall approve themselves such 2. But 
if they should not, you may depend, at least, upon 
my acting, upon all occasions, agreeably to our 
friendship. Farewell. 



LETTER XL 

To Papirius Pcstus. 

I received a letter from you some time since 
by your courier Phileros, as also another three days 
a v 707 a &° k y tne bands of Zethus ; both which 
'I will now answer. It was with much 
satisfaction I found, by the former, that you were 
extremely sensible of the concern I expressed for 
your health. Believe me, however, a letter could 
but faintly represent the uneasiness I suffered upon 
that account. For though I cannot but acknowledge 
that there are many from whom I receive great 
marks of esteem and affection, yet there is not one 
in that number whom I prefer to yourself. It is 
a very great — perhaps I might say, a principal 
inducement for my holding you in this rank, that 
you have long distinguished me with an unvaried 
friendship : yet this is a circumstance which you 
share in common with many others. But your 
amiable disposition, and those agreeable qualities 
of every kind which you possess, are claims to my 
heart in which you are without a rival. To these 
I must add, I will not call it the Attic, but (what 
is far more spirited) the true old Roman wit, which 
so elegantly enlivens your conversation. I will not 
scruple, indeed, to acknowledge (whatever you may 
think of me from the confession) that I am wonder- 
fully delighted with humour ; especially with that 
sort which is of our own domestic growth. I esteem 
this latter kind so much the more, as it is now 
become extremely uncommon ; for, by the admis- 
sion some years since of the Latians h into Rome, 
and lately even of the Gauls 1 themselves, our native 
humour has been tainted with the infusion of 
foreign cant, and is almost entirely extinctJ. For 

g It appears from this and other passages in these letters, 
that some part of Marcellus's family discovered less warmth 
in promoting his welfare than seems to have been due to 
the merit of so illustrious a relation. 

h The inhabitants of Latium, a part of Italy which is 
now called the Campagna di Roma. They obtained the 
honour and advantage of being made free of Rome, towards 
the close of the Italic war, A. U. 664.— See rem. », p. 349 ; 
Pigh. Annal. ii. 226. 

1 Caesar, in the wantonness of his power, had lately ad- 
mitted several of the Gauls into the privileges of Roman 
citizens, and had even introduced some of them to a seat 
in the senate. — Suet, in Vit. Jul. Ca?s. 76. 

J It is difficult, if not altogether impossible, to deter- 
mine, with any precision, what it was that distinguished 
the spirit of this true old Roman wit and humour which 
Cicero here represents as almost entirely extinct. But, in 
general, as far as can be collected from other parts of our 
author's writings, it seems to have consisted in what they 
call urbanity .- a term, however, which they themselves 
did not well know how to explain. For when Brutus, in 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



495 



this reason, whenever I converse with you, I 
imagine myself transported back into former times, 
and to be talking with the Granii, the Lucilii, or, 
in truth, even with the Crassi and the Lselii of 
old k . There is not a single person, indeed, except 
yourself, in whom I can discover the least vein of 
that original spirit which so agreeably distinguished 
the pleasantry of our forefathers. But since to 
these uncommon charms of wit, you add the 
attractions, likewise, of so singular a friendship 
towards myself, can you wonder that I was greatly 
alarmed at your late very dangerous indisposi- 
tion ? 

As to your other letter, in which you acquit 
yourself of all intention to dissuade me from my 
Neapolitan purchase 1 , and the assurance you give 
me that you only meant to advise my continuance 
in Rome, I understood you in no other sense. 
But I suppose (and your letter now before me 
confirms the supposition) that you did not agree 
with me in thinking I might be justified, I will not 
say in wholly renouncing, but in seldom taking a 
part in public aifairs. With this view I imagine 
it was, that you reminded me of those times in 
which Catulus acted so distinguished a part m . 

the dialogue concerning the most celebrated orators, in- 
quires, " Qui est iste, tandem urbanitatis color?" Cicero 
replies, ™ Nescio, inquam. Tan turn esse quendam scio." 
Nevertheless, it appears, by what he immediately subjoins, 
to have resulted from a certain refinement of expression 
and elegancy of pronunciation which was to be found only 
amongst the most polite and cultivated natives of Rome. 
Perhaps, therefore, it was this inexplicable grace of lan- 
guage and utterance that was infected by the admission of 
these strangers into Rome ; who, probably, had intro- 
duced, among the little pretenders to wit and humour, a 
foreign tone of voice, together with an exotic turn of 
phraseology. A prevailing fashion of this kind would 
necessarily extinguish that spirit which seasoned the old 
Roman pleasantry with a nescio quo sapore vernaculo (as 
Cicero somewhere calls it), a certain exquisite taste and 
flavour peculiar to its native soil. — Cic. de Clar. Orator. 
170, et seq. 

k The several persons here mentioned were celebrated 
wits, who flourished about the time that Cicero was born, 
that is, in the consulate of C. Atilius Serranus and Q,. Ser- 
vilius Caepio, U. C. 647. The reader has already had some 
account of Laelius in rem. f , p. 334. Crassus was the most 
distinguished orator of his times, and signalised his 
eloquence when he was only twenty-one years of age, at 
the trial of C. Carbo, who was concerned in the disturb- 
ances which were raised by the Gracchi. Lucilius was a 
Roman knight, and great-uncle to Pompey. He consider- 
ably improved upon that kind of satirical poetry, which 
received its utmost perfection in the following century 
from the hands of Horace. Some fragments of his writings 
still remain. Granius was a person of low rank ; being 
only a praeco, or sort of crier, in the courts of justice. 
Cicero, however, has immortalised his memory by the 
frequent encomiums he passes upon the singular elegance 
and pleasantry of his wit and humour. — Cic. de Clar. 
Orator. 158, 159, &c. ; Dacier, Pref. sur les Sat. d'Horace, 
v 10. 

1 See the last paragraph of letter 20, book viii. 

m Q. L. Catulus was consul in the year 675, and died 
about the year 693 : during which period he had many 
opportunities of exerting his patriotism, by rising up 
against the gradual encroachments of Pompey and Caesar 
upon the public liberty. Thus he opposed, with a spirit 
worthy the best times of ancient Rome, that unlimited 
and unconstitutional commission which was granted to 
Pompey under a pretence of the piratic war ; and rendered 
himself so gloriously obnoxious to Caesar, that the latter 
endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to blast his well- 
established credit by an impeachment for embezzling the 



But tell me, my friend, what resemblance is there 
between those days and the present ? I was, at 
that period, far from being inclined to absent 
myself from the care of the republic, as I then sat 
at the helm of the commonwealth, and shared in 
the direction of its most important motions 11 . But 
now I can scarce claim the privilege to officiate 
even in the lowest functions of the state. Were I 
to reside, therefore, altogether at Naples, would 
there be a single decree of the senate the less by 
my absence ? On the contrary, though I live in 
Rome, and appear publicly in the forum, they are 
settled by our friend in his own house, entirely 
without my participation. If I happen, however, 
to occur to his memory, he sometimes does me the 
honour to prefix my name p. Accordingly, I am 
often informed, from Syria and Armenia, that a 
decree of the senate is published in those pro- 
vinces, and published, too, as made on my motion, 
of which I had never heard the 'least mention 
before. You will suspect, perhaps, that I am not 
serious ; but, be assured, I speak the literal truth. 
I have at this instant letters in my possession from 
the remotest potentates of the globe, returning me 
thanks for having procured them an acknowledg- 
ment of their regal title from the senate i: when 
I was so far from knowing they were honoured with 
that appellation, that I was utterly ignorant there 
were any such persons existing. Nevertheless, as 
long as this superintendant of our manner s T shall 
continue in Rome, I will comply with your advice ; 
but the moment he leaves us s , I shall certainly set 
out to join you over a plate of mushrooms 1 . If I 
can procure a house at Naples, it is my purpose, 

public treasure. In short, the welfare of his country was 
the great and constant object of his . unwearied labours ; 
in which he persevered with a zeal and resolution which 
no fears or hopes could shake, and which Cato, of all his 
contemporaries, seems alone to have equalled.— Pigh. 
Annal. ii. 279 ; Dio, xxxvi. p. 18, 49, 50 ; Orat. pro Sext. 
47- 

n The consulate of Cicero fell within the period men- 
tioned in the preceding remark ; that is, in the year 690. 

Caesar. 

P It was usual, in drawing up the decrees of the senate, 
to prefix the names of those senators who were principally 
concerned in promoting them. 

1 It was the ambition of foreign princes to obtain an 
acknowledgment of their regal title from the senate, and 
to be declared friends and allies of the republic ; an honour 
which, in the more regular times of the Roman govern- 
ment, was but rarely granted, and only in consideration of 
some signal services. But in that general corruption 
which preceded the ruin of the commonwealth, this 
honour became venal, as it supplied a very plentiful 
stream of wealth to those leading men in the state who 
were not ashamed to prostitute the most sacred privileges 
to their insatiable avarice. Caesar, in particular, drew 
immense riches from this single source ; a strong instance 
of which has already been produced in rem. \ p. 344 ; Caes. 
De Bell. Gall. i. 43 ; Suet, in Vit. Jul. Caes. 54. 

r This title had lately been decreed to Caesar, by which 
he was invested with all the power of the censorial office, 
without the name. It does not appear for what reason he 
chose this appellation rather than that of censor. Some 
have supposed that it was from an affectation of modesty ; 
but they who assign this reason seem to forget that Caesar 
did not blush to be associated with the gods in the public 
worship of his degenerate Romans.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. 
Caes. 76; Appian. De Bell. Civ. iii. p. 494. 

s Caesar was at this time preparing to set out upon his 
expedition against the two sons of Pompey, who had 
assembled a very considerable army in Spain. 

1 This dish was in great esteem among the Romans. 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



you must know, to live so abstemiously, that what 
our late sumptuary law u allows for one day's 
expense shall suffice me for ten. But if I cannot 
meet with one to my satisfaction, I intend to be 
your guest ; and I am sure it is not in my power to 
oblige you more. 

Though I mentioned in my last that I almost 
despaired of Sylla's house, yet I have not absolutely 
given up all thoughts of that purchase. Agreeably 
therefore to your offer, I beg you would take some 
workmen with you in order to survey it ; for if the 
walls and roof are in a good repair, I shall perfectly 
well approve of all the rest. Farewell. 



u. 707. 



LETTER XII. 
To Trebonius. 

Though I had always a great affection for 
Dolabella, yet I never received any favour from 
him till now. Indeed, he never before 
had an opportunity of repaying those 
good offices he owed me for having more than once 
stood forth in his defence. But his late zeal in 
protecting your estate, together with his present 
assistance in promoting your restoration, have so 
abundantly satisfied every claim I have to his 
services, that there is no man to whom I think 
myself more strongly obliged. I take so sincere 
a part with you in the joy of this event, that in- 
stead of your thanks, I expect your congratulations. 
The former, indeed, I by no means desire ; but the 
latter you may, with great propriety, send me. 

Since your distinguished merit has thus removed 
all obstructions to your return, it will be agreeable 
to your good sense and greatness of mind, to forget 
all that you have lost, and reflect only on the 
advantages you have recovered. You will remember, 
then, that you are restored to your family and to 
your friends ; and that whatever you have suffered 
in your estate is considerably overbalanced by the 
{ glory you have acquired ; which, I am persuaded, 
i would be still more acceptable to you if the republic 
had in any degree subsisted. 

I have received a letter from my friend Vestorius, 
wherein he informs me of the grateful mention you 
make of my services. I am extremely obliged to 
you for your professions of this kind in general, 
but particularly for those you expressed to our 
friend Syro v ; as I am greatly desirous to approve 
my conduct upon all occasions to every sensible 
and judicious man. I hope to see you very soon. 
Farewell. 

u This law was enacted by Caesar soon after his return 
from the African war. It regulated the expenses of the 
Romans, not only with regard to their tables, but also 
their dress, equipage, furniture, and buildings. But Caesar 
seems to have found it a much easier task to corrupt than 
to reform ; for though he was very desirous of enforcing 
this salutary law, yet it appears to have been extremely 
ill observed.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. CflBa. 43 ; Ad Att. xiii. 7. 

▼ A celebrated Epicurean philosopher, who is said to 
have been Virgil's preceptor. 



tj. 707. 



LETTER XIII. 

To Marcus Brutus™. 
I am persuaded that your quaestor, Marcus 
Varro x , who is setting out to attend you, needs no 
^ recommendation to your favour ; for I 
doubt not that, in conformity to the 
maxims of our forefathers, you look upon his office 
as giving him a sufficient title to your regard. And 
I need not tell you, that it was the policy of 
ancient times to consider the relation between a 
proconsul and his qusestor, as next to that of a 
father and son. However, as Varro imagines that 
a' letter from me will have great weight, and has 
pressed me to write to you in the strongest terms, 
I willingly perform an office which he believes will 
prove so much to his advantage. That you may 
be sensible I ought not to refuse this request, I 
must inform you that he cultivated my friendship 
from his first appearance in the forum ; as, in his 
more mature years, two circumstances concurred 
which extremely increased the affection I had con- 
ceived for him : the one, that he distinguished 
himself, as you well know, with great genius and 
application in that persuasive art in which I still 
take particular pleasure ; the other, that he early 
became a member of the society for farming the 
public revenues. I wish, indeed, that he had never 
embarked in their concerns, as he has been a 
considerable sufferer by his engagements of this 
sort. However, his union with a company for 
whose interests I have so great a regard was one 
means of more strongly cementing our friendship. 

w Marcus Brutus was nephew to Cato, whose virtues 
he had the just ambition to copy. He seems, however, in 
some points, to have fallen short of the model he proposed 
to imitate ; as he by no means acted up to that inflexible 
uniformity of conduct which renders the character of Cato 
so gloriously singular. Thus, though Brutus, at the battle 
of Pharsalia, engaged on the side of Pompey, yet, imme- 
diately after the unsuccessful event of that action, he not 
only made his peace with Caesar, but was willing to con- 
tribute to the ruin of that cause in which he had so lately 
engaged. For when Caesar was doubtful what route 
Pompey had taken in his flight, it was by the advice and 
information of Brutus that he followed him into Egypt. 
Caesar, just before he set out for Africa, appointed Brutus 
governor of Cisalpine Gaul, which he administered with 
great moderation and integrity. It was during his resi- 
dence in this province, that the present and following 
letters addressed to him in this book appear to have been 
written.— Plut. in Vit. Brut. 

x Some of the commentators have supposed that this is 
the celebrated Marcus Terentius Varro, to whom several 
letters in the preceding book are addressed. But Cellarius 
has justly observed, that the age and dignity of that illus- 
trious Roman render it highly improbable he should at 
this time have been quaestor to Brutus, who was a much 
younger man than himself. Perhaps the person recom- 
mended in this letter is the same whom Horace mentions 
as an unsuccessful adventurer in satiric poetry:— 

" Hoc crat, exporto frustra Varrone Atacino, 

Atque quibusdam aliis, melius quod scriberc possem." 
Sat. x. lib. i. 46. 
For the commentators upon these lines inform us, that 
the poet here spoken of was Terentius Varro. a native of the 
city of Atax, in the Narbonensian Gaul, from which he was 
called AtadntU, and who was born in the year of Rome 
(i7:?. lie must, consequently, in the present year have 
been thirty-four, which perfectly well coincides with the 
age one may justly suppose the person to have been in 
whose favour this letter is written. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



497 



After having acted with the highest integrity and 
applause, both as an advocate and a judge, he 
turned his ambition (long indeed before this revo- 
lution in the commonwealth had taken place) upon 
obtaining some employment in the magistracy ; 
and he esteemed the honours of this kind, which 
his country should confer upon him, as the noblest 
reward of all his former services. During my late 
residence at Brundisium^, he obligingly charged 
himself with carrying a letter and a message from 
me to Caesar ; and he gave me a very strong proof 
of his affection, in the zeal and fidelity with which 
he undertook and executed this generous com- 
mission. 

I purposed, after having thus assigned the reasons 
which induce me to give Varro my friendship, to 
have particularly pointed out the virtues of his 
heart; but I think I must have sufficiently rendered 
you sensible of these, by declaring upon what 
motives he has so strongly engaged my affection. 
Nevertheless, I will here, in a more distinct and 
explicit manner, assure you, that you will receive 
much satisfaction and advantage from the company 
and assistance of my friend. You will find him, 
indeed, to be a man of singular modesty and good 
sense, as well as of indefatigable application to 
business, at the same time that he is an entire 
stranger to immoderate desires of every kind. I 
know not whether I ought to promise thus far in 
his behalf, as his character, after all, must be 
referred to your own experience. But in forming 
new connexions of every sort, it is of much im- 
portance in what manner the first approaches are 
made, and by whose hands the avenues of friendship 
(if I may so express myself) are laid open. It is 
this office that I have here undertaken ; and though 
the employment in which Varro stands related to 
you may well render my services unnecessary, yet 
they certainly cannot render them prejudicial. If, 
then, I possess that share in your esteem which 
Varro imagines, and which I myself am persuaded 
I enjoy, let me soon have the satisfaction of hearing 
that my friend has received all the advantages from 
this letter that are agreeable to his own hopes, and 
to my firm expectations. Farewell. 



LETTER XIV. 

To Ligarius 1 . 

Though, agreeably to the friendship which 

subsists between us, I ought to have offered you 

either assistance or consolation under 

a. v. 7 7- y Qur m i s fortunes ; yet I have hitherto 

forborne waiting, in the belief that it was not in the 

power of mere words to remove or alleviate your 

afflictions. But, as I have now reason to entertain 

the strongest hopes of shortly seeing you restored 

to your country, I cannot any longer omit to 

y Cicero, upon his return to Italy, after the battle of 
Pharsalia, resided at Brundisium till Caesar's arrival. 

z Quintus Ligarius was lieutenant to C. Considius, pro- 
consul of Africa, in the year 703 ; in which post he gained 
the general esteem of the whole province. Accordingly, 
at their unanimous request, Considius, upon his departure 
for Rome, resigned the administration into the hands of 
Ligarius. During his residence in that station, the civil 
war broke out ; and he was at this time buttering exile, for 
having acted upon that occasion on the side of Pompey. — 
Orat. pro Ligar. 1 ; see rem. e on letter 2G of this book. 



acquaint you with my sentiments and inclination 
concerning your affairs. In the first place, then, 
I am well convinced that you will by no means find 
Csesar inexorable. The situation of public circum- 
stances, a regard to his character in the world, 
length of time, together with what appears to me 
to be his natural temper, these all concur to soften 
his resentment every day more and more. This, I 
imagine, will appear to be his disposition towards 
all in general who have offended him ; but that it 
is particularly so with respect to yourself, I will 
assure you upon the authority of his most intimate 
friends. I have never ceased to solicit them in 
your behalf ever since we received the first news 
from Africa 3 : and your brothers have, with equal 
assiduity, joined me in these applications. Their 
virtues, indeed, together with that affectionate and 
unwearied zeal with which they enter into your 
cause, are so extremely engaging, that I am per- 
suaded even Caesar himself cannot refuse anything 
to their requests' 5 . But if we do not advance with 
all the expedition we wish, it must be imputed to 
those numberless and important occupations which 
render Caesar difficult of access ; as it is to him 
alone that every suit is now preferred. To this I 
must add, that as he was particularly incensed by 
the late war fomented against him in Africa, he was 
inclined to keep those so much longer in suspense 
concerning their fate, to whom he imagines it was 
owing that he had so many additional difficulties to 
encounter. But his resentment, even upon this 
article also, appears evidently to be cooling ; and I 
desire you would both believe and remember the 
assurance I here give you, that you will soon be 
removed from your present uneasy situation. 

Having thus acquainted you with my sentiments 
of your affairs, I had rather leave it to my actions 
than professions, to declare how much I wish to 
assist you in them. Let me assure you, however, 
if I possessed that influence in the commonwealth 
which you are pleased to think I have merited by 
my services, you should have no reason to regret 

your present circumstances But, alas ! the same 

cause for which you are suffering in your person, 
has impaired me in my credit. But whatever 
remains to me of my former authority ; whatever 
shadow still attends me of that dignity I once 
enjoyed ; in a word, as far as my advice, my 
assistance, or my interest can avail, they shall, upon 
all occasions, be faithfully employed in seconding 
the pious zeal of your excellent brothers. In the 
mean time, preserve that manly composure of 
mind which you have always possessed. You 
ought to do so, indeed, in the first place, for the 
reasons I have already assigned ; and in the next, 
because your public conduct has ever been such as 
to afford you a just ground to entertain the most 
favourable hopes. But were your prospect entirely 
the reverse, yet a consciousness of the integrity of 
all your counsels and actions, with regard to the 
commonwealth, should enable you to support the 
worst that can happen with a firm and unshaken 
fortitude. Farewell. 

a Concerning Caesar's victory over Scipio. 

*> The two brothers of Ligarius seem to have stood neuters 
in the civil war. But one of them had something more 
than a mere negative merit to plead, as he had distin- 
guished himself, during his quaestorship, by promoting 
the honours and interest of Ca>&ar.— Orat. pro Ligar. 12. 



K K 



498 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XV. 
To Marcus Brutus. 
I have always had the .satisfaction to observe, 
that you were particularly inquisitive into every 
707 circumstance relating to me. I doubt 
not, therefore, of your being apprised, not 
only that Arpinum is the place of my nativity, but 
that, upon all occasions, I zealously patronise the 
interests of this city. The whole of their revenues 
for religious purposes, as also for the repairs of 
their temples and other public buildings, arises 
entirely from their estates in Gaul. Accordingly, 
we have despatched Quintus Fufidius, Marcus 
Faucius, and Quintus Mamercus, each of them 
persons of equestrian rank, in order to collect the 
rents, and to inspect our affairs in that province. 
I therefore recommend them to your particular 
protection, entreating you, by our mutual friend- 
ship, to assist them in the speedy and successful 
discharge of their commission, and to distinguish 
their persons, agreeably to your usual politeness, 
with every possible mark of honour. You will, by 
these means, add three very worthy men to the 
number of your friends, as well as oblige a com- 
munity extremely sensible of the good offices they 
receive. Let me add, too, you will perform a 
service highly acceptable also to myself ; who, as 
I have at all times stood forth the patron of the 
Arpinates, am in a more especial manner engaged 
to take their interests under my protection during 
the present year. For, in order to the better 
government of this corporation, I have procured 
my son and nephew, together with my friend 
Marcus Csesius, to be chosen sediles ; the only 
magistrates which our city admits. It will be much, 
therefore, to the credit of their administration, as 
well as a particular honour to myself, if the affairs 
of this community, during their office, should, by 
the assistance of your generous services, be placed 
in a more advantageous posture. For which pur- 
pose I must again most earnestly conjure you to 
comply with my present request. Farewell. 



LETTER XVI. 

To the same. 
I have, in a separate letter, recommended to 
you, with all possible warmth, the commissaries 
a. u. 707. a PP ointe d by the city of Arpinum. But 
I shall here single out one of them in 
particular, and desire your peculiar regards to 
Q. Fufidius, a person with whom I am united by 
every friendly tie. I do not mean, however, by 
thus distinguishing him from the rest, to lessen 
the weight of my general recommendation, but 
only to add this as a sort of supplement to what I 
have there requested. Fufidius, who is son-in-law 
to my particular friend Marcus Csesius, acted 
under me in Cilicia, in quality of military tri- 
bune ; and he acquitted himself so much to my 
satisfaction, that I had reason to think I received 
a favour, instead of bestowing one, when I nomi- 
nated him to that employment. To this I must 
add, what I know will considerably raise him in 
your esteem, that he has a taste and genius for our 
favourite studies. Let me entreat you, then, to 
receive my friend with the most distinguishing 



marks of your politeness, and to assist him in the 
more effectual discharge of an office which he 
accepted merely in compliance with my persuasions, 
and contrary to his own convenience. But as it is 
the ambition of every man of a generous mind to 
be approved in all his actions, Fufidius is desirous 
of executing this commission in such a manner as 
to merit not only my applause in particular, who 
engaged him to undertake it, but that, likewise, of 
our whole community, in general. Now this he 
will undoubtedly receive, if my recommendation 
should procure him your friendly offices. Farewell. 



LETTER XVII. 

To Servius Sulpicius. 
The excuse you allege for so frequently sending 
me duplicates of your letters, I very readily admit ; 
a. u 707. so ^ ar ' mean > as it relates to your cau- 
tion of guarding against the negligence 
or treachery of those who undertake to deliver 
them. But when you add, that a poverty of 
genius likewise (to use your own expression) 
obliges you to this continual repetition, it is an 
apology I can neither approve nor allow. On the 
contrary, I who am enriched, as you ironically tell 
me (for in that sense I understand your compli- 
ment) with all the treasures of eloquence, and 
who, in good earnest, do not think myself wholly 
destitute of them ; even I am far from pretending 
to equal the delicacy and elegance of your compo- 
sitions. 

I always approved of your having accepted the 
government of Achaia ; but much more so after I 
had read your last letter. The several reasons you 
mention are every one of them perfectly just, and 
altogether worthy of that prudence and dignity 
which distinguishes your character. But I can by 
no means agree with you in thinking that this affair 
has proved so different from what you expected as 
to give you just occasion to condemn the step you 
have taken. The truth of it is, the dreadful con- 
fusion and desolation which this detestable civil 
war has universally spread, inclines every man to 
imagine that both himself, and the scene in which 
he happens to be placed, are, of all others, the 
most completely miserable. Hence it is that you 
repent of the choice you have made, and look upon 
us as much happier who remain at Rome ; whereas 
we, on the contrary, though we do not suppose 
your situation is wholly without its inconveniences, 
yet think it greatly preferable to our own. In one 
respect I am sure it is so, as you have at least the 
happiness of daring to write your complaints ; 
which is more than we can do with any safety. 
This, however, is not to be imputed to the con- 
queror, who conducts himself, it must be acknow- 
ledged, with the utmost moderation ; but is entirely 
owing to that general spirit of insolence which 
victory, in all civil wars, never fails to inspire. The 
single point in which our situation can pretend to 
have had the advantage of yours, is, that it gave us 
the satisfaction not only of knowing somewhat 
earlier than you could, that your colleague Mar- 
cellus c has obtained his pardon, but of being 
witnesses in what manner that whole affair was 



c Sulpicius and Mareellus were colleagues in the office of 
consul. — An. Urb. 702. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



49y 



conducted. For, be assured, it is the only honour- 
able transaction of a public nature that has passed 
amongst us since the breaking out of this calami- 
tous civil war. Caesar, after having complained of 
the acrimony (as he called it) with which Marcellus 
had opposed him, and mentioned, with the highest 
applause, the equity and prudence of your conduct 
in the same conjuncture d , on a sudden, and much 
beyond our expectations, declared, that notwith- 
standing he had so much reason to complain of 
Marcellus, he could not refuse to pardon him at 
the general request of the senate. For I should 
have told you, that as soon as Lucius Piso had 
mentioned in the senate the affair of Marcellus, 
and his relation Caius Marcellus had thrown him- 
self at Caesar's feet, the whole house unanimously 
rose up, and approaching towards Caesar, joined 
in one common intercession. In short, there was 
something so truly glorious in the transaction of 
that day, that I could not but look upon it as a 
sort of symptom that the republic was again 
reviving. All the senators who had been asked e 
their opinion before me, severally returned their 
acknowledgments to Caesar, except Volcatius f , who 
declared that he would not have made them, even 
if he had been in the place of Marcellus himself. 
But when it came to my turn, I instantly changed 
a resolution which I had long formed. I had de- 
termined, not from indolence, believe me, but as 
being sensible of the want of that authority which 
once attended my eloquence, to preserve a perpe- 
tual silence in public. But the greatness of mind 
which Caesar discovered upon this occasion, toge- 
ther with that noble zeal which broke forth at the 
same time in the senate, entirely overcame the 
strength of my resolution, and I addressed my 
acknowledgments to Caesar in a long harangue s. 
This, I fear, may prove the occasion, in other 
instances, of drawing me out from that literary 
retirement, which affords the single consolation I 
receive under our general misfortunes. Never- 
theless, since I have, by this means, avoided giving 
Caesar offence, who, perhaps, would have inter- 

d That is, during the consulate of Sulpicius and Mar- 
cellus. See an account of his conduct at this critical 
period, in rem. z ,p. 454. 

e When a question was moved in the senate, the method 
of debating upon it was, that the consul, after having 
delivered his own opinion, proceeded to ask the opinions 
of all the other senators severally by name, and in their 
proper order ; beginning always with the consulars, and 
going on to the praetorians, &c. — Mid. on the R. S. p. 150. 

f Probably the person here mentioned is Lucius Vol- 
catius Tullus, who was consul in the year 687- The noble 
spirit which he showed upon this occasion, in scorning to 
thank Caesar for what the usurper ought to have had no 
power to bestow, was worthy of the best ages of the 
republic : and though Cicero speaks of it without the least 
approbation, it was the only circumstance in this business 
that merited his applause. For must it not have affected 
a true patriot with the utmost concern and indignation, 
to see the Roman senate, that august council of the whole 
world (as Cicero himself has somewhere called it), humbly 
supplicating, at the feet of Cassar, for the restoration of 
one of the most illustrious citizens of the commonwealth ? 

S This speech is still extant : and perhaps it is one of the 
noblest monuments that remains of the grace and energy 
of ancient eloquence. It abounds with the most spirited 
and best-turned compliments that wit ever paid to power : 
for which the severest patriotism could scarce condemn 
Cicero, as they all artfully tend to induce Caesar to restore 
the republic. 



preted my silence into a proof that I considered 
the republic as no longer subsisting, I shall now 
and then resume this practice : I shall resume it, 
however, extremely seldom, and only just enough 
to comply with his inclinations, without interrupt- 
ing my philosophical studies. For though I was 
early devoted to all the liberal arts and sciences, 
and particularly to philosophy, yet I find my 
passion for her growing still stronger upon me 
every day I live : perhaps it is because age has 
rendered me more mature for the lessons of wisdom, 
and that the misery of the times has deprived me 
of every other relief. I perceive by your letters 
that you are called off by numberless occupations 
from studies of this kind : I hope, however, that 
the long nights will now afford you some leisure to 
resume them. 

Your son (and let me call him also mine) dis- 
tinguishes me with great marks of his consideration ; 
as in return I admire him not only for his probity 
and virtue, but for his learning and genius. He 
frequently confers with me in relation to your 
resigning, or continuing in your government ; and 
I still remain in the same opinion, that we should 
neither of us take any measures but such as shall 
be perfectly agreeable to Caesar. Affairs are so 
situated at Rome, that you could find no other 
satisfaction in being here than what would arise 
from enjoying the company of your friends and 
family. For though Caesar's conduct is unexcep- 
tionable, yet with respect to all the rest, both of 
persons and circumstances, I am sure you would 
much rather (if one or other must necessarily be 
your choice) receive an account of them from 
others than be a spectator of them yourself. When 
I say this, it is in preference of your interest to 
my own ; as upon all other considerations I am 
extremely desirous of seeing you amongst us. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XVIII. 

To Marcus Brutus. 
Lucius Castronius P^etus is by far the most 
considerable person in the city of Lucca ; but not 
A 7Q7 more distinguished, however, by his birth 
and rank, than by the solidity of his un- 
derstanding, and the friendliness of his disposition. 
In one word,. he is in every respect a most worthy 
man. I might add, too, (if it were of any import- 
ance to his character,) that he is not only conspi- 
cuous for his eminent virtues, but for his affluent 
fortunes. I converse with him upon terms of the 
most unreserved intimacy ; and, indeed, there is 
no man of senatorian rank whom he treats with 
greater marks of esteem. I therefore recommend 
him to you, not only as my friend, but as worthy 
of being yours. And I am very sure, that what- 
ever service you shall render him will afford a 
satisfaction to yourself, as well as confer an obliga- 
tion upon me. Farewell. 



K K 2 



500 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XIX. 

To Marcus Marcellus. 
I sent you a long letter h , a very few days ago, 
by Quintius Mucius ; wherein I fully explained 
, TT M ft w my sentiments with respect to the dispo- 

A. IT. /U/. . \ . . i • i t i i ii 

sition and conduct which 1 thought would 
become you in the present conjuncture. Never- 
theless, as your freedman Theophilus (of whose 
faithful affection towards you I have been a witness) 
is setting out for Greece, I Was unwilling he should 
j wait upon you without bringing a letter from me. 
To repeat what I urged in my last ; let me again 
most earnestly exhort you, whatever the form of 
our government be, to return to Rome as soon as 
possible. It is true, you will have the mortifica- 
tion, perhaps, to see many things that will give 
you pain ; but not more, however, than you every 
day learn from common report. Now, it would 
be unworthy a man of your character, to be affected 
only with what passes before his view, when he 
can hear the very same facts related (and probably 
magnified too) with less concern. But you will 
tell me, perhaps, that should you return to Rome, 
you must submit either to act or to speak in con- 
tradiction to the sentiments of your heart. In 
answer to which, I must observe, in the first place, 
that it has ever been deemed the part of true 
wisdom, to yield to the circumstances of the times ; 
or, to express the same thing in other words, to 
comply with unavoidable necessity : and, in the 
next place, that, as matters now stand, the con- 
straint you fear is in no sort among the number of 
our present grievances. It is possible, indeed, 
that you may not be at liberty openly to declare 
your opinions ; but totally silent you may un- 
doubtedly be. For the sole cognizance of all 
affairs is centred in a single person 1 ; and he de- 
termines as seems good to himself, without con- 
sulting any of his party. And this would have 
been pretty much the case, had that other chief J, 
whose cause we chose to follow, been now in pos- 
session of the commonwealth. For at a time when 
we were all embarked with him in the same common 
danger, he admitted none into his council but 
those that were ill qualified to be his advisers. 
And can it be supposed that he would have placed 
himself more upon a level with us after victory 
than when his success was altogether doubtful ? Is 
it to be imagined, that he who rejected those most 
prudent measures you recommended in your con- 
sulate, and refused, likewise, to follow the concur- 
rent sentiments of you and your relation k who 
succeeded you in that office, and administered it 
by your counsels — is it to be imagined that such a 
man, were he now at the head of the common- 
wealth, would consult either your opinion or mine ? 
All civil wars abound with numberless calamities : 
a truth which though our ancestors were so happy 
as never once to have experienced, the present 
generation too frequently has '. But amidst its 
many miserable consequences, none is more justly 

h This letter is not extant: bnt it probably contained 
an account of what had passed in the senate, concerning 
the restoration of MaroeUuEi — See letter 17 of this book, 
p, 499. 

» Caesar. J Pompey. k Cuius Marcellus, 

1 The first civil war, in the strict acceptation of that 
term, which Home had ever seen, was between Marius and 
Sylla ; about forty-two years before the date of this letter. 



to be dreaded than victory itself. For though it 
should turn on the more meritorious side, yet it 
will be apt to inspire even these with a spirit of 
insolence and cruelty : and if they should not be 
so by inclination, they at least will by necessity. 
For, in many instances, the victor must find him- 
self constrained to comply with the will of those 
who assisted him in his conquest. Tell me, my 
friend, did we not both foresee what cruelties 
would have been exercised if our party had proved 
! successful ? And would you, in that case, have 
lived an exile from your country, that you might 
not have been a spectator of so sad a scene ? I 
know you will reply in the negative ; and will assure 
me, that you should then have remained in the un- 
disturbed possession of your estate and honours. 
Yet certainly it would have become a man of your 
patriotic spirit to have been far less concerned for 
his own interest than for that of the republic. 

But to what purpose, let me farther ask, should 
you persevere in banishing yourself from Rome ? 
Hitherto, indeed, the world has approved your 
conduct, in having entered into the civil war with 
reluctance, and in having wisely declined pushing 
it to its last desperate extremity. The world 
admires, too, your good fortune (as it may justly 
be called, considering the distracted state of the 
times) in having been able to maintain your dig- 
nity and reputation in an honourable retreat. But 
the time is now arrived when you ought to think 
no place more desirable than your native country. 
If she appears less beautiful than formerly, this 
circumstance should not diminish your affection, 
but rather raise your compassion : and as there 
are so many illustrious citizens whose loss she 
deplores, you should spare her the additional sorrow 
of being deprived likewise of you. If you dis- 
covered a true greatness of spirit in scorning to be 
the suppliant of Caesar's power, may you not betray 
too much pride in contemning the offers of his 
clemency ? And if you acted wisely in withdraw- 
ing from your country, may it not be thought 
insensibility, should you show no desire of return- 
ing ? In a word, though you should take no satis- 
faction in public affairs, yet surely it is imprudent 
to abandon your own. But, above all, let me 
entreat you to consider whether your present situ- 
ation is as secure as it may perhaps be agreeable. 
Violences are everywhere committed with great 
licentiousness ; but more particularly in foreign 
countries, where villany is less restrained by awe 
and shame from its cruel purposes. I mention 
this from my concern for your welfare ; which is 
so great, indeed, that if it be not equal, it is 
certainly, at least, inferior only to that of your 
relation Marcellus '". Believe me, then, it becomes 
you to act agreeably to the circumstances of the 
times, and with a rational regard to the preserva- 
tion of your life and fortunes. Farewell. 
— ♦ — 

LETTER XX. 

Marcus Marcellus" to Cicero. 

I have upon every occasion shown you, but 

particularly in the present, that I pay the highest 

7(r regard to your sentiments and advice. 

Accordingly, notwithstanding my very 



»i Cains Marcellus, 

» This letter seems to be an answer to that which is 
mentioned in the first remark on the preceding epistle. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



501 



affectionate relation Caius Marcellus had not only- 
entreated, but earnestly conjured me to act in the 
manner you recommend, yet his persuasions could 
by no means prevail, till I found them supported 
by yours. 

I am indebted to your letter for a particular 
account of the manner in which this affair has 
been transacted ; and I am extremely obliged to 
you for your congratulations thereupon, as I know 
they proceed from an excellent heart. But among 
the very few friends and relations who have sin- 
cerely endeavoured to promote my recal, nothing 
in this whole transaction affords me so true a joy 
as to have experienced your singular zeal and 
good-will towards me. Everything else, indeed, 
the calamities of the times have taught me to 
resign with great tranquillity and indifference : 
but to be deprived of the friendship of men of your 
worth and character, would render life, under every 
circumstance, altogether insupportable. It is upon 
the enjoyment, therefore, of this privilege that I 
chiefly congratulate myself; and I shall endeavour 
to convince you, that you have conferred your 
good offices upon one who is most sincerely and 
warmly your friend. Farewell. 



LETTER XXI. 

To Marcus Brutus. 
Lucius Titius Strabo is one of the most 
illustrious and most distinguished of our Roman 
_ ()7 knights. I live with him in the strictest 
familiarity, as indeed we are united by 
every kind of friendly connexion. He claims a 
debt which is owing to him in your province, from 
Publius Cornelius : but Volcatius, who presides in 
our court of justice at Rome, having refused to 
take cognizance of the cause, has directed it to be 
tried in Gaul. I request your assistance, therefore, 
in bringing this affair to a speedy determination ; 
and I request it so much the more earnestly than if 
it were my own, as a man may with a better grace be 
more anxious for the pecuniary concerns that relate 
to his friend than to himself. Let me entreat you, 
then, to take the whole conduct of this business 
under your immediate direction. And I hope you 
will endeavour, as far as justice shall permit, that 
Strabo's freedman, who is employed to manage this 
suit, may recover the money in question with as 
little trouble and expense as possible. In this you 
will greatly oblige me : and you will find, likewise, 
that Strabo is extremely deserving of your friend- 
ship. Again and again, therefore, I conjure you 
to take his interest under your protection, with the 
same care you are wont to exert in every instance 
that you know will be agreeable to me. Farewell. 

The person who so presided was, according to the con- 
stitution of the Roman government, the prcetor urbanus, 
or city praetor : hut Caesar would not suffer the people to 
proceed this year to the usual election of their magistrates, 
excepting only with respect to the tribunes and aediles. 
Instead of praetors, therefore, he arbitrarily appointed a 
certain number of persons to administer the civil juris- 
diction of the city ; which is the reason (as one of the com- 
mentators conjectures) that Cicero does not call Volcatius 
by the proper title of his office.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Caes. 76. 



i. v. 707- 



LETTER XXII. 

To L. Papirius Pcetus. 
I write this letter in great haste upon my 
tablets, in the midst of an entertainment p at the 
house of Volumnius. We lay down about 
the ninth houri ; and I am placed with 
your friends Atticus on my right hand, and Verrius 
on my left. You will wonder to find that I can 
pass my time thus jovially in the midst of servitude. 
Yet tell me, my friend, you who are the disciple of 
a philosopher, what else should I do ? And to what 
purpose should I torment myself with endless dis- 
quietudes? " Spend your days," you will probably 
reply, "in literary occupations." But can you 
imagine I have any other ? or that, without them, 
my very being would not be utterly insupportable ? 
However, though employments of this kind cannot 
satiate, there is a certain time, nevertheless, when 
it is proper to lay them aside. Now, at such 
intervals, though a party at supper is not altogether 
a point of so much importance to me as it was to 
you, when you made it the single subject of your 
arch query to the philosopher 1 ; yet I know not 
in what manner I can more agreeably dispose of 
myself till the hour of sleep. But I was going to 
name the rest of our company, and to tell you that 
Cytheris s is reclined 1 at the left hand of Eutrapelus. 
You will be astonished, I suppose, to find your 
grave and philosophical friend in such society, and 
will be apt to cry out with the poet u , 
" And is this he, the man so late renown *d ? 
Whom virtue honour'd, and whom glory crown'd ; 
This the famed chief, of every tongue the praise : 
Of Greece the wonder, and of crowds the gaze." 
The truth of the matter is, I had not the least sus- 
picion that this fair lady was to be of our party. 
However, I have the example of the Socratic 
Aristippus v , to keep me in countenance ; who, when 

P The time of meals seems a very .extraordinary season 
for the purpose of writing letters. However, it was cus- 
tomary with the Romans to employ themselves in this 
manner between the several courses: and they usually 
carried tablets about them for that use. Plutarch informs 
us that Caesar generally signed his despatches at table. — 
Plut. in Vit. Jul. Caes. 

q The Romans reclined themselves upon couches at their 
meals. The ninth hour answers to our three o'clock in the 
afternoon, and was the usual time when they made their 
last and principal meal. 

r The story to which Cicero here alludes is more expli- 
citly mentioned in a subsequent part of this letter. 

s A celebrated courtesan, who, a few years before the 
date of this letter, had been a very favourite mistress of 
Mark Antony. If the authority of Servius may be relied 
upon, she is the Lycoris whose infidelity to the poet Gall us 
is the subject of the last of Virgil's pastorals. — Plut. in Vit. 
Anton. Serv. ; in Virg. Eclog. 10. 

1 The reclining posture, at table, was esteemed indecent 
for women, and only practised by those of a loose cha- 
racter ; as the Roman ladies of modesty always sat at 
their meals. 

u Manutius supposes that the verses here quoted are 
from a tragedy of the poet Ennius. entitled " Telamon ;" 
which is frequently mentioned by the. ancient gram- 
marians. 

v He was a disciple of Socrates ; but either mistaking or 
perverting the lessons of his excellent master, ho main- 
tained that " sensual pleasure was the supreme and ulti- 
mate good." His practice was agreeable to his doctrine, 
and he spent his life (a groat part of which he i>;t>!-eu at 
the court of Dionysius, the Sicilian tyrant) in every kind 



502 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



he was reproached with having a commerce of 
gallantry with the Corinthian courtesan, ' Tis true, 
replied the philosopher, (without being in the least 
disconcerted) I possess Lais, but Lais possesses not 
me. The expression is much stronger in the 
original w , and I leave you, if you think proper, to 
render it in its full import. In the mean time, let 
me assure you that I never had any passion of this 
sort even when I was a young fellow, and much 
less now that I am an old one. But my great 
delight is in these festive meetings, where 1 throw 
out just what comes uppermost, and laugh away 
the sighs and sorrows of my heart. Nor were you 
yourself in a more serious mood, my friend, when 
even a venerable philosopher could not escape your 
raillery, to whom, when he was inquiring if the 
company had any questions to propose to him x , 
you replied, with great gravity, that " it had been a 
question with you the whole morning, where you 
should find a party to sup ? " The formal pedant 
expected, perhaps, that you were going to ask him 
whether there was one heaven only, or heavens 
innumerable : whereas it was at that time, it seems, 
much more your concern to be resolved in the 
humorous problem you proposed. 

Thus you see in what manner I pass my time. 
I devote part of every day to reading or writing ; 
after which, that I may not entirely seclude myself 
from the society of my friends, I generally sup in 
their parties. But upon these occasions I am so 
far from transgressing our sumptuary law, (if any 
law, alas ! can now be said to subsist) that I do not 
even indulge myself to the full extent it allows. 
You need not be alarmed, therefore, at my intended 
visit : you will receive a guest who jokes much more 
abundantly than he eats. Farewell. 



LETTER XXIII 

To Ampius. y 

Believe me, my dear Ampius, it is with the 

utmost reason that I congratulate you on the 

a u *07 success °f y° ur affairs. I am by no 

means, indeed, so imprudent as to flatter 

of luxurious indulgence.— Cic. de Orator, iii. 16, 17 ; Athen. 
Deipn. 12. 

w y Exa> AalSa ovk exopai, was tbe answer of Aris- 
tippus ; where the verb e%(W, as Manutius observes, con- 
veys a more obscene sense than the word habeo, into 
which Cicero translates it. 

* The conceitedness of the ancient sophists was so extra- 
vagant, that they pretended to be possessed of all know- 
ledge, human and divine ; insomuch that one of them pub- 
licly boasted, at the Olympic games, that he was not only 
, master of the whole circle of liberal arts and sciences, but 
of the meanest mechanic crafts. Accordingly, it was cus- 
tomary with them to call upon their audience to propose 
any question whatever in which they were desirous to be 
informed ; which was no sooner delivered out, than these 
philological mountebanks harangued upon it in that fluent 
jargon witli whi h schoolmen in all ages have been so 
liberally endowed. The first who assumed these impious, 
i shall they be termed, or ridiculous pretensions to omni- 
! science, was one Uorgias, a Grecian: and this man. who 
in more enlightened d ys would have been looked upon 
with the utmost contempt by all true philosophers, was 
held in such high esteem by his countrymen, that they 
erected a statue to his memory, of solid gold, — Cic. de 
Orator, iii. 32 ; De Finib. ii. 

y Titus Ampius had gradually risen through the several 
employments of the state, till he arrived at the practor- 



you with false hopes ; for an unexpected disappoint- 
ment would probably so depress your spirits that 
nothing would ever be capable of raising them 
again. 

I have solicited your cause with more freedom 
than was altogether suitable perhaps to a man in my 
circumstances ; as the invariable friendship which 
I have ever borne towards you, and which you have 
always most faithfully cultivated, taught me to 
surmount the difficulties that fortune, by impairing 
my credit, had thrown in my way. Accordingly 
the promise of your pardon is obtained, and all 
preliminaries are adjusted and confirmed that relate 
to your restoration. I speak this upon my own 
certain knowledge, having been a witness to the 
whole transaction. It happens indeed, very luckily, 
that I am connected with all Caesar's favourites ; 
insomuch that, next to Caesar, there is no one who 
stands so high in their friendship as myself. Pansa, 
Hirtius, and Oppius, Balbus, Matius, and Postu- 
mius, have each of them distinguished me with 
particular marks of their esteem. If I had endea- 
voured to establish this interest merely with a view 
of serving you in the present conjuncture, I should 
by no means think I had reason to be ashamed. 
But I did not cultivate their good graces upon any 
motive of this temporising kind : on the contrary, 
every one of these whom I incessantly solicited in 
your behalf, are my old friends. In this number 
we are principally obliged to Pansa, who, as he has 
the greatest credit and influence with Caesar, so he 
showed himself extremely zealous for your interest, 
and very desirous likewise of obliging me. I must 
mention Tullius Cimber 2 also as one with whose 
good offices, upon this occasion, I have great reason 
to be satisfied. He employed them more success- 
fully upon your account than he possibly could in 
favour of any other man ; for it is not interested 
solicitations so much as those which proceed 
entirely from friendship and gratitude, that prevail 
with Caesar. Your warrant, however, is not yet 
actually signed, for there are certain malevolent 
spirits (who affect to talk as if they were not 
secretly pleased that this civil war broke out, and 
who represent you as the principal fomenter of it) 
that would be exceedingly offended if they knew 
you had obtained your pardon. It was thought 
advisable, therefore, to manage this affair with 
great caution and secrecy ; nor by any means, at 
present, to suffer our success to be publicly known. 
It soon, however, will ; and I doubt not that every 
thing will be ripe for that purpose, before this 
letter shall reach your hands : for Pansa, whose 
word may be depended upon, has promised me, in 
the strongest terms, that he will in a very few days 
procure your warrant. In the mean time, I thought 
proper to send you this previous account of the 
prosperous state of your affairs. For I find, by 

ship : from which post he was elected, in the year(5!)6, to 
the government of Cilicia. As he had distinguished him- 
self during his tribunate by promoting the interest and 
honours of Pompey, so he appears to have been a warm 
partisan of his cause in the civil wars ; in consequence 
of which, he was at this time in exile. — Pigh. Annal. iii. 
37(i. 

* This person, though greatly in favour with Ca?sar, was 
afterwards one of the principal conspirators against him. 
It was he that gave the signal to the rest of his associates, 
when they assassinated Crcsar in the senate ; and Cimber 
held him by the gown, while Cassius gave him the first 
stab.— Suet. inVit. Jul. Caes. 82. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



503 



talking with your wife Epulia, and by the tender 
tears of your daughter Ampia, that you are more 
dispirited than your letters intimate ; and they are 
apprehensive that your uneasiness will be increased 
by their absence. In order, therefore, to compose 
this anxiety of your mind, I thought it incumbent 
on me thus to anticipate a piece of good news, 
which most assuredly will be verified. You are 
sensible that in my former letters I have rather 
employed such arguments of consolation as were 
proper to affect a man of your philosophical magna- 
nimity, than encouraged you to entertain any other 
certain hopes than those of being restored with the 
republic when these flames should subside. And 
here let me remind you of your letters to me, in 
which you have always discovered the most heroic 
determination to meet with firmness and fortitude 
whatever it might be your fate to suffer. I was by 
no means surprised to find that you were animated 
with these manly sentiments, when I reflected that 
you had been conversant in the affairs of the world 
from your earliest youth ; that you had exercised 
some of the most important employments of the 
commonwealth, at a time when our lives and liberties 
were in the utmost danger a ; and that you entered 
into the present war,not merely with the pleasing 
prospect of victory, but with a mind prepared to bear 
the reverse with a wise and philosophical resignation. 
In fine, as you are employed in recording the deeds 
of illustrious heroes b , it particularly concerns you 
to copy out, in your own conduct, that magnanim- 
ity which you are celebrating in others. But this 
is talking in a style more suitable to your late cir- 
cumstances than to your present. Let me only, 
then, exhort you to come prepared to endure those 
calamities which you must suffer here in common 
with every citizen of Rome ; calamities, for which, 
if I had discovered any remedy, I should most 
certainly impart it to you. The only refuge from 
them is in those philosophical studies, in which we 
have both of us ever been conversant ; and these, 
though in more prosperous days they were only our 
amusement, must now prove likewise our strongest 
support. But, to end as I began, let me desire you 
to be well persuaded that all things are completely 
settled concerning your full pardon and restoration. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XXIV. 

To P. Servilius Isauricus, Proconsul. 
As the friendship that subsists between us, and 
the singular affection you bear me, are circumstances 
a u 707 un i yersa Uy known, I find myself under a 
frequent necessity of applying to you in 
behalf of those who solicit my recommendations. 
But though I am a general well-wisher to all whom 
I thus introduce to your favour, yet I do not pre- 
tend to be equally interested in the success of every 
one of them. I am particularly so, however, in 

a Ampius was tribune in the consulate of Cicero, when 
the conspiracy of Catiline was discovered ; and wasprastor 
in the year 695, when Clodius, who at the same time was 
tribune, raised so much disturbance by his seditious laws ; 
particularly by that which occasioned Cicero's banishment. 
— Piah. Annal. ii. 363. 

b This work seems to have been of the biographical kind, 
and to have included the life of Julius Csesar ; as Suetonius 
quotes a passage from it, concerning the conduct of that 
emperor.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Caes. 77. 



that of Titus Egnatius, as he was the generous 
companion of my exile, and shared with me in all 
the pains, the difficulties, and the dangers which I 
underwent, both by sea and land, during that most 
unfortunate period of my life. Nor would he, 
without my consent, have left me at this juncture. 
I recommend him to you, therefore, as one of my 
family for whom I have the greatest regard ; and 
you will much oblige me by convincing him that 
this letter shall have proved greatly to his advan- 
tage. Farewell. 



LETTER XXV. 

To Curius . 

There was a time when I thought you made a 
very injudicious choice, by preferring a foreign 
a u "07 countr y to y° ur own - I imagined that 
Rome (while yet, alas ! it was Rome) 
must be far more suitable, I will not only say than 
Patrse, but even than the noblest city in the Pelo- 
ponnesus, to a man of your amiable and elegant 
turn of mind. But now, on the contrary, I look 
upon your having retired into Greece, when our 
affairs were well-nigh desperate, as a strong proof 
of your great penetration ; and I consider your 
absence, not only as a very judicious, but a very 
happy resolution. Yet, why do I call it happy ? 
when it is impossible that happiness should be the 
portion of any man, in these wretched times, who 
possesses the least degree of sensibility. However, 
that desirable privilege which you, who were at 
liberty to leave Italy, enjoy by travelling, I have 
procured by another method ; and I can in some 
sort say, no less than yourself, that I live 

" Where nor the name nor deeds accursed I hear 
Of Pelops' impious race d ." 
For, as soon as my levee is over, (which is some- 
what more frequented than formerly, a patriot 
being now looked upon as a sight, ef all others, the 
most uncommon e ,) I shut myself up in my library. 
And it is there, my friend, that I am employed in 
compositions which you will find, perhaps, to be 
animated with all that spirit you once said so ill 

c He was one of the city quaestors in the year 691, and 
about five years afterwards was elected into the post of 
tribune. It does not appear that he advanced any farther 
in the offices of the state. On the contrary, it seems pro- 
bable that he turned his pursuits into an humbler channel, 
and engaged in some branch of commerce. It was for this 
purpose, perhaps, that about the time when the dissen- 
tions between Pompeyand Caesar broke out, he retired into 
Greece, and settled at Patrae. See letter 2 of the following 
book ; Pigh. Annal. ii. 334. 

d The sons of Pelops were Atreus and Thyestes, whose 
impious and cruel acts are recorded in fabulous history. 
The dramatic poet Attius wrote a tragedy entitled "Atreus," 
from which play, it is probable, this line was quoted, and 
which Cicero seems to apply to the violences committed by 
some of the leading men in the successful party. That 
Cicero, however, by no means lived the recluse he here 
represents himself, has already appeared by several letters 
in the present and preceding book, by which it is evident 
that lie mixed, with great freedom and gaiety, among the 
chiefs of the victorious faction. 

«-• A true patriot was a sight in all ages too uncommon, 
it must be owned, not to have been worth remarking; 
but, whether those who visited Cicero, in order to view so 
singular a curiosity, were disappointed or not, is a ques- 
tion which every reader by this time, perhaps, may be 
able very clearly to determine. 



504 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



agreed with my dejection and despair, when you 
reproached me, at your house, for not acting up to 
the fortitude that appeared in my writings. I must 
confess, I could not at that time forbear lamenting 
the wretched fate of the republic ; to which I was 
the more tenderly attached, as I had not only been 
distinguished with its honours, but had greatly 
assisted it by my services. And even now, that 
time (which wears out the sorrows of the weakest 
minds), together with reason (which ought to have 
the strongest influence for that purpose), have jointly 
contributed to compose my breast ; yet I still lament 
to see the commonwealth thus fallen, without a 
hope of ever rising more ! There is nothing, how- 
ever, that can at present be justly imputed to Him, 
in whom all power is now vested ; unless, perhaps, 
it be that he has more than he ought. And as to 
what is past, our fate and our follies have had so 
large a share in all that has happened, that we 
cannot complain with a good grace. As little reason 
is there to hope that affairs will mend. I cannot, 
therefore, but conclude my letter as I began it, 
with admiring your judgment if it were choice, or 
your fortune if it were chance, that led you from 
this unpleasing scene. Farewell. 



LETTER XXVI. 

To Ligarius. 
Be assured that I am exerting my utmost efforts 
of every kind in order to procure your restoration. 
a. u. 707. * n trutn > tne singular and pious affection 
of your brothers, for whom I bear the 
same warm friendship that I entertain for yourself, 
will not suffer me to neglect any opportunity of 
employing my best offices in your behalf. But I 
had rather you should learn from their letters than 
from mine, what I have already performed, and 
what I am still endeavouring to perform, in your 
affairs. I will only, therefore, acquaint you myself 
with the strong and well-grounded hopes I have 
conceived, that your restoration will soon be effected. 
Let me previously observe, that my fears in all 
doubtful cases of importance are ever apt to be 
much superior to my hopes ; a fault, if it be a fault, 
which I am very ready to acknowledge. Never- 
theless, the last time I waited upon Caesar, I came 
away with a full persuasion that there was not the 
least reason to doubt of his granting you a pardon. 
I attended him for this purpose, at the request of 
your brothers, on the 26th of November last, in 
the morning, not without encountering all the usual 
difficulties and indignities before I could gain ad- 
mittance. Your brothers, and the rest of your 
relations, having thrown themselves at his feet, I 
supported their petition with such arguments as I 
thought suitable to the occasion'. And I could 



f Cicero had, shortly afterwards, a more puhlic occasion 
of testifying his zeal for his friend. For Tubero, though 
he had himself engaged in the same party with Ligarius, 
liaring from private pique opposed the recal of Ligarius, 
Cicero defended him before Ca>sar in the forum, in a noble 
oration which is still extant. It was upon this occasion, 
that the pomp and energy of the Roman orator's rhetoric 
is said to have had such a wonderful effect, that it not only 
made Caesar tremble, but, what is yet more extraordinary, 
it made him change his determined purpose, and acquit 
the man he had resolved to condemn. This story has often 
been alleged in proof of the power of ancient eloquence ; 



plainly perceive, not only by the gracious answer 
which* Caesar returned, but by the whole air of his 
countenance, together with several other little cir- 
cumstances, much easier to remark than describe, 
that he was extremely well inclined in your favour £. 
Preserve, then, my friend, a firm and vigorous 
frame of mind ^ and if you bore the dark and tem- 
pestuous season of your affairs with fortitude, let 
their present more serene and favourable aspect 
fill your heart with cheerfulness. As for myself, I 
shall continue to act with as much assiduity in 
your cause as if there were still many obstacles to 
surmount. To this end, I shall very zealously per- 
severe in my applications not only to Caesar, but 
to all those who are most in his favour ; every one 
of whom I have experienced to be much my friend. 
Farewell. 

and the translator confesses, that he has himself, in the 
letters published under the name of Sir Thomas Fitz- 
osborne, produced it for that purpose. But, upon a stricter 
inquiry, the supposed fact seems to be extremely ques- 
tionable. For, in the first place, there is not the least 
trace of it in any part of Cicero's writings. Now this his 
total silence seems to furnish a very strong presumptive 
argument to destroy the credit of the story ; for it is alto- 
gether improbable that a man of Cicero's character should 
have omitted any opportunity of displaying a circumstance 
so exceedingly to the honour of his oratorical powers. 
In the next place, it is very observable, that Valerius 
Maximus, who has a chapter expressly to show the force 
of eloquence, and who mentions a particular instance of 
this kind with regard to Caesar himself, yet takes not the 
least notice of the fact in question. But if it had been 
true, is it credible either that it should never have reached 
his knowledge, or that, knowing it, he should have passed 
it over in silence ? especially as it afforded him a much 
stronger instance for his purpose than any he has thought 
proper to enumerate. It is remarkable, likewise, that 
Quintilian, though he frequently cites the very passage 
in this celebrated oration which is supposed to have 
raised the strongest emotions in Caesar's breast, yet gives 
not the least intimation of the effect which it is pretended 
to have wrought. Plutarch is the only ancient writer who 
relates this story, and he introduces it with a \eyerai Se, 
an expression which seems to imply that he did not copy 
it from any earlier historian, but received it only from 
common tradition. Now it might be sufficient to give rise 
to such a report, if Caesar had been seized during the 
course of this trial with one of his usual epileptic fits, 
which were attended with that change of colour and 
trembling of the nerves that Plutarch ascribes to the 
force of Cicero's rhetoric. And that this is all that there 
was of truth in the case, is rendered probable by the testi- 
mony of Suetonius, who informs us that Caesar was twice 
seized with these fits when he was engaged in judicial 
affairs. — Val. Max. viii. 9 ; Quint. Instit. Orat. viii. 4, 6 ; 
ix. 2 ; Plut. in Vit. Cicer. ; Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cses. 45. 

S Cicero's presages in the present instance appear to 
have been well grounded ; for Ligarius, shortly afterwards, 
obtained Caesar's permission to return to Rome. Ligarius, 
nevertheless, entered into the conspiracy against him ; and 
history has recorded the very spirited answer which Liga- 
rius made to Brutus, when that illustrious Roman paid 
him a visit in order to invite him into a participation of 
his scheme. Brutus, finding him sick in bed, began to 
lament that he should be confined at so critical a con- 
juncture ; upon which, Ligarius, raising himself on his 
arm, and taking Brutus by the hand, " Oh, my friend," 
said he, " if you arc meditating any enterprise worthy of 
yourself, I am well.'*— Plut. in Vit. Brut. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



505 



LETTER XXVII. 

To P. Servilius Isanricus, Proconsul. 
I took occasion, when we were walking in your 
gardens, to recommend to you, with all possible 
a u 707 earnestness, the Asiatic affairs of my 
friend Cerellia h . And, agreeably to your 
usual disposition, and to those many great and 
good offices I have perpetually received at your 
hands, you very generously assured me of your 
utmost assistance. This circumstance, I persuade 
myself, you have not forgotten : I am sure, at least, 
it is not customary with you to be unmindful of my 
requests. However, the agents of this lady inform 
her, in their letters, that the numerous occupations 
in which so extensive a province engages you, 
render it necessary that you should be reminded, 
from time to time, of your promise. I entreat you, 
therefore, to recollect that you gave me full assur- 
ances of employing your good offices in favour of 
Cerellia, so far as should be consistent with your 
honour ; and I think your powers for this purpose 
are very extensive. For, if I mistake not, the 
decree of the senate, which passed in relation to 
the heirs of Vannonius, is expressed in such terms 
as to admit of an interpretation extremely advan- 
tageous to Cerellia's interest. But this must be 
submitted entirely to your own judgment ; which, 
I doubt not, will construe this decree in the sense 
in which it was intended by the senate, as I know 
the respect you always bear for the resolutions of 
that assembly. I will only add, therefore, that I 
desire you would believe that every instance in 
which you shall favour Cerellia will be a singular 
obligation conferred upon myself. Farewell. 



LETTER XXVIII. 

To Aulus Carina' 1 . 
I was informed, by your zealous friend Largus, 
that the time limited for your continuance in Sicily 
A v „ 07 expires on the first of January next. 
Having, therefore, upon all occasions, 
observed that Caesar ratifies whatever Balbus and 
Oppius act in his absence^, I very strenuously soli- 

h This lady was not only a particular friend of Cicero, 
but a great reader and admirer of his moral writings. But 
neither her philosophy nor her age, though she was ten 
years older than Cicero, could secure her character from 
censure ; and slander has said that her intercourse with 
our author did not always turn upon matters of specu- 
lation. But if the reader has the curiosity to see this 
charge entirely overthrown, he will find a very satis- 
factory confutation of it in Monsieur Mongault's fourth 
remark on the 51st letter of the 12th book to Atticus. 

1 Aulus Caecina was a person of great and amiable virtues 
in private life ; and he was distinguished, likewise, in 
public for his genius, his eloquence, and his erudition. 
He seems to have particularly excelled in the science of 
divination ; upon which subject he wrote a treatise, which 
is often cited by Seneca. In the civil wars, he not only 
drew his sword, but his pen against Cassar : having pub- 
lished an invective upon that general, which appears to 
have extremely offended him. Carina was accordingly 
banished ; and the present and following letters to him, 
were written during his exile in Sicily.— Cic. Orat. pro 
Caecin. 35, 36 ; Senec. Natural. Quasst. ii. passim. 

J Cassar was, at this time, in Spain, pursuing the war 
against the sons of Pompey; whilst Oppius and Balbus 
were acting as his vicegerents at Rome. 



cited them that you might be permitted to remain 
in that island as long as you should think proper. 
In all my applications of this kind, they have either 
instantly complied with my desire, if it happened 
not to be particularly disagreeable to them, or have 
assigned their reasons for refusing : but in the pre- 
sent instance, they did not give me an immediate 
answer. However, they called upon me again the 
very same day, in order to acquaint me, that in 
consequence of my request, you were at liberty to 
continue in Sicily during your own inclination : 
and they would be answerable, they said, that 
Cgesar would not be displeased. Thus you see how 
far your licence extends : and I need not tell you 
what use it would be most advisable for you to 
make of it. 

After I had written thus far, your letter was 
given into my hands, wherein you desire my opinion 
whether you should remain in Sicily, or go into 
Asia in order to settle your affairs in that province. 
I do not well know how to reconcile this question 
to the account which I mentioned above to have 
received from Largus. For he talked to me as if 
you were not at liberty to reside any longer in 
Sicily : whereas your query seems to imply the 
contrary. Be this as it may, my sentiments are, 
that you should, by all means, continue in that 
island.. The nearness of its situation renders it 
extremely convenient for the more expeditiously 
receiving and returning letters and expresses during 
the negotiation of your pardon : as you will be so 
much the earlier,likewise, amongst us, if you should, 
as I hope, obtain leave to return to Rome, or at 
least, into Italy. For these reasons, therefore, I 
am altogether against your removing from your 
present quarters. 

I shall not fail to recommend you, in the strongest 
terms, to Furfartius Posthumus and his lieutenants, 
when they arrive here : but, at present, they are 
all at Mutina. They are every one of them my 
friends, and not only persons of singular merit, 
but great admirers of men of your character. You 
may, without any particular application to me, de- 
pend upon my best assistance in every other article 
wherein I imagine my services can avail you. And 
should there be any of which I may be ignorant, if 
you will point them out to me, you will find that 
you could not have employed any other of your 
friends who would have acted in your affairs with 
so warm a zeal. 

Though I shall speak so effectually to Furfanius 
that there will be no necessity for your delivering 
a letter to him on my part, yet, as some of your 
family were desirous you should have one, I could 
not refuse their request : and I have added, at the 
bottom of this, a copy of my letter. Farewell. 



LETTER XXIX. 

To Titus Furfanius^, Proconsul. 

It is impossible to be more intimately united 
with any man, than I have ever been with Aulus 
A v 707 Caecina. I lived in great familiarity with 
'his illustrious father : and the early pre- 
sages I observed in the son, of the most exalted 
probity and eloquence, won my affections to him 

k He was appointed by Caesar proconsul of Sicily for tbe 
following year ; in which post he is said to have conducted 
himself with great clemency and moderation.— Quartier. 



506 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



from his youth. We were attached to each other, 
not only by the mutual exchange of many friendly 
offices, but by the same common tastes and studies : 
insomuch, that there is no man for whom I ever 
entertained a more tender regard. After this, I 
need only add, that I am under the strongest obli- 
gations, as you see, to protect both his person and 
his fortunes, to the utmost of my power. As I 
know, by many instances, the sentiments you enter- 
tain both of the calamities of the republic, and of 
those who suffer for its sake, I am sure your own 
inclinations will lead you to assist Caecina. I will 
only entreat you, therefore, to suffer my recom- 
mendation to increase that favourable disposition 
in proportion to the esteem which I am sensible 
you bear me : and be well persuaded, that you 
cannot give me a more sensible proof of your 
friendship. Farewell. 



LETTER XXX. 

Aulus Ccecina to Cicero. 

I hope you will not only pardon the fears, but 
pity the misfortunes, which prevented your re- 
a u 70" ce i ym g m y performance so soon as I 
intended : but my son was apprehensive, 
I hear, that the publication of this piece might 
prove to my prejudice. And, indeed, as the effect 
of compositions of this kind depends more upon 
the temper in which they are read than on that 
in which they are written, his fears were by no 
means irrational ; especially as I am still a sufferer 
for the liberties of my pen. In this respect my 
fate, surely, is somewhat singular. For the errors 
of an author are generally either reformed by a 
blot, or punished by the loss of his fame : whereas 
banishment, on the contrary, has been thought the 
more proper method of correcting mine. And yet 
the whole of my crime amounts only to this — that 
I poured forth my invectives against the man with 
whom I was openly at war. Now, there was not 
a single person, I suppose, in the same party with 
myself, who was not in effect guilty of the same 
offence ; as there was not one who did not send up 
his vows for success to our cause, or that offered a 
sacrifice, though upon an occasion ever so foreign 
to public affairs, without imploring the gods that 
Caesar might soon be defeated. If he imagines 
otherwise, he is extremely happy in his ignorance. 
But if he knows this to be fact, why am I marked 
out as the particular object of his wrath, for having 
written something which he did not approve, 
whilst he forgives every one of those who were 
perpetually invoking Heaven for his perdition ! 

But I wps going to acquaint ycu with the reason 
of those fears which I mentioned in the beginning 
of my letter. In the first place, then, I have taken 
notice of you in the piece in question ; though, 
at the same time, I have touched upon your conduct 
with great caution and reserve. Not that I have, 
by any means, changed my sentiments concerning 
it ; but, as being afraid to say all that they dictated 
to me. Now it is well known, that in composi- 
tions of the panegyrical kind, an author should 
not only deliver his applauses with a full and 
unlimited freedom, but heighten them, likewise, 
with a suitable strength and warmth of expression. 
In satire,indeed, though great liberties are generally 
thought allowable, yet, a writer must always be 



upon his guard, lest he degenerates into petulance 
and scurrility. An author is still more restrained 
in speaking advantageously of himself ; as, without 
much care and circumspection, he will appear 
arrogant and conceited. Of all subjects, therefore, 
of a personal nature, it is panegyric alone wherein 
a writer may expatiate uncontrolled ; as he cannot 
be sparing in the encomiums he bestows upon 
another, without incurring the imputation of envy 
or inability. But, in the present instance, you 
will think yourself, perhaps, obliged to me. For 
as I was not at liberty to represent your actions 
in the manner they deserve, the next favour to 
being totally silent concerning them, was to mention 
them as little as possible. But difficult as it was 
to contain myself upon so copious a subject, I 
however forbore : and as there were various parts 
of your conduct I did not venture even to touch 
upon, so, in the revisal of my work, I not only 
found it necessary to strike out several circum- 
stances I had inserted, but to place many of those 
which I suffered to remain in a less advantageous 
point of view. But should an architect, in raising 
a flight of steps, omit some, cut away part of those 
he had fixed, and leave many of the rest loose and 
ill joined together, might he not more properly be 
said to erect a ruin, than an easy and regular 
ascent ? In the same manner, where an author is 
constrained, by a thousand unhappy circumstances, 
to break the just coherence of his piece and destroy 
its proper gradation, how can he hope to produce 
anything that shall merit the applause of a refined 
and judicious ear ? But I was still more embarrassed 
where my subject led me to speak of Caesar : and 
I will own that I trembled whenever I had occasion 
to mention his name. My fears, however, did not 
arise from any apprehension that what I wrote 
might draw upon me his farther chastisement, but 
lest it should not be agreeable to his particular 
sentiments, with which, indeed, I am by no means 
well acquainted. But with what spirit can a man. 
compose when he is obliged to ask himself, at every 
sentence, "Will Caesar approve of this? May 
not this expression appear of suspicious import ? 
Or will he not think it still worse if I change it 
thus ?" But, besides these difficulties, I was per- 
plexed, likewise, in regard to the applauses and 
censures which I dealt out to others ; as I was afraid 
I might apply them where they would not, perhaps, 
be very agreeable to Caesar, though they might not 
actually give him offence. I reflected, that if his 
vengeance pursued me for what I wrote, whilst I 
had ray sword in my hand ; what might be the 
consequence, should I displease him now that I 
am a disarmed exile ? These fears increased upon 
me, when I considered the cautious manner in 
which you thought it necessary to deliver your 
sentiments in your treatise entitled the Orator ; 
where you modestly apologise for venturing to 
publish your notions upon the subject, by ascribing 
it to the request of Brutus. But if you, whose 
eloquence has rendered you the general patron of 
every Roman, deemed it expedient to be thus art- 
fully guarded, how much more requisite is it for 
your old client, who is now reduced to implore 
that protection from every citizen in general, which 
he once received from yourself in particular ? 
An author who writes under the constraint of so 
many doubts and fears, though fears, perhaps, that 
are altogether groundless ; who is forced to adjust 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



507 



almost every sentence, not to his own judgment, 
but to the impression it may probably make upon 
others ; will find it extremely difficult to execute 
any composition with success. And though this 
is a difficulty which you have never, it is possible, 
experienced, as your exalted genius is equal to every 
undertaking ; yet I am sure I experienced it very 
sensibly myself. Nevertheless, I ordered my son 
to read my performance to you ; but not to leave 
it in your hands, unless you would promise to 
correct it ; that is, unless you would new-model 
it in all its parts. 

As to my Asiatic expedition: notwithstanding 
my affairs require my presence in that province, 
yet, in obedience to your advice, I have laid aside 
my intended voyage. And now, as you are sensible 
that my fate must necessarily, one way or other, 
be soon determined, I need not, I am persuaded, 
particularly exhort you to assist me with your good 
offices. Let me only entreat you, my dear Cicero, 
not to defer them in expectation of my son's arrival. 
For his youth, his tenderness, and his fears, render 
him ill able to think of every measure which may 
be proper to be taken for my advantage. The 
whole management, therefore, of my cause, must 
rest entirely upon you, as it is upon you, in truth, 
that all my hopes depend. Your judicious observa- 
tion has enabled you to penetrate into the recesses 
of Csesar's heart ; and you are acquainted with all 
the most probable methods of prevailing with him : 
so that each successful step that shall be made in 
this affair, from its commencement to its conclusion, 
must proceed altogether from you. I am sensible, 
likewise, that you have great interest with Csesar, 
and still greater with all his favourites. I doubt 
not, then, of your effecting my restoration, if you 
will exert yourself for that purpose, not only in 
such instances wherein I shall particularly request 
your assistance (though that, indeed, would be a 
very considerable obligation), but by taking the 
whole conduct of this matter into your own hands. 
Perhaps my judgment is blinded by my misfortunes, 
or I expect more from your friendship than in 
modesty I ought, when I venture thus to impose 
upon you so heavy a burthen. But whichever may 
be the case, your general conduct towards your 
friends will furnish me with an excuse ; for the 
zeal which you exert upon all occasions where 
their interest is concerned, has taught them not 
only to expect, but even to claim your services. 

With regard to the book which my son will 
deliver to you, I entreat you either not to suffer it 
to be published, or to correct it in such a manner 
that it may not appear to my disadvantage. Farewell. 



LETTER XXXI. 

To P. Servilius Isauricus, Proconsul. 
I need not inform you, that Curtius Mithres is 
the favourite freedman of my very intimate friend 
Postumus : but let me assure you, that he 
distinguishes me with the same marks of 
respect which he pays to his patron himself. When- 
ever I was at Ephesus, I made use of his house 
as my own ; and many incidents concurred which 
afforded me full proofs both of his fidelity and his 
affection. For this reason, as often as either my 
friends or myself have any affairs to transact in 
Asia, 1 always apply to Mithres : and I command 



t. u. 707- 



not only his services, but his purse and his house, 
with the same freedom that I should dispose of my 
own. I particularise these circumstances the more 
minutely, that you may see it is not upon common 
motives, or to gratify the purposes of any ambitious 
views, that I now apply to you ; but, on the con- 
trary, that it is in favour of one with whom I am 
united by the strongest connexions. I entreat 
you then to do me the honour of assisting him with 
your good offices, not only in the law-suit wherein 
he is engaged with a certain citizen of Colophon 1 , 
but in every other instance also, as far as shall be 
consistent with your own character and convenience. 
But though I make this exception, yet I am sure he 
has too much modesty to ask anything improper of 
you. Indeed, it is his utmost wish, that his own 
merit, in conjunction with my recommendation, 
may procure him your esteem. I very earnestly, 
therefore, conjure you, not only to favour him with 
your protection, but to receive him into the number 
of your friends. In return, you may depend upon 
my most zealous services upon all occasions wherein 
I shall imagine either your interest or your inclina- 
tion may require them. Farewell. 



LETTER XXXII. 

To Aulus Carina. 

As often as I see your son (and I see him almost 
every day) I never fail to assure him of my zealous 
assistance, without any exception of time, 
of labour, or of business : and I promise 
him likewise my credit and interest, with this single 
limitation, that he may rely upon them as far as the 
small share I possess of either can possibly extend. 

I have read your performance 1 ", and still con- 
tinue to read it, with much attention ; as I shall 
preserve it with the greatest fidelity. Your affairs, 
indeed, of every kind are my principal concern ; 
and I have the pleasure to see them every day ap- 
pear with a more and more favourable aspect. You 
have many friends who contribute their good offices 
for this purpose: of whose zeal your son, I am 
assured, has already acquainted you, as well as of his 
own hopes that their endeavours will prove effectual. 
In regard to what maybe collected from appearances, 
I do not pretend to discern more than , I am persuaded, 
you see yourself : but as you may reflect upon them, 
perhaps, with greater discomposure of mind, I 
think it proper to give you my sentiments concern- 
ing them. Believe me, then, it is impossible, from 
the nature and circumstances of public affairs, that 
either you, or your companions in adversity, should 
long remain under your present misfortunes : yes, 
my friend, it is impossible that so severe an injury 
should continue to oppress the honest advocates of 
so good a cause. But my hopes are particularly 
strong with respect to yourself : not merely in con- 
sideration of your rank and virtues (for these you 
possess in common with many others), but particu- 
larly from your singular learning and genius. The 
man in whose power we all of us are, holds these 
shining qualities in much esteem : and I am well 
persuaded, you would not have remained, even a 
single moment, in your present situation, if he had 
not imagined himself wounded" by those talents 



1 A city of Ionia, in Asia Minor ; and one of those which 
claimed the honour of being the birth-place of Homer. 
™ See the 30th letter of this book. 
" See rem. > on letter 28 of this book. 



508 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



he admires. His resentment, however, seems daily 
cooling : and it has been intimated to me by some 
of his most particular friends, that you will un- 
doubtedly find advantage in the high opinion he 
has conceived of your abilities. Let me conjure 
you, then, in the first plajce, to preserve a firm and 
unshaken fortitude of mind, as what you owe to 
your birth, to your education, to your learning, and 
to that character you have universally obtained ; 
and, in the next place, that, for the reasons I have 
already assigned, you would entertain the strongest 
and most favourable hopes. Be well persuaded, 
likewise, that I shall always most readily contribute 
my warmest services both to you and to your family. 
You have, indeed, a full right to expect them, from 
that affection which has so long subsisted between 
us, from the conduct I ever observe towards all 
my friends, and from the numberless good offices 
I have received at your hands. Farewell. 



LETTER XXXIII. 

To P. Servilius Isauricus, Proconsul. 
As the share you allow me in your friendship is 
by no means a secret to the world, it occasions 
a u 707 & rea t numbers to apply to me for recom- 
mendations. My letters to you, therefore, 
of this kind, are sometimes, I confess, no other 
than the tributes of common compliment. They 
are much more frequently, however, the dictates 
of a real affection ; as is the case, be assured, in 
the present instance, when I recommend to you Ara- 
pius Menander, the freedman of my friend Ampius 
Balbus. He is a very worthy, modest man, 
and highly in the esteem both of his patron and 
myself. You will much oblige me, then, by assist- 
ing him with your good offices, in every instance 
that shall not be inconvenient to you : and, believe 
me, it is with great earnestness that I make this 
request. Farewell. 



LETTER XXXIV. 

To Aulus Cceoina. 
I am afraid you will think that I am a more 
negligent correspondent than I ought, considering 
a. u. 707. ^ e uruon between us as partisans of the 
same cause, as being joined in the same 
studies, and as having mutually conferred upon 
each other many obliging good offices. The sin- 
cere truth, however, is, that I should much sooner 
and much oftener have written to you, if I had 
not been in daily expectation of seeing your affairs 
in a better train ; and I rather chose, instead of 
confirming you in the spirit with which you bear 
your misfortunes, to have sent you my congratu- 
lations on their being ended. I still hope to have 
that pleasure very shortly. In the mean time, I 
think it incumbent upon me to endeavour, if not with 
all the authority of a philosopher, at least with all 
the influence of a friend, to confirm and strengthen 
you in that manly spirit with which I hear, and be- 
lieve, you are animated. For this purpose, I shall not 
address you as one whose misfortunes are without 
hope ; but as a person of whose restoration I have 
conceived the same well-grounded confidence which 
you formerly, I remember, entertained of mine. 



For when I was driven from my country by a set 
of men who were convinced they could never 
effect their destructive purposes so long as I con- 
tinued in the commonwealth, I was informed by 
many of my friends who visited me from Asia, 
where you then resided, that you strongly assured 
them of my speedy and honourable recal. Now, 
if the principles of the Etruscan science , in which 
you were instructed by your illustrious and excel- 
lent father, did not deceive you with respect to 
me, neither will my presages be less infallible with 
regard to you. They are derived, indeed, not only 
from the maxims and records of the most distin- 
guished sages, whose writings, you well know, I 
have studied with great application, but from a 
long experience in public affairs, and from having 
passed through various scenes both of prosperity 
and adversity. I have the stronger reason to con- 
fide in this method of divination, as it has never 
once deceived me during all these dark and dis- 
tracted times : insomuch, that were I to mention 
my predictions, I am afraid you would suspect 
that I framed them after the events I pretend to 
have foretold?. However, there are many who 
can bear me witness, that I forewarned Pompey 
against entering into any association with Caesar^ ; 
and that I afterwards as strongly endeavoured to 
dissuade him from breaking that union. I clearly 
saw, indeed, that their conjunction would consider- 
ably impair the strength of the senate, and that 
their separation would as inevitably kindle the 
flames of a civil war. I lived at that time in great 
familiarity with Csesar, as well as entertained the 
highest regard to Pompey ; and, accordingly, the 
faithful advice I gave to the latter was equally to 
the benefit of both. I forbear to instance several 
other articles, in which my prophetic admonitions 
have been verified. For, as I have received great 
obligations from Caesar, I am unwilling he should 
know, that had Pompey followed my counsels, 
though Caesar would still have been the first and 
most distinguished person in the republic, he would 
not have been in possession of that extensive power 
he now enjoys. I will confess, however, that I 
always gave it as my opinion, that Pompey should 
go to his government in Spain ; with which, if he 
had happily complied, we should never have been 
involved in this fatal civil war r . I contended, 

The Romans derived their doctrine and rites of divi- 
nation, and probably, indeed, many other of their reli- 
gious and civil institutions, from the Etruscans, a very 
ancient, learned, and powerful nation, who were once 
masters of almost all Italy, and who inhabited that part 
which is now called Tuscany. Csecina, who was a native 
of this province, and well skilled in that pretended pro- 
phetic art for which his countrymen were particularly 
famous, foretold, it seems, that Cicero's banishment would 
soon end (as in fact it did) in a glorious restoration. — "Val. 
Max. i. 1 ; Liv. v. 33 ; Pigh. Annal. i. p. 430. See rem. i, 
p. 505. 

P Cicero's wonderful reach of judgment, in penetrating 
far into the consequences of events, is by no means exag- 
gerated in the present passage. On the contrary, it is 
confirmed by the testimony of an historian who knew him 
well, and who assures us that Cicero pointed out, with a 
prophetic discernment, several circumstances that were 
fulfilled not only in his own life-time, but after his death. 
—Corn. Nep. in Vit. Attic. 17. 

q The motives which induced Pompey to enter into this 
union with Caesar have been already explained in rem. T , 
p. 356. 

r Pompey, instead of going to his government of Spain, 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



509 



likewise, not so much that Caesar should be received 
as a candidate for the consulship during his ab- 
sence 5 , as that the law which the people enacted 
for that purpose, and enacted too at the earnest 
solicitation of Pompey in his consulate, should be 
religiously observed'. It was the rejecting of this 
advice that gave occasion to the civil war ; which I 
still laboured to extinguish by every method of 
remonstrance in my power, and by warmly repre- 
senting that in contests of this kind, though ever 
so justly founded, even the most disadvantageous 
terms of accommodation were preferable to having 
recourse to arms. But my sentiments were over- 
ruled ; not so much by Pompey himself (upon 
whom they seemed to make some impression), as 
by those who, depending upon his victory, thought 
it would afford them a very favourable opportunity 
of extricating themselves from the difficulties of 
their private affairs, and of gratifying their immo- 
derate ambition. The war, therefore, commenced 
without my participation, and I still continued in 
Italy as long as I possibly could, even after Pompey 
was driven out of it u . My honour, however, at 
length prevailed over my fears ; and I could not 
support the thoughts of deserting Pompey in his 

continued in Italy, with the command of two legions which 
were quartered near Rome. This gave umbrage to Caesar, 
who suspected, as the truth was, that these troops were 
designed to act against him. In order, therefore, to remove 
his apprehensions of this kind, it was proposed by Cicero 
and some others of the more moderate party, that Pompey 
should retire to his government. But this motion was 
overruled by the consul Lentulus ; who prevailed with the 
senate to pass a decree, whereby Caesar, who had already 
crossed the Rubicon, was commanded to withdraw his 
forces out of Italy by a certain day therein named, and in 
case of disobedience, that he should be considered as a 
public enemy.— Cass. De Bell. Gall. viii. 55 ; Cass. De Bell. 
Civ. i. 2. 

s Pompey, when he was consul the third time, in the 
year 7°1. procured a law empowering Caesar to offer him- 
self as a candidate for the consulship, without appearing 
personally at Rome for that purpose. This was contrary 
to the fundamental principles of the Roman constitution, 
and proved, in the event, the occasion of its being utterly 
destroyed ; as it furnished Caesar with the only specious 
pretence for turning his arms against the republic. Cicero 
affirms, in one of his Philippics, that he endeavoured to 
dissuade Pompey from suffering this law to pass : — " Duo 
— tempora inciderunt (says he) quibus aliquid contra 
Caesarem Pompeio suaserim — Chum, ne, &c. alterum, ne 
paterctur ferri ut dbsentis ejus ratio haberetur. Quorum 
si utrumvis persuasissem, in has miserias nunquam inci- 
dissemus." [Phil. ii. 10.] But if what Cicero here asserts 
be true, he acted a most extraordinary part indeed. For, 
at the same time that he laboured to dissuade Pompey 
from suffering this law to pass, he persuaded Coelius, who 
was one of the tribunes of the people, to promote it,, or at 
least not to oppose it ; agreeably to a promise which he 
had given to Caesar for that purpose. This appears by a 
passage in one of his letters to Atticus, where, speaking of 
Caesar's claim to sue for the consulate, without personally 
attending at Rome, he tells Atticus, " Ut illi hoc liceret, 
adjuvi : rogatus ab ipso Ravennae de Ccelio tribuno plebis." 
—Ad Att. vii. 1. 

' Whether this law should, or should not, be superseded, 
was a question upon which Cicero found the republic 
divided at his return from Cilicia, just before the civil 
war broke out. And although he certainly acted an unjus- 
tifiable part in promoting this law, yet, after it had once 
passed, it seems to have been right policy in him to advise 
that it should be observed; as it was the only probable 
means of preserving the public tranquillity. 

u See rem. t , p. 458. 



distress, who had not abandoned me in mine. 
j Partly, therefore, upon a principle of duty, partly, 
in tenderness to my reputation with the patriots; 
and partly as being ashamed to forsake my friend, 
I went, as is fabled of Amphiaraus v , to that ruin 
which I clearly foresaw. And, indeed, there was 
not a single misfortune attended us during that 
whole campaign, which I did not point out before 
it arrived. You see, therefore, that I have the 
same right of being credited which augurs and 
astrologers are wont to urge, and may claim 
your belief of my present predictions in conse- 
quence of the veracity of my former. But I do 
not found these my prophecies in your favour on 
those intimations of futurity which are taught by 
our augural science. I derive them from observa- 
tions of a different sort ; which, though not more 
certain in themselves, are less obscure, however, 
and consequently less liable to be misinterpreted. 
The signs, then, from whence I draw my presages, 
are of two kinds : the one taken from Csesar him- 
self, the other from the nature and circumstances 
of public affairs. With respect to the former, they 
result, in the first place, from that general clemency 
of Csesar's disposition which you have celebrated 
in that ingenious performance entitled your Com- 
plaints™ ; and, in the next place, from that extra- 
ordinary regard he discovers for men of your 
distinguished genius and abilities. To this I must 
add, that he will certainly yield to those number- 
less solicitations in your favour which proceed, 
not from any interested motives, but from a real 
and just esteem ; among which the unanimous 
application of Etruria x will, undoubtedly, have 
great weight with him. If you ask, whence it has 
happened that these considerations have hitherto 
proved ineffectual ? I answer, that Caesar thinks 
if he should immediately grant a pardon to 
you, against whom he may seem to have a more 
reasonable ground of complaint, he could not 
refuse it to others whom he is less inclined to 
forgive. But you will say, perhaps, " If Caesar is 
thus incensed, what have I to hope ? " Undoubt- 
edly, my friend, you have much ; as he is sensible 
he must derive the brightest splendour of his fame 
from the hand which once somewhat sullied its 
lustre. In fine, Caesar is endowed with a most 
acute and penetrating judgment ; and as he per- 
fectly well knows, not only the high rank you bear 
in a very considerable district of Italy?, but that 
there is no man in the commonwealth, of your age, 
who is superior to you in reputation, abilities, or 
popularity, he cannot but be convinced that it 
will be impossible for him to render your exile of 
any long duration. He is too politic, therefore, 
to lose the merit of voluntarily conferring upon 
you, at present, what will otherwise most unques- 
tionably be extorted from him hereafter. 

Having thus marked out the favourable prog- 

v Amphiaraus was a Grecian prophet, as the poets feign, 
who, foreknowing that he should be killed if he went to 
the Theban war, concealed himself, in order to avoid that 
expedition. But his wife being bribed to disclose the place 
of his concealment, he was forced to the war, and his death 
confirmed the truth of his prediction.— Manutius. 

w This seems to be the performance concerning which 
Caecina writes to Cicero in the 30th letter of this book. 

x Caecina was a native of Etruria, and a person of great 
consideration in that part of Italy. 

y Etruria. 



510 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



nostics which I collect from circumstances respect- 
ing Caesar, I will now acquaint you with those 
which I gather from the temper and complexion of 
the times. There is no man, then, so averse to 
that cause which Pompey espoused with more 
spirit, indeed, than preparation, as to venture to 
arraign the principles or the patriotism of those 
who joined in his party. And I cannot but ob- 
serve to you, that I have often occasion to admire 
the justice and judgment of Caesar, who never 
speaks of Pompey but in terms of the highest 
honour. Should it be said, that whatever regard 
he may show to his memory, he treated his person 
upon many occasions with great asperity, let it 
be remembered that these instances cannot reason- 
ably be imputed to Caesar, but were the natural 
consequences of war. But how favourably has he 
received many of us, and myself in particular, who 
were engaged in the same party ? Has he not 
appointed Cassius to be his lieutenant ? has he not 
given the government of Gaul to Brutus, and 
that of Greece to Sulpicius ? In a word, highly 
incensed as he was against Marcellus, has he not, 
in the most honourable manner, restored him to 
his friends and to his country ? What I would 
infer, therefore, from the whole, is this, — that 
whatever system of government may prevail, 
good policy will never permit, in the first place, 
that a difference should be made among those 
who were equally involved in the same cause ; 
and, in the next, that a set of honest and worthy 
citizens, who are free from all imputation on 
their moral characters, should be banished from 
their country, at the same time that such numbers 
of those who have been exiled for the most infa- 
mous crimes are suffered to return. 

These are the presages of your friend ; and they 
are presages, of which, if I had the least doubt, 
I would by no means have laid them before you. 
On the contrary, I should, in that case, rather 
have employed such consolatory arguments as 
would unquestionably have proved effectual for the 
support of a great and generous mind. I should 
have told you, that if you were induced to take up 
arms in defence of the republic (as you then ima- 
gined) merely from a confidence of success, small 
indeed would be your merit ; and that if, under a 
full conviction of the very precarious event of war, 
you thought it possible that we might be defeated, 
it would be strange that you should have so much 
depended upon victory as to be utterly unprepared 
for the reverse. I should have reasoned with you 
on the consolation you ought to receive from 
reflecting on the integrity of your conduct, and 
reminded you of the satisfaction which the liberal 
arts will afford in the adverse seasons of life. I 
should have produced examples, not only from 
history, but in the persons of our leaders and asso- 
ciates in this unhappy war, of those who have 
suffered the most severe calamities ; and should 
have also cited several illustrious instances of the 
same sort from foreign story. For to reflect on 
the misfortunes to which mankind in general are 
exposed, greatly contributes to alleviate the weight 
of those which we ourselves endure. In short, I 
should have described the confusion of that turbu- 
lent scene in which we are here engaged ; as un- 
doubtedly the being driven from a commonwealth 
in ruins, is much less to be regretted than from 
one in a flourishing and a happy situation. But 



these are arguments which I have by no means 
any occasion to urge, as I hope, or rather indeed 
as I clearly foresee, that we shall soon welcome 
your return amongst us. In the mean while, agree- 
ably to the assurances I have often given you, I 
shall continue to exert my most active offices in 
the service of yourself and your excellent son ; 
who, I must observe with pleasure, is the very 
express resemblance of his father both in person 
and genius. I shall now, indeed, be enabled to 
employ my zeal more effectually than heretofore, 
as I make great and daily advances in Caesar's 
friendship ; not to mention my interest also with 
his favourites, who distinguish me with the first 
rank in their affection. Be assured I shall devote 
the whole of my influence, both with Caesar and 
with his friends, entirely to your service. In the 
mean time, let the pleasing hopes you have so 
much reason to entertain, together with your own 
philosophical fortitude, support you with cheerful- 
ness under your present situation. Farewell. 



LETTER XXXV. 

To P. Servilius Isauricus z , Proprcetor. 
I perfectly well know the general compassion 
of your heart for the unfortunate, and the invio- 
a u 707 l a °l e fidelity you observe towards those 
who have any particular claim to your 
protection. As Caecina, therefore, is a family 
client of yours, I should not recommend him to 
your favour, if the regard I pay to the memory of 
his father, with whom I lived in the strictest inti- 
macy, and the unhappy fate which attends himself, 
with whom I am united by every tie of friendship 
and gratitude, did not affect me in the manner it 
ought. I am sensible that your ow r n natural dis- 
position, without any solicitations, would incline 
you to assist a man of Caecina's merit, in distress ; 
but I earnestly entreat you that this letter may 
render you still more zealous to confer upon him 
every good office in your power. I am persuaded, 
if you had been in Rome, you would effectually 
have employed it also in procuring his pardon ; 
which, in confidence of your colleague's 3 clemency, 
we still strongly hope to obtain b . In the mean 
time, Caecina has retreated into your province, not 
only as thinking it will afford him the securest 
refuge, but in pursuit likewise of that justice which 
he expects from the equity of your administration. 
I most warmly request you, therefore, to assist 
him in recovering those debts which remain due to 
him upon his former negotiations , and in every 
other article to favour him with your patronage and 
protection ; than which you cannot confer upon me, 
be assured, a more acceptable obligation. Farewell. 

z It appears by this letter, which is a recommendation 
of Caecina to the governor of Asia, that he had resumed 
the design of going into that province ; which, in the 30th 
epistle of this book, he tells Cicero he had laid aside in 
pursuance of his advice. 

a Servilius was colleague with Caesar in his second con- 
sulate, A. TJ. 705. 

b Accordingly Caecina, some time afterwards, received 
his pardon from Caesar ; which Suetonius mentions as an 
instance, amongst others, of that conqueror's singular cle- 
mency. — Suet, in Vit. Jul. Ca*s. 75. 

c Caecina had, probably, been concerned in farming some 
branch of the Asiatic revenue. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



511 



LETTER XXXVI. 
\ To Publius Sulpicius d . 

Notwithstanding it is very seldom, in the 
present situation of public affairs, that I attend 
A TJ 707 the senate, yet, after having received 
your letter, I thought it would not be 
acting agreeably to our long friendship, and to 
those many good offices that have passed between 
us, if I did not contribute all in my power to the 
advancement of your honours. It was with much 
pleasure, therefore, I went to the house, and 
voted for your public thanksgiving ; which has 
been decreed accordingly. You will always find me 
equally zealous in whatever concerns your interest 
or your glory : and I should be glad you would, 
in your letters to your family, assure them of this 
my disposition towards you ; that they may not 
scruple to claim my best services, if, in any future 
instance, you should have occasion for them. 

I very strongly recommend to you my old friend 
Bolanus, as a man of great spirit and probity, 
and adorned, likewise, with every amiable accom- 
plishment. As you will extremely oblige me by 
letting him see that my recommendation proved of 
singular advantage to him, so you may depend 
upon finding him of a most grateful disposition, 
and one from whose friendship you will receive 
mnch satisfaction. 

I have another favour likewise to ask, which, in 
confidence of our friendship, and of that disposition 

d It is altogether uncertain who this Sulpicius was: 
perhaps the same who commanded a squadron of Caesar's 
fleet off the island of Sicily, which engaged with and de- 
feated the fleet under the command of Cassius, about the 
time that Caesar gained the hattle of Pharsalia. But who- 
ever he was, he appears, from the present letter, to have 
been governor of Illyricum, and to have lately had the 
honour of a public thanksgiving decreed for some successes 
which his arms had obtained in that province. Some of 
the commentators are of opinion that the superscription 
of this letter is a false reading, and that instead of Sulpi- 
cius, it should be Vatinius: but those who are inclined to 
see this notion very solidly confuted, are referred to the 
observations of Manutius upon this epistle. — Caes. De Bell. 
Civ. iii. 101 ; Pigh. Annal. ii. 449. 



which you have ever shown to serve me, I very 
earnestly request. My library-keeper, Dionysius, 
having stolen several books from that valuable 
collection which I entrusted to his care, has with- 
drawn himself into your province, as I am informed 
by my friend Bolanus, as well as by several others, 
who saw him at Narona e . But as they credited 
the account he gave them of my having granted 
him his freedom, they had no suspicion of the true 
reason that carried him thither. I shall think 
myself inexpressibly indebted to you, therefore, if 
you will deliver him into my hands : for although 
the loss I have sustained is not very great, yet his 
dishonesty gives me much vexation. Bolanus will 
inform you in what part of your province he is now 
concealed, and what measures will be proper in 
order to secure him. In the mean time, let me 
repeat it again, that I shall look upon myself as 
highly indebted to you if I should recover this 
fellow by your assistance. Farewell. 



LETTER XXXVII. 

To Quintus Gallius { . 
I find by your letter, as well as by one which I 
have received from Oppius, that you did not forget 
my recommendation^ ; which, indeed, is 
a. u. 707. no thing more than what I expected from 
your great affection towards me, and from the 
connexion that subsists between us. Nevertheless, 
I will again repeat my solicitations in favour of 
Oppius, who still continues in your province ; and 
of Egnatius, who remains at Rome : and entreat 
you to take their joint affairs under your protection. 
My friendship with Egnatius is so great, that were 
my own personal interest concerned in the present 
case, I could not be more anxious. I most ear- 
nestly request you, therefore, to show him, by your 
good offices, that I am not mistaken in the share 
which I persuade myself I enjoy in your affection ; 
and be assured you cannot oblige me in a more 
acceptable manner. Farewell. 

e In Liburnia, now called Croatia, which formed part of 
the province of Illyricum. 
f See rem. d , p. 493. Z See letter 9 of this book. 



BOOK X. 



LETTER I. 



To Aulus Torquatus h . 

Although every one is apt, in these times of 

universal confusion, to regret his particular lot as 

A v yy- singularly unfortunate, and to prefer any 

situation to his own, yet undoubtedly a 

h Cicero mentions him in other parts of his writings, as 
a man of singular merit, and one to whose generous offices 
he had been greatly indebted during the persecution he 
suffered from Clodius. In the year 701 , Torquatus was 
advanced to the praetorship ; after which, nothing material 
occurs concerning him till the present letter ; by which, 
it appears, he was at this time in banishment at Athens, 
for having taken part with Pompey in the civil wars. 
He was of a very ancient and illustrious family, being 
descended from the brave Titus Manlius, who, in the year 
394, obtained the name of Torquatus, from the torquis, or 



man of patriot sentiments can nowhere, in the 
present conjuncture, be so unhappily placed as in 
Rome. 'Tis true, into whatever part of the world 
he might be cast, he must still retain the same 
bitter sensibility of that ruin in which both himself 
and his country are involved. Nevertheless, there 
is something in being a spectator of those miseries 
with which others are only acquainted by report, 
that extremely enhances one's grief; as it is impos- 
sible to divert our thoughts from misfortunes which 
are perpetually obtruding themselves in view. 
Among the many other losses, therefore, which 
must necessarily sit heavy upon your heart, let it 
not be your principal concern (as I am informed 

collar, which he took from the neck of a gigantic Gaul, 
whom he slew in single combat.— Ad Att. v. 1 ; Cic. De 
Finib. ii. 22 ; Pigh. Annal. ii. p. 411 ; Liv. vii. 10. 



512 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



it is) that you are driven from Rome. For, not- 
withstanding that you are thus exceedingly uneasy 
at being separated from your family and fortunes, 
yet they still continue in their usual situations ; 
which, as they could by no means be improved by 
your presence, so neither are they exposed to any 
particular danger. Whenever, therefore, your 
family are the subject of your thoughts, you should 
neither lament them as suffering any calamities 
peculiar to themselves, nor consider it as a hard- 
ship that they are not exempted from those which 
are common to us all. 

As to what concerns your own person, you ought 
not, my dear Torquatus, to indulge those gloomy 
reflections which either fear or despair may suggest. 
It is certain that He', from whom you have hitherto 
received a treatment unworthy of your illustrious 
character, has lately given very considerable marks 
of a more favourable disposition. It is equally 
certain, that while we are looking up to Csesar for 
our preservation, he is far from being clear by 
what methods he may best secure his own. The 
event of every war is always precarious ; but with 
regard to the present^, as I well know that you 
yourself never imagined you had anything to fear 
if the victory should turn on one side, so I am 
persuaded, should it fall on the other, you can only 
suffer in the general ruin. The single circumstance, 
then, that can give you much disquietude, is that 
which in some sort I look upon as a kind of con- 
solation : I mean, that the danger to which you 
are exposed is no other than what threatens the 
whole community. And this, it must be acknow- 
ledged, is so extremely great, that whatever philo- 
sophers may pretend, I question whether anything 
can effectually support us under it, except one 
consideration alone : a consideration which is 
always more or less efficacious, in proportion to 
the strength and firmness of a man's own mind. 
But, if to mean honestly and to act rightly be all 
that is necessary to constitute human happiness, it 
should seem a sort of impiety to call that man 
miserable who is conscious of having always regu- 
lated his conduct by the best intentions. It was 
not, I am persuaded, any private advantage which 
we promised ourselves from the success of our 
arms, that induced us lately to abandon our fortunes, 
our families, and our country k : it was the just 
sense of that sacred regard we owed both to the 
commonwealth and to our own characters. Nor, 
when we acted thus, were we so absurdly sanguine 
as to flatter ourselves with the prospect of certain 
victory. If the event, then, has proved agreeable 
to what, upon our first entrance into the war, we 
were well aware it possibly might, we ought, by 
no means, surely, to be as much dispirited as if 
the reverse of all that we expected had befallen us. 
Let us, then, my friend, cherish those sentiments 
which true philosophy prescribes, by esteeming it 
our only concern in this life to preserve our inte- 
grity ; and so long as we are void of all just reproach, 
let us bear the various revolutions of human affairs 
with calmness and moderation. The sum of what 
I would say, in short, is this, — that virtue seems 

5 Caesar. 

J The war in Spain between Caesar and the sons of 
Pompey. 

k Upon the first breaking out of the civil war, when 
Cicero and Torquatus left Italy, in order to join the army 
of Pompey in Greece. 



sufficient for her own support, though all things 
else were utterly lost. Still, however, if any hopes 
should yet remain to the republic, you should by 
nd means despair, whatever its future situation may 
be, of holding the rank in it you deserve. 

And here, my friend, it occurs to me, that there 
was a time when you, likewise, used to condemn 
my despondency ; and when I was full of appre- 
hensions, and altogether undetermined how to act, 
you inspired me by your advice and example 
with more spirited and vigorous resolutions. At 
that season, it was not our cause, but our measures, 
I disapproved. I thought it much too late to 
oppose those victorious arms which we ourselves 
had long been contributing to strengthen ; and I 
lamented that we should refer the decision of our 
political disputes, not to the weight of our counsels, 
but to the force of our swords. I do not pretend 
to have been inspired with a spirit of divination, 
when I foretold what has since happened. I on]y 
saw the possibility and destructive consequences of 
such an event. And it was this that alarmed my 
fears ; especially as it was a contingency of all 
others the most likely to take effect. For the 
strength of our party, I well knew, was of a kind 
that would little avail us in the field ; as our troops 
were far inferior, both in force and experience, to 
those of our adversaries. The same spirit and 
resolution, then, which you recommended to me 
at that juncture, let me now exhort you, in my 
turn, to assume in the present. 

I was induced to write to you upon this subject 
by a conversation I lately had with your freedman 
Philargyrus. In answer to the very particular 
inquiries I made concerning your welfare, he 
informed me (and I have no reason to suspect his 
veracity) that you were at some seasons exceedingly 
dejected. This is a state of mind you should by 
no means encourage. For if the republic should 
in any degree subsist, you have no reason to doubt 
of recovering the rank you deserve ; and should it 
be destroyed, your particular condition will be no 
worse, at least, than that of every Roman in general. 
As to the important affair now depending 1 , and 
for the event of which we are all of us in so much 
anxiety ; this is a circumstance which you ought 
to bear with the greater tranquillity, as you are in 
a city where philosophy, that supreme guide and 
governess of human life, not only received her 
birth, but her best and noblest improvements 111 . 
But, besides this advantage, you enjoy the company 
likewise of Sulpicius 11 , that wise and favourite 
friend, from whose kind and prudent offices you 
must undoubtedly receive great consolation. And 
had we all of us lately been so politic as to have 
followed his advice, we should have chosen rather 
to have submitted to the civil, than to the military 
power of Caesar . 

1 The war in Spain. 

m The Athenians (among whom Torquatus, as has been 
observed above, at this time resided) were supposed to 
have been the first who instructed mankind, not only in 
the refinements of poetry, oratory, and philosophy, but in 
manufactures, agriculture, and civil government. Athens, 
in short, was esteemed by the ancients to be the source, as 
it was unquestionably the seat, of all those useful or polite 
arts which most contribute to the ease and ornament of 
human life. — Justin, ii. 6; Lucret. vi. 1, &c. 

n Sulpicius was at Athens, as governor of Greece. See 
rem. c , p. 488. 

° This alludes to the opposition which Sulpicius made 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



513 ' 



But I have dwelt longer, perhaps, upon this 
subject than was necessary : I will despatch, there- 
fore, what is more material in fewer words. How 
much I owed to some of those friends, whom the 
fate of this cruel war has snatched from me, you 
perfectly well know ; but I have now none remain- 
ing from whom I have received greater obligations 
than from yourself. I am sensible, at the same 
time, how little my power can at present avail ; but 
as no man can be so totally fallen as not to be 
capable of effecting somewhat at least by his earnest 
endeavours, be assured that both you and yours 
have an unquestionable right to the best and most 
zealous of mine. Farewell. 



LETTER II. 

To Servius Sidpicius. 
Manius Curius p , a merchant of Patrse, is a 
person whom I have many and great reasons to 
value. The friendship between us has 
a. v. 7 7- j Qn g con tinued : so long, indeed, as from 
his first appearance in the forum. He has formerly, 
at different junctures, and lately, during this un- 
happy civil war, offered me an asylum at Patrse ; 
and I should have used his house with the same 
freedom as my own, if 1 had found occasion. But 
my strongest connexion with him results from a 
motive of a more sacred kind, as it arises from his 
intimacy with my friend Atticus, for whom he 
entertains a very singular affection and esteem. If 
Curius is known to you, I imagine I am paying 
him the tribute of my good offices somewhat too 
late ; for I dare say his polite and elegant manners 
have already recommended him to your regard. 
However, should this prove to be the case, I very 
earnestly entreat you to suffer this letter to confirm 
and increase the favourable disposition you have 
conceived towards him. But if his modesty has 
concealed him from your notice, or you have only 
a slight acquaintance with him, or for any other 
reason, a farther recommendation may be neces- 
sary, I most warmly and most deservedly give him 
mine. I will be answerable, too (as every one 
ought, indeed, whose offices of this kind are sincere 
and disinterested), that you will experience so much 
politeness and probity in Curius, as to convince 
you that he is worthy both of my recommendation 
and of your friendship. In the mean time, be assured 
you will very sensibly oblige me, if I should find 
that this letter shall have had all the influence with 
you which I confidently expect. Farewell. 



a. u. 707. 



LETTER III. 

To Aulus Torquatus. 

It was more in compliance with the affection of 

my heart, than as thinking it in the least necessary, 

that I detained you so long in my last^. 

Your fortitude wants not to be animated 

by any exhortations of mine ; and, indeed, 1 am in 

every respect too much distressed myself, to be 

to the proposal of recalling Cjesar from his government in 
Gaul, just before the commencement of the civil war. 
See rem. *, p. 454. 

P This is the same person to whom the 25th letter of the 
preceding book is addressed. See rem. c , p. 503. 

q The first letter of the present book. 



capable of encouraging another. But, whatever 
reason there might or might not have been for the 
length of my former letter, I am sure it may well 
excuse me from extending my present, nothing 
new having since occurred. For as to the various 
and contradictory reports which are every day pro- 
pagated amongst us, concerning affairs in Spain, I 
imagine they are spread likewise into your part of 
the world. They will all terminate, however, in 
the same fatal catastrophe ; a catastrophe which I 
no less clearly discern (and I am well assured it is 
equally visible to yourself) than if it were now 
actually before my view. 'Tis true no one can 
determine what will be che event of the approach- 
ing battle ; but as to that of the war in general, I 
have no manner of doubt ; at least, none witli 
respect to its consequences : for one side or the 
other must certainly be victorious ; and I am well 
convinced of the use that either party will make of 
their success. Such a use, indeed, that I had 
rather suffer what is generally esteemed the most 
terrible of all evils, than live to be a spectator of 
so dreadful a scene. Yes, my friend, life, upon 
the terms on which we must then endure it, would 
be the completion of human misery ; whereas death 
was never considered by any wise man as an evil, 
even to the happy themselves. But you are in a 
city where the very walls will inspire you with these 
and other reflections of the same tendency, in a far 
more efficacious manner than I can suggest them r . 
I will only, therefore, assure you (unsubstantial as 
the consolation is which arises from the misfortunes 
of others), that you are at present in no greater 
danger than any of those of the same party, who 
have either totally renounced the war, or who are 
still in arms, as they are both under equal appre- 
hensions from the victor. But there is another 
and far higher consolation, which I hope is your 
support, as it certainly is mine. For so long as I 
shall preserve my innocence, I will never whilst I 
exist be anxiously disturbed at any event that may 
happen ; and if I should cease to exist, all sensi- 
bility must cease with me s . But I am again re- 
turning to my unnecessary reflections, and, in the 
language of the old proverb, am " sending owls to 
Athens'." To put an end to them, be assured that 
the welfare of yourself and family, together with 
the success of all your concerns, is my great and 
principal care, and shall continue to be so to the 
end of my days. Farewell. 



LETTER IV. 

To Servius Sulpicius. 
Your very polite and obliging letter to Atticus 
afforded him great satisfaction ; but not more than 
mM I received from it myself. It was, indeed, 
' equallyagreeabletousboth. But although 
we neither of us doubted that you would readily 
comply with any request he should make, yet your 
having voluntarily and unexpectedly offered him 
your services, was a circumstance, I must acknow- 
ledge, that raised Atticus's admiration less than 
mine. As you have given him the most ample 
assurances, therefore, of your good offices, it is 
unnecessary that I should desire you to add any- 



r See rem. m , p. 512. 
1 See rem. b , p. 478. 



See rem. f . p. 477- 



LL 



514 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



thing to them from your regard to me. It would 
be no less impertinent, likewise, to send you my 
acknowledgments upon this occasion, as your offer 
was entirely the spontaneous result of your par- 
ticular friendship to Atticus. This, however, I will 
say, that as such an uncommon proof of your 
esteem for a man whom I singularly love and value, 
could not but be highly agreeable to me, so it is an 
obligation I must necessarily place to my own 
account. And, indeed, as I may take the liberty, 
from the intimacy between us, to transgress the 
strict rules of propriety, I shall venture to do the 
two things which I just now declared were both 
improper and unnecessary. Accordingly, let me 
request, in the first place, that you would add as 
much as possible to those services, for my sake, 
with which you have shown yourself willing to 
favour Atticus for his own ; and, in the next place, 
desire your acceptance of my acknowledgments for 
those which you have already so generously pro- 
mised him. And be assured, whatever good offices 
you shall render to Atticus in regard to his affairs 
in Epirus u , or upon any other occasion, will be so 
many obligations conferred upon myself. Farewell. 



LETTER V. 

To the same. 
I have long oeen united with Lyso, a citizen of 
Patrae, by ties which I deem of sacred obligation ; 
A v _ 07 the ties, I mean, of hospitality v . This is 
a sort of connexion, it is true, in which I 
am engaged also with many others ; but I never 
contracted with any of my hosts so strict an inti- 
macy. The many good offices I received from 
Lyso, together with the habitudes of a daily inter- 
course, improved our acquaintance into the highest 
degree of friendship ; and, indeed, during the whole 
year he resided here, we were scarce ever separated. 
We neither of us doubted that my former letter 
would have the effect I find it has, and induce you 
to take his affairs under your protection in his 
absence. Nevertheless, as he had appeared in arms 
in favour of our party, we were under perpetual 
apprehensions of his resentment, in whom all power 
is now centred. But Lyso's illustrious rank, 
together with the zealous applications of myself 
and the rest of those who have shared in his 
generous hospitality, have at length obtained all 
that we could wish, as you will perceive by the 
letter which Caesar himself has written to you. I 
am so far, however, from thinking him in circum- 
stances that will allow me to release you from any 
part of my former solicitation, that I now more 
strongly request you to receive him into your 
patronage and friendship. Whilst his fate was yet 
in suspense, I was less forward in claiming your 
good offices, being cautious of giving you a trouble 
which possibly might prove to no purpose. But as 
his pardon is absolutely confirmed, I most ardently 
entreat your best services in his behalf. Not to 
enumerate particulars, I recommend to you his 
whole family in general, but more especially his 

« Epirus was contiguous to Greece, and annexed to the 
government of that province. It is now called Janna, and 
is under the dominion of the Turks. A considerable part 
of Atticus'a estate lay in this country.— Corn. Nep. in Vit. 
Att. 14. 

v See rem. s , p. 452. 



son. My old client Memmius Gemellus w , having 
been presented with the freedom of the city of 
Patrse during his unhappy banishment, adopted 
this young man according to the forms prescribed 
by the laws of that community : and I beseech you 
to support him in his right of succeeding to the 
estate of his adoptive father. But, above all, as I 
have thoroughly experienced the merit and grateful 
disposition of Lyso, let me conjure you to admit 
him into a share of your friendship. I am per- 
suaded, if you should do so, you will hereafter look 
upon him with the same affection, and recommend 
him with as much zeal, as I have expressed in the 
present instance. There is nothing, indeed, I more 
earnestly wish than to raise in you this disposition 
towards him ; as I fear, if you should not confer 
upon him your best services, he will suspect, not 
that you are unmindful of my recommendations, 
but that I did not sufficiently enforce them. For 
he must be perfectly sensible, not only from what 
he has frequently heard me declare, but from your 
own obliging letters to me, of the singular share I 
enjoy in your friendship and esteem. Farewell. 



LETTER VI. 

To the same. 
Asclapo, a physician of Patrae, is my very par- 
ticular friend ; to whose company, as well as skill 
in his profession, I have been much 
indebted. I had occasion to experience 
the latter in my own family ; and had great reason 
to be satisfied with his knowledge, his integrity, 
and his tenderness. I recommend him, therefore, 
to your favour ; and entreat you to let him see, by 
the effects of this letter, that I did so in the 
strongest manner. Your compliance with this 
request will oblige me exceedingly. Farewell. 



a. u. 707- 



u. 707. 



LETTER VII. 

To the same. 
Marcus JEmilius Avianus has distinguished 
me, from his earliest youth, with peculiar marks of 
affection and esteem. He is a man not 
only of great politeness but probity ; and, 
indeed, in every view of his character, is extremely 
amiable. If I imagined he were at Sicyon x , I 
should think it utterly unnecessary to add anything 
farther in his behalf, being well persuaded that the 
elegance and integrity of his manners would be 
sufficient of themselves to recommend him to the 
same degree of your affection which he possesses, 
not only of mine, but of every one of his friends in 
general. But as I hear he still continues at Cybira, 
where I left him some time ago>\ I most strongly 
recommend his affairs and family at Sicyon to your 
favour and protection. Among these, I must par- 
ticularly single out his freedman, Hammonius, as 
one who has a claim to my recommendation upon 
his own account. He has gained my good opinion, 

w Probably the same person to whom the 27th letter of 
the 3d book is addressed. See rem. c , p. 391. 

x A city in the Peloponnesus, now called Batilica. 

y Cybira was ;i city of Lycaonia, annexed to the govern- 
ment of Cilicia : Cicero alludes to the time when he was 
proconsul of that province. 



- 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



515 



not only by his uncommon zeal and fidelity towards 
his patron, but by the very important services like- 
wise which he has conferred upon myself. Indeed, 
had it been to me that he had been indebted for the 
privilege of his freedom, he could not have acted 
with a more faithful and affectionate assiduity than 
I experienced from him in my troubles 2 . In the 
first place, then, I entreat your protection of Ham- 
monius, as agent in the affairs of his patron : and, 
in the next, I recommend him upon his own 
account, as worthy to be received into the number 
of your friends. Believe me, you will find him of 
a modest, obliging temper, and well deserving a 
place in your affection. Farewell. 



LETTER VIII. 

To the same. 
I have a very great regard for Titus Manlius, a 
merchant of Thespise ; not only as one from whom 
A v -ffr I have always received singular marks of 
consideration and esteem, but as he is an 
admirer also of our favourite studies. To this I 
must add, that my friend Varro Murena very 
warmly espouses his interest : and though Murena 
has full confidence in the effect of that letter which 
he has himself written to you in favour of Manlius, 
yet he is persuaded that my recommendation like- 
wise may somewhat increase your disposition to assist 
him. In compliance, therefore, with my desire of 
serving both Murena and Manlius, I recommend 
the latter to you in the strongest terms : and you 
will greatly oblige me by promoting the interest 
and honours of Manlius in every instance con- 
sistent with your own character and dignity. I will 
venture to assure you likewise, from the know- 
ledge I have of his polite and humanised disposition, 
that your good offices towards him will be attended 
with all the satisfaction you can promise yourself 
from the gratitude of a worthy man. Farewell. 



LETTER IX. 

To the same. 
My friend and tribe-fellow a , Lucius Cossinius, 
is one with whom I have long lived in great inti- 
A v 707 macy ; and which his connexion with 
Atticus has contributed still farther to 
improve. I enjoy the affection of his whole family, 
but particularly of his freedman Anchialus, who is 
highly in the esteem not only of his patron, but of 
all his patron's friends ; in which number I have 
already mentioned myself. I recommend Anchialus 
therefore to your favour, with as much warmth as 
if he stood in the same relation to me as he does to 
Cossinius. You will oblige me, indeed, in a very 
sensible manner, by receiving him into your friend- 
ship, and giving him any assistance he may require — 
as far, I mean, as your own convenience will admit. 

z During his persecution by Clodius. 

a The collective body of the Roman people was divided 
into thirty-five tribes : and every citizen, of whatever rank, 
was necessarily enrolled under one or other of these several 
classes. They were each distinguished by a particular name, 
as the Tribus Popilia, Tribus Velina, &c, which name 
was derived either from the place which the tribe princi- 
pally inhabited, or from some distinguished family it con- 
tained — Rosin. Antiq. Rom. 



And you will hereafter, I am persuaded, receive 
much satisfaction from your compliance with this 
request, as you will find Anchialus to be a man of 
the greatest politeness and probity. Farewell. 



LETTER X. 

To the same. 
The pleasure I took in the reflection of having 
written to you in behalf of my friend and host, 
A „ 07 Lyso, was much increased when I read his 
letter : and I particularly rejoiced in hav- 
ing so strongly recommended him to your esteem, 
when I found he had before been a sufferer in your 
good opinion ; for my recommendation, he tells 
me, was of singular advantage in removing the 
groundless suspicion you had entertained of him, 
from a report that he had frequently, whilst he was 
at Rome, treated your character in a disrespectful 
manner. Let me, in the first place, then, return 
you those thanks which I so justly owe you, for suf- 
fering my letter to efface every remaining impres- 
sion of this injurious calumny. And, in the next 
place, although Lyso assures me that, agreeably to 
your well-natured and generous disposition, he has 
entirely satisfied you of his innocence, yet I entreat 
you to believe me when I protest, not only in justice 
to my friend, but to the world in general, that I 
never heard any man mention you without the 
highest applause. As to Lyso in particular, in all 
the daily conversations we had together whilst he 
continued here, you were the perpetual subject of 
his encomiums ; both as he imagined that I heard 
them with pleasure, and as it was a topic extremely 
agreeable likewise to himself. But though he is 
fully satisfied with the effects of my former letter, 
and I am sensible that the generous manner in 
which you treat him renders all farther application 
perfectly unnecessary, yet I cannot forbear renew- 
ing my earnest solicitations that you would continue 
your favours towards him. I would again also 
represent to you how well he deserves them, if I 
did not imagine you were by this time sufficiently 
acquainted with his merit. Farewell. 



LETTER XL 

To the same. 
Hagesaretus of Larissa b having received 
considerable honours from me during my consu- 
A v „ 07 late, has ever since distinguished me with 
singular marks of gratitude and respect. 
I strongly recommend him, therefore, to you as my 
host and friend ; as a man of an honest and grate- 
ful heart ; as a person of principal rank in his 
native city ; and, in short, as one who is altogether 
worthy of being admitted into your friendship. 
And I shall be exceedingly obliged to you for 
letting him see that you pay regard to this my 
recommendation. Farewell. 

b There were two cities of this name in Thessaly: a 
country contiguous to Greece, and which formerly made 
part of the kingdom of Macedonia. One of these cities was 
situated upon the river Peneus, and is now called Larsa : 
the other was a maritime town. Geographers suppose the 
latter to be the present Amino, a considerable sea-port 
belonging to the Turks. 

LL 2 



516 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XII. 
To the same. 
The connexion between Lucius Mescinius and 
myself results from no less powerful a tie than 
A v h 0>7 that of his having been formerly my 
quaestor . But, though I always con- 
sidered a relation of this kind in the high regard it 
was viewed by our ancestors, yet the refined and 
elegant virtues of Mescinius d rendered it still more 
justly sacred. Accordingly, there is no man with 
whom I live in a higher degree of intimacy, or 
from whose friendship I derive greater satisfaction. 
He doubts not of your disposition to serve him 
upon every occasion that shall comport with your 
honour : however, he is persuaded that a letter 
from my hand will considerably strengthen your 
inclinations for that purpose. This he collects not 
only from his own observation, but from those fre- 
quent declarations he has heard me make of the 
very pleasing and intimate friendship in which you 
and I are so strictly joined. I am to inform you, 
then, that his late brother, who was a merchant in 
Elis e , has left him his estate ; and I entreat you, 
with all the warmth which you are sensible ought 
to animate me in the concerns of a friend to whom 
I am so strongly and closely attached, that you 
would assist him with your power, your influence, 
and your advice, in settling these his affairs in your 
province. In view to this, we have sent directions 
to his agent, that if any disputes should arise con- 
cerning the estate or effects of the testator, that 
they shall be guided by your sentiments, and (if 
it be not troubling you too much) determined by 
your arbitration ; an office which I earnestly en- 
treat you to undertake, and the acceptance of which 
I shall esteem as an honour done to myself. But 
if any of the claimants should be so obstinate as to 
refuse your award, I shall receive it as a singular 
obligation if you will refer their pretensions (pro- 
vided you shall not think it a derogation from your 
dignity) to be determined in the courts at Rome ; 
as the matter in contest is with a Roman senator. 
That you may the less scruple to comply with this 
request, I have procured a sort of recommendatory 
letter to you from the consul Lepidus f . I say a 
recommendatory one ; for to have desired him to 
write in a more authoritative style, would not, I 
thought, be treating your high station with the 
deference which is so justly due to it. I would 
add, that your obliging Mescinius in this instance, 
will be laying out your favours to much advantage ; 
if I were not, on the one hand, well persuaded that 
this is a circumstance of which you are already 
apprised ; and, on the other, were I not soliciting 
you as for an affair of my own. For, be assured, 
I take an equal concern with Mescinius in every 
article wherein he is interested. As I am very 
desirous, therefore, that he may obtain his right 
with as little trouble as possible, so I am solicitous 
likewise that he should have reason to think that 
my recommendation has greatly contributed to this 
end. Farewell. 

c See rem. °, p. 448. 

d The reader will find, by the remark referred to in the 
last note, how little there was of truth and sincerity in the 
character which Cicero here bestows upon his friend. 

e A city in the Peloponnesus. 

f He was thisyear appointed by Ca?sar to be his colleague 
in the consular office. — Plut. in Vit. Anton. 



LETTER XIII. 

To the same. 

The regard you pay to my recommendations 
has given me, and will hereafter give me, I dare 
mq,- say, frequent occasions of repeating my 
acknowledgments. However, I will 
attempt, if possible, to convey my thanks to you 
in a style as various as the several instances that 
demand them ; and, in imitation of you lawyers s, 
express the same thing in different words. 

I have received a letter from Hammonius, full 
of the strongest expressions of gratitude for the 
services you have rendered both to him and Avianus, 
in consequence of my recommendation 11 ; and he 
assures me that nothing can be more generous than 
the personal civilities you have shown to himself, 
as well as the attention you have given to the affairs 
of his patron. This would afford me a very sen- 
sible pleasure, were I to consider it only as a benefit 
to those to whom I have the strongest attachments ; 
as indeed Avianus has distinguished himself above 
all my friends by his superior sensibility of the 
many and great obligations I have conferred upon 
him. But my satisfaction still increases when I 
view it as an instance of my standing so high in 
your esteem, as to incline you to serve my friends 
more efficaciously than I myself should, perhaps, 
were I present for that purpose. Possibly the 
reason of your having this advantage over me, may 
be, that I should not yield altogether so easily to 
their requests as you comply with mine. But 
whatever doubt I may have as to that point, I have 
none of your being persuaded that I entertain the 
sentiments of your favours they deserve ; and I 
entreat you to believe (what I will be answerable is 
the truth) that both Avianus and Hammonius have 
received them with the same grateful disposition. 
I beseech you then, if it be not engaging you in too 
much trouble, that you would endeavour that their 
affairs may be settled before you leave the province. 

I live in a most agreeable intimacy with your 
son, whose genius and uncommon application, but, 
above all, his probity and virtue, afford me a very 
sensible pleasure. Farewell. 



LETTER XIV. 

To the same. 
It is always with ,much pleasure that I apply to 
you in behalf of my friends; but I find a stilj 
a v 707 S reater m expressing my gratitude for 
those favours you yield to my solicitations. 
This indeed is a pleasure with which you never fail 
of supplying me ; and it is incredible what acknow- 
ledgments I receive, even from persons whom I 
have but slightly mentioned to you. I think my- 
self greatly indebted for these instances of your 
friendship ; but particularly for those good offices 
you have conferred upon Mescinius. He informs 
me that immediately upon the receipt of my letter', 
you gave his agents full assurance of your services ; 
and have since performed even more than you 

S Sulpicius was one of the most considerable lawyers of 
the age. See rem. h , p. 488. 
h See the 7th letter of this book. 
» The 12th letter of this book. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



517 



promised. Believe me, (and I cannot too often 
repeat.it,) you have, by these means, laid an 
obligation upon me of the most acceptable kind ; 
and it affords me so much the higher satisfaction, 
as I am persuaded Mescinius will give you abun- 
dant reason to rejoice in it yourself. Virtue and 
probity, iu truth, are the prevailing qualities of his 
heart ; as an obliging aud friendly officiousness is 
his distinguishing characteristic. To this I must 
add, that he is particularly devoted to our favourite 
speculations ; those philosophical speculations, my 
friend, which were always the delight, as they are 
now also the support and consolation, of my life. 
Let me entreat you, then, to give him fresh instances 
of your generosity upon every occasion, wherein it 
shall not be inconsistent with your dignity to inter- 
pose. But there are two articles in which I will 
particularly request it. The first is, that if those 
who are indebted to the estate of his testator, 
should insist upon being indemnified in their pay- 
ments to Mescinius, that my security may be 
accepted ; and the next is, that as the greatest 
part of the testator's effects are secreted by his 
wife, that you would assist in concerting measures 
for sending her to Rome. Should she be once per- 
suaded that this method will be taken with her, we 
doubt not of her settling everything to the satis- 
faction of Mescinius ; and, that it may be so, I 
most strongly again request the interposition of 
your good offices. In the mean time, I will be 
answerable for what I just now assured you, that 
the gratitude and other amiable qualities of Mes- 
cinius will give you reason to think your favours 
were not ill bestowed, which I mention as a motive 
on his own account, to be added to those which 
induced you to serve him upon mine. 

I am persuaded that the Lacedaemonians doubt 
not of being sufficiently recommended to your 
justice and patronage, by their own and their 
ancestors' virtues, and I know you too well to 
question your being perfectly acquainted with the 
national rights and merit of every people who are 
connected with the republic. Accordingly, not- 
withstanding the great obligations I have received 
from the citizens of Lacedaemon, yet, when Phi- 
lippus requested me to recommend them to your 
protection, my answer was, that the Lacedaemo- 
nians could not possibly stand in need of an advo- 
cate with Suipicius. The truth is, I look upon it 
as a circumstance of singular advantage to all the 
cities of Achaia 1 , in general, that you preside over 
them in these turbulent times ; and I am persuaded 
that you, who are so peculiarly conversant, not 
only in the Roman but Grecian annals, cannot but 
be a friend to the Lacedaemonians for the sake of 
their heroic descent. I will only, therefore, en- 
treat you that, when you are acting towards them 
in consequence of what your justice and honour 
requires, you would, at the same time, intimate 
that you receive an additional pleasure from indulg- 
ing your own inclinations of that sort, by knowing 
them to be agreeable likewise to mine. As I think 
myself obliged to show this city that their concerns 
are part of my care, it is with much earnestness I 
make this request. Farewell. 

5 Greece. 



LETTER XV. 

To Lepta'K 

The moment I received your letter from the 
hands of Seleucus, I despatched a note to Balbus, 
a. u. 708. t0 i n( l u i re th e purport of the law you 
mention 15 . His answer was, that such 
persons as at present exercise the office of praeco 1 , 
are expressly excluded from being decurii 1 " ; but 
this prohibition extended not to those who had 
formerly been engaged in that employment. Let 
not our friends, then, be discouraged. It would, 
indeed, have been intolerable that a parcel of paltry 
fortune-tellers should be thought worthy of being 
admitted into the senate of Rome n , at the same 
time that having formerly acted as a praeco should 
disqualify a man for being member of the council 
of a country corporation. 

We have no news from Spain : all that we know 
with certainty is, that young Pompey has drawn 
together a very considerable army. This we learn 
from a letter of Paciaecus to Caesar, a copy whereof 
Caesar himself has transmitted to us ; in which it 
is affirmed that Pompey is at the head of eleven 
legions p. Messala, in a letter he lately wrote to 
Quintus Salassus, informs him that his brother, 
Publius Curtius, has been executed by the command 
of Pompey, in the presence of his whole army. 
This man had entered, it seems, into a conspiracy 
with some Spaniards, by which it was agreed, in 
case Pompey should march into a certain village 
for provisions, to seize upon his person, and deliver 
him into the hands of Caesar. 

In relation to the security in which you stand 
engaged for Pompey, you may depend upon it, as 
soon as Galba, who is jointly bound with you, 
returns hither, I shall not fail to consult with him 
about measures for settling that affair. He seemed, 
I remember, to imagine that it might be adjusted ; 
and you know he is a man who spares no pains 
where his money is concerned. 

J Cicero mentions a person of this name in a former let- 
ter, who appears to have been his prcefectus fabrum, or 
what might he called, perhaps, in modern language, the 
commander of his train of artillery, when he was governor 
of Cilicia. It is prohable, therefore, as Manutius conjec- 
tures, that he is the same person to whom this letter is 
addressed. — Ep. Fam. iii. 7. 

k Manutius very justly observes, that this could not be 
a law which Cassar had actually passed, but one which he 
intended, perhaps, to enact, when he should return from 
Spain : for if it had been actually promulgated, Cicero 
could have had no occasion to apply to Balbus for his in- 
telligence. 

1 The office of praeco seems to have been much in the 
nature of a crier in our courts of justice, but not altogether 
so low in repute. 

m A decurio was, in a corporate city, the same as a sena- 
tor of Rome ; that is, a member of the public council of 
the community. 

n This is a sneer upon Caesar, who had introduced per- 
sons of the lowest rank and character into the Roman 
senate. See rem. °, p. 457- 

lie was a native of Spain, and a person of great note 
in that province. Caesar entrusted him with a very con- 
siderable command in the expedition against the sons of 
Pompey.— Hirt. De Bell. Hisp. 3. 

P The number of horse and foot in a Roman legion 
varied in different periods of the republic. In its low 'est 
computation, it appears to have amounted to 3000 foot and 
200 horse ; and, in its highest, to have risen to 6000 of the : 
former, and 400 of the latter.— Rosin. Antiq. Rom. 004. 



518 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



It gives me much pleasure to find that you so 
highly approve of myi Orator. Whatever skill I 
have in the art, I have displayed it all in that 
treatise ; and, if the commendations you bestow 
upon it are not too partial, I cannot but set some 
value upon my judgment. To speak truth, I am 
willing to rest all my reputation of this kind upon 
the merit of that performance. I hope my little 
favourite, your son, already discovers some relish 
for writings of this sort ; and although he is yet 
too young to enter far into these studies, yet it will 
be no disadvantage to him to begin thus early to 
form his taste by compositions of this nature. 

I have been detained at Rome on account of my 
daughter Tullia's lying-in. But though she is 
now, I hope, out of all danger, yet I still wait here 
in expectation of my first payment from the agents 
of DolabehV ; and, to tell you the truth, I am not 
so fond of changing the scene as formerly. The 
amusement I found in my country houses, together 
with the sweets of retirement, were wont heretofore 
to draw me frequently out of Rome. But the 
situation of my present house is altogether as plea- 
sant as that of any of my villas. I am, indeed, as 
much retired here as if I lived in the most unfre- 
quented desert, and carry on my studies without 
the least interruption. I believe, therefore, that I 
have a better chance of a visit from you in Rome 
than you have of seeing me in the country. 

I would recommend Hesiod to the agreeable little 
Lepta as an author which he ought to retain by 
heart ; and particularly let him always have in his 
mouth those noble lines, 

High on a rugged rock, &c. s 
Farewell. 



LETTER XVI. 

To Aulus Torquatus. 

There is no news to send you ; and, indeed, if 
there were any, yet all accounts of that kind, I 
A u 708 know, are usually transmitted to you by 
your own family. As to what may here- 
after happen, though it is always difficult to de- 
termine concerning future events, yet, when they 
are not placed at too great a distance, one may 
sometimes form a tolerable guess. At present, 
however, all I can conjecture is, that the war is not 
likely to be drawn out into any great length ; 
though I must acknowledge there are some who 
think differently. I am even inclined to believe that 
there has already been an engagement ; but I do 

<i This elegant and judicious piece is inscribed to Brutus, 
and was written in answer to a question he had often pro- 
posed to Cicero, concerning the noblest and most perfect 
species of eloquence. 

r This seems to intimate that there had been a divorce 
between Dolabella and Tullia : as it was usual, in cases of 
that kind, for the husband to return the portion he had 
received from his wife, at three annual payments. See 
rents. ° and <l, on letter 2, book xi. 

■ The passage in Hesiod, at which Cicero hints, is to the 
following purpose : 

High on a rugged rock the gods ordain, 
Majestic Virtue shall her throne maintain : 
And many a thorny path her sons must press, 
Ere the glad summit shall their labours bless. 
There joys serene to arduous toils succeed, 
And peace eternal is the victor's meed. 



not give you this as a fact ; I mention it only as 
extremely probable. The event of war is always 
precarious ; but, in the present instance, the num- 
ber of forces is so considerable on each side, and 
there is such a genei'al spirit, it is said, in both 
armies, of coming to action, that it will not be 
matter of surprise, whichever side should obtain 
the victory*. In the mean time, the world is every 
day more and more persuaded, that although there 
may be some little difference in the cause of the 
contending parties, there will be scarcely any in 
the consequence of their success. As to one of 
them, we have already in some sort experienced 
their disposition 11 ; and, as to the other, we are all 
of us sufficiently sensible how much is to be dreaded 
from an incensed conqueror v . 

If, by what I have here said, I may seem to 
increase that grief which I should endeavour to 
alleviate, I must confess that I know but one 
reflection capable of supporting us under these 
public misfortunes. It is a reflection, however, of 
sovereign efficacy, where it can be applied in its 
full force, and of which I every day more and more 
experience the singular advantage. It is, indeed, 
the greatest consolation under adversity, to be 
conscious of ;having always meant well, and to be 
persuaded that nothing but guilt deserves to be 
considered as a severe evil. But as you and I are 
so far from having anything to reproach ourselves 
with, that we have the satisfaction to reflect that 
we have ever acted upon the most patriot prin- 
ciples ; as it is not our measures, but the ill success 
of those measures, which the world regrets ; in a 
word, as we have faithfully discharged that duty we 
owed to our country, let us bear the event with 
calmness and moderation. But I pretend not to 
teach you how to support these our common cala- 
mities. It is a lesson which requires much greater 
abilities than mine to inculcate, as well as the 
most singular fortitude of soul to practise. There 
is one point, however, in which any man is qualified 
to be your instructor, as it is easy to show that 
you have no reason to be particularly afflicted. 
For with respect to Csesar, though he has appeared 
somewhat more slow in granting your pardon than 
was generally imagined, yet I have not the least 
doubt of his consenting to your restoration ; and 
as to the other party w , you perfectly well know 
how your interest stands with them, without my 
telling you. Your only remaining disquietude, 
then, must arise from being thus long separated 
from your family : and it is a circumstance, I con- 
fess, thatjustly merits your concern, especially as 
you are by this mean deprived of the company of 



t This letter was probably written very early in the 
present year, as it was on the 17th of March that the two 
armies came to a general engagement. This decisive bat- 
tle was fought under the walls of Munda, a city which 
still subsists in the province of Granada. Csesar obtained 
a complete victory ; but it was disputed by the Pompeians 
with so much coinage and obstinacy, that it was long 
doubtful on which side the advantage would turn, or, as 
Florus most elegantly expresses it, " ut plane videretur 
nescio quid deliberare Fortuna. "— llirt. De Bell. Hisp. 31 ; 
Flor. iv. 2. 

i The Cesarean party. 

v Young Pompey, who, if he had succeeded, would un- 
doubtedly have acted with great severity towards Cicero, 
and the rest of those who had deserted the cause of his 
father. 

w The Pompeians. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



619 



those most amiable youths, your sons. But, as I 
observed in a former w letter, it is natural for every 
man in these unhappy times to look upon his own 
condition as of all others the most miserable, and 
to deem that place the least eligible in which it is 
his fortune to be situated. For my own part, 
indeed, I think that we who live at Rome are most 
to be lamented ; not only as in misfortunes of 
every kind a spectator must be - more sensibly 
affected than he who is acquainted with them 
merely by report, but as we are more exposed to 
the danger of sudden violences than those who are 
placed at a greater distance. 

Yet, after all my endeavours to reason you out 
of your disquietudes, I cannot but acknowledge 
that I am more obliged to time than to that philo- 
sophy which I have ever cultivated, for the miti- 
gation of my own ; and how great they once were, 
you perfectly well know. But, in the first place, 
I have the consolation to reflect, that when I was 
so desirous of peace as to think even a bad one 
preferable to a civil war, I saw farther into con- 
sequences than some of my countrymen. And 
although I do not pretend to a spirit of divination 
and it was chance alone that verified my predictions, 
yet I will own that I take great satisfaction in the 
empty honour of my fruitless penetration. In the 
next place, I have the consolation, in common 
with yourself, that should I now be called upon to 
lay down my life, I shall not be cut off from a 
commonwealth which I can by any means regret to 
leave ; especially as the same blow that deprives 
me of my life will deprive me likewise of all sensi- 
bility x . Besides, I am already arrived at a fulness 
of years^ ; and, as I can look back with entire 
satisfaction on the course I have completed, so I 
have nothing to fear from any violence which may 
be offered to me, since nature herself has now well- 
nigh conducted my days to their final period. In a 
word, when I reflect upon that great man z , or rather, 
indeed, upon those many illustrious personages 
who perished in this war, it would seem a want 
of modesty to regret submitting to the same fate, 
whenever I shall find it necessary. The truth is, 
I represent to myself all that can possibly happen 
to me ; as, indeed, there is no calamity so severe 
which I do not look upon as actually impending. 
However, since to live in perpetual fear is a greater 
evil than any we can dread, I check myself in these 
reflections, especially as I am approaching to that 
state, which is not only unattended with any pain 
in itself, but which will put an end to all painful 
sensations for ever. But I have dwelt longer upon 
this subject, perhaps, than was necessary. How- 
ever, if I run out my letters to an unreasonable 
extent, you must not impute it to impertinence, 
but affection. 

I am sorry to hear that Sulpicius has left 
Athens 3 ; as I am persuaded that the daily com- 
pany and conversation of so wise and valuable a 
friend afforded you great relief under your afflic- 
tions. But I hope you will continue to bear them 
as becomes you, and support yourself with your 
usual fortitude. In the mean time, be assured I 

w The first letter of this hook. 
x See rem. f , p. 477. 

7 Cicero was at this time in his 6lst year. 
1 Pompey. 

a In order, probahly, to return to Rome upon the expi- 
ration of his government. 



shall promote, with the utmost zeal and care, what- 
ever I shall think agreeable to the interest or 
inclination either of you or yours. And in this 
I can only imitate you in your disposition to serve 
me, without being able to return your generous 
offices in the same efficacious manner. Farewell. 



LETTER XVII. 

To Caius Cassius. 

I should not send you so short a letter, if your 
courier had not called for it just as he was setting 
_ out. But I have still another reason ; 
for I have nothing to write to you in the 
way of pleasantry, and serious affairs are topics in 
which it is not altogether safe to engage. You 
will, therefore, wonder, perhaps, that I should be 
in any humour to be jocose ; and indeed it is no 
very easy matter. However, it is the only expe- 
dient left to divert our uneasy thoughts. But 
where, then, you will probably ask, is our philo- 
sophy ? Why, yours, my friend, is in the b kitchen, 
I suppose ; and as to mine, it is much too trouble- 
some a guest to gain admittance. The fact is, I 
am heartily ashamed of being a slave ; and, there- 
fore, that I may not hear the severe reproaches of 
Plato, I endeavour to turn my attention another 
way. 

We have hitherto received no certain intelligence 
from Spain. I rejoice, upon your account, that 
you are absent from this unpleasing scene, though 
I greatly regret it upon my own. But your courier 
presses me to despatch, so that I can only bid you 
adieu, and entreat the continuance of that friend- 
ship you have ever shown me from your earliest 
youth. 



LETTER XVIII. 

To Dolabella c . 
I would not venture to omit writing to you by 
our friend Salvius ; though I have nothing more 
_ 0ft to say than what you perfectly well know 
' already, that I infinitely love you d . I have 
much more reason, indeed, to expect a letter from 
you, than you can have to receive one from me, as I 
imagine there is nothing going forward in Rome 
which you will think of importance enough to raise 
your curiosity, unless, perhaps, that 1 am to sit in 
judgment between two learned grammarians ; our 
friend Nicias, and his antagonistVidius. The latter, 
you must know, has produced a certain manuscript, 
relating to an account between them, to which 
Nicias, like a second Aristarchus e , very peremp- 
torily insists that some of the lines are altogether 
spurious. Now I, like a venerable ancient critic, 
am to determine whether these suspected interpo- 
lations are genuine or not. But you will question, 

b This is a raillery upon the tenets of Cassius, who held 
the doctrines of the Epicurean sect. 

c He was, at this time, with Caesar, in Spain. 

'• Whatever disagreement there was between Dolabclla 
and Tullia, it did not, in appearance at least, occasion any 
coolness between him and his father-in-law ; a circum- 
stance, which, considering the tenderness of Cicero for his 
daughter, can only be accounted for by Dolabella's great 
credit with Caesar. 



e A celebrated Greek critic. 



rem. ', ;>. 43">. 



520 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



perhaps, whether I have sufficiently forgotten the 
delicious mushrooms and those noble prawns f with 
which I have been so often regaled by Nicias and 
his gentle spouse, to be qualified for an impartial 
judge in this important cause. Let me ask you, in 
return, whether you imagine I have so entirely 
thrown off all my former severity, as to retain 
nothing of my old solemnity of brow, even when I 
am sitting in grave tribunal. You may be sure, 
however, that my honest host shall be no great 
sufferer. Though, let me tell you, if I should pass 
sentence of banishment upon him, I shall by no 
means allow you to reverse it, lest Bursa should 
be supplied with a pedagogue to teach him his 
letters!?. But I am running on in this ludicrous 
style, without reflecting that you, who are in the 
midst of a campaign, may perhaps be too seriously 
engaged to relish these humorous sallies. When 
I shall be certain, therefore, that you are in a dis- 
position to laugh, you shall hear farther from me. 
I cannot, however, forbear adding, that the people 
were extremely solicitous concerning the fate of 
Sulla 1 ', till the news of his death was confirmed ; 
but now that they are assured of the fact, they are 
no longer inquisitive how it happened, well con- 
tented with their intelligence that he is undoubtedly 
defunct. As for myself, I bear this deplorable 
accident like a philosopher ; my only concern is, 
lest it should damp the spirit of Caesar's auctions'. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XIX. 

To Aulus Torquatus. 

I hope you will not imagine that you have been 
out of my thoughts, by my having lately been a 
more remiss correspondent than usual. 
The true occasion of my silence has partly 
arisen from an ill state of health, which, however, 
is now somewhat mended, and partly has been 
owing to my absence from Rome, which prevented 
me from being informed when any courier was 
despatched to you. Be assured, that I constantly 
and most affectionately preserve you in my remem- 
brance, and that your affairs of every kind are as 
much my concern as if they were my own. 

Believe me, you have no reason, considering the 
unhappy situation of public affairs, to be uneasy 
that yours still remain in a more dubious and un- 
settled posture than was generally hoped and 
imagined. For one of these three events must 

f In the original, it is culinarum, which conveys no sense, 
or, at least, a very forced one. The reading, therefore, 
proposed by Gronovius, is adopted in the translation, who 
imagines the true word was squlllarum ,- for prawns was 
a fish in great repute amongst the Roman epicures. 

(? Bursa was a particular enemy of Cicero, and had been 
banished for his riotous attempts to revenge the murder of 
Clodiua, from which banishment he was lately recalled. 
See rem, a , p. .'507. 

h This man had rendered himself extremely and gene- 
rally odious by the purchases he had made of the confis- 
cated estates, during the proscriptions both of Sylla and 
Caesar.— Cic. de Offic. ii. 8. 

1 In which the confiscated estates were put up to sale. 
One of the methods that Caesar took to reward his parti- 
sans, was by suffering them to purchase these estates at 
an under-value ; and it was the hopes of being a sharer m 
these iniquitous spoils, that furnished one of the principal 
incentives to the civil war. — Cic, ubi sup. 



necessarily take place ; either we shall never see 
an end of our civil wars, or they will one day sub- 
side, and give the republic an opportunity of re- 
covering its vigour, or they will terminate in its 
utter extinction. If the sword is never to be 
sheathed, you can have nothing to fear either from 
the party which you formerly assisted, or from that 
by which you have lately been received^. But 
should the republic again revive, either by the 
contending factions mutually agreeing to a cessa- 
tion of arms ; or by their laying them down in mere 
lassitude ; or by one side being vanquished ; you 
will undoubtedly be again restored both to your 
rank and to your fortunes. And should our con- 
stitution be totally destroyed, agreeably to what 
the wise Marcus Antonius k long since apprehended, 
when he imagined that the present calamities were 
even then approaching, you will have the consola- 
tion, at least, to reflect, that a misfortune which is 
common to all cannot be lamented as peculiar to 
any : and miserable as this consolation must prove 
to a man of your patriot virtues, 'tis a consolation, 
however, to which we must necessarily have re- 
com-se. 

If you well consider the full force of these few 
hints, (and I do not think it prudent to be more 
explicit in a letter,) you must be convinced, with- 
out my telling you, that you have something to 
hope, and nothing to fear, so long as the republic 
shall subsist, either in its present, or any other 
form. But should it be entirely subverted, as I 
am sure you would not, if you were permitted, 
survive its ruin ; so I am persuaded you will pa- 
tiently submit to your fate, in the conscious satis- 
faction of having in no sort deserved it. But I 
forbear to enter farther into this subject, and will 
only add my request, that you would inform me 
how it is with you, and where you purpose to fix 
your quarters, that I may know where a letter or 
a visit will find you. Farewell. 



LETTER XX. 

To Caius Cassius. 

Surely, my friend, your couriers are a set of 

most unconscionable fellows. Not that they have 

708 g >rven me an Y particular offence ; but as 

' they never bring me a letter when they 

J Torquatus was now in Italy, having obtained the per- 
mission of returning, by means of Dolahella, with whom 
Cicero had employed his good offices for that purpose ; as 
appears by several passages which Manutius has produced 
from the letters to Atticus. But whether Torquatus, 
afterwards, procured a full pardon from Cesar, and was 
restored to his estates and honours, is uncertain ; all that 
is farther known of him, is, that he was in the army of 
Brutus and Cassius, at the battle of Philippi, and in the 
number of those whom Atticus generously assisted in 
their distress after the event of that unfortunate action.— 
Ad Att. xiii. <), 20, 21 ; Corn. Nep. in Vit. Att. ii. 

k This eloquent and illustrious patriot, the grandfather 
of Mark Antony, was consul in the year (ia.'i; and, about 
twelve years afterwards, was put to death by the command 
of Marius, whose party he had strenuously opposed. Marius 
was at dinner when the executioner of his cruel orders 
brought him the head of Antonius, which that sanguinary 
Roman received into his hands, with all the insolent and 
horrid exultation of the most savage barbarian.— Plut. in 
Vit. Anton.; Appian. De Tell. Civ. i. 344; Val. Max. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



521 



arrive here, is it fair they should always press me 
for one when they return ? It would be more con- 
venient, however, if they would give me earlier 
notice, and not make their demands in the very 
instant they are setting out. You must excuse 
me, therefore, (if an excuse I can want, who am so 
much more punctual a correspondent than your- 
self,) should this letter prove no longer than my 
last : as you may be assured of receiving an ample 
detail of everything in my next. But that my pre- 
sent epistle may not be wholly barren of news, I 
must inform you that Publius Sulla 1 , the father, is 
dead. The occasion of this accident is variously 
reported : some say he was a martyr to his palate; 
and others, that he was murdered by highwaymen. 
The people, however, are perfectly indifferent as to 
the manner, since they are quite clear as to the 
fact : for certain it is, that the flames of his funeral 
pile have consumed him to ashes. And what though 
Liberty herself, alas ! perished with this paragon 
of patriots, you will bear the loss of him, I guess, 
with much philosophy. But Cassar, 'tis thought, 
will be a real mourner, in the apprehension that 
his auctions will not now proceed so currently as 
usual. On the other hand, this event affords high 
satisfaction to Mindius Marcellus, and the essenced 
Attius, who rejoice exceedingly in having thus 
gotten quit of a formidable antagonist. 

We are in great expectation of the news from 
Spain, having, as yet, received no certain intelli- 
gence from that quarter. Some flying reports, 
indeed, have been spread, that things do not go 
well there ; but they are reports without authority. 

Our friend Pansa set out for his government" 1 
on the 30th of December. The circumstances that 
attended his departure afforded a very strong proof 
that " virtue is eligible upon its own account :" a 
truth which you have lately, it seems, begun to 
doubt n . The singular humanity with which he has 
relieved such numbers in these times of public dis- 
tress, drew after him, in a very distinguished manner, 
the general good wishes of every honest man. 

I am extremely glad to find that you are still at 
Brundisium, and I much approve of your continu- 
ing there. You cannot be governed by a more 
judicious maxim than to sit loose to the vain ambi- 
tion of the world ; and it will be a great satisfaction 
to all your friends to hear that you persevere in 
this prudent inactivity. In the mean time, I hope 
you will not forget me when you send any letters 
to your family ; as, on my own part, whenever I 
hear of any person that is going to you, I shall not 
fail to take the opportunity of writing. Farewell. 



LETTER XXI. 

To the same. 

Will you not blush when I remind you that 

this is the third letter I have written without hav- 

ing received a single line in return ? 

u ' ' ' However, I do not press you to be more 

expeditious, as I hope, and indeed insist, that you 

will make me amends for this delay, by the length 

of your next epistle. As for myself, if I had the 

1 See rem. h on letter 18 of this book. 
m Of Gaul : in which he succeeded Marcus Brutus. 
"As having lately embraced the Epicurean principles. 
See the following letter. 



opportunity of conveying my letters as frequently 
as I wish, I should write to you, I believe, every 
hour ; for as often as I employ my pen in this 
manner, you seem, as it were, actually present to 
my view. This effect is by no means produced, let 
me tell you, by those subtle images which your new 
friends talk so much of, who suppose that even 
the ideas of imagination are excited by what the 
late Catius, with wondrous elegancy, has styled 
spectres. For by this curious wordP you must 
know he has expressed what Epicurus, who bor- 
rowed the notion from Democritus ', has called 
images. But granting that these same spectres are 
capable of affecting the organ of vision, yet I can- 
not guess which way they can contrive to make 
their entrance into the mind. But you will solve 
this difficulty when we meet, and tell me by what 
means, whenever I shall be disposed to think of 
you, I may be able to call up your spectre, and 
not only yours, whose image, indeed, is already so 
deeply stamped upon my heart, but even that of 
the whole British island, for instance, if I should 
be inclined to make it the subject of my medita- 
tions. — But more of this another time. In the 
mean while I send this as an experiment to try 
with what temper you can bear my railleries. 
Should they seem to touch you, I shall renew my 
attack with so much the more vigour, and will 
apply for a writ of restitution to reinstate you in 
your old tenets, " of which you, the said Cassius, 
have by force and arms r been dispossessed." 
Length of possession, in this case, will be no plea 
in bar ; for, whether the time be more or less since 
you have been driven by the allurements of plea- 
sure from the mansions of virtue, my action will 
be still maintainable. But let me not forget whom 
it is that I am thus bantering ; is it not that illus- 
trious friend whose every step, from his first en- 
trance into the world, has been conducted by the 
highest honour and virtue ? If it be true, then, 

The Epicureans ; to whose system of philosophy Cassius 
had lately become a convert. Accordingly Cicero rallies 
him in this and the following passages, on their absurd 
doctrine concerning ideas ; which they maintained were 
excited by certain thin forms, or images, perpetually float- 
ing in the air. These images were supposed to be con- 
stantly emitted from all objects, and to be of so delicate 
and subtle a texture, as easily to penetrate through the 
pores of the body, and by that means render themselves 
visible to the mind. — Lucret. iv. 726, &c. 

P It is probable that Catius either coined this word him- 
self, or employed it in a new and improper manner. For 
it is observable, that both Lucretius and Cicero, whenever 
they have occasion to express, in their own language, what 
the Greek Epicureans called eftJwAa, always render it by 
the word simulacra or imagines. 

1 He was a native of Abdera, a city in Thrace, and 
flourished about 400 years before the Christian era. Epi- 
curus, who was born about forty years afterwards, bor- 
rowed much of his doctrine from the writings of this 
philosopher. — Cic. de Fin. i. 6. 

r These were the formal words of the praetor's edict, 
commanding the restoration of a person to an estate, of 
which he had been forcibly dispossessed. Cicero, perhaps, 
besides the humour of their general application, meant 
likewise archly to intimate, that Cassius had been driven 
out of his more rigid principles by his military com- 
panions: as, in a letter written to Trebatius, when he was 
making a campaign with Caesar in Gaul, whore our author 
is rallying him upon a similar occasion, he insinuates that 
he had acquired his epicurism in the camp. " Indicavit 
mini Pansa (says he) Epicureum te esse factum. O castra 

ra-clara ! "— Ep. Fam. vii. 12. 



,522 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



hat you have embraced the Epicurean principles, 
I doubt they have more strength and solidity in 
them than I once imagined. 

And now, will you not be inclined to ask, how I 
could possibly think of amusing you in this idle 
manner ? The truth of it is, I am not furnished 
with a more important subject, as I have nothing 
to write to you concerning public affairs ; nor, 
indeed, do I choose to trust my sentiments of 
them in a letter. Farewell. 



LETTER XXII. 

Cassius to Cicero. 

Nothing affords me a greater pleasure, in my 
travels, than to converse with my friend. It brings 
708 y° u ' m ^ ee< ^' s0 strongly to my mind, that 
I fancy myself indulging a vein of plea- 
santry with you in person. This lively impression, 
however, is by no means produced by those Catian 
spectres you mention s : and for which piece of rail- 
lery, I intend to draw up in my next such a list of 
inelegant stoics as will force you to acknowledge 
that Catius, in comparison with these, may well 
pass for a native of the refined Athens. 

It gives me much satisfaction, not only upon our 
friend Pansa's account, but for the sake of every 
one of us, that he received such marks of public 
esteem when he set out for his government *. I 
hope this circumstance will be thought a convincing 
proof how amiable a spirit of probity and benevo- 
lence, and how odious the contrary disposition, 
renders its possessor : and that the world will learn 
from hence, that these popular honours, which are 
so passionately courted by bad citizens, are the 
sure attendants on those whose characters are the 
reverse. To persuade mankind that virtue is its 
own reward, is a task, I fear, of too much difficulty : 
but that real and undisturbed pleasures necessarily 
flow from probity, justice, and whatever else is fair 
and beautiful in moral actions, is a truth, surely, 
of most easy admission. Epicurus himself, from 
whom the Catii, and the Amafinii, together with 
the rest of those injurious interpreters of his mean- 
ing, pretend to derive their tenets, expressly 
declares, that " a pleasurable life can alone be 
procured by the practice of virtue/' Accordingly 
Pansa, who pursues pleasure agreeably to this just 
notion of it, still perseveres, you see, in a virtuous 
conduct. The truth is, those whom your sect has 
stigmatised by the name of voluptuaries, are 
warm admirers of moral beauty ; and consequently 
cultivate and practise the whole train of social 
duties. But commend me to the judicious Sulla: 
who, observing that the philosophers were divided 
in their opinions concerning the supreme good, 
left them to settle the question among themselves, 
whilst he turned his views to a less controverted 
acquisition, by purchasing every good thing that 
was put up to sale u - I received the news of his 
death with much fortitude : and, indeed, Csesar 
will take care that we shall not long have occasion 
to regret his loss ; as there are numbers of equal 
merit whom he can restore to us v in his place. 
Nor will Csesar himself, I suppose, much lament 

s 'In the preceding letter. See rems. ° and P thereon. 

1 Sec rem. m on letter 20 of this book. 

u See rem. h on letter 18 of this book. 

v This alludes to the great number of those whom Csesar, 



this excellent customer of his, when he shall see 
what a worthy son he has left to succeed him. 

But to turn to public affairs ; let me know what 
is doing in Spain. It is a point, indeed, upon 
which I am extremely solicitous : as I had much 
rather submit to an old master, whose clemency I 
have experienced, than run the hazard of being 
exposed to the cruelty of a new one. You know 
the weakness of young Pompey's intellects ; that 
he looks upon cruelty as heroism ; and that he is 
sensible how much he has ever been the object of 
our ridicule. I fear, therefore, he would be apt to 
treat us somewhat roughly, and return our jokes 
with the point of his sword. If you have any value 
for me, then, you will not fail to let me know 
whatever shall happen. Ah, my friend, how do I 
wish I were apprised whether you read this with 
an easy or an anxious mind ! for, by that single 
circumstance, I should be determined what mea- 
sures are proper for me to pursue. But not to 
detain you any longer, I will only entreat you to 
continue your friendship to me, and then bid you 
Farewell. 

P.S. If Csesar should prove victorious, you may 
expect to see me very soon. 



LETTER XXIII. 

To Dolabella. 
Caius Suberinus, a native of w Calenum, is 
one with whom I am particularly united ; and he 



a. u. 708. 



is extremely so, likewise, with our very 



intimate friend Lepta. This person, in 
order to avoid being engaged in our intestine com- 
motions, attended Marcus Varro into Spain*, 
before the civil war broke out : imagining, as, 
indeed, everybody else did, that after the defeat 
of Afranius ?, there would be no farther disturb- 
ances in that province. However, he was, by that 
very measure, involved in those misfortunes he 
had taken so much pains to escape. For the sud- 
den insurrection which was formed by Scapula, and 
afterwards raised to so formidable a height by 
young Pompey, forced him unwillingly to take a 
part in that unhappy enterprise. The case of Mar- 
cus Planius likewise, who is also in the number of 
Lepta's particular friends, is much the same with 
that of Suberinus. In compliance with my friend- 
ship, therefore, for these two persons, and in com- 
passion to their misfortunes, I recommend them 
with all possible warmth and earnestness to your 
favour. But I have still another motive which 
engages me in their cause : Lepta interests him- 
self no less ardently in their welfare, than if his 
own were at stake ; and I cannot but feel the next, 
I might have said an equal, degree of solicitude, 
where my friend is so anxiously concerned. Ac- 
cordingly, though 1 have often had occasion to 
experience your affection ; yet, believe me, I shall 
principally judge of its strength by your compli- 
ance with my present request. I desire, therefore, 

as soon as he got the power into his hands, had permitted 
to return from the banishment to which they had for 
various crimes been condemned. 

w A city of Campania, in the kingdom of Naples. 

x See rem. d , p. 473. 

y He was one of Pompey's lieutenants in Spain, in the 
year 704, in conjunction with Varro and Petreius. Caesar's 
victory over these generals has already been occasionally 
mentioned in the preceding remarks. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



523 



or, if you will suffer me to employ so humble a 
phrase, I even beseech you, to afford your pro- 
tection to these unhappy men, whose distress 
arises rather from unavoidable fortune, than from 
anything blameworthy in their own conduct. I 
hope, that by your good offices in this affair, you 
will give me an opportunity of obliging, not only 
these my friends, but the corporation of Calenum 
likewise, with which I have great connexions : but 
above all, that you will, by these means, put it in 
my power to render a grateful service also to 
Lepta. What I am going to add, is not extremely 
material, I believe, to the cause I am pleading : 
however, it certainly can do it no prejudice. Let 
me assure you then, that one of these unfortunate 
persons is in very low circumstances, and the other 
has scarcely sufficient to entitle him to be admitted 
into the equestrian order 2 . As Caesar, therefore, 
has generously spared their lives, and they have 
little else to lose, I entreat you, by all your affec- 
tion towards me, to procure them the liberty of 
returning into Italy. The journey, indeed, is long : 
however, they are willing to undergo it, for the 
sake of living and dying among their friends and 
countrymen. I most earnestly request, therefore, 
your zealous endeavours for this purpose : or 
rather, indeed, (since I am persuaded it is entirely 
in your power,) I warmly entreat you to obtain for 
them this desirable privilege. Farewell. 



u. 708. 



LETTER XXIV. 

To Caesar. 
I very particularly recommend to your favour 
the son of our worthy and common friend Prsecilius, 
a youth whose modest and polite beha- 
viour, together with his singular attach- 
ment to myself, have exceedingly endeared him to 
me. His father, likewise, as experience has now 
fully convinced me, was always my most sincere 
well-wisher. , For, to confess the truth, he was the 
first and most zealous of those who used both to 
rally and reproach me for not joining in your cause, 
especially after you had invited me by so many 
honourable overtures. But, 

All unavailing proved his every art, 

To shake the purpose of my steadfast heart K 

For whilst the gallant chiefs of our party were 
on the other side perpetually exclaiming to me, 
" Rise thou, distinguish'd 'midst the sons of fame, 
And fair transmit to times unborn thy name *> ;" 
Too easy dupe of Flattery's specious voice, 
Darkling I stray'd from Wisdom's better choice c . 

And fain would they still raise my spirits, while 
they endeavour, insensible as I now am to the 
charms of glory, to rekindle that passion in my 
heart. With this view they are ever repeating, 
O let me not inglorious sink in death, 
And yield like vulgar souls my parting breath : 
In some brave effort give me to expire, 
That distant ages may the deed admire d ! 

z The estate necessary to qualify a man for being received 
into the equestrian order was four hundred thousand ses- 
terces, equivalent to about 3000Z. sterling. Cicero artfully 
mentions the slender fortunes of his friends, as an intima- 
tion to Dolabella not to expect any douceurs for his good 
offices towards them. 

» Horn. Odyss. vii. 258. b Horn. Odyss. i. 302. 

c Horn. Odyss. xxiv. 314. d Horn. II. xxii. 



But I am immoveable, as you see, by all their 
persuasions. Renouncing, therefore, the pompous 
heroics of Homer, I turn to the just maxims of 
Euripides, and say with that poet, 

Curse on the sage, who, impotently wise, 

O'erlooks the paths where humbler Prudence lies. 

My old friend Prsecilius is a great admirer of the 
sentiment in these lines : insisting that a patriot 
may preserve a prudential regard to his own safety, 
and yet, 

Above his peers the first in honour shine e . 

But to return from this digression : you will 
greatly oblige me by extending to this young man 
that uncommon generosity which so peculiarly 
marks your character, and by suffering my recom- 
mendation to increase the number of those favours 
which I am persuaded you are disposed to confer 
upon him for the sake of his family. 

I have not addressed you in the usual style of 
recommendatory letters, that you might see I did 
not intend this as an application of common form. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XXV. 

To the same. 
Amongst all our young nobility, Publius Cras- 
sus f was one for whom I entertained the highest 
a u "08 re S ar d 5 aQ d, indeed, he amply justified, 
'in his more mature years, the favourable 
opinion I had conceived of him from his infancy. 
It was during his life that his freedman Apollonius 
first recommended himself to my esteem ; for he 
was zealously attached to the interest of his patron, 
and perfectly well qualified to assist him in those 
noble studies to which he was devoted. Accord- 
ingly, Crassus was extremely fond of him : but 
Apollonius. after the death of his patron, proved 
himself still more worthy of my protection and 
friendship, as he distinguished with peculiar marks 
of respect all who loved Crassus, or had been 
beloved by him. It was this that induced Apollo- 
nius to follow me into Cilicia, — where, upon many 
occasions, I received singular advantage from his 
faithful and judicious services. If I mistake not, 
his most sincere and zealous offices were not want- 
ing to you likewise in the Alexandrine war, and it 
is in the hope of your thinking so that he has re- 
solved, in concurrence with my sentiments, but 
chiefly indeed from his own, to wait upon you in 
Spain. I would not promise, however, to recom- 
mend him to your favour. Not that I suspected 
my applications would be void of weight, but I 
thought they would be unnecessary in behalf of a 
man who had served in the army under you, and 
whom, from your regard to the memory of Crassus, 
you would undoubtedly consider as a friend of your 
own. Besides, I knew he could easily procure 
letters of this kind from many other hands. But, 
as he greatly values my good opinion, and as I am 
sensible it has some influence upon yours, I very 
willingly give him my testimonial. Let me assure 
you, then, that I know him to be a man of litera- 
ture, and one who has applied himself to the polite 
arts from his earliest youth : for when he was a 
boy, he frequently visited at my house with Dio- 
dotus, the stoic, — a philosopher, in my judgment, 



e Horn. II. vi. 208. 



t Sec rem. P.p. 361. 



524 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



of consummate erudition. Apollonius, inflamed 
with zeal for the glory of your actions, is greaily 
desirous of recording them in Greek, and I think 
him very capable of the undertaking. He has an 
excellent genius, and has been particularly conver- 
sant in studies of the historical kind, as he is 
wonderfully ambitious, likewise, of doing justice to 
your immortal fame. These are my sincere senti- 
ments of the man ; but how far he deserves them 
your own superior judgment will best determine. 
But though I told Apollonius that I should not 
particularly recommend him to your favour, yet I 
cannot forbear assuring you, that every instance of 
your generosity towards him will extremely oblige 
me. Farewell. 



LETTER XXVI. 

Quintus Cicero to Marcus Cicero^. 

I protest to you, my dear brother, you have per- 
formed an act extremely agreeable to me, in giving 
Tiro his freedom ; as a state of servitude 

u ' ' * was a situation far unworthy of his merit. 
Believe me I felt the highest complacency when I 
found, by his letter and yours, that you rather chose 
we should look upon him in the number of our 
friends than in that of our slaves ; and I both congra- 
tulate and thank you for this instance of your gene- 
rosity towards him. If I receive so much satisfaction 
from the services of my freedman Statius, how 
much more valuable must the same good qualities 
appear in Tiro, as they have the additional advan- 

s The date of this letter is altogether uncertain. 



tages of his learning, his wit, and his politeness, to 
recommend them ! I have many powerful motives 
for the affection I bear you ; and this mark of your 
beneficence to Tiro, together with your giving me 
part (as, indeed, you had reason) in the family joy 
upon this occasion, still increases the number. In 
a word, I saw and admired all the amiable qualities 
of your heart in the letter you wrote to me on this 
subject. 

I have promised my best services to the slaves of 
Sabinus ; and it is a promise I will most assuredly 
make good. Farewell. 



LETTER XXVII. 

To Rex\ 

Ltcinius Aristoteles, a native of Merita 1 , is 

not only my old host, but my very particular friend. 

_ - These are circumstances, I doubt not, 

that wili sufficiently recommend him to 

your favour ; as, in truth, I have experienced, by 

many instances, that my applications of this sort 

have always much weight with you. Caesar, in 

compliance with my solicitations, has granted him 

a pardon ; for I should have told you that he was 

deeply engaged in the same cause with myself. 

He persevered in it, indeed, much longer ; which, 

I am persuaded, will recommend him so much the 

more to your esteem. Let me entreat you, then, 

to show him, by your good offices, that this letter 

proved greatly to his advantage. Farewell. 

M He was at this time propraetor of Sicily. — Pigh. Annal. 
ii. 459. 
» The island of Malta. 



BOOK XL 



LETTER I. 

To Tiro. 

Your letter encourages me to hope that you 
find yourself better : I am sure at least I most 
sincerely wish that you may. I entreat 
you, therefore, to consecrate all your 
cares to that end, and by no means indulge so 
mistaken a suspicion as that I am displeased you 
are not with me. With me you are, in the best 
sense of that expression, if you are taking care of 
your health, — which I had much rather you should 
attend than on myself. For though I always both 
see and hear you with pleasure, that pleasure will 
be greatly increased when I shall have the satis- 
faction, at the same time, to be assured that you 
are perfectly well. 

My work is at present suspended^, as I cannot 
make use of my own hand ; however, I employ 
myself a good deal in reading. If your tran- 
scribers should be puzzled with my manuscript, I 
beg you would give them your assistance ; as, 
indeed, there is an interlineation relating to a cir- 
dumstance in Cato's behaviour, when he was only 

J The work to which Cicero alludes was probably a 
panegyric nponCato, which he wrote and published about 
this time. 



four years of age k , that I could scarce decipher 
myself. You will continue your care, likewise, 
that the dining-room be in proper order for the 

k Plutarch mentions several instances in the life of 
Cato, wherein that consummate patriot had given very 
early indications of his resolute and inflexible spirit. But 
the most remarkable, and probably the same which Cicero 
had celebrated in the passage he is here speaking of, was 
one that happened when Cato was in the house of his uncle, 
Livius Drusus, who had taken upon himself the care of 
his education. At that time the several states of Italy, in 
alliance with the republic, were strenuously soliciting the 
privileges of Roman citizens ; and Pompedius Silo, a person 
of great note, who came to Rome in order to prosecute this 
affair, was the guest of Drusus. As Pompedius was one 
day amusing himself with the children of the family, 
" Well, young gentlemen." said he, addressing himself 
particularly to the little Cato and his brother, " I hope 
you will \ise your interest with your uncle, to give his vote 
in our favour." The latter very readily answered in the 
affirmative, while Cato signified his refusal, by fixing his 
eyes sternly upon Pompedius, without saying a single 
word in reply. Pompedius, snatching him up in his arms, 
ran with him to the window, and. in a pretended rage, 
threatened to throw him out. if he did not immediately 
yield to his request. But in vain : nature had not formed 
the atrocem gnifltunt Catonis of a texture to be menaced 
out of its purposes. Accordingly Pompedius was so struck 
with that early symptom of an undaunted spirit, that he 
could not forbear saying to some of his friends who were 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



525 



reception of our guests, — in which number I dare 
say I may reckon Tertia, provided Publius be not 
invited. 

That strange fellow Demetrius was always, I 
know, the very reverse of his namesake, of Pha- 
leris 1 ; but I find he is now grown more insufferable 
than ever, and is degenerated into an arrant j 
Bilienus™. I resign the management of him, 
therefore, entirely into your hands, and you will 
pay your court to him accordingly. But, however, 
— d'ye see, — and as to that, — (to present you with 
a few of his own elegant expletives) if you should 
have any conversation with him, let me know, that 
it may furnish me with the subject of a letter, and 
at the same time afford me the pleasure of reading 
so much longer a one from yourself. In the 
meanwhile take care of your health, my dear Tiro, I 
conjure you, and be well persuaded that you cannot 
render me a more pleasing service. Farewell. 



LETTER II. 

To Dolabella*. 
Oh ! that the silence you so kindly regret had 
been occasioned by my own death rather than by 
"08 tne severe l° ss ° I nave suffered ; a loss I 
should be better able to support, if I had 
you with me, — for your judicious counsels and 
singular affection towards me would greatly con- 
tribute to alleviate its weight. This good office, 
indeed, I may yet perhaps receive ; for, as I ima- 
gine we shall soon see you here, you will find me 
still so deeply affected as to have an opportunity of 
affording me great assistance ; not that this affliction 
has so broken my spirit as to render me unmindful 

present, " How happy will it be for Italy if this boy should 
live ! For my part," continued he, " I am well persuaded, 
if he were now a man, we should not be able to procure a 
single suffrage throughout all Rome." — Plut. inVit. Caton. 
Uticen. 

1 Demetrius, surnamed Phalereus, from Phaleris, a sea- 
port town in Greece, was a celebrated orator, who flourished 
about three centuries before the birth of Christ. 

m Who this person and Demetrius were is utterly un- 
known ; but it is probable that the ridiculous part of their 
characters, to which Cicero here alludes, was that of being 
very dull and inelegant orators. 
n He was at this time with Caesar in Spain. 
The death of his daughter Tullia. — It appears by a 
former letter that she had lately lain-in at Rome, from 
whence she was probably removed, for the benefit of the 
air, to her father's Tusculan villa, where she seems to have 
died. This letter furnishes a presumptive argument again st 
the opinion of those who imagine that Dolahellaand Tullia 
were never actually divorced. For, in the first place, not- 
withstanding it appears that there was some distance of 
time between the accident of her death and the present 
epistle, yet it seems to have been the first letter which 
Cicero had written to Dolabella upon the occasion. Now 
it is altogether improbable, if the marriage had subsisted, 
that Cicero should not have given him immediate notice 
of an event in which, if not from affection, at least from 
interest, he would have been greatly concerned. In the 
j next place it is equally improbable, supposing there had 
been no divorce, that Cicero should speak of this misfor- 
tune only in general and distant terms, as hedoes through- 
out this whole letter, without so much as mentioning the 
name of Tullia, or intimating even the remotest hint of 
any connexion between her and Dolabella. But the fol- 
lowing letter will supply a farther and more positive argu- 
ment against the opinion above-mentioned. See rem. 1 on 
the next letter. — Ad Att. xii. 45, 46 



that I am a man, or apprehensive that I must 
totally sink under its pressure. But all that cheer- 
fulness and vivacity of temper which you once so 
particularly admired has now, alas ! entirely 
forsaken me. My fortitude and resolution, never- 
theless, (if these virtues were ever mine) I still 
retain, and retain them too in the same vigour as j 
wben you left me. 

As to those battles which, you tell me, you have 
sustained upon my account, I am far less solicitous ! 
that you should confute my detractors p, than that i 
the world should know (as it unquestionably does) 
that I enjoy a place in your affection ; and may 
you still continue to render that truth conspicuous. 
To this request I will add another, and entreat 
you to excuse me for not sending you a longer 
letter. I shorten it, not only as imagining we 
shall soon meet, but because my mind is at present 
by no means sufficiently composed for writing. 
Farewell. 



LETTER III. 

Servius Sulpicius to Cicero. 
I received the news of your daughter's death 
with all the concern it so justly deserves ; and, 
indeed, I cannot but consider it as a 
misfortune in which I bear an equal 
share with yourself. If I had been near you when 
this fatal accident happened, I should not only have 
mingled my tears with yours, but assisted you with 
all the consolation in my power. I am sensible, 
at the same time, that offices of this kind afford at 
best but a wretched relief ; for as none are qualified 
to perform them but those who stand near to us 
by the ties either of blood or affection, such persons 
are generally too much afflicted themselves to be 
capable of administering comfort to others. Never- 
theless,! thought proper to suggest a few reflections 
which occurred to me upon this occasion ; not as 
imagining they would be new to you, but believing 
that, in your present discomposure of mind, they 
might possibly have escaped your attention. Tell 
me then, my friend, wherefore do you indulge this 
excess of sorrow ? Reflect, I entreat you, in what 
manner fortune has dealt with every one of us ; 
that she has deprived us of what ought to be no 
less dear than our children, and overwhelmed in 
one general ruin our honours, our liberties, and 
| our country : and, after these losses, is it possible 
j that any other should increase our tears ? Is it 
I possible that a mind long exercised in calamities 
j so truly severe should not become totally callous 
| and indifferent to every event ? But you will tell 
j me, perhaps, that your grief arises not so much 
on your own account as on tbat of Tullia. Yet 
! surely you must often, as well as myself, have had 
' occasion in these wretched times to reflect that 
their condition by no means deserves to be regretted 



P The person to whom Cicero alludes was, in all proba- 
bility, his own nephew, who was at this time in the army 
with Csesar. This young man had taken great. Liberties 
with his uncle's character, aspersing it upon all occasions, 
and in all companies: in particular (and what gave Cicero j 
the greatest uneasiness), he attempted to infuse a suspicion 
among the principal officers of the army, that Cicero was 
a man of dangerous designs, and one against whom Caesai 
Ought to be particularly upon his guard. — Ad Att. xii. ;«: ; 
xiii. 37- 



526 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



whom death has gently removed from this unhappy 
scene. What is there, let me ask, in the present 
circumstances of our country, that could have 
rendered life greatly desirable to your daughter ? 
What pleasing hopes, what agreeable views, what 
rational satisfaction, could she possibly have pro- 
posed to herself from a more extended period ? 
Was it in the prospect of conjugal happiness, in 
the society of some distinguished youths ? as if, 
indeed, you could have found a son-in-law amongst 
our present set of young men worthy of being 
entrusted with the care of your daughter ! Or 
was it in the expectation of being the joyful mother 
of a flourishing race, who might possess their patri- 
mony with independence, who might gradually rise 
through the several dignities of the state, and exert 
the liberty to which they were born in the service 
and defence of their friends and country ? But is 
there one amongst all these desirable privileges, of 
which we were not deprived, before she was in a 
capacity of transmitting them to her descendants ? 
Yet, after all, you may still allege, perhaps, that the 
loss of our children is a severe affliction ; and un- 
questionably it would be so, if it were not a much 
greater to see them live to endure those indignities 
which their parents suffer. 

I lately fell into a reflection which, as it afforded 
great relief to the disquietude of my own heart, it 
may possibly contribute, likewise, to assuage the 
anguish of yours. In my return out of Asia, as I 
was sailing from iEgina towards Megara r , I amused 
myself with contemplating the circumjacent coun- 
tries. Behind me lay iEgina, before me Megara ; 
on my right I saw Piraeus 5 , and on my left 
Corinth 1 . These cities, once so flourishing and 
magnificent, now presented nothing to my view 
but a sad spectacle of desolation. " Alas ! (I said 
to myself,) shall such a short-lived creature as 
man complain when one of his species falls either 
by the hand of violence or by the common course 
of nature, whilst in this narrow compass so many 
great and glorious cities, formed for a much longer 
duration, thus lie extended in ruins ? Remember, 
then, oh my heart ! the general lot to which man 
is born, and let that thought suppress thy un- 

1 This passage seems strongly to intimate, that the 
marriage between Dolabella and Tullia was actually dis- 
solved before her death. It must be acknowledged, how- 
ever, that a very learned and accurate critic is of opinion 
that the affirmative side of this question can no more be 
proved from these words of Sulpicius, than it can be infer- 
red from those which he immediately adds, an ut ea liberos 
ex sese pareret, that Tullia died without issue, which it is 
well known she did not. But there seems to be this dif- 
ference between the two instances, that with respect to 
the latter, Sulpicius might very properly put the question 
he there does, notwithstanding Tullia's having left a son ; 
for, although she had one , she might reasonably indulge 
the expectation of having more : whereas, with regard to 
the former, would it not have been highly injurious to 
her character if Sulpicius had argued from a supposi- 
tion which implied that Tullia entertained thoughts of 
another husband, whilst her marriage with Dolabella was 
still subsisting? — Vide cpist. Tunstal. ad vir. erud. Con. 
Middleton. p. 186. 

r iEgina, now called Engia, is an island situated in the 
gulf that runs between the Peloponnesus and Attica, to 
which it gives its name. Megara was a city near the isth- 
mus of Corinth. 

s A celebrated sea-port at a small distance from Athens, 
now called Pqrt-Lion. 

1 A city in the Peloponnesus. 



reasonable murmurs." Believe me, I found my 
mind greatly refreshed and comforted by these 
reflections. Let me advise you, in the same man- 
ner, to represent to yourself what numbers of our 
illustrious countrymen have lately been cut off at 
once u , how much the strength of the Roman 
republic is impaired, and what dreadful devastation 
has gone forth throughout all its provinces : and 
can you, with the impression of these greater 
calamities upon your mind, be so immoderately 
afflicted for the loss of a single individual, a poor, 
little, tender woman ? who, if she had not died at 
this time, must, in a few fleeting years more, have 
inevitably undergone that common fate to which 
she was born v . 

Reasonable, however, as these reflections are, I 
would call you from them awhile in order to lead 
your thoughts to others more peculiarly suitable to 
your circumstances and character. Remember, 
then, that your daughter lived as long as life was 
worth possessing, that is, till liberty was no more; 
that she lived to see you in the illustrious offices of 
praetor, consul, and augur, to be married to some 
of the noblest youths in Rome w , to be blessed with 
almost every valuable enjoyment, and at length to 
expire with the republic itself. Tell me, now, 
what is there in this view of her fate that could 
give either her or yourself just reason to complain? 
In fine, do not forget that you are Cicero — the 
wise, the philosophical Cicero, who were wont to 
give advice to others, nor resemble those unskilful 
empirics who, at the same time that they pretend 
to be furnished with remedies for other men's 
disorders, are altogether incapable of finding a cure 
for their own. On the contrary, apply to your 
private use those judicious precepts you have ad- 
ministered to the public. Time necessarily weakens 
the strongest impressions of sorrow ; but it would 
be a reproach to your character not to anticipate 
this its certain effect by the force of your own 
good sense and judgment. If the dead retain any 
consciousness of what is here transacted, your 
daughter's affection I am sure was such, both to 
you and to all her relations, that she can by no 

u In the civil wars. 

v One of the finest and most elegant of all writers, either 
ancient or modern, has given us some reflections which 
arose in his mind in walking amongst the repositories of 
the dead in Westminster Abbey, which, as they are not 
altogether foreign to the subject of this letter, the reader, 
perhaps, will indulge me in the pleasure of producing, as a 
sort of corollaries to the sentiments of Sulpicius : — " When 
I look upon the tombs of the great," says the incomparable 
Addison, "every emotion of envy dies within me ; when I 
read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire 
goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a 
tombstone, my heart melts with compassion ; when I see 
the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity 
of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow ; when 
I see kings lying by those who deposed them ; when I con- 
sider rival wits, placed side by side, or the holy men that 
divided the world with their contests and disputes, I 
reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little compe- 
titions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read 
the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yester- 
day, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that 
great day When we shall all of us be contemporaries, 
and make our appearance together."— Spectator, vol. i. 
No. 26. 

w To Piso, Crassipcs, and Dolabella ; of each of whom 
an account has been occasionally given in the preceding 
observations. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



527 



means desire you should abandon yourself to this 
excess of grief. Restrain it then, I conjure you, 
for her sake, and for the sake of the rest of your 
family and friends, who lament to see you thus 
afflicted. Restrain it too, I beseech you, for the 
sake of your country ; that whenever the oppor- 
tunity shall serve, it may reap the benefit of your 
counsels and assistance. In short, since such is 
our fortune, that we must necessarily submit to the 
present system of public affairs, suffer it not to be 
suspected that it is not so much the death of your 
daughter as the fate of the republic and the success 
of our victors that you deplore. 

But it would be ill-manners to dwell any longer 
upon this subject, as I should seem to question the 
efficacy of your own good sense. I will only add, 
therefore, that as we have often seen you bear 
prosperity in the noblest manner, and with the 
highest applause, show us, likewise, that you are 
not too sensible of adversity, but know how to 
support it with the same advantage to your charac- 
ter. In a word, let it not be said that fortitude is 
the single virtue to which my friend is a stranger x . 

As for what concerns myself, I will send you an 
account of the state of this province, and of what 
is transacting in this part of the world, as soon as 
I shall hear that you are sufficiently composed to 
receive the information. Farewell. 



LETTER IV. 

To Servius Sulpicius. 

I join with you, my dear Sulpicius, in wishing 

that you had been in Rome when this most severe 

calamity befel me. I am sensible of the 

u ' ' ' advantage I should have received from 
your presence, and I had almost said your equal 
participation of my grief, by having found myself 
somewhat more composed after 1 had read your 
letter. It furnished me, indeed, with arguments 
extremely proper to soothe the anguish of affliction, 
and evidently flowed from a heart that sympathised 
with the sorrows it endeavoured to assuage. But 
although I could not enjoy the benefit of your own 
good offices in person, I had the advantage, how- 
ever, of your son's, who gave me a proof, by every 
tender assistance that could be contributed upon 
so melancholy an occasion, how much he imagined 
that he was acting agreeably to your sentiments 
when he thus discovered the affection of his own. 
More pleasing instances of his friendship I have 
frequently received, but never any that were more 
obliging. As to those for which I am indebted to 
yourself, it is not only the force of your reasonings, 
and the very considerable share you take in my 
afflictions, that have contributed to compose my 
mind ; it is the deference, likewise, which I always 
pay to the authority of your sentiments. For, 
knowing as I perfectly do the superior wisdom with 

x Sulpicius has drawn together, in this admired letter, 
whatever human philosophy has of force to compose the 
perturbations of a mind under the disquietude of severe 
afflictions. But it is evident that all arguments of the sort 
here produced tend rather to silence the clamours of sor- 
row, than to soften and subdue its anguish. It is a much 
more exalted philosophy, indeed, that must supply the 
effectual remedies for this purpose ; to which no other but 
that of Christianity alone will be found, on the trial, to be 
in any rational degree sufficient. 



which you are enlightened, I should be ashamed 
not to support my distresses in the manner you 
think I ought : I will acknowledge, nevertheless, 
that they sometimes almost entirely overcome me ; 
and I am scarce able to resist the force of my grief 
when I reflect, that I am destitute of those consola- 
tions which attended others, whose examples I 
propose to my imitation. Thus Quintus Maximus? 
lost a son of consular rank, and distinguished by 
many brave and illustrious actions ; Lucius Paulus 2 
was deprived of two sons in the space of a single 
week ; and your relation Gallus a , together with 
Marcus Cato b , had both of them the unhappiness 
to survive their respective sons, who were endowed 
with the highest abilities and virtues. Yet these 
unfortunate parents lived in times when the honours 
they derived from the republic might, in some 
measure, alleviate the weight of their domestic 
misfortunes. But as for myself, after having been 
stripped of those dignities you mention, and which I 
had acquired by the most laborious exertion of my 
abilities, I had one only consolation remaining, — 
and of that I am now bereaved ! I could no longer 
divert the disquietude of my thoughts,by employing 
myself in the causes of my friends or the business 
of the state ; for I could no longer, with any satis- 
faction, appear either in the forum or the senate. 
In short, I justly considered myself as cut off from 
the benefit of all those alleviating occupations in 
which fortune and industry had qualified me to 

y Quintus Fabius Maximus, so well known for his brave 
and judicious conduct in opposing the progress of Hanni- 
bal's arms in Italy, was five times advanced to the consular 
office, the last of which was in the year of Rome 545. At 
the expiration of his fourth consulate, he was succeeded 
in that office by his son, Marcus Fabius, who likewise dis- 
tinguished himself by his military achievements. It does 
not appear when or by what accident Marcus died ; but 
his illustrious father was so much master of his grief upon 
that occasion, as to pronounce a funeral eulogy in honour 
of his son before a general assembly of the people. — Liv. 
xxiv. 43 ; Plut. in Vit. Fab. 

z A very few days before Paulus iEmilius made his pub- 
lic entry into Rome, in the year 585, on occasion of his 
victory over Perseus, he had the misfortune to lose one of 
his sons ; and this calamity was succeeded by another of 
the same kind, which befel him about as many days after 
his triumph. — Liv. xlv. 41. 

a Manutius conjectures, that the person here men- 
tioned is Caius Sulpicius Gallus, who was consul in the 
year 586. 

b The Censor. His son was praetor in the year of Rome 
638, and died whilst he was in the administration of that 
office. I cannot forbear transcribing upon this occasion a 
noble passage from Cicero's treatise concerning old age, as 
I find it extremely well translated to my hand, by a late 
ingenious writer (Mr. Hughes, if I mistake not) in the 
Spectator. Our author represents Cato as breaking out 
into the following rapture at the thoughts of his approach- 
ing dissolution : — " O happy day," says this amiable moral- 
ist, " when I shall escape from this crowd, this heap of 
pollution, and be admitted to that divine assembly of 
exalted spirits ! when I shall go—to my Cato, my son ; 
than whom a better man was never born, and whose fune- 
ral rites I myself performed ; whereas, he ought rather to 
have attended mine. Yet has not his soul deserted me, 
but seeming to cast a look on me. is gone before to those 
habitations to which it was sensible I should follow him. 
And though I might appear to have borne my loss with 
courage, I was not unaffected with it ; but I comforted 
myself in the assurance that it would not he long before 
we should meet again, and be divorced no more." — Pigh. 
Annal. ii. 99; Plut. in Vit. Caton. ; Cic. de Senect. 23; 
Spectator, vol. vii. No. 537. 



528 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



engage. But I considered, too, that this was a 
deprivation which I suffered in common with your- 
self and some others ; and, whilst I was endea- 
vouring to reconcile my mind to a patient endurance 
of those ills, there was one to whose tender offices 
I could have recourse, and in the sweetness of 
whose conversation I could discharge all the cares 
and anxiety of my heart. But this last fatal stab 
to my peace has torn open those wounds which 
seemed in some measure to have been tolerably 
healed : for I can now no longer lose my private 
sorrows in the prosperity of the commonwealth, as 
I was wont to dispel the uneasiness I suffered upon 
the public account, in the happiness I received at 
home. Accordingly, I have equally banished 
myself from my house and from the public, — as 
finding no relief in either from the calamities I 
lament in both. It is this, therefore, that heightens 
my desire of seeing you here ; as nothing can afford 
me a more effectual consolation than the renewal 
of our friendly intercourse ; a happiness which I 
hope, and am informed indeed, that I shall shortly 
enjoy. Among the many reasons I have for im- 
patiently wishing your arrival, one is, that we may 
previously concert together our scheme of conduct 
in the present conjuncture, — which, however, must 
now be entirely accommodated to another's will. 
This person d , it is true, is a man of great abilities 
and generosity, and one, if I mistake not, who is 
by no means my enemy, — as I am sure he is 
extremely your friend. Nevertheless, it requires 
much consideration, I do not say in what manner 
we shall act with respect to public affairs, but by 
what methods we may best obtain his permission 
to retire from them. Farewell. 



LETTER V. 

To Lucius Lucceius e . 
All the letters I have received from you upon 
the subject of my late misfortune, were extremely 
a u 708 acce ptable to me, as instances of the 
highest affection and good sense. But 
the great advantage I have derived from them, 
principally results from that animating contempt 
with which you look down upon human affairs, and 
that exemplary fortitude which arms you against 
all the various assaults of fortune. I esteem it 
the most glorious privilege of philosophy, to be 
thus superior to external accidents, and to depend 
for happiness on ourselves alone : a sentiment 
which, although it was too deeply planted in my 
heart to be totally eradicated, has been somewhat 
weakened, I confess, by the violence of those 
repeated storms to which I have been lately ex- 
posed. But you have endeavoured, and with great 
success indeed, to restore it to all its usual strength 
and vigour. I cannot, therefore, either too often 
or too strongly assure you, that nothing could give 
me a higher satisfaction than your letter. But, 
powerful as the various arguments of consolation 
are which you have collected for my use, and ele- 
gantly as you have enforced them, I must acknow- 

c Cicero, upon the death of bis daughter, retired from 
his own house, to one belonging to Atticus, near Rome : 
from which, perhaps, this letter was written. 

d Caesar. 

e The same to whom the 20th letter of the first book is 
written. See an account of him in rem. z on that epistle. 



ledge, that nothing proved more effectual than that 
firmness of mind which I remarked in your letters, 
and which I should esteem as the utmost reproach 
not to imitate. But, if I imitate, I must neces- 
sarily excel my guide and instructor in this lesson 
of fortitude ; for I am altogether unsupported by 
the same hopes which I find you entertain, that 
public affairs will improve. Those illustrations, 
indeed, which you draw from the gladiatorial 
combats f , together with the whole tendency of 
your reasoning in general, all concur in forbidding 
me to despair of the commonwealth. It would be 
nothing extraordinary, therefore, if you should be 
more composed than myself whilst you are in pos- 
session of these pleasing hopes ; the only wonder 
is, how you can possibly entertain any. For, say, 
my friend, what is there of our constitution that is 
not utterly subverted ? Look round the republic 
and tell me (you who so well understand the 
nature of our government), what part of it remains 
unbroken or unimpaired ? Most unquestionably 
there is not one ; as I would prove in detail, if I 
imagined my own discernment was superior to 
yours, or were capable (notwithstanding all your 
powerful admonitions and precepts) to dwell upon 
so melancholy a subject without being extremely 
affected. But I will bear my domestic misfortunes 
in the manner you assure me that I ought ; and, 
as to those of the public, I shall support them 
perhaps with greater equanimity than even my 
friend. For (to repeat it again) you are not, it 
seems, without some sort of hopes ; whereas, for 
myself, I have absolutely none ; and shall, there- 
fore, in pursuance of your advice, preserve my 
spirits even in the midst of despair. The pleasing 
recollection of those actions you recal to my remem- 
brance, and which, indeed, I performed chiefly by 
your encouragement and recommendation, will 
greatly contribute to this end. To say the truth, 
I have done everything for the service of my coun- 
try that I ought, and more than could have been 
expected from the courage and counsels of any 
man. Tou will pardon me, I hope, for speaking 
in this advantageous manner of my own conduct, 
but, as you advise me to alleviate my present unea- 
siness by a retrospect of my past actions, I will 
confess, that, in thus commemorating them, I find 
great consolation. 

I shall punctually observe your admonitions, by 
calling off my mind as much as possible from every- 
thing that may disturb its peace, and fixing it on 
those speculations which are at once an ornament 
to prosperity, and the support of adversity. For 
this purpose, I shall endeavour to spend as much 
of my time with you as our health and years will 
mutually permit ; and, if we cannot meet so often 
as I am sure we both wish, we shall always at least 
seem present to each other by a sympathy of hearts, 
and a union in the same philosophical contempla- 
tions. Farewell. 

f Manutius supposes, with great probability, that Luc- 
ceius, in the letter to which this is an answer, had endea- 
voured to persuade Cicero not to despair of better times, 
by reminding him of what sometimes happened at the 
gladiatorial shows, where it was not unusual to see a 
combatant that seemed almost entirely vanquished, un- 
expectedly recover his ground, and gain the day from his 
antagonist. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



529 



LETTER VI. 

Lucceius to Cicero. 
I shall rejoice to hear that you are well. As 
to my own health, it is much as usual ; or rather, 
708 I think, somewhat worse. 

I have frequently called at your door, 
and am much surprised to find that you have not 
been in Rome since Caesar left it. What is it that 
so strongly draws you from hence ? If any of your 
usual engagements of the literary kind renders you 
thus enamoured of solitude, I am so far from con- 
demning your retirement, that I think of it with 
pleasure. There is no sort of life, indeed, that can 
be more agreeable, not only in times so disturbed 
as the present, but even in those of the most de- 
sirable calm and serenity ; especially to a mind 
like yours, which may have occasion for repose 
from its public labours, and which is always capa- 
ble of producing something that will afford both 
pleasure to others and honour to yourself. But 
if you have withdrawn from the world, in order 
to give a free vent to those tears which you 
so immoderately indulged when you were here, I 
shall lament indeed your grief; but (if you will 
allow me to speak the truth) I never can excuse 
it. For tell me, my friend, is it possible that a 
man of your uncommon discernment should not 
perceive what is obvious to all mankind ? Is it 
possible you can be ignorant that your perpetual 
complaints can profit nothing, and only serve to 
increase those disquietudes which your good sense 
requires you to subdue ? But, if arguments cannot 
prevail, entreaties perhaps may. Let me conjure 
you, then, by all the regard you bear me, to dispel 
this gloom that hangs upon your heart ; to return 
to that society and to those occupations which were 
either common to us both or peculiar to yourself. 
But though I would fain dissuade you from con- 
tinuing your present way of life, yet I would by 
no means suffer my zeal to be troublesome. In 
the difficulty, therefore, of steering between these 
two inclinations, I will only add my request that 
you would either comply with my advice, or excuse 
me for offering it. Farewell. 



u. 708. 



LETTER VII. 

To Lucius Lucceius. 
Every part of your last letter glowed with that 
warmth of friendship, which, though it was by no 
means new to me, I could not but observe 
with peculiar satisfaction ; I would say 
pleasure, if that were not a word to which I have 
now for ever bidden adieu. Not merely, however, 
for the cause you suspect, and for which, under 
the gentlest and most affectionate terms, you, in 
fact, very severely reproach me ; but because all 
that ought in reason to assuage the anguish of so 
deep a wound is absolutely no more. For whither 
shall I fly for consolation ? Is it to the bosom of 
my friends ? But tell me (for we have generally 
shared the same common amities together), how 
few' of that number are remaining ? how few that 
have not perished by the sword, or that are not 
become strangely insensible ? You will say, per- 
haps, that I might seek my relief in your society ; 
and there, indeed, I would willingly seek it. The 



same habitudes and studies, a long intercourse of 
friendship, — in short, is there any sort of bond, 
any single circumstance of connexion wanting to 
unite us together! Why then are we such stran- 
gers to one another ? For my own part, I know 
not ; but this I know, that we have hitherto seldom 
met, I do not say in Rome, where the forum usu- 
ally brings everybody together £, but when we were 
near neighbours at Tusculum and Puteoli. 

I know not by what ill fate it has happened that, 
at an age when I might expect to flourish in the 
greatest credit and dignity, I should find myself in 
so wretched a situation as to be ashamed that I 
am still in being. Despoiled, indeed, of every 
honour and every comfort that adorned my public 
life, or solaced my private, what is it that can now : 
afford me any refuge ? My books, I imagine you i 
will tell me ; and to these indeed I very assidu- 
ously apply. For, to what else can I possibly have 
recourse ? Yet even these seem to exclude me 
from that peaceful port which I fain would reach, J 
and reproach me, as it were, for prolonging that ! 
life which only increases my sorrows with my years. 
Can you wonder then that I absent myself from 
Rome, where there is nothing under my own roof 
to afford me any satisfaction, and where I abhor 
both public men and public measures, both the 
forum and the senate ? For this reason it is, that 
I wear away my days in a total application to 
literary pursuits ; not, indeed, as entertaining so 
vain a hope, that I may find in them a complete 
cure for my misfortunes, but in order to obtain, at 
least, some little respite from their bitter remem- 
brance. 

If those dangers with which we were daily me- 
naced, had not formerly prevented both you and 
myself from reflecting with that coolness we ought, 
we should never have been thus separated. «Had 
that proved to have been the case, we should both 
of us have spared ourselves much uneasiness : as I 
should not have indulged so many groundless fears 
for your health, nor you for the consequences ot 
my grief. Let us repair then this unlucky mistake 
as well as we may : and as nothing can be more 
suitable to both of us than the company of each 
other, I purpose to be with you in a few days. 
Farewell. 



LETTER VIII. 

To Marcus Marcellus. 
Notwithstanding that I have nothing new to 
communicate to you, and am in expectation of a 
a u 708 l etter fr° m y° u vei 7 shortly, or rather, 
indeed, of seeing you in person; yet I 
would not suffer Theophilus to go away without 
sending you a line or two by his hands. Let me 
entreat you then to return amongst us h as soon as 
possible; and, be assured, you are impatiently 
expected, not only by myself and the rest of your 
friends, but by all Rome in general. I am some- 
s' The forum was a place of general resort for the whole 
city. It was here that the lawyers pleaded their causes, 
that the poets recited their works, and that funeral ora- 
tions were spoken in honour of the dead. It was here, in 
short, everything was going forward that could engage 
the active, or amuse the idle.— Hor. lib. I. sat. iv, 74, sat. i 
vi. 42. 
h See letter 19, hook ix. p. 500. 
M M 



530 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



times, however, inclined to fear that you will not 
be extremely forward to hasten your journey : and, 
indeed, if you were possessed of no other sense 
but that of seeing, I could easily excuse you if 
there are some persons whom you would choose 
to avoid. But as the difference is very inconsider- 
able between hearing and being a spectator of what 
one disapproves ; and as I am persuaded it is of 
great consequence, both in respect to your private 
affairs as well as upon every other consideration, 
that you should expedite your return, I thought it 
incumbent upon me to tell you so. And now, 
having acquainted you with my sentiments, the 
rest must be left to your own determination ; but 
I should be glad to know, however, when we may 
expect you. Farewell. 



LETTER IX. 

To Tiro. 

Believe me, my dear Tiro, I am greatly anxious 
for your health ; however, if you persevere in the 
A _ same cautious regimen which you have 
hitherto observed, you will soon, I trust, 
be well. As to my library, I beg you would put 
the books in order, and take a catalogue of them, 
when your physician shall give you his consent, 
for it is by his directions you must now be 
governed. With respect to the gardener, I leave 
you to adjust matters as you shall judge proper. 

I think you might come to Rome on the first of 
next month, in order to see the gladiatorial com- 
bats, and return the following day, but let this be 
entirely as is most agreeable to your own inclina- 
tions. In the mean time, if you have any affection 
for me, take care of your health. Farewell. 



LETTER X. 

Servius Sulpicius to Cicero. 

The news I am going to acquaint you with, will, 
a u 708 * am SUre ' P rove extrem ely unwelcome ; 
yet, as you cannot but in some measure be 
prepared for it, by being sensible that every man's 
life is subject to casualties, as well as to the gene- 
ral laws of nature, I thought proper to send you a 
circumstantial accountof the unhappy accident that 
has lately happened. 

I arrived at Pirseeus, from Epidaurus 1 , on the 
23d instant ; where I continued all that day merely 
to enjoy the company of my colleague, Marcellus K 
The next day I took my leave of him, with an 
intention of going from Athens into Boeotia k , in 
order to finish the remainder of my circuit 1 , and I 
left him in the resolution, as he told me, of sailing 
to Italy by the way of Malea m . The day following, 
as I was preparing to set out from Athens, his 

> A city in the Peloponnesus, now called Pigrada, situ- 
ated upon the bay of Engia. 

J It has already been noted, that Marcellus and Sulpicius 
were colleagues in the consular office, A. U. 7<)2. 

k A district of Greece, under the jurisdiction of Sulpi- 
cius, governor of that province. 

1 The Koman governors were obliged to visit the principal 
cities of their province, in order to administer justice and 
settle other affairs relating to their function. 

m A promontory in the south-east point of the Pelopon- 
now called cape Malts. 



friend Posthumius came to me about four in the 
morning, and informed me Marcellus had been 
stabbed the night before by Magius Cilo, whilst 
they were sitting together after supper n ; that he 
had received two wounds from a dagger, one of 
which was in his breast, and the other under his 
ear, but that neither of them, he hoped, was mor- 
tal. He added, that Magius, after having com- 
mitted this barbarous action, immediately killed 
himself, and that Marcellus had despatched him in 
order to give me this account, and likewise to desire 
that I would direct my physicians to attend him. 
This I instantly did, and followed them myself as 
soon as it was light. But when I had almost 
reached Pirseeus I met a servant of Acidanus, with 
a note to acquaint me that our friend expired a 
little before day-break. Thus did the noble Mar- 
cellus unworthily fall by the hand of a villanous 
assassin ; and he whose life his very enemies had 
spared in reverence to his illustrious virtues, met 
with an executioner at last in his own friend ! 
However, I proceeded to his pavilion, where I 
found only two of his freedmen and a few slaves, 
the rest I was told having fled in apprehension of 
the consequences in which they might be involved 
by this murder of their masterP. I was obliged to 
place the body of Marcellus in the same sedan that 
brought me, and to make my chairmen carry it 
into Athens, where I paid him all the funeral 
honours that city could supply, which indeed were 
not inconsiderable. But I could not prevail with 
the Athenians to suffer him to be buried within 
their walls, a privilege they assured me which their 
religious ordinances would by no means admit. 
They granted me, however, what was the next 
honour, and which they had never permitted to 
any stranger before; they allowed me to deposit 
his ashes in any of the Gymnasia I should think 
proper. Accordingly, I fixed upon a spot belonging 
to the Academy ^, one of the noblest colleges in the 
whole world. In this place I caused a funeral pile 
to be erected, and afterwards persuaded the Athen- 
ians to raise a marble monument to his memory, 
at the public expense. Thus have I paid to my 
relation and colleague, both during his life and after 
his death, every friendly office he had a right to 
expect from me. Farewell. 
Athens, May 31. 

n The reason which induced Cilo to murder his friend is 
not certainly known. It was suspected by some at Rome 
that it was at the secret instigation of Ca?sar ; but the cir- 
cumstance of Cilo immediately afterwards killing himself, 
renders that suspicion altogether improbable, and seems 
to determine the motive to some personal and perhaps 
sudden resentment. — Ad Att. xiii. 10. 

° The ancient physicians practised surgery as well as 
medicine. 

P Manutius remarks, that, by the Roman law, \fhere a 
man was murdered in his own house, his slaves were 
punishable with death. — Tacit. Annal. xiv. 42. 

q " This celebrated place took its name from one Aca- 
demus, an ancient hero, who possessed it in the time of 
the Tyndaridae. But, famous as it Mas, it was purchased 
afterwards for about 100/., ami dedicated to the public for 
the convenience of walks and exercises for the citizens of 
Athens, and was gradually improved by the rich, who had 
received benefit or pleasure from it, with plantations of 
groves, stately porticos, and commodious apartments, for 
the professors of the Academic school." — Middleton's Life 
of Cicero, p. 302, note f . 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



531 



LETTER XI. 

To Tiro. 
I impatiently expect a letter from you, upon 
affairs of many and various kinds ; but it is with 
a u 708 mucl1 g reater impatience, however, that I 
expect yourself. In the mean time, endea- 
vour. to gain Demetrius over to my interest, and to 
obtain whatever other advantage you shall be able. 
I knowyour care is not wanting to recover the money 
which is owing to me from Aufidius ; but I beg you 
would be as expeditious in that matter as possible. 
If it is upon that account you delay your return, 
I admit it to be a good reason ; if not, fly hither, I 
charge you, with the utmost speed. To repeat 
it once more, I expect a letter from you with great 
impatience. Farewell. 



LETTER XII. 

Vatinius 1 to. Cicero. ' 
If you have not renounced your usual custom of 
defending the cause of your friends, an old client of 
a u 708 y° urs desires to engage you as his advo- 
cate ; and, as you formerly protected him 
in his humiliation s , I dare say you will not now 
abandon him in his glory. Whose aid, indeed, can 
I so properly invoke upon the occasion of my 
victories, as that generous Mend's who first taught 
me how to vanquish* ? Can I doubt, that he who 
had the courage to withstand a combination of the 
most powerful men in Rome, who had conspired 
my ruin, will not be able to beat down the envious 
and malignant efforts of a little contemptible party 
that may endeavour to oppose my honours ? If I 
still, then, retain the share I once enjoyed of your 
friendship, take me, I entreat you, wholly under 
your protection, as one whose dignities it is incum- 
bent upon you both to support and advance. You 
are sensible that I have many enemies, whose 
malevolence I have in no sort deserved ; but what 
avails innocence against so unaccountable a fate ? 
If these, therefore, should any of them attempt to 
obstruct the honours I am soliciting, I conjure you 
to exert your generous offices, as usual, . in defence 
of your absent friend. In the mean time, you will 
find, at the bottom of this letter, a copy of the 
despatches I send by this express to the senate, 
concerning the success of my arms. 

Being informed that the slave whom you employ 
as your reader had eloped from you into the country 
of the Vardsei u , I have caused diligent search to be 
made after him, although 1 did not receive your 

r I have already had occasion to give an account of the 
character of Vatinius, in rem. ▼, p. 366. He was at this 
time, by the appointment of Caesar, governor of Illyricum, 
which comprehended part of Austria, Hungary, Sclavonia, 
Bosnia, and Dalmatia. He was sent thither with a con- 
siderable army, to reduce the people of that province to 
obedience ; and having obtained some success, he wrote 
the present letter to Cicero, in order to engage him to sup- 
port his pretensions to the honour of a public thanksgiving. 
— Pigh. Annal. ii. 4-54. 

8 When Cicero, much to his dishonour, defended Vati- 
nius against the impeachment of Licinius Calvus. See 
letter 17, book ii. p. 373. 

* Alluding to his having, by the assistance of Cicero's 
eloquence, vanquished his adversaries in the prosecution 
mentioned in the preceding note. 

u A people contiguous to Dalmatia. 



commands for that purpose. I doubt not of reco- 
vering him, unless he should take refuge in Dalma- 
tia v ; and even in that case, I do not entirely 
despair. Farewell, and continue to love me. 
From the camp at Narona w , July the 11th. 



LETTER XIII. 

To Tiro. 
You are not mistaken in supposing me desirous 
of your company ; but, indeed, I am extremely 
apprehensive of your venturing upon so 
long a journey. The abstinence you have 
been obliged to observe, the evacuations you have 
undergone, together with the violence of your dis- 
temper itself, have too much impaired your strength 
for so great a fatigue ; and any negligence after 
disorders so severe as yours, is generally attended 
with consequences of the most dangerous kind. 
You cannot reach Cuma in less than two days, and 
it will cost you five more to complete your expedi- 
tion. But I purpose to be with you at Formiae 
towards the end of this month ; and, I hope, my 
dear Tiro, it will not be your fault if I should not 
have the satisfaction of finding you perfectly 
recovered. 

My studies languish for want of your assistance ; 
however, the letter you sent by Acastus has some- 
what enlivened them. Pompeius is now here, and 
presses me much to read to him some of my com- 
positions : but I jocosely, though at the same time 
truly, assure him, that all my muses are silent in 
your absence. I hope, therefore, you will prepare 
to attend them with your usual good offices. You 
may depend upon mine in the article, and at the 
time I promised ; for as I taught you the etymology 
of the word fides, be assured I shall act up to its 
full import. Take care, I charge you, to re-esta- 
blish your health ; mine is perfectly well. Adieu. 



LETTER XIV. 

To Varro. 
To importune the execution of a promise, is a 
sort of ill-manners, of which the populace them- 
selves, unless they are particularly insti- 
gated for that purpose, are seldom guilty x . 
I cannot, however, forbear, I will not say to 
demand, but to remind you of a favour, which you 
long since gave me reason to expect. To this end, 
I have sent you four admonitorsy ; but admonitors, 
perhaps, whom you will not look upon as extremely 
modest. They are certain philosophers, whom I 
have chosen from among the disciples of the later 
Academy 2 ; and confidence, you know, is the cha- 



ir. 708. 



v Dalmatia made part of the province of Illyricum, but 
it was not, at this time, entirely subdued to the Roman 
government. 

w In Liburnia, now called Croatia, and which formed 
part of Vatinius's government. 

1 This alludes to those promises of public shows, which 
were frequently made to the people by the magistrates, and 
others who affected popularity ; some particular instances 
of which have been occasionally produced in the course of 
the preceding remarks, 

r These were dialogues entitled "Academica," which 
appear from hence to have originally consisted of four books, 
though there is only part of one now remaining. 

z The followers of the Academic philosophy were divided 
M M2 



532 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



racteristic of this sect a . I am apprehensive, 
therefore, that you may consider them as so many 
importunate duns, when my meaning only is, that 
they should present themselves before you as 
modest petitioners. But to drop my metaphor, I 
have long denied myself the satisfaction of address- 
ing to you some of my works, in expectation of 
receiving a compliment of the same kind from 
yourself. I waited, therefore, in order to make 
you a return, as nearly as possible, of the same 
nature. But, as I am willing to impute your 
delaying this favour to the desire of rendering it so 
much the more perfect, I could no longer refrain 
from telling the world, in the best manner I was 
able, that we are united both in our affections and 
in our studies. With this view, I have drawn up a 
dialogue which I suppose to have passed between 
you and myself, in conjunction with Atticus, and 
have laid the scene in your Cuman villa. The part 
I have assigned to you, is to defend (what, if 1 
mistake not, you approve) the sentiments of Anti- 
ochus b ; as I have chosen myself to maintain the 
principles of Philo c . You will wonder to find, 
perhaps, in the perusal of this piece, that I have 
represented a conversation, which, in truth, we 
never had ; but you must remember the privilege 
which dialogue writers have always assumed. 

And now, my dear Varro, let me hope that we 
shall hereafter enjoy together many of these philo- 
sophical conversations. If we have too long neg- 
lected them, the public occupations in which we 
were engaged must be our apology ; but the time 
is now arrived when we have no such excuse to 
plead. May we, then, exercise these speculations 
together, under a fixed and peaceable government, 
at least, if not under one of the most eligible kind ! 
Though, indeed, if that were to prove the case, far 
other employments would engage our honourable 
labours. But, as affairs are at present situated, 
what is there else that can render life desirable ? 
For my own part, it is with difficulty I endure it, 
even with all the advantages of their powerful 
assistance ; but, without them, it would be utterly 
insupportable. But we shall talk farther and 
frequently upon this subject when we meet; in 
the mean time, I give you joy of the new habi- 
tation you have purchased, and highly approve of 
your removal. Farewell. 

into two sects, called the Old and the New. The founder 
of the former was Plato ; of the latter, Arcesilas. The 
principal dispute between them, seems to have related to 
the degree of evidence upon which human knowledge is 
founded ; the earlier Academics maintaining that some 
propositions were certain ; the latter, that none were more 
than probable.— Vide Academ. i. passim. 

» Alluding to their practice of questioning all opinions, 
and assenting to none. 

b A philosopher at Athens, whose lectures Varro had 
formerly attended. He maintained the doctrines of the 
Old Academy.— Cic. Academ. i. 3. 

c A Greek philosopher, who professed the sceptical prin- 
ciples of the New Academy. Antiochus, mentioned in the 
preceding note, had been bred up under him, though he 
afterwards became a convert to the opposite sect. Cicero 
took the sceptical part in this dialogue, not as being agree- 
able to his own sentiments, but in order to pay Varro the 
greater compliment of maintaining the more rational opi- 
nion.— Academ. ubi sup.,- Ad Att. xiii. 11). 



LETTER XV. 
To Tiro. 
Why should you not direct your letters to me 
with the familiar superscription which one friend 
generally uses to another ? However, if 
a. u. 708. yQU are unw irii n g to hazard the envy 
which this privilege may draw upon you, be it as 
you think proper; though, for my own part, it is a 
maxim which I have generally pursued with respect 
to myself, to treat envy with the utmost disregard. 
I rejoice that you found so much benefit by 
your sudorific; and should the air of Tusculum 
be attended with the same happy effect, how 
infinitely will it increase my fondness for that 
favourite scene! If you love me, then, (and if 
you do not, you are undoubtedly the most suc- 
cessful of all dissemblers) consecrate your whole 
time to the care of your health ; which, hitherto, 
indeed, your assiduous attendance upon myself 
has but too much prevented. You well know the 
rules which it is necessary you should observe for 
this purpose, and I need not tell you that your 
diet should be light, and your exercises moderate ; 
that you should keep your body open, and your 
mind amused. Be it your care, in short, to return to 
me perfectly recovered, and I shall ever afterwards 
not only love you, but Tusculum so much the more 
ardently. 

I wish you could prevail with your neighbour to 
take my garden, as it will be the most effectual 
means of vexing that rascal Helico. This fellow, 
although he paid a thousand sesterces d for the rent 
of a piece of cold, barren ground, that had not so 
much as a wall or a shed upon it, or was sup- 
plied with a single drop of water, has yet the 
assurance to laugh at the price I require for mine, 
notwithstanding all the money I have laid out 
upon improvements. But let it be your business 
to spirit the man into our terms, as it shall be 
mine to make the same artful attack upon Otho. 

Let me know what you have done with respect 
to the fountain ; though, possibly, this wet season 
may now have over-supplied it with water. If the 
weather should prove fair, I will send the dial, 
together with the books you desire. But how 
happened it that you took none with you ? Was 
it that you were employed in some poetical com- 
position upon the model of your admired Sophocles ? 
If so, I hope you will soon oblige the world with 
your performance. 

Ligurius, Caesar's great favourite, is dead. He 
was a very worthy man, and much my friend. Let 
me know when I may expect you ; in the mean 
time be careful of your health. Farewell. 



LETTER XVI. 

To Quill/us Valerius Orca e . 

I have the strongest attachment to the citizens 

of Volaterr»e f , as a body of men, who, having 

_ n . received great obligations from me, have 

' " ' abundantly returned them. Their good 

offices, indeed, have never been wanting in any 

d About 8/. of our money. 

c He was praetor in the year of Rome 697, and at the 
expiration of his office obtained the government of Africa, 
Upon the breaking out of the civil war, he took possession 
of Sardinia in the name of Caesar, by whom he was at this 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



533 



season of my life, whether of adversity or pros- 
perity. But were I entirely void of all personal 
connexions with this community, I should, never- 
theless, merely from my great affection towards 
yourself, and in return to that which I am sensible 
you equally bear for me, most earnestly recom- 
mend them to your protection ; especially as they 
have, in some sort, a more than common claim to 
your justice. For, in the first place, tbe gods 
themselves seem to have interposed in their behalf, 
when they so wonderfully escaped from the perse- 
cutions of Syllas : and, in the next, the whole body 
of the Roman people expressed the warmest concern 
for their interest, when 1 stood forth as their advo- 
cate in my consulship. For, when the tribunes 
were endeavouring to carry a most iniquitous law 
for the distribution of the lands belonging to this 
city, I found it extremely easy to persuade the 
republic to favour the rights of a community which 
fortune had so remarkably protected. And as Caesar, 
in the Agrarian law, which he procured during his 
first consulate 11 , showed his approbation of the ser- 
vices I had thus performed for them, by expressly 
exempting their lands from all future impositions, 
I cannot suppose that he, who is perpetually dis- 
playing new instances of his generosity, should 
intend to resume those which his former bounty 
has bestowed. As you have followed, then, his 
party and his power with so much honour to your- 
self, it should seem agreeable to your usual pru- 
dence, to follow him likewise in this instance of his 
generosity, or certainly, at least, to leave this matter 
entirely to his own decision. One thing I am sure 
you can by no means doubt ; and that is, whether 
you should wish to fix so worthy and so illustrious 
a corporation in your interest, who are distin- 
guished for their inviolable adherence to their 
friends. Thus far I have endeavoured to persuade 
you to take these people under your protection, 
for your own sake ; but, that you may not imagine 
I have no other plea to urge in their favour, I will 
now request it also for mine. You cannot, in truth, 
confer upon me a more acceptable service, than by 
proving yourself the friend and guardian of their 
interests. I recommend, therefore, to your justice 
and humanity the possessions of a city which have 
been hitherto preserved by the peculiar providence 
of the gods, as well as by the particular favour of 
the most distinguished personages in the whole 
Roman commonwealth. If it were in my power 
as effectually to serve those who place themselves 
under my patronage as it once was, there is no 
good office I would not exert, there is no oppo- 
sition I would not encounter, in order to assist the 
Volaterranians. But I natter myself I have still 
the same interest with you, that I formerly enjoyed 
with the world in general. Let me entreat you, 
then, by all the powerful ties of our friendship, to 
give these citizens reason to look upon it as a 
time appointed one of the commissioners for dividing those 
estates with which he proposed, upon his return from 
Spain, to reward the valour and fidelity of his soldiers. — 
Pigh. Annal. ii. 384. 
f A city in Tuscany. 

g They held out a siege of two years against the troops 

of Sylla, who in vain endeavoured to compel them to 

submit to his edict for the confiscation of their lands. — 

Quartier. 

h The law alluded to seems to have been a branch of that 

| proposed by Rullus, an account of which has been given in 

i these remarks. See rem. e , p. 367. 



providential circumstance, that the person who is* 
appointed to execute this commission, happens to 
be one with whom their constant patron has the 
greatest influence. Farewell. 



LETTER XVII. 

To Lepta. 

I am glad that Macula has acted agreeably to 
the good offices I have a right to expect from him, 
a u 708. kj offering me the use of his house. I 
always thought the man's Falernian' was 
well enough for road-wine, and only doubted whe- 
ther he had sufficient room to receive my retinue : 
besides, there is something in the situation of his 
villa that does not displease me. — However, I do 
not give up my design upon PetrinumJ. But it has 
too many charms to be used only as an occasional 
lodging ; its beauties deserve a much longer stay. 

Balbus is confined with a very severe fit of the 
gout, and does not admit any visitors ; so that I 
have not been able to see him since you left Rome. 
However, I have talked with Oppius concerning 
your request to be appointed one of the managers 
of Caesar's games k . But, in my opinion, it would 
be most advisable not to undertake this trouble ; 
as you will by no means find it subservient to the 
point you have in view : for Caesar is surrounded 
with such a multitude of pretenders to his friend- 
ship, that he is more likely to lessen, than increase, 
the number ; especially where a man has no higher 
service to recommend him, than what arises from 
little offices of this kind : a circumstance, too, 
which Caesar, possibly, may never be acquainted 
with. But if he should, he would look upon him- 
self rather as having conferred, than received, a 
favour. Nevertheless, I will try if this affair can 
be managed in such a manner as to give you any 
reasonable hope that it will answer your purpose ; 
otherwise, I think, you should be so far from de- 
siring the employment, that you ought by all means 
to avoid it. 

I believe I shall stay some time at Astura 1 , as 
I purpose to wait there the arrival of Caesar m . 
Farewell. 



LETTER XVIII. 

To Quintus Valerius Orca n . 
I am not displeased to find that the world is 
apprised of the friendship which subsists between 
a u 708 us * "^ u ^ ^ * s n °t>you may well imagine, 
from any vain ostentation of this kind, 
that I interrupt you in the honourable discharge of 
that troublesome and important commission which 



1 This was a favourite wine among the Romans, which 
took its name from Falernus, a little hill in Campania, 
where the grape was produced. 

J A town in Campania, where Lepta had a villa. 

k These were games which Caesar proposed to exhibit in 
the several quarters of Rome, upon his return from Spain, 
in honour of his victory over the sons of Pompey. — Suet, in 
Vit. Jul. Caes. 

1 A town in the Campagna di Roma, situated near the 
sea-coast, between Civita Vccchia and Monte Circello, 
where Cicero had a villa. It was about two years after the 
date of this letter, that Cicero was murdered near this villa 
by the order of Antony. 

•» From Spain. 

n See rem. e on letter 16 of this book. 



534 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



Csesar has entrusted to your care. On the con- 
trary, notwithstanding that the share T enjoy in 
your affection is so generally known as to occa- 
sion many applications to me, yet I would not be 
tempted, by any popular motives, to break in upon 
you in the execution of your office. However, I 
could not refuse the solicitations of Curtius, as he 
is one with whom I have been intimately connected 
from his earliest youth. I took a very consi- 
derable part in the misfortunes he suffered from 
the unjust persecution of Sylla ; and when it 
seemed agreeable to the general sense of the people 
that my friend, together with the rest of those who 
in conjunction with himself had been deprived 
both of their fortunes and their country, should 
be restored at least to the latter, I assisted him 
for that purpose to the utmost of my power. 
Upon his return, he invested all that remained to 
him from this general wreck of his substance, in 
the purchase of an estate at Volaterrse ; of which, 
if he should be dispossessed, I know not how he 
will support the senatorial rank to which Caesar 
has lately advanced him. It would be an extreme 
hardship indeed if he should sink in wealth as he 
rises in honours ; and it seems altogether incon- 
sistent, that he should lose his estate in conse- 
quence of Caesar's general order for the distribution 
of these lands in question ; at the same time, that, 
by his particular favour, he has gained a seat in the 
senate. But I will not allege all that I well might, 
for the equity of my friend's cause, lest, by enlarg- 
ing on the justice, I should seem to derogate from 
the favour of your compliance with my request. 
I most earnestly conjure you, then, to consider 
this affair of Curtius as my own ; to protect his 
interest as you would mine in the same circum- 
stances ; and to be assured, that whatever services 
you shall thus confer upon my friend, I shall 
esteem as a personal obligation to myself. Fare- 
well. 



LETTER XIX. 

To Fabius Gallus . 
Instances of your friendship are perpetually 
meeting me wherever I turn ; and I have lately, in 
a. u. 708. P articiuar > bad occasion to experience 
them in regard to my affair with Tigellius p. 
I perceive by your letter, that it has occasioned 
you much concern, and I am greatly obliged by 
this proof of your affection. But let me give you 
a short history how the case stands. It was Cipius, 
I think, that formerly said, " / am not asleep for 
every man*;" neither am I, my dear Gallus, so 
meanly complaisant as to be the humble servant of 
every minion. The truth of it is, I am the humble 
servant of none ; and am so far from being under 
the necessity of submitting to any servile com- 

This is the same person to whom the nth lotter of the 
first hook is addressed. 

P Tigellius was an extravagant, debauchee, who, hy his 
pleasantry, his skill in music, his agreeable voice, together 
with his other soft and fashionable qualifications, had ex- 
tremely ingratiated himself with Ca\sar. 

1 Cipius was a complaisant husband, who, upon some 
occasions, would affect to nod, whilst his wife was awake 
and more agreeably employed. But a slave coming into 
the room when he was in one of these obliging slumbers, 
and attempting to carry off a flagon that stood upon the 
table, " Sirrah," says he, " non omnibus dormio." 



pliances in order to preserve my friendship with 
Caesar's favourites, that there is not one of them, 
except this Tigellius, who does not treat me with 
greater marks of respect than I ever received, even 
when I was thought to enjoy the highest popularity 
and power. But I think myself extremely fortunate 
in being upon ill terms with a man who is more 
corrupted than his own native air r , and whose 
character is notorious, I suppose, to the whole 
world, by the poignant verses of the satiric Calvus 3 . 
But to let you see upon what slight grounds he has 
taken offence, I had promised, you must know, to 
plead the cause of his grandfather Phameas, which 
I undertook, however, merely in friendship to the 
man himself. Accordingly, Phameas called upon 
me in order to tell me that the judge had fixed a 
day for his trial ; which happened to be the very 
same on which I was obliged to attend as advocate 
for Sextius. I acquainted him, therefore, that I 
could not possibly give him my assistance at the 
time he mentioned ; but that if any other had been 
appointed, I most assuredly would not have failed. 
Phameas, nevertheless, in the conscious pride no 
doubt of having a grandson that could pipe and 
sing to some purpose, left me with an air that 
seemed to speak indignation. And now, having 
thus stated my case, and shown you the injustice 
of this songster's complaints, may I not properly 
say with the old proverb, " So many Sardinians, 
so many rival rogues* ." 

I beg you would send me your " Cato u ," which | 
I am extremely desirous of reading. It is, indeed, 
some reflection upon us both that I have not yet 
enjoyed that pleasure. Farewell. 



LETTER XX. 

To Cluvius". 

In the visit which, agreeably to our friendship 

and that great respect with which you always treat 

a u 708 me ' ^ rece i ye d from you upon your setting 

out for Gaul, we had some general dis- 

r Tigellius was a native of Sardinia, an island noted for 
its noxious air. See rem. x , p. 480. 

s Fate seems to have decreed that Tigellius should not 
want a poet to deliver his character down to posterity : 
for, although the verses of Calvus are lost, those of Horace 
remain, in which Tigellius is delineated with all those 
inimitable strokes of ridicule which distinguish the mas- 
terly hand of that polite satirist. — Hor. Sat. i. 2 et 3. 

1 The literal interpretation of this proverb is, " You 
have Sardinians to sell, each a greater rogue than the 
other ;" but a shorter turn has been adopted in the trans- 
lation, in order to bring it nearer to the conciseness of the 
proverbial style. This proverb took its rise (as Manutius 
observes) from the great Dumber of Sardinian slaves with 
which the markets of Italy were overstocked, upon the 
reduction of that island by Titus Sempronius Gracchus, in 
the year of Home 618. 

o Tho character of Cato was, at this time, the fashion- 
able topic of declamation at Rome ; and every man that 
pretended to genius and eloquence furnished the public 
With an invective or panegyric upon that illustrious 
Roman, as party or patriotism directed his pen. In this 
respect, as well as In all others, Cato's reputation seems to 
have been attended with every advantage that any man 
who is ambitious of a good name can desire; for the next 
honour to being applauded by the worthy, is to be abused 
by the worthless. 

v He was one of the commissioners nominated by Caesar 
for settling the division of the lands for the purposes men- 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



535 



course relating to those estates in that province 
which are held of the city of Atella w ; and I then 
expressed how much I was concerned for the in- 
terest of that corporation. But in confidence of 
the singular affection you bear me, and in perform- 
ance of a duty which it is incumbent upon me to 
discharge, I thought proper to write to you more 
fully upon this affair, as it is, indeed, of the last 
importance to a community with which I have the 
strongest connexions. I am very sensible, at the 
same time, both of the occasion and extent of your 
commission, — and that Caesar has not entrusted 
you, in the execution of it, with any discretionary 
power. I limit my request, therefore, by what I 
imagine is no less within the bounds of your 
authority, than I am persuaded it is not beyond 
what you would be willing to do for my sake. In 
the first place, then, I entreat you to believe, what 
is truly the fact, that the whole revenues of this 
corporation arise from these lands in question, and 
that the heavy impositions with which they are at 
present burdened, have laid them under the greatest 
difficulties. But although, in this respect, they 
may seem to be in no worse condition than many 
other cities in Italy ; yet, believe me, their case is 
unhappily distinguished by several calamitous cir- 
cumstances peculiar to themselves. I forbear, 
however, to enumerate them, lest, in lamenting the 
miseries of my friends, I should be thought to 
glance at those persons whom it is by no means 
my design to offend. Indeed, if I had not conceived 
strong hopes that I shall be able to prevail with 
Caesar in favour of this city, there would be no 
occasion for my present very earnest application to 
you. But as I am well persuaded that Caesar will 
have regard to the dignity of this illustrious cor- 
poration, to the zeal which they bear for his 
interest, and above all to the equity of their cause, 
I venture to entreat you to leave the decision of 
this affair entirely to his own determination x . If 
I could produce no precedent of your having already 
complied with a request of this nature, it is a 
request which I should nevertheless have made, 
but I have so much the stronger hopes that you 
will not refuse me in the present instance, as I 
am informed you have granted the same favour to 
the citizens of Regium?. It is true", you have 
some sort of connexion with that city ; but in 
justice to your affection towards me, I cannot but 
hope that what you have yielded to your own clients 
you will not deny to mine, especially as it is for 
these alone that I solicit you, notwithstanding so 
many others of my friends are in the same situation. 
I dare say I need not assure you, that it is neither 
upon any ambitious motives that I apply to you in 
their behalf, nor without having just reason to be 
their advocate. The fact is, I have great obliga- 
tions to them ; and there has been no season of my 
life in which they have not given me signal proofs 
of their affeetion. As you are sensible, therefore, 
that the interest of this corporation, with which I 
am so strongly connected, is greatly concerned in 
the success of my present request, I conjure you, 
by all the powerful ties of our mutual friendship 

tioned in rem. e on letter 1C of this book. The department 
assigned to him was Cisalpine Gaul. 

w A city in Campania, situated between Naples and 
Capua : it is now called Santo Arpino. 

x Caesar was not yet returned out of Spain. 

y Now called Regio, a maritime city in Calabria. 



and by all the sentiments of your humanity, to 
comply with these my intercessions in their behalf. 
If, after having obtained this favour, I should suc- 
ceed likewise (as I have reason to hope) in my 
application to Caesar, I shall consider all the 
advantages of that success as owing entirely |to 
yourself. Nor shall I be less obliged to you 
though I should not succeed, as you will have con- 
tributed all in your power, at least, that I might. 
In one word, you will by these means not only 
perform a most acceptable service to myself, but 
for ever attach to the interest both of you and your 
family a most illustrious and grateful city. Fare- 
well. 



LETTER XXI. 

To Fabins Gallus. 
You need be in no pain about your letter. So 
far from having destroyed it, as you imagine, it is 

a u 708 P er ^ ec ^y sa f e > an( * y° u ma y call for it 
whenever you please. 

Your admonitions are extremely obliging, and I 
hope you will always continue them with the same 
freedom. You are apprehensive, I perceive, that 
if I should render this Tigellius my enemy, he may 
probably make me merrier than I like, and teach 
me the Sardinian laugh 2 . In return to your pro- 
verb, let me present you with another, and advise 
you to "throw aside the pencil*." For our master^ 
will be here much sooner than was expected ; and 
I am afraid he should send the man who ventures 
to paint Cato in such favourable colours, to join 
the hero of his panegyric in the shades below. 

Nothing, my dear Gallus, can be expressed with 
greater strength and elegance than that part of 
your letter which begins, " The rest are fallen" 
&c. But I whisper this applause in your ear, — 
and desire it may be a secret, even to your freed- 
man Apella. Nobody, indeed, writes in this 
manner except ourselves. How far it is to be 
defended or not I may consider, perhaps, another 
time ; but this, at least, is indisputable, that it is 
a style entirely our own. Persevere, then, in these 

z It is said there was a sea-weed frequently found upon 
the coasts of Sardinia, the poisonous quality whereof occa- 
sioned a convulsive motion in the features which had the 
appearance of laughter; and that hence the Sardinian 
laugh became a proverb usually applied to those who con- 
cealed a heavy heart under a gay countenance. Gallus 
seems to have cited this proverb as a caution to Cicero 
not to be too free in his railleries upon Tigellius ; and there 
is a peculiar propriety in his application of it, as Tigellius 
was a Sardinian. I must acknowledge, however, that I 
have departed from the sentiments of the commentators 
in supposing that Tigellius is the person here alluded to : 
they all imagine, on the contrary, that it is Caesar. But 
this letter seems evidently to be upon the same subject as 
the 19th of this book, and was, probably, an answer to one 
which Gallus had written in return to that epistle. 

a This proverb, Victorias supposes, had its rise from 
the schools of the painters, where the young pupils, who 
in the absence of their master were amusing themselves 
perhaps in drawing their pencils over the piece on which 
lie was at work, called upon each other, when they saw 
him returning, to lay them aside. Cicero, in the applica- 
tion of this proverb, alludes to the panegyric which Gallus 
had written upon Cato. See rem. u on the 19th letter of 
this book. 

t> Caesar, who was at this time upon his return from 
Spain. 



530 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



compositions, as the best and surest method of 
forming your eloquence. As for myself, I now 
employ some part even of my nights in exercises 
of the same kind. Farewell. 



LETTER XXII. 

To Marcus Rutilius c . 

In the consciousness of that affection I bear 
you, and from the proofs I have experienced of 
a. u. 708. y° urs » I d° not scruple to ask a favour 
which a principle of gratitude obliges me 
to request. To what degree I value Publius Sex- 
tius d , is a circumstance with which my own heart 
is best acquainted ; but how greatly I ought to do 
so both you and all the world are perfectly well 
apprised. As he has been informed by some of 
his friends that you are upon all occasions ex- 
tremely well disposed to oblige me, he has desired 
I would write to you in the strongest terms in 
behalf of Caius Albinius, a person of senatorian 
rank. Publius Sextius married his daughter, — and 
he has a son by her, who is a youth of great merit. 
I mention these circumstances, to let you see that 
Sextius has no less reason to be concerned for the 
interest of Albinius than I have for that of Sextius. 
But to come to the point. 

Marcus Laberius purchased, under an edict of 
Caesar, the confiscated estate of Plotius, which he 
afterwards assigned over to Albinius, in satisfaction 
of a debt. If I were to say that it is not for the 
credit of the government to include this estate 
among those lands which are directed to be divided, 
I might seem to talk rather in the style of a man 
who is dictating than of one who is making a 
request. But as Csesar thought it necessary to 
ratify the sales and mortgages that had been made 
of those estates which were confiscated during 
Sylla's administration, in order to render his own 
purchasers of the same kind so much the more 
secure ; if these forfeited lands, which were put up 
to auction by his particular order, should be in- 
cluded in the general division he is now making, 
will it not discourage all future bidders ? I only 
hint this, however, for your own judicious consider- 
ation. In the mean time I most earnestly entreat 
you not to dispossess Albinius of the farms which 
Laberius has thus conveyed to him ; and be as- 
sured, as nothing can be more equitable than this 
request, so I make it in all the warmth and sincerity 
of my heart. It will afford me, indeed, not only 
much satisfaction, but in some sort likewise great 
honour, if Sextius, to whose friendship I am so 
deeply indebted, should have an opportunity, 
through my means, of serving a man to whom he 
is thus nearly related. Again and again, therefore, 
1 entreat your compliance ; and as there is no 
instance wherein you can more effectually oblige 
me, so you may depend upon finding me infinitely 
sensible of the obligation. Farewell. 



o Ho was employed Id :i commission of the same kind 
with that of Orca and Cluvius, to whom the 16th and 20th 
letters of this book arc addressed. 

«* See ran. ■, />. .'!<>7. 



LETTER XXIII. 

To Vatinius. 

I am by no means surprised to find that you 
are sensible of my services e . On the contrary, I 
a u 708 perfectly well knew, and have upon all 
occasions declared, that no man ever 
possessed so grateful a heart. You have, indeed, 
not only acknowledged, but abundantly returned, 
my good offices : be assured, therefore, you will 
always experience in me the same friendly zeal in 
every other article of your concerns. Accordingly, 
after having received your last letter, wherein you 
recommend that excellent woman your wife to my 
protection f , I immediately desired our friend Sura 
to acquaint her, that if in any instance she had 
occasion for my services I hoped she would let me 
know, — and that she might depend upon my exe- 
cuting her requests with the utmost warmth and 
fidelity. This promise I shall very punctually 
fulfil ; and if it should prove necessary I will wait 
upon her myself. In the mean time I beg you 
would inform her, by your own hand, that I shall 
not look upon any office as difficult, or below my 
character, wherein my assistance can avail her : 
as, indeed, there is no employment in which I could 
be engaged upon your account that I should not 
think both easy and honourable 2 . 

I entreat you to settle the affair with Dionysius ; 
and any assurance that you shall think proper to 
give him, in my name, I will religiously perform. 
But if he should continue obstinate, you must e'en 
seize him as a prisoner of war, to grace your 
triumphal entry. 

May a thousand curses fall upon these Dalma- 
tians for giving you so much trouble. However, 
I join with you in being well persuaded that you 
will soon reduce them to obedience : and as they 
have always been esteemed a warlike people, their 
submission will greatly contribute to the glory of 
your arms. Farewell. 

e The services here alluded to are, probably, those which 
Vatinius solicited in the 12th letter of this book. Cicero's 
answer to that letter is lost, as well as Vatinius's reply : 
but the present epistle seems to have been written in return 
to the latter. 

f If Vatinius was hot a more tender husband than he 
appears to have been a son, this lady might have had 
occasion for Cicero's protection, in some instances, which 
she would not, perhaps, have been very willing to own : 
for among other enormities that are laid to the charge of 
Vatinius, it is said, that he had the cruelty, as well as the 
impiety, to lay violent hands on his mother.— Orat. in 
Vatin. 7. 

8 Who would imagine that this is the same person of 
whom Cicero has elsewhere said, that " No one could look 
upon him without a sigh, or speak of him without execra- 
tion : that he was the dread of his neighbours, the disgrace 
of his kindred, and the utter abhorrence of the public in 
general." Indeed, when Oicero save this character of Vati- 
nius, he was acting as an advocate at the bar, and endea- 
vouring to destroy his credit as ;i witness against his friend 
and client. But whatever allowances may be made, in 
general, for rhetorical exaggerations, yet history shows 
that, in the present instance, Cicero's eloquence did not 
transgress the limits of truth. For Paterculus has painted 
the character of Vatinius in the same disadvantageous 
colours, and represented him as the lowest and most worth- 
less of men. — Orat. in Vatin. Hi ; Veil. Tat. ii. 61). 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



537 



LETTER XXIV. 

To Cornificius*. 

It was with great satisfaction I found, by your 
letter, that you allow me a place in your thoughts : 
and it is by no means as doubting the con- 
A ' u ' stancy of your friendship, but merely in 
compliance with a customary form, that I eiitreat 
you to preserve me still in your remembrance. 

It is reported that some commotions have arisen 
in Syria : at which I am more alarmed upon your 
account than our own, as you are placed so much 
nearer to the consequences. As to affairs at Rome, 
we are enjoying that sort of repose which I am sure 
you would be better pleased to hear was interrupted 
by some vigorous measures for the public welfare. 
And I hope it shortly will : as I find it is Caesar's 
intention to concert methods for that purpose. 

Your absence has inspired me with the courage 
of engaging in some compositions, which otherwise 
I should scarce have ventured to undertake : though 
there are some among them which even my judi- 
cious friend, perhaps, would not disapprove. The 
last that I have finished is upon a subject, on 
which 1 have frequently had occasion to think that 
your notions were not altogether agreeable to mine : 
it is an inquiry into the best species of eloquence 1 . 
Though I must add, that whenever you have dif- 
fered from me, it was always with the complaisance 
of a master artist towards one who is not wholly 
unskilled in his art. I should be extremely glad 
that this piece might receive your suffrage : if not 
for its own sake, at least for its author's. To 
this end, I shall let your family know, that, if they 
think proper, they may have it transcribed, in order 
to send it to you. I imagine, indeed, although you 
should not approve my sentiments, yet that any- 
thing which comes from my hand, will be accept- 
able in your present inactive situation. 

When you recommend your character and 
honours to my protection, it is merely, I dare say, 
for the sake of form, and not as thinking it in the 
least necessary. Be assured, the affection which, 
I am persuaded, mutually subsists between us, 
would be sufficient to render me greatly zealous in 
your service. But abstractedly from all motives of 
friendship, were I to consider only the noble pur- 
poses to which you have applied your exalted 
talents, and the great probability of your attaining 
the highest dignity in the commonwealth •>, there is 
no man to whom I should give the preference in 
my good offices, and few that I should place in the 
same rank with yourself. Farewell. 



h Quintus Cornificius, in the year 705, obtained the pro- 
consulship of Illyricum. In the following year he was 
removed from thence into some other province, the name 
of which is unknown, hut it appears to have been conti- 
guous to Syria. In this province he resided when the pre- 
sent and twenty-sixth letter of this book were written to 
him. He was afterwards appointed governor of Africa, as 
appears by several letters addressed to him in the next 
book, and which will afford a farther occasion of speaking 
of him. He had greatly distinguished himself in the art 
of eloquence, and is supposed to have been the author of 
those rhetorical pieces which are mentioned by Quintilian 
as written by a person of this name.— Pigh. Annal, ii. 44G, 
454, 4G6 ; Quintil. iii. 1. 

i This is, probably, the same piece of which an account 
has been given in rem. 1 on letter 15, book x. 

J The consular office. 



LETTER XXV. 

Curius k to Cicero. 

I look upon myself as a sort of property, the 
possession of which belongs, 'tis true, to Atticus ; 
but all the advantage that can be derived 
A ' ' / from it is wholly yours. If Atticus, there- 
fore, were inclined to dispose of his right in me, I 
am afraid he could only pass me off in a lot with 
some more profitable commodity : whereas, if you 
should have the same inclination, how greatly would 
it enhance my value to be proclaimed as one entirely 
formed into what he is, by your care and kindness ! 
I entreat you then to continue to protect the work 
of your own hands, and to recommend me in the 
strongest terms to the successor of Sulpicius in this 
province 1 . This will be the surest means of put- 
ting it in my power to obey your commands of 
returning to you in the spring : as it will facilitate 
the settling of my affairs in such a manner, that I 
may be able, by that time, to transport my effects, 
with safety, into Italy. But I hope, my illustrious 
friend, you will not communicate this letter to Atti- 
cus : for as he imagines I am much too honest a 
fellow to pay the same compliment to you both ; 
suffer him, I beseech you, to remain in this favour- 
able error. Adieu, my dear _patron, and salute 
Tiro in my name. 

Oct. the 29th. 



a. u. 708. 



LETTER XXVI. 

To Cornificius. 

I shall follow the same method in answering 
your letter which I have observed that you great 
orators sometimes practise in your replies, 
and begin with the last article first. You 
accuse me, then, of being a negligent correspond- 
ent ; but. believe me, I have never once omitted 
writing whenever any of your family gave me notice 
that a courier was setting out to you. 

I have so high an opinion of your prudence, that 
I expected you would act in the manner your very 
obliging letter assures me you intend, and that you 
would not determine your measures, till you should 
know where this paltry Bassus m designed to make 
an irruption. I entreat you to continue to give me 
frequent intelligence of all your purposes and mo- 
tions, as well as of whatever else is going forward in 
your part of the world. 

It was with much regret that I parted with you 
when you left Italy ; but I comforted myself in the 
persuasion, that you were not only going into a 
scene of profound tranquillity, but leaving one that 
was threatened with great commotions. The 
reverse, however, has proved to be the fact, and 
war has broken out in your quarters, at the same 
time that it is extinguished in ours. But the peace 
we enjoy is attended, nevertheless, with many dis- 
gusting circumstances, and disgusting, too, even to 
Caesar himself. It is the certain consequence, 
indeed, of all civil wars, that the vanquished must 
not only submit to the will of the victor, but to the 

k See rem. c, p. 503. j Greece. 

111 Csecilius Bassus was a Roman knight of thePompeian 
party, who, after the battle of Pharsalia, fled into Syria ; 
where he was, at this time, raising some very formidable 
commotions against the authority of Cassar.— Dio, xlvii. 
p. 342. 



538 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



will of those also who assisted him in his conquest. 
But I am now become so totally callous, that I saw 
Bursa", the other day, at the games which Csesar 
exhibited, without the least emotion ; and was pre- 
sent with equal patience at the farces of Publius 
and Laberius . In short, I am sensible of nothing 
so much as of the want of a judicious friend with 
whom I may freely laugh at what is thus passing 
amongst us. And such a friend I shall find in you, 
if you will hasten your return hither ; a circum- 
stance which I look upon to be as much your own 
interest, as I am sure it is mine. Farewell. 



LETTER XXVII. 

To Dolabella. 
I rejoice to find that Baise? has changed its 
nature, and is become, on a sudden, so wondrous 
salutary <*■. But, perhaps, it is only in 
complaisance to my friend that it thus 
suspends its usual effects, and will resume its 
wonted qualities the moment you depart. I shall 
not be surprised should this prove to be the 
case ; nor wonder, indeed, if heaven and earth 
should alter their general tendencies, for the sake 
of a man who has so much to recommend him to 
the favour of both 1 . 

I did not imagine, that I had preserved, among 



u. 708. 



n Cicero's inveterate enemy, who had been banished some 
years before, but had lately been recalled by Caesar. See 
rem. a, p. 387. 

For an account of Laberius see rem. s , p. 380. Publius 
Syrus had, likewise, distinguished himself upon the Roman 
stage in those buffoon pieces which they called their 
mimes. But although these rival poets and actors were 
both of them excellent in their way, yet it appears that 
their humour was too low and inelegant to suit the just and 
refined taste of Cicero. — Macrob. Saturn, ii. 7- 

P See rem. s, p. 478. 

q Dolabella had probably informed Cicero, in a letter 
from Baia?, of the salutary effects he experienced from 
the waters of that place ; in answer to which Cicero plays 
upon the ambiguous meaning of the word salubres, and 
applies in a moral sense what Dolabella had used in a 
medicinal. 

r If no other memoirs of these times remained than what 
might be collected from the letters of Cicero, it is certain 
they would greatly mislead us in our notions of the prin- 
cipal actors who now appeared upon the theatre of the 
Roman republic. Thus, for instance, who would imagine 
that the person here represented as interesting heaven and 
earth in his welfare, was, in fact, a monster of lewdness 
and inhumanity? But how must the reader's astonish- 
ment be raised, when he is informed that it is Cicero him- 
self who tells us so? " Dolabella?— a pucro pro deliciis 
crudelitas fuit, (says our author in one of his Philippic 
orations,) deinde ea libidinum turpitudo ut in hoc sit 
semper ipse lsetatus, quod ea faceret qua? sibi objici ne ab 
inimico quidem posscnt verecundo." If this was a true 
picture of Dolabella, what shall be said in excuse of Cicero 
for having disposed of his daughter to him in marriage? 
Should any too partial advocate of Cicero's moral character 
endeavour to palliate this unfavourable circumstance, by 
telling us that he had never inquired into Dolabella's con- 
duet, might it not justly be suspected that lie meant to 
banter ? Yet, this is the very reason which Cicero himself 
assigns in the oration from whence the above passage Is 
cited. "Ethic, dii inniiortales ! aliquando fuit mens! 
occulta enim erant vitianon inquirenti." Strange ! that a 
man who loved his daughter even to a degree of extrava- 
gance 1 , should be so careless in an article wherein her hap- 
piness But I need not finish the rest : where facts speak 

for themselves, let me be spared the pain of a comment.— 
Phil. xL 14. 



my papers, the trifling speech which I made in 
behalf of Deiotarus s ; however, I have found it, 
and send it to you, agreeably to your request. You 
will read it as a performance which was by no 
mean, of consequence enough to deserve much 
care in the composition ; and, to say truth, I was 
willing to make my old friend and host a present 
of the same indelicate kind with his own. 

May you ever preserve a virtuous and a generous 
mind ! that the moderation and integrity of your 
conduct may prove a living reproach to the vio- 
lence and injustice of some others amongst our 
contemporaries ! Farewell. 



LETTER XXVIII. 

Vatinius to Cicero. 
I have not been able to do anything to the pur- 
pose with regard to your librarian, Dionysius l ; 
^ og and, indeed, my endeavours have hitherto 
proved so much the less effectual, as the 
severity of the weather, which obliged me to retreat 
out of Dalmatia, still detains me here. However, 
I will not desist till I have gotten him into my cus- 
tody. But surely I am always to find some diffi- 
culty or other in executing your commands, why 
else did you write to me, I know not what, in 
favour of Catilius u ? But avaunt, thou insidious 
tempter, with thy dangerous intercessions ! And 
our friend Servilius, too, (for mine my heart prompts 
me to call him , as well as yours,) is, it seems, a joint 
petitioner with you in this request. Is it usual 
then, I should be glad to know, with you orators 
to be the advocates of such clients, and in such 
causes ? Is it usual to plead in behalf of the most 
cruel of the human race ? in defence of a man who 
has murdered our fellow-citizens, plundered their 
houses, ravished their wives, and laid whole regions 
in desolation ? This worthless wretch had the 
insolence, likewise, to take up arms against myself ; 
and he is now, 'tis true, my prisoner. But tell me, 
my dear Cicero, in what manner can I act in this 
affair ? I would not willingly refuse anything to your 
request ; and, as far as my own private resentment 
is concerned, I will, in compliance with your 
desires, remit the punishment I intended. But 
what shall I answer to those unhappy sufferers who 
require satisfaction for the loss of their effects, and 
the destruction of their ships ? who call for ven- 
geance on the murderer of their brothers, their 
children, and their parents ? Believe me, if I had 
succeeded to the impudence as well as to the office 
of Appius v , I could not have the assurance to 
withstand their cries for justice. Nevertheless, I 

8 See rem. s , p. 400. 

t See letter 12 of this book. 

u This man was quaestor in the year 702 ; and, during the 
civil war, was intrusted with some naval command ; but 
it appears, by the present letter, that he had turned pirate, 
and committed great cruelties and depredations upon the 
coasts of Illyricum.— Pigh. Annal. ii. 421. 

v Manutius observes, that this is not the same Appius to 
whom the letters in the 3d book are addressed : and relers 
to a passage in Valerius Mazimus, to prove that he perished 
early in the civil wars. But so be undoubtedly might, and 
nevertheless be the same person here alluded to ; for it by 
no means appears when or in what post it was, that Vati- 
nius succeeded to this Appius in question. Impudence, it 
is certain, was in the number of those qualities which dis- 
tinguished that Appius to whom the letters above-men- 
tioned arc written.— Ad Att. iv. 18. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



539 



will do everything that lies in my power to gratify 
your inclinations. He is to be defended at his trial 
by Volusius : and, if his prosecutors can be van- 
quished by eloquence, there is great reason to expect 
that the force of your disciple's rhetoric will put 
them to flight. 

I depend upon your being my advocate at Rome, 
if there should be any occasion. Caesar, indeed, 
has not yet done me the justice to move for a 
public thanksgiving, for the success of my arms in 
Dalmatia : as if, in truth, I were not entitled to 
more, and might not justly claim the honour of a 
triumph ! But as there are above threescore cities 
that have entered into an alliance with the Dalma- 
tians, besides the twenty of which that country 
anciently consisted : if I am not to be honoured 
with a public thanksgiving till I shall have taken 
every one of these considerable towns, I am by no 
means upon equal terms with the rest of our 
generals. 

Immediately after the senate had appointed the 
former thanksgivings for my victories"', I marched 

w There is some difficulty in reconciling what Vatinius 
here says of a supplication having been decreed by the 
senate, with the complaint he makes above against Csesar 
for having delayed to move the house for that purpose. 
Some of the commentators, therefore, have suspected that 
this is the beginning of a distinct letter ; and others, that 
it is a postscript, written a considerable distance of time 



into Dalmatia, where I attacked and made myself 
master of six of their towns. One of these, which 
was of very considerable strength, I might fairly 
say that I took four several times ; for it was sur- 
rounded by a fortification consisting of four differ- 
ent walls, which were defended by as many forts, 
through all which I forced my way to the citadel, 
which I likewise compelled to surrender. But the 
excessive severity of the cold, together with the 
deep snows that fell at the same time, obliged me 
to retreat ; so that I had the mortification, my dear 
Cicero, to find myself under the necessity of aban- 
doning my conquests just as I was upon the point of 
finishing the war. I entreat you, then, if occasion 
should require, to be my advocate with Caesar, and 
in every other respect to take my interest under 
your protection, — in the assurance, that no man 
possesses a higher degree of affection for you than 
myself. 
Narona, Dec. the 15th. 

from the body of the epistle. But Mr. Ross has offered, I 
think, a much better solution, by supposing that the 
thanksgiving, mentioned in the present paragraph, was 
one which had been decreed on account of some former 
successes of Vatinius in his province ; and that the 
thanksgiving, concerning which he complains of Caesar's 
neglect, was one that he was now soliciting in honour of 
those successes in Dalmatia of which he here gives an 
account. 



BOOK XII. 



LETTER I. 



To Curius*. 
'Tis true, I once both advised and exhorted you 
to return into Italy ; but I am so far from being 
a o> 709 * n ^ e same sentiments at present, that, 
on the contrary, I wish to escape myself, 
To some blest clime remote from Pelops' race?. 
My heart, indeed, most severely reproaches me for 
submitting to be the witness of their unworthy 
deeds. Undoubtedly, my friend, you long since 
foresaw our evil days approaching, when you wisely 
took your flight from these unhappy regions ; for 
though it must needs be painful to hear a relation 
of what is going forward amongst us, yet far more 
intolerable it surely is to be the sad spectator of 
so wretched a scene. One advantage, at least, you 
have certainly gained by your absence ; it has 
spared you the mortification of being present at the 
late general assembly for the election of quaestors. 
At seven in the morning, the tribunal of Quintus 
Maximus, the consul, as they called him 7 -, was 
placed in the field of Mars a ; when, news being 

x This is an answer to the 25th letter of the foregoing 
book. 

y Alluding to the Caesarian party. See rem. d , p. 503. 

z Caesar (as Manutius observes) abdicated the consulship 
upon his late return from Spain, and arbitrarily appointed 
Quintus Maximus, together with Trebonius, consuls for 
the remaining part of the year. Maximus, therefore, not 
being legally elected, Cicero speaks of him as one whose 
title was acknowledged only by the prevailing faction. 

a Where the poll for the election of magistrates was 
usually taken. It was situated on the banks of the Tiber. 



brought of his sudden death, it was immediately 
removed. But Caesar, notwithstanding he had 
taken the auspices b as for an assembly of the tribes, 
converted it into that of the centuries c , and, at 
one in the afternoon, declared Caninius duly elected 
consul. Be it recorded, then, that during the 
consulate of Caninius no man had time to dine, 
and yet that there was not 'a single disturbance of 
any kind committed : for he was a magistrate, you 
must know, of such wonderful vigilance, that he 
never once slept throughout his whole administra- 
tion. The truth of it is, his administration con- 
tinued only to the end of the year, and both expired 
the very next morning. But, ridiculous as these 
transactions may appear to you who are placed at 

b No assembly of the people could be regularly held, nor 
any public act performed, till the augurs had declared that 
the omens were favourable for the purpose in agitation. 

c The citizens of Rome were cast into three general 
divisions— into centuries, into curiae, and into tribes. Some 
account of the two latter has been already given in rem. u , 
p. 375, and rem. > , p. 4:28. The former was an institution 
of Servius Tullius, who distributed the people into 193 
centuries, according to the value of their respective pos- 
sessions. These companies had a vote in all questions 
that came before the people assembled in this manner, 
and the majority of voices in each determined the suffrage 
of that particular century. But, as the patricians and 
the wealthiest citizens of the republic filled up 5)8 of these 
189 classes, the inferior citizens were consequently de- 
prived of all weight in the public deliberations. The prae- 
tors, consuls, and censors, were elected by the people 
assembled in centuries; but the quaestors, aediles, and 
tribunes, were chosen in an assembly of the tribes.— Dion. 
Hal. iv. 20. 



510 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



so great a distance from them, believe me you 
could not refrain from tears if you were to see them 
in all their true and odious colours. How would 
you be affected, then, were I to mention the num- 
berless instances of the same arbitrary kind which 
daily occur ! For my own part, they would be 
utterly insupportable to me, had I not taken refuge 
in philosophy, and enjoyed, likewise, that friend d 
of ours for the companion of my studies whose 
property, you tell me, you are e . However, since 
you assure me at the same time that all the benefit 
which can arise from you belongs solely to myself, 
I am perfectly well contented, — for what can pro- 
perty give more ? 

Acilius, who is sent into Greece at the head of 
some legions, as successor to Sulpicius, has great 
obligations to me ; for I successfully defended him 
in two capital prosecutions, before the commence- 
ment of our public troubles. He is a man of a 
very grateful disposition, and one who, upon all 
occasions, treats me with much regard. Accord- 
ingly, I herewith send you a letter which I have 
written to him in your favour, in the strongest 
terms ; and I desire you will let me know what 
promises he shall give you in consequence of my 
recommendation. Farewell. 



LETTER II. 

To Auctus 1 , proconsul. 
In confidence of that share you allow me in your 
esteem, and of which you gave me so many con- 
a. u. 709 vmcm g proofs, during the times we con- 
tinued together at BrundisiumS, I claim 
a sort of right of applying to you upon any occasion 
wherein I am particularly interested. I take the 
liberty, therefore, of writing to you in behalf of 
Marcus Curius, a merchant at Patrse, with whom 
I am most intimately united. Many are the good 
offices which have mutually passed between us, — 
and. what indeed is of the greatest weight, they 
reciprocally flowed from the most perfect affection. 

d Atticus. 

e See the beginning of Curius's letter to Cicero, p. 537. 

f The commentators imagine that this person is the same 
whom Cicero mentions in the foregoing letter to have suc- 
ceeded to Sulpicius in the government of Greece ; and that, 
therefore, either instead (of Auctus, the true reading is 
Acilius, or that he was called Acilius Auctus. But, 
though it is altogether impossible to determine who the 
person was to whom this letter is addressed, or in what 
year it was written, yet it seems highly probable that 
Acilius and Auctus' were different men ; for Cicero, in the 
preceding epistle, mentions Acilius as one on whom [he 
had conferred some very important services : whereas, in 
the present letter, Cicero appears to have been the person 
obliged. Now it is by no means credible that our author, 
if be had ever done any good offices to Auctus, should have 
been totally silent upon a circumstiince which would have 
given him a much higher claim to the favour he was 
requesting, than any which he produces. And the incre- 
dibility grows still stronger, when it is remembered that 
Cicero never fails to display his services upon all occasions 
in which he can with any propriety mention them. But 
on which side soever of this question the truth may lie, it 
is a point of such very little consequence, that perhaps it 
will scarce justify even this short remark. 

g Probably during Cicero's residence in that city, upon 

his return into Italy, after the battle of Pharsalia, an 
account of which has been given in the foregoing obser- 
vations. 



If, then, you have reason to promise yourself any 
advantage from my friendship, — if you are inclined 
to render the obligations you have formerly con- 
ferred upon me, if possible, even still more valu- 
able, — in a word, if you are persuaded that I hold 
a place in the esteem of every person in your 
family, let these considerations induce you to 
comply with my request in favour of Curius. Re- 
ceive him, I conjure you, under your protection, 
and preserve both his person and his property from 
every injury and every inconvenience to which they 
maybe exposed. In the mean time, I will venture 
to assure you myself, (what all your family will, I 
doubt not, confirm,) that you may depend upon 
deriving great satisfaction from my friendship, as 
well as much advantage from the faithful returns of 
my gratitude. Farewell. 



LETTER III. 

To Curius. 

Your letter affords me a very evident proof that 
1 possess the highest share of your esteem, and 
a u "09 ^ at y° u are sens rtd e how much you are 
endeared to me in return, — both which I 
have ever been desirous should be placed beyond a 
doubt. Since, then, we are thus firmly assured of 
each other's affection, let us endeavour to vie in 
our mutual good offices, — a contest in which I am 
perfectly indifferent on which side the superiority 
may appear. 

I am well pleased that you had no occasion to 
deliver my letter to Acilius h . I find, likewise, 
that you had not much for the services of Sulpicius ; 
having made so great a progress, it seems, in your 
affairs as to have curtailed them (to use your own 
ludicrous expression) both of head and feet. I 
wish, however, you had spared the latter, that they 
might proceed a little faster, and give us an oppor- 
tunity of one day seeing you again in Rome. We 
want you, indeed, in order to preserve that good 
old vein of pleasantry which is now, you may per- 
ceive, well-nigh worn out amongst us ; insomuch 
that Atticus may properly enough say, as he often 
you know used, " if it were not for two or three 
of us, my friends, what would become of the ancient 
glory of Athens ! " Indeed, as the honour of being 
the chief support of Attic elegance devolved upon 
Pomponius' when you left Italy, so, in his absence, 
it has now descended upon me. Hasten your re- 
turn, then, I beseech you, my friend, lest every 
spark of wit, as well as of liberty, should be 
irrecoverably extinguished with the republic. Fare- 
well. 



LETTER IV. 
To Corni/fcjtM. 

I have the satisfaction to find, by your very 
obliging letter, that my last was safely delivered. 
a u *"09 * doubted not of its affording you plea- 
sure, and, therefore, was so much the 
more uneasy lest it should lose its way. You 
inform me, at the same time, that a war is broken 
out in Syria', and that Caesar has given you the 

11 See the latter end of the first letter in this book. 

5 Pomponius Atticus. 

J See rem, "' on letter 96 of the preceding book. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



541 



government of this province. I wish you much 
joy of your command, and hope success will attend 
it ; as, in full confidence of your wisdom and vigi- 
lance, I am well persuaded it will. Nevertheless, 
I am truly alarmed at what you mention concerning 
the invasion which, it is suspected, the Parthians 
are meditating. I find by your letter, that the 
number of your forces is agreeable to what I should 
have conjectured : I hope, therefore, that these 
people will not put themselves in motion till the 
legions, which I hear are ordered to your assist- 
ance, shall arrive. But if you should not, even 
with these supplies, find yourself in a condition to 
face the enemy, I need not remind you to follow 
the maxim of your predecessor Marcus Bibulus, 
who, you know, during the whole time that the 
Parthians continued in your province, most gal- 
lantly shut himself up in a strong garrison k . Yet, 
after all, circumstances will best determine in what 
manner it will be proper for you to act : in the 
mean time, I shall be extremely anxious till I receive 
an acount of your operations. 

As I have never omitted any opportunity of 
writing to you, I hope you will observe the same 
punctuality with respect to me. But above all, let 
me desire you to represent me in your letters to 
your friends and family as one who is entirely 
yours. Farewell. 



LETTER V. 

Decimus Brutus 1 to Marcus Brutus and Caius 

Cassius. 

You will judge by this letter in what posture 

our affairs stand. I received a visit yesterday in 

A ^ g the evening from Hirtius™, who convinced 

me of Antony's extreme perfidy and ill 

k This seems to be intended as a sneer upon the conduct 
of Bibulus. Cicero was governor of Cilicia when Bibulus 
commanded in Syria, and they both solicited at the same 
time the honour of a public thanksgiving for the success 
of their respective arms. Cato gave his suffrage, upon this 
occasion, in favour of Bibulus, but refused it to Cicero, a 
preference which extremely exasperated the latter, and 
which was, probably, the principal cause of that contempt 
with which he speaks of Bibulus in the present passage. 
See letter 10, book vi. rem. n . 

1 Decimus Brutus, of the same family with Marcus Bru- 
tus, served under Caesar in the wars in Gaul ; at the end of 
which, in the year 703, he returned to Rome, and was 
chosen one of the city quaestors. It does not appear that 
he distinguished himself by anything remarkable, till he 
engaged with Marcus Brutus and Cassius in the conspiracy 
against his friend and benefactor. This was executed, as 
all the world knows, by stabbing Caesar in the senate, on 
the ides or the 15th of March, a few weeks before the pre- 
sent letter was written. When one considers the charac- 
ters of those who were the principal actors in this memo- 
rable tragedy, it is astonishing that they should have 
looked no farther than merely to the taking away of 
Caesar's life ; as if they imagined that the government must 
necessarily return into its proper channel as soon as the 
person who had obstructed its course was removed. They 
were altogether, therefore, unprepared for those very pro- 
bable contingencies which they ought to have had in view, 
and which accordingly ensued. Whatever then may be 
determined as to the patriotism of the fact itself, it was, 
unquestionably, conducted, as Cicero frequently and justly 
complains, by the weakest and most impolitic counsels. 
Antony, (who was at this time consul,) although he 
thought proper, at first, to carry a fair appearance towards 
the conspirators, yet secretly raised such a spirit against 
them, that they found it expedient to withdraw from 



intentions towards us. He assured Hirtius, it 
seems, that he could by no means consent I should 
take possession of the province to which I have 
been nominated n ; and that both the army and the 
populace were so highly incensed against us, that 
he imagined we could none of us continue with any 
saFety in Rome. You are sensible, I dare say, that 
both these assertions are as absolutely false, as that 
it is undoubtedly true what Hirtius added, that 
Antony is apprehensive, if we should gain the least 
increase of power, it will be impossible for him and 
his party to maintain their ground. I thought, 
under these difficulties, the most prudent step I 
could take, for our common interest, would be to 
request that an honorary legation might be decreed 
to each of us, in order to give some decent colour 
to our leaving Rome. Accordingly, Hirtius has 
promised to obtain this grant in our favour ; though 
I must add, at the same time, such a spirit is raised 
against us in the senate, that I am by no means 
clear he will be able to perform his engagement. 
And should he succeed, yet I am persuaded it will 
not be long ere they declare us public enemies, or 
at least sentence us to banishment. It appears to 
me, therefore, our wisest method in the present 
conjuncture is to submit to Fortune, and withdraw 
to Rhodes or to some other secure part of the world. 
We may there adjust our measures to public cir- 
cumstances, and either return to Rome or remain 
in exile, as affairs shall hereafter appear with a 
more or less inviting aspect : or if the worst should 
happen, we may have recourse to the last desperate 
expedientP. Should it be asked, " why not attempt 
something at present, rather than wait a more dis- 
tant period ?" my answer is, because I know not 
where we can hope to make a stand, unless we 
should go either to Sextus Pompeius^, or to 
Rome. Brutus and Cassius retired to Lanuvium, a villa 
belonging to the former, about fifteen miles from the 
city, at which place they probably were when Decimus 
Brutus, who had not yet left Rome, wrote the following 
letter. 

m Hirtius was warmly attached to Caesar, and extremely 
regretted his death ; but as he was disgusted with Antony, 
and perhaps jealous too of his rising power, he seems to 
have opposed the cause he approved, merely from a spirit 
of personal pique and envy. — Ad Att. xiv. 22 ; xv. 6. 

Q Caesar, a short time before his death, had nominated 
Decimus Brutus to the government of Cisalpine Gaul, and 
Antony to that of Macedonia. But as Gaul lay more con- 
veniently for Antony's present purposes, his design was to 
procure the administration of it for himself. 

The senators could not be long absent from Rome with- 
out leave of the senate. When their private affairs, there- 
fore, required their attendance abroad, it was usual to 
apply for what they called a legatio libera, which gave a 
sanction to their absence, and invested them with a sort 
of travelling title, that procured them the greater respect 
and honours in the countries through which they passed, 
and in the place where they proposed to reside. 

P That is, (as the commentators explain it,) by arming 
the slaves, throwing open the prisons, and raising foreign 
nations in their defence. 

q Sextus Pompeius, the younger son of Pompey, was in 
Corduba when his brother Cneius gave battle to Caesar. 
Cneius attempting to make his escape, after the total 
defeat of his army, was killed by some of the conqueror's 
soldiers ; but Sextus, upon the enemy's approach, in order 
to lay siege to Corduba, secretly abandoned that city, and 
concealed himself till Caesar's return into Italy. The lat- 
ter had no sooner left Spain, than Sextus collected his 
broken forces ; and a short time after this letter was writ- 
ten, he appeared at the head of no less than six legions. — 
Hirt. De Bell. Hisp. ; Dio, p. 274. 



542 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



Csecilius Bassus r . It is probable, indeed, that 
when the news of Caesar's death shall be spread 
through their respective provinces, it may much 
contribute to strengthen their party ; however, it 
will be soon enough to join them when we shall 
know the state of their forces. 

If you and Cassius are desirous I should enter 
into any engagement on your behalf, I shall very 
readily be your sponsor : and, indeed, it is a con- 
dition which Hirtius requires. I desire, therefore, 
you would acquaint me with your resolution as 
soon as possible ; for I expect, before ten o'clock, 
to receive an appointment from Hirtius to meet 
him upon these affairs. Let me know, at the same 
time, where I shall find you. 

As soon as Hirtius shall have given me his final 
answer, I purpose to apply to the senate that a 
guard may be appointed to attend us in Rome. I 
do not suppose they will comply with this request, 
as our appearing to stand in need of such a protec- 
tion will render them extremely odious. But how 
successful soever my demands may prove, I shall 
not be discouraged from making such as I think 
reasonable. Farewell. 



LETTER VI. 

To Tiro. 
Notwithstanding I wrote this morning by 
Harpatus, and nothing new has since occurred ; 
a u 709 y e ^ * cannot forbear making use of this 
opportunity of conveying a second letter 
to you upon the same subject ; not, however, as 
entertaining the least distrust of your care, but be- 
cause the business in which I have employed you 
is of the last importance to me s . My whole design, 
indeed, in parting with you was, that you might 
thoroughly settle my affairs. I desire, therefore, 
in the first place, that the demands of Otillius and 
Aurelius may be satisfied. Your next endeavour 
must be to obtain part, at least, if you cannot pro- 
cure the whole, of what is due to me from Flamma ; 
and particularly insist on his making this payment 
by the first of January 1 . With regard to that debt 
which was assigned over to me, I beg you would 
exert your utmost diligence to recover it ; but, as 
to the advance-payment of the other not yet due, I 
leave you to act as you shall judge proper. And 
this much for my private concerns. As to those of 
the public, I desire you would send me all the 
certain intelligence you can collect. Let me know 
what Octavius n and Antony are doing ; what is the 

r An account of him has already been given in rem. m 
on letter 26 of the preceding book. 

« As Cicero was known to favour the conspirators, he 
did not think it prudent to trust himself in Rome after 
Brutus and Cassius had found it necessary to withdraw 
from thence; and, accordingly, he soon afterwards followed 
their example, by retiring into the country. His inten- 
tion at this time was, to make a tour into Greece for a 
few months ; and with that view he had despatched Tiro 
to Rome, in order to call in the several moneys which were 
due to him, and likewise to discharge some debts which he 
had himself contracted. 

t When the new consuls were to enter upon their office, 
by which time Cicero proposed to return to Rome. 

« Octavius, who was afterwards known and celebrated 
by the name of Augustus Cesar, was the son of Attia, 
Julius Caesar's niece. His uncle, who designed him for 
the heir, both of his power and his fortunes, had sent him, 
about six months before his death, to Apollonia, a learned 



general opinion of Rome ; and what turn you 
imagine affairs are likely to take. I can scarcely 
forbear running into the midst of the scene ; but I 
restrain myself in the expectation of your letter. 

Your news concerning Balbus proves true ; he 
was at Aquinum at the time you were told, and 
Hirtius followed him thither the next day. I 
imagine they are both going to the waters of Baiae : 
but let me know what you can discover of their 
motions. 

Do not forget to remind the agents of Dolabella v , 
nor to insist upon the payment of what is due from 
Papia. Farewell. 



LETTER VII. 



To Bl 

I have many reasons to wish that the repubKc ; 
may be restored ; but, believe me, the promise you I 
a u 709 &* ve me m your letter, renders it still 

more ardently my desire. You assure me, j 
if that happy event should take place, you will 
consecrate your whole time to me ; an assurance i 
which I received with the greatest pleasure, as it is 
perfectly agreeable to the friendship in which we I 
are united, and to the opinion which that excellent 
man your father x entertained of me. You have 
received more considerable services, I confess, from ' 
the men who are, or lately were, in power, than any ! 
that I have been capable of conferring upon you : j 
but, in all other respects, there is no person whose 
connexions with you are of a stronger kind than 
my own: It is with great satisfaction, therefore, | 
that I find you not only preserve our friendship in i 
your remembrance, but are desirous, likewise, of | 
increasing its strength. Farewell. 

LETTER VIII. 

To Tiro. 

If you should have an opportunity, you may 

register the money you mention ; though, indeed, 

a u 709 * fc is an acquis^ 011 which it is not abso- 

lutely requisite to enroll^. However, it 

may, perhaps, b e as well. 

seminary of great note in Macedonia. In this place he 
was to prosecute his studies and exercises till Caesar, who 
proposed he should accompany him in his intended expe- 
dition against the Parthians, should call upon him in his 
march to that country. But as soon as Octavius was in- 
formed of the death of Caesar, and that he had appointed 
him his heir, he immediately hastened to Rome ; and the 
eyes of everybody, but particularly of Cicero, were now 
attentively turned towards him, in order to discover in 
what manner he would act in this very critical situation, 
both of his own affairs and those of the republic— Dio, 
p. 271 ; Appian. De Bell. Civ. ii. 

' It appears by the letters written to Atticus at this time, 
that Cicero had some considerable demands upon Dolabel- 
la ; which arose, it is probable, from the latter not having 
yet returned the whole of Tullia's portion, agreeably to 
the Roman laws in cases of divorce. 

w This person is supposed by Manutius to be the 6on of 
Quintus Pompeius, who obtained the name of Bithynicus, 
in honour of his conquest of Bithynia. 

* Cicero mentions him in his treatise of Celebrated Ora- 
tors, as one with whom he had enjoyed a particular friend- 
ship. He attended Pompey in his flight after the battle 
of Pharsalia, and perished with him in Egypt.— Cic. de 
Clar. Orat. 240. 

y The censors every five years numbered the people, at 
which time each citizen was obliged to give an exact 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



543 



I have received a letter from Balbus, wherein he 
excuses himself for not giving me an account of 
Antony's intentions concerning the law I inquired 
after ; because he has gotten, it seems, a violent 
defluxion upon his eyes. Excellent excuse, it 
must be owned ! For if a man is not able to write, 
most certainly, you know, he cannot dictate ! But 
let the world go as it will, so I may sit down quietly 
here in the country. 

I have written to Bithynicus. — As to what you 
mention concerning Servilius, you, who are a young 
man, may think length of days a desirable circum- 
stance ; but, for myself, I have no such wish z . 
Atticus, nevertheless, imagines that I am still as 
anxious for the preservation of my life as he once 
knew me ; not observing how firmly I have since 
fortified my heart with all the strength of philo- 
sophy. The truth of it is, he is now seized in his 
turn with a panic himself ; and would endeavour to 
infect me with the same groundless apprehensions. 
But it is my intention to preserve that friendship 
unviolated which I have so long enjoyed with 
Antony a ; and, accordingly, I intend writing to 
him very soon. I shall defer my letter, however, 
till your return : but I do not mention this with 
any design of calling you off from the business you 
are transacting 13 , and which, indeed, is much more 
nearly my concern. 

1 expect a visit from Lepta to-morrow, and shall 
have occasion for all the sweets of your conversa- 
tion, to temper the bitterness with which his will 
be attended. Farewell. 



LETTER IX. 

To Dolabella, Consul . 
I desire no greater satisfaction, my dear Dola- 
bella, than what arises to me from the disinterested 

a u "09 P art * ta ^ e * n ^ ie si° r y y° u nave l ate ly 

acquired : however, 1 cannot but acknow- 

account of his estate. But if, in the interval, a man had 
made any new acquisition, he was required to enter it 
before the praetor. 

z Servilius Isauricus died about this time, in an extreme 
old age ; Manutius conjectures, therefore, and with great 
probability, that Tiro, in the letter to Avhich the present 
is an answer, had given Cicero an account of this event, 
and, at the same time, expressed his wishes of living to 
the same advanced period. 

a Both Antony and Cicero seem to have been equally 
unwilling, at this time, to come to an open rupture ; but, 
as to a real friendship between them, it is highly probable 
there never had been any. On the part of Antony, at 
least, there were some very strong family reasons to alien- 
ate him from Cicero. For Antony's father married the 
widow of Lentulus, whom Cicero had put to death as an 
accomplice in Catiline's conspiracy ; and he, himself, was 
married to Fulvia, the widow of Clodius, Cicero's most 
inveterate enemy. These alliances must unquestionably 
have made impressions upon Antony's mind little favour- 
able to sentiments of amity, and, probably, contributed, 
among other reasons, to kindle that resentment which 
terminated in Cicero's destruction : but whatever the true 
motive of their enmity towards each other might have 
been, the first coolness seems to have arisen on the side of 
Antony ; and if Cicero had resented it with greater moder- 
ation, he would have acted, perhaps, with more prudence 
in regard to the public interest, as well as in respect to his 
own.— Ad Att. xiv. 19. 

b See rem. s , p. 542. 

c Caesar had appointed Dolabella to succeed him in the 
consulship as soon as he should set out upon his Parthian 



ledge I am infinitely pleased to find, that the world 
gives me a share in the merit of your late applauded 
conduct. I daily meet, in this place, great num- 
bers of the first rank in Rome, who are assembled 
here for the benefit of their health, as well as a 
multitude of my friends from the principal cities 
in Italy ; and they all agree in joining their parti- 
cular thanks to me, with those unbounded praises 
they bestow upon you. They every one of them, 
indeed, tell me, that they are persuaded it is owing 
to your compliance with my counsels and admoni- 
tions, that you approve yourself so excellent a 
patriot and so worthy a consul. I might with 
strict truth assure them, that you are much supe- 
rior to the want of being advised by any man ; and 
that your actions are the free and genuine result of 
your own uninfluenced judgment. But although I 
do not entirely acquiesce in their compliment, as 
it would lessen the credit of your conduct if it 
should be supposed to flow altogether from my 
suggestions, yet neither do I wholly reject it : for 
the love of praise is a passion, which I am apt, you 
know, somewhat too immoderately to indulge. 
Yet, after all, to take counsel of a Nestor, as it was 
an honour to the character even of that king of 
kings, Agamemnon himself, it cannot surely be un- 
becoming the dignity of yours. It is certainly, at 
least, much to the credit of mine, that while in this 
early period of your life d , you are thus exercising 
the supreme magistracy with universal admiration 
and applause ; you are considered as directed by 
my guidance and formed by my instructions. 

I lately paid a visit to Lucius Caesar e , at Naples ; 
and though I found him extremely indisposed, and 
full of pain in every part of his body, yet the mo- 
ment I entered his chamber he raised himself with 
an air of transport, and without allowing himself 
time to salute me, " O my dear Cicero," said he, 
" I give you joy of your influence over Dolabella, 
and had I the same credit with my nephew, our 
country might now be preserved. But I not only 

expedition ; and, accordingly, Dolabella, upon the death 
of Caesar, immediately assumed the administration of that 
office. His conduct in this critical conjuncture had ren- 
dered it somewhat doubtful which side he was most dis- 
posed to favour : but an accident had lately happened 
which gave the friends of the republic great hopes that he 
would support the cause of the conspirators. Some of 
Caesar's freed-men had erected a sort of altar upon the 
spot where his body had been burned, at which the populace 
daily assembled in the most tumultuous and alarming 
manner. Dolabella, in the absence of his colleague An- 
tony, interposed his consular authority in order to suppress 
this mob ; and having caused the altar to be demolished, 
he exerted a very seasonable act of severity, by command- 
ing the principal ringleaders of the riot to be instantly put 
to death. It was this that produced the following letter 
from Cicero, written from some place of public resort, pro- 
bably from the baths of Baiae.— Dio, p. 240, 267 ; Ad Att. 
xiv. 15. 

d Dolabella was, at this time, not more than twenty-five 
years of age, which was almost twenty years earlier than 
he could legally have offered himself as a candidate for 
the consular dignity, the Roman laws having very wisely 
provided that no man should be capable of exercising this 
important office till he had attained the age of forty-two. 

e He was a distant relation to Julius Caesar, and uncle 
to Mark Antony. Upon the celebrated coalition of the 
triumvirate, he was sacrificed by Antony to the resentment 
of Octavius, as, in return, Cicero was delivered up to the 
vengeance of Antony. But Lucius escaped the conse- 
quence of this proscription by the means of Julia, Antony's 
mother.— Plut. in Vit. Ant. 



544 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



congratulate your friend on his worthy conduct, but 
desire you would return him my particular acknow- 
ledgments : as, indeed, he is the single consul who 
i has acted with true spirit since you filled that 
office.'' He then proceeded to enlarge upon your 
late glorious action, representing it as equal to the 
most illustrious and important service that ever was 
rendered to the commonwealth. And in this he 
only echoed the general voice of the whole republic. 
Suffer me, then, to take possession of those enco- 
miums to which I am by no means entitled, and in 
some sort to participate with you in that general 
applause you have acquired. To be serious, how- 
ever, (for you will not imagine that I make this 
request in good earnest,) I would much rather resign 
to you the whole of my own glory, (if there be any, 
indeed, I can justly claim,) than arrogate to myself 
the least portion of that which is so unquestionably 
your due. For as you cannot but be sensible that 
I have ever loved you, so your late behaviour has 
raised that affection into the highest possible 
ardour : as, in truth, there cannot be anything 
more engagingly fair, more irresistibly amiable, 
than the patriot virtues. I need not tell you how 
greatly the exalted talents and polite manners, 
together with the singular spirit and probity, of 
Marcus Brutus, had ever endeared him to my heart. 
Nevertheless, his late glorious achievement on the 
ides of March, has wonderfully heightened that 
esteem I bore him : and which I had always looked 
upon as too exalted to admit of any farther advance. 
In the same manner, who would have imagined that 
my friendship towards yourself was capable of in- 
crease ? yet it actually has increased so very consi- 
derably, that the former sentiments of my heart 
seem to have been nothing more than common 
affection, in comparison of that transcendent passion 
which I now feel for you. 

Can it be necessary that I should either exhort 
you to preserve the glory you have acquired, or, 
agreeably to the usual style of admonition, set 
before your view some animating examples of illus- 
trious merit ? I could mention none for this pur- 
pose more forcible than your own : and you have 
only to endeavour to act up to the character you 
have already attained. It is impossible, indeed, 
after having performed so signal a service to your 
country, that you should ever deviate from yourself. 
Instead, therefore, of sending you any unnecessary 
exhortations, let me rather congratulate you upon 
this noble display of your patriotism. It is your 
privilege (and a privilege, perhaps, which no one 
ever enjoyed before) to have exercised the severest 
acts of necessary justice, not only without incur- 
ring any odium, but with the greatest popularity : 
with the approbation of the lowest, as well as of the 
best and highest amongst us. If this were a cir- 
cumstance in which chance had any share, I should 
congratulate your good fortune : but it was the 
effect of a noble and undaunted resolution, under 
the guidance of the strongest and most enlightened 
judgment. I say this from having read the speech 
you made upon this occasion to the people ; and 
never was any harangue more judiciously composed. 
You open and explain the fact with so much address, 
and gradually rise through the several circumstances 
iu so artful a manner, as to convince all the world 
that the affair was mature for your animadversion. 
In a word, you have delivered the commonwealth 
in general, as well as the city of Rome in particu- 



lar, from the dangers with which they were threat- 
ened : and not only performed a singular service 
to the present generation, but set forth a most 
useful example for times to come. You will consi- 
der yourself, then, as the great supporter of the 
republic ; and remember, she expects that you will 
not only protect, but distinguish those illustrious 
persons f who have laid the foundation for the 
recovery of our liberties. But I hope soon to have 
an opportunity of expressing my sentiments to you 
more fully upon this subject in person. In the 
mean while, since you are thus our glorious guar- 
dian and preserver, I conjure you, my dear Dola- 
bella, to take care of yourself for the sake of the 
whole commonwealth s. Farewell. 



a. u. 709. 



LETTER X. 

To Trebonius^. 
I have recommended my Orator (for that is the 
title which I have given to the treatise I promised 
to send you) to the care of your freedman 
Sabinus. I was induced to trust it in his 
charge, from the good opinion I entertain of his 
countrymen : if, indeed, I may guess at his 
country by his name 1 , and he has not, like an art- 
ful candidate at an election, usurped an appellation 

f Brutus and Cassius, together with the rest of the con- 
spirators. 

g Cicero communicated a copy of this letter to Atticus, 
who appears to have much disapproved of those encomiums 
with which it is so extravagantly swelled. The hyper- 
bole, indeed, seems to have been the prevailing figure in 
Cicero's rhetoric ; and he generally dealt it out, both to 
his friends and to his enemies, with more warmth than 
discretion. In the present instance, at least, he was either 
very easily imposed upon by appearances, or he changed 
his opinion of Dolabella's public actions and designs, ac- 
cording to the colour of his conduct towards himself. Per- 
haps both these causes might concur, in forming those 
great and sudden variations which we find in our author's 
sentiments at this period, with respect to the hero of the 
panegyric before us ; for, in a letter to Atticus, written 
very shortly after the present, he speaks of Dolabclla with 
high displeasure ; and, in another to the same person a 
few months later, he exclaims against him with much 
bitterness, as one who had not only been bribed by Antony 
to desert the cause of liberty, but who had endeavoured, 
as far as in him lay, entirely to ruin it. The accusation 
seems to have been just ; but it is observable, however, 
that in both the letters referred to, part of Cicero's indig- 
nation arises from some personal ill-treatment which he 
complains of having received from Dolabella.— Ad Att. 
xiv. 18; xvi. 15. 

h Some account has already been given of Trcbonius in 
rem. <i, )>■ 4(57. Caesar, upon his return from Spain, in the 
preceding year, appointed him consul with Quintus Fabius 
MaximUB ; but this, and other favours of the same kind, 
were not sufficient to restrain him from entering into the 
conspiracy which was soon afterwards formed against 
Caesar's life. At the same time, therefore, that Brutus 
and Cassius found it expedient to leave Koine. Trebonius 
secretly withdrew into Asia Minor, which had before been 
allotted to him as his proconsular province ; and he was 
on his way to that government when the present letter 
was written.— Dio, p. '2;«>, 247 ; Ad Att. xiv. 10. 

> Cicero supposes that Sabinus was so called as being a 
native of Sabinia, a country in Italy, the inhabitants of 
which were celebrated for having long retained an uncor- 
rupted simplicity of manners. Hanc olim velars vilam 
coiner,' Sabi iii is Virgil's conclusion of that charming 
description which he gives of the pleasing labours and 
innocent recreations of rural life, Georg. ii. 532. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



545 



to which he has no right J. However, there is such 
a modesty in his countenance, and such an air of 
sincerity in his conversation, that I am much de- 
ceived if he does not possess, in some degree, at 
least, the true Sabine simplicity. But not to suffer 
him to take up any more of my paper, I will now 
turn, my dear Trebonius, to yourself. As there 
were some circumstances attending your departure 
that increased the affection I bear towards you, 
let me entreat you, in order to soothe the uneasi- 
ness I feel from your absence, to be as frequent a 
correspondent on your part as you shall certainly 
find me on mine. There are two reasons, indeed, 
why you ought to be more so : the first is, that, as 
the republic can now no longer be considered as 
in Rome, but removed with its glorious defenders, 
we, who remain here, must expect to receive from 
our provincial friends what we used to transmit 
to them ; an account, I mean, of the common- 
wealth. The next reason is, because I have many 
other opportunities in your absence, besides that 
of writing, to give you proofs of my friendship : 
whereas, you have none, I think, of testifying 
yours, but by the frequency of your letters. As to 
all other articles, I can wait ; but my first and most 
impatient desire is, to know what sort of journey 
you have had, where you met Brutus k , and how 
long you continued together. When you are ad- 
vanced farther towards your province, you will 
acquaint me, I hope, with your military prepara- 
tions, and with whatever else relates to our public 
affairs, that I may be able to form some judgment 
of our situation. I am sure, at least, I shall give 
no credit to any intelligence but what I receive 
from your hands. In the mean time, take care of 
your health, and continue to allow me the same 
singular share of your affection which I have always 
enjoyed. Farewell. 



LETTER XL 

Trebonius to Cicero \ 
I arrived at Athens on the 22dof this month, 
where, agreeably to my wishes, I had the satisfac- 

a u 709 t * on °f filing y° ur son m tne P ursiut °f 
the noblest improvements, and in the 
highest esteem for his modest and ingenuous be- 
haviour™ 1 . As you perfectly well know the place 
you possess in my heart, you will judge, without 
my telling you, how much pleasure this circum- 
stance afforded me. In conformity, indeed, to the 
unfeigned friendship which has so long been 
cemented between us, I rejoice in every advantage 
that can attend you, be it ever so inconsiderable ; 
much more, therefore, in one so important to your 

J It was an artifice sometimes practised by the candidates 
for offices, in order to recommend themselves to the good 
graces of their constituents, to pretend a kindred to which 
they had no right, by assuming the name of some favourite 
and popular family. — Manutius. 

k Brutus had not left Italy when Trebonius set out for 
Asia, nor did he leave it till several months afterwards ; 
so that the inquiry which Cicero here makes must relate 
to some interview which he supposed that Trebonius 
might have had with Brutus before the former embarked. 
—Ad Att. xiv. 10. 

1 This letter seems to have been written before the pre- 
ceding epistle had reached the hands of Trebonius. 

m See the remarks on letter 37 of this book. 



happiness. Believe me, my dear Cicero, I do not 
flatter you when I say, there is not a youth in all 
this seminary of learning more ardently devoted to 
those refined and elevated arts which are so pecu- 
liarly your passion, or who, in every view of his 
character, is more truly amiable, than our young 
man. I call him ours, for, be assured, I cannot 
separate myself from anything with which you are 
connected. It is with great pleasure, therefore, 
as well as with strict justice, I congratulate both 
you and myself, that a youth for whom we ought 
to have some affection, whatever his disposition 
might be, is of a character to deserve our highest. 
As he intimated a desire of seeing Asia, I not only 
invited, but pressed him to take the opportunity 
of visiting that province whilst I presided there : 
and you will not doubt of my supplying your place 
in every tender office of paternal care. But that 
you may not be apprehensive this scheme will prove 
an interruption of those studies, to which, I know, 
he is continually animated by your exhortations, 
Cratippus 11 shall be of our party. Nor shall your 
son want my earnest incitements to advance daily 
in those sciences, into which he has already made 
so successful an entrance. 

I am wholly ignorant of what is going forward at 
Rome ; only I hear some uncertain rumours of 
commotions amongst you. But I hope there is no 
foundation for this report ; that we may one day 
sit down in the peaceful possession of our liberties, 
retired from the noise and bustle of the world : a 
privilege which hitherto it has not been my fortune 
to enjoy. However, having had a short relaxation 
from business during my voyage to this place, I 
amused myself by putting together a few thoughts, 
which I always designed as a present to you. In 
this performance I have inserted that lively observa- 
tion which you formerly made, so much to my 
honour, and have pointed out, by a note at the 
bottom, to whom I am indebted for the compli- 
ment. If, in some passages of this piece, I should 
appear to have taken great liberties, I shall be 
justified, I persuade myself, by the character of 
the man at whom my invective is aimed ; and you 
will, undoubtedly, excuse the just indignation I 
have expressed against a person of such infamous 
principles. Why, indeed, may I not be indulged 
in the same unbounded licence as was allowed to 
honest LuciliusP ? He could not be animated with 
greater abhorrence of the vices, which he has so 
freely attacked ; and certainly, they were not more 
worthy of satire than those against which I have 
inveighed. 

I hope you will remember your promise, and 
take the first opportunity of introducing me as a 
party in some of your future dialogues. I doubt 
not, if you should write anything upon the subject 
of Caesar's death, that you will give an instance of 
your friendship and your justice, by ascribing to 
me no inconsiderable share of that glorious trans- 
action. 

I recommend my mother and family to your 
good offices, and bid you farewell. 
Athens, May the 25th. 



n See rem. » on letter 37 of this book. 
o Probably at Antony. p £ 



k, p. 49J. 



N N 



546 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XII. 
To Matins*. 

I know not whether it is with greater pain or 
pleasure that I reflect on the visit which I lately 
70 q received from our very good friend, the 
well-natured Trebatius. He called upon 
me the next morning after my arrival at Tusculum; 
and as he was by no means sufficiently recovered 
from his late indisposition, I could not forbear 
reproving him for thus hazarding his health. He 
interrupted me with saying, that nothing was of 
more importance to him than the business which 
brought him to my house ; and upon my inquiry 
if anything new had occurred, he immediately 
entered into an account of your complaints against 
me. But before I give them a particular answer, 
let me begin with a few previous reflections. 

Amongst all my acquaintance I cannot recollect 
any man with whom I have longer enjoyed a 
friendship than with yourself ; and, although there 
are several for whom my affection commenced as 
early, there are few for whom it has risen so high. 
The truth of it is, I conceived an esteem for you 
from the first moment I saw you ; and I had rea- 
son to believe that you thought of me in the same 
favourable manner. But your long absence from 
Rome, which immediately succeeded our first 
acquaintance, together with that active course of 
life wherein I was engaged, and which was so en- 
tirely different from yours, did not at that time 
admit of our improving this mutual disposition by 
a more frequent intercourse. Nevertheless, even 
so long ago as when Caesar was in Gaul, and many 
years before the commencement of the civil war, I 
experienced your friendly inclinations towards me. 
For as you imagined that my union with Caesar 
would be greatly advantageous on my side, and not 
altogether unserviceable to himself, you generously 
recommended me to his favour, and was the cause 
of his cultivating my friendship. I forbear to 
mention several instances which occurred at that 
period, of the unreserved manner in which we both 
conversed and corresponded together, as they were 
followed by others of a more important nature. At 
the opening of the civil war, when you were going 
to meet Caesar at Brundisium, you paid me a visit 
in my Forraian villa. This single favour, had it 
been attended with no other, was at such a critical 
juncture an ample testimony of your affection. 
But can I ever forget the generous advice you so 
kindly gave me at the same time,— -and of which 
Trebatius, I remember, was himself a witness ? 

<i It is principally owing to this and the following letter, 
that the name and character of Matius are known to pos- 
terity, as he is nowhere mentioned by any of the ancient 
historians of this memorable period. His inviolable and 
disinterested affection to Caesar, together with the gene- 
rous courage with which he avowed that attachment when 
CCBBBX was no more, as they strongly mark out the virtues 
of his heart, so they will best appear by his own spirited 
reply to the present epistle. But Matins was as much 
distinguished by his genius as his virtues; and he was 

perfectly weU accomplished m those arts, which contribute 
to the innocent pleasure and embellishment of human life. 
Gardening and poetry, in particular, seem to have been 

his favourite amusements; in the former of Which his 

countrymen were Indebted to him for some useful im- 
provements, as they likewise were, In the latter, for an 

elegant translation of the Iliad. — Columel. xii. 44 ; Aul. 
Cell. vi. (> ; bt. 4. 



Can I ever forget the letter you afterwards wrote 
to me, when you went to join Caesar in the district, 
if I mistake not, of Trebula? It was soon after 
this, that, either by gratitude, by honour, or per- 
haps by fate, I was determined to follow Pompey 
into Greece ; and was there any instance of an 
obliging zeal which you did not exert in my ab- 
sence both for me and for my family ? Was there 
any one, in short, whom either they or I had more 
reason to esteem our friend ? But I returned to 
Brundisium ; and can I forget (let me ask once 
more) with what an obliging expedition you 
hastened, as soon as you heard of my arrival, to 
meet me at Tarentum ? How friendly were your 
visits, — how kind your endeavours to reason me 
out of that dejection into which the dread of our 
general calamities had sunk me ? At length, how- 
ever, I returned to Rome ; where every proof of 
the greatest intimacy, and upon occasions, too, of 
the most important kind, mutually passed between 
us. It was by your directions and advice that I 
learned to regulate my conduct with respect to 
Caesar ; and as to other instances of your friend- 
ship, where was the man, except Caesar himself, at 
whose house you more frequently visited, or upon 
whom you bestowed so many agreeable hours of 
your conversation ? in some of which, you may 
remember, it was that you encouraged me to engage 
in my philosophical writings. When Caesar after- 
wards returned from completing his victories, it 
was your first and principal endeavour to establish 
me again in his friendship ; and it was an endeavour 
in which you perfectly well succeeded. But to 
what purpose, you will ask, perhaps, this long 
detail ? Longer, indeed, I must acknowledge it is 
than I was myself aware. However, the use I 
would make of these several circumstances is to 
show you how much reason I have to be surprised, 
that you, who well know the truth of them, should 
believe me capable of having acted inconsistently 
with such powerful ties. But besides these motives 
of my attachment to you, — motives known and 
visible to the whole world, — there are others of a 
far less conspicuous kind, and which I am at a loss 
to represent in the terms they deserve. Every 
part, indeed, of your character I admire ; but when 
I consider you as the wise, the firm, and the faith- 
ful friend, — as the polite, the witty, and the learned 
companion, — these, I confess, are the strikiug 
points amidst your many other illustrious qualifi- 
cations with which I am particularly charmed. But 
it is time to return to the complaints you have 
alleged against me. Be assured, then, I never 
once credited the report of your having voted for 
the law you mentioned to Trebatius ; and, indeed, 
if I had, I should have been well persuaded that 
you were induced to concur in promoting it upon 
some very just and rational motive. But as the 
dignity of your character draws upon you the 
observation of all the world, the malevolence of 
mankind will sometimes give severer constructions 
to your actions than most certainly they merit. If 
no instances of this kind have ever reached your 
knowledge, I know not in what manner to proceed 
in my justification. Believe me, however, I have 
always defended you upon these occasions with 
the same warmth and spirit with which I am 
sensible you are wont to oppose, on your part, the 
calumnies that are thrown out upon myself. Thus, 
with regard to the law I just now mentioned, I 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



547 



have always peremptorily denied the truth of the 
charge ; and as to your having been one of the 
managers of the late r games, I have constantly 
insisted that you acted agreeably to those pious 
offices that are due to the memory of a departed 
friend. In respect to the latter, however, you 
cannot be ignorant that if Csesar was really a 
tyrant (as I think he was s ), your zeal may be con- 
sidered in two very different views. It may be 
said (and it is an argument which I never fail to 
urge in your favour), that you showed a very 
commendable fidelity in thus displaying your 
affection to a departed friend. On the other hand, 
it may be alleged (and, in fact, it is alleged) that 
the liberties of our country ought to be far prefer- 
able even to the life itself of those whom we hold 
most dear. I wish you had been informed of the 
part I have always taken whenever this question 
has been started. But there are two circumstances 
that reflect the brightest lustre upon your character, 
and which none of your friends more frequently or 
more warmly commemorate, than myself, — I mean 
your having always most strongly recommended 
pacific measures to Csesar, and constantly advised 
him to use his victory with moderation ; in both 
which the whole world is agreed with me in ac- 
knowledging your merit. 

I think myself much obliged to our friend 
Trebatius for having given me this occasion of 
justifying myself before you. And you will credit 
the professions I have here made, unless you ima- 
gine me void of every spark both of gratitude and 
generosity : an opinion than which nothing can be 
more injurious to my sentiments or more unworthy 
of yours. Farewell. 



LETTER XIII. 

Matins to Cicero. 

I received great satisfaction from your letter, 

as it assured me of my holding that rank in your 

a u 709 esteem which I have ever wished and 

hoped to enjoy. Indeed, I never doubted 

r At the time when Caesar was killed, he was preparing, 
agreeably to a vow which he had made at the battle of 
Pharsalia, to exhibit some games in honour of Venus ; a 
divinity from whom he affected to be thought a descend- 
ant. Octavius, soon after his return to Rome, upon the 
death of Caesar, celebrated these games at his own expense, 
and Matius undertook to be one of the managers. As this 
was a public mark of respect paid to the memory of Caesar, 
and might tend to inflame the minds of the populace 
against the conspirators, it gave much disgust to the friends 
of the republic ; and Cicero, it is probable, was in the num- 
ber of those who had openly spoken of it with displeasure. 
He did so, at least, in a letter to Atticus.— Ad Att. xv. 2 ; 
Appian. De Bell. Civ. ii. 407. 

8 "It is with injustice," said the celebrated queen of 
Sweden, " that Caesar is accused of being a tyrant : if to 
govern Rome was the most important service he could 
have performed to his country." It is certain that the 
republic was well-nigh reduced to a state of total anarchy 
when Caesar usurped the command ; but it is equally cer- 
tain that he himself had been the principal author and 
fomenter of those confusions, which rendered an absolute 
authority the only possible expedient for reducing the 
commonwealth into a state of tranquillity and good order. 
If this be true, it seems no very intricate question to deter- 
mine what verdict ought to be passed upon Caesar. But 
surely it is difficult to know by what principles Cicero can 
be acquitted, who reviled that man when dead, whom he 
was the first to flatter when living. 



of your good opinion ; but the value I set upon it 
rendered me solicitous of preserving it without the 
least blemish. Conscious, however, that I had 
never given just offence to any candid and honest 
mind, I was the less disposed to believe that you, 
whose sentiments ara exalted by the cultivation of 
so many generous arts, could hastily credit any 
reports to my disadvantage, — especially as you 
were one for whom I had at all times discovered 
much sincere good-will. But as I have the plea- 
sure to find that you think of me agreeably to my 
wishes, I will drop this subject in order to vindi- 
cate myself from those calumnies which you have 
so often, and with such singular generosity, op- 
posed. I am perfectly well apprised of the reflec- 
tions that have been cast upon me since Csesar's 
death. It has been imputed to me, I know, that 
I lament the loss of my friend, and think with 
indignation on the murderers of the man I loved. 
"The welfare of our country," say my accusers 
(as if they had already made it appear that the 
destruction of Csesar was for the benefit of the 
commonwealth), " the welfare of our country is to 
be preferred to all considerations of amity." It 
may be so ; but I will honestly confess that I am 
by no means arrived at this elevated strain of 
patriotism. Nevertheless, I took no part with 
Caesar in our civil dissentions ; but neither did I 
desert my friend because I disliked his measures. 
The truth is, I was so far from approving the civil 
war that I always thought it unjustifiable, and 
exerted my utmost endeavours to extinguish those 
sparks by which it was kindled. In conformity to 
these sentiments, I did not make use of my friend's 
victory to the gratification of any lucrative or 
ambitious purposes of my own, as some others 
most shamefully did whose interest with Caesar was 
much inferior to mine. Far, in truth, from being 
a gainer by his success, I suffered greatly in my 
fortunes by that very law which saved many of 
those who now exult in his death from the disgrace 
of being obliged to fly their country 1 . Let me 
add, that I recommended the vanquished party to 
his clemency with the same warmth and zeal as if 
my own preservation had been concerned. Thus 
desirous that all my fellow- citizens might enjoy 
their lives in full security, can I repress the indig- 
nation of my heart against the assassins of that 
man from whose generosity this privilege was ob- 
tained, — especially as the same hands were lifted 
up to his destruction which had first drawn upon 
him all the odium and envy of his administration ? 
Yet I am threatened, it seems, with their vengeance, 
for daring to condemn the deed. Unexampled 
insolence ! that some should glory in the perpetra- 
tion of those crimes which others should not be 
permitted even to deplore ! The meanest slave 
has ever been allowed to indulge, without control, 
the fears, the sorrows, or the joys of his heart ; 
but these, our assertors of liberty, as they call 
themselves, endeavour to extort from me, by their 
menaces, this common privilege of every creature. 
Vain and impotent endeavours ! no dangers shall 
intimidate me from acting up to the generous 
duties of friendship and humanity ; persuaded, as 
I have ever been, that death in an honest cause 

t The law alluded to is, probably, that whioh Caesar 
enacted for the relief of those who had contracted debts 
before the commencement of the civil war, of which see 
rem. *, p. 483. 

N N 2 



548 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



ought never to be shunned, and frequently to be 
courted. Yet why does it thus move their dis- 
pleasure, if I only wish that they may repent of 
what they have perpetrated ? For wish I will 
acknowledge I do, that both they and all the world 
may regret the death of Caesar. " But as a mem- 
ber (say they) of the commonwealth, you ought 
above all things to desire its preservation." Now 
that I sincerely do so, if the whole tenor of my 
past conduct, and all the hopes I can reasonably 
be supposed to entertain will not sufficiently evince, 
T shall not attempt to prove it by my professions. 
I conjure you, then, to judge of me, not by what 
others may say, but by the plain tendency of my 
actions ; and, if you believe I have any interest in 
the tranquillity of the republic, be assured that I 
will have no communication with those who would 
impiously disturb its peace. Shall T renounce, 
indeed, those patriot principles I steadily pursued 
in my youth, when warmth and inexperience might 
have pleaded some excuse for errors ? Shall I, in 
the sober season of declining age, wantonly unravel 
at once the whole fair contexture of my better 
days ? Most assuredly not ; nor shall I ever give 
any other offence than in bewailing the severe 
catastrophe of a most intimate and illustrious 
friend ! Were I disposed to act otherwise, I should 
scorn to deny it ; nor should it be ever said that I 
covered my crimes by hypocrisy, and feared to 
avow what I scrupled not to commit. 

But to proceed to the other articles of the charge 
against me ; it is farther alleged that I presided at 
those games which the young Octavius exhibited in 
honour of Caesar's victories. The charge, I confess, 
is true ; but what connexion has an act of mere 
private duty, with the concerns of the republic ? 
It was an office, not only due from me to the 
memory of my departed friend, but which I could not 
refuse to that illustrious youth, his most worthy heir. 
I am reproached, also, with having been frequent 
in paying my visits of compliment to Antony ; yet 
you will find that the very men who impute this as 
a mark of disaffection to my country, appeared 
much more frequently at his levee, either to solicit 
his favours, or to receive them. But, after all, can 
there be anything, let me ask, more insufferably 
arrogant than this accusation ? Caesar never op- 
posed my associating with whomsoever I thought 
proper, even though it were with persons whom 
he himself disapproved ; and shall the men who 
have cruelly robbed me of one friend, attempt, 
likewise, by their malicious insinuations, to alienate 
me from another ? But the moderation of my con- 
duct, will, I doubt not, discredit all reports that 
may hereafter be raised to my disadvantage ; and I 
am persuaded, that even those who hate me for my 
attachment to Caesar, would rather choose a friend 
of my disposition, than of their own. In fine, if 
my affairs should permit me, it is my resolution to 
spend the remainder of my days at Rhodes. But, 
if any accident should render it necessary for me 
to continue at Rome, my actions shall evince, that 
I am sincerely desirous of my country's welfare. 
In the mean time, I am much obliged to Trebatius 
for supplying you with an occasion of so freely 
laying open to me the amicable sentiments of your 
heart ; as it affords me an additional reason for 
cultivating a friendship with one whom I have ever 
been disposed to esteem. Farewell. 



LETTER XIV. 

Marcus Brutus and Caius Cassius, Prcetors u , to 
Mark Antony, Consul. 

If we were not persuaded of your honour and 

friendship, we should not trouble you with the 

a u "09 present application ; which, in confidence 

'of both, we doubt not of your receiving in 

the most favourable manner. 

We are informed, that great numbers of the 
veteran troops are already arrived in Rome, and 
that many more are expected by the first of June. 
Our sentiments would be extremely changed, in- 
deed, if we entertained any fears or suspicions 
with regard to yourself. However, as we resigned 
ourselves entirely to your direction, and, in com- 
pliance with your advice, not only published an 
edict, but wrote circular letters in order to dismiss 
our friends who came to our assistance from the 
municipal towns, we may justly look upon our- 
selves as worthy of being admitted into a share of 
your councils ; especially in an article wherein we 
are particularly concerned. It is our joint request, 
therefore, that you would explicitly acquaint us 
with your intentions, and whether you imagine we 
can possibly be safe amidst such a multitude of 
veteran troops, who have even some design, we 
are told, of replacing the altar v which was erected 
to Caesar ; a design, surely, which no one can wish 
may meet with your approbation, who has any 
regard to our credit or security w . It has suffi- 
ciently appeared, that from the beginning of this 
affair, we have had a view to the public tranquillity, 
and have aimed at nothing more than the recovery 
of our common liberties. No man, except your- 
self, has it in his power to deceive us, because we 
never have trusted, nor ever will trust, any other : 
and most certainly you have too much integrity to 
betray the confidence we have reposed in you. 
Our friends, however, notwithstanding that they 
have the same reliance upon your good faith, are 
greatly alarmed for our safety ; as they think so 
large a body of veterans may much more easily be 
instigated to violent measures by ill-designing men, 
than they can be restrained by your influence and 
authority. We entreat you, therefore, to return 
us a full and satisfactory answer. To tell us that 
you ordered these troops to march to Rome, as 
intending to move the senate in June next, con- 
cerning their x affairs, is amusing us with a very 
idle and trifling reason ; for as you are assured that 
we shall not attempt to obstruct this'' design, from 

u They had been appointed praetors for the present year 
by CiEsar. The reader has already been informed, that 
Brutus and Cassins, finding it neoessary, soon after the 
assassination of Cesar, to withdraw from Home, retired 
to a villa of the former, at Lanuvium, from whence this 
letter was probably written. 

v See rem. l \ ;»• 5-ta 

w Because the suffering of divine honours to be paid to 
Cesar would necessarily impress the highest sentiments 
of him upon the minds of the populace ; and, consequent- 
ly, tend to incense them against those who were concerned 
in taking away his life. 

x Antony's pretended reason for drawing together this 
body of veteran troops was, in order to procure a ratifica- 
tion from the senate of those grants of lands which had been 
made to them by Ceesar, as a reward of their services ; but 
his true reason was, to strengthen his hands against those 
who should attempt to oppose his measures. 

y The conspirators had given public assurances to the 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



549 



what other quarter can you possibly suspect that it 
will be opposed ? In a word, it cannot be thought 
that we are too anxious for our own preservation, 
when it is considered, that no accident can happen 
to our persons without involving the whole republic 
in the most dangerous commotions. Farewell. 



LETTER XV. 
To Caius Cassius. 
Believe me, my Cassius, the republic is the 
perpetual subject of my meditations ; or, to express 
_ q the same thing in other words, you and 
Marcus Brutus are never out of my 
thoughts. It is upon you two, indeed, together 
with Decimus Brutus, that all our hopes depend. — 
Mine are somewhat raised by the glorious conduct 
of Dolabella, in suppressing the late insurrection 2 ; 
which had spread so wide, and gathered every day 
such additional strength, that it seemed to threaten 
destruction to the whole city. But this mob is 
now so totally quelled, that I think we have nothing 
farther to fear from any future attempt of the same 
kind. Many other fears, however, and very con- 
siderable ones too, still remain with us ; and it 
entirely rests upon you, in conjunction with your 
illustrious associates, to remove them. Yet where 
to advise you to begin for that purpose, I must 
acknowledge myself at a loss. To say truth, it is 
the tyrant alone, and not the tyranny, from which 
we seem to be delivered : for although the man, 
indeed, is destroyed, we still servilely maintain all 
his despotic ordinances. We do more ; and, under 
the pretence of carrying his designs into execution, 
we approve of measures which even he himself 
would never have pursued* : and the misfortune is, 
that I know not where this extravagance will end. 
When I reflect on the laws that are enacted, on 
the immunities that are granted, on the immense 
largesses that are distributed, on the exiles that 
are recalled, and on the fictitious decrees that are 
published, the only effect that seems to have 
been produced by Caesar's death is, that it has ex- 
tinguished the sense of our servitude, and the 
abhorrence of that detestable usurper ; as all the 
disorders into which he threw the republic still 
continue. These are the evils, therefore, which it 
is incumbent upon you and your patriot coadjutors 
to redress : for let not my friends imagine that 
they have yet completed their work. The obliga- 
tions, it is true, which the republic has already 
received from you, are far greater than I could 
veteran troops, that they would not endeavour to annul 
the grants which Caesar had made in their favour. — Dio, 
p. 257. 

z See rem. c, p. 543. 

a A few days after Csesar's death, Antony assembled the 
senate in the temple of Tellus, in order to take into con- 
sideration the state of public affairs. The result of their 
deliberations was, to decree a general act of oblivion of 
what was past, and to confirm the several nominations to 
magistracies, and other grants which had been made by 
Caesar. This was a very prudent and necessary measure, 
in order to preserve the public tranquillity ; and it was 
principally procured by the authority and eloquence of 
Cicero. But Antony soon perverted it to his own ambi- 
tious purposes ; for, being appointed to inspect the papers 
of Caesar, he forged some, and modeled others, as best 
suited his own designs ; disposing of everything as he 
thought proper, under the authority of this decree.— Dio, 
p. 250, 256. 



have ventured to hope : still however her demands 
are not entirely satisfied ; and she promises herself 
yet higher services from such brave and generous 
benefactors. You have revenged her injuries, by 
the death of her oppressor ; but you have done 
nothing more. For, tell me, what has she yet 
recovered of her former dignity and lustre ? Does 
she not obey the will of that tyrant, now he is 
dead, whom she could not endure when living ? 
And do we not, instead of repealing his public 
laws, authenticate even his private memorandums ? 
You will tell me perhaps (and you may tell me with 
truth) that I concurred in passing a decree for that 
purpose. It was in compliance however with public 
circumstances ; a regard to which is of much con- 
sequence in political deliberations of every kind. 
But there are some however who have most immo- 
derately and ungratefully abused the concessions 
we found it thus necessary to make. 

I hope very speedily to discuss this and many 
other points with you in person. In the mean 
time be persuaded that the affection I have ever 
borne to my country, as well as my particular 
friendship to yourself, renders the advancement 
of your credit and esteem with the public extremely 
my concern. Farewell. 



LETTER XVI. 

To Oppius h . 
The sentiments and advice which your letter has 
so freely given me, in relation to my leaving Italy , 
a u 709 to g etner with what you said to Atticus, 
in a late conversation upon this subject, 
have greatly contributed, he can bear me witness, 
to dispel those doubts that occurred on whichever 
side I viewed this question. I have ever thought 
indeed that no man was more capable of forming a 
right judgment, nor more faithful in communi- 
cating it, than yourself ; as I am sure I very parti- 
cularly experienced in the beginning of the late 
civil wars. For when I consulted you in regard to 
my following Pompey, or remaining in Italy, your 
advice I remember was, that " I should act as my 
honour directed." This sufficiently discovered 
your opinion ; and I could not but look with 
admiration on so remarkable an instance of your 
sincerity. For notwithstanding your strong attach- 
ment to Caesar, who, you had reason to think, 
would have been better pleased if I had pursued a 
different conduct ; yet you rather chose I should 
act agreeably to my honour, than in conformity to 
his inclination. My friendship for you, however, 
did not take its rise from this period ; for I was 
sensible that I enjoyed a share in your esteem long 
before the time of which I am speaking. I shall 
ever remember indeed the generous services you 
conferred both upon myself and my family, dur- 
ing the great misfortunes which I suffered in my 
exile : and the strict intimacy in which we con- 
versed with each other, after my return, as well 
as the sentiments which, upon all occasions, I pro- 
fessed to entertain of you, are circumstances which 

b The MSS. vary in the name of the person to whom 
this letter is addressed, some writing it Appius, and others 
Oppius. If the latter be the true reading, perhaps he is 
the same of whom some account has been given in rem. °, 
p. 457. 

c See rem. s , p. 542. 



550 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CJCERO 



none who were inclined to observe them could 
possibly overlook. But you gave me a most dis- 
tinguishing proof of the good opinion you had 
conceived of my constancy and fidelity, by the 
unreserved resignation of your heart to me, after 
the death of Csesar. I should think myself there- 
fore a disgrace to human nature, if I did not justify 
these your favourable sentiments, by every kind of 
good office in my power, as well as by the return 
of my warmest affection. Continue yours to me, 
my dear Oppius, I entreat you ; a request however 
which I prefer more in compliance with the cus- 
tomary form, than as thinking it in the least 
necessary. I recommend all my affairs in general 
to your protection, and leave it to Atticus to inform 
you in what particular points I desire your services. 
When I shall be more at leisure, you may expect 
a longer letter. In the mean time take care of 
your health, as the most agreeable instance you 
can give me of your friendship. Farewell. 



LETTER XVII. 

To Trebatius. 
I am the more enamoured with this city d , be- 
cause I find you are much the favourite of every- 
^ oq body in it. But I know not, in truth, 
where you are otherwise ; and I should 
rather have told you, that even the absence of your 
freedman, Rufio, is no less regretted among them 
than if he were a person of as much consequence 
as you and I. However, I by no means disapprove 
of your having called him from hence, in order to 
superintend the buildings you are carrying on in 
the Lupercal e : for, notwithstanding your house at 
Velia is altogether as agreeable as that which you 
have in Rome, yet I should prefer the latter to all 
the possessions you enjoy here. Nevertheless, if 
you should take the opinion of a man whose advice 
you seldom reject, you will not part with your 
patrimony on the banks of the noble Heles, nor 
forsake a villa which had once the honour of be- 
longing to Papirius, an intention which the citizens 
of Velia are in some fear lest you should entertain. 
But although it be incommoded, indeed, by the 
great concourse of strangers who visit the adjoin- 
ing grove ; yet that objection may easily be removed, 
you know, by cutting down f this impertinent plan- 

d Cicero, after much debate with himself concerning the 
voyage which he mentions in the preceding letter, at length 
fixed his resolution and embarked. He sailed along the 
western coast of Italy, towards Rhegium, but came ashore 
every night, in order to lodge at the villa of some friend, 
lie was in this manner pursuing his voyage into Greece 
when he wrote the present letter from Velia, a sea-port 
town on the coast of Lucania. 

c A range of buildings in Rome, so called from an 
ancient temple of the same name, which had been for- 
merly erected upon that spot to the god Pan.— Dion. Hal. 
i. 24. 

f Groves were generally consecrated to some divinity, as 
tin's seems to have been, by the number of strangers who 

probably frequented it od a religious account. Instead of 
lucum, therefore, which is the reading adopted by Manu- 
tius, and followed in the translation, some of the com- 
mentators have thought it .should he latum : because, if it 
were a consecrated grove, it could not be cut down with- 
out committing an act of Impiety. But this objection is 
founded upon the mistake that Cicero spoke in a serious 
sense what he seems plainly to have Intended in a ludi- 
crous one. 



tation, which will prove a very considerable advan- 
tage likewise both to your pocket and your pro- 
spect. To speak seriously, it is a great conve- 
nience, especially in such distracted times as the 
present, to be possessed of an estate which affords 
you a refuge from Rome, in a pleasant and healthy 
situation, and in a place where you are so univer- 
sally beloved. To these considerations, I will add, 
my dear Trebatius, that, perhaps, it may be for my 
advantage also, that you should not part with this 
villa. But, whatever you may determine, take care 
both of yourself and my affairs ; and expect to see 
me, if the gods permit, before the end of the year. 

I have purloined from Sextius Fadius, one of 
Nico's disciples, a treatise which the latter has 
written concerning the pleasures of the palate. 
Agreeable physician ! how easily will he make me 
a convert to his doctrine ! Our friend Bassus was 
so jealous of this treasure, that he endeavoured to 
conceal it from me : but I imagine, by the freedom 
of your table indulgencies, that he has been less 
reserved in communicating the secrets of it to you. 
— The wind has just now turned to a favourable 
point, so that I must bid you farewell. 

Velia, July the 20th. 



LETTER XVIII. 

To the same. 

You see the influence you have over me; though, 
indeed, it is not greater than what you are justly en- 
a. u *o9. titkd to, from that equal return of friend- 
ship you make to mine. I could not, there- 
fore, be easy in the reflection, I will not say of having 
absolutely refused, but of not having complied, 
however, with the request you made me, when we 
w r ere lately together. Accordingly, as soon as I 
set sail from Velia, I employed myself in drawing 
up the treatise you desired, upon the plan of Aris- 
totle's Topics s ; as, indeed, I could not look upon 
a city in which you are so generally beloved, with- 
out being reminded of my friend. I now send you 
the produce of my meditations ; which I have en- 
deavoured to express with all the perspicuity that 
a subject of this nature will admit. Nevertheless, 
if some passages should appear dark, you must do 
me the justice to remember, that no science can be 
rendered perfectly intelligible without the assistance 
of a master to explain and apply its rules. To send 
you no farther, for an instance, than to your own 
profession, could a knowledge of the law be acquired 
merely from books ? Undoubtedly it could not : 
for although the treatises which have been written 
upon that subject are extremely numerous, yet they 
are by no means of themselves sufficient instruc- 
tors, without the help of some learned guide to 
enlighten their obscurities. However, with respect 
to the observations in the present performance, if 
you give them a frequent and attentive perusal, you 
will certainly be able to enter into their meaning ; 
but the ready application of them can only be 

g The treatise here mentioned is still extant among 
Cicero's works, and appears to be a sort of epitome of what 
Aristotle had long before published upon the same sub- 
ject. The principal design of it is, to point out the several 
sources from whence arguments upon every question may 
be derived. 



OT SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



551 



attained by repeated exercise. And in this exercise 
I shall not fail to engage you, if I should return 
safe into Italy, and find the republic in a state of 
repose. Farewell. 
Rhegium 11 , July the 28th. 



LETTER XIX. 

Brutus and Cassius, Prcetors' 1 , to Antony, Consul. 

The letter we have received from you is altoge- 
ther agreeable to your late contumelious and 
_ nq menacing edict, and by no means becom- 
ing you to have written to us. We have 
in no sort, Antony, given you any just provocation ; 
nor could we have imagined, that you would look 
upon it as anything extraordinary, if, invested as 
we are with the high authority of praetors, we 
thought proper, in a public manifesto, to signify 
our requests to the consul. But if it raises your 
indignation that we presumed to take this liberty 
as prsetors, allow us to lament that you should not 
indulge us in it at least as friends. 

We receive it as an instance of your justice, that 
you deny ever having complained of our levying 
troops and contributions, and making applications 
to the armies, both at home and abroad, to rise in 
our defence ; a charge which we likewise disavow 
in every particular. We cannot but wonder, how- 
ever, since you were silent upon this head, that you 
should be so little able to command yourself upon 
another, as to reproach us with the death of 
Caesar. 

We leave it to your own reflections to determine 
what sentiments it ought to create in us, that the 
praetors of Rome, in order to preserve the tran- 
quillity and liberties of the commonwealth, cannot 
publish a manifesto declaring their desire of retiring 
from the execution of their office, without being 
insulted by the consul. 'Tis in vain, however, 
that you would intimidate us by your arms ; for it 
would ill become the spirit we have shown to be 
discouraged by dangers of any kind. As little 
should Antony attempt to usurp an authority over 
those to whom he is himself indebted for the liberty 
he enjoys. To the free and independent, the me- 
naces of any man are perfectly impotent. Had we 
a design, therefore, of having recourse to arms, 
your letter would be altogether ineffectual to deter 
us from our purpose. But, you are well convinced, 
that no consideration can prevail with us to rekin- 
dle the flames of a civil war ; and, perhaps, you 
artfully threw out these menaces in order to per- 
suade the world that our pacific measures are the 
effect, not of choice, but timidity. 

To speak plainly our sentiments, we wish to see 
you raised to the highest honours ; but to honours 
that are conferred by a free republic. It is our 

h A sea-port upon the western point of Calabria, oppo- 
site to Sicily ; it is now called liegio. 

1 The praetors could not legally absent themselves from 
Rome for above ten days, unless they obtained a special 
dispensation from the senate for that purpose. Brutus 
and Cassius, therefore, not thinking it safe to trust them- 
selves in the city, published a sort of manifesto, directed 
to Antony as consul, requesting him to move the sen;i(e 
for this licence in their favour. Antony, instead of com- 
plying with their request, seems to have answered it by 
publishing a manifesto on his part, which was followed, 
likewise, by a private letter that produced the present 
epistle. 



desire, likewise, not to engage with you in any 
contests ; but we must add, that the possession of 
our liberties is of far higher value in our esteem 
than the enjoyment of your friendship. Well con- 
sider what you undertake, and how far you may be 
able to carry it into execution ; reflecting, not how 
many years Caesar was permitted to live, but how 
short a period he was suffered to reignJ. In the 
mean while, we implore the gods to inspire you 
with such counsels as may tend to the advantage 
both of yourself and of the commonwealth. But 
should they prove otherwise, we wish that the con- 
sequence may be as little detrimental to your own 
interest, as shall be consistent with the dignity and 
safety of the republic. 
August the 4th. 



LETTER XX. 

To Plancus^. 

I had left Rome, and was actually on my voyage 
to Greece, when I was recalled by the general voice 

a u "09 °^ ^ e re P UD ^ cl : Du t tne conduct of 
Marc Antony, ever since my return, has 

J Caesar did not continue longer than five months in the 
peaceable enjoyment of his usurpation ; for he returned to 
Rome, from the conquest of Pompey's sons in Spain, in 
the month of October 708, and was assassinated in the 
March folloAving. — Veil. Pat. ii. 56. 

k Some general account of Plancus has already been 
given in rem. •, p. 475. In the beginning of the present 
year he was appointed by Caesar governor of the farther 
Gaul, where he now was, at the head of three legions. He 
is said, during his residence in that province, to have 
founded the city of Lyons. Upon the death of Caesar, to 
whom he had been warmly attached, Cicero employed all 
his art to engage him on the side of the senate ; and Plan- 
cus, after much hesitation, at length declared himself 
accordingly. But this declaration seems to have been 
entirely the effect of a belief that the rupture between 
Antony and the senate was upon the point of being accom- 
modated : it is certain, at least, that it was not sincere. 
For Plancus soon afterwards betrayed the cause he had 
thus professed to support, and went over with his troops 
to Antony.— Pigh. Annal. ii. 465 ; Senec. Ep. 91 ; Veil. Pat. 
ii. 63. See rem. 1 on letter 18 of book xv. 

1 The principal motive of Cicero's intended voyage into 
Greece was in order to avoid the danger of taking part in 
a civil war, which he apprehended would soon break out 
between Antony and young Pompey, the latter being 
expected from Spain, at the head of a considerable army. 
But as his leaving Italy at so critical and important a 
conjuncture might justly expose him to the censure of un- 
worthily deserting the republic, he was long and greatly 
embarrasse' Jet ween the desire of preserving his character 
on the one side, and of securing his person on the other, 
the two points which seem, throughout his whole life, to 
have held him in perpetual suspense. However, he at 
length embarked ; but he no sooner sailed than he re- 
pented, as usual, of the step he had taken. Nevertheless, 
he pursued iiis voyage and arrived in Sicily, from whence 
he proposed to stretch over into Greece ; but, in attempting 
this passage, he was blown back by contrary winds on the 
coast of Italy. Upon his going ashore, in order to refresh 
himself, he was informed by some of the principal inhabi- 
tants of that part of the country, who were just arrived 
from Rome, that there were great hopes Antony would 
accommodate affairs to the general satisfaction of all 
parties. This news was followed by a letter from Atticus, 
pressing him to renounce his intended voyage, as also by 
an interview with Brutus, who likewise expressed his dis- 
approbation of that scheme. Upon these considerations, 
therefore, he gave up all farther thoughts of Greece, and 



552 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLiUS CICERO 



not permitted me to enjoy a moment of repose. 
The ferocity (for to call it pride would be imputing 
a vice to him which is nothing uncommon) the 
ferocity of his temper is so excessive, that he can- 
not bear a word, or even a look, which is animated 
with the least spirit of liberty. It is this that fills 
my heart with a thousand disquietudes : but dis- 
quietudes, in which my own preservation is by no 
means concerned. No, my friend, I have nothing 
farther to wish with respect to myself, whether I 
consider the years to which I am arrived™, the 
actions that I have performed, or the glory (if that 
may be mentioned as of any value in the account) 
with which they have been crowned, All my 
anxiety is for our country alone ; and the more so, 
my dear Plancus, as the time appointed for your 
succession to the consular office 11 is so remote, that 
it is rather to be wished than expected, that we 
should be able to preserve our liberties so long 
alive. What rational hopes, indeed, can possibly 
be entertained, where a commonwealth is totally 
oppressed by the arms of the most violent and out- 
rageous of men, where neither the senate nor the 
people have any authority ; where neither laws nor 
justice prevail ; and, in one word, where there is 
not the least trace or shadow of civil government 
remaining ? But as you receive, I imagine, the 
public accounts of what is transacted amongst us, 
I need not descend into a detail of particulars. 
Let me rather, in consequence of that affection I 
bear you, and which has been still increasing from 
our earliest youth, let me rather remind aud exhort 
you, to turn all your thoughts and cares towards 
the republic. If it should not be utterly destroyed 
ere you enter upon the consular office, it may, 
without difficulty, be steered right. Though I will 
add, that much vigilance as well as great good 
fortune must concur, in order to preserve it to 
that desirable period. But I hope we may see you 
here, somewhat before that time shall arrive. 
Meanwhile, besides the inducements that arise to 
me from my regard to the well-being of the 
republic, you may be assured that, from my parti- 
cular attachment likewise to yourself, I shall exert 
my utmost efforts for the advancement of your 
credit and honours. By these means, I shall have 
the satisfaction to discharge, at once, the duties I 
owe both to my country and to my friend ; to that 
country which is the object of my warmest affec- 
tions, and to that friend whose amity I would most 
religiously cultivate. 

I am extremely rejoiced, though by no means 
surprised, to find that you treat Furnius agreeably 
to his rank and merit. Be assured that whatever 
favours you shall think proper to confer upon him, 
I shall consider them as so many immediate 
instances of your regard to myself. Farewell. 

immediately returned to Rome.— Ad Att. xiv. 13, 22 ; xv. 
19, 20, 21,33 ;xvi. 6,7- 

ni Cicero was, at this time, in his G3d year. 

« Plancus was in the number of those whom Caesar had 
named to the consulate, in that general designation of 
magistrates which he made a short time before his death. 
But as Plancus stood last in the list, his turn was not to 
commence till the year 711. 

o lie was lieutenant to Plancus in Gaul. 



LETTER XXI. 

Decimus Brutus, Consul elect?, to Cicero. 

If I entertained the least doubt of your inclina- 
tions to serve me, I should be extremely copious 
a u 709 * n m y souc i tat i° ns f° r tnat purpose ; but 
"I have strongly persuaded myself that my 
interest is already a part of your care. 

I led my army against the inhabitants of the 
Alps, not so much from an ambition of being 
saluted with the title of lmperalor*, as in order 
to comply with the martial spirit of my troops, 
and to strengthen their attachment to our cause. 
In both these views I have, I think, succeeded : 
as the soldiers have had an opportunity, by 
this measure, of experiencing the courage and 
the generosity of their general. I was engaged with 
the most warlike of these people : and have taken 
and destroyed great numbers of their forts. In 
short, I thought the action sufficiently considerable 
to send an account of it to the senate. I hope, 
therefore, you will support my pretensions with 
your suffrage, as it will, at the same time, be 
greatly contributing to the credit of the common 
cause. Farewell. 



LETTER XXII. 

To Decimus Brutus, Consul elect. 
It is of much consequence to the success of this 
epistle, whether it reaches you in an anxious or an 
a u 709 eas y nour ' Accordingly, I have directed 
the bearer to watch the favourable mo- 
ment of delivering it into your hands : as there is 
a time, my friend, when a letter, no less than a 
visit, may prove extremely unseasonable. But if 
he should observe the caution I have enjoined him, 
and this should find you, as I hope it will, in a 
state of mind perfectly serene and undisturbed, I 
doubt not of your ready compliance with the request 
I am going to make. 

Lucius Lamia offers himself as a candidate at 
the ensuing election of praetors. There is no man 
with whom I live in an equal degree of familiarity, 
as we are intimately, indeed, united, by a long 
acquaintance. But what greatly, likewise, recom- 
mends him to me is, that nothing affords me more 
entertainment than his company. To this I must 
add, the infinite obligations I received from him in 
my affair with Clodius. He was at that time at the 
head of the equestrian order ; and he entered with 
so much spirit into my cause, that the consul Ga- 
binius commanded him to withdraw from Rome ; 
an indignity never offered before to any citizen of 

P Decimus Brutus was nominated by Caesar to be col- 
league with Plancus, of whose appointment to the consular 
office mention has been made in rem. " on the preceding 
epistle. Soon after the rest of the conspirators found it 
necessary to leave Rome, Decimus withdrew into Cisalpine 
Gaul, in order to take possession of that province which 
had been allotted to him by Caesar, and to put himself in 
a posture of defence against the attempts which Antony 
was meditating. Shortly after his arrival in that province, 
he employed his troops in an expedition against certain 
inhabitants of the neighbouring mountains ; and having 
happily executed this scheme, he wrote the following let- 
ter to request Cicero's suffrage in procuring him those 
distinctions which the senate usually decreed to their suc- 
cessful generals. 

1 See rem. b, p. 333. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



553 



the republic. As the world has not forgotten what 
he thus suffered upon my account, I am sure it 
would be the highest reproach upon my character 
if I did not remember it myself; and, therefore, 
my dear friend, be well assured that the good or 
ill success of Lamia, in his present pursuit, will no 
less sensibly affect me, than if I were personally 
concerned. Notwithstanding, therefore, the illus- 
trious character which Lamia bears, together with 
the great popularity he has acquired by the magni- 
ficence of the games he exhibited when he was 
aedile, yet I am labouring with as much assiduity 
to promote his interest, as if he had none of these 
advantages to recommend him. If, then, I possess 
that share in your affection which I am well 
persuaded I enjoy ; let me entreat you to write 
to Lupus to secure the votes of those eques- 
trian centuries over which you bear an unlimited 
sway. But not to detain you with a multiplicity 
of words, I will conclude all with most sincerely 
assuring you, that although there is nothing, my 
dear Brutus, which I have not reason to expect 
from your friendship, yet you can, in no instance, 
more effectually oblige me, than by complying with 
my present request. Farewell. 



LETTER XXIII. 

To the same*. 
There is none of my friends with whom I live 
in so strict an intimacy as with Lamia. To say 
A u 709 that I am much indebted to his good 
offices, would not be speaking of them in 
the terms they deserve ; for the truth is (and it is 
a truth of which the whole republic is sensible), 
he has conferred upon me the highest and most 
generous obligations. Lamia, after having passed 
through the office of sedile with the greatest splen- 
dour and magnificence, now offers himself as a can- 
didate for the praetorship ; and, it is universally 
acknowledged, that he wants neither interest nor 
dignity to support his pretensions. However, the 
opposition he is likely to meet with from his com- 
petitors is so strong, that I have many fears for the 
event ; and, therefore, think myself obliged to be 
his general solicitor upon this occasion. I well 
know how much it is in your power to serve me in 
this affair, and I have no doubt of your inclination. 
Be assured, then, my dear Brutus, that you cannot 
more sensibly oblige me than by assisting Lamia 
in his present pursuit : and it is with all the 
warmth of my heart that I entreat you to exert 
your utmost interest for that purpose. Farewell. 



LETTER XXIV. 

To Caius Cassius. 
It gives me great pleasure to find that my late 
speech 8 has received your approbation. If I could 
a u 709 more frequently enforce the same senti- 
ments, the liberties of the republic might 

r This letter seems to have been a kind of duplicate of 
the former, as it is written to the same person, and upon 
the same occasion. 

s Upon Cicero's return to Rome [see rem. l , p. 551] he 
received a summons from Antony to attend a meeting of 
the senate, which was to be holden the next morning ; but 
as the business of this meeting was to decree certain divine 



easily be recovered. But that far more desperate 
and detestable scoundrel 1 than he u at whose death 
you said " the worst of all villains is expired," is 
watching for a pretence to begin his murderous 
purposes ; and his single view, in charging me 
with having advised the killing of Caesar, is merely 
to excite the veteran soldiers against my life. But 
this is a danger which I am not afraid to hazard, 
since he gives me a share with you in the honour 
of that glorious deed. Hence it is, however, that 
neither Piso, who first ventured to inveigh against 
the measures of Antony, nor myself, who made a 
speech to the same purpose about a month v after- 
wards, nor Publius Servilius, who followed my 
example, can any of us appear with safety in the 
senate. For this inhuman gladiator has evidently 
a design upon our lives : and he hoped to have 
rendered me the first victim of his cruel vengeance. 
With this sanguinary view he entered the senate on 
the 19th of September, having several days before 
retired to the villa of Metellus, in order to prepare 
an inflammatory speech against me w . But who 
shall reconcile the silent meditations of eloquence 
with the noisy revels of lewdness and debauchery ? 
Accordingly, it was the opinion of all his audience 
(as I have already, I believe, mentioned to you in 
a former letter) that he could not so properly be 
said to have delivered a speech, as to have dis- 
charged, with his usual indecency, the horrid fumes 
of his scandalous intemperance. . 

You are persuaded, you tell me, that my credit 
and eloquence will be able to produce some good 
effect. And some, indeed, they have produced, 
considering the sad situation of our affairs. They 
have rendered the people sensible that there are 
three persons of consular rank, who, because they 
are in the interest of the republic, and have spoken 
their sentiments in the senate with freedom, cannot 
attend that assembly without the danger of being 
assassinated. And this is all the good you are to 
expect from my oratory. 

A certain relation of yours x is so captivated with 
his new alliance, that he no longer concerns him- 
self in the success of your games ; but, on the 
contrary, is mortified to the last degree at those 
peals of applause with which your brother was 
distinguished [?. Another of your family 2 has been 
softened by some grants which it is pretended that 
Caesar had designed to confer upon him. This, 

honours to the memory of Ca?sar, our author excused him- 
self from being present. The following day, however, 
Antony being absent, Cicero ventured to appear in the 
senate, when he delivered the speech to which he here 
alludes, and which is the first of those that are called his 
" Philippics." See Life of Cicero, p. 243. 

1 Antony. u Caesar. 

v The speech mentioned in rem. s of this letter. 

w It was in answer to this speech that Cicero composed 
his second Philippic, which, however, he did not deliver. 
For, by the advice of his friends, he absented himself from 
this meeting of the senate, as they did not think it safe for 
him to be present. — Manutius. 

x Lepidus is supposed to be the person here meant, as he 
was related to Cassius by his own marriage, and had lately 
married his son to Antony's daughter. 

y Brutus and Cassius were obliged, as praetors, to exhibit 
certain games in honour of Apollo, with which the public 
were annually entertained on the third of July ; but as 
they had withdrawn themselves from Rome, these games 
were conducted by the brother of Cassius. 

z It is not known to whom Cicero alludes in this place, 
nor in the period immediately following. 



55± 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



however, might be borne with patience ; but is it 
not utterly beyond all endurance, that there should 
be a man who dares openly avow that he supports 
the measures of that scoundrel, Antony, with the 
hopes that his son will be chosen consul when you 
and Brutus are entitled to be candidates for that 
office ? As to our friend, Lucius Cotta, a fatal 
despair (for so he terms it himself) has almost 
entirely driven him from the senate. Lucius Csesar, 
that firm and excellent patriot, is prevented from 
coming thither by his ill state of health ; and 
Servius Sulpicius, who is a true friend to the cause 
of liberty, and whose authority might be of infinite 
service in the present conjuncture, is, unhappily, 
absent from Rome. After having mentioned these, 
I must take the liberty to say, that I cannot add 
any others, excepting the consuls elect, who may 
be justly deemed as well-wishers to the republic. 
The truth is, these are the only persons upon whose 
advice and authority the commonwealth can depend. 
And small, indeed, would their number be, even in 
the best of times ; how unequal, then, must their 
strength be found, to combat against the worst ? 
All our hopes, therefore, rest entirely upon you and 
Brutus : I mean, if you have not withdrawn from 
us with a view only to your own preservation ; for, 
if that should be the case, we have nothing, alas ! 
to hope, either from Brutus or from you. But if, 
on the contrary, you are forming some glorious 
enterprise worthy of your exalted characters, I 
doubt not that the republic, by your assistance, 
will soon recover her liberties ; and I have only to 
wish, that I may not be destroyed ere that happy 
day shall arrive. In the mean time, my best ser- 
vices neither are, nor shall be, wanting to your 
family ; and whether they should apply to me for 
that purpose, or not, I shall never fail to give them 
proofs of my friendship towards you. Farewell. 



LETTER XXV. 

To Plancus. 

Agreeably to the friendship which subsists 
between us, my services should not have been 
a. u. 709. wantm g to advance your dignities 3 , if I 
could have been present in the senate, 
consistently with my honour or my safety. But no 
man can freely deliver his opinion in that assembly 
without being exposed to the violences of a military 
force, that are licensed to commit their outrages 
with full impunity ; and it would ill become my 
rank and character to speak upon public affairs 
in a place where I am more attentively observed, 
and more closely surrounded, by soldiers than by 
senators. In any instance of private concern, my 
best offices shall not be wanting to you ; nor shall 
they, indeed, even in those of a public nature, 
whatever hazard I may run, where my appearance 
is absolutely necessary to promote your interest. 
But where it may be equally advanced without my 
concurrence, Buffer me, I entreat you, to pay a 
proper regard to my own dignity and preservation. 
Farewell. 

a The occasion on which Plancus had applied to Cicero 
for his services In the senate does noi appear. 



LETTER XXVI. 

To Cains Cassius. 

The malignant spirit of your friend b breaks out 

every day with greater and more open violence. To 

^ 0C) instance, in the first place, the statue 

which he has lately erected near the j 

rostrum, to Csesar, under which he has inscribed, 

To THE EXCELLENT FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY ; 

intimating that you and your heroic associates are 
to be considered, not only as assassins, but parri- 
cides. In which number I am, likewise, included ; 
for this outrageous man represents me as the prin- 
cipal adviser and promoter of your most glorious 
enterprise. Would to heaven the charge were true ! 
for had I been a party in your councils, I should 
have put it out of his power thus to perplex and 
embarrass our affairs c . But this was a point 
which depended upon yourselves to determine; 
and, since the opportunity is now over, I can only 
wish that I were capable of giving you any effectual 
advice. But the truth is, I am utterly at a loss in 
what manner to act myself : for to what purpose is 
resistance, where one cannot oppose force by force ? 
It is evidently the intent of Csesar's party to 
revenge his death. And, accordingly, Antony 
being on the 2d of October last presented to the 
people by Canutius d , mentioned the generous de- 
liverers of our country in terms that traitors alone 
deserve. He scrupled not to assert, likewise, that 
you had acted entirely by my advice, and that 
Canutius, also, was under the same influence. He 
had the mortification, however, to leave the rostrum 
with great disgrace. In a word, you may judge 
what are the designs of this faction by their having 
seized the appointments of your lieutenant e ; for 
does not their conduct, in this instance, sufficiently 
declare, that they considered this money as going 
to be remitted to a public enemy ? Wretched con- 
dition, indeed ! that we, who scorned to submit to 
a master, should more ignobly crouch to one of 
our fellow slaves ! Nevertheless, I am still inclined 
to flatter myself, that we are not quite deprived of 
all hopes of being delivered by your heroic efforts. 
But where then, let me ask, are your troops ? And 
with this question I will conclude my letter ; as I 
had rather leave the rest to be suggested by your 
own reflections, than by mice. Farewell. 

b Antony. 

c Cicero frequently reproaches the conspirators with 
having committed a capital mistake in sparing Antony 
when they destroyed Caesar, an error which our author 
would have prevented, it seems, had they admitted him 
into their councils. But it may be affirmed, (and upon 
the authority of Cicero himself,) that nothing could have 
been more unjustifiable than to have rendered Antony a 
joint victim with Cesar, "lis true, there was an ancient 
law subsisting', by which every one was authorised to lift 
up his sword against the man who should discover any 
designs of invading the public liberties. But Antony was 
so far from having given indications of this kind at Caesar's 
death, that Cicero, in a letter written to Atticus, soon 
afterwards, tells him he looked upon Antony as a man too 
much devoted to the indulgences of a luxurious life to be 
inclined to form any schemes destructive of the public 
repose: "quem quidem c,u.> (says he) epnlaram magis 
arbitror rationem habere, quam quidquam mali cogitare." 
— I'lut. in Vit. Publico 1 . ; Ad Att. vi. :]. 

<l lie was one of the tribunes for the present year. 

< As proconsul of Syria, to which province Cassius was, 
probably, on his way when this letter was written. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



555 



LETTER XXVII. 
To Cornificius. 
Stratorius has given me an ample account of 
the sad situation of affairs in your province f . Oh, 
_ 0f) my friend, what insufferable outrages are 
committed in every part of the Roman 
dominions ! But those which have been offered to 
yourself are so much the less to be borne, as they 
are aggravated by the superior veneration which is 
due to your illustrious rank and character. Not- 
withstanding, therefore, that your great and gener- 
ous spirit may incline you to look upon these 
insults with calmness, and, perhaps, with indiffer- 
ence, yet you ought by no means to suffer them to 
pass unchastised. 

The news of Rome, I well know, is regularly 
transmitted to you, otherwise I would take upon 
myself to be your informer, and particularly of the 
late attempt of Octavius s. The fact laid to his 
charge is considered by the populace as a mere 
fiction of Antony, in order to gain a pretence to 
seize upon the young man's estate. But the more 
penetrating and better sort, not only credit the 
report, but highly approve the design. Indeed, the 
hopes of the republic are greatly turned towards 
Octavius ; as there is nothing which his generous 
thirst of glory, 'tis believed, will not animate him 
to perform. My friend Antony, at the same time, 
is so sensible of his being generally detested, that 
although he discovered the assassins in his house, 
yet he would not venture to make the affair public. 
He set out for Brundisium on the 9th of October, 
in order to meet the four legions h that are return- 
ing from Macedonia ; he hopes, by bribing them 
over to his interest, to conduct them to Rome, and 
with their assistance to fix the yoke upon our 
necks. Thus you see the situation of the republic ! 
if a republic, indeed, it may with any propriety be 
called, where all is in a state of intestine war. I 
frequently lament your fortune, in having been born 
so late, as never to have tasted the happiness of 
living in a sound and well-regulated common- 
wealth. You remember the time, however, when 
there was a prospect, at least, of better days, but 
now that prospect is no more ! How in truth 
should it any longer subsist, after Antony dared to 
declare, in a general assembly of the people, that 
" Canutius affected to rank himself with those 1 

* Of Africa. See rem. h, p. 537. 

g " Octavius, in order to maintain by stratagem what he 
could not gain by force, formed a design against Antony's 
life, and actually provided certain slaves to assassinate 
him, who were discovered and seized with their poniards 
in Antony's house." Thus far Dr. Middleton, who might 
have added (as a learned critic has remarked) that Cicero 
himself, together with his nephew Quiutus, were charged 
by Antony with being accomplices in this plot, and that 
the charge appears to have been true. For though, in the 
present letter, indeed, Cicero talks of this affair as if he 
was no otherwise acquainted with it than by common 
report ; yet, in a speech which he afterwards made in the 
senate, when Antony had retired into Gaul, taking notice 
of the above-mentioned accusation, he avows and glories 
in the charge. — Life of Cicero, p. 245 ; Tunstal's Observ. 
on the Letters between Cic. and Brut. p. 142 ; Phil. iii. 
7,8. 

h These were part of that army which Cassar intended to 
lead against the Parthians, and which he had sent before 
him into Macedonia, to wait his arrival for that purpose. 

5 The conspirators. 



who could never appear in Rome, so long as he 
preserved his life and authority?" But thanks to 
philosophy for having taught me to endure this and 
every other mortification which human nature can 
possibly suffer ; and, indeed, it has not only cured 
me of all my disquietudes, but armed my breast 
against every future assault of fortune. And let 
me advise you to fortify yourself with the same 
resolution, in the full persuasion that nothing but 
guilt deserves to be considered as a real evil. But 
these are reflections which you know much better 
how to make, than I can instruct you. 

Stratorius has always been highly in my esteem ; 
but he has rendered himself more particularly so 
by the great diligence, fidelity, and judgment he 
discovers in the management of your affairs. Take 
care of your health, as the most pleasing instance 
you can give me of your friendship. Farewell. 



LETTER XXVIII. 

To the same. 
My very intimate and most accomplished friend, 
Caius Anicius, has obtained a titular legation^ into 
Africa, in order to transact some business 
relating to his private concerns in that 
province. Let me, therefore, entreat your best 
offices to him upon all occasions, and that you 
would give him your assistance for the more easy 
and expeditious despatch of his affairs. But above 
all (as it is superior to all in my friend's estima- 
tion) I recommend the dignity of his rank and 
character to your peculiar regard ; and accordingly 
I make it my request, that you would appoint 
lictors to attend him. This is a compliment which 
I always spontaneously paid, during my own pro- 
consulate, to those of senatorial rank, who came 
into my province, and which I have ever, likewise, 
myself received upon the same occasions ; as, in- 
deed, it is what I have both heard and observed to 
have been generally practised by proconsuls of the 
greatest distinction. You will act, then, in the 
same manner, my dear Cornificius, in the present 
instance, if I have any share in your affection, and 
in all other respects will consult the honour and 
interest of my friend, assuring yourself that you 
cannot confer upon me a more acceptable service. 
Farewell. 



u. 709. 



LETTER XXIX. 

To Tiro. 
I see into your scheme ; you have a design that 
your letters, as well as mine k , should make their 
a. v. 709. a PP earar >ce in public. But, tell me, how 
happened it, that you, who are wont to 
be the supreme judge and critic of my writings, 
should be guilty of so inaccurate an expression as 

J See rem. °, p. 541. 

k It appears, from an epistle to Atticus, that Cicero had 
formed a design, about this time, of publishing a collection 
of his letters. It is probable, however, that the greater 
part of those which are now extant were sent into the 
world at different times, and by different hands, after his 
decease, as there are many of them which one can scarce 
suppose that either himself, or any friend who had a regard 
to his memory, would have suffered to come abroad. — Ad 
Att. xvi. 5. 



558 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



to desire me "faithfully 1 to preserve my health?" 
That adverb surely can have no business there, as 
its proper employment is to attend upon some 
word that imports a moral obligation. In figura- 
tive language, its use, indeed, is various, as it may 
be applied even to inanimate and intellectual ob- 
jects, provided (as Theophrastus observes) the 
metaphor be not too bold and unnatural. But we 
will reserve this for a conversation when we meet. 

Demetrius has been here ; but I had the address 
to avoid both him and his retinue. Doubtless, you 
will regret that you lost the opportunity of seeing 
him. It is an opportunity, however, which you 
may still recover; for he returns, it seems, to- 
morrow. Accordingly, I purpose to leave this 
place the next morning. 

I am extremely uneasy about your health, and 
entreat you not to omit any means that may con- 
tribute to its re-establishment. It is thus that you 
will render me insensible of your absence, and 
abundantly discharge all the services I require at 
your hands. 

I am obliged to your good offices towards Cus- 
pius, for I greatly interest myself in the success of 
his affairs. Adieu. 



LETTER XXX. 

To Cornificius. 
Quintus Turius, who was an African merchant 
of great probity, as well as of an honourable family, 
a u 709. * s l ate ly dead. He has appointed Cneius 
Saturninus, Sextus Aufidius, and Caius 
Anneius, together with Quintus Considius Gallus, 
Lucius Servilius Posthumus, and Caius Rubellius, 
all of them men of the same worthy character as 
himself, his joint heirs. I find you have already 
treated them in so generous a manner, that they 
have more occasion for my acknowledgments to 
you than my recommendation ; and, indeed, the 
favours they gratefully profess to have received 
from your hands, are more considerable than I 
should have ventured, perhaps, to request. Never- 
theless, as I perfectly well know the regard you 
pay to my recommendation, I will take courage, 
and entreat you to add to those services which you 
have already, without my solicitation, so liberally 
conferred upon them. But what I am particularly 
to desire is, that you would not suffer Eros Turios, 
the testator's freedman, to continue to embezzle his 
late patron's effects. In every other instance, also, 
I recommend their interest to your protection, 
assuring you that you will receive much satisfaction 
from the regard and attachment of these my illus- 
trious friends. Again and again, therefore, I very 
earnestly recommend them to your good offices. 
Farewell. 

1 It is impossible, perhaps, to determine, precisely, 
wherein the impropriety of this expression consisted, as it 
docs not appear from the original whether Tiro spoke of 
his own health or of Cicero's. In the translation, however, 
it is applied to the Latter, as it seems to render the expres- 
sion less critically Just. For as Tiro was Cicero's slave, 
the care of his health was a duty which tin- former owed 
to the latter, as a necessary means of" enabling him to 
perform those services to which Cioero had a right. Ac- 
cordingly, therefore, to our author's own remark concern- 
ing the literal use of the word fldelit, Tiro might very 
properly have applied it in the sense here mentioned. Hut 
there was no such duty owing from the master to the 



LETTER XXXI. 

To Decimus Brutus, Consul elect. 

When our friend Lupus arrived with your des- 
patches, I had retired from Rome™ to a place 
a v 709 wnere I thought. I could be most secure 
from danger. For this reason, notwith- 
standing he took care that your letter 11 should be 
delivered into my hands, and continued some days 
in the city, yet he returned without receiving my 
answer. However, I came back hither on the 9th 
of this month , when I immediately, as my first 
and principal concern, paid a visit to PansaP, from 
whom I had the satisfaction of hearing such an 
account of you as was most agreeable to my wishes. 
As you wanted not any exhortations to engage you 
in the noblest enterprise i that stands recorded in 
history, so I am persuaded they are altogether un- 
necessary in the present conjuncture. It may not 
be improper, nevertheless, just to intimate that 
the whole expectations of the Roman people, and 
all their hopes of liberty, are entirely fixed upon 
you. If you constantly bear in mind (what I well 
know is ever in your thoughts) the glorious part 
you have already achieved, most undoubtedly you 
can never forget how much there still remains for 
you to perform. In fact, should that man to whom 
I always declared myself a friend, till he openly and 
forwardly took up arms against the republic ; 
should Antony possess himself of your province r , 
I see not the least possibility of our preservation. 
I join my earnest intercessions, therefore, with 
those of the whole republic, that you would finish 
what you have so happily begun, and deliver us for 
ever from the tyranny of a despotic government. 
This patriot task belongs particularly to yourself ; 
and Rome, or, to speak more properly, every nation 
throughout the world, not only expects, but requires 
their deliverance at your hands. But I am sen- 
sible (as 1 have already said) that you need no 
exhortations to animate you for this purpose. I 
will spare my admonitions, therefore, and rather 
assure you (what, indeed, is more properly my 
part) that my most zealous and active services shall 
always be exerted for your interest. Be well per- 
suaded, then, that, not only for the sake of the 
republic, which is dearer to me than my life, but 
from my particular regard likewise to yourself, I 
shall omit no opportunity of forwarding your 
glorious designs, and of promoting those honours 
you so justly deserve. Farewell. 

slave ; and, consequently, Tiro could not, in strict pro- 
priety, have applied it to Cicero. 

m Soon after Cicero's late return to Rome, [see rem. l , p. 
551,] he came to an open rupture with Anton j\ He 
found it necessary, therefore, for his security, to remove 
from the city to some of his villas near Naples.— Life of 
Cicero, p. 244. 

n The same, probahly, which stands the 21st in the pre- 
sent hook, p. 552. 

December. Antony had just before left Rome, in order 
to march his army into Cisalpine Gaul. Upon the news 
of this retreat, Cicero immediately returned to the city. — 
Life of Cicero, p. -'47. 

P Consul elect for the ensuing year. 

q The killing of Cajsar. 

r Cisalpine Gaul. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



557 



LETTER XXXII. 

To Cornificius. 
There is no man that cultivates my friendship 
I with greater marks of esteem than Sextus Aufi- 
' » m dius ; nor is there any of equestrian rank 

U ' ' who bears a more distinguished character. 
| The strictness of his morals is so happily tempered 
with the sweetness of his disposition, that he unites 
the severest virtue with the easiest and most 
engaging address. I recommend his affairs in 
Africa to you, with the utmost warmth and sin- 
cerity of my heart. You will extremely oblige me, 
therefore, by showing him that you pay the highest 
regard to my recommendation; and I very earnestly 
entreat you, my dear Cornificius, to comply with 
this request. Farewell. 



LETTER XXXIII. 

To Decimus Brutus, Consul-elect. 

Marcus Seius has, I suppose, informed you 
what my sentiments were at the conference which 
Lupus held at my house with Libo, your 
A * u ' ' relation Servilius, and myself; as he was 
present during the consultation. And, though 
Greceius immediately followed him, he can give 
you an account of all that passed after Seius set 
out 5 . 

The grand and capital point, which I could wish 
you to be well convinced of, and ever to bear in 
your mind, is, that in acting for the security of our 
common liberties, you ought, by no means, to wait 
the sanction of the senate ; as that assembly is not 
yet sufficiently free and uncontrolled in its delibe- 
rations. To conduct yourself by a contrary prin- 
ciple, would be to condemn the first glorious steps 
you took for the deliverance of the commonwealth, 
and which were so much the more illustrious, as 
they were unsupported by the formal suffrage of 
public authority. It would be to declare, that the 
measures of young Csesar are rash and ill-consi- 
dered ; who, in the same unauthorised manner, 
has undertaken the important cause of the com- 
monwealth 1 . In a word, it would be to show the 
world that you thought those brave and worthy 
veterans your fellow-soldiers, together with the 
fourth and martial legions 11 , had judged and acted 

s The principal intent of this consultation seems to have 
been to determine, whether Decimus Brutus should ven- 
ture, without the express sanction of the senate, to act 
offensively against Antony, who was, at this time, on his 
march to dispossess Brutus of Cisalpine Gaul. 

1 When Antony set out for Brundisium, in order to meet 
the legions which were returning from Macedonia, as has 
been related in the 27th letter of this book, Octavius went 
amongst those veteran soldiers to whom Caesar had granted 
settlements in Campania. From these he drew together, 
at his own expense, and by his private authority, a very 
considerable body of troops to oppose Antony, if he had 
thought proper to have made any attempts upon Rome 
with the Macedonian legions.— Phil. ii. 2, 12 ; Ad Att. 
xvi. 8. 

u The Roman legions were originally named according 
to the order in which they were raised, as the first, the 
second, &c. But as those legions which were occasionally 
raised in the provinces, were distinguished, likewise, in 
the same manner, it was usual to add to this numeral 
designation some other for the sake of avoiding confusion. 
This latter denomination was generally taken either from 



irrationally, in deeming their consul an enemy to 
his country, and consecrating their arms to the 
service of the republic v . To pursue measures 
which are agreeable to the general sense of the 
senate, may be well considered as acting under their 
express authority ; when it is fear alone that 
restrains them from signifying their approbation 
in a formal manner. In fine, you can no longer 
hesitate, whether you should be guided by the prin- 
ciple I am recommending, as you have in two 
strong instances been governed by it already ; first, 
on the ides of March, and lately when you raised 
your troops. Upon the whole, then, you ought to 
be both disposed and prepared to act, not merely 
as you shall be commanded, but in such a manner 
as to render your achievements the subject of 
universal admiration and applause. Farewell. 



a. u. 709. 



LETTER XXXIV. 

To the same. 
Our friend Lupus very punctually delivered 
your commands and your letter to me, the next 
morning after his arrival in Rome ; which 
was in six days after his leaving Mutina w . 
I cannot but consider you as recommending my 
own honours to my protection, when you request 
me to be the guardian of yours ; for, be assured, 
they are equally my concern. It will give me great 
pleasure, therefore, to find, that you doubt not of 
my promoting them, upon every occasion, to the 
best of my zeal and judgment. Accordingly, 
although I had purposed not to appear in the 
senate before the first of January next, yet the tri- 
bunes of the people, having on that very day on 
which your manifesto x was published, issued out 
a proclamation for a meeting of the senate on the 
20th of this month ?, in order to move that a guard 
might be appointed for the security of the consuls 
elect 7 : my affection towards you, induced me to 
change my resolution, and I determined to attend. 
I thought, indeed, it would be a most unpardon- 
able omission, if the senate should be holden without 
taking notice of your inestimable services to the 
republic, as it unquestionably would have been if I 
had not attended ; or that I should not be present 
to support any decree that might happen to be pro- 
posed for the advancement of your honours. For 
this reason, I came early into the senate, and my 
presence brought together a great number of the 
members. I will leave it to your other friends, to 
inform you what I there said to your advantage ; as 
well as of the speech which I afterwards made to 

the country in which they served, as the legio Parthica, 
or from the name of the general who levied them, as the 
legio Augusta, or from the name of some divinity, as in 
the present instance, the legio Martia. — Rosin. De Antiq. 
Rom. p. 966. 

v These two legions (part of those which arrived from 
Macedonia) refused the offers which Antony made to 
them at Brundisium, and afterwards joined themselves 
with Octavius.— Ad Att. xvi. 8 : Phil. iii. 3. 

w A city in Cisalpine Gaul, where Decimus Brutus was 
shortly afterwards besieged by Antony. It is now called 
Moclena. 

x The purport of this manifesto of Decimus Brutus was 
to declare his resolution of endeavouring to preserve the 
province of Cisalpine Gaul, over which he presided, in its 
allegiance to the republic. — Phil. iii. 4. 

y December. z Hirtius and Pansa. 



558 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



a. u. 709. 



the same purpose, in a very numerous assembly of 
the people a . In the mean time, let me entreat you 
to believe, that I shall most zealously embrace 
every opportunity of contributing to the increase 
of those dignities you already possess ; and although 
I am sensible I shall meet with many rivals in my 
good offices for this purpose, yet I will venture to 
claim the first rank in that honourable list. Fare- 
well. 



LETTER XXXV. 

To Cornificius. 
I am waging war here against that most iniqui- 
tous of all sanguinary ruffians, my colleague b 
Antony ; but by no means, however, 
upon equal terms ; as I have nothing but 
my tongue to oppose to his arms. He ventured, 
in a speech which he lately made to the people, to 
throw out some bitter invectives against you. But 
his insolence did not pass unchastised ; and he 
shall have still farther reason to remember, against 
whom it is that he has thus pointed his injurious 
attacks. But, as your other friends, I imagine, 
supply you with accounts of our transactions, I 
should rather inform you what turn affairs are likely 
to take ; and, indeed, it is a point of no very diffi- 
cult conjecture. The republic labours under a total 
oppression ; her friends are without a leader, and 
our glorious tyrannicides are dispersed into differ- 
ent and distant quarters. Pansa means well to the 
commonwealth, and delivers his sentiments with 
great spirit and freedom. Hirtius recovers but 
slowly c ; and, in truth, I know not what to think 
of him. Our only hope is, that the people at last 
will be awakened from their lethargy, and act with 
a spirit becoming the descendants of their heroic 
ancestors. For myself, at least, I will never be 
wanting to my country ; and whatever misfortune 
may attend the commonwealth after I have exerted 
my best efforts to prevent it, I shall hear it with 
perfect equanimity. You may depend, likewise, 
upon my supporting you in your rank and dignities, 
to the utmost of my power. Accordingly, in an 
assembly of the senate, which was holden on the 
20th of this month* 1 , I proposed (among other 
necessary and important articles, which I carried 
by a great majority) that the present proconsuls 
should be continued in their respective govern- 
ments ; and that they should be ordered not to 
resign them into other hands, than those which the 
senate should appoint. I made this motion not 
only as thinking it highly expedient for the interest 
of the republic, but with a particular view also of 
preserving you in your provincial command e . Let 



a These two speeches arc the third and fourth of the 
Philippics. The senate, amongst other decrees which they 
passed upon this occasion, approved and ratified the mea- 
sures which Decimus Brutus had taken in Cisalpine Gaul 
for the defence of that province. — Phil. iv. 4. 

l> Antony and Cicero were colleagues as members of the 
college of augurs. 

c Pansa and Sirtius, as has already been noted, were 
consuls elect for the approaching year. The latter, about 
this time, was attacked by a must dangerous sickness; and 
his. health was esteemed of so much importance at this 
juncture to the commonwealth, that public vows were put 
up for his recovery.— Phil vii i. 

d December. 

e Antony, a short time before he left Rome in order to 



me exhort you, then, for the sake of our country, 
and let me conjure you by your regard to myself, 
not to suffer any man to usurp the least part of 
your authority ; but, in every instance, to main- 
tain the dignity of your rank and character, as a 
possession which nothing can countervail. 

To deal with you agreeably to that sincerity 
which our friendship requires, I must tell you, 
that all the world would have highly applauded 
your conduct, if you had complied with my advice 
in regard to Sempronius. But the affair is now 
over ; and, in itself, indeed, it was a matter of no 
great importance. It is of the utmost, however, 
that you should employ, as I hope you will, every 
possible means to retain your province in its allegi- 
ance. I would add more, but your courier presses 
me to despatch ; I must entreat you, therefore, to 
make my excuses to Cherippus, for not writing to 
him by this opportunity. Farewell. 



v LETTER XXXVI. 

Quintus Cicero to Tiro. 

Your letter brought withit a very strong, though 
silent reproof, for my having thus long omitted 
writing to you. I could not, indeed, but 
a. u. /09. j^ sensible how much I had lost by my 
negligence, when I observed that those points 
which my brother (from tenderness, perhaps, or 
haste) had but slightly touched in his letter, were 
faithfully represented in yours, in all their genuine 
colours. This was particularly the case, in respect 
to what you mentioned concerning the consuls 
elect f . I know, indeed, that they are totally sunk 
in sloth and debauchery : and if they should not 
recede from the helm, we are in the utmost danger 
of being irrecoverably lost. I was myself a witness, 
during a summer's campaign with them in Gaul, 
that they were guilty of such actions, and within 
sight, too, of the enemy's camp, as are almost 
beyond all belief: and I am well persuaded, unless 
we should be better supported than we are at pre- 
sent, that the scoundrel Antony will gain them 
over to his party, by admitting them as associates 
in his licentious pleasures. The truth of it is, the 
republic must necessarily either throw herself 
under the protection of the tribunes, or employ 
some private hand to defend her cause ; for as to 
these noble consuls of ours, one of them is scarce 
worthy to preside over Cresenai? ; and I would not 
trust "the other with superintending the paltry 
hovels of Cossutius h . 

I hope to be with you towards the latter end of 
this month. In the mean while, let me repeat 

march against Decimus Brutus, had procured an illegal 
distribution of the provinces among his friends, by which 
Cuius Calvisius was appointed to succeed Cornificius in 
Africa.— Phil. iii. ; Pigh. Annal. ii. p. 4(ij. 

f Pansa and Hirtius. 

S "An obscure town in Italy, situated upon the Papis, 
a river which empties itself into the Adriatic, between 
1'fens and the Rubicon."— Koss. 

l> AVlio this person was is unknown. Pique and preju- 
dice seem to have had a considerable hand in the draught 
which Quintus has here delineated of the two consuls. 
That Pansa and Hirtius were infected with the fashionable 
vices of the age. is altogether probable; but that they 
wanted either spirit or capacity for action is by no means 
true, as will evidently appear in the farther progress of 
these letters. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



559 



what I have often said, that I tenderly love you. 
My impatience to see you is, indeed, so immode- 
rate, that if our first meeting were to happen in the 
midst of the forum, I should not forbear to trans- 
gress the rules of good breeding, and most warmly 
embrace you in the presence of the whole assembly. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XXXVII. 

Cicero, the Son' 1 , to his dearest Tiro. 

After having been in daily and earnest expect- 
ation of your couriers, they are at length, to my 
a u 709 S reat satisfaction, arrived, having per- 
formed their voyage in forty-six days 
from the time they left you. The joy I received 
from my dear father's most affectionate letter was 
crowned by the very agreeable one which attended 
it from yourself. I can no longer repent, there- 
fore, of having neglected writing to you ; as it has 
proved a mean of furnishing me with an ample 
proof of your good-nature ; and it is with much 
pleasure I find that you admit the apology I made 
for my silence. 

That the advantageous reports you have heard 
of my conduct, were perfectly agreeable, my dearest 
Tiro, to your wishes, I can by no means doubt : 
and it shall be my constant endeavour to confirm 
and increase the general good opinion which is 
thus arising in my favour. You may venture, 
therefore, with great confidence, to be, what you 
obligingly promise, the herald of my fame. Indeed, 
I reflect with so much pain and contrition of mind 
on the errors into which my youth and inexpe- 
rience have betrayed me, that I not only look upon 
them with abhorrence, but cannot bear even to 
hear them mentioned : and I am well convinced 
that you take a part in the uneasiness which I 
suffer from this circumstance. It is no wonder 
you should be solicitous for the welfare of a person 
whom both interest and inclination recommend to 
your good wishes, as I have ever been desirous you 
should partake of all the advantages that attend 
me. But if my conduct has formerly given you 
pain, it shall henceforward, be assured, afford you 
reason to think of me with double satisfaction. 

I live with Cratippus rather as his son than his 
pupil ; and not only attend his lectures with plea- 
sure, but am extremely delighted with the peculiar 
sweetness of his conversation. Accordingly I 
spend whole days in his company, and frequently, 
indeed, the most part of the night, as I entreat 
him to sup with me as often as his engagements 
will permit. Since the introduction of this custom, 
he every now and then unexpectedly steals in upon 
us while we are at table ; and, laying aside the 
severity of the philosopher, enters with great good 
humour into all the mirth and pleasantry of our 
conversation. Let me request you, then, to hasten 
hither as soon as possible, in order to enjoy with 

1 He was at this time pursuing his studies at Athens, 
under the direction of Cratippus, one of the most celebrated 
philosophers of the Peripatetic sect. If young Cicero had 
not the talents of his father, his genius, however, seems 
by no means to have been contemptible ; and the present 
letter, written when he was but nineteen years of age, is a 
full confutation of those who have charged him with a 
want of sense, even to a degree of stupidity. See letter 26 
of book xiv. ad Jin. 



us the society of this most agreeable and excellent 
man. As to Bruttius, I never suffer him to be 
absent from me a single moment. His company 
is as entertaining as his conduct is exemplary : 
and he perfectly well knows how to reconcile mirth 
and good-humour with the serious disquisitions of 
philosophy. I have taken a house for him near 
mine, and assist his narrow fortunes as far as my 
slender finances will admits. 

I have begun to declaim in Greek, under Cassius, 
as I choose to employ myself in Latin exercises of 
that kind with Bruttius. I live in great familiarity 
also with those learned and approved friends of 
Cratippus, whom he brought with him from Mity- 
lene, and pass much of my time likewise with 
Epicrates, one of the most considerable persons in 
Athens, together with Leonides, and several others 
of the same rank and merit. Thus I have given 
you a general sketch of my life. 

As to what you mention concerning Gorgias, 
notwithstanding that he was of service to me in my 
oratorical exercises, yet my father's commands 
were superior to all other considerations : and as 
he peremptorily wrote to me that I should imme- 
diately dismiss him k , I have obeyed his injunctions. 
I would not suffer myself, indeed, to hesitate a 
moment, lest my reluctance should raise any sus- 
picions in my father to my disadvantage. Besides, 
I thought it would ill become me to take upon 
myself to be a judge of the propriety of his orders. 
I am extremely obliged to you, however, for the 
friendly advice you give me in this affair. 

I very readily admit the excuse you make on 
account of your want of leisure, perfectly well 
knowing how much your time is generally engaged. 
I am extremely glad to hear that you have bought 
a farm, and wish you much joy of the purchase. 
But you must not wonder that I deferred my con- 
gratulations to this part of my letter ; for you will 
remember it was about the same place in yours 
that you communicated to me the occasion of them. 
You have now a retreat from all the fatiguing 
ceremonies of the city, and are become a Roman 
of the true old rural kind 1 . I take pleasure in 
figuring you to myself, in the midst of your country 
employments, buying your tools of husbandry, 
dealing out your orders to your bailiff, and care- 
fully treasuring up the fruit-seeds from your dessert. 
To be serious, I sincerely join with you in regretting 
that 1 could not be of service to you upon this 
occasion. But, be assured, my dear Tiro, I shall 
not fail to assist you, if ever fortune should put it 
in my power ; especially as I am sensible you made 
this purchase with a view to my use as well as your 
own. 

I am obliged to your care in executing my com- 
mission. I desire you would see that I have a 

J The allowance which Cicero made to his son, during 
his residence at Athens, was about 7U0J. a-year.— Ad Att. 
xvi. 1. 

k This unworthy tutor had encouraged his pupil in a 
passion for drinking, a vice in which the young Cicero, 
how sincere soever he might have been in his present 
resolves, most shamefully signalised himself in his more 
mature years.— Plut. in Vit. Cicer. ; Plin. llist. Nat. 
xiv. 22. 

1 Alluding, perhaps, to those celebrated Romans in the 
earlier ages of the republic, who, after having been called 
forth from their farms to the service of their country, 
discharged with glory the functions of the state, and then 
returned to their ploughs. 



560 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



writer sent to me who understands Greek, as I 
lose much time in transcribing my lectures. But, 
above all, I entreat you to take care of your health, 
that we may have the pleasure of enjoying toge- 
ther many philosophical conversations. I recom- 
mend Antherus to your good offices, and bid you 
farewell. 



LETTER XXXVIII. 

From the same to Tiro. 
The reasons you assign for the intermission of 
your letters are perfectly just ; but I hope that 
a u 709 tnese excuses will not very frequently 
recur. 'Tis true I receive intelligence 
of public affairs from particular expresses, as well 
as from general report ; and am continually assured, 
likewise, of my father's affection, by his own hand ; 
yet I always take great pleasure in reading a letter 
from yourself, be it upon ever so trifling a subject. 
I hope, therefore, since I am thus earnestly de- 
sirous of hearing from you, that you will not, for 
the future, send me apologies instead of epistles. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XXXIX. 

Bithynicus™ to Cicero. 

If we were not mutually attached to each other, 
by many singular good offices, I should remind 
you of that friendship which formerly 
A * °' ' subsisted between our parents : but I 
leave arguments of this kind to those who have 
neglected to improve their hereditary connexions. 
For myself, I am well satisfied with going no far- 
ther for my claim to your services than to our 
own personal amity. In confidence of which let 
me entreat you, if you believe that none of your 
favours will be thrown away upon me, that you 
would, upon all occasions during my absence 11 , 
take my interests under your protection. Farewell. 

nl See rem. w , p. 542. 

n In Sicily, to which province he succeeded as governor 
at the expiration of his praetorship.— Pigh. Annal. iii. 
p. 476. 



BOOK XIII. 



LETTER I. 



To Comificius . 

I neglect no opportunity (and, indeed, if I 
did, I should fail in what you have a full right to 
,- in expect from me) not only of celebrating 
your merit, but of promoting those 
honours it so justly deserves. But I choose you 
should be informed of my zealous endeavours for 
this purpose, by the letters of your family, rather 
than by my hand. Let me employ it in exhorting 
you to turn all your care and your attention upon 
the republic. This is an object worthy of your 
spirit and your talents ; as it is agreeable, likewise, 
to those hopes which you ought to entertain, of 
still rising in the dignities of your country. But 
this is a topic I will enlarge upon another time. 
In the mean while, I will inform you, that the 
public affairs are totally in suspense ; as the com- 
missioners are not yet returned, whom the senate 
deputed to Antony ; not to sue for peace, indeed, 
but to denounce war, unless he shall immediately 
pay obedience to the orders with which they are 
charged p. 

I seized the first occasion that offered of resuming 

o See rem. •>, p. 537. 

P These injunctions were, that Antony should instantly 
quit the Biege of Modena, and desist from all hostilities in 
Caul. Cicero strongly opposed the sending this deputation, 
as it was below the dignity of the senate to enter into any 
sort of treaty with a man whom they had already, in 
effect, declared a public enemy, as it would have the ap- 
pearance of fear; and. M the only method of bringing 
Antony to his duty, would be by an immediate and vigo- 
rous prosecution of the war. But these reasons, and others 
of the same tendency, which Cicero urged with great 
warmth and eloquence, were over ruled hy the friends of 
Antony; and it was ordered that BerviUB Sulpieius. Lucius 
PiSO, and Lucius PhllippUB, all of them persons of consular 
rank, should carry this message from the senate to Antony. 
— Phil. v. 



my former spirit, in standing forth as the protector 
both of the senate and the people : and from the 
moment I thus declared myself the advocate of 
liberty, I have not lost the least favourable oppor- 
tunity for the defence of our common rights. But 
this, likewise, is an article for which I choose to 
refer you to the information of others. 

It is with all possible warmth and earnestness 
that I recommend Titus Pinarius to your favour, 
as one who, not only from a similitude of taste and 
studies, but as he is possessed also of every amiable 
virtue, engages my strongest affection. He comes 
into your province in order to superintend the 
affairs of Dionysius, who, as he is much, I am 
sensible, in your esteem, so no man stands higher 
in mine. Unnecessary, therefore, as I know it to 
be to recommend his interests to your protection, 
yet I cannot forbear doing so : and I doubt not of 
your giving occasion to the very grateful Pinarius 
of sending me a letter of acknowledgment for your 
good offices both to himself and to Dionysius. 
Farewell. 



LETTER II. 

To Decimus Brutus, Consul-elect. 

Poll a i sends me word that an opportunity offers 

of conveying a letter to you ; but at present I have 

„ 10 nothing material to write. All public 

business, indeed, is entirely suspended 

till we shall hear what success the deputies'" have 

met with, from whom we have not yet received any 

intelligence. I will take this occasion, however, of 

telling you, that the senate and the people are 

greatly anxious concerning you, not only as their 

own preservation depends upon yours, but as they 

q The wife of Decimus Brutus. 

r Those mentioned in the preceding letter. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



561 



are extremely solicitous that you should acquit 
yourself with glory. The truth is, you have, in a 
very remarkahle degree, the general affection of the 
whole republic, which confidently hopes that as 
you lately delivered us from one tyrant 3 , so you 
will now free us from the danger of another 1 . 

We are raising troops" in Rome and throughout 
all Italy, if that term may with any propriety be 
employed, where every man eagerly presses to 
enter into the service, — so warmly are the people 
animated with a passion of recovering their liber- 
ties, and such is their abhorrence of the slavery 
they have thus long sustained ! 

We now expect soon to receive an account from 
you not only of your own operations, but of those 
likewise of our common friend Hirtius and of 
Caesar, whom I must particularly call mine. I 
hope, shortly, to see you all three united in the 
general honour of one common victory. For the 
rest, I have only to add (what I had rather you 
sbould learn, however, from the letters of your 
family, and what I hope they are so just as to 
assure you), that I neither do, nor ever shall, 
neglect any opportunity of contributing to the ad- 
vancement of your public honours. Farewell.. 



LETTER III. 

To Plancus". 

The visit I lately received from Furnius w afforded 
me great satisfaction, not only upon his own ac- 
„ 10 count, but more particularly on yours, as 
he painted you so strongly to my mind 
that I could not but fancy, during the whole con- 
versation, that you were actually present. He 
represented to me the heroism you display in the 
military affairs of your province, the equity of 
your civil administration, — the prudence which dis- 
tinguishes every part of your conduct in general, — 
together with what I was by no means indeed a 
stranger to before, the charms of your social and 
friendly qualities. To this he did not forget to 
add, likewise, the singular generosity which you 
have shown in your behaviour towards himself. 
Every one of these articles I heard with pleasure ; 
and, for the last, I am much obliged to you x . 

The friendship I enjoy with your family, my 
dear Plancus, commenced somewhat before you 
were born ; and, as the affection which I conceived 
for you begun from your childhood, so, in your 
more mature years, it was mutually improved into 
the strictest intimacy. These are considerations 
which strongly engage me to favour your interests ; 
which I look upon, indeed, as my own. Merit, 
in conjunction with fortune, have crowned you, 
even thus early in your life, with the highest dis- 
tinctions ; as the diligent exertion of your superior 

s Caesar. * Antony. 

u The senate did not suspend their preparations for war 
notwithstanding the deputation they had sent to Antony. 
On the contrary, Hirtius and Octavius marched into Gaul 
at the head of a considerable army, while Pansa remained 
in Italy, in order to complete the additional troops with 
which he purposed to join them. — Life of Cicero, p. 252. 

▼ See rem. k , p. 551. 

w He was one of the lieutenants of Plancus. 

x Furnius had heen particularly recommended by Cicero 
to the favour of Plancus. See letter 20 of the preceding 
book. 



LETTER IV. 

Plancus to Cicero. 
I am exceedingly obliged to you for your letter b ; 
a favour for which I am indebted, I perceive, to 
a 710 * ne account that Furnius gave of me in 
the conversation you mention. If I have 
not written to you sooner, you must impute it to 
my being informed that you were set out upon 
your expedition into Greece ; and I was not ap- 
prised of your return till a very short time before 
I learned it from your letter. I mention this 
because 1 should think myself deserving of the 
highest reproach if 1 were intentionally guilty of 
an omission even in the slightest office of friendship 

>' During Caesar's usurpation. 

2 See rem. n , p. 552. 

» The civil wars had now continued about seven years. 

l » The preceding epistle. 

O O 



talents has frustrated the opposition of those many 
envious antagonists who vainly endeavoured to 
obstruct your way. And now, if you will be in- 
fluenced by the advice of a man who greatly loves 
you, and who, from a long connexion with you, 
has an equal claim to your regard with the oldest 
of your friends, you will receive all the future 
honours of your life from the republic in its best 
and most constitutional form. There was a season, 
you know (for nothing surely could have escaped 
your discernment), there was a season? when the 
world thought you too compliant with the prevail- 
ing faction of the times ; and I should have thought 
so too if 1 had imagined that your approbation was 
to be measured by your submission. But as I 
knew the sentiments of your heart, I was persuaded 
you had prudently considered the extent of your 
power. Public affairs, however, are at present in 
a far different situation ; and you may now freely 
act in every point as your judgment shall direct. 
The time is shortly approaching when, in conse- 
quence of your present designation, you will enter i 
upon the consular office 2 , — and you will enter 
upon it, my friend, in the prime of your years, with 
the advantage of possessing the noblest and most 
commanding eloquence, and at a period, too, when 
there is the utmost scarcity of such illustrious 
citizens as yourself. Let me conjure you then, by 
the immortal gods, most earnestly to pursue those 
measures that will ensure the highest glory to your 
character. Now there is but one possible method 
of acting towards the republic with this advantage 
to your reputation ; at least, there is but one in 
the present conjuncture, as the commonwealth has 
for so many years a been disturbed by our intestine 
commotions. 

When I write to you in this strain, it is rather 
in compliance with the dictates of my affection 
than as supposing that you stand in need either of 
precepts or admonitions. I am sensible that you 
are sufficiently supplied with reflections of this 
nature from the same source whence I derive them 
myself : it is time, therefore, to put an end to 
what I designed, not as an ostentation of my 
wisdom, but merely as an instance of my friendship. 
I will only add, that you may depend upon the 
most zealous of my services upon every occasion 
wherein I shall imagine your credit and character 
is concerned. Farewell. 



562 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



towards you. The intimacy, indeed, which was 
contracted between you and my father, the early 
esteem I conceived of your merit, together with 
those instances of affection I have received from 
you, supply me with many powerful reasons for 
not failing in the regards I owe you. Be assured, 
therefore, my dear Cicero, there is no man whom 
I am so much disposed to revere as yourself ; as, 
indeed, the great disparity of our ages may well 
justify me in looking up to you with all the sacred 
respect of filial veneration. I received your ad- 
monitions, therefore, as so many dictates of the 
most consummate wisdom ; at the same time that 
I considered them as instances, likewise, of your 
unfeigned sincerity, — for in this respect, I judge 
of your heart by what I feel in my own. If I 
had any doubt, then, what measures to pursue, 
or were inclined to adopt others than those you 
recommend, I should most certainly be deter- 
mined by your judgment, or restrained by your 
advice : but in my present situation can there 
possibly be an inducement to draw me from those 
paths you point out ? The truth is, that whatever 
honourable distinctions I have acquired, either by 
my own industry or by the favours of fortune, 
though far inferior to what your affection represents 
them, yet they want no other lustre, perhaps, but 
that of having been attained with the general ap- 
probation of the commonwealth ; and this even the 
most inveterate of my enemies acknowledge. Be 
assured, then, that the whole of my power, my 
prudence, and my authority, shall ever be exerted 
in the service of the republic. As I am no stranger 
to your sentiments, I am well persuaded that mine 
would never disagree with yours if I had the happi- 
ness of having you so near me as to be able to 
consult them. But though I cannot enjoy this 
very desirable advantage, yet I trust you will never 
have occasion to condemn my conduct. 

I am extremely impatient to learn what is trans- 
acting in the nearer Gaul c , as well as what effect 
the present month d may produce in regard to affairs 
at Rome. In the mean time, I am earnestly la- 
bouring to prevent the people of this province from 
pursuing the example of their neighbours, by taking 
advantage of the public disturbances to throw off 
their allegiance. And should my endeavours be 
attended with the success they deserve, I doubt 
not of being approved, not only by every friend of 
liberty in general, but, what I am most ambitious 
of, by yourself in particular. Farewell, my dear 
Cicero, and love me with an equal return of that 
affection I bear you. 



LETTER V. 

To Plancus. 

The duplicate you sent me of your letter was 

an instance of your obliging care lest I should be 

disappointed of what I so impatiently 

A ' " wished to receive. The contents afforded 

c Where Decimus Brutus commanded, who at this 
time was actually besieged in Modena by Mark Antony : 
a circumstance to which Plancus, 'tis probable, was no 
stranger, though he thought proper to atl'ect ignorance. 

d January, when (lie new OOnsula always entered upon 
their office. The consuls for the present year were Hirtius 
and Pan.sa. 

c The foregoing. 



me a double satisfaction ; and I am at a loss to 
determine whether the friendship you profess for 
myself, or the zeal you discover for the republic 
rendered it most truly acceptable. To speak my 
own opinion, indeed, the public affections are alto- 
gether noble and sublime ; but surely there is 
something more amiably sweet in those of the 
private kind. Accordingly, that part of your letter 
where you remind me of the intimacy in which I 
lived with your father, of the early disposition you 
found in yourself to love me, together with other 
passages to the same friendly purpose, filled my. 
heart with the most exquisite pleasure, as the 
sentiments you profess with regard to the common- 
wealth raised in me the highest satisfaction : and, 
to say truth, I was so much the more pleased with 
the latter, as they were accompanied, at the same 
time, with the former. 

To repeat what I said in the letter to which you 
have returned so obliging an answer, let me not 
only exhort, but entreat you, my dear Plancus, to 
exert your utmost powers in the service of the 
commonwealth. There is nothing that can more 
contribute to the advancement of your glory ; for 
amongst all human honours, none most certainly 
is superior to that of deserving well of one's 
country. Your great good sense and good-nature 
will suffer me, I know, to speak my sentiments to 
you with the same freedom that I have hitherto 
used. Let me again observe then, that the honours 
you have already acquired, though you could not 
indeed have attained to them without merit, yet 
they have principally been owing to fortune, in 
conjunction with the particular circumstances of 
the times. But whatever services you shall per- 
form for the republic in this very critical conjunc- 
ture, will reflect a lustre upon your character, that 
will derive all its splendour from yourself alone. 
It is incredible how odious Antony is become to all 
sorts of people, except those only of the same dis- 
honest views with himself ; but the great hopes and 
expectations of the republic are fixed upon you and 
the army you command. Let me conjure you then, 
in the most solemn manner, not to lose so impor- 
tant an opportunity of establishing yourself in the 
esteem and favour of your fellow-citizens, or, in 
other words, of gathering immortal praise. Believe 
me, it is with all the tenderness of a father that I 
thus admonish you ; that I enter into your interests 
with as much warmth as if they were my own, and 
that my exhortations proceed from the zeal I bear 
for the glory of my friend and the welfare of my 
country. Adieu. 



LETTER VI. 

To Caius Cassius. 
Oh, that you had invited me to that glorious 
feast you exhibited on the ides of March ! Be 
a. u 710. assure( *> I would have suffered none of it 
to have gone off untouched f . Whereas the 
part you unhappily spared, occasions me, above all 
others, more trouble than you can well imagine. I 
must acknowledge, at the same time, that we have 
two most excellent consuls*? : but as to those of 

f Alluding to the conspirators having spared Antony 
when they destroyed Ca;sar. See rem. c , p. 554. 
« Hirtius and Pansa. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



563 



consular rank, there is not one of them who does not 
merit the highest reproach. The senate in general, 
however, exert themselves with spirit, as the lower 
order of magistrates distinguish themselves by their 
singular resolution and zeal. In a word, it is im- 
possible to show a better or more vigorous disposi- 
tion than appears in the populace, not only of 
Rome, but throughout all Italy. But Philippus 
and Piso, on the contrary, whom the senate deputed 
with peremptory orders to Antony h , have executed 
their commission in a manner that raises our 
highest indignation. For notwithstanding that 
Antony refused to comply with every single article 
of the senate's injunctions, yet these unworthy 
deputies had the meanness to charge themselves 
with bringing back the most insolent demands 1 . 
This behaviour of theirs has occasioned all the 
world to have recourse to my assistance, and I am 
become extremely popular in a way wherein popu- 
larity is seldom acquired, I mean, by supporting a 
good cause. 

I am altogether ignorant in what part of the 
world you are at present, as well as of what schemes 
you are either executing or meditating. A report 
prevails that you are gone into Syria, but for this 
we have no certain authority. We can a little more 
depend upon the accounts we receive of Brutus, as 
his distance from us is less remote^. 

It has been remarked here by men of some 
pleasantry, and much indignation against Dola- 
bella, that he has shown himself in too great haste 
to be your successor, as he is most uncivilly set 
out to take possession of your government when 
you have enjoyed it scarce a single month k . The 
case is clear, therefore, say they, that Cassius 
should by no means give him admittance. But to 
be serious ;. both you and Brutus are mentioned 
with the highest applause, as it is generally sup- 
posed that each of you has drawn together an army 
far beyond our expectations. I would add more, if 
I knew with certainty the situation of yourself and 
your affairs ; but I hazard this letter merely upon 
the doubtful credit of common fame. It is with 
great impatience, therefore, that I wait for better 
intelligence from your own hand. Farewell. 

h See rem,. P on letter 1 of this book. 

i " The purport of them was, that the senate should 
assign lands and rewards to all his troops, and confirm all 
the other grants which he and Dolabella had made in 
their consulship ; that all his decrees from Caesar's books 
and papers should be confirmed ; that no account should 
be demanded of the money taken from the temple of Opis, 
&c. On these terms he offered to give up Cisalpine Gaul, 
provided, that he might have the greater Gaul in ex- 
change for five years, with an army of six legions, to be 
completed out of the troops of Decimus Brutus." — Life of 
Cicero, p. 253. 

J Marcus Brutus, when he found it necessary to leave 
Italy, withdrew into Macedonia, where he was, at this 
time, employed in raising forces in support of the republi- 
can cause, 

k The province of Syria had been intended by Caesar for 
Cassius ; but Mark Antony, after the death of Caesar, had 
artfully procured it to be allotted to Dolabella. Accord- 
ingly, the latter left Rome a short time before the expi- 
ration of his consulship the last year, in order to be 
beforehand with Cassius in getting possession of this 
government ; and it is in allusion to this circumstance 
that the humour of the present passage, such as it is, 
consists. 



LETTER VII. 

To Trebonius 1 . 
Would to heaven you had invited me to that 
noble feast which you made on the ides of March ; 
a. u. 710. no renmants > most assuredly, should 
have been left behind 1 ". Whereas the 
part you unluckily spared gives us so much per- 
plexity, that we find something to regret, even in 
the godlike service which you and your illustrious 
associates have lately rendered to the republic. To 
say the truth, when I reflect that it is owing to the 
favour of so worthy a man as yourself, that Antony 
now lives to be our general bane, I am sometimes 
inclined to be a little angry with you for taking 
him aside when Caesar fell n , as by this mean you 
have occasioned more trouble to myself in particu- 
lar than to all the rest of the whole community. 
From the veiy first moment, indeed, that Antony's 
ignominious departure from Romeo had left the 
senate uncontrolled in its deliberations, I resumed 
the spirit which you and that inflexible patriot, 
your father, were wont to esteem and applaud. 
Accordingly, the tribunes of the people having 
summoned the senate to meet on the 20th of De- 
cember, upon other matters, I seized that oppor- 
tunity of taking the whole state of the republic 
into consideration p ; and more by the zeal than the 
eloquence of my speech, I revived the drooping 
spirits of that oppressed assembly, and awakened 
in them all their former vigour. It was owing to 
the ardour with which I thus contended in the 
debates of this day, that the people of Rome first 
conceived a hope of recovering their liberties ; and 
to this great point all my thoughts and all my 
actions have ever since been perpetually directed. 
Thus important, however, as my occupations are, I 
would enter into a full detail of our proceedings, if 
I did not imagine that public transactions of every 
kind are transmitted to you by other hands. From 
them, therefore, you will receive a more particular 
information, whilst I content myself with giving 
you a short and general sketch of our present 
circumstances and situation. I must inform you, 
then, we have a senate that acts with spirit ; but 
that as to those of consular dignity, part of them 

1 He was, at this time, in Asia Minor, of which province 
he was governor. See rem. n , p. 544. 

hi See rem. £ on the preceding letter. 

n As it had been resolved in a council of the conspira- 
tors, that Antony's life should be spared, they did not 
choose he should be present when they executed their 
design upon Caesar, probably lest he should attempt to 
assist his friend, and by that means occasion them to spill 
more blood than they intended. For this reason Trebonius 
held Antony in discourse, at the entrance into the senate, 
till the rest of the conspirators had finished their work. — 
Dio, p. 249 ; Plut. in Vit. Brut. 

o Upon the news that two of the four legions from Brun- 
disium [see rem. n , p. 555] had actually declared for Octa- 
vius, and posted themselves in the neighbourhood of Rome, 
Antony left the city with great precipitation, and putting 
himself at the head of his army, marched directly in order 
to wrest Cisalpine Gaul out "of the hands of Decinms 
Brutus. Cicero, who was at this time in the country, took 
the opportunity of Antony's absence to return to Borne ; 
where he arrived on the 9th of December, in the preceding 
year, about a month or two, 'tis probable, before he wrote 
the present letter. — Life of Cicero, p. 247. 

P It was upon this occasion that Cicero spoke his third 
Philippic. 

2 



504 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



want the courage to exert themselves in the manner 
they ought, and the rest are ill-affected to the 
republic. The death of Servius i is a great loss to us. 
Lucius Cffisar r , though he is altogether in the inte- 
rest of liberty, yet in tenderness to his nephew s , 
does not concur in any very vigorous measure. The 
consuls', in the mean time, deserve the highest 
commendations ; I must mention Decimus Brutus, 
likewise, with much applause. The conduct of 
young Caesar also is equally laudable, and I per- 
suade myself that we have reason to hope he will 
complete the work he has begun. This, at least, 
is certain, that if he had not been so extremely 
expeditious in raising the veteran forces u , and if 
two legions had not deserted to him from Antony's 
army, there is nothing so cruel or so flagitious 
which the latter would not have committed. But 
as these are articles which I suppose you are already 
apprised of, I only just mention them in order to 
confirm them. 

You shall hear farther from me whenever I can 
find a more leisure moment. Farewell. 



LETTER VIII. 

To Caius Cassius. 

It is owing, I imagine, to the difficulty of for- 
warding any despatches during the winter season, 
a u. 710. tnat we have yet received no certain 
intelligence of what you are doing, nor 
even know in what part of the world you are placed. 
It is universally reported, however, (though more, 
I believe, from what people wish, than from what 
they have sufficient grounds to assert,) that you 
have raised an army, and are actually in Syria ; a 
report which the more easily gains credit, as it 
appears to be extremely probable. 

Our friend Brutus has acquired great honour by 
his late glorious and unexpected achievements v ; 
not only as being in themselves extremely desirable 
to the friends of liberty, but from the wonderful 
expedition, likewise, with which he performed 
them. If it be true, therefore, that you are in pos- 
session of those provinces we imagine, the republic 
is very powerfully supported ; as that whole tract 
of country which extends from the nearest coast of 
Greece as far as Egypt is, upon this supposition, 
in the hands of two of the most faithful friends of 
the commonwealth. Nevertheless, if my judgment 
does not deceive me, the event of this war depends 
entirely upon Decimus Brutus ; for if he should be 
able to force his way out of Mutina, (as we have 
reason to hope,) it will, in all probability, be totally 
at an end. There are now, indeed, but few troops 
employed in carrying on that siege, as Antony has 

q Servius Bulplcius, to whom several letters in the fore- 
going part of this collection are addressed. He was one, 
and the most oonalderable, of the three consulars whom 
the senate had lately deputed to Antony; hut, very un- 
fortunately for that embassy, he died just as he arrived in 
Antony's camp. — Philip, ix. 1. 

r > s ee rem. •', p. 643. « Antony. 

' Hlrtius and 1'ansa. " See rem. '. y>. :,;>7. 

v He had lately sent an account to the ssnate of his suc- 
cess against Caius, the brother of Mark Antony, having 
forced him to retire with a few cohorts to Apollonia, and 

secured Macedonia, Ulyrioum, and Greece, together with 

the several armies in those countries, to the interest of the 

republic— Philipp. x. 



sent a large detachment to keep possession of 
Bononia w . In the mean while, our friend Hirtius 
is posted at Claterna*, and Caesar at Forum Cor- 
nelia, each of them at the head of a very consider- 
able army ; at the same time that Pansa is raising 
at Rome a large body of Italian troops. But the 
season of the year has hitherto prevented their 
entering upon action; and, indeed, Hirtius appears, 
by the several letters I have received from him, to 
be determined to take all his measures with the 
utmost precaution. 

Both the Gauls, excepting only the cities of 
Bononia, Rhegium, and Parma, are zealously af- 
fected to the republic, as are also your clients on 
the other side the Po. The senate, likewise, is 
firm in the cause of liberty ; but when I say the 
senate, I must exclude all of consular rank, except 
Lucius Caesar, who, indeed, is faithfully attached 
to the interest of the commonwealth. The death 
of Servius Sulpicius has deprived us of a very 
powerful associate. As for the rest of the consulars, 
part of them.are ill affected to the republic, others 
want spirit to support its cause, and some there 
are who look with envy on those patriot citizens 
whose conduct they see distinguished by the public 
applause. The populace, however, both in Rome 
and throughout all Italy, are wonderfully unani- 
mous in the common cause. I have nothing farther, 
I think, to add, but my wishes that your heroic 
virtues may shine out upon us from yon eastern 
regions, in all their enlivening warmth and lustre. 
Farewell. 



LETTER IX. 

To Lucius Papirius Pcetus z . 
I have received a second letter from you con- 
cerning your friend Rufus : and since you interest 
yourself thus warmly in his behalf, you 
might depend upon my utmost assistance, 
even if he had done me an injury. But I am per- 
fectly sensible, from those letters of his, which you 
communicated to me, as well as from your own, 
how much my welfare has been his concern. I 
cannot, therefore, refuse him my friendly offices, 
not only in regard to your recommendation, which 
has all the weight with me it ought, but in compli- 
ance also with my own inclinations. I must acknow- 
ledge that it was his and your letters, my dear Pec- 
tus, which first put me upon my guard against 
the designs that were formed to destroy me a . I 
afterwards, indeed, received intelligence from seve- 
ral other hands to the same effect, and particularly 
of the consultations that were held concerning me 
both at Aquiniumand Fabrateria b , of which meet- 
ings, I find, you were likewise apprised. One 
would imagine that this party had foreseen how 
much I should embarrass their schemes, by the in- 

w lJologna. x Quaderna. 

y Imola. 7 See rem. <\ p. 432. 

a This prohahly alludes to some design of the veteran 
soldiers against Cicero's life : as it appears, from a letter to 
Atticus, written soon after Caesar's death, that our author 
had been cautioned not to trust himself in Rome, on ac- 
count of the danger to which lie would be exposed from 
the insolence of those troops.— Ad Att. XV. 5. 

b These towns were situated in Latium, or what is now 
called theCaxnpagna di Roma. They still subsist, under 
the names of Aquino and Fabrattrti. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



505 



dustry they employed in order to compass my de- 
struction : and, as I had not the least suspicion of 
their purposes, I might incautiously have fallen into 
their snares, if it had not been for the admonitions 
you sent me, in consequence of the information you 
had received from Rufus. Your friend, therefore, 
wants no advocate with me for my good offices ; 
and I wish the republic may be in so happy a situ- 
ation, as to afford me an opportunity of giving him 
the most substantial proofs of my gratitude. 

But, to dismiss this subject, I am sorry you no 
longer frequent the festive tables of your friends ; 
as you cannot renounce these parties of good cheer 
without depriving yourself of a very exquisite gra- 
tification. And, to tell you the truth, I am sorry, 
likewise, upon another account, as I am afraid you 
will lose the little knowledge you had acquired in 
the art of cookery, and be absolutely at a loss how 
to set forth a tolerable supper. For as you made 
no very considerable improvements in this fashion- 
able science, even when you had many curious mo- 
dels for your imitation, what strange awkward things 
must your entertainments prove now that you en- 
joy no longer the same advantages ! When I in- 
formed Spurinna c of this wonderful revolution in 
the system of your affairs, he shook his prophetic 
head, and declared that it portended some terrible 
disaster to the commonwealth; unless, said he, 
this extraordinary phenomenon be occasioned by 
the present cold weather, and your friend should 
return with the zephyrs to his accustomed train of 
life. But, without a joke, my dear Psetus, I would 
advise you to spend your time in the cheerful 
society of a set of worthy and agreeable friends ; 
as there is nothing, in my estimation, that more 
effectually contributes to the happiness of human 
life. When I say this, I do not mean with respect 
to the sensual gratifications of the palate, but with 
regard to that pleasing relaxation of the mind which 
is best produced by the freedom of social converse, 
and which is always most agreeable at the hour of 
meals. For this reason, the Latin language is 
much happier, I think, than the Greek, in the 
term it employs to express assemblies of this sort. 
In the latter they are called by a word which sig- 
nifies compotations ; whereas, in ours, they are 
more emphatically styled convivial meetings ; in- 
timating that it is in a communication of this na- 
ture that life is most truly enjoyed. You see I am 
endeavouring to bring philosophy to my assistance, 
in recalling you to the tables of your friends ; and, 
indeed, I prescribe them as the best recipe for the 
re -establishment of your health. 

Do not imagine, my friend, from my writing in 
this strain of pleasantry, that I have renounced my 
cares for the republic. Be assured, on the contrary, 
that it is the sole and unintermitted business of my 
life to secure to my fellow-citizens the full posses- 
sion of their liberties, to which end my admoni- 
tions, my labours, and the utmost powers of my 
mind, are, uponalloccasions, unweariedly employed. 
In a word, it is my firm persuasion, that, if I 
should die a martyr to these patriot endeavours, 
I shall finish my days in the most glorious manner. 
Again and again I bid you farewell. 

c A celebrated diviner, who is said to have forewarned 
Cassar of the ides of March Suet, in Vit. Jul. Caes. 81. 



LETTER X. 

Caius Cassius, Proconsul, to Cicero. 

I am to inform you of my arrival in Syria, where 
I have joined the generals Lucius Murcus and 
a u 710 Q uin . tus Crispus d . These brave and wor- 
' thy citizens, having been made acquainted 
with what has lately passed in Rome, immediately 
resigned their armies to my command, and with 
great zeal and spirit co-operate with me in the 
service of the republic. Aulus Allienus has deli- 
vered to me the four legions which he brought from 
Egypt e ; the legion which was commanded by Caeci- 
lius Bassus f has likewise joined me. And now it is 
unnecessary, I am persuaded, that I should exhort 
you to defend the interest both of myself and of 
the commonwealth, to the utmost of your abilities : 
but it may animate your zeal and your hopes, to be 
assured that a powerful army is not wanting to 
support the senate and its friends in the cause of 
liberty. For the rest, I refer you to Lucius Car- 
teius, whom I have directed to confer with you 
upon my affairs. Farewell. 
From my camp at Taricheag, March the 7th. 



u. 710. 



LETTER XL 

Asinius Pollio h to Cicero. 

You must not wonder that you have heard 
nothing from me, in relation to public affairs, since 
the breaking out of the war. Our cou- 
riers have always found it difficult to pass 
unmolested through the forest of Castulo *, but it is 
now more than ever infested with robbers. These 
banditti, however, are by no means the principal 
obstruction to our intercourse with Rome, as the 
mails are perpetually searched and detained by the 

d " They had been prastors, A. TJ. 708. Ca?sar sent the 
former into Syria and the latter into Bithynia, with pro- 
consular authority." — Dio, xlvii. ; Appian. iii. ; Ross. 

e " Allienus was lieutenant to Dolabella, by whom he 
was sent into Egypt in order to conduct those legions into 
Syria. He accordingly executed his commission ; but, 
instead of delivering these troops to Dolabella, he went 
over with them to Cassius." — Quartier. 

f See rem. m , p. 537. 

g Situated upon the lake of Genesaret in Galilee. 

h Asinius Pollio was, in every respect, one of the most 
accomplished persons among his contemporaries. His 
extensive genius was equal to all the nobler branches of 
polite literature, and he gave the most applauded proofs 
of his talents as a poet, an orator, and an historian. He 
united the most lively and pleasing vein of wit and plea- 
santry with all that strength and solidity of understanding 
which is necessary to render a man of weight in the more 
serious and important occasions of life ; in allusion to which 
uncommon assemblage of qualities it was said of him, that 
he was a man omnium horarum. It is to be regretted that 
a character so truly brilliant on the intellectual side, 
should shine with less lustre in a moral view. 'Tis evi- 
dent, however, from the present epistle, that in taking 
part with Ca>sar against Pompey, private considerations 
were of more force with him than public utility, and de- 
termined him to support a cause which his heart con- 
demned. This letter was written from the farther Spain. 
of which province Caesar, a short time before his death, 
had appointed Pollio governor. 

1 A city anciently of great note ; at present it is only a 
small village called Cazorla, in the province of New Cas- 
tile, in Spain. 



566 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



soldiers that are posted for that purpose, by both 
parties, in every quarter of the country. Accord- 
ingly, if I had not received letters by a ship which 
lately arrived in this river J, I should have been 
utterly ignorant of what has been transacted in 
your part of the world. But now that a communi- 
cation by sea is thus opened between us, I shall 
frequently, and with great pleasure, embrace the 
opportunity of corresponding with you. 

Believe me, there is no danger of my being 
influenced by the persuasions of the person you 
mention k . As much as the world abhors him, he 
is far from being detested to that degree which I 
know he deserves ; and I have so strong an aversion 
to the man, that I would upon no consideration 
bear a part in any measures wherein he is con- 
cerned 1 . Inclined both by my temper and my 
studies to be the friend of tranquillity and freedom, 
I frequently and bitterly lamented our late unhappy 
civil wars. But, as the formidable enemies which 
I had among both parties, rendered it altogether 
unsafe for me to remain neuter, so I would not 
take up arms on that side where I knew I should 
be perpetually exposed to the insidious arts of my 
capital adversary" 1 . But though my inclinations 
were not with the party I joined, my spirit however 
would not suffer me to stand undistinguished among 
them : in consequence of which, I was forward 
to engage in all the dangers of the cause I had 
espoused. With respect to Csesar himself, I will 
confess that I loved him with the highest and most 
inviolable affection, — and indeed I had reason. 
For, notwithstanding his acquaintance with me 
commenced so late as when he was in the height of 
his power, yet he admitted me into the same share 
of his friendship, as if I had been in the number of 
those with whom he had lived in the longest inti- 
macy. Nevertheless, as often as I was at liberty 
to follow my own sentiments, I endeavoured that 
my conduct should be such as every honest man 
must approve ; and whenever I was obliged to ex- 
ecute the orders I received, it was in a manner that 
evidently discovered how much my actions were at 
variance with my heart. The unjust odium how- 
ever that I incurred by these unavoidable compli- 
ances, might well teach me the true value of liberty, 
and how wretched a condition it is to live under 
the government of a despotic power. If any at- 
tempts, therefore, are carrying on to reduce us a 
second time under the dominion of a single person, 
whoever that single person may be, I declare my- 
self his irreconcilable enemy. The truth is, there 
is no danger so great that I would not cheerfully 
hazard for the support of our common liberties. 
But the consuls have not thought proper to signify 
to me, either by any decree of the senate, or by 
their private letters, in what manner I should act 

J The Guadalquivir, upon which the city of Corduba, 
from whence this letter is dated, was situated. 

k Antony, as Manutius conjectures, though some of the 
commentators, with greater probability, suppose that he 
means Lepidus. — Ep. Fain. x. 11 et 15. 

1 Nothing could be more insincere, it should seem, than 
these professions, as it is probable that Pollio was at this 
time determined to join Antony. It is certain, at least, 
that he did so soon afterwards, and carried with him the 
troops under his command. — Veil. Tat. ii. (i;i. 

m The person hinted at is, perhaps, Cato, as Pollio had 
early distinguished his enmity towards that most illus- 
trious of Romans, by a public impeachment.— Dial, de 
Cans. Corrupt. Eloquent. 34. 



in the present conjuncture. I have received, indeed, 
only one letter from Pansa since the ides of March; 
by which he advised me to assure the senate, that 
I was ready to employ the forces under my command 
in any service they should require. But this would 
have been a very imprudent declaration at a time 
when Lepidus had professed, in his public speeches, 
as well as in the letters he wrote to all his friends, 
that he concurred in Antony's measures. For 
could I possibly, without the consent of the former, 
find means to subsist my army in their march 
through his provinces ? But, granting that I could 
have surmounted this difficulty, I must have con- 
quered another and a still greater, — as nothing 
less than a pair of wings could have rendered it 
practicable for me to have crossed the Alps, whilst 
every pass was guarded by the troops of Lepidus. 
Add to this that I could by no means convey any 
despatches to Rome, as the couriers were not only 
exposed in a thousand different places to the danger 
of being plundered, but were detained, likewise, by 
the express orders of Lepidus 11 . It is well known, 
however, that I publicly declared at Corduba, that 
it was my resolution not to resign this province 
into any other hands than those which the senate 
should appoint : not to mention how strenuously I 
withstood all the applications that were made to me 
for parting with the thirtieth legion. I could not, 
indeed, have given it up, without depriving myself 
of a very considerable strength for the defence of 
the republic, as there are no troops in the whole 
world that are animated with a braver or more 
martial spirit than those of which this legion is com- 
posed. Upon the whole, I hope you will do me 
the justice to believe, in the first place, that I am ex- 
tremely desirous of preserving the public tranquillity, 
as there is nothing I more sincerely wish than the 
safety of all my fellow-citizens ; and, in the next 
place, that I am determined to vindicate my own 
and my country's rights. 

It gives me greater satisfaction than you can well 
imagine, that you admit my friend into a share of 
your intimacy. Shall I own, nevertheless, that I 
cannot think of him as the companion of your 
walks, and as bearing a part in the pleasantry of 
your conversation, without feeling some emotions 
of envy ! This is a privilege, believe me, which I 
infinitely value, as you shall most assuredly expe- 
rience, by my devoting the whole of my time to 
your company, if ever we should live to see peace 
restored to the republic. 

I am much surprised that you did not mention 
in your letter whether it would be most satisfactory 
to the senate that I should remain in this province, 
or march into Italy. If I were to consider only 
my own ease and safety, I should certainly con- 
tinue here ; but as, in the present conjuncture, 
the republic has more occasion for legions than 
for provinces, (especially as the loss of the latter 
may with great ease be recovered,) I have deter- 
mined to move towards Italy with my troops. For 
the rest, I refer you to the letter I have written to 
Pansa, a copy of which I herewith transmit to you. 
Farewell. 
Corduba, March the 16th. 

n Lepidus was governor of that part of Spain which lay 
nearest to Italy. Seetfrm. ° on letter 14 of this book. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



567 



LETTER XII. 

To Caius Cassius. 

You will receive a full account of the present 
situation of affairs from Tidius Strabo, a person of 
a u 710 S reat merit, and extremely well-affected 
to the republic. Need I add how strong 
his attachment likewise is to yourself, when it thus 
evidently appears by his leaving his family and his 
fortunes in order to follow you? For the same 
reason I forbear to solicit your good offices in 
his behalf, as I am persuaded you will think his 
coming to you a sufficient recommendation to your 
favour. 

If any misfortune should attend our arms, be 
assured that the friends of the republic have no 
other resource left than in you and Marcus Brutus. 
We are at this juncture indeed in the most im- 
minent danger : as it is with great difficulty that 
Decimus Brutus still holds out at Mutina. How- 
ever, if he should be speedily relieved, we may look 
upon victory as our own ; if not, let me repeat it 
again, every friend of liberty will fly for refuge to 
Brutus and to you. May you stand ready, then, 
with all that spirit which is necessary for the full 
and complete deliverance of our distressed country ! 
Farewell. 



LETTER XIII. 

To Plancus. 
The account that Furnius gave us of your dis- 
position towards the republic, afforded the highest 
a.u. 710 satisfaction both to the senate and the 
people. But your letter, which was after- 
wards read in the senate, seemed by no means to 
comport with those sentiments our friend had thus 
represented you as entertaining. At the very time 
indeed when your illustrious colleague is sustaining 
a siege from the lawless crew of the most worthless 
villains, you do not scruple to advise us to peace. 
But if peace is their sincere desire, let them imme- 
diately lay down their arms, and sue for it in a 
proper manner, otherwise they must expect to 
obtain it, not by treaty, be assured, but by the 
sword alone. But I leave it to Furnius and your 
worthy brother, to acquaint you with the reception 
which your letter upon this subject, as well as that 
of Lepidus, met with from the senate. Meanwhile, 
notwithstanding you are well qualified to be your 
own adviser, and that it will soon be in your power 
likewise to have recourse to the faithful and friendly 
counsels of Furnius and your brother ; yet, in com- 
pliance with that affection to which you have so 
many powerful claims, I cannot forbear sending 
you a few admonitions. Believe me, then, my dear 
Plancus, whatever honours you have hitherto 
acquired, (and you have acquired in truth the 
highest,) they will be considered as so many vain 
and empty titles, unless you dignify them by joining 
in the defence both of the liberties of the people 
and the authority of the senate. Let me conjure 
you therefore to separate yourself from those asso- 
ciates with whom you have hitherto been united, 
not by choice indeed, but by the general attraction 
of a prevailing party. It has been the fortune of 
many, as it will probably be yours, to exercise the 
supreme magistracy during times of public com- 
motions ; but not one of this number ever derived 
to himself that esteem and veneration which na- 



turally flow from the consular dignity, who had 
not distinguished his administration by an active 
and zealous regard for the interests of the common- 
wealth. To this end it is necessary that you 
renounce the society of those impious citizens, 
whose principles are far different from your own ; 
that you show yourself the friend, the guide, and 
the protector of all those who are faithfully attached 
to our constitution ; and in fine that you be well 
persuaded that the re-establishment of the public i 
tranquillity consists, not merely in laying down our ■ 
arms, but in being secure from all reasonable ap- 
prehension of their ever being resumed to enslave i 
us again. Thus to think and thus to act, will render I 
your character, both as a consul and a consular, ■ 
most truly illustrious : but if you should steer 
yourself by other maxims and by other measures, 
you will possess those exalted distinctions, not only 
without honour, but with the utmost disgrace. 

And now, if I have expressed my sentiments with 
somewhat more than ordinary seriousness, impute it 
to the zeal of my affection towards you ; assuring 
yourself, at the same time, that you will, undoubt- 
edly, find my advice is founded on truth, if you 
make the experiment in a manner worthy of your 
character. Farewell. 

March the 20th. 



LETTER XIV. 

To Lepidus . 

The singular regard I bear , you, renders it 

greatly my concern that you should be distin- 

7]0 guished with the highest dignities of the 

republic. I cannot, therefore, but regret, 

o Marcus iEmilius Lepidus was descended from one of 
the noblest and most ancient families in Rome, and he 
was himself distinguished with some of the most honour- 
able posts in the republic. He stood high in the confidence 
and friendship of Julius Caesar, who, when he was dicta- 
tor, named him for the master of the horse ; when he was 
consul, in the year 707, declared him his colleague ; and 
who, a short time before his death, appointed him governor 
of the nearer Spain. One of the most elegant of the 
Roman historians has represented Lepidus as void of all 
military virtues, and in every view of his character as 
altogether unworthy of that high station to which fortune 
had exalted him. Accordingly he is described by Shak- 
speare, in the tragedy of Julius Caesar, as 

a slight unmeritable man, 

Meet to be sent on errands. 
But though the poet has been strictly true to history, it 
may be questioned, perhaps, whether the historian has 
been equally faithful to truth. For when one considers 
the great trust which Caesar reposed in Lepidus, his address 
in prevailing with young Pompey, who had made himself 
master almost of all Spain, to renounce his conquests ; 
together with the share he had in forming that celebrated 
league between Antony, Octavius, and himself, which gavo 
him a third part in the division of the whole Roman 
dominions ; is it credible that his talents were destitute of 
lustre ? History, perhaps, may be more reasonably relied 
upon in what it has delivered concerning his moral cha- 
racter ; and it is probable that Lepidus was strongly 
infected with avarice, ambition, and vanity. This at least 
is certain, that he acted towards the senate in the present 
conjuncture with great dissimulation and treachery. At 
the time when this letter was written, he was at the head 
of a very considerable army in the Narbonensian Gaul, 
which Caesar had annexed to the province of Spain, in 
favour of Lepidus.— Pigh. Annal. ii. 451 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 63, 
80 ; Dio, xlv. 275. 



568 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



that you omitted to pay your acknowledgments to 
the senate for those extraordinary honours they 
lately conferred upon you?. 

I am glad you are desirous of composing those 
unhappy dissentions that destroy the tranquillity of 
our country : and if you can effect this good work, 
consistently with the enjoyment of our liberties, it 
will be greatly to your own credit, as well as to the 
advantage of the commonwealth. But if the peace 
you propose is to re-establish a most oppressive 
tyranny, be well assured there is not a man in his 
senses who will not rather renounce his life than 
thus suifer himself to be made a slave. I should 
think, therefore, that your wisest way would be to 
avoid engaging as the mediator of a peace which 
is neither approved by the senate or the people, 
nor indeed by any lover of his country in the whole 
republic. But as this is a truth which you will 
undoubtedly learn from others, I will only add, 
that I hope you will consider, with your usual 
prudence, in what manner it will be best and most 
advisable for you to act. Farewell. 



LETTER XV. 

To Cams Cassius. 
I will not tell you with how much zeal 1 lately 
stood forth, both in the senate and before the 
a u 710 P e °pl e > an advocate for the advancement 
of your honoursi; as it is a circumstance 
which I had rather you should learn from the 
letters of your family, than from my own hand. I 
should easily have carried my point in the former, 
if I had not met with a strenuous opposition from 
Pansa. Nevertheless, after having enforced my 
sentiments in the senate, I made a speech, to the 
same purpose, in an assembly of the people ; to 
which I was introduced by Marcus Servilius, the 
tribune. I urged upon this occasion (and with a 
warmth and vehemence suitable to a popular 
audience) all that I most justly might in your 
favour : and my speech was received with a louder 
and more universal applause than ever was known 
before. I hope you will pardon me that I took 
these steps contrary to the persuasions of your 
mother-in-law ; who was apprehensive they might 
give offence to Pansa. He did not, indeed, forget 
to avail himself of these fears : and he assured the 
people, that even your own family were averse to 
my making this motion. I was by no means, I 
confess, governed by their sentiments in the case : 
as I acted entirely with a view to an interest 
which I have always endeavoured to promote ; the 
interest I mean of the republic in general, as well 

P The senate had lately decreed, that the statue of Le- 
pidus should he erected in the forum, with an inscription, 
in honour of the services he had performed to his country 
hy prevailing with young Pompey to lay down his arms. 
— Philipp. xvi. 4. 

1 Dolabella having entered into Asia Minor, and com- 
mitted great outrages and hostilities in that province, was 
declared, by a general vote of the senate, a public enemy; 
in consequence of which a debate arose concerning the 
person to whom the war to be carried on against Dolabella 
should be intrusted. Cicero moved that a commission 
should be granted to Cassius for that purpose, with the 
most honourable and extensive powers. But his motion 
was overruled by the superior interest of Pansa, who 
seems to have been secretly desirous of obtaining this com- 
mand for himself. — Philipp. xi. 



as with a regard to the advancement of your glory 
in particular. 

There is one article upon which I very largely 
expatiated in the senate, as I afterwards repeated 
it likewise in my speech to the people : and I hope 
your conduct will fully justify what I then said. 
I undertook to assure the public, that you would 
not wait for the sanction of our decrees ; but, 
agreeably to your usual spirit, would, upon your 
own single authority, take such measures as should 
appear expedient to you for the defence of the 
commonwealth. I went even farther, and almost 
ventured to affirm, that you had already acted in 
this manner. The truth of it is, although I was 
not at that time certainly informed either in what 
part of the world you were, or what number of 
troops you were furnished with ; yet I was con- 
fident, I said, that every legion in Asia 1 had sub- 
mitted to your command, and that you had recovered 
that province to the republic. I have only to add 
my wishes, that in every enterprise you shall under- 
take, you may still rise above yourself with superior 
glory. Farewell. 



LETTER XVI. 

Plancus to Cicero. 
I should employ this letter in giving you a full 
explanation of my measures, if I had no other 
710 m ethod of convincing you, that I have 
in every respect conducted myself towards 
the republic agreeably to my own promises, and to 
your persuasions. I have ever been ambitious, 
indeed, of obtaining your esteem, as well as your 
friendship : and if I have wished to secure you for 
my advocate where I have acted wrong, I have 
been no less desirous of giving you occasion to 
applaud me for acting right. But I was going to 
say, that I shorten this letter for two reasons ; the 
first is, because I have entered into an ample detail 
of everything in my public manifesto s ; and the 
next, because you will receive a circumstantial 
account of all that relates to me from Marcus 
Varisidius, a Roman knight, and my particular 
friend, whom I have directed to wait upon you. 
In the mean time, let me protest, that it was not 
without much concern that I saw others anticipate 
me in the good opinion of the republic : but I 
forbore to declare myself, till I should be in a 
condition to effect something worthy of those 
expectations the senate has conceived of me, and 
of that high office 1 I shall shortly bear. And 
should fortune second my endeavours, I hope to 
render such considerable services to the republic, 
that not only the present age shall feel the advan- 
tage of my assistance, but that it shall be remem- 
bered likewise in times to come. Meanwhile, 
that I may pursue these endeavours with the 
greater alacrity, let me entreat your suffrage in 
procuring me those honours which your letter sets 
before my view as incitements of my patriotism ; 
and your interest for this purpose is equal, I well 
know, to your inclination. Take care of your 
health, and give me your friendship in the same 
degree that I sincerely give you mine. 

r Asia Minor. * Bee the next letter. 

1 The consulate, upon which Plancus was to enter the 
following year. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



509 



LETTER XVII. 

Plancus, Consul elect, to the Consuls, the Prcetors, 
the Tribunes, the Senate, and the Commons of 
Rome. 

Before I make any professions with respect to 
my future conduct, I deem it necessary to justify 
myself to those who may think that I have 
a. u. 710. kgjd t k e re p U blic too long in suspense 
concerning my designs". For I would by no means 
have it imagined that I am atoning for my past 
behaviour, when, in fact, I am only seizing the 
first favourable opportunity of publicly declaring a 
resolution which I have long formed. I was in 
no sort ignorant, however, that, at a time of such 
general and alarming confusions, a less deliberate 
discovery of my intentions would have proved most 
to my own private advantage : as I was sensible 
that several of my fellow-citizens had been distin- 
guished with great honours, by a more hasty expli- 
cation of their purposes. But as fortune had 
placed me in such a situation, that I could not 
be earlier in testifying mine without prejudicing 
that cause which I could better serve by concealing 
them, I was willing to suffer for a season in the 
good opinion of the world ; as I preferred tbe 
interest of the public to that of my own reputation. 
That this was the genuine motive of my proceed- 
ings, cannot reasonably, I trust, be questioned. 
For, can it be supposed that a man in my prosper- 
ous circumstances, and of my well-known course 
of life, whose utmost hopes too were upon the very 
point of being crowned v , could be capable either of 
meanly submitting to the destructive ambition of 
another, or impiously cherishing any dangerous 
schemes of his own ? But it required some time, 
as well as much pains and expense, to render my- 
self able to perform those assurances I purposed 
to give to the republic, and to every friend of her 
cause ; that I might not approach with mere empty 
professions to the assistance of my country, but 
with the power of performing an effectual service. 
To this end, as the army under my command had 
been strongly and frequently solicited to revolt, it 
was necessary to persuade them that a moderate 
reward, conferred by the general voice of the com- 
monwealth, was far preferable to an infinitely 
greater from any single hand. My next labour was 
to convince those many cities which had been 
gained the last year by largesses and other dona- 
tions, that these were obligations of no validity, 
and that they should endeavour to obtain the same 
benefactions from a better and more honourable 
quarter. I had still the farther task to prevail 
with those who commanded in the neighbouring 
provinces, to join with the more numerous party 
in a general association for the defence of our 
common liberties, rather than unite with the 
smaller number, in hopes of dividing the spoils of 
a victory that must prove fatal to the whole world. 
Add to this, that I was obliged to augment my own 
troops, and those of my auxiliaries, that I might 
have nothing to fear, whenever I should think 
proper, contrary to the inclination of some about 
me, openly to avow the cause which it was my 
resolution to defend. Now, I shall never be 

" See rem. k , p. 551. 

v Alluding to his being to enter the next year on the 
consular office. 



ashamed to acknowledge, that, in order to bring 
these several schemes to bear, I submitted, though 
very unwillingly, indeed, to the mortification of 
dissembling the intentions I really had, and of 
counterfeiting those which I certainly had not : as 
the fate of my colleague w had taught me how dan- 
gerous it is for a man who means well to his 
country, to divulge his resolutions ere he is suffi- 
ciently prepared to carry them into execution. For 
this reason it was that I directed my brave and 
worthy lieutenant, Caius Furnius, to represent to 
you, more fully than I thought prudent to explain 
in my despatches, those measures which seemed 
necessary for the preservation both of this province 
and of the republic in general, as being the more 
concealed method of conveying my sentiments to 
you upon that subject, as well as the safer with 
respect to myself. 

It appears, then, that I have long been secretly 
attentive to the defence of the commonwealth. But 
now that, by the bounty of the gods, I am in every 
respect better prepared for that purpose, I desire 
to give the world, not only reason to hope well of 
my intentions, but clear and undoubted proofs of 
their sincerity. 

I have five legions in readiness to march ; all of 
them zealously attached to the republic, and dis- 
posed, by my liberalities, to pay an entire obedience 
to my orders. The same disposition appears in 
every city throughout this province ; and they 
earnestly vie with each other in giving me the 
strongest marks of their duty. Accordingly, they 
have furnished me with as considerable a body of 
auxiliary forces, both horse and foot, as they could 
possibly have raised for the support of their own 
national liberties. As for myself, I am ready either 
to remain here, in order to protect this province, 
or to march wheresoever else the republic shall 
demand my services. I will offer yet another 
alternative ; and either resign my troops and go- 
vernment into any hands that shall be appointed, 
or draw upon myself the whole weight of the war ; 
if by these means I may be able to establish the 
tranquillity of my country, or even retard those 
calamities with which it is threatened. 

If, at the time that I am making these declara- 
tions, our public disturbances should happily be 
composed, I shall rejoice in an event so. advan- 
tageous to the commonwealth, notwithstanding the 
honour I shall lose by being too late in the tender 
of my services x . But, on the contrary, if I am 
early enough in my offers to bear a full part in all 
the dangers of the war, let me recommend it -to 
every man of justice and candour to vindicate me 
against the malevolence of those whom envy may 
prompt to asperse my character. 

In my own particular, I desire no greater reward 
for my services than the satisfaction of having con- 
tributed to the security of the republic. But I 
think myself bound to recommend those brave and 



w Decimus Brutus. To what particular circumstance 
of his conduct Plancus alludes, the history of these times 
does not discover. Perhaps he may only mean, in general, 
that Decimus had imprudently drawn upon himself the 
siege of Modena before he had made the proper dispositions 
against an attack. 

* This passage sufficiently discovers the true motive of 
Plancus's present declarations ; as they appear evidently 
to have flowed from some reason he had to believe, that 
the contest between Antony and the senate was likely to 
be adjusted in an amicable manner. 



570 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



worthy men to your especial favour, who, partly in 
compliance with my persuasion, but much more 
in confidence of your good faith, would not suffer 
themselves to be prevailed upon by all the appli- 
cations that have been made, both to their hopes 
and their fears, to depart from their duty to the 
commonwealth. 



LETTER XVIII. 

To Plancus. 
Although I had received a very full account 
from our friend Furnius of your disposition with 
a u 710 re & ar( l t° the republic, and of the mea- 
sures you were meditating in its defence, 
yet the perusal of your letter 9 afforded me a still 
clearer view into the whole plan of your patriot 
purposes. Notwithstanding, then, that you should 
not have an opportunity of executing your projected 
services, as the fate of the commonwealth, which 
depends upon a single battle, will probably be 
decided ere this reaches your hands ; yet you have 
acquired, nevertheless, great and universal applause 
from what the world has been informed of your 
general good intentions. Accordingly, had either 
of the consuls been in Rome 2 when your despatches 
arrived, the senate would have declared, and in 
terms I am persuaded extremely to your advan- 
tage, the sense it entertains of your zealous and 
acceptable preparations in their cause. The proper 
season, however, for your being rewarded with 
honours of this kind, is, in my opinion at least, 
so far from being elapsed, that, on the contrary, it 
seems to be scarce fully arrived : as those distinc- 
tions alone appear to me to deserve the name of 
honours that are conferred by our country, not in 
expectation of services to come, but in just retri- 
bution to those that have effectually been performed. 
Believe me, if any form of government shall subsist 
amongst us where merit can hope to be distin- 
guished, you will shine out with all the most illus- 
trious dignities it can bestow. But nothing of this 
kind (let me repeat it again) can justly be called an 
honour, but what is given, not as the incentive of 
an occasional service, but as the recompense of a 
constant and uniform course of patriotism. Be it 
then your earnest endeavour, my dear Plancus, to 
acquire these well-merited rewards, by advancing 
to the relief of your colleague a ; by improving that 
wonderful unanimity which appears in every pro- 
vince for the support of the common cause, and by 
giving all possible succour to your country in 
general. Be persuaded that I shall always be 
ready to assist your schemes with my best advice, 
and to promote your honours with my utmost 
interest : in a word, that I shall act, upon every 
occasion wherein you are concerned as one who is 
most sincerely and most warmly your friend. I am 
so, indeed, not only from that intercourse of affec- 
tionate good offices by which we have been long 
mutually united, but from the love I bear likewise 
to my country ; in tenderness to which I am more 
anxious for your life than for my own. Farewell. 
March the 30th. 



y The foregoing letter to the senate. 

z " The two consuls, Ilirtius and Pansa, were both in 
Gaul, and waiting to attempt a decisive battle with An- 
tony, in order to deliver Decimus Brutus from the danger 
he was in at Modena." — Ross. 

a Decimus Brutus. 



LETTER XIX. 

To Cornificius. 

I agree with you in thinking that those who 
were concerned in the design upon Lilyb8eum b 
a u 710 Reserved to have been executed upon the 
spot. But you spared them, it seems, in 
the apprehension that the world would condemn 
you as too freely indulging a vindictive spirit ; yet, 
as well might you have been apprehensive, my friend, 
that the world would condemn you for acting too 
agreeably to your patriot character. 

I very gladly embrace your overtures of renew- 
ing that association with you, for the defence of 
the republic, in which I was formerly engaged with 
your father ; and I am persuaded it is an associa- 
tion, my dear Cornificius, in which we shall ever be 
united. It is with much pleasure, likewise, that I 
find you esteem it unnecessary to send me any 
ceremonious acknowledgments of my services : 
formalities, indeed, would ill agree with that inti- 
macy which subsists between us. 

If the senate were ever holden in the absence of 
the consuls, unless upon some very sudden and 
extraordinary occasion, it would have been more 
frequently summoned in order to concert proper 
measures for the support of your authority. But 
as neither Hirtius nor Pansa is in Rome, no decree 
can at present be procured, in relation to the 
several sums of two millions , and of seventy mil- 
lions d of sesterces which you mention. I think, 
however, that you are sufficiently authorised to raise 
this money by way of loan, in virtue of that general 
decree of the senate by which you were confirmed 
in your government. 

I imagine you are informed of the state of our 
affairs, by those to whom it properly belongs to 
send you the intelligence. As for myself, I con- 
ceive great hopes that things will take a favourable 
turn. I am not wanting, at least, in my utmost 
vigilance and efforts for that purpose : and I am 
resolutely waging war against every foe to the re- 
public. The recovery of our liberties does not 
seem, indeed, even wow, to be a matter of great 
difficulty : I am sure it would have been perfectly 
easy, if some persons had acted in the manner they 
ought. Farewell. 



LETTER XX. 

To Plancus. 
It is principally for the sake of my country that 
ought to rejoice in the very powerful succours 
with which you have strengthened the 
republic, at a juncture when it is well- 
nigh reduced to the last extremity. I protest, 
however, by all my hopes of congratulating you on 
the victorious deliverance of the commonwealth, 
that a considerable part of the joy which I feel 
upon this occasion, arises from the share I take in 
your glory. Great, indeed, is the reputation you 
have already acquired, and great I am persuaded 
will be the honours that will hereafter be conferred 
upon you : for assure yourself, nothing could make 



u. 710. 



t> A city in Sicily, opposite to the coast of Libj r a in Africa. 
The particulars of the affair alluded to, as well as the per- 
sons concerned in it, are unknown. 

c About 16,000/. of our money. d About 560,000/. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



571 



a stronger impression upon the senate than your late 
letter e to that assembly. It did so, both with 
respect to those very important services which it 
brought us an account that you had performed, and 
with regard to that strength of sentiment and 
expression with which it was drawn up. It con- 
tained nothing, however, that was in the least 
unexpected to myself; as I was not only perfectly 
well acquainted with your heart, and had not for- 
gotten the promises you had given me in your 
letters, but as I had received from Furnius a full 
information of all your , designs. These, indeed, 
appeared to the senate much beyond what they 
had allowed themselves to hope : not that they ever 
entertained the least doubt of your disposition, but 
because they were by no means sufficiently apprised 
either of what you were in a condition to effect, or 
whither you purposed to march. It was with infi- 
nite pleasure, therefore, that I read the letter which 
Marcus Varisidius delivered to me on your part. 
I received it on the 7th of this month, in the morn- 
ing, amidst a large circle of very worthy citizens, 
who were attending in order to conduct me from 
my house : and I immediately gave them a share 
in my joy. Whilst we were mutually congratulat- 
ing each other upon this happy occurrence, Muna- 
tius came to pay me his usual "morning visit : to 
whom I likewise communicated your letter. It 
was the first notice he had received of an express 
being arrived from you : as Varisidius, in pursuance 
of your directions, did not deliver any of his de- 
spatches till he had first waited upon me. A short 
1 time, however, after Munatius had left me, he 
returned with your letter to himself, together also 
with that which you wrote to the senate. We 
thought proper to carry the latter immediately to 
Cornutus ; who, as praetor of the city, supplies the 
office of the consuls in their absence, agreeably, 
you know, to an ancient and established custom. 
The senate was instantly summoned ; and the 
expectation that was raised by the general report of 
an express being arrived from you, brought toge- 
ther a very full assembly. As soon as your letter 
was read, it was objected that Cornutus had not 
taken the auspices in a proper manner ; and this 
scruple was confirmed by the general sentiments of 
our college f . In consequence of this, the senate 
was adjourned to the following day ; when I had a 
very warm contest with Servilius, who strenuously 
opposed the passing of any decree to your honour. 
For this purpose he had the interest to procure 
his own motion to be first proposed to the senate s ; 
which being rejected, however, by a great majority, 
mine was next taken into consideration. But when 
the senate had unanimously agreed to it, Publius 
Titius h , at the instigation of Servilius, interposed 
his negative. The farther deliberation upon this 
affair was postponed, therefore, to the next day : 
when Servilius came prepared to support an oppo- 

e The letter here mentioned seems to have been a sub- 
sequent one to that which stands the 17th in the present 
book. 

f See rem. a, p. 391. 

S The senate could not enter into any debate unless the 
subject of it was proposed to them in form by some of the 
magistrates, who had the sole privilege of referring any 
question to a vote, or of dividing the house upon it.— Mid- 
dleton on the Rom. Sen. p. 155. 

h One of the tribunes. It has already been observed, that 
those magistrates had a power of putting a stop to the pro- 
ceedings of the senate by their single negative. 



sition, which, in some sort, might be considered as 
injurious to the honour even of Jupiter himself ; as 
it was in the Capitol* that the senate, upon this 
occasion, was assembled. I leave it to your other 
friends to inform you in what manner I mortified 
Servilius, and with how much warmth I exposed 
the contemptible interposition of Titius. But this 
I will myself assure you, that the senate could not 
possibly act with greater dignity and spirit, or show 
a stronger disposition to advance your honours, 
than it discovered upon this occasion. Nor are 
you less in favour with the whole city in general : 
as, indeed, all orders and degrees of men amongst 
us remarkably concur in the same common zeal for 
the deliverance of the republic, Persevere then, my 
friend, in the glorious course upon which you have 
entered : and let nothing less than immortal fame 
be the object of your well-directed ambition. De- 
spise the false splendour of all those empty honours 
that are short-lived, transitory, and perishable. 
True glory is founded upon virtue alone ; which is 
never so illustriously distinguished as when it dis- 
plays itself by important services to our country. 
You have at this time a most favourable opportu- 
nity for that purpose ; which, as you have already 
embraced, let it not slip out of your hands till you 
shall have employed it to full advantage ; lest it be 
said, that you are more obliged to the republic than 
the republic is obliged to you. As, for my own 
part, you will always find me ready to contribute 
to the advancement as well as to the support of 
your dignities : indeed, it is what I owe not only 
to our friendship, but to the commonwealth, which 
is far dearer to me than life itself. 

Whilst I was employing my best services for the 
promotion of your honours, I received great plea- 
sure in observing the prudence and fidelity which 
Titus Munatius exerted for the same purpose. I 
had experienced those qualities in him upon other 
occasions : but the incredible diligence and affec- 
tion with which he acted for your interest in this 
affair, showed them to me in a still stronger and 
more conspicuous point of view. Farewell. 

April the 11th. 

i The Capitol was a temple dedicated to Jupiter, and the 
most considerable structure of the sacred kind in all Rome. 
The ruins of this celebrated edifice are still to be seen. 
None of the commentators have taken notice of the indi- 
rect compliment which Cicero here pays to Plancus, 
which seems, however, to deserve a particular explanation. 
The Capitol was held in singular veneration, as being built 
upon the spot which Jupiter was supposed to have chosen 
for the visible manifestation of his person. In consequence 
of this popular superstition, both Horace and Virgil often 
speak of the prosperity and duration of the Capitol as a 
circumstance upon which the fortune of the whole empire 
depended : — • 

Stet Capitolium 

Fulgens, triumphatisque possit 
Roma ferox dare jura Medis.— Hor. Od. iii. 3, 42. 

Dum domus iEnei Capitoli immobile saxum 
Accolet, imperiumque Pater Romanus habebit. 

Mn. ix. 448. 
Cicero, therefore, by a very artful piece of flattery, insi- 
nuates, that the opposition Servilius made to the honours 
which the senate intended to have paid to Plancus, was, 
in effect, an affront to that supreme and guardian divinity 
in whose temple the transaction passed, as being contrary 
to the interest of a republic which was distinguished by 
Jupiter himself with his immediate presence. — Vide JEn. 
viii. 340'. 



572 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XXI. 

To Cornificius. 
My friendship with Lucius Lamia is well known, 
I am persuaded, not only to yourself, who are 
acquainted with all the circumstances of 
my life, but to every Roman in general. 
It most conspicuously appeared, indeed, to the 
whole world, when he was banished by the consul 
GabiniusJ, for having, with so remarkable a spirit 
of freedom and fortitude, risen up in my defence k . 
Our friendship, however, did not commence from 
that period : it' was from an affection of a much 
earlier date, that he was induced thus generously to 
expose himself to every danger in my cause. To 
these his meritorious services, I must add, that 
there is no man whose company affords me a more 
true and exquisite entertainment. After what I 
have thus said, you will think it needless, surely, 
that I should use much rhetoric in recommending 
him to your favour. You see the just reason I 
have for giving him so large a share of my affection : 
whatever terms, therefore, the strongest friendship 
can require upon an occasion of this nature, let 
your imagination supply for me in the present. I 
will only assure you, that your good offices to the 
agents, the servants, and the family of Lamia, in 
every article wherein his affairs in your province 
shall require them, will be a more acceptable in- 
stance of your generosity than any you could con- 
fer in my own personal concerns. I am persuaded, 
indeed, from your great penetration into the cha- 
racters of men, that without my recommendation 
you would be perfectly well disposed to give him 
your best assistance. I must confess, at the same 
time, I have heard that you suspect him of having 
signed some decree of the senate injurious to your, 
honour. But I must assure you, in the first place, 
that he never signed any during the administration 
of those consuls ' ; and, in the next, that almost all 
the decrees which were pretended to be passed at 
that time, were absolutely forged. The truth is, 
you might just as reasonably suppose I was con- 
cerned in that decree to which my name was sub- 
scribed, relating to Sempronius ; though, in fact, 
I was then absent from Rome, and complained, I 
remember, of the injury that had been done me, in 
a letter which I wrote to you upon the occasion. 
But not to enter farther into this subject ; I most 
earnestly entreat you, my dear Cornificius, to con- 
sider the interest of Lamia, in all respects, as 
mine, and to let him see that my recommendation 
has proved of singular advantage to his affairs : 
assuring yourself that you cannot, in any instance, 
more effectually oblige me. Farewell. 



LETTER XXII. 

To the same. 

Cornificius delivered your letter to me on the 

17th of March, about three weeks, as he told me, 

after he had received it from your hands. 

a. u. 7 • rji^g sena t e did not assemble either on 



J See rem. % p. 369. 

k When Cicero was persecuted by Clodius. 
1 It is altogether uncertain to what consuls Cicero alludes : 
Manutius supposes, to Antony and Dolabclla. 



that day or the next ? however, on the 9th they 
met, when I defended your cause in a very full 
house, and with no unpropitious regards from Mi- 
nerva" 1 . I may with peculiar propriety say so, as 
the statue of that guardian goddess of Rome, which 
I formerly erected in the Capitol", and which had 
lately been thrown down by a high wind, was at 
the same time decreed to be replaced. Your let- 
ter, which Pansa read to the senate, was much 
approved, and afforded great satisfaction to the 
whole assembly. It fired them, at the same time, 
with general indignation against the impudent 
attempts of the horrid Minotaur, for so I may 
well call those combined adversaries of yours, Cal- 
visius and Taurus °. It was proposed, therefore, 
that the censure of the senate should pass upon 
them ; but that motion was overruled by the more 
merciful Pansa, However, a decree was voted 
upon this occasion extremely to your honour. 

As for my own good offices in your favour, be 
assured, my dear Cornificius, they have not been 
wanting from the first moment I conceived a hope 
of recovering our liberties. Accordingly, when I 
laid a foundation, for that purpose, on the 20th of 
December last?, while the rest of those who ought 
to have been equally forward in that work, stood 
timidly hesitating in what manner to act, I had a 
particular view to the preserving you in your pre- 
sent post ; and to this end I prevailed with the 
senate to agree to my motion concerning the 
continuance of the proconsuls in their respective 
provinces. But my zeal in your cause did not 
terminate here, and I still continued my attacks 
upon that person, who, in contempt of the senate, 
as well as most injuriously to you, had, even whilst 
he himself was absent from Rome, procured your 
government to be allotted to him. My frequent, 
or, to speak more properly, my incessant, remon- 
strances against his proceedings, forced him, much 
against his inclinations, to enter Rome, where he 
found himself obliged to relinquish the hopes of 
an honour which he thought himself no less sure of 
than if it had been in his actual possession. It 
gives me great pleasure that these my just and 
honest invectives against your adversary, in con- 
junction with your own exalted merit, have secured 
you in your government, as I rejoice extremely, 
likewise, in the distinguished honours you have 
there received. 

I very readily admit of your excuse in regard to 
Sempronius, well knowing that your conduct upon 
that occasion may justly be imputed to those errors 



111 It was a sort of proverbial expression among the 
Romans, when they spoke of any successful undertaking, 
to say that it was carried on «« not without the approbation 
of Minerva." 

n " Cicero, a little before his retreat into banishment, 
took a small statue of Minerva, which had long been 
reverenced in his family as a kind of tutelar deity, and 
carrying it to the Capitol, placed it in the temple of 
Jupiter, under the title of Minerva, the guardian of the 
city.'' — Life of Cicero, p. 92. 

o The Minotaur was a fabulous monster which the poets 
describe as half man half bull. Cicero, therefore, in allu- 
sion to the name of Taurus, who had joined with Calvisius 
in some combination against Cornificius, jocosely gives 
them the appellation of the Minotaur. 

P When he spoke his third and fourth Philippic orations, 
wherein Cicero endeavoured, amongst other articles, to 
animate the senate and the people to vigorous measures 
against Antony. 






TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



573 



to which we were all equally liable, whilst we trod 
the dark and dubious paths of bondage. I myself, 
indeed, the grave inspirer of your counsels, and 
the firm defender of your dignities, even I, my 
friend, was injudiciously hurried away by my 
indignation at the times, when, too hastily despair- 
ing of liberty, I attempted to retire into Greece i. 
But the Etesian winds, like so many patriot citi- 
zens, refused to waft me from the commonwealth, 
whilst Auster, conspiring in their designs, collected 
his whole force, and drove me back again to Rhe- 
gium. From thence I returned to Rome, with all 
the expedition that sails and oars could speed me, 
and, the very next day after my arrival, I showed 
the world that I was the only man, amidst a race 
of the most abject slaves, that dared to assert his 
freedom and independency r . I inveighed, indeed, 
against the measures of Antony with so much spirit 
and indignation, that he lost all manner of patience ; 
and pointing the whole rage of his bacchanalian 
fury at my devoted head, he at first endeavoured 
to gain a pretence of assassinating me in the 
senate ; but that project not succeeding, his next 
resource was to lay wait for my life in private. 
But I extricated myself from his insidious snares, 
and drove him, all reeking with the fumes of his 
nauseous intemperance, into the toils of Octavius s . 
That excellent youth drew together a body of 
troops, in the first place, for his own and my par- 
ti An account of this intended voyage lias already been 
given in a former note. See rem. ', p. 551. 

r This seems to allude to his having refused to pay 
obedience to a summons from Antony, to attend a meet- 
ing of the senate which was held on that day. See rem. 
s, p. 553. 

s Octavius, as soon as he returned into Italy, after the 
death of Caesar, endeavoured to secure Cicero in his inte- 
rest, as Cicero appeared no less forward to embrace the 
friendship of Octavius. They both of them, indeed, had 
one of the strongest of all motives, perhaps, for a mutual 
coalition ; as there is nothing in which men seem to unite 
more amicably, than in hunting down the same common 
foe. The league, however, into which Cicero entered with 
Octavius, extended no farther at first than to a matter of 
mere civil controversy ; and he only engaged to support 
Octavius in his claim of part of Caesar's estate, which 
Antony, it was alleged, injuriously withheld from him. 
But even this was going a greater length than a true 
patriot could prudently have ventured: for though the 
contest between Antony and Octavius, with respect to 
the money in question, was altogether personal, yet " by 
natural consequence (as the accurate observer upon the epis- 
tles between Cicero and Brutus justly remarks) it became a 
matter of more extensive concern. In the first place, it 
was joined with the succession to the name of Ca?sar, 
which was looked upon by the chiefs of the Caesarian party 
as an earnest of the continuance of the public settlement 
made by Caesar in the person of Octavius ; and, on the 
same account, it was always suspected by the more dis- 
cerning republicans. In the next place, it gave Octavius 



ticular defence ; and in the next, for that of the 
republic in general ; which, if he had not happily 
raised, Antony, in his return from Brundisium, 
would have spread desolation, like a wasting pes- 
tilence, around the land. What followed I need 
not add, as I imagine you are well apprised of 
all that has happened subsequent to that period. 
To return, then, to what gave occasion to this 
digression, let me again assure you, that I am 
perfectly well satisfied with your excuse concerning 
Sempronius. The truth is, it was impossible to 
act with any determined steadiness and uniformity 
in times of such total anarchy and confusion. 
" But other days," to use an expression of Terence, 
"are now arrived, and other measures are now 
required." Come, then, my friend, let us sail 
forth together, and even take our place at the 
helm. All the advocates of liberty are embarked 
in one common bottom ; and it is my utmost en- 
deavour to steer them right. May prosperous 
gales then attend our voyage ! But, whatever 
winds may arise, my best skill, most assuredly, 
shall not be wanting : and is it in the power of 
patriotism to be answerable for more ? In the 
mean time, let it be your care to cherish in your 
breast every generous and exalted sentiment, 
remembering always that your true glory must 
ever be inseparably connected with the republic. 
Farewell. 

the plausible occasion of being the distinguished assertor 
of Caesar's acts, and of the full execution of all his bequests, 
by which means he drew upon himself the eyes of all the 
veterans, the military force of the empire, and interested 
the whole populace of Rome in his cause, since it was the 
common cause of all who were expecting with impatience 
the effect of Caesar's liberality." However, had Cicero's 
engagements with Octavius ended here, his conduct might 
have been excused, at least, though it certainly could not 
have been justified. But when he afterwards armed Octa- 
vius with the power and the dignities of the state ; when 
he trusted (as the excellent author of the observations on 
his life ingeniously expresses it) " the last stake of liberty 
in the hands of a man who had so great temptations to 
betray it," he seems clearly to have acted in contradiction 
to the sentiments of his heart, and to have sacrificed the 
cause of the republic to the hatred he bore to Antony. 
Plutarch expressly assigns this as Cicero's motive for 
declaring in favour of Octavius, which, indeed, is abun- 
dantly confirmed by his letters to Atticus. It appears 
from tbese that there was so little difference, with respect 
to the republican interest, whether Antony or Octavius 
was at the head of affairs, that neither Atticus nor Cicero 
could determine in that view which to prefer :—" Valde 
tibi assentior," says our author to his friend, " si multum 
possit Octavianus, multo firmius acta tyranni comproba- 
tum iri, quam in Telluris : atque id contra Brutum fieri. 
Sin autemvincitur,videsintolerabilem Antonium, ut quern 
velis nescias."— Ad Att. xvi. 14 ; Plut. in Vit. Brut. ; Tun- 
stars Observ. on the Epist. between Brut, and Cic. p. 132 ; 
Observ. on the Life of Cic. p. 50. 



574 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



BOOK XIV. 



LETTER I. 



Galba* to Cicero. 
On the 15th of this month, the day on which 
Pansa intended to join the army of Hirtius, Antony 

710 drew out of k is lines tne second and 
" ' thirty-fifth legions, together with his own 
praetorian cohort, and that of Silanus u ; both which 
were composed of the Evocati v . I happened, at 
this time, to be in Pansa's army, having been sent 
a hundred miles express, in order to hasten his 
march. Antony advanced towards us with these 
troops, in the supposition that our forces consisted 
only of four new-raised legions ; whereas Hirtius, 
the better to secure our junction, had taken ad- 
vantage of the preceding night to reinforce us with 
the martial legion, which I generally commanded, 
as also with two praetorian cohorts. These regi- 
ments, upon the very first appearance of Antony's 
cavalry, could by no means be restrained from 
engaging ; so that we were under an absolute 
necessity of following them to the charge. Antony, 
in order to deceive us into a belief that none of his 
legions were with him, had posted them at Forum 
Gallorum w , and only appeared with his horse 
and light-armed troops in view. Pansa, when he 
saw that, contrary to his inclination, the martial 
legion had rushed on to the attack, gave directions 
that two of his new-raised legions, which were 
behind, should immediately come up. As soon as 
we had passed the woods and a morass, we. formed 
in order of battle with twelve cohorts x ; the other 
two legions I just now mentioned not being yet 
arrived. Antony observing this, drew all his forces 
out of the village, and instantly began the engage- 
ment. Both sides maintained the first onset with 
the most obstinate bravery ; though, indeed, our 
right wing, in which I commanded eight cohorts 
of the martial legion, at the very beginning of the 
action, repulsed Antony's thirty-fifth legion, and 
pursued them above ****y paces out of the field. 
But I no sooner observed the enemy's cavalry 
attempting to surround the wing from which I had 
advanced, than I endeavoured to rejoin it ; order- 
ing, at the same time, my light-armed troops to 
engage Antony's Moorish horse, lest they should 
fall upon us in our rear. But whilst I was 
attempting to regain my post, I found myself in 
the midst of the enemy's troops, and perceived 
Antony himself at a small distance behind me. 

t He had been one of Caesar's lieutenants in Gaul ; but 
not being favoured by bim in his pursuit of the consul- 
ship, he joined in the conspiracy with Brutus and Cas- 
sius. He was great-grandfather to the emperor Galba. — 
Quartier. 

i He was military tribune in the army of Lepidus, and 
by the secret connivance, if not by the express orders, 
of that general, had conducted a body of troops to the 
assistance of Antony, in the siege of Modena. — Dio, xlvi. 
p. 336. 

▼ See rem. a , p. 403. 

w NowcalledCflste^fmwco.alsrnail village on theiEmi- 
lian Way between Modena and Bologna. 

* A cohort consisted of about four or five hundred men. 

y " The common editions add here quingentos, but it is 
not found either in Dr. Mead's MS. or any other authority." 
— Res.-. 



Upon this, throwing my shield across my shoulders, 
I galloped full speed towards one of our new- 
raised legions, which I saw advancing from the 
camp ; the enemy, at the same time pursuing me 
on the one side, and our own men aiming their 
pikes at me on the other ; but, as the latter soon 
discovered who I was, I had the very extraordinary 
good fortune to escape. Caesar's praetorian cohort 2 , 
which was posted on the iEmilian road, made a 
very long and vigorous resistance. But our left 
wing, in which were two cohorts of the martial 
legion, together with the praetorian cohort, and 
which formed indeed the weakest division of our 
army, began to give ground, being hemmed in by 
Antony's cavalry, in which he is extremely strong. 
As soon as all our troops had made good their 
retreat, I began to think of mine, and was the 
last that entered our camp. Antony, considering 
himself as master of the field, imagined he could, 
likewise, take possession of our camp ; but, after 
an unsuccessful attempt, he retired with great loss. 

As soon as Hirtius was informed of what had 
passed, he put himself at the head of twenty vete- 
ran cohorts, and meeting Antony in his return 
from the attack of our camp, engaged him upon 
the very spot where our action had just before 
happened, and entirely defeated his army. About 
ten o'clock that night, Antony, with his cavalry, 
regained his camp near Mutina ; as Hirtius retired 
to that which Pansa had quitted in the morning, 
and in which he had left the two legions that 
repulsed Antony. 

The enemy have lost the greatest part of their 
veteran troops. But this advantage was not to be 
obtained without a loss, likewise, on our side ; the 
praetorian cohorts, together with the martial legion, 
having somewhat suffered in this action. We have 
taken two legionary standards 3 , together with sixty 
others ; and, upon the whole, have gained a very 
considerable victory. Farewell. 

From the camp, April the 20th, 



LETTER IT. 

Plancus to Cicero b . 
It affords me great pleasure to reflect that I 
have amply justified your favourable representations 
710 of me, by having strictly fulfilled the 
promises I made you. I give you a proof, 
likewise, of my particular affection, by acquainting 
you, before any other of my friends, with the 
measures I have taken. I hope you are well per- 
suaded, that the republic will daily receive still 
stronger instances of my attachment; let me assure 
you, at least, that you shall be more and more 
convinced of it by the clearest and most unques- 
tionable evidence. As to what concerns my own 

2 Octavius. 

a Each legion had a chief standard carried before it, upon 
which was fixed the figure of an eagle ; there was a parti- 
cular one, likewise, to every company. 

b When Plancus wrote this letter he had not received 
advice of the action between the troops of Antony and those 
of the republic, of which an account has been given in the 
preceding epistle. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



575 



personal interest, I protest to you, my dear Cicero, 
by all my hopes of rescuing the republic from those 
imminent dangers to which it is exposed, that not- 
withstanding I esteem those illustrious recompenses 
which are conferred by the senate as no less desir- 
able than immortal fame, yet, believe me, I shall 
not in the least remit of my earnest endeavours to 
assist the commonwealth, although I should never 
participate of its glorious rewards. If the ardour 
and efficacy of my zeal should not distinguish me, 
amidst those many excellent citizens who stand 
forth in the defence of our country, let not your 
suffrage contribute to the increase of my honours. 
I have no ambition inconsistent with that general 
equality for which I have taken up arms, and am 
perfectly well contented to leave it to your own 
determination, both when, and in what manner, 
my services shall be recompensed. Nothing, 
indeed, can be deemed too late or too inconsider- 
able, which is given to a man as a public testimony 
of his country's approbation. 

Having reached the Rhone, by long marches, I 
passed that river, with my whole army, on the 27th 
of April, and immediately ordered a detachment 
of a thousand horse to advance before me from 
Vienna , by a shorter road. If I meet with no 
obstructions on the part of Lepidus, I doubt not 
of giving the republic reason to be satisfied with 
my diligence and expedition ; but, if he should 
attempt to intercept my passage, I must take my 
measures as circumstances shall require. Of this, 
however, I will now assure you, that the army I 
am conducting is highly respectable, whether con- 
sidered with regard to the nature, the number, or 
the fidelity of my troops. I will only add, that I 
desire your friendship upon no other terms, than 
as you are sure I shall always give you the warmest 
returns of mine. Farewell. 



LETTER III. 

Decimus Brutus to Cicero. 
You are sensible how great a loss the republic 
has sustained by the death of Pansa d . It behoves 
„, n you, therefore, to exert all your credit 

A. U. 710. ■'■,,, • j; 

and address to prevent our enemies from 
entertaining any reasonable hope of recovering 
their strength now that they have thus deprived us 
of both our consuls e . I am preparing to pursue 

c Tis now called Vienne, a city in the province of Dau- 
phiny, situated upon the Rhone. 

d Pansa died at Bologna a few days after the hattle of 
Mutina, of the wounds he received in that action.— Appian. 
De Bell. Civ. iii. p. 572. 

e Hirtius and Octavius, after the hattle mentioned in 
the preceding note, " were determined, at all hazards, to 
relieve Modena ; and, after two or three days spent in 
finding the most likely place of breaking through the in- 
trenchments, they made their attack with such vigour, 
that Antony, rather than suffer the town to be snatched 
at last out of his hands, chose to draw out his legions and 
come to a general battle. The fight was bloody and obsti- 
nate, and Antony's men, though obliged to give ground, 
bravely disputed every inch of it, till Decimus Brutus, 
taking the opportunity at the same time to sally out of 
the town at the head of his garrison, helped greatly to 
determine and complete the victory. Hirtius pushed his 
advantage with great spirit, and forced his way into An- 
tony's camp ; but when he had gained the middle of it, 
was unfortunately killed near the general's tent." — Life of 
Cicero, p. 272. 



Antony immediately ; and I trust shall be able to 
render it impossible either for Antony to continue 
in Italy, or for Ventidius f to escape out of it. 

As I suppose you see very clearly the measures 
which Pollio will pursue, I need say nothing to you 
upon that article. But I make it my first and 
principal request that you would send to Lepidus, I 
in order, if possible, to prevent that light and in- j 
constant man from renewing the war by joining j 
with Antony ; as both Lepidus and Pollio are at ! 
the head of very numerous and powerful armies, i 
I do not mention this as imagining that you are ! 
not equally attentive to these important points, — j 
but from the firm persuasion that Lepidus, however 
dubious it may perhaps appear to the senate, will 
never of himself act in the manner he ought. Let ] 
me entreat you, likewise, to confirm Plancus in his 
present resolutions ; who, I should hope, when he ; 
sees Antony driven out of Italy, will not be want- 
ing in his assistance to the republic. If the latter 
should have crossed the Alps, I purpose to post a 
proper number of forces to guard the passes of 
those mountains s ; and you may depend upon my ; 
giving you regular notice of all my motions. Fare- 
well. 

From my camp at Rhegium h , April the 29th. 



LETTER IV. 

To Plancus. 
How pleasing was the letter I received from you 
two days before our victory at Mutina ! wherein 

a v 710 y° u £ ave me an account °f tne state °f 
your troops, of your zeal to the republic, 
and of the expedition with which you were ad- 
vancing to the relief of Brutus. But, notwith- 
standing that the enemy was defeated before you 
could join our army, the hopes, nevertheless, of 

f Ventidius was a soldier of fortune, who, from the mean- 
est original, became one of the most distinguished captains 
of the age. The father of Pompey having taken the city of 
Ascalum in the Italic or Social war, reserved part of the 
inhabitants to grace his triumphal entry into Rome, 
among which was the mother of Yentidius, who walked 
before the victor's car with her infant son at her breast. 
When he grew up he gained his livelihood by serving as a 
groom, in which employment having gotten together a 
little money, he furnished himself with some mules and 
carriages, which he let out to the government for the use 
of the proconsuls in their way to the provinces. In this 
capacity he became known to Caesar, who observing in 
him a genius much superior to his station, took him into 
Gaul, where he advanced him in his army ; and, after the 
civil wars were ended, gave him a place in the senate, and 
created him praetor. After the death of Caesar, he attached 
himself to the interest of Antony, to whose assistance he 
was at this time marching at the head of a considerable 
body of troops, which he had raised out of Caesar's veteran 
legions that were dispersed in different parts of Italy. 
Towards the end of the present year, the triumvirate 
appointed him consul. Having shortly afterwards ob- 
tained a signal victory over the Parthians, his conduct 
and bravery were rewarded with a triumph ; and to crown 
the series of his glory, he was honoured, at his death, with 
a public funeral.— Aul. Gell. xv. 4; Dio, xliii. p. 239; Veil. 
Pat. ii. 65. 

S The intent of this guard seems to have been what 
Mr. Ross conjectures, in order to intercept the march of 
Ventidius, and prevent him from following Antony over 
the Alps. 

h A town upon the JEmilian Way, between Modena and 
Parma. It is now called Reggio. 



576 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



the commonwealth are still fixed entirely upon you ; 
as the principal leaders of these infamous rebels 
have escaped, it is said, from the field of battle. 
You will remember, therefore, that to exterminate 
the remains of this party will be a service no less 
acceptable to the senate than if you had given them 
the first repulse. 

I am waiting, as well as many others, with great 
impatience for the return of your couriers. I hope 
that our late success will now induce even Lepidus 
himself to act in concert with you for the defence 
of the common cause. I entreat you, my dear 
Plancus, to employ your utmost endeavours for 
this important purpose, that every spark of this 
horrid war may be utterly and for ever extinguished. 
If you should be able to effect this, you will render 
a most godlike service to your country, and at the 
same time procure immortal honour to yourself. 
Farewell. 

May the 5th. 



LETTER V. 

To the same. 
I seized the very first opportunity of contri- 
buting to the augmentation of your dignities ; and 
I omitted no distinction that could be 
considered either as the applause or re- 
ward of merit. This you will perceive by the 
decree which has been voted to your honour with 
the utmost zeal and unanimity in a very full house ; 
and it is expressed in the very words I dictated from 
a paper which I had drawn up for that purpose. I 
was sensible, at the same time, from your letter, 
that it was more your ambition to approve your 
actions to every honest mind, than to be distin- 
guished with these ensigns of glory ; but I thought 
it incumbent upon the republic to consider, not 
what you desire, but what you deserve. Let me 
only entreat you to finish the work which others 
have so happily begun ; remembering that whoever 
shall destroy Antony will have the whole honour 
of concluding this war. It is thus that Homer 
gives the glory, not to Ajax, nor Achilles, but to 
Ulysses alone, of having exterminated Troy 1 . 
Farewell. 



u. 710 



LETTER VI. 

Decimus Brutus to Cicero. 

I look upon the obligations I have received 
from you, as nothing inferior even to those which 
a. u. 710. * nave conIerr ed upon the republic ; but 
I am not capable, you are well assured, 
of making you so ill a return as I have experienced 
from some of my ungrateful countrymen. It might, 
perhaps, in the present conjuncture, be thought to 
have somewhat the air of flattery were I to say, 
that your single applause outweighs, in my esteem, 
their whole united approbation. It is certain, 
however, that you view my actions by the faithful 
light of dispassionate truth and reason ; whereas 
they, on the contrary, look upon them through the 
clouds of envy and malevolence. But I am little 

» In the original it is " Humerus rum Ajacem, nee Achil- 
lem, seel Ulyssem appellavit 7rToAt7rop0K>i/:" which is not 
strictly true ; for Homer frequently gives that epithet to 
Achilles. Plancus, however, could not mistake the hint, 
that any stratagem would be fair and honourable which 
should for ever remove Antony out of their way. 



concerned how much soever they may oppose my 
honours, provided they do not obstruct me in my 
services to the republic, — the very dangerous 
situation of which let me now point out to you in 
as few words as possible. 

In the first place, then, you are sensible what 
great disturbances the death of the consulsJ may 
create in Rome ; as it may give occasion to all the 
dangerous practices that ambition will suggest to 
those who are desirous of succeeding to their office k . 
This is all that prudence will allow me to say in a 
letter ; and all, indeed, that is necessary to be said 
to a man of your penetration. As to Antony, 
notwithstanding he made his escape from the field 
of battle with but a very few troops, and those too 
entirely disarmed ; yet, by setting open the prisons, 
and by pressing all sorts of men that fell in his way, 
he has collected no contemptible number of forces. 
These have likewise been considerably augmented 
by the accession of the veteran and other troops of 
Ventidius ; who, after a very difficult march over 
the Apennine mountains, has found means to join 
Antony in the fens of Sabata 1 . The only possible 
scheme which the latter can pursue is, — either to 
have recourse to Lepidus, if that general should be 
disposed to receive him ; or to post himself on the 
Alps and Apennines, in order to make depredations 
with his cavalry (in which he is exceedingly strong) 
on the neighbouring country ; or to march into 
Etruria m , where we have no army to oppose him. 
Had Caesar, however, passed the Apennine moun- 
tains agreeably to my advice n , I should have driven 
Antony into such difficulties that, perhaps without 
striking a single blow, I should have been able to 
have wasted his whole army by famine. But the 
misfortune is, that Ceesar will neither be governed 
by me, nor will his army be governed by him, — 
both which are very unhappy circumstances for 
our cause. This then being the sad state of public 
affairs, can I be solicitous, as I said above, what 
opposition I may meet with in respect to my own 
personal honours ? The particulars I have here 
mentioned are of so very delicate a nature, that I 
know not how you will be able to touch upon them 
in the senate ; or if you should, I fear it will be to 
no purpose. In the mean time I am in no con- 
dition to subsist my troops any longer. When I 
first took up arras for the deliverance of the com- 
monwealth, I had above four hundred thousand 
sestertia in ready money ; but at present I have 
not only mortgaged every part of my estate, but 
have borrowed all I could possibly raise on the 

J Hir tius and Pansa. 

k This seems plainly to point at Octavius, who, in fact, 
soon after procured himself to be elected consul in conjunc- 
tion with Quintus Pedius. 

1 Between the Alps and the Apennines, on the coast of 
Genoa. 

m Tuscany. 

n " Octavius, from the beginning, had no thoughts of 
pursuing Antony. He had already gained what he aimed 
at ; had reduced Antony's power so low, and raised his 
own so high, as to be in a condition of making his own 
terms with him in the partition of the empire : whereas, 
if Antony had been wholly destroyed, the republican party 
would have probably been too strong for him and Lepidus. 
When Octavius was pressed, therefore, to pursue Antony, 
he contrived still to delay it until it was too late, taking 
himself to be more usefully employed in securing to his 
interest the troops of the consuls."— Life of Cicero, p. 274. 

" About 320,000J. sterling. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



57' 



credit of my friends. I leave you to judge, there- 
fore, with what difficulty I now maintain seven 
legions at my own expense. The truth is, I should 
not be equal to so great a charge were I possessed 
of all Varro'sP immense treasures. 

As soon as I shall receive any certain information 
of Antony's motions, I will give you notice. In 
the mean time I will only add, that I desire the 
continuance of your friendship upon no other terms 
than as you shall find an equal return of mine. 
Farewell. 
From my camp at Tertonal, May the 5th. 



a. u. 710. 



LETTER VII. 

Plancus to Cicero. 
I give you a thousand and a thousand thanks 
for your late favours, which, as long as I live, I 

shall always most gratefully acknowledge. 

More than this I dare not venture to 
promise ; for I fear it will never be in my power 
to acquit such uncommon obligations, unless you 
should think (what your letter endeavours, indeed, 
with much serious eloquence to persuade me) that 
to remember them is to return them. You could 
not have acted with a more affectionate zeal if the 
dignities of your own son had been in question ; I 
and I am perfectly sensible of the high honours 
that were decreed to me in consequence of your 
first motion for that purpose. I am sensible, too, 
that all your subsequent votes in my behalf were 
entirely conformable to the circumstances of the 
times and the opinion of my friends ; as I am in- 
formed, likewise, of the advantageous colours in 
which you are perpetually representing me, as well 
as of the frequent contests you sustain with my 
injurious detractors. It is incumbent upon me, 
therefore, in the first place, to endeavour to con- 
vince the republic that I am worthy of the praises 
you bestow upon me, — and, in the next place, to 
render you sensible that I gratefully bear your 
friendship in remembrance. I will only add, under 
this article, that I desire you to protect me in the 
honours I have thus procured by your .influence ; 
but I desire it no otherwise than as my actions 
shall prove that I am the man you wish to find me. 
As soon as I had passed the Rhone. I detached 
a body of three thousand r horse under the com- 
mand of my brother, with orders to advance 
towards Mutina, to which place I intended to 
follow them with the rest of my army. But, on 
my march thither, I received advice that an action 
had happened and that the siege was raised. 
Antony, I find, has no other resource left but to 
retire into these parts with the remains of his 
broken forces. His only hopes, indeed, are, that 
he may be able to gain either Lepidus or his army, 
in which there are some troops no less disaffected 
to the republic than those which served under 
Antony himself. I thought proper, therefore, to 

P Who this man of immense wealth was, is not known. 
There is no reason to believe that he was the celebrated 
Terentius Varro, to whom several letters in the preceding 
part of this collection are addressed. 

1 Tortona, about thirty miles north from Genoa. 

r In the second letter of this book Plancus says this 
detachment consisted only of a thousand horse ; in one or 
other, therefore, of these passages, the transcribers must 
have committed some mistake. 



recal my cavalry, and to halt in the country of 
the Allobroges 5 , that I may be ready to act as cir- 
cumstances shall require. If Antony should retire 
into this country destitute of men, I make no 
doubt, notwithstanding, that he should be received 
by the army of Lepidus, to be able to give a good 
account of him with my present forces. Should 
he even appear at the head of some troops, and 
should the tenth veteran legion revolt, which, to- 
gether with the rest of those regiments, was by my 
means prevailed upon to engage in the service of 
the republic, — yet I shall endeavour, by acting on 
the defensive, to prevent him from gaining any 
advantage over us ; which I hope to effect, till a 
reinforcement from Italy shall enable me to exter- 
minate this desperate crew. I will venture at 
least to assure you, my dear Cicero, that neither 
zeal nor vigilance shall be wanting on my part for 
that purpose. It is my sincere wish, indeed, that 
the senate may have no farther fears ; but if any 
should still remain, no man will enter into their 
cause with greater warmth and spirit, nor be wil- 
ling to suffer more in the support of it, than myself. 
I am endeavouring to engage Lepidus to join 
with me in the same views ; and I have promised 
him, if he will act with a regard to the interest of 
the republic, that I shall, upon all occasions, yield 
him an entire deference. I have employed my 
brother, together with Furnius and Laterensis*, to 
negotiate this association between us ; and no pri- 
vate injury done to myself shall ever prevent me 
from concurring with my greatest enemy whenever 
it may be necessary for the defence of the common- 
wealth. But should these overtures prove unsuc- 
cessful, I shall still persevere with the same zeal 
(and, perhaps, with more glory) in my endeavours 
to give satisfaction to the senate. Take care of 
your health, and allow me an equal return of your 
friendship. Farewell. 



LETTER VIII. 

Decimus Brutus, Consul elect, to Cicero. 

I have received a duplicate of the letter you 

sent me by my couriers, to which I can only say, 

„ 10 in return, that my obligations to you rise 

much higher than I can easily discharge. 

I gave you an account, in my last, of the posture 
of our affairs : since which I have received intelli- 
gence that Antony is on his march towards Lepidus. 
Among some papers of Antony which are fallen 
into my hands, I found a list of the several persons 
whom he intended to employ as mediators in his 
behalf with Pollio, Lepidus, and Plancus ; so that 
he has not yet, it seems, given up all hopes of 
gaining the latter. Nevertheless, I did not hesi- 
tate to send an immediate express to Plancus, with 
advice of Antony's march. I expect, within a few 
days, to receive ambassadors from the Allobroges, 
and all the other districts of this province : and I 
doubt not of dismissing them strongly confirmed 
in their allegiance to the republic. You will be 
attentive on your part, 1 dare say, to promote all 

s It comprehended the territories of Geneva, with part 
of Savoy and Dauphine\ and formed a district of the pro- 
vince under the command of Lepidus. 

1 Furnius, it has already been observed, was lieutenant 
to Plancus, as Laterensis acted in the same capacity under 
Lepidus. 

P P 



578 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



such necessary measures at Rome as shall be 
agreeable to your sentiments, and to the interest 
of the commonwealth. I am equally persuaded 
that you will prevent, if it be possible to prevent, 
the malevolent schemes of my enemies. But if you 
should not succeed in these generous endeavours, 
you will, at least, have the satisfaction to find that 
no indignities they can throw upon me, are capable 
of deterring me from my purposes. Farewell. 
From my camp on the frontiers of the Statiellenses", 
May the 5th. 



LETTER IX. 

Plancus to Cicero. 
Some occurrences have arisen since I closed my 
former letter, of which I think it may import the 
a u 710 re P uD ^ c tnat y° u should be apprised ; as 
both the commonwealth and myself, I 
hope, have reaped advantage from my assiduity 
in the affair I am going to mention. I solicited 
Lepidus by repeated expresses to lay aside all ani- 
mosities between us, and amicably unite with me 
in concerting measures for the succour of the 
republic, conjuring him to prefer the interest of 
his family and his country to that of a contemptible 
and desperate rebel ; and assuring him, if he did so, 
that he might entirely command me upon all occa- 
sions. Accordingly, by the intervention of Later- 
ensis, I have succeeded in my negotiation ; and 
Lepidus has given me his honour that if he cannot 
prevent Antony from entering his province v , he 
will most certainly lead his army against him. He 
requests, likewise, that I would join him with my 
forces ; and the rather, as Antony is extremely 
strong in cavalry, whereas that of Lepidus is very 
inconsiderable : and out of these few, ten of his 
best men have lately deserted to my camp. As 
soon as I received this express, I lost no time to 
forward and assist the good intentions of Lepidus. 
I clearly saw, indeed, the advantage that would 
arise from my joining him ; as my horse would be 
of service in pursuing and destroying Antony's 
cavalry, and, as the presence of my troops in gene- 
ral, would be a restraint upon the disaffected part 
of those under his command. To this end, having 
spent a day in throwing a bridge across the Isara w , 
a very considerable river, that bounds the terri- 
tories of the Allobroges, I passed it with my whole 
army on the 12th of May. But having received 
advice that Lucius Antonius x was advancing to- 
wards us with some regiments of horse and foot, 
and that he was actually arrived at Forum Julii^ ; I 
ordered, on the 1 4th, a detachment of four thousand 
horse to meet him, under the command of my bro- 
ther, whom I purpose to follow by long marches 
with four light-armed legions and the remainder of 
my cavalry. And should that Fortune which presides 
over the republic prove in any degree favourable to 
my arms, I shall soon put an end, at once, both to 

u A territory in Liguria, the principal town of which 
was Aquae Statiellorum, now called Aqui, in the district 
of Montserrat. 

T Narbonensian Gaul : which, together with part of 
Spain, composed the province of Lepidus. 

w It is now called the Isere, a river in Dauphine\ which 
falls into the Rhone. 

x A brother of 31ark Antony. 

7 Now called Frcjus, a city in Provence. 



our own fears and to the hopes of these insolent , 
rebels. But if the infamous Antony, apprised of j 
our approach, should retire towards Italy, it will 
be the business of Brutus to intercept his march ; ! 
and Brutus, I am persuaded, will not be wanting ' 
either in courage or conduct for that purpose. 
Nevertheless, I shall, in that case, send my brother 
with a detachment of horse to harass Antony in his 
retreat, and to protect Italy from his depredations. 
Farewell. 



LETTER X. 

Cassius, Proconsul, to Cicero. 

Your letter 2 affords me a new proof of your 
extraordinary friendship. I find by it that you are 
a u 710 not on ty a weuLw i sner t0 m J interest, (as 
you have, at all times, been, indeed, for 
the sake of the republic as well as for my own,) but 
enter into it with the warmest and most anxious 
solicitude. I was persuaded, therefore, that as 
you could not suppose me capable of being inactive 
at a season when my country laboured under a 
general oppression, you would be impatient to hear 
both of my personal welfare and of the success of 
my military preparations. For this reason, as soon 
as Aulus Allienus had resigned those legions into 
my hands which he brought from Egypt a , I wrote to 
you by different couriers, whom I despatched to 
Rome. I sent a letter, at the same time, to the 
senate ; and if my people obeyed their instructions, 
it was not delivered till it was first read to you. 
But, if these expresses should not be arrived, I am 
persuaded they have been intercepted by Dolabella, 
who, after having most villanously murdered 
Trebonius b , has made himself master of bis pro- 
vince. 

All the troops which I found in Syria have 
submitted to my authority. However, I have been 
a little retarded in my preparations, in order to 
distribute some donatives which I had promised to 
the soldiers, but I have now discharged my en- 
gagements. 

If you are sensible that I have refused no labours 
nor dangers for the service of my country : if it was 
by your advice and persuasion that I took up arms 

z This seems to be an answer to the loth letter of the 
preceding book, p. 568. 

a See rem. e , p. 565. 
" b It has already been observed [see rem. k , p. 563] that 
Dolabella left Rome before the expiration of his consul- 
ship, in order to possess himself of the government of 
Syria. In his way thither he arrived at Smyrna, where 
Trebonius, proconsul of Asia Minor, resided. Trebonius 
refused him admittance into the city, but treated him, 
however, with great civility, and many compliments 
mutually passed between them. With these Dolabella 
appeared satisfied, and pretending to pursue his march, 
proceeded towards Ephesus; but he returned in the night, 
and making himself master of the city by surprise, seized 
Trebonius in his bed. Cicero, in one of his Philippics, 
expatiates upon the cruelties which Dolabella exercised 
on this his unfortunate but illustrious prisoner. He kept 
him two days under torture, to extort a discovery of the 
public money in his custody, insulting him at the same 
time with the most opprobrious language ; he then ordered 
his head to be cut off and exhibited to the populace on 
the point of a spear, his body to be dragged through the 
principal streets of Smyrna, and afterwards to be thrown 
into the sea. See rem. h , p. 544 ; Appian. De Bell. Civ. iii. 
p. 542 ; Phil. xi. 2, 3. » 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



579 



against those infamous invaders of our liberties ; if 
I have not only raised an army for the defence of 
the commonwealth, but have even snatched it from 
most cruel and oppressive hands ; let these consi- 
derations recommend my interests to your care and 
protection. Had Dolabella, indeed, possessed him- 
self of these forces, the expectation of such an 
additional body of troops, even before they had 
actually joined Antony, would greatly have con- 
firmed and strengthened his party. If, upon this 
account, therefore, you think these soldiers deserve 
highly of the republic, let them experience the 
benefit of your patronage, nor suffer them to have 
reason to regret, that they preferred their duty to 
the commonwealth, to all the powerful temptations 
of plunder and rapine. I must also recommend it 
to your care, that due honours be paid to the 
generals, Marcus and Crispus c . As to Bassus, he 
obstinately refused to deliver up the legion under 
his command : and had they not, without his con- 
sent, deputed some of their officers to treat with 
me, he would have shut the gates of Apamea, and 
forced me to have entered the town by assault. I 
make these requests, then, as well in the name of 
our friendship, which, I trust, will have much 
weight with you ; as in that of the republic, which 
has ever, I know, been the object of your warmest 
affection. Believe me, the army under my com- 
mand is zealously attached not only to the senate, 
and to every friend of our country, but particularly 
to yourself. The frequent accounts, indeed, they 
hear of your patriot disposition, have extremely 
endeared you to them, and should they find their 
interests to be a part of your concern, they will 
consider you, in all respects, as their first and 
greatest benefactor. 

Since I wrote the above, I have received intelli- 
gence that Dolabella is marched into Cilicia, 
whither I purpose immediately to follow him. I 
will give you early notice of the event of this expe- 
dition, and may I so prove successful, as I shall 
endeavour to deserve well of the republic. Take 
care of your health, and continue your friendship 
to me. Farewell. 

From my camp, May the 7th. 



a. u. 710. 



LETTER XL 

To Decimus Brutus, Consul elect. 
The message you commissioned Galba and 
Volumnius to deliver to the senate, sufficiently 
intimates the nature of those fears and 
suspicions which you imagine we have 
reason to entertain. But I must confess, that the 
apprehensions you would thus infuse into us, seem 
by no means worthy of that glorious victory you 
have obtained over the enemies of the common- 
wealth. Believe me, my dear Brutus, both the 
senate, and the generals that support its cause, are 
animated with an undaunted resolution ; we are 
sorry, therefore, that you, whom we esteem the 
bravest captain that ever the republic employed, 
should think us capable of any timidity. Is it 
possible, indeed, after having confidently reposed 
our hopes on your courage and conduct, when you 
were invested by Antony in all the fulness of his 

c Some account of these persons, as well as of Bassus, 
mentioned in the next sentence, has been given in the 
preceding remarks. 



strength and power, that any of us should harbour 
the least fear now that the siege is raised, and the 
enemy's army entirely overthrown ? Nor have we 
anything, surely, to apprehend from Lepidus. For 
who can imagine him so utterly void of all rational 
conduct, as to have professed himself an advocate 
for peace, when we were engaged in a most neces- 
sary and important war, and yet to take up arms 
against the republic the moment that most desir- 
able peace is restored ? You are far too sagacious, 
I doubt not, to entertain such a thought d . Never- 
theless, the fears you have renewed amongst us, at 
a time when every temple throughout Rome is 
resounding with our thanksgivings for your deli- 
verance, have cast a very considerable damp upon 
our joy. May the fact prove, then, (what, indeed, 
I am inclined to believe as well as hope) that 
Antony is completely vanquished. But should he 
happen to recover some degree of strength, he 
will most assuredly find that neither the senate is 
destitute of wisdom nor the people of courage ; I 
will add, too, nor the republic of a general, so long 
as you shall be alive to lead forth her armies. 
Farewell. 
May the 19th. 



LETTER XII. 

Plancus to Cicero. 

Antony arrived at Forum -Julii, with the van 
of his army, on the 15th of May, and Ventidius is 
a u 710 on ty tw0 ^ a y s ' marCu behind him. Lepi- 
dus writes me word, that he proposes to 
wait for me at Forum-Voconii e , where he is at 
present encamped, a place about four-and-twenty 
miles distant from Forum- Julii. If he and Fortune 
do not deceive my expectations, the senate may 
depend upon my speedily terminating this business 
to their full satisfaction. 

I mentioned to you in a former letter, that the 
great fatigues which my brother had undergone, by 
his continual marches, had extremely impaired his 
constitution. However, as soon as he was suffi- 
ciently recovered to get abroad, he considered his 
health as an acquisition which he had gained as 
much for the service of the republic as for himself, 
and was the first therefore to engage in every 
hazardous expedition. But I have recommended 
it to him, and indeed insisted, that he should 
return to Rome, as he would be much more likely 
to wear himself away by continuing in the camp, 
than be able to give me any assistance. Besides, 
I imagined, now that the republic was most unhap- 
pily deprived of both the consuls, that the presence 
of so worthy a magistrate would be absolutely 
necessary at Rome. But if any of you should think 
otherwise, let we be censured for my imprudent ad- 
vice ; but let not my brother be condemned as fail- 
ing in his duty. 

Lepidus, agreeably to my request, has delivered 
Apella into my hands, as a hostage for the faith- 
ful execution of his engagements to co-operate 
with me in the defence of the commonwealth. 
Lucius Gellius has given me proofs of his zeal, as 

d It will appear in the progress of these letters, that if 
Cicero was really in earnest in what he here says concern- 
ing Lepidus, it was he himself, and not Brutus, who wanted 
sagacity. 

e Now called Le Luc, in Provence. 
P P2 



580 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



he has also acted in the affair of the three brothers, 
to the satisfaction of Sextus Gavianus. I have lately 
employed the latter in some negotiations between 
Lepidus and myself, and I have found him firmly 
attached to the interest of the republic. It is with 
great pleasure I give this testimony in his favour, a 
tribute which I shall always be ready to pay where- 
ever it is deserved. 

Take care of your health, and allow me the same 
share of your heart which you most assuredly pos- 
sess of mine. I recommend my dignities, likewise, 
to your protection ; and I hope, if I can plead any 
merit, you will continue your good offices to me 
with the same singular affection you have hitherto 
discovered. Farewell. 



LETTER XIII. 

To Cornificius. 
You recommend a friend of my own, when you 
desire my good offices to Lucceius : be assured I 



a. u. 710. 



shall faithfully support his interest by 
every mean in my power. 
"We have lost our colleagues f , Hirtius and Pansa : 
and the death of these excellent consuls, who dis- 
charged their office with great advantage to the 
republic, has happened at a very unseasonable con- 
juncture. For though we are at present delivered 
from the oppressions of Antony, we are not wholly 
free from all apprehensions of danger. But, if I 
may be permitted, I shall continue my usual endea- 
vours to preserve the commonwealth from ruin ; 
though, I must confess, I am full weary of the 
work. No lassitude, however, ought to obstruct 
the duties we owe to our country. — But I forbear 
to enter farther into this subject, as I had rather 
you should hear of my actions from others than 
from myself. The account I receive of yours is 
entirely agreeable to my wishes ; but it is far other- 
wise with respect to the reports concerning Minu- 
cius. They are, indeed, very unfavourable to his 
character, notwithstanding all the fine things you 
said of him in one of your letters. I should be glad 
to know the truth of the case, and to be informed 
of everything else which is transacting in your 
province. Farewell. 



LETTER XIV. 

To Decimus Brutus, Consul elect. 
It is with infinite satisfaction, my dear Brutus, 
that I find you approve of my conduct in the senate, 
a. u. 710. witn res P ect both to the decemvirs s, and 
to the honours decreed to our young h man. 
Yet, after all, what have my labours availed ? Be- 
lieve me, my friend, (and you know I am not apt 
to boast,) the senate was the grand engine of my 
power : but all those springs which I used so suc- 
cessfully to manage, have utterly lost their force, 

f In the college of augurs. 

fS These decemvirs were probably the ten persons whom 
the senate, in the first transports of their supposed com- 
plete victory before the walls of Modena, had appointed to 
inquire into the conduct of Antony during his administra- 
tion of the consular office. — Appian. Dc Bell. Civ. iii. 578. 

h Octavius. The honours here mentioned were, perhaps, 
the ovation, (a kind of inferior and less splendid triumph,) 
which, by the influence of Cicero, was decreed to young 
Csesar for his services at the siege of Modena.— Life of 
Cicero, p. 274. 



and I can no longer direct its motions. The truth 
of it is, the news of your glorious sally from the 
garrison of Mutina, of Antony's flight, and of his 
army being entirely cut to pieces, had inspired 
such confident hopes of a complete victory, that 
the disappointment has cast a general damp upon 
the spirit I had raised against our enemies ; and 
all my ardent invectives seem at last to have proved 
just as insignificant as if I had been combating 
with my own shadow. But to the purpose of your 
letter. — Those who are acquainted with the disposi- 
tions of the fourth and the martial legions, assure 
me they will never be prevailed on to serve under 
you. As to the supply of money which you desire, 
some measures may, and most assuredly shall, be 
taken in order to raise it. I am wholly in your 
sentiments with regard to the calling Brutus 1 out 
of Greece, and retaining Caesar here for the protec- 
tion of Italy. I agree with you, likewise, my dear 
Brutus, that you have enemies ; and though I find 
it no very difficult matter to sustain their attacks, 
yet still, however, they somewhat embarrass my 
schemes in your favour. 

The legions from Africa J are daily expected. In 
the mean time, the world is greatly astonished to 
find that the war is broke out again in your province. 
Nothing, in truth, ever happened so unexpectedly ; 
as we had promised ourselves, from the account of 
the victory which was brought to us on your birth- 
day, that the peace of the republic was established for 
many generations. But now all our fears are revived 
with as much strength as ever. 

You mentioned in your letter, dated the 15th of 
May, that you were just informed, by an express 
from Plancus, that Lepidus had refused to receive 
Antony. Should this prove to be fact, our busi- 
ness will be so much the easier ; if not, we shall 
have a very difficult struggle to maintain, and it 
depends upon you to ease me of my great appre- 
hensions for the event. As for my own part, I 
have exhausted all my powers, and I am utterly 
incapable of doing more than I have already per- 
formed. It is far otherwise, however, with my 
friend ; and I not only wish but expect to see you 
the greatest and most distinguished of Romans. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XV. 

To Plancus. 
Nothing, my dear Plancus, could be more glori- 
ous to yourself,nor more acceptable to the senate than 
7]0 the letter you lately addressed to that as- 
sembly : I will add too, nothing could be 
more opportune than the particular juncture in which 
it was delivered. Cornutus received it in the presence 
of a very full house, just as he had communicated to 
us a cold and irresolute letter from Lepidus. Yours 
was read immediately afterwards, and it was heard 
with the loudest acclamations of applause. It 
was highly pleasing indeed to the senate, not only 
from the importance of its contents, and those 
zealous services to the republic of which it gave us 
an account, but from that strength and elegance of 
expression with which it was animated. The 
senate was extremely urgent that it might imme- 

» Marcus Brutus. 

j These were some of the veteran legions that had served 
under Julius Cassar. See rem. m on letter 18 of this book. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



581 



diately be taken into consideration : but Cornutus 
thought proper to decline their request. However, 
the whole assembly expressing great indignation at 
his refusal, the question was put by five of the tri- 
bunes of the people. AVhen Servilius was called 
upon for his opinion, he moved that the debate 
might be adjourned. What my sentiments were 
(and I was supported in them by the unanimous 
concurrence of the whole house) you will see by 
the decree that passed upon this occasion. 

I am sensible that your own superior judgment 
is abundantly sufficient to direct you in all emer- 
gencies ; yet I cannot forbear advising you not to 
wait for the sanction of the senate in so critical a 
conjuncture as the present, and which undoubtedly 
must often demand immediate action. Be a senate, 
my friend, to yourself; and, without any other 
authority, scruple not to pursue such measures as 
the interest of the republic shall require. In one 
word, let your actions anticipate our expectations, 
and give us the pleasure of hearing that you have 
executed some glorious exploit, ere we are so much 
as apprised that you even had it in your intention. 
I will venture to assure you, that the senate will 
most certainly approve both your zeal and your judg- 
ment in whatever vou shall thus undertake. Farewell. 



u. 710. 



LETTER XVI. 

To Decimus Brutus, Consul elect. 
I am indebted to you for your short letter by 
Flaccus Volumnius, as well as for two others more 
full, one of which was brought by the cou- 
rier of Titus Vibius, the other was for- 
warded to me by Lupus ; and all of them came to 
my hands on the same day. I find, by your own ac- 
count, as well as by that which Grseceius has given 
me, that the war, far from being extinguished, 
seems to be breaking out again with greater violence. 
You are sensible, if Antony should gain any 
strength, that all your illustrious services to the 
republic will be utterly frustrated. The first 
accounts we received here, and which, indeed, 
were universally credited, represented him as hav- 
ing run away in great consternation, attended only 
with a few frightened and disarmed soldiers. But 
if the truth, after all, should be (what Graeceius 
assures me) that Antony is, in fact, so strong as 
to render it unsafe to give him battle, he does not 
seem so much to have fled from Mutina, as to have 
changed the seat of war. This unexpected news 
has given all Rome another countenance, and a 
general air of disappointment appears in every face. 
There are even some amongst us who complain of 
your not having immediately pursued Antony ; 
for they imagine, if no time had been lost, that he 
must inevitably have been destroyed. But it is 
usual with the people in all governments, and espe- 
cially in ours, to be particularly disposed to abuse 
their liberty, by licentious reflections on those to 
whom they are indebted for the enjoyment of it. 
However, one should be careful not to give them 
any just cause for their censures. 

To sayall in one word, whoever destroys Antony 
will have the glory of terminating the war : a hint 
which I had rather leave to your own reflections, 
than enter myself into a more open explanation 11 . 
Farewell. 



k See rem. >, p. 576. 



LETTER XVII. 

Decimus Brutus to Cicero. 
I will no longer attempt to make any formal 
acknowledgments of the repeated instances I re- 

* „ -rm ceive of your friendship : mere words are 
a. u. 710- . i r , ... 

a very inadequate return to those obliga- 
tions which my best services can but ill repay. If 
you will look back upon my former letters, you 
cannot be at a loss to discover the reasons that 
prevented me from pursuing Antony immediately 
after the battle of Mutina. The truth, my dear 
Cicero, is, that I was not only unprovided both 
with cavalry and baggage-horses, but not having 
at that time had an interview with Caesar, I could 
not depend on his assistance : and I was wholly 
ignorant, likewise, that Hirtius was killed. This 
will account for my not having pursued Antony on 
the day of the engagement. The day following I 
received an express from Pansa, to attend him at 
Bononia ; but, in my way thither, being informed 
of his death, I immediately returned back to join 
my little corps, I may justly call them so, indeed, 
as my forces are extremely diminished, and in a 
very bad condition, from the great hardships they 
suffered during the siege. It was by these means 
that Antony got two days' advance of me ; and, as 
he marched in disorder, he could retire much faster 
than it was in my power to pursue. He increased 
his forces likewise by pressing the inhabitants, and 
throwing open the prisons in every town through 
which he passed : and in this manner he continued 
his march till he arrived in the fens of Sabata. 
This is a place with which I must bring you 
acquainted. It is situated between the Alps and 
the Apennines, and the roads that lie about it 
are scarce practicable. When I had reached within 
thirty miles of Antony, I was informed that he had 
been joined by Ventidius, and had made a speech at 
the head of their combined troops, to persuade them 
to follow him over the Alps ; assuring them that 
Lepidus had agreed to support him. Nevertheless, 
not only his own soldiers (which, indeed, are a 
very inconsiderable number,) but those likewise of 
Ventidius, repeatedly and unanimously declared 
that they were determined either to conquer, or 
perish in Italy ; and at the same time desired that 
they might be conducted to Pollentia 1 . Antony 
found it in vain to oppose them ; however, he 
deferred his march till the ensuing day. As soon 
as I received this intelligence, I detached five 
cohorts to Pollentia ; and am now following them 
with the remainder of my troops. This detach- 
ment threw themselves into that city an hour before 
Trebellius arrived with his cavalry; a circumstance 
which gives me great satisfaction, as it is a point, 
I think, upon which our whole success depends. 
When the enemy found that their designs were 
thus frustrated, they conceived hopes of crossing 
the Alps into Gaul ; as they supposed the four 
legions commanded by Plancus would not be able 
to withstand their united forces, and that an army 
from Italy could not overtake them soon enough 
to prevent their passage. — However, the Allo- 
broges, together with my detachment, have hitherto 
been sufficient to prevent their design ; which, I 

1 Some remains of this city still subsist, under the name 
of Polenza. It is situated at the confluence of the Stun 
and the Tanaro, in Piedmont. 



582 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



trust, they will find still more difficult to effect, 
■when I shall come up with the rest of my forces. 
But should they happen, in the mean time, to pass 
the Isara, I shall exert my utmost endeavours that 
this circumstance may not be attended with any ill 
consequences to the commonwealth. 

Let it raise the spirits and the hopes of the 
senate, to observe that Plancus and myself, toge- 
ther with our respective armies, act in perfect 
concert with each other, and are ready to hazard 
every danger in support of the common cause. 
However, whilst you thus confidently rely on our 
zeal and diligence, you will remit nothing, I hope, 
of your own, but employ your utmost care to send 
us a reinforcement, as well as every other necessary 
supply, that may render us in a condition to defend 
your liberties against those who have infamously 
conspired their ruin. One cannot, indeed, but 
look upon these our enemies with so much the 
greater indignation, as they have acted with the 
vilest hypocrisy, and suddenly turned those troops 
against their country, which they long pretended to 
have raised for its defence. Farewell. 



LETTER XVIII. 

Decimus Brutus to Cicero. 
I wish you would peruse the letter I have 
addressed to the senate, and make what alterations 
a u 710 J 0Vi s ^ a ^ J U( % e P r0 P er « You will find by 
it, that I am under an absolute necessity 
of thus applying to them. Whilst I imagined that 
I should be joined by the fourth and martial 
legions m , agreeably to the decree of the senate 
which passed for that purpose on the motion of 
Paulus and Drusus, I was less solicitous about the 
rest ; but now that I have only some new-raised 
regiments, and those too extremely ill- accoutred, 
I cannot but be apprehensive upon your accounts, 
as well as upon my own. 

The citizens of Vicentia 11 have always distin- 
guished Marcus Brutus and myself by their parti- 
cular regard. I entreat you, therefore, to endeavour 
that justice be done them by the senate, in the 
affair concerning the slaves. They, are, indeed, 
entitled to your favour, both by the equity of their 
cause, and the fidelity with which they have, upon 
all occasions, persevered in their allegiance to the 
republic : whereas their adversaries, on the con- 
trary, are a most seditious and faithless people. 
Farewell. 
Vercellse°, May the 21st. 



LETTER XIX. 

Marcus Lepidus? to Cicero. 
Having received advice that Antony was ad- 
vancing with his troops towards my province, and 
a. u. 710. had sent before mm a detachment of his 
cavalry under the command of his brother 

m These were veteran legions which had served under 
Caesar. But, notwithstanding that they entered into the 
army of the late consuls, Hirtius and Pansa, they could 
by no means be prevailed with to join Decimus Brutus, 
in resentment, 'tis probable, of the part he bore in the 
conspiracy against their favourite general. — Ep. Fam. 
xi. 14. 

n Vicenza, a maritime city in the territories of the 
Venetians. 

° Vcrcelli, in the duchy of Milan. P See rem. °, p. .^67- 



Lucius, I moved with my army from the confluence 
of the e Rhone and the Arari, i n order to oppose 
their passage. I continued my march without 
halting, till I arrived at Forum Voconii, and am 
now encamped somewhat beyond that town, on 
the river Argenteus r , opposite to Antony. Ven- 
tidius has joined him with his three legions, and 
has formed his camp a little above mine. Antony, 
before this conjunction, had the second legion en- 
tire, together with a considerable number of men, 
though indeed wholly unarmed, who escaped from 
the general slaughter of his other legions : he is 
extremely strong in cavalry ; for, as none of those 
troops suffered in the late action, he has no less 
than *** s horse. Great numbers of his soldiers, 
both horse and foot, are continually deserting to 
my camp ; so that his troops diminish every day. 
Both Silanus* and Culeo u have left his army, and 
are returned to mine. But notwithstanding I was 
greatly offended by their going to Antony, con- 
trary to my inclination, yet, in regard to the con- 
nexions that subsist between us, and in compliance 
with my usual clemency, I have thought proper to 
pardon them. However, I do not, upon any occa- 
sion, employ their services, nor, indeed, suffer them 
to remain in the camp. 

As to what concerns my conduct in this war, 
you may depend upon it I shall not be wanting in 
my duty either to the senate or the republic ; and 
whatever farther measures I shall take to this end, 
I shall not fail to communicate them to you. 

The friendship between us has upon all occasions 
been inviolably preserved on both sides, and we 
have mutually vied in our best good offices to each 
other. But I doubt not that, since this great and 
sudden commotion has been raised in the common- 
wealth, some false and injurious reports have been 
spread of me by my enemies, which, in the zeal of 
I your heart for the interest of the republic, have 
given you much uneasiness. I have the satisfac- 
tion, however, to be informed by my agents at 
Rome, that you are by no means disposed easily 
to credit these idle rumours ; for which I think 
myself, as I justly ought, extremely obliged to you. 
I am so, likewise, for the former instances of your 
friendship, in promoting my public honours, the 
grateful remembrance of which, be assured, is in- 
delibly impressed upon my heart. 

Let me conjure you, my dear Cicero, if you are 
sensible that my public conduct has upon all occa- 
sions been worthy of the name I bear, to be per- 
suaded that I shall continue to act with equal, or, 
if possible, even with superior zeal v . Let me hope, 
too, that the greater the favours are which you 
have conferred upon me, the more you will think 
yourself engaged to support my credit and character. 
Farewell. 
From my camp, at Pons Argenteus, May the 22d. 

<i The Saone, which falls into the Rhone at Lyons. 

r The Argens, in Provence: it empties itself into the 
Mediterranean, a few miles below Frejus. 

» The number is omitted in all the ancient MSS. 

*■ See rem. u p. 574. 

u He had been sent by Lepidus with a body of men, 
under the pretence of guarding the passes of the Alps, 
but most probably with secret instructions to favour the 
march of Antony over those mountains, in his way to the 
camp of Lepidus ; for he suffered Antony to pass them 
without the least obstruction. — Appian. De Bell. Civ. iii. 
p. 579. 

v There was so little of truth in these professions, that 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



583 



LETTER XX. 

Plancus to Cicero. 
You have been apprised, no doubt, by Lsevus 
and Nerva, as well as by the letter they delivered 

a u. 710 ^° y° u oa m y P art ' °^ tne design I was 
meditating when they left me ; as, indeed, 
they have constantly borne a share in all my 
councils and measures of every kind. It has 
happened, however, to me, what happens not 
un frequently I suppose to every man who is 
tender of his reputation, and desirous of approving 
his conduct to the friends of his country : I have 
given up a safer scheme, as being liable perhaps 
to some ill-natured exceptions, in exchange for a 
more dangerous one that may better evince my 
zeal. I am to inform you, then, that, after the 
departure of my lieutenants w , I received two letters 
from Lepidus, entreating me to join him. These 
were seconded by the much stronger solicitations 
of Laterensis, who earnestly represented to me 
(what, indeed, I am also apprehensive of myself) 
that there is great reason to fear a mutiny among 
the disaffected troops under the conduct of Lepidus. 
I determined immediately, therefore, to march to 
his assistance, and take an equal share in the dan- 
gers with which he was threatened. I was sensible, 
at the same time, that to wait on the banks of the 
Isara till Brutus should pass that river with his 
army, and to meet the enemy in conjunction with 
my colleague, whose forces, as well as their general, 
would act in perfect harmony with me and my 
troops, would be much the most cautious measure 
with respect to my own personal security. But I 
reflected, that if any misfortune should attend 
Lepidus, it would be wholly imputed to me, and I 
should be condemned either as obstinately suffering 
my resentment to prevent me from giving succour 
to my enemy in the cause of the republic, or of 
timidly avoiding to take part in the danger of a most 
just and necessary war. As my presence, there- 
fore, might be a mean of protecting Lepidus, and 
of bringing his army into a better disposition, I re- 
solved to expose myself to all hazards, rather than 
appear to act with too much circumspection. But 
never was any man more anxious in an affair for 
which he was in no sort answerable, than I am in 
the present ; for though I should havje no manner 
of doubt if the army of Lepidus were not con- 
cerned, yet, under that circumstance, I am full of 
apprehensions for the event. Had it been my 
fortune to have met Antony before my junction 
with Lepidus, I am sure he would not have been 
able to have kept the field against me even a single 
hour ; such is the confidence I have in my own 
troops, and so heartily do I despise his broken 
forces, as well as those of that paltry muleteer, the 
contemptible Ventidius x . But, as the case is now 
circumstanced, I dread to think what may be the 
consequence, should any ill humours lie concealed 
in the army of Lepidus ; as they may possibly 
break out in all their malignity, before they can be 
remedied, or even discovered. It is certain, how- 
ever, that Lepidus, together with the well -affected 

Lepidus, within a very few days from the date of this let- 
ter, openly joined with Antony against the senate. See 
letter 28 of this book. 

w Laevus and Nerva, the persons mentioned above. 
x See rem. i , p. 575. 



part of his army, would be exposed to great danger, 
if we should not act in conjunction : besides that, 
our infamous enemies would gain a very consi- 
derable advantage, should they draw off any of his 
forces. If my presence, therefore, should prove a 
mean of preventing these evils, I shall think myself 
much indebted to my courage and good fortune for 
engaging me to make the experiment. With this 
design I moved with my army from the banks of 
the Isara on the 21st of May, having first erected 
a fort at each end of the bridge which I had thrown 
over that river, and placed a strong party to defend 
it, that when Brutus shall arrive, he may have 
nothing to retard his passage. I have only to add, 
that I hope to join Lepidus within eight days from 
the date of this letter. Farewell. 



LETTER XXI. 

From the same to Cicero. 

I should be ashamed that this letter is so little 
consistent with my former, if it arose from any 
_ 10 instability of my own. But it is much 
otherwise ; and I have steadily pursued 
every measure in my power to engage Lepidus to 
act in concert with me, for the defence of the re- 
public, imagining it would render you less appre- 
hensive of my success against our wretched ene- 
mies. To this end, I not only complied with all 
the conditions he proposed, but even engaged for 
more than he demanded ; and I had so much con- 
fidence in the sincerity of his intentions, that I 
ventured to assure you, no longer than two days 
ago, that he would zealously co-operate with me 
in carrying on the war upon one common plan. I 
depended, indeed, upon the promises he had given 
me under his own hand, together with the assur- 
ances I had likewise received from Laterensis, who 
was at that time in my camp, and who earnestly 
conjured me to forget all resentments against Lepi- 
dus, and to rely upon his good faith. But Lepidus 
has now put it out of my power to entertain these 
favourable hopes of him any longer : however, I 
I have taken, and shall continue to take, all neces- 
sary precautions, that the republic may not be 
prejudiced by my too easy credulity. I am to inform 
you, then, that after I had used the utmost expe- 
dition (agreeably to his own earnest request) to 
transport my army over the Isara ; and for that 
purpose had, in the space of a single day, thrown 
a bridge across that river, I received a counter- 
express from him, requiring me to advance no 
farther, as he should not have occasion, he said, 
for my assistance. Nevertheless, I will own to you 
I was so imprudent as to proceed in my march, 
believing that the true reason of his thus changing 
his mind arose from an unwillingness to have a 
partner with him in his glory. 1 imagined that, 
without depriving him of any share of that honour 
which he seemed so desirous to monopolise, I might 
post myself at some convenient distance, in order 
to be ready to support him with my troops, incase 
he should be pressed by the enemy : an event which, 
in the simplicity of my heart, I thought not im- 
probable. In the mean time, I received a letter 
from the excellent Laterensis, which was conceived 
in terms full of despair. He complained that he 
had been greatly deceived, and assured me that 



584 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULL1US CICERO 



neither Lepidus nor his army was to be trusted. 
He expressly cautioned me, at the same time, to be 
upon my guard against their artifices ; adding, that 
he had faithfully discharged the engagements he had 
entered into, on his part, and hoped I would act 
with the same fidelity to the republic on mine. I 
have sent a copy of this letter to Titius, and pur- 
pose to transmit the originals of all the rest relating 
to this affair, by the hands of Lsevus Cispius, who 
was privy to the whole transaction. I shall insert 
in this packet the letters of Lepidus, to which I did 
not give any credit, as well as those to which I 
did. 

I must not forget to add, that when Lepidus 
harangued his soldiers, these mighty honest fellows 
were exceedingly clamorous for peace. They pro- 
tested that, after the loss of both the consuls, after 
the destruction of so many brave men, who had 
perished in defence of their country, and after 
Antony and his adherents had been declared ene- 
mies of the commonwealth, and their estates con- 
fiscated, they were determined not to draw their 
swords any more, either on the one side or the 
other. They were prompted to behave thus muti- 
nously, not only by the insolent suggestions of their 
own hearts, but by the encouragement also of their 
officers, particularly Canidius, Rufrenus, and others, 
whose names the senate shall be acquainted with 
at a proper season. Lepidus was so far from 
punishing this sedition, that he did not take even 
a single step to restrain it. I thought, therefore, 
that it would be the highest temerity to expose 
my own faithful troops, together with my auxi- 
liaries, which are commanded by some of the most 
considerable chiefs of Gaul, and in effect, too, my 
whole province to their combined armies. I con- 
sidered, if I should thus lose my life, and involve 
the republic in my own destruction, I should fall, 
not only without honour, but without pity. In 
consequence of these reflections, I have determined 
to march my forces back again, that our wretched 
enemies may not have so great an advantage as my 
advancing any farther might possibly give them. I 
shall endeavour to post my army so advantageously 
as to cover the province under my command from 
being insulted, even supposing the troops of Lepi- 
dus should actually revolt. In short, it shall be my 
care to preserve everything in its present situation, 
till the senate shall send an army hither, and vin- 
dicate the liberties of the republic with the same 
success in this part of the world as attended their 
arms before the walls of Mutina. In the mean 
time, be assured that no man will act with more 
fervent zeal than myself in all the various occur- 
rences of the war ; and I shall most readily either 
encounter the enemy in the field, or sustain the 
hardships of a siege, or even lay down my life 
itself, as any of these circumstances shall prove 
necessary for the service of the senate. Let me 
exhort you, then, my dear Cicero, to exert your 
utmost efforts to send a speedy reinforcement to 
me, ere Antony shall have increased the number of 
his forces, or our own shall be entirely dispirited. 
For, if despatch be given to this affair, these infa- 
mous banditti will undoubtedly be extirpated, and 
the republic remain in full possession of her late 
victory. Take care of your health, and continue 
your friendship to me. 

P. 8 — I know not whether it may be necessary 
to make any excuse for the absence of my brother. 



who was prevented from attending me in this expe- 
dition by a slow fever, occasioned by the great 
fatigues he has lately undergone. As no man has 
shown more zeal or courage in the cause of the 
republic, he will undoubtedly return to the duties 
of his post the very first moment his health shall 
permit. 

I recommend my honours to your protection ; 
though I must confess, at the same time, that all 
my desires ought to be satisfied, since I enjoy the 
privilege of your friendship, and the satisfaction of 
seeing you invested with the high credit and autho- 
rity I have ever wished you. I will leave it, there- 
fore, entirely to yourself, both when and in what 
manner I shall experience the effect of your good 
offices ; and will only request you to suffer me to 
succeed Hirtius in your affection, as I certainly do 
in the respect and esteem he bore you. Farewell. 



LETTER XXII. 
To Furnius?. 

If the interest of the republic requires the con- 
tinuance of your services, and it be necessary (as 
a u 710 a ^ ^ e wor ^3 indeed, is of opinion it is) 
that you should bear a part in those im- 
portant operations, which must extinguish the 
remaining flames of the war, you cannot, surely, 
be engaged in a more worthy, a more laudable, or 
a more illustrious pursuit. I think, therefore, you 
should by no means interrupt your applauded 
efforts in the cause of liberty, for the sake of obtain- 
ing the prsetorship somewhat earlier than you are 
regularly entitled to enjoy it. I say your applauded 
efforts ; for let not my friend be ignorant of the 
fame which his conduct has acquired. Believe me, 
it is inferior only to that of Plancus himself, both 
by his own confession, and in the judgment, too, 
of all the world. If there is any farther service, 
then, remaining for you to perform to your country, 
you ought to pursue it with an unbroken applica- 
tion, as an employment, of all others, the most 
truly honourable : and what, my friend, shall stand 
in competition with true honour ? But should you 
imagine that you have amply satisfied the duties 
you owe to the commonwealth, I do not dissuade 
you from hastening hither when the time of the 
elections shall approach, provided this ambitious 
impatience shall nothing diminish from the lustre 
of that reputation you have so justly obtained. I 
could name, however, many instances of per- 
sons of great distinction, who, during their en- 
gagements in the service of the republic abroad, 
have renounced their legal pretensions of soliciting 
employments at home ; a sacrifice which, in your 
own case, will be so much the less, as you are not 
at present strictly qualified to offer yourself as a 
candidate. Had you already, indeed, passed 
through the office of aedile, and two years 2 had 
intervened since your exercising that function, the 

7 He had been tribune in the year of Rome 703, and 
was at this time in the army of Plancus, as one of his 
lieutenants. 

z By the laws of Rome a man could not be chosen prator 
till two years after he had served the office of ;rdile ; and 
the same distance of time was likewise required between 
t be practorship and the consulate. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



585 



self-denial would have been greater ; whereas now 
you will forego nothing of the usual and stated time 
of petitioning for the post in question. I am very- 
sensible that your interest is much too strong to 
require the assistance of Plancus : nevertheless, 
should his arms be attended with the success we 
wish, your applications would certainly appear with 
greater advantage, were they deferred till the time 
of his consulate. 

Thus much (as I was willing you should know 
my sentiments) I thought proper to say ; but more, 
I am persuaded, your own good sense and judg- 
ment would render unnecessary. The sum of all, 
then, is shortly this : that I would have you regu- 
late your conduct, upon all occurrences, not by the 
common standard of popular ambition, but by that 
of true and solid glory, and look upon a lasting 
reputation as of more value than the transient 
honour of enjoying the praetorian office somewhat 
earlier than usual. I had a consultation the other 
day at my house upon this subject, with your 
very good friends Caecina, Calvisius, and my 
brother, at which your freedman Dardanus was 
likewise present ; and they every one of them joined 
with me in the opinion I have here given you. But 
after all, you yourself are the best and most com- 
petent judge. Farewell. 



LETTER XXIII. 

Decimus Brutus to Cicero. 

Friendship and gratitude make me feel, upon 
your account, what I never felt upon my own ; 
- 10 and I will confess, that I am not without 
fear in regard to a story which has been 
propagated concerning you. I thought I it by no 
means a matter to be despised when I had only 
heard of it, as I frequently did, from common 
report ; but it has lately been mentioned to me, 
likewise, by Segulius. This man tells me (though 
what he says, indeed, is generally of a piece with 
the rest of his character) that paying a visit at 
Caesar's, where you were much the subject of the 
conversation, Caesar complained (and it was the only 
charge, it seems, which he brought against you) of 
an ambiguous expression a which you had made use 
of concerning him. I suspect the whole to be a mere 
fiction of Segulius, or, at least, that it was he him- 

a The expression itself is inserted in the original ; hut as 
it turns upon an ambiguity that will not hold in our lan- 
guage, it was impossible to preserve it in the translation. 
" Laudandum adolescentem, (Cicero is charged with hav- 
ing said,) ornandum, tollendum," the last of which words 
is capable of a double meaning, and may imply either that 
Octavius should be advanced to the dignities of the state, 
or that his life should be taken away. The polite and 
learned panegyrist of Cicero's conduct has endeavoured to 
vindicate his admired hero from a charge so little favour- 
able both to his prudence and his honour, and it is to be 
wished that his arguments were as convincing as they are 
plausible. In a point, however, that does not admit of 
any positive proof, candour will incline on the favourable 
side ; though I cannot but agree with an excellent author, 
that if the accusation was true, " it very much takes off 
from the ingratitude of Octavius, in consenting to the death 
of his benefactor ; since such double-dealing could hardly 
deserve the name of an obligation, let the effects of it be 
ever so advantageous." — Life of Cicero, p. 281 ; Observ. on 
the Life of Cic. iii. p. 54. 



self who reported these words to Caesar. Segulius 
endeavoured, at the same time, to persuade me 
that you are in great danger of falling a victim to 
the resentment of the veteran legions, who speak 
of you, he pretends, with much indignation. The 
principal cause, it seems, of their displeasure is, 
that both Caesar and myself are left out of the 
commission for dividing the lands b among the 
soldiers, and that everything is disposed of just as 
you and your friends at Rome think proper. 

Notwithstanding that I was on my march c when 
I received this account, yet I thought it would not 
be advisable to pass the Alps till I had informed 
myself how affairs stand. I am well persuaded, 
nevertheless, that with respect to yourself, these 
reports and menaces of the veterans aim at nothing 
farther than by alarming your fears, and incensing 
the young Caesar against you, to obtain for them- 
selves a more considerable proportion of the 
rewards decreed by the senate. But I do not in- 
tend, by saying this, to dissuade you from stand- 
ing upon your guard, as nothing, be assured, is 
more valuable to me than your life. Let me only 
caution you not to suffer your fears to run you into 
greater dangers than those you would avoid. How- 
ever, I would advise you to obviate the clamours 
of these veterans, as far as you reasonably may ; 
and to comply with their desires, both in regard to 
the decemvirs T and to the distribution of their re- 
wards. As to those forfeited estates which belonged 
to the veterans who served under Antony, I should 
be glad, if you think proper, that Caesar and myself 
may be nominated to assign them to the troops. 
But in reference to the pecuniary donative which 
they have been also promised, it will be proper to 
act with more deliberation, and as the circum- 
stances of the public finances shall require : to 
which end it may be signified to them, that the 
senate will take these their claims into considera- 
tion. As to those other four legions to whom the 
senate has also decreed an allotment of lands, I 
imagine that the estates in Campania, together 
with those which were formerly seized by Sylla, 
will be sufficient for the purpose. I should think, 
too, that the best method of division would be, 
either to parcel out those lands in equal shares to 
the several legions, or to determine their respective 
proportions by lot. But when I thus give you my 
opinion, it is by no means as pretending to superior 
judgment, but merely from the affection of my 
heart towards you, and from my sincere desire that 
the public tranquillity may be preserved, which, I 
am very sensible, if any accidents should happen to 
you, cannot possibly be maintained. 

I do not purpose to march out of Italy, unless I 
should find it greatly expedient. Meanwhile I am 
employed in disciplining my troops, and furnish- 
ing them with arms : and I hope to appear with no 
contemptible body of forces, upon any emergency 
that shall again call me into the field. But Caesar, 
however, has not sent back the legion to me which 
served in Pansa's army. 

I request your immediate answer to this letter ; 
and if you should have anything of importance to 

b Tluse were lands which the senate seem to have 
promised as an encouragement v to their troops, upon the 
breaking out of the war against Antony.— Philipp. xiv. 13. 

c In order to join Plancus. 

d The persons appointed to execute the commission for 
the distribution of the lands above-mentioned. 



586 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



communicate to me, which requires particular 
secrecy, I desire you would convey it by one of 
your own domestics. Farewell. 
Eporedia e , May the 24th. 



LETTER XXIV. 

From the same to Cicero. 
All things here go on well f : and it shall be my 
endeavour to render them still better. Lepidus 
a u 7]0 seems to De favourably disposed towards 
me ; and, indeed, we have reason to divest 
ourselves of all our fears, and to act with undaunted 
freedom in defence of the commonwealth. But had 
our affairs a far less promising aspect, yet it might 
justly animate and augment that courage which I 
know always resides in your breast, to reflect that 
we have three powerful armies £ devoted to the ser- 
vice of the republic, and that Fortune has already 
declared in our favour. 

The report which I mentioned in my former let- 
ter is evidently calculated to intimidate you. But 
believe me, if you exert a proper spirit, the 
whole united party will be unable to withstand 
your eloquence. 

I purpose, agreeably to what I told you in my 
last, to remain in Italy till I shall hear from you. 
Farewell. 
Eporedia, May the 25th. 



LETTER XXV. 

To Plancus. 

The news from your part of the world is so ex- 
tremely variable and contradictory, that I am utterly 
at a loss what to write. Sometimes the 
' ' accounts we receive of Lepidus are agree- 

able to our wishes, and at others entirely the 
reverse. All reports, however, concur in assuring 
us, that you are superior to every danger, either 
from fraud or force. If you are in some degree 
indebted for the latter to Fortune, it is certain that 
the former, at least, is owing to your prudence 
alone. 

I am informed, by a letter from your colleague 11 , 
dated the 1 5th of May, that you mentioned, in one 
of your expresses to him, that Lepidus had refused 
to receive Antony. We should have been more 
disposed to credit this intelligence, if you had taken 
notice of it in any of your despatches to Rome. 
But, perhaps, you would not venture to communi- 
cate to us this piece of good news, as having been 
a little premature in an account of the same kind 
in your last. Every man, indeed, is liable to be 
deceived by his wishes ; but all the world knows 
that you can never be imposed upon by any other 
means. In the present instance, however, all pos- 
sibility of farther error is removed : for to stumble 
twice against the same stone is a disgrace, you 
know, even to a proverb. Should the truth prove 
agreeable then to what you mentioned in your let- 
ter to your colleague, all our fears are at an end : 

e A town not far from Vercella?, from whence the last 
letter from Brutus was dated. See letter 18 of this hook. 

f " Brutus having received, most prohahly, some fresh 
intelligence concerning Lepidus, wrote this letter to 
Cicero the day after he had written the former." — Ross. 

S That of Octavius, Plancus, and his own. 

11 Decimus Brutus. 



nevertheless, we shall not dismiss them till we 
receive a confirmation of this account from your 
own hand. 

I have often assured you of my firm persuasion, 
that the whole credit of delivering the common- 
wealth from this civil war, will devolve entirely upon 
that general who shall extinguish these its last sur- 
viving flames : an honour which I hope, and believe, 
is reserved solely for yourself. 

It is with great pleasure, though without the 
least surprise, that I find you entertain such grate- 
ful sentiments of my zeal in your service. Higher, 
indeed, it cannot possibly rise ; but you may depend 
upon my exerting it to more important purposes, if 
affairs in your part of the world should succeed as 
we wish. Farewell. 
May the 29th. 



LETTER XXVI. 

Lentulus' 1 to Cicero. 
As I found, when I applied to Brutus in Mace- 
donia, that he would not soon be prepared to march 

710 *° *^ e ass ^ stance °f tn i s province j , I 
determined to return hither, in order to 
collect what remained of the public money, and to 
remit it with all possible expedition to Rome. In 
the interval I received intelligence that Dolabella's 
fleet appeared upon the coast of Lycia k , and that 
he had procured above a hundred transport-vessels, 
intending, if he should not succeed in his designs 
upon Syria 1 , to sail directly with his forces to 
Italy, and join the Antonys and the rest of 
those infamous rebels. I was so much alarmed at 
this account, that I thought proper to postpone all 
other affairs, and immediately proceed in quest 
of this fleet. And notwithstanding my ships were 
unequal both in number and size to those of the 
enemy, I should probably have destroyed their 
whole fleet, if I had not been obstructed by the 
Rhodians : however, I have disabled the greatest 
part of it, and dispersed the rest. I have taken 
likewise every one of their transports, the soldiers 
and officers on board having quitted them upon the 
first notice of my approach. In a word, I have 
succeeded in the main of my design, having defeated 
a scheme which I greatly dreaded, and prevented 
Dolabella from strengthening our enemies by 
transporting his forces into Italy. 

I refer you to the letter which I have written to the 
senate m , for an account of the ill-treatment I re- 
ceived from the Rhodians, though indeed I have by 
no means represented it in its strongest colours. 
These people, in consequence of their imagining 
that the affairs of the commonwealth were utterly 
desperate, behaved towards me with the most in- 
sufferable insolence. But their affronts to my own 
person are in no sort the foundation of my com- 
plaints : I have ever disregarded injuries of this 
kind, that centred entirely in myself. It is their 



i ITe was the son of Publius Lentulus, to whom several 
letters in the first and second books are addressed. He 
attended Trebonius into Asia Minor as his quaestor in that 
province, from whence the present letter was written. 

j In order to quell the commotions which Dolabella had 
raised. See rem. b , p. 578. 

k It formed part of the province of Asia Minor. It is 
now called Ahihidli. 

1 See rem. k , p. 563. 

m The following letter. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



587 



disaffection to the republic, their attachment to 
the opposite party, their constant ill offices to all 
those who distinguish themselves in the support of 
our liberties, that I thought demanded my resent- 
ment. Let me not be understood, however, as 
passing an indiscriminate censure upon the whole 
island in general : far am I, indeed, from thinking 
them all equally infected with the same principles. 
But I know not by what fatality it happens, that 
those very magistrates who refused to give protection 
to my father, to Lucius Lentulus, to Pompey, and 
to the rest of those illustrious chiefs who fled into 
this island after the battle of Pharsalia, are all of 
them, at this juncture, either actually in the ad- 
ministration themselves, or possess an unlimited 
influence over those who are. Accordingly, they 
have conducted themselves in this affair with their 
usual malevolence ; and it is not only expedient, 
but, indeed, absolutely necessary, that the republic 
should interpose her authority, lest the insolence of 
this people should rise to still greater heights, by 
passing any longer unchastised. 

Let me hope you will continue, as usual, to take 
my interests under your protection : and that you 
will, upon all occasions, both in the senate, and in 
eveiy other instance, promote my honours with 
your suffrage. As the province of Asia is decreed 
to the consuls", with a power of appointing whom- 
soever they shall think proper to administer the 
government till their arrival ; I entreat you to em- 
ploy your interest with them to confer this dignity 
upon me. The situation of affairs in this province 
does by no means require their presence before the 
expiration of their consular office, or in any sort 
render it necessary that they should send hither an 
army; for Dolabella is now in Syria: and, agree- 
ably to what you declared with your usual prophe- 
tic discernment, he will certainly be defeated by 
Cassius ere the consuls can possibly arrive. Accord- 
ingly, he has been obliged to abandon the siege of 
Antiochia, and has retreated to Laodicea, a sea-port 
town in Syria, as the only city in which he could 
confide. I hope he will soon meet with the fate he 
so well deserves; or rather, indeed, I am per- 
suaded it has already attended him, for he has no 
other place to which he can retreat, and it is im- 
possible he should make any long or effectual 
resistance against so powerful an army as that 
which Cassius has led against him . I imagine, 
therefore, that Pansa and Hirtius will be in no haste 
to come into these provinces, but rather choose to 
finish their consular year at Rome. For this rea- 
son I am inclined to hope that you may prevail 
with them to appoint me their substitute. 

I have received assurances from both of them, as 
well in person as by letter, that no successor should 
be elected to my office during their consulate: and 
Pansa has lately repeated the same promise to my 
friend Verrius. Believe me, it is not from any am- 
bitious views that I desire to be continued some 
time longer in this province. But as I have met 

n Hirtius and Pansa, the news of whose death, together 

with that of the battles in which they fell, had not yet 

reached the knowledge of Lentulus. 

° This shortly afterwards proved to he the fact ; for Cas- 

j sius having forced the city of Laodicea to surrender, Dola- 

( bella, in order to avoid falling into the hands of his enemy, 

put an end to his own life by the assistance of one of his 

j slaves, whom he commanded to be his executioner. — Veil. 

Pat. ii. 69. 



with many difficulties and disadvantages in the dis- 
charge of my functions, I should extremely regret 
the being obliged to resign my post before I shall 
have fully reaped the fruit of my labours. If it 
were in my power to remit to Rome the whole of 
those assessments I had actually levied, I should 
be so far from wishing to remain here, that I 
should desire to be recalled. But I am very soli- 
citous to receive the money I advanced to Cassius; 
to replace what I lost by the death of Trebonius, 
and the oppressions of Dolabella; as well as to 
recover the several sums which are due to me from 
those who have perfidiously broken the good faith 
they owed both to myself and to the republic. Now, 
these are points which I can by no means effect, 
unless the time of my continuance in this province 
be prolonged : a privilege which I hope to obtain 
by the interposition of your usual good offices. 

I persuade myself that my services to the com- 
monwealth give me just reason to expect, not the 
honour only of administering this province, but as 
high dignities as Cassius and the two Bruti : as I 
not only shared with them in forming the design 
and undergoing the hazard of that ever-memorable 
enterprise against Caesar?, but have exerted myself 
with equal zeal and spirit in all our present com- 
motions. I was the first, let me boast, that bid 
defiance to the oppressive laws of Antony. I was 
the first that brought over the cavalry of Dolabella 
to the interest of the republic, and delivered them 
into the hands of Cassius. I was the first who 
levied troops in defence of our common liberties 
against the infamous attempts of those who have 
conspired our destruction : and it is owing entirely 
to me that Syria, together with the army in that 
province, joined themselves under Cassius in the 
support of the republic. The truth is, if I had not 
very expeditiously contributed those large subsi- 
dies, both of men and money, with which I sup- 
plied Cassius, he would not have ventured to march 
into Syria : and the name of Dolabella would now 
have been no less formidable to the republic than 
that of Antony himself. Yet, at the same time 
that I acted thus warmly for the interest of the re- 
public, I had every private bias that could draw me 
to the opposite party. Dolabella was my friend 
and companion, as the Antonys were my nearest 
relations : and it was by the united good offices of 
the latter that I obtained the qusestorship of this 
province. But the love of my country was supe- 
rior to every other attachment ; and I stood forth 
the first to declare war against the strongest and 
most endearing connexions both of blood and 
friendship. Inconsiderable, it must be acknow- 
ledged, is the fruit which I have hitherto reaped 
from these instances of my patriotism. However, 
I do not despair: and I shall unweariedly perse- 
vere, not only in displaying my zeal for our liber- 
ties, but in exposing myself to every difficulty and 
every danger for their support. Nevertheless, I 
cannot but add, if I were to be encouraged by some 
of those honours I have merited from the senate 
and from every friend to our country, they would 

p Plutarch (as Manutiusin his remark upon this passage 
observes) taking notice that several affected to be thought 
associates in the conspiracy against Caesar, who, in truth, 
were in no way concerned in that affair, particularly men- 
tions Lentulus as one in that number. But he paid dear 
for his boast, as it cost him his life when Octavius got into 
power.— Plut. in Vit. Jul. Caes. 



588 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULL1US CICERO 



give me an authority which would enahle me to act 
with greater advantage to the common cause. 

I did not see your son when I was with Brutus, 
as he was just gone into winter-quarters with the 
cavalry q . But I had the satisfaction of rinding 
that he was in general esteem : which gave me great 
pleasure, not only on his account and yours, but 
likewise upon my own. For I cannot but consider 
a son of yours, that thus copies out his father's vir- 
tues, as standing in the relation to me of a brother. 
Farewell. 

Perga r , May the 29th. 



LETTER XXVII. 

Lentulus, Proqucestor and Propraetor, to the 
Consuls, the Prcetors, the Tribunes of the Peo- 
ple, the Senate, and the Commons of Rome. 
As soon as Dolabella had possessed himself of 
Asia s by the most infamous and cruel act of trea- 
a u 710 cner yS I applied immediately to the 
army in Macedonia under the command 
of the illustrious Marcus Brutus, as the nearest 
assistance to which I could have recourse, in order 
to recover this province as soon as possible to the 
dominion of the commonwealth. But Dolabella 
being apprehensive of my design, advanced with so 
much rapidity, that he had got out of these terri- 
tories before it was possible that the forces I had 
solicited could arrive. In his march, however, he 
laid the whole country waste, seized upon the pub- 
lic money, and not only plundered the Roman 
citizens of their effects, but most inhumanly sold 
them as slaves. I did not think it necessary, there- 
fore, to defer my departure out of Macedonia till 
the troops of Brutus should be ready. It appeared 
to be most for the advantage of the republic, that 
I should return with all expedition to the duties of 
my post, in order to levy the remainder of the 
public taxes, to collect the money I had deposited, 
to inquire what part of it had been seized, and by 
whose neglect : in a word, to transmit to you a full 
and faithful account of the state in which I should 
find the affairs of this province. With these views, 
I embarked; but as I was sailing among the Greek 
islands, I received intelligence that Dolabella's 
fleet lay off the coast of Lycia, and that the Rho- 
dians had a considerable number of ships of war 
ready to sail. I resolved, therefore, to put back to 
Rhodes with the ships that attended me, and which 
were now joined by those under the command of 
Patiscus, the proquaestor ; a person whom I must 
mention as most intimately united with me, not 
only by the ties of friendship, but by the same 

q " Brutus, when he first left Italy, sailed directly for 
Athens, where he spent some time in concerting measures 
how to make himself master of Greece and Macedonia, 
which was the great design that he had in view. Here he 
gathered ahout him all the young nobility and gentry of 
Rome, who, for the opportunity of their education, had 
been sent to this celebrated seat of learning ; but of them 
all, he took the most notice of young Cicero. He made 
him, therefore, one of his lieutenants, though lie was but 
twenty years old; gave him the command of his horse; 
and employed him in several commissions of great trust 
and importance ; in all which the young man distinguished 
both his courage and conduct." — Life of Cicero, p. 257. 

* A city of Pamphylia, in Asia Minor, now called Pirgi. 

8 Asia Minor. See rem. a , p. 4!).'J. 
* * See rem. b , p. 578. 



common sentiments towards the republic. I as- 
sured myself that the Rhodians would give me 
assistance, in the first place, from their regard to 
the authority of your degree, by which Dolabella 
is declared an enemy to his country ; and in the 
next, as they stood engaged by a solemn treaty 
renewed with us in the consulate of Marcus Mar- 
cellus and ServiusSulpicius, to consider the enemies 
of the republic, in all respects, as their own. But 
I was greatly deceived in my expectation ; they 
were so far from being inclined to strengthen my 
fleet with any of their own ships, that they would 
not suffer it to enter their harbour. They even 
refused to furnish our soldiers with provisions and 
water ; and it was with difficulty 1 obtained permis- 
sion myself to sail into their port with two small 
vessels. However, I did not think proper to resent 
this insult upon the rights and the majesty of the 
Roman people ; deeming it of more importance, in 
the present conjuncture, to frustrate the designs of 
Dolabella. For I had discovered, by some inter- 
cepted letters, that it was his purpose, if he failed 
in his attempt upon Syria and Egypt, (as fail I was 
sure he must,) to proceed directly with his band of 
robbers and their plunder to Italy. Accordingly, 
in view to this his scheme, he had pressed, out of 
the ports of Lycia, a considerable number of 
transports, none of them less than fifty-six tons 
burthen 11 , and these were strongly guarded by his 
fleet. Being greatly alarmed, therefore, conscript v 
fathers, at this dangerous design, I resolved to bear 
with the injurious treatment of the Rhodians, and 
to submit to every milder expedient of gaining 
them over to our interest. For this purpose, I 
suffered myself to be introduced into their senate 
in the manner they thought proper ; where I repre- 
sented, in the strongest terms I was capable, the 
danger to which the republic would be exposed, if 
that infamous rebel should transport his forces 
into Italy. But I found them most perversely 
disposed to imagine that the friends of the republic 
were the weaker party ; that the general association 
in favour of our liberties was by no means volun- 
tary ; that the senate would still patiently suffer 
the insolence of Dolabella ; and that no man would 
venture to vote him a public enemy. To be short, 
they were more inclined to believe the false reports 
that had been propagated by the disaffected, than 
to credit my representations, though entirely agree- 
able to truth. In conformity with this disposition, 
they had sent, before my arrival in the island, two 
several embassies to Dolabella, notwithstanding his 
late assassination of Trebonius, and the many 
other flagitious acts which he committed in this 
province. And this they did by an unexampled 
violation of their laws, and contrary to the express 
prohibitions of the magistrates who were then in 
office. But whether this conduct was owing to 
their fears for the territories they possess on the 
continent, as they themselves allege, or whether it 

u These vessels were much inferior to those employed 
for the same purposes in our service, the largest of which 
are of 300 tons, and the smallest of 100. 

v This appellation was at first given as a mark of dis- 
tinction to those particular senators who were added by 
Tarquinius Prisous, or by the people at the settling of the 
commonwealth, to the hundred which originally composed 
the senate as it .vas instituted by Romulus. But in after- 
times it became a common title, which was promiscuously 
made use of in all addresses to that great council of the 
republic. — Manutius de Senat. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



589 



is to be imputed to the factious influence of a few 
of their principal magistrates, who formerly treated 
some of our illustrious countrymen with equal 
indignity, I know not. This, however, is certain, 
that I could not prevail with them to take any 
measures to obviate an evil which it was very easy 
for them to prevent : and all the arguments I could 
use, either with respect to my own personal dan- 
ger, or in regard to that which threatened the 
republic, if this traitor with his banditti, after 
being driven from Syria, should transport them- 
selves into Italy, proved utterly ineffectual. It 
was even suspected, that the magistrates themselves 
amused us with various pretences of delay, till 
they could send intelligence to Dolabella's fleet of 
our approach. And, indeed, there were some 
circumstances that greatly increased this suspicion, 
particularly that Sextius Marius, and Caius Titius, 
the lieutenants of Dolabella, suddenly quitted the 
fleet, and abandoned their transports, which had 
cost them so much time and pains to collect. Be 
that as it will, I pursued my voyage from Rhodes 
towards Lycia, and falling in with the enemy, I 
took all their transports, and have restored them 
to their owners. By these means I have obstructed 
what I so much feared, and have removed all ap- 
prehensions of Dolabella's passing into Italy with 
his rascal crew. I chased the enemy as far as Sida, 
which is the utmost limit of my province ; where I 
learned that part of them were separated, and that 
the rest had steered in company together towards 
Syra and the island of Cyprus. Having thus dis- 
persed this squadron, and knowing that brave 
commander and excellent patriot, the illustrious 
Caius Cassius, had a considerable fleet in those 
seas, I returned to the duties of my employment : 
and it shall be my endeavour, conscript fathers, to 
give both you and the republic full proofs of my 
indefatigable zeal. To this end I shall exert my 
utmost assiduity in collecting the public revenues, 
which I shall transmit to you, together with all 
my accounts, as expeditiously as possible. If I 
should have time, likewise, to make a progress 
through the province, in order to inquire into the 
conduct of those with whom I intrusted the care 
of the finances, I shall not fail to send a list of such 
who shall appear to have been faithful to their 
trust, as well as of those who, by voluntarily be- 
traying it, have rendered themselves partners in 
the guilt of Dolabella. Let me add, that if you 
shall think proper to chastise these last according 
to their demerits, the execution of your justice will 
greatly strengthen my authority, and enable me, 
with more facility, to raise and preserve the 
remainder of the public taxes. In the meanwhile, 
the better to secure the public revenue, and to pro- 
tect this province from future insults, I have 
formed (what, indeed, was extremely wanting) a 
body of troops composed entirely of volunteers. 

Since I wrote the above, about thirty Asiatic 
soldiers, who deserted from Dolabella in Syria, are 
arrived in Pamphylia. They relate that Dolabella 



appeared before the walls of Antiochia, in Syria, 
and finding that the inhabitants had shut the city 
gates against him, he made several attempts to 
enter by force, but was always repulsed with great 
disadvantage. At length, having lost about a 
hundred men, he retired in the night, and fled to- 
wards Laodicea, leaving all his sick and wounded 
behind him. They add, that the same night 
almost the whole of his Asiatic troops deserted ; 
eight hundred of which returned to Antiochia, and 
surrendered themselves to the officers of the gar- 
rison, which Cassius had left in that town ; the 
rest (of which number these soldiers are) came 
down into Cilicia by Mount Amanus : in fine, that 
Cassius, with his whole army, was reported to 
have been but four days' march from Laodicea when 
Dolabella retired towards that city. I am per- 
suaded, therefore, that this most infamous villain 
will meet with the punishment he deserves much 
sooner than we expected. 



LETTER XXVIII. 

Lepidus, Imperator and sovereign Pontiff™, to 
the Senate and People of Bo?ne x . 

Heaven and earth will bear me witness, con- 
script fathers, that there is nothing I have at all 
a u 710 ti mes more sincerely desired than the 
preservation of our common liberties : 
and I should soon have convinced you of this truth, 
if Fortune had not forced me to renounce those 
measures I purposed to pursue. My whole army, 
indeed, expressed their usual tenderness towards 
their fellow-countrymen, by a mutinous opposition 
to my designs ; and, to own the truth, they abso- 
lutely compelled me not to refuse my protection to 
such a multitude of Roman citizens. I conjure 
you then, conscript fathers, to judge of this affair, 
not by the suggestions of private resentment, but 
by the interest of the commonwealth : nor let it be 
imputed as a crime to me and my army, that, 
amidst our civil dissentions, we yielded to the 
dictates of compassion and humanity. Be assured, 
that by acting with an equal regard to the safety 
and honour of all parties, you will best consult 
both your own and your country's advantage. 
Farewell. 

From my camp, at Pons Argenteus, May the 30th. 

w The function of the Roman pontiffs was to give judg- 
ment in all causes relating to religion, and to regulate the 
festivals, sacrifices, and all other sacred institutions. The 
sovereign pontiff, or superintendant of these pontifices, was 
one of the most honourable offices in the commonwealth. 

x This letter was written hy Lepidus to the senate, in 
order to excuse the junction of his forces with those of 
Antony, which was effected the day before its date. But 
though he represents himself as merely passive in that 
transaction, and to have been forced into it by a general 
revolt of his troops ; yet it most evidently appears to have 
been in consequence of a secret treaty which had been in 
agitation during some months before* between him and 
Antony. 



590 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



BOOK XV. 



LETTER I. 



To Plancus. 

Though I am too well assured of the disposition 
of your heart, to require any formal declarations of 
your gratitude, yet I cannot but confess 
a. u. 710. t j ia<; j received your acknowledgments 
with great pleasure, as they afforded me the most 
evident proof of the affection you bear me. I was 
always, indeed, perfectly sensible of your friend- 
ship ; but it never appeared to me in a stronger or 
more advantageous light. 

Your letter to the senate was extremely well 
received, not only from the important account it 
brought us of your wise and heroic measures, but 
as it was greatly admired likewise for the strength 
and elegance of its composition. Let it be your 
earnest labour, my dear Plancus, to extinguish the 
remains of this war, which if you should happily 
effect, you will acquire the most consummate credit 
and reputation, I wish all possible prosperity to 
the republic ; yet, believe me, spent as I am with 
my utmost efforts to preserve it from destruction, 
I am scarce more solicitous for the liberties of my 
country, than for the glory of my friend. I hope 
that the immortal gods have placed within your 
power a most favourable opportunity of increasing 
your fame ; and let me entreat you to embrace it, 
my dear Plancus, in the full persuasion that who- 
ever shall destroy Antony, will have the honour of 
terminating this most execrable and alarming war. 
Farewell. 



l. u. 710. 



LETTER II. 

Asinius Pollio y to Cicero. 
It is owing to Lepidus, who detained my cou- 
riers above a week, that I did not receive earlier 
advice of the several actions near Mutina ; 
though, indeed, I should be glad to have 
been the last that was informed of this unhappy 
j news, if it were utterly out of my power to be of 
I any assistance in redressing its consequences. I 
j wish the senate had ordered me into Italy, when 
| they sent for Plancus and Lepidus ; for if I had 
been present, the republic would not have received 
this cruel wound. And though some, perhaps, 
may rejoice in this event, from the great number cf 
principal officers and veteran soldiers of the Caesar- 
ian party who have perished, yet they will undoubt- 
edly find reason to lament it, when they shall be 
sensible of the terrible desolation it has brought 
upon their country. For if what is related, con- 
cerning the number of the slain, be in any degree 
true, the flower and strength of our armies are 
entirely cut off. 

I was well aware of the great advantage it would 
have proved to the republic, if I could have joined 
Lepidus ; as I should have been able, especially 
with the assistance of Plancus, to have dissipated 
those doubts which occasioned his delay in declar- 
ing for the senate. But the letters which I 

y See rems. h and I, p. 565-66. 



received from him being written (as you will per- 
ceive by the copies I herewith transmit) in the 
same spirit with those speeches which, it is said, 
he made to his army at Narbo z , I found it neces- 
sary to act with some sort of artifice towards him, 
if J hoped to obtain leave to march my troops 
through his province. I was apprehensive," like- 
wise, if an engagement should happen before I 
could execute my designs, that the known friend- 
ship I had with Antony (though not superior, 
indeed, to that which Plancus entertained for him) 
would give my enemies an occasion of misrepresent- 
ing my intentions. For these reasons I despatched 
two couriers from Gades a , in the month of April, 
by two different ships, with letters, not only to you, 
and to Octavius, but to the consuls also, requesting 
to be informed in what manner my services might 
most avail the republic. But, if I am right in my 
calculation, these ships did not sail till the very 
day on which the battle was fought between Pansa 
and Antony; as that was the soonest, I think, since 
the winter, that these seas were navigable. To 
these reasons for not marching, I must add, that 
I had so little apprehension of this civil war, that 
I settled the winter-quarters of my troops in the 
very remotest parts of Lusitania b . Both armies, 
it should seem, were as eager to come to an action, 
as if their greatest fears on each side were, lest 
some less destructive expedient might be found of 
composing our disturbances. However, if circum- 
stances required so much precipitation, I must do 
Hirtius the justice to acknowledge, that he con- 
ducted himself with all the skill and courage of a 
consummate general. 

I am informed, by my letters from that part of 
Gaul which is under the command of Lepidus, that 
Pansa's whole army is cut to pieces, and that he 
himself is since dead of his wounds. They add, 
that the martial legion is entirely destroyed, and 
that Lucius Fabatus, Caius Peducseus, and Deci- 
mus Carfulenus, are among the number of the 
slain. My intelligence farther assures me, that, 
in the subsequent attack by Hirtius, both he and 
Antony lost all their legions; that the fourth 
legion, after having taken Antony's camp, was 
engaged and defeated by the fifth, with terrible 
slaughter ; that Hirtius, together with Pontius 
Aquila, and, as it is reported, Octavius likewise, 
were killed in the action. If this should prove 
true, (which the gods forbid,) I shall be very greatly 
concerned. My advices farther import, that An- 
tony has, with great disgrace, abandoned the siege 
of Mutina ; however, that he has *** c complete 
regiments of horse still remaining, together with 
one which belongs to Publius Bagiennus, as also 
a considerable number of disarmed soldiers ; that 
Ventidius has joined him with the seventh, the 
eighth, and the ninth legions ; and that Antony is 
determined, if there should be no hopes of gaining 
Lepidus, to have recourse to the last expedient, 
and arm not only the provincials, but even the 

* Narbonne, in Provence. 

a Cadiz. fe Portugal. 

c The number is omitted in the MSS. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



591 



slaves ; in fine, that Lucius Antonius, after having 
plundered the city of Parma, has posted himself 
upon the Alps. If these several particulars are 
true, there is no time to be lost ; and every man 
who wishes that the republic, or even the name of 
the Roman people, may subsist, should imme- 
diately, without waiting for the express orders of 
the senate, contribute his utmost assistance to 
extinguish these dreadful flames. I hear that 
Decimus Brutus is at the head of only seventeen 
cohorts, together with two incomplete legions of 
new-raised troops, which had been levied by An- 
tony. I doubt not, however, that the remains of 
the forces commanded by Hirtius will join him. I 
hope so at least ; as there is little, I think, to be 
expected from any new recruits that may be raised ; 
especially since nothing can be more dangerous 
than to give Antony time to recover strength. 

My next letters from Italy will determine the 
plan of my operations ; and, as the corn is now cut 
down, and partly carried in, I shall be more at 
liberty to execute them without obstruction from 
the season of the year. In the mean time, let me 
assure you, that I will neither desert, nor survive* 1 , 
the republic. It is a misfortune, however, that my 
distance from the scene of action is so great, and 
the roads so infested, that it is often six weeks, and 
sometimes more, ere I can be informed of any 
event that has happened. Farewell. 



u. 710. 



LETTER III. 

Decimus Brutus to Cicero. 
It affords me some consolation, in the midst of 
my great concern e , that the world is at length 
convinced that my fears were not without 
just foundation f . I have sent, by this 
express, a full account of the whole affair to the 
senate. And now let them deliberate, if they 
please, whether they shall call home their troops 
from Africa and Sardinia, whether they shall send 
for Marcus Brutus, and whether they shall order 
the payment of my forces. But of this you may 
be well assured, that unless they act, with regard 
to these several articles, in the manner I have 
pointed out in my letter, we shall all of us be 
exposed to the utmost danger. 

I entreat you to be extremely cautious whom the 
senate shall employ to conduct the troops that are 
to reinforce me ; as it is a trust which requires 
great fidelity and expedition. Farewell. 
From my camp, June 3d. 

d Notwithstanding Pollio's pious resolutions of expiring 
with the republic, he was contented to live on long after 
its total destruction, and died in a good old age in the 
court and favour of Augustus. It was not many months, 
indeed, from the date of this letter, that he united with the 
enemies of his country, by joining his troops with those of 
Antony and Lepidus.— Auct. Dial, de Caus. Corrupt. 
Eloquent. 

e Occasioned by the treachery of Lepidus, in having 
deserted the cause of the republic and joined himself to 
Antony. This letter appears to have been written a few 
days after that event, being dated the 3d of June ; and the 
junction between the two armies of Lepidus and Antony 
having been effected on the 29th of May. 

f See the 11th letter of the preceding book, to which 
this seems to allude. 



LETTER IV. 

To Decimus Brutus s. 

May every god confound that most infamous of 
all human beings, the execrable Segulius ! For 
a u 710 d ° y0U ima S ine > m 7 friend, that he has 
told this idle tale to none but Caesar, 
or to you ? Be assured he has related it to every 
mortal that would give him the hearing. I am 
much obliged to you, however, for informing me of 
this contemptible report ; as it is a very strong 
instance, my dear Brutus, of the share you allow 
me in your friendship. 

As to what he mentioned concerning the com- 
plaints of the veterans, that you and Caesar are left 
out of the commission for dividing the lands, I sin- 
cerely wish I had, likewise, been excluded from so 
troublesome an office. But it is by no means to 
be imputed to me, that you were not both nomi- 
nated ; on the contrary, I moved that all our gene- 
rals should be included. But the clamours of 
those who always endeavoured to obstruct your 
honours, carried it against me ; and you were both 
excepted, in opposition to my warmest efforts. 
Unheeded then by me, let Segulius propagate his 
impotent calumnies ! For all that the man means 
is nothing more than to repair his broken fortunes. 
Not that he can be charged with having dissipated 
his patrimony ; for patrimony he never had. He 
has only squandered in luxury what he acquired by 
infamy. 

You may be perfectly at ease, my dear and ex- 
cellent Brutus, with regard to those fears which 
you so generously entertain upon my account, at 
the same time that you feel none, you tell me, upon 
your own Be assured I shall expose myself to no 
dangers which prudence can prevent ; and, as to 
those against which no precaution can avail, I am 
little solicitous. High, indeed, would my presump- 
tion be, were I to desire to be privileged beyond 
the common lot of human nature. 

The advice you give me not to suffer my fears to 
lead me into greater dangers than those they would 
avoid, supplies me at once with a proof both of 
your judgment and your friendship ; but the caution 
is altogether unnecessary. The truth of it is, dis- 
tinguished as you are by a fortitude of mind which 
renders you incapable of fear upon any occasion, 
yet there is no man who approaches nearer to you 
in that quality than myself. Nevertheless, I shall 
always be upon my guard, though I shall never be 
afraid. Indeed, if I should have any reason, will 
it not be wholly owing, my dear Brutus, to your- 
self ? For were 1 of a disposition apt to take 
alarm, yet I should be perfectly composed, in the 
confidence of that protection I shall receive from 
your approaching consulate ; especially as the 
world is no less sensible than I am of the singular 
share I enjoy of your affection. 

I agree entirely with your opinion concerning 
the four legions, as also that both you and Caesar 
should have the distribution of those estates you 
mention. This is an office on which some of my 
colleagues had cast a very wistful eye ; however, I 
have disappointed their longing, by reserving it 

»f This letter is an answer to the 23d of the foregoing 
book, and was written before any of the letters which give 
an account of Antony's being received by Lepidus had come 
to Cicero's hands. 

■ J 



592 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



wholly for you and Caesar. In the mean time, if 
any occurrence should arise that requires particu- 
lar secrecy, I shall observe your directions, and 
communicate it to you by one of my own domestics. 
Farewell. 
June the 4th. 



LETTER V. 

Plancus to Cicero. 

I shall never regret to undergo the greatest 
dangers in the cause of my country, provided, my 
a it 710 ^ ear Cicero, that whatever happens to 
myself, I may not justly be accused of 
temerity. But I should not scruple to confess 
that I had been guilty of an imprudence, if I had 
ever acted in reliance upon the sincerity of Lepidus. 
Too easy a disposition to give credit to fair pre- 
tences, cannot so properly be called a fault as an 
error : but an error into which the noblest minds 
are generally most liable to fall. It was not, how- 
ever, from a mistake of this nature that I had 
lately well-nigh been deceived : for the character 
of Lepidus I perfectly well knew. It was entirely 
owing to a certain sensibility of what my detractors 
might say: a quality, I will freely acknowledge, 
particularly prejudicial in the affair of war. I was 
apprehensive, if I remained in my camp, that 
those who are inclined to misconstrue my actions, 
might represent me as the occasion of the war 
being protracted, by obstinately indulging my 
resentment against Lepidus : and, therefore, I ad- 
vanced almost within sight of him and Antony. 
I encamped, indeed, at no greater distance from 
them than forty miles, that I might be able, as 
circumstances should require, either speedily to 
join the army of Lepidus, or safely to retreat with 
my own. In marking out my camp, I chose a 
spot of ground that gave me the advantage of 
having a large river in my front, which would 
take up some time in passing, and that lay con- 
tiguous, likewise, to the country of the Vocontii h : 
who, I was sure, would favour my retreat. When 
Lepidus found himself disappointed of what he so 
much wished, and that there was no hopes of my 
approaching nearer, he immediately threw off the 
mask ; and on the 29th of May he joined Antony. 
The combined armies moved the same day in 
order to invest my camp ; and they had actually 
advanced within twenty miles before I received 
advice of their junction. However, I struck my 
tents with so much expedition, that, by the favour 
of the gods, I had the happiness to escape them. 
My retreat was conducted with so much good 
order, that no part of my baggage, nor even a 
single man, was either left behind or intercepted 
by these incensed villains. On the 4th of this 
month I repassed the Isara with my whole army : 
after which I broke down the bridge I had thrown 
across that river. I took this precaution, that my 
troops might have time to refresh themselves, as 
well as to give my colleague 1 an opportunity of 
coming up to me : which I imagine he will be 
able to effect in three days from the date of this 
letter. 

I must always acknowledge the zeal and fidelity 

h A people of Narboncnsian Gaul. 
» Decimus Brutus. 



which Laterensis has shown to the republic, in his 
negotiations between Lepidus and myself : but it 
is certain that his great partiality towards Lepidus 
prevented him from discerning the dangers into 
which I have been led. However, as soon as he 
discovered how grossly he had been imposed upon, 
he attempted to turn that sword against his own 
breast, which with much more justice had been 
plunged in the heart of Lepidus. But he was pre- 
vented from completing his purpose : and it is 
said (though I by no means mention it as a cer- 
tainty) that the wound he has given himself is not 
mortals. 

My escape from these traitors has proved an 
extreme mortification to them : as they marched 
to attack me with the same unrelenting fury which 
instigates them against their country. Some late 
circumstances particularly contributed to inflame 
their resentment. I had frequently and warmly 
urged Lepidus to extinguish this civil war : I had 
disapproved of the conferences that were holden 
with the enemy : I had refused to see the lieute- 
nants whom Antony deputed to me under the 
passports of Lepidus : and had intercepted Catius 
Vestinus, whom the former had sent express to the 
latter. But it is with pleasure I reflect, that the 
more earnestly they wished to get me into their 
hands, the more they suffer in the disappointment. 

Continue, my dear Cicero, to employ the same 
vigorous efforts you have hitherto exerted, that we 
who are in arms, for the defence of the republic, 
may have suitable honours paid to our services. 
In the mean time, I wish that Csesar would join 
us with those brave troops he commands ; or, if 
his affairs will not permit him, that, at least, they 
might be sent under the conduct of some other 
general : for most certainly his own personal 
interest is at stake k . The whole force of the dis- 
affected party is united against our country : and 
shall we not put forth our utmost strength in its 
defence ? As for what concerns myself, I will 
venture to assure you, that if you at Rome are not 
wanting on your parts, I will abundantly perform 
everything that can be expected on mine. 

The obligations I am continually receiving from 
your hands, endear you to me every day more 
and more ; at the same time that they animate me 
to act in such a manner as not to forfeit, in any 
degree, your esteem and affection. 

I will only add my wishes, that I were able in 

person to give you such proofs of my gratitude as 

might afford you greater reason to rejoice in the 

good offices you have conferred upon me. Farewell. 

Cularo, on the frontiers of the Allobroges 1 , 

June the Gth. 

J It proved otherwise, and the senate, in honour of his 
patriotism, not only decreed him a public funeral, but 
ordered a statue to be erected to his memory. — Dio, p. 324. 

k Octaviuswas at this time secretly carrying on a treaty 
with Lepidus and Antony, which shortly after ended in 
an alliance, which every reader is acquainted with, under 
the name of the Triumvirate. 

1 A people of the Narbonensian Gaul, in which Cularo, 
now called Grenoble, was situated. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



593 



LETTER VI. 

To Decimus Brutus. 

To tell you the truth 1 ", I was once inclined to 
be somewhat angry at the shortness of your letters : 
A v y J0 but I am now so well reconciled to your 
concise manner, that I condemn my own 
as downright loquacity, and shall make your epis- 
tles the models of mine. How short, yet how 
expressive are you when you tell me, that " all 
things go well with you, and that you shall endea- 
vour to render them still better ; that Lepidus 
seems favourably disposed ; and that we have 
everything to expect from our three armies 11 !" 
Were I ever so full of fears, these significant sen- 
tences would banish them all. But I exert the 
spirit you recommend ; and, indeed, if, at the 
time when you were closely blocked up in Mutina, 
my hopes, nevertheless, were fixed entirely upon 
you, how much higher, think you, must they be 
raised now ? 

I should be glad, my dear Brutus, to resign to 
you my post of observation, if I might do so 
without incurring the censure of deserting it. As 
to what you mentioned of continuing in Italy till 
you should hear from me, I do not disapprove of 
it, if the motions of the enemy should not call you 
elsewhere ; as there are many points upon the 
carpet at Rome, which may render it prudent for 
you not to remove to a farther distance. But, at 
all events, if your presence here may prove a mean 
of terminating the war, it is undoubtedly the first 
and principal scheme you should have in view. 

The senate has decreed the first money that 
could be raised for the payment of your troops. 
Servius is extremely your friend ; and you may 
always depend upon me. Farewell. 

June the 8th. 



LETTER VII. 

Asinius Pollio to Cicero. 
Balbus , my quaestor, has withdrawn from 
Gades with very considerable effects in his hands, 
which he had received of the public taxes p, 
consisting of a large quantity of uncoined 
gold, a much larger of silver i, together with a great 
sum of ready money ; and what adds to his iniquity 
is, that he has not discharged even the pay of the 
troops'*. In his flight he was detained three days, 
by contrary winds, at Calpe s , — from whence, how- 
ever, he sailed on the 1st of this month, and has 



a, u. 710. 



m When Cicero wrote this letter, which-is an answer to 
the 24th of the preceding book, [see p. 586,] he had not yet 
received the news of Antony's junction with Lepidus. 

" Those of Decimus Brutus, Plancus, and Octavius. 

He was nephew to Lucius Cornelius Balbus, the great 
friend and favourite of Caesar, and of whom frequent men- 
tion has been made in the preceding letters. 

V The quaestor was receiver-general of the provincial 
taxes. 

<i The province of Spain abounded in valuable mines of 
every sort, particularly in those of silver and gold, the 
proprietors of which paid a certain proportion, to the 
government, of the pure ore which these mines produced. 
— Strab. iii. : Burman. de Vectigal. Pop. Rom. Dissert, 
p. 107. 

r The payment of the forces was a part of the business 
belonging to the provincial quaestors. 

s Gibraltar. 



transported himself, together with his treasure, 
into the dominions of Bogud, king of Mauritania*. 
But whether the present prevailing reports u will 
bring him back to Gades or carry him to Rome I 
know not ; for I hear that his resolutions vary with 
every different express that arrives. But, besides 
the robberies and the extortions he has committed 
in this province, and the cruelties he has exercised 
towards our allies, he affected, in several instances, 
to imitate (as^ he himself used to boast) the actions 
of Caesar. Accordingly, on the last day of the 
games which he exhibited at Gades, he presented 
Herennius Gallus, a comedian, with the golden 
ring, and conducted him to one of the fourteen 
benches of the theatre which he had appropriated 
to those of the equestrian order. He likewise 
continued himself in the supreme magistracy of 
Gades by his own single authority, and at two 
immediately successive assemblies of the people he 
nominated for the two next following years such 
of his creatures whom he thought proper to succeed 
him in the government of that city. He also re- 
called from exile, not indeed those unfortunate men 
who were banished on account of the present com- 
motions, but those infamous rebels who were con- 
cerned in the sedition which was raised in Gades 
during the proconsulate of Sextus Varrus y , and in 
which all the members of their council were either 
assassinated or expelled. Thus far he had Csesar 
for his model ; but, in the instances I am going to 
mention, he exceeded even Caesar himself. He 
caused a play to be acted at the public games upon 
the subject of his embassy to Lucius Lentulus w , 
the proconsul ; and the good man was so affected 
with the remembrance of those transactions which 
the scenes of this drama recalled to his mind, that 
he melted into tears. At the gladiatorial games, he 
gave a specimen of his cruelty with regard to one 
Fadius, who had served in Pompey's army. This 
man had twice, it seems, voluntarily entered the 
lists in combats of this kind ; but upon the present 
occasion he refused to fight, though peremptorily 
required by Balbus, and accordingly threw himself 
upon the protection of the populace. But the 

t One of the most considerable kingdoms in ancient 
Africa, comprehending those of Fez and Morocco, together 
with part of Algiers and Billedulgerid. Bogud, the prince 
of this country, had, in the late civil wars, favoured and 
assisted Caesar, by whom he had been greatly distin- 
guished, as he afterwards supported Antony in the war 
between him and Octavius. It is probable, therefore, that 
Balbus withdrew with these treasures, not in order to 
convert them to his private use, but to employ them in 
the cause of Antony.— Hirt. De Bell. Alex. 59 ; De Bell. 
Afric. 25. 

u Concerning the junction of Lepidus with Antony. 

v It does not appear who this person was, nor at what 
time he presided as governor' of Spain. 

w He was consul in the year 704, when the civil war 
broke out, in which he took part with Pompey. He 
accompanied that general in his retreat to Brundisium, 
and from thence passed over with him into Greece. But 
before Lentulus left Italy Balbus was employed by Csesar 
(as Manutius observes) to prevail with him to return to 
Pome. Balbus afterwards (as appears by a passage which 
the same commentator cites from Paterculus) executed a 
much more difficult commission of this kind, at the siege 
of Dyrrachium, where he undertook to carry some farther 
overtures from Caesar to Lentulus, who was in that garri- 
son, and which he executed with equal address and intre- 
pidity. It was this adventure, it is probable, that formed 
the subject of the play which Pollio here mentions.— Ad 
Att. viii. 11 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 51. 
QQ 



>94 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



mob having pelted Balbus with stones when he 
attempted to recover him out of their hands, he 
let loose upon them a party of his Gallic horse. 
Balbus having by these means got the unfortunate 
Fadius into his possession, ordered him to be fixed 
in a pit which was dug for that purpose in the 
place where the games were exhibited, and caused 
him in this manner to be burned alive. This was 
performed soon after Balbus had dined x , who was 
present during the whole execution, walking about 
bare-footed, with his hands behind him and his 
tunic loose, in the most unconcerned and indecent 
manner ; and while the unhappy sufferer cried out 
that he was a Roman citizen, " Why do you not 
run now (said the insulting and relentless Balbus) 
to implore the protection of the people?" But 
this was not the single cruelty he exercised. He 
exposed, likewise, several Roman citizens to wild 
beasts ; particularly a certain noted auctioneer in 
the city of Hispalisy, — and this for no other reason 
but because the poor man was excessively deformed. 
Such is the monster with whom I had the misfor- 
tune to be connected ! But more of him when 
we meet. In the mean time (to turn to a point of 
much greater importance) I should be glad the 
senate would determine in what manner they would 
have me act. I am at the head of three brave 
legions, one of which Antony took great pains to 
draw over to his interest at the commencement of 
the war. For this purpose he caused it to be sig- 
nified to them, that the very first day they should 
enter into his camp every soldier should receive 
five hundred denarii z , besides which, he also as- 
sured them that if he obtained the -victory they 
should receive an equal share of the spoils with his 
own troops ; a reward which all the world knows 
would have been without end or measure. These 
promises made a deep impression upon them ; and 
it was with great difficulty I kept them from desert- 
ing. I should not, indeed, have been able to have 
effected this if I had not cantoned them in distant 
quarters, — as some of the cohorts, notwithstanding 
they were thus separated, had the insolence to 
mutiny. Antony endeavoured, likewise, to gain 
the rest of the legions by immense offers. Nor 
was Lepidus less importunate with me to send him 
the thirtieth legion, which he solicited both by his 
own letters and by those which he caused Antony 
to write. The senate will do me the justice, there- 
fore, to believe, as no advantages could tempt me 
to sell my troops, nor any dangers which I had 
reason to apprehend if Antony and Lepidus should 
prove conquerors, could prevail with me to diminish 

x There seems to have been some peculiar indecorum in 
this circumstance, though it is not very easy to determine 
wherein it precisely consisted. It may be that public 
executions, at this time of the day, were thought indecent ; 
it is certain, at least, that it was deemed improper to hold 
courts of judicatm-e for the trial of criminal matters in an 
afternoon. For Plutarch takes notice that the younger 
Cato was accused of this practice during his pratorship, 
and thinks it necessary, for the credit of that illustrious 
Roman, to deny the truth of the charge; or, perhaps, 
Pollio might point out this circumstance as a mark of 
uncommon cruelty of disposition in Balbus, who could 
rise from tabic with a temper of mind so different from 
that which pleasures of this sort arc naturally apt to 
inspire, and turn from a cheerful meal to a Bcene of the 
utmost horror and barbarity.— Pint, in Vit. Caton. Uticen. 

y The city of Seville, in Spain. 

z About 141. sterling. 



their number, that I was thus tenacious of my 
army for no other purpose but to employ it in the 
service of the republic a . And let the readiness 
with which I have obeyed all the orders I received 
from the senate be a proof that I would have com- 
plied in the same manner with every other they 
should have thought proper to have sent me. I 
have preserved the tranquillity of this province, I 
have maintained my authority over the army, and 
have never once moved beyond the limits of my 
own jurisdiction. I must add, likewise, that I have 
never employed any soldier, either of my own 
troops or those of my auxiliaries, in carrying any 
despatches whatsoever ; and I have constantly 
punished such of my cavalry whom I have found 
at any time attempting to desert. I shall think 
these cares sufficiently rewarded in seeing the 
peace and security of the republic restored. But if 
the majority of the senate, and the commonwealth 
indeed in general, had known me for what I am, 
I should have been able to have rendered them 
much more important services. 

I have sent you a copy of the letter which I 
wrote to Balbus just before he left this province ; 
and if you have any curiosity to read his play, 
which I mentioned above, it is in the hands of my 
friend Gallus Cornelius, to whom you may apply 
for it. Farewell. 
Corduba, June the 8th. 



LETTER VIII. 

To Plancus. ' 
All our hopes are entirely fixed (and fixed, too, 
with the approbation of the gods themselves) upon 
A.u.710. y° u and y° ur coll eague b . The perfect 
unanimity, therefore, that appears, by 
your several letters to the senate, to subsist between 
you, affords great satisfaction, not only to that 
assembly in particular, but to the whole city in 
general. 

As to what you wrote to me concerning the 
commission for dividing the lands, if that affair 
had been brought before the senate I should have 
been the first to have proposed the most honourable 
decree in your favour. But the slowness of their 
deliberations in the business which was then under 
their consideration, together with other obstruc- 
tions which attended their debates, having prevented 
them from coming to any resolution, both your 
brother and myself were of opinion that it was 
most advisable to proceed upon the former decree; 
and I take it for granted that he has acquainted 
you to whom it is owing that it was not drawn up 
in the manner we proposed. But if, in this in- 
stance or in any other, your inclinations should 
not be entirely gratified, be well persuaded, how- 
ever, that you are in such high esteem with all the 
friends of the republic that there is no sort of 
honours they are not disposed to confer upon you. 
I wait with great impatience for an express from 
you, as I expect it will bring us the news I most 
wish. Farewell. 



a See rem. d, p. 591. 
b Decimus Brutus. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



595 



LETTER IX. 

To Cornificius . 

Is it really so, my friend ; and have I never 
written to you but when I had occasion to recom- 
A u 710 mend the cause of some litigious suitor ? 
' ' I confess I have frequently troubled you 
with letters of this kind ; but must you not thank 
your own obliging partiality towards me, if the 
world is persuaded that no recommendation has so 
much weight with you as mine ? Tell me, however, 
when did I omit writing, if your family gave me 
notice of an opportunity ? In fact, nothing affords 
me greater satisfaction, now that I cannot converse 
with you in person, than this intercourse of letters. 
I only lament that my public occupations prevent 
me from corresponding with you as frequently as 1 
wish. If I had more leisure, indeed, I should not 
only provoke you to enter with me into a com- 
merce of this epistolary kind, but I should chal- 
lenge you with whole volumes of my works ; a 
challenge which I ought to have received from 
you, as your engagements, I imagine, are not 
altogether so numerous as mine. But if I am 
mistaken in this supposition, how shall I acquit 
you of being a little uni'easonable, in expecting 
frequent letters on my part, when you have so 
seldom leisure to send me any on yours ? If I 
have hitherto been engaged in the most important 
occupations, as holding myself bound to exert all 
my cares in the defence of the republic, I may still 
more strongly urge that plea at present. For as a 
relapse is always more dangerous than a first 
attack, so the rekindling of this war, after it was 
almost totally extinguished, demands a double 
portion of my labour and vigilance. But, not to 
enter farther into this subject, believe me, my dear 
Cornificius, I should think myself most inexcusably 
indolent, not to say ill-mannered, were I capable 
of suffering you to gain the superiority over me in 
any instance of friendship. That I enjoy yours, is 
a point of which I never once had the least doubt : 
but the conversation I have lately had with Cherip- 
pus, has rendered it still more evident. As agree- 
able as he always was to my taste, I could not but 
look upon him, in his last visit, with more than 
ordinary pleasure, as he not only acquainted me 
with the sentiments of your heart, in the message 
he delivered to me, but, as he represented, at the 
same time, a lively image of your very air and 
countenance. You had no reason then to be ap- 
prehensive that I should be displeased at your 
having sent me the same common letter which you 
addressed to all your friends in general. If I de- 
sired a more particular memorial, it was merely 
from the affection of my heart, and by no means as 
a point upon which I insisted. 

The loss of both our consuls* 1 , together with the 
incredible scarcity of money in the treasury, puts 
it out of my power to ease you of your great and 
continual expense in your military preparations. 
We are trying all expedients in order to raise sup- 
plies for discharging those donatives we promised 
to the troops that behaved well : and I imagine 
that we shall at last be obliged to have recourse to 
a tax e . 

c See rem. h , p. 537. 

d Hirtius and Pansa. 

e " This was a sort of capitation tax, proportioned to 



I am persuaded there is no truth in the report 
concerning Attius Dionysius : as Stratorius has 
not mentioned a word to me upon that subject. 
With regard to Publius Lucceius : be well per- 
suaded that his interest is no less my concern than 
it is yours : for, indeed, he is extremely my friend. 
I could not, however, prevail with the managers 
of the auction to adjourn the sale ; their engage- 
ments and their oath oblige them, they assure me, 
to the contrary. I would by all means, therefore, 
advise him to hasten into Italy : and if the sum- 
mons I sent him some time since had any weight, 
he will be at Rome when you read this letter. As 
to the affairs you mention, and particularly the 
money, I find you were not apprised of Pansa's 
death when you wrote your letter, by the hopes 
you express that, through my interest, he would 
comply with your request. And most undoubtedly 
he would, had he been living ; for he held you in 
great esteem. But as he is dead, I do not see that 
anything can now be done in this matter. 

I approve, in general, of your measures with 
respect to Venullius, Latinus, and Horatius : and 
particularly, that you have deprived them of their 
lictors. But I am not altogether so well pleased, 
that, in order to render this circumstance the less 
uneasy to them, you have taken away these attend- 
ants likewise from your own lieutenants. Those who 
deserve the highest honours ought not to have 
been thus levelled with a set of men, who certainly 
merit the utmost disgrace : and if they will not 
depart from your province, in obedience to the 
decree of the senate, I think you should use com- 
pulsory methods for that purpose. 

I have nothing farther to add in answer to your 
last letter (of which I received a duplicate) but 
that I hope you will be persuaded, your credit and 
reputation are no less sacred to me than my own f . 
Farewell. 



LETTER X. 

To Decimus Brutus. 

Though I always receive your letters with the 
highest satisfaction, yet I am much better pleased 
a v 710 ^ at y° u em pl°y e d your colleague Plancus 
to make an excuse to me, than if you had 
interrupted your very important occupations by 
writing yourself. He has executed your commission 
very fully : and nothing can render your character 
more truly amiable to me, than the account he 
gives of your zeal and diligence. 

The junction of your forces with those of Plan- 
cus, and the harmony with which you act together, 
as appears by your common letter to the senate, 
was extremely agreeable, both to that assembly, 
and to the people in general. What remains then, 

each man's snhstance, hut had wholly been disused in 
Rome from the conquest of Macedonia by Paulus^'Emilius, 
which furnished money and rents sufficient to ease the city 
ever after of that burthen, till the necessity of the present 
times obliged them to renew it." — Yal. Max. iv. 3 ; Life of 
Cicero, p. 283. 

f This letter closes the correspondence between Cicero 
and Cornificius. The latter, not long afterwards, lost his 
life in bravely defending his province against the troops of 
Sextius, who claimed it in the name of Oetavius, by virtue 
of the general division of the Roman dominions that had 
been agreed upon between the triumvirs.— Appian. De 
Bell. Civ. p. 620. 

QQ2 






596 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



my dear Brutus, but to conjure you to persevere in 
the same unanimity, and to endeavour, I will not 
say to excel others, but (what is far worthier of 
your ambition) to rise above yourself ? I need add 
no more : especially as I am writing to one whose 
epistolary conciseness I purpose to imitate. 

I wait with impatience for your next despatches, 
as I imagine they will bring us such accounts as are 
agreeable to our wishes. Farewell. 



u. 710. 



LETTER XL 

To Furnius %. 

When your letter assured me that it was abso- 
lutely necessary either to slight Narbonensian 
Gaul h , or to attack the enemy with great 
disadvantage, I was glad to find that the 
former had been chosen : as I much more dreaded 
the consequences of coming to an engagement upon 
unequal terms. What you mentioned likewise con- 
cerning the harmony between Plancus and Brutus, 
afforded me great pleasure ; for it is a circum- 
stance upon which I found my principal hopes of 
our success. 

Notwithstanding you modestly refer it to time 
to inform me to whom we owe that general zeal 
which appears in your province 1 ; be assured it is a 
point of which I am already perfectly well apprised. 
I could not, therefore, but read the latter part of 
your letter, which, in all other respects, was ex- 
tremely agreeable to me, with some concern. You 
there tell me, that if the election for sediles is fixed 
for the month of August, you will soon be at Rome ; 
but if it is already over, you will be there much 
sooner : "for wherefore," you ask, " should you 
weakly continue to hazard your life, without the 
prospect of any recompense?" O ! my friend, is 
it possible that you, who judge so well concerning 
the interests of others, should be thus a stranger to 
your own ? But, as I am sensible of the strong 
impulse of your heart towards true glory, I cannot 
believe that these are its genuine sentiments ; at 
least, if they be, I must condemn my own judg- 
ment as well as yours, for being so greatly deceived 
in your character. Shall the ambition of antici- 
pating a slight and common honour, (for so I must 
call the office you have in view, if obtained in the 
manner by which so many others have risen to it 
before you,) induce you to withdraw from a theatre 
where you are acting with such universal and well- 
merited applause? Shall it be a question with 
you, whether to offer yourself as a candidate now, 
or at the next election for prtetors ; and is it none, 
how you shall deserve every illustrious distinction 
which the commonwealth can bestow ? Are you a 
stranger to the exalted reputation you have ac- 
quired ? Or do you consider it as of no value, 
thus to rise in the esteem of your country ? If 
you are ignorant, indeed, of the high credit in 
which you stand with the public, it is an ignorance 
for which we, who are your friends, are undoubt- 
edly to be blamed. But if you already know it, 
tell me, my Furnius, can any prsetorship afford 
you a satisfaction superior to what you feel in dis- 
charging the duty you owe to your country, and in 

g See rem. 7, p. 584. 

h In which province were the combined armies of 
Antony and Lepidus. 

» Transalpine Gaul, in which province Furnius was 
lieutenant to Plancus. 



reaping immortal glory ? an acquisition which, 
though few indeed endeavour to deserve, yet 
every man most certainly wishes to enjoy. 
Calvisius, who is much your friend, and a man of 
great judgment also, frequently joins with me in 
complaining of you upon this article. However, 
since you are so desirous to attain this office, I 
shall endeavour that the election may be deferred 
till the month of January; as this adjournment 
will, upon many accounts I think, prove for the 
advantage likewise of the republic. Farewell : 
and may victory attend you ! 

LETTER XIT. 

To Caius Cassins. 

I imagine you are informed, by the public 
journals, which I know are duly transmitted to 
a u 710 y° u ' °^ ^ ne i n ^ amous conduct of that most 
light and inconstant man, your relation 
LepidusJ. We are again, therefore, involved in 
a war, which we flattered ourselves was entirely 
over ; and all our hopes are now placed upon 
Decimus k and Plancus; or, to speak more truly 
indeed, upon Brutus 1 and upon you. For it is 
from you two that we expect, not only a present 
assistance, in case any misfortune (which the gods 
avert !) should attend our arms, but a firm and 
lasting re-establishment of our liberties. 

The reports in regard to Dolabella" 1 , are, in all 
respects, agreeable to our wishes, excepting only 
that they want confirmation. In the mean time, 
be assured, that the opinion and expectations of 
the world concerning you, are such as evidently 
show that they look upon you as a truly great 
man. Let this animate you to the noblest achieve- 
ments, in the full persuasion that there is nothing 
so considerable which your country does not hope 
to obtain by your courage and conduct. Farewell. 



A. u. 710. 



LETTER XIII. 

To the same. 

I take example from the conciseness of your 
letters, to shorten mine : though, to say truth, 
nothing occurs at present that can tempt 
me to lengthen them, For, as to our 
transactions, I well know you are acquainted with 
them by the public journals ; and we are perfectly 
ignorant of everything that concerns yours. One 
would imagine, indeed, that all communication 
were cut off between us and Asia : for we have 
received no intelligence from thence, excepting 
only some uncertain, though indeed repeated, 
rumours in relation to the defeat of Dolabella. 

We imagined that the flames of this civil war 
were entirely extinguished ; but, in the midst of 
this pleasing persuasion, we were suddenly and 
greatly alarmed by the conduct of your relation 
Lepidus. Be assured, therefore, that the hopes of 
the republic are wholly fixed upon you and your 
army. We have, it is true, a very powerful body 
of troops in this part of the world ; nevertheless, 
your presence here is extremely necessary, to give 
our affairs all the success we wish. I will not say 

J Lepidus and Cassius were married to the two sisters of 
Marcus Brutus. 
k Brutus. ! Marcus, 

m That he was defeated by Cassius. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



597 



that we have no hopes of recovering our liberties ; 
but I must say our hopes are small. Such as they 
are, however, they are entirely founded upon your 
future consulate 11 . Farewell. 



LETTER XIV. 

Cassius , QucBstor,to Cicero. 
The preservation of the republic, by the victory 
we have lately obtained, gives me inexpressible joy, 
as the honours that have been paid my 
' ' ' friend p afford me likewise a very sen- 
sible pleasure. I cannot sufficiently indulge my 
i admiration, when I consider you as thus rising 
above yourself in glory, and that the consular i 
should shine forth even with more lustre than the 
consul. Some uncommon privilege of fate most 
certainly attends your patriot virtues, as we have 
often I am sure experienced. How else should 
your single eloquence be of more avail than the 
arms of all our generals? You have a second time, 
indeed, rescued the well-nigh vanquished republic 
from the hands of our enemies, and once more re- 
stored her to us again. From this period, there- 
fore, I date the return of our liberties, and I shall 
now be honoured with the public applause of the 
most distinguished of patriots. Yes, my friend, 
you will now declare, (what you promised to con- 
ceal till the recovery of our freedom should render 
it to my advantage to be known,) you will now de- 
clare to the whole world those instances you received 
of my tender attachment both to you and to the 
republic, during the dark and dangerous season of 
our servitude. I am much less solicitous, however, 
that you should publish my praises, than that you 
should be persuaded I deserve them ; and I had 
rather stand approved by your silent judgment, 
than, without that internal verdict in my favour, to 
enjoy, by your recommendation, the good opinion 
of the whole world. It is my great ambition, in- 
deed, that you should esteem my late conduct to 
have been, not the effect of a sudden and irregular 
impulse, but the natural result of the same uni- 



n Cassius and Brutus were praetors the last year, and the 
laws entitled a man to sue for the consulate two years after 
he had served the office of praetor. 

It is altogether uncertain whether the author of this 
letter was Lucius Cassius, the hrother of Caius Cassius, or 
another Cassius, distinguished by the addition of Parmen- 
sis, from Parma, the place of his nativity. There is no- 
thing indeed in the history of these two Cassii, or in the 
letter itself, that can render it more reasonable to suppose 
it to have been written by the one rather than the other ; 
for they were both in the number of the conspirators 
against Caesar, and both afterwards acted with Brutus and 
Cassius in Asia. This epistle appears to have been written 
from the island of Cyprus soon after the news of Antony's 
defeat at the battle of Mutina had reached that part of 
the world.— Casaubon. ad Suet. Jul. 80 ; Appian. De Bell. 
Civ. p. 671. 

P This seems to allude to the honours that were paid to 
Cicero by the populace, upon the news that Antony had 
been forced to abandon the siege of Mutina. " The whole 
body of the people (to give the relation of this fact in the 
words of Dr. Middleton) assembled about Cicero's house, 
and carried him in a kind of triumph to the capitol ; 
where, on their return, they placed him in the rostra, to 
give them an account of the victory, and then conducted 
him home with infinite acclamations."— Philipp. xiv. 5 ; 
Lifepf Cicero, p. 271. 

1 Those who had passed through the office of consul 
were styled consulars. 



form principles of which you have been a witness : 
in a word, that you should think of me, as of one 
from whom the republic has so much to expect, as 
may well justify every honour to which I shall be 
advanced. I am sensible, my dear Cicero, that 
your own family, as they are well worthy of the 
relation they bear to you, deserve your first and 
most tender regard. But those surely have a right 
to the next place in your affection who endeavour 
to imitate your patriot virtues : and I shall be glad 
to find that their number is considerable. I ima- 
gine, however, that it is not so great as to exclude 
me from a share in your good offices, and prevent 
you from procuring any public distinctions in my 
favour which shall be agreeable to your inclination 
and your judgment. That I am not unworthy of 
them, with respect to the disposition of my heart, 
I have already, perhaps, sufficiently convinced you : 
and, as to my talents, whatever they may be, the 
general oppression under which our country so long 
laboured, would not suffer them to appear in their 
full advantage. 

I drew together, out of the ports of this Asiatic 
province, and of the neighbouring islands, all the 
ships of war I could possibly collect : and, consider- 
ing the great opposition I met with from the seve- 
ral cities, I manned them with tolerable expedition. 
With this fleet I pursued that of Dolabella, com- 
manded by Lucilius ; who, after having frequently 
made a show of coming over to me, but still, how- 
ever, continuing to retreat, sailed, at length, into 
the port of Corycus r ; where he blocked himself up. 
I did not think proper to follow him thither; not 
only as judging it most advisable to join our land 
forces, but as Turulius the quaestor lay behind me 
with a squadron which Tullius Cimber fitted out 
the last year from Bithynia. I put in, therefore, 
at Cyprus ; from whence I take this first opportu- 
nity of acquainting you with the intelligence I have 
here received. I am to inform you then, that the 
city of Laodicea (in pursuance of the example of 
our faithless allies the Tarsenses s , though, indeed, 
with a greater degree of folly) have voluntarily 
called in Dolabella. From those two cities he has 
composed an army (as far as numbers can make an 
army) of Greek soldiers, and is encamped before 
Laodicea ; having thrown down part of the walls, 
in order to join his camp with the town. On the 
other hand, Cassius * is encamped, about twenty 
miles distant from him, at Paltos. His army con- 
sists of ten legions, and twenty auxiliary cohorts, 
together with four thousand horse. He imagines 
that he shall be able to oblige the enemy to surren- 
der, without hazarding a battle ; as wheat is so 
scarce in Dolabella's camp, that it is sold for twelve 
drachmae. The enemy must necessarily, indeed, 
be destroyed by famine, if they are not soon sup- 
plied by the ships that belong to Laodicea. This, 
however, we shall with great ease prevent ; for, 
besides the three squadrons under Turulius, Patis- 
cus, and myself, Cassius has a considerable fleet in 
these seas commanded by Sextilius Rufus. Let 
me encourage you, then, to hope, that we shall 
soon vindicate our liberties with the same success" 
in this part of the world, as has attended your 
army in Italy. Farewell. 
Cromyacris, in Cyprus, June the 13th. 



r In Cilicia. 

1 Caius Cassius. 



s The citizens of Tarsus. 
u tree rem. °, p. 587 



598 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XV. 

To Decimus Brutus. 
I was expecting every day to hear from you, 
when our friend Lupus gave me notice that he was 
* 10 just setting out to you, and desired to 
know if I had anything to write. But 
though I have nothing worth communicating more 
than what you are furnished with by the public 
journals, and that you are no friend I am told to 
letters of mere empty form, yet I cannot forbear 
following your example, and sending you two or 
three short words. Be assured, then, that all our 
hopes rest upon you and your colleague v . As to 
Brutus w , I am not able to give you any certain 
account of him : I can only say, that, in pursuance 
of your advice, I endeavour to persuade him, in all 
my letters, to come over into Italy, and to take a 
part in this general war x . I much wish he were 
now here, as his presence would render me less 
apprehensive of the consequences of these intestine 
commotions y which prevail in Rome ; and which 
are by no means indeed inconsiderable. — But I 
forget that I proposed to imitate your laconic bre- 
vity, and am running on in a second page. Fare- 
well then, and may success attend your arms 2 . 
June 18th. 



LETTER XVI. 

To Cams Cassius. 

Your relation and my friend, the worthy Lepi- 

dus, together with all his adherents, were, by a 

7 unanimous decree of the senate, which 

passed on the 30th of June last, declared 

public enemies to their country : but at the same 

v Plancus. w Marcus Brutus. 

x The conduct of Marcus Brutus, as far as can he judged 
of it at this great distance, appears altogether unaccount- 
able. Before the battle of Mutina he had drawn down all 
his forces to the coast, in order to embark for Italy, if any 
accident should make his assistance necessary. But, upon 
the news of Antony's defeat, he retired to the remotest 
parts of Greece and Macedonia, to oppose the attempts of 
Dolabclla ; and from that time (as Dr. Middleton observes) 
seemed deaf to the call of the senate, and to all Cicero's 
letters, which urged him so strongly to come to their 
relief. But had Brutus and Cassius (as the same inge- 
nious historian remarks) marched with their armies to- 
wards Italy, at the time when Cicero first pressed it, before 
the desertion of Plancus and the death of Decimus, it 
seems reasonable to believe that the immediate ruin of 
the republic might have been prevented.— Life of Cicero, 
p. 282. 

y The disturbances to which Cicero alludes were, proba- 
bly, those that were occasioned by the violent measures of 
Octavius, in order to obtain the consulate. — See rem. > on 
letter 18 of this book. 

z Decimus Brutus, soon after the date of this letter, was 
most treacherously deserted by Plancus, who drew off his 
troops from those of his colleague, and went over with 
them to the camp of Antony and Lcpidus. " Decimus 
Brutus being thus abandoned, and left to shift for himself, 
With a need; mutinous army, eager to desert, and ready 
to give him up to his enemies, had no other way to save 
himself than by flying to Marcus Brutus in Macedonia. 
But the distance was so great, and the country so guarded, 
that he was often forced to change his road for fear of 
being taken ; till, having dismissed all his attendants, and 

wandered for some time alone In disguise and distress, he 
committed himself to the i in 'i rci Ion of an old acquaintance 
ami host, whom he had formerly obliged, where, either 

through treachery or accident, hewas surprised by An- 
tony's soldiers, who immediately killed him, and returned 



time a full pardon was offered to such as shall re- 
turn to their allegiance before the first of Septem- 
ber. The senate acts with great spirit ; but it is 
the expectation of being supported by your army, 
that chiefly animates them in their vigorous mea- 
sures. I fear, indeed, that we shall have occasion 
for all your assistance, as the war is now become 
extremely formidable by the villany of Lepidus. 

The accounts which daily arrive concerning 
Dolabella are altogether agreeable to our wishes : 
but, at present, they are nothing more than mere 
rumours. However, your letter addressed to the 
senate, dated from the camp on the 9th of May, 
has raised a general persuasion in Rome, that he 
is actually defeated. Accordingly, it is imagined, 
that you are now upon your march into Italy, with a 
view, on the one hand, of succouring us with your 
troops, if any of those accidents so common in war 
should have rendered our arms unsuccessful; or, 
on the other hand, of assisting us with your coun- 
sels and authority, in case we should have proved 
victorious. You may be assured, in the mean 
while, that no endeavours of mine shall be wanting 
to procure the forces under your command all pos- 
sible honours. However, I must wait a proper 
season for this purpose, when it shall be known 
how far they have availed, or are likely to avail, the 
republic. At present, we have only heard of their 
endeavours in the cause of liberty ; and glorious, it 
must be acknowledged, their endeavours have been. 
But still some positive services are expected ; and 
these expectations, I dare be confident, either 
already are, or soon will be, perfectly answered. No 
man, indeed, possesses a more patriot or heroic 
spirit than yourself : and it is for this reason that 
we wish to see you in Italy as soon as possible. 
The fact is, if you and Brutus were here, we should 
look upon the republic as restored. 

If Lepidus had not received Antony, weak and 
defenceless as he was, when he fled after the battle 
of Mutina, we should have obtained a complete 
victory. This infamous step, therefore, has ren- 
dered him far more odious in Rome even than An- 
tony himself ever was : for Antony raised a war at a 
time when the republic was in the utmost ferment ; 
whereas Lepidus has kindled the flames in the midst 
of peace and victory. We have the consuls elect a to 
lead our armies against him ; but though we greatly 
depend upon their courage and conduct, stillhowever 
the uncertain event of war leaves us much to fear. 
Be assured therefore that our principal reliance is 
upon you and Brutus, whom we hope soon to 
see in Italy ; and Brutus, indeed, we expect 
every day. Should we have defeated our enemies, 
as I hope we shall, before your arrival, the autho- 
rity, nevertheless, of two such illustrious citizens 
will be of infinite service in raising up the republic, 
and fixing it upon some tolerable basis. All our 
business, indeed, will by no means be over, not- 
withstanding we should be delivered from the in- 
famous designs of our enemies, — as there are many 
other disorders of a different kind, which it will be 
still necessary to redress. Farewell. 

with his head to their general. — Veil. Pat. ii. 64 ; Appian. 
iii. 588; VaL Max. i.\. 13."— Life of Cicero, p. 281. 
a Decimus Brutus and Plancus. 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



599 



LETTER XVII. 

To Ampius b . 
Your family has informed you, I imagine, of 
my zealous labours to procure your restoration, as 
a. u 710. I * iave * ne pl easure to De assured that 
they are abundantly satisfied with my 
services. Uncommon, indeed, as the affection is 
which they every one of them bear towards you, yet 
I cannot allow that they are more sincerely desirous 
of your welfare than myself. I am sure, at least, 
their power of assisting you in this conjuncture is 
by no means equal to mine. I have employed it, and 
shall continue to employ it, for your benefit : and 
I have already gained a very considerable point, 
which will much contribute to facilitate your re- 
turn. In the meanwhile, preserve a firm and 
manly spirit, and be well persuaded that my good 
offices shall not be wanting to you upon any occa- 
sion. Farewell. 



LETTER XVIII. 

Plancus, Consul elect, to Cicero. 

I cannot forbear to express, upon every occa- 
sion, the sentiments I entertain of your repeated 
a u 710 f avours > though, at the same time, it is 
with some reserve that I indulge myself 
in this satisfaction. The great intimacy, indeed, 
which you allow me to enjoy with you, renders all 
formal acknowledgments of this kind unnecessary ; 
nor would I make so cheap a return to the many 
important obligations I owe to you, as that of 
mere empty professions. I had much rather 
reserve the proofs of my gratitude to some future 
opportunity of testifying it in person ; and, if I 
live, I will convince you, by the assiduity of my 
good offices, and by every instance of respect and 
esteem, that you have not a friend, nor even a 
relation, who is so warmly attached to you as my- 
self. In the mean time, I am at a loss to deter- 
mine, whether the daily pleasure I receive, or the 
lasting honour I shall derive, from your affectionate 
regard, be greater. 

I find the interest of my troops has been a part 
of your care. It was not with any intention of 
advancing my own power, that I was desirous they 
should be distinguished by the senate, as I am 
conscious of having no views but what regard the 
welfare of the republic. My reasons were, in the 
first place, because I thought they deserved to be 
rewarded ; and, in the next place, because I was 
desirous they might, upon all occasions, be still 
more attached to the commonwealth. I hoped, 
likewise, by these means, so strongly to fortify 
them against all solicitations, that I might be 
answerable for their continuing to act with the 
same unshaken fidelity which they have hitherto 
preserved. 

I have kept entirely upon the defensive ; and, 
though I am well apprised with how much just 
impatience the public wishes for a decisive action, 
yet I persuade myself that the senate will approve 
my conduct. If any misfortune, indeed, should 
attend our armies in this part of the world, the 
republic would not very soon be in a condition to 

b In some MSS. the superscription of this letter is to 
Appius, and in others to Ampius Balbus. The time when 
this letter was written is no less uncertain than the person 
to whom it is addressed. 



oppose any sudden incursion of these rapacious 
traitors. As to the state of our forces, I imagine 
you already know that those under my command 
consist of three veteran legions, together with one 
new-raised regiment, which last, however, is com- 
posed of far the best-disciplined troops I ever saw 
of this sort. Brutus is at the head of ten legions, 
one of which is veteran, another has been upon 
the establishment about two years, and all, the rest 
are lately raised. Thus, you see, though our army 
is very numerous, it is not extremely strong. The 
republic, indeed, has but too often had occasion to 
be convinced how little is to be expected from raw 
and unexperienced forces. However, if we had 
been joined either by the African legions d , which 
are composed wholly of veteran troops, or by 
Caesar's e , we should, without hesitation, have 
hazarded a general engagement. As the troops of 
the latter were somewhat nearer than the former, 
I frequently pressed Caesar, by letters, to advance ; 
and he accordingly promised to join us with all 
expedition. But other views, I perceive, have 
diverted him from these intentions. Nevertheless, 
I have despatched my lieutenant, Furnius, with 
another letter to him, if happily it may anything 
avail. You are sensible, my dear Cicero, that I 
take an equal part with you in the affection you 
bear to Octavius. He has a right to my friend- 
ship, not only from that intimacy which I enjoyed 
with his uncle f ; but, in regard also to his own 
disposition, which, as far I could ever discover, is 
regulated by principles of great moderation and 
humanity. It would ill indeed become that dis- 
tinguished amity, which subsisted between Julius 
Caesar and myself, not to look upon Octavius with 
all the tenderness which is due to the son of my 
friend, after he has been adopted as such by 
Caesar's will, and that adoption approved by the 
senate. What I am going to say, therefore, is 
more the dictates of concern than resentment ; 
but it must be acknowledged, that if Antony still 
lives, if he has been joined by Lepidus, if their 
armies are by no means contemptible ; in a word, 
all their hopes and all their attempts are singly 
owing to Caesar s. Not to look farther back than 
to his promise of joining me : had he fulfilled the 
assurances he gave me for that purpose, the war 
would, by this time, either have been totally at an 
end, or driven into Spain, where the enemy could 
not have carried it on without great disadvantage, 
as that province is utterly averse to them. I am 
at a loss to conceive, therefore, with what view, or 
by whose advice, Caesar was diverted from a mea- 
sure so greatly to his interest and his honour, in 
order to turn his pursuits towards a consulship of 
a few months' duration 11 : much to the terror, at 
the same time, of the republic 1 ; and with preten- 

c Decimus. 

d These legions composed part of that army with which 
Julius Caesar defeated Scipio iiv Africa, from whence they 
had lately been recalled by the senate. But soon after 
their landing they were corrupted by the other soldiers, 
and, deserting the senate, they joined themselves to Octa- 
vius. — Life of Cicero, p. 278. 

e Octavius. f Julius Caesar. 

g See rem. n , p. 570. 

h To the end of the current year, of which there remained 
about five or six months unexpired when Octavius was 
declared consul. 

i Octavius advanced towards Rome at the head of several 
legions, in order to demand the consulate, which threw the 



600 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



sions, too, exceedingly ridiculousJ. The remon- 
strances of his friends might be extremely service- 
able upon this occasion, both to himself and to 
the commonwealth. But none of them, I am 
persuaded, would have so much influence over 
him as yours k ; as there is no man who is so much 
obliged to you except myself: for I shall ever 
acknowledge that the favours I have received from 
you are great and innumerable. I have given 
instructions to Furnius to solicit Csesar upon this 
subject : and if I should have that authority with 
him which I am sure I ought, he will hereafter 
thank me for'fmy advice. In the mean time, we 
have a very difficult part to sustain here : as, on 

city into the utmost consternation and disorder.— Dio, p. 
319 ; Appian. p. 585-6. 

J Perhaps the absurdity to which Plancus here alluded 
was, that Octavius, who was but a youth of twenty, and, 
consequently, who wanted above twenty years of the age 
prescribed by the laws for being qualified to sue for the 
consular office, should entertain so extravagant a thought 
as to aspire to the supreme magistracy. 

k Plancus chose a very improper man to dissuade Octa- 
vius from pursuing his design upon the consulate, when he 
fixed upon Cicero as the most likely person to prevail with 
him for that purpose. It appears, indeed, that Octavius 
had artfully ensnared Cicero to enter into his views, by 
persuading him that he was desirous of having him for his 
colleague in the consular office, and promising to leave the 
sole administration of it to Cicero's superior wisdom and 
experience. The bait was too well adapted to his vanity 
and ambition, to be thrown out in vain, and Cicero under- 
took the management of this affair upon the terms pro- 
posed. Plutarch, Appian, and Dion Cassius, all concur in 
giving testimony to the truth of this fact ; but, as it is a 
fact which proves that Cicero was by no means at this 
juncture acting the part of a patriot, the polite apologist 
of his conduct has endeavoured to discredit the evidence of 
these historians. To this end Dr. Middleton produces the 
following passage from the letters to Brutus, as an incon- 
testable proof, " that no man was more shocked at Octa- 
vius's attempt, or took more pains to dissuade it, than 
Cicero."—" Caesarem — improbissimis' Uteris quidam falla- 
cibusque nunciis impulerunt in spem certissimam consu- 
latus. Quod simul atque sensi, neque ego ilium absentem 
Uteris monere destiti, nee accusare praesentes ejus neces- 
sarios, qui ejus cupiditati suffragari videbantur ; nee in 
senatu, sceleratissimorum consiliorum fontes aperire du- 
bitavi." [Epist. ad Brut. 10.] Now, there seems to be the 
strongest reason to question either the authenticity or the 
veracity of this letter ; because it is most certain, from one 
of Cicero's Philippics, that he actually did favour the 
earliest possible promotion of Octavius to the consulate. 
" Quid est enim P. C. (says he) cur eum (Octavium) non 
quam primum amplissimos honores capere cupiamus? 
Legibus enim annalibus cum grandiorem aetatem ad con 
sulatum constituebant, adolescentiae temeritatem vereban 
tur. C. Caesar ineunte state docuit ab excellent! eximi 
aque virtute, progression cetatis expectari non oportere 
In hoc spes libertatis posita est ; ab hoc accepta jam salus 
huic summi honores et exquiruntur et parati sunt."— 
[Philipp. v. 17, 18.] Could Cicero, after this, without 
being guilty of the wildest and the weakest inconsistency, 



the one hand, we do not think ourselves altogether 
strong enough to hazard an engagement : and, on 
the other, must take care not to expose the repub- 
lic to greater dangers by declining one. However, 
if Caesar could comply with the dictates of his 
interest and his honour, or if the African legions 
should speedily join us, you may depend upon 
having nothing to fear from this quarter. Let me 
entreat you to continue your friendship to me, 
and to be assured that I am entirely yours 1 . 
Farewell. 
From my camp, July the 98th. 

" admonish Octavius by letter against his designs upon 
the consulship, reproach those to their face who encouraged 
him in that ambitious view, and lay open the source of 
these traitorous counsels [in the senate," (all which the 
epistle in question affirms that he did,) when he had him- 
self, in the speech and in the passage above cited, said 
everything that his wit and eloquence could suggest in 
favour of Octavius's premature advancement to the consu- 
lar office? Either the letters, then, to Brutus are not 
genuine, or Cicero, to serve a present purpose, pretended 
that he had acted a part which he did not. The former of 
these suppositions is maintained by some very learned and 
judicious critics, and the latter will by no means be thought 
improbable, if there is any weight in the several instances 
of the same kind which have been occasionally produced 
in the course of these remarks. But whichever of these 
alternatives be the fact, it equally concludes in support of 
that historical evidence for which I have been contending. 
In farther confirmation of which it may be observed, that 
Plutarch cites the authority of Octavius himself for what 
he affirms concerning the private agreement between 
Octavius and Cicero in regard to the consulate. And it is 
probable he took this piece of secret history from those 
memoirs which Octavius wrote of his own life, as it is 
certain that both Plutarch and Appian made great use of 
them in compiling their histories. — Plut. in Vit. Cicer. ; 
Appian. p. 578-9, 385 ; Dio, p. 519 ; Middlet. on the Epist. 
to Brut. p. 134. rem. 8 ; Tunstal's Observ. on the Epist. to 
Brut. p. 222, et Suet, in Vit. Aug. 85. 

1 Plancus, soon after the date of this letter, abandoned 
his colleague Decimus Brutus, and went over with his 
troops to Antony and Lepidus. [See rem. z on letter 15 of 
this book.] About four months, likewise, from the time 
when this letter was written, the celebrated coalition was 
formed between Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus, in conse- 
quence of which Cicero, it is well known, was sacrificed 
to Antony's resentment. In the last moments of his life 
he behaved with great composure ; and it is the only cir- 
cumstance in all his misfortunes that he bore with a 
becoming fortitude. He had, indeed, so much the less 
reason to complain of his fate, as it is certain that he suf- 
fered nothing more than he would have inflicted, had For- 
tune put Antony into his power. " Omnium adversorum 
(says Livy) nihil ut viro dignum erat, tulit, praeter mor- 
tem : quae, vere aestimanti, minus indigne videri potuit, 
quod a victore inimico nihil crudelius passurus erat, quam 
quod ejusdem fortunae compos ipse fecisset." [Liv. Fragm. 
apud Senec. Suasor. 6.] This is the judgment which the 
noblest and most impartial of the Roman historians has 
passed upon Cicero, and the truth of it is abundantly con- 
firmed by the foregoing letters. 



INDEX, 



REFERRING TO THE ORDER IN WHICH THESE LETTERS STAND IN THE EDITION OF GR^EVIUS. 



Book I. 



LETTER 

I. . . 

II. . 

III. . 

IV. . 

V. . . 

VI. . 

VII. . 

VIII. . 

IX. . 

X. . . 

XI. . 

XII. . 
XIII. 

XIV. . 

XV. . 

XVI. . 
XVII. 
XVIII. 

XIX. . 

XX. . 

XXI. . 



I. . . 

II. . 
in. . 

IV. . 

V. . . 

VI. . 

VII. . 
VIII. 

IX. . 

X. . . 

XI. . 

XII. . 

XIII. . 
XIV. 
XV. . 
XVI. 
XVII. 
XVIII. 

XIX. . 

XX. . 

XXI. . 
XXII. 
XXIII. 



LIB. 
V. 
V. 



XIV. 

xiv. 
xiv. 
xiv. 

v. 
vii. 

i. 
xiii. 

i. 

i. 

i. 

i. 
i. 
v. 
v. 



Book II. 



vii. 

i. 

vii. 

xiii. 

v. 

vii. 

vii. 

vii. 

vii. 

vii. 

vii. 

xiii. 

vii. 

vii, 

i. 

xiii. 

xiii. 

xiii. 

vi. 

xiii. 

i. 







Book III. 


EP. 


LETTER 




LIB 


7 


I. . . 


— 


11. 


1 


II. . 


— 


Vll. 


2 


III. . 


— 


111. 


5 


IV* . 


— 


Xlll. 


6 


V. . . 


— 


VII. 


4 


VI. . 


— 


11. 


2 


VII. . 


— 


Vll. 


1 


VIII. 


— 


Xll. 


3 


IX. 4 


— 


Vll. 


4 


X. . . 


— 


11. 


26 


XI. . 


— 


vii. 


1 


XII. . 


— 


ii. 


6 


XIII. 


— 


Xlll. 


2 


XIV. . 


— 


11. 


3 


XV. . 


— 


Vll. 


4 


XVI. . 


— 


V. 


5 


XVII. 


— 


11. 


5 


XVIII. 


— 


V. 


6 


XIX. . 


— 


Xlll. 


12 


XX. . 


— 


vii. 


3 


XXI. . 


— 


Vll. 




XXII. 


— 


vn. 




XXIII. '. 


— 


in. 




XXIV. . 


— 


in. 




XXV. 


— 


Vlll. 


40 


XXVI. . 


— 


in. 


7 


XXVII. 


— 


Xlll. 


23 


XXVIII. 


— 


n. 


8 


XXIX. . 


— 


Vlll. 


] 


XXX. 


— 


Vlll. 


74 


XXXI. 


— 


111. 


8 


XXXII. . 


— 


Vlll. 


5 


XXXIII. 


— 


Vlll. 


6 


XXXIV. 


— 


Vll!. 


7 


XXXV. 


— 


XV. 


8 


XXXVI. 


— 


XV. 


17 


XXXVII. 


— 


XV. 


9 


XXXVIII 


— 


XV. 


10 








16 




Book 


IV. 


9 








42 


I. . . . 


— 


XV. 


41 


II. . 


— 


Xlll. 


49 


III. . . 


— 


iii. 


15 


IV. . . 


— 


XV. 


73 


V. . . . 


— 


xiii. 


10 


VI. . . 


— 


XV. 



12 





LETTER 




VII. . . 


EP. 


VIII. 


1 


IX. . . 


11 


X. . . . 


1 


XI. . . 


2 


XII. . . 


12 


XIII. 


2 


XIV. . . 


13 


XV. . . 


20 


XVI. . . 


15 


XVII. . 


3 


XVIII. . 


18 


XIX. . . 


4 


XX. . . 


3 




5 




14 




17 




6 


I. . . . 


18 


II. . 


75 


III. . . 


21 


IV. . . 


2 


V. . . 


22 


VI. . 


2 


VII. . . 


3 


VIII. 


1 


IX. . . 


4 


X. . 


1 


XI. . . 


8 


XII. . . 


2 


XIII. . . 


3 


XIV. . . 


5 


XV. . . 


4 


XVI. . . 


5 


XVII. . 


y 


XVIII. . 


9 


XIX. . . 


7 


XX. . . 



LIB. 

viii. 
xiii. 

ii. 
xiii. 

iii. 
xiii. 

ii. 
viii. 
xiii. 

ii. 

xiii. 

vii. 

xiii. 

xiii. 



Book V. 



xv. 

XV. 
XV. 
XV. 

viii. 
viii. 

iii. 
xv. 

ii. 
xiii. 

iii. 

ii. 
xiii. 
xiii. 

ii. 

ii. 
xiii. 
xiii. 
xiii. 
xiii. 



Book VI. 



in. 

viii. 

ii. 

viii. 



61 

9 
62 

8 
63 
10 
10 
64 

7 
55 
32 

9 
65 



5 
10 
13 

6 
7 
7 

14 
14 
59 
9 
11 
54 
57 
13 
18 
58 
47 
51 
76 



10 
25 
19 
12 
11 
11 
17 
13 



602 




INDEX TO THE ORDER OF THE LETTERS, 








LETTER 




LIB. 




EP. 




Book 


VIII. 






Book X. 






IX. . . 


— 


iii. 


— 


12 




















X. . . 


— 


XV. 


— 


6 


LETTER 




LIB. 


EP. 


LETTER 




LIB. 




EP. 


XI. . . 


— 


XV. 


— 


11 




— 


vii. 


— 3 


I. . . . 


— 


vi. 


— 


1 


XII. . . 


— 


iii. 


— 


13 


II. . . 


— 


iv. 


— 14 


II. . 


— 


xiii. 


' — 


17 


XIII. . . 


— 


ii. 


— 


15 


III. . . 


— 


vi. 


— 21 


III. . . 


— 


vi. 


— 


3 


XIV. 


— 


viii. 


— 


12 


IV. . 


— 


ix. 


— 1 


IV. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


18 


XV. . . 


— 


viii. 


— 


14 


V. . . . 


— 


vi. 


— 20 


V. . . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


19 


XVI. . . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


5 


VI. . . 


— 


vi. 


— 22 


VI. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


20 


XVII . . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


1 


VII. . , 


— 


iv. 


— 5 


VII. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


21 


XVIII. . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


2 


VIII. . . 


■ — 


xiii. 


— 29 


VIII. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


22 


XIX. . . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


3 


IX. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 78 


IX. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


23 


XX. . . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


4 


X. . . . 


— 


v. 


— 21 


X. . . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


24 


XXI. . . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


5 


XI. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 79 


XI. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


25 


XXII. . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


6 


XII. . . 


— 


ix. 


— 3 


XII. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


26 


XXIII. . 


— 


xvi. 


■ — 


7 


XIII. . . 


— 


ix. 


— 2 


XIII. 


— 


xiii. 


— 


27 


XXIV. . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


9 


XIV. . . 


— 


ix. 


— 4 


XIV. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


28 












XV. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 45 


XV. . . 


— 


vi. 


— 


18 




Book 


VII. 






XVI. . . 

XVII. . 


— 


ix. 

ix. 


— 5 

— 7 


XVI. . . 

XVII. . 





vi. 

XV. 





4 
18 


I. . . . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


11 


XVIII. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 46 


XVIII. . 


— 


ix. 


— 


10 


II. . . 


— 


v. 


— 


20 


XIX. . . 


— 


ix. 


— 6 


XIX. . . 


— 


vi. 


— 


2 


III. . . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


14 


XX. . . 


— 


ix. 


— 16 


XX. . . 


— 


XV. 


— 


17 


IV. . . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


18 


XXI. . . 


— 


vii. 


— 33 


XXI. . . 


— 


XV. 


— 


16 


V. . . . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


12 


XXII. . 


— 


ix. 


— 18 


XXII. 


— 


XV. 


— 


19 


VI. . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


3 


XXIII. . 


— 


ix. 


— 19 


XXIII. . 


— 


ix. 


— 


13 


VII. . . 


— 


viii. 


— 


15 


XXIV. . 


— 


ix. 


— 17 


XXIV. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


15 


VIII. 


— 


xvi. 


— 


13 


XXV. . . 


— 


ix. 


— 20 


XXV. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


16 


IX. . . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


14 


XXVI. . 


— 


ix. 


— 23 


XXVI. . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


16 ; 


X. . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


15 


XXVII. . 


— 


vii. 


— 4 


XXVII. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


52 


XI. . . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


26 




















XII. . . 
XIII. 


z 


iv. 
viii. 




1 
16 




Book IX. 






Book XI. 






XIV. . . 


— 


ii. 


— . 


16 


I. . . . 


— 


iv. 


— 3 












XV. . . 


— 


iv. 


— 


2 


II. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 68 


I. . . . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


22 ! 


XVI. . . 


— 


v. 


— 


19 


III. . . 


— 


iv. 


— 13 


II. . 


— 


ix. 


— 


11 


XVII. . 


— 


xiv. 


■ — 


7 


IV. . . 


— 


iv. 


— 7 


III. . . 


— 


iv. 


— 


5 1 


XVIII. . 


— 


viii. 


— 


17 


V. . . . 


— 


vi. 


— 10 


IV. . . 


— 


iv. 


— 


6 


XIX. . . 


— 


ix. 


— 


9 


VI. . 


— 


vii. 


— 27 


V. . . . 


— 


v. 


— 


13 ! 


XX. , . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


8 


VII. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 67 


VI. . . 


— 


V. 


— 


14 1 


XXI. . . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


21 


VIII. . . 


— 


vi. 


— 10 


VII. . . 


— 


V. 


— 


15 


XXII. 


— 


xiv. 


— 


6 


IX. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 43 


VIII. . . 


— 


iv. 


— 


10 


XXIII, . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


12 


X. . , . 


— 


iv. 


— 8 


IX. . . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


20 ! 


XXIV. . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


19 


XI. . . 


— 


ix. 


— 15 


X. . . . 


— 


iv. 


— 


12 ! 


XXV. . . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


9 


XII. . . 


— 


vi. 


— 12 


XI. . . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


19 J 


XXVI. . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


17 


XIII. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 10 


XII. . . 


— 


v. 


— 


9 


XXVII. . 


— 


v. 


— 


16 


XIV. . . 


— 


vi. 


— 13 


XIII. 


— 


xvi. 


— 


10 


XXVIII. . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


16 


XV. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 11 


XIV. . . 


— 


ix. 


— 


8 


XXIX. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


30 


XVI. . . 


— 


xiii. 


_ 12 


XV. . . 


— 


xvi. 


— 


18 


XXX. . . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


11 


XVII. . 


— 


iv. 


— 4 


XVI. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


4 1 


XXXI. . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


15 


XVIII. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 13 


XVII. . 


— 


vi. 


— 


19 


XXXII. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


31 


XIX. . . 


— 


iv. 


— 9 


XVIII. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


5 


XXXIII. . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


10 


XX. . . 


— 


iv. 


— 2 


XIX. . . 


— 


vii. 


— 


24 i 


XXXIV. . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


13 


XXI. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 14 


XX. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


7 


XXXV. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


32 


XXII. . 


— 


ix. 


— 26 


XXI. . . 


— 


vii. 


— 


25 


XXXVI. . 


— 


XV. 


— 


15 


XXIII. . 


— 


vi. 


— 12 


XXII. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


8 


XXXVII. 


— 


xiii. 


— 


33 


XXIV. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 71 


XXIII. . 


— 


v. 


— 


11 


XXXVIII. 


— 


xiv. 


— 


24 


XXV- . . 


— 


vii. 


— 28 


XXIV. . 


— 


xii. 


— 


17 


XXXIX. . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


23 


XXVI. . 


— 


vi. 


— 14 


XXV. . 


— 


vii. 


— 


29 


XL. . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


34 


XXVII. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 72 


XXVI. . 


— 


xii. 


— 


18 


XLI. . . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


22 


xxvin. . 


— 


vi. 


— 8 


XXVII. . 


— 


ix. 


— 


12 


XIII. . 


— 


xiv. 


— 


20 


XXIX. . 


— 


vi. 


— 9 


XXVIII. . 


— 


v. 


— 


10 


XLIII. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


35 


XXX. . . 


— 


vi. 


— 7 












XLIV. . 
XLV. . . 


— 


XV. 

xiii. 





21 

30 


XXXI. . 

XXXII. . 


— 


xiii. 
vi. 


— 69 
t 




Book XII. 






XLVI. . 
XLVII. . 


— 


xiii. 
xiii. 


"~"~ 


48 
37 


xxxnr. . 

XX XI v.. 


— 


xiii. 
vi. 


— 70 

— 6 




_ 


vii. 





30 j 


XLVIII. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


3H 


XXXV. . 


— 


xiii. 


_ 66 


II. . . . 


— 


xiii. 


— 


50 


XLIX. . 


— 


ix. 


— 


21 


XXXVI. . 


— 


xiii. 


— 77 


III. . . 


— 


vii. 


— 


31 , 


L. . . . 


" 


xiii. 




3? 


XXXVII. 


~ 


xiii. 


— 45 


IV. . . . 




xii. 




19 



AS ARRANGED IN GR^VIUS' EDITION. 



603 



LETTER 
V. . . . 

vr. . . . 

VII. . . 

viii. . . 

ix. . . 

x. . . . 

xi. . . . 

XII. . . 

XIII. . . 

XIV. . . 

XV. . . 

XVI. . . 

XVII. . 

XVIII. . 

XIX. . . 

XX. . . 

XXI. . . 

XXII. . 

XXIII. . 

XXIV. . 

XXV. . . 

XXVI. . 

XXVII. . 
XXVIII. 

XXIX. . 

XXX. . . 

XXXI. . 

XXXII. . 
XXXIII.. 

XXXIV. . 

XXXV. . 

XXXVI. , 
XXXVII.. 
XXXVIII. 
XXXIX. , 



LIB. 

xi. 
xvi. 

vi. 
xvi. 

ix. 

XV. 

xii. 

xi. 

xi. 

xi. 
xii. 

xi. 
vii. 

vii. 

xi. 

x. 

xi. 

xi. 

xi. 

xii. 
x. 

xii. 

xii. 

xii. 
xvi. 

xii. 

xi. 

xii. 

xi. 

xi. 

xii. 
xvi. 
xvi. 
xvi. 

iv. 



EP. 




Book 


XIII. 


1 








24 


LETTER 




LIB. 


17 


I. . . . 


. — 


xii. 


23 


II. . . . 


— 


xi. 


14 


III. . . 


— 


X. 


20 


IV. . . 


— 


X. 


16 


V. . . . 


— 


X. 


27 


VI. . . 


— . 


XII. 


28 


VII. . 


— 


X. 


2 


VIII. . . 


— 


Xll. 


1 


IX. . . 


— 


IX. 


29 


X. . . . 


— 


xii. 


20 


XI. . . 


— 


X. 


19 


XII. . . 


— 


Xll. 


3 


XIII. . 


— 


X. 


1 


XIV. . 


— 


X. 


4 


XV. . . 


— 


Xll. 


16 


XVI. . 


— 


X. 


17 


XVII. 


— 


X. 


2 


XVIII. 


— 


X. 


2 


XIX. . 


— 


Xll. 


3 


XX. . 


— 


X. 


23 


XXI. . 


— 


Xll. 


21 


XXII. 


— 


XI. 


17 








26 




Book 


XIV. 


27 


I. . . 


— 


X. 


7 


11. . 


— 


X. 


6 


III. . 


— 


XI. 


22 


IV. . 


— 


X. 


27 


V. . . 


— 


X. 


21 


VI. . 


— 


xi. 


25 


VII. . 


— 


X. 


16 


VIII. . 


— 


XI. 




IX. . . 


— 


X. 




X. . . 


— 


Xll. 




XI. . . 


— 


XI. 





LETTER 




LIB. 




XII. . . 


— 


X. 


EP. 


XIII. . 


— 


Xll. 


24 


XIV. . . 


— 


xi. 


8 


XV. . 


— 


X. 


3 


XVI. . 


— 


xi. 


4 


XVII. . 


— 


xi. 


5 


XVIII. 


— 


xi. 


4 


XIX. . . 


— 


X. 


28 


XX. . 


— 


X. 


5 


XXI. . . 


— 


X. 


24 


XXII. 


— 


X. 


11 


XXIII. 


— 


IX. 


31 


XXIV. 


— 


XI. 


6 


XXV. . 


— 


X. 


6 


XXVI. 


— 


Xll. 


27 


xxvii. 


'■ — 


Xll. 


7 


XXVIII. 


— 


X. 


7 








8 
10 




Book 


XV. 


28 


I. . . 





X. 


]2 


II. . . 


— 


X. 


29 


III. . 


— 


XI. 


25 


IV. . 


— 


xi. 




V. . . 


— 


X. 




VI. . . 


— 


XI. 




VII. . 


— 


t x. 


30 


VIII. . 


— 


X. 


9 


IX. . 


■ — 


Xll. 


9 


X. . . 


— 


XI. 


14 


XI. . 


— 


X. 


13 


XII. . 


— 


xii. 


10 


XIII. . 


— 


Xll. 


11 


XIV. . 





Xll. 


11 


XV. . 


— 


xi. 


15 


XVI. . 


— 


Xll. 


12 


XVII. 


— 


X. 


18 


XVIII. 


— 


x. 



EP. 

17 
25 
14 
16 
12 
13 
19 
34 
18 
21 
25 
20 
23 
20 
14 
15 
35 



19 
33 
26 
21 
23 
24 
32 
22 
30 
15 
26 
8 
9 
13 
25 
10 
29 
24 



INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



A. 



Abdera, a city in Thrace, 521, rem. q 

Acastus, 446 

Accensors, their office, 423, r. w 

Accius, wrote the tragedy of (Enomaus, 482, r. ° 

Acilius, Cicero's letters to, 463, 464, 466, 468, 469 ; 
conjecture concerning him, 463, r. v 

Actium, a city of Epirus, 446, r. d 

Addison, reflection among the tombs of the great, 
526, r. v 

Adversity is to friendship, what fire is to gold, 482 

iEdiles, their office to superintend the markets and 
magazines of corn, 385, r. q ; of two kinds, Plebeian 
and Curule, 394, r. z ; Plebeian, 396, r. « 

iEgina, an island between Peloponnesus and Attica, 
526, r. r 

-ffilius Sextus, 388 

iEmilius Paulus loses two sons in one week, 527, r. z 

iEsopus, the actor, account of him, 358, r. y ; died 
worth nearly 200,000/. 358, r. y 

Afranius, 345, 451 ; murdered by the soldiers, 
484, r. f 

Affection mutual, characterised, 335 

Africa, sad situation of affairs there, 555 

Agesilaus would not suffer any picture or statue of him 
to be taken, 350 ; account of him, 350, r. • 

Agrarian law explained, 422, r. * 

Ague, quartan, salutary, 447, r. i 

Alabanda, a city in Asia Minor, 404 

Alexander would permit his picture to be drawn only 
by Apelles, his statue by Lysippus, 350 ; visited the 
tomb of Achilles, 351, r. n 

Alexauder (of Egypt) appointed the Roman com- 
monwealth his general heir, 419, r. S 

Aliptae were persons who prepared the bodies of com- 
batants for athletic exercises, 370, r x 

Allienus, Cicero's letters to, 476, 478 : silver coin of, 
476, r. x 

Alsium, a town on the western coast of Italy, 481, r. b 

Alysia, a city of Acarnia in Greece, 445, r. y 

Amanienses harassed by Cicero, 412 

Amanus, a mountain that divides Cilicia from Syria, 
412 

Ammonius, 344 

Amphiaraus, the fable of, 509, r. v 

Ampius, 456 ; Cicero's letters to him, 502, 598 ; 
account of him, 502, r. y , 503, r. a ; Cicero obtains 
the promise of his pardon, 502 

Ancharius, Quintus, Cicero's letter to, 352 

Anchialus recommended by Cicero to Sulpicius, 515 

Andro, 493 

Anicius, 343 ; recommended by Cicero to Cornificius, 
555 

Anneius, Marcus, recommended by Cicero to Ther- 
mits, 414 



Antepasts consisted of provocatives to appetite, 483, 
487, r. v 

Antiochia, siege of, abandoned, 412 ; in Syria, 589 

Antiochus, king of Commagene, 403, 404 

Antipater, 377 

Antistius, Titus, leaves ten-twelfths of his estate to 
Ateius Capito, 475 

Antonii, 396 

Antonius, 403 

Antonius, Caius, 428, r. * ; Cicero's letter to, 336 ; 
uncle to Mark Antony, 336, r. q ; Pompey insisted 
that he should be recalled, 337, r. u ; brought to 
trial, 338, r. z 

Antonius, Marcus, put to death by command of Marius, 
520, r. k 

Antony, Mark, 353, r. w . 501, r. s ; his infamous 
intercourse with Curio, 379, r. m ; supported by 
Caesar in his election, 443, r. k ; enriches himself 
by the spoils of his fellow-citizens, 465, r. i ; excites 
the soldiers against Cicero, 553 ; erects a statue 
to the memory of Caesar, 554; Cicero laments 
that he was spared when Csesar was murdered, 
554, r. c ; represents the murderers of Caesar as 
traitors, 554 ; Octavius and Cicero engage in a 
plot against his life, 555, r. B; suspected of per- 
fidy to Brutus, 541; reasons for not entering into 
friendship with Cicero, 543, r. a ; suspected of 
intending to rebuild the altar to Caesar, 548 ; doubts 
on his drawing together the veteran troops, 548 ; 
assembles the senate in a few days after Caesar's 
death, 549, r. a : Brutus and Cassius' letters to him, 
548, 551 ; cannot bear a word or look animated by 
the spirit of liberty, 552 ; Cicero declares, that j 
whoever destroys him will have the glory of termi- 
nating the war, 576, 580, 590 ; arrives at the Forum 
Julii, 579; recovers strength, 581 ; his retreat from 
Mutina in disorder, 581 ; joined by Yentidius, 58 1 ; 
acts with the vilest hypocrisy, 582 ; forms his camp 
above Forum Voconii, 582 ; his troops desert to 
Lepidus, 582 ; reports respecting the battle between 
him and Hirtius, 590 ; offers great rewards to the 
soldiers who join him, 594 ; would have been over- 
come had he not been joined by Lepidus, 598 

Apamea, a city in Phrygia, 409, r. q 

Apella delivered by Lepidus as a hostage, 579 

Apelles, 350 ; his celebrated picture of Venus, 371, r. y 

Apollo, 458 

Apollonia, silver coined there for the payment of 
Pompey's army, 475 ; a learned seminary in Mace- 
donia, 542, r> 

Apollonius is desirous of recording the actions of Csesar 
in Greek, 524 

Appius, 367, 370, r. v , 375, 423 

Appius Pulcher, Cicero's letters to him, 380, 388, 
389,'390, 395, 402, 423, 425, 429, 434, 439, 440 ; 
one of his daughters married to the son of Pompey, 



INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. G05 



the other to Brutus, 380, r. u ; addresses his treatise 
on Augury to Cicero, 390 ; his credulity in augury, 
391, r. y ; on his return from Cilicia demanded a 
triumph, but dropped his claim, 409, r.°; severely 
plundered CiKcia, 410, r. Y and w ; impeached of trea- 
son and bribery, 421; supported by Pompey, 422; 
accuses Cicero of obstructing the erection of a public 
monument to him, 423; Cicero's friendship for him, 
427 ; prosecution commenced against him, 429 ; 
Cicero promises to support him, 429; acquitted, 
434; his character by Cicero, 434, and r. a ; con- 
gratulated by Cicero on his acquittal, 439; his in- 
gratitude, 442 ; becomes a prodigy of reformers, 
443 ; plundered the temples of Greece to collect 
statues for the games, 443, r. ° ; character of, by 
Marcus Ccelius, 443 

Appius, Claudius Ccecus, the first who supplied Rome 
with water, 435, r. e 

Apuleius, Cicero's letter to, 479, 481 

Arar, a river near Lyons, now called the Saone, 
582, r. * 

Archagathus recommended by Cicero to Acilius, 464 

Areopagitcs, magistrates of Athens, 393, r. k 

Argenteus, a river in Provence, 582, r. r 

Ariarathes, 401 

Ariobarzanes, king of Cappadocia, 417, 420, 438 ; 
implores the protection of Cicero, 401 ; plot against 
him discovered, 401 

Aristarchus, a critic of Alexandria, 435, r. { 

Aristippus, 501 

Aristocratical party, question respecting, 374, r. p 

Aristocritus, 341, 342 

Aristoteles,Liciniusrecommendedby Cicero to Rex, 524 

Army, on the distribution of lands and rewards to the 
soldiers, 585 

Arpinum, a city of the Volsci, the birth-place of j 
Cicero, 459, r. u ; patronised by Cicero, 498 

Artuasdes, king of Armenia, 400 

Asclapo, the physician, recommended by Cicero to 
Sulpicius, 514 

Asia, spoken of by classic writers in different senses, 
493, r. a 

Astura, a town in the Campagna di Roma, 533, r. 1 

Ateius, 360, r. k ; recommended by Cicero to Lucius 
Plancus, 475 ; Titius Antestius leaves, him ten- 
twelfths of his estate^ 475 

Atella, a city in Campania, now called Santo Arpino, 
recommended by Cicero to the protection of Cluvius, 
535 

Atellan farces were acted after serious dramatic per- I 
formances, 483, r. * 

Athenais, 417 

Athenodorus, 423 

Athens, the seat of all the useful and polite arts, 
512, r. m 

Athletic games, account of, 359, r. e 

Atilius, 408 

Atrium Libertatis erected in honour of Cicero, 366, r. w 

Atticus, 337 ; kept a band of gladiators, which he let 
out on public occasions, 358, r. d 

Attius, the essenced, 521 

Avarice, an attendant on luxury, 443, r. ° 

Auctus, Cicero's letter to, 540 ; conjecture concerning 

him, 540, r. f 
Aufidius, Sextus, recommended by Cicero to Corni- 

ficius, 557 
Augurs, college of, 391, r. a 

Augustus, instituted a poetical court of judicature, 
which was improved by Domitian, 357, r x ; in- 
structs his grandsons in swimming, 366, r. » 



Avianus, 355, 387, 466 

Avianus, Marcus iEmilius, recommended by Cicero 

to Sulpicius, 514 
Auielius, his two sons recommended by Cicero to 

Ancharius, 352 
Authors, the v.vnity of, 426, r. l ; various kinds of 

writing characterised, 506 ; difficulty of writing 

with success when restrained by fear, 506 



B. 



Bacchanals, improper statues for Cicero, 355 

Bacilu s, 377, r. d 

Baiae, danger to the fair from frequenting the hot 
baths there, 478, r. s 

Balbus, 361, 436, 486 ; Cornelius inviolably attached 
to Caesar, 399, r. m ; withdraws from Gades with 
considerable effects, 593 ; attempts to make Caesar 
the model of his actions, 593 ; presents Herennius 
Gallus, a comedian, with a gold ring, 593 ; account 
of him, 593, r. w ; orders Fadius to be put to 
death for refusing to enter the lists at the gladiatorial 
games, 594 ; other cruelties, 594 

Bargylos, a city in Caria, 404 

Basilius, Cicero's letter to, 377 

Bassus, Caecilius, account of, 537, r. m , 542 

Bellienus, strangles Domitius, 452 

Bellona, high priest of, next in power to the king, 
417, r. v 

Bibulus, Marcus, 345, 346, 347, 349, r. z ; 541 ; 
takes possession of Antiochia, 417; treated with 
contempt by Caesar, 437, r. u ; offended at Cicero, 

437, r. w ; two of his sons murdered in Alexandria, 

438, r. r 
Bilienus, 525 

Biography, advantages from the study of, 350 

Bithynia, farmed by the Roman knights, 415, r. s 

Bithynicus, Cicero's letter to, 542 ; letter to Cicero, 
560 

Bolanus, recommended by Cicero to Sulpicius, 511 

Bona Dea, celebration of, 370, r. u 

Bribery, amazing at Rome, 391 , r. c 

Britain, supposed by the Romans to have abounded 
with gold and silver, 362, r. a ; progress of, from 
barbarism to liberty, 362, r. a 

Brundisium, Cicero arrives at, 338, r. b 

Bruttius, Lucius, recommended by Cicero to Acilius, 
468 

Brutus, Decimus, letter to M. Brutus and Cassius, 
541 ; account of him, 541, r. *; 552. r. P ; letters 
to Cicero, 552, 581, 582, 585,586 ; Cicero's letters 
to him, 552, 553, 556, 557, 560,578, 580, 581, 
595^ 598 ; encouraged by Cicero to act without 
waiting for sanction of the senate, 557 ; reasons that 
prevented him pursuing Antony, 581 ; deserted by 
Plancus, and killed by Antony's soldiers, 598, r. z 

Brutus, Marcus, married to Junia, sister of Cassius, 
425, r. f ; favourable report of, by Cicero, 435 ; 
Cicero's letters to, 496, 498, 499, 501 ; account of 
him, 496, r. w ; Cicero recommends M. Varro to 
him, 496 ; Cicero recommends the commissioners of 
Arpinum to his friendship, 498 ; his conduct on the 
ides of March praised by Cicero, 544 ; D. Brutus's 
letter to him and Cassius, 541 ; and Cassius' letters 
to Mark Antony, 548, 551 ; his conduct after the 
battle of Mutina, 598, r. x ; state of his army, 599 

Buckingham, D. of, unexpected turn in a speech of 
his, 415, r. ° 



606 



INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS 



Bullis, the people of, 376 

Bursa inflames the disturbances on the assassination of 
Clodius, 387, r. a ; banished, 387, r. a ; Cicero 
entertains a stronger aversion to him than he ever 
did to Clodius, 388 

Buthrotum, a city of Epire, 446 



C. 



Cjecina, Aulus, Cicero's letters to, 505, 507, 508 ; 
account of him, 505, r. * ; advised by Cicero to con- 
tinue in Sicily, 505 ; letter to Cicero, 506 ; suffers 
for the liberties of his pen, 506 ; his caution in 
mentioning Csesar in his work, 506 ; presages of his 
being recalled, 508 ; a native of Etruria, 509, r. x ; 
recommended by Cicero to Isauricus, 510 

Csesar, Julius, supposed to be alluded to, 333, r. d ; 
and Crassus solicit Cicero to join their party, 
340, r. l ; purposes either to gain Cicero or ruin 
him, 341, r. l ; by aiding the farmers of the 
public revenues, obtained their support, 357, r. s ; 
Cicero's letters to, 361, 523 ; rather discovered than 
conquered Britain, 361, r. r ; his scheme to usurp 
the supreme power, 367, r. e ; fixes his winter quar- 
ters near Italy, 368, r. h ; paid Curio's debts, 378 ; 
r. J ; foments confusion at Rome, 383, r. l ; his 
scheme of putting the Transpadani on the footing of 
the municipal towns of Italy, 390, r. m ; endeavours 
to gain the lowest of the people to his interest, 396, 
r. T ; recalled from Gaul, 407 ; debate on his govern- 
ment in Gaul, 436, r. n ; to be admitted a candi- 
date for the consulate, 438 ; his opposition to Pom- 
pey, 443 ; sends a menacing letter to the senate, 
447 ; letter received with indignation, 447, r. l ; 
takes possession of Arminium and other towns, 451 ; 
offers conditions to Rome, 451 ; affected to be 
thought a descendant of Venus, 453, r. * ; his gene- 
rosity to Domitius Enobarbus, 453, r. v ; incensed 
against the senate and tribunes, leaves Rome, 455 ; 
takes money out of the temple of Saturn, and pro- 
ceeds against the lieutenants of Pompey in Spain, 
455, r. d ; distributes preferment without regard to 
rank or merit, 457, r. ° ; gets a victory of Pompey 
at Pharsalia, 470 ; defeats Scipio in Africa, 478, r. 
J ; returns victorious from Africa, 481, r. a ; less 
inclined than afraid to have recourse to arms, 481 ; 
made a collection of apophthegms, 482 ; intends to 
establish a republican government, 489 ; his gene- 
rosity to Cicero, 489 ; his moderation and generos- 
ity, 492; admits some of the Gauls into the privi- 
leges of Roman citizens, 494, r. ; ; takes the name 
of superintendant of manners, 495 ; makes a 
law to regulate expenses, 496, r. u ; his greatness of 
mind in pardoning Marcellus, 499 ; the reason why 
Caecina became the object of his wrath, 506 ; never 
speaks of Pompey but in terms of the highest ho- 
nour, 510 ; obtains a complete victory over young 
Pompey, 518, r. l ; his method of rewarding his 
partisans, 520, r. * ; conspirators obliged to leave 
Rome, 541, r. ' ; appointed Dolabella to succeed 
him in the consulship, 543, r. c ; at the time of his 
death purposed games in honour of Venus, 547, r. r ; 
act of oblivion passes the senate after his death, 
549, r. a ; Rome more a slave to the plans of Ca:sar, 
after his death, than to himself when living, 549 ; 
Brutus and Cassius reproached by Antony, 551 ; 
a statue erected to his memory, 554 ; his party in- 
tent to revenge his death, 554 ; his murderers 
represented by Antony as traitors, 554 ; his mur- 



der styled by Cicero the noblest enterprise, 556 ; 
many boasted of being concerned in the conspiracy, 
who were not, 587, r. p ; Lucius Csesar pardoned 
by him, and afterwards privately assassinated by his 
order, 480, r. u 

Catena, an obscure town in Italy, 558 

Crcsius, Publius, Cicero's letter to, 429 

Caldus, Calius, Cicero's letter to, 433; his character, 
433, r. r ; Cicero leaves the administration of Cili- 
cia in his hands, 441 

Calenum, a city of Campania, 522 

Calidius, one of the most agreeable orators of the age, 
396, r. m ; lost his election, 396 

Callisthenes, 349, r. b 

Calpe, now Gibraltar, 593 

Calvus contested the palm of eloquence with Cicero, 
468, r. u 

Camilius, 444 

Campania, considerations respecting the lands referred 
to a full house, 367 ; case of the lands, 367, r. ' ; 
Curio attempts to procure a division of the lands, 
413 

Canidius, 399 

Caninius, 346, 353, 359, 393 

Capena, a city in Italy, 486 

Cappadocia, account of the kingdom of, 401, r. l ; not 
furnished with any place of strength, 405 

Cassius, 356, 41 2;"Cicero'sletters to, 424,465, 520, 521 , 
549, 553, 554*562, 564, 568, 596, 598 ; his speech 
on having saved the life of Caesar, when in danger of 
drowning, 365, r. »; account of him, 424, r. b ; 
deserted with his whole fleet from Pompey to Ca?sar, 
465, r. f ; letters to Cicero, 522, 597; D. Brutus' 
letter to him and M. Brutus, 541 ; and M. Brutus' 
letter to Antony, 551 ; pursues the fleet of Dola- 
bella, commanded by Lucilius, 597 ; his army, 597 

Catiline, those concerned in his conspiracy put to death 
without any process, 336, r. p ; supported by per- 
sons of desperate fortunes, 338, r. y ; recommended 
to Lucius Lucceius to write a history of that con- 
spiracy, 350 ; capital punishments inflicted on all 
concerned in it, 369, r. ° 

Catilius turns pirate, 538 

Catina, a maritime town in Sicily, 463 

Cato, Caius, opposed the restoration of Pompey, 334, 
r. », 344, r. J, 348 ; proposes the recal of Lentulus, 
348, r. w 

Cato, Marcus (the Censor), instructs his son in swim- 
ming, 365, r. > ; thoughts on his own approaching 
dissolution, occasioned by the death of his son, 527, 
r. b 

Cato (Uticensis), his speech, 372, r. c ; Cicero's letters 
to, 403, 416, 439 ; his character, 416, r. l ; pro- 
longed the life of liberty, 416, r. l ; settled a cor- 
respondence through the whole of the provinces, 

419, r. f ; enters into friendship with Dciotarus, 

420, r. h ; acts upon the principles of disinterested 
patriotism, 420, r. s ; letter to Cicero, 420 ; his 
manners by no means rough or unpolished, 420, r. 
5 ; supports a thanksgiving to Bibulus, 440, r. n ; 
opposes a thanksgiving to Cicero, 440, r. n ; Cicero's 
thoughts on his death, 485 ; Seneca's eulogy on, 
485, r. h ; anecdote of his stedfast behaviour at four 
years of age, 524, r. k ; his character a fashionable 
declamation for both parties at Rome, 534, r. u 

Catulus, Q. L. makes the welfare of his country the 

object of his labours, 495, r. m 
Caunians, refused to pay interest for money after 

having lodged it in the treasury, 404, r. J 
Caunus, a city in Caria, 404 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



607 



Censor, that office explained, 430, r. f ; every five 
years number the people, 542, r. y 

Cerellia, account of her, 505, r. h 

Chariots of the old Britons, 362, r. z 

Chrysippus the philosopher, account of, 384, 479, r. ° 

Cibyra, a city in Phrygia Major, 397, r. ' z 

Cicero, Quintus, letter to M. T. Cicero, 524 ; in order 
to obtain the recal of his brother, engaged to an un- 
limited resignation to the measures of Pompey, 
368, r. i ; letters to Tiro, 452, 453, 558 ; his cha- 
racter, 452, r. p 

Cicero, M. T. letter to Pompey, 333 ; complains of 
a want of return of friendship in Pompey, and his 
not congratulating him on his services, 334 ; cause 
ofPompey's coolness towards him, 334, r. e ; letter 
to Quintus Metellus Celer,334; resolves to receive 
no honours at the end of his consular office, 335, 
r. k ; swore that he had preserved Rome and the 
republic from destruction, 335, r. °; his good 
offices to Pompey, 335 ; letter to Caius Antonius, 
336; "I am informed," the reason for his using 
that expression, 337, r. s ; letter to Publius Sestius, 
337 ; purchases Crassus's house, 337 ; in distress 
for money, 338 ; sincerity not the virtue of, 338, 
r. x ; letters to Terentia, 338, 339, 340, 341 ; his 
dejection during banishment, 338, 339 ; a philo- 
sopher only in speculation, 338, r. e ; passes through 
Brundisium in his way to Greece, 338, r. b ; a law 
passed that no person should harbour him, 339, 
r. c ; his daughter Tullia married to Piso, 339, 
r. e ; promises freedom to his slaves conditionally, 
339 ; a temple erected to Liberty where his house 
stood, 340, r. h ; solicited to join Caesar and Cras- 
sus, 340, r. l ; his design of taking up arms against 
his country examined, 340, r. m ; deserted by 
Pompey, 340, r. m ; Caesar offered to take him into 
Gaul as his lieutenant, 341, r. t ; letter to Quintus 
Metellus Nepos, 342 ; the treachery of Clodius to 
him, 342, r. z ; recalled from banishment, 343, 
r. c ; letters to Publius Lentulus, 343, 346, 347, 
348, 352, 356, 366 ; the part he took in placing 
Ptolemy in his kingdom, 344 ; letter to Quintus 
Valerius Orca, 345 ; recommends his African 
friends, 345; his friendship to Lentulus, 347; 
compares the fate of Lentulus with his own, 348 ; 
letter to Lucius Lucceius, 349 ; served as a volun- 
teer under the father of Pompey, 349, r. a ; wishes 
to have his life portrayed by Lucceius in a history 
of Catiline's conspiracy, 350 ; purposes to be his 
own historian, if Lucceius refuses it, 351 ; his 
vanity, 351, r. p ; letter to him from Quintus 
Mcteilus Nepos, 352; letter to Quintus Ancharius, 
352 ; his and Pompey's advice to Lentulus, 353 ; 
his duplicity in the affair of Ptolemy, 353, r. w ; 
sometimes represents his approbation and con- 
demnation of the same actions, 353, r. w , 354, 
r. b ; exhorts Lentulus to a well-regulated ambi- 
tion, 354 ; makes immoderate and fatal concessions 
to the ambition of Ceesar, 354, r. b ; letter toFabius 
Gallus, 355, 492, 534, 535 ; statues purchased for 
him, 355 ; prefers paintings to statues, 356 ; motives 
of his attachment to Pompey, 356 ; motives of his 
ambition, 356 ; letters to Marcus Marius, 357, 387, 
470, 487 ; on public shows, 357 ; advantages he 
derived from iEsopus, 358, 7. y ; dissatisfied in his 
situation of public advocate, 359 ; wholly under 
the influence of Pompey and Caesar, 359, r. h ; 
letters to Quintus Philippus, 359, 377 ; letter to 
Marcus Licinius Crassus, 360 ; supposed insincerity 
of his professed friendship for Crassus, 360, r. m ; 



letters to Julius Caesar, 361, 523; letters to 
Trebatius, 362, 363, 364, 365, 379, 381, 382, 
383, 384, 387, 388, 550; letter to MunatiuB, 
364 ; reconciled to Caesar and Appius, 366 ; 
defence of his appearing advocate for Vatinius, 
366 ; traces the motives for his conduct, 366 ; the 
Atrium Libertatis erected as a monument for his 
services, 366, r. w ; the inscription ordered to be 
restored, 366, r. w ; his houses pillaged and burned 
by order of Clodius, 367, r. x ; adheres firmly to 
his political principles, 367 ; the engagements on 
which Pompey favoured his recal, 368, r. •> ; had 
no esteem for Pompey, 369, r. m ; his motives for 
uniting with Caesar, 369 ; in compliance to the law 
made against him by Clodius, he appears in mourn- 
ing, and is joined by 20,000 knights, 369, r. r ; 
deserted by some of his friends, 370 ; his recal op- 
posed, 370, r. v ; his name defaced from his mo- 
nument, and the name of Clodius inserted, 370 ; 
inferior to Metellus in his behaviour during banish- 
ment, 371, r. z ; recalled from banishment by 
Lentulus, 371 ; cause of his having promoted the 
honours of Caesar, 372 ; blamed for having joined 
Pompey and Caesar, 372, r. c ; defends Cato, 373 ; 
provoked to engage in the defence of Vatinius, 

373 ; blamed' for defending AulusGabinius, 373, rJ; 
at variance with Crassus, 373 ; reconciled to Cras- 
sus, 374 ; his support of Caesar and Pompey inde- 
fensible, 374, r. ° ; principles on which he acted, 

374 ; his character as a patriot depreciated, 375, r. q , 
503, r. e ; sends three dialogues on oratory to Len- 
tulus, 375 ; delivers a poem on his banishment, 
sealed up, to his son, 375, r. r ; letters to Lucius 
Culleolus, 376 ; letters to Curius, 377, 503, 539, 
540 ; letter to Basilius, 377 ; letter to Lucceius 
Valerius, the lawyer, 377 ; mistakes the meaning 
of Homer, 378, r. ' ; letters to Caius Curio, 378, 
381, 382, 383, 384, 385, 413 ; letters to Appius 
Pulcher, 380, 388, 389, 390, 395, 402,409, 423, 
425, 429, 434, 439,440; letters to Caius Mem- 
mius, 381, 384, 391 ; letters to Cornificius, 382, 
537, 540, 555, 556, 557, 558, 560, 570, 572, 
580, 595 ; sends a letter in Greek to Caesar,' 383 ; 
letter to Publius Sextius, 384 ; his declaration of 
friendship for Sextius, 385 ; supported Milo in his 
election for the consulate, because his own dignities 
depended on it, 385 ; letter to Titus Fadius, 386 ; 
letters to Titus Titius, 387, 462 ; obtains the ba- 
nishment of Bursa, 387 ; conceives a stronger 
aversion to Bursa than he ever had against 
Clodius, 388; letters from Coelius to him, 389, 
393, 394, 396, 397, 398, 405, 412, 421, 422, 
435, 438, 442, 452, 454, 459; his political 
treatises universally read, 390 ; intimately united 
with Patro, 392 ; his real sentiments of Patro, 392 ; 
letters to Marcus Ccelius, 393, 408, 411, 433, 
441, 445 ; often changes his opinion, or at least his 
language, respecting Pompey, 393, r. n ; his ad- 
ministration of Cilicia commended, 393, r. p ; 
shares, with his servant Philotimus, in the profit 
made by the purchase of his friend Milo's estates, 
at an under value, 395, r. d ; letters to Marcus 
Marcellus, 399, 491, 494, 529; letters to Caius 
Marcellus, 399, 420, 440 ; letter to Caius Mar- 
cellus the elder, 400 ; letter to Lucius Paulus, 
400, 421 ; letters to the consuls, the praetors, the 
tribunes of the people, and the senate, 400, 
404 ; takes Ariobarzanes under his protection, 
401 ; letters to Thermus, 402, 403, 414 ; dis- 
pleased with the conduct of Appius, 402 ; his 



608 



INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS 



edict for the government of Cilicia very dif- 
ferent from that of Appius, 403 ; letter to Mar- 
cus Cato, 403, 416, 439 ; cannot rely on the 
provincial militia, 405 ; voluntary advocate for 
Tuccius, 406 ; letters to Publius Silius, 408, 411, 
413, 416, 429 ; congratulates Ccelius on his aedile- 
ship, 408 ; defence of himself against Appius, 
409 ; restrains the public expenses in Cilicia, 410 ; 
declaration of friendship for Appius, 410 ; lowers 
the interest of money in Cilicia, 410, r. w ; entitled 
to a triumph, 411 ; gains a victory over the Par- 
thians, 412 ; his vanity, 412 ; saluted with the title 
of Imperator, 412 ; his esteem and affection for 
Nero, 413 ; letter to Volumnius, 414, 484 ; wishes 
to retain his character of a wit, 415; letter to Cras- 
sipes, 415 ; his own account of his government of 
Cilicia, 416 ; his progress against the Parthians, 417; 
takes Pindinessum, 418 ; preserved the common- 
wealth without drawing a sword, 418 ; refused the 
government of Macedonia, 419 ; represents himself 
as a stranger to vain-glory, and desire of vulgar 
admiration, yet ambitious of military honours, 419 ; 
very attentive to the interests of the commonwealth, 
419, r. « ; calls philosophy for his advocate, 420 ; 
Marcus Cato's letter to him, 420 ; accused by Ap- 
pius Pulcher of neglect to him, 423 ; prefers merit 
to distinction of birth, 423 ; looks on Pompey as 
the greatest man the world ever produced, 423 ; let- 
ters to Caius Cassius, 424, 519, 520, 549, 553, 554, 
562, 564, 568, 596 ; letters to C. Titius Rufus, 
428, 448, 458 ; was a native of Arpinum in Italy, 
428, r. z , 459, r. u ; letter to Publius Csesius, 429 ; 
letter to the inhabitants of Fregellse, 429 ; promises 
to support the honour of Appius Pulcher, 429 ; in- 
sincerity of his professions, 430, r. s ; his obligations 
to Pompey, 432 ; not under the obligations to Pom- 
pey which he pretended, 432, r. k ; observations on 
his defence of Milo, 432, r. l ; letters to Papirius 
Pa5tus,432, 469, 482, 484,486, 487, 494,501, 564 ; 
wore out Xenophon's Life of Cyrus with reading it, 
432 ; his friendship with Marcus Fabius, 432 ; letter 
to Ccelius Caldus, 433 ; his expressions of joy on the 
acquittal of Appius Pulcher, 434 ; his character of 
Appius Pulcher in a former letter to Atticus, 434, 
r. a ; formed different opinions of Pompey at differ- 
ent times, 435, r. b ; friendship for Appius Pulcher, 
435 ; difficulty in procuring a thanksgiving, 435 ; 
courted both by Pompey and Caesar, 436, r. l ; let- 
ter to Caninius Sallustius, 437 ; studied oratory 
at Rhodes under Molo, 437, r. s ; anxious to leave 
his province at the expiration of the year, 437 ; 
intends to deposit a copy of his quaestor's accounts at 
Apamca, 437; advises the Parthian plunder to be 
laid out in behalf of the public, 437 ; not on good 
terms with Bibulus, 438 ; congratulated on his 
alliance with Dolabella, 438; received the account 
of the death of Hortensius with real concern, 438, 
r. % ; his thoughts on the marriage of Dolabella with 
Tullia, 439 ; does not forgive Cato for refusing him 
a thanksgiving, 440, r. n ; acknowledges himself 
obliged to Cato, 440 ; acknowledges his obligations 
to Appius Pulcher, 440 ; his disquietude on the 
dark prospect of public affairs, 441 ; leaves the ad- 
ministration of Cilicia to Caldus, 441 ; letters to 
Tcrcntia and Tullia, 444, 450; arrives at Athens, 
444 ; laments the death of Prescius, who left him a 
legacy, 444 ; letters to Tiro, 444, 445, 446, 447, 
451, 453, 524, 530, 531, 532, 542, 555; his 
temper more than commonly warm, 444, r. u ; in 
hopes of obtaining a triumph, 444, r. v ; detained 



at Corcyra by contrary winds, 446 ; account of his 
voyage on his return from his government, 446 ; 
met by Terentia at Brundisium, 446 ; resolves not 
to engage in party measures, 447 ; arrives in the 
suburbs of Rome, 447 ; finds Rome in civil war, 

447 ; takes Capua in Italy under his protection, 

448 ; on the public expenses of his government in 
Cilicia, 448 ; pays a necessary obedience to the 
Julian law, 448 ; his honorary list, 449 ; the money 
he left in the hands of the farmers of the revenues 
at Ephesus seized for Pompey, 449 ; his wife and 
daughter leave Rome, 450, r. & ; with all the friends 
of the republic abandons Rome, 451 ; follows Pom- 
pey into Greece, but would not accept a command 
in Pompey's armv, 451, r. °; letters to Servius 
Sulpicius, 454, 457, 488, 513, 514, 515, 516, 
527 ; will not take his seat in the senate without 
full liberty of speaking his sentiments, 454, r. b ; 
had formed a resolution of following Pompey into 
Greece, 454, r. c ; averse to Pompey's deserting 
Rome, 456 ; resumes his intention of following 
Pompey into Greece, 456, r. k ; professes that his 
aim was to preserve the peace of his country, 456 ; 
determines to wait the event of Caesar's expedition 
in Spain, 457j r. m ; resolves to retire from Rome, 
457 ; letters to Terentia, 458,460, 461, 462, 463, 
464, 466 ; attributes his cure to Apollo and JEscu- 
lapius, 458 ; joins Pompey in Greece, 458, r. * ; 
his political character stated, 458, r. * ; Dolabella's 
letter to Cicero, 460 ; Dolabella endeavours to 
persuade Cicero to quit Pompey's party, 460 ; con- 
jecture respecting some money which he wishes to 
have paid, 461, r. k ; quits Pompey's party, 461, 
r. m ; Pompey exasperated against him, 461, r. n ; 
scarcely ever executed an important resolution 
without repenting immediately, 461, r. ° ; his severe 
anxiety, 461, r. p ; consoles Titius on the loss of 
his son, 462 ; thoughts on a future state, 462 ; 
letters to Acilius, 463, 464, 466, 468, 469 ; re- 
proaches himself with negligence respecting his 
daughter Tullia, 463, r. z ; letters to Cassius, 465; 
reasons why he declined a perseverance in the civil 
war, 465 ; had an interview with Caesar in Italy, 
466, r. ° ; letters to Trebonius, 467, 496 ; ac- 
knowledges favours received from Trebonius, 467 ; 
the palm of eloquence contested by Calvus, 468, r. x ; 
letter to Sextilius Rufus, 468 ; repents that he 
joined Pompey, 470 ; advised Pompey to propose 
terms of accommodation to Caesar, 470 ; lays down 
his arms and returns to Italy, 470 ; motives and 
defence of his conduct, 471 ; letter to Cneius Plan- 
cius, 472 ; laments the present and impending 
calamities, 472 ; his wife Terentia divorced, 472, r. 
y ; letters to Toranius, 472, 474 ; letters to Marcus 
Terentius Varro, 473, 478, 479, 480, 481, 531; 
letter to Domitius, 474 ; advice to Domitius against 
suicide, 474 ; letters to Lucius Plancus, 474, 551, 
554, 561, 562, 567, 570, 574, 576, 580, 586, 
590, 594 ; his friendship for Plancus, 475 ; declares 
that he joined Pompey contrary to his own inclina- 
tion, in compliance with the solicitation and autho- 
rity of others, 476 ; blamed for not standing neuter 
in the war between Pompey and Caesar, 476, r. w ; 
letters to Allienus, 476, 478 ; letter to Lucius Mes- 
cinius, 476 ; censures Pompey for his conduct 
towards him, 477; obliged to associate with the Ce- 
sarean party, 47 7 ; declares that he never sacrificed the 
public good to his own private views, 477 ; rejected 
the doctrine of the immortality of the soul in 
his private opinion, 477, r. f ; held different 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



609 



opinions of the same thing at different times, 477, 
r. f ; motives for not quitting Rome, 478 ; 
letters to Apuleius, 479, 481 ; his reasons for keep- 
ing Varro within his reach, 480, r. s ; inclined to 
join the strongest party, 481 ; thinks it hest not to 
disgust Caesar or his favourites, 482 ; institutes a 
kind of academy for eloquence at his own house, 
483, r. s , 484, 485 ; intends a visit to Papirius 
Paetus, 483 ; resolves to retire into the secret shades 
of philosophy, 484 ; his thoughts on Cato's death, 
485 ; becomes an absolute Epicurean, 487 ; general 
sketch of his manner of life, 487, 501 ; laments the 
desolation of the commonwealth, 488; consecrates 
all his time and attention to philosophv, 488 ; letters 
to Servilius Isauricus, 489, 493, 503, 505, 507, 
508,510; letter to Nigidius Figulus, 489 ; finds 
himself divested of all his credit, authority, and 
honours, and thinks it a crime to continue to live, 
490 ; wishes to insinuate himself into the friendship 
of Caesar, and pretends that modesty keeps him from 
intimacy, 490 ; disapproved of the manner in which 
the civil war was carried on, 491 ; could plead the 
merit of having yielded after he was conquered, 
492; letters to Trebianus, 492, 493; letters to 
Quintus Gallius, 493, 511; letters to Dolabella, 
519, 522, 525, 538, 543 ; letters to Marcus Brutus, 
496, 498, 499, 501 ; letter to Ligarius, 497 ; zeal- 
ously patronises the city of Arpinum, 498 ; ad- 
dresses Caesar on the pardon of Marcellus, 499 ; 
thought it true wisdom to yield to the circumstances 
of the times, 500 ; Marcus Marcellus's letter to 
him, 500 ; letter to Ampius, 502 ; not equally 
solicitous in all his recommendations, 503 ; mixes 
with the chief of the victorious faction, 503 ; how 
far a patriot, 503, r. e ; letter to Ligarius, 504 ; is 
said to have made Caesar tremble by his rhetoric, 
504, r. f ; letters to Aulus Carina, 505, 507, 508 ; 
letter to Titus Furfanius, 505 ; Caerina's letter to 
him, 506 ; his skill in divination, 508 ; could not 
support the thoughts of deserting Pompey, 509 ; 
advances daily in the friendship of Caesar, 510 ; 
letter to Publius Sulpicius, 511 ; letters to Aulus 
Torquatus, 511, 513 ; letter to Lepta, 517; in- 
scribed his Orator to Brutus, 518, r. q ; letter to 
Aulus Torquatus, 518; is appointed to judge 
between Nicias and Vidius, 519 ; Cuius Cassius's 
letter to him, 522 ; letters to Caesar, 563 ; Quintus 
Cicero's letter to him, 524 ; gives Tiro his freedom, 

524 ; letter to Rex, 524 ; laments the death of 
Tullia, 525, 527, 528 ; his character detracted by 
his own nephew, 525, r. p ; Servius Sulpicius's 
letter to Cicero, lamenting the death of Tullia, 

525 ; thinks Caesar by no means his enemy, 528 ; 
letters to Lucius Lucceius, 528, 529; advantages he 
derived from the advice of Lucceius, 528 ; Lucceius' 
letter to Cicero, 529 ; laments how few friends he 
has left, and the miseries of life, 529 ; Vatinius's 
letter to Cicero, 531 ; sends four dialogues called 
Academicato Varro, 531 ; writes a dialogue between 
Atticus, Varro and himself, 532 ; letters to Quintus 
Valerius Orca, 532, 533; recommends the citizens 
of Volaterra to Orca's protection, 532 ; Macula 
offers him the use of his house, 533 ; letter to 
Cluvius, 534 ; recommends the citizens of Atella 
to the protection of Cluvius, 535 ; letter to Marcus 
Rutilius, 536 ; letter to Vatinius, 536 ; Curius's let- 
ter to Cicero, 537 ; blamed for not inquiring into the 
conduct of Dolabella, 538, r. r ; letter to Auctus, 
540 ; favoured the conspirators against Caesar, 542, 
r. s ; sends Tiro to Rome to receive hisdebts,542 ; let- 



ter to Bithynicus, 542 ; no real friendship between 
him and Antony, 543, r. a ; approves of Dolabella' s 
consular conduct, 543 ; praises the conduct of Bru- 
tus on the ides of March, 544 ; letters to Trebonius, 
544, 563 ; Trebonius's letter to, 545 ; character of 
his son, 545 ; letter to Matius, 546 ; friendship for 
Matius, 546 ; reviled that man [Caesar] when dead, 
whom he was the first to flatter when living, 547, 
r. s ; Matius's letter to, 547; his declarations of 
friendship to Brutus and Cassius, 549 ; letter to 
Oppius, 549 ; motive of his intended voyage into 
Greece, 551, r. 1 ; Decimus Brutus' letters to, 552, 
575, 576, 577, 581, 582, 585, 586, 591; letters 
to Decimus Brutus, 552, 553, 556, 557, 560, 579, 
580, 581, 591, 593, 595, 598; neglects attending 
the senate when divine honours were to be voted to 
Caesar, 553, r. s ; cannot appear with safety in the 
senate, 553 ; the occasion of his 1st and 2d Philip- 
pics, 553, r. s and w ; declines speaking when the 
senate is surrounded with soldiers, 554 ; reproaches 
the conspirators for sparing Antony, 554 ; laments 
that he was not one of the conspirators, 554, 562, 
563 ; supposed by Antony to have been one of the 
conspirators, 553, 554 ; favoured the design of Oc- 
tavius against the life of Antony, 555, r. s ; had a 
design of publishing his letters, 555, r. k ; found it 
necessary to move from Rome, 556, r. m ; the kill- 
ing of Caesar the noblest enterprise recorded by his- 
tory, 556 ; encourages D. Brutus to act without 
waiting for the sanction of the senate, 557 ; the 
occasion of the 3d and 4th Philippics, 558, r. a ; 563, 
r. p ; Bythinicus's letter to Cicero, 560 ; his flat- 
tery of Plancus in order to gain him over to his 
party, 561, 562; Plancus's letters to Cicero, 561, 
568*, 570, 574, 577, 578, 579, 583, 592, 599 ; be- 
comes popular, 563 ; a design to destroy him, 564 ; 
Caius Cassius's letters to, 565, 567, 578, 598 ; 
Asinius Pollio's letters to, 565, 590, 593 ; his ad- 
vice to Plancus, 567 ; letter to Lepidus, 567 ; is 
always ready to assist Plancus with his advice and in- 
terest, 570 ; hopes for a favourable turn in the affairs 
of the state 570 ; recommends Plancus to persevere, 
571 ; places a statue of Minerva in the temple of 
Jupiter; 572, r. n ; was the only man who dared to 
assert his freedom and independency in the senate, 
573; his engagements with Octavius, 573, r. s ; 
inveighed against the measures of Antony, 573 ; 
Galba's letter to, 574 ; Octavius refuses to hearken 
to his advice, 576 ; his disappointment in Antony 
not being defeated, 580 ; advises Plancus not to wait 
for the sanction of the senate, 581 ; Marcus Lepidus's 
letter to, 582 ; letters to Furnius, 584, 596 ; dis- 
pleases Octavius by an ambiguous expression, 585 ; 
Lentulus's letter to, 586 ; will not expose himself to 
any danger that prudence can prevent, 591 ; Cassius' 
(Quaestor) letter to, 597 ; his eloquence of more 
avail than all the armies of their generals, 597 ; ho- 
nours paid him by the populace, 597, r. p ; the 
ruin of the republic, would have been prevented by 
following his advice, 598, r. x ; letter to Ampins, 
598 ; Plancus's letter to, 599 ; artfully ensnared by 
Octavius, 600, r. k ; conjecture how far he assisted 
Octavius in obtaining the consulate, 600, r. k ; was 
sacrificed to the resentment of Antony, 600, r. J ; his 
composure at his death, 600, r. i 

Cicero's (the Younger,) letters to Tiro, 559, 560 ; 
account of him, 559, r. ' ; lived with Cratippui 
both as his son and pupil, 559 ; his studies, 559 ; 
his courage and conduct, 588 

Cilicia, extent of that province, 400, r. r , 427 ; mili- 
R R 



610 



INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS 



tary preparations there by Cicero, 401 ; added to 
the provinces by P. Servilius, 400, r. r ; praetors 
draw lots for the government of, 407 ; prevented 
by Cicero from sending deputies to thank Appius, 
409 ; severely plundered by Appius, 410, r. v 

Cilix, 380 

Cilo Magius stabs Marcellus, and then kills himself, 
530 

Cimber, his treachery to Caesar, 502, r. z 

Cineas, 432, r. p 

Cipius, saying of, 534 

Circensian games consisted of shows of various kinds, 
442, r. • 

Civil war, victory, the supreme evil of, 481 

Cleopatra, 461, r. ° 

Clodius procures a law that no person shall harbour 
Cicero, 338, r. c ; treachery to Cicero, 343, r. z ; 
pillages and burns Cicero's houses, 367, r. x ; an 
enemy to the laws and tranquillity of Rome, 368 ; 
after having driven Cicero from Rome, opposes 
Pompey and Caesar, 369, r. n , 370, r. ' ; his 
schemes against Cicero, 369, r. q ; law procured 
by him, 369, r. r ; intrudes on the matrons' 
mysteries, 370 ; suspected of crim. con. with 
his three sisters, 370, r. u ; opposes the recal of 
C cero, 370, r. v ; impeached by Milo as a disturber 
of the public peace, 370, r. v . ; killed by Milo, 386, 
r. w ; his funeral pile made of the benches of the 
senate-house, 387, r. 3 

Clodius, Marcus, recommended by Cicero to Acilius, 406 

Cluvius, 403 ; the cities of Mylata and Alabanda in- 
debted to him, 404 ; has demands on Heraclea 
Bargylos and Caunus, 40 4 ; his dispute with the 
Caunians, 404, r. J ; Cicero's letter to, 534 

Cocceius, 479 

Ccelius, Marcus, letters to Cicero, 389, 393, 394, 396, 
397, 398, 405, 412, 421, 422, 435, 438, 442, 452, 
454, 459 ; Cicero's letters to him, 393, 408, 411, 
425, 426, 427, 433, 441, 455 ; account of, 389, 
r. k ; wishes Cicero to address some of his works to 
him, 395 ; complains of the ingratitude of Appius, 
442 ; Lucius Domitius becomes his most bitter 
enemy, 442 ; Appius endeavours to persuade Ser- 
vius to impeach him, 442 ; indicted on the Scan- 
tinian law, 442 ; lodges an information against 
Appius, 442 ; endeavours to persuade Cicero to join 
Caesar, 454 ; laments his having joined Caesar, 459; 
encourages Pompey 's party at Rome, 459 ; mur- 
dered by the soldiers of Caesar's faction, 460, r. b 

Cognosco explained, 378, r. ' l 

Colophon, a city of Ionia, 507 

Comitial days, 407, r. d 

Coramagene, a part of Syria, 403 

Confidence frequently passes for skill, 377 

Conscript fathers, the council of the republic addressed 
by that term, 588, r. v 

Consuls become infamous barterersfor provinces, 369; 
not under the age of forty-two, 543, r. d ; might not 
be sued for until two years after having served the 
office of praetor, 597, r. n 

Consulars, whom, 486, r. m 

Corcyra, an island in the Ionian Sea, now called Corfu, 
395, r. f , 472 

Corinth, a city of Peloponnesus, 526 

Cornelia visits the wife of Cicero, 337 ; he - -haracter, 
399, r. i 

Cornelian law, 402, r. v, 431, r. h 

Cornelius, 337, 346 

Cornificius. 422 ; Cicero's letters to, 382, 537, 540, 
555, 556, 557, 558, 560, 580, 595 ; account of 



him, 537, r. h ; lost his life in defence of his pro- 
vince, 595, r. f 

Corporation, or municipal towns, 428, r. z 

Cossinius, Lucius, recommended by Cicero to Sul- 
picius, 515 

Corycus, in Cilicia, 597 

Crassipes, 374; married to Tullia, 355; Cicero's 
letter to, 415 

Crassus, Marcus Licinius, Cicero's letter to, 360 ; 
Cicero's profession of friendship for him, 360 ; gives 
a general treat on 10,000 tables, and three months' 
provisions of corn, 360, r. J ; accepts the province of 
Syria, with a design of making war on the Parthians, 

360, r. k ; regulated his attachment by his interest, 

361, r. q ; his son heads a body of knights in sup- 
port of Cicero, 369, r. r ; cause of variance between 
him and Cicero, 373 ; sets off for Syria, 374, r. J ; 
account of him, 495, r. k 

Criminals employed on the roads, 358, r. c 

Cromwell, paragram of his, 415, r. n 

Cromyacris, in Cyprus, 597 

Cularo, on the frontiers of the Allobroges, new Gre- 
noble, 592 

Culeo returns to Lepidus, 582 

Culleolus, Lucius, Cicero's letter to, 376 

Cumss, a city in Campania, 390, r. l 

Curiae, their votes considered as the voice of the people, 
375, r. u 

Curio, Caius, 347, 435 ; Cicero's letters to, 378, 381, 
382, 383, 384, 385, 413 ; his character, 378, r. i , 
381, r. c , 396, r. s ; his debts paid by Caesar, 
378, r. J ; lost his life before the battle of Pharsalia, 

378, r. J ; his infamous intercourse with Antony, 

379, r. ,n ; gives public games, 383, r. * ; theatre, 
394 ; gives panthers to Ccelius, 398, 408; prepares 
to oppose the demands of Caesar, 407 ; joins Caesar's 
party, 422 ; becomes a convert to Caesar, 428 

Curbs, 433 ; Cicero's letters to, 377, 503, 537, 539, 
540 ; account of him, 503, r. c 

Curius, Manius, recommended by Cicero to Sulpicius, 
513 

Curius, Marcus, recommended byCicero to Auctus,540 

Curtius, 4.57, 534 

Curule magistrates drawn in a car, 469, r. h 

Curvus, Lucius Genucilius, recommended by Cicero 
to Thermus, 402 

Cuspius, Publius, 345 

Custidius, Lucius, 428 

Cybira, a city of Lycaonia, 514, r. y 

Cybiratae hunt panthers, 398 

Cyprus had a peculiar claim on the patronage of Cato, 
419, r. £; extremely oppressed under the govern- 
ment of Ptolemy, 419, r. s 

Cyzicum, a town in the island of Propontis, 393 



D. 



Dalmatia, Vatiaius's victories in, 539 

Damasippus, 355, 356 

Death to be wished for, after the loss of liberty in a 
country, 525 ; consolation drawn from the prospect 
of ruined cities, 526; Addison's reflections amongst 
the repositories of the dead, 526, r. v ; in an honest 
cause ought never to be shunned, 547 

Decemviri, account of, 580, r. %\ appointed to distri- 
bute lands to the soldiers, 585, r. d 

Decurio, that office explained, 517, r. m 

Deiotarus, prince of Galatia, 412, 417,418,465, r. h ; 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



611 



his character, 400, r. s ; his great army, 405, r. ° ; 
offers to join Cicero with his forces, 417 

Demetrius, Magus, on being granted the freedom of 
Rome, took the name of Publius Cornelius, 468 

Demetrius, a celebrated orator, 525, r. l 

Democritus of Sicyon, 476 

Dialogue writers have the privilege of drawing up dia- 
logues which had never taken place, 532 

Dictator, a magistrate invested with supreme and abso- 
lute power, 396, r. u 
. Diodorus, a Greek philosopher, 479, r. m 

Diodotus, a Stoic philosopher, 479, r. n 

Diogenes, Laertius, preserved the will of Epicurus, 
392, r. * 

Dion Cassius, 338, r. z , 340, r. ra , 345, r. m 

Dionysius, 351, r. k ; steals books from Cicero's 
library, 5 1 1 

Divination attended to by the senate, 347, r. v ; 
derived from the Etruscans, 508, r. ° 

Dolabella exhibits articles of impeachment against 
Appius, 421 ; his wife obtains a divorce, 421 ; un- 
grateful to his patron, 430 ; marries Tullia, 438, 
439, 441 ; joins Csesar, 451 ; letter to Cicero, 
460; his character, 460, r. d , 538, r. r ; endea- 
vours to persuade Cicero to leave Pompey, 460 ; 
his neglect of Tullia, 463 ; divorce purposed, 464 ; 
reasons for a divorce, 464, r. c ; employs his power 
to seditious purposes, 464, r. d ; attended Csesar 
in the African war, 480, r. y ; Cicero's letters to 
him, 519, 522, 525, 538, 543 ; doubts whether 
the marriage with Tullia was dissolved, 525, r. °, 
526, r. 1 ; disperses the mob that gathered about 
Caesar's altar, 543, r. c ; saves the commonwealth 
as well as the city, 544 ; if he should not succeed 
in Syria, intends to join Antony, 586 ; obliged to 
abandon the siege of Antiochia, 587 ; puts an end 
to his life by commanding one of his slaves to be 
his executioner, 587, r. ° ; in his march from Asia 
laid waste the country, and seized the public mo- 
ney, 588 : his fleet destroyed by Lentulus, 589 ; 
the gates of Antiochia shut against him, and his 
troops desert him, 589 ; defeated by Cassius, 
596, r. m ; collects his forces at Laodicea, 597; 
price of wheat in his camp, 597 

Domitian improved Augustus's poetical court of ju- 
dicature, 357, r. x 

Domitii, 436 

Domitius, Cicero's letter to, 474 ; account of him, 
474, r.'i 

Domitius, Lucius Enobarbus, one of Caesar's avowed 
enemies, 390, r. r ; disappointed in his election, 
442 ; seized and strangled by Bellienus, 452 ; 
treated by Caesar with generosity, 453, r. v 

Dyrrachium, a city in Macedonia, now Durazzo, 
'341, r. q , 460, r. e 



E. 



Eggs, the first dish at every table, 487, r. w 
Egnatius, 359 ; recommended by Cicero to Silius, 429 
Egnatius, Lucius, recommended by Cicero to Apu- 

leius, 479 
Egnatius, Titus, recommended by Cicero to Isauricus, 

503 
Elephants, terrible slaughter of, 359 ; supposed to 

partake, in some degree, of rational faculties, 

359, r. £ ; drawn up in the front of Scipio's army, 

481, r. l 
Elis, a city of Peloponnesus, 516 



Elocution, contrast between that of Rome and Britain, 

485, r. J 
Eloquence not venal at Rome, 337, r. x ; the power 

of, 504, r. { 
Epaminondas, his glorious death, 350 
Eporedia, a town near Vercellse, 586, r. c 
Kphesus, a city in Ionia, 396, r. ' 
Epicureans, their principles ridiculed, 381 ; their 

absurd doctrine of ideas, 521, r. ° 
Epicurus left his school and gardens to the sect of 

philosophers called by his name, 392, r. » 
Epiphanea, a city in Cilicia, 417, r. y 
Epirus contiguous to Greece, 514, r. u 
Epistolary correspondence, the proper subjects for, 383 
Equestrian order, coalition of, with the senate, 47 7,r. c ; 

required an estate equal to about 3000/., 523, r. z 
Etesian winds, 440, 442 
Evander, Caius, 381 
Evocati, troops composed of experienced soldiers, 

403, r. a 
Euripides' death occasioned by excessive joy, 452, r. q 
Euthydemus, 404 
Eutrapelus, 501 



F. 



Fabius, Quintus, 389 

Fabius, Marcus, 424, 425 ; his friendship with Ci- 
cero, 433 ; Cicero's character of, 433 ; his brother 
intends selling an estate at Herculaneum, 433 

Fadius, Titus, letter of consolation to, on his banish- 
ment, 386 ; burned to death by order of Balbus, 
for refusing to enter the lists at the gladiatorial 
games, 594 

Falernian wines, 533, r. ' l 

Farmers of the public revenues, 357, r. ' ; decree in 
their favour by Lentulus, 376, r. x 

Favonius, 398, 436 

Feasts of the Romans, 487, r. v , w , x 

Feridius, Marcus, recommended by Coelius to Cicero, 
398 

Flaccus, Avianus, and his two sons, recommended by 
Cicero to Allienus, 478 

Flaccus, Marcus, 338 

Flavius, Caius, recommended by Cicero to Acilius, 464 

Forum, a place of general resort, 529, r. e 

Forum Voconii, a town in Provence, now called Le 
Luc, 579 

Fregellse, Cicero's letter to the magistrates of, 429 

Friendship, private, ought to give way to more exten- 
sive obligations, 368, r. k 

Fufidius recommended by Cicero to Brutus, 498 

Furfanius, Cicero's letter to, 505 

Fundus, 413,425, 436, 596; Cicero's letters to, 584, 
596 ; Cicero encourages him to seek glory in the 
field rather than claim honours at home, 584 

Fusius, Aulus, recommended by Cicero to Memmius, 
384 

Fusius, Quintus, 337 

Future state, Cicero's thoughts on, 462, r. ' 



G. 

Gabinius, Aulus, 341, r. n , 369, r. q ; character of, 
bv Cicero, 373, r. J ; first opposed and afterwards 
defended by Cicero, 37 3, r. J 

Gades, now Cadiz, 590 

R R 2 



612 



INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS 



Gallius, Quintus, Cicero's letters to, 493, 511 

Gall us, Fabius, Cicero's letters to, 343,' 355, 492, 

534, 535 ; conjecture concerning him, 492, r. w 
Games, public, are instances of wealth, not of merit, 

382 
Gaul, Cisalpine, how divided, 390, r. m ; orders and 

decrees of the senate concerning, 406 
Gellius, Lucius, acts for the interest of the republic, 

579 
Gemellus, Memmius, recommended by Cicero to Sul- 

picius, 514 
Gladiators, when first introduced at Rome, 358, r. d 
Gnatho, 373 

Gorgias, a statue of solid gold erected to his memory, 
. 502, r. x 
Government does not require an absolute perseverance 

in one system of measures, 374 ; best security in the 

affections of the people, 401 
Gracchus, Sempronius, 354, r. b 
Granius, account of him, 495, r. k 
Grecians, carelessness their general characteristic, 445 
Greek farces, 358, r. a 
Groves, consecrated, 550, r. s 



H. 



Hagesaretus recommended by Cicero to Sulpicius 

515 
Hammonius, recommended by Cicero to Sulpicius, 515 
Helico, 532 

Heraclea, a city in Caria, 404, r. h 
Herculaneum, 433, r. i 
Hercules, story of Pleasure and Virtue appearing to 

him, 349, r. c 
Herennius, 467, r. s 

Hesiod, his writings recommended by Cicero, 518 
Hippias, recommended by Cicero to Acilius, 468 
Hippius, recommended by Cicero to the magistrates of 

Fregellae, 429 
Hirrus, 394, 411, 436, 441 ; supported by Pompey, 

397 ; character of, 394, r. y ; affects to act the pa- 
triot, 398 
Hirtius, 484, 541 ; did not go with Caesar into Africa, 

481, r. d ; conducted himself as a consummate 

general, 590 
Hispalis, a city of Spain, 594, r. y 
Hispo recommended by Cicero to Silius, 416 
Hissing, displeasure shown by, 437, r. p 
Homer, a passage misapplied by Cicero, 378, r. l 
Honour, the next, to being applauded by the worthy, 

is to be abused by the worthless, 534, r. u 
Hortensius, 340, r. k , and '» ; his death and character, 

438, r. g 
Hospitality considered as a primary social duty, 452, 

r. s 
Hyberbole, a figure of speech, 415, r. n ; a prevailing 

figure with Cicero, 544, r. s 
Hypocrisy, necessity of, for a man to keep well with 

the world, 431, r. s 
Hypocrites, proper objects of ridicule, 443, r. p 
Hypsseus, 345 



Iamblicus, an Arabian phylarch, 405 
Icouium, a city of Cilicia, 395, r. h 
Illyi'icum, comprehended Austria, Hungary, Sclavonia 
Bosnia, and Dalmatia, 531, r. r 



Imperator, during the times of the republic, explained, 

333, r« b 
Integrity, cannot be given up with a good grace, 368, 

Intemelium, a maritime city in Liguria,452, r. r 
Intercalation, performed by the pontifical college at 

their discretion, 388, r. d 
Intercessor, witticism of Cicero on, 492, r. y 
Interest of money lowered in Cilicia by Cicero, 410, 

r. w 
Interrex, that office explained, 379, r. p 
Issus, a city on the frontiers of Cilicia and Syria, 

412, r. • ; Alexander, having defeated Darius, 

consecrated three altars there, 418, r. z 
Italy, cause of the war, 349, r. a ; government of the 

corporate towns, 358, r. b 



J. 



Juba, account of, and his death, 471, r. s 
Julia, Caesar's daughter, her death, 364, r. d 
Julian law, 437, r. t 
Julius, Lucius, 345 
Junius, 355 



Laberius, account of, 380, r. s 

Labienus goes over to Pompey 's party, 450, 451 

Lselii, 396 

Laelius, and Scipio Africanus, their friendship, 334, r. f 

Laenius, Marcus, recommended by Cicero to Silius, 

411 
Lamia, 408 ; supported by Cicero in his election for 

praetor, 552 
Laodicea, a city of Phrygia, 395, r. s 
Larissa, two cities of that name in Thessaly, 515, r. b 
Laterensis, decreed by the senate a public funeral and 

a statue to his memory, 592, r. J 
Latian Festivals, instituted by Tarquin, 422, r. q 
Latin language to be used by governors of provinces, 

427, r. ° 
Latium, a part of Italy, made free of Rome, 494, r. h 
Laudatores, witnesses to the character of persons who 

were arraigned, 366, r. v 
Law profession held in great esteem, 362, T. v 
Law, knowledge of, not to be acquired merely by 

books, 550 
Legion, number various at different periods, 517, r. p ; 

how styled, 557, r. u 
Lentulus, Lucius, murdered by order of Ptolemy, 

485, r. S 



Lentulus, P., 341, 342, 



344, r. i ; 345, r. 



359, r. b ; Cicero's letters to, 343, 346, 347, 348, 
352, 356, 366 ; moves for the recal of Cicero, 
343, r. b , 344, r. h ; thought the obligation to his 
country superior to every other, 344, r. h ; proposed 
and carried a law in favour of Pompey, 345, r. m ; 
his friends, 352; Pompey's advice to him, 353; 
advised by Cicero to make himself master of Alex- 
andria and Egypt, 353 ; Pompey his friend, 357 ; 
recalled Cicero from banishment, 371 ; flattery of 
Cicero to him, 375 ; gives judgment against the 
farmers of the revenues, 376, r. x ; letter to Cicero, 
586 ; takes Dolabella's transports, 586 ; complains 
of ill treatment from the Rhodians, 586 ; boasts of 
his services, 587 ; letter to the consuls, senate, &c, 
588; gives an account of Dolabella and his fleet, 
588 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



613 



Lepidus delivers Apella as a hostage, 579 ; letter to 
Cicero, 582 ; encamps near Forum Voconii, 582 ; 
his professions of loyalty to the senate, 582 ; a few 
days after joins Antony, 582, r. v ; Plancus joins 
him with his troops, 583 ; his army not to be trusted, 
584; does not punish a sedition in his army, 584; 
letter to the senate and people, 589 ; joins Antony, 
591, r. e , 592 ; his sincerity doubted by Plancus, 
592 ; his infamous conduct, 596 ; his adherents 
declared public enemies by the senate, 598 

Lepta, 423, 445 ; Cicero's letters to, 517, 533 

Letters frequently written by the Romans during their 
meals, 501, r. p 

Leucas, a Grecian island, now St. Maure, 444, r. x 

Liberty, a temple to, erected on the area of Cicero's 
house, 340, r. k 

Libo, 345 

Licinian law, 394, r. t 

Lictors, a sort of beadles who attended the consuls, &c, 
455, r. s 

Ligarius, Cicero's letters to, 497, 504 ; account of him, 
497, r. z ; Cicero endeavours to obtain his pardon, 
504 ; after having obtained a pardon, joins Brutus 
in his conspiracy against Caesar, 504, r. s 

Ligurius, a great favourite of Caesar, his death, 532 

Lilybaeum, a sea-port in Sicily, 466, r. m 

Lions, 500 killed atPompey's hunting matches, 359, r. f 

Lollius, 406 

Lucan, his character of Curio, 379, r. J 

Lucca, a town of Cisalpine Gaul, 368, r. h 

Lucceius, 376, 449 ; account of him, 349, r. z ; wrote 
the history of the Italic and Marian civil wars, 349 ; 
Cicero's letters to him, 349, 528, 529 ; his firm- 
ness of mind, 528 ; letter to Cicero, 529 

Luceria, a city in Italy, 465, r« J 

Lucilius, account of, 495, r. k 

Lucullus, 333, r. d , 344, 348 ; infidelity of his wife, 
391, r.c 

Lupercal, a range of buildings at Rome, 550, r. 8 

Lupus, 345, 346 

Lycia, part of Asia Minor, 586, r. k 

Lysippus, 350, r. h 

Lyso, 445, 466 ; recommended by Cicero to Sulpicius 
514, 515 



M. 



Macula offers Cicero the use of his house, 533 

Msetius, 357 

Megalesian games, 426, r. n 

Manilius, 364 

Manlius, Marcus, 388 

Manlius, Titus, recommended byCicero to Sulpicius, 515 

Manners, superintendant of, 495 

Marcellinus, 344, 346 

Marcellus, Caius, the elder, Cicero's letter to, 400 

Marcellus, Caius, Cicero's letters to, 399, 420, 440 

Marcellus, Marcus, Cicero's letters to, 399, 491, 494, 
500, 529 ; letter to Cicero, 500 ; account of, 399, 
r. n ; warmly opposed by Caesar, 390, r. n ; slow 
and inactive, 412 ; a proof of his virtue, 491 ; dur- 
ing his voluntary exile visited by Brutus, 491, 
r. s ; Cicero endeavours to persuade him to return, 
491, 494, 500: of one of the noblest families in 
Italy, 494, r. f ; obtains a pardon, 498 ; stabbed 
by Magius, 530 ; where buried, 530 ; a monu- 
ment to his memory erected at Athens, at the public 
expense, 530 



Marian civil wars, 349, r .* 
Mario, 446 

Marius, Marcus, 376, r. y, 457, r. n ; cause of the 
civil wars, 349, r. a ; Cicero's letters to, 357, 387, 
470, 487 ; characterised, 357, r. u ; horrid outrages 
of his party, 488, r. f 
Matins, 382 ; Cicero's letter to, 546 ; his character, 
546, r. q ; gardening and poetry his favourite amuse- 
ment, 546, r. i ; letter to Cicero, 547 ; laments 
the death of Caesar, 547 ; reflections cast on him 
after the death of Caesar, 547 ; his friendship for 
Caesar, 548 
Mato, 433 
Matrinius, 442 

Mauritania, in Africa, 593, r. t 
Maximus, Q. Fabius, his resolution^when he lost his 

son, 527, r. y 
Medea, the story of that play, 362, r. y 
Megara, a city near Corinth, 526, r. r 
Memmius, Caius, Cicero's letters to, 381, 384, 391 ; 
account of the family of, 391, r. c ; enters iuto an 
infamous association, and turns informer, 391, r. c ; 
banished, 391, r. c ; his character, 391, r. c ; 
formed to make woman false, 391, r. c 
Menander, Ampius, recommended by Cicero, to Isau- 

ricus, 508 
Menocrates, 375 

Mescinius, 445, 447; Cicero's letter to, 476 ; recom- 
mended by Cicero to Sulpicius, 516, 517 
Messala, M. Val. tried and acquitted, 393 ; condemned 

on a second impeachment, 396 
Messienus, Publius, recommended bv Cicero toCaesiue, 
429 

Metella, 464, r. c 

Metellus, 343, r. b , 344, r. h , 356, r. i, 370, r. v 
Metellus, Q. Caecil. Nepos, attempts to procure the 
recal of Pompey, 334, r. ' ; retires in disgust to 
Pompey, 334, r. » ; censured by the senate, 334, 
r. ' ; Cicero's letter to, 342 ; letter to Cicero, 352 ; 
his character, 371, /'. z ; cause of his exile, 371, r. 
z ; superior to Cicero in acting consistently, 371, r. z 
Metellus, Q. Celer, letter to Cicero, 334 ; complain? 
of the persecution of his relation Metellus, 334 ; 
Cicero's letter to him, 334 ; character of his wife, 
335, r. » 
Metras, 417 

Milo, 348, 370, r. v ; supported by Cicero in his elec- 
tion to the consulate, 385 ; dissipated three con- 
siderable estates in shows, 386, r. '; kills Clodius, 
386, r. w ; banished, 386, r. w ; his estates sold, 
395, r. d ; observations on Cicero's defence of him, 
432, r. l ; suspected of a design against Pompey 's 
life, 432, r. m 
Mind, indications of a low and little, 351, r. °; 
crimes, and not the injustice of others, ought to 
disturb its serenity, 385 
Minerva, festival of, observed in a riotous manner, 433 
Mithridates, a brave but cruel prince, overcome by 

Pompey, 333, r. e 
Mitylene, capital of Lesbos, 471, r. u , 491, r. T 
Molo, 437, r. s 

Money, scarcity of in Cappadocia, 401, r. * 
Mopsuhesta, a city in Cilicia, 411, r. y 
Mucia, married to Pompey, and afterwards divorced, 

335, r. m 
Mucius, 364 

Munatius, Cicero's letter to, 364 
Munda, a city in Granada, 5 1 8, r. * 
Murder; a master murdered in his own house, the 
slaves punished with death, 530, r. p 



614 



INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS 



Mushrooms in great esteem, 495, r. fc , 520 
Mutina, a city of Cisalpine Gaul, 557, r. w 
Mylata, a city in Asia Minor, 404, r. f 



N. 



NjEvius,351 

Narbonne in Provence, 590 

Narona in Liburnia, now called Croatia, 511, 531 

Naso, Otacilius, 466 

Nero, 413 ; Cicero's esteem and affection for him, 413 

Nicaea, a city greatly indebted to Titus Pinnius, 408 

Nigidius, Figulus, Cicero's letter to, 489 ; account of 

him, 489, r. l ; Caesar is inclined to call him from 

exile, 490 ■ 
Nobility amongst tbe Romans, 354, r. z 
Nonianus, Confidius, 45] 
Numa regulates the public registers, 350, r. { 
Numbers, superstitious notions respecting, 446 r. s 
Nysa, protection for the citizens requested by Nero, 

413 



O. 



Obligations, on asking, 385 

Ocella, his amours, 422 

Octavius takes the name of Augustus Caesar, 542, r. u ; 
forms a design against the life of Antony, 555; 
the design favoured by Cicero, 555, r. s ; complains 
of the ambiguous expressions of Cicero, 585 ; joins 
the triumvirate, 592, r. k , 600, r. l ; his conduct 

«, complained of by Plancus, 599 ; advances with seve- 
ral legions, in order to demand theconsulate, 399, r. ' l 

(Enomaus, story of that tragedy, 432 r. ° 

Offilius, his opinion on wills, 387 

Omens observed by the Romans, 361, r. u 

Oppius, 359, 457 ; Cicero's letter to, 549 

Oppius, Lucius, recommended by Cicero to Gallius, 
494 

Optimates, their irresolution, 436, r. o 

Orators of Greece and Rome studied both action and 
diction, 485, r. J 

Oratory, three dialogues on, sent by Cicero to Len- 
tulus, 375 

Orca, Q. Val., Cicero's letters to, 345,532,533; 
account of him, 532, r. e 

Orfius purposed to be made king of Gaul by Caesar, 
361 

Oscian farces, account of, 358, r. a 

Ostia, a town on the mouth of the Tiber, 481, r. c 

Owls sent to Athens, a proverbial expression, 478, r. K 
513 ' ' 



Pacorus, son of Orodes, king of Parthia, encamps at 
Tyba, 405 F 

Partus, Lucius Castrinius, 394 ; recommended by 
Cicero to Brutus, 499 

Pactus, Papirius, Cicero's letters to, 432, 469 482 
484, 486, 487, 494, 501 ; a person of great wit 
and humour, 432, r. ° ; his noble descent, 469 

Palaestra, or public building for various exercises 
535, r. h 

Pansa, 381 ; died of his wounds, 590 

Panthers, to be procured for Ccelius, 394, 397, 398, 
408, 426 

Paphos, a city of Cyprus, 468 

Paragram, a species of pun, 415, r. n 



Parion, a city in Hellespontus, 402 

Parthia, now a part of Persia, S97, r. b ; a son of the 

king of, married to a sister of the king of Armenia, 

403; army of, passes the Euphrates, 404, 412 ; 

commits hostilities, 411 ; progress of the army, 

412 ; invades Syria, 417 ; progress of Cicero against 

them, 417, 418 ; repulsed by Cassius, and driven 

out of Syria, 424, r. c 
Patricians, higher and lower order, 469, r. s 
Party, strongest always the best, 443 
Patiscus, 398, 426 

Patrse, a city of Peloponnesus, 444, r. w 
Patriots, their duty to retire when they can no longer 

serve the state, 356, r. i 
Patriot, Cicero undeserving of that character, 375, r. •>, 

503, r. • 
Patro, Cicero's acquaintance with, 392 ; wishes to be 

reconciled to Memmius, 392 
Paulus, 413, 435, r. h ; Cicero's letters to, 400, 421 
Pausanias, 359, r. e 

Peacocks, great value of at Rome, 485, r. k 
Pearl of the value of 8,000/. dissolved and drunk by 

the son of iEsopus, the actor, 358, r. ? 
Peducaeanus, Curtius, Cicero's letter to, 425 
Peducaeas acquitted, 443 
Pelops, story of the sons of, 503, r. d 
Pescennius, 339 
Pessinus, a city in Phrygia, 433 
Petreius, 451 

Petri num, a town in Campania, 533 
Phaedrus, 392 

Phaleris, a seaport in Greece, 525, r. l 
Phania, 427 
Phanias, 380, 395, 402 ; a person of consummate 

politics, but of infinite curiosity, 380 
Pharnaces makes an excursion into Cappadocia, and 

the Lesser Armenia, 465, r. h 
Philemon, Metrillius, 383 
Philetaerus, 339 
Philippus, 346, r. p 
Philippus, Quintus, Cicero's letters to, 359, 377 ; con- 

jecture concerning him, 359, r. * 
Philo, 392, r. £, 433 ; recommended by Cicero to 

Acilius, 464 
Philoctetes, a story of, 484, r. x 

Philomelum, a city of Phrygia Major, 410, r. u , 494 
Philosophy, one of the noblest blessings of God, 420 
Philotes, of Alabanda, assigned his effects to Cluvius, 

404 
Philotimus buys Miio's estate at an under value, 395 
Philoxenus, Caius Avianus, recommended by Cicero to 

Acilius, 466 
Pilius, 406 
Pindenessum, a city of Cilicia, 412 ; surrenders to 

Cicero, 418 
Pinnius, Titus, his son has a considerable demand on 

the city of Nicaea, 408 
Piraseus, a sea-port near Atheus, now Port-Lion, 526 
Piso, Caius Frugi, married Tullia, daughter of Cicero, 

339, r. e ; his character, 342, r. v 
Piso, Lucius Calphurnius, his character, 341, r. ", 

450, r. f 
Plancius, 341 ; his generous offices to Cicero, 341 , r. ° 
Plancus, Cneius, Cicero's letters to, 472, 475, 55 1, 

554, 580 ; 586, 590, 592, 599 ; account of him, 

472, r. v , 551, r. k ; declared himself on the side 

of the senate, but soon went over to Antony, 551, 

r. k ; advised by Cicero to act without waiting for 

the sanction of the senate, 581 ; purposes to join 

Lepidus, 583 ; his contempt of the army of Antony 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



615 



and Ventidius, 583 ; deceived in Lepidus, 583 ; his 
proceedings against Antony, 592 ; wishes Caesar to 
join him with his army, 592 ; state of his forces, 599 

Plancus, Lucius, Cicero's letter to, 475 ; account of 
him, 475, r. ° 

Planius, Marcus, recommended hy Cicero to Dola- 
bella, 422 

Pliny requested Tacitus to write his life, 351, r. p 

Plotian law, 405, r. * 

Pola, 442 

Pollentia, a city in Piedmont, now called Polenza, 
581, r. i 

Pollex,461 

Pollio, 433 

Pollio, Asinius, letters to Cicero, 590, 593 ; la- 
ments the action near Mutina, 590 ; his friend- 
ship for Antony, 590; wishes to have joined Lepidus, 
590 ; says he will neither desert nor survive the 
republic, 591 ; after this declaration, he, within a 
few months, joined Antony, and survived the 
republic many years, 591, r. d ; his care of his 
troops, 594 

Polypus fish, 483, r. r 

Pompeia, 370, r. u 

Pompeius, Cneius, killed by Caesar's soldiers, 541, r. q 

Pompeius, Quintus, recommended by Cicero to Curius, 
377 

Pompeius, Quintus Rufus, a principal author of the 
disturbances on the death of Clodius, 390, r. s 

Pompeius, Sextus, 541, r. q 

Pompey the Great, Cicero's letter to, 333 ; his suc- 
cess agaiust Mithridates, 333, r. c ; supposed cause 
of his coolness to Cicero, 334, r. e ; his recal at- 
tempted by Metellus Nepos, 334, r. ' ; insists that 
Antonius should be recalled from his government, 
337, r. u ; laws in his favour, 345, r. m ; insulted 
when he spoke in favour of Milo, 348 ; artifice of, 
353, r. T ; theatre, 357, r. v ; killed 500 lions at his 
hunting matches, 359, r. f ; invested with the go- 
vernment of Spain for five years, but chose to con- 
tinue in Italy, 361, r. l ; set forward on his 
expedition into Sardinia and Africa, 368 ; his con- 
versation with the brother of Cicero, 368 ; refuses to 
protect Cicero against Clodius, 370, r. s ; foments 
confusion at Rome, 383, r. x ; made alterations in 
the method of choosing judges, 388, r. e , 393, r. s ; 
seldom spoke his real sentiments, yet had not arti- 
fice enough to conceal them, 390 ; secretly fomented 
the tumults, 391, r. c ; animated with the most 
patriotic sentiments, 393 ; debate on the payment of 
his forces, 397 ; married Cornelia, daughter of 
Scipio, 399, r. l ; questioned respecting Caesar, 407; 
looked on by Cicero as the greatest man in the 
world, 423 ; Cicero's pretended obligations to him, 
432, r. k ; his treachery to Cicero, 432, r. k ; his 
party attempts to divest Caesar of his government in 
Gaul, 433, r. s ; his character by Cicero at different 
periods, 435, r. b ; opposes Caesar's being elected 
consul before he gives up the command of the army, 
436 ; senate and judges declare in his favour, 443 ; 
apprehensive of the power of Caesar, 448 ; receives 
money for the public use, 449 ; money seized for his 
use, 449 ; treated Caesar's design of invading Italy 
with contempt, 451, r. J ; the policy of his leav- 
ing Rome, and removing the war out of Italy, 456, 
r. J ; ill-advised declaration when he left Rome, 
459, r. z ; after his defeat at Pharsalia, is deserted 
by Cicero, 461, r. ,n ; defects in his army, 470; 
would have overcome Caesar, had his army been 
commanded by a general who knew how to conquer, 



470, r. ° ; runs away after the battle of Pharsalia 
with a single attendant, 470 ; would not follow the 
advice of Cicero, 470; resolves to take shelter in 
Egypt, but is stabbed by order of Ptolemy, 470, r. 
1 ; his body burned with the planks of a fishing- 
boat, and his ashes brought to Rome, 470 r. 1 

Pompey (the Younger) draws together a very consider- 
able army in Spain, 517 ; weakness of his intellects, 
522 

Pomptinus, the villa of Metrilius Philemon, 383 

Pontiffs, their function, 589, r. w 

Pontinius distinguished himself in the affair of 
Catiline, 430, r. d 

Praecilius, his son recommended by Cicero to Caesar, 523 

Praeco, similar to the cryer in a court of justice, 5 1 7, 
r. i 

Praetor, not chosen until two years after having served 
the office of sedile, 584, r. z ; office, 425, r. h ; 
could not absent themselves for more than ten days, 
551, r. * ; exhibited games in honour of Apollo, 
553, r. y 

Praetorian cohort, 417, r. x ; provinces, why so called, 
407, r. s 

Prawns, in great repute, 520, r. f 

Prescius leaves a legacy to Cicero, 444 

Protogenes, 358 

Ptolemy, 345, 397, r. a ; father of Cleopatra, 344, r. 
> ; money paid to settle him on his throne, 344, r. 
» ; driven out of Egypt, 344, r. ' ; prophecy found in 
the Sibylline books against his being assisted by the 
Romans, 345, rJ ; thepart taken by Cicero to replace 
him in his kingdom, 345 ; debates on restoring, 346 ; 
Cicero advises Lentulus to place Ptolemy on his 
throne, 353 ; his death, 397 ; orders Pompey to be 
stabbed, 470, r. i 

Publilia married to Cicero, and soon after parted, 
472, r. r, 

Publius, his death, 361, r. p 

Punning, remarks on, 415, r. p 

Pupius, 416 

Puteoli, a maritime city in Campania, now Pozzuoli, 
431, r. 1 

Puteolanus, Cluvius, 403 

Pyramus, a river in Cilicia, 434 

Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, a great soldier, 432, r. p 



Q. 



Qclestor, was receiver-general of the provincial taxes, 

337, r. v ; 593 
Quindecimvirs, presiding magistrates at the games, and 

keepers of the Sibylline oracles, 396, r. ° 



R. 



Racilivs, Lucius, 352 
Ragazonius, 352, r. q 
Raphael, his paintings in the little Farnese retouched 

by Maratti, 371, r. i 
Registers, public regulated by Numa, 350, r, l 
Rex, Cicero's letter to, 524 
Rhegium, a maritime city in Calabria, 535 
Rhodes, an island in the Mediterranean, 437, r, 9 , 471, 

r. u ; ill behaviour of the Rhodians to Lentulus, 

586, 588 
Rhodo, 428 
Romans, their manner of settling affairs of state, 347, 

r. v ; public entertainments, 357 ; magnificence of 



i 



07 



INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS 



their roads, 358, r. c ; progress to ruin, 362, r. a ; 
civil war not occasioned by the enmity of Caesar 
and Pompey, but by their former friendship, 372, r, 
c ; divided into curiae, whose votes were considered 
as the voice of the people, 375, r. u ; military 
functions conferred by the people, 376, r. w ; 
affairs in confusion, occasioned by Pompey and 
Caesar, 383, r. k , 384; elections carried by bribery 
and mobs, 386, r. T ; law to prevent commotions 
at elections, 388, r. &; increase of bribery, 391, 
r. c ; 393 ; severe laws against false accusers, 405, 
r. i ; soldiers could not be compelled to serve more 



than ten years, 407, 



how divided by Romu- 



lus, 428, r. y ; united under Pompey, 435 ; when 
first supplied with water, 435, r. s j tendency to a 
civil war, 4 ±4 ; immense wealth acquired by the 
governors of the provinces, 449, r. d ; convention 
of senators, 454, r. a ; reclined on couches at their 
meals, 501, r. l; state of patriotism, 511 ; divided 
into thirty-five tribes, 515, «*. a ; critical state of 
the republic, 520 ; governors obliged to visit the 
principal cities in their provinces, 530, r. 1 ; citizens 
cast into three general divisions, 539, r. c ; centuries 
explained, 539, r. c ; senators could not be long 
absent without leave, 541, r. ° ; capitation-tax, 
595, r. e 

Ross, Mr. his sentiments of Pompey, 353, r. v 

Rufus, Lucius Mescinius, Cicero's letters to, 448, 458; 
his character, 448, r. ° ; on the expenses of Cicero's 
government in Cilicia, 448, r. p 

Rufus, Sempronius, convicted of false accusations, 
405 

Rufus, Servius Sulpicius, 399, r. n 

Rufus, Sextilius, Cicero's letter to, 468 

Rufus, C. Titius, Cicero's letter to, 428 

Rullus, 422, r. 4 

Rupa, 382 

Rupilius, Publius, 416 



Sabata fens, account, of, 581 

Sabinia, a city in Italy, 544, r. » 

Sabinus, 544 

Salamis, a city in Cyprus, 404, r. J 

Sallustius, Caninius, Cicero's letter to, 437 

Samarobriva, a city in Belgic Gaul, 379, 381 

Samos, an island on the coast of Ionia, 409 

Sardinia, island, 480, r. x , 534, r. r 

Sardinian laugh, 535, r. z 

Sardis, a city in Lydia, 414 

Saturninus, his law that the senate should ratify what- 
ever the people ordained, 371, r. z ; prosecution 
against, 443 

Scaevola, Quintus, 376, 388 ; compiled a body of laws 
in eighteen volumes, 388, r. f 

Scaptius besieges the senate-house in Cyprus, 410, r. w 

Scantinian law explained, 442, r. f 

Scaurus, M. JEinilius, accused of a traitorous corres- 
pondence with Mithridates, 371, r. a ; his speech 
before the assembly, 371, r. a 

Scipio Africanus and Laelius, their friendship, 334, 
r. f ; his death, 484, r. c 

Scipio, Metellus, 399, r. l 

Segulius execrated hy Cicero, 591 

Scjanum, the true reading of, 357, r. w 

Seius, 381 

Selicius, 348, 484 

Sclius, 415 

Senate, forms of proceedings, 346, r. a and r ; power 



of nomination of candidates for the magistracies, 

372, r. e ; singular custom of lengthening debates, 

436, r. i 
Seneca, eulogy on Cato, 485, r. k 
Serranus, 370, r. v 

Servilius (the father), account of, 489, r. k 
Servilius Isauricus, 343, r. c , 345, 400, r. r , 406 ; 

Cicero's letters to, 489, 493, 503, 505, 507, 508, 
510; why called Isauricus, 489, r. k ; his death 

in extreme old age, 543, r. z 
Servilius, Marcus, convicted of extortion, 406 
Servilius, Strabo, 413 
Servius, his opinion on wills, 387 ; tried and convicted, 

396 
Sestius, 449 

Sestius, Publius, Cicero's letter to, 337 
Sextius, P. account of, 367, r. z ; Cicero's letter to, 

384 ; professed friendship of Cicero for, 384 
Shakspeare quoted, 365, 391 
Sibyls, 344; r. i 
Sibvlline oracles regarded by the senate, 344, 346, 

348, 353 
Sica, 339 

Sicinius, 381, r. e 
Sicyon, a city of Peloponnesus, 514 
Sida, a sea-port of Pamphylia, 402 
Silanus returns to Lepidus, 582 
Silius, Publius, 387 ; Cicero's letters to, 408, 411, 

413, 416, 429 ; governor of Bithynia and Pontus 

in Asia, 408 
Sittius, 394, 397, 437 
Sophists, besides the arts and sciences, pretended to a 

knowledge of the meanest crafts, 502, r. x 
Sosis, Lucius Manlius, recommeuded by Cicero to 

Acilius, 463 
Soul, Cicero's opinion of the, inquired into, 477, r. 
Spain, government of, renewed to Pompey for five 

years, 411, r. z ; how divided by the Romans, 

460, r. s 
Spectres, or images, 521, 522 
Stabise, a maritime town in Campania, 357, r. w 
Stage entertainments at Rome, 358 ; the Oscian and 

Greek farces, 358, r. a 
Statues purchased for Cicero not approved of by him, 

355 
Strabo, Lucius Titius, 501 
Suberinus, Caius, recommended by Cicero to Dola- 

bella, 522 
Suicide, Cicero's motives against, 474 
Sulla, his death, 520, 521 

Superstitious ceremonies, credul ity in, at Rome, 360 , r. k 
Sulpicius, Publius, Cicero's letter to, 511 ; had a 

thanksgiving for his successes in Illyricum, 51 1, r. a 
Sulpicius, Servius, Cicero's letters to, 454, 457, 488, 

498,513, 514, 515, 516, 525, 527 j account of 

him, 454, r. ? ; aware that the recal of Caesar would 

draw on a civil war, 454, r. z ; his skill in the laws, 

488, r. h ; accepted of the government of Achaia, 



498 
525 



consolation to Cicero on the death of Tullia, 



Swimming, a polite exercise at Rome, 365, r. * 
Sylla, 333, r. c , 356, r. 1 ; law made by him, 376, 

?•. w ; horrid outrages of his party, 488, r. f j Cicero 

intends to purchase his house, 496 
Syndics, a kind of solicitors of the treasury, 404, r. s 
Synnada, a city of Phyrgia, 409 
Syria, a great commotion there, 405 ; cannot be entered 

without traversing Mount Amanus, 417; report of 

a war in, 427 
Syrus, Publius, account of, 538, r. ° 



TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 



617 



T. 



Tarcondimotus, a prince of Cilicia, 404 

Tarentum, softness and luxury of the inhabitants, 

381, r. z 
Tarquin, games instituted by him, 405, r. r ; instituted 
the Latian festivals, 422, r. <* 

Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, 403, r. z 

Terentia, Cicero's letters to, 338, 339, 458, 460, 461, 
462, 463, 464, 466; and Tullia, Cicero's letters to, 
444, 450 ; dragged from the temple of Vesta, to the 
office of Valerius, 339 ; divorced from Cicero, 
472, r. 7 

Tertulla, wife to Crassus, 360, r. n 

Thanksgivings, public, on what accounts voted, 4 1 8, r. b 

Themistocles, account of, 350, r. e 

Thermus, Cicero's letters to, 402, 403, 414, 427, 428 

Thessalonica, a city in Macedonia, 340 

Thraso^414 

Thyreum, a city of Peloponnesus, 445 

Tigellius, account of him, 534, r. v and r , 535 

Thnaeus, his character as an historian, 349, r. b 

Timoleon, account of, 351, r. k 

Tiro, Cicero's letters to, 444, 445, 446, 447, 451, 
453, 524, 530, 531, 532, 542, 555; a favourite 
slave of Cicero's, account of him, 444, r. u ; Quin- 
tus Cicero's letters to, 452, 453, 558 ; Cicero's (the 
Younger), letters to, 559, 560 ; Cicero gives him 
his freedom, 524 

Titius, Titus, Cicero's letter to, 462 

Toranius, Cicero's letters to, 472, 474 

Torquatus, Aulus, Cicero's letters to, 511, 513, 518, 
520 ; account of him, 51 1 , r. h ; Cicero consoles 
him on his absence from Rome, 512 ; allowed to 
return through the intercession of Dolabella, 520, rJ 

Trabea, the poet, 469 

Tralles, a city in Asia Minor, 395 

Trebatius, 361, 362, 454; Cicero's letters to, 362, 
363, 364, 365, 379, 381, 382, 383, 384, 387, 
388, 493, 550 ; Horace addressed one of his satires 
to him, 362, r. x ; advised the Roman satirist to 
swim across the Tiber, 365, r. ' ; looked on by 
Caesar as a wonderful lawyer, 364 ; turns Epicurean, 
381 ; his arrogance, 381 

Trebianus, Cicero's letter to, 492 

Trebonius, Aulus, 347 ; Cicero's letters to, 467, 496, 
544, 563 ; account of him, 467, r. i and s , 544, 
r. h ; letter to Cicero, 545 ; invites Cicero's son to 
Asia, 545 

Treviri, a warlike people bordering on Germany, 
382, r. c 

Treviri monitales, inspectors of the public coin, 382, r. d 

Tribunes, their rank, 362, r. w 

Triumph could not be claimed without having destroyed 
5000 of the enemy, 397, r. c , 436, rJ ; persons 
demanding, remained without the city until it was 
either granted or rejected, 409, r. ° 

Triumvirate, Octavius treats with Lepidus and Antony, 
and soon after joins them, 522,?-. k ; formed, 600, r. 1 

Trojan Horse, a tragedy, 365, r. m 

Trypho recommended by Cicero to Munatius, 364 

Tuccius, Marcus, 405 

Tullia married to Caius Piso Frugi, 339, r. e ; marries 
Crassipes, 355, r. c ; marries Dolabella, 438, 
439,441; arrives at Brundisium, 463; neglected 



by Dolabella, 463, r. z : divorce purposed, 464; 
her death, 525, r. ° ; conjecture whether she had 
been divorced from Dolabella, 525, r. ,„ 526, r. <• ; 
Sulpicius's consolation to Cicero on her death, 525 



V. 



Vacerra, his death, 364 

Valeria, Paula, divorced, and a treaty of marriage with 

Decimus Brutus, 422 
Valerius, Lucius, Cicero's letter to, 377 
Valerius, the lawyer, 380 

Vardsei, a people contiguous to Dalmatia, 531, r. u 
Varius, accuses Scaurus of bribery, 371 , r. a 
Varro, M. Terentius, Cicero's letters to, 473, 478, 

479, 480, 481, 531 ; his character, 473, r. d , 

497 ; recommended by Cicero to Brutus, 496, r. x 

497 
Vatinius, 352, r. * ; why Cicero became his advocate* 

366, 367 ; character of, 366, r. v , 531, r. r , 536, 

r. g ; by the artful examination of him by Cicero? 

he exposed the iniquity of his tribunate, 367 ; 

bribed, 367, r. c ; defended by Cicero, 373 ; hi3 

letters to Cicero, 531, 538 ; wishes to have a public 

thanksgiving, 531 
Vegetables, luxurious method of dressing, 343 
Veii, a city in Italy, 486 
Velia, a sea port of Lucania, 550, r. d 
Ventidius joins Antony, 581 
Venusia, a town in Naples, 466 
Vercellas, in the duchy of Milan, 582 
Vestorius, 406 

Viarian law threatened by Curio, 422 
Vibullius, 368 

Vicentia, a maritime city of the Venetians, 582 
Vinicianus, 396 
Virgil supposed to allude to Curio in vendidit hie 

auro patriam, 378, r. •> 
Ulubrean frogs, 383 
Ulysses, story of, referred to, 378 
Vocontii, a people of Narbonensian Gaul, 592 
Volaterrae, a city in Tuscany, recommended to the 

protection of Orca, 532 
Volcatius, 345, 346, 347, 501 ; his noble spirit, 

499, r. f 
Volumnia, 463 
Volumnius, Cicero's letters to, 414, 484 ; account of 

him, 414, r. m 
Volusius, 448 
Voluptuaries, warm advocates for moral beauty, 522 



W. 



Wit, the loss of the true old Roman lamented, 494, rJ 



Xenomenes, 445 



X. 



z. 



Zoilus, Lucius, recommended by Cicero to Apulcius, 
481 



THE 



LETTERS 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS, 



IN SIXTEEN BOOKS. 



TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH, WITH NOTES, 



BY WILLIAM HEBERDEN, M.D. F.R.S. 



TO THE 

HONORABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND SHUTE BARRINGTON, 

lord bishop of durham, &c. &c. 

My Lord, 

In availing myself of your Lordship's permission to inscribe to you the following Letters, I shall not offend 
your modesty by any attempt to proclaim to the world what the world everywhere acknowledges — your 
Lordship's eminent virtues. I shall be content if I can hide some part of my own deficiency in the splendor 
of so great and good a name. 

Your Lordship is well acquainted with the originals from which the following translation is drawn. But 
while all familiar letters must be liable to obscurity in proportion to our ignorance of the persons and circum- 
stances, often of little notoriety, to which they allude ; much more is it to be expected, that in a correspondence 
entertained at so remote a period, where there exist no remains of the letters on one side, and not unfrequently 
no record of the particulars which form their subject, many difficulties should present themselves, independent 
of those which are inseparable from customs and language long since gone into disuse. It is therefore no idle 
task to render documents, at once so curious and instructive, more extensively useful, by making them more 
generally understood. For whether we consider the matter or the manner of these letters, their author, or 
the time when they were written, they constitute in every point of view one of the most precious remains of 
antiquity. Cicero, as your Lordship knows, was not only the greatest orator of Rome ; he was at the same 
time one of her wisest counsellors, and one of her best citizens. To good natural parts he had added incredible 
industry, and had made himself master of all the literature and philosophy of the Greeks, then considered as 
the only source, and, exclusively of revelation, still the brightest source, of good taste and right judgment. But 
while the learning of the Greek sophist was often suffered to waste itself in fruitless speculation or self-conceit, 
Cicero's, on the contrary, appears to have been constantly directed to the purposes of useful life, adding strength 
and grace to the manly powers of his mind. It regulated his judgment, and animated his exertions in the 
forum and in the senate, in the various and important offices which he executed with singular diligence in the 
republic, and likewise in the discharge of those gentler duties of courtesy and friendship, to which he seems 
never to have been inattentive. For so occupied was his whole life, that it may well excite our wonder how 
he found time to write, or to read, even a portion of those works which he composed and studied. His conduct 
in the height of his power, during his consulship, is universally known, as well from contemporary histories as 
from his own orations, which yet remain an illustrious monument of his prudence, of his diligence, of his 
eloquence. His administration of a provincial government is not less distinguished, and is collected chiefly from 
the evidence of these letters. It appears to have been every way judicious and upright, and worthy of his high 
character. For in a situation where other governors, removed from the danger of immediate observation, and 
unrestrained by the sanctions of a pure religion, had too generally given a loose to rapine, extortion, and violence, 
and had sacrificed honour, conscience, duty, every ornament and every virtue, at the shrine of ambition and 
avarice, Cicero stands almost a single instance of unshaken justice, patriotism, and moral excellence. 

But it would be tedious and impertinent to your Lordship to attempt to enumerate all the particulars that 
made up the life of this extraordinary man. Our business is with his Letters. And it is difficult to conceive 
any memorials more worthy of regard than the genuine letters of such a person, addressed to a most intimate 
friend, to whom he opened his bosom upon all occasions without reserve, who, as he says himself, was "his 
associate in public affairs, his confidant in all private ones, and admitted to all his conversation and thoughts"." 
They present an undisguised account of his own sentiments and feelings under a great variety of circumstances, 
with his opinions upon almost all the great events and great men of his time. How highly they were valued 

a Qui et in publica re socius, et in privatis omnibus eonscius, et omnium serruonum et consiliorum particeps. 
—Ad Att. i. 18. 



622 DEDICATION. 



by his countrymen, we learn from the testimony of Cornelius Nepos, who mentions * the sixteen hooks of his 
letters to Atticus, from the time of his consulship to his death ;" and adds, that " whoever should read them 
would little need any other history of those times, everything being so clearly described respecting the zeal 
of parties, the vices of the leading men, and the changes of the republic, that nothing remains nnrevealed. 
And his wisdom," says he, " may well be thought to have something of divine inspiration ; for Cicero not only 
foretold what took place during his own life, but also what we now experience he announced like a prophet b ." 
To Englishmen they derive an additional interest, from breathing everywhere a rational love of liberty, and dread 
of tyranny, called forth by the peculiar crisis in which the republic was placed, when it was about to sink for ever 
under the yoke of despotism. To Christians they afford occasion to cherish with more fervent gratitude those 
consolations and hopes of revelation, that " anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast ,'' from want of which 
we see the wisest of the heathen world become a prey to temporal calamities, and overwhelmed with despair. 

Besides the contents of these letters, the style of their composition is itself deservedly an object of admiration; 
a style free from all pedantry and affectation, from all levity and impertinence, perfectly easy and familiar, yet 
everywhere consistent with dignity and good manners ; or in the words of Cicero himself, when speaking of 
Atticus, "the language is chaste, interspersed with polite wit, and distinguished by marks of affection* 1 ." But 
these very excellences, while they enhance the value of the original letters, add in no small degree to the 
difficulty of a just translation. It has been my endeavour, in the first place, to give the true sense of th e 
author ; then to give it as little altered from the original as the different genius of the languages would permit ; 
to preserve as much as possible of the Roman air, without destroying that ease which gives to epistolary 
correspondence its best grace ; not attempting to modernise terms of civility, or to disguise old customs under 
new habits, but wishing rather to familiarise the reader with ancient Rome. For I considered that these letters 
ought to appear, not as if Cicero had written in this age and country, but as if English had been the language 
of Italy in his time, so that the sentiments and manners might still be Roman, the medium only changed 
through which they are expressed. To the letters I have added notes, which I have studied to make as few, 
as short, and as clear as I could, consistently with the object of rendering more easily intelligible, not only to 
the English reader, but to the scholar, the frequent allusions, the hints, and broken sentences which occur. 
And though they have not been drawn up without considerable pains in perusing and weighing the opinions of 
different commentators, yet I have generally thought it best to give simply my own judgment, without 
embarrassing the reader with my reasons. 

I know not if any apology be required for having given the names of people with their Latin terminations # 
For what can be more absurd than an attempt to translate a mere personal designation ? I have not scrupled, 
therefore, to write Pompeius, Antonius, &c. And it may reasonably be expected that the public taste, which 
is daily improving, will before long adopt this alteration from the present practice. If I have not always 
followed the same rule in regard to the names of places, it is because countries belonging equally to all times seem 
not improperly to partake of the same changes which obtain in the appellations of other common objects. "While, 
therefore, I have preserved the names of persons unchanged, I trust I shall not be chargeable with inconsistency 
in adopting the English terms of Rome, Italy, and other places familiarly known in modern language. 

But I have done. I have perhaps already trespassed upon your patience longer than I ought, were it not 
that under the cover of your Lordship's name I considered myself in some measure as addressing the public. 
It only remains that I thank your Lordship for affording me this public opportunity of acknowledging my deep 
sense of the great and undeviating kindness with which you have honoured me from a very early period of my 
life, and which derived originally, among many other blessings, from my dear and respected father, your 
Lordship has permitted to grow up with my growth into familiarity and friendship. I have the honour to be, 
with great gratitude, esteem, and affection, 

My Lord, your Lordship's most obedient and faithful servant, 
Datchet, October, 1825. W, Heberden. 

b Sexdecim volumina epistolarum, ab consulatu ejus Cicero ea solum, quae vivo se acciderunt, futura prsedixit ; 

usque ad extremum tempus, ad Atticum scriptarum ; quas sed etiam, quae nunc usu veniunt, cecinit ut vates. — Corn, 

qui legat, non multum desideret historiam contextam illo- Nep. in Vit. Attici, 16. 

rum temporum. Sic enim omnia de studiis prineipum, c Epistle to the Hebrews, vi. 19. 

vitiisducum, ac mutationibus reipublica;, perscripta sunt, d Pure loquuntur, cum humanitatis sparsa* sale, turn 

ut nihil in his non appareat. Et facile existimari possit insignes amoris notis.— Ad Att. i. 13. 
prudentiam quodammodo esse divinationem ; non enim 



THE 



LETTERS 



MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



BOOK I. 



LETTER I a . 



[Being the fifth in Grcevius's edition.) 
You, who know me so well, may easily conceive 
what distress I have felt, and what a severe loss I 
have sustained, both in my public and domestic 
I concerns, by the death of my relation b Lucius. For 
he possessed all the engaging qualities which can 
arise from kindness and gentleness of manners. 
I And I doubt not that you partake in this affliction, 
\ both from your regard to me, and because you 
i have yourself lost in him a most accomplished con- 
nexion and friend, who was attached to you as well 
by his own inclination as by my frequent mention 
of you. As to what you say about your sister, she 
shall be my witness how much pains I have taken 
I to reconcile my brother Quintus to her c . For, as 



a It is obvious that the best arrangement of any series 
of letters must be that of their dates. I have therefore 
not scrupled to adopt this order in regard to the first 
eleven letters of this book, which are generally acknow- 
ledged to have been very early misplaced. At the same 
time, to avoid any inconvenience that might arise from it, 
I have, here and elsewhere, as often as the same liberty 
has been taken, subjoined the number of each letter as it 
stands in Graevius's edition. This first, in the order of 
time, was written in the 685th year of Rome, correspond- 
ing to the 68th year before Christ, when Cicero was thirty- 
nine years old. 

b Lucius Cicero was cousin-german to Marcus ; the term 
frater, like the Greek a8e\<}>6s, being subject to consider- 
able latitude of signification. See book ii. letter 7, note r . 

c Quintus Cicero, the younger brother of Marcus, had 
married Pomponia, Atticus' sister. 

1 ' — 



I thought him unreasonably offended, I wrote to 
him in such a manner as might soothe a brother, 
and admonish one who was my junior, and reprove 
one who was in the wrong. And by the letters 
which I have since frequently received from him, I 
trust that all is again as it ought to be, and as we 
wish. With regard to my writing, you accuse me 
without reason : for Pomponia has never acquainted 
me with any opportunity of sending a letter ; nei- 
ther has it happened to me to know of anybody 
that was going to Epirus, nor had I even heard that 
you were yet at Athens. As soon as I came to 
Rome after your departure, I despatched the busi- 
ness of Acutilius, which you had intrusted to me, 
but it turned out that there was no need of exertion ; 
and being persuaded of the sufficiency of your own 
judgment, I chose that Peduceus, rather than I, 
should give you an opinion by letter. For after 
having several days heard what Acutilius had to 
say (with whose manner of prosing I presume you 
are acquainted), I should hardly have thought 
much of writing to you upon the subject of his 
complaints, when I had not scrupled (which was 
no pleasant task) to listen to them. But while you 
accuse me, remember that I have received but one 
letter from you ; though you have had so much 
more leisure for writing, and so many more oppor- 
tunities of sending your letters. When you tell 
me that if anybody d were offended with you, it 
was my business to appease him ; mind what you 

d This alludes to some offence taken by Lucceius, of 
which more appears in letters 6 and 7 of this book. 



624 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



say : I have not neglected that also. But he is 
strangely irritated. I have not, however, omitted 
anything that was to be said on your part. But 
how far it was to be urged, I thought it best to be 
determined by your wishes ; which, if you will only 
let me know, you shall find that I have not chosen 
to be more forward than you would be yourself, 
nor shall I be more remiss than you may desire. 
Tadius has informed me respecting his affair, that 
you had written as if there was now no occasion to 
be uneasy, because the inheritance was secured by 
prescription 6 . I was surprised you should not have 
known, that in a legal guardianship, under which 
the girl is said to be placed, no prescription can be 
established. I am glad you are pleased with your 
purchase f in Epirus. I should wish, as you men- 
tion, that, as far as you can without inconvenience, 
you would attend to the commission 1 gave you£ ; 
and in such a manner as you may judge suitable to 
my Tusculan villa. For, after all my troubles and 
fatigues, it is there I find repose, where I am now 
daily expecting my brother. Terentia h is affected 
with severe pains in the joints ; she has a great 
regard for you, and your sister, and mother, and 
wishes your best health, as does my darling Tullia 1 . 
Take care of yourself, and continue to love me, 
and believe me to love you as a brother. 



LETTER II. 

(GrcBV. vi.) 
I will hereafter give you no occasion of charg- 
ing me with neglect of writing. Do you only take 
care that, in your abundant leisure, you are even 
with me. Rabirius's house at Naples, which you 
had already measured and completed in your mind, 
has been purchased by M. Fonteius for 130,000 
sestertii (,£1083)^ I wished you to be acquainted 

e The term of undisputed possession, which conferred a 
prescriptive title among Roman citizens, was by the XII. 
Tables fixed at two years for landed property, and one 
year for personal property. 

f Atticus had purchased an estate near Buthrotum in 
Epirus. 

s This commission appears by the subsequent letters to 
have been directed to the purchase of statues. 

h Terentia was Cicero's wife. 

» Tullia was Cicero's daughter. 

J In this and other parts of this translation I have re- 
tained the Latin terons of sestertii and sestertia, because 
different interpreters might estimate them differently ; at 
the same time, for the convenience of the English reader, 
I have subjoined what I suppose to be the amount in 
pounds sterling. The expression U.S. (((1))) XXX is 
generally agreed to mean 130,000, in which case the first 
characters (signifying 100,000) are to be understood of 
sestertii, while the tens imply 30 sestertia, each contain- 
ing 1000 sestertii. And these different characters are 
usually BO applied. Thus U.S. ((1)) ((])) CCCC, and 
U.S. XXCD, which we find in the 3d and 4th letters of 
this book, are equally expressive of 20,400, the former 
being sestertii ; the decimal part of the latter, sestertia. 
The value of Roman money is deduced from the actual 
value of the denarius, which is to be met with in all col- 
lections, and is worth about cightpenee English. Hence 
it follows that the sestertius (two asses and a half, or a 
quarter of the denarius) is equivalent to twopence, and a 
thousand sestertii to HI. 6,v. !!</. 

In order to reduce the sestertii to English pounds, it is 
only necessary to divide by 120. The characters expressive 
of their number are usually (1) 1000, ((1)) 10,000, (((!))) 



with this, in case it should any way affect your 
plans. My brother Quintus seems to be disposed 
towards Pomponia, as we could wish, and is 
now with her at his estate near Arpinum, where he 
has with him D. Turranius, a man of excellent 
acquirements. My father died the 24th of Novem- 
ber 14 . This is the sum of what I had to say to 
you. If you should be able to meet with any 
ornaments of the gymnasiac kind 1 , which would 
suit that place which you know, I should be glad 
if you would secure them for me. I am so charmed 
with my Tusculan villa that I feel then only satis- 
fied with myself when I get there. Let me know 
all that you do, and all that you intend to do. 



LETTER III. 

(Grav. vii.) 

All is well with your mother" 1 , for whom I en- 
tertain a great regard. I have engaged to pay L. 
Cincius n 20,400 sestertii (.€170) on the 13th of 
February. I should be glad if you would take care 
to let me have the things you have purchased and 
provided for me as soon as possible. And I wish 

100,000, each additional pair of marks increasing the num- 
ber tenfold. 

The same letters H.S. likewise are used to denote sester- 
tia, to which the figures X, &c. being added, seem to signify 
not only "decern," &c, but more commonly " decies," 
&c. the adverb being 100 times the value of the correspond- 
ing adjective. 

The following table exhibits at one view the denomi- 
nations of the sestertia, and the corresponding value in 
English money. 

£ s. d. 
One thousand sestertii . 8 6 

H.S. X (10) Dena sestertia . 83 6 

H.S. L (50) Quinquaginta sestertia . . 416 13 4 

H.S. C (100) Centum sestertia . . 833 6 8 

H.S. D (500) Quinquies sestertium . . 4,166 13 4 

DC, &c. Sexies (600), Septies (700),Octies 

(800), Novies (900). 
H.S. X (1000) Decies sestertium . . 8,333 6 8 

XX, &c. Vicies (2000), Tricies (3000), 

Quadragies (4000). 
H.S. L (5000) Quinquagies sestertium . 41,666 13 4 

LC, &c. Sexagies (6000), Septuagies (7000), 

Octogies (8000), Nonagies (9000). 
H.S. C (10,000) Centies sestertium . 83,333 6 8 

H.S. 1) (50,000) Quingenties sestertium . 41(i.<i(i<; 13 4 
H.S. (1) (100,000) Millies sestertium . 833,333 6 

k This, which appears abrupt or unfeeling, loses that 
character when we consider that it must probably have 
been said either in reply to some inquiry of Atticus, or 
specifying the date of an event previously known, or at 
least expected. 

1 TufJ-vaaicoBT], that is, such statues and other marbles 
as were erected in the gymnasia or public schools in 
Greece, and would be suitable to Cicero's favourite retreat 
near Tusculum, where ho had built rooms and galleries in 
imitation of the BChools and porticos of Athens, and which 
he likewise called by their Attie names of Academia and 
Gymnasium, and designed for the same purposes of philo- 
sophical inquiry. 

>" That this is spoken of Atticus's mother, not of 
Cicero's, appears from the frequent mention he makes of 
the former; while his silence respecting his own mother 
affords reason to believe she may have died early. Atti- 
cus's mother lived to be ninety years old.— Corn. Nep. in 
Vit. Attici, 17. 

n L. Cincius appears to have been the agent employed in 
purchasing marbles for Cicero. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



625 



you would consider, as you promised, how you can 
complete my library. All hope of the pleasure to 
which I look forward when I shall have come into 
retirement, is placed in you. 



LETTER IV. 
{Grasv. viii.) 
Everything is as we could wish at your house. 
Your mother and sister are held in the greatest 
esteem by me and my brother Quintus. I have had 
some conversation with Acutilius. He denies that 
anything had been written to him by his agent, 
and is surprised that any dispute should have 
arisen. The security which he demanded is no 
longer required from you. I have understood that 
Tadius is very thankful, and highly pleased with 
what you mention of having compromised the 
affair of his family. That friend of mine , who is 
indeed a good man, and very friendly to me, is 
seriously angry with you. When I know how much 
you regard this, I may be able to judge what pains 
I should take in it. I have provided for L. Cincius 
20,400 sestertii (£170) for the Megaric statues. 
The Mercuries of your Pentelic marble with bronze 
heads, about which you wrote to me, already delight 
me exceedingly ; and I should be glad if you would 
send them, and the other statues, and whatever 
else you may judge suitable to the place, and to my 
studies, and to your taste, as many, and as soon as 
possible ; especially what you think proper for my 
gymnasium and portico ; for I am transported with 
such a fondness for these sort of things, that while 
I request you to assist me, I must expect others to 
blame me. If Lentulus's ship is not ready, let the 
things be embarked in any other you please. My 
darling TulliolaP is anxious for your present, and 
calls upon me as a surety ; but it is safer for me to 
swear off than to pay. 



LETTER V. 

(Grcev. ix.) 

I hear from you too seldom, though you can 
much easier find people going to Rome than I can 
to Athens ; and you may be more sure of my being 
at Rome than I can of your being at Athens. This 
letter is therefore the shorter, owing to my uncer- 
tainty ; for, being doubtful where you might be, I 
was unwilling that this our familiar conversation 
should fall into strange hands. 

I am anxiously expecting the Megaric statues 
and Mercuries about which you wrote to me. 
Whatever of the same kind you may have, which 
you think fit for my Academy, do not hesitate to 
send it, and trust to my purse. These sort of 
things are my delight. I particularly want such as 
are most suitable to my gymnasium. Lentulus pro- 
mises the use of his ships. I request your diligent 
attention to these matters.'" Chilius asks you (and 
I too at his desire) for an account of the national 
customs of the Eumolpidse -. 

° Lucceius. 

P Such diminutives expressive of "endearment are not 
uncommon in other languages, especially in Italian. Of 
all Latin authors, Catullus has made the most frequent use 
of them, and often with singular beauty. 

1 The Eumolpidse were a family of Thracian origin, conse- 



LETTER VI. 

(Grcev. x.) 

While I was in my Tusculanum (this is in 
return for that of yours — " While I was in the 
Ceramicus r "); however, while I was there, a ser- 
vant sent by your sister from Rome gave me the 
letter which had been brought from you, and said 
that he was to set out the same afternoon on his 
return. Hence it is that I determined to write 
something in answer to your letter, and am com- 
pelled by the shortness of the time to write but a 
few lines. In the first place, I will engage to 
appease, or even fully to reconcile our friend s ; 
which although I did before in some measure, of 
my own accord, yet I will now set about it with 
moire earnestness, and will urge him more strongly, 
since I perceive by your letter how great a stress 
you lay upon it. But I would have you under- 
stand that he is very deeply offended. Still, as I 
see no serious cause for it, I have great confidence 
that he will be moved by a sense of what is right, 
and by my authority. 

I should be glad to have my statues and Her- 
meracles * embarked as soon as you have an oppor- 
tunity, and anything else you may find proper for 
the place you know ; especially what you think 
suitable to my palaestra and gymnasium. For I am 
sitting there while I write, so that the place itself 
reminds me. I commission you besides to procure 
some reliefs, which may be introduced into the 
ceiling of the ante-room ; and two figured puteals". 
Take care that you do not engage your library to 
anybody, however eager a lover of such things you 
may meet with, for I reserve all my gatherings for 

crated to the service of the Eleusinian mysteries at Athens, 
rod t^j/ TeAe-rV avro?s KaTaaT^a/xeuov Ev/j.6\irov 
fiappdpov Kol Qpaicbs ovtos. [Lucian, Demonax, 34.] 
What may be the exact meaning conveyed by the general 
term iraTpia, it is not easy to say. It may, however, be 
observed, contrary to the interpretation of some commen- 
tators, that considering the secrecy always observed in 
regard to these mysteries, and that Cicero was himself one 
of the initiated, it can hardly be supposed that he would 
concur in any request to Atticus to reveal them. 

r Ceramicus was the name of a district in the suburbs of 
Athens, which among other buildings contained the Aca- 
demy, whose maxims were adopted by Cicero. In this 
and the other letters I have adopted the Latin expressions 
Tusculanum, Pompeianum, &c, signifying his house near 
Tusculum and Pompeii. 

s Lucceius. See letter 7 of this book. 

* It is not obvious to conceive how the two figures of 
Mercury and Hercules, or Minerva, indicated by the terms 
Hermeracles and Hermathena, could be combined in one 
statue. May it have been a stone case surmounted with a 
head of Mercury, and containing an image of Hercules or 
Minerva ? Such are described by Plato in his 'S.vjjl-k6(tiov, 
where Alcibiades compares Socrates to " those figures of 
Silenus in the sculptors' shops which open in the middle, 
and exhibit images of the gods," tots aeihr^voLS tovtois 
ev reus zpfxoyAvcpeiois Kadr}/J.4vois — oi Si'x«5e Sioi- 
X^eWes (pcdvovrai epdoQeu ayaA/xaTa exovTes dew. — 
Ed. Ficin. p. 1202. 

« Putealia sifiillata. These are usually supposed to have 
been the tops of wells, resembling some marbles still found 
among the ruins of ancient Italy. But it does not seem 
very probable that wells should be made a subject of orna- 
ment, and the real design of these marbles is not clearly 
made out. Perhaps it should be written plutealia, as it is 
in some editions, signifying " sculptured cases," to hold 
manuscripts or other library apparatus. 
S S 



G2Q 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



the purpose of providing that resource for my old 
age. 

Respecting my brother, I trust that things are 
as I have always wished, and have studied to make 
them. There are many reasons to believe it, and 
not the least is, that your sister is pregnant. 

As to what regards my comitia v , I both remem- 
ber that I excused you, and have long since declared 
this to our common friends who are expecting you. 
I shall not only not summon you, but shall forbid 
you. For I know that it is of much greater 
importance to you, that you should do what is to 
be done at this time, than it is to me that you 
should be present at the comitia. Therefore I would 
have you make up your mind, as if it were on my 
business that you were sent into that country. 
And you will find me towards you, and hear of me, 
in case of any success, as if it were gained, not only 
in your presence, but by your means. Tulliola 
appoints you a day : she calls upon your surety w . 



LETTER VII. 

{Graev. xi.) 

I acted first of my own accord, and have since 
been much excited by your two letters written to 
the same purpose. In addition to which, Sallus- 
tius x has been constantly exhorting me to do my 
utmost with Lucceius towards restoring your ancient 
friendship. But after all I could do, I have not 
only not been able to recover that good-will which 
he used to bear you, but not even to elicit the 
cause of his altered disposition. Although he speaks 
of that arbitration of his, and the things which 
before you left us I understood had given him 
offence, yet there is something that has sunk deeper 
in his mind, which neither your letters nor my 
assurance can so easily erase, as you can remove 
it in person, not only by conversation, but by your 
own familiar countenance ; if only you think it 
worth while, which you certainly will if you take 
my advice, and act consistently with your natural 
kindness. You must not be surprised, if I before 
signified to you by letter that I hoped to find him 
tractable, and now appear to distrust. But it is 
incredible how determined his mind seems to be, 
and fixed in this angry mood. But this will either 
be set right when you arrive, or will make him 
very uneasy, whichever is in fault. 

As to what you say in your letter, that you sup- 
pose I am already elected, you must know that 
nothing at Rome is so vexatious as the iniquitous 
proceedings against the candidates ; nor is it known 
when the comitia will take place. But you will 
hear all about this from Philadelphus. I should 
be glad if you would send as soon as possible what 
you have got for my academy. Not only the 
actual enjoyment, but the very thought of that 
place delights me wonderfully. Remember not to 



▼ The comitia here alluded to must have been held for 
the election of praetors, for which office Cicero was at this 
time B candidate. 

w These law terms are evidently introduced by Cicero 
in playful reference to his daughter's expectation of a 
present, which Atticus had promised to send her. Some 
would read, "she does not call upon your surety." The 
difference is of little moment. See letter 4 of this book. 

x This Sallustius was a friend of Cicero's, not the histo- 
rian of the same name. 



give up your books to anybody ; but keep them , as 
you say, for me. I entertain the strongest affec- 
tion for them, as I do now disgust for everything 
else ; for it is not to be believed in how short a 
time how much worse you will find things than 
you left them. 



LETTER VIII. 

(Grcev. iii.) 

Know that your grandmother is dead from want 
of you^, and from fear lest the states z of Latium 
should not be steady in their duty, and should fail 
to bring the victims to Mount Albanus. I imagine 
L. Saufeius a will send to console you upon this 
event. We are expecting you here in January, 
either from common report, or from what you may 
have written to others ; for to me you have written 
nothing about it. The statues which you have 
procured for me are landed at Caieta. I have not 
seen them ; for it has not been in my power to 
leave Rome. I have sent a person to pay the 
freight. I am much obliged to you for having 
managed this so well, and so reasonably. 

As to what you have repeatedly said about 
appeasing our friend, I have done and tried every- 
thing ; but his mind is wonderfully estranged on 
account of certain suspicions, which, though I ima- 
gine you have heard, yet, when you arrive, you 
shall know from me. Sallustius, who is here, I 
have not been able to restore to the place he held 
in his affection. I mention this to you, because 
he used to accuse me on your account ; but he has 
found by his own case that he is very inexorable, 
and that my attention to you has not been deficient. 
I have engaged my dear Tullia in marriage to C. 
Piso, son of Lucius Frugi. 



LETTER IX. 

(GrcBV. iv.) 
You raise in us perpetual expectations of your 
arrival. Lately, when I supposed you to be com- 
ing, we were suddenly put off till July. Now, 
however, I imagine, as far as you can do it with 
convenience, you will really come at the time you 
mention. You will thus be at my brother Quin- 
tus's comitia b ; we shall meet again after a long 
interval ; and you will be able to conclude the busi- 
ness of Acutilius c . For this purpose Peduceus 

7 By this expression Cicero gently reproaches his friend 
on account of his long absence. 

z It must be supposed that this relates to some scruples 
and apprehensions which this old lady had expressed, and 
which may probably have been a subject of jest between 
the two friends. The ceremonies alluded to are those of 
the Latin festival, which used to be celebrated every year 
in memory of the union of the different neighbouring states 
of Latium. By the word Lathuc 1 understand uoites, or 
cii'itatcs, not vudicrcs ; for it does not appear that women 
had any part to perform there. 

a This L. Saufeius appears to have been a philosopher of 
the Epicurean sect, who placed their chief happiness in 
their ease. It is upon this depends the smartness of 
Cicero's observation, writing to one of the same persua- 
sion. 

1> Quintus_Ciccro was a candidate for the office of aedile 
at the ensuing comitia. 

o It is uncertain what this business was. It is spoken of 
pi the first letter of this book. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



627 



has also requested me to write to you ; for we are 
of opinion that it is desirable you should at length 
bring this affair to a conclusion. My intercession 
is, and has long been, prepared. 

I have concluded the business of C. Macer with 
great and distinguished applause. And while I 
have done him every justice, have yet derived 
much greater advantage from the approbation of 
the people, upon his condemnation, than I could 
have done from any return on his part, had he been 
acquitted. 

As to what you write to me about the Herma- 
thena, it is exceedingly grateful to me, and an 
ornament proper for my academy ; Mercury being 
the common emblem of all schools, and Minerva 
the particular one of that school. I should be glad 
therefore, as you say, to have you contribute as 
many other things as possible to the embellishment 
of that place. The statues you before sent me I 
have not yet seen d ; they are at Formianum, where 
I am now intending to go. I shall transport all 
those things to Tusculanum. Should I ever begin 
to overflow, I \vill decorate Caieta e . Keep your 
books, and do not despair of my being able to make 
them mine ; which if I accomplish, I shall exceed 
Crassus in riches, and look down with contempt 
upon the houses and lands of all the world. 



LETTER X. 

(Grcev. i.) 

Of my canvas, in which I know you take a lively 
interest, this is the state, as far as can yet be fore- 
seen. P. Galba alone is beginning to solicit votes ; 
he is refused without ceremony or disguise. Peo- 
ple think that this premature canvassing is not 
unfavourable to my cause, for he very generally 
meets with denials under pretence of persons being 
under obligation to me. So I hope I may derive 
some advantage from it, as by this means the opi- 
nion spreads of my having many supporters. I 
had intended to begin canvassing in the Campus 
Martius, at the comitia for electing tribunes, the 
17th of July, at the very time when I understood 
from Cincius that your servant was to set out with 
this letter. My competitors, which seem to be 
certain, are Galba, and Antonius, and Q. Cornifi- 
cius. I imagine you will either smile or grieve at 
this. To enrage you quite, there are some who 
even think of Csesonius. T do not apprehend 
Aquillius will offer ; for he denies it, and has sworn 
that he is ill, and has objected his judicial supre- 
macy. Catilina will be a certain competitor, if it 
be determined that the sun does not shine at mid- 
day f . I imagine you do not expect me to take 
notice of Aufidius and Palicanus. 

Of those who are in nomination for this next 

d It may be thought singular that Cicero, who had ex- 
pressed such a strong passion for these marbles, should 
not have found time to visit them ; but it is probably to 
be accounted for by his being at this time one of the prae- 
tors, whose duties obliged him to reside in the city. 

e Caieta is probably the same as Formianum, under a 
different name : Caieta being a sea-port, and Formiae the 
name of a town at a short distance from it inland. 

i That is, if it be determined to shut the eyes against 
his iniquitous proceedings, which are as clear as the meri- 
dian sun. 



year, Caesar s is thought secure. The contest is 
supposed to lie between Thermus and Silanus, who 
are so poor in friends and in reputation, that it 
seems to me not impossible to bring in Curius ; 
but this opinion is peculiar to myself, It appears 
most conducive to my cause that Thermus should 
be returned with Caesar ; for of those who are not 
the present candidates, there is nobody who seems 
likely to be a more powerful opponent, if he should 
withdraw into my year ; because he has the charge 
of the Flaminian road, which will easily be com- 
pleted by that time. I should therefore gladly see 
him now Caesar's colleague h . 

Such is the opinion hitherto formed of the can- 
didates. I shall take care to use the greatest dili- 
gence in executing every part of a candidate's duty ; 
and possibly, since the Cisalpine Gaul 1 has consi- 
derable weight in voting, when the forum at Rome 
is a little cooled from its judicial causes, I may run 
down in September, as a lieutenant to Piso J, so as 
to be back in January. When I shall clearly have 
discovered the disposition of the nobles, I will 
write to you. The rest I hope will go smoothly, 
with only the present city competitors. Take care 
to engage for me, since you are nearer to them, 
that troop of our friend Pompeius. Tell him I 
shall not be angry with him, if he does not come 
to my election. So much for this business. 

But there is one subject on which I am very 
anxious to have your forgiveness. Your uncle 
Csecilius, having been defrauded of a considerable 
sum of money by P. Varius, commenced an action 
against his brother Caninius Satrius for the pro- 
perty, which he said he had received from Varius 
by a fraudulent transfer. Other creditors were 
parties in the same action ; amongst whom was 
Lucullus, and P. Scipio, and L. Pontius, who they 
supposed would be appointed administrators, if the 
goods were sold. But it is absurd now to speak of 
an administrator. Caecilius requested me to sup- 
port him against Satrius. Now, there is scarcely 
a day that this Satrius does not come to my house. 
His first attention is to L. Domitius ; his next to 
me. He was of great service to me, and my bro- 
ther Quintus, in our canvasses. I am very truly 
embarrassed, both on account of my intimacy with 
Satrius, and with Domitius, on whom, above all, 
my present success depends. I explained this to 
Caecilius, and at the same time assured him, that 
if the dispute lay between them two alone, I would 
comply with his wishes ; but that now, in the gene- 
ral cause of all the creditors (people especially of 
the first authority, who, without Csecilius's appoint- 
ing anybody in his own name, could easily main- 
tain their common cause) it was reasonable that he 
should consider the obligations and circumstances 
under which I lie. He seemed to receive this more 
harshly than I could wish, or than gentlemen use 
to do ; and afterwards he entirely brake off the 
intercourse betw een us, which had been a few days 

S This Caesar was Lucius Julius Caesar, a distant relation 
of '* The mighty Julius." 

h There is evidently some error in the text. I have 
given what appears to be the sense intended. 

» Cisalpine Gaul was the ancient name for Lombardy : 
those who had passed through the fir6t magistracies in the 
towns south of the Po, had a right of voting in the assem- 
blies of the Roman people. 

J These lieutenancies appear to have been fictitious 
offices, under the plea of which the senators of Rome used 
to visit the provinces with a certain degree of authority. 
SS 2 



628 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



established. I have to beg that you will not take 
this ill of me, but will consider that I was prevented 
by common humanity from coming forward in the 
time of his distress against the high reputation of 
a friend who had exerted all his efforts and kind 
offices to serve me. Or if you are disposed to 
pass a harsh sentence upon me, you will suppose 
it was my ambitious views that stood in the way. 
But I think, even if it were so, that I should still 
deserve to be forgiven, considering that this occa- 
sion is no trifling one. For you see in what pro- 
gress we are, and how important it is not only to 
retain, but to acquire the good-will of all people. 
I hope I have proved my case ; I certainly wish it. 
Your Hermathena delights me exceedingly ; and 
it is so well placed, that the whole gymnasium 
derives a lustre from it, as from the sun k . You 
have my best affections. 



LETTER XI. 

(Grcev. ii.) 

In the consulate 1 of L. Julius Csesar and C. 
Marcius Figulus, know that I have a son born, and 
that Terentia is going on well. No letter from you 
after so long a time ? I before sent you a parti- 
cular account of the state of my interests. I am at 
present thinking to undertake the defence of my 
competitor_Catilina m . The judges are such as we 
could wish", and with the full consent of the ac- 
cuser n . I hope, if he should be acquitted, to have 
him the more friendly in the business of my can- 
vass. Should it fall out otherwise, we must bear 
it with patience. I have great need of your speedy 
arrival : for it is the general opinion that some 
noble persons of your acquaintance will oppose 
my success. I foresee that you can be of the 
greatest use in conciliating their good will towards 
me ; therefore do not fail to be at Rome in January, 
as you have appointed. 



[Between the eleventh and twelfth letters of this collection 
must have intervened a period of more than three years, 
during which the correspondence is interrupted, owing, 
as it should seem, to Atticus's having come to Rome to 
assist Cicero in his election, and remaining there with 
him through the period of his consulship.'] 

k The original is a little obscure. I have expressed what 
I conceived to be the true meaning. 

' The Romans designated their years by the names of 
the consuls. 

m This is the same Catilina whose conspiracy Cicero 
afterwards defeated with so much applause in his consu- 
late. Catilina was at this time charged with peculation 
in Africa. There is no doubt but Cicero's object was to 
promote his own election by the co-operation of Catilina's 
connexions, which were numerous, and among the first 
families of Rome, lie however changed his mind, and 
did not defend him. 

n His accuser wasClodius, who appears to have accepted 
a bribe to betray his own cause. 

None of Cicero's ancestors having been ennobled by 
holding the higher offices of the state, it is on this account 
that he was sometimes taunted with the appellation of a 
" new man." The same cause excited the jealousy of the 
nobles towards him, whom they looked upon as an ambi- 
tious and popular upstart, 



LETTER XII. 

That Trojan woman? is a slow business ; nor 
did Cornelius afterwards return to Terentia i. I 
think we must have recourse to Considius, Anius, 
Selicius 1- , for the nearest relations cannot extract 
money from Csecilius at less than twelve per cent. s 
But, to return to my first subject : I have known 
nothing more shameless, more cunning, more 
sluggish, than her 1 . " I send one of my freedmen " 
— " I have given directions to Titus " — mere pre- 
texts and delays ! But it may be that fortune 
orders things better than we ourselves ; for Pom- 
peius's forerunners tell me that he will openly 
propose that Antonius should be superseded ; and 
at the same time the prsetor will bring it before the 
people. It is an affair of that kind, that I cannot 
honourably defend the man with the good esteem 
either of the respectable part of society, or of the 
populace, nor do I choose to do it, which is most 
of all ; for a circumstance has occurred, which I 
send to you entire, that you may see the nature of 
it. I have a freed-man, a good-for-nothing fellow, 
Hilarus I mean, the accomptant, and a client of 
yours. Of him Valerius the intrepreter 11 relates 
the following account, and Chilius writes me word 
that he has heard the same ; that this fellow is 
with Antonius, and that Antonius, in making his 
exactions, gives out that a part is demanded for 
me, and that this freed-man is sent by me to look 
after the common plunder. I am not a little dis- 
turbed, though I can hardly believe it ; but there 
has certainly been some conversation to this effect. 
Pray investigate the whole : inquire, learn, and, 
if you can by any means, remove the scoundrel 
from those parts v . Valerius mentioned Cnseus 

P Teucris ilia. The person thus designated is univer- 
sally agreed to be that C. Antonius who had been colleague 
with Cicero in his consulate, and whom Cicero had gained 
by voluntarily resigning to him the valuable province of 
Macedonia, to which Cicero would otherwise have been 
appointed upon going out of office. Various conjectures 
have been formed about the term here applied to him, 
which, as it probably relates to some private understanding 
between Cicero and Atticus, must ever remain obscure. 
It seems to be a contemptuous expression, used in imi- 
tation of the Greek feminines, which were sometimes 
applied to men, and which Pope has thus rendered in his 
Homer — 

" O, women of Achaia, men no more." 
So afterwards [letter 14 of this book] we find Cicero using 
the term " filiola Curionis," meaning " the effeminate son 
of Curio." 

q Terentia, we know, was Cicero's wife. Cornelius was 
quarstor to Antonius, and by what follows seems to have 
been employed by him to deceive Terentia with false pro- 
mises of repaying some money perhaps advanced by Cicero. 
Is this the reason of the term It-ntton negotiumt 

r These may probably be the names of usurers. 

s Centesimis. The Latin indicates one per cent. ; but it 
is to be remembered that the Romans calculated their 
interest not by the year, but by the month. The calends 
and ides, that is, the beginning and middle of each month, 
being the usual times of payment. 

t I have thought it right still to preserve the original 
expression in the feminine, as it relates to Antonius under 
the character of the Trojan woman. 

" The Romans thought it a point of dignity in their pub- 
lic capacity always to speak iu their own language, and to 
hear foreigners through an interpreter. 

v Macedonia, near to which Atticus resided. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



629 



Plancius as his authority for this report. I ear- 
nestly beg you will see what all this is. It appears 
that Pompeius is very friendly to me ; his divorce 
of Mucia w is much approved. I imagine you have 
heard that P. Clodius, the son of Appius, was 
detected in women's clothes at the house of Caius 
Caesar, while the religious ceremonies for the peo- 
ple x were going on, and that he was saved, and 
conducted out by the hands of a servant-girl ; that 
it is an affair of great scandal, which I know you 
will be sorry for. I have nothing more to tell you. 
And in truth I have been a good deal distressed, 
for Sositheus, my reader, a pleasing youth, is lately 
dead, which has disturbed me more than the death 
of a slave ought to have done. I hope you will 
often write to me : if you have nothing to say, say 
what comes uppermost. The first of January, in 
the consulship of M. Messala and M. Piso?. 



LETTER XIII. 

I have now received three letters from you, one 
through M. Cornelius, which I imagine you de- 
livered to him at the Tres Tabernse 2 ; another, 
which your Canusian a host brought me ; the third, 
which as you mention you gave from the vessel 
after the anchor was weighed : which were all let- 
ters of a master : they speak in a chaste style, are 
interspersed with pleasant humour, and distinguish- 
ed by marks of affection. These letters might well 
excite me to write in return ; but I have been the 
more dilatory from want of a trusty messenger ; 
for how few are there who can carry a letter of any 
weight, without lightening it by a perusal b ! Besides 
this I do not always know when any one goes to 
Epirus ; and I conceive that, having slain your 
victims before Amalthaea c , you would immediately 
go to lay siege to Sicyon. Nor am I by any means 
certain when you go to Antonius, or how long you 
mean to stay in Epirus : so that I do not care to 
trust letters of a confidential kind either to Greeks' 1 

w Mucia had been married to Pompeius, and was now- 
divorced, as it is said, on suspicion of adultery with Ca?sar. 

x This alludes to the secret ceremonies held annually in 
honour of the Bona Dea, or Good Goddess, for the safety of 
the Roman people. 

y The consuls entered upon their office on the kalends, 
or first day, of January ; and by their names the years were 
afterwards distinguished. 

* Tres Tabernae, or the Three Taverns, a place near 
Rome, on the Appian road, familiar to Christians by 
being mentioned in St. Paul's journey to Rome, Acts 
xxviii. 15. 

a Canusium was a town on the road to Brundisium, by 
which Atticus passed to his estate at Buthrotum in 
Epirus. 

b As the English language permitted, I have thought it 
right to preserve this humble jest, which may find a place 
in a familiar letter. 

c Amalthea. This is the name given to the goat fabu- 
lously supposed to have nourished Jupiter, and whose horn 
was afterwards made the emblem of plenty. From the 
latter circumstance, the word Amaltheum was adopted by 
Cicero to designate the library of Atticus in Epirus, rich in 
variety of learning. Here Cicero uses the original word, 
as if the sacred goat was the divinity of the place ; and he 
means to say, that after enjoying himself amidst his books, 
he conceives Atticus would go to Sicyon, perhaps to claim 
some money due to him as renter of the tributes. See let- 
ter 19 of this book. 

d After Greece became subject to the Romans, it was 



or to Epirots. Since your departure some things 
have occurred deserving of notice, but not to be 
exposed to the risk of my letter's being either lost, 
or opened, or intercepted. 

You must know then in the first place, that I 
was not the first called upon for my opinion e , 
and that the peace-maker of the Allobroges f was 
put before me, which was done amidst the mur- 
murs of the senate, but without any reluctance on 
my part ; for I am thus freed from all obligation 
towards a perverse man£ ; and at liberty to main- 
tain my own dignity in the state in spite of his 
wishes. And this second place of delivering my 
sentiments, carries with it nearly the same authority 
as the first, while it leaves the judgment unfettered 
by any obligation towards the consul. The third 
is Catullus ; the fourth (if you wish to know that 
too) Hortensius. But the consul himself is of a 
narrow and poor spirit, an ill-natured snarler of 
that sort which even without raillery is laughed 
at ; ridiculous rather from his features, than his 
wit h : concurring in nothing with the state ; se- 
parated from all the principal people ; from whom 
one can expect no good to the state, because he 
wishes it no good ; and from whom one need fear 
no harm, because he dares not commit it. His 
colleague 1 is very attentive to me, and a follower 
and supporter of the best parties. There is be- 
sides some little disagreement between them : but 
I fear lest that which is diseased in the state may 
spread further ; for I suppose you have heard that, 
while the sacred ceremonies for the people were 
performing at Caesar's house, a man came there in 
female dress ; and when the vestal virgins had re- 
newed the sacrifice, mention was made of it in the 
senate by Q. Cornificius. He was the first, that 
you may not suspect any of us. Afterwards the 
affair was, by a decree of the senate, referred to 
the pontiffs, and it was determined by them to be 
sacrilege. The consuls then, by another decree of 
the senate, published an indictment, and Caesar 
sent his wife a bill of divorce. In this cause Piso, 
induced by his friendship with P. Clodius, uses his 

divided into two provinces of Achaia and Macedonia, 
of which the former included the whole of Greece 
proper. It appears from Cicero's Familiar Letters, 
[letters 4, 5, &c.,] that Ser. Sulpicius, as governor of 
Achaia, had jurisdiction over the Peloponnesus, Attica, 
Bceotia, Thessaly, and Epirus : therefore Plinius calls it 
" Achaiam, illam veram et meram Grasciam." And Pau- 
sanias says, Kakovvi 5e ovy£ 'EAAaSos, aAA 5 'Axaias 
7)ye/j.6va oi 'Pw/xaiot, SioVi exeipw<TC«>To "EWrjvas Si' 
'A^aicui', ToVe rov 'EWtjvikgv TrpoeaTrjKSruv. [Lib. 
vii.] And this extended sense is to be given to the word 
'Axaia, when it occurs in the New Testament, as in Acts 
xviii. 12 ; and again, ch. xix. 21 ; also, 1 Cor. xvi. 15. 

e It seems to have been the custom for the consul, 
upon first entering into office, to call upon the consular 
senators for their opinion in what order he thought proper ; 
which order was observed during the remainder of the 
year. 

f By this expression is to be understood Caius Piso, who 
had presided over the province of Gallia Narbonensis, in 
which the Allobroges dwelt. 

S Marcus Piso, a relation of the former, and one of the 
new consuls. 

h In the original there is a play upon the words facie and 
facetiis, which, as it is impossible to preserve in the trans- 
lation, so neither would it be desirable, unless for the 
purpose of exhibiting a juster character of Cicero's manner 
towards his intimate friend. 

' M. Messala. 



630 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



endeavours that this indictment, which he himself 
prefers, and prefers by order of the senate, and 
for the sake of religion, may be set aside. Mes- 
sala is hitherto very strenuous for measures of 
severity. Good men are kept away by the en- 
treaties of Clodius ; ruffians are provided ; and I 
myself, who had been a very Lycurgus at the be- 
ginning, am daily softened down. Cato is instant 
and urgent. In short, I am afraid lest these mat- 
ters, neglected by the good, and supported by the 
wicked, may be the occasion of serious evils to the 
republic. But that friend of yours (you know 
who I meanJ ; about whom you wrote to me, that 
when he no longer dared to find fault, he began to 
commend) makes a show of great regard for me ; 
salutes me, loves me, openly praises me ; secretly, 
yet so that it is sufficiently manifest, he envies me : 
there is nothing kind in him, nothing candid, no- 
thing disinterested in his politics, nothing illus- 
trious, nothing brave, nothing liberal. But these 
things I will detail to you more particularly some 
other time ; for they are not yet sufficiently known 
to me ; nor do I care to intrust to this fellow, of 
whom I know nothing, a letter about things of such 
importance. The prsetors have not yet had their 
provinces allotted them ; the business is in the 
same state in which you left it k . The geographi- 
cal position of Misenum and Puteoli, which you 
require, shall have a place in my speech. I had 
observed that the date of the third of December 
was wrong. The parts of my speeches which you 
commend, I assure you pleased me very much ; 
though I did not before venture to say so. But now 
that they have your approbation, they appear to me 
more truly Attic 1 . I have added something to the 
speech against Metellus m . The book shall be sent 
to you, since your kind regard for me has given 
you a taste for oratorical writings. What news 
shall I send you ? what ? The consul Messala has 
bought Autronius's house for 437 sestertia n 
(£ 33,6 00.) What is that to me ? you will say ; only 
tbat in comparison with this purchase, I must be 
judged to have laid out my money prudently ; and 
people have begun to understand that, in buying, 
it is very allowable to use the assistance of one's 
friends, in order to attain some respectability . 
That Trojan woman is a slow business ; but, how- 
ever, there is some hope. Do you bring these mat- 

j Cn. Pompeius is probably the person here intended. 

k Q. Cicero had been one of the praetors, which made 

this circumstance of some interest both to Cicero and to 

Atticus, the one his brother, the other his brother-in-law. 

*i The Attic manner of writing and speaking was always 

considered as the most perfect model. 

m The tribune Metellus had been active in opposing 
Cicero, charging him with having put citizens to death 
without a trial. 

11 If the text be correct, the amount in English money 
would be about 36'42J. But there is great reason to suspect 
some error, such as may easily be made in transcribing 
figures ; for Cicero mentions this purchase as a justification 
of his own conduct in borrowing money for a house in 
Rome, for which it appears by his Familiar Letters that 
he gave 3500 sestertia, or near 30,0002. [Ep. Fain. v. 6.] It 
seems probable, therefore, that instead of CCCCXXXV1I 
it ought to be written either (1) (1) (1) (1) XXXV11, which 
would be equivalent to 33,(J4AL, or XXX VII (tricies septies, 
3/00) equivalent to 30,833/. 

° This passage is illustrated by reference to the 3<)th 
chapter of the first book of the Offices, where Cicero speaks 
of the respect attached to a person's residence — adhibenda 
co'mnoditatis dignitatisque diligentia. 



ters to a conclusion. You may expect to hear 
from me again with more freedom. January 27, 
in the consulship of M. Messala and M. Piso. 



LETTER XIV. 

I am afraid you will be tired of hearing how 
much I am engaged ; but in truth I have been so 
busy, that I have scarcely had time for this short 
letter, and that has been snatched from important 
occupations. I mentioned in a former letter p 
Pompeius's first harangue ; that it was not accept- 
able to the poor, that it appeared spiritless to the 
wicked, unsatisfactory to the rich, undignified to 
the good : in short, it was a cold performance. 
Afterwards, at the instigation of the consul Piso, 
that inconsiderate tribune Fufius brought Pompeius 
forth to the assembly of the people. The business 
was conducted in the Flaminian Circus i, and the 
same day, in that very place, was a fair held. He 
inquired of him whether he approved of the judges 
being chosen by the praetor in the affair of Clo- 
dius's sacrilege ; which judges the same praetor 
was to use as his council ; as it had already been 
appointed by the senate. Upon which Pompeius 
spoke quite aristocratically ; replying, that the 
authority of the senate on all occasions had now, 
and always, the greatest weight with him ; and this 
he professed at great length. Afterwards the consul 
Messala inquired of Pompeius in the senate, what 
he thought of the offence to religion, what of the 
indictment announced. He spoke in such a man- 
ner in the senate as to commend generally all the 
acts of that body ; and said to me, as he sat by 
me, that he thought his answer contained a suffi- 
cient reply to the questions proposed to him. 
Crassus, perceiving that it gained him applause to 
have it supposed that he was pleased with my con- 
sulate, rose up, and spoke of my consulate in the 
handsomest manner, saying, that he owed it to me 
that he was a senator, that he enjoyed his freedom 
and his life ; that as often as he saw his wife, his 
home, his country, so often he saw blessings de- 
rived from me : in short, all those topics of fire 
and sword, which I used variously to represent in 
my speeches (you, who are my Aristarchus and 
critic, know those repositories of ornaments), he 
interwove with great effect. I was sittiug next 
Pompeius, and observed him to be moved ; whe- 
ther it was that Crassus should have gained the ap- 
plause which he had missed, or that my deeds 
should be so esteemed as to obtain the ready con- 
currence of the senate to the praises bestowed 
upon them, especially by one who owed it me the 
less, because, in all my letters in commendation of 
Pompeius, he had been lightly spoken of. This 
day much attached me to Crassus : and whatever 
was given covertly, I willingly acknowledged from 
him openly. But as for myself, ye gods ! how I 
exulted before my new hearer, Pompeius ! If periods 
and inflections, if deductions and arguments, ever 
availed me, it was then : in short, there were ge- 
neral cheers : for the subje ct was, of the dignity 

P This letter is lost. 

q Pompeius having applied for the honour of a triumph, 
was obliged to conform to the custom of residing beyond 
the wails of Home till that was over. It was, therefore, in 
compliment to him that the meetings of tlie people and of 
the senate were at this time held out of the city. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



631 



of the senate, the unanimity of the knights, the 
consent of all Italy, the expiring remains of the 
conspiracy, of plenty and peace. You know my 
powers on such materials : they were so exerted, 
that I am the more brief, because I imagine that 
they must have been heard even as far as you. 

But this is the state of affairs at Rome. The 
senate is our Areopagus r : nothing can be more 
firm, nothing more upright, nothing more strenu- 
ous ; for when the day was come for bringing for- 
ward the impeachment, according to the decree of 
the senate, there were collected youths scarcely 
bearded, the whole herd of Catiline, with the ef- 
feminate son of Curio at their head, demanding of 
the people to set aside the impeachment. Even 
Piso, the consul, who had proposed it, was now 
exerting himself against it. The Clodian mob had 
got possession of the passages ; and voting papers 
were furnished so, that none might be given signi- 
fying assent. Here then Cato rushes to the ros- 
tra s , and utters a most severe reproach on the 
consul Piso, if that can be called reproach, which 
is full of dignity, full of authority, full of whole- 
some counsel. Our friend Horteiisius follows to 
the same purpose, and many other good men ; but 
the assistance of Favonius was particularly dis- 
tinguished. In this concourse of principal per- 
sons the assembly is dismissed ; the senate is 
convoked ; when it was decreed, in a full house, 
(while Piso was contending against it, and Clodius 
was entreating at the feet of each individual,) that 
the consuls should use their authority with the 
people to admit the impeachment. Fifteen voted 
with Curio against passing the decree ; on the other 
side were at least four hundred. The thing was 
concluded. Fufius, the tribune, then gave way. 
Clodius made some pitiful addresses, in which he 
treated Hortensius, C. Piso, and the consul Mes- 
sala, with great disrespect ; me he only charged 
with having found out' everything. The senate 
determined that nothing should be done respecting 
the provinces of the praetors, the embassies, and 
other business, till the impeachment should have 
been brought forward. Here you have the history 
of the Roman affairs. But yet I must tell you 
also what I had not hoped for : the consul Mes- 
sala is excellent, brave, firm, diligent, and extols, 
loves, and imitates me : the other is by one fault 
the less faulty ; in that he is indolent, sleepy, in- 
expert, incapable of business ; but in will so ill- 
disposed, that he began to hate Pompeius ever 
after that meeting in which he praised the senate. 
He has therefore wonderfully alienated from him 
all the best people ; nor is he induced to act thus 
more by friendship towards Clodius, than by a love 
of ruinous and factious measures. But he has 
nobody among the magistrates like him. With 
the exception of Fufius, we enjoy a good set of 
tribunes ; and Cornutus is another Cato. But 

r 'Apetos irdyos. This is the well-known council at 
Athens, before which St. Paul afterwards spake. It was 
celebrated for its justice. It may be observed that Cicero, 
in his letters to Atticus, makes the more frequent use of 
Greek terms, both because the language was familiar to 
Atticus, and because he was often resident in Greece. 

s It is hardly necessary to observe, that the Romans 
used to address the people in their assemblies from a raised 
pulpit, called the rostra. 

4 Cicero, it seems, had used an expression of this kind 
on the occasion of the Catilinarian conspiracy ; and it was 
afterwards thrown in his teeth in derision. 



now, to return to private matters, the Trojan 
woman has made good her promises. Do you ac- 
complish the commissions which you have under- 
taken. My brother Quintus, who has purchased 
the remaining three quarters of the Argiletan 
building for 725 sestertia (6000/.), is desirous of 
selling his Tusculanum, in order to buy, if he can, 
Pacilius's house. I want you to be reconciled to 
Lucceius. 1 see him very desirous of it, and will 
lend my assistance. Let me know exactly what 
you are doing, where you are, and how things are 
going on. The 13th of February. 



LETTER XV. 

You have heard that the province of Asia u has 
fallen to my dear brother Quintus ; for I doubt 
not but common report has brought you this intelli- 
gence swifter than any friend's letter. Now, as you 
know I have always been very greedy of praise ; and 
am, and am esteemed, beyond all men attached 
to the Greeks ; and have incurred much obloquy 
and enmity in the cause of the republic ; do you 
therefore " call to mind all your prowess v ," and by 
your management contrive that I may be praised 
and loved by everybody. Upon this subject I will 
write more to you in the letter I shall send by 
Quintus himself. I should be glad if you would 
let me know what you have done about my com- 
missions : and what, also, about your own busi- 
ness ; for since your departure from Brundisium, 
no letters from you have been delivered to me. I 
want much to know how you do. March 15. 



LETTER XVI. 

You ask me what happened at the trial, that the 
issue should have been so contrary to all expecta- 
tion ; and at the same time you desire to know 
how it happened that I battled less than usual. I 
shall answer you the last first, like Homer w . For, 
as long as the authority of the senate required my 
support, I fought with such eagerness and vehe- 
mence, as to excite shouts and acclamations greatly 
to my honour. And if ever you thought me 
strenuous in the public cause, you would certainly 
have admired me upon that occasion ; for when he 
had recourse to his declamations, and in them used 
my name invidiously, ye immortal gods ! what 
fighting, what execution did I exhibit ! What 
attacks did I make upon Piso, upon Curio — upon 
the whole crew ! How did I assail the levity of the 

u The provincial Asia was situated in the western part 
of Asia Minor. Generally speaking, Asia Minor was called 
Asia. 

▼ The original is taken from a verse of Homer. Cicero 
means to request that Atticus, who was invited to bo 
lieutenant to Quintus, would exert himself to render the 
Greeks of Asia Minor favourable to him ; and that he 
should do so, he offers three reasons: 1st, that he was fond 
of praise from all men ; 2dly, that he had himself always 
shown a partiality towards the Greeks ; and 3dly, because 
he was apprehensive lest the enemies he had made by his 
vigorous conduct in his consulship might endeavour to 
injure his reputation abroad. Atticus, however, refused 
to accept the appointment of lieutenant. 

w Homer begins his Ilias near the conclusion of the 
Trojan war, and afterwards introduces an account of the 
earlier part. 



632 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



old, the wantonness of the young ! Often did I 
want you, so help me gods ! not only as an adviser 
of my plans, but as a witness of my extraordinary 
exertions. But after Hortensius had devised that 
the tribune Fufius should bring in the law respect- 
ing the sacrilege (in which there was no other dif- 
ference from the consular indictment, excepting 
in the condition of the judges; though in that 
was everything), and was earnest that it might be 
so done ; having persuaded himself, and others, 
that no judges x could absolve him, I contracted 
my sails, knowing well the inefficiency of such 
judges, and I said nothing in my evidence but what 
was so well known and attested that I could not 
omit it. If, therefore, you ask me the reason of 
the acquittal (to revert now to your first question), 
it was the neediness and baseness of the judges ; 
and that it should so happen was occasioned by 
Hortensius's proposal ; who, fearing lest Fufius's 
intercession might put a stop to the progress of 
the law, as decreed by the senate, did not perceive 
that it was better to have him left in disgrace and 
ignominy, than intrusted to an unsound court of 
judgmeut. But prompted by his hatred, he hastened 
to bring the matter to a trial, saying, that even 
before a leaden sword he must needs fall. But if you 
ask what were the circumstances of this judgment 
which had so incredible an issue, I answer, such 
that the counsel of Hortensius, which now from 
the event is censured by others, was by me censured 
from the very beginning. For as the rejection of 
a judge is made with the greatest applause, when 
the prosecutor, like an upright censor, rejects per- 
sons of bad character, and the defendant, like a 
kind master of gladiators, selects the most tem- 
perate ; here, on the contrary, as soon as the judges 
sat down together, all honest men began to have 
sad misgivings? ; for a baser set never met together 
in a common gaming-house : senators of stained 
reputation, ruined knights, and tribunes, not 
debtors, so much as receivers 2 . There were, how- 
ever, a few honest men among them, whom he 
could not remove by rejection, who sat downcast 
and mournful among people most unlike to them- 
selves, and seemed afraid of being infected by the 
contagion of their infamy. Here, as each charge 
was submitted to this council, in the first inquiries, 
there appeared a surprising severity, without any 
difference of opinion : the defendant had obtained 
nothing ; more was even granted to the prosecutor 
than he asked ; Hortensius, in short, was exulting 
that he should have managed so well. There was 
nobody who did not think him guilty, and a thou- 
sand times condemned. Upon my being brought 
forwards as a witness, I imagine you will have 
heard from the acclamation even of Clodius's advo- 
cates, what rising of the judges took place, how 
they surrounded me, how openly they exposed 
their throats to P. Clodius for my security : which 
I consider a much greater honour than that which 
was shown to Xenocrates, whom your countrymen 
prevented from swearing when he gave his testi- 

x The judges of ancient Rome corresponded to our jury 
rather than to our judges, and determined the fact, not 
the law. Their number varied at different times. 

Y The foregoing sentence lias been differently, but I 
think wrongly, understood by commentators. 

z Intimating that they were both ruined and bribed. 
The sense is rendered in some measure obscure for the sake 
of the poor antithesis of aerati and a?rarii. 



mony : or that of our judges, who refused to look 
at the accounts of Metellus Numidicus, when they 
were brought round as usual. What was done to 
me, I say, is much greater. So that by the voice 
of his judges, when I was so defended by them as 
the safeguard of the country, the culprit was con- 
founded, and all his supporters shrunk at once ; 
and the next day the same concourse came about 
me as had conducted me home on resigning the 
consulship. The noble Areopagites a cried out that 
they would not come forward unless a guard was 
appointed. It was submitted to the council : one 
voice alone was against having a guard. The affair 
was brought before the senate : it was decreed with 
great dignity and liberality ; the judges were com- 
mended ; the business was intrusted to the magis- 
trates : nobody thought the man would make 
any reply. Say now, ye Muses, how the fire 
was first kindled b . You know Baldhead c , him of 
the Nanneian estates, that panegyrist of mine, 
whose speech I mentioned to you so full of my 
praise. In two days he accomplished the whole 
business by means of a single slave, and him taken 
from the school of the gladiators. He sent for the 
judges to come to him ; he promised, he entreated, 
he bribed. Nay, more, O ye gods ! such a profli- 
gate business ! even the enjoyment of certain 
women, and the introduction of young men of 
family, were made to enhance the price offered to 
some of the judges. Thus, in the general absence 
of all honest men, while the forum was filled with 
slaves, there were still twenty-five judges so firm, 
that, in face of the greatest danger they chose 
rather to perish than to ruin everything : there 
were thirty-one who were more moved by famine 
than by fame : one of whom Catulus meeting said 
to him, " What made you ask us for a guard ? were 
you afraid of having your money taken away?" 
You have here, as shortly as I could give it you, 
the nature of the trial, and the reason of the 
acquittal. 

You ask further what is the present state of 
public affairs, and how I am affected. Know, 
then, that the constitution of the republic ; which 
you thought my counsels, I thought divine Provi- 
dence' 1 , had confirmed ; which seemed to be fixed 
and consolidated by the union of all good men, 
and the authority of my consulship ; unless some 
god have compassion upon us, has slipped from 
our hands by this single judgment : if it can be 
called a judgment, that thirty of the lowest and 
most profligate of the Roman people, by the effect 
of bribery, should extinguish all right and justice : 
and, what not only all men, but all animals, know 
to have been done, that Talna, and Plautus, and 
Spongia, and such scoundrels, should determine 
not to have been done. But yet, that I may offer 
you some consolation on the part of the republic, 
wickedness does not exult in its victory with that 
alacrity which some miscreants had hoped, after 



a ,The term is here used in derision.' 

b *The original is quoted from Homer. 

c'Baldhead— in the original Calvus, which, besides 
meaning bald, as I have expressed it, was the name of a 
considerable family in ancient Home. Here it is used in 
mockery for Crassus. What is the exact signification of 
ex Nannyanis commentators are not agreed. 

d I doubt not these expressions have a reference to the 
doctrines of Epicurus against a superintending Providence; 
Atticus, as is well known, being of that sect 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



033 



this wound which has been inflicted on the state ; 
for they fully thought, when religion and modesty, 
when the faith of judgments, and the authority of 
the senate had fallen, that then wickedness and 
licentiousness, being openly victorious, would exact 
of every honest man vengeance for the pain which 
every villain had suffered by the severity of my 
consulship. And I, that same person (for I need 
not fear the reproach of vain-gloriousness in speak- 
ing of myself to you, especially in a letter which 
I wish nobody else to read), myself, I say, have 
revived the drooping spirits of good men, encourag- 
ing and rousing every one : and by persecuting 
and harassing these corrupt judges, I have snatched 
all insolence from all the supporters and favourers 
of that victory. I have never suffered the consul 
Piso to be at peace in anything : I have taken away 
from the man the province of Syria, already pro- 
mised him ; I have recalled the senate to its former 
severity, and have roused it from its despondence. 
Clodius I have crushed when he was present in the 
senate, both by a continued speech full of dignity, 
and by altercation, of which you may taste a few 
specimens ; for the rest can neither have their 
force nor elegance, from want of that spirit of con- 
tention which you Greeks call aywva. For when 
we met in the senate on the 15th of May, being 
called upon for my opinion, I entered at length 
upon the general state of the republic, and seemed 
to be inspired when I brought ill that head of my 
discourse — "that the conscript fathers e , on the 
receipt of a single wound, should not be dejected, 
should not faint ; that it was a wound of such a 
kind as ought neither to be dissembled nor to be 
feared, lest we should be thought either cowards by 
being alarmed at it, or stupid by not being sensible 
of it : that Lentulus had been twice acquitted ; twice 
Catiline ; that he now was the third let loose upon 
the public by his judges. You are mistaken, 
Clodius ; the judges have reserved you not for the 
city, but for a prison, and have wished not to 
retain you in the state, but to deprive you of 
banishment. Therefore, conscript fathers, raise up 
your spirits, maintain your dignity : that concord of 
all good men yet remains in the republic : they 
have felt pain, but their courage is unabated : no 
new evil has been created ; but what was there 
before has been brought to light : in the trial of 
one abandoned man several have been found like 
him." But what am I doing? I have almost 
included my speech in my letter. I return to our 
altercation. The pretty f boy gets up, and objects 
to me that I had been at Baiae^. " It is not true : 
but what if it were? Is it the same," added I, 
" as if you were to say I had been in conceal- 
ment 11 ?" "What," says he, "has a fellow of 
Arpinum 1 to do with hot baths ?" " Say this," 
replied I, "to your patron^, who longed for the 

e The senators were usually addressed by this title. 

f Pulcher, " handsome," was one of the names of the 
Claudian family, from which Clodius descended. 

g Baiae was celebrated for its warm baths, and fre- 
quented by the voluptuous. 

h This, no doubt, alludes to Clodius's concealment in 
disguise at the ceremonies of the Bona Dea. 

1 Arpinum, a place about sixty miles E.S.E. from Rome, 
where Cicero was born. 

J It has been generally supposed that Cicero, by this ex- 
pression, meant the sister of Clodius, who wanted to have 
connected herself with Cicero. I think it more likely that 
he should have meant Crassus : but the particular circum. 



baths of Arpinum." (For you know the Marinse k .) 
" How long," says he, " shall we bear this king ?" 
" Do you venture to pronounce the word king," 
said I, " when he whose name was king did not so 
much as mention you in his will?" (For he had 
devoured the inheritance of Rex in his expecta- 
tion.) " You have been buying a " fine house," 
says he. " One would think," said I, " you were 
accusing me of buying the judges." " They would 
not trust you," says he, " even on your oath." 
"Nay, but," said I, " five-and-twenty did trust 
me : the other one-and-thirty did not trust you, 
for they took care to receive their money before- 
hand." Overwhelmed by continued shouts, he 
sunk down, and held his tongue. My situation is 
this. Among the good, I am just as you left me ; 
among the filth and dregs of the city, much better 
now than you left me ; for it is no prejudice to me 
that my evidence should seem to have had no effect. 
Their ill-disposition has been let blood without any 
pain to me ; and the more so, because all those 
supporters of that iniquity acknowledge that a very 
clear case was bought off from the judges. In 
addition to this, that wretched and hungry rabble, 
who hang about the popular assemblies like a 
leech, eager for money, imagine that I am much 
esteemed by this Magnus 1 . And indeed we are 
united together by a frequent and pleasant inter- 
course to such a degree, that those our revellers in 
conspiracy" 1 , half-bearded youths, in their con- 
versations call him Cna3us n Cicero. Therefore, in 
the games and shows I carry off wonderful marks 
of favour, without any shepherd's pipe to inter- 
mingle its hissing °. The public attention is just 
now directed to the comitia for the election of con- 
suls. Our Magnus, against the wish of everybody, 
thrusts forwards the son of Aulus p ; and in con- 
ducting this business, he endeavours to gain his 
cause, neither by authority nor by favour, but by 
those means with which king Philippus said he 
was able to take any castle into which an ass laden 
with gold could get up. It is said that a certain 
consul has undertaken the affair, hike Doterio'i the 
player ; and that he has people in his house to 
distribute money, which I do not believe. But 
there have lately been made two hateful decrees of 
the senate, which are supposed to be directed 
against the consul, on the requisition of Cato and 
Domitius : one, that it might be lawful to search 
the houses even of magistrates on informations of 
bribery ; the other, that anybody who had distribu- 
tors of money in his house, should be considered 
as an enemy to the state. Lurco, one of the 



stances and private histories of those remote times are not 
sufficiently preserved to enable any person to speak with 
confidence about it. 

k The meaning of this passage has been much disputed. 
I incline to believe it a parenthesis addressed to Atticus, 
signifying, perhaps, some salt spring near Arpinum, or 
some villa thence denominated. 

I A title known to belong to Pompeius. 

m This may probably refer to some designation familiar 
to the private conversation of the two friends. 

II Cnams was Pompeius's praenomen. 

o The pastoritia fistula of the original might perhaps 
resemble a modern cat-call. 

P This is supposed to be Afranius, a man of no preten- 
sions for such an appointment. 

q Much doubt has been entertained about the true read- 
ing and the meaning of this word, which, however, is of 
little m oment. The consul here spoken of is Piso. 



634 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



tribunes of the people, who entered upon his office 
at the time of the iElian law, has been set free 
from the operation both of the iElian and Fufian 
law, that he might introduce another on canvass- 
ing at elections ; which, lame as he is r , he has pro- 
mulgated under prosperous omens. So the comitia 
are put off to the 27th of July. The novelty in 
the law is this : that anybody who shall have pro- 
mised money in his tribe, if he have not given it, 
shall be exempt from penalty ; but if he have given 
it, he shall have to pay to each tribe three thousand 
sestertii 8 (25/.) annually, as long as he lives. I 
observed that P. Clodius had already kept this law, 
inasmuch as he was accustomed to promise, and 
not to pay. But mark you ; do you perceive how 
my consulate, which Curio before called a deifi- 
cation, will, if this man be elected, become a mere 
puppet-show 1 ? Therefore I believe we must con- 
tent ourselves with our philosophy, as you do ; 
and disregard these affairs of consulships as un- 
worthy of notice. 

As to what you tell me, that you have determined 
not to go into Asia, I should rather have wished 
that you did go ; and cannot but fear that some 
unpleasant consequence may arise from that cir- 
cumstance 11 . At the same time I cannot blame 
your determination, especially after having declined 
to accept a province myself. I shall be content 
with your epigrams, which you have placed in the 
Amaltheum ; especially since Chilius has left me, 
and Archias has written nothings But having 
already composed a Greek poem in honour of the 
Luculli, I am afraid he will now turn his attention 
to the story of the Csecilii. I returned thanks to 
Antonius in your name, and delivered the letter to 
Manlius. I have hitherto written to you the less 
frequently, because I had no proper person to 
whom I could intrust my letters ; nor did I suf- 
ficiently know what I should intrust to them. 
Farewell. I have now made you amends. If 
Cincius w refers to me any business of yours, I will 
readily undertake it ; but he is just now more 
occupied in affairs of his own, in which I shall not 
be backward in assisting him. If you are likely to 
be stationary, you may expect often to hear from 
me ; but do you also write frequently. I wish you 
would describe to me your Amaltheum, how it is 
situated, how it is fitted up ; and that you would 
send me any poems, and stories you possess on the 
subject of Amalthea x . I should like to make one at 
Arpinum. I will send you something of my writ- 
ing ; at present there is nothing finished. 

r Any personal defect was considered as inauspicious. 

s Tbe number of the tribes was thirty-five. 

t The Latin fabam mimum, if it be correct, is not now 
intelligible. I have given what I conceive to be the gene- 
ral signification. 

u The difficulties which Cicero apprehended actually 
took place, owing to his brother's taking ill this refusal, 
on the part of Atticus, to serve under him in the capacity 
of lieutenant. 

▼ Cicero had wished that one of these poets should have 
written on the subject of his consulship. 

w See letter 3 of this book, note n . 

x Amalthea is properly the fabulous name of the fabu- 
lous goat which was said to have nourished the infant 
Jupiter : it is, therefore, rightly expressed in this place. 
Jlut Atticus's library was denominated Amaltheum. See 
letter 13 of this book, note c . 



LETTER XVII. 

I perceive from your letter, and from the copies 
of my brother Quintus's which you sent with it, 
a great alteration in his disposition and sentiments 
towards you ; which affects me with all that concern 
which my extreme love for you both might be ex- 
pected to produce ; and I wonder what can have 
happened, that should occasion to my brother 
Quintus either such deep offence, or such change- 
ableness of mind. I had already observed, what I 
saw that you also suspected at the time of your 
departure, that some unfavourable impression had 
arisen, and that he was hurt in mind, and harboured 
certainunfriendly suspicions ; which, though I before 
often wished to heal, and especially after the allot- 
ment of his province ; yet 1 was not aware that the 
offence he had conceived was so great as your letter 
declares ; nor were my endeavours attended with 
the success that I hoped. But yet I consoled 
myself with the consideration, that I did not doubt 
but he would see you either at Dyrrachium, or 
somewhere in those parts ; and whenever that 
happened, I trusted, and persuaded myself, that 
everything would be amicably settled between you, 
not only by discourse and explanation, but by the 
very sight and meeting of each other. For what 
kindness there is in my brother Quintus, what 
cheerfulness, how tender a disposition both to con- 
ceive and to lay aside offence, it is needless for me 
to mention to you, who are well acquainted with it. 
But it has happened very unfortunately that you 
have not seen him anywhere. For what the male- 
volence of certain persons has suggested to him, 
has had more influence than either his duty or his 
relationship, or the former affection between you, 
which ought to have great weight : and it is easier 
to guess, than to declare, where the blame of this 
misfortune lies : for in defending my own rela- 
tions, I am afraid of appearing harsh towards 
yours?. For this is my feeling upon the subject, 
that though no wound may have been inflicted by 
those of his own household, yet they certainly might 
have healed that which was already received. But 
the fault of this whole affair, which extends even 
something further than appears, I can better explain 
to you when we meet. Respecting the letter which 
he wrote to you from Thessalonica, and the language 
which you imagine he held with your friends at 
Rome, and upon his journey ; what foundation there 
be for it I know not ; but all my hope of removing 
this vexation rests in your kindness. For if you 
consider, that the minds of the best men are often 
irritable, and at the same time placable ; and that 
this sensibility, as I may call it, and tenderness of 
nature, is generally a sign of goodness ; and, what 
is the chief of all, that we ought mutually to bear 
with the ill humours, or faults, or offences of each 
other ; these differences, as I hope, will easily be 
composed : and that you may do so, I earnestly 
entreat you : for it is of the greatest concern to me, 
who sincerely love you, that there should be no one 
of my connexions who either does not love you, or 
is not loved by you. That part of your letter was 
by no means necessary, in which you explain what 
opportunities of advantage either in the provinces 
or in the city you have foregone, as well at other 

y From hence one may see that Cicero thought Pompo- 
nia to blame. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



635 



times, as during my consulate 2 : for your inge- 
nuousness and greatness of mind are well known to 
me. Nor have I ever thought there was any differ- 
ence between us, except in the line of life we 
adopted ; inasmuch as a certain ambition has led 
me to the pursuit of honours ; whilst a different, 
but most irreproachable, scheme of life, has con- 
ducted you to an honourable retirement. In that 
true praise of sincerity, of diligence, of scrupulous 
adherence to duty, I set neither myself nor any- 
body else before you ; and in affection towards me, 
when I go beyond brotherly and domestic attach- 
ments, I attribute the first place to you. For I 
have seen, and thoroughly known, on various occa- 
sions, both your solicitude and your joy on my 
account. And often has your congratulation on my 
success been delightful to me, and your support in 
my fears most grateful. Nay, at this time, from 
your absence, I feel a want not only of counsel, in 
which you excel, but of that intercourse of conver- 
sation, which I enjoy with peculiar relish in your 
company. What shall I say a ? In business of the 
state ? in which it is not allowable for me to be 
negligent ; or in the fatigues of the forum ? which 
formerly I undertook for ambition's sake ; now, 
that I may be able by favour to maintain my 
dignity, or even in domestic concerns ? in which 
both before, and particularly since the departure of 
my brother, I want you and our conversations. In 
short, neither my labour, nor my rest, neither my 
business, nor my idleness, nor forensic, nor do- 
mestic affairs, nor public, nor private, can any 
longer proceed without your sweet and friendly 
counsel and conversation. From the mention of 
these things modesty has often restrained us both. 
But it has now been rendered necessary by that 
part of your letter in which you study to clear and 
justify yourself and your conduct. And amidst the 
embarrassments arising from his alienated and 
offended mind, this however has happened fortu- 
nately, that your resolution of declining all pro- 
vincial employments has been known, and occasion- 
ally professed by you to me and others of your 
friends ; so that your not being together may appear 
to be the effect not of any disagreement and rupture 
between you, but of your inclination and judgment ; 
whence I trust those sentiments which have been 
violated will easily admit of expiation ; and these 
between us, which have been kept sacred, will con- 
tinue to be religiously maintained. 

We are here engaged in a sickly, wretched, and 
changeable republic. For I suppose you have heard 
of our knights b being nearly disunited from the 
senate. First they took it very ill that a decree of 
the senate should have been promulgated, to in- 
stitute an inquiry into those who should have 
received money as judges. At the passing of this 
decree I was accidentally absent ; but when I found 
that the equestrian order was much disturbed at it, 
though they did not openly say so, I reproved the 

z It is to be supposed that Cicero, during his consulship, 
would not fail to offer his assistance in procuring for Atti- 
cus any appointment he might wish to hold. 

a The sense I have given to this passage is not agreeable 
to the usual punctuation, but appears to me most consonant 
to Cicero's ordinary manner of writing, and most suitable 
to the context. 

b The Roman people were divided into three orders, 
senators, knights, and plebeians. The business of the 
knights was chiefly to act as judges, or as farmers of the 
public revenue. 



senate, as I thought, with great authority ; and 
spake forcibly and copiously in not the most 
honourable cause. Now for another favourite 
concern of the knights, scarcely to be borne, 
which, however, I have not only borne, but justi- 
fied. The farmers of the revenue in Asia c , who had 
made their agreement with the censors, complained 
in the senate that they had been deceived by the 
hope of gain, and had made an improvident bargain, 
and petitioned that the letting might be set aside. 
I took the lead among their supporters ; or rather 
I was the second ; for it was Crassus who encou- 
raged them to present this request. An odious 
business, disreputable petition, and a confession of 
imprudence. But there was the greatest reason to 
apprehend, that, if they gained no redress, they 
might be altogether alienated from the senate : 
This affair also was principally managed by me ; 
and it was brought about that they obtained a very 
full and very friendly senate ; and I said a good deal 
respecting the dignity and unanimity of the two 
orders, on the first of December and day following. 
The business is not yet finally settled, but the in- 
clination of the senate has been clearly seen. Me- 
tellus, the consul elect, had alone spoken against it. 
That he ro of ours, Ca to, was going to speak, but 
owing to the shortness of the day it did not come 
to his turn. Thus maintaining my proposed line of 
conduct, I support, as well as I am able, that con- 
cord I had endeavoured to cement. But yet, since 
these measures are liable to fail, a certain safe way, 
as I hope, is fortifying to enable me to retain my 
authority. I cannot sufficiently explain this to you 
by letter, but I will give you a little hint, I am 
very familiar with Pompeius. I know what you 
will say. I will use caution, wherever caution can 
be used ; and I will write more fully to you some 
other time about my intentions in conducting the 
business of the republic. Do you know that 
Lucceius purposes immediately to solicit the con- 
sulship ? for there are said to be only two candi- 
dates. Caesa r, w ith whom he thinks he may unite 
through Arrius ; and Bibulus, with whom he sup- 
poses he may be joined through C. Piso. Do you 
laugh ? Believe me, this is no laughing matter. 
What else shall I tell you ? What ? There are many 
things : but at another time. If you would have 
us expect you, take care to let me know. Now I 
modestly beg, what I earnestly wish, that you will 
come as soon as you can. The fifth of December. 



LETTER XVIII. 

There is nothing of which I now so much feel 
the want, as of him with whom I can communicate 
every thing that concerns me ; who loves me, who 
is prudent, — with whom I can converse without 
flattery, without dissimulation, without reserve. 
For my brother, who is all candour and kindness, 
is away ; Metellus is no more to me than the sea- 
shore, or the air, a mere desert : but you, who have 
so often relieved my cares and anxieties by your 
conversation and counsel, who used to be my 
companion in public matters, my confidant in all ! 
private ones, the partaker of all my words and 
thoughts, where are you ? I am so deserted by j 

c Asiani appear to have been personB from the order of 
knights, who rented of the censors the collection of the 
tributes from Asia Minor, as was usual in other provinces, 
for five years at a time. 



636 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



everybody that I have no other comfort but what 
is enjoyed with my wife and daughter, and my 
sweet little Cicero. For those ambitious and out- 
ward friendships make some show in public, but 
have no domestic fruit. So that whilst my house 
is full every morning, — whilst I go down to the 
Forum attended with troops of friends, — out of 
this crowd I can find nobody with whom I can 
either jest freely or open my bosom familiarly. 
Therefore I look for you, I want you, nay I call 
for you. For there are many things which trouble 
and distress me, which, could I pour them into 
your ears, I seem as if I could discharge in the 
conversation of a single walk. The stings and 
vexations of my domestic troubles I shall keep to 
myself, and not trust to this letter and to a strange 
messenger. And these (for I would not have you 
think too much of them) are not of great moment; 
but yet they hang upon me, and tease me, and 
have no friendly counsel or conversation to allay 
them. But in the republic, although there is a 
ready courage, yet the inclination to exert itself 
does again and again elude every remedy d . Should 
I but shortly collect together what has been done 
since your departure, you must needs exclaim, that 
the state of Rome can no longer subsist. For it 
was, I believe, after you left us, that the first en- 
trance was made upon the cause of the Clodian 
story. Upon which occasion, conceiving that I 
had an opportunity of cutting down and restraining 
the licentiousness of the young, I exerted myself 
with vehemence, and poured forth all the powers 
of my mind and understanding, — influenced by no 
hostility towards anybody, but by the hope of 
correcting the republic and healing the state. 
Deeply is the republic injured by this corrupt and 
profligate judgment e . See now what has since taken 
place : a consul f has been imposed upon us whom 
nobody that is not as much a philosopher as our- 
selves can bear to look at without a sigh. How 
severe a wound is this ! After a decree of the 
senate had passed respecting bribery at elections, 
respecting the conduct of judges, no law was 
carried through, — the senate was worried out, — the 
Roman knights alienated: So that year overturned 
two supports of the state which by me alone had 
been established ; for the senate both threw away 
its authority and dissolved the union of the two 
orders. Now then another fine year has been 
entered upon ! Its beginning has been such that 
the annual rites in honour of the tutelary goddess 
of Youth were omitted^ For Memmius was en- 
gaged in initiating the wife of M. Lucullus in rites 
of his own&. Menelaus h , not brooking that, pro- 
cured a divorce. But whereas that Idsean shepherd' 
had only abused Menelaus, — this Paris of ours has 
treated both Menelaus and Agamemnon •> with 

d I understand the expression animus and voluntas to 
apply not to Cicero, but to In republica. 

e See letter Hi of this book. 

f This consul is L. xVfranius, a creature of Pompeius, and 
designated by Cicero as the son of Aulus. See letter 16 of 
this book. 

g It must be supposed that Memmius ought to have pre- 
sided at the rites of Juventas. It seems that he debauched 
the wife of M. Lucullus, which is meant by those rites of 
his own. 

h M. Lucullus, called Menelaus, as having been injured 
by Memmius, whom he had before called Paris. 

1 Paris. 

J L. Lucullus, the brother of Marcus, so called because 



scorn. But there is one C. Herennius, a tribune, 
whom perhaps you have never heard of (though 
you may have heard of him, for he belongs to your 
tribe) k ; and Sextus, his father, used to distribute 
among you the money of the candidates 1 . This 
man wants to translate P. Clodius to the condition 
of a plebeian 111 ; and the same fellow proposes that 
the populace at large should vote on this affair of 
Clodius in the Campus Martius 11 . I have given 
him such a reception in the senate as I am accus- 
tomed to do to such scoundrels ; but nothing can 
be more insensible than he is. Metellus is an 
excellent consul, and attached to me ; but it lessens 
his authority that he has, as a matter of form, pro- 
mulgated this proposal respecting Clodius. But 
this son of Aulus °, ye gods ! how dull, how 
spiritless a soldier ; how well he deserves to lend 
an ear every day, as he does, to hear himself abused 
by Palicanus. An Agrarian law has been promul- 
gated by Flavius, a poor thing, almost the same as 
that of Plotius. In the mean time there is not a 
sound statesman, not a phantom of one, to be 
found. He who might be one, my intimate (for 
so he is, and I wish you to know it) Pompeius 
defends that painted robe of his? by keeping 
silence. Crassus utters not a word against the 
favour of the people. The others you are already 
acquainted with ; who are so stupid that they hope 
to preserve their luxurious stews i when the republic 
is lost. The only person who administers any 
relief, rather by his firmness and integrity than by 
his counsel or prudence, is Cato, who now for the 
third month continues to harass the poor collectors r , 
who have been very friendly to him. So we are 
compelled to pass no decree about other matters 
till an answer is given to these collectors. I expect 
therefore that even the business of the embassies 
will be put off. You see now by what waves we 
are tossed : and if from what I have said you per- 
ceive that there is as much more unsaid, yet visit 
us once more ; and although these parts to which 
I call you deserve to be shunned, nevertheless let 
the value you set upon our friendship be such, that 
you may be glad to enjoy it even with these vexa- 
tions. For, that you may not be registered as an 
absentee, I will take care to have your return given 
out and proclaimed everywhere. To be registered 
just at the lustration 5 is like a very merchant. 

Agamemnon was brother to Menelaus. Memmius, who 
had thus insulted M. Lucullus, had before injured his 
brother, in opposing his petition for a triumph. 

k The people of Rome were distributed into thirty-five 
tribes. 

1 The inferior magistrates were elected by the tribes, 
and probably might distribute money amongst those of 
their own tribe for this purpose. 

«» Clodius wanted, for factious purposes, to become tri- 
bune, for which it was necessary he should be a plebeian. 
He therefore contrived to get adopted into a plebeian 
family. 

n The tribunes had the power of calling the comitia 
tributa in the Campus Martius ; and, in voting by tribes, 
as every citizen had a voice in his own tribe, consequently 
the plebeians had a great majority. 

° Afranius. 

P Pompeius continued to wear his coloured robe of 
triumph. 

i The stews for fish were among the principal luxuries 
of the Romans 

r These are the farmers of the revenues of Asia Minor 
spoken of in letter 17 of this book. 

s The registry of the censors, which was renewed every 



L 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



637 



Therefore take care that we may see you as soon 
as possible. The 1 st of February, in the consulship 
of L. Metellus and L. Afranius. 



LETTER XIX. 

Not only if I had as much leisure as you have, 
but also if I was content to send such short letters, 
I should surpass you, and write much oftener than 
you do. But, besides my great and incredible 
occupations, I never suffer any letter to go to you 
without some argument and opinion. First then, 
as it is proper in writing to such a lover of his 
country, I will send you an account of what is 
going forward in the republic ; next, as I know 
your affection to me, I will tell you what I conceive 
you may not be unwilling to hear relating to myself. 
And with respect to the republic, the chief concern 
at present is the apprehension of a Gallic war. 
For the Edui, our brethren (as they have been 
called), are actually fighting ; the Sequani have 
been fighting very ill ; and the Helvetii are without 
doubt in arms, and making incursions into the 
Roman province. The senate has decreed that 
the consuls should have the two Gauls allotted to 
them; that a levy should be made ; that exemptions 
should not be admitted ; that ambassadors shoxald 
be despatched with authority, who should go to 
the cities of Gaul and take care that they do not 
join the Helvetii. The ambassadors are Q. Me- 
tellus Creticus, and L. Flaccus, and (by an ill 
assortment, like the Greek proverb of pouring 
precious ointment upon lentils) Lentulus the son 
of Clodianus. And here I cannot forbear mention- 
ing, that when, among the consulars, the first lot 
fell upon me, a full senate with one voice deter- 
mined that I ought to be retained in the city. 
After me the same thing happened to Pompeius : 
so that we two seemed to be kept as pledges of the 
republic. Why then should I look for the applauses 
of others when these spring up at home ? Now 
this is the state of the city affairs. The Agrarian 
law was vehemently urged by the tribune Flavius, 
though the author of it was Pompeius, and it had 
nothing popular besides its author. From this 
law I took out, with the approbation of the 
assembly, whatever affected the interests of private 
persons : I exempted the land which had been sold 
in the consulship of P. Mucius and L. Calpurnius ; 
I confirmed the possessions of Sulla's people ; the 
Volaterrani and Arretini, whose lands Sulla had 
declared public, but had not allotted, I retained in 
the enjoyment of their property. One plan I did 
not object to, that land should be purchased with 
this adventitious money, which might be derived, 
for the space of five years, from the tributes of the 
countries newly conquered l . The senate was 
adverse to the whole of this Agrarian scheme, sus- 
pecting that it was designed only to give some new 
power to Pompeius ; for Pompeius had used great 
exertions to accomplish his wish of carrying the 
law through. But, with the full approbation of 
those who were to occupy the lands, I confirmed 
the titles of the actual possessors (for our strength, 
as you know, lies in the rich proprietors), whilst I 



fifth year, was concluded by a lustration, or sacrifice of 
purification, addressed to the assembled people. 

1 These were the countries conquered by Pompeius in 
the Mithridatic war. 



satisfied the people and Pompeius (for that also I 
wished to do) by the purchase ; which being care- 
fully conducted, I hoped the lees of the city might 
be drawn off, and the waste lands of Italy peopled. 
But this whole affair has cooled again, having been 
interrupted by the war. Metellus is indeed a good 
consul, and is much attached to me : the other is 
such a mere cipher, that he does not even know 
what it is that he has bought u . These are the 
chief things of the republic ; unless you may think 
it concerns the republic also, that one Herennius, a 
tribune of the people, of your tribe, a good-for- 
nothing and needy fellow, has several times insti- 
tuted a motion for transferring P. Clodius to the 
rank of a plebeian : but many have interposed 
their prohibition. This, I think, is what has been 
doing in the republic. But for myself, after having 
once obtained the distinguished and immortal 
glory of that fifth of Dec ember" 7 , not without much 
envy and ill will/l have never ceased to exert the 
same spirit in the republic, and to support that 
dignity which I had entered upon and attained. 
But when I had witnessed, first, in the acquittal 
of Clodius, the inconstancy and weakness of the 
judges ; then saw how easily our knights collectors, 
though they continued friendly to me, were dis- 
united from the senate ; then again, that certain 
happy spirits (those luxurious possessors of fish- 
ponds, I mean, your friends) are undisguisedly 
envious of me ; 1 considered that it was time to 
look out for some greater support and stronger 
securities. Therefore, first I brought Pompeius, 
who had too long observed a silence upon my 
transactions, into that disposition, that in the 
senate, not once, but repeatedly, and at considerable 
length, he attributed to me the safety of the empire 
and of the world : which did not so much concern 
me (for what I did is not so obscure as to stand in 
need of testimony, or so doubtful as to require 
commendation) as the republic ; because there 
were certain ill-disposed people who expected that 
some contention might arise between me and 
Pompeius from a disagreement upon those matters. 
With him I have united myself in such intimacy, 
that each of us may hence be more fortified in his 
own line of conduct, and firmer in the republic, 
from this connexion. And that hostility of the 
licentious and delicate youth, which had been raised 
against me, has been so softened by my civility, 
that they all now pay me particular attention. In 
short, I do nothing harsh towards anybody, — nor, 
however, any thing popular and unbecoming ; but 
my whole conduct is so regulated, that I maintain 
a constancy towards the republic ; and in my pri- 
vate concerns, on account of the unsteadiness of 
the good, the unkindness of the malevolent, the 
hatred of the wicked, towards me, I adopt a certain 
caution and attention ; and so bear my affections, 
whilst I am implicated in these new connexions, 
that the sly Sicilian Epicharmus often whispers in 
my ear that verse of his, — '* Be sober and distrust- 
ful ; these are the sinews of the understanding :" 
and of my management and scheme of life you see, 
I think, as it were a model. Respecting your 
business you often write to me ; but it is impossible 
to remedy it, — for the decree of the senate was 
carried by a great concurrence of members, without 
" Meaning that he had bought the consulship. 
v When he defeated Catiline's conspiracy, and ordered 
his accomplices to be put to death. 



638 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



the authority of any of us consulars. For, as to 
your seeing that I was present when it was drawn 
up, you may understand from the decree itself that 
a different object was at that time brought forward; 
and this about the free people was added without 
any occasion, — and was so done by P. Servilius 
the son, who gave his opinion among the last. 
But at this time it cannot be altered : so that the 
meetings which were at first held on this subject 
have long since ceased to be kept up. If, how- 
ever, by your gentle manners you have squeezed 
out of the Sicyonians any portion of money, I 
should be glad to be made acquainted with it. I 
have sent you the account of my consulate, written 
in Greek ; in which, if there is anything that 
appears to an Attic gentleman not to be correct and 
good Greek, I will not say to you, what I think 
Lucullus said of his history, that he purposely 
introduced some barbarisms, that it might be known 
to be the work of a Roman. In mine if there be 
anything of that sort, it will be without my know- 
ledge, and contrary to my inclination. If I com- 
plete that in Latin, I will send it to you. You 
may expect the third in verse w , that I may omit 
no mode of celebrating my own praises. Here 
take care that you do not quote upon me the 
Greek proverb, " Who will praise his father ? x " 
For if there is anything better among men let it be 
praised, and let me be blamed for not rather be- 
stowing my praises elsewhere ; though what I 
write is, after all, not praise, but history. My 
brother Quintus studies to exculpate himself in his 
letters, and affirms that he never spoke anything 
against you to anybody: but this must be managed 
between us with great care and diligence when we 
meet. Do you only at length visit us again. This 
Cossinius, to whom I give my letter, seems to me 
an excellent man, free from levity, and affectionate 
towards you, and such as your letter represented 
him. The 15th of March. 



LETTER XX. 

Upon my return to Rome from my Pompei- 
anum? on the 12th of May, our friend Cincius 
gave me your letter dated the 13th of February, to 
which I now reply. And first, I am very glad 
that you are so perfectly acquainted with my 
opinion respecting you z . In the next place, it 
gives me great satisfaction that you should have 
shown such moderation in those affairs in which I 
and my family were concerned, not without some 
appearance of harshness and unkindness a ; which 
is a proof at once of no small affection, and of 
consummate judgment and prudence. On which 

w This he afterwards executed. See book ii. letter 3. 

x Some doubts have been entertained about the applica- 
tion of this proverb. In the beginning of Plutarch's life 
of Aratus it is quoted more at length ; and from thence I 
should understand ij; here to signify, that as it was con- 
cluded that one who praised the deeds of his ancestors, 
had no merit of his own ; so it might be inferred, that if 
Cicero was so vain of his consulship he had little else to 
boast of. 

y -Cicero possessed several villas, one of which was near 
Pompeii. 

z This probably alludes to what he had said in letter 17 
of this book. 

a Meaning the disagreement between Quintus and his 
wife Pomponia. 



subject as you have written so graciously, so care- 
fully, so fairly, and candidly, that I not only have 
nothing further to ask of you, but had no right to 
expect so much readiness and mildness from you, 
or from any man ; I think it best to say nothing 
more about the business. When we meet, then, 
if any occasion occurs, we will confer together by 
word of mouth. 

In what you say about the republic, you argue 
affectionately and wisely ; and your opinion is not 
at variance with the line of conduct I have adopted. 
I ought neither to recede from the state of my 
dignity, nor to go without my host into the for- 
tifications of another man ; and he b of whom 
you speak, has nothing noble, nothing exalted, 
nothing that is not abject and popular. Yet 
the course I have taken is perhaps not without 
its advantage to myself in promoting the tranquil- 
lity of my own times ; but it is still much more 
advantageous to the republic than to me, that the 
violence of the wicked against me should be 
repressed by my having confirmed the wavering 
opinion of one in the highest fortune, authority, 
and favour ; and by having converted him from 
the hopes of bad men to the commendation of my 
actions. Had any meanness been necessary on my 
part, I should have thought no object an equiva- 
lent; but everything has been done in such a 
manner, that my dignity has sustained no diminu- 
tion from compliance with him, while his is 
increased by his approbation of me. The rest is, 
and will continue to be, so managed, as not to 
permit that what I have done, may appear to have 
been done by accident. My good men, those 
whom you mention, and that Sparta c , which you say 
has fallen to my lot, I will not only never desert, 
but even if I am deserted by it, I will still continue 
in my former sentiments. I would wish you, 
however, to consider, that, since the death of 
Catulus, I maintain this course of honour without 
protectors, and without associates : for as Rhin- 
ton, I think, says, " some are as nothing, others 
care for nothing." With regard to the envy 
which our epicures bear me, I will either write to 
you at another time or will reserve it till we meet. 
But nothing shall tear me from the senate ; whe- 
ther because it is right that we should be united, 
or that it is most suitable to my affairs, or that I 
am not sorry to be held in such esteem by them. 

With regard to the Sicyonians, as I told you in 
a former letter, there is not much hope in the 
senate. For there is now nobody that offers any 
complaint. So that, if you wait for this, it is a 
long business. Try some other means if you can. 
For it has been concluded without animadversion 
from those whom it concerned ; and the senators 
hastily ran to support the motion. The season is 
not yet come for superseding the decree ; because 
there are not only none to complain, but many 
are very well pleased ; partly through malice d , 
partly from an opinion of its justice. Your friend 
Metellus is an excellent consul. I have only to 
blame in him, that he is not very well pleased with 
the news of peace from Gaul. I suppose he is 

b Pompeius. 

c This obviously alludes to a passage in some letter from 
Atticus, who had applied to Cicero a Greek proverbial ex- 
pression, signifying, that one who was born at Sparta ought 
to act worthily of this distinction. 

d Being pleased to see the public creditors disappointed. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



csy 



ambitious of a triumph. In this I wish he were 
more moderate. Everything else is excellent. 
But this son of Aulus behaves in such a manner, 
that his consulate is no consulate, but the mortifi- 
cation of our Magnus e . Of my writings I have 
sent you my consulate in Greek. I delivered the 
book to L. Cossinius. But while you are pleased 
with my Latin compositions, I imagine that, as a 
Greek, you will bear towards this Greek one a 
little envy. If anybody else writes upon this 
subject I will send it you. But, believe me, as 
soon as they have read this of mine, they are 
somehow checked. Now, to return to my own 
business, L. Papirius Psetus, a good man, and 
fond of me, has made me a present of the books 
which Ser. Claudius left. As your friend Cincius 
declared that, by the Cincian law f , it was allowable 
to take them, I said that I should most willingly 

e Magnus, or great, is well known to have been an appel- 
lation of Pompeius, who had got Afranius, the son of Aulus, 
to be elected consul. 

f This is said joking. Cincius's name has frequently 
occurred before, as an agent employed by Atticus. The 
Cincian law forbade the receiving of extravagant sums for 
pleading. 

s This is not said to Paetus in reply to his offer actually 



accept them if he offered them£. Now, if you 
love me, if you know that you are beloved by me h , 
use your endeavours, through your friends, your 
clients, your guests, nay, your freed-men, and 
slaves, that not a scrap of them may be lost. For 
I want exceedingly both the Greek books, which I 
suspect, and the Latin, which I know he left. I 
have every day more satisfaction in these studies, 
whenever the business of the forum permits. You 
will render me a most, I say, a most grateful 
service, if you will attend to this with the same 
diligence you use in things which you suppose me 
to have much at heart. At the same time I recom- 
mend to you the affairs of Psetus himself, for 
undertaking which he gives you the greatest 
thanks. I not only ask, but entreat you, at length 
to visit us. 

made, but to Cincius, on the supposition that it might be 
made. It is for this reason that he adds si attulisset. He 
told Cincius, that since he so interpreted his namesake's 
law, that he might legally accept the books, he should be 
very glad to do so if they were offered to him. 

h This may allude particularly to some expressions 
which it is probable Atticus had used in his acknowledg- 
ment of letter 17, where Cicero declares his strong affection 
f r him. 



BOOK II. 



LETTER I. 

On the 1st of June, as I was going to Antium, 
and gladly leaving the gladiators of M. Metellus, I 
met your servant. He delivered to me your letter, 
and the Greek narrative of my consulship, upon 
which I was glad that I had previously given to 
L. Cossinius my book on the same subject, written 
likewise in Greek, which he was to take to you. 
For had I read yours first, you might say that I 
had stolen from you. Although yours, which I 
eagerly read, appeared to me rather rough and 
undressed, yet that very negligence had the effect 
of ornament ; and, as they say of women, it was 
the sweeter from having no perfume. 

My book, on the other hand, had exhausted the 
whole repository of Isocrates, and all the scent- 
boxes of his disciples, and, in some measure, even 
the colours of Aristotle. This, as you mentioned 
in a former letter, you just tasted at Corcyra ; but 
afterwards I imagine you received it from Cossi- 
nius. I should not have ventured to send it you, 
unless I had deliberately and critically examined 
it. Though Posidonius 1 , to whom I had sent my 
memoir, that he might describe the same events in 
a more finished style, told me in his answer from 
Rhodes, that the perusal had not only not disposed 
him to write, but had completely discouraged him. 
What say you ? I have confounded the Greek 
nation ; so that they who pressed me to give them 
materials, which they might embellish, have now 
ceased to trouble me. If the book pleases you, 
you will take care to have it circulated in Athens, 
and other citiesJ of Greece. For it may possibly 

i Posidonius was a Stoic philosopher, under whom Cicero 
had studied at Rhodes. 
J Previous to the invention of printing, the transcribing 



throw some splendour on my affairs. I will send 
the speeches you ask for, and some others, since 
you seem to be pleased with what I have written 
at the desire of certain young men. For, as your 
fellow-citizen Demosthenes, in those orations which 
are called Philippics, had shone forth, and eman- 
cipated himself from that abrupt and judicial 
manner of speaking, that he might appear more 
dignified and statesman-like ; so it became me to 
see that there should be some orations of mine, 
which might be called consular ; of which one was 
delivered in the senate on the 1st of January ; the 
next to the people on the Agrarian law ; the third 
on the subject of Otho k ; the fourth in defence of 
Rabirius ; the fifth on the children of the persons 
proscribed 1 ; the sixth, when in the assembly I 
resigned my province 111 ; the seventh, by which I 
drove out Catiline ; the eighth, which I delivered 
to the people the day after Catiline's flight : the 
ninth, in the assembly on the day when the Allo- 
broges gave their public testimony 11 ; the tenth, in 

and dispersing of books must have been a work of great 
labour, and must have taken up a great deal of time. 

k Otho had been the author of a law which appropri- 
ated a distinguished part of the theatre to the use of the 
knights. This Otho coming into the theatre during 
Cicero's consulship was hooted by the populace, and sup- 
ported by the knights, so as to endanger a considerable 
uproar ; upon which Cicero summoned the people to the 
temple of Bellona, where he addressed them with such 
effect, that, upon returning to the theatre, they joined 
their applause to that of the knights. The oration is not 
extant. 

I This relates to Sulla's proscription. 

m Cicero having declined the province of Macedonia in 
favour of C. Antonius, was nominated to that of Cisalpine 
Gaul, but immediately gave it up to Q. Metellus. 

II This relates to the Catilinarian conspiracy. 



640 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



the senate on the fifth of December . There are 
besides, two short ones, as it were fragments, on 
the subject of the Agrarian law. I will take care 
that you shall have this whole collection. And 
since not only my writings, but my transactions, 
afford you pleasure, in the same books you will see 
both what I have done, and what I have said. 
Otherwise, you should not have asked for them; 
for I did not present myself to you uninvited. 

As to what you inquire about the cause of my 
sending for you ; and signify, that though you are 
fettered with business, yet not only if it is neces- 
sary, but if I wish it, you will come to me ; there 
is, in truth, no immediate necessity ; but I thought 
you might arrange the season of travelling more 
conveniently. You are away too long, especially 
as you are at no great distance, and yet we do not 
enjoy the fruits of your company, and you are 
without us. At present all is quiet ; yet if the 
madness of the pretty p youth were allowed to 
proceed a little further, I should earnestly call you 
thence. But Metellus nobly prevents it, and will 
prevent it. What say you ? He is a patriotic 
consul, as I always believed, and well disposed. 
But that fellow no longer dissembles, but openly 
professes his wish to be made a tribune of the 
people. Upon the question being agitated in the 
senate, I beat him down, and reproached him with 
his inconstancy, who at Rome was soliciting the 
tribunate, though at Hera, in Sicily, he had de- 
clared that he wanted to be made eedile. But I 
said it was not a thing about which we need give 
ourselves much trouble ; for it would no more be 
permitted to him as a plebeian to ruin the state, 
than it had been to some, like himself, who were 
patricians, when I was consul. Again, when he 
boasted in the assembly that he had come from 
the strait"* in six days, and that nobody had time 
to come out to meet him, and that he had arrived 
in the night ; I observed, that it was nothing 
strange that he should have come from Sicily to 
Rome in six days, who had gone from Rome to In- 
teramna in three hours r ; that it was not the first 
time he had entered by night ; and that nobody 
had met and stopped him on a former occasion, 
when it ought more especially to have been done. 
What say you ? I make an impudent man modest 
not only by a constant dignity of speech, but even 
by this kind of repartee. Now, therefore, I 
dispute and jest familiarly with him. For, as we 
were conducting one of the candidates, he asks me 
if I used to give a place to the Sicilians in the 
exhibitions of gladiators s ? I said, no. "But 
I," says he, " their new patron, shall adopt this ; 
though my sister, who has such consular space 1 
allotted her, gives me but one foot." " Do not 
complain," said I, " of this one foot of your sister, 
for you are at liberty to lift up the other whenever you 



° This likewise relates to the Catilinarian conspiracy. 

P The person here meant is evidently Clodius. He is so 
designated, book i. letter 16. 

q By the Strait is to be understood the narrow sea 
between Italy and Sicily. 

r At the time of his trial it was falsely asserted, that 
Clodius had been at Interanma on the night when he was 
discovered in Caesar's house at the mysteries of the Bona 
Dea. 

s Cicero had been quaestor in Sicily some years before; 
and lately Clodius had held the same office there. 

* Clodia was wife of the consul Metellus. 



please V You will say this is not a very consular 
speech. I confess it ; but I hate her, ill deserving 
to be called consular; for she is a seditious woman, 
is at war with her husband, and not only with 
Metellus v , but with Fabius also, because she is 
displeased with the part they take on this w occa- 
sion. In reply to your inquiry about the Agrarian 
law, it seems for the present to have cooled. As 
to the reproof you give me with a gentle hand 
respecting my familiarity with Pompeius, I would 
not have you imagine that I have united myself 
with him for the sake of my own security : but 
things were so circumstanced, that if by accident 
there should arise any disagreement between us, 
the greatest dissentions must have ensued in the 
republic : which I have guarded and provided 
against in such a manner, that I shall not depart 
from my just course ; but he will become better, 
and lay aside something of his popular levity. 
For, you must know, he speaks much more mag- 
nificently of my actions, against which many had 
endeavoured to excite him, than of his own. For 
to himself he bears testimony of having well 
administered the state ; to me of having saved it. 
How far his doing this may be of use to me I 
know not ; it is certainly of use to the republic. 
What if I make even Caesar a better man, who 
is now in the enjoyment of such prosperous gales ? 
Should I do any great injury to the state ? But, 
if nobody envied me, if all favoured me as they 
ought, yet the remedy which could cure the 
unsound parts of the state, would not be less de- 
sirable than that which would cut them out. But 
now, when that body of knights, which I stationed 
on the Capitoline hill under your standard, has 
deserted the senate ; and our chiefs think they 
have reached the skies, if they have but bearded 
mullets in their fish-ponds, which will come to 
their hands ; and neglect everything else ; do you 
not think that I render essential service, if I pre- 
vent them from doing mischief, who have it so 
much in their power ? For you cannot esteem our 
friend Cato more than I do : but he, with the best 
intentions and the greatest integrity, sometimes 
does harm to the state, by delivering his opinion 
as if he were living in the republic of Plato, not in 
the dregs of Romulus. What can be more just 
than that one, who had received money for his 
sentence, should be brought into judgment? Cato 
gave his opinion to this effect, and the senate 
assented. The knights declared war against the 
senate, not against me, for I dissented. What 
could be more impudent than the appeal of the* 
collectors? Yet for the sake of retaining the 
good-will of the order, the loss should have been 
submitted to. Cato resisted, and carried his point. 
The consequence has been, that when the consul 
was shut up in prison'*; when seditions have at 

u Clodius was supposed to have had incestuous com- 
merce with his sister. 

v She was married to Metellus, but supposed to enter- 
tain Fabius also with the familiarities of a husband. 

w The exact meaning of the original is not obvious ; but 
I conceive it to relate to the opposition which Metellus 
and Fabius gave to Clodius's design of making himself a 
tribune of the people. 

* These were of the order of knights, who had made an 
improvident bargain for taking the rents of some of the 
subject provinces, and petitioned to have it cancelled. See 
book i. letter 17. 

y The consul Metellus was imprisoned by Flavius, one 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



041 



different times been raised ; not one of those men 
has come forwards, by whose concurrence I, and 
also the consuls who came after me, used to defend 
the republic. What then ! you will say, shall we have 
them hired with a price ? What shall we do, if 
we can have them upon no other terms ? Should 
we prefer submitting ourselves to freed-men, and 
even slaves ? But, as you say, enough of my zeal. 
Favonius has found my tribe more favourably dis- 
posed than his own ; that of Lucceius he has lost. 
He accused Nasica ungenerously, and yet he spake 
but moderately, as if he had bestowed his pains, at 
Rhodes, upon the mills, rather than upon Molon z . 
He gently found fault with me, because I had 
defended Nasica. Now, however, he is again a 
candidate on behalf of the republic a . I will let 
you know what Lucceius does when I shall have 
seen Csesar, who will be here in two days' time. 
That the Sicyonians should injure you, you may 
attribute to Cato, and to his emulator, Servilius. 
What ! does not that stroke affect many good men ? 
But, if it must be so, let us commend it ; only let 
us afterwards, in the dissentions of the state, be 
content to be left alone. My Amalthea b expects 
and wants you. My Tusculanum and Pompei- 
anum delight me exceedingly, excepting that they 
have overwhelmed me, the asserter of debts c , not 
with Corinthian brass, but debts of this ordinary 
brass money. In Gaul I hope all is quiet. You 
may expect soon to receive my Prognostica d , with 
the little volume of orations. In the mean time 
let me know what are your intentions about coming 
to us, for Pomponia desired I might be informed 
that you would be at Rome in July. This does 
not agree with the letters you had written to me 
about the time of your setting out. 

Psetus, as I before mentioned to you, has pre- 
sented me with all the books which his brother left. 
This gift of his is dependent upon your diligence. 
If you have any regard for me, take care that they 
may be preserved, and sent to me. Nothing can 
be more acceptable to me than this ; and I would 
have you carefully secure the Latin as well as the 
Greek books. I shall regard this as your gift. I 
have sent a letter to Octavius e . I had not spoken 
to him; for I neither supposed your business to be 
of a provincial nature, nor did I consider you 
among the scriveners f : but I have written, as it 
became me, with all diligence. 

of the tribunes, for opposing the Agrarian law; but after 
a few hours was liberated by Pompeius, attended by some 
of the other tribunes. 

z The similarity of the Latin words suggested this ex- 
pression to Cicero, which it would be perhaps impossible, 
and certainly trifling, to preserve in a translation. 

a He is mentioned book i. letter 14. 

b The reason of this term being applied to a library is 
explained before, book i. letter 13. In letter 16, book i. he 
mentions his intention of having an Amaltheum of his 
own at Arpinum. 

c This has been supposed to allude to the Catilinarian 
conspirators, who were many of them overwhelmed with 
debts. It seems to me more probable, that it should refer 
to his general practice as an advocate. 

d Cicero had translated the Prognostics of Aratus, a 
Greek poet. 

e The father of Augustus Caspar, at that time governor 
of the province of Macedonia. 

f It is evident, from some former letters, that Atticus 
was in danger of sustaining a considerable loss at Sicyon, 
the tributes of which place he appears to have rented, but 
which had lately been withheld under pretence of a gene- 



LETTER II. 

Take care, I beseech you, of our young Cicero *: 
we are his uncles, and ought, according to the 
Greek expression, to be his guardian deities h . I 
have been engaged in reading the Pelleneeum*, and 
have a large pile of Dicaearchus's works before me. 
What a great man he is ! One may learn from him 
much more than from Procilius. At Rome I believe 
I have his Athenaics and Corinthiacs. If you take 
my advice you will read him. This I answer for, 
that he is a wonderful man. Herodes, if he were 
wise, would read him, rather than write one sylla- 
ble of his own. He has shot at me by letter ; with 
you I see he has come to close quarters. I would 
sooner have been a conspirator myself, than have 
opposed the conspiracy, if I had thought it would 
be necessary to hear himJ. You are mistaken 
about Lollius k ; about Vinius I quite agree with 
you. But how is this ? Do you observe that the 
Kalends are coming, and Antonius 1 is not come ? 
That the judges are summoned ? For so they in- 
form me, that Nigidius threatens in the assembly 
to call to account any judge who absents himself. 
I should be glad however if you have heard anything 
about Antonius's arrival, that you would send me 
word. And since you do not come hither m , at 
least sup with me the day before the Kalends. 
Mind that you do not fail. Fare you well. 



LETTER III. 

I imagine I ought to present 11 my congratula- 
tions on Valerius's having been defended by Hor- 
tensius, and acquitted. This judgment was sup- 
posed to be granted to the favour of C. Atilius. I 

ral decree of the senate in favour of all free states. See 
book i. letter 19. 

g The son of Quintus and Pomponia. 

h The occasion and circumstances of this letter, the 
place from whence it is written, or to which it is directed, 
the persons and the books named in it, are so little known, 
that it is involved in considerable obscurity. Cicero seems 
to be speaking of his nephew, who was also nephew to 
Atticus, and might possibly be unwell at Rome, while 
Cicero was at one of his villas. I have ventured to give to 
this passage a sense very different from that of any com- 
mentary I have seen ; and I have done so upon the autho- 
rity of Plutarch, in the conclusion of his piece entitled 
TT€p\ 0i\ade\(pias, where he observes that the very word 
6e7os, signifying at once " uncle" and " divine," leads to 
brotherly kindness and affection : SoK€?ydp jxol ^ovvo^ia 
KaXws vcp-qyelaOai irpb; e&voiav adeA<paiv kcu aya.TTT}(Jiv. 
Cicero therefore employs the Greek term, because the Latin 
did not bear this signification. 

1 U€\\r)vaicav. This was probably some work of Di- 
ca?archus on the government of Pellene, a small territory 
of Achaia. 

J It is probable this Herodes might have written some 
poor account of Cicero's consulship, which it pained him 
to read. 

k Who Lollius or Vinius may have been is not known. 

1 C, Antonius was impeached for extortion in his govern- 
ment of Macedonia. 

1,1 We may suppose that this letter was addressed to 
Atticus at Rome, whither he was going without accepting 
Cicero's invitation to the villa whence he writes. There- 
fore, having missed him before, Cicero now appoints him 
to sup with him at Rome the day when he intended to go 
thither himself. 

n Evayy4\ia. This usuallv signifies the gratuity given 
TT 



642 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



suspect too, that Epicrates °, as you say, may have 
grown wanton ; for I did not like his military 
shoes, any more than his white bandages. We 
shall know what the case is when you come. 

When you find fault with the narrowness of my 
windows, you must know that you find fault with 
the Institution of Cyrus p : for when I made the 
same observation, Cyrus said that the view of lawns 
through wide apertures was less pleasing. For, let 
the sight be A, the object B C, the rays D and E 
— you understand the rest. If we saw by the in- 
cidence of images i, the images might be much 
embarrassed in these narrow openings ; but now 
the emanation of rays is made merrily. If you find 
fault with other parts, you will not find me silent, 
unless it be on some point which can be altered 
without expense. 

I come now to the month of January, and to my 
particular situation and policy ; in which we must, 
like Socrates, consider both sides ; and then at last, 
like his disciples, choose what pleases us. It is 
truly a matter of great concern : for either a strong 
resistance must be made to the Agrarian law, in 
which there will be some fighting, but full of ho- 
nour ; or we must be quiet, which is the same 
thing as going out of the way to Solonium, or An- 
tium ; or else I must give it my support, which 
they say Caesar so much expects from me, that he 
makes no doubt of it. For Cornelius has been with 
me, Balbus I mean, Caesar's friend. He affirmed 
that Caesar would follow mine and Pompeius's 
advice in all things, and that he would endeavour 
to unite Crassus with Pompeius. Here is the 
state of this business. I am intimately connected 
with Pompeius ; if you please with Caesar too. 
There is an opportunity of returning into favour 
with my enemies, of conciliating the populace, of 
securing tranquillity for my old age. But that for- 
mer resolution of mine influences me, which is in 
the third book r — " In the mean time, that course 
which you pursued with virtue and spirit in 
early youth, and also as consul, you must still 
maintain, and grow in reputation and the praises 
of good men." Calliope herself s having dictated 
this to me in that book, which contains so many 
wholesome maxims, I think I ought not to doubt 
but that, in the words of Homer, " My best au- 
spices should be to fight for my country." But 
let us reserve these considerations for our walks 
during the Compitalia*. Do not forget the day 



to the messengers of good news. The letter is generally 
supposed to have been written from the country to Atticus 
at Rome, in answer to one received from him communi- 
cating this intelligence. It seems to me more natural to 
suppose that Cicero might have heard it elsewhere, and 
that it wanted confirmation. 

This term is used to designate Pompeius, who appears 
to have affected some ambitious singularity of dress, and 
may have been suspected of interfering in the cause of 
Valerius. 

p This is a playful application of the title of Xenophon's 
work to the architect whom Cicero employed, and who 
happened to be named Cyrus. 

q This seems to relate to the Epicurean doctrine of images 
described by Lucretius, and here humorously applied to 
the circumstances of Cicero's house. 

r Of a poem written by Cicero on the subject of his 
consulate. 

8 Calliope was invoked in this book to inspire him. 

1 The Compitalia was a Roman festival, on which, it 
seems, Atticus had promised to pay Cicero a visit in the 
country. 



before the Compitalia. I shall order the bath to 
be heated ; and Terentia invites Pomponia : we 
will add your mother to our party. Bring me, 
from my brother Quintus's library, Theophrastus 
on the Love of Honour. 



LETTER IV. 

I am very much obliged to you for sending 
me Serapion's work ; of which, between ourselves, 
I scarcely understand a thousandth part. I have 
desired you may be paid for it in ready money ; that 
you might not set it down among the expenses of 
your presents. But, having made mention of 
money, let me beg you to come to some arrange- 
ment with Titinius in any manner you are able. 
If he does not adhere to what he had professed, I 
should like best, if Pomponia agrees to it, that the 
things which are so dearly bought may be returned. 
If that cannot be done, let the money be paid, 
rather than have any altercation about it. I 
should be very glad to have you settle this before 
you go with your usual kindness and diligence. 

Does Clodius then, as you say, go to Tigranes ? 
Would it were on the same terms as Scepsius u ! 
but I have no reason to object to it. For it will 
be a more favourable time for my absence on a free 
lieutenancy v , when my brother Quintus, as I hope, 
may be settled at his ease, and it may be known 
what that priest of the Bona Dea w is about. In 
the mean time I shall entertain myself with the 
Muses with an even spirit, nay, with cheerful- 
ness and satisfaction. Nor will it ever enter my 
mind to envy Crassus, or to repent that I have 
been true to myself. I will endeavour to gratify 
you on the subject of geography ; but 1 make no 
certain promise. It is a great undertaking ; but 
yet, at your desire, I will try to let you have some 
fruit of my absence. Whatever you may have 
learned relating to the republic, especially whom 
you may think likely to be the consuls, let me 
know, though I am become less curious since I 
have determined not to trouble myself about pub- 
lic affairs. 

I have been to see Terentia's wood. We want 
nothing but the Dodonean oak x , to makj us think 
we have possession of Epirus itself. About the 
Kalends I shall be either in my Formianum or 
Pompeianum. If I should not be in the Formia- 
num. come, if you love me, to the Pompeianum, — 
it will give me great delight, and will be very little 
out of your way. I have ordered Philotimus to let 
the wall be done as you wished. I think, however, 

u Many conjectures have been formed respecting the 
true reading and the right interpretation of this passage. 
Gronovius proposes to read " Scepsii condition e," and ob- 
serves that Metrodorus Scepsius was sent by Mithridates 
to Tigranes, and there lost his life. I have adopted his 
emendation, but have ventured to put upon it a new con- 
struction. After all, it is very doubtful. 

v What the nature of these free lieutenancies was, is 
explained, book i. letter 10, note J. 

w Cicero thought to absent himself from Rome during 
the time of Clodius's tribunate. He was expecting that 
his brother Quintus might be relieved from his government 
before another year, and might then keep a watch upon 
Clodius's operations. 

x These oaks were of sacred memory, and situated in 
Epirus, the country of Atticus's villa, to which he here 
alludes. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



643 



you should consult Vettius. In these times, when 
the life of every good man is so precarious, I con- 
sider the enjoyment of the Palatine ground 7 for 
one summer to be of great value ; yet so, that I 
should wish nothing less, than that Pomponia, or 
the boy, should be exposed to any danger from its 
falling. 



LETTER V. 

I wish indeed, and have long wished, to visit 
Alexandria, and the rest of Egypt ; and likewise to 
get away from hence, where people are grown 
tired of me ; and to return when they may again 
want me. But as to going at this time, and being 
sent by these persons 2 , (I may say with Hector,) 
" I have too much respect for the Trojans, and. 
long-robed Trojan ladies." For what will our 
nobles say if there are any remaining ? that I have 
renounced my principles for a bribe ? " The first 
to impute disgrace to me will be Polydamus," 
that Cato of ours, who alone is as good as a hun- 
dred thousand. But what will history say of us 
some six hundred years hence ? which I value much 
more than the idle rumours of those who are now 
living. But I think we must suspend our judg- 
ment and wait. For if it should be offered, I shall 
still be at liberty to do as I please ; and then it 
will be time to determine. There is some credit 
even in declining. Therefore, if Theophanes a 
should happen to say anything to you about it, do 
not immediately repel him. 

I am expecting to hear from you on the following 
subjects: what Arrius says b ; how he bears his 
disappointment ; whether any consuls are yet pro- 
vided ; whether, as the people say, they are to be 
Pompeius and Crassus ; or, as I am informed, Ser- 
vius Sulpicius with Gabinius ; also, whether there 
are any new laws ; and in short, if there is any news ; 
and since Nepos is going away, who is to have the 
augurate c ; with which alone I could be caught 
by them. See my levity. But why do I speak of 
these things ? which I desire to have done with, 
and to give my whole mind and all my care to phi- 
losophy. This, I say, is my intention : would it 
had always been so ! But now, when I have ex- 
perienced the vanity of all that I once thought 
great, I think of dedicating myself to all the Muses. 
Let me, however, hear more certainly about Cur- 
tius d , and whether anybody is fixed upon to suc- 
ceed him; and what is doing about P. Clodius ; 

y The palaestra was properly a piece of ground appro- 
priated to public exercises. This might have adjoined to 
the wall of Cicero's and his brother's premises, which were 
contiguous buildings on the Palatine hill. The repairs of 
the partition wall may be supposed to have interfered with 
their access to this ground, at least for a season. 

z Caesar and Pompeius thought at this time of sending 
an ambassador to Alexandria, to confirm Ptolemy Auletes 
on his throne. 

a Theophanes was a creature of Pompeius. 

b Arrius had received a promise of support from Crassus. 
but was now set aside to make room for the friends of 
Caesar and Pompeius. 

c Upon the death of Metellus Celer it was natural to 
suppose that his brother Nepos might have succeeded to 
his office of augur ; but his going now to the government 
of a province made him ineligible, as it was necessary to 
solicit it personally at Rome. 

d It is not known who this Curtius is, or what place he 
held. 



and tell me everything, as you promise, at your 
leisure. I wish you to inform me also what day 
you think of leaving Rome, that I may acquaint 
you where I shall be ; and I beg you will very soon 
let me hear about what I have written to you. I 
anxiously expect your letters. 



LETTER VI. 

What I promised in a former letter, that some 
work should appear, the fruit of my retirement, I 
do not now very strongly confirm ; for I are so 
attached myself to idleness, that I am not to be 
torn from it. Therefore I either amuse myself 
with books, of which I have an agreeable collection 
at Antium ; or I count the waves, for the season is 
not favourable for catching lacertee e . My mind 
quite revolts at writing. The geographical re- 
searches which I projected are a great undertaking; 
for Eratosthenes, whom I had intended to follow, 
is strenuously opposed by Serapion, and by Hip- 
parchus. What think you, if Tyrannio f should 
join them ? Besides, the subject is difficult to 
explain, and of a uniform nature, and less suscepti- 
ble of any ornaments of writing than I had sup- 
posed ; and, which is the chief of all, any cause is, 
to say the truth, sufficient to make me give it up. 
I am doubtful whether I shall settle here, or at 
Antium, to pass all this time g ; where I would 
rather have been a duumvir, than have been con- 
sul at Rome h . You have done wiser in providing 
a home at Buthrotum. But believe me this town 
of Antium comes very near to yours. Could it be 
supposed there was any place so near Rome where 
there are many people who never saw Vatinius l ? 
where there is nobody besides myself who cares if any 
one of the twenty commissioners J is alive and safe ? 
where nobody interrupts me, and everybody loves 
me ? Here then is the place to exercise my politi- 
cal talents : there I am not only prevented, but 
am weary of it. Therefore some private observa- 
tions, which I may read to you alone, shall be 
drawn up in Theopompus's manner, or still more 
severely. I now trouble myself no further about 
the public, than to hate the wicked ; and even that 
without anger, or rather with some pleasure in 
writing. 

But to come to business : I have written to the 
city qusestors about my brother Quintus's affair. 
See what they say k ; whether there is any hope of 

<? It is probable these lacertae were some common sort of 
fish ; but I have thought it best to retain the original word 
in a thinpc of so much uncertainty. 

f Tyrannio, a severe preceptor, with whom both the 
Ciceros placed their sons. 

S Cicero had determined to withdraw from Rome during 
the storms which he saw approaching, and which he had 
no power to control. 

h His conduct during his consulship, meritorious as it 
had been, was now going to be arraigned, which filled his 
mind with these sentiments. The chief magistrates of the 
provincial towns were called duumviri. 

i Vatinius was a factious tribune, who exerted himself 
this year in opposing the authority of the senate. 

J These were commissioners appointed to divide the lands 
of Campania agreeably to the Agrarian law. 

k I have thought it right to preserve in the translation 
this little irregularity of the original expression, the En- 
glish language admitting it with as much propriety as the 

Latin. 

T T 2 



(544 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



Roman money 1 ; or whether we must be put off 
with the Pompeian cistophorus. Moreover, settle 
what is to be done about the wall. Is there any- 
thing else ? yes : let me be informed when you 
mean to go from thence. 



LETTER VII. 

I will think again about the geography. You 
ask me for two orations : one of which 1 did not 
care to write out, because I had left it imperfect ; 
the other, that I might not praise a person I did 
not like : but I will see about this also. However, 
there shall be something, that you may not think 
I have been totally idle. What you tell me about 
Clodius is highly agreeable to me ; and I hope, 
when you come, you will bring me a full account ; 
and that you will let me hear from you in the 
mean time, if you know, or suspect, anything ; 
especially what he is likely to do about the em- 
bassy. Before I read your letter I was wishing to 
get at the fellow™, not forsooth that I might put 
off my engagement with him (for I am eager for 
the contest) ; but I thought be would lose what- 
ever popularity he had acquired by being made a 
plebeian. " For what purpose have you passed 
over to the people ? that you might go to salute 
Tigranes ? Tell me ; do the Armenian kings refuse 
to salute patricians?" In short I was prepared to 
work him upon this embassy ; which if he slights, 
and if, as you say, that excites the indignation 
both of the framers and supporters of the law by 
which he was disnobled, it will be a fine scene. 
But, to say the truth, our Publius (Clodius) is 
treated rather disrespectfully : in the first place, 
that he who was once the only man in Caesar's 
house, now should not have been able to be one 
among twenty : then, that one embassy should 
have been talked of, another should have been given ; 
that rich one for the purpose of exacting money, 
is reserved, I suppose, for the Pisaurian Drusus, 
or the glutton Vatinius : this meagre and dainty 
banishment is given to him, whose tribunate is 
reserved to suit the occasions of these gentlemen. 
Inflame him , I conjure you, as much as possible. The 
only hope of safety is in the disagreement of these 
people among themselves, of which I learned some 
symptoms from Curio. Already Arrius complains 
that the consulate has been snatched away from 
him : Megabocchus n , and these sanguinary youths, 
are determined enemies. To this let there be* added, 
yes, let there be added, that contest for the augur- 
ship. I hope often to send you fine letters upon 
these subjects. But I want to know what it is that 
you throw out obscurely ; that already some of the 

1 It seems Quintus Cicero wanted to have the expenses 
of his government defrayed in Roman money, instead of 
the Asiatic cistophori, accruing from the plunder of Mith- 
ridates by Pompeius. The cistophorus was a small coin, 
so called from bearing the impression of the cistus, or chest', 
used in the mysteries of Ceres. 

ra This sense appears to me sufficiently good, without 
altering the text in opposition to all JMSS. Most commen- 
tators have thought fit to omit the preposition in, and to 
understand Cicero to say that he had wished Clodius might 
go to Tigranes. 

n It is generally supposed that by this term is meant 
Pompeius, and that he was at variance with these young 
incendiaries, the remains of Catiline's accomplices. 



quinqueviri themselves are beginning to speak 
out. What is this ? for if there is anything in 
it, it must be better than I had imagined. I would 
have you understand this, not as if I made these 
inquiries with any view of engaging myself in 
public affairs. I have long since been weary of 
steering the state, even when it was permitted me 
to do so : but now, when I am obliged to quit the 
ship, not throwing away, but taking in the rudder p, 
I wish from the land to look at the shipwreck of 
those people; I wish, as says your friend Sophocles, 
" from under my roof to hear the frequent drip- 
ping with a tranquil mind." 

You will see what is necessary about the wall. 
I will correct the error of Castricius : yet Quintus 
had written to me 25,000 1 sestertii ; now to your 
sister he says 30,000. Terentia salutes you. Cicero 
desires that you will answer for him to Aristo- 
demus, in the same manner as you have done for 
his relation r , your sister's son. I shall not neglect 
your information about Amalthea 8 . Farewell. 



LETTER VIII. 

While I was eagerly expecting a letter from 
you in the evening, as I usually do, I was informed 
that the servants had arrived from Rome. I call them 
in, and ask if they have any letters. They say no. 
What do you say, said I, is there nothing from 
Pomponius ? Alarmed at my voice and counte- 
nance, they confessed that they had received a 
letter, but had lost it on their way. What think 
you ? I was very much provoked ; for all your 
letters lately had brought some useful or agreeable 
information. Now, if there was anything deserv- 
ing to be recorded in the letter you sent the 16th 
of April, write as soon as possible, that I may not 
remain in ignorance ; or if there was nothing but 
good-humour, yet repeat even that. Know that 
young Curio has been here to visit me. What he 
said about Publius (Clodius) exactly agreed with 
your letters. He is wonderfully incensed against 
our haughty kings 1 . He said that the young men 
were equally angry, and could not bear this state 
of things. We are in a good way. If we can 
depend upon these people, let us, methinks, mind 
our own affairs' 1 . I am engaged in history. At 
the same time, though you may think me another 
Saufeius v , nothing is more indolent than I am. 
But let me explain to you my motions, that you 
may determine where you will come co me. I J 
design to go to Formianum the middle of April w . ' 
Then (since you think I ought to omit that delicate 

Who these five commissioners might be, or for what 
purpose they were appointed, does not appear. 

P The expression implies that he did not abandon the 
state in anger, but withdrew his guidance till some more 
favourable season, when his services might be available. 

q The text is evidently corrupt. I have supposed that 
it ought to be written U.S. ((D) ((D) 1)). But it is impos- 
sible to ascertain the truth, and is of little moment. 

r In the original it is " brother." [Sec book i. letter 1.] 
They were really first-cousins. 

s See book i. letter 16. 

1 Caesar, Crassus, and Pompeius. 
" Cease to trouble ourselves. 

v A philosopher of great study. 

w The Parilia was a festival celebrated on the 21st of 
April. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



645 



basin x at this time) on the first of May I shall leave 
Formianum, that I maybe at Antium on the third. 
For the games of Antium are to take place from 
the fourth to the sixth of May, and Tullia wishes 
to see them. Thence I think of going to Tus- 
culanum, then to Arpinum, and to be at Rome 
on the first of June. Let me see you either in 
Formianum, or at Antium, or in Tusculanum. 
Replace your former letter, and add something 
new. 



LETTER IX. 

I hope you are well. Csecilius, the quaestor, 
having told me that he is going to send a servant, 
I have written this hastily, that I might elicit your 
marvellous dialogues with Publius, as well those 
which you mention, as that which you reserve, 
saying it is tedious to detail your reply ; also that 
which has not yet taken place, which that JBoopis^ 
will relate to you upon her return from Solonium. 
I would have you believe nothing can be more 
agreeable to me. If the agreement relating to me 
is not kept I am in heaven 2 . This our Jeru- 
salemite a , who brings matters before the people, 
shall know what a fine return he has made for my 
choicest speeches, of which you may expect a dis- 
tinguished counterpart 15 . For, as well as I can 
guess, if that profligate is in favour with these 
mighty men d , he will not be able to exult, not only 
over the consular Cynic e , but not over those 
Tritons of the stews. I can never be an object 
of envy when I am robbed of my power, and of all 
my senatorian authority. But if he disagrees with 
them it will be absurd to attack me. However, let 
him if he will. Believe me, this revolution in the 
state has been made gaily, and with less noise than 
I had supposed ; more speedily indeed than seemed 
possible ; and that, partly through the fault of 
Cato ; but, besides, through the shameful conduct 
of those who neglected the auspices, the ^Elian, 
the Junian, and Licinian law, the Ceecilian, and 
the Didian ; who threw away all the resources of the 
constitution ; who gave away kingdoms and estates 
to tetrarchs ; and to a few persons immense sums 
of money. I see now to what party envy will pass 
over, and where it will abide. ■ Think that I have 
learned nothing either from experience, or from 
Theophrastus, if you do not shortly see people call 
out for those our times. For if the authority of the 

x The place here meant is Baise, situated in the hay of 
Naples. See book i. letter 16. 

y Cicero uses an epithet familiarly applied by Homer to 
Juno. He means by it to designate Clodia, who, perhaps, 
might be full-eyed, which the word signifies ; and, besides, 
resembled Juno in cohabiting, as it was suspected, with 
her brother Clodius. 

z That is, if the conspiracy against Cicero should be 
broken up, he may be at his ease. 

a Pompeius, who had captured Jerusalem. He had con- 
ducted the auspices at the time that Clodius's bill of adop- 
tion was brought before the people. 

b TlaMvwdlav, meaning that Cicero would now speak 
in accusation of Pompeius, whom he had formerly 
praised. 

c Clodius. d Caesar, Crassus, and Pompeius. 

e Cicero calls himself a cynic, as adopting a severe line 
of conduct, and intimates that the triumvirs would no 
longer co-operate with Clodius against him, or those patri- 
cian epicures, when their loss of authority ceased to excite 
envy. 



senate excited envy, what do you think will be the 
case, when it is transferred, not to the people, but 
to three ambitious men ? Therefore let them make 
whom they will consuls, and tribunes of the peo- 
ple ; nay, let them clothe the evil of Vatinius f 
with the painted robe of the priesthood, you will 
shortly see not only those who have committed no 
offence, but even Cato himself, who is so guilty in 
their eyes, raised to great honour. As for myself, 
if your companion Publius permits it, I mean to 
act the philosopher ; if he designs anything, then 
only to defend myself; and, as becomes that pro- 
fession, " I announce that I will repel any one 
who first insults me." Only let my country be 
favourable. It has received from me, though not 
more than is due, at least more than was demanded. 
I prefer being ill rowed under the steerage of 
another, to steering well with such ungrateful 
rowers. But these things may be discussed better 
when we meet. Now hear the answer to your 
inquiry. I intend to go from Formianum to Antium 
the third of May ; from Antium I wish to go to 
Tusculanum on the seventh of May. But as soon 
as I leave Formianum, where I mean to stay till 
the end of April, I will immediately let you know. 
Terentia sends her compliments. The young 
Cicero salutes the Athenian Titus s. 



LETTER X h . 
(Grcev. xii.) 
Let those men 1 deny, if they can, that Publius 
has been made a plebeian. It is a mere exercise of 
sovereignty, and is not to be borne. Let but Publius 
send persons to attest it, and I will swear that our 
Cnaeus, when he was colleague with Balbus, told 
me at Antium, that himself had conducted the 
auspices on the occasion. What two charming 
letters have been delivered to me from you, both 
at the same time ! I do not know what remune- 
ration I can make for them ; but that some is due 
I freely acknowledge. Observe the concurrence of 
circumstances. I had just gone from the Antian 
into the Appian road at the Ties Tabernae, on the 
festival of CeresJ, when my friend Curio, coming 
from Rome, met me. At the same place presently 
came the servant from you with letters. Curio 
asked me if I had heard no news. I said, no. 
Publius (says he) is canvassing for the place of 
tribune of the people. What think you ? He 
is very angry with Caesar, and threatens to re- 
scind all his acts. How does Caesar receive it? 

f Vatinius had scrofulous swellings in the neck, called 
in Latin struma, and in English evil. Ovarivios x 0l P^' 
Swv tov rpdxriXou 7repi7rAea>s. — Plutarch's Life of 
Cicero. 

S Cicero concludes with a Greek form of salutation from 
his son to Atticus, whose praenomen was Titus. 

•i This letter is the 12th in Graevius's edition, but is 
evidently misplaced, because it is alluded to in that which 
follows. This was written at four P. M. from the Tres 
Tabernse, after Cicero had left Antium on his way to For- 
mianum. The next was written at ton o'clock the same 
night from Appii Forum. The 12th after he was at For- 
mianum. 

i The triumvirs, between whom and Clodius there was 
now the appeai-ance of disagreement. 

J The Cerealia were celebrated in the second week of 
April. The precise day is variously computed from the 
7th to the 12th. 



646 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



said I. He denies that he proposed anything 
about his adoption. Then Curio declared his own 
hatred k , and that of Memmius and Meteilus Nepos. 
I took my leave of the young man, and hastened 
to your letters. Where are they, who speak of 
"viva voce information ? How much more fully 
have I learned from your letters, than from his 
conversation, what was doing, what were the daily 
surmises, the intention of Publius, the trumpet of 
Boopis 1 , the standard-hearer Athenio, the letters 
sent to Cnseus, the conversation of Theophanes 
and of Memmius. Besides, what an expectation 
have you given me of that licentious feast ! I am 
dying with curiosity. Yet I shall be satisfied 
without your writing me an account of that meet- 
ing, as I wish rather to hear it from your own 
mouth. As to your exhortation to write some- 
thing ; the materials indeed increase upon me, as 
you say ; but the whole thing is yet in fermenta- 
tion, and " during the autumn the wine is thick : " 
when it is settled, what I may write will be better 
digested. But if you cannot have anything at 
present, at least you shall be the first to have it, 
and for some time the only one. You do well to 
like Dicsearchus : he is an honest man, and not a 
little better citi2en than those rulers of iniquity 1 ". 
I have written this letter on the festival of Ceres, 
at four in the afternoon, the moment I bad read 
yours ; but with the intention of despatching it 
to-morrow by the first person I meet n . Terentia 
is delighted with your letter, and sends her kindest 
regards ; and Cicero the philosopher salutes the 
statesman Titus. 



LETTER XL 

(Gvcbv. x.) 
Pray admire my firmness. I do not mean to 
attend the games at Antium? ; for it carries with 
it an appearance of inconsistency, while I wish to 
avoid every suspicion of luxury, suddenly to be 
seen travelling not only delicately, but unbecom- 
ingly. I shall therefore wait for you in Formianum 
till the 7th of May. Let me know what day I may 
expect to see you. From Appii Forum, 10 p. m. 
I despatched another letter a little before from the 
Tres Tabernsei. 

k Hatred of the power assumed by Cscsar. 

I This is meant of Clodia, [see letter 9 of this book,] who 
was urging her brother to extremities, as it were with a 
clarion or war-trumpet. The same figure is continued in 
applying to Athenio the term of standard-bearer of sedi- 
tion : Athenio had been the author of an insurrection in 
Sicily. Under this name Cicero probably means Vatinius. 

m In Greek adiKaiapxoi, which it is impossible to trans- 
late so as to preserve the opposition to the name Dicsear- 
chus ; the hitter signifying " a ruler of justice," the former 
" rulers of iniquity." 

II He was now on the Appian road, which was much 
frequented, and could not fail of presenting to him some 
person who would convey his letter to Rome. 

° This is said in Greek, after the Greek manner, as if 
Cicero and Atticus had changed conditions ; Cicero now 
seeking retirement, while Atticus remained in the throng 
and business of Home. 

P See letter 8 of this book. 

<l The Appii Forum and Tree Tabcrna; derive an interest 
from the mention of these places in St. Paul's journey to 
Rome, Acts xxviii. 15. 



LETTER XII. 

{Green, xi.) 

To tell you the truth, I seem as if I were banished 
since I have been in Formianum. While I was at 
Antium there was no day on which I did not know 
better what was doing at Rome, than those who 
were living there. For your letters acquainted me 
not only with the state of Rome, but with that of 
the republic at large ; and taught me not only what 
happened, but also what was going to happen. 
Now, unless anything is picked up from a casual 
passenger, I can hear nothing. Therefore, though 
I hope very soon to see you, yet let me have, by 
the servant, whom I have directed immediately to 
come back, some long letter, full not only of all 
that has been done, but likewise of your own opi- 
nions. Take care to let me know the day when 
you mean to leave Rome. I intend to remain in 
Formianum till the sixth of May. If you do not 
arrive before that day, I shall perhaps see you at 
Rome. For why should I invite you to Arpinum, 
" a rugged place (as Ulysses says of Ithaca 1 ,) but 
a good nurse of youths ; than which nothing can 
in my eyes be more delicious." So much for the 
present. Farewell. 



LETTER XIII. 

A provoking circumstance, that nobody should 
have delivered the letter s I wrote to you from Tres 
Tabernee the same hour that I received your most 
acceptable intelligence. But you must know that 
the parcel in which it was contained was taken to 
my house* the same day on which I sent it, and 
from thence was brought back to me at Formianum. 
I have ordered this letter again to be taken to 
you, that you might be assured of the pleasure 
yours had given me. When you inform me that 
nothing is said in Rome 11 , this is what I expected. 
But, I can tell you, people are not reserved in the 
country, nor can the country bear your v tyranny. 
But if you come into this Telepylus Laestrygonia w 
(Formise I mean), what a noise do people make ! 
How irritated are their minds ! In what detesta- 
tion is our friend Magnus*, whose appellation of 
Great begins to decay with that of the Rich Crassus. 
Believe me, I have yet met with nobody who could 
bear this state of things so quietly as I do. There- 
fore pray let us continue to enjoy our philosophical 
retirement ; for I can aver upon my oath, that 

1 The original is taken from Homer's Odyssey, and is 
the more appropriate in being applied by Cicero to Arpi- 
num, with feelings of affection towards his native place, 
with which Ulysses is represented to have said it of his 
own country, Ithaca. 

s This is the tenth letter of this book. 

* This must have been his house at Rome. 

u That is, nothing was said of the authority usurped by 
the triumvirate. 

v By "your tyranny" is to be understood that which was 
exercised by the triumvirs at Rome, where Atticus was 
staying. 

w Tr)\4irv\os AaHTTpvyovla, is an expression taken 
from Homer's Odyssey, the meaning of which is not exactly 
known. The place so denominated by Homer was sup- 
posed to have been near Formise. 

x A name given to Pompcius, and signifying Great. Sec 
book i. letter 20. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



647 



there is nothing worth contending for7. If you 
have got your letters to the Sicyonians 2 , hasten 
down to Formianuin. I think of leaving it the 
sixth of May. 



LETTER XIV. 

How great an expectation do you raise in me 
about the discourse of Bibulus ! How great about 
the conversation of Boopis ! How great also about 
that dainty entertainment ! Come, then, yourself 
to my thirsty ears. Though there is now nothing 
which I should think more to be apprehended, than 
that our Sampsiceramus a when he perceives that 
he is lashed by the discourses of all people, and 
sees these proceedings so easily overset, may begin 
to rush into violent counsels. For my own part, I 
am dispirited to that degree, that I prefer being 
enslaved in this indolence, in which I now pine 
away, to contending with the best hope of success. 

In the way of composition, to which you often 
exhort me, nothing can be done. I live in a court- 
house, not in a villa, owing to the throng of the 
Formians ; for this iEmilian tribe would fill a 
court-house b . But I say nothing of the generality, 
who after ten o'clock cease to trouble me. But, 
then, C. Arrius is my nearest neighbour ; nay, he 
is now my very comrade, who even refuses to go to 
Rome, that he may philosophise here with me all 
the day long. On the other side is- Sebosus, that 
friend of Catulus. Which way can I turn myself ? 
I would assuredly go immediately to Arpinum, if I 
did not perceive that you might be expected with 
most convenience in Formianum ; but only till the 
sixth of May. For see to what people my atten- 
tion is given up. It would be a fine opportunity if 
anybody wished now to purchase my Formian 
estate, while these people are about me. And should 
I still attempt anything ? Let us forsooth under- 
take some great work, of much research and 
leisure ! Nevertheless, I will endeavour to satisfy 
you, and will not spare my own pains. 



LETTER XV. 

I see, as you tell me, that things are not less 
uncertain in the state than they are represented in 
your letter ; but that very variety of reports and 

7 I have given to this passage an interpretation some- 
thing different from that commonly received, because I 
thought it more consonant to the usual phraseology of the 
ancient Romans, and to his own feelings, expressed in 
letter 8 of this book : — " Aliud agamus." 

z Atticus had not been able to get from the people of 
Sicyon the tributes which he had rented. [See book i. 
letter 19.] He appears to have staid in Rome to solicit 
letters to the Sicyonians for the payment of this money. 

a It is generally agreed, that by this name, which recurs 
in several subsequent letters, is to be understood Pompeius. 
The name occurs in Josephus as king of the Emesi, per- 
haps a prince conquered by Pompeius. It cannot but 
strike every reader, that the names under which he is 
mentioned in these letters should be so various, and often 
so extraordinary; perhaps in derision of some affected 
grandeur. 

b So I understand the text of the original, which is by 
no means clear, and may possibly be corrupt. Literally — 
"But what an JEmilian tribe (have I) equal to a court- 
house?" The people of Formias being reckoned in the 
jEmilian tribe, are therefore called by that name. 



opinions delights me, for I seem to be in Rome 
when I read your letters ; and, as it always happens 
in affairs of such magnitude, to hear sometimes one 
thing, sometimes another. There is one circum- 
stance I cannot comprehend, what he can possibly 
devise for carrying into effect the Agrarian scheme 
without any opposition. What results from that 
firmness of Bibulus in the postponement of the 
comitia, besides the exposition of his own opinion, 
without any correction of the evils of the republic ? 
Our hope, then, is in Publius. Let him, let him 
be made a tribune of the people ; if for nothing 
else, that you may the sooner come back from 
Epirus (for I take it for granted that nothing will 
prevent your going thither ,) especially if he wishes 
for any contention with me. For I do not doubt, 
if there should be anything of this kind, you will 
hasten up. But if this should not be the case, 
whether he rush on to his own ruin, or whether he 
retrieve the condition of the state, I propose to 
myself a noble sight, if only it is permitted me to 
see it with you by my side. 

As I was writing this, in comes Sebosus. I had 
hardly felt my vexation, when " Good morning," 
says Arrius. This is getting away from Rome ! 
From whom is it I have escaped to fall into such 
hands? I must go "to my cradle and native 
hills d ." In short, if I cannot be alone, I will 
rather live among mere rustics than with these 
mighty civil people. However, as you say nothing 
certain about your motions, I will wait for you in 
Formianum till the fifth of May. Your attention 
and diligence in the Malvian dispute c is extremely 
gratifying to Terentia. She is not aware that you 
are supporting the common cause of all who occupy 
the public lands. But you still pay something to 
the collectors of the revenue ; she refuses even 
that. Both she, and the aristocratical f boy Cicero, 
send their compliments. 



LETTER XVI. 

The thirtieth of April, as I was dozing after 
dinner, your letter was delivered to me, in which 
you speak of the Campanian land?. What think 
you ? In the first place, it struck me in such a 
manner as effectually to remove my sleep ; but this 
was through thoughtfulness rather than uneasiness. 
And the result of my thoughts is this ; first, from 
what you had mentioned in a former letter, of 
having heard from one of Caesar's friends that 
something was to be brought forward to which no- 
body would object ; I had apprehended something 
greater. This did not appear to be of that kind. 
Then, for my consolation, all expectation of the 
Agrarian bounty seems to have centred in the 

c The meaning of the original has been variously under- 
stood. I have ventured to interpret it in a manner differ- 
ent from any that I have seen, and which appears to me 
sufficiently consonant with the Latin idiom, and with the 
context. 

d The original is part of an hexameter verse from some 
unknown author. 

c This evidently relates to the leases of the public lands ; 
but the particular meaning of the term is not known. 

t The expressjpn indicates that the young Cicero was 
already zealous in behalf of the best interests of the re- 
public. 

s A distribution of this land was to be made to the 
people. 



048 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULL1US CICERO 



Campanian land ; which, at ten acres a-piece, can- 
not maintain above five thousand men. All the 
remaining multitude must necessarily be alienated 
from them h . Besides, if there is any one thing 
more calculated than another to inflame the minds 
of good men, it is certainly this ; and the more so, 
because the port duties being removed, and the 
Campanian land distributed, what domestic revenue 
remains besides the twentieth i ? and this I suppose 
will, in one little meeting, be extinguished by the 
shouts of a mob. What our Cnaeus intends, I know 
not, that he could be wrought to such a pitch : 
" for he now breathes through no little flageolet, 
but with a full breath untempered by a reedJ." 
Hitherto he pretended to approve Caesar's laws, 
but to leave it to him to defend his acts : that he 
liked the Agrarian law ; but whether intercession 
could be made or not was no business of his : that 
he was glad to have the affair of the king of Alex- 
andria k at length concluded ; but whether Bibulus 
had been observing the heavens 1 or not, it was not 
his duty to inquire : that on the subject of the 
farmers of the revenue, he had wished to favour 
the order of knights ; but that it was impossible for 
him to guess what would happen if Bibulus came 
down to the forum m . But now, Sampsiceramus, 
what will you say ? that if you have taken away 
from us the tribute of the Campanian land, you 
have appointed it to be levied on Mount Libanus 11 ? 
But how will you support this reasoning ? I will 
keep you, says he, in subjection by Caesar's army. 
But in truth you will not subject me so much by 
that army, as by the ungrateful spirits of those 
people who bear the name of good, but who have 
returned me no thanks, no recompense of reward, 
or even of good words. Should I put myself for- 
ward against that faction, I might yet find some 
means of opposing them. I have now made this 
resolution, that as there is so great a controversy 
between your friend Dicaearchus, and my friend 
Theophrastus , the former preferring a life of busi- 
ness, the latter one of speculation, I will comply 
with both. Dicaearchus 1 have abundantly satisfied 
already ; I now turn to that party which not only 
allows me to be quiet, but reproves me for not 
having always been so. Let us then, O my Titus, 
address ourselves to those noble studies ; and at 
length return thither, from whence we ought never 
to have departed. What you say of my brother 
Quintus's letter to you, was equally true of that 
to me : it was " a lion in front, and behind?. " I 
do not know what to call it ; for at the beginning 
he deplores his stayi in such a manner as to be 
quite affecting ; presently he is so easy about it as 
to desire me to correct and publish his annals. I 



h From Caesar's faction. 

* This was a tax upon the purchase and manumission of 
slaves. 

J The original is taken from Sophocles. 

k Ptolemy Auletes had applied to the Romans to support 
his title to the throne of Egypt. 

1 When any of the principal magistrates were observing 
the auguries, it was unlawful to transact public business. 

m Bibulus had been insulted on his way to the forum. 

n Having subjected Syria to the Roman arms. 

Meaning the variance between worldly business and 
philosophy. 

P The original is part of averse of Homer describing the 
discordant compound of the monster Chimscra, in the sixth 
book of the Iliad. 

a His being obliged to remain in his province. 



wish to direct your attention to what he says about 
the coast duties, and that he had, by the advice of 
his council, referred the business to the senate. It 
appears that he had not yet read my letter, in 
which, after due consideration, I had explained to 
him that they ought not to be exacted, I should be 
glad, if any Greeks 1 " have yet come to Rome upon 
that account, that you would see them, and, if you 
think proper, would let them know my sentiments 
upon it. If I can manage so that this good cause 
may not be lost in the senate, I will endeavour to 
satisfy the renters 8 : but if not (I must speak openly 
with you), I prefer satisfying all Asia, and the 
traders ; for it is also of great importance to them. 
This I consider myself bound to do. But you will 
see about it. Pray, do the quaestors hesitate even 
about paying in cistophori 1 ? For, after having 
tried everything, I must be content with this 
ultimate resource, if there is no other. I shall be 
glad to see you in Arpinatum, and will give you a 
country welcome, since you despise this by the 
sea-side. 



LETTER XVII. 

Just as you say, so I find it : Sampsiceramus is 
disturbed : there is nothing that may not be appre- 
hended. He is confessedly preparing the way to 
tyranny. For, what means that sudden alliance 11 ? 
what means the distribution of the Campanian 
land ? or the money that is squandered ? If this 
were all, it would be more than enough ; but such 
is the nature of the thing, that it cannot end here. 
For how should this afford any pleasure ? They 
never would have brought matters to such a state, 
but for the sake of opening a way to other mischie- 
vous counsels. Ye immortal gods ! But, as you 
say, in Arpinatum, about the thirteenth of May, 
we will not bewail these matters, lest all the time 
and attention we have bestowed on literature be 
lost ; but we will calmly confer together. Nor do 
I, as formerly, derive consolation so much from 
any good hopes, as from indifference, which I 
exercise in nothing so much as in regard to civil 
and public affairs.' Besides, I have a little vanity 
and conceit (it is well to know one's own faults), 
which is in some measure flattered ; for it used to 
sting me to think, that, some six hundred years 
hence, the deserts of Sampsiceramus towards his 
country might eclipse my own. There is now no 
longer room for this apprehension ; for he is so 
sunk, that Phocis Curiana v is honourable in com- 
parison. But of this when we meet. You seem 
to me, however, likely to be at Rome at the time 
of my arrival, which I shall not be sorry for, if it 
put you to no inconvenience. But if you do come, 
as you say, I wish you could get out from Theo- 
phanes how Alabarches w is disposed towards me. 
You will make inquiry, therefore, with your usual 
accuracy, and bring me from him some documents, 

r Asia Minor, where Quintus resided, was colonised by 
Greeks, and had made part of the Greek empire, and still 
used the Greek language. 

s These are the knights farmers of the taxes. 

* See above, letter 6 of this book, note '. 

u Pompeius had hastily married Caesar's daughter, 
though she had been engaged to another man. 

v The exact meaning of this, is not known ; the general 
sense is sufficiently obvious. 

w This is another name applied to Pompeius. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



649 



as it were, by which I may regulate ray conduct. 
We shall be able to learn something of the general 
state of affairs from his conversation. 



\_The foregoing letters were written from Cicero in the 
country to Atticus in Rome. This, and the following 
letters, were from Cicero in Rome to Atticus in the 
country.] 



LETTER XVIII. 

I have received several letters from you, by 
which I find with what doubtfulness and anxiety 
of mind you wish to be informed what news 
there is. We are beset on all sides : and we now 
no longer refuse to be enslaved ; but dread death 
and banishment as greater evils ; which are in truth 
much inferior ones. And this state, which all with 
one voice deplore, is not relieved by a word from 
anybody. It is the aim of those in power, as I 
suspect, to leave nobody any favour to bestow. 
The young Curio* alone speaks out, and openly 
opposes them : he receives the greatest applause, 
is saluted in public with great honour, and has shown 
him many other marks of kindness ; while Fufius? 
is persecuted with hootings, reproaches, and hisses. 
From hence no hope is to be derived, but only the 
greater grief, when you perceive the will of the 
city free ; its courage fettered : and that you may 
not have to ask after each particular in detail, the 
whole is reduced to such a state, that there is no 
hope, not only that individuals, but even that the 
magistrates can long remain free. But amidst this 
oppression, conversation, at least in private circles 
and companies, is less reserved than it was. Our 
grief begins to overcome our fear ; yet so, that all 
is overwhelmed with despair. Even the Campa- 
nian law contains a denunciation, in the assembly 
of the candidates, against anybody who shall 
presume to mention any other occupation of the 
laud, than as it is proposed by the Julian laws. 
The other candidates do not hesitate to swear to 
these conditions ; Laterensis is thought to have 
acted wisely, in ceasing to solicit the- tribunate, 
that he might not be obliged to swear. But I do 
not care to say anything more about the republic : 
I vex myself, and cannot write without the greatest 
pain. I support myself, considering this state of 
oppression, not dejectedly ; considering what I 
have formerly done, not at all courageously. 

I am very kindly invited by Csesar into his pro- 
vince, as his lieutenant : a free lieutenancy is also 
given me under colour of a vow z . But this is not 
a sufficient security in the moderate counsels of 
this pretty youth a ; and banishes me from my bro- 
ther when he arrives : the former is safer, and does 
not prevent my coming up, when I wish it. I 
hold this, but do not think I shall make use of 
it ; and nobody knows it. I do not like to run 
away : I wish to fight b . The affections of people 
are very great : but I do not speak positively. 
You will keep this to yourself. 

x See letter 8 of this book. 

7 Fufius was a creature of Caesar's : he is mentioned 
before, book i. letter 14. 

z Of these free lieutenancies notice has been taken, book 
i. letter 10, note J. 

a Clodius : it alludes to his family name of Pulcher. 
The expression of " moderate counsels "is used ironically. 

b To contend with Clodius. 



Respecting the manumission of Statius , and 
some other matters, I am sorry indeed, but am 
now grown callous. I should be glad, or rather I 
should wish, that you were here: I should then 
want neither counsel, nor comfort. Be ready 
however, that if I call for you, you may fly to me. 



LETTER XIX. 

Many things give me uneasiness, both from so 
great a commotion in the republic, and from the 
dangers which beset me individually, and are six 
hundred fold. But nothing vexes me more than 
the manumission of Statius : " that neither my au- 
thority ; but I omit authority ; not even my dis- 
pleasure, should be respected d ." I do not know 
what it is right to do : not that there is so much in 
the thing itself, as in the conversation it excites. 
I cannot be angry with those whom I greatly love ; 
but I am sorry, indeed very sorry. As for other 
matters of more importance, as the threats of 
Clodius, and the struggles which are prepared for 
me, they affect me but little ; for I conceive that I 
shall be able either to bear them with becoming 
dignity, or to avoid them without vexation. You 
will say perhaps, "enough of dignity; as they said 
of acorns, when they had found better food e ; 
think, I beseech you, of your safety." Alas ! 
why are you not here ? nothing would escape you. 
I am perhaps blinded, and am too much given up 
to a sense of honour. Be assured, nothing ever 
was so disgraceful, so base, so offensive to all 
orders, ranks, and ages, as this present state of 
affairs : more so than I could wish, not only than I 
could have expected. Those courtiers of the popu- 
lace have now taught even moderate people to hiss. 
Bibulus is extolled to the skies. I know not why ; 
but he is so praised, as if " he alone by his check 
restored the state to us f ." Pompeius, my be- 
loved, who now is my greatest pain, has been his 
own ruin : he retains not one supporter. I doubt 
whether it be through inclination, or fear, that he 
is obliged to join with them. For my own part, I 
neither fight with that cause, because of the friend- 
ship that subsists between us ; nor do I approve it, 
lest I should condemn all that I have formerly 
done. I manage as I can. The sense of the peo- 
ple is clearly seen in the theatre, and public shows : 
for in the exhibition of gladiators, now the master, 
then the assistants &, were cut with hisses. In the 
Apollinarian games, Diphilus, the actor, attacked 
our friend Pompeius with petulance. He was 
obliged to repeat a thousand times that sentence, 
" you are great by our wretchedness :" and that — 
" the time will come when you will rue that cour- 
age," he pronounced with the shout of the whole 
theatre ; and so of the rest : for the lines are such, 
that they seemed to have been composed for the 

c This Statius had acted in a manner to excite dissatis- 
faction while he was with Q. Cicero in his government, 
as appears from Cicero's Letters to Quintus, book i. let- 
ter 2. 

d This is taken from the " Phormio" of Terentius. 

e This appears to be a Greek proverb, derived from the 
ancient use of acorns as food : they are still used ia some 
parts of Spain. 

f The original is a celebrated line of Ennius in praise of 
Fabius Maximus. 

g I suspect this may be meant of Caesar and his 
coadjutors. 



650 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



occasion by some enemy of Pompeius. " If nei- 
ther laws nor morals compel," &c. was spoken 
amidst great shouts of applause. After Caesar had 
come in amidst a dead applause 11 , the young 
Curio followed, and was cheered, as Pompeius used 
to be in the days of the republic. Caesar was 
greatly disturbed. Letters were said to be hastily 
despatched to Pompeius at Capua : they ' were 
angry with the knights who stood up to applaud 
Curio : they were at enmity with all the people ; 
they threatened the Roscian law J and even the corn 
law k . It was altogether a confused business. For 
my part, I should have liked better that their 
attempts might pass over in silence ; but I 
fear this is impossible. People do not bear 
what however it seems necessary to bear : but 
there is now one general voice amongst all, con- 
firmed by hatred, rather than by security. In the 
mean time our Publius threatens me, and is an 
open enemy. There hangs over me that business, 
for which you will fly up l . I believe I have that 
consular host of all good men, even of all moder- 
ately good, firmly attached to me. Pompeius pro- 
fesses no common regard for me : at the same time 
he affirms that Clodius will not utter a word about 
me ; in which he does not deceive me, but is him- 
self deceived. Cosconius being dead, I am invited 
to fill his place in the commission for dividing the 
lands ; that is, to supply the place of a dead man. 
Nothing would be more disgraceful for me in the 
eyes of men ; nor would anything be less calcu- 
lated for the very purpose of security. For these 
commissioners are ill looked upon by the good ; 
so that while I retained the ill-will of the worst 
part of society, I should add to it that of the 
others. Csesar wishes me to be his lieutenant. 
This would be a more honourable way of avoiding 
danger ; but I now refuse this. How is it then ? 
I choose rather to fight : however there is yet no- 
thing determined. I repeat, that I wish you were 
here ; but, however if there is any necessity, I shall 
send for you. What more ? what ? it is this, that 
we may depend upon all being lost. For why 
should I so long dissemble the truth ? but I write 
this in haste, and with some reserve. Hereafter I 
will either write everything plainly to you, if I can 
find a trusty messenger to whom I may deliver my 
letters ; or if I am obliged to write obscurely, yet 
you will understand it. In these letters I shall call 
myself Lselius, and you Furius : the rest will be 
in enigmas. I here diligently cultivate, and pay 
respect to Csecilius m . I hear that the edicts of 
Bibulus have been sent to you. Our Pompeius is 
burning with vexation and rage on their account. 



LETTER XX. 

I have done everything in my power for Ani- 
catus, as I understood you wished. Numestius I 
have willingly received into friendship, from the 

h So elsewhere it is said " semivivis mercenariorum vo- 
cibus."— Pro Sext. § 59. 

i The triumvirs, Csesar, Pompeius, and Crassus. 

J By the Roscian law the knights had appropriate seats 
in the theatre separated from those of the common people. 

k By this law corn was delivered to the populace at a 
reduced price. 

1 This business was the tribunate of Clodius, which was 
not yet determined. 

m Cascilius was Atticus's uncle. lie is mentioned before, 
book i. letter 10. 



regard with which you mentioned him ; Caecilius I 
support in every way that I am able ; Varro n gives 
me great satisfaction ; Pompeius has a real love 
and affection towards me. Do you believe it ? you 
will say. I do believe it ; his conduct persuades 
me of it. But as I perceive practical writers, in all 
historical maxims, and even in verse, advise us to 
be cautious, and forbid to be credulous; I shall do 
one of these two, and be cautious ; the other, not 
to believe, I cannot do. Clodius still denounces 
danger to me. Pompeius affirms that there is no 
danger ; nay, he swears it ; and adds even that he 
would sooner be killed himself, than I should be 
hurt. The affair is yet unsettled : as soon as any- 
thing is determined, I will let you know. If it is 
necessary to fight, I shall summon you to share my 
troubles : if I am permitted to be quiet, I will not 
disturb you from your Amalthea. I shall write to 
you very briefly upon public affairs ; for I fear lest 
the paper itself should betray me. Hereafter 
therefore, if I have occasion to write more fully to 
you, I shall veil it in allegory. The state is dying 
by a new disease ; so that while all people blame 
what is done, complain, grieve, entertain no differ- 
ence of opinion, and even speak out, and openly 
lament; yet no remedy is offered. For we believe 
that no resistance can be made, which is not fatal ; 
and that there is no end of yielding, besides ruin. 
Bibulus is exalted to the skies with the admiration 
and favour of the people, who copy and read his 
edicts and speeches. He is arrived at the height 
of glory by a new method ; for nothing is now so 
popular, as hatred of the popular leaders: I fear 
what may be the issue of this. If I begin to see 
anything, I will write to you more openly. If you 
love me, as indeed you do, keep yourself in readi- 
ness, that you may come up if I call : but I en- 
deavour (and shall do so) to prevent the necessity 
of it. As to what I said about calling you Furius, 
there is no need of changing your name. I shall 
make myself Lselius, and you Atticus ; and I shall 
not use my own hand, or seal, provided the letters 
be of a kind which I should be sorry to have fall 
into other hands. Diodotus is dead : he has left me, 
perhaps, a hundred sestertia ° (800/). Bibulus 
has put off the comitia, by an Archilochiani 1 edict, 
to the seventeenth of October. I have received 
the books from Vibius^. He is a poor poet ; and 
yet has some information : but upon the whole is 
not without his use. I shall have it transcribed, 
and send it back. 



LETTER XXI. 

On the subject of the republic why should I 
write to you minutely ? The whole is ruined : and 
in one respect is more wretched than you left it ; 
for then the tyranny which oppressed the state 

n This is the same Varro who was afterwards esteemed 
the most learned of the Romans. 

° In the original it is ecu lies, which would be H.S. 10,000, 
or 83,000/. ; but it is probable the word may have been so 
copied by mistake for centum, which would make this 
bequest 833/. 

P Archilochus was a severe satirist, so that the expres- 
sion signifies that these edicts reflected severely upon the 
triumvirate. 

q It appears by the following letter, that these books 
contained the poems of Alexander. It is probable that 
Atticus might have sent them to Cicero by Vibius. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



051 



seemed at least to be liked by the common people ; 
and though a cause of trouble to the better sort, 
yet it did not threaten their ruin. Now it has 
suddenly become so hateful to every body, that I 
dread to think where it may burst forth ; for we 
have already experienced the rage and intemper- 
ance of those men, who in their anger against 
Cato r have overturned everything. But then they 
used such gentle poisons, that it seemed as if we 
might die without agony ; now I fear they will be 
rendered outrageous by the hisses of the populace, 
the language of the respectable citizens, the clam- 
our of Italy. I had hoped, indeed, as I often used 
to say to you, that the wheel of the republic was 
so turned, as scarcely to be heard, scarcely to leave 
a track ; and so it would have been, if people 
could have waited to let the storm pass over : but 
after smothering their groans a long 'time, at last 
all have begun to speak, and to cry aloud ; so that 
my friend s , unused to reproach, always conversant 
with praise, and surrounded with glory, knows not 
where to turn himself in his present squalid ap- 
pearance and broken spirit. He sees it dangerous 
to proceed, weak to retreat ; he has made good 
people his enemies, and has not even the bad for 
his friends. See now my tenderness of mind : I 
could not refrain from tears when I saw him, on 
the 22nd of July, addressing the people upon the 
edicts of Bibulus ; him, I say, who formerly used 
magnificently to exalt himself in that very place, 
with the greatest affection of the people, and uni- 
versal applause. How was he then humbled ! how 
dejected ! how did he displease not only his audi- 
ence, but himself also ! O spectacle ! agreeable 
to Crassus alone, not so to others. For having 
descended as it were, from the stars, it seemed a 
fall, rather than any advance. And as Apelles, 
if he saw his Venus, or Protogenes his Jalysus, 
smeared with mud, would, I conceive, feel great 
pain : so did I with great pain behold him, whom 
I had painted and polished with all the colours of 
art, suddenly disfigured. Though nobody thought 
I owed him any friendship for his conduct in the 
Clodian business ; yet such was my regard, that it 
was not to be exhausted by any act of unkindness. 
Bibulus's Archilochian edicts against him are so 
acceptable to the populace, that one cannot pass 
by the place where they are exhibited, for the 
throng of people who are reading them : to him 
they are so bitter, that he pines with vexation : to 
me they are distressing, because they give too 
much uneasiness to one whom I have always 
loved ; and I am afraid lest one so powerful, so 
active with his sword, and so unaccustomed to in- 
sult, should give way to grief and rage with all the 
force of his mind. What is likely to be the end of 
Bibulus, I cannot say ; at present he is in surpris- 
ing glory. Upon his putting off the comitia to 
the month of October, Caesar imagined that, this 
being a measure usually offensive to the people, he 
should be able, by addressing them, to persuade the 
assembly itself to go to Bibulus ; but after utter- 
ing many very seditious expressions, he could not 
extract from them a single word. What say you ? 
the triumvirs feel that they have the good- will of 
no party : so much the more reason have we to 

r The stem supporter of old principles. "With Cato must 
be supposed to be included other inflexible politicians of 
the same time. 

s Pompeius. 



be afraid. Clodius is my declared enemy. Pom- 
peius affirms that he will do nothing against me : 
it is dangerous to believe this ; therefore I prepare 
myself to resist him. I trust I shall have the best 
wishes of all orders. When the time comes, not 
only I shall want you, but the circumstances them- 
selves will call for you : I shall gain a great deal of 
advice, of courage, and of protection, if I have you 
with me at that time. Varro gives me satisfaction ; 
Pompeius talks divinely. I hope I shall certainly 
be able to come off either with distinguished credit, 
or without mortification. Let me know what you 
are doing, how you amuse yourself, and how you 
have managed with the Sicyonians l . 



LETTER XXII. 

How I could wish that you had remained in 
Rome ! you would certainly have remained, if we 
could have foreseen what has happened : we could 
easily restrain our pretty youth u , or at least we 
should be able to know what he was about. But 
now, this is the state of the business ; he flies about, 
raves, follows no certain course, threatens many, 
and seems likely to act as chance may offer. When 
he sees the odium attached to the present state of 
affairs, he seems as if he would attack those who 
have occasioned it ; but when again he recollects 
their influence, and the strength of their army, he 
directs himself against me ; and to me he threatens 
both violence and prosecution. With him Pom- 
peius has discoursed ; and, as he informed me him- 
self, (for I have no other witness,) discoursed with 
vehemence, telling him that he should incur the 
utmost disgrace of perfidy and wickedness, if any 
danger should be brought upon me by him, whom 
he had himself invested with arms, when he suf- 
fered him to be made a plebeian ; but that he, and 
Appius, had received his promise on my behalf, 
and that if he did not observe it, he should resent 
it so, that the world might know nothing was 
dearer to him than my friendship. After saying 
this, and much more to the same purpose, he told 
me that Clodius first continued for some time to 
urge many things on the other side ; but at last 
gave up, and declared that he would do nothing 
contrary to Pompeius's wishes. Since then, how- 
ever, he has not ceased to speak very severely of 
me ; and if he did not, still I should not trust him, 
but should prepare for everything, as I do. ISow 
I conduct myself so, that every day my friends and 
my influence increase. I keep altogether clear 
from public concerns, and am busily engaged in 
causes, and the exertions of the forum. This I 
perceive is agreeable not only to those who use my 
assistance, but to the people generally. My house 
is frequented ; I am saluted ; the remembrance of 
my consulship is renewed. The favour of the peo- 
ple is manifest ; and I am in such hope, as some- 
times to think the struggle which hangs over me 
is not a thing to be declined. I have now need of 
your advice, your affection, and fidelity ; therefore 
fly up ; every thing will be easy to me, if I have 
but you. Much may be done through our friend 
Varro ; but it will be strengthened by your support. 
Much may be got from Publius himself; much 
may be known, which cannot be kept secret from 



Sec book i. letter 19. 



Publius Clodius. 



652 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



you ; much also — but it is idle to enumerate each 
particular ; I shall then want you for everything. 
Be assured of this, that everything will be plain 
when I see you ; but all depends upon its being 
before he enters upon his office. While Crassus 
is urging Pompeius, I imagine if you are here (who 
by means of Boopis v may learn from Clodius him- 
self with what sincerity they are acting) 1 shall either 
be free from trouble, or, at least, free from error : you 
do not need my entreaty and exhortation. You 
see what my wishes, what the occasion, what the 
importance of the case requires. Of the republic I 
have nothing to write to you, but the great hatred of 
all people towards those who have possessed them- 
selves of everything ; yet no hope of any change. 
But, as you may easily perceive, Pompeius is tired, 
and heartily repents. I cannot sufficiently foresee 
what issue is to be expected ; but these rancours 
must assuredly burst forth somewhere. I have 
sent back to you the books of Alexander ; a care- 
less writer, and no good poet, yet not without his 
use. I have willingly received Numerius Numes- 
tius into my friendship, and have found him a 
sensible and prudent man, and worthy of your 
recommendation. 



LETTER XXIII. 

I believe you never before received a letter 
from me that was not written in my own hand. 
From that you may judge how much I am occupied : 
for having no spare time, and yet being obliged to 
walk about for the sake of recruiting my voice, I 
dictate this as I walk. In the first place then I 
would have you know, that our friend Sampsicera- 
mus is heartily sick of his situation, and wishes he 
could again be restored to that place, from which 
he has fallen. He imparts to me his uneasiness, 
and sometimes openly seeks a remedy ; which it is 
impossible for me to find. Then, all the authors 
and adherents of that faction are losing their vigour ; 
while there never was a more general consent in 
the wishes and expressions of all people. As for 
myself (for I know you will be glad to be informed), 
I interfere in no public counsels, and give myself 
up altogether to the business and labour of the 
forum ; by which, as may easily be supposed, I am 
brought to the frequent relation, and regret, of my 
former deeds. But that kinsman of our Boopis 
casts no little terror, and threatens ; and while he 
denies it to Sampsiceramus, to others he professes 
and boasts of it ; therefore if you love me, as in- 
deed you do, if you are asleep, wake up ; if you are 
standing, walk ; if you are walking, run ; if run- 
ning, fly. It is not to be believed how much (which 
is the most possible) I place in your counsels and 
prudence, how much in your affection and fidelity. 
The greatness of the occasion requires perhaps a 
long discourse ; but to minds so united as ours, a 
few words are sufficient. It is of great importance 
to me, if you cannot be at Rome on the comitia, 
at least that you may be there when he is declared 
tribune. Farewell. 



LETTER XXIV. 

In the letter I sent by Numestius, I called upon 
you with an earnestness and vehemence, which 
nothing could exceed ; to that call add even, if you 

v Clodia. See book ii. letter D, note y. 



can, something more. Do not make yourself un- 
easy (for I know you, and am aware of the solici- 
tude and anxiety inseparable from real affection) ; 
but the case, as I hope, is less formidable in fact, 
than it seems in the relation. Vettius (the same 
who gave information at the time of my consulship) 
had promised Caesar, that he would contrive to 
bring the young Curio into some suspicion of cri- 
minality. He therefore insinuated himself into the 
familiarity of the young man ; and having, as it 
appears, frequent meetings with him, he at length 
brought matters to such a state, that he declared 
his determination to assault Pompeius with the 
assistance of his slaves, and to kill him. Informa- 
tion of this was given by Curio to his father, and 
by him to Pompeius. The affair was brought be- 
fore the senate. Vettius being introduced, at first 
denied that he had ever been concerned with Curio ; 
but this did not last long : for he presently de- 
manded a public pledge of security upon his giving 
evidence ; this was not opposed. Then he gave 
out, that there had been a band of young men 
under the conduct of Curio ; amongst whom had 
originally been Paullus, and Q. Csepio Brutus, and 
Lentulus, the son of the flamen, not without the 
knowledge of his father ; that afterwards C. Septi- 
mius, the secretary of Bibulus, had brought him a 
dagger from Bibulus : which was all absurd ; as if 
Vettius would have been without a dagger, unless 
the consul had given him one ! And this was the 
more scouted, because on the 13th of May Bibu- 
lus had warned Pompeius that he ought to be upon 
his guard, and Pompeius had thanked him for it. 
Young Curio being introduced, deposed in answer 
to what Vettius had said ; and Vettius was then 
chiefly convicted by his own assertion, that it had 
been the advice of the young men to attack Pom- 
peius in the forum with the gladiators of Gabinius ; 
and that Paullus was at the head of it ; though it 
was known that he was at that time in Macedonia. 
A decree of the senate was then passed, that Vet- 
tius should be put in prison for having confessed 
that he had carried arms ; and that whoever libe- 
rated him would be an enemy to the republic. The 
general opinion of this affair was, that it had been 
designed Vettius and his slaves should have been 
apprehended in the forum with a dagger and with 
arms ; and then he should have offered to confess. 
And this would have been done, if the Curios had 
not previously given information to Pompeius. The 
decree of the senate was then read in the assembly 
of the people ; but the next day Coesar, who for- 
merly, when he was praetor, had obliged Q. Catu- 
lus to speak from below w , now brought Vettius 
forwards on the rostra, and placed him in a situa- 
tion, to which the consul Bibulus was not permitted 
to aspire x . Here he said whatever he pleased 
about the republic ; and having come ready pre- 
pared, he first omitted any mention of Csepio, 
whom he had named with acrimony in the senate ; 
so that it was manifest the night, and some nightly 
management, had intervened ; in the next place, he 
named some, whom in the senate be had not 
touched with the slightest suspicion ; as Lucullus, 
from whom he said C. Fannius used to be sent to 

w Private persons were not allowed to ascend the rostra 
without the invitation of some magistrate. 

x Bibulus, who was joint consul with Caesar, was pre- 
vented from appearing in public by apprehensions of being 
insulted. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



653 



him ; the same who had set his name to the accu- 
sation of P. Clodius ; also L. Domitius, whose 
house had been fixed upon as the place from whence 
their eruption might be made. He did not name 
me ; but mentioned that a certain speaker, of con- 
sular rank, and neighbour to the consul?, had sug- 
gested to him, that some Ahala Servilius z , or 
Brutus a , must be found. He added at last, upon 
being called back by Vatinius, after the assembly 
was dismissed, that he had understood from Curio, 
that my son-in-law Piso, and M. Laterensis, were 
privy to these machinations. Vettius was at this 
time charged before Crassus Dives for violence ; 
and upon being found guilty, meant to claim the 
benefit of turning evidence ; which if he had ob- 
tained, it was probable several trials would have 
followed. This did not much alarm me, who, how- 
ever, am not used to disregard anything. Indeed, 
I had the strongest marks of favour shown me ; but 
I am quite weary of my life, so full are all things 
of all sorts of miseries. A little while ago we had 
been apprehensive of a massacre, which the speech 
of that firm old man Q. Considius b had dispelled ; 
that which we might have apprehended everyday, 
has suddenly sprung up. What think you ? No- 
thing is more unfortunate than I ; nothing more 
fortunate than Catulus c , both from the splendour 
of his life, and from the character of these times. 
Yet in the midst of these calamities, I preserve a 
firm and unruffled mind, and maintain my dignity 
honourably and carefully. Pompeius bids me lay 
aside all uneasiness on the subject of Clodius ; and 
on every occasion professes the greatest kindness 
towards me ; but I want you to direct my counsels, 
to share my anxieties, and to take part in all my 
thoughts. Therefore, as I desired Numestius to 
use his influence with you, so I beg you even more 
earnestly, if possible, to fly up to us. I shall get 
new life if I see you. 

7 Cicero's house in Rome was not far from Caesar's. 

z Ahala Servilius had killed Sp. Melius on suspicion of 
aspiring to kingly power. 

a Brutus, as is well known, had heen the cause of 
Tarquinius's being driven from the throne, and of the 
extinction of the regal power. 

b Caesar had committed some acts of violence, and had 
1 filled the assembly with armed men, when the law was to 
be passed which gave him the government of Gaul for five 
years. Many s3nators absented themselves ; but Consi- 
dius came forward, saying, that he was too old to fear 
death. 

c Q. Catulus had died the year before. 



LETTER XXV. 

When I commend one of your friends to you, 
I like him to know from you, that I have done so. 
As lately, when I wrote to you of Varro's atten- 
tion to me, you said in return that you were very 
glad of it ; but I would rather you had written to 
him, to assure him that I was sensible of his kind- 
ness ; not so much because he actually gave me 
satisfaction, as that he might continue to do it ; 
for, as you know, he has wonderfully moderated 
those involved and unwholesome counsels. But I 
observe that maxim, that it is necessary to bear 
the extravagances of those who are in power : 
while your other friend Hortensius d , with how full 
a hand, how nobly, how eloquently has he raised 
to the stars my praises, in speaking of the praetor- 
ship of Flaccus, and that time of the Allobroges ! 
Believe me, nothing could have been said more 
kindly, more honourably, or more copiously. I 
wish you would write to inform him that I have 
mentioned this to you. But why should you write ? 
when I imagine you are coming yourself, and are 
almost here ; so much have I urged you in former 
letters. I very much look for you, very much 
want you ; and not I, more than the cause itself, 
and the time, call for you. On the present state 
of affairs what should I write to you, but a repe- 
tition of the same thing ? Nothing can be more 
hopeless than the condition of the republic ; nothing 
more hated than those who have occasioned it. So 
far as belief, and hope, and conjecture go, I am 
supported by the strongest favour of all people. Fly 
up, therefore ; you will either extricate me from all 
uneasiness, or you will share it with me. I am the 
shorter, because I hope we shall very soon be at 
liberty personally to converse together as we please. 
Farewell. 

d In the original it is Hortalus, which was one of the 
names of Hortensius; but being less commonly known, I 
have not thought fit to preserve it in the translation. 



[In the interval between this and the following letters, 
Atticus went up to Rome at 7ns friend's request. Clodius 
in the mean time having been appointed tribune of the 
people, spared no means to gain the populace, and at 
length promulgated a decree against such as had put to 
death a Roman citizen without the sentence of the people. 
This ums evidently levelled at Cicero's conduct in the 
suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy ; upon which, 
seeing the disposition of men's minds, he withdrew from 
the city, and was presently followed by a decree of banish- 
ment.^ 



BOOK III. 



LETTER I. 

(Grcev. iii.) 
I wish I may ever see the day when I shall 
have reason to thank you for compelling me to 
preserve my life ; hitherto I am very sorry. But 
I entreat you to come to me immediately at Vibo, 
to which place many causes have directed me. If 
you come thither, I shall be able to consult about 
my whole journey and flight. If you refuse to do 
this, I shall be surprised ; but I trust you will 
do it. 



LETTER II. 

The reason of my coming hither was, that there 
was no place where I could any longer remain 
unmolested so well as on Sica's estate ; especially 
while the law for my banishment had not yet been 
finally amended. At the same time I knew that 
I could easily go back to Brundisium, if I had you 
with me ; but without you I could not continue in 
those parts, on account of Autronius e . Now, as I 

e By " those parts" Cicero probably means Greece, where 
Autronius and others of the Catilinarian conspirators re- 



654 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



mentioned to you before, if you come to me, we 
will consult upon this whole business. I know the 
journey is troublesome ; but this great calamity is 
full of troubles. My spirits are too much broken, 
and depressed, to admit of my writing more. Fare- 
well. Dated the 8th of April, from the shores of 
Lucania. 



LETTER III. 

(Gr<zv. iv.) 
I would have you attribute it to my misfor- 
tunes, rather than to fickleness, that I have sud- 
denly left Vibo, whither I had invited you ; for I 
have received a draft of the law for my ruin ; by 
which I find that the amendment I had heard of, 
permits me to remain at any place exceeding the 
distance of four hundred miles. But not being 
permitted to go where I had intended f , I. immedi- 
ately turned my course towards Brundisium, pre- 
viously to the passing of the law, lest I might 
involve Sica, with whom I was staying, in my ruin ; 
and also because I was not suffered to be at Malta. 
Now make haste to join me, if only I can meet 
with any one to take me in. Hitherto I have met 
with a kind reception ; but I am apprehensive of 
what is to come. I repent, my Pomponius, of 
being yet alive ; in which matter you have princi- 
pally influenced me. But of this when we meet : 
only manage to come. 



LETTER IV. 
{Grcev. i.) 
As I before thought it of importance to have 
you with me,— so especially, upon reading the 
form of the law, I understood that nothing could 
happen more desirably for the journey I deter- 
mined upon, than that you should join me as soon 
as possible : that after leaving Italy, in case my 
road should lie through Epirus, I might have your 
protection and that of your friends ; or if anything 
else were to be done, might regulate my measures 
by your advice. I beg, therefore, that you will 
take pains to join me without delay. You may do 
it the easier, since the law respecting the province 
of Macedonia £ has been passed. I would use 
further arguments with you, if the state of affairs 
did not itself speak to you on my behalf. 



LETTER V. 
Terentia often acknowledges her obligations 
to you in the strongest terms ; which is highly 
gratifying to me. I live in great wretchedness, 

sided, so as to render it unsafe for him to proceed to Bu- 
throtum, (where we may suppose that Atticus had offered 
him an asylum,) unless he had the protection of Atticus's 
presence. Brundisium was the port from whence people 
passed into Greece. Vibo was opposite to Sicily. 

f Cicero had designed to pass his exile in Sicily or Malta, 
but being prevented from executing this plan, he deter- 
mined to go, by the way of Macedonia, into some of the 
nearest parts of Asia Minor. 

g The appointment of the government of Macedonia was 
probably of some importance to Atticus, on account of his 
private affairs. It was allotted to the consul lMso, who 
appears to have been a base, hypocritical man, in the 
interest of Clodius. 



and am worn out with excessive grief. I know 
not what to say to you : for if you are still in Rome 
you cannot now come up with me ; and if you are 
on your road, as soon as you have come up with 
me we shall arrange together what is to be arranged. 
I only beg that you will continue in the same 
affection you have always borne me, — for I am still 
the same. My enemies have taken away from me 
my goods, but not myself. Farewell. Dated the 
10th of April, at Thurium h . 



LETTER VI. 

I had not doubted but I should see you at 
Tarentum or Brundisium. Many reasons made 
me wish it ; among the rest, that I might stop in 
Epirus and take your advice on the rest of my 
affairs. Since this has not happened, I shall place 
this also in the long catalogue of my misfortunes. 
I shall proceed into Asia, particularly to Cyzicum*. 
I commend my family to you. I hardly and 
wretchedly support myself. Dated the 18th of 
April, from the neighbourhood of Tarentum. 



LETTER VII. 

I arrived at Brundisium the 1 8th of April. 
The same day your servant delivered to me your 
letter ; and, the third day after, another servant 
brought me another letter. Your kindness in 
inviting and pressing me to go to your house in 
Epirus, is very gratifying to me, and nothing new, 
and what I should wish to do if I might spend my 
whole time thereJ ; for I dislike places that are 
frequented : I avoid mankind, and can hardly bear 
to see the light. That retirement would not be 
unpleasant to me, especially in so familiar a place; 
but to turn aside for the sake of making an ex- 
cursion thither, is, in the first place, out of my 
way ; then it would expose me to Autronius, and 
the rest of that set, for four days' journey, — and 
would, besides, be without you. For a fortified 
castle, if I were living there, might be desirable ; 
to a mere passenger would be useless. If I dared 
I would go to Athens : I certainly should like it : 
but at this time many of my enemies are there, — 
and I have not you with me ; and I fear they may 
interpret even that city to be not sufficiently distant 
from Italy ; nor do you say on what day I may 
expect you. By calling upon me to preserve my 
life, you produce only this effect, — of preventing 
me from laying hands on myself ; you cannot pre- 
vent my repenting of my determination, and of 
my life : for what is there that should attach me 
to it ? especially if there is no longer that hope 
which accompanied me in my flight. I will not 
attempt to enumerate all the miseries into which 
I have fallen through the extreme malice and 
wickedness not so much of my enemies as of my 

h Thurium was a town at the extremity of Italy, for- 
merly distinguished for luxury, and known by the name 
of Sybaris. 

5 Cyzicum was situated on the Asiatic side of the Pro- 
pontis. 

J Atticus's place in Epirus lay within the proscribed 
distance, or so near to it, that Cicero did not feel himself 
at liberty to reside there in security. Ho was even appre- 
hensive that some of his enemies might deem Athens to be 
too near to Italy. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



655 



enviers, lest I should exasperate my own grief and 

bring you into the same distress. This I affirm, 

chat nobody was ever affected with so heavy a 

calamity, nobody had ever more reason to wish for 

death. — the most honourable time for which has 

already passed by ; the time that remains may 

bring an end to my trouble, but not a remedy. 

On the subject of the republic I see you collect 

every thing which you think can afford me any 

! hope of a change of circumstances. Little as this 

J is, yet, since you will have it so, let us wait for it. 

j In the mean time, if you make haste you will yet 

j be able to join me ; for I shall either go into 

i Epirus or shall pass slowly through Candavia k . 

1 My doubt about Epirus is not owing to my irreso- 

[ lution, but to my uncertainty where I may meet 

i with my brother, whom indeed I know not how I 

shall be able either to see or to take leave of. This 

is the greatest and saddest of all my miseries. I 

would write to you oftener, . and more at length, if 

my grief did not take away all the powers of my 

mind, and above all the power of writing. I long 

to see you. Farewell. Dated the 30th of April, 

at Brundisium. 



LETTER VIII. 

On leaving Brundisium, I informed you why I 
did not go into Epirus ; because of its vicinity to 
Greece, which was full of daring enemies, and 
because the passage out was difficult when I might 
wish to leave it. Besides this, I received two 
messages while I was at Dyrrachium 1 , — one to say 
that my brother would go by sea from Ephesus to 
Athens ; the other that he would go by land through 
Macedonia. I sent therefore to Athens, to desire 
that he would come from thence to Thessalonica" 1 ; 
and went myself to Thessalonica, where I arrived 
the 23d of May. I have heard nothing certain 
about his journey, except that he had a little before 
left Ephesus. I am now full of alarm about the 
proceedings at Rome 11 ; for though you tell me, in 
a letter dated the 15th of May, that you had heard 
he was likely to be brought to a severe account, 
and in another letter that things were now more 
favourable, — yet this last is dated a day earlier than 
the other, which adds to my uneasiness : so that 
while my daily trouble distresses and wastes me, 
this additional vexation leaves me scarcely any life 
remaining. But the voyage is a very difficult one ; 
and from his uncertainty where I might be, he 
may perhaps have taken a different course. For 
Phaeto, his freedman, has not seen him ; but being 
driven back by the wind into Macedonia, he met 
me at Pella. I see how much reason I have to 
fear what is to come, nor do I know what to say. 
I am afraid of everything ; for there is nothing so 
miserable that may not happen in my present cir- 
cumstances. Wretched enough before in my great 
afflictions and sorrows, with the addition of this 
apprehension, I remain at Thessalonica in suspense, 

k Candavia was a mountainous district on the borders of 
Macedonia. 

1 A port of Albania, opposite to Brundisium. 

m Thessalonica, a principal city of Macedonia, the same 
where St. Paul established one of the first Christian 
churches, and to which he has addressed two epistles. 

" Proceedings relating to Quintus Cicero's administra- 
tion of his province of Asia, which comprehended the 
western part of Asia Minor. 



and have no courage for anything. Now, in answer 
to your inquiries, I have not seen Trypho Csecilius. 
Your conversation with Pompeius I have understood 
from your letter. I do not see so great a commo- 
tion to hang over the republic, as you either see or 
represent with a view of comforting me ; for the 
business of Tigranes having passed over, all diffi- 
culties seem to be removed . You desire me to 
return thanks to Varro, which I will do, and like- 
wise to Hypsseus. I think of following your advice 
in not going further off till the decrees of May are 
brought to me, but where I shall remain I am not 
yet determined ; for I am so uneasy about Quintus 
that I can resolve upon nothing : but I will im- 
mediately let you know. From the irresolution 
apparent in my letters, I imagine you perceive the 
disturbance of my mind ; which, though I am 
afflicted with an inconceivable and heavy calamity, 
is not however so much owing to the greatness of 
my misfortune as to the recollection of my own 
fault, — for you now see by whose iniquity? I have 
been led on and betrayed. I wish you had per- 
ceived it sooner, and had not, with me, given up 
your whole mind to grief. When, therefore, you 
hear of my being oppressed and worn out with 
sadness, remember that I am more affected with 
the penalty of my folly than with the event itself; 
that I should have trusted him without suspecting 
his wickedness. The sense of my misfortunes, 
and apprehension for my brother, stop my writing. 
See after and regulate all these matters. Terentia 
returns you the greatest thanks. I have sent you 
a copy of the letter which I wrote to Pompeius. 
Dated the 29th of May, at Thessalonica. 



LETTER IX. 

My brother Quintus having left Asia before the 
first of May and reached Athens on the fifteenth, 
was obliged to make great haste, that his absence 
might not expose him to difficulty, in case there 
should be anybody not yet satisfied with the sum 
of my misfortunes. I wished him, therefore, 
rather to hasten to Rome than to come to me. At 
the same time (for I will confess the truth, from 
which you may perceive the greatness of my suffer- 
ings) I could not bring my mind either to look 
upon him, who was so tenderly attached to me, 
under the effect of such affliction, or present before 
him, and suffer him to behold, my own wretchedness 
sunk in grief, and my ruined condition. I dreaded 
also, what would certainly have happened, that he 
might be unable to quit me. I contemplated the 
time when he would either be obliged to dismiss 
his lictorsi, or would be forcibly torn from my 
embrace. The effect of this bitterness I have 
avoided by another bitterness, of not seeing my 
brother. You, who made me preserve my life, 
have driven me into this situation. I now 7 pay the 

Clodiushad, in consideration of a large sum of money, 
contrived to get the son of Tigranes out of Pompeius'a 
custody, though not without a struggle, in which some 
lives were lost. This was likely to have caused a division 
among the triumvirs, Clodius being supported by C:vsar. 
Hut it seems to have passed over. 

P This is meant of Pompeius. 

1 The provincial governors were allowed to retain tlieir 
lictors and fasces, the ensigns of their rank, till they re- 
turned to Rome ; but might be obliged to dismiss them 
previously, if they used unnecessary delay. 



656 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



penalty of my error; though your letters encourage 
me, — from which I easily perceive the amount of 
your own hopes. These indeed afforded me con- 
solation, till you came to that part, — " after 
Pompeius, now gain over Hortensius, and people 
of that description." I beseech you, my Pompo- 
nius, do you not yet see by whose means, by whose 
treachery, by whose baseness, I am ruined ? But 
of this we will talk when we meet. I only say, 
what I imagine you know, that it is not my 
enemies, but my enviers, who have undone me. 
Now, if indeed things are as you hope, I will sup- 
port myself, and use my best endeavours, with that 
hope which you bid me entertain. But if, as it 
appears to me, things are fixed and settled, what I 
was not permitted to do in the best manner must 
be done in one less becoming r . Terentia often 
acknowledges her obligations to you. One of my 
troubles in apprehension is the business of my poor 
brother. When I know how this will be deter- 
mined, I shall know what I ought to do. The 
expectation of letters, and of those advantages 
which you hold out, keeps me, as you advise, at 
Thessalonica. If any news arrives, I shall know 
what is hereafter to be done. If, as you mention, 
you left Rome on the first of June, we shall very 
soon meet. I send you the letter which I wrote 
to Pompeius. Dated the 13th of June, at Thessa- 
lonica. 



LETTER X. 

What has taken place, up to the 25th of May, 
I have learned from your letters ; the rest I waited 
to hear at Thessalonica, as you advised. When 
this account arrives, I shall more easily be able to 
determine where I shall be ; for if there is occasion, 
if anything is done, if I see any hope, I will either 
remain where I am, or will go to your house in 
Epirus. But if, as you say, these prospects should 
have vanished, I must make some other arrange- 
ment. Hitherto you show me nothing besides the 
disagreement of those people 8 , — which, however, 
relates to everything rather than to me. I do 
not see, therefore, how this can help me : still as 
long as you encourage me to hope, I will obey you : 
for when you charge me so often and so severely, 
and upbraid me with want of courage, I beseech 
you, what evil is there which does not enter into 
my calamity ? who ever fell at once from such a 
lofty state ? in so good a cause ? with such force 
of talents, and wisdom, and favour ? such support 
from all honest men ? Can I forget what I was ? 
Can I help feeling what I am ? what honour I have 
lost ? what glory ? what children ? what fortunes ? 
what a brother ? whom (to teach you anew species 
of calamity) though I loved him, and have always 
loved him, more than myself, yet I avoided seeing, 
that I might neither be witness to his grief and 
mourning, nor present myself to him in ruin and 

r Alluding to his death. Suicide was not then held to 
he cither a crime or a disgrace. Cato and Atticue adopted 
it in perfect conformity with the principles of their respec- 
tive sects. Cicero here, as elsewhere, plainly exposes one 
leading principle of the Academics, to whose sect he be- 
longed, that when they were unable to do what they con- 
sidered to be best, they ought to do that which was next 
best. 

« The triumvirs, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompeius. 



affliction, whom he had left in the height of pros- 
perity. I omit other grievous considerations, — for 
I am prevented by tears. And ought I then to be 
reproached for my sadness ? or rather for having 
committed so great a fault as not to retain these 
advantages (which might easily have been done, if 
plots for my destruction had not been laid within 
my own walls), or at least not to lose them but 
with my life ? I have mentioned this, that you 
might rather relieve me, as you do, than that you 
should think me deserving of reproach and blame. 
And I write the less to you, because I am inter- 
rupted by my sorrows ; and in truth I have more 
to expect from thence than to say myself. If any 
intelligence is brought me, I will acquaint you 
with my determination. I wish you to write to 
me, as you have hitherto done, about everything, 
that I may not remain in ignorance on any point. 
Dated the 18th of June, at Thessalonica. 



LETTER XI. 

Your letters and some favourable reports, 
though not on the best authority, and the hope of 
hearing further from you, and your advice, have 
all kept me at Thessalonica. When I shall have 
received the letters I expect, if there is indeed that 
hope which has been encouraged by rumours, I 
will go to your house ; if it is otherwise, I will take 
care to inform you what I do. Continue to assist 
me as you do with your exertions, your advice, and 
influence. Have done with consolation, and cease 
to upbraid me. W'hen you do so, I seem to have 
lost your affection, and to have lost your sympathy; 
whom I conceive to be so affected with my mis- 
fortunes, that you are yourself inconsolable. Sup- 
port my excellent and kind brother Quintus. I 
beg you to write to me fully everything that may 
be depended upon. Dated the 28th of June. 



LETTER XII. 

You argue seriously about what may be hoped, 
especially through the senate ; and at the same 
time you add, that the clause of the law (for my 
banishment) is stuck up l , by which nothing is al- 
lowed to be said, and accordingly nothing is said. 
In this state of things do you blame me for being 
afflicted ? while I am, as you yourself know, in 
such affliction as nobody ever felt. You hold out 
hopes from the new elections ; but what hope is 
there with the same tribune of the people n , and a 
hostile consul elect v ? I am much hurt about the 
speech w which has been brought forward. Try if 
possible to heal this wound. I wrote it long since 
in anger, because he had first attacked me ; but I 
had so suppressed it, that I never imagined it 
would get abroad. How it should have got out I 
do not know ; but as it never happened that I had 

t See letter 15 of this book. " Quoddam caput legis 
Clodium in curiae poste fixisse, ne referri, neve dici 
liceret." 

u Cicero apprehended that Clodius might again be 
elected tribune for the ensuing year. 

v Q. Metellus Nepos, who when tribune would not 
permit Cicero to address the people upon laying down his 
consulship. 

«' Terhaps against Curio. See letter 15 of this book. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



Go? 



any dispute with him in person ; and as it seems to 
me to be written more carelessly than my other 
speeches, it may possibly be concluded not to be 
mine. I should wish, if you think I can by any 
means be re-established, that you would do what 
you can in this business ; but if I must needs be 
undone, I am less solicitous about it. I continue 
still in the same place, without any power of convers- 
ing, or thinking. Though, as you mention, I had ex- 
pressed awishthatyoumightcometomeatDodon x ; 
yet I understand that where you are y, you are of 
real use to me, and that here you could not relieve 
me by one word of comfort. I am unable to write 
more ; nor indeed have I anything to say. I ex- 
pect rather to hear from you. Dated the 17th of 
Julv, at Thessalonica. 



LETTER XIII. 

(Grcev. xiv.) 
From your letters I am full of expectation about 
Pompeius, what he may intend, or declare con- 
cerning me ; for I imagine the comitia are over : 
after which you mention that he wished to have my 
case considered. If my hopes make me appear 
foolish to you, I entertain them by your desire, 
though I am aware that your letters have rather 
been calculated to check me and my expectations. 
j I should be glad now to hear distinctly what you. 
think. I know that I have fallen into this trou- 
! ble by the many faults I have committed. If any 
j chance should in any degree rectify them, I shall 
I the less regret that I have lived, and continue to 
live. On account of the constant communication 
of this road, and my daily expectation of news, I 
have not yet moved from Thessalonica ; but I am 
now driven away, not by Plancius z , (for he would 
rather keep me,) but by the nature of the place 
itself, which is ill calculated to bear the pain of such 
calamities. I did not go into Epirus, as I had 
mentioned, because lately all accounts and letters 
had agreed that there was no occasion for my being 
so near Italy. Therefore, as soon as I hear the 
event of the elections, I shall go into Asia, though 
I am not yet certain to what place ; but you shall 
hear. Dated the 21st of July, at Thessalonica. 



LETTER XIV. 

(Grcev. xiii.) 
After seeing my hopes diminish, and at length 
vanish, I changed my intention, which I had men- 
tioned to you, of going into Epirus ; nor have I 
moved from Thessalonica, where I determined to 
remain till I should hear something from you about 
what you mentioned in your last letter ; that some- 
thing would be proposed in the senate on my be- 
half as soon as the comitia were over ; and that 
Pompeius had told you so. Wherefore, since the 
comitia are passed, and you say nothing, I thence 
consider it the same as if you had written to tell 
me that nothing was done : nor shall I regret ha , - 

x It is doubtful what this means, or whether there may 
not be some error in the text. 

y At Rome. 

- z Cn. Plancius, a friend of Cicero, was quaestor under 
L. Appuleius, who had the praetorian government of Mace- 
donia. 



ing been led by the hope of so near a termination 3 . 
But as to the commotion which you said you fore- 
saw, and which seemed likely to turn to my advan- 
tage, they who have lately arrived, say there will 
be none. My remaining hope is in ,the tribunes 
elect. If I wait for this, you will have no reason 
to think me inattentive to my interest, and to the 
wishes of my friends. When you blame me for 
bearing my misfortunes so heavily, you ought to 
excuse me, seeing that I am afflicted "as you never 
saw, or heard any one to be. For as to what you 
say you hear of my grief having turned my head, 
my head is sound enough. I wish it had been so 
in the time of my danger, when I was so unkindly 
and cruelly treated by those whom I supposed to have 
been my friends : who, when they saw me begin to 
waver in my resolution, urged me on in such a 
manner as to use all their wickedness and perfidi- 
ousness to my destruction. Now, since I am going 
to Cyzicum, where I shall have fewer opportunities 
of receiving letters, I hope you will be the more 
particular in letting me hear everything which you 
think I ought to know. Continue to love my bro- 
ther Quintus. If in my own wretchedness I leave 
him safe, I shall not esteem myself wholly ruined. 
Dated the 5th of August. 



LETTER XV. 

On the 13th of August I received four letters 
from you : one, in which you reproach me with 
want of firmness ; another, in which you mention 
that a freedman of Crassus had told you of my 
anxiety and emaciation ; the third, in which you 
inform me what has been done in the senate ; the 
fourth, about what you say Varro had confirmed to 
you respecting the disposition of Pompeius. To the 
first I reply, that my grief is so far from affecting 
my understanding, that it is an additional source of 
grief to have no opportunity, no person with whom I 
may employ thatunderstanding which is unimpaired. 
For if you cannot without uneasiness lose me alone, 
what do you suppose I must feel, who lose you and 
everybody ? And if you, who are living in security, 
yet want me, how do you suppose I must want 
that very security itself? I do not care to enu- 
merate all that has been taken from me ; not only 
because you are already acquainted with it, but 
also that I may not aggravate my affliction. This 
I affirm, that nobody was ever bereft of such great 
advantages, or ever fell into such miseries. More- 
over, time does not only not mitigate this distress, 
but even augments it. Other troubles are softened 
by age ; this cannot fail daily to increase, both from 
the sense of actual misery, and from the recollec- 
tion of my past life : for I want not merely my 
goods, and my friends, but myself. For what am 
1 ? But I will not be the occasion either of dis- 
tressing your mind with lamentations, or of hand- 
ling, oftener than is necessary, my own wounds. 
For as to exculpating those whom I mentioned to 
have injured me, and among the rest, Cato; I am 
so far from imagining him to be implicated in that 
crime, that it is a great source of trouble to me that 
the pretences of others should have had more 
weight Avith me than his honesty. The others 
whom you exculpate, ought to stand excused by 
a I agree with M. Mongault ill understanding this to 
mean tbe hope he had cherished of being soon restored. 
U U 



658 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



me, if they are so by you. But about these things 
we trouble ourselves too late. As for Crassus's 
freednaan, I imagine he is not sincere in anything 
he has said. You describe the business to have 
been well managed in the senate. But what says 
Curio ? Has he not read that b speech which has 
been brought forward I know not from whence ? 
Axius, however, giving me an account of the trans- 
actions of the same day, does not so much com- 
mend Curio. But he may have omitted something : 
you have assuredly said nothing beyond the fact. 
The conversation of Varro affords some hope of 
Caesar. I wish Varro may himself engage in my 
cause ; which I am persuaded he will do, both of 
his own accord and from your solicitation. Should 
fortune ever restore me to the possession of you 
and my country, I shall certainly endeavour to give 
you, of all my friends, the greatest cause to rejoice 
at it ; and shall so fulfil the demands of duty and 
affection, (which have before, I confess, been too lit- 
tle manifested,) that you shall think me restored 
to you, no less than to my brother and my children. 
If I have in anything behaved ill towards you, or 
rather since I have done so, pray pardon me ; for 
I have behaved much worse towards myself. I do 
not write this because I am not fully aware of the 
part you bear in my great affliction; but, in truth, if 
the regard you have and have had for me, had been 
deserved on my part, you never would have suf- 
fered me to remain in want of that prudence in 
which you abound ; nor would you have suffered 
me to be persuaded that it was to my advantage to 
have the law concerning the companies c carried 
through. But you administered to my grief no- 
thing but tears, the effect of your love; as I did 
myself. Whatever might have been effected, had I 
possessed claims upon you to consider day and 
night what I ought to do ; that has been omitted, 
not through your fault, but mine. But if not 
merely you, but anybody, when I took alarm at the 
ungenerous reply of Pompeius d , had called me 
back from that disgraceful counsel e , which you of 
all people was most able to do, I should either have 
fallen with honour, or should now live victorious. 
You must forgive me what I say ; for I accuse my- 
self much the most : next I accuse you as another 
self, and at the same time an associate in my fault. 
If I am restored, I shall think myself even less to 
blame ; and shall certainly possess your affection 
through your own kindness, since it will be inde- 
pendent of any received from me. 

Concerning the conversation which you men- 
tion to have had with Culeo on the invalidity 
of a private law f ; there may be something in 
it ; but it is much better to have it abrogated. 
For if nobody prevents it, what can be more 
secure? Or if anybody should not allow it to 
be carried, the same decree of the senate will still 
operate to invalidate it. Nor is there need of any- 
thing else besides the abrogation ; for the former of 
Clodius's two laws did not affect me «. And if at the 

b See letter 12 of this book. 

c These companies, which were instituted for purposes 
of police, were abused to foment cabals and violences. 

d That he could do nothing without the consent of 
Caesar. 

e Of quitting the city. 

1 Laws relating to individuals were prohibited by the 
Twelve Tables. 

S Cloduis had proposed, and carried a law, against 
putting to death Roman citizens untried. His second law 



time of its promulgation, I had either thought fit 
to approve it, or, as it deserved, to disregard it, it 
could have done me no harm. Here first my judg- 
ment failed, or rather injured me. I was blind, I 
say ; blind in changing my habit, and supplicating 
the people ; which, unless I should have been at- 
tacked by name, was prejudicial to me. But I am 
going back to things that are past. It is however 
with this view, that if anything is done in this 
business, you may not meddle with that law which 
contains many popular enactments. But it is fool- 
ish in me to prescribe what you should do, or how. 
I only wish something may be done ; on which sub- 
ject your letter is rather reserved, lest, I suppose, I 
should feel my disappointment too severely. For 
what do you see possible to be done ? or by what 
means ? By the senate ? But you have told me 
yourself that Clodius had fixed upon the door-post 
of the senate-house that clause in the law which 
makes it illegal to reconsider it, or to speak of it. 
How then is it that Domitius has said he would 
move for its reconsideration ? or how is it that 
Clodius should have been silent, while some, as you 
mention, were speaking of that affair, and demand- 
ing its reconsideration ? But if anything is to be 
done by the people, can they act without the con- 
currence of all the tribunes of the people ? What 
of my goods ? what of my house ? Can that be 
restored ? or if not, how am I myself restored ? 
Unless you see some means of solving these diffi- 
culties, what is the hope to which you call me ? 
And if there is no hope, what is life itself ? I shall 
therefore wait at Thessalonica for an account of 
the transactions of the 1st of August, from which I 
may determine whether I shall take refuge in your 
grounds, (that I may both avoid seeing people 
whom I do not like, and may, as you say, see you, 
and be nearer at hand in case anything is done,) 
and this I understand you and my brother Quintus 
to advise, or whether I shall go to Cyzicum. Now 
then, my Pomponius, since you have exerted no 
portion of your prudence for my safety ; either be- 
cause you supposed that I was sufficiently capable 
of judging for myself; or that you owed me 
nothing more than merely to be ready on my behalf; 
and since I have been betrayed, prevailed upon, 
seduced to neglect all my supports ; have disap- 
pointed and deserted all Italy, ready to rise in my 
defence ; have given up myself, my friends, into the 
power of my enemies ; while you looked on in 
silence, who if your judgment was not better than 
mine, at least had less to fear, raise up, if you can, 
my afflicted friends, and in this yet assist me. But 
if all means are obstructed, let me be informed even 
of that : and cease at length either to chide me, or 
civilly to offer me consolation. If I meant to ac- 
cuse your want of faithfulness, I should not trust 
myself in preference to your roof. No, I accuse 
my own folly, in supposing that your love for me 
was equal to my wishes. Had this been the case, 
you would have shown the same fidelity, but greater 
care ; and certainly would have held me back when 
I was hastening to my ruin ; nor would you have 
encountered those troubles which you now sustain 
in my shipwreck. Take care then to let me know 
everything clearly and distinctly ; and help me, as 
you do, to be again somebody, since I can no lon- 
ger be what I was, and what I might have been, 
appears to have applied this general principle to Cicero's 
particular case. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



659 



And believe that it is not you, but myself, that 
I accuse in this letter. If there are any, to whom 
you think letters should be sent in my name, I 
should be glad if you would write, and take care to 
have them delivered. Dated the 19th of August. 



LETTER XVI. 

All my motions are rendered uncertain from 
nothing else but the expectation of your letter of 
the 1st of August. If it affords any hope, I shall 
go into Epirus ; if not, to Cyzicum, or some other 
place. The oftener I read over your letters, the 
moi'e my hopes decline ; for the reading them 
weakens the hope they were meant to excite : so 
that it is very evident you are actuated by a regard 
both to my consolation and to truth. I, therefore, 
beg you distinctly to tell me what you know, as it 
really is; what you think, as you really think. 
Dated the 21st of August. 



LETTER XVII. 

The accounts I had received about my brother 
Quintus had been unfavourable, and without varia- 
tion, from the 4th of June to the 31st of August. 
On that day Livineius, the freed-man of Regulus, 
came to me from his master : he reported that no 
mention of my brother's administration had been 
made ; but that there had been some talk about 
the son of Caius Clodius h . He also brought me a 
letter from my brother. The next day Sestius' 
servant arrived with your letter, not so free from 
apprehension as the verbal communication of Livi- 
neius. In truth, I am very anxious in the midst 
of my own great distress, and the more so, because 
the question will come before Appius. The other 
matters which you mention in the same letter, 
relating to my hopes, seem to be less flattering 
than what I hear from other people. But, since 
the time is not far distant when the business must 
be determined, I shall either go to your house 1 , 
or shall still remain in this neighbourhood. My 
brother tells me that you alone are the support of 
all his concerns. Why, then, should I exhort you 
to do what you do already ? or why should I 
return my thanks, which you do not desire ? I 
only wish that fortune may enable us again to 
enjoy our mutual affection in security. I am 
always particularly anxious for your letters. You 
need be under no apprehension that your minute- 
ness can be troublesome to me, or your candour 
disagreeable. Dated the 4th of September. 



LETTER XVIIL 

You had raised in me no little expectation, 
when you mentioned that Varro had told you in 
confidence, that Pompeius would certainly under- 
take my cause ; and that as soon as he should have 
heard from Caesar, which he was expecting, he 
would get somebody to propose it, Was there 

h P. Clodius had two brothers, Caius and Appius. The 
former had died, leaving two sons ; the latter is the same 
who is afterwards spoken of in this letter. 

» The Latin is " ad te." Many instances might be pro- 
duced to justify this translation. It is similar to what 
occurs in the Acts, xvi. 40, Trpos T^vAvSiau, meaning 
" Lydia's house." 



nothing in this ? or has Caesar's letter proved 
unfavourable ? Is there anything to be hoped ? 
You mentioned also that he had said something 
would be done at the time of the comitiaJ. Let 
me, if you see in what straits I am, and if you 
think it becomes your kindness, let me be informed 
of the whole matter. For my brother Quintus, an 
excellent man, who is so much attached to me, 
sends accounts full of hope, fearing, I suppose, 
my want of courage. But your letters are various ; 
for you would not have me to despair, nor too 
hastily to hope. I entreat you to let me know 
everything that you are able to discover. 



LETTER XIX. 

As long as I continued to receive from you such 
accounts as gave me reason to expect anything 
further, I was detained at Thessalonica by hope 
and anxiety: but when all the business of this 
year seemed to be finished, I did not care to go 
into Asia, both because company is disagreeable to 
me, and if anything should be done by the new 
magistrates, I should be sorry to be out of the way. 
I have, therefore, determined to go to your place 
in Epirus ; not that the nature of the place was of 
any consequence to me, who altogether shun the 
light ; but I should go with peculiar pleasure from 
your port to my restoration ; or, if that is cut off, 
I can nowhere more easily support this wretched 
life, or, what is far better, throw it up. I shall 
have only a few people with me, and shall dismiss 
the great body of them. Your letters have never 
raised my hopes so much as those of some other 
friends ; yet have my hopes always been less even 
than your letters. Nevertheless, since a begin- 
ning has been made, however it has been done, or 
from whatever cause, I will not disappoint the sad 
and mournful requests of my excellent and only 
brother, nor the promises of Sestius k and others, 
nor the hope of that afflicted woman Terentia, nor 
the entreaties of the poor dear Tullia, and those of 
your faithful letters. Epirus will afford me either 
a passage to restoration, or what I have mentioned 
above 1 . I beg and beseech you, my Pomponius, 
as you see me spoiled of all my splendid, cherished, 
and enjoyable possessions, by the perfidy of certain 
people ; as you see me betrayed and cast forth by 
my counsellors ; and know that I am compelled 
to ruin myself, and all that belong to me ; that 
you will assist me with your compassion, and 
support my brother Quintus, who may yet be 
saved; that you will protect Terentia and my 
children ; that you will wait for me, if you think 
there is any chance of seeing me there m ; other- 
wise, that you will come to visit me, if possible, 
and will assign me so much of your land as my 
body can occupy 11 ; and that you will send me 
servants with letters as soon as possible, and as 
often as you can. Dated the 1 6th of September. 

J See letters 13 and 14 of this book. 

k Sestius was a tribune elect, and had promised to pro- 
mote Cicero's recall. 

1 Alluding to his determination to kill himself. See 
letter 9 of this book, note r . 

m That Atticus should wait for Cicero at Rome, if he 
saw any chance of his recall ; otherwise that he should go 
to see him in Epirus before he executed his resolution of 
killing himself. 

n For his burial. 

UU2 



660 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XX. 

Cicero salutes Q. Csecilius, the son of Quintus, 
Pomponianus Atticus . That this should be so, 
and that your uncle should have discharged this 
duty to you, I exceedingly approve : I would say 
that I rejoiced at it, if I could use this word. 
Alas ! how would everything he according to my 
mind, had it not been for want of courage, of pru- 
dence, of honesty, in those whom I trusted : which 
I care not to recollect, lest I add to my regret. 
But I am sure you must remember the life I led ; 
how many delights it contained, how much dignity. 
To recover this, I beseech you by your fortunes p, 
strive as you do; and enable me to spend the 
birth-day of my return with you and with my 
relations in your delicious house. I wished to 
have stayed at your place in Epirus for this hope 
and expectation, which is held out to me ; but the 
letters I receive make me think it more convenient 
to remain where I am. Respecting my house, and 
Curio's speech, it is as you say. The general 
restoration, if only that be granted, will contain 
everything. But there is nothing about which I 
am more anxious than my house. However, I 
mention nothing to you in particular ; I commend 
myself wholly to your affection and fidelity. It is 
very gratifying to me, that in so great an inherit- 
ance i you should have been able to extricate yourself 
from all trouble. When you promise your services 
on my behalf, that on every occasion I may derive 
assistance from you, rather than from anybody 
else, I am very sensible how great a support this 
is ; and I know that you undertake, and are able 
to sustain, many kind offices for my preservation ; 
and that you need not be entreated to do so. When 
you forbid me to suspect that I had either done or 
neglected to do anything towards you, which could 
give you offence ; I will comply with your request, 
and free myself from that source of uneasiness : 
nevertheless, I am indebted to you so much the 
more, in proportion to the exeess of your kindness 
towards 'me, over mine towards you. I beg you 
to tell me what you see, what you hear, what is 
done ; and to exhort all your friends to assist me. 
The proposed law of Sestius is deficient both in 
dignity and caution : for it ought expressly to 
name me, and to mention more particularly my 
effects ; and I should be glad if you would attend 
to this circumstance. Dated the 4th of October, 
at Thessalonica. 



LETTER XXI. 

_ The day on which I write this, is the thirtieth 
since I have received any letter from you. It had 
been my intention, as I before mentioned to you, 
to go into Epirus, and there wait for whatever 
might happen. 1 beg you, if you see anything 
either way, that you will distinctly inform me ; 
and that you will write in my name, as you pro- 
pose, any letters which you may think necessary. 
Dated the 28th, of O ctober. 

Atticus having been adopted by his uncle Q,. Csecilius, 
and made his heir, is addressed by this new designation 
conformable to the custom of his country. 

P A form of adjuration used particularly by persons in 
distress. 

1 Corn. Nepos states the amounrtobeccntiesII.S., equi- 
valent to 83,333^. 



LETTER XXII. 

Though my brother Quintus and Piso had 
acquainted me with the state of affairs; yet I 
wished that your engagements had not prevented 
you from writing, as usual, about what was doing, 
and what conclusions you drew from it. The hos- 
pitality of Plancius has hitherto retained me, when 
I have several times attempted to go into Epirus. 
He has entertained the hope, which I cannot say I 
have, that we might be able to go away together ; 
which he expects may do him honour. But now 
that soldiers are said to be coming, it will be neces- 
sary for me to leave him. When I go, I will 
immediately write to inform you where I am. 
Lentulus by his kindness towards me, which his 
actions, his promises, and his letters declare, 
affords some hope of the good disposition of Pom- 
peius. For you have often told me in your letters, 
that he was entirely under Pompeius's influence. 
My brother has written to me about Metellus, how 
much he hoped had been effected through you. 
My dear Pomponius, exert yourself that I may 
again be permitted to live with you and with my 
friends ; and write to me everything. I am op- 
pressed not only with grief, but with the want of 
all that was dearer to me than myself. Farewell 1 . 

As I knew if I went through Thessaly into 
Epirus I should be a long while without intelli- 
gence, and as I have friends at Dyrrachium, I 
have come to them, after writing the former part 
of my letter at Thessalonica. When I set out 
again for your place, T will let you know ; and I 
trust you will send me an exact account of every- 
thing, of whatever kind it may be. I now look 
for the thing itself, or lose all hope. Dated the 
26th of November, at Dyrrachium. 



LETTER XXIII. 

On the 27th of November I received three 
letters from you ; one dated the 25th of October, 
in which you encourage me to wait with firmness 
for the month of January % and say everything 
that can lead to hope ; such as the zeal of Len- 
tulus, the good-will of Metellus, and the whole 
design of Pompeius. In another letter, contrary 
to your custom, you do not mention the date ; 
though you sufficiently mark the time by saying 
that you write on the same day on which the law 
was promulgated by the eight tribunes 1 ; that is, 
the 29th of October; and you add what advantage 
you conceive that promulgation to have produced. 
From which, if my restoration is become desperate 
by the fate of this law, I should hope, for your 
love of me, you will esteem this fruitless diligence 
of u mine rather unhappy than absurd; but if 
there be indeed any hope, that you will use your 
endeavour to make the new magistrates hereafter 
exert themselves with greater diligence in my sup- 
port. For that proposed law of the old tribunes 

r This is the conclusion of the letter, to which what 
follows is a postscript : the letter having been written at 
Thessalonica, the postscript at Dyrrachium. 

s When the new magistrates entered into office. 

* Eight of the ten tribunes proposed the repeal of 
Cicero's banishment, but it was necessary that they should 
all be unanimous. 

« He means the pains he was taking in this letter. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



661 



comprised three heads ; one for my return, which 
was incautiously drawn up ; for by it nothing is 
restored besides my citizenship and my rank ; 
which, considering my condition, is a great deal ; 
but what ought to have been secured, and in what 
manner, cannot have escaped you v . The next 
head is copied from the ordinary form of indemnity, 
in case anything should be enacted in support of 
this law, which was contrary to other existing 
laws. As for the third head, observe, my Pompo- 
nius, with what design, and by whom, it was inserted. 
For you know that Clodius added such sanctions 
to his law as should put it almost, or altogether, 
out of the power either of the senate, or of the 
people, to invalidate it. But you know also that 
the sanctions of laws which are abrogated, are 
never regarded. Were it otherwise, scarcely any 
could be abrogated ; for there is none which is not 
fenced round by some obstacle to its repeal. But 
when a law is repealed, that very clause is repealed, 
which was meant for its security. Notwithstand- 
ing this is so, and has always been so held and 
observed, our eight tribunes have inserted this 
clause: " If there be anything contained in this 
law, which by any laws or decrees, that is, which 
by the Clodian law, it is not, and shall not be, 
strictly lawful to promulgate, abrogate, diminish, 
or supersede ; or which subjects to a penalty, or 
fine thereupon, whosoever hath promulgated, abro- 
gated, diminished, or superseded it ; nothing of 
such kind is enacted by this law." And this could 
not affect those tribunes ; for they were not bound 
by the enactment of their own body : which affords 
the greater suspicion of some malice, that they 
should have inserted what was immaterial to them- 
selves, but prejudicial to me : that the new tribunes 
of the people, if they were at all timid, might think 
it still more necessary to use the same clause. 
Nor has that been overlooked by Clodius : for he 
said in the assembly on the 3rd of November, that 
under this head was prescribed to the tribunes 
elect what was the extent of their authority. But 
you are aware that no law has any clause of this 
kind ; which, if it were necessary, all would have, 
that go to abrogate a former law. I wish you 
could find out how this should have escaped Nin- 
nius and the other tribunes, and who introduced 
it ; and how it happened that eight tribunes of the 
people should not have hesitated to bring my cause 
before the senate. Or can it be that w they, who 
thought this clause might be disregarded, should 
at the same time be so cautious in abrogating it, 
as to be afraid of that, when they were free from 
the law, which need not be observed by those who 
were bound by the law ? This clause I certainly 
should not wish the new tribunes to propose : but 
let them enact what they will ; the clause which 
recalls me, provided the thing be accomplished, 
will satisfy me. I am already ashamed of having 
written so much about it: for, I fear, by the time 
you read it, the thing will be past hope, so that 
my concern may appear to you pitiful, to others 
ridiculous. But if there is anything to be hoped, 
look at the law which Visellius drew up for T. 
Fadius, which pleases me exceedingly : for I do 

v Alluding to his house and property. 

w There is confessedly some error in the text. I propose 
to read " Sive sitne qui." The alteration of "qui" for 
" quod," is very little, and seems to me to make the sense 
of the whole passage clear and consistent. 



not like that of our friend Sestius x , which you say 
you approved. The third letter is dated on the 
13th of November, in which you explain sensibly 
and accurately what it is that seems to delay my 
business ; about Crassus, Pompeius, and the rest. 
I beg you, therefore, if there is any hope that it 
can be accomplished by the wishes, the authority, 
the collected numbers of honest men, that a gene- 
ral push may be made ; attend to this, and excite 
others. But if, as I too plainly see, both by your 
suspicions and my own, that there is really no 
hope ; I pray and beseech you to love my brother 
Quintus, whom I have wretchedly ruined ; and 
not to suffer him to adopt any measures which may 
be inexpedient for your sister's son. As for my 
poor Cicero, to whom I leave nothing but ill-will 
and disgrace, protect him as well as you can y , and 
support by your kind attention Terentia, of all 
women the most afflicted. I shall go into Epirus 
as soon as I have received the intelligence of the 
first day's proceedings. I hope you will inform 
me in your next letter how the beginning passed 
off. Dated the 30th of November. 



LETTER XXIV. 

When you mentioned to me before, that the 
provinces of the consuls had been appointed with 
your approbation 2 ; though I was afraid how this 
might turn out, yet I hoped your better judgment 
might have seen some reason for it. But since I 
have heard, both by word of mouth and by letter, 
that this proposal of yours is very much blamed, I 
have been deeply concerned ; inasmuch as that 
little hope, which remained, seems to be taken 
away. For if the tribunes of the people are 
offended, what hope can there be ? And they 
may with reason be offended, when they, who had 
undertaken my cause, have been left out of con- 
sideration, and by our concession have lost the 
exercise of their just rights: especially when they 
declare that they wished for my sake to have the 
power of making out the appointments of the con- 
suls ; not that they might throw any impediment 
in the way, but that they might attach them to my 
cause : but that now, if the consuls are ill disposed 
towards me, they may show it without constraint ; 
or if they should be inclined to support me, still 
they can do nothing without the concurrence of the 
tribunes. For as to what you say, that unless my 
friends had consented, they would have atttained 
the same purpose through the people" ; this could 
not be done against the sense of the tribunes b : so 
that I fear we may have lost the good- will of the 
tribunes ; or, if that still remains, that the bond of 
union with the consuls may have been lost. Another 
no small disadvantage attached to this is, that the 

x See letter 20 of this hook. 

y This seems to have heen said under the idea of destroy- 
ing himself. 

2 Atticus had no other concern in it than as heing one 
of Cicero's principal friends and agents at Rome. It seems 
that the appointment of the provinces was a chock upon 
the conduct of the consuls, which was exercised in great 
measure hy the tribunes. By having the appointment 
previous to their entering upon their ofiiee, the tribunes 
lost this control, and the consuls became independent. 

a This had been done in the case of Caesar. 

b Any one of the tribunes might intcrposo to stop the 
progress of a law in the popular assembly. 



662 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



solemn resolution, as it was represented to me, 
that the senate would pass no act before my cause 
was determined, has been broken ; and that, on an 
occasion which was not only unnecessary, but quite 
unusual and novel. For 1 do not believe that the 
provinces were ever before appointed for the con- 
suls elect. Hence that firmness, which was shown 
in my behalf, having been once infringed, there is 
nothing now which may not be decreed. It is not 
surprising that this should have pleased those friends 
to whom it was referred : for it would be difficult 
to find anybody who would openly give an opinion 
in opposition to such advantages of the two consuls. 
It was impossible not to favour either so friendly a 
man as Lentulus, or Metellus, who so kindly laid 
aside his resentment. But yet I fear whether we 
may be able to keep these, and may not have lost the 
tribunes of the people. How this has turned out, 
and what is the state of the whole business, I wish 
you to inform me ; and with your usual frankness. 
For the truth itself, though it may not be agree- 
able, is yet acceptable to me. Dated the 10th of 
December. 



LETTER XXV. 

Subsequent to your departure , 1 have received 
letters from Rome, by which I perceive that I must 
pine away in this sad condition. For (you will 
pardon me) if any hope of my re-establishment 
had remained, such is your affection, that you 
would not have gone away at this time. But that 
I may not seem ungrateful, or willing that every- 
thing should be sacrificed along with me d , I say no 

c From Rome. It is generally agreed by commentators 
that the words " a me" ought to be omitted. If they are 
retained, I should still understand it to mean " since you 
left my affairs at Rome." For the tenor of these letters 
forbids the supposition of Atticus's having been with 
Cicero. 

d It is probable that Atticus might have written to say 
that some business called him away from Rome at this 
time ; to which Cicero replies, that he would not be 



more upon the subject. This I beg of you, that 
you will endeavour, as you promised, wherever I 
may be, to stop your progress before the first of 
January. 



LETTER XXVI. 

I have received a letter from my brother Quintus 
with the decree of the senate concerning me. It is 
my intention to wait for the passing of the law e ; 
and if there is any malignant opposition, I will 
avail myself of the authority of the senate, and will 
rather lose my life, than my country. Pray make 
haste to come to me. 



LETTER XXVII. 

I see by your letters, and by the case itself, 
that I am utterly lost. I beg that in any concerns 
in which my family may stand in need of your 
assistance, you will have compassion upon my 
wretchedness. I hope, as you say, that I shall 
shortly see you. 



[Tlie law for Cicero's recall was for some time obstructed 
by the tribune Serranus, who had been gained over by 
Clodius. At length, however, it passed on the 4th of Au- 
gust, Cicero having already embarked for Italy, and 
arrived at Brundisium, where, three days afterwards, 
he received intelligence of the law having been ratified 
with great zeal and unanimity by all the centuries.'] 

thought to wish that Atticus should sacrifice everything 
for his sake. 

e The decrees of the senate had not the force of a law 
till they were confirmed by the people. But the law of 
Cicero's banishment having been carried by illegal means, 
the senate had on this occasion passed a vote, " that if, 
through any violence, or obstruction, the law for his re- 
call was not suffered to pass, within the five next legal 
days of assembly, Cicero should be at liberty to return, 
without any further authority."— Life of Cicero, p. 109. 



BOOK IV. 



LETTER I. 



As soon as I came to Rome, and met with any- 
body to whom I could properly entrust a letter to 
you, I thought nothing deserved my earlier atten- 
tion, than sending to congratulate with you upon 
my return. For I had found, to tell you the truth, 
that in giving me advice, you were as much in want 
of fortitude and prudence, as myself f ; and con- 
sidering my former attachment to you, that you 
had not been over diligent in protecting my safety. 
Yet you, who had at first partaken of my error, or 
rather madness, and had been the companion of 
my false alarm, bare our separation with much 
uneasiness, and spared no pains, no exertion, 
diligence, or trouble, to bring about my resto- 
ration. And I may truly affirm, that amidst the 
greatest joy, and most wished-for congratulations, 

* The explanation of this and the following sentences is 
found in letter 15, book iii. 



the only thing wanting to complete my satisfaction, 
is to see, or rather to embrace you ; whom once 
possessed, I hope never again to leave. If I do 
not make amends also for all the neglected fruits of 
your kindness s in the time that is gone by, I shall 
verily think myself undeserving of this return of 
fortune. 

I have already obtained, what I conceived most 
difficult to be recovered in my situation, that dis- 
tinction in the forum, that authority in the senate, 
and favour among good men, in a greater degree 
than I could have hoped. But in regard to my 
property, which, as you know, has been violated, 
dissipated, and plundered, I am in great difficulty ; 
and I stand in need, not so much of your money, 
which I look upon as my own, but of your advice, 
in gathering up and securin g the remains of it. 

tr This likewise derives explanation from book iii., letter 
15, where Cicero declares that his future attentions to 
Atticus shall make up for any past deficiencies. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



663 



Now, though I imagine that everything has been 
either related to you by your friends, or brought by 
messengers and common report ; yet I -will shortly 
describe what I think you will most wish to be 
informed of by my own letters. I left Dyrrachium 
the 4th of August, on the very day when the law 
passed for my recall. On the 5th I came to Brun- 
disium, where my dear Tullia was ready to receive 
me on her birth-day, which happened also to be 
the anniversary of the foundation of the Brundisian 
colony, and of the temple of Public Safety in your 
neighbourhood. This was noticed by the populace, 
and celebrated with great rejoicing. On the 8th 
of August, while I was at Brundisium, I heard 
from my brother Quintus, that the law had been 
confirmed in the assembly of centuries' 1 , with an 
astonishing zeal among all ranks and ages, and an 
incredible concurrence of all Italy. Thence, having 
been honoured by the principal people of Brundi- 
sium, as I pursued my journey I was met by mes- 
sengers of congratulation from all parts. On 
approaching the city there was nobody of any 
order of citizens known to my nomenclator 1 , who 
did not come to meet me, excepting those enemies, 
who could not either dissemble, or deny their 
hostility. When I arrived at the Capenan gateJ, 
the steps of the temples were filled with the lower 
classes of people, who signified their congratu- 
lations with the loudest applause ; and a similar 
throng and applause attended me quite to the 
capitol : and in the forum, and in the capitol itself, 
the numbers were prodigious. The day following, 
which was the 5tb of September, I returned thanks 
to the senate. These two days the price of pro- 
visions being very high, the people collected 
tumultuously, by the instigation of Clodius, first 
at the theatre, then at the senate, crying out that 
I had occasioned the dearth of corn. At the same 
time, the senate having met upon the subject of 
the supplies, and Pompeius being called upon by 
the voice, not only of the populace, but of the 
better sort, to provide for it, and being himself 
desirous of it, and the people calling upon me by 
name to propose a decree for that purpose, I did 
so, and explained fully my sentiments, in the 
absence of others of consular rank, who said they 
could not with safety declare their opinions, ex- 
cepting Messala and Afranius. A decree of the 
senate was accordingly passed agreeably to my 
proposal, that Pompeius should be engaged to 
undertake the business, and that a law should be 
brought in. Upon the recital of this decree, when 
the populace, according to this silly and new 
custom, had given their applause, repeating my 
name, I harangued the assembly by the permission 
of all the magistrates present, excepting one praetor 
and two tribunes of the people. The next day 
there was a full senate, and all the consular senators 
granted whatever Pompeius asked for. Upon his 
demanding fifteen lieutenants, he named me at the 
head of them, and said that I should be in every- 
thing another self. The consuls drew up a law, 
giving to Pompeius the power of regulating the 
corn all over the world for five years. Messius 

h The most dignified assembly of the people was that in 
which the votes were collected by centuries, or classes. 

1 An attendant, whose duty it was to mention the 
names of everybody that passed. Such people were parti- 
cularly employed by persons engaged in a public canvass. 

i One of the gates of Rome. 



drew up another, giving him an unlimited com- 
mand of money, superadding a fleet and army, and 
a greater authority in the provinces, than was 
possessed by the governors themselves. That 
consular law of mine now appears quite modest ; 
this of Messius intolerable. Pompeius says he 
prefers the former ; his friends are for the latter. 
The consular senators, headed by Favonius, exclaim 
against it ; I say nothing ; more especially because 
the pontifices have yet given no opinion respecting 
my house k . If they remove the religious impedi- 
ments, I shall have a noble area, and, agreeably to 
the resolution of the senate, the consuls will estimate 
the value of the buildings : if it is otherwise, they 
will pull down what is now there, will contract for 
a house in their own names, and will make an 
estimate of the whole amount. Such is the situa- 
tion of my affairs ; hazardous for a state of pros- 
perity ; for a state of adversity, good. In my 
income, as you know, I am much embarrassed ; 
and have besides some domestic troubles, which I 
do not care to commit to writing. I have all that 
affection, which I ought to have, towards my 
brother Quintus, endowed as he is with distin- 
guished loyalty, virtue, and fidelity. I am looking 
for you, and beg you to hasten your coming ; and 
to come in such a disposition of mind, as not to 
suffer me to remain in want of your counsel. I 
am entering upon the beginning of another life. 
Already some, who defended me in my absence, 
begin to be secretly angry with me upon my 
return, and openly to envy me. I greatly want 
you. 



LETTER II. 

If it happens that you hear from me less fre- 
quently than from some others, I beg you will not 
attribute it to my neglect, nor even to my occupa- 
tions ; which, great as they are, yet can never 
interrupt the course of my affection and duty. But 
since I came to Rome, it is now only the second 
time that I have known of any body to whom I 
could entrust a letter ; consequently this is the 
second I have sent. In the former I described to 
you the manner of my return, and what was my 
situation, and the condition of all my affairs, ha- 
zardous for a state of prosperity, for a state of 
adversity good enough. After the date of that 
letter, there followed a great contest about my 
house. I spake before the pontifices the last day 
of September. The cause was diligently debated by 
me, so that if ever I made a figure in speaking, or 
if ever else, then at least the sense of my injuries, 
and the importance of the issue, added new force 
to my language. I could not, therefore, withhold 
the speech from our young friends ; and, though 
you do not ask for it, yet I shall shortly send it to 
you. The sentence of the pontifices was to this 
effect — " If he who said he had made a dedication 



k Clodius, when he destroyed Cicero's house in Rome, 
consecrated part of the area on which it stood, and erected 
a temple there to the goddess Liberty. The remaining 
part Clodius had planted, and appropriated to his own 
use. Hence it is that Cicero goes on to say, if the conse- 
cration of the area be set aside, he shall have a noble 
space for a new house ; or if it should not be set aside, that 
the consuls were at least to clear the ground, and contract 
for the building of a house for him on the unconsecrated 
part. 



66-4 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



had not been specially appointed to that purpose by 
any order of the people, either in their centuries or 
tribes ; then that part of the area appeared capable 
of being restored to me without any religious im- 
pediment." Upon this I was immediately congra- 
tulated ; for nobody doubted but the house was 
adjudged to me. But presently that fellow 1 mounts 
the rostra, by permission of Appius m , and tells the 
people that the pontifices had given sentence in his 
favour, but that I was attempting to get possession 
by force ; and he exhorts them to support him and 
Appius, and to defend their own liberties. Upon 
this, while even among that lowest rabble some 
wondered, some smiled at the fellow's madness, I 
had determined not to come forward till the consuls, 
by the decree of the senate, should first have con- 
tracted for the rebuilding of Catulus's portico 11 . 
On the first of October was held a full senate, at 
which all those pontifices, who were senators, were 
present. Marcellinus, who was much attached to 
me, being first called upon to speak, inquired of 
them what they had intended by their sentence. 
Upon which M. Lucullus, in the name of all his 
colleagues, replied, that the pontifices were the 
judges of religion, the senate of the law : that he 
and his colleagues had given their opinion upon the 
point of religion ; that they would speak of the law 
in the senate. Each of them then being asked his 
opinion in turn, argued at length in my favour. 
When it came to Clodius to speak, he wished to 
wear out the day ; nor was there any end to it, 
till after having spoken for nearly three hours, he 
was at length compelled, by the disapprobation 
and clamour of the senate, to bring his discourse 
to a conclusion. A decree of the senate being then 
made agreeably to the proposal of Marcellinus, 
with only one dissentient voice, Serranus inter- 
ceded p. Immediately both consuls referred it to 
the senate to take this intercession into considera- 
tion ; and the most dignified opinions were pro- 
nounced, that it was the pleasure of the senate 
that my house should be restored to me ; that 
Catulus's portico should be rebuilt ; that the reso- 
lution of the senate i should be supported by all 
the magistrates ; that if any violence was offered, 
the senate would consider it to have been done by 
his means who had interposed his negative. Ser- 
ranus took fright, and Cornicinus had recourse to 
his old farce ; and having cast off his upper gar- 
ment, he threw himself at the feet of his son-in- 
law r . He asked to have the night to consider of 
it, which they were not disposed to grant, for they 
had not forgotten the first of January s . With some 
difficulty, however, this was acceded to by my 

1 Clodius. 

'» Appius was at this time praetor, 

» This adjoined to the area of Cicero's house, and had 
partly been destroyed to make way for Clodius's temple of 
Liberty. 

o This was sometimes practised for the purpose of im- 
peding the progress of any decree of the senate. 

P Any one of the tribunes of the people had the power 
of stopping the decrees of the senate, which was called 
interceding. 

'l The acts of the senate, when they were not suffered 
to pass on to a decree, were called auctoritates. 

r Cornicinus was father-in-law to .Serranus. 

s It was on the first of January, upon occasion of the 
debate on Cicero's recall, that Serranus and ( 'ornieinus had 
done the same thing before ; but at that time Serranus 
persisted in his opposition. 



consent. The next day the decree of the senate was 
made, which I sent you. Then the consuls con- 
tracted for the restoring of Catulus's portico. 
What Clodius had done was immediately demo- 
lished by the contractors, with universal approba- 
tion. The consuls, by the opinion of their council*, 
valued what had been erected upon the ground at 
2000 sestertia (16,000/.) u ; the other things very 
illiberally. My Tusculanum at 500 sestertia (4000/). 
The Formianum at 250 sestertia (2000/). This 
valuation was very much censured, not only by all 
the best people, but even by the common sort. 
You will naturally ask, then, what was the cause 
of it. They say it was my modesty, in neither 
objecting, nor strenuously urging my claims. But 
that is not the case, for this might indeed have 
been of advantage to me ; but these same people, 
my Titus Pomponius, I say these very people, 
whom you know well enough, who have clipped 
my wings, are unwilling to let them grow again ; 
but I hope they are already growing. Do you only 
come to me, which I am afraid of your not doing 
till late, owing to the arrival of your and my friend 
Varro. Having put you in possession of what has 
been done, let me inform you of my further designs. 
I have engaged myself to Pompeius in such a man- 
ner, as in no degree to be prevented from being at 
liberty, if I should wish it, either to offer myself 
for the censorship, should the next consuls hold 
the comitia for that purpose, or to take a votive 
legation v of almost all the shrines and groves ; for 
so my affairs required w . And I wished to have it 
in my power either to canvass, or at the beginning 
of the summer to go from Rome : and in the mean 
time I thought it desirable to keep in the sight of 
the citizens who had shown me such great kind- 
ness. These are my views with regard to the public, 
but my domestic concerns are greatly embroiled. 
The building of my house at Rome is going on. 
You know with what expense, and what trouble. I 
am restoring my Formianum, which I am neither 
able to relinquish, nor to see. My Tusculanum I 
have advertised for sale. I cannot easily do with- 
out a villa near the city. The kindness of my 
friends has been exhausted in that business, which 
has produced nothing but disgrace ; which you 
felt at a distance, I in fact x . By their favour and 
assistance I should easily have obtained everything, 
if my own defenders had permitted it. But I have 
now great trouble from this source. The other 
things which vex me are of a more secret nature ?. 
I enjoy the affection of my brother and of my 
daughter. I am expecting you. 

1 It appears that the magistrates were accustomed to 
have the opinion of a council in conducting business of 
importance that was entrusted to them. 

u Cicero had paid for it 29,0001. 

▼ The senators not being permitted by law to absent 
themselves from Rome without leave, used the subterfuge 
of an honorary lieutenancy, or expiation of a vow, to set 
themselves at liberty. See book ii., letter It!. 

w The disorder into which his affairs had been thrown 
in different parts of Italy, made it. I suppose, either a real, 
or a pretended reason, for having these votive legations in 
so many places. 

s The text is obscure, and perhaps faulty. 

y Probably alluding to the ill-humour of Terentia, which 
occasioned increasing vexation, and drove him at last to a 
divorce. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



665 



LETTER III. 

I know you will be glad to be informed of wbat 
is doing here, and in what concerns me, to hear it 
from myself ; not that such matters, which are done 
in the face of the world, can be more certain from 
my pen, than from anybody else who may write to 
you, or tell you about them ; but that you may 
perceive from my style how I am affected by them, 
and what is the present feeling of my mind, and 
condition of my life. On the third of November, 
the workmen were violently driven from my 
ground by armed men ; the portico of Catulus, 
which was rebuilding by contract entered into by 
the consuls, agreeably to the decree of the senate, 
and which had already reached the roof, was thrown 
down. My brother Quintus's house was first injured 
by stones thrown from my area, then set on fire by 
order of Clodius, in sight of the whole city, with 
lighted materials, to the great grief and lamen- 
tation, I say not of all good people, for I know not 
if there are any, but fairly of all people. He rushed 
on impetuously ; and, after this outrage, seemed to 
think of nothing but the slaughter of his enemies ; 
went round from street to street, and openly invited 
the slaves to revolt 2 . Before, when he avoided a a 
trial, he had indeed a difficult case, and strong 
evidence against him; but yet he had a case, he 
might deny the fact, he might lay it upon others, 
he might even defend some of the charges as war- 
ranted by law. After this ruin, fire, plunder, he is 
deserted by his friends, and scarcely retains Deci- 
mus the marshal, or Gellius : he uses the counsel 
of slaves ; he sees that if he should kill all whom he 
wished, his cause upon trial could not be worse 
than it is already. Therefore as I was going down 
the Sacred Street on the 3d of November, he pur- 
sued me with his mob ; shouts, stones, sticks, 
swords, all unforeseen. I retreated into the vesti- 
bule of Tertius Damion ; they who were with me 
easily prevented these rioters from entering. He 
might himself have been killed. But I begin to 
use b dieting; I am tired of manual operations. 
When he saw that he was driven by the general 
voice not to trial, but to punishment, he afterwards 
imitated all the Catilines and Acidini. For on the 
12th of November he was so determined to destroy 
and burn Milo's house on Mount Germalus, that 
openly at eleven o'clock in the morning he brought 
men with shields and drawn swords, and others 
with lighted torches. He had taken possession of 
the house of P. Sulla as his camp, to conduct the 
siege. At that time Q. Flaccus brought out from 
Milo's Annian house c some determined men, killed 
the most notorious of the Clodian mob, and 
wished to kill him, but he took refuge in the inner 
part of the building. On the 14th Sulla came to 
the senate, Clodius staid at home, Marcellinus was 
admirable, everybody was exasperated. Metellus 

z The servants of the ancient Romans were all slaves, of 
which they kept a prodigious number. 

a On this occasion he had been accused by Milo for the 
violences committed while he was tribune. The consul 
Metellus contrived to prevent the prosecution. 

b Perhaps it ought to be written " Diaeta curare incipio." 
As it stands, the sense is, that " I begin to have my affairs 
protected by gentle methods." In the other case it would 
mean, that " I begin to treat Clodius by gentle methods." 

c Many of the opulent citizens had more than one house 
at Rome ; frequently by adoption or bequest. 



wasted the time of speaking by cavilling, in which 
he was assisted by Oppius d , and even by your 
friend e , of whose firmness and excellence your 
letters have spoken so truly f . Sestius was out- 
rageous ; Clodius, if his election e were not suffered 
to take place, threatened the city. Upon the pro- 
posal of Marcellinus's motion, which he delivered 
from a written paper, so as to include the whole of 
my case, the area, the burning, my personal dan- 
ger, and made them all to precede the comitia h ; 
one declared 1 that he would observe the heavens J 
on all the comitia days. Then followed factious 
speeches from Metellus, rash ones from Appius, 
furious ones from Publius. This, however, is the 
sum ; unless Milo had declared his observation of 
the heavens in the Campus Martius, the comitia 
would have taken place. On the 20th of Novem- 
ber Milo came into the Campus Martius in the 
middle of the night with a great attendance. 
Clodius, though he had a chosen band of runaway 
slaves, dared not come into the field. Milo re- 
mained till noon with great honour, and to the 
great joy of the people. The struggle of the three 
brothers' 1 was disgraceful, their strength broken, 
their fury contemptible. Metellus challenges a 
prohibition in the forum the next day ; that there 
was no occasion to come into the Campus Martius 
by night ; that he should be in the forum at seven 

d Manutius has not without reason conjectured that it 
ought to be written Appius, who was Clodius's brother, 
and was praetor, and was in the senate, 

e It is generally supposed that Cicero here means Hor- 
tensius. 

f This is said ironically, Cicero having had some reason 
to suspect that Hortensius acted towards him ungene- 
rously. 

% lie was at this time candidate for the office of aedile. 
His election would prevent all judicial proceedings against 
him till the expiration of his year. 

h The comitia for the election of aediles. 

1 Proscripsit. It has been doubted what was the nomi- 
native to this verb. I believe it to be used indefinitely, 
and without a nominative. That this is sometimes done 
by ancient authors, has been observed by Bentley on the 
construction of the word "inquit," Hor. 1 Serm. iv. 78. 
Bishop Pearce has extended this observation to some other 
words in his note upon 1 Cor. vi. 16. Many other examples 
of the same kind might be produced both in sacred and 
profane writings. Of the former I would instance the word 
aTTOKaKvirTerai, 1 Cor. iii. 13, which has given some trou- 
ble to commentators, and among the rest to Pearce himself. 
I apprehend it to be used absolutely or indefinitely, and 
without any nominative — " it is revealed," or " revelation 
is made." It is used in the same manner again, c. xiv. 30. 
So 2 Cor. iii. 10, rjviKa 6° h.v tTriajptyri — " whenever 
any one turn." I Cor. xiv. 5 and 13, 8i€p/J.7jvevr] — " one 
interpret," or " it be interpreted." So Luke xvi. !), 
8(£cdvto.i vjxds — " that you may be received." Among 
profane authors we find the same construction, as eVSe'xe- 
T ai, Arr. Epict. i. 22, " Does any one admit ?" rbv <p6Sov 
opi^ovTcu wpoadoKiav kclkov, Aristot. Eth. iii. 6, "People 
define." And in Latin, Ordinis ha?c virtus erit ct venue, 
aut ego fallor, Ut jam nunc dicat, &c. — " that one should 
say." Hor. Ars Poet. 42. So again, v. 2S2, Trimetris 
accrescere jussit nomen Iambseis — "it was ordained." And 
similar to these is " putant," Cic. Nat. Deor. ii. 16— '« it is 
supposed." 

J The magistrates only were allowed to observe the hea- 
vens for the purpose of divination; and when they did so, 
no comitia could be held. 

k Clodius, Appius, and Metellus: the latter was not 
properly a brother, but a cousin. This use of the Latin 
word " fratcr" has before teen taken notice of. 



666 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



in the morning. Therefore, on the 21st Milo came 
before sun-rise into the forum. Metellus at the 
first dawn was hastening secretly to the Campus 
Martius through by-ways ; Milo comes up to him 
between the groves 1 ; forbids the comitia : he with- 
drew under the severe and opprobrious scoffs of 
Gt. Flaccus. The 22d was market day m . On 
that day, and the day following, there was no 
meeting. It is on the 24th that I am writing, at 
three o'clock in the morning : Milo is already in 
possession of the Campus Martius. Marcellus the 
candidate 11 is snoring, so that I, who am his neigh- 
bour, might hear him. Clodius's vestibule, I am 
told, is deserted, there being but a few ragged 
fellows, without even a lantern. Their party com- 
plained that it was all my doing, little knowing the 
spirit and the ability of that hero . His courage 
is admirable. I send you rare news. But this is 
the sum of the whole : I do not think the comitia 
will be held, and I do think that Publius, if he is 
not first killed, will be brought to trial by Milo. If 
he come in his way, I foresee that he will be killed 
by Milo ; he does not hesitate to do it ; he openly 
professes it ; my fate p does not intimidate him, 
for he has had no envious and faithless counsellor, 
nor does he mean to trust to any inactive great 
man. My mind alone is in full vigour, even more 
so than when I was in power ; in my property I am 
wasted ; yet I contrive to repay the liberality of my 
brother Quintus against his will, from the resources 
of my friends rather than my own, lest I should be 
quite exhausted. In your absence I am at a loss 
what measures to take respecting the general state 
of my affairs ; therefore hasten up. 



LETTER IV. 

On the 30th of January, before it was light, 
Cincius made himself most agreeable to me by 
informing me that you were in Italy, and that he 
was going to send a servant to you, whom I would 
not suffer to go without a letter from me ; not that 
I have anything particular to tell you, especially 
being now so near ; but that I might assure you 
that your arrival is most grateful to me, and what 
I have been most anxiously expecting. Therefore, 
fly up, in order to gratify your own affection, and 
to feel the effects of mine. We will settle other 
matters when we meet. I write this in haste. As 
soon as you arrive, come with your attendants to 
my house ; I shall be delighted to receive you. 
You will find a noble arrangement of Tyrannio for 
the library of my books, the remains of which are 
much better than I had supposed. I should be 
glad also if you would send me two of your library 
clerks, whom Tyrannio may employ in repairing 
my books, and other offices, and that you would 
direct them to bring some parchment to make 

1 A part of the city so called, where it is to be supposed 
there were, or had been, groves of trees. 

«n The nundince, which were held every ninth day, and 
were holidays, when the comitia could not be held. 

n Candidate for the office of sedile with Clodius. What 
is here said of him may probably allude partly to his being 
prone to sleep, and partly to his giving up all idea of the 
comitia being held that day. 

o Milo. 

P The charge against Cicero when he was banished was, 
that he had put Roman citizens to death without a trial. 



indexes, which I think you Greeks call syllabuses. 
But this according to your convenience. But do 
you at all events come, if you can stay in this part 
of the country q , and can bring Pilia r , for this is 
reasonable, and Tullia wishes it. In good truth you 
have bought a splendid situation. I understand 
your gladiators fight admirably. If you had chosen 
to contract for them, you might have saved your- 
self these two charges 5 . But of these things 
hereafter. Only mind to come ; and, if you have 
any regard for me, remember about the librarians. 



LETTER V. 

What say you ? Do you suppose that I should 
wish my compositions to be read and approved by 
anybody, rather than by you ? Why then have I 
sent them first to anybody else ? I was pressed by 
him* to whom I sent them, and had no other copy. 
What ? Besides (for I have some time been nibbling 
at what must be swallowed at last) a recantation of 
my sentiments seemed to be rather disreputable. 
But farewell to upright, and true, and honourable 
counsels ! It is not to be believed what perfidy 
there is in those chiefs u , as they wish to be ; and 
as they would be, if they had any honesty. I have 
understood and known them, having been invited, 
deserted, cast off by them ; yet it had been my in- 
tention to co-operate with them in the republic. 
They are the same that they were : I have at length 
by your instruction grown wiser. You will say 
that you advised, and persuaded me what to do ; 
but not to write also. But I chose to lay myself 
under an obligation to maintain this new connexion ; 
and to prevent my relapsing to those, who, when 
they ought to pity, do not cease to envy me. How- 
ever I have, as I wrote you word, been very tem- 
perate in my subject. I shall become more 
exuberant, if both he receives it kindly, and these 
people show their vexation ; who ill endure that I 
should possess a villa which had belonged to 
Catulus, and do not consider that I bought it of 
Vettius v ; who say that it did not become me to 
build a house ; that I ought rather to sell one. But 
what more ? If in the public expression of my 
sentiments I have spoken anything which they 
might approve ; yet their joy is, that I should have 
spoken contrary to the wish of Pompeius. But 
there is now an end of this ; and since those, who 
have no power, do not choose to behave kindly to 
me, let me try to be kindly received by those who 
have. You will say, " I wished it long ago." I 
know that you wished it ; and that I was a very 

q At Antium. 

r Pilia was betrothed to Atticus, but not yet married ; 
unless we suppose with M. Mongault that this letter should 
be divided into two, the first written from Rome, the other 
from Antium, after Atticus's marriage. 

s Purchasing gladiators, and purchasing a place for them 
to exhibit : so I understand this passage, which is not very 
clear. These gladiators are supposed to have been in honour 
of Caecilius. See book iii. letter 20. 

1 This seems to have been Caesar, to whom Cicero had 
sent a complimentary poem. 

u He probably means those Avho, Avhile they professed to 
support the republic, were actuated by jealousy towards 
Cicero, as he frequently insinuates in other letters. 

v There were several of this name, all of them people of 
obscurity, and thereby forming a contrast to the family of 
Catulus. 



TO TITUS TOMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



667' 



ass. But it is now time that I should have regard 
to myself, since I can by no means have the regard 
of these people. I am much obliged to you for 
your frequent visits to my house. Crassipes w 
runs away with my means. You may come from 
the direct road into the grounds ; this seems more 
convenient. You will return home the next day, 
for what does it signify to you ? But I will see 
about it x . Your people have highly decorated my 
library by their arrangement and coverings. I 
should be glad if you would commend them for it. 



LETTER VI. 

Respecting Lentulus, I bear it as I ought. 
We have lost a good, and a great man, and one who 
j tempered a noble spirit with much kindness. It 
is some consolation, though a poor one, that I by 
no means lament his fate like Saufeius, and the rest 
of your sect ?. For he so loved his country, that 
indeed I may consider him to have been snatched 
from its ruin by some favour of the gods. For 
what can be more disgraceful than our life ? mine 
especially ? As for you, though you have all the 
endowments of a statesman, you have addicted 
yourself to no party, but feel a common interest in 
all ; while I, if I speak of the republic as I ought, 
am thought mad ; if, as I am obliged to do, a slave ; 
if I say nothing, oppressed and fettered. How 
much cause then have I for grief ? which is also 
aggravated by this circumstance, that I cannot even 
express it for fear of appearing ungrateful. What 
if I should retire, and shelter myself in some port 
of rest ? It is in vain. Rather let me rush into 
war, and take the field. Shall I then submit to 
be a follower, who have refused to be a leader ? So 
it must be ; for so I see it pleases you, whom I 
wish I had always minded. What remains is (ac- 
cording to the proverb) " Sparta is your lot, make 
the best of it." In good truth I cannot ; and I 
approve the conduct of Philoxenus, who chose 
rather to be conducted back to prison 2 . But I 
study in this place to discard these sentiments a ; 
and you, when we meet, shall confirm my purpose. 
I perceive that you sent me several letters, which I 
received all at the same time ; and this even added 
to my sorrow ; for by accident I first read three, 
in which it was stated that Lentulus was rather 
better ; then came this thunderstroke in the fourth. 

w Tullia becoming a widow by the death of her husband 
L. Piso, was lately married to Crassipes, to whom Cicero 
had to pay her dower. 

x These expressions are attended with that obscurity 
which must always be found in familiar letters, from their 
relation to circumstances that are unknown to the reader. 
It seems to me most probable that they may refer to some 
letter of Atticus's inviting Cicero to come to him at Rome. 
For that Atticus was at Rome, appears from his frequent 
visits to Cicero's house while it was rebuilding ; and that 
Cicero was himself at Antium, maybe concluded from the 
mention of his library, which is known to have been at 
his villa near that place. 

y Of the sect of the Epicureans, who placed all their 
happiness in present enjoyment. See book i. letter 8, 
note a . 

z Rather than commend the verses of Dionysius the 
Tyrant. 

a The sense of this passage appears to me to have been 
misapprehended, by not adverting to the force of the word 
ista, which I conceive to mean " such sentiments as he 
had hitherto held." 



But, as I said, it is not he that is to be pitied ; but 
we, who are slaves. Respecting the Hortensiana b , 
which you advise me to write ; I am engaged in 
other subjects, yet am not unmindful of your 
injunction. But in truth at the very outset I 
relinquished it, that I might not appear foolishly to 
have been offended with the unkindness of a friend ; 
then again foolishly to proclaim it by writing. I 
was at the same time apprehensive lest the depth of 
my abasement, which has appeared in my actions, 
might become still more conspicuous if I should 
write anything ; and that offering satisfaction might 
seem to partake of levity, but I will consider 
of it. Do you only let me hear something from 
you as often as possible. Desire Lucceius to show 
you the letter which I have just sent him, in which 
I ask him to write the account of my transactions ; 
I hope you will be pleased with it c . Encourage 
him to set about the work ; and thank him for hav- 
ing agreed to undertake it. Look after my house d 
as far as you can. Say something proper to Ves- 
torius, who is very liberal towards me. 



LETTER VII. 

Nothing could be more seasonable than your 
letter, which relieved my mind from great uneasi- 
ness, on account of our dear boy Quintus e . Cha- 
rippus had come hither two hours before, and had 
quite frightened me. As to what you say of Apol- 
lonius ; what evil spirit has possessed him, a fellow 
from Greece, to suppose he might throw his affairs 
into disorder, like the Roman knights ? for Terentius 
might plead his right f . With respect to Metellus, 
peace to the dead ; but, however, for many years 

there has not died a citizen, who . I will be 

answerable for your money. For what need you 
fear, whomsoever he has made his heir ? unless it 
is Publius. But he has not done improperly, 

although he was himself %. Therefore, on his 

account, you will not have occasion to open your 
coffers. In what concerns the others h , you must 
be more cautious. You will have the goodness to 
attend to my requests about my house ' ; you will 
set a guard ; you will warn Milo. The people of 
Arpinum are clamorous on the subject of LateriumJ ? 
What say you ? I for my part am sorry. But (as 

b The Hortensiana seems to have been some work either 
to be dedicated to Hortensius, or complimentary and con- 
ciliatory towards him. 

e This letter is still extant.— Ep. Fam. book v. letter 12. 

11 Which was rebuilding at Rome. See letter 3 of this 
book. 

e The son of Q. Cicero, the same whom he afterwards 
calls the young Cicero. 

f Terentius was a Roman knight. It is probable that 
Atticus may have had some money dealings with him, and 
Avith Apollonius, and that they were both defaulters. 

s These breaks are evidently indicative of some reproach- 
ful expressions, of which Cicero checked the utterance out 
of respect to the dead. 

h This refers to Apollonius and Terentius. 

i Cicero had likewise in a former letter begged his friend 
to look after it. Indeed it seems to have been necessary, 
not only for the sake of encouraging and directing the 
workmen, but also to protect it from the violence of Clo- 
dius. See letter 3 of this book. 

i Laterium was a possession of Q. Cicero in the neigh- 
bourhood of Arpinum. By some alterations he seems to 
have given offence to the people there. 



C68 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



Homer sings) " he disregards their words."* It 
only remains to beg that you will continue to nurse 
and to love the young Cicero, as you do. 



LETTER VIII. 

Many passages in your letter delighted me, and 
nothing more than your " dish of potted cheeseV 
As to what you say about my debts being reduced 
"to a shred," I reply by the proverb, lf call no- 
body great before you see his end K" I find nothing 
for you ready built in the country ; there is some- 
thing in the town m ; but it is uncertain whether it 
is to be sold. This is close to my house. Be 
assured that Antium is the Buthrotum A of Rome, 
as that of yours is of Corcyra. Nothing can be 
quieter, nothing more retired, nothing pleasanter. 
"However despicable, our home is still dear °." 
But since Tyrannio has arranged my books, a new 
spirit seems to animate my house ; and in accom- 
plishing this, Dionysius and your Menophiius have 
been of wonderful assistance. Nothing can be 
more elegant than your shelves, now that the books 
are so highly distinguised by their covers. I should 
be glad to hear from you of the success of the 
gladiators p ; but it is on the presumption that they 
conducted themselves well ; if otherwise, I do not 
ask about them q . 

Apenas was scarcely gone, when your letter 
arrived. What say you ? Do you think he will not 
propose 1 the law? Speak louder, I beseech you ; 
for I seem scarcely to have heard it. But let me 
know presently, if it is not troublesome to you. 
As a day has been added to the holidays, I can the 
better spend that day here with Dionysius. I am 
quite of your mind about Trebonius. With respect 
to Domitius s , "no fig, I swear, was ever so like 
another," as his situation is to mine ; either 
because it happens through the same people, or 
because it is beyond all expectation, or because 
there are no honest men left. In one respect it is 
unlike ; that he deserves it. But with respect to 
the misfortune itself, I do not know if mine were 
not the lesser ; for what can be worse than this, 
that he who has been all his life looked upon as 
consul elect ', should at last be unable to obtain the 

k Several parts of this letter refer to some expressions 
previously addressed to Cicero by Atticus. Cicero having 
been living in retirement, seems to have given occasion to 
Atticus to banter him on his spare living, from which he 
concludes that be must have reduced his debts to a mere 
trifle. The word tyrotarichum is met with again, book 
xiv. letter 16. Raudusculum occurs, book vi. letter 8, 
book vii. letter 2, and book xiv. letter 14. 

' Cicero replies by a Greek proverb, the meaning of 
which is, that he must not presume upon the extinction of 
his embarrassments before it took place. 

m The town of Antium, from whence Cicero writes.. 

11 The place of Atticus's residence in Epirus, opposite to 
Corcyra. 

The original is obscure, and probably mutilated. 
P See letter 4 of this book. 

1 This seems to have been the conclusion of a letter 
despatched by a slave of the name of Apenas. The rest 
should be considered either as a separate letter, or a post- 
script written after recalling his messenger. 

r It is uncertain to what law this alludes. 

s L. Domitius yEnobarbus. 

t He was of a noble family, and had obtained all the 
previous offices in the statd as soon as he was of an age to 
hold them ; but was kept from the consulship by means of 



consulate ? especially when he stood alone, or at 
most had only one competitor. But if it be, which 
I do not pretend to know, that he has in the memo- 
randums of his calendar as long a list of consuls to 
come, as of those already made, what can be more 
wretched than he ? unless it be the republic, in 
which there is no hope even of any amendment. 
The first intelligence I had of Natta was from your 
letter. I dislike the man. You ask about my 
poem. What if it should endeavour to make its 
escape u ? Would you consent? With regard to 
Fabius Luscus, which I had been goiDg to mention, 
he was always very friendly to me, nor had I ever 
borne him any ill will; for he was a sensible, modest, 
well behaved man. As I did not happen to see 
him, I supposed he had been absent ; till I heard 
from this Gavius of Firmum, that he was in Rome, 
and had been there all along. Can such a trifling 
cause, you will say, have offended him ? He had 
given me much information about the Firmian 
brothers. What may be the reason of his anger 
against me, if he is angry, "I am quite ignorant. 
Respecting the advice you give me, to conduct 
myself like a good politician, and keep my own 
counsel ; I shall do so. But I stand in need of 
greater prudence ; for which I shall apply to you, 
as I use to do. I wish, if you have any access to 
Fabius, that you would smell out, and just taste that 
guest of yours v ; and send me daily accounts of 
these, and all other matters. When you have 
nothing to tell me, tell me even that. Farewell. 



LETTER IX. 

(Grcsv. x.) 
It is strongly reported at Puteoli that Ptole- 
mseus is restored to his kingdom"'. If you have 
any certain information, I should be glad to know 
it. I am here feeding on Faustus's library. You 
might suppose perhaps that it was on the exquisite 
productions of Puteoli and Lucrinum. There is 
no want of these ; but, to say the truth, in the 
present state of the republic, I have lost my re- 
lish for other enjoyments and pleasures ; and find 
support and refreshment from books alone : and 
would rather occupy that little seat of yours under 
the statue of Aristotle x , than the curule chair of 
these people ; and rather walk with you at your 
house, than with himT, with whom I see I must 
walk. But about this walk chance must determine, 
unless there be some god who has a regard to us. 
With respect to my gallery, and my stove, and all 
that Cyrus z is engaged to do, I should be glad if, 
as far as you can, you would look after them ; and 
press Philotimus to despatch ; that I may have it 
in my power to make you some return in this 
kind a . Pompeius came to Cumanum the 23rd of 

Pompeius and Crassus, at the instigation of Caesar, whom 
he had foolishly provoked. 

« What if I should think of publishing it ? This must 
be the poem to Caesar mentioned in letter 5 of this book. 

v Supposed to mean Saufeius. 

w Ptolemaeus was restored by Gabinius, who was governor 
of Syria, but was not authorised to re-establish Ptolemaeus 
in Egypt. 

x In Atticus's library. y Pompeius. 

z An architect. See book ii. letter 3. 

a By receiving Atticus in his library, as he had been 
received in that of Atticus. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



6G9 



April. He immediately sent a message of compli- 
ment to me. It is the following morning that I 
write this, and am going to him. 



LETTER X. 

{Grcev. ix.) 
I should be glad to know if the tribunes really 
prevent the census by vitiating the days for hold- 
ing it ; b such is the report here ; likewise what they 
are doing, or what is their design generally respect- 
ing the censurate. I have been here with Pom- 
peius. He talked a good deal about the repub- 
lic ; and was dissatisfied with himself, " as he 
said." For so we must speak of this man. He 
despised the province of Syria, and extolled that 
of Spain. Here again we must subjoin — " as he 
said." And I imagine, whenever we speak of 
him, we should add this ; as Phocylides does in 
the beginning of his poems — " This also is by 
Phocylides." He expressed his thanks to you for 
having undertaken to place the statues c for him : 
and towards me he showed particular kindness. 
He also came to me at Cumanum from his own 
villa. He appeared to me to desire nothing less 
than that Messala should stand for the consulship. 
If you know anything about it, I should wish to 
be informed. I am much obliged to you for say- 
ing that you will commend my fame to Lucceius d , 
and that you frequently visit my house. My bro- 
ther Quintus writes me word, that having now his 
dear Cicero with him, he should go to you the 7th 
of May. I left Cumanum the 27th of April : 
and the same day I was at Naples with Laetus. 
The 28th of April, early in the morning, I have 
written this, setting off to Pompeianum. 



LETTER XI. 

I am delighted with your letters, two of which 
I received together on the last day of the month. 
Go on to tell me the rest. I am anxious to know 
the whole business. Find out too, if you can, how 
this is : you may do it through Demetrius. Pom- 
peius said that he expected Crassus in Albanum 
on the 28th, and that as soon as he arrived, they 
should go immediately to Rome, to examine the 
accounts of the public renters. I asked if they 
would do it during the exhibition of the gla- 
diators ? He replied, before they came on. How 
this is, if you either know at present, or else when 
he is come to Rome, I wish you would send me 
word. Here I am devouring books with a wonder- 
ful man, (so in truth I esteem him,) Dionysius, 
who sends his compliments to you, and all your 
family. " Nothing is more delicious than univer- 
sal information." Therefore, as to a man of cu- 
riosity, write to me distinctly what takes place the 
first day, what the second, what the censors do, 
what Appius, what that popular Apuleia e . Lastly 

b We have before seen instances of this practice of the 
magistrates, who observed the heavens in order to prevent 
the public business. 

c These statues were for the ornament of the theatre 
which Ponipeius was now erecting. 

d By encouraging him to write the history of Cicero's 
consulship. See book iv. letter 6. 

e By this term Cicero is supposed to mean Clodius 



I wish you to inform me what you are doing your- 
self. For, to say the truth, I am not so much de- 
lighted with the news, as with your letters. I 
have brought nobody with me besides Dionysius : 
yet I am not afraid of being without your con- 
versation. I am charmed with the work f . You 
will give my book to Lucceius. I send you that 
of Demetrius Magnes, that you may have a per- 
son ready to bring me back a letter from you. 



LETTER XII. 
Egnatius s is at Rome. But I spoke to him 
strongly upon Halimetus's business at Antium, 
and he promised to exert his influence with Aqui- 
lius. You will be able to see him therefore if you 
wish it. I scarcely think I can offer my assistance 
to Macro ; for on the 15th I see there is to be an 
auction at Larinum, which will last three days. I 
hope, therefore, though you interest yourself so 
much about him, that you will excuse me. But, 
as you love me, come with Pilia to dine h at my 
house the 2d of next month : in short you must 
do it. On the 1st I mean to dine in the gardens 
of Crassipes, by way of an inn. I shall elude the 
order of the senate • and shall get home after din- 
ner, that I may be ready the next morning for 
Milo. I shall there see you, and remind you of 
your engagement. All my family join in kind 
regards. 



LETTER XIII. 

I see that you are apprised of my having come 
to Tusculanum the loth of November ; there I met 
Dionysius. We wish to be at Rome the 15th of 
next month. What do I say ? we wish ? nay, but 
we must be there. Milo's marriage is to be cele- 
brated ; and there is some expectation of the 
comitia being held J. If this is confirmed, I am 
not sorry to have been absent during the alterca- 
tions, which I understand have taken place in the 
senate k . For I must either have supported what 
I could not approve ; or must have been wanting 
in attention, where I ought not. But I hope you 
will describe to me, as distinctly as possible, these 
matters, and the present state of the republic, 
and how the consuls l bear this rude treatment. 

Apuleius was the name of a seditious tribune in Marius's 
time, who had driven into banishment Metellus Numidi- 
cus. The feminine termination is added hi contempt, to 
mark his effeminacy and degeneracy. 

f This probably alludes to something contained in 
Atticus's letters, and which must necessarily remain 
obscure. 

s A banker. See book vii. letter 18. 

h The Latin cama, which is usually translated supper, 
nearly corresponds to our dinner : it was commonly served 
about three or four o'clock in the afternoon. The prau- 
dium of the Romans resembled our luncheon. 

* This order required every senator in Borne to attend at 
the meetings of the senate. 

J The comitia for the election of the next year's consuls, 
which had been factiously interrupted. 

k These altercations probably relate to the proposal of 
confirming the governments of Gaul. Spain, and Syria, to 
Cesar, Pompeius, and Crassus. for five j 

1 Domitius JE nobarhus and Appius Claudius Pulcher 
were elected almost at the end of the year, the election 
having been prevented from taking place at the ordinary 
time. 



670 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



I am quite thirsty for news : and if you ask me, I 
must say that I have sad misgivings. They say 
that our Crassus went out in his military dress not 
quite with the same dignity as his coeval formerly 
L. Paullus, then a second time consul. O the 
wicked man m ! I have finished the oratorical 
books with care : they have occupied much of my 
time and attention : you may get them transcribed. 
I have also to beg this of you, that you will make 
me an accurate representation of the present state 
of things, that I may not come thither quite a 
stranger. 



LETTER XIV. 

Our friend Vestorius has informed me by letter, 
that he believes you left Rome on the 10th of 
May, later than he had mentioned, because you 
had not been quite well. I shall be very glad to 
hear that you are better. I wish you would write 
home to your people to let me have access to your 
books, in the same manner as if you were there. 
Amongst others, I particularly want Varro's works". 
For I must take some things from thence for the 
books which I have in hand, and which I hope 
you will approve. I should be glad, if you have 
any news, especially from my brother Quintus , 
next from C. Caesar, and if you can tell me any- 
thing of the comitia, or the republic, (for you 
commonly soon smell out these matters,) that you 
would let me know. If you have nothing to tell 
me, yet let me hear from you ; for your letters can 
never be unseasonable, or unwelcome. But, above 
all, I beg you to come back to us as soon as you 
have finished your business, and completed your 
journey p to your mind. Make my compliments to 
Dionysius. Farewell. 



LETTER XV. 

(Grcev. xvi.) 
You may judge how busy I am, by receiving 
this letter i in the hand-writing of a clerk. On 
the frequency of your letters I have nothing to 
accuse you : but most of them only let me know 
where you were, as coming from you ; or, besides, 
informed me that you were well. I was particu- 
larly glad to receive two letters of this kind almost 
at the same time, which you sent from Buthrotum ; 
for I was anxious to know that you had had a good 
passage. But this frequent correspondence rather 
pleased me by its quickness than by its copious- 
ness. The letter which your guest M. Paccius 
delivered to me was indeed important, and full of 

m Crassus went out under the curse of the tribune 
Ateius. 

n Varro had written several treatises on the history and 
antiquities of Rome, with which he was particularly con- 
versant. Cicero was probably engaged in his work on 
Government. 

° Q,. Cicero was lately made lieutenant to Caisar in 
Gaul: 

P A journey into Asia, mentioned in the next letter. 

Q Several of the latter letters of this fourth book, espe- 
cially this, seem to have been written at different intervals, 
and to have been strangely misarranged. At this distance 
of time it would be fruitless to attempt to disentangle their 
contents. 



matter. To this, therefore, I shall write in an- 
swer ; and, in the first place, must tell you that I 
have shown Paccius, by words and deeds, the weight 
of your recommendation : so that though he was 
before quite a stranger to me, I have received him 
into close familiarity. I shall now proceed to the 
other parts of your letter. Varro, about whom 
you write to me, shall be introduced in some 
place r , if only a place can be found for him. But 
you are aware of the nature of my dialogues ; so 
that in those upon oratory, which you so highly 
commend, no mention could be made of anybody, 
who was not known, or heard of, by those who 
carry on the disputation. This, which I have begun 
on the subject of government, I have attributed to the 
persons of Africanus, and Philus, and Leelius, and 
Manilius : and have added the young men Q. Tubero, 
P. Rutilius, and Lselius's two sons-in-law Scasvola 
and Fannius. I thought, therefore, since I mean 
to prefix an introduction to each book, as Aris- 
totle has done in those which he calls his public 
treatises, of making some occasion for naming 
him ; which I understand you approve. I only 
wish I may be able to accomplish my undertaking ; 
for I have embraced, as you perceive, a great and 
momentous subject, and one which demands much 
leisure, which I exceedingly want. When in those 
books which you commend, you miss the person 
of Scasvola, you must know that I have withdrawn 
it not inadvertently; but have followed the ex- 
ample of our divine Plato in his Republic. There, 
when Socrates had come into the Pirseeus to Cepha- 
lus, a rich and pleasant old man, as long as the 
first dialogue was going on, the old man is present 
at the disputation ; then, having himself delivered 
his opinion, he says that he must go away upon some 
religious business ; and he does not afterwards re- 
turn. I imagine Plato thought it hardly proper to de- 
tain a person of that age any longer in so protracted 
a discussion. Much more I thought it right to use 
the same discretion in regard to Screvola, whose 
age and state of health you remember, as well as 
his honours ; which made it hardly becoming in 
him to remain for several days in Crassus' s Tus- 
culan villa. Besides, the subject of the first book 
was congenial with Scsevola's studies ; the others, 
as you know, contain technical reasonings, at 
which I did not choose to have that cheerful old 
man, such as you knew him, to be present. I 
shall pay attention to what you tell me concerning 
my daughter's settlement ; for by the testimony, 
as you say, of Aurelius, it is a good security : and 
by this also I shall recommend myself to my dear 
Tullia. I am not wanting to Vestorius : for I 
understand this to be your wish ; and I take care 
to let him know it. But are you aware of his dis- 
position, that while we are both ready to serve 
him, nothing can be more untractable ? Now for 
what you ask about C. Cato. You know that he 
was acquitted on the Junian and Licinian law ; 
and I foretell that he will be acquitted on the 
Fufian ; and that, with even more satisfaction to 
his accusers than to his supporters. He has, 
however, returned into friendship with me and 
Milo. Drusus is prosecuted by Licinius, with 
leave to challenge the judges on the 3rd of July. 
The rumours about Procilius are not favourable ; 
but you kn ow how the judgments are given. 
r That is, I will endeavour to introduce his name into 
some part of my writings. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



671 



Hirrus is reconciled with Domitius. The decree 
of the senate, which the consuls have proposed 
relating to the provinces, " Whoever hereafter," 
&c, never pleased me, because I knew that the 
declaration of Memmius s must be very offensive 
to Caesar. My friend Messala, and his compe- 
titor Domitius, have been very liberal towards the 
people. Nothing can exceed the favour in which 
they are held ; they were sure of being consuls. 
But the senate has decreed, that previous to the 
comitia an inquiry should be made without pub- 
lishing the result 1 . These resolutions, which were 
generally applicable u to each candidate, gave the 
candidates great alarm. But some of the judges, 
amongst whom was Opimius Antius, called upon 
the tribunes to prevent any judgment without the 
sanction of the people. This succeeded. The 
comitia were put off by a decree of the senate, till 
the law for the reserved j udgment should be passed : 
the day for the law arrived : Terentius interceded : 
the consuls, who had conducted the business with 
an easy hand, referred it to the senate. Here was 
Abdera itself v , not without some observations 
from me. You will say, " Cannot you be quiet ? " 
Pardon me ; it is hardly possible. For what could 
be so absurd ? The senate had decreed that the 
comitia should not be held till the law had passed, 
and if anybody interceded, that the whole business 
should be taken again into consideration. It was 
first moved with indifference ; intercession was 
made without any apparent unwillingness : the 
business was referred to the senate ; upon which 
they passed a resolution, that it was desirable the 
comitia should be held at the very earliest time. 
Scaurus, who was acquitted during those few days 
of business, when I defended his cause with great 
eloquence, (for Scsevola by his observation of the 
heavens had stopped the meetings of the people 
every day till the end of September, the day before 
I write this,) had given ample gratuities to the 
people by their tribes at his own house; but 
though his bounty was larger, that of the candi- 
dates who had been before him seemed to be more 
acceptable. I should like to see your countenance 
while you read this ; for, to say the truth, you 
have some interest in having this traffic continue 
through several returns of the fair days w . But the 
senate was to be held to-day, that is, the 1st of 
October, for it is just beginning to dawn. There 
will nobody speak freely besides Antius and Favo- 
nius ; for Cato is ill. About me you need not 
fear : yet I make no promises. What more do 
you inquire about? the judgments, I imagine, 
which have been passed. Drusus and Scaurus are 

s A factious engagement entered into between the con- 
suls and the two candidates, Memmius and Domitius, for 
their mutual support. The decree of the senate alluded 
to must have been founded on this iniquitous contract, 
which Memmius, who was supported by Caesar, declared 
afterwards in disgust to the senate. See letter 1 8 of this 
book. 

* The sentence was not to be declared till after the elec- 
tion, yet so as to make void the election of those who should 
be found guilty. 

u The passage in the original is obscure, and probably 
corrupt. I have given what I suppose to be the meaning 
of it. 

v Abdera was proverbially a land of folly and madness. 

w The nundince, or days of fair, were held every ninth 
day. Atticus had some concern with them by reason of 
his money transactions. 



found not guilty. It is thought the three candi- 
dates will be accused ; Domitius by Memmius, 
Messala by Q. Pompeius Rufus, Scaurus by Tria- 
rius or by L. Caesar. "What," you will ask, 
" will you be able to say for them ? " May I die, 
if I know. In those three books, which you com- 
mend*, I find nothing. Now, to give you my 
opinion of affairs, we must bear them. Do you 
ask how I conducted myself? ? with firmness and 
freedom. " But he z ," you will say, " how did he 
bear it?" Patiently; conceiving that he was 
bound to have some consideration for my dignity, 
till satisfaction should be made to me a . How, 
then, was he acquitted b ? Through the incredible 
weakness of his accusers, that is, of L. Lentulus 
the younger, whom everybody cries out upon as 
guilty of prevarication ; then, through the extra- 
ordinary exertions of Pompeius, and the corruption 
of the judges. Yet, after all, thirty-two found 
him guilty, thirty-eight acquitted him. The other 
trials are still hanging over him : so that he is not 
fairly clear of his difficulties. You will say, " How, 
then, do you bear all this ?•'.' In truth, very well; 
and I am very well satisfied with myself for doing 
so. We have lost, my Pomponius, not only all 
the life and spirit, but the very complexion and 
ancient form of the state. There is no longer any 
republic, in which I can take pleasure, or acquiesce 
with any satisfaction. " Is this then," you will 
say, " what you bear so easily ?" Even so : for I 
remember how flourishing the state was not long 
since, when I was at the head of affairs ; and what 
return I have met with : so that I am troubled 
with no anxiety on that account. They, who were 
mortified at my having any share of power, are 
now outrageous that one man should possess all 
power. Many circumstances afford me comfort : 
yet I do not descend from ray state ; but return 
to that course of life which is most congenial to 
my nature, literature and study. The toil of 
pleading I relieve with the charms of oratory : my 
house and my country-seats afford me delight : I 
do not consider from whence I have fallen, but 
from whence I have risen. If I possess but my 
brother and you, the rest may go to ruin, for me. 
I may still philosophise with you. That part of 
my mind where passion once resided is grown cal- 
lous : private and domestic concerns alone afford 
me pleasure. You will perceive a wonderful ex- 
emption from care, for which I principally depend 
upon your return : for there is nobody on earth 
whose sentiments are so congenial with my own. 
But hear something more : things tend to an 
interregnum ; and there is some surmise of a 
dictator* 1 . Indeed there is much talk of it : which 
was of some use to Gabinius before timid judges e . 
The consular candidates are all charged with 
bribery. Gabinius, too, is added to the number ; 



x In his treatise " De Oratore." 

Y This probably alludes to the trial of Gabinius. 

z Pompeius, who was a friend to Gabinius. 

a Gabinius had conspired with Clodius in his attack 
upon Cicero. 

b Here arc inserted two Greek words, but what they 
are, or what they import, has not been satisfactorily 
ascertained. 

c When there were no consuls, an interrex was ap- 
pointed, and changed every five clays. 

d In the person of Pompeius. 

e Lest Pompeius, had he been made dictator, should 
persecute them. 



672 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TUL'LIUS CICERO 



whom P. Sylla accused, not doubting but that he 
was out of the city ; while Torquatus opposed it 
without any effect. But they will all be acquitted ; 
nor will anybody hereafter be condemned, unless 
he be guilty of murder. But all this is prosecuted 
with severity, so that the witnesses become eager. 
M. Fulvius Nobilior has been found guilty : many 
others, shrewd people do not even wait to answer 
to their accusation. What more f news ? yet there 
is some. Upon the acquittal of Gabinius, other 
judges, in indignation, an hour after, condemned 
by the Papian law one Antiochus Gabinius from 
among the assistants of the painter Sopolis, a 
freed-man, and serjeant of Gabinius. This man, 
therefore, charged by the Papian law with offence 
against the state, immediately said in Greek, 
" Have I not known thee, Mars, along with 
Paphias? " Pontinius wants to enter in triumph 
the 2nd of November. Cato and Servilius the 
prsetors, and Q. Mucius the tribune, openly 
oppose it ; for they say that no law has been 
passed for his command 11 ; and, in truth, it was 
passed in a foolish manner. But Pontinius will 
have the consul Appius with him. Cato, however, 
affirms that, as long as he lives, he shall not have 
a triumph. I imagine this, like many other things 
of the same kind, will come to nothing. Appius 
thinks of going into Cilicia at his own expense, 
without waiting for the law. I have replied to the 
letter I received by Paccius : let me inform you of 
the rest. I have learned from my brother's letters 
more than I could have believed respecting Caesar's 
affection for me ; and it is abundantly confirmed 
by Csesar's own letters. The event of the Britan- 
nic war is anxiously expected ; for it appears that 
the access to the island is defended by prodigious 
bulwarks ; and it is now known there is not a 
grain of silver in the island, nor any hope of plun- 
der, unless of slaves ; of whom I imagine you do 
not expect to find any skilled in letters or in music. 
Paullus has now nearly built the court-house in 
the middle of the forum with the same ancient 
pillars ; but that which he has begun is very mag- 
nificent. What say you ? Nothing can be more 
acceptable, nothing more glorious, than that monu- 
ment. Likewise the friends of Czesar (myself I 
mean and Oppius, though you should burst with 
envy) towards that public work, which you used 
to praise to the skies, of enlarging the forum, and 
opening it quite to the Hall of Liberty, have dis- 
regarded the sum of 60,000 sestertia (500,000/.) ; 
as the claims of individuals could not be settled 
for less. We shall accomplish a most noble work. 
For in the Campus Martius we are going to make 
marble inclosures covered in for the comitia of the 
tribes ; and we shall surround them with a lofty 
portico a mile in circuit. To this work will also 
be added a public hall. You will say, " What 
good will this do me ? " What ? should I conceal 

{ These breaks, of which there are several in this letter, 
may probably be the commencement of additions made by 
the author at several different times before he had a con- 
venient opportunity of sending it. 

g It is not known whence the Greek is taken. It pro- 
bably alludes to the fable of Mars being caught with the 
Papblan Venus by her husband Vulcan ; then it will mean 
that Gabinius was as guilty, as this his freed-man, under 
the same Papian law. 

h Before one entered Rome in triumph, it was necessary 
to pass a law permitting him to assume a military com- 
mand for that day. 



from you these Roman concerns ? For when you 
ask what is doing at Rome, I cannot suppose you 
ask about the census, which is now past all hope; 
or about the judgments that may be given by the 
Coctian 1 law. Now suffer me to scold you, if I 
have reason on my side. For you say in the letter, 
which C. Decimus delivered to me, dated from 
Buthrotum, that you thought it would be neces- 
sary for you to go into Asia. To me, indeed, it 
seemed to signify nothing, whether you transacted 
your business by your agents or in person ; 
since you so often go away, and stay away so 
longj. But I would rather have considered this 
with you, while it was yet open to discussion ; 
for then I might have done something : as it is, I 
shall check the reproof I was going to give you. 
I wish it may have any effect in hastening your 
return. I write to you less frequently, because I 
am uncertain where you are, or where you are 
likely to be. I have thought fit, however, to give 
this letter to one who, it was probable, would see 
you. Since you think that you shall go into Asia, 
I should be glad to know at what time I may 
expect you here, and what you have done about 
Eutychides*. 



LETTER XVI. 

(Gvcbv. xv.) 

I am much pleased with what you have done 
about Eutychides 1 , who will have your old name 
of Titus with your new one of Csecilius : as Diony- 
sius's name is compounded of yours and mine into 
Marcus Pomponius. I shall be particularly glad 
if Eutychides understands that this has been done 
out of your attention to my wishes ; and that his 
kindness towards me in my distress was not lost 
upon me at the time, and has not been forgotten 
since. I conclude it was necessary to undertake 
your Asiatic journey. For without sufficient cause 
you never would have gone so far from your friends 
and all that you hold dear. But your kindness of 
heart and affection will best be shown by your 
speedy return. I have some fear however lest 
you should be detained by the urbanity of the 
rhetorician Clodius, and by Pituanius ; who, they 
say, is a man of great learning, and now addicted 
to Greek literature. But, if you would be es- 
teemed a man of probity, come back to us at the 
time you appointed. You shall be at liberty to 
enjoy the society of these persons at Rome, when 
they are safely arrived. You say that you are 
wishing to hear from me. I have written to you, 
and upon various subjects, all detailed in a jour- 
nal" 1 . But I suppose, as you do not seem to have 
remained long in Epirus, my letter never reached 
you. But the kind of letters T send you is such, 

i It is not known what is meant by the Coctian law. 

J I conceive Cicero to mean that Atticus so often ab- 
sented himself, that it was of little moment to him whe- 
ther be went in person to Asia, or whether he remained 
at Buthrotum. 

k See letter 16 of this book. 

1 Edtychides seems to have been a slave, to whom 
Atticus had given his freedom at the instance of Cicero ; 
and, as was usual on such occasions, had given him his 
own name in addition to what he bare before. 

»» Probably alluding to the preceding letter. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



G73 



that I do not care to entrust them to anybody, 
unless I can depend upon his delivering them to 
you. Now hear the state of affairs at Rome. On 
the 5th of July Sufenas and Cato n were acquitted ; 
Procilius was condemned. From hence we see that 
these mighty Areopagites ° consider the canvassing, 
the comitia, the interregnum, the dignity of the 
state, nay, the republic itself, to be of no account. 
We ought indeed to avoid killing a housekeeper in 
his own house p , yet this is no great matter ; for 
twenty-two acquitted, twenty-eight condemned. 
Publiusi indeed, eloquently summing up his accu- 
sation, had some effect upon the minds of the 
judges : Hortensius r appeared in the cause like 
himself ; I did not say a word, for my timid girl, 
who is now unwell, was afraid that what I might 
say would offend Publius's spirit. This business 
being concluded, the Reatini s brought me to their 
paradise, to support their cause against the people 
of Jnteramna, before the consul and ten commis- 
sioners ; because the water of the lake Velinus, 
which had been let out by Manius Curio, by cut- 
ting through Ihe hill, flows down into the Nar, 
upon which depends the drainage, yet moderate 
moisture, of Rosea. I lived with Axius, who also 
took me to the place called the Seven Waters. I 
returned to Rome on Fonteius's account the 9th 
of July. I came into the theatre, and, first, was 
received with a great and general applause (but 
this is of no consequence, and it was silly in me 
to mention it) ; then, I gave my attention to An- 
tiphon. He had received his freedom before he 
came upon the stage. Not to keep you in doubt, 
he bore away the palm. Nothing could be more 
insignificant than his figure, nothing more defec- 
tive than his voice, nothing more just than his 
acting. This you must keep to yourself ; yet in 
the Andromache he was greater than Astyanax 
himself l . In the other parts he had nobody equal 
to him. You will ask now how I liked Arbuscula. 
I was very much pleased with her. The games 
were magnificent, and well received. The fight- 
ing with beasts was put off to another time. Fol- 
low me now into the Campus Martius. The can- 
vass is carried on with great warmth : but, as 
Homer says, " I will give you a sign." Interest 
rose on the ides u of July from four to eight per cent. 
You will say I am not sorry for that. O man ! O 

n This means Caius Cato, who with Sufenas and Proci- 
lius had heen guilty of great excesses, as tribunes of the 
people. 

Said in derision of the judges, before whom the three 
above-named were tried. 

P Besides the charge of violence which attached to 
Cato and Sufenas, Procilius appears to have been accused 
of murder. 

1 P. Clodius at this time attended to the business of 
pleading, and was a man of good ability. 

J - In the original it is Hortalus, which was another of 
Hortensius's names, by which he is also called elsewhere 
in these letters. 

s The inhabitants of Reate, about 40 miles N. E. from 
Rome, a place celebrated for its beauty. 

* I understand Cicero to mean that Antiphon played 

the part of Astyanax, in the play of Andromache; and 

though his figure and voice were both very deficient, yet 

] he acted with more justness than Astyanax himself could 

have exhibited. 

u It was usual, in ancient Rome, to collect the interest 
of money on the ides, or near the middle, of every month. 
Cascilius, to whose fortune and name Atticus had suc- 
ceeded, obtained his wealth bythis kind of usury ; and by 



citizen ! Memmius is supported by the whole 
weight of Csesar's influence ; with him the con- 
suls have joined Domitius, under what conditions 
I dare not commit to a letter. Pompeius storms, 
and complains, and favours Scaurus ; but whether 
he does this in appearance, or in earnest, is mat- 
ter of doubt. There is no eminence in any of the 
candidates ; money levels all distinction. Messala 
is drooping ; not that his courage or his friends 
fail him, but the junction of the consuls and 
Pompeius are against him. I expect these comitia 
will be put off. The candidates for the tribunate 
have sworn to petition under the arbitration of 
Cato. They have deposited with him 500 sester- 
tia (4000/.), on condition that whoever should by 
Cato be found guilty of bribery, should lose that 
sum, which is to be divided amongst his compe- 
titors. I write this the day before the comitia are 
expected to take place. But if they do take place, 
and the messenger is not gone, I will give you the 
whole history of them on the 28th of July. If, as 
it is believed, the elections should be carried with- 
out expense, Cato alone will have been able to do 
more than all the judges. I have been defending 
Messius, who is recalled from his lieutenancy ; for 
Appius had sent him out a lieutenant to Csesar. 
Servilius ordered him to be present. He has the 
support of the tribes Pomptina, Velina, and Maecia. 
There is a sharp contest ; but considerable pro- 
gress is made. As soon as I am free from this, I 
am engaged for Drusus ; then for Scaurus. Here 
are noble titles provided for my speeches. Per- 
haps I shall have also the consuls elect. If Scaurus 
is not one of them, he will have great difficulty in 
securing a favourable sentence. From my bro- 
ther Quintus's letters I suspect he is now in Bri- 
tain. I am in some anxiety to know what he is 
doing. One thing I have gained ; that I have re- 
peated and certain assurances of Caesar's kindness 
and friendship. I should be glad if you would 
make my compliments to Dionysius, and ask and 
persuade him to come as soon as he can, to in- 
struct my young Cicero and myself too. 



LETTER XVII. 

With what pleasure did I receive your letter, 
which I had been looking for ! O happy arrival ! 
O well-observed promise, and rare fidelity ! O 
charming voyage ! How greatly was I alarmed 
when I recollected the coracles v of your former 
passage! But, if I am not mistaken, I shall see 
you sooner than you mention. For I imagine you 
thought that your ladies were in Apulia; which 
not being the case, why should Apulia detain you ? 
for you must give up a few days to Vestorius, and 
taste again, after an interval, that Latin Atticism". 

what follows, it is probable that Atticus continued the 
same practice. 

v Boats of wicker covered with leather, the Creek word 
of the text being probably equivalent to ir\o?a SitpQepiva, 
or Sep/JLCxTtva, described by Caesar, B. C. i. 54; and auoh 
as are still used in some places. I suspect tbis, like many 
of the Greek terms in these letters, may have tx en used by 
Atticus himself. It is meant to indicate the sniallness of 
tbe vessel in which he had crossed the sea. 

w Vestorius, it must be supposed, used the Latin lan- 
guage with an elegance which justified this expression ; 
Atticism denoting the perfection of just composition. 
XX 



674 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



But then you fly up hither, and visit this genuine 
example of my republic x . I think I told you about 
the money openly distributed amongst the tribes 
from a certain place, previous to the comitia ; also 
that Gabinius was acquitted : I take it for granted 
that he will be in authority. As to your inquiries 
about Messala, I do not know what to say. I 
never saw candidates so equal. With the strength 
of Messala you are well acquainted. Scaurus has 
been arraigned by Triarius. If you ask, I must 
say there is no great sympathy excited in his 
favour ; yet his aedileship has rendered his memory 
not unacceptable, — and the recollection of his 
father has weight with the country voters. The 
other two plebeians y are so matched, that Domitius 
is strongly supported by his friends, and derives 
some advantage from his public shows, which, 
however, were not very well received ; Memmius 
is recommended by Csesar's soldiers, and relies 
upon Pompeius's influence in the north of Italy. 
If he does not prevail with these helps, it is sup- 
posed that somebody will be found to put off the 
comitia till Caesar's arrival ; especially now that 
C. Cato has been acquitted z . On the 24th of 
October I received letters from my brother Quintus 
and from Caesar, dated from the shores of Britannia, 
the latest on the 26th of September, — at which 
time the war was finished and hostages had been 
received ; there was no plunder, but a sum of 
money was imposed. They were going to transport 
the army back from Britannia. Q. Pilius had 
already set out to join Caesar. Now if you have 
any regard for me and your connexions, or if you 
have any faith or prudence, and think of enjoying 
your own comforts, you ought to make haste and 
come to us. In truth I cannot patiently bear to 
be without you. What wonder that 1 should long 
for you, when I so much long for Dionysius ? 
whom both I and my Cicero shall beg from you 
when the time comes. The last letter a I received 
from you was dated the 9th of August from 
Ephesus. 



LETTER XVIII. 

I suppose you think that I have forgot my 
custom and purpose, and that I write to you sel- 
dom er than I used to do ; but the truth is, that 
seeing the uncertainty of your actual situation and 
of your movements, I have not directed letters to 
Epirus, nor to Athens, nor to Asia, nor intrusted 
them to anybody that was not going to you. For 
my letters are of such a kind that if they should 
not be delivered it might occasion me a good deal 



x Spoken ironically in comparing the corrupt state of 
Rome with the model proposed in his treatise on Govern- 
ment. 

y It was necessary to have one of the consuls of a ple- 
beian family. 

z C. Cato had factiously prevented the elections on a 
former occasion. 

a This, if it is in its proper place, must mean the last 
letter previous to that which announced Atticus's arrival 
in Italy. 



of trouble, — often containing secrets which I do 
not care to trust even to my own clerks. It is 
amusing to guess the issue : the consuls are in 
great disgrace, owing to C. Memmius the candidate 
having declared in the senate the contract which 
he and his competitor Domitius b had made with 
the consuls, — that if through their influence they 
should get to be made consuls, they both bound 
themselves in the sum of 400,000 sestertii (3700/.) 
to produce three augurs, who would assert that 
they had been present at the passing of a law for 
giving military command to the consuls in '*the 
provinces they desired, though no such law had 
ever passed ; and two consular senators who would 
say they had been present at the signing of the 
decree for the consular provinces, though in fact 
there had not been even any senate assembled. 
This contract, which was declared to have been 
made not verbally, but by names and entries in 
several tablets, was actually produced by Memmius, 
at the recommendation of Pompeius, with the 
names inserted. Hereupon Appius c was unaltered; 
he lost nothing. The other consul d was confounded, 
and, I may say, completely prostrate. But Mem- 
mius, having broken off the engagement against 
the wish of Calvinus, had entirely cooled again e , 
and was the more inclined now to think of a dicta- 
tor, and to favour the suspension of public business 
and the general licentiousness. Observe the even- 
ness and freedom of my mind, and my contempt of 
the Seleucian province f , and indeed my agreeable 
connexion with Caesar ; for this plank alone affords 
me pleasure in the general shipwreck. Ye gods ! 
with what honour, dignity, and favour, does he treat 
my, and your, Quintus ! 1 could do no more if I 
had the command myself. He tells me that Caesar 
has kindly given him the choice of a winter legion s. 
Should you not love this man ? Who of those 



others deserve as well of 



But did I tell you 



that I was lieutenant to Pompeius, and that I was 
to be out of the city from the 13th of January? 
This appeared to me convenient for many reasons. 
But I shall say no more. The rest I must keep 
till we meet, that you may still look for some news. 
Remember me kindly to Dionysius, for whom I 
have not merely reserved, but have even built, an 
apartment. For to the supreme pleasure I take 
in your return, I derive a great accession from his 
arrival. The day you come to me I entreat you, 
by the love you bear me, to remain with your 
attendants at my house. 

b Cn. Domitius Calvinus, the same who is afterwards 
called Calvinus. 

c Appius Claudius Pulcher, one of the consuls. 

d L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, the other consul. 

e Caesar having shown his displeasure at the disclosure 
made by Memmius, the latter ceased to prosecute the 
business further. 

f The province of Cilicia, which Appius coveted, and to 
which Cicero might expect to be appointed. 

g Where he would choose to have his winter quarters. 



[Between this and the following book there appears to have 
intervened a period of more than two years.'] 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



G75 



BOOK V. 



LETTER I. 



I perceived your feelings, and am very con- 
scious of my own, at our separation ; which should 
make you take the more pains to prevent any fresh 
decree for the prolongation of my government h , 
that this our want of each other may not last be- 
yond a year. About Annius Saturninus you have 
managed very judiciously. As for the securities, 
I request that, as long as you remain in Rome, you 
will provide them ; and there are some securities 
required upon taking possession', among which 
are those on the Memmian and Atilian estates. 
About Oppius you have done as I wished ; especially 
by speaking to him of the 800 sestertia (6660/.), 
which I should be glad to discharge even by bor- 
rowing (if necessary) for that purpose, without 
waiting for the final settlement of my accounts. 
I come now to that cross line at the end of your 
letter, in which you remind me about your sister. 
The state is this : when I came to Arpinum, as 
soon as my brother arrived, we first talked, and 
for some time, about you ; from which I deviated 
into what I and you had said to each other in 
Tusculanum upon the subject of your sister. I 
never saw anything so gentle and placid as my 
brother was at that time towards her ; so that if 
for any reason offence had been taken, it did not 
appear. So it passed that day. The day following 
we left Arpinum ; and, it being a festival, Quintus 
was obliged to stop at Arcanum J ; 1 slept at 
Aquinum, but took some refreshment at Arcanum. 
You are acquainted with that estate. As soon as 
we got there, Quintus said in the kindest manner, 
" Pomponia, do you invite the ladies ; I will send 
for the boysV Nothing could be more gentle, as 
it seemed to me, not only in words, but also in 
his intention and countenance. But she, in my 
hearing, replied, " I am only a stranger' here my- 
self:" which, I imagine, alluded to Statins having 
gone before to prepare things for us. Then said 
Quintus to me, " See what I have to bear every 
day." You will say, " What was all this?" It 
is a great deal, and has given me much concern, — 
so absurdly and harshly did she answer in words 
and looks. I kept it to myself in sorrow. We 
all sat down, except her ; to whom Quintus sent 

h Cicero was appointed to the government of Cilicia, in- 
cluding a considerable part of Asia Minor. Those who 
had been consuls and praetors were usually rewarded with 
these governments, from which they drew enormous sums 
of money. Cicero always disliked the office, as foreign to 
his habits, and was anxious for the time when he might 
lay it down. 

5 It is always difficult to understand the money transac- 
tions of a foreign country ; and it is not surprising that 
this difficulty should be much increased by the intervention 
of sornany ages, in which the customs, as well as the records 
of particular cases, have been lost. The interpretation 
here offered, if it be not the exact sense of the original, is 
probably sufficiently near to it for all modern purposes. 

J This was a place near Arpinum, where Quintus hav- 
ing an estate, thought it proper to assist at some local 
ceremonies. 

k These ladies here mentioned were probably Cicero's 
wife and daughter, who might be coming to take leave of 
him ; the boys were the sons of Cicero and of Quintus. 



something from the table, which she rejected. In 
short, nothing could be milder than my brother, 
nothing ruder than your sister. 1 pass over many 
circumstances, which at the time were more offen- 
sive to me than to Quintus himself. Thence I 
proceeded to Aquinum. Quintus remained at Ar- 
canum ; but came to me at Aquinum the next 
morning, and told me that she had refused to sleep 
with him, — and that when she went away she con- 
tinued just in the same humour in which I had 
seen her. In a word, you may tell her this, if you 
please, that I thought there was a great want of 
courtesy in her behaviour that day. I have written 
to you perhaps more at length then was necessary, 
that you might perceive there was occasion on 
your side, likewise, for advice and admonition. 
Further, I have only to beg that you will execute 
my commissions before you leave Rome ; that you 
will send me word of all that happens ; that you 
will drive out Pontinius 1 ; and that you will take 
care to let me know as soon as you go. Be assured 
nothing is dearer or sweeter to me than yourself. 
I took leave of A. Torquatus with great affection 
at Minturnae : he is an excellent man. I wish you 
would tell him in the course of conversation, that 
I mentioned him in my letter to you. 



LETTER II. 

I write this on the 10th of May, being on the 
point of leaving Pompeianum so as to sleep to- 
night with Pontius in Trebulanum. From thence 
I mean to proceed by regular journeys without, j 
any delay. While I was at Cumanum, Hortensius 
came to see me, which I took very kindly. Upon 
his asking if I had any commands, I gave him a 
general answer in other respects ; but this I par- | 
ticularly requested, that, as far as lay in his power, 
he would not suffer my government to be prolonged. 
In which I should be glad if you would confirm 
him ; and assure him that I was very much gratified 
by his visit, and by his promise of doing this or 
anything else I might want. In the same cause 
I have engaged my friend Furnius also, who I saw 
would be tribune of the people for the year. I had 
almost a little Rome in my Cuman villa, so great 
was the concourse in that neighbourhood : whilst 
my friend Rufio, seeing that he was watched by 
Yestorius, played a trick upon him ; for he never 
called upon me. Indeed ? when Hortensius came, 
both unwell, and so far ; Hortensius too 1 "; when 
a vast number besides ; did not he come ? No, I 
say. Did you not see him then ? you will say. 
How could I help seeing him, when I passed through 
the town of Puteoli ? where I bowed to him while 
he was engaged, I believe, in some business ; after- 
wards I just bid him farewell, when he came on 
purpose n from his vill a to ask if I had any com- 

1 Pontinius had been appointed one of Cicero's lion- 
tenants. 

m If the repetition of Hortensius's name be correct, it 
must in this second place mean " one of such distinction, 
and so circumstanced with regard to me.'" 

n If the word expense be retained, I conceive this to be 
its proper interpretation. 

X X 2 






676 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



mands. Ought one to think him unkind? or 
ought one not rather to think him in that very 
circumstance deserving of commendation, that he 
should not have pressed to be heard ? But to 
return. Do not imagine that I have any other 
consolation in this great plague than that T hope it 
will not last more than a year. Many, judging 
from the custom of others, do not believe me really 
to wish this ; you, who know me, will use all dili- 
gence when the time comes for its being settled. 
When you return from Epirus I beg you to write 
to me on the subject of the republic if there is 
anything likely to happen. For we have not yet 
received satisfactory information how Caesar bare 
the vote of the senate respecting his authority p. 
There was a report, too, about the people beyond 
the Po, that they were ordered to elect four magis- 
trates q . If this be so, I am afraid of great 
commotions ; but I shall learn something from 
Pompeius r . 



LETTER III. 

On the 1 Oth of May I came to Pontius in Tre- 
bulanum. There your two letters were delivered 
to me the third day after they had been written. 
The same day I delivered to Philotimus a letter for 
you from Pansa's Pompeian villa. At present I 
have nothing particular to tell you. Pray let me 
know what are the reports about the republic; for 
I perceive great apprehensions in the towns here, 
though much of it is no doubt groundless. But I 
should be glad to be informed what you think 
likely to happen, and when. I do not know what 
letter you wish me to answer ; for I have yet re- 
ceived none besides the two, which were delivered 
to me together in Trebulanum, — one of which 
contained P. Licinius's proclamation, and was 
dated the 7th of May — the other was in answer to 
mine from Minturnse. I am afraid there may have 
been something of importance in that which I have 
not received, to which you wish me to reply. I 
will put you into favour with Lentulus. I am 
much pleased with Dionysius. Your servant 
Nicanor is of great use to me. I have now nothing 
more to say, and the day already breaks. I intend 
getting to Beneventum to-day. By my moderation 
and diligence, I trust I shall give satisfaction. From 
Pontius' house at Trebulanum, the 1 1th of May. 



LETTER IV. 

I came to Beneventum the 11th of May, where 
I received the letter to which you alluded in one 
that reached me before, and which I answered the 
same day from Trebulanum by L. Pontius s . In- 

It is probable Rufio and Vestorius might have had 
some dispute, which was to be referred to Cicero's decision. 

P I am not ignorant of the term autoritas being applied 
to such votes of the senate as were prevented from passing 
into a law. Still it appears to me that the best sense of 
this passage is by understanding the word to refer to 
Caesar's authority, which was at this time attacked by the 
t'onsul Marcellus, who proposed a decree for shortening 
the period of his command in Gaul, and preventing one 
who was not present from being elected consul. 

1 The election of fourmagistratesconstituted afree town, 
and gave the right of voting in the Roman assemblies. 

r Cicero was afterwards to see Pompeius, who was at 
Tarentum. See letter 6 of this book. 
s Cicero having written this letter at Pontius's house, 



deed I have received two at Beneventum ; one of 
which was brought me early in the morning by 
Funisulanus ; the other by my secretary Tullius. 
The attention you pay to my first and principal 
commission l is exceedingly grateful to me ; but 
your departure weakens my hope. He brought me 
to this u , not because I was altogether satisfied, 
but because the want of anything better obliged me 
to consent. Respecting the other, whom you 
seem to think not unsuitable, I doubt whether my 
daughter could be brought to admit him, and it 
would be difficult for your ladies to find out. On 
my part I have no objection. But you will be 
gone, and the business must be settled in my ab- 
sence. You will consider my situation. For if 
either of us were there, something might be done" 
by means of Servilius to the satisfaction of Servius : 
as it is, if this should now be approved, I hardly 
see how it can be managed. I now come to 
the letter I received by Tullius, and feel much 
obliged by your attention about Marcellus. If 
therefore a decree of the senate should be passed, 
you will let me know : or if not, you will neverthe- 
less accomplish the business v , — for it must of 
necessity be granted to me, and to Bibulus. But 
I do not doubt that the decree of the senate has 
already been despatched, especially as the popu- 
lace have their advantage in it. You have done 
well about Torquatus. It will be time enough to 
think of Maso and Ligur when they arrive. As 
to what Chserippus says w , since here also you with- 
hold your opinion ; O this province ! and must he 
too be satisfied ? He must so far be satisfied, that 
nothing may come before the senate. Consider 
what is to be done, or pay down the money ; for 
about the others I do not care. It happens how- 
ever fortunately that you should have talked with 
Scrofa. What you say about Pontinius is very 
just. For so it is, that if he comes to Brundisium 
before the 1st of June, there will be less occasion 
to press M. Annius and Tullius. I like what you 
heard from Sicinius x , provided the exception does 
not affect anybody to whom I am under obligations. 
But I will consider of it : for I approve the thing 
itself. What I may determine about my journey, 
and what Pompeius will do about the five prefects y , 
when I have learned from him, I will let you know. 
Respecting Oppius, you have done right to assure 
him of the payment of the 800 sestertia ( 6660/-) : 
and now that you have Philotimus with you, bring 

it is to be supposed that when Cicero proceeded to Bene- 
ventum, Pontius at the same time went up to Rome. 

1 This probably refers to the re-marriage of his daughter, 
who appears to have been separated from Crassipes by a 
divorce. It must not be forgotten that divorces at that 
time were exceedingly common. 

u It is not certain of whom Cicero is speaking ; it appears 
to have been some person who had proposed to marry Tul- 
lia, and who had induced Cicero to listen to his offer. She 
did in fact marry P. Cornelius Dolabella. 

v The object of Cicero was probably to get a decree 
authorising him to raise a supply of troops, which he 
considers necessary for himself and Bibulus, on account 
of the hostility of the Parthians who bordered on their 
provinces. 

w He seems to have brought up some demand against 
Cicero, the nature of which is not known. 

x It was usual to issue a proclamation upon entering on 
a provincial government. Cicero had been inquiring what 
others had done on similar occasions, and it is to this that 
Sicinius's exception must be supposed to allude. 

y See afterwards in letter 7 of this book. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



077 



the business to an end, and make up the account. 
And, as you love me before you go away, enable 
me again to go on z . You will have relieved me 
from a great source of uneasiness. 1 have now 
replied to all the contents of your letters : though 
I had almost omitted your want of paper a . This 
is my concern, if your deficiency obliges you to 
write less. Take then 200 sestertii (1/. 16s.), in 
order to supply yourself, though the smallness of 
this sheet shows my own parsimony in this respect; 
while it demands from you an account of all that 
is done or talked of. If you have any certain in- 
telligence of Csesar, I hope to hear from you ; and 
again more particularly by Pontinius about every- 
thing. 



LETTER V. 

I have positively nothing to say : for I have nei- 
I, ther anything to desire of you, considering there has 
been nothing omitted, nor anything to tell you, for 
I know nothing, and have no room for joking — so 
many things press upon me. Know this however, 
that I send this on the morning of the 15th of May, 
just setting out from Venusia. On this day it is 
probable that something will be done in the senate. 
Let therefore your letters follow me, by which I 
may not only be made acquainted wich all facts, 
but likewise with the current reports. I shall be 
glad to receive them at Brundisium, for there I 
design to wait for Pontinius till the day which you 
mentioned. I will give you a particular account 
of the conversations 1 may have at Tarentum 
with Pompeius on the subject of the republic : 
though I wish to know how long I may properly 
write to you, — that is, how long you are likely to 
remain in Rome, that I may know to whom I ought 
hereafter to deliver my letters, and may not deliver 
them in vain. But before you go, at all events let 
that business be settled of the 20 and the 800 ses- 
tertia (166^. and 6660^.). I wish you would con- 
sider this as a thing of the very first importance and 
necessity ; that what I have begun to entertain b by 
your recommendation, I may complete by your 
assistance. 



LETTER VI. 

I came to Tarentum the 18th of May. Having 
determined to wait for Pontinius, I thought it best 
to pass the intermediate time with Pompeius, till 
he should arrive : especially as I found that Pom- 
peius wished it, and even begged me to be with 
him, and at his house every day : to which I 
readily agreed, — for I shall get from him many 
good conversations on the subject of the republic ; 
and shall besides be furnished with instructions 
suitable for my new office. But I begin now to be 



z This appears to me to be the best interpretation of 
this passage, and most consistent with the context. 

a This badinage probably refers to some expression in 
Atticus's letter, or, it may be, to the cross line spoken of 
in letter 1 of this book. This letter contains an unusual 
number of broken sentences, and short allusions, which 
involve in them considerable doubt of the true meaning. 

b He speaks of the friendship he had begun to have ( 
with Caesar. The sums stated here and elsewhere, as ne- 
gotiated between him and Oppius, were apparently due to 
Cassar. 



shorter in writing to you, from my uncertainty 
whether you are at Rome or already set out. As 
long as I remain in this ignorance, I will still write a 
few lines, rather than suffer an opportunity of send- 
ing to you to pass without a letter. At the same 
time I have now nothing to ask of you, or to tell 
you. I have made all my requests, which you will 
execute as you promised ; when I have any news, I 
will tell you. One thing however I shall not cease 
to urge as long as I suppose you to remain in 
Rome, that you would leave that business com- 
pleted respecting the account with Csesar. I look 
eagerly for your letters ; especially that I may know 
the time of your departure. 



LETTER VII. 

I send you a letter every day, or rather each 
day, shorter ; for I become every day more appre- 
hensive that you may have set out for Epirus. 
However, that you may see I have attended to 
your request, Pompeius says he shall present five 
new prefects as before, with exemption of service, 
and with the authority of magistrates c . After 
spending three days with Pompeius in his own 
house, I am going to Brundisium this 20th of May. 
I leave him an excellent citizen, and fully prepared 
to repel the evils which are apprehended. I shall 
hope to get a letter from you, that I may know 
both what you are doing, and where you are. 



LETTER VIII. 

It is now twelve days that I have been detained 
at Brundisium, partly by indisposition ; from 
which however I am now recovered, having been 
free from fever ; partly by the expectation of Pon- 
tinius's arrival, of which I have not yet received 
any intimation. But I am expecting to sail. If 
you are at Rome, which I scarcely suppose, but if 
you are, I should exceedingly wish you to attend 
to the following circumstance. I received infor- 
mation from Rome that ray friend Milo complained 
in his letters of my unkindness, because Philoti- 
mus was a party in the purchase of his goods d . 
This I desired to be done by the advice of C. Duro- 
nius, whom I knew to be much attached to Milo, 
and such a one as you esteem him. His inten- 
tions and mine were, first, that the property might 
thus come under my control, and that no ill-dis- 
posed purchaser might rob him of his slaves, of 
whom he has a great many with him ; then, that 
the security he had wished to provide for Fausta e 

c Different conjectures have been formed respecting the 
text and the meaning of this sentence. It seems to me 
most probable, that Pompeius was allowed to nominate to 
Cicero's prefectures, which were often honorary, and while 
they gave authority, admitted of exemption from service. 
' Cicero only insisted on excluding all persons concerned in 
traffic. [See letter U of this book.] 1'he proper busi- 
ness of the prefect appears to have been to determine 
causes in such places where there were no authorised 
magistrates. 

d Philotimus was a f reed-man of Terentia, Cicero's 
wife. Milo had been found guilty of the death of Clodius, 
and in consequence went into a voluntary exile at Mar- 
seilles ; and his debts being very great, his estate was sold 
by public auction for the satisfaction of his creditors. 

e Fausta was Milo's wife. 



678 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



might be ratified ; added to which, if anything could 
be saved, that I might the more easily save it. 
Now 1 should be glad if you would examine into the 
whole affair, — for accounts are often exaggerated. 
But if he complains, if he writes to his friends, if 
Fausta is of the same mind, do not let Philotimus 
continue to have any concern in the property, con- 
trary to Milo's wishes ; for so I told him in person, 
and he engaged to do. It was no great object to 
me. But if what I have heard is undeserving of 
notice, you will judge what is right. Speak to 
Duronius. I have written also to Camillus, and to 
Lamia ; and the rather, because I could not depend 
upon your being in Rome. In short, you will 
determine what you think most consistent with my 
honour, my reputation, and my interest. 



LETTER IX. 

I arrived at Actium f the 15th of June, hav- 
ing feasted like the Salii s at Corcyra, and Sybotis, 
upon the presents which Arcus and my Mend Eu- 
tychides h had splendidly aud kindly provided for 
me. I preferred going from Actium by land, after 
having had a very unpleasant voyage. The dou- 
bling of Leucate too seemed to be attended with 
difficulty ; aud I did not think it becoming to pro- 
ceed to Patrse in a small vessel without my equi- 
page. I daily study myself, and direct my attendants, 
to carry into effect my determination (in which 
you often encouraged my speed), to discharge this 
office, which is out of the common { course, with the 
utmost moderation, and the utmost forbearance. I 
hope that the Parthians will be quiet, and that for- 
tune will favour me : I shall do my part. Pray 
take care to let me know what you are doing, 
where you will be at successive times, how you left 
my affairs at Rome, and above all about the twenty 
and the eight hundreds sestertia (166/. and 6660/. ). 
This you will accomplish in one letter carefully 
despatched, so that it may reach me. But (though 
you are now absent, while the business of the pro- 
vinces is not under consideration, yet will, as you 
wrote me word, be present at the time) remember 
to provide through your own influence, and through 
all my friends, especially through Hortensius, that 
my year of service may remain in its present state, 
and that no addition may be decreed. I am so 
earnest in this request, that I doubt if I should not 
even beg you to contend against any intercalation 14 . 

f On the coast of Acarnania in Greece. The same place 
that was afterwards distinguished by the engagement 
between Augustus and M. Antonius, which decided the 
empire of the world. 

« The Salii were priests of Mars, who, at the conclusion 
of their solemn processions, used to partake of a splendid 
entertainment ; from whence Salearic feasts derived their 
name. 

1' Arcus and Eutychidea were freed-men belonging to 
Atticus, whose house at Buthrotum was near to Corcyra 
and Sybotis, through which Cicero passed after he had 
crossed the Adriatic. Eutychides is mentioned before, 
book iv. letter 15. 

' It was usual for the consuls to take a government imme- 
diately upon resigning their office. Cicero having declined 
this at the time, was now appointed out of the regular 
course. 

J Mentioned above in letter 5 of this book. 

k This is said jestingly. The irregularities of the year, 
previous to Caesar's reformation of the calendar, used to 
be rectified by the occasional insertion of a month, consist- 



But I must not impose every burden upon you. 
At least however be firm upon the subject of the 
year. My affectionate and dear boy Cicero sends 
his compliments to you. I have always, as you 
know, had a regard for Dionysius ; but I esteem 
him more and more every day, and particularly 
because he loves you, and is continually talking 
about you. 



LETTER X. 

Having reached Athens the 25th of June, I 
have been now three days expecting Pontinius, but 
have yet heard nothing certain about his arrival. 
I assure you my thoughts have been entirely en- 
gaged upon you : and though I was naturally led 
to this by my own feelings, yet these have been the 
more lively from the recollection that I was tread- 
ing in your steps. In short, our whole conversa- 
tion is about you. But you perhaps wish rather to 
hear something about me. I have to tell you, then, 
that hitherto there has been no expense incurred, 
either publicly or privately upon me, or any of my 
train. Nothing is received under the sanction of 
the Julian law 1 ; nothing from those with whom we 
lodge. My attendants are all resolved to support 
my reputation. So far all is well. This being ob- 
served, has called forth much discourse and com- 
mendation among the Greeks. In what remains 
to be done, I study to conduct myself, as I under- 
stood you to approve. But it will be time to take 
credit for these matters when we arrive at the pero- 
ration and conclusion of the whole. The rest of 
my concerns are of such a nature that I often re- 
proach myself for not having devised some means 
of escaping from this employment. How little is 
it adapted to my habits ! How true is that saying 
— " Every one to his own trade !" You will say — j 
" What has already happened ? you have not yet 
entered upon business." I know not, but I ap- ! 
prehend there is worse to come, — though I bear 
this, as I hope and believe, to all appearance admi- 
rably ; but I am worried in my inward feelings, by 
the many things which are every day arrogantly i 
said or concealed in anger and petulance, and every 
kind of foolish weakness, which I do not specify, — | 
not from any wish to hide them from you, but 
because they are irremediable. When I am j 
returned safe, you shall admire my patience : it is 
a virtue I am deeply studying. But enough of 
this. Though I had little else to write about, not 
being able to guess even what you are doing or 
where you are. Nor was I ever so long in igno- 
rance of my own affairs ; what has been done about 
Csesar's business, what about Milo's ; and I have 
not only seen nobody, but have not so much as 
heard any report to inform me of what is going on 
in the republic. If therefore you know anything 
about these matters, with which you think I should 
like to be acquainted, you will confer a great kind- 
ness upon me by letting me hear it. What is there 
besides ? Nothing truly but this, that I am highly 
delighted with Athens, with the city itself, and the 

ing of more or fewer days, at the discrction^of the pontifices, 
between the 23d and 24th of February. This was called 
an intercalary month. 

\ By the Julian law the public officers of Rome were 
entitled to certain articles of provision in the towns through 
which they passed. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



G7» 



ornaments of the city ; with the affection of the 
people towards you, and their kindness also to me ; 
but especially with the philosophical spirit which 
everywhere prevails m . If there is any good, it is 
to be found in Aristus, with whom I lodge, — for I 
gave up your, or rather my Xeno, to Quintus ; but 
the houses are so near, that we pass whole days 
together. As soon as you can, let me hear your 
plans, that I may know what you do, where you 
are, and, above all, when you will be in Rome. 



LETTER XL 

How is this ? so often to send letters to Rome, 
yet none for you ? Hereafter, however, I will rather 
write in vain, than suffer an opportunity to pass 
without writing to you. I entreat you by your 
fortunes n , while you are there, to secure by all 
possible means, that the period of my government 
may not be prolonged. I cannot tell you how 
ardently I wish for the city ; how ill I bear the 
impertinences of my present situation. Marcellus 
has acted shamefully about this citizen of Como°. 
If he had not held a magistracy, at least he belonged 
to one of the colonies on the Po p : so that the 
offence given to our friend Pompeius, appears to 
me to be no less than that to Csesar. Bat this is 
his concern. I thought also, as you say Varro 
asserts, that Pompeius was certainly going into 
Spain. I was sorry for it ; and easily persuaded 
Theophanes that nothing was more to be wished, 
than that he should not go away anywhere. The 
Greek q therefore will try what he can do ; and his 
authority has the greatest weight with him. I send 
this on the 6th of July, the day of my leaving 
Athens, after having been there ten whole days. 
Pontinius is arrived ; and at the same time Cn. 
Volusius : the quaestor r is here ; and your Tullius 
alone absent. I have some open boats belonging to 
the Rhodians, and some double-oared vessels of 
the Mitylenaeans, and others. I hear nothing of 
the Parthians. For the rest, I trust to the gods. 
Hitherto I have made my journey through Greece 
with great applause ; nor have I yet any complaint 
to make of my people ; they seem to know me, and 
my purpose, and the conditions of their service ; 
and are entirely subservient to my good estimation. 
Henceforth, if that proverb be true, " Like master, 
like man," they will assuredly continue in the 
same disposition : for they shall see nothing in me 

'» This appears to me to be the true sense of this dis- 
puted passage. Had ixuca Karrw related to the ambiguity 
of the Academic philosophy, I apprehend it would have 
had the article r) prefixed. 

" A form of adjuration elsewhere occurring in Cicero's 
letters. However unusual it maybe in England, it seemed 
right to preserve this character of the original in the trans- 
lation. 

o It seemed to be out of enmity to Ca>sar that the consul 
Marcellus had ordered a person of Como, to which place 
Caesar had extended the rights of citizenship, to be publicly 
beaten. 

P Pompeius's father had before got the same privileges 
to be given generally to the colonies bordering on the Po. 
How irregular it was to inflict such a punishment on i 
Roman citizen may be inferred from the history of St. 
Paul, Acts xxii. 25. 

q Theophanes was probably a freed-man of Pompeius, 
and a Greek. 

r The business of the provincial quaestor principally re- 
garded the supplies of the army. 



to justify their delinquency. But if this be found 
insufficient, I shall adopt severer measures ; for 
hitherto I have been gentle and lenient ; and, as I 
hope, not without some effect. But, as some say, 
I have calculated upon this forbearance only for | 
one year : take care then that I do not lose my 
character by any prolongation of my government. 
I now come back to what you desire of me. With 
regard to the prefects, there shall be an exemption 
of service for any you s please ; only name them : I 
shall not hesitate, as I did in the case of Apuleius. I 
love Xeno as much as you do, and am confident that 
he is sensible of it. I have put you in the highest 
favour with Patron, and the rest of these effeminate 
philosophers* ; and have done no more than you 
deserved ; for he told me that you had thrice w ri tten to 
him, to assure him that in consequence of his letter 
I would take care of that business 11 ; which he took 
very kindly. But upon Patron's applying to me, 
to request that your Areopagus would cancel the 
decree they had made in the prgetorship of Poly- 
charmus, it appeared both to Xeno, and afterwards 
to Patron himself, more proper that I should write 
to Memmius, who had gone to Mitylene the very 
day before I arrived at Athens, in order that he 
might signify to his friends his consent to the mea- 
sure. For Xeno was persuaded that the Areopagus 
would never grant it against the will of Memmius. 
But Memmius had already given up all thoughts of 
building : he was, however, displeased with Patron ; 
which made me write particularly to him a letter, 
of which I send you a copy. I wish you to com- 
fort Pilia for my sake v : for I will tell you ; you 
need not mention it to her; I received a packet, in 
which was Pilia's letter : I took it, opened it, read 
it. It was written with great feeling. The letters 
you received from Brundisium, without any from 
me, were despatched at a time when I was not well. 
For I would not have you put off with that servile 
excuse w of business. Take care to let me hear 
everything ; but especially take care of your own 
health. 



LETTER XII. 

A sea voyage is a serious thing, even in July. | 
We were five days coming from Athens to Delus. 
On the 6th of July we proceeded from the Piraeus x 

s It does not appear that the governors of provinces were 
limited in their appointment of prefects. Cicero only 
excluded such as carried on any traffic. [See above, let- 
ter 7 of this book.] The translation here offered is new, 
but is most consonant to the words of the original thus 
pointed, " in praefectis, excusatio iis quos voles: deferto." 

1 The Epicureans. 

u Memmius had been obliged to quit Rome, and had 
taken up his residence at Athens, where he got from the 
council of the Areopagus a grant to build upon the site of a 
school of Epicurus. This the supporters of that philoso- 
phy were anxious to prevent. 

v It has been doubted to what this alludes, and indeed 
it is one of those private circumstances which it is Impos- 
sible to ascertain; hut it appears to me niosr probable that 
some letter from Pilia to Attieus had fallen by mistake 
into Cicero's hands, and that it contained some expressions 
of uneasiness, which Cicero takes this opportunity of re- 
questing her husband to soothe. 

w The meaning of the original is uncertain. 1 have 
supposed it to be "an exouseof being busy;'* which he 
represents as an excuse fit for a slave, who was forced to 
work. x The port of Athens- 



G80 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



to Zoster with a troublesome wind, which detained 
us there the next day. On the 8th we had a 
pleasant passage to Ceo. From thence we went to 
Gyarus with a strong gale, but not unfavourable. 
We completed our course to Scyrus, and thence to 
Delus, to both of them quicker than we wished. 
You are acquainted with the undecked vessels of 
the Rhodians ; there is nothing less calculated to 
resist the waves. I had, therefore, determined not 
to hurry, nor to stir from Delus till the indications 
from the heights should be favourable. As soon as 
I heard of Messala, I immediately wrote to you 
from Gyarus ; and I also communicated my opinion 
to Hortensius?, with whom I fully sympathised. 
But I am expecting a letter from you informing me 
what is said of that judgment, and indeed upon the 
whole state of the republic, and that a statesman- 
like letter, since you are reading over my treatise 
on Government with my friend Thallumetus 2 ; so 
that I may learn not only what is doing (for that 
even your grave client Helenius could tell), but 
what will be done hereafter. By the time you read 
this, the consuls will be appointed. You will be 
able to perceive with some certainty everything 
relating to Caesar, to Pompeius, to the trials them- 
selves. But, I beseech you, since you remain in 
Rome, clear off my business. What I forgot to 
answer you about the brick-work % I request you to 
get done. Respecting the water, if anything can 
be done, I beg you to manage it with your usual 
kindness. I do from my own sense of the subject, 
as well as from your representation, consider it of 
real importance : therefore accomplish something. 
If Philippus has asked you to do anything in his 
affair, I should be glad if you would gratify him. 
I will write more to you when I am settled ; I am 
now completely in the middle of the sea. 



LETTER XIII. 

I arrived at Ephesus the 22d of July, the five 
hundred and sixtieth day after the battle of Bovilla b . 
The voyage was performed without danger, and 
without sickness ; but slowly, owing to the weak- 
ness of the undecked Rhodian vessels. Of the con- 
course of deputations, and individuals, and the 
incredible multitude which came to greet me at 
Samos, and in an astonishing manner at Ephesus, I 
imagine you have already heard ; or may say, 
" how does it concern me e ? " However, both the 
farmers of the revenue addressed me with as much 
zeal as if I had come with a command ; and the 
Greeks, as if I had been an Ephesian praetor d . 
From which I know you will understand that my 

7 Messala was related to Hortensius. He had been 
charged with bribery at his election to the consulship. See 
book iv. letter 16. 

z Probably one of Atticus's freed-men. 

a This, and what follows about tbe water, probably refers 
to his house in Rome. 

l > This was the place where Clodius was killed in his 
affray with Milo. Cicero uses the phrase jestingly, as if 
its importance constituted a new epoch. 

c It is probable this may have been an expression fami- 
liar to Atticus. 

d The farmers of the revenue and the proprietors of the 
land were likely to be often at variance, the former sup- 
porting themselves by the authority of the Roman governor, 
the latter by that of their own magistrates, whom they 
therefore respectively courted. 



boasting of so many years is now brought to the 
test e . But as I hope- 1 shall put in practice the 
lessons I have learned from you ; and shall be able 
to satisfy all parties ; and the more easily, because 
in my province the compositions f have already been 
made. But enough of this ; especially as Caestius 
informed me, while I was at dinner, that he should 
set out this very night. I have attended to your 
little concerns^ at Ephesus ; and to Thermus, (who 
previously to my arrival had generously promised 
his assistance to all your friends,) yet I have pre- 
sented PhilogenesandSeius, and have recommended 
Xeno of Apollonidis. He promised to do every- 
thing you wished. I have besides explained to 
Philogenes the account of what I borrowed 11 from 
you. So much for this also. I return to the affairs 
of the city. I entreat you by your fortunes, since 
you remain in Rome, first of all to support and 
secure this, that my government may be but for the 
year, that there be even no intercalation \ In the 
next place, finish my commissions ; especially if any- 
thing can be done in that domesticJ business, in 
which you know my difficulty : then have a regard 
to Csesar k , whose friendship I have solicited at 
your recommendation ; nor do I regret it. And if 
you know how much it concerns me to be informed 
and regardful of what is doing in the republic, 
(doing? nay, ratherwhat is hereafter to take place,) 
write everything to me, and exactly ; particularly 
whether the state of the judgments that are either 
made, or to be made, is attended with difficulty. 
About the water 1 , as you think it worth while. If 
Philippus should want anything, I shall be obliged 
to you to attend to it m . 



LETTER XIV. 

Till I am settled in some place, you must not 
expect me to send you either long letters, or always in 
my own hand; but when I have time, I will do both. 
I am now pursuing my journey on a hot and dusty 
road. I wrote to you yesterday from Ephesus ; this 
I send from Tralles. I expect to be in my province 
the 1st of August. From that day, if you love me, 
endeavour to secure the termination of my govern- 
ment after one year. In the mean time I have 
received intelligence such as I could wish ; first, 
that the Parthians are quiet ; then, that the con- 
tracts with the farmers of the revenue are completed ; 
lastly, that the sedition of the soldiers has been 
allayed by Appius, and their pay delivered to them 
up to the middle of July. I am wonderfully well 
received in Asia. My arrival has occasioned not 
the smallest expense to anybody. I hope all my 
attendants will have regard to my reputation. I 
have great apprehensions ; but hope for the best. 

e By his boasting he probably means his philosophical 
prudence. 

f These were the contracts entered into annually between 
the farmers of the revenue and the proprietors. 

S This may have been borrowed from Atticus's own 
expression. 

h See letter 15 of this book. 

» See letter 9 of this book. 

J This probably alludes to the marriage of his daughter. 
See letter 4 of this book. 

k See letter 5 of this book. 

1 See above, letter 12 of this book. 

m See letter 12 of this book. I conceive this and the 
former clause to make two distinct sentences. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



681 



All my people have now joined me except your 
friend Tullius. I purpose going directly to the 
army, to appropriate the remaining summer months 
to military business, the winter months to civil 
concerns. I trust that, if you know me to be 
no less anxious than yourself about the republic, 
you will send me word of everything that happens, 
or will happen. You cannot gratify me more ; 
unless by the execution of what I begged you to do, 
especially that inmost concern n , which I have so 
much at heart. I write in haste, and in dust. My 
future letters shall be more particular. 



LETTER XV. 

I came to Laodicea the 31st of July. From 
this day you will begin the reckoning of my year. 
Nothing could be more desired, nothing more 
affectionately entertained, than my arrival. But it 
is not to be believed how sick I am of this business. 
The activity of my mind, with which you are so 
well acquainted, has not a sufficient field to exert 
itself, and the notable effect of my industry is lost. 
Is it for me to administer justice at Laodicea, and 
A. Plotius at Rome ? And while our friend is 
commanding so large an army, for me to have the 
name only of two meagre legions ? In short, I 
want not these things ; I want the splendour, the 
forum, the city, my own home, and you. But I 
will bear it as I can, provided it be but for one 
year. If my government is prolonged, it is all over 
with me ; but it may very easily be prevented if 
only you remain at Rome. You ask what I do 
here. I shall continue to live, as I do, at a great 
expense. I am wonderfully pleased with the plan 
I have adopced. I observe a strict self-denial , 
agreeably to your advice ; so that I doubt whether 
it will not be necessary to raise money in order to 
pay off what I have borrowed of you. I do not 
exasperate the wounds of Appius p , but they appear 
and cannot be concealed. I write this on the 3d 
of August, on my way from Laodicea to the camp 
in Lycaonia. Thence I mean to proceed to Mount 
Taurus, that I may contend in arms with Msera- 
genes, and, if I can, may decide the affair of your 
slave q . The panniers, as they say, have been put 
on the wrong beast r . It is confessedly a burden 
that does not belong to me, but I will bear it, only, 
as you love me, let it not exceed the year. Mind 
to be present in time, that you may solicit the 
whole senate. I am exceedingly anxious, because 
it is now a long while that I have remained in ig- 
norance of all that is doing. Therefore, as I have 
before said to you, make me acquainted, besides 
other things, with the state itself. Should I write 
more by a tardy messenger ? but I deliver this to a 
familiar and friendly man, C. Andronicus of 
Puteoli. You will have frequent opportunities of 

n Probably alluding to the marriage of his daughter. 

° By self-denial is to be understood Cicero's abstinence 
from all extortion, such as was made a great source of 
revenue to the provincial governors. 

P Appius had preceded Cicero in the government of 
Cilicia ; the wounds he had inflicted were those of ex- 
tortion. 

q Mseragenes was the captain of a lawless band, to whom 
a slave of Atticus's had run away. 

r A proverbial expression, signifying something unsuit- 
able. 



sending to me by the messengers of the public 
renters, through the collectors of the revenue and 
customs within my district. 



LETTER XVI. 

While I am on my journey, and actually on 
the road, the messengers of the public renters are 
setting out ; yet I have thought it right to steal a 
little time, that you may not think me regardless of 
your injunction. Accordingly, I have stopped in 
the road to send you shortly this information, 
which should have occupied a larger space. My 
arrival, which was eagerly expected in this miserable 
and utterly ruined province, took place the last 
day of July. During three days that I staid at 
Laodicea, three at Apamea, and three at Synnade, 
I heard of nothing but the inability of the people 
to pay the head money imposed upon them ; the 
universal sale of goods ; the groans and lamenta- 
tions of the cities, the fatal traces, not of a man, 
but of some savage beast. In short, I am sick of 
everything, even of my life. The wretched cities, 
however, find some relief in being free from any 
expense either on my account or that of my lieute- 
nants, quaestors, or anybody else. For I decline to 
accept not only forage, and what is allowed by the 
Julian law, but even my fire-wood ; nor does any- 
body receive a single thing besides four beds, and 
a roof to cover them ; in many places, not so much 
as that, for we more commonly remain under a 
tent. Hence we have a surprising concourse from 
the country, from the villages, and from every 
house. Indeed they revive again at my approach, 
at the justice, the moderation, the clemency of 
your Cicero ; so that he has exceeded the expecta- 
tions of all people. Appius s , upon hearing that I 
was coming, went into the remotest part of the 
province, as far as Tarsus, where he holds a session. 
I hear nothing of the Parthians ; but some, who 
are lately arrived, relate that our cavalry have been 
defeated by the barbarians'. Bibulus does not even 
yet think of going into his province 11 ; which peo- 
ple attribute to this, that he wishes to remain there 
as late as he can. I am hastening to join the army, 
which is two days distant. 



LETTER XVII. 

I have received from Rome a packet of letters 
without one from you ; which, if only you were 
there, and were well, I attribute to the fault of 
Philotimus, not to you. I dictate this sitting in 
my carriage, on my way to the camp, from which 
I am distant two days' journey. In a few days I 
shall have sure persons to whom I can deliver my 
letters, therefore I reserve myself for that. How- 
ever, though I would rather you should hear it from 
others, I conduct myself in the province with such 
moderation, that not a penny is spent upon any of 
my people. This is accomplished also by the 
attention of the lieutenants, and tribunes, and 
prefects, for they are all zealous for my honour. 

8 Appius was Cicero's predecessor in the province of 
Cilicia. 

t This is spoken, in the Greek manner, of people unac- 
quainted with the Roman customs and discipline. 

* Syria. 



682 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



Our friend Lepta is admirable v . But I must be 
quick. I will tell you everything fully in a few- 
days. The younger Deiotarus, who has received 
from the senate the title of king, has taken our 
Ciceros w with him into his kingdom. While I am 
in my summer quarters, I considered ic to be the 
best place for the boys. Sestius has informed me 
of the conversation he had with you on the subject 
of my domestic and greatest concern x , and what 
was your opinion. I beseech you, pay every atten- 
tion to that business ; and let me know what can 
be done, and what you think. Sestius likewise 
said that Hortensius had mentioned something 
about extending the term of my government. He 
had distinctly promised me in Cumanum that he 
would support my release at the end of twelve 
months. If you have any regard for me, fortify this 
posU. It cannot be told how unwillingly I am kept 
away from you. Besides, I expect that this honour, 
which I derive from my moderation, will be the 
more distinguished, if I soon retire, as it happened 
to Scsevola, who presided in Asia only nine 
months. Appius, when he understood that I was 
approaching, removed from Laodicea as far as 
Tarsus. There he holds a session, while I am in 
the province ; but I shall not quarrel with him for 
this wrong, for I have enough upon my hands in 
healing the wounds which have been inflicted on 
the province, which I endeavour to do with the 
least censure upon him. But I wish you would tell 
our friend Brutus that Appius has not behaved 
handsomely in going away as far as he could upon 
my approach. 



LETTER XVIII. 

How I wish you were in Rome, if it happens 
that you are not there, for I have no certain infor- 
mation, excepting that I have received two letters 
from you dated the 19th of July, in which it was 
mentioned that you were going into Epirus about 
the beginning of August. But whether you are in 
Rome or in Epirus, the Parthians have passed the 
Euphrates under the conduct of Pacorus, son of 
Orodes, king of the Parthians, with almost all his 
forces. There is yet no news of Bibulus's arrival 
in Syria. Cassius is in the city of Antioch with his 
whole army. I am with my army at Cybistra, in 
Cappadocia, at the foot of Mount Taurus. The 
enemy is in the Cyrrhestica, which is the part of 
Syria nearest to my province. I have written to 
the senate an account of this state of affairs 2 . If 
you are at Rome, you will see if you think my 
letter should be delivered; and many things, nay, 
everything which require your kind attention, the 
sum of which is, that between the slaying and the 
offering a , as they say, no additional time or burden 

v lie was what may be called the chief engineer, and 
had the direction of the workmen — pra>fectus fabriun. — 
Ep. Fam. iii. 7. 

w The sons of Marcus and of Quintus Cicero. 

* Respecting the marriage of his daughter. 

y It may be supposed that Cicero uses this metaphor in 
consideration of his military character. 

z This letter is preserved in the beginning of the 15th 
book of the Familiar Epistles. 

a The meaning seems to be, that nothing may occur, at 
some unseasonable moment, to frustrate my designs, and 
prevent my hopes, of quitting the province at the expira- 
tion of the year. 



may be laid upon me. For in this weak state of 
the army, and deficiency of allies, at least such as 
can be depended upon, my best security is the 
winter. If that season arrives without the enemy's 
having passed into my province, the only thing I 
fear is that the senate, under the apprehension of 
domestic disturbances, may be unwilling to let 
Pompeius go away. But if they send somebody 
else in the spring, I do not care, provided no addi- 
tion be made to my time. So much then, if you 
are in Rome. But if you are gone, or indeed if you 
remain there, this is the state of my affairs : I have 
no distrust ; and following, as I believe, prudent 
counsels — and possessing, I hope, a good body of 
men, I feel to be in a safe position, abounding in 
corn, almost looking down upon Cilicia, and con- 
venient for moving. My army is small, but, I 
trust, unanimous in affection towards me, and likely 
to be doubled by the arrival of Deiotarus with all 
his forces. I have much more faithful allies than 
anybody else has had, being struck with my kind- 
ness and forbearance, I am making a levy of 
Roman citizens, and transporting corn from the 
fields into places of safety. If it is necessary, we 
shall defend ourselves by arms ; if not, by the 
nature of the country. Therefore be of good 
courage ; for I see you, and am as sensible of your 
friendly sympathy as if you were actually present. 
But I beg of you, should the consideration of my 
case be put off till the first of January, that you 
would, if possible, be in Rome at that time. I shall 
feel quite secure if you are there. The consuls are 
my friends, and the tribune of the people, Furnius; 
still I have need of your assiduity, prudence, and 
influence. It is a most important time ; but I am 
ashamed of using many words with you. Our 
young Ciceros are w r ith Deiotarus, but if necessary 
they shall be removed to Rhodes. If you are in 
Rome, write to me with your usual exactness ; if in 
Epirus, yet send me one of your messengers, that 
both you may know what I am doing, and I what 
you do, and mean to do. I attend to the concerns 
of your friend Brutus in a manner that he would 
not do for himself. But I now bring forth my 
ward b , without defending him, for it is a slow and 
fruitless business. Yet I will endeavour to give 
satisfaction, even to you, which is harder than to 
Brutus himself ; but I will assuredly satisfy both. 



LETTER XIX. 

I had just sealed the letter which I imagine you 
have read, written with my own hand, airfl con- 
taining an account of everything, when Appius's 
messenger hastily delivered to me your letter of the 
21st of September, the forty-seventh day from his 
leaving Rome. Ah, w T hat a distance ! By that I 
make no doubt you waited for Pompeius's return 
from Ariminum, and are now gone to Epirus ; and 
I fear you will be not less, but, as you say, more 
anxious in Epirus than I am here. I have written 

l> This ward was Ariobarzanes, a king of Cappadocia, 
whose person and government the senate had recom- 
mended to the care of Cicero. lie had been driven out of 
his kingdom by Mithridates, and his affairs were in great 
disorder. Cicero, while he offered to support him in his 
kingdom, did not undertake to defend him against the 
claims of his creditors, one of whom appears to have been 
Brutus. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



683 



to Philotimus about the Atellian debt, desiring him 
not to call upon Messala. I am pleased that the 
reputation of my progress should have reached you, 
and I shall be still more pleased if you hear the 
rest. I am glad you take such delight in the 
daughter whom you have left in Rome ; and though 
I have never seen her, yet I love her, and am sure 
she must be amiable. Farewell again and again, 
patron, and your fellow disciples . I am glad you 
are pleased with what I have effected in the army 
respecting theTarentine light cavalry d . When you 
say that you are not sorry he e should have met with 
arepulse, who contended with your nephew's uncle f ; 
it is a mark of great affection ; and by it you have 
put me in mind that I ought to rejoice also, for it 
had not occurred to me. " I cannot believe that," 
you say. As you please ; but yet I rejoice ; for being 
indignant, you know, is very different from being 
envious £. 



LETTER XX. 

On the morning of the Saturnalia (December 
17) the Pindenissians surrendered themselves to 
me, the forty-seventh day after I had begun to 
besiege them. " Who the plague are these Pin- 
denissians ? who are they?" you will say ; " I never 
heard the name." What can I do ? Could I convert 
Cilicia into iEtolia or Macedonia ? You must know 
this, however, that with such an army as I have 
here, no very great affairs could have been achieved. 
What has been done I will shortly explain to you ; 
for so, in your last letter, you give me leave to do. 
You know of my arrival at Ephesus, for you con- 
gratulated me on that day's celebrity, than which 
nothing ever pleased me more. From thence I 
was honourably received in all the towns where I 
went, and arrived at Laodicea the last day of July. 
There I staid two days in great reputation ; and by 
liberal expressions eradicated all former injuries. 
I did the same at Apamea, where I staid five days ; 
at Synnade, where I was three days ; at Philo- 
melum five days ; and ten days at Iconium. My 
jurisdiction was exercised with the greatest equity, 
the greatest lenity, and the greatest dignity. 
Thence I came into the camp the 26th of August, 
and on the 30th I reviewed the army near Iconium. 
From this station, having received pressing mes- 
sages about the Parthians, I proceeded into Cilicia 
through a part of Cappadocia which borders on 

c That is, farewell to the Epicureans, if you so far forget 
their love of indifference as to hecorne fond of your chil- 
dren. See hook vii letter 2. 

d There is reason to believe that the Taren tines were a 
species of light cavalry. I have thought it right, therefore, 
to insert this illustration, without which it must he unin- 
telligible to an English reader. 

e This is supposed to relate to Hirrus, who had formerly 
opposed Cicero for the augurship, and had lately been 
rejected in his canvass for the office of adile in opposition 
to Caelius. The obscurity of this, as of many other passages, 
arises entirely from our ignorance of Atticus's letter, to 
which it alludes. 

f A humorous periphrasis for Cicero himself, perhaps 
taken from Atticus's own expression. It occurs again, 
[book vi. letter 8,] in relation to the same event. 

S The expression, which in the original is in Greek, seems 
to be taken from Aristotle. His meaning is, that he may 
innocently rejoice through indignation against an unwor- 
thy candidate, though it would be wrong to rejoice through 
envy at another's want of success. 



the province, with the design of making the 
Armenian Artavasdes, and the Parthians them- 
selves conceive that they were excluded from 
Cappadocia. After being encamped five days at 
Cybistra in Cappadocia, I was informed that the 
Parthians were at a long distance from that passage 
of Cappadocia, and were rather threatening Cilicia. 
Therefore I immediately made my way into Cilicia 
through the passes of Mount Taurus. I came to 
Tarsus the 5th of October ; thence I went to Mount 
Amanus, which divides Syria from Cilicia by the 
opposite course of the waters h . These mountains 
were full' of eternal enemies. Here, on the 13th of 
October, we killed a great number of them ; and 
Pontinus having advanced by night, and myself the 
next morning, we took and burned the forts, which 
were strongly guarded. I was saluted Imperator'. 
I occupied for a few days the very same position, 
at Issus, which, in his expedition against Darius, 
had been held by Alexander, not a little better 
general than either you or me. There I remained five 
days ; and having spoiled and laid waste the Amanus, 
I departed. For you know that as there are certain 
things called panics, so there are also the empty 
rumours of war. The rumour of our approach 
both encouraged Cassius, who was shut up in 
Antioch, and alarmed the Parthians ; so that Cas- 
sius pursued them with advantage as they retreated 
from the city. In this retreat Osaces, one of the 
Parthian generals of great authority, received a 
wound, of which he died a few days after. My 
name was respected in Syria. In the mean time 
Bibulus arrived. I imagine he wanted to be equal 
with me in this empty title. He began to seek for 
laurels in the Amanus, as if they were strewed 
upon a cake j . But he lost the whole of his first 
cohort, and the centurion of the first division, a 
man distinguished in his situation, Asinius Dento, 
and the other officers of the cohort, and Sextus 
Lucilius, a military tribune, son to T. Gsevius 
Csepio, a rich and splendid man. In truth he sus- 
tained an ugly blow, both in itself and in the time 
when it happened. I invested Pindenissus with a 
ditch and rampart : it was a strong place belong- 
ing to the free Cilicians, and had time out of mind 
been in arms against us. The people were a fierce 
and barbarous race, prepared with all the means of 
defence. We accomplished the business by a large 
mound, fascines, a lofty tower, great quantity of 
machines k , a numerous body of archers, great 
fatigue and equipage, and many wounds received, 
but the army safe. The Saturnalia were truly 
joyous. I gave up the spoil, excepting the horses, 
to the soldiers. The slaves were sold on the third 
day of the Saturnalia. While I write this in the 
tribunal 1 , the sum amounts to 12,000 sestertia | 
(96,000/.) I shall leave the command of the army j 
to my brother Quintus, to be taken from hence 

h That is, at the part of the mountains whence the 
streams descend in opposite directions, 

i This title, as is Well known, used to be conferred by 
the acclamation of the soldiers upon any signal success ; 
the fasces were at the same time crowned with laurel. 
The general retained the title till he returned to Koine. 

J The word in the original signifies a kind of cake, which 
was covered with laurel leaves, and from which conse- 
quently they were easily gathered. 

k These were various instruments for offence, such as 
continued in use till the introduction of fire-arms. 

1 A raised platform, on which the persons in authority 
were seated. 



684 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



into winter quarters in a part of the country that 
is ill pacified, and am going myself to Laodicea. 
So much for this. But let me revert to what I 
have omitted. When you particularly advise me ; 
and which is more than all, in what you labour 
with so much earnestness ; that I should satisfy 
even this Ligurian scofFer m ; may I die, if any- 
thing could be said more elegantly. But I do not 
call this forbearance, for that seems to imply a 
virtue opposed to pleasure, while in my life I never 
felt so great a pleasure as I do from this integrity 
of conduct. Nor is it the reputation (which is very 
great), but the thing itself that delights me. In 
short, such has been its value, I did not know 
myself, nor was I aware what I could do in this 
kind. I am justly proud. Nothing can be more 
honourable. In the mean time, it is something 
splendid that Ariobarzanes should live and reign 
by my assistance. I have preserved the king and 
the kingdom, as it were, in passing, by prudence 
and authority, and making myself inaccessible to 
his enemies, not merely shut against their presents. 
At the same time, not the smallest thing has been 
received from Cappadocia ; and I even hope that 
during the whole year of my government not a 
farthing of expense will be incurred in the pro- 
vince. Brutus, who was desponding 11 , I have 
cheered as much as I could. I love him no less 
than thou : I had almost said, than thee. This is 
all I had to tell you. I am now preparing to send 
a public account to Rome, which will be more full 
than if I had sent from the Amanus. But am I 
to understand that you will not be in Rome ? 
Everything depends upon the first of March . For 
I am apprehensive that when the business of the 
province is taken into consideration, if any resist- 
ance is made on the part of Caesar , I may be 
continued. If you were there to attend to this, I 
should have no fears. I come now to the affairs 
of the city, with which, after a long ignorance, I 
have at length been made acquainted by your most 
acceptable letter of the 28th of December. Your 
freed-man Philogenes took great care to send it by 
a circuitous and not very safe route. For that, 
which you say was delivered to Lenius's servant, I 
had not received q . I was pleased with what you 
say of Caesar respecting both the decree of the 
senate 1 and your own hopes. If he submits to this, 
I am safe. That Leius should have scorched him- 
self in this Plaetorian conflagration, I am not so 
much concerned 8 . I want to know why Lucceius 
should have been so vehement about Q. Cassius, 

m This expression is probably borrowed from a letter of 
Atticus. It is supposed to mean Cato ; but the reason of 
the appellation is not known. 

n About the recovery of his money. 

When the new consuls were to bring before the senate 
the consideration of the provinces. 

P If Caesar's friends resist the appointment of anybody 
I to succeed him in Gaul ; in that case the senate may deem 
I it necessary to keep Pompeius at home, and to renew my 
I government of Cilicia. For it was expected that Pompeius 
might be sent to put an end to the Parthian war. See let- 
ter 18 of this book. 

1 It must be supposed that Philogenes had previously 
pointed out the same route to this slave of Lenius. 

r The senate had decreed to entertain the question of 
sending a successor to Caesar. 

s This is supposed to mean not a real fire, but a sentence 
of condemnation against Plaetorius, in which Leius was 
involved. 



and what has been done. As soon as I get to 
Laodicea, I am desired to present your nephew 
Quintus with his robe* of manhood. I shall endea- 
vour carefully to regulate his conduct. He, from 
whom I have derived such great assistance", was to 
come to me at Laodicea, as he said, with the young 
Ciceros. I am expecting a letter from Epirus, to 
bring me an account, not only of your occupations, 
but also of your retirement. Nicanor is in office, 
and liberally treated by me. I think of sending 
him to Rome with the public despatches, both for 
their more careful conveyance, and at the same 
time that he may bring me back certain intelli- 
gence of you, and from you. I am obliged to 
Alexis v for his repeated salutations : but why does 
he not by his own letters follow the example of my 
Alexis w to you r I am looking out for a horn x 
for Phemius. But it is time to stop. Take care of 
yourself, and let me know when you think of re- 
turning to Rome. Again and again, farewell. 
When I was at Ephesus, I carefully recommended 
your affairs and your friends to Thermus ; and I now 
do the same by letter ; and I have understood that 
he is of himself very desirous of serving you. I 
should be glad if you would use your influence about 
Pammenus's house, as I before mentioned to you, 
that what the boy has, through your and myassist- 
ance, may not by any means be disturbed. I con- 
sider this as a point of honour to both of us, and it 
will, besides, be particularly acceptable to me. 



LETTER XXI. 

I was very glad to hear that you had arrived 
safe in Epirus, and had, as you say, an agreeable 
passage. I am rather concerned that you will not 
be in Rome at a period so important to me ; but I 
comfort myself with thinking that you will not like 
to winter there, and unnecessarily to be out of the 
wayF. Cassius, the brother of your friend Q. Cas- 
sius, had sent the letter, of which you ask me the 
meaning, in a more modest style than that which 
he sent afterwards, where he pretends to have put 
an end to the Parthian war. They had indeed 
retreated from Antioch before the arrival of Bibu- 
lus ; but not in consequence of any success on our 
part. They are now in winter quarters in the 
Cyrrhestica, and threaten us with a great war. For 
the son of Orodes, the Parthian king, is in our 
province 2 ; and Deiotarus, whose son is engaged 
to the daughter of Artavasdes a , from whom it might 

* Young men at the age of seventeen used to change the 
bordered robe of youth for the plain one of manhood. 

u Deiotarus. This periphrasis is probably taken from 
Atticus's letter. 

v The freed-man and amanuensis of Atticus. 

w Tiro, who held the same situation with Cicero. 

x This horn was for a musical instrument ; and it has 
been with good reason conjectured, that the person for 
whom it was designed might have been a freed-man of 
Atticus, who had cultivated a taste for music, and had 
received the name of Phemius. from a musician mentioned 
in the Odyssey, i. 154. That Atticus was himself fond of 
music may be conjectured from book iv. letter 16 : " Ex 
quibus (Britannicis mancipiis) nullos puto te literis aut 
musicis eruditos expectare." 

y Expecting that for these reasons Atticus might proba- 
bly change his intentions. 

z Not Cicero's province of Cilicia, but the Roman pro- 
vince of Syria. Book vi. letter 1. 

a Artavasdes was king of Armenia. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



685 



be known, has no doubt but the king himself will 
pass the Euphrates with all his forces in the begin- 
ning of summer. And the very day that Cassius's 
victorious letter was read in the senate, which was 
the 7th of October, mine brought an account of 
some disturbance. Our friend Axius says that 
mine carried with it great authority, while no credit 
was given to the other. JBibulus's had not then 
been received. I am confident it must have been 
full of alarm. I am afraid of this consequence 
from it ; that whilst Pompeius is kept at home 
under the apprehension of seditious commotions, 
and Caesar is denied any honour from the senate ; 
while this knot is disentangling, the senate may 
think I ought not to leave my government before 
a successor arrives ; and that in such a disturbed 
state of affairs, it is not enough to have single 
lieutenants preside over such large provinces. 
Hence I dread some prolongation of my time, 
which not even the intercession of a tribune can 
stop ; and the more so, because of your absence, 
who by your opinion, influence, and zeal, might 
obviate many difficulties. But you will say that I 
am raising troubles out of my own brain. I can- 
not help it : and wish it were so. But I am full 
of fears ; though I admired the conclusion of the 
letter you sent from Buthrotum before you had 
recovered from your sea-sickness, in which you say 
— " As far as I see, and hope, you will meet with 
no impediment to your departure." I should have 
liked it better, " as I see," without that " hope." 
I received another, by a very quick passage, at 
Iconium, through the messengers of the public 
renters, dated the day of Lentulus's triumph. In 
this you repeat the same mixture of bitter and 
sweet, telling me first that I shall have no hin- 
drance ; then adding, if it should be otherwise, that 
you will come to me. Your hesitations sting me. 
You see by this what letters I have received. For that 
which you say you gave to Camula, the slave of the 
centurion Hermon, has never reached me. You 
repeatedly told me that you had sent one by 
Lenius's servant. This, which was dated the 22d 
of September, Lenius at length delivered to me at 
Laodicea, upon my arrival there the 11th of Febru- 
ary. Your recommendations I acknowledged to 
Lenius immediately in words, and shall do so in 
deed as long as I stay. The only new subject in 
this letter related to the Cybiratian panthers b . I 
am much obliged to you for answering M. Octavius, 
that you did not believe I meant to send any. In 
future, what you do not know to be certain, you 
may certainly deny. For, my own resolution being 
inflamed by your opinion, I have exceeded every- 
body, as you will find, in forbearance, and also in 
justice, easiness of access, and clemency. There 
is not anything excites so much surprise, as that 
no farthing of expense should have been incurred 
since I obtained the province, either for the state, 
or for any of my people, excepting L. Tullius the 
lieutenant, He, who is otherwise abstemious, yet 
on his journey availed himself of the Julian law. 
It was only once in the day ; not as others had 
done, in all the villages he passed through ; 
besides him nobody received anything even once ; 
this obliges me to except him, when I assert that 
no farthing of expense was incurred. Besides him 

1> It had been usual for the governors of provinces to 
demand wild beasts to be sent up for the shows of their 
friends in Rome. 



nobody received anything. For this pollution I 
am indebted to Q. Titinius. The campaign being 
ended, I gave the command of the winter quarters 
and of Cilicia to my brother Quintus. 1 sent into 
Cyprus, Q. Volusius, the son-in-law of your friend 
Tiberius, a steady man, and besides wonderfully 
abstemious, to remain there a few days, lest the 
few Roman citizens, who carry on business in those 
parts, should think that justice was denied them ; 
for it is illegal to summon the Cypriots out of the 
island. I went myself on the 5th of January from 
Tarsus into Asia (1 ; I cannot tell you with what 
admiration of the cities of Cilicia, and above all of 
the Tarsians. And when I had passed the range 
of the Taurus, a prodigious expectation was raised 
in the districts of Asia under my jurisdiction, which 
in six months of my government had received no 
letter e from me, 'and had seen no guest f . For, 
before me, that time had always been employed in 
a species of traffic, by which the opulent cities gave 
great sums of money to be excused having soldiers 
quartered upon them in the winter. The Cypriots 
gave as much as two hundred Attic talents (nearly 
10,000/.) ; from which island (I speak not hyper- 
bolically, but truly) no money whatever will be 
exacted under my government. In return for 
these benefits, at which they express their astonish- 
ment, I do not permit them to decree any honours 
to me, except in words ; I forbid all statues, tem- 
ples, chariots ; nor am I burdensome to the cities 
in any other way — but perhaps I am to you, while 
I proclaim all this about myself. Bear with me, 
however, if you love me ; forjt is you who desired 
me to do it. In short, I have made my progress 
through Asia in such a manner, that even famine, 
than which nothing is more wretched, and which 
was felt at this time in my part of Asia, owing to 
the entire failure of the crops, might seem a thing 
to be wished for by me§\ Wherever I have been, 
I have employed no force, no legal process, no 
insult ; but have by authority and exhortation, 
prevailed upon those Greeks 11 and Roman citizens, 
who had corn in store, to promise a large supply 
to the people. February the 13th, on which day 
I am writing, I have appointed to hold a session 
at Laodicea for the affairs of Cybira ; the loth of 
March for those of Apamea ; and at the same time 
I mean to hold one for Synnade, Pamphylia, (when 
I shall look out for a horn forPhemius') Lycaonia', 
and Isauria. The middle of May I shall return into 
Cilicia, to spend there the month of June, I hope 
unmolested by the Parthians. If things go as I 



c In the original it is sordes, " filth," which gives a 
propriety to St. Paul's expressions, 1 Cor. iv. 13, where he 
applies to the apostles the terms " filth " and " offscouring ;" 
for they must be supposed to have been familiar to the lan- 
guage of the Romans, at least at that time, however strange 
to our own. It is evident that Cicero here means Tullius, 
and that he so designates him on account of hismisconduct. 

d Certain districts of the country, which lay in the 
province of Asia, but were attached to Cicero's government. 

e Letters demanding supplies. 

f No person who was to live upon them. 

S As it proved an additional subject of glory. 

h By Greeks he means the natives ; so afterwards in 
speaking of the Cypriots. 

' This is mentioned likewise in the preceding letter. 

J I adopt M. Mongault's conjecture, that Aonium, as it 
stands in our copies, ought to be Lyoaonium, that being 
the only one not otherwise mentioned of the m\ Asiatic 
districts attached to Cicero's government. 



686 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



wish, I shall employ July in passing again 
through the province on my return; for I arrived 
within the province at Laodicea, in the consul- 
ship of Sulpicius and Marcellus, the 31st of 
July. I must set out on my departure the 29th of 
July, having first obtained my brother Quintus's 
consent to his being left in command ; which will be 
very much against both his inclination and mine ; but 
it cannot with propriety be avoided ; especially as 
I cannot even now detain that excellent man Pon- 
tinius ; for Posthumius, perhaps also Posthumia, 
snatches him away to Rome. You have here my 
plans. Now hear what relates to Brutus. Brutus 
is well acquainted with certain creditors of the Sala- 
minians of Cyprus, M. Scaptius, and P. Matinius, 
whom he has particularly recommended to me. 
Matinius I do not know. Scaptius came to me in 
the camp. I promised that I would take care, for 
Brutus' sake, that the Salaminians should pay him 
the money that was owing to him. He thanked 
me ; and at the same time asked to be made a 
prefect. I said I made it a rule never to appoint 
anybody engaged in traffic, as I had before told 
you. When Cn. Pompeius asked me, I gave to 
him the same answer ; likewise to Torquatus, on 
his application for M. Lenius, your friend ; and to 
several others. If he wished to be made a prefect 
for the sake of his bond, I would take care he 
should recover it. He thanked me, and took his 
leave. Appius had formerly given a few troops of 
horse to this Scaptius, for the sake of repressing 
the Salaminians ; and had made him a prefect. But 
he harassed the people of Salamis ; and I ordered 
the horse to remove from Cyprus, which Scaptius 
took very ill. However, that I might keep my 
promise to him, when the Salaminians came to me 
at Tarsus, and Scaptius with them, I ordered them 
to pay the money. They said a great deal about 
the bond, and about the ill-usage they had received 
from Scaptius. I said I could not listen to it. I 
exhorted ; I begged, in return for the kindness I 
had shown towards their city, that they would con- 
clude the business ; at last I said I should compel 
them. Upon this they not only did not refuse, 
bat they added, that they would pay then out of 
me. For as I had not accepted what they had been 
used to give to their governors, they in some mea- 
sure gave it from my revenue ; indeed the amount 
of Scaptius's debt was less than the praetorian tri- 
bute. I commended them. Right, says Scaptius, 
but let us reckon up the amount. In the mean 
time, while I had declared in my opening proclama- 
tion, composed from different models k , that I 
should maintain the interest of one per cent, per 
month, together with what accrued at the end of 
the year, he by the terms of his bond demanded 
four per cent. " What do you mean," said I ; " can 
I act contrary to my proclamation ? " He then 
produced a decree of the senate in the consulship 
of Lentulus and Philippus, that whoever obtained 
the province of Cilicia, should pronounce judgment 
according to that bond. I was at first struck with 
horror ; for it would have been the ruin of the city. 
But I find two decrees of the senate in the same 
year respecting this bond. The Salaminians, when 
they were desirous of raising money at Rome, were 
prevented by the Gabinian law. Upon which these 
friends of Brutus, relying upon his influence, 



k See letter 4 of this book. 



offered to advance the money at four percent, per 
month, if it could be authorised by a decree of the 
senate. Through the favour of Brutus, a decree 
was passed, " that no detriment should arise to 
the Salaminians, nor to those who furnished the 
money." They accordingly paid the money. 
But it afterwards occurred to them, that the de- 
cree would be of no use to them, since the Gabi- 
nian law prohibited the establishing a right upon 
the terms of a bond. Thereupon another decree 
of the senate was passed, " that this bond should 
have the same validity as others." But to return : 
while I was explaining this, Scaptius drew me aside, 
saying that he did not mean to oppose my judg- 
ment ; but that they believed they owed him two 
hundred talents (about 10,000/.), and this sum he 
was willing to accept : that they really owed him 
something less ; but he wished me to bring them 
to this agreement. Very well, said I. So I called 
them to me, after Scaptius had retired, and asked 
them what they offered, and what was the amount 
of their debt. They replied, one hundred and six 
talents, (about 5100/.). I reported this to Scap- 
tius. The man began to clamour. " What is the 
use of this ? " said L " Compare your accounts." 
They sat down, and made their computation, which 
agreed to a sixpence. They said they were ready 
to pay it, and pressed him to take it. Here Scap- 
tius again called me aside, and begged that I would 
leave the matter as it stood. I gave way to his 
shameless request ; and when the Greeks com- 
plained, and desired leave to deposit the money in 
some temple 1 , I did not grant it. Everybody pre- 
sent exclaimed that nothing could be more shame- 
less than Scaptius, who was not satisfied with one 
per cent, per month, with the annual compound 
interest ; some said nothing could be more foolish. 
But to me he appeared more impudent than foolish. 
For thus he either satisfied himself with good secu- 
rity at one per cent., or took his chance for four 
per cent, on security which was not good. This is 
the statement of my case ; which must be approved 
by Brutus, or he will no longer deserve our regard. 
It will assuredly be approved by his uncle m ; espe- 
cially as a decree of the senate was lately passed, I 
believe after your departure, on the subject of 
creditors, that one per cent, should constantly be 
taken without compound interest. What differ- 
ence this makes, if I rightly know your fingers", 
you have certainly computed. On this subject, by- 
the-bye, Lucceius complains to me by letter that 
there is great danger lest these decrees should lead, 
by the fault of the senate, to cancelling the old 
accounts. He refers to the mischief, which C. 
Julius formerly occasioned by the procrastination 
of a single day ; the state never was in greater 
jeopardy. But to return to the business : consider 
my case against Brutus ; if this may be called a 
case, where nothing can with honour be said in 
opposition; especially as I have left the whole affair 
open. What I have to say besides, relates to my 
private concerns. On that secret business p I 

1 When the money was deposited in a temple, the interest 
upon it ceased to accumulate. 

m Cato. n On which you may reckon it. 

To what particular transaction this alludes is not 
known ; but the state had repeatedly been convulsed by 
the conduct of usurers. 

P That this relates to his daughter's marriage may be 
inferred from letter 4 of this book. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



687 



quite agree with you. We should think of Posthu- 
mia's son, since Pontidia's seems to be trifling with 
us. But I wish you were there. You must not 
expect to hear anything from my brother Quintus 
at this time of the year ; for the Taurus, on account 
of the snow, is impassable before the month of 
June. 1 continue to refresh q Thermus by frequent 



1 To remind him of your friends, 
book. 



Letter 13 of this 



letters, as you desire. King Deiotarus protests 
that P. Valerius has nothing, and that he supports 
him. As soon as you know whether there is any 
intercalation at Rome, I should be glad if you 
would inform me on what day the mysteries r will 
take place. I am in less expectation of hearing 
from you, than if you were in Rome ; but yet I 
expect it. 

r See note at the conclusion of letter 1 of book vi. 



BOOK VI. 



LETTER I. 

I received your letter at Laodicea on the fifth 
day before the festival of the Terminalia s , and 
read it with the greatest pleasure ; for it was full 
of affection, of kindness, of attention, and diligence. 
To this therefore I will reply, as you desire ; and 
shall not follow my own arrangement, but the order 
which you have adopted. You say that you have 
very recently got my letter from Cybistra, dated 
the 22nd of September ; and you wish to know 
what letters of yours I have received. Almost all 
that you mention, except those which you say you 
sent by Lentulus' servant from Equotuticum and 
Brundisium. So that your pains have not been 
thrown away, as you apprehend ; but have been 
admirably laid out ; provided it was your purpose 
to gratify me : for nothing gives me greater plea- 
sure. I am particularly glad that you approve of 
my reserve towards Appius, and my freedom 
towards Brutus. I had thought it might have 
been otherwise. For Appius had written to me 
two or three letters on his journey, complaining 
that I had rescinded some of his regulations. As 
if, when a patient changes his physician, he that 
was first in attendance should quarrel with his 
successor for deviating from the treatment which 
he had adopted. Just so Appius : having treated 
his province by depletion, having let it-blood, and 
used every sort of evacuation, and delivered it up 
to me quite exhausted, now does not like to see it 
recruited under my care ; but sometimes finds 
fault, while at other times he returns thanks ; for 
I have avoided any personal reflection upon him. 
The dissimilarity alone of my conduct offends him. 
What indeed can be so dissimilar, as that the pro- 
vince, under his government, should have been 
drained with expenses and losses ; and that from 
the time I have held it, there should have been no 
charge of a single penny, either privately or pub- 
licly ? to say nothing of his prefects, his attendants, 
and lieutenants ; his plunderings also, his licen- 
tiousness, and insults : whereas now there is no 
private house managed with such prudence, such 
regularity, such moderation, as the whole of my 
province. This some friends of Appius absurdly 
misrepresent, as if I was studious of applause at 
his expense ; and did my duty not for the sake of 
my own reputation, but of his discredit. But if 
Appius, agreeably to Brutus's letter which I have 

s The Roman custom of dating by the number of days 
previous to any festival is well known. In this instance 
the fifth day before the Terminalia must be about the 
middle of February. 



sent you, expresses his thanks to me, I do not 
trouble myself about it : nevertheless, on the very 
day that 1 am writing before it is light, I think of 
abolishing many of his unjust acts and regulations. 
I come now to Brutus, whose interests I have 
embraced with the greatest warmth, at your 
desire ; and for whom I had begun to entertain 
affection ; but — shall I speak it ? I check myself 
from fear of offending you. Do not, however, 
imagine that I have anything more at heart than 
to do as he directs ; or that there is anything about 
which I have taken more pains. He gave me a 
list of instructions ; and you had already conferred 
with me upon the same subjects ; all of which I 
have prosecuted with the greatest diligence. In 
the first place, I have laboured to make Ariobar- 
zanes pay him the talents he promised to give me. 
As long as the king remained with me, the trans- 
action went on very well : afterwards he began to 
be pressed hard by a multitude of Pompeius 's 
agents : and Pompeius has alone more authority 
than all other people; because, in addition to other 
reasons, it is thought he will come to the Parthian 
war. He is now paid by instalments of thirty-three 
Attic talents (6000/.) every month ; and that is 
scarcely sufficient for the monthly interest. But 
our friend Cnaeus 1 bears this patiently. He is 
without his principal ; and is satisfied with the 
interest, though it is incomplete. Ariobarzanes 
pays nobody else, nor can he pay ; for his treasury 
is exhausted, and he has no revenue. By Appius's 
ordinance, he demands tributes ; but these hardly 
furnish the interest due to Pompeius. The king 
has two or three very rich friends ; but they keep 
what belongs to them with as much care as I or 
you. On my part, however, I do not cease by 
letter, to entreat, to persuade, to upbraid the king. 
Deiotarus has, likewise, told me that he has sent 
messengers to him about Brutus's business ; who 
brought him back word that the king has nothing. 
In truth, I believe nothing can be more plundered 
than that kingdom, nothing more indigent than the 
king : so that I think either of renouncing my 
wardship ; or, like Scsevola in the case of Glabrio, 
of refusing to pay the interest and charges upon 
his debts. However, to M. Scaptius 11 and L. 
Gavius, who managed Brutus's business in the 
kingdom, I have given the prefectures which I 
promised Brutus through you, as they did not 
trade within my province : for you remember my 

1 Pompeius. 

" This M. Scaptius must be a different person from him 
who is afterwards joined with P. Matinius. See letter la 



688 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



conditions, that he should take what prefectures 
he pleased, provided it was not for one engaged in 
traffic. I had, therefore, given him two besides. 
But the persons for whom he had asked had left 
the province. Now let me explain to you the 
affair of the Salaminians v , which I perceive is as 
new to you as it was to me : for I never under- 
stood from Brutus that the money belonged to 
him. Indeed I have his own memorandum, in 
which it is said, " The Salaminians owe money to 
M. Scaptius and P. Matinius, my intimate friends." 
These he recommends to me ; and adds, as a sort 
of spur, that he was himself surety for them to a 
large amount. I had arranged that the Salami- 
nians should repay it at twelve per cent, for six 
years, with an accruing interest at the end of each 
year. But Scaptius demanded forty-eight per 
! cent. I was afraid, if he had obtained this, that 
you would yourself cease to love me. For I should 
have receded from my own proclamation ; and 
should have utterly ruined a city placed under the 
protection of Cato, and of Brutus himself, and 
distinguished by my benefits' 11 '. At this very time 
Scaptius suddenly produces a letter of Brutus, 
saying that the affair was at his own risk ; which 
he had never mentioned either to me or you ; and, 
at the same time, requesting that I would make 
Scaptius a prefect. But 1 had, through you, made 
this exception, that it must not be a person engaged 
in traffic. Or if I did appoint anybody, least of 
all could I appoint him ; because he had been a 
prefect under Appius, and having some troops of 
horse, had actually besieged the senate in their 
house of assembly at Salamis, in consequence of 
which five senators had been starved to death. 
As soon as I received information of this from 
certain Cypriots, who were sent to meet me at 
Ephesus, I wrote the very day I reached the pro- 
vince, to remove the troops out of the island. On 
this account I imagine Scaptius must have written 
unfavourably of me to Brutus. This, however, is 
my feeling upon the subject : if Brutus should 
think that I ought to have awarded the forty-eight 
per cent., after having maintained the interest of 
twelve per cent, through the whole province, and 
declared it in my proclamation, and even had the 
concurrence of the severest usurers ; or if he 
should complain of my refusing a prefecture to 
one engaged in trade, which I have refused to 
Torquatus, in the case of your friend Lenius, and 
to Pompeius himself, in the case of Sex. Statius,' 
and have received their approbation of my conduct; 
or if he should be offended at my withdrawing the 
troops ; I shall be sorry indeed to have incurred 
his displeasure, but much more so to find him a 
different man from what I had supposed. This, 
however, Scaptius must acknowledge, that he was 
enabled to receive all the money according to the 
terms of my decree. I may add, too, what I doubt 
if you will yourself approve : for the interest ought 
to have stood as it was in the decree ; and the 
Salaminians wished accordingly to deposit it x : 
but I prevailed upon them to forbear. They gave 
way to me indeed ; but what is to become of them 
if Paullus should succeed to the province? All 

▼ The same that is detailed book v. letter 21. 

w The island of Cyprus had been taken from the king of 
Egypt, and reduced to the form of a Roman province under 
the direction of Cato and Brutus. 

* See book v. letter 21, note l . 



this I did for Brutus' sake, who has written to 
you very kindly about me : but to me, even when 
he is asking a favour, he writes in a dogmatical, 
haughty, uncivil manner. I wish you would write 
to him upon these matters, that I may know how 
he takes it : for you will inform me. I had indeed 
particularly mentioned this subject to you in a 
former letter? ; but I would have you distinctly 
understand that I had not forgot what you said in 
some of your letters, that if I brought back from 
this province nothing else besides his favour, it 
was sufficient. Be it so, since you desire it : but 
with this condition I presume that I incur no 
guilt. Accordingly I decreed the payment of 
Scaptius's debt without delay. How properly the 
decree was formed I leave you to judge. I shall 
not appeal even to Cato. But do not suppose I 
have thrown aside your exhortations, which are 
imprinted in my bosom. With tears in your eyes 
you commended to me my reputation. What 
letter of yours is there in which you do not advert 
to it ? Let then who will be angry ; I shall be 
content with having right on my side ; especially 
as I have bound myself by six books z , as it were 
so many pledges, with which I am rejoiced to find 
you so well pleased. In these you doubt about 
one historical fact, relating to Cnseus the son of 
M. Flavius. But he did not live before the time 
of the decemviri : for he was curule-aedile ; which 
was an office instituted many years after the 
decemviri. What then was the use of his pub- 
lishing the table of the festivals ? It is supposed 
to have been at some time concealed, with the view 
of making it necessary to consult the few upon the 
proper days for transacting business. And many 
authors assert, that Cn. Flavius the scribe pub- 
lished the list of festivals, and composed the for- 
mularies of legal process ; that you may not 
suppose it to be my invention, or, rather that of 
Africanus, for it is he that speaks. What is said 
about the gesture of a player has not escaped you. 
You entertain a wicked suspicion a ; I wrote it in 
perfect simplicity. You say that you heard of my 
being saluted imperator through Philotimus. But 
I take for granted, since you have been in Epirus, 
you have received from me two letters, with a full 
account of everything ; one from Pindenissus pre- 
sently after its capture, the other from Laodicea, 
bcth delivered to your servants. Upon the same 
subject I sent public despatches to Rome by two 
different messengers, for fear of the accidents of a 
sea voyage. About my daughter Tullia I agree 
with you ; and have written to her, and to Teren- 
tia, to express my concurrence. For you had 
before said — " and I could wish you had gone 
back to your own flock b ." The correction of the 
letter brought by Memmius was a matter of no 
difficulty : for I greatly prefer him from Pontidia c 
to the other from Servilia : therefore you may get 
the assistance of Aufius, who has always been very 
friendly to me ; and now may be expected to be 
still more so, as he ought to succeed to his brother 
Appius's d affection towards me, along with the 

y Book v. letter 21. z De Republics, 

a By supposing it glanced at the action of Hortensius, 
which was thought to be too artificial. 

l> By his own flock, Atticus meant his own equestrian 
rank, from whence to take a husband for his daughter. 

<-• Mentioned before, book v. letter 21. 

d This Appius was not the same Appius Claudius, of 



TO TJTUS POMPON1US ATTICUS. 



689 



rest of his inheritance. He often declared how 
much he esteemed me ; and showed it in the affair 
of Bursa e . You whTrelieve me from a great source 
of anxiety f . I am not pleased with Furnius's 
exception s • for the only time that I dread is the 
one which he excepts. I should write more to 
you upon this subject if you were at Rome. I am 
not surprised that you place all hope of peace in 
Pompeius. So it is : and I think that the charge of 
dissimulation 11 must be removed. If the arrange- 
ment of my letter is confused, you must attribute 
it to yourself; for I follow you in your sudden 
transitions. The young Ciceros are attached to 
each other, and pursue their studies and exercises 
together ; but, as Isocrates said of Ephorus and 
TheopompusS one wants a bridle, the other a spur. 
I mean to present Quintus with his gown J of man- 
hood on the festival of Bacchus (March 18), as 
his father desired. I shall observe the day, on 
the presumption of there being no intercalation. 
I am very much pleased with Dionysius. The 
boys say that he is very passionate ; but there can 
be nobody of more learning, or better morals, or 
more attached to you and me. It is with justice 
that you hear the commendations of Thermus and 
Silius : they conduct themselves most honourably. 
Add also M. Nonius, Bibulus, me, if you will. I 
wish Scrofa had an opportunity of distinguishing 
himself ; for it is a situation of splendour k . The 
others discredit the administration of Cato. I 
am much obliged to you for having recommended 
my cause 1 to Hortensius. Dionysius thinks there 
is no hope about Amianus. I have been able to 
obtain no trace of Terentius. Mseragenes™ must 
certainly be dead. I have passed through his pro- 
perty, on which there was not a living creature 
remaining. I did not know this at the time I 
spoke to your freed-man Democritus. I have 
ordered the Rhosiac 11 vases. But, pray what are 
you thinking of ? In wrought dishes and splendid 
covers you use to entertain me with a dinner of 
herbs : what then can I suppose you will serve up 
in earthenware ? Directions have been given to 
search out a horn for Phemius : it will no doubt 

whom Cicero elsewhere speaks as his predecessor in the 
government of Cilicia. 

e Cicero had formerly arraigned T. Munatius Plancus 
Bursa, on which occasion it is probahle this Appius might 
have shown some civility to him. 

f On the subject of Tullia's marriage. 

S Furnius appears to have proposed a decree to permit 
the governors of Syria and Cilicia to resign their provinces 
at the expiration of their year, except the Parthians should 
advance before the month of July. 

h See book iv. letter 10. 

1 Two writers of history, brought up under Isocrates. 

J See book v. letter 20, note l . 

k This is supposed to allude to some government of 
which Scrofa was desirous, and for which the other candi- 
dates were unfit. The subsequent mention of Cato's ad- 
ministration probably relates to some expression used by 
Atticus on this occasion. 

1 The cause here mentioned must mean his leave to 
return home. 

m This is the person to whom Atticus' slave had fled. 
[See book v. letter 15.] Those mentioned before were pro- 
bably debtors of Atticus. 

n Rhosus was the name of a town on the confines of 
Syria and Cilicia, and might perhaps have been distin- 
guished for its pottery; but I find no mention of it in 
Plinius or elsewhere. 

o This is before mentioned, book v. letter 20. 



be found. I trust he will perform something 
worthy of it. We are threatened with a Parthian 
war. Cassius has sent a foolish letterP. Bibulus's 
has not yet been received ; when it is read, I ima- 
gine the senate will at length be roused. For my 
own part, I am in great perplexity. If, as I hope, 
the term of my service is not extended, I have still 
fears about June and July. Yet, suppose any 
irruption to be made, Bibulus will surely be able 
to hold out for two months. But what will be the 
situation of him whom I leave there ; especially if 
it be my brother ? or what will be my own, if I 
do not take my departure so soon ? This is a great 
difficulty. I have, however, agreed with Deio- 
tarus, that he is to join my camp with all his 
forces. He has thirty cohorts of 400 men each, 
armed in our manner ; and 2000 horse. He will 
support us till Pompeius arrives ; who, by the 
letters I have received from him, gives me to under- 
stand that the business will be left to him. The 
Parthians have taken up their winter quarters in 
the Roman province i. Orodes r himself is ex- 
pected. In short, there is some stir. I have 
made no deviation from Bibulus's proclamation, 
besides that exception about which you wrote to 
me, as containing a reflection upon our order s . I 
have adopted what is equivalent, but more guarded, 
from the Asiatic proclamation of Q. Mucius, son 
to Publius, " that covenants should be performed 
with good faith, excepting when the transaction 
was of such a nature that it could not properly be 
observed.'' I have also followed many parts of 
Scsevola's ; among the rest, that which the Greeks 
consider as the restoration of their freedom ; that, 
in settling their disputes with each other, they 
should use their own laws. The proclamation is a 
short one, because of my having divided it under 
two distinct heads : one of them provincial ; in 
which is contained what relates to the public 
accounts of the cities, to debts, interest of money, 
contracts, likewise all the concerns of the public 
renters : the other embraces what could not con- 
veniently be determined without a proclamation, 
the entering upon inheritances and property, the 
appointment of commissioners and sales of effects ; 
which are usually demanded and executed under a 
decree of the governor. A third head, concerning 
the determination of all other causes, I left un- 
written, professing to regulate my decrees of this 
sort by those of Rome. Thus I endeavour, and 
hitherto succeed in giving general satisfaction. 
The Greeks are delighted with having judges of 
their own nation. Poor ones, you will say. What 
does it signify ? at least they think they have 
obtained their freedom by it. For your people' 
truly have dignified judges in the persons of Turpio 
the cobbler, and Vettius the broker. You wish to 
know what I mean to do with the renters. I make 
much of them, I humour them, I commend them 
in words, and pay them honours ; but take care 
they shall not be vexatious to anybody. What is 
most extraordinary, even Servilius abided by the 
interest of money, as it had been ratified in their 
contracts. But I manage thus : I appoint a day 
at a considerable distance, before which if they 

P Book v. letter 21. 

q Cicero, when he calls it "our province," means not 
his own but a Roman province. 
r The Parthian king. 8 The order of Roman knights. 
* The people of Epirus. 

Y Y 



690 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



pay what is due, I give notice that I shall estimate 
the interest at twelve per cent. ; but if they do not 
pay, then I leave them to their contract. By 
these means both the Greeks pay at a reasonable 
interest, and the renters get an arrangement which 
is very acceptable. Such is the present state of 
things ; they have verbal honour in full measure, 
and frequent invitations. In short, they are all so 
well with me, that everybody thinks himself to be 
the most so. But withal, " there is nothing a " — 
you know the rest. About the statue of Africanus 
(how unconnected the subjects ! but this very cir- 
cumstance delights me in your letter ;) what say 
you ? Does not this Scipio Metellus know that 
his own ancestor was never censor ? Yet on the 
statue, which you had placed in that elevated situa- 
tion in the temple of Ops, there was inscribed 
nothing but " Consul." Likewise on that which 
is in the temple of Pollux there is inscribed 
" Consul:" and, that it was of this same Africa- 
nus, the attitude, the dress, the ring, the likeness 
itself declares : in fact, when in that crowd of gilt 
knights, which this Metellus placed in the capitol, 
J observed the statue of Africanus with the inscrip- 
tion of Serapion, I supposed it to be an error of 
the workman ; but now I see it was Metellus' s. 
What a disgraceful ignorance ! Respecting Fla- 
vius, and the festivals, if it is a mistake, at least 
it is a general one ; and you have very properly 
doubted ; and I was near following the common 
opinion ; as is done in many of the circumstances 
related by the Greek historians. For who has not 
asserted that the Eupolis of the ancient comedy 
was thrown into the sea by Alcibiades as«he was 
sailing to Sicily ? Yet Eratosthenes has confuted 
it, by adducing plays which he wrote after that 
time. But is Duris of Samos, therefore, an histo- 
rian of great research, to be reviled because he has 
made the same mistake as many others ? Who 
has not said that Zaleucus composed laws for the 
Locrians ? And is Theophrastus then to be scorned, 
because the circumstance is contradicted by your 
favourite Timseus ? But not to know that his 
own ancestor had not been censor, is disgraceful : 
especially as, during the remainder of his life after 
his consulship, no Cornelius whatever had been 
censor. As to what you say of Philotimus, and 
the payment of the 20,600 sestertii (165/.), I un- 
derstand that Philotimus came to the Chersone- 
sus v about the beginning of January; but I have 
yet received nothing from him. Camillus sends 
me word that he has received the residue which 
belonged to me ; what that is I know not, and 
should be glad to know. But of these matters 
hereafter. Perhaps they can best be settled when 
we meet. One thing, my Atticus, towards the 
conclusion of your letter disturbed me : for you 
write thus — " What more ? " Then you go on to 
entreat me in the most friendly manner, " not to 
relax in my vigilance, and to take care what is 
done." Have you then heard anything wrong 
of anybody ? Though assuredly there is nothing 
of the kind ; far from it. For it would not have 
escaped me, nor will it. Yet that admonition of 
yours, so particular, seems to indicate something. 



u 'In the original there are only two (i rock words, the 
beginning of some sentence familiar to Atticus. but not 
known at this time ; of course the sense is matter of con- 
jecture, in which state I have thought it best to leave it. 

v To collect debts. See book vi. letter 5. 



Respecting M. Octavius, I now reply to you a 
second time, that you have given him w a very 
proper answer. I wish you had done it a little 
more confidently. For Cselius sent his freed-man 
to me with a very civil letter ; but spake of the 
panthers, and of the cities x , most foully. I wrote 
word back that, in the first place, I was sorry 
I should be so little known in this obscurity, as to 
have it yet unheard in Rome that no expenses 
were imposed upon the people of my province, but 
for the payment of debts : and I informed him 
that it was neither lawful for me to procure the 
money he wanted, nor for him to receive it : and I 
admonished him, whom I really love, that having 
been himself the accuser of others ?, he should 
conduct himself more cautiously. In the next 
place, I gave him to understand that it was incon- 
sistent with my honour, to make the Cybiritans 
have a public hunting by my command. Lepta is 
in raptures with your letter ; for it is beautifully 
written, and has put me in high favour with him. 
I am much obliged to your daughter for having 
expressly desired you to send me her good wishes : 
I am obliged to Pilia also : but the former has been 
more forward in her kindness, by greeting me, 
whom she has yet never seen. Do you, therefore, 
in return make my compliments to both of them. 
A passage of your letter dated the 31st of Decem- 
ber contained a grateful recollection of the cele- 
brated oath 2 , which I had not forgotten: for on 
that day I was great in my robe of honour. You 
have my reply to all the subjects of your letters ; 
not, as you ask me, gold for brass a ; but like for 
like. But there is another little letter, which I 
must not leave unanswered. Lucceius might 
indeed very well give up his Tusculanum b ; unless, 
perhaps, that he likes to retire there with his 
piper. I should be glad to know what is the real 
state of bis affairs. I hear, too, that our friend 
Lentulus has offered for sale his Tusculanum on 
account of his debts. I wish to see them both 
free ; and likewise Sestius, and add, if you please, 
Cselius : to all of whom may be applied that verse 
of Homer, " They were ashamed to refuse, and 
afraid to accept ." I imagine you have heard of 
Curio's intention of proposing the recall of Mem- 
mius. About the security of Egnatius Sidicinus d , 
I have yet some hope, though not much. Pina- 
rius, whom you commend to me, is very unwell ; 
but Deiotarus takes great care of him in his sick- 
ness. I have now replied also to your little letter. 
I hope you will let. me frequently hear from you 



w Book v. letter 21 . 

x Wanting Cicero to use his authority for Curio's service, 
by demanding panthers and levying contributions from 
certain towns in his province. 

y It was he who had accused C. Antonius of corruption. 

z When upon resigning the consulship on the 31st of 
December, Cicero having been invidiously forbid to ha- 
rangue the people, adroitly altered the usual oath, and 
instead of swearing that he had faithfully discharged his 
duty, he swore that the republic and city of Home had 
been saved by his means. 

» Alluding to Diomed's exchanging his brazen armour 
for Glaucus's of gold, mentioned In Homer. 

1> I suspect Cicero may have used the word Tusculanum 
only in reference to his own villa of that name. 

c The application is a little uncertain, but is generally 
supposed to signify, that these persons were ashamed of 
refusing the offers held out to them by Cassar in their 
necessities, yet afraid of accepting them. 

d Probably some creditor of Cicero. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



691 



while I remain at Laodicea, that is, till the 1 5th of 
May ; and when you come to Athens (for by that 
time we shall know about the city business, and 
about the provinces, which are all deferred to the 
month of March), send me a special messenger. 
But is it true that you have, through Herodes, 
already got from Caesar fifty Attic talents (9000/.) ? 
by which, as I hear, you have greatly incurred the 
displeasure of Pompeius ; for he thinks you have 
devoured what belonged to him ; and that Caesar 
will become the more active in building at the 
Grove e . I heard this from P. Vedius, a great 
prodigal, but well acquainted with Pompeius. 
This Vedius met me with two light carriages, and 
a larger one suitably equipped, and a litter, and a 
great retinue ; for which, if Curio's law should 
have passed f , he will be obliged to pay a hundred 
sestertia (800/.). He had besides a dog-headed 
monkey in the carriage, and some wild asses. I 
never saw a more extravagant fellow. But hear 
the conclusion. He lodged at Laodicea with Pom- 
peius Vindullus, and there he left his equipage 
when he came to me. Presently Vindullus dies, 
which event it is thought will concern Pompeius 
Magnus?. C. Vennonius comes to Vindullus' s 
house ; and as he was sealing the effects, he lights 
upon the things belonging to Vedius. Among 
these were found five lagunculae h of married women, 
one of the sister of a friend of yours, a brutish 1 
man, who associates with him, and wife of that 
merry Lepidus, who bears these things so care- 
lessly. I wished to send you this history by-the- 
bye ; for we are both of us very curious. There is 
one thing besides I would have you consider. I 
am told that Appius is erecting a portico at 
Eleusis. Should I be foolish, if I were to erect 
one at the Academy J ? I think so, you will say. 
Then you must give it me in writing. I am very 
fond of Athens, and should like to leave some 
memorial, while I hate false inscriptions on other 
persons' statues. But as it shall please you. You 
will also inform me on what day the Roman mys- 
teries fall k ; and how you pass the winter. Take 
care of your health. The seven hundred and sixty- 
fifth day after the battle of Leuctra 1 . 

e Caesar built a splendid house at Aricium, by the sacred 
grove of Diana. f A sumptuary law. 

S From the name of Pompeius prefixed to Vindullus, it 
appears probable that the latter might be a freed-man of 
Pompeius ; in which case, if he died intestate and without 
children, Pompeius would succeed to one half of his 
property. 

h I have left the Latin word as it stands in Grarvius's 
edition, without attempting to suggest either an alteration 
or explanation. Whatever be its proper signification, 
whether an image, as some have supposed, or some article 
of female use, it seems at least to have contained an im- 
press or name, by which its owner might be known. 

i A joking expression for Brutus, admissible only in 
such joking relations. The word Lepidvs is afterwards 
introduced in a similar manner. 

J The Academy at Athens, the original seat of that 
system of philosophy which Cicero followed. 

k It was before observed, that previously to Caesar's 
correction of the calendar, the year was regulated by the 
intercalation of more or fewer days between the 2,'M and 
24th of February, at the discretion of the pontifices ; and 
till this was proclaimed, the time of the subsequent festi- 
vals was not known. 

1 That is, after the memorable affray in which Clodius 
was killed, and which Cicero humorously compares to the 
battle of Leuctra, famous in Grecian history. 



LETTER II. 

Your freed-man, Philogenes, having called to 
pay his respects to me at Laodicea, saying that he 
was going to cross the sea to you immediately, I 
send this letter by him in answer to that which I 
received through Brutus 's courier ; and I shall 
reply first to your last page, which has given me 
great uneasiness, owing to what Cincius has writ- 
ten about Statius's conversation, in which it is very 
vexatious that Statius should say I approved that 
design m . I approve it ! Upon this subject, I have 
only to say, that it is my wish to have as many 
bonds of connexion with you as possible, — though 
the strongest of all are still those of affection ; so 
far am I from wishing to loosen any of those by 
which we are united. But that he n is apt to speak 
too harshly about these matters I have often expe- 
rienced, and have often appeased his anger, as I 
believe you know. And in this excursion or 
campaign of mine, I have repeatedly seen him in- 
flamed with rage and calmed again. What he may 
have written to Statius, I know not. But, what- 
ever he meant to do in an affair of that kind, at 
least he ought not to have detailed it to his freed- 
man. I will, however, use my utmost endeavours 
that nothing may be done contrary to our wishes, 
and to his duty ; for it is not enough in such a 
case, for every one merely to attend to his own 
conduct. The boy, or now the young man, Cicero °, 
has especially his part in this duty ; of which, 
indeed, I often remind him : and he seems to me 
to bear great affection, as he ought, towards his 
mother, and remarkably so towards you. He is a 
boy of good parts, but unsteady ; in regulating 
which I have enough to do. Having now in my 
first page answered your last, I shall return to the 
beginning of your letter. In applying the term 
maritime r 1 to all the cities of the Peloponnesus, I 
have followed the synopsis of Dicaearchus, no in- 
considerable author, but one approved even by your 
judgment. In relating Chserons q account of Ti o- 
phonius's cave, he finds great fault with the Greeks 
for having so adhered to the sea-coast, and does not 
accept any place in the Peloponnesus. Though I 
was pleased with the author, (for he was well 
versed in history, and hadlived in the Peloponnesus,) 
yet I was surprised ; and communicated my doubts 
to Dionysius. He was at first struck with it ; but 
having as good an opinion of Dicaearchus, as you 
can have of C. Vestorius, or I of M. Cluvius, he 
thought I might safely trust him. He reckoned 
a certain place called Leprion to be a maritime town 
of Arcadia ; and considered Tene and Aliphera 
and Tritia as recently built, which he confirmed by 
Homer's catalogue of the ships, in which there is 
no mention made of them. And I transcribed 
that passage from Dicaearchus in so many words. 
I knew that the Phliasians were so called ; and 
would have you put it in your copy : I have it so. 
But at first I was misled by analogy ; Phlius, Opus, 
Sipus, from whence are derived Opuntii, Sipuntii ; 

m Quintus having thought of getting divorced from 
Pomponia, Atticus' sister. 

n Quintus. ° Quintus' son. 

P This alludes to some observations of Atticus upon 
Cicero's treatise " De Republioa.*' 

q Chseron seems to bare been one of the speakers intro- 
duced in a work of Dicsearohus, upon the descent into 
Trophonius's cave. 

YY2 



692 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



but I presently corrected it. I understand you are 
pleased with my moderation and forbearance. You 
would be more so if you were here. In this court, 
which I hold at Laodicea from the middle of 
February to the end of April for all the departments 
except Cilicia, I have been able to effect wonders ; 
so many cities have been set free from all debt, so 
many greatly relieved, and all, by being allowed to 
use their own laws and judicature, have revived as 
if they had gained their freedom. There are two 
ways by which I have enabled them to discharge, 
or at least to diminish, their debts. One, by putting 
them to no expense within my government : when 
I say none, I am not speaking hyperbolically, but 
mean literally none, not a farthing. From this 
alone it is incredible how the cities have been 
relieved. Another was, that there were surprising 
impositions practised by the Greeks themselves, in 
the persons of their magistrates. I instituted an 
inquiry myself, respecting those who had held 
magistracies within the last ten years, and they 
openly confessed. Therefore, without any public 
disgrace, they were left to restore to the people 
their money. And the people, who in this present 
lustrum r had paid nothing, have without murmur- 
ing discharged even what was due of the lustrum 
preceding. So that I am in favour with the rent- 
ers ; a grateful set of people, you will say. I am 
sensible of it. The rest of my administration has 
been mild and courteous, and not inconsiderate. 
The access to me has been by no means such as is 
usual in the provincial governments. There has 
been no intriguing with the chamberlain. I am up 
and walking before it is light, as I used to do when 
I was a candidate. This is great, and well received ; 
and is not laborious to me, from the habit of 
that ancient service. On the 7th of May I think of 
going into Cilicia ; and after spending the month of 
June there (I wish it may be in peace, for we are 
threatened with a great war from the Parthians,) 
to employ July on my return. For my year of 
office expires the 30th of July, and I am in great 
hope that no extension of the time will be made. I 
have the city registers to the 7th of March, by 
which I find that, by the perseverance of my friend 
Curio, everything is likely to be passed rather than 
the business of the provinces 8 . I hope, therefore, 
that I shall very soon see you. I come now to your 
friend, nay, my friend Brutus, for so you will have 
it. I have done everything that I could do in my 
province, or that I could attempt in the kingdom*. 
I have exerted myself with the king in every way, 
and continue to do so daily by letter. For I had 
him three or four days with me in a disturbed 
state of his affairs, from which I have extricated 
him. And both personally, and afterwards by 
reiterated letters, I have not ceased to beg and 
entreat him for my sake, and to advise and per- 
suade him for his own. I have been able to do a 
good deal; but how much I do not exactly know, 
owing to my great distance from him. The Sala- 
minians, however, (for these I could force,) I have 
brought to express their readiness to pay the whole 



r The censors were chosen every five years, which inter- 
val was called a lustrum. The revenues of the republic 
were let by the censors for this space of time. 

b If no new regulation were made, Cicero's government 
would of course terminate with the <ycar for which he 
was appointed. 

t The kingdom of Ariobarzanes, in Cappadocia. 



account to Scaptius, on condition of paying inter- 
est at twelve per cent, reckoned from the last con- 
tract, and not merely twelve per cent, throughout, 
but with the interest added to the principal at the 
end of each year. The money was paid down ; but 
Scaptius refused to take it. And do you say then 
that Brutus is content to sustain some loss ? It 
was forty-eight per cent, in the contract. The 
thing was impossible ; nor if it had been possible 
could I have suffered it. I hear now that Scaptius 
repents. For what he affirmed to be by a decree 
of the senate, that the contract should be good in 
law, was done from this consideration, that the 
Salaminians had raised money contrary to the 
Gabinian law. For the law of Aulus Gabinius for- 
bids the cognizance of such bonds. The senate 
therefore decreed, that the bond should be cogniz- 
able. It consequently possesses just the same 
authority as others, and nothing more. This state- 
ment of what has passed, I think Brutus himself 
must approve. How you u may approve it I can- 
not say ; Cato certainly will. But to return to you ; 
can you, my Atticus, who praise so highly my in- 
tegrity and politeness, can you from your own 
mouth, as Ennius says, ask me to send troops to 
Scaptius, for the purpose of extortion ? Would 
you if you were with me, who sometimes say that 
you are vexed at not being so, would you suffer me 
to do it if I wished it? " Not more," you say, 
" than fifty men." There were at first not so 
many with Spartacus v . And what mischief would 
they not have done in so exposed an island ? But 
would they not have done it ? Nay, what did they 
not do before my arrival ? They kept the senate of 
the Salaminians shut up in their meeting-room so 
many days, that some of them perished with 
hunger. For Scaptius was a prefect under Appius, 
and had some troops from him. Do you then, 
whose image is presented to my mind as often as I 
think of anything honourable and praiseworthy, — 
do you, I say, ask me to make Scaptius a prefect? 
I had formerly made a resolution to appoint nobody 
engaged in traffic, and Brutus approved of it. 
Should he have cavalry ? why rather than infantry? 
Scaptius I suppose is grown prodigal of his money. 
The principal people you say wish it. I know how 
much they wish it : for they came as far as Ephe- 
sus to meet me, and with tears related the infamous 
conduct of the cavalry, and their own miseries. In 
consequence, I immediately despatched letters to 
have the troops removed from Cyprus before a cer- 
tain day ; and for this, among other reasons, the 
Salaminians applaud me to the skies in their 
decrees. But what need of troops now ? For the 
Salaminians already pay, — unless indeed I wished 
to compel them by force of arms to reckon the in- 
terest at forty-eight per cent. And if I were to do 
such a thing, should I ever dare to read or look 
into those books w which you commend ? In this 
business, my sweet Atticus, you have shown too 
much, yes, too much regard to Brutus : I fear I 
may have shown too little. I have acknowledged, in 
a letter to Brutus, that you mentioned these par- 
ticulars to me. Now let me turn to something 
else. I shall here do all I can for Appius x , con- 

u This appears to be said in joke. 

v Spartacus had been the leader of a formidable rebellion 
of the Roman slaves. w His treatise on Government. 

x He had been accused of peculation in the government 
of Cilicia, in which he had been Cicero's predecessor. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



G93 



sistently however with my honour, but most readily ; 
for I bear him no ill-will, and have a great regard 
to Brutus y, and Pompeius wonderfully presses it, 
whom in truth I love more and more every day. 
You have heard that C. Caelius is coming hither 
as quaestor. I do not know how it is but that 
Pammenian business does not please me z . I hope 
to be at Athens in the month of September. I 
should be glad to know the times of your move- 
ments. I was acquainted with the simplicity of 
Sempronius Rufus, by your letter from Corcyra. 
What think you ? I envy the superiority of Vesto- 
rius a . I should like still to prattle on, but the day 
breaks : the throng increases ; and Philogenes is 
hastening to depart. I must therefore bid you 
farewell, and beg that you will make my compli- 
ments to Pilia and to our little Caecilia, when you 
write. My son Cicero sends his kind regards. 



LETTER III. 

Though I have no news to tell you of anything 
that has happened since I wrote to you by your 
freed-man Philogenes, yet as I am going to send 
Philotimus to Rome, I will not let him go without 
a few lines to you ; and first, what particularly 
concerns me, (not that you can at all help me, for 
the business does not admit of delay, and you are 
a long way off, and, as it is said, " the wind rolls 
many waves of the wide sea between us",) the day 
as you see creeps on ; for I leave the province the 
30th of July, and there is yet no successor ap- 
pointed. Whom shall I leave to take the command 
of the province ? Reason and general expectation 
call for my brother ; in the first place, because 
it is esteemed an honour, and therefore nobody is 
more proper ; in the next place, because he is the 
only person I have of praetorian rank. For Ponti- 
nius by the terms of his agreement, (having come 
out upon that condition,) has already left me. No- 
body thinks my quaestor b of sufficient dignity, — 
for he is volatile, licentious, and touchy. But 
with regard to my brother, the first consideration 
is, that I imagine he would not easily be prevailed 
upon, for he dislikes the province, and in truth 
nothing can be more disagreeable or more trouble- 
some. Then, supposing he should not choose to 
refuse me, what ought I to do ? For, at a time 
when there is thought to be a great war in Syria, 
and that likely to force its way into this province, 
while there is here no defence, and supplies voted 
only for the year that is expiring, — what affection 
does it argue to leave my brother ? or what atten- 
tion to my duty to leave a mere trifler ? You see, 
therefore, under what difficulties I labour, and how 
much I stand in need of advice. In short, I did 
not wish to have anything to do with this whole 
business c . How much preferable is your province" 1 ! 
You can leave it when you please, (unless perhaps 
you may have left it already, ) and you may appoint 
over Thesprotia and e Chaonia whomsoever you 

y Appiuswas a relation and friend of Brutus. 
* See the conclusion of the 20th letter of the fifth book, 
a Book v. letter 2. 

b Mescinius. See letter 4 of this hook, 
c Compare this sentence, which is rather obscure, with 
" O rem totam odiosam ! " See letter 4 of this book, 
d Atticus's own estate in Epirus. 
e Districts of Epirus, in the vicinity of Buthrotum. 



think fit. However, I have not yet seen Quintus, 
to know whether, if I wished it, he could be brought 
to agree to it ; nor, if he could, am I sure what 
I should wish. So much then for this. The 
rest is hitherto full of praise and thanks, and not 
unworthy of those books which you are pleased to 
commend. Cities have been preserved ; the rent- 
ers have been abundantly satisfied ; nobody has 
been hurt by any insult, very few by the severe 
justice of my decrees, and nobody so that he dare 
complain. Deeds have been accomplished that 
would justify a triumph ; about which I shall do 
nothing in a hurry, and nothing at all without your 
advice. The only difficulty is in delivering up the 
province ; and this some god must determine. 
Respecting the affairs of the city, you know more 
than I ; you have more frequent and more certain 
intelligence. Indeed I am concerned that I should 
not myself have received information from your let- 
ters, for there were unpleasant reports here about 
Curio and Paullus f . Not that I apprehend any 
danger while Pompeius stands or even sits? by us; 
let him but have his health. But yet I lament the 
condition of Curio and Paullus, with whom I am 
well acquainted. If therefore you are now in Rome, 
or whenever you are there, I should wish you to 
send me a sketch of the whole state, which may 
meet me, and by which I may fashion myself, and 
consider beforehand in what disposition of mind I 
should approach the city. For it is something not 
to be quite a stranger and uninformed upon my 
arrival. I had almost forgot to add, that for your 
friend Brutus' sake, as I have repeatedly written 
to you, I have done everything I could. The Cy- 
priots paid down the money, but Scaptius was not 
satisfied with the interest of twelve per cent, accu- 
mulating at the end of each year. Pompeius has 
not been able to get more from Ariobarzanes 
through his own influence, than Brutus has got 
through mine, though it was impossible for me to 
ensure him. For the king was very poor ; and I 
was so far off that I could only act by letters, with 
which I have not ceased to press him. The result 
is, that in proportion to the amount, Brutus comes 
off better than Pompeius : for about one hundred 
talents (20,000/.) have been procured for Brutus in 
the course of the year ; and in six months two 
hundred (40,000/.) have been promised to Pom- 
peius. But in the affair of Appius, it can hardly 
be told what consideration I have had for Brutus. 
Why then should I vex myself ? His friends are 
mere trifles, Matinius, and Scaptius ; who because 
he could not get from me a troop of horse to harass 
the Cypriots, as he had done before, is perhaps 
angry ; or because he is not a prefect, which I have 
granted to nobody engaged in traffic ; not to C. 
Vennonius, my own familiar acquaintance ; nor to 
yours, M. Lenius. This I told you in Rome that 
I meant to observe ; and I have persevered in it. 
But what reason can he have to complain, who 
refused to take the money when it was offered him? 
The other Scaptius who was in Cappadocia is, 1 
imagine, satisfied. Upon receiving from me the 
appointment of tribune, which 1 offered him at the 
request of Brutus, he afterwards wrote to me to say 
that he did not wish to accept it. There is a per- 
son by the name of Gavius, whom I also made 



t They had been bought over by Caesar at a great price. 
e Sits idle and inactive. 



694 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



prefect by Brutus's desire ; but he thought fit to 
say and to do many things against me, mixed with 
abuse, — a very spaniel of P. Clodius. This fellow 
neither escorted me on my way to Apamea ; nor 
afterwards, when he had come to the camp and was 
returning again, did he ask if I had any commands ; 
and he was, I know not why, manifestly unfriendly. 
If I had employed such a man as prefect, what 
would you think of me? I, who as you know 
could never bear the insolence of the most power- 
ful men, should I bear it in this hireling ? though 
it is something more than bearing it, to bestow a 
place of emolument and honour. This Gavius 
then, seeing me lately at Apamea on his way to 
Rome, addressed me thus : (I should hardly ven- 
ture to address Culleolus h in such a manner:) 
" Whence," says he, " am I to get my allowances 
as prefect ?" I replied, with more gentleness than 
those who were present thought I ought to have 
done, " that I was not used to give allowances to 
those whose services were not wanted." He went 
away in a passion. If Brutus can be moved with 
the anger of such a worthless fellow, you may love 
him by yourself, I shall not be your rival. But I 
think Brutus will show himself to be what he 
ought. I wished however that you might be ac- 
quainted with the real state of the case ; and I have 
sent an exact account of it to Brutus himself. Be- 
tween ourselves, Brutus positively sends me no let- 
ters, not even lately about Appius, in which there 
is not something haughty and unfriendly. It is a 
saying often in your mouth, that " Granius did not 
undervalue himself, and hated proud kings 1 ;" in 
which however he rather excites my smile than my 
anger ; but he is in truth too regardless of what he 
writes or to whom. Q. Cicero the son has I sup- 
pose, nay, certainly, read the letter addressed to 
his father. For he is in the habit of opening them, 
and that by my advice, in case there should be any- 
thing of importance to be known. In that letter 
was the same notice about your sister which you 
mentioned to me. I saw the young man wonder- 
fully moved, and he uttered his grief to me in tears. 
In short, I observed a great degree of filial affec- 
tion, of sweetness, and kindness ; from which I 
entertain the greater hope that nothing will be done 
hastily K This I wished you to be acquainted 
with. I am sorry to add that young Hortensius 
has been conducting himself in a very unbecoming 
and disgraceful manner at the exhibition of gladia- 
tors at Laodicea. I invited him to dinner for his 
father's sake the day he arrived ; and for the same 
father's sake I have done nothing more k . He 
told me that he should wait for me at Athens, that 
we might return home together. " Very well," 
said I ; for what could I say ? In fact I imagine 
what he said is nothing at all. I should certainly 
be sorry from fear of offending the father, for whom 
I have a great regard. If he should go with me, I 
will so manage him as not to give offence where 
I should be very sorry to do it. I have nothing 



h By Culleolus it is evident that Cicero means some low 
person, hut whom it is not known. 
' i The original is taken from Ennius. I apprehend it 
to have been familiarly applied to Brutus by his friend 
Atticus. 

J This no doubt refers to the report of Quintus's divorce, 
mentioned in letter 2 of this book. 

k Hortensius had quarrelled with his son, who seems to 
have been an ill-conditioned young man. 



more to say, but that I should be glad if you would 
send me Q. Celer's speech against M. Servilius. 
Let me hear from you soon. If there is no news, 
at least let me hear by your messenger that there 
is none. My regards to Pilia and your daughter. 
Farewell. 



LETTER IV. 

I arrived at Tarsus the 5th of June, where I 
met with several things which gave me uneasiness. 
There is a great war in Syria, great depredations 
in Cilicia, and any plan of administration is ren- 
dered difficult by reason of the short time that 
remains of my yearly office. But above all, my 
greatest difficulty is, that I am obliged by the de- 
cree of the senate to leave somebody in charge of 
the government. Nothing could be more unfit than 
the quasstor Mescinius 1 ; and of Caelius m I yet hear 
nothing. It seems most proper to leave my bro- 
ther with the command ; but in this there are some 
unpleasant circumstances, such as my own depar- 
ture, the danger of a war, the irregularities of the 
soldiers, and six hundred things besides. How 
hateful is the whole business ! But this I must 
leave to fortune, since there is little opportunity for 
the exercise of prudence. When you are come 
safely, as I hope, to Rome, you will with your 
accustomed kindness see about everything which 
you think concerns me; and, in the first place, 
about my dear Tullia, respecting whose establish- 
ment I have written my opinion to Terentia, while 
you were in Greece. The next thing to be consi- 
dered is my honour. For in your absence I fear 
there has hardly been sufficient attention paid in 
the senate to my letters. I shall besides write a 
few words to you more mysteriously, which your 
sagacity will be able to unravel. My wife's freed- 
man (you know whom I mean 11 ) has seemed to 
me lately, by what he has incautiously let out, to 
have confused the calculations arising from the sale 
of the goods of the Crotonian tyrannicide °. And 
I fear — Do you understand me ? Looking then 
yourself alone into this, secure the residueP. I 
cannot write all that I fear. Contrive that your 
letters may fly to meet me. I have written this 
hastily on my journey, and surrounded by troops. 
You will make my compliments to Pilia, and to the 
pretty little Cseciliai. 

1 His character is given in letter 3 of this book. The 
quaestors were not usually appointed by the commanders. 

"» See letter 2 of this book. 

n Philotimus. See book v. letter 8. 

Milo, of the same name as a celebrated prize-fighter 
of Crotona. The addition of tyrannicide, it is almost 
needless to add, relates to his having killed Clodius. 

p It seems probable that Cicero's fears might arise from 
some suspicion of his wife's having availed herself of her 
authority over her freed-man Philotimus to appropriate to 
her use part of the money obtained from the sale of Milo's 
goods. [See book v. letter 8 ; book xi. letters 16 and 22 ; and 
book xi. letter 2, note v .] She appears to have been an 
improvident woman, and to have involved Cicero in debts. 
[Life of Cicero, p. 195.] What I have rendered " secure 
the residue," I suppose to allude to what is said in letter 1 
of this book, towards the end — " Camillus sends me word 
that he has received the residue." The same thing is 
repeated in letter 5 of this book. " See after the residue." 

q Atticus's daughter, called also Attica. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



695 



LETTER V. 
By this time I presume you are in Rome, where, 
if it is so, I congratulate you upon your safe 
arrival. As long as you were away, you seemed to 
be further from me than if you were at home, for 
I was more a stranger to the state, both of the 
public affairs, and of my own. Therefore, although 
I hope that T shall already have made some pro- 
gress on my way by the time you read this, yet I 
should wish you to let me hear frequently from 
you, with every particular, upon all subjects ; espe- 
cially upon what I before mentioned to you, that 
my wife's freed-man has appeared to me, by his 
frequent hesitation and shuffling, in different meet- 
ings and conversations, to have admitted some 
incorrectness into his computation of the Croto- 
nian's property. Be so good as to inquire into this 
with your usual kindness, but especially this : 
" From the walls of the city on the seven hills he 
delivered to Camillus r an account of debts to the 
amount of 24 and 48 minee (76/. and 153/.) ; that 
he owed 24 minse from the Crotonian property ; 
and from that of the Chersonesus s 48 minse ; and 
having entered upon a succession of 1280 minse 
(4096/.), he had not paid a farthing, though the 
whole was due the first of February : his own freed- 
man, a namesake of Conon's father', had been 
wholly inattentive. '' In the first place, therefore, 
take care that the principal may be all secured ; 
then, that the interest from the fore -mentioned day 
may not be overlooked. I had great fears whilst I 
suffered him to be here ; for he came to make ob- 
servations, not without some hopes. But failing in 
this, he went away abruptly, saying, " I give up ;" 
at the same time quotiDg a verse of Homer, that it 
is discreditable to remain long and return empty u . 
And he reproached me with the old saying, " What 
is given," &c v . See after the residue w ; and as far 
as possible let me clearly understand it. Though 
I have now almost served my yearly term, for there 
are only thirty-three days remaining, yet I am 
greatly harassed by the anxious state of the pro- 
vince. For while Syria is blazing with arms, and 
Bibulus in the midst of his sad affliction* sustains 
the chief burden of the war ; and his lieutenants, 
and quaestor, and friends, are sending to me to come 
to their assistance ; though my army is but weak, yet, 
having good auxiliaries of the Galatians, Pisidians, 
and Lydians, which constitute its strength, I have 
thought it my duty to keep Them as near as possible 
to the enemy, so long as the decree of the senate 
authorises me to preside over the province. But, 
what gives me great satisfaction, Bibulus is not 
importunate with me, but rather writes to inform 
me of everything. In the mean time the day of my 
departure creeps on unobserved. As soon as it 

r Pee book vi. letter 1, towards the end. 

s In the same place it is said that Philotimus went to 
the Chersonesus the beginning of January. 

1 Timotheus. Not only freed-men, but even slaves had 
their peculiares, or vicarii. 

u I have inserted a translation of the conclusion of this 
verse of Homer, without which the English would be unin- 
telligible, though it was familiar to Atticus. 

v " What is given must satisfy us." 

w That is, the balance of his accounts mentioned in the 
preceding letter, and probably alluding to the money 
received by Camillus over and above what Philotimus 
kept in his own possession. See letter 1, book vi 

x Bibulus had recently lost two sons by treachery. 



arrives, it will be another question whom I shall 
leave in the command ; unless Caldus Caelius, the 
new quaestor, should be come, of whom I have yet 
heard nothing certain. I intended to have written 
a longer letter, but I have nothing more to say, 
and am too full of care to trifle and joke. Farewell, 
therefore, aud make my compliments to the dear 
little Attica, and to my friend Pilia. 



LETTER Vl.y 

(Grcev. vii.) 
Young Quintus has, with all duty, reconciled 
the mind of his father to your sister. It is true 
that I encouraged him, but when he was already in 
his course. Your letter, too, was a great incite- 
ment. In short, I trust the affair will terminate as 
we wish. I have already written to you two letters 
about my private concerns, if only they have been 
delivered. They were in Greek, and in purposed 
ambiguity. But there is no occasion to do any- 
thing, besides simply asking about Milo's account, 
and exhorting him to use despatch as he promised 
me : you may thus be of some service. I have 
desired the quaestor Mescinius to wait at Laodicea, 
that I may get the accounts made out agreeably to 
the Julian law, and left in two of the provincial 
cities. I design to go to Rhodes for the sake of 
the boys, and thence as soon as possible to Athens, 
though the winds are very much against us ; but I 
want to reach home during the year of the present 
magistrates, whose good- will I have experienced in 
the decree for a supplication 7 -. But let me hear 
from you on my way, whether you think I ought 
to take more time, out of respect to the republic. 
I should have written by Tiro, but have left him 
very ill at Issus. They send me word, however, 
that he is better ; but I am much concerned for 
him. For nothing can be more modest, or more 
attentive, than that young man. 



LETTER VII. 

(Grcev. vi.) 
Whilst in everything I support Appius's ho- 
nour in the province, I am on a sudden become 
father-in-law to his accuser 3 . "May it turn out 
happily ! " you say. I hope it may, and I am sure 
that you wish it. But, believe me, I thought of 
nothing less, and had sent some confidential per- 
sons to the ladies about Tiberius Nero, who had 
applied to me on the subject. When they came to 
Rome the contract was already made. I hope this 
may be a more desirable party. I understand the 
ladies are exceedingly delighted with the young 
man's courtesy and complaisance. You must not 
try to pick out defects. But how is this ? Do you 
distribute bread to the populace at Athens? Do 
you think this right? Though my treatise b does 

y See the following letter, note d . 

z A public thanksgiving, which used to be voted upon 
any signal success, and which might lead to his obtaining 
a triumph. 

» P. C. Dolabella. 

b His treatise on Government, in which it is to be 
presumed the author objected to such bounties as might 
procure an undue influence to the donor among his fellow- 
citizens. 



696 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



not forbid it ; for this is no bribe amongst fellow- 
citizens, but a liberal acknowledgment of hospital- 
ity. You still advise me to think of the portico for 
the Academy c , though Appius no longer thinks of 
that at Eleusis. I am sure you must be sorry for 
Hortensius d . I am myself deeply concerned ; for 
I had looked forwards to living with him in great 
familiarity. I have appointed Caelius to the charge 
of the province. " A mere boy," you will say, " and 
perhaps giddy, and undignified, and intemperate." 
I acknowledge it, but it could not be otherwise ; 
for I was struck with the letter I had received from 
you some time since, in which you said that you 
doubted what I ought to do about resigning the 
command. I saw what was the cause of your doubt, 
and was sensible of the difficulty ; that I was deli- 
vering it to a boy : but it was not desirable to 
deliver it to my brother ; and, besides my brother, 
there was nobody whom I could with propriety 
advance before the quaestor, especially as he was a 
person of noble birth. However, so long as the 
Parthians seemed to threaten us, I had determined 
either to leave my brother in the command, or 
even, for the sake of the republic, to remain my- 
self, contrary to the decree of the senate. But 
since by a most unexpected good fortune they 
"have retired, my doubt has been removed. I fore- 
saw what would be said : " So, has he resigned to 
his brother ? Is this holding the government for 
not more than a year ? What avails it that the 
senate wished the provinces to devolve upon such 
as had not before had a command ; while this e man 
has commanded for three years together ?" This 
then is what I say in public f . But what shall I say 
to you ? I should never be free from anxiety, lest 
he should do something angrily, or disrespectfully, 
or carelessly, for such is the condition of mankind. 
What if his son should be guilty of some impru- 
dence, a boy of great self-confidence ? What 
vexation would it give me ! For his father would 
not send him away, and was not pleased that you 
should advise it. But as for Cselius, I do not say 
that I care not what he does ; but however I care 
much less. Add to this, that Pompeius, a man of 
that weight and experience, appointed Q. Cassius ; 
and Caesar, Antonius, without the form of a bal- 
lots ; should I offend one who is given me by 
ballot ? and thereby induce him to pry into the 
conduct of the person whom I had left ? What I 
have done is preferable, and is warranted by many 
precedents, and is more suited to my age h . But, 

c See letter 1 of this book. 

d Hortensius was lately dead. It appears from the pre- 
face to Cicero's treatise " De Claris Oratoribus," that he 
heard of this event at Rhodes on his return from Cilicia. 
And it is on this account that I have transposed the order 
of this and the preceding letter, which it is evident was 
written previous to his arrival at Rhodes. 

e Q. Cicero had held the provincial government of Asia 
three years. 

f The meaning is, that this anticipation of what might 
be objected to him, is the reason he professes for not ap- 
pointing his brother. To Atticus he subjoins the real reason, 
which is his fear of some misconduct from his brother's 
hasty disposition. 

% The quaestors seem to have been usually appointed by 
the government at home after a ballot. Cassius and An- 
tonius, though irregularly appointed, were left in the 
command, one of Spain, the other of Gaul, at as early an 
age as Caelius. 

h An age when it became desirable to avoid contentions, 



ye gods ! in what favour have I put you with him, 
by reading to him, I do not say your letter, but 
that of your secretary. The letters of my friends 
invite me to demand a triumph, a thing, as I think, 
not to be despised in this regeneration 1 of my for- 
tunes. Therefore, my Atticus, do you also begin 
to wish it, that I may not be discountenanced. 



LETTER VIII. 

As* I was going to write to you, and had actually 
taken up my pen, Batonius came directly from the 
ship to the house in which I was at Ephesus, and 
delivered to me your letter of September 30. I re- 
joice at your favourable passage, your meeting with 
Pilia, and, not least, at her conversation about the 
marriage of my daughter Tullia. But Batonius has 
brought me strange alarms respecting Caesar : to 
Lepta he has spoken yet more at large. I hope his 
news may not be true ; it is certainly dreadful : that 
he will on no account dismiss his army ; and that 
the praetors elect, and Cassius the tribune of the 
people, and the consul Lentulus, support him, 
while Pompeius thinks of retiring from the city. 
But how is this ? Are you at all troubled for him, 
who sets himself before the uncle of your sister's 
sonJ ? And who are they that have defeated him ? 
But to my purpose. The Etesian winds have 
greatly retarded me; and this undecked vessel of 
the Rhodians has made me lose twenty days. 
Whilst I am on the point of embarking from 
Ephesus, I deliver this letter to L. Tarquitius, who 
leaves the port at the same time, but will sail 
quicker. For in these open vessels, and other long 
boats of the Rhodians, we must watch for fair 
weather. I have, however, made as much haste as 
I could. I am pleased with what you say of the 
Puteolan crumbs' 4 . Now I should wish you care- 
fully to consider the state of the Roman affairs, and 
see what you think should be determined about 
demanding a triumph, to which my friends invite 
me. I should be quite easy about it, if Bibulus 
was not trying for it ; who, as long as there was 
one enemy 1 in Syria, no more put his foot out of 
the gate than he had formerly done out of his 
house" 1 . But now it is disgraceful to be silent. 
However, consider the whole matter, that as soon 



such as might be excited against him, if he offended his 
quaestor. 

» Having begun, as it were, a new life, after his resto- 
ration from banishment, a life which required the sup- 
port of new honours : for, before that event, the fame of 
his consulship had been such, as to make him disregard 
them. 

J The same expression is used in reference to the same 
event, book v. letter 19, and is no doubt taken from some- 
thing said upon that occasion. The person alluded to is 
generally acknowledged to be Hirrus. 

k The word in the original, rauduscuhim, or ruduscu- 
lum, is probably derived from rudus, " rubbish," and 
thence is used for the " sweepings," " crumbs," or " little 
remains" of a debt. It is used in the same sense, book iv. 
letter 8. 

1 In the text it is hospes, "stranger :" but I have thought 
it better to adopt the very easy alteration of hostis, agree- 
ably to book vii. letter 2. 

m Bibulus, when he was joint consul with Caesar, had 
been insulted and violently driven from the forum ; in 
consequence of which he afterwards shut himself up in his 
house, and acted only by the publication of edicts. See 
book ii. letter 21. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



697 



as we meet, I may be able to make my determina- 
tion. But I am writing more than enough ; for I 
have no time to spare, and am sending by one 
who will either arrive with me or not much before. 
Cicero" presents his compliments. You will pre- 
sent those of both of us to Pilia and to your 
daughter. 



LETTER IX. 

Immediately upon my landing in the Piraeus 
the 14th of October, I received from my servant 
Acastus your letter, which I had long expected ; 
but before I unsealed it, I took notice of its short- 
ness ; when I had opened it, I was struck with the 
unevenness of the letters, which you generally form 
very correctly and distinctly. In short, I perceived 
from thence, what you mention to be the case, 
that you came to Rome the 20th of September with 
a fever. Being greatly concerned, though not more 
than I ought, I immediately inquired of Acastus. 
He assured me that both you and he thought you 
were quite well, and that he had the same account 
from your own people ; at the same time that he 
acknowledged, conformably to the conclusion of 
your letter, that you had some degree of fever at 
the time you wrote. I am very sensible of your 
kindness, yet surprised that you should nevertheless 
have written with your own hand. But enough of 
this ; for I hope from your prudence and temper- 
ance, nay, as Acastus bids me, I trust, that you are, 
as I wish you, already well. I am glad you received 
the letter I sent you by Turannius. Watch, 
specially, if you love me, the greediness p of this 

n The son. ° The port of Athens. 

P In the original is a Greek word, derived from Philo- 
timus, which marks the meaning of the author. The 
term "confounder" refers to the confusion which Philo- 



confounder. Take care that he do not touch this 
Prsecian inheritance, how little soever it may be. 
It gives me much concern, for I had a great regard 
for the man. Say that I have need of money for 
the splendour of my triumph ; in regard to which, 
as you advise, you shall find me neither vain in 
demanding it, nor insensible in rejecting it. I 
understand by your letter, that Turannius told you 
I had consigned the province to my brother. Do 
you think I should so ill interpret your guarded 
expression, when you say you doubted q ? What 
need was there of doubt, if there was any reason 
for wishing my brother to be left, and such a brother? 
It was to my mind a prohibition, not a doubt. You 
advise me by no means to leave the young Quintus 
Cicero. That is the very exposition of my own 
sentiments. We have seen everything in the same 
light as if we had conversed together. It could 
not be done otherwise ; and your continued doubt 
freed me from all doubt. But I imagine you have 
received a letter written more fully upon this sub- 
ject. I mean to send my messenger to-morrow, 
who will probably arrive before our friend Saufeius ; 
yet it was hardly right to let him go to you without 
a letter from me. Write to me as you promise, 
about my dear Tullia, that is, about Dolabella; 
about the republic, which I foresee is in great 
danger ; about the censors, especially what is done 
about statues and pictures, whether any proposi- 
tion is made r . I send this letter on the 16th of 
October, the day on which, as you say, Csesar is to 
bring four legions to Placentia. What, I beseech 
you, is to become of us ? I enjoy my present station 
in the citadel at Athens. 

timus had admitted into his accounts. See letters 4 and 5 
of this hook. L See letter 6 of this hook. 

r It was probably expected that the censors might intro- 
duce some regulations upon these articles, with the view 
of repressing the luxury of the age. 



BOOK VII. 



LETTER I. 

I sent a letter by L. Saufeius, and to you alone 8 ; 
for though I had hardly time to write, yet I did 
not like that one so intimate should go to you with- 
out a letter from me. But, considering the rate 
that philosophers travel, I imagine this will reach 
you first. If, however, you have received that, 
you will know that I came to Athens the 14th of 
October ; and that upon landing in the Piraeus, I 
received your letter from my friend Acastus, not 
without uneasiness at your having arrived at 
Rome with a fever. I was, however, relieved by 
hearing from Acastus that you were as much better 
as I could wish. But I quite shudder at the infor- 
mation which your letter brought about Caesar's 
legions. I also begged you to take care that the 
greediness (or, as the Greeks call it, the philotimia) 
of you know whom 1 , might not injure me ; about 
which I had written to you some time ago. Tu- 
rannius had misinformed you at Brundisium, as I 
learned by a letter from that excellent man Xeno. 

s This is the last letter of the preceding book. 
1 This is evidently said in allusion to Philotimus. 



I explained shortly why I had not left my brother 
in charge of the province. This was the substance 
of that letter. Now hear the rest. I entreat you 
by your fortunes, to employ all the affection with 
which you embrace me, and all your prudence, 
which I always admire, in taking into consideration 
the whole of my situation. For I seem to see such 
a contest ; unless the same Providence, which 
delivered me from the Parthian war, better than I 
dared to hope, should have compassion upon the 
republic ; such I say as never was before. But 
this calamity is common to me with everybody 
else ; upon this I do not require your advice. That 
which is my own affair I beg you to undertake. 
Do you perceive how, at your instance, I have 
attached myself to both parties ? And I wish I 
had from the first attended to your friendly admo- 
nition. " But," as Homer says, " your persuasions 
did not reach my heart ; for nothing is sweeter 
than one's country." At length, however, you did 
persuade me to embrace the one, because he had 
been so kind to me ; the other, because he was so 
powerful. I have done it, therefore, and done it 
with all readiness, so that nobody is more esteemed 



698 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



by either of them. For I considered that my con- 
nexion with Pompeius did not oblige me to trans- 
gress against the republic ; nor, because I agreed 
with Caesar, was I to fight against Pompeius ; such 
was their union. Now, as you show, and as I 
plainly see, the utmost contention between them is 
to be apprehended. And each reckons me of his 
side, unless one of them feigns. For Pompeius 
does not doubt (and he judges rightly) of my highly 
approving his present sentiments with regard to the 
republic. I have received letters to this effect from 
both of them, at the same time that you received 
yours ; as if neither esteemed anybody more than 
me. What should I do then ? I do not mean 
when they come to extremities ; for if it is to be 
decided by arms, I am clear that it is better to be 
conquered with the one, than to conquer with the 
other ; but I speak of the questions which will be 
agitated at the period of my arrival ; whether one, 
who is absent, be eligible ; whether he should not 
dismiss his army. " Speak, Marcus Tullius." 
What shall I say ? Wait, I beseech you, till I can 
see Atticus. There is no room for trifling. Shall 
I oppose Caesar ? Where then is our u strict attach- 
ment ? For, I helped to procure him this permis- 
sion by applying to Ceelius the tribune of the 
people at the request of Pompeius himself v at 
Ravenna. " Of Pompeius ?" Even of our Cnaeus, 
in that famous third consulate. Should I now 
change my sentiments? " I have too much respect 
(not only for Pompeius, but) for the Trojan men 
and women. Polydamus will be the first to re- 
proach me w ." Who ? You yourself, who are used 
to commend both my actions and my writings. 
I have escaped this blow during the two preceding 
consulates of the Marcelli, when Caesar's province 
was taken into consideration. Now I fall into the 
very crisis. There let any blockhead give his 
opinion first; I am mightily pleased to be engaged 
about my triumph, and to have so good an excuse 
for remaining without the city. Yet people will 
try to elicit my sentiments. You will perhaps 
laugh at what I am going to say. How I should 
wish even now to be staying in my province ! It 
was clearly desirable if this was hanging over us, 
though nothing could be more disagreeable. For, 
by-the-bye, I would have you know, that all those 
first appearances, which in your letters you com- 
mended to the skies, have dissolved away. The 
practice of virtue itself is not an easy thing ; but 
how difficult is a continual pretence of it ! For 
when I thought it right and honourable, out of the 
yearly sums which had been voted for my expenses, 
to leave a yearly sum for the quaestor C. Caelius, 
and to bring into the treasury a thousand sestertia 
(8000/.) ; my attendants murmured, thinking it 
ought all to have been divided amongst them ; as if 
I should be more attentive to the treasuries of the 
Phrygians and Cilicians, than to our own. But 
they did not move me : for my own applause has 
the greatest weight with me. Yet there is nothing 
that could be done for the honour of any person, 
which I have omitted. But this, as Thucydides 
says, is an excursion from the subject, not without 

» So I understand this, which has usually been otherwise 
interpreted. 

v It is most consonant with what follows to understand 
this of Pompeius. 

w This is quoted from Homer. The same verses are found 
in letter 5, book ii. 



its use. But pray consider my situation ; how, in 
the first place, I may retain the favour of Caesar ; 
then about my triumph ; which, unless the times 
of the republic prevent it, I conceive to be easily 
attainable. I judge so both from the letters of my 
friends, and from the supplication, when he, who 
did not vote for it, voted more than if he had 
decreed the greatest triumph x . With him Favonius, 
my familiar friend, was one who concurred in 
opinion ; another was Hirrus, who was angry with 
me. Yet Cato was present at the drawing up of 
the decree, and wrote to me most pleasantly upon 
the subject of his vote. But Caesar, in congratulat- 
ing with me about the supplication, exults upon 
the opinion delivered by Cato ; but mentions 
nothing of what Cato said upon the occasion ; only 
that he voted against the supplication. I come 
back to Hirrus. You had begun to reconcile him 
to me : go on with it. You have Scrofa, you have 
Silius to assist you. I have already written to them 
and to Hirrus himself. For he had kindly informed 
them, that he could have stopped it, but did not 
choose to do so : but that he had concurred with 
Cato my particular friend, when he made such 
honourable mention of me ; and that 1 had not 
written to him, though I wrote to everybody else. 
He said truly ; for to him alone, and to Crassipes, 
I had not written. So much then for public affairs. 
Let us return home. I wish to separate myself 
from that man>'. He has strangely perplexed my 
accounts, a very Lartidius 2 ; " but let us leave what 
is already done, however we may regret it." Let 
us despatch the rest ; and this first, in which I have 
some care added to my affliction ; but this Praecian 
affair a , whatever it is, I should be sorry to have 
confounded with those accounts of mine which he 
has in his hands. I have written to Terentia b , 
and likewise to him, that I should put together in 
your hands whatever money I could collect, for the 
equipment of my expected triumph. This, I con- 
ceive, must be unobjectionable. But as they please. 
Take upon you this care also c , how we may en- 
deavour to accomplish what you propose. This 
both you have pointed out in some letter, (from 
Epirus was it ? or from Athens ?) and I will assist 
you in it. 



LETTER II. 

I arrived at Brundisium the 24th of November, 
after as favourable a voyage as your own ; so charm- 
ingly did a gentle gale waft us from Epirus. The 
words have run into a verse, which, if you please, 
you may impose upon some young man for your own. 
I am much concerned at your illness ; for your 
letters show that you are very far from well ; and 
I, who know your fortitude, suspect it must be 
something serious that obliges you to give way, 

x Cato resisted the application for Cicero's supplication; 
but at the same time spake of him in the most honourable 
terms. 

7 Philotimus. ^ It is not known who this is. 

a See book vi, letter 9. 

b Philotimus was Terentia's freed-man, and perhaps 
involved with her in embarrassing Cicero's accounts. 

c I conceive the conclusion of this letter to relate 
altogether to some new subject mentioned previously by 
Atticus, and not improbably concerning Q. Cicero, or 
Pomponia, whose disagreement is mentioned, book vi. 
letter 2. 



TO TITUS POMPON1US ATT1CUS. 



699 



and almost overpowers you ; though your servant 
Pamphilus assured me that the quartan fits of your 
ague had left you, and that another milder form had 
succeeded ; and Terentia, who came to the gate of 
Brundisium at the same time that I entered the 
harbour, and who met me in the forum, said that L. 
Pontius had informed her inTrebulanum, that this 
also had left you : which, if it be so, is what I 
exceedingly wish, and hope indeed that your pru- 
dence and temperance may have effected. I come 
now to your letters, of which I have received six 
hundred d at once, each more acceptable than the 
former, and all in your own hand. I used to love 
Alexis's handwriting, because it bare so near a 
resemblance to your own ; yet I loved it not, as 
showing that you were not well. The mention of 
his name brings to my mind Tiro e , whom I have left 
sick at Patrse ; a young man, as you know ; and 
add, if you please, an honest one ; I know nothing 
better. Therefore I miss him sadly ; and though 
he did not think himself dangerously ill, yet I can- 
not help being anxious about him, and place my 
greatest hope in the attention of M. Curius f , which 
Tiro has signified to me by letter, and many persons 
have mentioned. Curius himself is sensible how 
much you wish him to be in my esteem : and indeed 
I am highly pleased with him ; for he possesses a 
natural urbanity of manners which is very amiable. 
He has a will sealed with the seals of the Ciceros^ 
and those of the prsetorian h cohort, in which he 
has openly bequeathed to you a pound, to me a 
half-penny 1 . I was sumptuously entertained by 
AlexionJ at Actium in Corcyra k . There was no 
resisting Cicero's wish of seeing Thyamis 1 . I am 
rejoiced that you take pleasure in your little girl, 
and that the affection of parents towards their 
children is proved to you to be natural 111 . For 
without this there can be no natural union between 
man and man ; and if this is taken away, the very 
intercourse of life is destroyed. May it turn out 
well, said Carneades grossly ; yet more modestly 
than our friend Lucius 11 , and Patron; who in 
referring everything to their own gratification, do 

d It has been repeatedly seen in former letters that this 
was a familiar expression for any great number. 

e Tiro was Cicero's amanuensis, as Alexis was Atticus's. 
In book vi. letter 6, we find him left sick at Issus. It is to 
be supposed that he afterwards proceeded as far as Patraa 
in the Peloponnesus, and was there again laid up under 
the care of Curius. 

f M. Curius is said to have been quaestor and tribune at 
Rome, and afterwards to have settled as a merchant at 
Patrae. — Ep. Fam. iv. 5, et xiii. 50. 

g The sons of Marcus and Quintus. 

h This seems to have been a sort of guard of honour. 

1 This passage is attended with great obscurity, owing 
apparently to its being a jest, which is no longer intelli- 
gible. I suspect the point of it may consist in some pro- 
vincial misapplication of the terms libella and teruncius, 
instead of as and triens, whereby Cicero and Atticus might 
become entitled to a mere trifle, instead of inheriting the 
estate. And if the text de Tortorio be correct, it may be 
an intended blunder of the same kind. 

i Alexion was a physician. See book xv. letter 1. 

k The place called Actium of Corcyra was different from 
that afterwards distinguished by the naval action between 
Augustus and Antonius. 

1 Thyamis was a river of Epirus, where Atticus's pro- 
perty was situated. 

m This is said in opposition to the tenets of Atticus's 
philosophy, which referred everything to pleasure. 

n Lucius Torquatus. He and Patron were both Epicu- 



not° think any thing whatever should be done foi 
the sake of another; and when they say that the 
reason why a man ought to be good, is that he may 
escape harm, not because it is naturally right ; they 
do not perceive that they are describing a crafty 
man instead of a good man. But this I believe is 
in those books p, which you encourage me by prais- 
ing. I return to my subject. I was eagerly 
expecting the letter, which you had sent by Philo- 
xenus ; for you had mentioned that it contained an 
account of your conversation with Pompeius at 
Naples; this Patron delivered to me at Brundisium. 
I believe he had received it at Corcyra. Nothing 
could be more acceptable. For it related to the 
republic ; to the opinion which he entertained of 
my integrity ; to the kindness which he showed 
in his discourse about the triumph. But what 
pleased me most of all was, that I understood 
you had visited him for the purpose of discover- 
ing his disposition towards me : this, I say, was 
the circumstance most agreeable to me. With 
respect to the triumph, however, I never had any 
wish for it before that barefaced letter of Bibulus, 
which was followed by so full a supplication. Had 
he really done what he described, I should rejoice, 
and favour his pretensions. But now, that he, 
who never set his foot beyond the gate so long as the 
enemy was on this side the Euphrates, should be 
loaded with honours ; and that I, on whose troops 
his army placed their whole reliance, should not 
attain the same ; this is a disgrace to us ; to us, I 
say, including you. I shall therefore make every 
exertion, and hope I shall succeed. If you were 
well, I might already have had some particulars 
investigated : but I trust you will soon be well. I 
love you for this Numerian remnant 9. I want to 
know what is become of Hortensius r ; what Catois 
doing, who has in truth been shamefully hostile 
towards me. He gave me his testimony for in- 
tegrity, justice, clemency, fidelity, which I did not 
ask ; what I did ask, he refused. How therefore 
does Caesar, in the same letter in which he con- 
gratulates me and promises every thing, exult in 
the injury I have received from Cato's ingratitude ? 
Yet this very man voted to Bibulus a supplication 
of 20 days. Pardon me ; I cannot bear this, nor 
will I. I wish to reply to all your letters ; but 
there is no occasion, since I shall see you so soon. 
But as to that business of Chrysippus (for about the 
other, a mere mechanic, I was less surprised, 
though nothing could be worse than his conduct) ; 
but for Chrysippus, whom on account of some little 
proficiency in learning I entertained with kindness, 
and had in esteem ; that he should leave the boy 
without my knowledge ! I omit many other things 
which I hear of him ; I omit his thefts ; but his 
running away I cannot bear ; there is nothing that 
I think more wicked. I have accordingly followed 
the old principle, as it is said, of the prsetor Drusus, 
in the case of one who would not swear to observe 
the same conditions after he had obtained his 
liberty ; I have not pronounced them free : espe- 
cially as there was nobody present by whom their 

° Both the sense and the subsequent member of the sen- 
tence require that it should be read non putent. 

P Cicero's treatise " De Republica." 

i The same expression is used book iv. letter 8, and book 
vi. letter 8. 

r This must be understood of the son, for the father was 
already dead. See book vi. letters 3 and 7- 



700 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



liberation could properly be asserted. You will 
receive this as you shall think fit. I assent to your 
judgment. To one most eloquent letter of yours I 
have not replied, in which you speak of the dangers 
of the republic. What should I reply ? I was 
exceedingly disturbed. But the Parthians do 
nothing to occasion me much alarm, and have 
suddenly left Bibulus half alive. 



LETTER III. 

The sixth of December I came to Herculanum' 
and there read your letter, which Philotimus de- 
livered to me. The moment I saw it I had the 
satisfaction of recognising your own hand-writing ; 
afterwards I was exceedingly delighted with the 
accurate information it contained. With respect 
to the first point, in which you say you differ from 
Diceearchus s , though I had earnestly requested 
(and that with your concurrence) that I might not 
be obliged to remain in the province longer than 
one year ; yet this was not accomplished by our 
endeavours. For you must know that not a word 
was mentioned in the senate about any of us, who 
held provincial governments, remaining beyond 
the time appointed by the decree of the senate. So 
that I cannot justly be charged with any blame for 
having left the province earlier than might, per- 
haps, have been desirable. But what if it be better 
as it is ? This has often appeared to be the case 
on other occasions as well as on this. For whether 
things can be brought to an agreement, or to the 
discomfiture of the evil-disposed, in either case I 
should be glad to give my assistance, or at least 
not to be out of the way. But if the good are 
overpowered, wherever I might be, I should be 
overpowered with them. Therefore, the quickness 
of my return ought not to be regretted. And if 
the idea of a triumph had not been thrown in my 
way, which you also approve, truly you should 
not now much want that character, which is drawn 
in my sixth book l . For what should I do to satisfy 
you, who have devoured those books ? I should 
not even now hesitate to lay aside this object u , 
great as it is, if it be more proper to do so. But it is 
impossible to pursue both at the same time, and 
while I serve my ambitious views in a triumph, to 
exert a free spirit in the cause of the republic. Do 
not, however, doubt, but that whichever is the more 
honourable, that will be to me the more desirable. 
For what you seem to recommend, that I should 
continue to hold my command, and remain out of 
the city v , both as being safer for myself, and as 
affording the means of rendering service to the 
republic, how this is we will consider when we 
meet. It is a thing that admits of deliberation, 
though in great measure I agree with you. You 
do well in not doubting of my affection towards the 
republic ; and you judge rightly that he w has by 
no means acted liberally towards me, considering 
my services and his profusion to other people ; and 
you justly explain the reason of this, which entirely 
agrees with what you say has been done in the case 

s Dicaiarchus maintained the duty of active exertion. 
See book ii. letter 16. 

* Of his treatise " Do Republica." « His triumph. 

v The continuing out of the city was necessary so long 
as ho retained his command. 

w Caesar. 



of Fabius and Caninius. But if this were not so, 
and he had devoted himself wholly to me, yet that 
guardian x divinity of the city which you mention 
would compel me to remember its noble inscription, 
and would not permit me to imitate Volcacius or 
Servius, with whom you are satisfied, but would 
call upon me to feel and to act as became me. 
And this I would readily do, if it might be done in 
a different manner from what is now required. 
For at this time people are contending for their 
own power, at the risk of the state. If it is in 
defence of the republic, why was it not defended 
at the time when this very man was consul ? And 
the year following why was not I defended, with 
whose cause the safety of the republic was identi- 
fied ? Why was his command prolonged ? or why 
in that manner ? Why was such a struggle made 
that the ten tribunes of the people should propose 
the decree for his eligibility in his absence ? By 
these means he is become so powerful, that now it 
is left to a single ? citizen to resist him ; who I 
wish had never given him such power, instead of 
now opposing him, when he is so strong. But 
since affairs are brought to this situation, I shall 
not, as you say, " look out for the vessel of the 
Atridse 2 :" the only vessel for me shall be that 
which is steered by Pompeius. When you ask, 
what must be done if I am called upon — " Speak, 
M. Tullius, concisely." I assent to Cn. Pompeius. 
Yet privately I shall exhort Pompeius to peace. 
For I am convinced that affairs are in the greatest 
danger. You, who are in the city, know more. 
But this I see, that we have to do with a man of 
the boldest and readiest spirit ; that all convicts, 
all disgraced persons, and all that deserve to be 
convicted and disgraced, incline to that party ; 
almost all the youth, all the city rabble, the power- 
ful tribunes, with the addition of C. Cassius ; all 
who are oppressed with debt, whom I understand 
to be more than I had supposed. That cause wants 
nothing but a good cause ; it has everything else in 
abundance. In such a state everybody ought to 
exert himself to prevent a decision by arms, the 
event of which is always uncertain, but in the 
present case rather to be dreaded in favour of 
one party a . Bibulus has left his province, and 
deputed the command on Veiento. He will not, as 
I hear, hurry himself in his departure. Cato, when 
he got him his honours, declared that the only 
persons towards whom he bare no jealousy were 
those whose influence could receive little or no 
increase. I come now to my private concerns ; 
for I have mostly replied to your letter on the sub- 
ject of the republic, and to that from your villa, 
and to that which you wrote afterwards. I come 
to my private concerns. One word, also, about 
Cselius. He is so far from shaking my opinion, 
that I think he will himself repent of having 
changed his own. But how is it that Lucceius's 
buildings should have been adjudged to him ? I 
am surprised that you should have omitted to 
mention it. About Philotimus I will do as you 



x This is generally supposed to allude to an image of 
Minerva, deposited in the capitol by Cicero previous to his 
exile, and bearing an inscription " The Guardian of the 
City." 

y Pompeius. 

1 In which he might sail with most security. The ori- 
ginal is part of a Greek verse. 

a Caesar's party. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



701 



advise. I did not, however, expect from him at 
this time the accounts which he gave you ; but the 
remainder which he desired me in Tusculanum to 
enter into my book with my own hand, and of 
which he also gave me a memorandum in Asia, 
written with his hand. If he made this good, he 
would himself owe me as much, or more, than 
what he there declares to be the amount of my 
debt. But hereafter, if only the condition of the 
republic permit, I will not subject myself to accu- 
sations of this kind : not, indeed, that I had 
before been negligent ; but I was occupied with 
the multitude of my friends. I shall be glad, there- 
fore, to avail myself of your assistance and advice, 
as you promise, and hope I shall not be giving you 
much trouble. Respecting those clogs b of my 
cohort, there is no cause for uneasiness ; for they 
corrected themselves on observing my integrity. 
But nobody vexed me more than one whom you 
least suspect. His behaviour was at first excellent, 
and is so now ; but at the moment of my departure 
he intimated that he had hoped to receive some- 
thing ; and he did not restrain that covetousness 
which had gradually influenced his mind. But he 
soon recovered himself; and overcome by my 
honourable services towards him, he esteemed them 
of more value than any sum of money. I have 
received from Curius a will c , which I carry with 
me. I have been informed of Hortensius's lega- 
cies' 1 . I now want to know what sort of a man 
the son e is, and what it is that he intends to sell 
by auction. For if Cselius has got possession of 
the house at the Flumentan gate, I know not why 
I may not take for myself that at Puteoli. I come 
now to the word Piraeea, in which I am more repre- 
hensible, that being a Roman, I should have writ- 
ten Piraeea f , not Pireeeus (as all our people call it), 
than that I should have added the preposition 
into ; for I have not considered it as the name of 
a town, but of a district &. Yet our friend Diony- 
sius, who is with me, and Nicias the Coan, did not 
think Pirseea to be a town. But I will see about 
it. My error, if it be one, consists in my having 
spoken of it not as a town, but as a district. And 
I have followed, I do not say Caecilius, " In the 
morning when I went out of the port into Piraeeus;" 
for he is no authority for Latinity ; but Terentius, 
whose comedies, on account of the elegance of 
their language, were supposed to be written by C. 
Lselius : " Yesterday, I and some other young men 
went together into Piraeeus." And again : " The 
merchant added this, that she had been taken out 
of Sunium." For if we choose to call districts 
towns, Sunium is as much a town as Piraeeus. But 
as you are a grammarian, if you can solve this 
question, you will relieve me from much embar- 
rassment. Caesar writes in a kind manner to me : 
Balbus does the same in his name. My resolution 
is, never to stir an inch from the path of honour. 



» Serperastra are described to be instruments for keeping 
straight the legs of children who are disposed to be crooked. 
The word may be adopted from Atticus, and applied to 
certain persons who had proved a clog and embarrassment 
to Cicero in his administration. 

c See the preceding letter. 

d This must mean the legacies of the elder ITortensius, 
which the son had to pay by the will of his father. 

e See book vi. letter 3. f See book vi. letter 9. 

8 It is well known that the Romans did not insert the 
prepositions in speaking of going to or from any town, 
though they did express them when speaking of a country. 



But you know how much remains due to him h . 
Do you think, then, it is to be feared that anybody 
should object that debt to me, if I seem to act 
feebly ? or that he should demand it, if I act firmly ? 
What do you find in answer to this ? Let us pay 
it, you say. Well, then, I willj borrow from 
Cselius 1 . Yet I would have you consider this well ; 
for I imagine if ever I should speak with energy in 
the senate in behalf of the republic, that Tartessian 
friend of yours J will call to me as I go out, "Pray 
direct the money to be provided." Have I any- 
thing more to say ? Yes, my son-in-law is agree- 
able to me, to Tullia, to Terentia. He has as 
much wit and kindness as you could wish. As 
to other things, to which you are no stranger, we 
must bear them. For you know about whom we 
inquired k ; who all, except him with whom I 
negotiated through you, think to make me respon- 
sible : for nobody will trust them. But of these 
matters when we meet ; for they require a long 
talk. My hope of Tiro's recovery rests in M. 
Curius, to whom I have written that such service 
would be particularly acceptable to you. Dated 
the 9th of December, from Pontius's house at Tre- 
bulanum. 



LETTER IV. 

Dionysius is impatient to see you. I have 
accordingly sent him, not with a very good grace ; 
but there was no refusing it. I have found him 
learned, which I knew before ; and besides, of cor- 
rect behaviour, ready to oblige, studious of my 
reputation, careful, and (that I may not seem to 
be giving the character of a freed-man) in short an 
excellent man. I saw Pompeius the 10th of 
December. We were together perhaps two hours. 
He seemed to be much pleased at my arrival. He 
encouraged me in the affair of my triumph, and 
promised to do his part ; advising me not to go to 
the senate till I should have finished this business, 
from fear of alienating any of the tribunes by the 
sentiments that might be delivered. In short, as 
far as words, nothing could be fuller of kindness. 
On the subject of the republic, he talked to me as 
if a war was inevitable. There appeared to be no 
hope of accommodation. His opinion of Caesar's 
hostility had lately been confirmed by the arrival 
of Hirtius from Caesar, with whom he was very 
intimate : for he had not called upon Pompeius ; 
but having arrived on the evening of December 6th, 
and Balbus having engaged to go to Scipio before 
it was light upon this whole business, he returned 
late at night to Caesar. This he considered as a 
plain sign of hostility. In short, nothing else 
affords me comfort, but that I cannot suppose he, 
to whom even his enemies had given a second con- 
sulate, to whom fortune had given the greatest 
power, would be so mad, as to bring these advan- 
tages to the hazard of a contest. But if he venture 
to rush on, I confess I am full of fears, which I 
dare not commit to paper. As things now are, I 
think of getting to Rome the 5th of January. 

h Caesar. > Probably some money-scrivener. 

J Balbus, a native of Tartessus in Spain, 
k See book v. letter 4, respecting their fitness for hus- 
bands to his daughter. 



702 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER V. 

I have received several of your letters at the 
same time ; and though I had later intelligence 
from people who came to meet me, yet they were 
very acceptable, as they showed your attention and 
kindness. I am concerned at your illness ; and 
perceive that you suffer still greater uneasiness 
from Pilia's being attacked in a similar manner. 
Apply yourselves, both of you, to your recovery. I 
see the interest you take about Tiro. But, though 
he is of wonderful service to me, when he is well, 
in every species either of business or of study, yet 
I am more anxious for his recovery on account of 
his own kind and modest disposition, than for any 
advantage towards myself. Philogenes has never 
said anything to me about Luscienus. Dionysius 
will inform you of other matters. I am surprised 
that your sister should not have come to Arcanum \ 
I am not sorry that you approve of my determina- 
tion respecting Chrysippus m . I have no intention 
of going to Tusculanum at this time. It is out of 
the way for those who might come to meet me, 
and has some other inconveniences. But I mean 
to proceed from Formianum to Terracina the 31st 
of December ; thence to the extremity of the Pon- 
tine marsh ; thence to Pompeius's villa at Albanum ; 
and so to Rome the 3d of January, my birth-day. 
I daily become more alarmed about the republic. 
For even the good, as it is supposed, are not agreed. 
How many knights, how many senators have I 
seen, who severely blame, among other things, this 
journey of Pompeius ! We have great need of 
peace. From a victory must arise many evils, and 
most assuredly that of a tyrant. But these things 
we shall very soon have an opportunity of discuss- 
ing in person. There is now absolutely nothing 
that I can write about. Not about the republic, 
because our information' is the same : and our 
domestic affairs are known to both. It only re- 
mains to joke, if this man 11 permit. For my part 
I should think it wiser to grant him what he 
asks, than to meet in arms. It is too late now to 
resist one whom we have for ten years fostered 
against ourselves. What do you advise then ? you 
will say. Nothing but with your concurrence,; nor 
indeed anything before my business is either con- 
cluded, or laid aside. Take care then to get well ; 
and shake off at length this ague with the diligence 
you so highly possess. 



LETTER VI. 

I have absolutely nothing to say to you. You 
are acquainted with everything ; nor have I any- 
thing to expect from you. Let me then only keep 
up my custom of not suffering anybody to go to 
you without a letter. I am in great fear about the 
republic ; and have hitherto scarcely found any- 
body who did not think it better to grant Csesar 
what he demanded, than to go to war. His de- 
mands are indeed greater than was supposed. But 
why should we now first resist him ? For this is 
not a greater evil than when we prolonged his 
government for five years ; or when we introduced 

1 A place belonging to Q. Cicero. 

'" See letter 2 of this book. 

» Caisar. o nj s triumph. 



the law permitting him to be a candidate for the 
consulship in his absence. Unless forsooth we 
then gave him these arms, that we might now fight 
with him well prepared. You will say, " What 
then will be your opinion ?" Not what I shall 
say. For I shall think that everything ought to 
be done to avoid a battle ; I shall say the same as 
Pompeius. Nor shall I do this with an abject spirit ; 
but this again is a very great evil to the state, and 
in some measure peculiarly improper for me, that 
I should appear to differ from Pompeius in so im- 
portant" a cause. 



LETTER VII. 

" Dtonysius, an excellent man, as I have also 
found him, and very learned, and full of affection 
towards you, arrived in Rome the 18th of Decem- 
ber, and delivered to me your letter." These are 
the very expressions contained in your letter about 
Dionysius. You do not add — " and he returns 
thanks to you." But he certainly ought : and 
such is your kindness that, if he had done so, you 
would have mentioned it. I do not however recant 
the testimony given of him in my former letter. 
Let him therefore be called an excellent man. 
For even this is well done, that he should have 
given me this means of thoroughly knowing him. 
Philogenes has informed you truly. He had pro- 
vided what he ought p ; and I desired him to make 
use of the money till it should be wanted. He has 
accordingly had the use of it thirteen months. I 
hope Pontinius is well ; but from what you men- 
tion of his having entered the city, I am fearful 
what may be the matter *. For he would not have 
done so, but for some important reason. As the 
2d of January is the day of the Compitalia r , I do 
not care to go to Albanum s that day, from fear of 
being troublesome to the family ; I shall therefore 
go on the third ; and thence to the city on the 
fourth. I do not know on what day your fit re- 
curs ; but I should be sorry to have you disturbed 
under the inconvenience of your illness. Respect- 
ing the honour of my triumph, unless Caesar em- 
ploy any secret measures through his tribunes, 
everything else seems to be tranquil. Most tran- 
quil certainly is my own mind, which looks upon 
the whole with indifference ; and the more so, be- 
cause I hear from many persons that Pompeius 
and his council have determined to send me into 
Sicily, as holding a command. This is worthy of 
Abdera 1 . For the senate has passed no decree, 
and the people no law, for my having a command 
in Sicily. But if the republic gives this authority 
to Pompeius, why should he send me, rather than 
any private person ? If therefore this command is 
likely to give me trouble, I shall avail myself of 
the first gate I see u . For as to what you say of 
there being a wonderful expectation of my arrival, 
though at the same time none of the good, or mo- 

P See book v. letter 13. 

q Pontinius was one of Cicero's lieutenants ; and it was 
to be expected that he would have remained out of the 
city to attend Cicero in his triumph. 

r This was a Roman festival, and holiday for the slaves. 
It is mentioned before. See book ii. letter 3. 

s The estate of Pompeius. See letter 5 of this book. 

1 The land of fools. 

u Shall enter Rome immediately, and thereby abdicate 
my command. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



703 



derately good, entertain any doubt of my senti- 
ments : I do not understand whom you call good : 
for my own part I know none, at least if we look 
for whole orders of men, for undoubtedly there are 
individuals who are good. But in civil dissentions 
we ought to look for ranks and orders of good men. 
Do you think then the senate is good, which has 
left the provinces without commanders? For 
Curio could never have maintained his purpose v 
if any attempt had been made to resist him. But 
the senate would not follow that advice ; from 
whence it happened that no successor to Caesar 
was appointed. Or the public renters % Who 
were never steady, but now are quite in Caesar's 
interests. Or the bankers? Or farmers? Who 
have most reason to wish for peace ; unless you 
suppose those people to be afraid of living under 
kingly government who have never objected to it, 
provided they could live in peace. What then ? 
Must we admit the pretensions of one absent w , 
who still keeps his army after the day appointed 
by law is past ? T say at once, of nobody absent. 
For if this is granted, the other follows of course. 
Do we admit a government of ten years ? and so 
ample ? Then we must admit also my banishment, 
and the loss of the Campanian territory x , and 
the adoption of a patrician y by a plebeian, of a 
man of Cadiz z by one of Mitylene ; and we must 
admit the wealth of Labienus and Mamurra, and 
the gardens and Tusculan villa of Balbus. The 
source of all these is the same. He should have 
been resisted while he was weak, and the thing was 
easy. Now there are eleven legions, as many ca- 
valry as he pleases, people beyond the Po, people 
from the city, so many tribunes of the people, such 
an abandoned body of young men, a leader of such 
authority, such boldness ; this is the man with 
whom we must fight, or admit his pretensions, 
which are also sanctioned by the law. " Fight," 
you say, "rather than be a slave." For what 
object ? That if you are conquered, you may be 
proscribed ? If you conquer, that you may still be 
a slave ? What then, say you, will you do ? The 
same as cattle, which being scattered about follow 
the herds of their own species. As one ox follows the 
others, so shall I follow the good, or those who 
have the reputation of good, though they rush 
on to their destruction. I see clearly what is 
best a in our sad straits. For nobody can say 
when we come to arms what will be the issue ; 
but everybody knows that if the good are beaten, 
this man will neither be more sparing of the blood 
of the principal citizens, than Cinna was ; nor 
more moderate than Sulla, in plundering the rich. 
I have been a long time talking politics with you, 
and should continue if my lamp were not going 
out. To be short, — " speak, Marcus Tullius." 
I side with Pompeius : that is, with T. Pomponius. 
Pray make my compliments to that nice boy Alexis, 
unless perhaps in my absence he is become a young 
man, — for he seemed to be growing up very fast. 

v This Curio was a tribune, and creature of Caesar, and 
therefore stopped the appointment of the new governors 
to secure Caesar from a successor. 

w That Caesar, though absent, might yet be eligible to 
the consulship ; for, had he come up to Rome, he must 
have resigned his command. 

* See book ii. letter 6. y As in the case of Clodius. 

z Balbus was a native of Tartessus near Cadiz, and had 
been adopted by Theophanes of Mitylene. 

a Namely, peace. See letter 3 of this book. 



LETTER VIII. 

What need of such strong affirmation on the 
subject of Dionysius ? Would not a mere nod 
from you secure my belief? But your silence gave 
me the greater suspicion, both because you gene- 
rally employ your testimony to consolidate friend- 
ships, and I heard that he had spoken differently 
of me to other people. But I am perfectly satis- 
fied that it is as you say. I therefore continue to 
regard him as you would have me. I had also 
marked the day of your ague from one of your 
letters written as the fit was coming on, and I cal- 
culated that you might, if there was occasion, 
come to me in Albanum without inconvenience the 
3d of January. But pray do nothing that is in- 
consistent with your health. For what signifies 
one or two days ? I understand that, by Livia's 
will, Dolabella with two co-heirs succeeds to a 
third part of her property, but on the condition of 
changing his name. It is a question of propriety 
whether it be right for a young man of noble birth 
to change his name for a lady's will. But we shall 
be able to determine this more philosophically, 
when we know to about how much this third of the 
third part of her property amounts. What you 
thought would be the case, that I should see 
Pompeius before I got to Rome, has accordingly 
happened. For on the 27th of December he came 
up to me at Lavernium. We came together to 
Formiae, and conversed privately from two in the 
afternoon till dusk. In answer to your inquiry, if 
there is any hope of accommodation, so far as I 
have learned from Pompeius's full and accurate 
discourse, there is not even any inclination towards 
it. For his opinion is, that if Caesar should be 
made consul, even with the dismissal of his army, 
the government will be overturned. He even 
thinks, that when he is acquainted with the active 
preparations against him, he will neglect the con- 
sulate this year, and prefer keeping his army and 
his province. But if he should be driven to mad- 
ness, he held him in great contempt, and relied 
upon his own forces and those of the republic. 
In truth, though that saying often occurred to me, 
that the fortune of war was common ; yet it was 
some alleviation of my solicitude, to hear a brave 
and experienced man, and one of the greatest au- 
thority, politically expose the dangers of a false 
peace. We had in our possession Antonius's 
speech pronounced the 23d of December, which 
contained an accusation of Pompeius from the 
time of his entering into public life, complaining 
of those who had been condemned, and of the ter- 
ror of his arms. Upon which he observed, "What 
think you that Caesar himself will do, if he should 
obtain the government of the state, when his weak 
and needy quaestor dares to utter such expres- 
sions?" In short, he appeared not onlynot to wish 
for such a peace, but even to dread it. Yet the ap- 
prehension of abandoning the city shakes, as I 
conceive, this resolution b . It is a great vexation 
to me, that I must pay off my debt to Caesar, and 
transfer to that quarter the materials of my tri- 
umph. For it is unseemly to be indebted to one 
of an opposite party. But of this, and many 
other things, when we meet. 

t> The text is obscure, and perhaps faulty. 



704 



THE LETTERS OF MARCOS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER IX* 

" Am I," say you, " to receive a letter from you 
every day?'' Yes, if I find anybody to whom I 
can give it. " But you are on the point of being 
here yourself." It will then be time enough to 
stop when I arrive. I find there is one of your 
letters which has never reached me, owing to my 
friend L. Quintius,who was bringing it, being rob- 
bed and wounded at Basilus's monument. Consider 
therefore, if it contained anything of importance for 
me to know. At the same time resolve me this political 
problem. Since one of these things must take place : 
either 1st, that Caesar should be deemed eligible, 
while he still retains his army through the senate, 
or through the tribunes of the people ; or "2dly, that 
Caesar must be persuaded to give up his province 
and his army, in order to become consul ; or 3dly, 
if this cannot be done, that the comitia may be held 
without any consideration of him, yet with his suf- 
fering it, and retaining his province ; or, 4thly, if 
through the interference of the tribunes he does not 
suffer the comitia to proceed, but yet remains quiet, 
that the business may be brought to an interreg- 
num ; or, 5thly, if in order to enforce his claims, 
he should bring up his army, that we must then 
contend in arms ; and 6thly, that he may either 
begin the contest immediately, before we are 
sufficiently prepared ; or, 7thly, after his friends 
have preferred at the comitia their request 
for his eligibility, and have been refused ; he may 
also, 8thly, proceed to arms either for that single 
reason, that his claims are not admitted ; or 9thly, 
for an additional reason if it happen that any tri- 
bune, in his attempt to interrupt the senate, or to 
excite the populace, should be marked or circum- 
vented by a decree of the senate, or removed, or 
expelled, or should flee to him under pretence of 
being expelled : again, when war is actually begun, 
we must either, lOthly, remain in possession of the 
city, — or 1 lthly, we must leave it, in order to inter- 
cept his supplies of provisions and troops. Tell 
methen of these evils, to one of which we must cer- 
tainly submit, which you think the least. You will 
say, " that he should be persuaded to deliver up 
his army in order to be made consul." It is indeed 
a measure of such a kind, that if he consents no- 
thing can be said against it ; and if he does not 
obtain the admission of his claims, I shall be sur- 
prised if he does not do it. Yet there are some 
persons who think nothing is more to be dreaded 
than that he should be consul. " But so," 
you will say, " is better than with his army." 
Certainly. But this very so may well make one 
exclaim, O what a great calamity ! and it admits 
of no remedy; we must submit at his discretion. 
Think of him a second time consul, whom you re- 
member in his former consulate. At that time, in 
his weakness, he out-matched, you say, the whole 
republic ; what do you expect now ? And when he 
is consul, Pompeius is resolved to be in Spain. 
This is a sad state, that the very thing which is 
most to be deprecated, cannot be refused ; and if he 
does it, he will presently attain the highest favour 
amongst all good men. But setting aside this, to 
which they say he can never be brought, of the 
remaining evils which is the worst ? To yield to 
what Pompeius calls his most impudent demands? 
For what can be more impudent ? You have held 
the province for ten years, granted you not by the 



senate, but by yourself, through violence and fac- 
tion. The period has elapsed, not of the law, but 
of your self-will ; but suppose it to be of the law, 
a decree is passed for appointing a successor, you 
stop it, and say, " Have consideration for me. 1 ' 
Have you for us ? Would you keep your army 
longer than the people granted it ? and against the 
will of the senate ? " You must fight then, unless 
you agree to it." With a good hope, as Pompeius 
says, either of conquering or of dying in liberty. 
If now we must fight, the time depends upon acci- 
dents ; the manner, on future events : on this sub- 
ject therefore I do not call upon you. If you have 
anything to offer in reply to what I have said, let 
me hear it. I am tortured with anxiety day and night. 



LETTER X. 

I have suddenly come to the resolution of 
setting out before light, to avoid observation and 
discourse, especially as my lictors come with their 
laurels c . For the rest, truly I neither know what 
I am doing, or what I shall do ; so much am I 
disturbed with the rash determination d of our 
general, who seems to have lost his senses. How 
can I advise you, who am myself waiting for your 
advice ? What has been Cnseus's object, or what 
is now his object, I cannot tell, cramped as he is 
within the towns, and appearing stupified. If he 
remains in Italy, we shall all be together ; but if 
he retires, our conduct must be a subject of con- 
sideration. Hitherto certainly, if I have any under- 
standing, everything has been done foolishly and 
incautiously. Pray write to me very often, what- 
ever comes into your mind. 



LETTER XL 

What, I beseech you, is all this ? or what are 
people about ? For I am quite in the dark. " We 
have got possession," you say, " of Cingulum ; we 
have lost Anconis ; Labienus has deserted from 
Csesar." Are we speaking of a Roman general, or 
of Hannibal ? O wretched man, and void of under- 
standing , who has never known even a shadow of 
what is truly honourable ! Yet he professes to do 
all this for honour's sake. But how can there be 
honour, where there is not rectitude ? Or is it 
right then to have an army without any public 
appointment ? To occupy the towns of Roman 
citizens, in order to get a readier access to his own 
country ? To cancel debts, to recall exiles, to 
institute six hundred other wicked practices, 
" in order to obtain (as Eteocles says f ) the greatest 
kingdom of the gods ? " I envy him not his fortune. 
I would assuredly prefer a single basking s with 
you in your Lucretine sun, before all kingdoms of 
such a kind ; or rather I would die a thousand 
times, before I would suffer such a thought to 
enter my mind. " What if you should wish it," 

c The fasces borne by the lictors, or Serjeants, attending 
one who had been saluted emperor, were bound with laurel 
till they entered the city. See book v. letter 20. 

d Pompeius hastily left Rome, and retired towards 
Brundisium. 

e Caesar. i In the " Phcenissae" of Euripides. 

g The ancient Romans used to have places appropriated 
to walking or conversation, which were open to the sun, 
and screened from cold winds. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



'05 



you say ? " For everybody is at liberty to wish." 
But I consider this very wish a thing more wretched 
than being crucified. The only thing that is worse, 
is to get what you so wish. But enough of this ; 
for I am too ready to dwell upon these troubles 
with you : let us return to our own general. Tell 
me then, what think you of this resolution of 
Pompeius ? I mean his leaving the city. I am quite 
at a loss : nothing seems more absurd. That you 
should leave the city ? Would you then do the same 
if the Gauls should come h ? The republic, he says, 
does not consist in its walls, but in all that we hold 
dear. Themistocles did the same 1 . For a single 
city was unable to withstand the united flood of 
foreign nations. But Pericles did not so, fifty 
years afterwards, when besides the walls he kept 
nothing. And our own people formerly, when the 
rest of the city was captured, still kept possession 
of the citadel : " so have we heard the deeds of 
ancient heroes." Yet by the grief of the towns, 
and the conversation of those I meet, this reso- 
lution seems likely to produce some effect. There 
is a wonderful complaint (I know not if it is made 
there ; but you will tell me) that the city should 
be without magistrates, without a senate. In short, 
Pompeius by his flight creates a strong sensation. 
What think you ? The case is quite altered, and 
now it is thought that nothing should be granted 
to Caesar. Explain to me how all this is. I have 
a charge attended with little trouble : for Pompeius 
wishes me to have the superintendence of all this 
district of Campania, and the sea-coast ; so that the 
levies of troops, and all business of importance, 
may be referred to me. I therefore expect to be 
unsettled. I imagine by this time you see what is 
Caesar's impetuosity, what is the disposition of the 
people, what is the state of the whole business : 
about all these things I should be glad if you would 
write to me, and (as they are liable to change) as 
often as you can. For I feel some comfort both 
whilst I am writing to you, and whilst I am reading 
your letters. 



LETTER XII. 

I have hitherto received but one letter from 
you, dated the 20th J, in which it is mentioned that 
you had previously despatched another, which I 
have not received. But I beg you will write as 
often as possible, not only if you have learned, or 
heard anything, but even if you suspect it ; espe- 
cially what you think I ought or ought not to do. 
As to what you ask me, that I should take care to 
inform you what Pompeius is doing; I do not 
believe he knows himself, and certainly nobody 
else does. I saw the consul Lentulus at Formiae 
the 22d, and saw Libo. Everything is full of 
alarm and confusion. Pompeius is gone to Lari- 
num ; for there the troops are, and at Luceria, 
and Theanum, and other parts of Apulia. Thence 
it is uncertain whether he means to stop anywhere, 
or to cross the sea. If he remains, I doubt whether 
he can rely upon his army ; if he goes away, what 
I should do, whither I should go, or where I should 
stay, I know not. For I apprehend he, whose 

h This evidently alludes to the city of Rome having for- 
merly been taken by the Gauls. 
1 Upon the invasion of the Persians. 
J Probably the 20th of January. 



tyranny you dread, will act most sadly. Neither 
the adjournment of public business, nor the flight 
of the senate and magistrates, nor the secret k 
treasury, will stop him. But this, as you say, we 
shall soon see. In the mean time you must excuse 
me for writing to you so much, and so often. For 
I feel some consolation from it, and besides am 
desirous of eliciting your letters in return, espe- 
cially your advice, what I should do, or bow I 
should conduct myself, and whether I should give 
myself up wholly to the party. I am not deterred 
by danger ; but am distracted with grief. That 
everything should be conducted with such want of 
judgment, or so contrary to my own judgment ! 
Or should I hesitate, and turn back, and join those 
who are in possession, and enjoy the smiles of 
fortune? "I have too much respect for the 
Trojans 1 ," and am prevented by the duty not only 
of a citizen, but of a friend. But then I am un- 
manned by commiseration for the children. Write 
therefore something to me in my trouble, notwith- 
standing you feel the same distress ; but especially 
if Pompeius should retire out of Italy, tell me what 
you think I ought to do. Manius Lepidus indeed 
(for we were together) has resolved to go no further 
than that ; L. Torquatus says the same. I have 
many circumstances, and among the rest my lictors, 
to embarrass me. I never met with anything less 
capable of being disentangled. Therefore I ask 
for nothing certain, but only for what you think ; 
and, in short, I wish to know your very doubtings. 
It is pretty certain that Labienus has left Caesar. 
If it had happened that on coming to Rome he 
could have found the magistrates and the senate 
there, it might have been of great service to our 
cause ; as by it he would appear to pass sentence 
upon a friend for the sake of the republic. This 
appears indeed now, but is of less service ; for 
there is nobody to serve ; and I imagine he already 
repents of the step he has taken ; unless perhaps 
the very circumstance of his having left him be 
false : I had it however for a truth. Now though, 
as you say, you confine yourself within your own 
boundaries, yet I wish you to explain to me the 
actual state of the city ; whether there is expressed 
any wish for Pompeius ; any dislike towards Caesar ; 
also what you think about Terentia and Tullia, 
whether they should continue at Rome, or be with 
me, or retire to some place of safety. All this, 
and anything else that occurs, I should be glad to 
hear from you, and the oftener the better. 



LETTER XIII. 

I agree with you about the Vennonian business. 
I look upon Labienus as a hero. There has been 
for a long time no deed more distinguished amongst 
our citizens. If no other good arise from it, there 
is this at least, that it has given pain to Caesar. 
But I think moreover that it has some effect in 
advancing the general cause. I love Piso too, 
whose judgment of his son-in-law™ 1 must, I think, 

k The treasury was within the temple of Saturn, and 
there appears to have been one part of it reserved for the 
extraordinary exigencies of the state. [Livius, xxvii. 10.] 
This is what is probably intended in this place. See letter 
21 of this book. 

1 This quotation from Homer occurs before. See book 
ii. letter 5. 

m Caesar had married Calpurnia, Pisa's daughter. 
Z Z 



706 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



I 
have weight. Though you see the nature of this 

contest. It is a civil war of such a kind, as does 
not arise from divisions among the members of the 
state, hut from the audacity of one abandoned 
citizen. He is powerful from his army ; he retains 
many by hopes and promises ; but really aims at 
possessing everything belonging to everybody. To 
this man has the city been delivered up, full of 
supplies, and without a garrison. What is there 
that you may not dread from one who regards 
those temples and houses not as his country, but 
as his prey ? What he designs to do however, or 
by what means, I know not, without a senate, and 
without magistrates : he cannot so much as pretend 
to any public motive. But where shall we be able 
to raise ourselves up again ? or when ? having, as 
you must perceive, a most ungeneral-like com- 
mander, who did not even know the circumstances 
of Picenum 11 . How unadvised he is, the state of affairs 
testifies; for,tosaynothingoftheerrorsofthelastten 
years, what condition is not preferable to this flight? 
Nor do I now understand what are his intentions ; 
and I do not cease in my letters to inquire. It is 
plain that nothing can be more timid, nothing more 
confused : so that I see no protection, for the sake 
of which he was kept near the city ; nor any place 
or situation for protection. All hope is placed in 
two legions that are invidiously retained , and ill- 
affected. For the new recruits are hitherto raised 
against their inclination, and determined not to 
fight. The time for making conditions is lost. 
What is likely to happen I do not see. It has been 
committed by us, or at least by our leader, to go 
out of harbour without our rudders, and give our- 
selves up to the storm. I am in doubt what I 
should do with our young Ciceros : I have some- 
times thought of sending them into Greece. And 
with respect to Tullia and Terentia, when the 
approach of so many foreign troops comes across 
my mind. I dread everything : then again when I 
recollect Dolabella, I a little revive. I should wish 
you to consider what you think I ought to do ; in 
the first place, for security ; (for a different con- 
sideration is due to them and to myself;) then for 
my reputation, that I may not be blamed for 
choosing to let them be in Rome at a time when 
all honest people are leaving it. You also, and 
Peduceus, who has written to me, must take care 
what you do ; for such is your reputation, that as 
much is required of you as of the greatest citizens. 
But about this you will see ; as I wish you to con- 
sider about myself, and my concerns. It remains 
for me to beg that you will find out, as well as you 
are able, what is doing, and will write me word : 
also what you can ascertain by conjecture, which I 
particularly look for from you. For, while every- 
body relates what is done, from you I expect what 
is going to be done. " The best prophet is one 
who guesses well p." Pardon my loquaciousness ; 
which both affords me some relief while I am 
writing to you, and calls forth your letters i. 

I could not at first understand the enigma of 
the Oppii of Velia r ; for it is more obscure than 

n That the town of Picenum should have been garrisoned 
to prevent the approach of Caesar "to Rome. 

o They had been raised for the Parthian war. 

P The original is quoted from Euripides. 

<i There is every appearance of this being the conclusion 
of one letter, and what follows, the beginning of another. 

r The Oppii were probably scriveners and money agents 



Plato's doctrine of numbers s . But I now under- 
stand your meaning ; for you call the Oppii the 
Juices* of Velia. This puzzled me a long time. 
But this being made out, the rest was clear, and 
agreed with Terentia's account. I saw L. Caesar 
at Minturnae the morning of the 25th of January 
with most extravagant instructions ; a mere man 
of straw ; so that he seems to me to have done it 
in mockery, to deliver to him instructions of such 
importance. Unless perhaps he did not deliver 
them, and this man caught hold of some expres- 
sions, which he pretended were instructions. 
Labienus, whom I look upon as a great man, came 
to Theanum the 23d ; there he met Pompeius and 
the consuls. When I know certainly what was 
said and done, I will inform you. Pompeius went 
from Theanum towards Larinum the 24th. That 
day he remained at Venafrum. Labienus seems to 
have brought us a little encouragement. But I 
have nothing yet to tell you from this quarter. 
I rather wait to hear what news is brought thither; 
how he bears this conduct of Labienus ; what 
Domitius is doing among the Marsi, or Thermus 
at lguvium, or P. Attius at Cingulum u ; how the 
people in the city are disposed ; and what is your 
opinion of the future. Upon these subjects 1 
should wish often to hear from you, and what you 
think best to be done about the ladies, and what 
you mean to do yourself. If I were writing with 
my own hand, I should send you a longer letter : 
but I employ an amanuensis on account of a weak- 
ness in my eyes. 



LETTER XIV. 

I send this on the 27th of January, on my way 
from Cales to Capua, having still a slight inflam- 
mation of the eyes. L. Caesar delivered Caesar's 
despatch to Pompeius on the 25th, while he was 
with the consuls at Theanum. The terms were 
approved, with this reserve, that he should with- 
draw his garrisons from those places whieh he had 
occupied beyond the limits of his province. If he 
did this, it was replied that we would return to the 
city, and conclude the business through the senate. 
I hope that we are at peace even at this present. 
For he begins to repent of his madness, and our 
general of his forces v . Pompeius wished me to go 
to Capua, and to forward the levies ; in which the 
Campanian settlers are not very ready to engage. 
Pompeius has very conveniently distributed Caesar's 
gladiators, which are at Capua, and about whom I 
had before sent you a wrong account from Tor- 
quatus's letters. Two are sent to each family. 
There were 500 of them in the schools. It was 
said they were going to make an insurrection : so 
that in this respect the reptiblic has been well pro- 



residing in that part of Rome known by the name of 
Velia. 

s This doctrine of numbers was derived from Pythagoras, 
and is indeed most obscure. Plato has introduced it in his 
" Timaeus," and in some other parts of his works. 

1 I have thought it best to give this, which I conceive to 
be the meaning of the Latin succones, derived from dirSs, 
" succus," or "juice." There is an instance of a similar 
enigma on the name of Philotimus. [See book vi. letter 9.] 
Of the Oppii see book viii. letter 7, note m . 

u These were all of them of Pompeius's party. 

v Pompeius begins to repent of having placed his reliance 
on such doubtful troops. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



707 



vided for. Respecting our ladies, amongst whom is 
your sister, pray consider how far it is reputable 
for us that they should remain at Rome, when all 
other ladies of any respect have left it. I have 
before written to you, and have written to them 
about it. I should wish you to encourage their 
departure ; especially as I have estates on the sea- 
coast, where I preside, in which they may be accom- 
modated as occasion offers. For if offence is taken 
at my conduct, it arises from my son-in-law ; for 
which I ought not to be responsible : but this is 
something more, that our ladies should have con- 
tinued at Rome after all the others. I should be 
glad to know what you yourself, and Sextus, think 
about going away ; and what is your opinion of 
the whole state of affairs. For my own part, I do 
not cease to recommend peace ; which, even if it 
be unequitable, is preferable to the most equitable 
war. But this as fortune shall ordain. 



LETTER XV. 

Since my departure from the city, I have suf- 
fered no day to pass without writing something to 
you ; not that I had much to say, but that I might 
talk with you in my absence. For, when I cannot 
do this in person, nothing is more agreeable to 
me. Upon my arrival at Capua on the 27th, the 
day previous to my writing this, I met the consuls 
and many of our order w ; all of whom wished that 
Caesar might withdraw his garrisons, and abide by 
the terms he had offered. Favonius alone objected 
to our admitting any conditions imposed by him ; 
but he was not attended to in the council. 
Even Cato thinks it now better to submit than to 
fight. He says however that he wishes to be pre- 
sent in the senate, when the terms are debated, if 
Caesar should be induced to withdraw his garrisons. 
Therefore he does not care to go into Sicily, where 
his presence is greatly wanted ; but is desirous of 
being in the senate, which I fear may be prejudicial. 
Postumus also, whom the senate appointed by name 
to go immediately into Sicily to succeed Fuffanus, 
refuses to go without Cato, and conceives that his 
own assistance and weight in the senate is of great 
importance. Thus the business devolves upon 
Fannius, who is sent before with a command into 
Sicily. There is a great difference of opinion in 
our consultations. Most think that Caesar will not 
adhere to the conditions, and that these requi- 
sitions were interposed by him only to interrupt 
our necessary preparations for war. But I expect 
that he will withdraw his garrisons : for if he is 
made consul, he will gain his purpose, and will 
gain it with less guilt than that with which he 
began. But a severe blow must be sustained ; for 
we are shamefully unprepared both in men and 
money. The whole of which, whether belonging 
to individuals in the city, or to the public in the 
treasury, is left for him. Pompeius is gone to 
join the troops of Attius, and has taken Labienus 
with him. I want your opinion upon these matters. 
I design to retire immediately to Formiae. 

w Of the senators. 



LETTER XVI. 

I imagine I have received all your letters ; the 
first irregularly, the rest in the order in which 
Terentia sent them. About Caesar's proposals, 
and Labienus's arrival, and the replies of the con- 
suls and of Pompeius, I have written to you in a 
letter from Capua of the 28th, and have besides 
thrown together several things in the same letter. 
We have now two subjects of expectation ; one, 
what Caesar will determine when he has received 
the answer delivered to L. Caesar ; the other, what 
Pompeius is doing, who sends me word that in a 
few days he shall have an army on which he can 
depend ; and he holds out the hope that, if he gets 
into the country of Picenum, we may return again 
to Rome. He has with him Labienus, who speaks 
confidently of the weakness of Caesar's forces. His 
arrival is a great source of encouragement to our 
Cnaeus. I have been desired by the consuls to be 
at Capua the 5th of February. I set out from 
Capua to go to Formiae the 30th of January ; and 
the same day having received your letter at Cales 
about three in the afternoon, I have immediately 
set down to answer it. I agree with you about 
Terentia and Tullia, to whom I had written referring 
them to you. If they are not already set out, 
there is no occasion for their removing till we see 
what the situation of things may be. 



LETTER XVII. 

Your letter is most acceptable and agreeable to 
me. I thought of transporting the boys into 
Greece, at a time when the quitting Italy seemed 
necessary : for if I should go to Spain this would 
not be equally suitable for them. I think you and 
Sextus may even now very well remain in Rome ; 
for you have no reason to be friends with our 
Pompeius, — since nobody ever withdrew so much 
from the city garrison. You see that I can still 
joke x with you. You must already be acquainted 
with the answer which L. Caesar brings back from 
Pompeius, and the letter he bears from him to 
Caesar ; for it is written and delivered with the 
view of being made public. I have in my own 
mind found fault with Pompeius, who, though he 
writes so well, should have left to Sestius an affair 
of such consequenoe, which was to go into every- 
body's hands. Accordingly, I never read anything 
more Sestian ?. It may, however, be seen by 
Pompeius's letter, that nothing is refused to Caesar ; 
but everything that he can demand is abundantly 
granted, — which he must be mad if he does not 
accept, especially as the demand is most unreason- 
able : for who are you that say, " if Pompeius 
goes into Spain," and "if he dismisses his garri- 
sons ? " Yet this is granted; though not so 
honourably now, when the republic has been 
violated and invaded by arms, as if he had formerly 
obtained the acknowledgment of his eligibility. 
Yet I doubt if even this will satisfy him. For 
when he had delivered his proposals to L. Caesar, 
he should have waited more quietly for the answer; 
instead of which he is reported to be particularly 

* The joke consists in giving the name of garrison to 
the senators and others who quitted Rome, 
y More indicative of Sestius's bad style. 
ZZ2 



708 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



active. Trebatius sends me word, that he was 
desired by Csesar to write to me the 22d of Janu- 
ary, requesting me to come to Rome, and saying 
that I could not do him a greater favour. Upon 
all this he largely dilated. I understood, by- 
reckoning up the days, that as soon as Csesar had 
heard of my departure he began to be uneasy, from 
the apprehension that we z might all be absent. 
I do not doubt, therefore, of his having written 
likewise to Piso, and to Servius. I am rather 
surprised that he should not have written to me 
himself, or should not have applied to me through 
Dolabella or Cselius ; not that I have any objection 
to Trebatius 's writing, of whose affection I am 
well persuaded. I wrote word back to Trebatius 
(for I did not care to write to Csesar, as he had 
not written to me), that it could not very well be 
done at this time, — but that I was at one of my 
farms, and had taken no part in raising troops or 
any other business : and I intend to maintain this 
posture as long as any hope remains. But if war 
breaks out, I shall not be wanting to my duty or 
to my dignity, having first sent the boys into Greece. 
For I perceive that every part of Italy will be in- 
volved in the contest, — so great is the mischief 
excited partly by wicked, partly by jealous citizens. 
But in a few days it will be understood, from the 
manner in which he receives our answer, how 
things are likely to go. Then, if we are to have 
war, I will write to you more at length ; but if 
even a truce is agreed upon, I shall hope to see you 
myself. This "2d of February, on which day I 
write in Formianum, being just returned from 
Capua, I am expecting the ladies, though I had 
written to them by your advice to desire they 
would remain in Rome ; but I hear there has been 
a great alarm in the city. I mean to be at Capua 
the 5th of February, as the consuls desired. What- 
ever intelligence is brought hither from Pompeius 
I will immediately write to inform you ; and I 
shall expect to hear from you upon these affairs. 



LETTER XVIII. 

On the 2d of February the ladies arrived at 
Formise, and brought an account of your attention 
and great kindness to them. I have thought it 
best that they should remain in Formianum along 
with the young Ciceros, till I knew whether we 
were to have a disgraceful peace or a wretched war. 
I am going with my brother to the consuls at 
Capua the 3d of February, on which day I write ; 
for we were desired to be there the 5th. Pompeius's 
answer is said to be liked by the people, and ap- 
proved by the assembly. I had supposed it would 
be so. If he a rejects this, he will lose his esti- 
mation ; if he accepts it,— b " Which then," you 
will say, " do you prefer?" I would answer you 
if I knew how well we were prepared. It was 
reported here that Cassius had been driven from 
Ancon, and that the place was in the possession of 
our people. If a war takes place, this may be an 
advantageous circumstance. They say that Caesar, 

z The senators. 

a Caesar. 

b I have left this break as it is in the original. The 
sense no doubt is, that if Csssar agrees to Pompeius's terms, 
we shall be left in a very bad condition. 



at the very time when Lucius Csesar was sent with 
proposals of peace, was nevertheless eagerly raising 
recruits, occupying different posts, and securing 
himself with garrisons. O the wicked robber ! O 
disgrace to the republic, scarcely to be compensated 
by any peace. But let us cease to complain, and 
bend to the times, and go with Pompeius into 
Spain. This is what I wish for in this sad state; 
since we have, without any pretence, refused to let 
the republic see him a second time consul . But 
enough of this. I forgot before to write to you 
about Dionysius ; but it was my determination to 
wait for Csesar's answer, — that in case I should 
return to the city he might wait for me there, or 
if that should be put off then I might send for 
him. I say nothing of what he ought to do in the 
event of my flight, or what becomes a learned and 
friendly man, especially when he had been asked. 
But this I must not require too rigidly from Greeks. 
You will take care, however, if it is necessary to 
summon him (which I should be sorry for) that I 
may not trouble him against his inclination. My 
brother Quintus is anxious to pay what he owes 
you through Egnatius ; and there is no want of 
inclination on Egnatius's part, nor any want of 
funds : but the times being such that Q. Titinius, 
who has been a great deal with me, has not enough 
to defray his expenses on the road, and has informed 
his debtors that they must continue the same in- 
terest d ; that L. Ligus also is said to have done 
the same ; and that Quintus has at present no 
money in his house, and can neither get any from 
Egnatius nor borrow anywhere : he is surprised 
that you should have no regard for this general 
embarrassment. And I, whilst I observe that 
precept falsely attributed to Hesiod (for so it is 
supposed), to pronounce no judgment till you have 
heard both sides, especially against you, whom I 
never knew to do anything unadvisedly ; yet I am 
moved by his complaint : at all events I wished 
you to be acquainted with it. 



LETTER XIX. 

I have nothing to tell you : nay, a letter which 
I had written I have not sent, — for it was full of 
good hopes ; as I had been informed of the dispo- 
sition of the assembly, and imagined that Csesar 
would abide by the terms, especially as they were 
his own. Behold then on the morning of the 4th 
of February I received your letter, and that of 
Philotimus, of Furnius, and of Curio to Furnius, 
in which he ridicules L. Csesar's embassy. I feel 
quite overwhelmed, and know not what resolution 
to form. Yet it is not for myself that I care ; but 
I am at a loss what to do about the boys. I write 
this, however, on my way to Capua, that I may 
more readily learn the state of Pompeius's affairs. 



LETTER XX. 

The time itself makes me little disposed to say 
much ; for I despair of peace, and our friends 
make no provision for war. You can imagine 

c Caesar's eligibility having been sanctioned by law, there 
was no longer any pretence to oppose it. 

d It was usual to pay the interest of money the middle 
of every month, and probably some intimation was given 
in case the interest was to continue unaltered. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



709 



nothing weaker than these consuls ; by whose 
directions I came to Capua yesterday in a violent 
rain, with the hope of hearing what they had to 
propose, and of learning the state of our prepara- 
tions. They .had not then arrived, but were coming 
empty and unprepared. Cnaeus was said to be at 
Luceria, where he was to join some cohorts of the 
Attian legion, not very steady. But Caesar, they 
say, is rushing on and almost at hand ; not with 
the view of fighting, — for with whom should he 
fight ? but to intercept our flight. For myself, I 
am ready to die with the rest in Italy ; about 
which I do not consult you. But if they go out 
of Italy what should I do ? The winter, the lictors 
which attend me e , the improvidence and negligence 
of our leaders, all tend to make me stay : the mo- 
tives to flight are, my friendship with Cnaeus, the 
common cause of all honest men, the baseness of 
joining with a tyrant, who whether he will imitate 
Phalaris, or Pisistratus f , is uncertain. I should be 
glad if you could resolve these difficulties, and 
assist me with your counsel, — though I imagine 
you must yourself be already in perplexity where 
you are, — but yet as far as you may be able. If I 
learn anything new here to-day, you shall know it ; 
for the consuls will presently be here, as they 
appointed. I hope to hear from you every day. 
You will answer this as soon as you can. I left 
the ladies and the young Ciceros in Formianum. 



LETTER XXI. 

Of our calamities you have earlier intelligence 
than I, for they take their course from thence ; and 
there is nothing good to be expected from hence. 
I came to Capua the 5th of February, agreeably to 
the order of the consuls. Lentulus arrived late in 
the day ; the other consul had not yet arrived on 
the 7th : for on that day I left Capua and staid at 
Cales, from whence I send this the following day 
before it is light. I learned so much at Capua, — 
that the consuls are quite inefficient, and that no 
troops are raised. Those employed on the recruit- 
ing service dare not show their faces, as Caesar is 
at hand ; while our commander is nowhere, and 
does nothing ; so that the people will not enlist, — 
not from want of inclination, but from want of 
encouragement. But our Cnaeus (O wretched and 
incredible state !), how is he quite sunk ! He has 
no spirit, no counsel, no forces, no exertion ; to 
say nothing of his shameful flight from the city, 
his timid harangues in the towns, his ignorance not 
only of his adversary's forces, but of his own. 
What is the meaning of this ? On the 7th of 
February, C. Cassius, tribune of the people, came 
to Capua with instructions from Pompeius to the 
consuls that they should go to Rome and take 
away the money from the sacred treasury £, and 
immediately quit the city. Return to Rome ? 
under what guard ? Then that they should go out 
again ? with whose permission ? The consul wrote 
word back, that Pompeius himself must first 

e Cicero had not yet laid down his command since his 
return from Cilicia. 

f Phalaris was distinguished hy his cruelty ; Pisistratus 
hy his humanity ; both of them tyrants. 

S This seems to have been a sacred deposit reserved for 
extraordinary emergencies. See above, letter 12 of this 
book. 



occupy Picenum h . But that was already lost ; 
which I knew, and nobody else, from Dolabella's 
letters. I had no doubt but that Caesar would 
presently be in Apulia, and that our Cnaeus would 
be on board a ship. It is a great question what I 
should do. I should have no difficulty, if every- 
thing had not been conducted most disgracefully, 
while I was never consulted. But yet I would do 
what becomes me. Csesar himself invites me to 
peace ; but his letter is previous to his present 
impetuous career. Dolabella and Caelius assure 
me that my conduct is satisfactory to him. I am 
distracted with wonderful irresolution. Help me, 
if you can, with your advice ; and at the same time, 
as far as you are able, provide for what may hap- 
pen. In such a confused state of affairs I can 
write about nothing. I am expecting to hear from 
you. 



LETTER XXII. 

I perceive there is not a foot of ground in 
Italy that is not in Csesar's power. Of Pompeius 
I know nothing ; and unless he gets on board a 
ship, I fear he will be taken. What incredible 
speed ! But as for this our general — Yet I cannot 
without pain find fault with one for whom I am 
grieved and distressed. It is not without reason 
that you apprehend a slaughter ; not that anything 
could be less calculated to secure the victory and 
authority of Caesar ; but I see by whose counsels 
he will act. May it turn out well ! I apprehend 
it will be necessary to retire from these towns. I 
am at a loss what steps to take. You will do 
what you think best. Speak with Philotimus ; and 
you will have Terentia on the 13th. What should 
I do ? In what land, or what sea, should I follow 
him, whom I know not where to find ? But how 
is it possible by land ? And in what sea ? Shall 
I then deliver myself up to Caesar ? Suppose I 
could do it with safety (and many people advise it), 
could I also do it with honour ? Certainly not. 
What then ? I want your advice, as usual. It is 
a difficulty which cannot be cleared up : yet tell 
me what occurs to you, and what you mean to do 
yourself. 



LETTER XXIII. 

Ox the 9th of February in the evening I received 
a letter from Philotimus informing me that.Domi- 
tius had an army to be depended upon ; and that 
it had been joined by the troops from Picenum 
under the conduct of Lentulus and Thermus ; that 
Csesar might be intercepted, and that he was afraid 
of it : that the spirits of honest men in Rome were 
raised ; that the wicked were almost thunderstruck. 
I am afraid that this is but a dream : but, however, 
Philotimus's letter has quite revived M. Lepidus, 
L. Torquatus, and C. Cassius the tribune of the 
people, who are with me in the neighbourhood of 
Formiae*. I wish it may not be more true, that 
we are all nearly prisoners ; and that Pompeius is 
retiring from Italy ; of whom (O bitter chance !) 
Csesar is said to be in pursuit. Caesar in pursuit 

h This Pompeius had professed to do ; which if he had 
done, it would have cut off Caesar's approach to the city. 
» See .book viii. letter 6. 



710 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



of Pompeius ? What ? to kill him ? O sad ! 
And do we not all make a rampart of our hodies to 
oppose him ? In this you also take an interest. 
But what can we do ? We are completely con- 
quered, overwhelmed, and taken. However, upon 
reading Philotimus's letter I have changed my 
resolution about the ladies, whom, as I told you, 
I was going to send back to Rome. But it occurred 
to me that it might occasion a good deal of talk, 
if I should seem already to have formed my judg- 
ment of the public cause : in despair of which the 
ladies went back as a step to my own return. Re- 
specting myself, I agree with you, that I should not 
expose myself to a doubtful and hazardous flight, 
by which I can do no good to the republic, none 
to Pompeius, for whom I am willing to die with 
all devotion and readiness. I will therefore remain : 
though to live — K You ask what people are 
doing here. All Capua, and all recruiting, is sunk 
in despair : the cause is considered as lost ; every- 
body is running away ; unless there be any pro- 
spect of Pompeius uniting those troops of Domitius 
with his own. But I suppose we shall know 
everything in two or three days. I have sent you 
a copy of Csesar's letter, as you desired. Many 
persons have assured me of his being very well 
pleased with the part I have taken. I am not 
sorry for this ; whilst I shall continue, as I have 
hitherto done, to avoid anything inconsistent with 
my honour. 



LETTER XXIV. 

Philotimus's letter gave wonderful encourage- 
ment, not to me, but to those who were with me. 
The next day comes a letter to Cassius from his 
friend Lucretius at Capua, saying that Nigidius 
had arrived at Capua from Domitius, and reported 
that Vibullius was fleeing out of Picenum with a 
few soldiers to Cnseus, and that Caesar was imme- 
diately following him, while Domitius could not 
muster 3000 men. He added that the consuls had 
left Capua. I doubt not but Cnseus is trying to 
make his escape, if only he can effect it. I have, 
as you advise, no thought of fleeing away. 



LETTER XXV. 

After I had despatched my letter to you full of 
sad news, but I fear too true, on the subject of 
Lucretius's letter to Cassius from Capua ; Cepha- 
lio arrived, and brought from you a more cheerful 
letter, yet not written with your usual confidence. 
I can believe anything sooner than what you say, 
that Pompeius is at the head of an army. Nobody ' 
brings any intelligence of the kind hither, but 

J I understand this to allude to his destroying himself, 
if he could not live with credit, like what is repeatedly 
said, book iii. letters 9, 19, 23, under the affliction of his 
banishment ; and there also it is rather implied than 
expressed, probably to avoid the ill omen of an open decla- 
ration in direct terms. 



everything that is unpleasant. It is a wretched 
state. He has always been successful in a bad 
cause : in the best of causes he has failed. What 
can be said, but that he understood the one, which 
was easy enough, and did not understand the 
other? For the right administration of the repub- 
lic is a difficult art. But I shall very soon know 
everything, and will immediately write to you. 



LETTER XXVI. 

I cannot say, as you do, " how often do I 
revive ?." For it is only now that I a little revive, 
especially by the intelligence that is brought from 
Rome about Domitius, and the troops of the 
Picentians. These last two days everything has 
become more favourable, so that the preparations 
for flight are put off. Csesar's declaration, "if I 
find you here two days hence k ," is discredited. 
The accounts of Domitius are good ; those of Afra- 
nius excellent. Your friendly advice of keeping 
myself free from either party as long as I can, is 
very agreeable to me. When you add, that I must 
avoid the appearance of being inclined to a bad 
cause, I certainly may appear so ; for I refused to 
take a lead in the civil contest while peace was in 
agitation : not that it was not right, but because 
that which was much more right had brought upon 
me the imputation of wrong l . I certainly did not 
wish to make an enemy of him m to whom Pom- 
peius would offer a second consulate and a triumph : 
and in what terms? "for his most distinguished 
conduct." I know whom I should fear, and why. 
But if a war breaks out, as I see it will, I shall not 
be backward in taking my side. Terentia has 
written to you about the 20,000 sestertii (166^.). 
While I thought I should be moving about, I did 
not care to be troublesome to Dionysius ; and I 
made no reply to your repeated assurance of his 
attachment, because I expected from day to day 
to be able to determine what was to be done. 
Now, as far as I see, the boys are likely to pass 
the winter in Formianum. Whether I shall be 
there too, I do not know ; for if we go to war, I 
am resolved to join Pompeius. When I hear any- 
thing certain, I will take care to inform you. For 
my part I apprehend the foulest war ; unless, as 
you know, some accident should occur on the side 
of Parthia 11 . 

k This is not to be supposed Caesar's actual declaration- 
It appears to be a line out of some poem, and probably 
means no more than to express the apprehensions enter- 
tained of Caesar's unlimited power. 

1 This alludes to the persecution and banishment which 
he suffered in consequence of his exertions in suppressing 
the Catilinarian conspiracy. 

m Caesar. 

n The Romans having sustained a signal defeat by the 
Parthians, at the time of Crassus's death, became pecu- 
liarly alive to any danger that might arrive, and had 
already appointed Pompeius to go thither, [book vi. let- 
ter I,] from whence it was hoped, that, in case of alarm 
from that quarter, the necessity of his absence might pre- 
vent a civil war from breaking out. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



711 



BOOK VIII. 



LETTER I. 

Presently after I had sent my letter to you, 
I received one from Pompeius. It mostly related 
to the transactions in Picenum, of which Vibullius 
had sent him an account ; and to the troops raised 
by Domitius ; all which is known to you. It did 
not, however, represent things in so favourable a 
light as Philotimus's letter. I would have sent 
you the letter itself, but that my brother's servant 
is in a hurry to set off. I will send it therefore 
to-morrow . But at the end of the letter is added 
in Pompeius's own hand : " I think you should 
come to Luceria : you can nowhere be safer." I 
understood this to signify, that he looked upon 
these towns, and maritime coast p , as given up. 
And I was not surprised that he, who had given 
up the headi itself, should not spare the other 
members. I immediately wrote him word back by 
a confidential attendant, that I did not consider 
where I could be most in safety ; but that if he 
wished me to go to Luceria on his own account, 
or that of the republic, I would immediately go : 
and I advised him to preserve the sea-coast, if he 
hoped to be supplied with grain from the provinces. 
I knew that I was saying this to no purpose ; but 
as in the case of retaining the city formerly, so 
now in the case of not relinquishing Italy, I wished 
to declare my opinion. For I perceive that pre- 
parations are making to concentrate all the troops 
at Luceria, not because that place is tenable, but 
that from thence, if we are pressed, we may have 
a ready escape. You must not therefore be sur- 
prised, if I am unwilling to embark in a cause 
which has for its object neither peace nor victory, 
but only a disgraceful and calamitous flight. I 
must go ; that, whatever issue chance may produce, 
I may rather submit to it with those who are 
called good than appear to dissent from the good. 
Though I see that the city will presently be full 
of good people in one sense, that is, of the luxu- 
rious and wealthy ; and if these distant towns are 
deserted, it will overflow. I should be among their 
number, if I were not encumbered with these 
lictors. Nor should I be sorry to have Manius 
Lepidus, L. Volcatius, and Sergius Sulpitius, for 
my companions ; of whom none exceeds L. Domi- 
tius in folly, or Appius Claudius in inconstancy r . 
Pompeius alone affects me, not by his authority, 
but by his kindness. For what authority can he 
have in this cause ? who professed his fondness for 
Caesar at a time when we were all afraid of him ; 
and since he is become afraid himself, thinks that 
everybody ought to be Caesar's enemy. I shall, 
however, go to Luceria ; though he will not per- 
haps be much pleased with my arrival; for I 
cannot conceal my dislike of what has hitherto 
been done. If it were possible for me to sleep, I 



o The letter itself will be found after letter 11 of this 
book. 

P The south coast, from whence Cicero writes. 

q Rome. 

* He should be as well countenanced by the example of 
those who were going to Rome, as by that of those who, 
without being a whit better, staid away. 



should not molest you with such long letters : if 
you are under the influence of the same cause, I 
wish you would make the same return. 



LETTER II. 

I am obliged to you on every account ; both for 
telling me what you had heard ; and for not giving 
credit to what was inconsistent with my usual cor- 
rectness ; and for giving me your own opinion. I 
wrote one letter to Caesar from Capua, in reply to 
what he had said to me about his gladiators s . It 
was short, but expressive of kindness ; not only 
without reproach, but even with great praise, of 
Pompeius. For so that purpose of my letter re- 
quired, wherein I exhorted him to a reconciliation. 
If he has communicated this, he is welcome to 
publish it. I have written a second letter, the 
same day that I write this. I could not do other- 
wise, considering that he had himself written to 
me, and likewise Balbus. I send you a copy of 
my letter, and believe you will find in it nothing 
to blame : if there should be anything, show me 
how I could avoid it. " Do not write at all," 
you will say. How will this enable one to escape 
those who shall please to invent ? However, I 
will do so as far as possible. When you recall me 
to the recollection of what I have done, and said, 
and written, you act indeed a friendly part, for 
which I thank you ; but you seem to me to judge 
differently from myself what is honourable and 
becoming for me in this cause. For, in my 
opinion, nothing was ever done, in any country, 
by any leader ,and head of a state, more disgrace- 
fully than by our friend ; whose condition I sin- 
cerely lament. He has deserted the city, that is, 
his country, for which, and in which, it had been 
glorious to die. You appear to me not to see the 
magnitude of this calamity ; for you remain still 
in your own house. But you cannot remain there 
without the leave of the most abandoned men. 
Can anything be more wretched, more disgraceful 
than this ? We wander about like beggars with 
our wives and children. We have placed all our 
hopes in the life of one man, who is every year 
dangerously ill; and are not driven, but called, 
out of our country ; which we have left, not to be 
preserved till our return, but to be plundered and 
burned ; so many are there in the same situation 
with myself, not in their villas, not in their gardens, 
not even in the city ; or if they are now, they will 
not be there long. In the mean time I must not 
remain even at Capua, but at Luceria. And we 
must now relinquish the sea-coast, and wait for 
Afranius and Petreius* ; for Labienus has lost his 
dignity u . Here you will apply to me the proverb, 
" What you give, that you must bearV I say 
nothing of myself; I leave that to others. But 

s See book vii. letter 14. 

* Those were lieutenants of Pompeius in Spain. 

u He had lost his consideration since his defection from 
Caesar to Pompeius. See book vii. letter 12. 

v This I conceive to be the true interpretation of this 
broken sentence. 



712 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



what dignity is there here ? You, and all respect- 
able people, are, and will continue, at your own 
homes. But before, who did not present himself 
to me ? And now, who comes to this war w ? for 
so it must now be called. Vibullius has already 
done great things. You will know what this is 
from Pompeius's letter ; in which observe the 
place that is scored. You will see what Vibullius's 
own opinion is of our Cnseus. But whither does 
this discourse lead ? I am ready to sacrifice my 
life for Pompeius ; there is nobody for whom I 
have a greater regard : yet not so, that I think all 
hope of saving the republic depends upon him 
alone ; for you give me to understand, something 
differently from what you used to do, that even if 
he should retire from Italy, you think I ought to 
retire with him : which seems to me advisable nei- 
ther for the republic nor for my children, and, 
moreover, neither right nor honourable. " What 
then ? Will you be able to support the sight of a 
tyrant?" As if it signified whether I saw him, 
or only heard of him ; or as if I could look for a 
higher authority than Socrates ; who, when there 
were thirty tyrants, did not set his foot beyond the 
gate x . But I have besides a special reason for 
staying ; about which I shall hope at some time to 
talk to you?. I write this, the 17th of February, 
by the same lamp with which I have burned your 
letter z ; and am going immediately from Formiee to 
Pompeius : if it were to treat of peace, I might be of 
some consideration ; if of war, what part can I take ? 



LETTER III. 

In the anxiety occasioned by this critical and 
wretched state of affairs, while I have no means of 
consulting with you in person, yet I wish to avail 
myself of your judgment. The whole question is 
this : if Pompeius should quit Italy, as I imagine 
he will, what you think I ought to do ; and that you 
may the more easily give me your opinion, I will 
shortly explain what occurs to me on both sides. 
My great obligations to Pompeius in promoting 
my restoration, the intimacy between us, and the 
cause of the republic itself, induce me to think that 
I ought to unite with him, whether in counsel or 
in fortune. Added to which, if I remain, and 
desert that assemblage of the best and most distin- 
guished citizens, I must fall under the dominion 
of one man ; who, though in t many respects he 
shows himself to be friendly to me, (and that he 
might be so I have, as you know, long since pro- 
vided, in apprehension of this storm which hangs 
over us,) yet we must take into consideration both 
the degree of credit that is to be given to his pro- 
fessions, and, if it should be clear that he will 
indeed be friendly to me, whether it becomes a 
brave man, and a good citizen, to remain in that 
city, in which he has enjoyed the highest honours 
and appointments, has conducted the greatest 



w They who now content themselves with staying at 
home, formerly professed their readiness to support the 
cause of the republic. 

x Lysander having made himself master of Athens, 
placed the government in the hands of thirty tyrants. 

y This probably alludes to the conduct of Terentia. 

z There is reason to believe that Atticus, out of his 
great caution, had desired Cicero to destroy his letters, 
or in the mean time to keep them secured.. See book ix., 
letter 10. 



affairs, and held the sovereign priesthood, without 
being any longer his own master, and with the pos- 
sibility of incurring danger, and perhaps some dis- 
grace, if ever Pompeius should restore the republic. 
This is what may be said on one side. See now 
what may be said on the other. Nothing has been 
done by our Pompeius wisely, nothing nobly, and, 
1 may add, nothing but what was contrary to my 
own opinion and authority. I omit those old errors 
of cherishing, raising, and arming Caesar against 
the republic ; that it was he who got laws to be 
passed by violence, and contrary to the auspices ; 
he that added the further Gaul to his command ; 
he that is the son-in-law ; he that was augur at 
the adoption of P. Clodius ; he that was more ear- 
nest in my recall than in preventing my exile ; he 
that extended the period of Csesar's government ; 
he that was on every occasion the advocate of 
Csesar in his absence ; and even in his third consu- 
late, after he began to be the protector of the 
republic, exerted himself to obtain the consent of 
the ten tribunes to his eligibility during his absence ; 
which he afterwards ratified by a certain law of his 
own ; and on the 1st of March opposed the consul 
Marcus Marcellus, who would have put an end to 
the Gallic provinces 3 . But, to say nothing of these 
matters, what can be more disgraceful, what more 
inconsiderate, than this retreat from the city, or 
rather this base flight ? What conditions were 
not preferable to the desertion of one's country? 
The conditions were bad, I grant ; but could any- 
thing be worse than this ? " But he will recover 
the republic." When ? Or what preparations 
are there to encourage such a hope ? Is not the 
country of Picenum lost ? Is not the road left 
open to the city ? Is not all the wealth of the 
metropolis, both public and private, surrendered 
to the adversary ? In short, there is no party, 
no power, no place, where those may rally who 
wish well to the republic. Apulia is chosen, 
the most uninhabited part of Italy, and the most 
remote from the irruption of this war : flight, 
and convenience of the sea-coast, appear to be 
the first objects in this despondency. I took 
charge of Capua against my will ; not that I dis- 
liked that office, but because there was no party to 
act with, none that showed any public sorrow, or 
any declared private sorrow : there was some among 
good men, but this was in a quiet way, as usual, 
and as I might have felt myself; the mob and all 
the weaker sort were inclined to the other side, 
and many were desirous of some change. I told 
Pompeius that I could undertake nothing without 
troops, and without money. I have therefore had 
nothing at all to do ; for I saw from the first, that 
nothing was aimed at besides escape. If I now 
pursue this object, whither should I go ? Certainly 
not with him : for when I had set out to join him, 
I understood that Caesar was in those parts, so 
that I could not safely get to Luceria. I must 
sail then by the Mediterranean sea, with no certain 
course, and in the depth of winter. Besides, should 
I go with my brother, or without him ? or with my 
son ? or how ? Either way I shall have great 
difficulty, and great anxiety. And what violence 
will he commit against me and my fortunes in my 
absence ! Greater than against those of other 
people ; because he may think that in his attacks 

a That is, wanted to put an end to Caesar's administra- 
tion in Gaul. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



713 



upon me he will be supported by some degree of 
popularity. Besides, how troublesome is it to carry 
with me these fetters, these laurelled fasces I mean, 
out of Italy ! And supposing the sea to be tran- 
quil, what place would be safe for me, before I 
could reach him ? I neither know what road I 
should take, nor whither I should go. But if I 
remain, and there be any place for me in these 
parts, I shall do no more than Philippus, than L. 
Flaccus, than Q. Mucius, did at the time of China's 
domination, however it turned out to the last of 
them b ; who used nevertheless to say that he fore- 
saw what must be the consequence ; but that he 
preferred this, to coming up in arms against his 
country. Thrasybulus c judged otherwise, and per- 
haps better. But there is some reason in the 
conduct and sentiments of Mucius, as well as in 
those of Thrasybulus ; both in bending to the times, 
when it is necessary, and not letting slip an oppor- 
tunity when it is offered. But in this very 
consideration these same fasces create an embar- 
rassment. For supposing him to be friendly 
towards me, which is uncertain ; but supposing it, 
he will offer me a triumph d . Would it be more 
dangerous not to accept it ; or more invidious to 
accept it ? This, you say, is a difficult and inex- 
plicable point. Yet explained it must be. " But 
how can it be done ? " Now, that you may not 
suppose I incline to remain, because I have dwelt 
longer on that side ; it may be, as it happens in 
many cases, that there is more pleading on one 
side, more truth on the other. Therefore I should 
be glad if you would give me your opinion, as upon 
a point of great moment, on which I would exer- 
cise an unbiassed judgment. I have a vessel ready 
for me, both at Caieta and at Brundisium. Whilst 
I am writing this account of my own concerns by 
night in the neighbourhood of Cales, there have 
arrived messengers with letters stating that Csesar 
is on his way to Corfinium, and that Domitius is 
at Corfinium with a steady army eager to engage. 
I cannot think that our Cnseus will be so negligent 
as to desert Domitius *, though he had sent on 
Scipio before with two cohorts to Brundisium, 
and had written to the consuls to desire that one 
of them would conduct into Sicily the legion which 
had been raised by Faustus. But it will be dis- 
graceful to desert Domitius, when he is imploring 
his assistance. I have some hope, but not much, 
(though it is generally believed in these parts,) 
that Afranius may have had an engagement with 
Trebonius in the Pyrensean mountains, that Tre- 
bonius has been repulsed, and that your friend 
Fabius has come over with his troops ; and in 
short, that Afranius is approaching with a strong 
force. If this is so, we shall perhaps remain in 
Italy. As it was uncertain what road Csesar 
would take, and it was expected that he would go 
either to Capua or to Luceria, I sent Lepta to 
Pompeius with a letter, and returned to For- 
miae, that I might not fall in with him. I wished 
to let you know this; and have written in a more 
composed state of mind than I did lately, not 
meaning to interpose any judgment of my own, but 
to request yours. 

b Q. Mucius remained in the city, and was killed. 

c Thrasybulus came against his country, Athens, to 
deliver it from the dominion of the thirty tyrants. 

d See book vii., in which his petition for a triumph is 
r epea,tedly mentioned 



LETTER IV. 

Your Dionysius, for so I must call him, not 
mine, (who was pretty well known to me, though 
I chose rather to rely upon your judgment than 
my own,) without any regard to your testimony 
concerning him, which had so often been given me, 
has displayed his insolence in this state of fortune 
in which he supposed me to be. However, as far 
as human prudence can effect, I hope to regulate 
the course of events with some discretion. But 
what honour, what attention, has not been shown 
him ! What commendation to others in favour of 
a contemptible man ! I have even chosen to have 
my judgment impeached by my brother Quintus, 
and generally by all people, rather than not extol 
him by my praises : and have taken upon myself 
part of the trouble of teaching the young Ciceros, 
instead of applying to any other master. Ye gods ! 
what letters have I written to him ! how full of 
honour ! how full of affection ! You would sup- 
pose I was inviting Dicsearchus, or Aristoxenes ; 
not one who was such a prattler, and so little fit to 
teach. " But he has a good memory e ." He shall 
find that I have a better f . He has replied to my 
letters in such a manner, as I never did to any one 
whose cause I declined. For I always added, " if 
it is in my power; " " if I am not prevented by 
some former engagement." I never gave to any 
client, however humble, mean, or guilty, so abrupt 
a refusal, as he has given me. He has positively, 
and without qualification, cut off all communica- 
tion. I never knew an instance of greater ingra- 
titude ; in which vice is included everything that 
is bad. But more than enough on this subject. I 
have got a vessel ready : but wait for a letter from 
you, that I may know what answer it brings to my 
consultation. You are apprised of C. Attius Pelig- 
nus having opened the gates of Sulmo to Antonius, 
though he had with him five cohorts ; and that Q. 
Lucretius has fl.ed from thence. Our Cnseus is gone 
to Brundisium, and deserted the cause. It is all 
over. 



LETTER V. 

Before it was light on the 22d, I wrote to you 
about Dionysius ; and on the evening of the same 
day Dionysius himself came to me, moved, as I 
suspect, by your authority. For how can I think 
otherwise? Though it is true that after having 
done anything intemperately, he often repents. 
But he never was more determined than on this 
occasion. For what I mentioned to you, I after- 
wards had confirmed to me, that before he had got 
three miles " he began to toss his horns into the 
air with anger." He uttered, I mean, many im- 
precations, to fall, as they say, upon his own head. 
But observe my lenity : I put into the same packet 
with your letter one directed to him. This I wish 
to have returned to me ; and for this special pur- 
pose I have sent Pollux, one of my couriers, to 
Rome ; and have written to you to beg that, if it 
should have been delivered to you, you would take 
care to send it back, that it may not come to his 
hands. If there was any news, I would have 

e lie will take advantage of what I have said in his 
favour. 
1 I shall show him that I can resent his ill behaviour. 



714 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



written. I am anxious to hear about Corfinium s, 
where the fate of the republic is to be decided. I 
shall be obliged to you to forward the packet, 
which is addressed to Des. M. Curius h , and to 
recommend Tiro to Curius, that he may advance 
to him, as I have requested, what may be necessary 
for his expenses. 



LETTER VI. 

After I had sealed the letter which I intended 
to send in the night, (as in fact I did, for I wrote 
it in the evening,) C. Sosius, the praetor, came to 
Formianum to my neighbour M. Lepidus, to whom 
he had been quaestor ; and brought him a copy of 
Pompeius's letter to the consul, as follows. 

" I have received a letter from L. Domitius 
dated the 17th of February, of which I inclose a 
copy. Now, though I should not write, yet I am 
sure you see of your own accord, of what import- 
ance it is to the republic, that all the forces should 
be collected as soon as possible into one place. If 
therefore you think well of it, you will take care to 
join me as soon as you can ; leaving at Capua what 
you consider will be a sufficient guard." Then he 
subjoined the copy of Domitius's letter, which I 
sent you yesterday. Good gods ! What horror do 
I feel ! How anxious am I about the issue ? I 
hope however that the name of Pompeius will be 
considerable, and considerable also the terror of his 
approach. I hope also, as nothing has yet hurt us, 
* * *i I have just heard that your ague has left 
you. May I die if I am not as much pleased as if 
it had been my own case. Tell Pilia that it is not 
right for her to keep hers any longer J ; and that 
it is unbecoming the usual harmony between you. 
I hear that my Tiro has been freed from another 
illness of the same kind. I find he has borrowed 
elsewhere for his expenses k . But I had requested 
Curius, in case he should want anything. I hope 
it is Tiro's modesty, rather than Curius's want of 
liberality, that is in fault. 



LETTER VII. 

The only thing remaining to complete the dis- 
grace of our friend is, that he should refuse to 
assist Domitius. Nobody doubts but he will come 
to his relief. For my own part, I think he will not. 
" Will he desert then such a citizen, and those who, 
you know, are with him ? Especially when he is 
at the head of thirty cohorts?" Unless I am 
totally mistaken, he will desert them. He is incon- 
ceivably alarmed, and thinks of nothing but 
escaping. He it is (for I see what is your opinion) 
whom you think I ought to accompany. But 
while I have somebody to avoid, I have nobody to 
follow. For when you praise and extol my pro- 
fession of cho osing rather to be conquered with 

S See letter 3 of this book. 

h This is the person under whose care Cicero had left 
Tiro at Patrae. See book vii. letter 2. 

' The original is mutilated in this part so as to baffle all 
reasonable interpretation. 

J It appeared by a former letter that Pilia had been 
seized by an illness of the same kind as her husband. See 
book vii. letter 5. 

k See before, letter 5 of this book. 



Pompeius, than to conquer with the opposite party, 
I do indeed choose it ; but it is with Pompeius such 
as he then was, or such as I believed him to be : 
but with him, who runs away before he knows 
whom he has to fear, or which way he should go ; 
who has betrayed our cause, left his country, and 
is going to leave Italy ; with him if I chose rather 
to be conquered, it has happened already, I am 
conquered. As to what remains, I cannot bear to 
look at a state of things which I never apprehended ; 
nor indeed to look at him 1 , on whose account I 
must lose not only my friends, but my very self. I 
have written to Philotimus to procure the money 
for my journey, either from the mint (for nobody 
pays), or from the Oppii, your partners" 1 . I shall 
leave to you the care of what else is requisite n . 



LETTER VIII. 

O shameful business ! and therefore misera- 
ble ! For I hold that whatever is base, that, or 
rather that only, is miserable. He had fostered 
Caesar ; he had suddenly begun to fear him ; he 
had agreed to no condition of peace ; had made no 
preparation for war ; had deserted the city ; had 
lost Picenum by his negligence ; had thrust him- 
self into Apulia ; was going into Greece ; was 
leaving us all without speaking to us, or consulting 
us upon so important and extraordinary a resolu- 
tion. Then presently comes Demetrius's letter to 
him, his to the consuls. A sense of honour seemed 
to flash before his eyes, and I supposed him to 
have exclaimed with becoming manliness, " In this, 
which is my duty, let people attempt and plot what 
they will against me ; for right is on my side ." 
But he, bidding a long farewell to honour, goes on 
to Brundisium. It is reported, that Domitius, and 
they who were with him, when they heard it, sur- 
rendered. O grievous affair ! I am prevented by 
anguish from writing more to you. I look anxiously 
for a letter from you. 



LETTER IXp. 

I like exceedingly your advice, which is both 
honourable and suitable to the caution required 
in these times. Lepidus indeed (for we almost 
live together, which is very grateful to him) never 
approved of leaving Italy : Tullusi still less. 
For his letters are frequently brought to me from 
other people. But their opinion has less weight 
with me. They had never given so many pledges 
to the republic r . Your authority greatly influences 

1 Caesar. It seems Cicero was preparing to retreat from 
Caesar and Italy, though without joining Pompeius. 

"> So I venture to translate the word contitbemales ; for 
the Oppii being, as it appears, money-dealers, and living 
in one of Atticus's houses, may well be believed to have 
been connected in business with Caecilius, to whose pro- 
perty Atticus had succeeded. See book x. letter 15. 

" This probably relates to his proposed journey. 

o The original is taken from Aristophanes. 

p What usually stands as the former part of this letter, 
will be found after book ix. letter 11, to which it obviously 
alludes. 

q This is probably the same L. Volcatius Tullus of whom 
mention is made, together with Lepidus, in the first letter 
of this book. 

r They had not been engaged in the service of the repub- 
lic, like Cicero. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



715 



j me. For it holds out the means both of recovering 
I the time that remains, and of securing the present s . 
; But what, I beseech you, can be more wretched 
than this ? that the one should gain applause in a 
I most foul cause ; the other, odium in the very best : 
| that the one should be esteemed the preserver of 
j his enemies ; the other, the deserter of his friends. 
And in truth, however I may love my friend 
Cnaeus, as I do and ought, yet in this respect I 
cannot commend him, that he should not have 
come to the support of such people. If this is 
through fear, what can be more disgraceful ? or if, as 
some suppose, he thought that his own cause would 
be advanced by their destruction, what can be 
more iniquitous ? But let us have done with this ; 
for we augment our sorrow by repeating it. On 
the 24th in the evening the younger Balbus called 
upon me on his way to the consul Lentulus ; to 
whom he was hastening through by-ways, by com- 
mand of Caesar, with a letter, with instructions, 
with the promise of a provincial government if he 
would return to Rome. I do not think it possible 
to persuade him, unless they should have a per- 
sonal interview. He said that Caesar wished for 
nothing more, than to get up to Pompeius, which 
I believe ; and to resume his friendship with him, 
which I do not believe. I even fear that all this 
clemency may be directed against that one object 
of cruelty 1 . The elder Balbus indeed informs me, 
that Caesar wishes nothing more than to live in 
security, while Pompeius retains his authority. I 
suppose you believe this ! But while I am writing, 
Pompeius may already have reached Brundisium, 
for he went lightly armed from Luceria before the 
legions. But this meteor u has dreadful vigilance, 
swiftness, and diligence. What will be the issue I 
cannot guess. 



LETTER X. 

Dionysius having come to me contrary to my 
expectation, I spake to him with all civility, ex- 
plained the peculiarity of the times, and desired 
him to let me know what were his intentions ; that 
I did not require anything of him against his will. 
He replied that he was in uncertainty about his 
accounts ; that some people did not pay ; that from 
others the money was not yet due; with some- 
thing else about his slaves : for which reasons he 
could not be with us. I let him have his way, 
and dismissed him ; as tutor to the young Ciceros, 
not willingly ; as an ungrateful man, not unwill- 
ingly. I wished you to know my opinion of his 
conduct. 



LETTER XI. 

Respecting the great agitation of mind with 
which you suppose me to be affected ; it is true, 
indeed, yet not so great as you may perhaps 
imagine. For every care becomes less, when either 
*the resolution is fixed, or when all consideration is 
fruitless. We may still grieve ; and that 1 do all 
day long : but while it is ineffectual, I fear I may 

s By remaining to secure himself now, and to make 
himself useful hereafter. 
1 To accomplish the death of Pompeius. 
u Caesar. 



even disgrace my studies and learning. I waste 
therefore all my time in considering the excellence v 
of that character which you thought I had accu- 
rately expressed in my treatise w . Do you remem- 
ber then that moderator of the state, to which I 
would refer everything ? For it is thus, if I am 
not mistaken, that Scipio speaks in the fifth book : 
" For as the proper aim of the pilot is a favourable 
course ; that of the physician, health ; that of a 
general, victory : so is the happiness of his country- 
men, of this moderator of the state : that they 
may live secure in wealth, rich in forces, abundant 
in glory, honourable in virtue : for I would have 
him the person to accomplish this greatest and 
best of works." This has at no time been duly 
considered by our Cnaeus, and least of all on the 
present occasion. It is dominion that has been 
sought by both parties ; not any endeavour to 
render the state happy and virtuous. Nor has he 
left the city because he was unable to defend it ; 
nor Italy because he was driven out of it : but this 
was his purpose from the beginning, to move all 
lands and seas, to call up distant kings, to intro- 
duce savage nations armed against Italy, to raise 
the greatest armies. A dominion like that of Sylla 
has long since been his object, and many who are 
with him desire it. Think you that no agreement, 
no convention, could be made between them ? 
Even yet it might : but it is not the aim of either 
to make us happy ; both of them wish to oppose 
it. I have shortly exposed these matters at your 
request ; for you wished me to give you my opinion 
of these calamities. I forewarn you therefore, my 
Atticus, not with the prophetic spirit of her* whom 
nobody believed ; but anticipating by conjecture ; 
" already in the great ocean?, " &c. Nearly in the 
same strain, I say, I may prophesy ; so great a 
weight of evils hangs over us. And in one re- 
spect the condition of us, who remain at home, 
is worse than theirs who have passed over with 
Pompeius ; inasmuch as they have only one to 
fear, whilst we have both. Why then did I stay 
behind ? you will say. It may be either in obedience 
to you ; or because I could not get up to him ; or 
because this was more proper. I say, next summer 
you will see the wretched Italy trampled under 
foot, and shaken by the violence of both parties, 
who will collect together the slaves of every de- 
scription. Nor is a proscription (which was the 
general subject of conversation at Luceria) so 
much to be dreaded, as the ruin of the whole 
country ; so great will be the forces of both in this 
contest. I send you my opinion. But you expected 
perhaps some source of consolation : I can find none. 
Nothing can be more wretched, nothing more 
deplorable, nothing more disgraceful. You ask 
what Caesar has written to me. What he has 
frequently said ; that he was much pleased with 
my remaining quiet ; and he begs me to continue 
so. The younger Balbus brings the same injunc- 
tions. He was on his way to the consul Lentulus 
with Caesar's letter, and the promise of rewards, if 
he would return to Rome. But upon reckoning 

v I have taken the liberty of supposing that viri in the 
text ought to be virtus. 

w His piece on a Republic. 

s Cassandra, who foretold the destruction of Troy, but 
was disregarded. 

y This is the introduction of Cassandra's prophecy, from 
some unknown author. 



716 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



up the days, I think he will pass over before a 
meeting can take place. I wish you to be made 
acquainted with the meagreness of two letters 
which I have received from Pompeius, and my 
own full replies. I send you a copy of them. I 
am expecting the issue of this rapid march of 
Caesar through Apulia to Brundisium. I wish it 
were anything like the Parthian incursions 2 . As 
soon as I hear anything, I will write to you. I 
should be glad if you would tell me what good 
people say. There are reported to be a great many 
in Rome. I am aware that you do not go into 
public ; but you must necessarily hear a great deal. 
I remember your receiving a book, sent you by 
Demetrius Magnes, upon Concord. I should be 
glad if you would lend it to me. You see what 
subject I am considering. 

Cn. Magnus, Proconsul, to Cicero, Imperator. 
Q,. Fabius came to me the 29th of January. 
He brings information that L. Domitius with his 
own eleven cohorts, and fourteen cohorts which 
Vibullius has brought up, is on his way to join me : 
that he had intended to leave Corfinium the 13th 
of February; and that C. Hirrus with five cohorts 
would follow. I am of opinion you should come 
to me at Luceria ; for here I think you will be in 
the greatest safety. 

M. Cicero, Imperator, to Cn. Magnus, Proconsul. 
I received your letter at Formiae the loth of 
February, by which I understood that the transac- 
tions in Picenum were much more favourable than 
had been represented to me ; and it was with plea- 
sure that I recognised the courage and diligence of 
Vibullius. On the coast, over which I have been 
placed, I have hitherto thought it right to have a 
ship in readiness : for what I hear, and what I 
apprehend, is of such a nature, as to make me 
think it my duty to follow whatever plan you 
should advise. Now, since by your authority and 
counsel I am in better hope, if you think it possible 
to maintain Tarracina and the sea-coast, 1 will 
continue there, although there are no garrisons 
in the towns. For there is nobody of condition in 
these parts, except M. Eppius, whom I have de- 
sired to remain at Minturnae. He is an active and 
careful man. But L. Torquatus, who is a brave 
man, and in authority, is not at Formiae : I imagine 
he is gone to you. I came to Capua, agreeably to 
your last instructions, the very day on which you 
left Teanum Sidicinum ; for you had desired me, 
together with M. Considius the propraetor, to take 
care of the affairs in that part. When I came 
thither, I found that T. Ampius was raising troops 
with great diligence, which were transferred to 
Libo, who had also great zeal and authority in the 
colony. I remained at Capua as long as the con- 
suls ; and came thither again the 5th of February, 
as the consuls had appointed. After being there 
three days, I came back to Formiae. At present I 
am uncertain what is your intention, or what is 
your plan of conducting the war. If you think 
this coast should be maintained, as I think 
it may, there must be somebody to take the com- 
mand : it possesses great convenience and respect- 
ability, and has in it many distinguished citizens. 
But if all our forces are to be collected into one 



z That is, soon over. 



place, I shall not hesitate to join you immediately ; 
which I shall be very glad to do, as I told you the 
day I left the city. If I appear to anybody to have 
been backward in this business, I do not regard it, 
provided I do not appear so to you : yet if, as I 
perceive, war must be waged, I trust I shall easily 
satisfy everybody. I send to you M. Tullius, my 
confidential freed-man, by whom, if you think fit, 
you may write to me. 

Cn. Magnus, Proconsul, to M. Cicero, Imperator. 

I hope you are well. I read your letter with 
great satisfaction, and recognised also your former 
spirit in support of the common safety. The con- 
suls have joined the army which I have had in 
Apulia. I earnestly exhort you, by your distin- 
guished and unceasing regard for the republic, to 
come to us, that we may by our united counsels 
afford help and assistance to this afflicted state. I 
think you should travel by the Appian road, and 
reach Brundisium quickly. 

M. Cicero, Imperator, to Cn. Magnus, Proconsul. 

When I wrote the letter which was delivered to 
you at Canusium, I had no suspicion that you 
would cross the sea for the service of the republic ; 
but was in great hope that we might in Italy either 
establish some agreement, which seemed to me 
very desirable, or with the highest dignity defend 
the republic. In the mean time, before my letter 
could have reached you, understanding from the 
instructions which you sent to the consuls by 
D. Lselius what was your intention, I did not 
wait till I should hear from you, but immediately 
set out, with my brother Quintus and our children, 
to join you in Apulia. When I came to Teanum 
Sidicinum, C. Messius your friend, and several 
others, informed me that Caesar was on his way to 
Capua, and would stop at Esernia that very day. 
I was truly concerned, because if it were so, I con- 
sidered not only that my road was intercepted, but 
that I was myself quite cut off from you. I there- 
fore proceeded at that time to Cales, where I might 
remain till I should receive some certain information 
from Esernia about what I had heard. While I 
was at Cales there was brought to me a copy of the 
letter which you sent to the consul Lentulus, 
saying that you had received one from L. Domitius, 
the 17th of February, of which you subjoined a 
copy ; and that it was of great importance to the 
republic, that all the forces should be collected 
into one place as soon as possible ; and directing 
him to leave a sufficient guard at Capua. Upon 
reading this letter I was of the same opinion as 
everybody else, that you would proceed with all 
your forces to Corfinium. But as Caesar had 
encamped before the town, I did not think it safe 
for me to go thither. While we remained in 
anxious expectation of the issue, we heard at one 
and the same time both what had happened at 
Corfinium, and that you had begun to make your 
way to Brundisium : and when I and my brother 
had determined to go to Brundisium, we were 
warned by many people, who came from Samnium 
and Apulia, to take care that we were not surprised 
by Caesar ; for that he had set out for the same 
place to which we were going, and would reach his 
destination quicker than we could. Upon which 
neither I, nor my brother, nor any of our friends, 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



717 



thought it right to run the risk of injuring not 
merely ourselves, but the republic, by our rashness ; 
especially as we had little doubt but that, if even 
the road were safe, yet we should not now be able 
to overtake you. In the mean time I received your 
letter of the 20th of February from Canusium, in 
which you beg that we would come quickly to 
Brundisium. This I received on the 27th, when I 
did not doubt but you would already have arrived 
at Brundisium. The road seemed to be quite 
closed against us ; and ourselves to be taken as 
completely as those who had gone to Corfinium : 
for I consider as taken, not only those who have 
fallen into the hands of armed people, but those 
likewise who are excluded from certain districts, 
and have come within the garrisons and posts of 
their enemies. In this state my first wish was, 
that I had always been with you, as I mentioned 
to you when I wanted to decline the command of 
Capua ; which I did, not for the sake of avoiding 
the trouble, but because T saw that the city was 
incapable of being kept without an army, and I was 
unwilling to expose myself to the same accident, 
which I lament in the case of our brave friends a . 
But when I was prevented from being with you, I 
wish I could have been made acquainted with your 
designs : for it was impossible for me to guess 
them ; as I should sooner have thought anything, 
than that this cause of the republic could not be 
maintained in Italy under your direction. I do not 
mean however to find fault with your determi- 
nation ; but I mourn over the fortune of the re- 
public ; nor do I the less believe you to have acted 
with good reason because I am unacquainted with 
your purpose. I am persuaded you remember 
what was always my opinion, first, respecting the 
maintaining peace, even upon unequal conditions ; 
then respecting the city ; for on the subject of 
Italy you never opened yourself to me. But I do 
not assume to myself that my opinion ought to 
have prevailed : I adopted yours. And I did this, 
not for the republic's sake, about which I despaired, 
rent as it now is, and incapable of being raised up 
without a ruinous civil war ; but I sought you, 
and wished to be with you, and will not omit an 
opportunity of it, should any present. In all this 
business I was well aware that I should not give 
satisfaction to such as were eager for fighting : for, 
in the first place, I professed that I wished nothing 
more than peace : not but I feared the same con- 
sequences as they did, but I esteemed even those 
to be more tolerable than a civil war. Then again, 
after the war was begun, when I found that con- 
ditions of peace were offered to you, and that you 
made an honourable and full reply to them, I 
formed my own determination, which I trusted, 
according to your usual kindness towards me, I 
should easily explain to your satisfaction. I recol- 
lected that I was one who, for my distinguished 
services to the republic, had been subjected to the 
saddest and most cruel sufferings ; that I was one 
who, if I had offended him b , to whom even 
while we were in arms there was granted a second 
consulate, and a most ample triumph, I should be 
again exposed to the same persecution ; since the 
attacks of wicked men on my person seemed always 
to have something of popularity. And this I was 
not forward to suspect, till it was openly threatened. 

a Who were obliged to surrender themselves to Caesar. 
b Caesar. 



Nor did I so much dread it, if it were necessary ; 
as I thought it prudent to avoid it, if it could be 
done with honour. |You see shortly the motives 
by which I was actuated as long as there was any 
hope of peace. Circumstances have removed all 
power of doing anything further. But I have a ready 
answer for those who are dissatisfied with me : for 
I have been no more a friend to C. Caesar than 
they ; nor have they been more attached to the 
republic than I. The difference between us consists 
in this ; that while they are excellent citizens, and 
I am not deficient in the same reputation, I pre- 
ferred settling these disputes by treaty, which I 
understood to be your wish also ; they by arms. 
And since this opinion has prevailed, I shall take 
care that neither the republic may lose the affection 
of a citizen, nor you that of a friend. 



LETTER XII. 

The weakness of my eyes is become more 
troublesome even than it was before; I determined, 
however, to dictate this rather than send no letter 
at all by Gallus Fabius, who is so much attached 
to us both. Yesterday I wrote myself, as well as 
I was able, with a prophecy, which I wish may 
prove false. The occasion of this letter is, not 
only that I may let no day pass without writing to 
you, but, what is a juster reason, that I may beg 
you to employ a little portion of your time (and it 
will not cost you much) to let me thoroughly un- 
derstand your sentiments. I am still at liberty to 
choose what course I should adopt. Nothing has 
been neglected which does not admit, not merely 
of a plausible, but a satisfactory excuse. For 
surely I have not done wrong in wishing to decline 
the proffered administration of Capua, that I might 
avoid any suspicion either of backwardness in rais- 
ing troops or of treachery ; nor, after the conditions 
of peace brought by L. Caesar and Fabatus, in 
taking care not to offend him, to whom Pompeius, 
while they were both in arms, had offered the con- 
sulate and a triumph. Neither can anybody justly 
blame these last measures of not crossing the sea, 
which, though it was matter of consideration, yet 
it was not in my power to accomplish ; nor ought 
I to have suspected such a step, especially as from 
Pompeius' s own letter I concluded (and I perceive 
that you were of the same opinion) that he would 
go to support Domitius. And in truth I wanted a 
longer time to determine what was right, and what 
I ought to do. In the first place then, though you 
have given me generally your opinion on this sub- 
ject, yet I should be glad if you would write to me 
more particularly. In the next place I wish you 
to look a little into futurity, and fancy to yourself 
the character I ought to support, and how you 
think I can be of most use to the republic, — whe- 
ther there is any room for a pacific personage, or 
whether everything rests with the military. I, 
who measure everything by duty' 1 , recollect, how- 
ever, your advice e , which if I had followed I 

1 Cains Julius Caesar, the latter of which names are more 
familiar to the English reader. 

d This alludes to the principles of the Academic sect, 
which Cicero followed. 

e Atticus, in conformity with his own principles as an 
Epicurean, having recommended Cicero not to provoke 
hostility at the time of Clodius's machinations, which 
ended in Cicero's banishment. 



718 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



should not have felt the miseries of those times. I 
remember what you then recommended through 
Theophanes and Culeo, and I often recollected it 
with regret. Now then at least let me revert to 
that estimation of things which I formerly rejected, 
and consider not only what is glorious but a little 
also what is expedient. But I prescribe nothing ; 
I wish you to give me exactly your own opinion. 
I should be glad also if you would find out as cor- 
rectly as you can (and you will meet with persons 
through whom you may do it) what our friend 
Lentulus, what Domitius, is doing, or what he 
means to do ; how they conduct themselves, — 
whether they accuse or are angry with anybody. 
With anybody, do I say ? With Pompeius. Pom- 
peius throws all the blame upon Domitius, as 
appears by his letter, of which I send you a copy. 
You will see after these matters ; and, as I men- 
tioned to you before, I should be obliged to you to 
send me the book which Demetrius Magnes pre- 
sented to you upon Concord. 

Cn. Magnus, Proconsul, to C. Marcellus f and 
L. Lentulus, Consuls. 
As I considered that, while our troops were 
dispersed, we could neither render any service to 
the republic nor defend ourselves, — therefore I 
wrote to L. Domitius first to come to me himself 
with his whole force, or if he doubted about him- 
self, to send me the nineteen cohorts which were 
on their way to me from Picenum. What I feared 
has happened, — that Domitius was hemmed in, 
without being strong enough to form an encamp- 
ment, because he had my nineteen cohorts and his 
own twelve distributed in three different towns, 
having placed part at Alba and part at Sulmo, — 
nor could he disengage them if he would. I am 
now, therefore, in the greatest anxiety. For I 
wish to relieve so many valuable men from the 
hazard of a siege, and am unable to go to their 
assistance, — for I do not think it safe to let these 
two legions be conducted thither, — out of which I 
have not been able to collect more than fourteen s 
cohorts, having sent a garrison to Brundisium, and 
not thinking that Canusium ought to be left un- 
protected in my absence. I sent word to D. 
Laelius that I hoped to have an increase of force, 
so that if you thought well of it one of you might 
join me ; the other might go into Sicily with such 
troops as you have obtained at Capua and in the 
neighbourhood, together with those which have 
been raised by Faustus ; that Domitius with his 
twelve cohorts should proceed to the same destina- 
tion ; that all the remaining forces should be col- 
lected at Brundisium, and from thence should be 
transported in ships to Dyrrachium. Now, since 
at this time I am no more able than you to go to 
the assistance of Domitius, I must leave him to 
extricate h himself through the mountains. I 
cannot suffer the enemy to attack these fourteen 
cohorts, which I have in a doubtful disposition, or 

f In the text it is M. Marcellus ; but, as there can be 
little doubt of this being a mistake, I have taken the liberty 
of altering it. 

g: The complete legions contained ten cohorts, each cohort 
being divided into three manipuli, and each manipulus 
into two centuries. Had the numbers therefore been com- 
plete, which they seldom were, the legion would have 
contained 6000 men. 

h The passage in the original is defective. I have given 
what I suppose to be the true meaning. 



to come up with me in my march : on which 
account I have thought it right (and I find that 
Marcellus, and the rest of our order 1 who are here, 
are of the same opinion) to conduct the force I 
have with me to Brundisium. I beg you to collect 
whatever soldiers you can, and to come to the same 
place as soon as possible. I think you may dis- 
tribute among the men which you have with you 
the arms you were going to send me. You will 
confer a great service on the republic by transport- 
ing the supernumerary arms on beasts of burden to 
Brundisium. I should be glad if you would give 
notice to my people upon this subject. I have 
sent to the praetors P. Lupus and C. Coponius to 
join me, and to conduct to you what troops they 



Cn. Magnus, Proconsul, to Domitius, Proconsul. 
I am surprised that you have not written to me, 
and that all information about the republic should 
come to me from others rather than from you. 
W T hile our troops are dispersed it is impossible for 
us to be equal to our adversaries. With our 
forces united I hope we may be of service to the 
republic and to the common safety. When, there- 
fore, you had determined, as Vibullius wrote me 
word, to leave Corfinium the 9th of February with 
the army, and to come to me, I wonder what 
should have caused you to change your mind. For 
the reason which Vibullius mentions is of little 
weight, that you had heard of Caesar's having left 
Firmum, and being arrived at Castrum Truentinum ; 
for the nearer the enemy approached, the more 
expeditiously ought you to have acted, in order to 
join me before Caesar could obstruct your road or 
cut off the communication between us : therefore, 
I beg and entreat you again and again, as I have 
not ceased to do in my former letters, to come to 
Luceria on the earliest day, before Caesar can bring 
together into one place the forces which he pur- 
posed to collect, and separate us from each other : 
or if you meet with impediments from some who 
would save their own troops, at least it is reasonable 
that I should desire you would send me those 
cohorts which are come from Picenum and Cama- 
rinum, and have left their own fortunes. 

Cn. Magnus, Proconsul, to Domitius, Proconsul. 
M. Calenius brought me your letter the 18th 
of February, in which you say that you mean to 
observe Caesar's motions, and if he should attempt 
to come towards me by the sea-coast that you will 
immediately join me in Samnium, — or if he should 
loiter about those parts that you are disposed to 
resist him, whenever he comes within your reach. 
I have a just sense of your spirit and courage in 
this determination ; but we must take great care 
that our forces are not so divided as to render us 
unequal to our adversary, who has already a great 
many troops, and will shortly have more. For 
with your usual prudence you ought to consider 
not only how many cohorts Caesar can at present 
bring against you, but what numbers of cavalry and 
infantry he will in a short time collect. This is 
confirmed by a letter which I have received from 
Bussenius, in which he says, what I have heard 
also from others J, that Curio is collecting the 

i The order of senators. 

J I have translated this as if it were written altis, instead 
of illis ,- for this, I doubt not, is the proper reading. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



'10 



garrisons from Umbria and Tuscany, and proceed- 
ing to join Caesar. If these forces should unite, 
and part should be sent to Alba, part should come 
against you, — without fighting, but only defending 
themselves in their quarters, you will be embar- 
rassed, and unable alone to resist such numbers 
with your present force, so as to admit of your 
foraging. For these reasons I strongly advise you 
to come hither as soon as possible with your whole 
force. The consuls have determined to do the 
same. I sent you advice by Metuscilius, that it 
was necessary to prevent my two legions from 
being brought to face Caesar without the Picentine 
cohorts. You must not, therefore, be uneasy if 
you should hear of my retreating, in case Caesar 
comes towards me, — as I think it right to provide 
against the embarrassment of being surrounded ; 
for I can neither form a camp, owing to the season 
of the year and the disposition of the soldiers, nor 
can I safely bring together the troops out of all the 
towns for fear of having my retreat cut off. I have 
therefore collected at Luceria not more than four- 
teen cohorts. The consuls will either bring all the 
garrisons, or will go into Sicily : for it is expedient 
either to have a strong army with which we may 
rely upon breaking through the enemy, or else to 
get possession of such countries in which we can 
defend ourselves, — neither of which is at present 
the case ; for Caesar is already master of a great 
part of Italy, and his army is superior both in 
appointments and numbers to mine. We must, 
therefore, take care to pay the utmost attention to 
the republic. I beg you again and again to come 
to me as soon as possible with all your forces. 
We may yet raise up the republic if we unite our 
counsels in conducting the business ; but if we are 
disunited we must be weak. Such is my ultimate 
opinion. 

Since writing this, Sica has brought me your 
letter and instructions. Respecting your wish that 
I should go to you, I do not consider it possible 
for me to do it, because I have no great confidence 
in these legions. 

Cn. Magnus, Proconsul, to Domitius, Proconsul. 
I received your letter the 17th of February, 
in which you inform me that Caesar has pitched his 
camp before Corfinium. What I supposed, and 
forewarned you, has happened, — that he does not 
wish at present to engage in battle with you ; but 
that he will collect together all his forces and 
hamper you so as to prevent your joining me, and 
uniting those troops of the best citizens with these 
legions, whose disposition is doubtful, — which 
makes me the more concerned at your account. 
For I cannot sufficiently rely upon the disposition 
of the soldiers whom I have with me to risk the 
whole fortune of the republic ; nor have those 
joined who have been enrolled by the consuls out 
of the levies. Therefore try if by any means you 
can even now manage to extricate yourself, that 
you may come hither as soon as possible before all 
the adversary's forces are united. For men cannot 
very quickly arrive here from the levies, — and if 
they did, it does not escape you how little they can 
be trusted against veteran legions while they are 
not so much as known to each other. 



LETTER XIII. 

The hand-writing of a clerk will show you that 
my eyes are not yet well ; and the same cause will 
make me short ; though at present I have nothing 
to tell you. My only expectation is in the news 
from Brundisium. If Caesar should have come up 
with our friend Cnasus, the hope of peace is very 
doubtful ; but if he should have passed over first, 
there is danger of a destructive war. But do you 
perceive with what a man the republic has to do ? 
how acute ! how vigilant ! how ready ! If forsooth 
he puts nobody to death, and plunders nobody, he 
will be most loved by the very people who were 
most afraid of him. I have a good deal of conver- 
sation with the towns-people, and with those from 
the country ; they care absolutely about nothing 
but their fields, and their pleasure-houses, and their 
pelf. See how things are changed. Him k , on 
whom they once relied, they fear ; and they love 
this man l , whom they used to dread. I cannot 
without grief reflect upon the errors and misconduct 
of our party, through which this has happened. I 
told you what dangers I apprehended. I am in 
expectation of hearing from you. 



LETTER XIV. 

I am afraid my daily letters must be troublesome 
to you, especially as I can send you no news, nor 
indeed find any new subject to write upon. And if 
I were expressly to send messengers to you about 
nothing at all, I should act absurdly ; but when 
people are going, particularly my own servants, I 
cannot suffer them to go without writing something 
to you. Besides, believe me, I feel some relief in 
these miseries while I talk, as it were, with you ; 
and still more when I read your letters. I think 
indeed there has been no time since this flight and 
trepidation, when this intercourse of letters could 
with more propriety be interrupted ; as nothing 
new is heard at Rome ; nor in these parts, which 
are two or three days nearer to Brundisium than 
you are. It is at Brundisium that all the struggle 
of this first season passes. I am distracted with 
anxiety about the event. But I shall know all 
before you ; for I find that Caesar set out from 
Corfinium on the afternoon of the same day on 
which Pompeius set out in the morning from 
Canusium, that is the 21st of February. But such 
is the manner of Caesar's march, and with such 
allowances does he urge the speed of his soldiers, 
that I dread his getting to Brundisium sooner than 
is to be wished. You will say, " What good is 
there in anticipating the distress of such an event, 
which in three days you will know ?" There is 
none indeed. But, as I said before, I love to 
converse with you. Besides, you must know that I 
begin to waver in my opinion, which seemed to be 
already fixed. For the authorities 111 , which you 
approve, are not satisfactory to me. For what 
have they ever done to distinguish themselves in 
the republic ? or who expects from them anything 
praise-worthy ? not that I mean to applaud those 
who have crossed the sea for the purpose of increas- 

k Pompeius. l Caesar. 

m M. Lepidus, L. Volcatius Tullus. See book viii. let- 
ters 1 and 9. 



720 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



ing the preparations for war ; however intolerable 
may be the present state of affairs ; for I see how 
great and how ruinous the war must be. But I 
am influenced by regard for an individual, to whom 
it seems due that I should be a companion in his 
> flight, and an assistant in restoring the republic. 
" So often then do you change your mind?" I 
converse with you as with myself; and who is 
there but in a case of such moment argues variously 
with himself? at the same time I wish to elicit 
your opinion ; that if it is still the same, I may be 
the more determined ; if it is changed, that I may 
assent to it. It is of importance to the subject of 
my doubt, to know what Domitius will do, and 
what our friend Lentulus. We have various 
reports about Domitius ; sometimes, that he is at 
Tibertum, or at Lepidus's house ; or that Lepidus 
is gone with him to the city ; which I find is not 
true ; for Lepidus says that it is uncertain where 
he is gone, and that he does not know whether his 
object be to conceal himself, or to reach the sea. 
He is equally ignorant about his son. He adds, 
what is distressing, that a large sum of money, 
which Domitius had at Corfinium, has never been 
delivered to him. We hear nothing of Lentulus. 
I should be glad if you could find out these things, 
and let me know. 



LETTER XV. 

On the 3d of March, iEgypta delivered to me two 
letters from you ; one an old one, dated February 
26, which you mention to have given to Pinarius, 
whom I have not seen. In this you express your 
anxiety to know what has been done by Vibullius, 
who was sent on 11 before. But Caesar has not so 
much as seen him. In another letter I perceive 
that you are aware of this. You desire also to 
know how I receive Caesar on his return : but I 
mean to avoid him altogether. You mention 
besides, that you meditate a Haemonian flight , 
and a change of your life ; which I think you 
must adopt : also that you are uncertain whether 
Domitius has his fasces? with him ; but as soon as 
you know, you will inform me. You have my 
reply to your first letter. There are two subsequent 
ones, both dated the 28th of February, which have 
plucked me from my former resolution^, in which, 
as I before wrote to you, I was already wavering. 
What you say, " that Jupiter himself forbids it r ," 
has no weight with me. For there is danger in 
displeasing either party : and the superiority is still 
uncertain, though the worst cause has the appear - 

n Vibullius was of Pompeius's party, was taken by Caesar 
at Corfinium, and thence despatched to Pompeius with 
proposals of peace, which the latter disregarding never sent 
back Vibullius at all. 

o The text is probably corrupt. It appears to be copied 
from Atticus's own expression in allusion to some story 
that has been lost. It may be believed that he meant to 
signify a design of retiring into Epirus. 

P Domitius had been nominated to succeed Caesar in 
Gaul. If he had the fasces carried before him, it would be 
a mark of his assuming the authority in opposition to 
Caesar. His example would be valuable to Cicero, who 
was likewise encumbered with his lictors. See letter 1 of 
this book. 

<i Persuading him now to leave Italy, contrary to the 
determination he had once formed. 

r These words arc, no doubt, copied from Atticus's own 
expression : the meaning probably is, that the cause of the 
republic seemed to be abandoned by the gods. 



ance of being best provided. I am not moved 
either by the consuls, who are themselves more 
easily moved than a leaf or a feather. It is the 
consideration of my duty that distracts me, and 
has done from the beginning. It is certainly safer 
to remain ; but is thought more honourable to cross 
the sea. At the same time I would rather many 
should think I had acted imprudently, than a few 
dishonourably. As to what you ask about Lepidus 
and Tullus ; it is not doubted 8 but they will present 
themselves to Caesar, and will go into the senate. 
Your last letter is dated the first of March, in 
which you wish for a meeting 1 , and do not despair 
of peace. But while I write this, I neither believe 
they will meet ; nor, if they did, that Pompeius 
would agree to any terms. You seem to entertain 
no doubt of what I ought to do, provided the 
consuls should cross the sea •. they certainly cross 
it, or as things are now, have already crossed. 
But observe, that, except Appius, there is scarcely 
anybody who has not a right to do so u . For 
they either have some command, as Pompeius, as 
Scipio, Setenas, Fannius,Voconius,Sestius,and the 
consuls themselves, who have by ancient custom 
the privilege of visiting all the provinces ; or they 
are lieutenants under these. But I do not wish to 
argue the point. I see what is your opinion, and 
am pretty well satisfied on the subject of my duty. 
I would write more, if I couid do it myself v ; I 
shall be better able two days hence. I send you a 
copy of Balbus Cornelius's letter, which I received 
the same day as yours, that you may pity my con- 
dition when you see me thus mocked w . 

Balbus to Cicero, Imperator. 
Undertake, I entreat you, Cicero, the care and 
consideration most becoming your high character, 
of bringing back again to their former harmony 
Caesar and Pompeius, who have been torn asunder 
by the perfidy of certain persons. Believe me, 
Caesar will not only put himself in your power, but 
will esteem it a great favour conferred upon him, 
if you apply yourself to this business. I should be 
glad if Pompeius would do the same ; though I 
rather wish, than expect, that he can be brought to 
any terms at such a time. But when he has stopped 
his flight, and laid aside his fears, I shall begin not 
to despair of the influence your authority may have 
with him. Caesar is pleased, and I am most 
particularly so, with your wishing my friend Len- 
tulus the consul to remain here. For I have that 
regard for him, that I do not love Caesar better. 
If he had suffered me to talk with him as 1 
used to do, and had not wholly rejected my con- 
versation, I should be less uneasy than I am. Do 
not imagine that at this time anybody is more vexed, 

s I have interpreted this sentence as if the words non 
dubitant were independent of Mi, which latter word I con- 
ceive to be connected with futuri sint. "People do not 
doubt but they will join Caesar." For this interpretation 
of dubitant, see book iv. letter 3, note ! . Otherwise it 
appears very harsh to say that they did not themselves 
doubt but they should join him, &c. 

I Between Caesar and Pompeius. See letter 9 of this 
book. 

II The senators were not at liberty to quit Italy but upon 
some public duty. 

v He was probably prevented by the infirmity of his 
eyes, which he hoped a few days would now entirely 
remove. 

w Flattered with mock respect. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



721 



than I, when I see him, whom T love more than 
myself, conducting himself in his consulate like 
any thing rather than a consul. But if he will be 
ruled by you, and will take my word about Caesar, 
and spend the remaining part of his consulate in 
Rome ; I shall begin to entertain hope, that by the 
recommendation even of the senate, upon your 
authority and at his motion, Pompeius and Caesar 
may be united. If this is accomplished, I shall 
think I have lived long enough. I am sure you 
must approve of Caesar's whole conduct respecting 
Corfinium ; as in such a business it could not 
terminate more favourably, than by being effected 
without bloodshed. I am glad you were pleased 
with the arrival of mine and your friend Balbus x . 
All that he has told you about Caesar, or that 
Caesar has written, I am persuaded, whatever turn 
his affairs may take, he will prove to you by his 
conduct that he has written in great sincerity. 



LETTER XVI. 

Everything is ready for me, excepting a road 
to conduct me in secrecy and safety to the Adriatic 
sea. For I cannot take advantage of the sea here ^, 
at this season of the year. But how shall I get 
thither, where my inclination leads me, and circum- 
stances call me ? For it is necessary to set out 
speedily, that I may not meet with some obstacle 
to stop me. Yet my inducement to go is not he z 
whom one might suppose ; whom I have long 
known to be a bad politician, and now find to be 
also a bad general. It is not he therefore that 
influences me ; but the talk of the world, of which 
I am informed by Philotimus. He says that I am 

x Balbus the younger, [see letter 9 of this book,] nephew 
to him who writes this letter. 

Y The Mediterranean washing the southern coast of Italy, 
from whence Cicero writes. 

z Pompeius. 



reproached by all the principal people. Ye gods ! 
by what principal people ? By those who are 
running to meet, and to sell themselves to Caesar ? 
The towns salute him as a god. And they do not 
dissemble, as when they put up vows for Pompeius 
in his sickness : but whatever this Pisistratus a has 
not inflicted, is as much a subject of gratitude, as 
if he had prevented some other person from inflict- 
ing it. This man b they hope to propitiate ; the 
other they think exasperated. What greetings do 
you think are made from the towns ? What hon- 
ours ? ' ' They are afraid," you will say. I believe 
it ; but they are more afraid of the other d . They 
are delighted with Caesar's insidious clemency : 
they dread Pompeius's anger. The 850 judges e , 
who were particularly attached to our Cnaeus, some 
of whom I see every day, dread certain threats of 
his at Luceria f . I ask again then, who are these 
principal people, who would drive me out, while 
they remain themselves at home ? Nevertheless, 
whoever they are, " I respect the Trojans £." At 
the same time I know what I have to hope ; and 
go to join one, who is better prepared to lay waste 
Italy than to conquer it ; in short, whom 1 expect 
— indeed while I am writing this, March 2d, I am 
expecting to hear something from Brundisium. 
What something ? How shamefully he h has run 
away from thence ; and by what road this con- 
queror 1 returns, and whither. Which when I have 
ascertained, if he comes by the Appian road, I think 
of going to Arpinum. 

a Caesar. b Caesar. 

c Pompeius. d Pompeius. 

e The number of judges varied at different times. They 
were chosen annually from the three different orders of 
citizens, and corresponded more nearly to our jurymen than 
to our judges. 

f The apprehension of a proscription. See letter 11 of 
this book. 

s See book vii. letter 12, and book ii. letter 5. 

h Pompeius. > Caesar. 



BOOK IX. 



LETTER I. 
Before you read this, I imagine I shall know 
what has been done at Brundisium ; for Cnaeus 
set out from Canusium the 22d of February, and 
I am writing the 6th of March, the 13th day 
afterwards J. In the mean time I am distracted 
with the expectation of every hour ; and am sur- 
prised that no rumour even should yet have reached 
us. This silence is quite wonderful. But it is 
perhaps idle to vex oneself about what must soon 
be known. I am uneasy at not yet having been 
able to find out where our friend Lentulus, where 
Domitius is. And I want to know, that I may 
the more readily understand what they mean to 
do ; whether they will join Pompeius ; and, if so, 
by what way, or when they will go. I understand 
the city is already full of the principal citizens, 

J In the original it is the 14th day, because the Romans, 
in their computation of time, were accustomed to include 
both the first and the last day. 



and that Sosius and Lupus k , whom our Cnaeus 
expected to be at Brundisium before him, are 
trying causes. From these parts numbers are 
going up. Even M. Lepidus, with whom I used 
to spend my day, thinks of going to-morrow. I 
shall however remain in Formianum, that I may 
receive the earlier intelligence ; I then design to 
go to Arpinum ; and thence to the Adriatic sea by 
the most unfrequented road, having first set aside 
or wholly dismissed my lictors. For I hear that 
many respectable people, who on this and former 
occasions have rendered good service to the re- 
public, disapprove of my delay, and make many 
severe observations upon me in their convivial 
meetings. Let us give way then, and in order to 
show that we are good citizens, let us make war 
upon Italy by sea ' and land : and let us once more 
light up against us the enmity of wicked men, 

k The two'praetors. 

1 This is evidently said with a mixture of irony. 
3 A 



722 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



which was just extinguished ; and let us follow the 
counsels of Lucceius and Theophanes m . For 
Scipio either goes into Syria by his lot, or honour- 
ably attends his son-in-law", or avoids the anger 
of Caesar : the Marcelli, if they were not afraid 
of Caesar's sword, would stay behind : Appius is 
influenced by the same apprehension, and some 
recent causes of enmity : besides him, and C. 
Cassius, the others are lieutenants ; Faustus is 
proquaestor : I am the only person at liberty to 
choose the course I shall take °. My brother will 
go with me ; though it is not reasonable that he 
should share my fortunes on this occasion, which 
will more particularly expose him to Caesar's dis- 
pleasure ; but I cannot prevail upon him to stay. 
We shall thus give to Pompeius what we owe him. 
Indeed nobody else moves me ; neither the talk of 
good men, of whom there are none, nor the cause 
itself, which has been conducted timidly, and will 
be prosecuted wickedly p. To him, to him alone I 
give this, while he does not even ask it, but sup- 
ports (as he says i) not his own cause, but that of 
the public. I shall be glad to know what you 
think about going to Epirus. 



LETTER II. 

Though I am expecting a longer letter from 
you on the 7th of March, which I think is your 
well day, yet I have thought it right to reply to 
that short one which you despatched on the 5th, 
when the fit was going off. You say you are glad 
that I have staid ; and tell me that you continue 
in your opinion. But in your former letters you 
seemed to me not to doubt but that I ought to go, 
provided Cnaeus should embark with a respectable 
attendance, and the consuls should pass over. 
Have you then forgot this ? or did I not rightly 
understand you ? or have you changed your opi- 
nion ? But either in the letter which I am 
expecting I shall see distinctly what you think, or 
I shall solicit another. Nothing has yet been 
heard from Brundisium. What a difficult and 
hopeless state ! How in reasoning upon it you 
leave nothing unsaid ! Yet in conclusion, how 
you explain nothing of your real sentiments ! You 
are glad that I am not with Pompeius ; and yet 
you state how disgraceful it would be for me to be 
present r while anything is said against him, and 
how impossible to approve it. I must certainly 
then oppose it. " God forbid," you say. What 
therefore is to be done, if in the one case there 
is guilt, in the other punishment ? " Obtain," 
you say, " from Caesar leave to absent yourself, 
and to remain quiet." Must I then descend to 
supplication ? O sad ! and what if it is denied 
me ? And respecting my triumph, you say that I 
shall be at liberty to do as I please. But what if 
Caesar should press it upon me ? Should I accept 
it ? What can be more disgraceful ? Should I 

m Lucceius and Theophanes were Pompeius's advisers in 
this war. 

" Pompeius. 

° To choose whether he should stay in Italy, or cross the 
sea to Pompeius. 

P By making war upon our country. 

9 That is, what he professes, though untruly. Sec hook 
iv. letter 10. 

r In the senate. 



refuse ? He will think that he is wholly spurned; 
more so than in the affair of the twenty commis- 
sioners s : and he is accustomed, in exculpating 
himself, to throw upon me all the blame of those 
times ; that I am so hostile to him, that I will not 
even receive honour at his hands. How much more 
unkindly will he bear this ! just so much as the 
honour itself is greater, and he is more powerful. 
For as to what you say, that you doubt not but 
Pompeius is greatly offended with me at this time ; 
I see no reason why he should be so at this time. 
Can he, who never acquainted me with his inten- 
tion, till Corfinium had been lost ; can he complain 
that I did not go to Brundisium, when Caesar was 
between me and it ? Besides, he knows that his 
complaining on that account is unjustifiable : he 
supposes me to have been better informed than 
himself about the weakness of the towns, about the 
levies, about peace, about the state of the city, 
about the treasury, about the occupation of Pice- 
num. But if I would not go when it was in my 
power, then indeed he might be angry. Which I 
do not regard from fear of his doing me any harm ; 
(for what can he do ? " Who is a slave, that is 
not afraid to die * ?") but because I abhor the im- 
putation of ingratitude. I trust therefore that my 
going to him, at whatever time it should be, would, 
as you say u , be acceptable. As to what you say, 
that if Caesar acted with more moderation, you 
could give a more deliberate opinion ; how is it 
possible that he should not act ruinously ? His 
life, his manners, his former actions, the plan of 
his undertaking, his companions, the strength of 
the good, or even their firmness, demand it. I 
had scarcely read your letter, when Postumus Cur- 
tius came to me on his way to Caesar, talking of 
nothing but fleets and armies : he was seizing 
Spain ; occupying Asia, Sicilia, Africa, Sardinia, 
and presently pursuing Pompeius into Greece. I 
must go therefore, that I may be his companion, 
not so much in war as in flight ; for I cannot bear 
the scoffs of those people, whoever they are. They 
assuredly are not, as they are called, good ; yet I 
wish to know what it is they say ; and I earnestly 
beg you to find out, and to inform me. Hitherto 
I am quite ignorant of what has been done at 
Brundisium. When I know, I shall take counsel 
from circumstances and opportunity, but shall be 
regulated by you. 



LETTER ail. 

Domitius's son passed through Formiae on the 
8th, hastening to his mother at Naples ; and upon 
my servant Dionysius asking particularly about his 
father, he desired I might be told that he was in 
the city. But I had heard that he was gone 
either to Pompeius, or into Spain. I should be 
glad to know how this is ; for it is of consequence 
to the subject of my present deliberation ; that if 
he is certainly not gone anywhere, Cnaeus may 
understand the difficulty of my leaving Italy, while 
it is all occupied by troops and garrisons, espe- 
cially in winter. If it were a more favourable 



8 When it was offered to Cicero to fill the place of Cos- 
conius, who died. See book ii. letter 19. 

1 The original is a verse of Euripides. 

« In the original is a Greek word, no doubt taken from 
Atticus's own expression. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICHS 



723 



time of year, it would be possible to go by the 
Southern sea : now nothing can pass but by the 
Adriatic, the road to which is intercepted. You will 
inquire therefore about Domitius, and about Len- 
tulus. No report has yet arrived from Brundisium, 
and this is the 9th of March, on which day, or the 
day before, I imagine Csesar would reach Brundi- 
sium ; for on the first he stopped at Arpi. If you 
would hearken to Postumus, he will pursue Cnseus ; 
for, by conjecture from state of the weather and 
the number of days, he supposed him already to 
have passed over. For my own part, I do not 
think Caesar will be able to get sailors ; he is 
himself very confident, and the more so, because 
the liberality of the man is known to the people 
concerned in the boats. But it is impossible I can 
much longer remain in ignorance of this whole 
Brundisian business. 



LETTER IV. 
Though I feel some repose so long as I am 
writing to you, or reading your letters ; yet I want 
myself a subject to write about, and am persuaded 
you do so too. For that familiar communication, 
which passes between us, while our minds are at 
ease, is excluded in these times ; and what is ap- 
propriate to the times, is already exhausted. But, 
that I may not resign myself wholly to sadness, I 
have taken up certain subjects of a political nature, 
and suited to the times ; that I may both withdraw 
my mind from complaints, and may exercise myself 
in matters of present concern. Such are the fol- 
lowing. If it be right to remain in one's country 
after it is subjected to a tyrant. Being so subjected, 
if every means should be employed to dissolve the 
tyranny, even at the risk of ruining the city. If 
care must be taken, that the person who executes 
this be not himself exalted. If it be right to 
succour one's country, under a tyrant, by oppor- 
tunity and reasoning, rather than by war. If, 
when one's country is subjected to a tyrant, it be 
consistent with the duty of a good citizen to be 
quiet, and retire. If every danger ought to be 
hazarded for the sake of freedom. If war and 
siege ought to be brought upon one's country when 
oppressed by tyranny. If one, who does not at- 
tempt to put down a tyranny, may yet be reckoned 
among the number of good citizens. If we ought 
to support our benefactors and friends in political 
struggles, even when we think them to have acted 
imprudently. If one who has rendered signal 
service to his country, and on that very account 
has incurred troubles and envy, should voluntarily 
expose himself for his country's sake. If it be 
permitted him to make provision for himself and 
his family, and to leave state affairs to those in 
power. Exercising myself in these questions, and 
writing on both sides in Greek and in Latin, I 
divert my attention a little from uneasiness, and 
contemplate something of real interest. But I 
fear I may address you unseasonably ; for if the 
person who brought your letter came straight 
hither, it will fall upon your sick day. 



LETTER V. 

You wrote to me on your birthday a letter full 
of advice, and at once expressive of the greatest 
kindness, and the greatest good sense. Philotimus 



delivered it to me the day after he had received it 
from you. The circumstances you mention are 
very difficult to arrange ; the way to the Adriatic ; 
the voyage by the Mediterranean ; the departure to 
Arpinum, as if to avoid Caesar ; the remaining at 
Formise, as if on purpose to congratulate him. 
But nothing is more wretched than to see what 
presently, presently I say, must be seen. I have 
had Postumus v with me : I told you how conse- 
quential he was. Q.. Fusius likewise called upon 
me ; with what an air ! with what insolence ! He 
was hastening to Brundisium ; charging Pompeius 
with wickedness, the senate with fickleness and 
folly. Shall I, who cannot bear this in my villa, be 
able to bear Curtius in the senate ? Or suppose 
me to bear it with ever so good a stomach ; what 
must be the issue when I am called upon ; " Speak, 
M. " Tullius ?" I say nothing of the republic, 
which I consider as lost both by the wounds it has 
received, and by the remedies which are prepared 
for it. But what shall I do about Pompeius ? with 
whom (for why should I deny it?) I am quite 
angry. For the causes of events always affect us 
more than the events themselves. When I con- 
sider therefore these miseries (and what can be 
worse?) or rather when I reflect that they have 
been brought on by his means and his fault, I am 
more irritated against him than against Csesar 
himself: in the same manner as our forefathers 
marked the day of the battle of the Allia w , as 
sadder than that of the taking the city ; because 
the latter calamity was the consequence of the 
other : therefore the one is still held sacred, the 
other not even known to the common people. Thus 
am I angry while I recollect the errors of ten years 
past (among which was that year of affliction to 
me, when he, to say nothing worse, did not defend 
me), and perceive the rashness, the baseness, the 
negligence of the present time. But these things 
are now erased from my mind. I think of the 
benefits I have received from him, and think also 
of his own dignity. I understand, later indeed 
than I could wish, by reason of Balbus's letters 
and conversation ; but I see plainly that nothing 
else is aimed at, nothing else has beeen aimed 
at from the beginning, but his death. Shall 
I then, (if Achilles, according to Homer, when 
his mother goddess told him that his fate 
would presently follow that of Hector, replied, 
" Would that I might die immediately, since I 
could not prevent the death of my friend ;" what 
if not only a friend, but also a benefactor ; such a 
man too, and engaged in such a cause ? And shall 
I then) think these duties to be trafficked away for 
the sake of life x ? I place no reliance on your 
principal people, and now no more defer to them. 
I see how they give themselves, and will give them- 
selves, to this man. Do you think those decrees 
of the towns for Pompeius's health bear any com- 
parison with these congratulations of victory ? 
" They are afraid," you will say. Themselves say 
they were afraid before. But let us see what has 
been done at Brundisium. From that perhaps 
will arise my determination, and another letter. 

v Postumus Curtius. See letter 2 of this book. 

w The Gauls defeated the Romans at the river Allia, 
previous to their taking the city. 

* The context appears to me to require an interrogation 
in this place. 



724 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER VI. 

I have yet heard nothing from Brundisium, 
Balbus has written from Rome, saying that he 
supposes the consul Lentulus to have crossed the 
sea, without being met by the younger Balbus ; 
who had already heard this at Canusium, from 
whence he wrote to his uncle. And he added that 
the six cohorts, which had been at Alba, had gone 
over to Curius by the Minucian road ; that Csesar 
had written to inform him of it, and would shortly 
be at Rome. I shall follow your advice, and shall 
not hide myself at Arpinum at this time ; though 
I wished to invest my son with the toga of man- 
hood at Arpinum y, and had intended to leave this 
as my excuse to Csesar. But he might perhaps be 
offended at that very circumstance, that I should 
not rather do it at Rome. If, however, it is right 
to meet him, it is best here. We will then con- 
sider the rest ; whither I should go, and by what 
road, and when. Domitius, as I hear, is in the 
neighbourhood of Cosa z ; and, as they say, is pre- 
pared to sail. If to Spain, I do not approve it ; 
if to Cnseus, I commend him : but anywhere rather 
than to see Curtius a , whom even I, that have been 
his patron, cannot bear to look at. What then ? 
Must I bear others b ? But I must be quiet, that 
I may not aggravate my own fault : for through 
my affection to the city, that is, to my country, 
and hoping that affairs might be compromised, I 
have managed so as to be completely intercepted 
and taken. Since writing the above I have received 
a letter from Capua to this effect : Pompeius has 
crossed the sea with all the troops that he had 
with him, amounting to 30,000 men, besides the 
two consuls, and those tribunes of the people and 
senators, who were with him, all with their wives 
and children. He is said to have embarked the 
4th of March, from which day the winds have been 
northerly. They say that he either cut in two, or 
burned, all the vessels which he did not use. The 
letter containing this account was brought to L. 
Metellus, the tribune of the people, at Capua, 
from his mother-in-law, Clodia, who herself passed 
over. I was before solicitous and anxious, as 
indeed the circumstances required, while I could 
bring my mind to no conclusion : but now, since 
Pompeius and the consuls have left Italy, I am no 
longer anxious, but burn with grief; and, as 
Homer says, " Neither is my mind sound, but I 
am distracted." Believe me, I am not master of 
myself, so great is the disgrace I seem to have 
incurred. In the first place, by not having been 
with Pompeius, whatever plan he adopted ; then, 
in not having been with the good, however ill 
their cause was conducted. Especially when the 
very persons for whose sake I was more timid in 
exposing myself to the risks of fortune, my wife, 
my daughter, the young Ciceros, wished me to 
follow that course; and considered this to be base 

7 It was usual to assume the toga virilis on the festival 
of Bacchus, March 1 8th, at the age of seventeen, with some 
ceremony. 

z Cosa is a place on the sea-coast of Etruria. 

a ' Perhaps Posturmis Curtius, of whom he had spoken in 
letter 2 of this book, and for whom he had formerly soli- 
cited the office of tribune. 

b I apprehend it ought to be in the original Quid ? alios ? 
Otherwise it is not easy to see upon what the word alios 
depends. 



and unworthy of me. My brother Quintus, indeed, 
said he should be satisfied with whatever I chose ; 
and he followed it with perfect complacency. I 
now read over your letters from the beginning ; 
and they afford me some comfort. The first advise 
and beg me not to throw myself away ; the next 
show that you are glad I have remained. When I 
read these, I think myself less blameable ; but it 
is only while I am reading them : afterwards my 
regret again bursts forth, and, as it is said, " I am 
haunted with shame." I beseech you, therefore, 
my Titus, pluck out from me this trouble, or at 
least diminish it either by consolation, or advice, 
or any way you can. But what can you do ? or 
what can any man ? Hardly any god. I am con- 
sidering (as you advise, and hope may be effected) 
how I can get Caesar's permission to absent myself 
when anything is agitated in the senate against 
Cnseus : but I fear I may not obtain it. Furnius 
has arrived from him ; and, that you may know 
whose example I follow, he brings word that Q. 
Titinius' son is with Csesar. He sends me greater 
thanks than I could wish. What he asks of me, 
in few words indeed, but energetically, you shall 
see by his own letter. How unfortunate that you 
should have been unwell ! Had we been together, 
there surely would have been no want of counsel — 
" And going two in company ," &c. But, let us 
not act over the past ; let us provide for what 
remains. These two things have hitherto deceived 
me ; at first, the hope of accommodation ; upon 
which taking place I had wished to pass my old 
age free from anxiety and popular strife d ; after- 
wards, the understanding that Pompeius had actu- 
ally engaged in a cruel and deadly warfare. In 
truth I thought it argued a better citizen, and a 
better man, rather to undergo any punishment, 
than not only to take the lead, but to take any 
part in such cruelty. It appears preferable even 
to die than to be leagued with such men. Think 
of these matters, my Atticus, or rather resolve. I 
can bear any event better than my present anguish. 

Ccesar, Imperator, to Cicero, Imperator. 
Having but just seen our friend Furnius, with- 
out being able conveniently either to speak to him 
or hear him, being in a hurry, and actually on my 
road, with my troops already sent on before ; I 
could not, however, let pass the opportunity of 
writing to you, and sending him to thank you. If 
I have frequently done this, yet I am likely to do 
it still more frequently ; so greatly am I obliged 
to you. Especially I have to beg of you, as I 
trust I shall soon arrive in Rome, to let me see 
you there, that I may be able to avail myself of 
your advice, influence, dignity, and assistance in 
everything. I must end as I began, and request 
you to excuse my haste, and the shortness of my 
letter. You will hear the rest from Furnius. 



c The original is part of a verse from Homer, well known 
to both Cicero and Atticus, expressive of Diomedes's wish 
to have a companion in his night expedition to the Trojan 
camp. 

d Several conjectures have been offered by commentators 
in explanation of this passage, which however appears to 
be sufficiently clear, if we only admit the slight alteration 
of et in the place of uti. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



725 



LETTER VII. 

I had written a letter to you, which should 
have been sent the 12th of March ; but the person 
to whom I meant to entrust it did not go that day. 
But the very same day, came that swift-foot, as 
Salvius called him, and brought me your very satis- 
factory letter, which again instilled into me some 
little life. Restored I cannot call myself : but what 
is next to this you have done. Trust me, I now 
no longer think of a prosperous termination : for I 
see that as long as these two, or this one, is living, 
we shall never have a republic. Therefore I now 
lay aside all hope of retirement, and am prepared 
for every severity. My only fear was that of doing, 
or, I may say, of having done anything discredit- 
able. Let me assure you then that your letter is 
very valuable to me ; and not only that longer one, 
than which nothing can be more explicit, nothing 
more complete ; but also the shorter one, in which 
it was particularly agreeable to me to understand 
that my sentiments and conduct were approved by 
Sextus. You have done me a great kindness ; for 
I know that he loves me, and that he understands 
what is right. Your longer letter has relieved not 
me only, but all my family, from anxiety. I shall 
accordingly adopt your advice, and stay in Formi- 
anum ; lest either my going to meet him in Rome 
may create observation ; or if I neither see him 
here nor there,, he may think that I try to avoid 
him. As to what you advise, that I should ask 
him to let me pay the same regard to Pompeius 
which I pay to him, you will see by the letter of 
Balbus and Oppius, of which I send you a copy, 
that I have already done so. I send also Caesar's 
letter to them, written with great temper, for such 
a distempered state. If Caesar does not grant me 
this, I perceive that you approve of my under- 
taking a negotiation for peace ; in which I do not 
regard the hazard that attends it. For when so 
many dangers threaten us, why should I not com- 
pound for the most honourable ? But I appre- 
hend I shall bring some embarrassment upon 
Pompeius, and that he will be inclined to turn 
upon me " the appalling horror of the Gorgon's 
head e ." For our friend Cnseus has been strangely 
ambitious of a sovereignty like that of Sulla. I 
say it with confidence. He never was less f secret. 
"Would you then," you say, "join such a 
man ? " I follow him, believe me, from a sense 
of the benefits I have received, not from a love of 
his cause, as in the case of Milo ; as in — but 
enough of this. " Is not then his cause a good 
one?" Yes, the very best: but it will be con- 
ducted, mind you, most foully. The first object 
is, to starve the city and all Italy by famine ; then 
to lay waste and burn the country, and not to spare 
the property of the opulent. But, as I apprehend 
all the same calamities from this party; if there 
were not on the other side a sense of benefits 
received, I should think it more proper to bear at 
home whatever might happen. But I consider 

e The original is a verse of Homer. The meaning here 
is, that he might have to encounter the frown of Pompeius, 
who was averse from any compromise. It is possible that 
some severity of countenance spoken of by Plutarch, as 
rb yepapbv net) rb fiacn'hiKov, may have given occasion 
to the application of this line to him. 

f He was formerly spoken of as wanting openness. See 
book iv. letters 9 and 15. 



myself under such obligations to him, that I dare 
not expose myself to the charge of ingratitude, 
however just an excuse for it you point out. About 
my triumph I agree with you, and easily and will- 
ingly give up all thoughts of it. I am uncommonly 
pleased with the hope that in the midst of our 
arrangements the season for sailing may creep on 
unobserved. " If only," as you say, " Pompeius 
is strong enough." He is stronger even than I 
thought. But whatever hope you may entertain 
of him, I engage that, if he prevails, he will leave 
no tile in Italy unbroken s. " And will you then 
be his associate ?" Against indeed my own judg- 
ment: and against the authority of all antiquity 11 . 
I wish to get away, not so much to promote what 
is done there, as that I may not witness what is 
done here. For do not suppose that the madness 
of these people can be supportable, or confined to 
one kind : though nothing of this has escaped your 
penetration. When the laws, the judicial proceed- 
ings, and the senate, are taken away ; neither private 
property nor the republic will be able to support 
the licentiousness, the boldness, the extravagance, 
the needs of so many needy men. Let us away 
then by any passage, though I submit this to 
your judgment ; but by all means let us away. 
We shall soon know that which you wait for ; 
what has been done at Brundisium. It gives 
me great pleasure, if indeed there is now any room 
for pleasure, that you say my conduct hitherto is 
approved by the good, at the same time that they 
know I have not left the country. I will endea- 
vour to find out more particularly about Lentulus : 
I have entrusted this to Philotimus, a bold man, 
and more than enough attached to the senatorian 
party. In conclusion, you may perhaps be at a 
loss for a subject to write upon ; for it is impos- 
sible at this time to write about anything else ; 
and about this what more can now be said ? But 
as both your wit supplies you (I speak forsooth as 
I think), and your affection, by which my wit 
likewise is sharpened ; continue as you do, and 
write as much as you can. I am half angry that you 
do not invite me to Epirus, where I should not be 
a troublesome companion. But farewell. For as 
you must exercise and anoint yourself 1 , so I must 
sleep ; which your letter enables me to doJ. 

Balbus and Oppius to M. Cicero. 
The counsels, not only of inconsiderable people, 
as we are, but even of the greatest men, are apt to 
be interpreted by the event, not by the intention. 
Yet relying on your goodness, we give you the best 
opinion we can upon the subject about which you 
wrote to us. And if it be not wise, at least it pro- 
ceeds from honest minds, and the kindest regards. 
Unless we were assured from himself that Csesar 
would do what in our judgment he ought to do ; 
that as soon as he comes to Rome he will enter 
upon measures of reconciliation with Pompeius ; 
we should cease to exhort you to take a part in 
this affair, in order that the whole may be effected 

S That is, he will destroy everything. 

h Which leads to remaining at Rome, instead of desert- 
ing one's country. 

» This alludes to the treatment of his quartan fever, for 
which Celsus likewise recommends walking and other 
exercise, and anointings. " Ambulationibus uti oportet, 
aliisque exercitationibus, et unctionibus." — Lib. iii. 14. 

J Meaning that his mind had before been too much dis- 
composed to allow him to sleep. 



726 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



more easily, and with more dignity, through you, 
who are connected with both parties. On the 
other hand, if we thought that Caesar would not 
do so, but was desirous of engaging in war with 
Pompeius ; we never would persuade you to bear 
arms against one who has shown you the greatest 
kindness ; as we have always entreated you not to 
fight against Caesar. But still, since we are rather 
able to guess than to know what Caesar will do, 
we can only say, that it does not appear suitable 
to your dignity and known probity, being so 
attached to both, to bear arms against either ; and 
we have no doubt but Caesar will highly approve 
this, agreeably to his accustomed humanity. But, 
if you wish it, we will write to Caesar, in order to 
ascertain more certainly what he will do in this 
affair J : from whom if we receive an answer, we 
will immediately let you know our opinion ; and 
promise you, that we will advise what seems to us 
most becoming your dignity, not what may be most 
beneficial to Caesar's cause : and this, we believe, 
Caesar will approve, according to his indulgence 
towards his friends. 

Balbus to Cicero, Irnperator. 
I hope you are well. After I had despatched 
to you the joint letter with Oppius, I received one 
from Caesar, of which I inclose a copy. From 
thence you may perceive how desirous he is of 
peace and of reconciliation with Pompeius ; and 
how far he is from all cruelty ; and I sincerely 
rejoice, as I ought, that he entertains such sen- 
timents. With respect to yourself, and your 
integrity, and duty, I think, my Cicero, as you do, 
that it is impossible your reputation and attach- 
ment can permit you to bear arms against one 
from whom you profess to have received such 
kindness. That Caesar will approve this I am 
confident, from his distinguished humanity ; and I 
know for certain that he will be abundantly satis- 
fied with you, provided you take no part in the 
war against him, and do not join his adversaries. 
And he will not only deem this sufficient in one of 
your high character; but, of his own accord, he 
has given me leave to absent myself from the army, 
that might have to act against Lentulus or Pom- 
peius, to whom I am under great obligations : and 
he said, that he should be satisfied if, when I was 
called upon, I would undertake for him the busi- 
ness relating to the city ; and that I was at liberty 
to do the same for them k . Accordingly I am at 
this time conducting and supporting Lentulus's 
affairs at Rome ; and I maintain towards them my 
duty, fidelity and gratitude. But, in truth, I con- 
sider the hope of agreement to be now again cast 
off, not entirely desperate ; since Caesar's disposi- 
tion is such as we ought to desire. In this case I 
think, if it meets with your approbation, that you 
should write to him, and request from him a guard ; 
as you did from Pompeius, with my approbation, 
at the time of Milo's trial. I will engage, if I 
know anything of Caesar, that he will sooner con- 
sider your dignity than his own advantage. How 
prudently I may advise you I know not ; but this 
I know, that whatever I write to you, I write from 
the purest affection and regard: for, so may I die 
without prejudice to Caesar 1 , as I esteem few 

Of reconciliation with Pompeius. 
k For Lentulus and Pompeius. 

1 This is a form of abjuration which became common 
under the emperors. 



equally dear to me as yourself. When you have 
come to any determination about this business 111 , 
I wish you would write to me : for I am not a 
little earnest that you should be able, as you desire, 
to show your kindness towards both 11 . And this I 
trust you will do. Farewell. 

Ccesar to Oppius and Cornelius . 
I am very glad that you express in your letter 
how much you approve of what has been done at 
Corfinium. I shall willingly adopt your advice ; 
and the more so, because of my own accord I had 
resolved to show every lenity, and to use my en- 
deavours to conciliate Pompeius. Let us try by 
these means if we can regain the affections of all 
people, and render our victory lasting. Others, 
from their cruelty, have not been able to avoid the 
hatred of mankind, nor long-to retain their victory; 
except L. Sulla alone, whom I do not mean to 
imitate. Let this be a new method of conquering, 
to fortify ourselves with kindness and liberality. 
How this may be done, some things occur to my 
own mind, and many others may be found. To this 
subject 1 request your attention. I have taken 
Cn. Magius, Pompeius's praefect. I accordingly 
put in practice my own principle, and immediately 
released him. Already two of Pompeius's praefects 
of engineers have fallen into my power, and have 
been released. If they are disposed to be grateful, 
they should exhort Pompeius to prefer my friend- 
ship to that of these people, who have always been 
the worst enemies to him and to me ; by whose 
artifices it has happened that the republic has come 
into this condition. 



LETTER VIII. 

While I was at dinner on the 14th, and it was 
late, Statius brought me a short letter from you- 
Respecting the inquiry you make about L. Torqua- 
tus, not only Lucius, but Aulus also, is gone?, the 
former several days ago. I am concerned for what 
you. mention about the assemblies of the Reatini, 
that there should be any seeds of proscription in the 
Sabine country. I had heard likewise i that many 
senators were at Rome. Can you tell why they 
ever left it r ? It is the general opinion in these 
parts, rather from conjecture than from any mes- 
sage, or letter, that Caesar will be at Formiae the 
22d of March. Here now should I like to have 
that Minerva of Homer, who took the form of 
Mentor, to whom I might say, " Mentor, how 
shall I go ; or how shall I accost him s ?'' Nothing 
more difficult ever occurred to me. I think of it, 
however ; and at least shall not, as sometimes hap- 
pens, be taken by surprise. But take care of your 
health, — for I think yesterday was your bad day. 

m About entering upon negotiations for peace. 

n Caesar and Pompeius. ° Cornelius Balbus. 

P Gone to join Pompeius. 

<TThe expression " likewise" probably refers to a previous 
letter from Atticus, and means that Cicero had heard this 
before he received Atticus's account. 

r Insinuating that they went out to pay court to Ca;sar 
on his return from Brundisium. 

s The original is a verse taken from the beginning of 
the 3d book of the Odyssey. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



727 



LETTER IX. 
I received three letters from you on the 16th. 
They were dated the 12th, 13th, and 14th. I 
shall, therefore, reply to them in their order. I 
agree with you, that it is best to remain in Formi- 
anutn ; also about the passage by the Adriatic sea; 
and, as I mentioned to you before, I will try if I 
can get his consent to my taking no part in public 
affairs. What you approve, that I told you I for- 
get the precious conduct and errors of our friend, 
it is even so. Nay, I remember not those very 
circumstances which you mention of his miscon- 
duct towards me. So much do I desire that my 
gratitude for his kindness may overpower all sense 
of his ill-treatment. Let us do then as you advise, 
and recollect ourselves. For I philosophise as 
soon as I get into the country ; and in my walks I do 
not cease to meditate upon the subjects I mentioned 
to you l . But some of them are very difficult to 
determine. Respecting the principal citizens, be 
it as you please ; but you know that saying, 
" Dionysius in Corinth V Titinius' son is with 
Csesar. But what you seem to fear, that your ad- 
vice may displease me ; this is so far from being 
the case, that your opinion and your letters are the 
only thing that give me pleasure. Therefore con- 
tinue, as you profess, to write to me whatever 
comes into your mind. Nothing can be more 
acceptable to me. I come now to the next letter. 
You are not rightly informed about the number of 
Pompeius' soldiers. Clodia mentioned more by 
one half. The story too about the ships that were 
destroyed, is not true. When you commend the 
consuls, I also commend their intentions, though I 
blame their conduct : for owing to their dispersion, 
the negotiation for peace is prevented, which I was 
meditating. Accordingly, I have sent back to you 
by Philotimus the treatise of Demetrius upon Con- 
cord. I cannot doubt but a most destructive war 
hangs over us, the first operation of which will 
be felt in the want of provisions. Yet I am 
vexed that I have no part in this war, not- 
withstanding such a load of wickedness will 
attend it ; for, whereas the not supporting a 
parent is criminal; our chiefs design to destroy 
that most venerable and sacred parent, their coun- 
try, by famine. And this I fear, not from conjec- 
ture, but from the conversations at which I have 
been present. All this fleet from Alexandria, Col- 
chis, Tyre, Sidon, Aradus, Cyprus, Pamphylia, 
Lycia, Rhodes, Chios, Byzantium, Lesbus, Smyrna, 
Miletus, Cos, is collected for the purpose of inter- 
cepting the supplies of Italy, and of occupying the 
provinces from whence they are drawn. Then, in 
what wrath will he v come ! especially against those 
who wish best to their country ; as if he had been 
deserted by those people whom in fact he deserted. 
In my doubt therefore what I ought to do, my gra- 
titude towards him has great weight. Were it not 
for this, I should think it better to perish within 
my country, than in saving my country to ruin it. 
Respecting the northern parts w , I think with you; 

4 See the 4th letter of this book. 

u Dionysius, from being an absolute monarch in Syra- 
cuse, became a schoolmaster at Corinth. Hence this ex- 
pression seems to mean, that those who were once great 
are liable to be strangely humbled. 

v Pompeius. 

w The northern parts of Greece seem here to be in- 



and fear that Epirus may suffer. But what place 
in Greece do you suppose will escape being plun- 
dered ? For he professes openly, and holds out to 
his soldiers, that even in his bounties he will show 
himself the superior. You very justly advise 
me, when I see Csesar, not to address him with 
over civility, but rather to maintain my dignity. 
And so I shall certainly do. After our meeting, I 
think of going to Arpinum ; for I would not be 
absent when he comes; nor should I like to be 
running backwards and forwards on so wretched 
a road. I hear, as you mention, that Bibulus 
arrived, and returned again the 14th. In the 
third letter you say that you were expecting Philo- 
timus. He left me on the 15th. This was the 
reason that the answer, which I wrote immediately 
upon the receipt of your letter, was later in reach- 
ing you. Respecting Domitius, I imagine, as you 
say, that he is in Cossanum, and that his intention 
is not known. That base and sordid man x , who says 
that the consular comitia may be held by the praetor, is 
the same that he always was in the republic. This 
is the real meaning of what Csesar writes in the 
letter of which I sent you a copy y , that he wishes 
to avail himself of my advice : well, suppose this 
to be a general expression, my influence, — this is 
absurd; but I imagine he pretends this with regard 
to some opinions of the senators : my dignity, 
meaning perhaps the opinion of one of consular 
rank : at last comes my assistance in everything. 
I began to suspect from your letter, that his inten- 
tion was what I have hinted, or not very different. 
For it is of great consequence to him that the 
business should not come to an interregnum z . If 
the consuls are created by the prsetor, he gains his 
point. But in our augural books we read not only 
that the consuls, but even the prsetors, cannot law- 
fully be created by a prsetor, and that it never has 
been done. In the case of consuls it is not allowed, 
because a higher command cannot be instituted by 
an inferior one : and in the case of prsetors, 
because they are elected as assistants to the consuls, 
who are of superior authority. He will be very 
likely to refer this to me, and not to rest satisfied 
with the opinion of Galba, Scsevola, Cassius, An- 
tonius a . "Then may the wide earth gape to 
receive meV You see what a storm hangs over 
me. I will send you the names of the senators 
who have passed over, when I have ascertained 
them. You are quite right about the supplies of 
corn, which cannot possibly be managed without 
subsidies c ; nor is it without reason that you fear 
those who are about him, full of demands ; and 

tended, among which was situated Atticus's property in 
Epirus. 

x It is not known who is here meant. Some suppose it 
to be Lepidus, who was at that time praetor. The whole 
of this letter being in reply to those received from Atticus, 
may naturally be expected to be obscure, by alluding to 
persons and things there mentioned. 

7 Inserted after letter 6 of this book. 

z In the absence of the consuls an interregnum used to 
be created to hold the comitia. In this case Caesar would 
not be secure of the consulship, which he hoped to obtain. 

a It is to be supposed that these were augurs as well as 
Cicero, and in Caesar's interests. It belonged to the augurs 
to determine such cases. 

b Taken from Homer. 

c It would be necessary for Pompeius to raise money 
by any means ; and his followers would be clamorous for 
plunder. 






728 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



dread an iniquitous war. I should be glad to see 
our friend Trebatius, though, as you say, he has no 
hope of anything good. Press him to make haste : 
for it will be convenient that he should come before 
Csesar's arrival. Respecting Lanuinum, as soon as 
I heard that Phameas was dead, I wished, if there 
should ever be a republic, that one of my friends 
might buy it. But of you, who are most especially 
mine, I never thought. For I knew that you used 
to inquire at how many years' purchase, and what 
is the productiveness of the soil ; and had seen your 
book of accounts d not only at Rome, but atDelos. 
However, though it is very pretty, yet I should 
value it lower than it was valued in the consulship 
of Marcellinus, when I thought, on account of the 
house which T then had at Antium, that those gar- 
dens would be pleasanter to me, and less expensive, 
than the refitting my villa at Tusculum. I offered 
500 sestertia (4000/. ), through a surety to whom 
he might surrender it, when it was to be sold at 
Antium : but he would not accept it. Now how- 
ever I imagine everything of that kind is lowered 
on account of the scarcity of money. It will be 
most convenient for me, or rather for us, if you 
purchase it. Take care not to undervalue his ab- 
surdities e . The place is exceedingly beautiful : 
though I look upon all these things as already 
devoted to destruction. I have answered your 
three letters ; but am expecting others. For 
hitherto it is your letters that have supported me. 
Dated on the Liberalia f . 



LETTER X. 

I have nothing to tell you ; for I have heard no 
news, and I answered all your letters yesterday. 
But while my anxiety not only deprives me of sleep, 
but does not even suffer me to be awake without great 
uneasiness, I have determined to write I know not 
what, upon no particular subject, that I may, as it 
were, converse with you ; in which alone I find 
consolation. I seem to have lost my reason from 
the beginning ; and this one consideration vexes 
me, that while Pompeius was sinking, or rather 
rushing to destruction, I should not in all events 
have accompanied him, like one of his troop. I 
saw him on the 19th of January full of alarm ; and 
from that day I perceived what course he would 
take. He has never pleased me since, nor has he 
ever ceased to commit one error after another. In 
the mean time he has never written to me ; and 
has thought of nothing but flight. In short, as in 
affairs of love we are disgusted by a want of clean- 
liness, of sense, or of delicacy; so the baseness of 
his flight, and his neglect, turned away my affec- 
tion : for his conduct has been void of all merit, 
that should induce me to join him. But now my 
affection again rises up ; now I cannot bear to be 
without him ; now neither books, nor study, nor phi- 
losophy, afford me any relief; so that, like Plato's 
birds, I look upon the sea day and night, and long 

d In the original is digamma, the signification of which 
is uncertain ; but the context leads to the interpretation I 
have given. 

e That is, the extravagant alterations which Phameas 
had made. 

{ The festival of Bacchus, which was celebrated the 18th 
of March. 

S Plato, wishing to get away from Dionysius the tyrant 



to take my flight. I pay, I pay the penalty of my 
folly : yet what folly have I committed ? What 
have I not done with due deliberation ? For, had 
I no object besides flight, I might have fled with all 
readiness ; but I shuddered at the idea of a cruel 
and extensive war, of which people do not yet see 
the wretchedness. What threats are held out to 
the towns ! and to good men by name ! and in 
short to all who stay behind ! How often does he 
repeat, "Sulla was able, shall not I be able?" 
Besides, this stuck with me : Tarquinius acted ill, 
who excited Porsena and Octavius Mamilius 
against his country : Coriolanus most undutifully, 
who solicited succour from the Volsci : Themis- 
tocles nobly, who chose rather to die : and Hip- 
pias, the son of Pisistratus, was branded with 
infamy, who fell in the battle of Marathon bearing 
arms against his country. But Sulla, but Marius, 
but Cinna, did well, perhaps even rightly ; yet 
what could be more cruel, more destructive, than 
their victory ? A war of this kind I wished to 
avoid ; and the more so, because I saw that still 
greater cruelties were devised and prepared. Should 
I, whom some have called the preserver, the father of 
that city, bring against it the forces of the Getse, 
and Armenians, and Colchians ? Should I bring 
famine upon my fellow-citizens, ruin upon Italy ? 
I considered that this h man in the first place was 
mortal ; then, that he might be destroyed in many 
ways : but I thought the city, and people, ought, 
as far as in us lies, to be preserved to immortality. 
At the same time a certain hope presented itself to 
me, that something might be agreed upon, rather 
than that either the one should admit such a 
degree of wickedness, or the other such a degree of 
profligacy. Now the general concern is altered, 
and my particular concern is altered with it. To 
me, as it is expressed in one of your letters, 
it seems as if the sun had fallen out of the 
world. As they say of the sick, that while there 
is life, there is hope ; so I, as long as Pompeius 
was in Italy, did not cease to hope. This, this it 
was that deceived me ; and, to speak the truth, 
my age already declining from continual labours 
towards a state of repose, soothed me with the 
charm of domestic life. Now, though the attempt 
be attended with danger, I certainly will attempt 
to fly away from hence. I ought perhaps to have 
done it sooner ; but the circumstances I have men- 
tioned delayed me, and above all your authority. 
For when I got to this place I opened the bundle of 
your letters, which I have under my seal, and keep 
with the greatest care. In one, that was dated 
January 23, I find it thus: " But let us see what 
Cnseus does, and in what direction his designs 
flow. If he should leave Italy, he will act altogether 
wrong, and in my judgment inadvisedly ; and in 



of Syracuse, compared himself to a bird longing to make 
its escape. 

h This is generally understood of Cassar ; I rather under- 
stand it of Pompeius : the sense being, that Cicero was not 
so to support Pompeius, who might die at any time, as to 
ruin his country, which ought to be preserved for ever. 
And this he gives as a reason for not immediately joining 
Pompeius. He besides still cherished hopes of peace ; and 
that neither Pompeius would be so wicked as to destroy 
his country, nor Csesar so profligate as to enslave it. But 
now that they had thrown off the mask, and shown their 
real intentions, and extinguished all idea of accommoda- 
tion, the whole state of affairs was changed, and Cicero's 
duty changed likewise. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



720 



that case our plans must be changed." This you 
write four days after I left the city. Again, on the 
25th of January: " Provided our Cnaeus does not 
relinquish Italy as inadvisedly as he has relin- 
quished the city." The same day you send a 
second letter, in which you distinctly reply to my 
questions. It is thus : " I come now to your 
consultation. If Cnaeus leaves Italy, I think you 
should return to the city : for what end is there of 
travelling about ?" This struck me forcibly, — and 
I now see it to be even so, that a boundless war is 
united with a wretched flight ; which you represent 
as a travelling. There follows an oracular opinion 
on the 27th of January : " If Pompeius remains 
in Italy, and no agreement is made, I think there 
will be a protracted war ; but if he leaves Italy, I 
apprehend that a war is prepared, which will here- 
after be interminable." In this war I am obliged 
to be a partaker, a companion, and an assistant ; 
a war interminable, and with fellow-citizens ! Then 
on the 7th of February, when you began already to 
hear more of Pompeius's design, you conclude one of 
your letters in this manner : " I do not indeed ad- 
vise, if Pompeius leaves Italy, that you should also 
run away ; for you will do it with great risk, and 
will not benefit the republic ;. which you may bene- 
fit hereafter, if you remain." Who that had any 
love for his country, or any public spirit, would 
not be moved by such advice, upon the authority 
of a prudent man and a friend ? Further, on the 
11th of February, you again reply to my inquiries 
thus : " What you ask me, whether I think pre- 
ferable, a flight in which I preserve my fidelity, 
or a stay which must be relinquished ? I certainly 
think at present that a sudden departure and pre- 
cipitate journey would be useless to Cnaeus himself, 
and hazardous to you : and I think it better that your 
friends should be dispersed, and in places of obser- 
vation : and in truth I think it disgraceful for us to 
entertain any design of flight." This disgraceful 
thing our friend Cnseus meditated two years ago ; 
so long has his mind dwelt upon Sulla, and upon 
proscriptions. Afterwards when, as I imagine, 
you had written to me something in a more gene- 
rous strain, and I had supposed some expressions 
to mean that I should quit Italy ', you distinctly 
reprobate this on the 14th of February: " I as- 
sure you I never meant in any letter to express that 
if Cnseus went out of Italy, you should go with 
him ; or if I expressed it, I must have been, I do 
not say an inconsistent man, but a mad man." In 
another part of the same letter : ' ' Nothing is left 
for him but flight ; but I by no means think, or 
have ever thought, that it was your duty to accom- 
pany him." But this whole consideration you un- 
fold more particularly in a letter dated the 12th of 
February: " If M. Lepidus and L. Volcatius 
remain, I think you ought to remain ; yet so, that 
if Pompeius is in safety and makes a stand any- 
where, you may leave this ghastly troop J, and 
rather suffer yourself to be defeated in battle with 
Pompeius, than reign with Caesar among that rab- 
ble, to which it is evident they will be reduced." 
You then use many arguments in support of this 
opinion; and in conclusion you say, " What if 
Lepidus and Volcatius go away ? I am completely 
at a loss : and whatever happens therefore, and 
whatever you do, I shall think that we ought to be 

» See book viii. letter 2. 

J Caesar's profligate adherents. See letter 1 8 of this book. 



satisfied with it." If you then doubted, now at 
least you do not doubt, as they remain. Then, at 
the very time of his flight, February 25 : " In the 
mean time I do not doubt but you will remain in 
Formianum ; for you can there with most conve- 
nience wait for what may happen." On the 1st of 
March, when he had already been four days at 
Brundisium: "We shall then be able to deliberate, 
while the cause is not indeed whole and entire, but 
certainly less infringed, than if you threw yourself 
away with him." Again, March 4, when your 
ague was coming on, in consequence of which you 
wrote very briefly, you add however : " To-morrow 
I will write more, and reply to all your observa- 
tions : so much however T will say, that I do not 
repent of the advice I gave about your stay ; and, 
though it must be attended with great anxiety, yet 
as I think it less objectionable than your going, I 
continue in the same opinion, and am glad that you 
have remained." But when I was uneasy, and 
afraid lest 1 might have acted unbecomingly ; on the 
3d of March you say, "Nevertheless, I am not sorry 
that you are not with Pompeius. Hereafter, if 
there is occasion, it will not be difficult ; and when- 
ever it is done, it will be very gratifying to him. 
But I must add, that if Caesar goes on to act, as he 
has begun, with candour, moderation, and prudence, 
I shall think again, and consider more deliberately 
what is best to be done." On the 9th of March 
you write also that our friend Peduceus approves of 
my remaining quiet ; and his opinion has great 
weight with me. With these letters of yours I 
comfort myself by thinking that hitherto I have 
not done wrong. Do you only defend your own 
opinion. With regard to myself it is unnecessary; 
but I want to have others know it. If only I have 
not erred, I will take care of the rest. Let me 
have your encouragement, and assist me altogether 
with your judgment. Here nothing is yet heard 
about Caesar's return. So much at least I have 
gained by this letter, that I have read over all 
yours, and in so doing have found consolation. 



LETTER XL 

You know our friend Lentulus is at Puteoli. 
Upon hearing this from a passenger, who said that 
he recognised him on the Appian road, where he 
was travelling in a litter partly opened ; however 
improbable it might be, yet I sent a servant to Pu- 
teoli to ascertain the fact, and sent a letter to him. 
He found him just secluding himself in his villa, 
from whence he wrote back to me full of gratitude 
to Caesar, and saying that he had delivered to C. 
Caecius instructions for me about his future plans : 
him I expect to-day, that is, the 20th of March. 
Matius also came to me the 19th, — a man, as he 
has appeared to me, temperate and prudent ; and 
has always been supposed to be in favour of peace. 
How much he seemed to disapprove these proceed- 
ings ! How much to dread that ghastly troop, as 
you call them ! In a long conversation which I 
had with him, I showed him Caesar's letter to me, 
of which I before sent you a copy, and asked him 
to explain to me what it was he meant by saying 
that he wished to avail himself of my advice, my 
influence, my dignity, my assistance in everything 14 . 



k See letter 9 of this book. 



730 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



He replied, that he had no doubt he wanted ray assist- 
ance and influence to promote an accommodation. 
Would that it were possible for me to effect, or 
help forward, any measure of public utility in this 
wretched state of the country ! Matius likewise 
was persuaded thathe was so disposed, and promised 
that he would himself advise it. Yesterday Cras- 
sipes was with me, who said that he had come from 
Brundisium the 6th of March, and had left Pom- 
peius there ; which was the report also of those 
who had come from thence on the 8th. And 
all agreed (amongst whom was Crassipes also, who 
would listen with more prudence l ) that they used 
threatening language, unfriendly towards the prin- 
cipal citizens, hostile to the towns, mere proscrip- 
tions, mere Sullas m : that Lucceius, that all Greece, 
that Theophanes also, talked in this manner. Yet 
in these people is all our hope of safety ; and I 
watch in my mind, and take no rest, and in order 
to avoid the calamities at home, am wishing to be 
with persons most unlike myself. For what 
excess do you suppose Scipio, and Faustus, and 
Libo n , will not commit ; whose creditors are 
said to be meeting ? And, if they are successful, 
how will they harass the citizens ! But what dis- 
tant views do they relate of our Cnseus ? that he 
thinks of going to Egypt, and Arabia, and Meso- 
potamia, and has laid aside all idea of Spain. 
Such stories are monstrous ; but perhaps they are 
not true. Assuredly things are both ruinous here, 
and there by no means well disposed. I am 
already wishing to hear from you. Since my retreat 
from the city, there has never been on my part 
any interruption of our correspondence. I send 
you a copy of my letter to Caesar, by which I hope 
to produce some effect. 



Cicero, Imperator, to Ccesar, Imperator. 

Upon reading your letter?, which I received by 
my friend Furnius, relative to my being in the city, I 
was not so much sm-prised at your wishing to avail 
yourself of my advice, and dignity ; but I asked 
myself what you meant by my influence and assist- 
ance. And I was led by my hopes to this conclu- 
sion ; that agreeably to your admirable and singular 
prudence, I supposed you might wish some steps 
to be taken for the tranquillity, the peace, the 
union of the citizens : and for that purpose I 
thought rny character and person sufficiently 
suited. Which if it be so, and if you are touched 
with any regard for protecting my friend Pompeius, 
and reconciling him with yourself and the republic, 
you will indeed find nobody more ready than I am 
in such a cause; having always been to him, and 
to the senate, as soon as I could, the counsellor of 
peace. Nor have I by taking up arms had any 
part in the war ; but have thought that you were 
injured in it, and that unfriendly and envious per- 
sons were resisting the honour i which had been 

1 There is some obscurity, and perhaps some error, in 
the text. 

m This is represented as the disposition of Pompeius's 
party, of whom Lucceius and Theophanes were principal 
advisers. 

n These were of Pompeius's party. 

To make a sale of their goods. 

P The letter alluded to is subjoined to letter G of this book. 

1 The power of being eligible to the consulship without 
coming to Rome and laying down his command. 



granted you by the favour of the Roman people. 
But as at that time I not only supported your 
dignity, but also got others to assist you ; so now 
am I greatly interested for the dignity of Pompeius. 
It is now some years since I selected you two, 
whom I might particularly cultivate, and with 
whom I might be, as I am, in the strictest friend- 
ship. I therefore request of you, or rather I beg 
and entreat you with all earnestness, that among 
your great cares you would allot some time also to 
this consideration, that by your favour I may be 
enabled to sustain the part of a good man, grateful 
and dutiful in the remembrance of the greatest 
benefits r . If this concerned myself only, I should 
nevertheless hope to obtain it from you ; but, as I 
conceive, it concerns both your own plighted faith, 
and the republic, that out of a few I should be 
reserved by your means, as one particularly suited 
to renew the harmony of you two, and of the 
citizens. Though I have before thanked you on 
account of Lentulus, whom you have saved, as he 
did me; yet upon reading the letter, which he 
wrote to me full of gratitude for your liberality 
and kindness s , I considered myself to have 
received from you the same benefit you have con- 
ferred upon him. If then you perceive that I am 
grateful towards him, give me the power of being 
so likewise towards Pompeius l . 



LETTER XI U . 

I am not sorry for what you say about my 
letter v being made public ; and have even myself 
allowed several people to take copies of it. For 
after what has happened, and still threatens us, I 
should be well pleased to have my sentiments 
recorded concerning a peace. But in recommend- 
ing this, especially to such a man, I thought there 
was no readier means of moving him, than by 
affirming that the measure, to which I exhorted 
him, was worthy of his prudence. And if 1 have 
spoken of his prudence in terms of admiration 
while I was calling upon him to save his country, 
I am not afraid of appearing to flatter a man, at 
whose feet I would willingly have thrown myself in 
such a cause. But where it is said, that you would 
allot some time ; this is not that he should consider 
about peace ; but about me, and my duty w . For 
when I affirm that I have not engaged in the 
war, although it is evident from the fact, yet I 
added it for the purpose of giving weight to my per- 
suasion. And it is with the same view that I 
approve his cause. But why is this brought for- 
ward now ? Would that any good had followed ! 
Nay, I should be glad to have my letter read in the 
public assembly ; since Pompeius himself made 
public his own letter to him, in which he says, for 
your most distinguished conduct*. More distin- 

* Pompeius and Lentulus, of whom he speaks soon 
after, were instrumental in procuring Cicero's recal from 
banishment. 

s Lentulus had been captured at Corfinium, and imme- 
diately liberated by Caesar. 

t By not being obliged to assist in any measures against 
him. 

u This, which ought obviously to follow Cicero's letter 
to Ca?sar, is taken from the beginning of book viii. letter 9. 

▼ To Caesar. The preceding letter of this edition. 

w The duty he owed to Pompeius. 

x See book vii. letter 26. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



731 



guished than his own ? than that of Africanus ? 
Such was the current of the times. Even you two?, 
so respected, go to meet him at the fifth mile-stone. 
What ? to meet him on his return from whence ? 
doing what ? or purposing to do what ? With what 
additional spirit will he trust in his cause, when 
he sees you, and others like you, greeting him not 
only with their numbers, but with cheerful looks ? 
Are we then to blame z ? I do not mean at all 
to accuse you : but the marks which should dis- 
tinguish real good-will from mere pretence are 
strangely confounded. But what decrees of the 
senate do I foresee ? I am speaking however more 
openly than I had intended. I mean to be at Arpi- 
num the last day of the month, and thence to visit 
my several villas, which I despair of seeing after- 
wards. 



LETTER XII. 

While I was reading your letter on the 20th of 
March, I received one from Lepta, informing me 
that Pompeius was surrounded, and that even the 
passage out of the harbour was occupied with rafts. 
I cannot bear to think or write the rest for weep- 
ing. I send you a copy of it. Wretched as we 
are ! why did we not all follow his destiny ? The 
same intelligence is brought from Matius and Tre- 
batius, who met with Caesar's messengers at Min- 
turnse. I am distracted with grief, and already 
envy the fate of Mucius a . But how honourable, 
how clear are your counsels ! how well considered, 
respecting my journey by land, my passage by sea, 
my meeting and conversation with Caesar ! All is 
at once honourable and cautious. And how kind, 
how generous, how brotherly, is your invitation to 
Epirus ! I am surprised about Dionysius, who 
was treated by me with more honour than Panse- 
tius was by Scipio, and yet has most foully insulted 
this present state of my fortune. I hate the man, 
and will hate him, and wish I could punish him ; 
but his own humour will punish him sufficiently. 
Now especially I beg you to consider what I ought 
to do. An army of the Roman people invests Cn. 
Pompeius ! keeps him inclosed with a trench and 
rampart ! prevents his escape ! Do I live ? And 
is the city standing ? Do the praetors continue to 
pronounce judgment? Do the eediles prepare the 
public games ? Do substantial men continue to 
register their interest ? And b do I myself sit idle ? 
Should I madly endeavour to go thither, to implore 
the faith of the towns ? The honest will not fol- 
low me ; the inconsiderate will laugh at me ; and 
those who are eager for a change, especially being 
armed and victorious, will use violence, and lay 
hands upon me. What think you then? Have 
you any counsel for the remains of this wretched 
life ? I am grieved, and vexed ; while some think 
me prudent, or fortunate, in not having gone with 
him. But 1 think otherwise. For though I never 

y Perhaps Atticus and Sext. Peduceus. See book vii. 
letter 13. 

z This appears to be asked as by Atticus and Peduceus. 

a Q. Mucius Scaevola was killed in a former civil war by 
order of Marius. This is before alluded to. See book viii. 
letter 3. 

b That is, do things go on as usual ? or are not all orders 
of men eager to vindicate the country from such mon- 
strous proceedings ? Not unlike to this is that of Catullus, 
" Quid est Catulle, quid moraris emori ? " 



wished to be his companion in victory, I should 
desire to be so in adversity. Why should I now 
request your letters, your prudence, or kindness ? 
The thing is over. Nothing can now help me, who 
have not even anything left to wish for, but that he 
may be delivered by some compassion of the enemy c . 
I suspect that the account of the rafts is not true. 
Else what is it that Dolabella means in this letter, 
which he sent from Brundisium the 13th of March, 
calling it the good fortune of Caesar, that Pompeius 
should be on his flight ; and that he would sail with 
the first wind ? which is very different from those 
letters, of which I before sent you copies. Here 
they talk of mere cruelties. But there is no later 
or better authority than that of Dolabella. 



LETTER XITI. 

I received your letter on the 22d, in which you 
defer all counsel to that time when we shall have 
learned what has been done. In truth so it must 
be ; nor in the interval can anything be determined, 
or even planned ; although the recent letter of 
Dolabella encourages me to resume my former 
considerations : for, on the 18th there was a favour- 
able wind, of which I suppose he would take ad- 
vantage. The collection of your d opinions was 
not brought together for the sake of lamentation, 
but rather for my consolation. For 1 was not so 
much distressed with these calamities, as with the 
suspicion of my own fault, or folly : these thoughts I 
now dismiss, since my conduct and counsels have 
the sanction of your judgment. When you say 
that my being under such great obligations to him, 
is more a matter of acknowledgement on my part 
than of desert on his ; it is so. I have always 
extolled to the utmost what he did ; and the more, 
that he might not suppose I harboured the remem- 
brance of what had passed before e . Which how- 
ever well I may remember, yet now it becomes me 
to follow the pattern of his conduct at that time f . 
He gave me no assistance when it was in his 
power ; and afterward he became friendly, indeed 
extremely so, from what reason I know not. I 
will therefore do the same to him. Moreover, this 
is alike in both of us, that we have been led 
into error by the very same people £. I only wish 
I were able to assist him as much as he was able 
to assist me. What he did however is most grate- 
ful to me. But I neither know in what manner I 
can now help him ; nor, if I could, should I think 
it right to do so while he is preparing such a 
deadly war. I would only avoid giving him offence 
by staying here. I can neither bear to see what 
you may already anticipate in your mind, nor to 

c Cicero probably received Dolabella's letter subsequently 
to his writing the above. This may, perhaps, be intimated 
by the expression his lito-is, which I have therefore en- 
deavoured to preserve in the translation : the letter, or a 
copy of it, might have been inclosed. 

d See letter 10 of this book. 

e When Pompeius did not exert himself as he might, to 
prevent Cicero's banishment. 

' When, after neglecting Cicero's interests in the first 
instance, he afterwards was active in his recal, as he goes 
on to explain. 

S Meaning probably Bibulus, Lucceius, and others, who 
had formerly been envious and jealous of Cicero, [see book 
iv. letter 5,] and had more recently led on Pompeius to his 
present fortune, and then deserted him. 



732 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



take a part in those calamities. I have been the 
slower in removing, because it is difficult to make 
up one's mind to a voluntary departure without 
any hope of returning. For I perceive that Csesar 
is so well provided with infantry, with cavalry, 
with fleets, with auxiliaries from Gaul ; which lat- 
ter Matius, a little ostentatiously I suspect, but 
certainly, estimated at 10,000 foot and 6000 horse, 
to be furnished at their own expense for ten years : 
but, supposing this to be an exaggeration, he has 
certainly great forces ; and he will have for their 
support, not subsidies, like Pompeius h , but the 
property of the citizens. Add to this the con- 
fidence of the man ; add the weakness of all those 
attached to the republic ; who, because they think 
Pompeius may with reason be angry with them, 
therefore hate the game, as you call it ; would it 
were such ! You say too that one had observed, 
"That fellow sits idle," because he had professed 
more than he performed i ; and generally those who 
once loved him, love him no longer ; but the towns 
and country people are afraid of him, and hitherto 
are fond of Csesar : from all this, I say, he is so 
well provided, that even if he should not be able 
to conquer, yet how he can himself be conquered 
I do not see. But I fear no fascination J from this 
man so much as the persuasion of necessity. 
" For you must know," says Plato, " that the re- 
quests of tyrants are blended with necessity." I 
see you do not approve of those places which have no 
harbour ; and indeed they did not please me ; but I 
could be there without observation, and with a 
trusty attendance ; which if I could have at Brun- 
disium, I should like it better. But there it is 
impossible to be concealed. But, as you say, when 
we shall have learned k . I am not anxious to 
exculpate myself to your good men. For what 
dinners does Sextus inform me they are giving and 
receiving ! How luxurious ! How joyous ! But 
be these people as good as they may, they are not 
better than ourselves : they might move me if they 
had more courage l . I was mistaken about Pha- 
meas's Lanuinum m ; I was dreaming of his Tro- 
janum. It was for that I offered 500 sestertia 
(4000/.) But the other is worth more. I should 
wish however that you might buy it, if I saw any 
hope of enjoying it. What strange things are 
daily reported, you will know from the note n in- 
closed in my letter. Our friend Lentulus is at 
Puteoli pining with grief, as Csecius relates. What 
should he do ? He dreads a repetition of the dis- 
grace of Corfinium : he now thinks he has done 
enough for Pompeius, and is moved by Csesar's 
kindness; but yet is more moved by the actual 
state of affairs. Can you bea r this ? Everything 

h See letter 9 of this book. 

i I give this translation of an obscure, and perhaps faulty, 
passage, not without great hesitation. I propose to point 
the Latin thus : " Oderunt, ut tu scribis, ludum ; ac vel- 
lem! Scribis quisnam hie significasset, Sedet isle,- quia 
plus ostenderat, quam fecit." 

i Cicero here employs a Greek word, which is probably 
copied from an expression of Atticus, to which this is 
meant as a reply. 

k This refers to what is said in the beginning of this 
letter. 

1 If they showed more courage in support of the re- 
public. 

m See letter 9 of this book. 

n Perhaps this may mean Lepta's report, which Cicero 
had sent to Atticus with the preceding letter. 



is wretched, but nothing more wretched than this ; 
that Pompeius has sent M. Magius to propose con- 
ditions of peace, and is yet besieged, which I did 
not at first believe ; but I have received a letter 
from Balbus, of which I send you a copy. Read 
it, I beseech you, and that paragraph of Balbus 
himself, the excellent Balbus ° ! to whom our friend 
Cnseus gave a piece of ground to erect a villa ; 
whom he often distinguished by a preference to any 
of us. So, he is sadly distressed! But that you 
may not have to read the same thing twice, I refer 
you to the letter itself. As to any hope of peace, 
I have none. Dolabella, in his letter of March 15, 
speaks of nothing but war. I must remain then in 
that same wretched and desperate determination p, 
since nothing can be more wretched than this i. 

Balbus to Cicero, Irnperator. 

I have received a short letter from Caesar, of 
which I subjoin a copy. By the shortness of it 
you may judge how greatly he is occupied, who 
writes "so briefly upon so important a subject. If 
there should be any further news, I will immedi- 
ately write to you. 

" Ccesar to Oppius, and to Cornelius*. 

II I arrived at Brundisium the 9th of March. 
I pitched my camp close to the wall. Pompeius is 
in Brundisium. He has sent M. Magius to me to 
treat of peace. I made such reply as seemed 
pi-oper. This I wished you immediately to know. 
When I entertain hope of accomplishing anything 
towards an agreement, I will immediately inform 
you." 

How do you imagine, my Cicero, that I am now 
distressed, after being again brought to have some 
hope of peace, lest anything should prevent their 
agreement ? For, in my absence all I can do is to 
wish. If I were there, I might perhaps seem to be 
of some use. Now I am in a cruel state of ex- 
pectation. 



LETTER XIV. 

I sent you on the 24th a copy of Balbus's let- 
ter to me, and of Caesar's to him ; and the very 
same day I received one from Q. Pedius at Capua, 
informing me that Csesar had written to him the 
14th of March in the following terms. " Pompeius 
keeps within the town. We are encamped before 
the gates. We are attempting a great work, which 
must occupy many days on account of the depth of 
the sea ; but there is nothing better to be done : 
we are constructing piers from each extremity of 
the port, so as either to oblige him to transport 
immediately the forces he has at Brundisium, or to 
prevent him from getting out." Where is the 
peace, about which Balbus professed himself to be 
so distressed ? Can anything be more bitter ? 
anything more cruel ? And some confidently relate 
that he talks of avenging the sufferings of Cn. 
Carbo, and M. Brutus s , and of all those who had 
felt the cruelty of Sulla while Pompeius was his 

o This is said ironically. P To pass over to Pompeius. 
q The remaining in Italy a witness to the ruin of the 
state, and to the pretences of false friends. 
r Cornelius Balbus. 
s They had been put to death by Pompeius. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATT1CUS. 



733 



associate : that Curio under his command did 
nothing which Pompeius had not done under the 
command of Sulla : that to serve his own views he 
had recalled those only, who by the former laws * 
were not liable to banishment ; but that Pompeius 
had recalled from exile the very traitors to their 
country : that he complained of Milo's being 
driven out by violence u : that, however, he should 
punish nobody but those who were found in arms. 
This was contradicted by one Baebius who came 
from Curio on the 13th, a man not without some 
eloquence ; but who may not say so to anybody v ? 
I am quite at a loss what to do. I imagine Cnaeus 
is now gone from thence. What is really the case, 
we must know in two days' time. I have heard 
nothing from you, nor is Anteros w arrived, who 
might bring a letter from you. But it is no won- 
der ; for what can we write ? Nevertheless I omit 
no day. 

After I had finished my letter, I received one, 
before it was light, from Lepta at Capua, informing 
me that Pompeius had embarked from Brundisium 
the 15th of March ; and that Caesar was to be at 
Capua the 26th. 



LETTER XV. 

After I had sent my letter to inform you that 
Caesar was to be at Capua on the 26th, I received one 
from Capua, saying that he would be with Curio in 
Albanum the 28th. As soon as I have seen him I 
shall go to Arpinum. If he grants me the per- 
mission I ask. I shall accede to his terms ; if not, I 
shall make terms for myself*. He has, as he wrote 
to me, placed single legions at Brundisium, Ta- 
rentum, and Sipontum. He seems to be closing 
up the passages by sea ; and yet himself to look 
rather to Greece than to Spain. But these are 
more distant considerations. At present I am 
worried with the idea of meeting him ; for he is 
just here, and I dread his first steps. For I imagine 
he will want a decree of the senate, he will want a 
warrant of the augurs (and I shall be hurried 
away?, or shall be exposed to great vexation if I 
absent myself), either for the praetor to propose the 
consuls, or to nominate a dictator ; neither of 
which is consistent with law. But if Sulla could 
procure his own appointment to the dictatorship 
by an interrex, why may not Caesar ? I cannot 
resolve the difficulty, unless by suffering under the 
one the punishment of Q. Mucius, or under the 
other that of L. Scipio z . By the time you read 
this, our interview will perhaps have taken place — 
"Bear up, my heart, you have borne a severer 

4 Previous to those made by Pompeius. See book x. 
letter 4. 

u At the time of Milo's trial the forum had been occu- 
pied by armed men under the direction of Pompeius. 

v This seems to be the most obvious interpretation of the 
text, which has been variously understood. 

w One of Atticus's f reed-men. 

x The meaning is, that if Caesar did not accede to the 
proposal of Cicero's absenting himself when any business 
was agitated against Pompeius, he should, without leave, 
retire from Italy. 

y Shall be obliged to go to Rome, as a senator and augur 
to assist at these measures. 

z In the time of the former civil wars, Q,. Mucius had 
been put to death by Marius, L. Scipio proscribed by 
Sulla. 



trial a ." No, not that which was peculiarly my 
own. For then there was hope of an early return ; 
there was a general complaint : now I am anxious 
to get away, and any idea of returning never enters 
my mind. Besides, there is not only no complaint 
among the provincial towns, and country people ; 
but on the contrary they fear Pompeius, as cruel 
and exasperated. Yet nothing is to me a greater 
source of sorrow than that I should have remained; 
nor anything which I more desire, than to fly away ; 
not so much to be the companion of his warfare, 
as of his flight. You deferred giving any opinion 
till such time as we should know what had been 
done at Brundisium. Now then we know, never- 
theless my doubts continue. For I can scarcely 
hope that he will grant me the permission I want, 
though I produce many just reasons for it. But I 
will immediately send you an exact account of all 
that passes between us. Do you strive with all 
affection to assist me with your care and prudence. 
He comes so soon, that I shall not be able even to 
see Trebatius b , as I had appointed. Everything 
must be done without preparation. But as Mentor 
says to Telemachus, — "You would provide one 
thing, but the Deity provides another." Whatever 
I do, you shall immediately know it. As for any 
despatches from Caesar to the consuls and to Pom- 
peius, about which you ask, I have none. What 
JEgypta brought, I sent to you before on my way 
hither ; from which I think the despatches may be 
understood. Philippus is at Naples, Lentulus at 
Puteoli ; respecting Domitius continue to inquire, 
as you do, where he is, and what are his inten- 
tions. When you say that I have expressed my- 
self about Dionysius with more asperity than is 
consistent with my disposition, you must know 
that I am one of the old school, and imagined you 
would feel this insult with more indignation than 
myself. For besides that I thought you ought 
to be moved at the ill-treatment I might have re- 
ceived from anybody, this man has in some mea- 
sure injured you also by his misconduct towards 
me. But how much you value this I leave to your 
own judgment ; nor in this do I wish to impose 
any burden upon you. For my own part, I always 
thought him a little crazy ; but now I also think 
him disingenuous, and wicked ; yet not more an 
enemy to me than to himself. You have been 
properly careful towards Philargyrus ; you cer- 
tainly had a just and good cause ; that 1 was myself 
deserted, rather than that I deserted him c . After 
I had delivered my letter, on the 25th, the servant, 
whom I had sent to Trebatius also, as well as to 
Matius, brought back a letter, of which the fol- 
lowing is a copy. 

Matius and Trebatius to Cicero, Imperator. 

After we had left Capua, we heard on our road 
that Pompeius had gone from Brundisium the 1 7th 
of March with all his troops ; that Caesar had 

a The original is taken from Homer. Cicero applies it 
to his former sufferings in his banishment. 

b So I read it, agreeably to letter 9 of this book, wherein 
Cicero expressed his wish to see Trebatius before Caesar's 
arrival. 

c This probably means Dionysius, on whose subject 
Atticus might have spoken to Philargyrus in exculpation 
of Cicero's conduct towards him. It is uncertain if this 
Dionysius be the same that is represented to have run off 



734 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



entered into the town the day following, and, having 
harangued the people, had proceeded from thence 
towards Rome, and hoped to be in the city before 
the first of April, and then, after staying there a 
few days, to set out for Spain. We have thought 
it advisable, having for certain this account of 
Caesar's motions, to send your servant back, that 
you might know it as soon as possible. We will 
attend to your instructions, and execute them as 
occasion requires. Trebatius Scaevola hopes to be 
with you in time d . 

Since writing our letter we have been told that 
Caesar means to pass the 25th of March at Bene- 
ventum, the 26th at Capua, the 27th at Sinuessa. 
We believe this may be depended upon. 



LETTER XVI. 

Though I have nothing particular to tell you, 
yet, not to omit any day, I send this letter. They 
say that Caesar will stop on the 27th at Sinuessa. 
I received a letter from him the 26th, in which he 
now expects every kind of assistance from me, not 
simply my assistance, as in his former letter. 
Upon my writing to commend his clemency in the 
affair of Corfinium, he replied in the following 
terms : — 

Caesar, Imperator, to Cicero, Imperator. 
You rightly conceive of me (for I am well known 
to you) that nothing can be further from my dis- 
position than cruelty. And while I have great 
pleasure in the transaction itself, I rejoice with 
triumph that what I have done meets with your 
approbation. Nor does it disturb me that those 
whom I have set at liberty are said to have gone 
away in order again to make war upon me ; for I 
wish nothing more than that I should be like my- 
self, and they like themselves. I should be glad 
to have you in the city, that on all occasions I may 
avail myself of your advice and every kind of 
assistance, as I have been used to do. Let me assure 
you that nothing can be more agreeable to me than 
your Dolabella. To him accordingly I shall owe 
this favour e ; for he cannot do otherwise, such is 
his kindness, his feeling, and his affection towards 
me. 



LETTER XVII. 

I write this on the 28th, on which day I expect 
Trebatius. From his report, and from Matius's 
letter, I shall consider how I am to regulate my 
conversation with him f . O sad time ! And I have 
no doubt but he will press me to go to the city ; 
for he has ordered it to be publicly announced even 
at Formise, that he wishes to have a full attendance 
of the senate on the first of April. Must I then 
refuse him ? But why anticipate ? I will imme- 
diately write you an account of everything. From 
what passes between us I shall determine whether 
I should go to Arpinum or elsewhere. I wish to 
invest my young Cicero with the manly robe *, and 

with some valuable books from Cicero's library.— Ep. 
Fam. xiii. 77. 

d Before Caesar's arrival. 

e Of persuading Cicero to go to Rome. 

{ Caesar. 

K This was usually done at the age of seventeen. 



I think of doing it there. Consider, I beg you, 
what course I should take afterwards ; for anxiety 
has made me stupid. I should be glad to know if 
you have received from Curius any account of 
Tiro h . For Tiro himself has written to me in such 
a manner as makes me fearful how he may be ; and 
those who come from thence only say so much, 
that he is going on well '. In the midst of great 
cares this also troubles me ; for in this state of 
things his assistance and fidelity would be extremely 
useful. 



LETTER XVIII. 

I have done both according to your advice ; 
having ordered my discourse so that he should 
rather think well of me than thank meJ; and 
having adhered to my intention of not going to the 
city. I was mistaken in supposing that he would 
easily be persuaded : I never knew anybody less 
so. He said that he stood condemned by my 
resolution ; and that others would be slower to 
comply, if I refused to attend. I replied, that 
their case was different from mine k . After a good 
deal of discussion, " Come, then," said he, " and 
propose terms of peace." "At my own discretion," 
said I. " Have I," said he, "any right to pre- 
scribe to you?" "This." I replied, " is what I 
shall propose : that it is not agreeable to the 
senate that troops should be sent to Spain, or that 
an army should be transported into Greece ; and 
I shall lament at some length the situation of 
Pompeius." Then he — " But I do not like that to 
be said." "So I supposed," said I ; "and for 
that reason I wish to absent myself; because I 
must either say this, and much more which it will 
be impossible for me to withhold if I am there ; 
or else I must stay away." The conclusion was, 
that, as if he wished to get rid of the subject, he 
desired I would consider of it. This I could not 
refuse. So we parted. I imagine he was not 
much pleased with me ; but I am pleased with my- 
self, which I have not been for some time past. 
As for the rest, O gods, what an attendance ! Or, 
as you used to say, what a ghastly troop ! Among 
whom was the Eros 1 of Celer. O ruinous state ! 
O desperate forces ! What think you of Servius' 
son ? and Titinius's ? How many have been in that 
very camp, by which Pompeius was besieged ! Six 
legions ! He is himself extremely vigilant and 
daring. I see no end of evil. Now at least you 
must deliver your opinion. What I have mentioned 
was the last thing that passed between us ; yet his 
winding up, which I had almost omitted, was 
ungracious ; that if he was not permitted to use 
my advice, he should use whose he could, and 
should think nothing beneath him. You see the 
man then, as you expressed it. " Were you 
grieved ?" Undoubtedly. " Pray what followed ?" 



h Cicero had left him sick at Patrse. See book vii. 
letter 2. 

> The text is perhaps faulty. It may, however, be under- 
stood according to the above interpretation by pointing it 
thus — id modo mtntiant ,• Sane. In magnis, &c. 

J Rather esteem me for my attachment to Pompeius, 
than thank me for compliance with his own wishes. 

k Others were not under the same obligations to Pom- 
peius. 

1 Supposed to be some freed-man. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



735 



He went directly to Pedanum, I to Arpinum. 
Thence I look for your warbler™. " Plague on it," 
you will say, "do not act over again what is 
past : even he whom we follow n has been much 
disappointed." But I expect your letter: for 
nothing is now as it was before, when you pro- 
posed that we should see first how this would turn 
out. The last subject of doubt related to our 
interview ; in which I question not that I have 
' given Caesar some offence. This is a reason for 
determining the quicker. Pray let me have a letter 
from you, and a political one. I am very anxious 
to hear from you. 



LETTER XIX. 

I have given my young Cicero the plain toga 
at Arpinum p, in preference to any other place, as 
there was no going to Rome : and this was kindly 
received by my fellow-countrymen : though I saw 
the people there, and wherever I passed, afflicted 
and downcast ; so sad and so dreadful is the con- 
templation of this great calamity. Levies are 
making, and troops taking up their winter-quarters. 
And if these measures, even when adopted by good 
citizens, in prosecution of a just war, and conducted 
with moderation, are yet in themselves grievous ; 
how harsh do you suppose they now are, when they 
are adopted by desperate men, in a profligate civil 
war, and with all insolence ! For you may be 
assured there is not an abandoned man in Italy 
who is not among them. I saw myself the whole 
body at Formise ; and in truth never thought they 
deserved the name of men. I knew them all ; but 
had never seen them together. Let me away, then, 
whither I may, and relinquish all I possess. Let 
me go to him, who will be more glad to see me 
than if I had originally been of his company. For 
then we had the greatest hope ; now, I at least have 
none : yet, besides myself, nobody has left Italy, 
who did not believe Caesar to be his enemy. And 



m This is probably taken from some expression used by 
Atticus, and meant to denote tbe harbinger of spring, at 
which season Cicero would sail. 

n " Whom we follow," I imagine to be said by Cicero in 
his own person, thereby meaning Pompeius, though the 
sentence in which this stands is put into the mouth of 
Atticus. 

The toga worn in mature age was without the purple 
border, which distinguished the prcetexta of youth, and 
was therefore called the plain toga, or manly toga. 

p Arpinum was the place of Cicero's birth, where he 
continued to have a family seat. 



I do this not for the sake of the republic, which I 
look upon as utterly extinguished ; but that nobody 
may think me ungrateful towards him, who raised 
me out of the difficulties which he had brought 
upon me ; and, at the same time, that I may not 
witness what is doing, or at least what will be done. 
Indeed, I imagine that some decrees of the senate 
have already been passed : I wish it may be in 
favour of Volcatius's opinion 1 '. Yet what does it 
signify ? for all are of one mind. But Servius will 
be the most to blame, who sent his son to destroy 
Cn. Pompeius, or at least to take him prisoner r , 
with Pontius Titinianus 8 . This latter was actuated 
by fear 1 ; but the former — But let us cease to rail, 
and at length come to some conclusion ; though I 
have nothing new but this, which I wish were the 
shortest possible, that there is life remaining 11 . 
The Adriatic Sea being closely guarded, I shall 
sail by the Tyrrhenian ; and if the passage from 
Puteoli be difficult, I shall make my way to Croton, 
or Thurii ; and, good citizens as we are, and 
attached to our country, shall go to infest the 
sea v . I see no other manner of conducting this 
war. We go to bury ourselves in Egypt w . We 
cannot be a match for Caesar with our army ; and 
there is no reliance on peace. But all this has 
been abundantly deplored. I should be glad if you 
would deliver to Cephalion* a letter about every- 
thing that is done, even about the conversation of 
people, unless they are quite dumbfounded. I 
have followed your advice, especially by maintain- 
ing in our interview the dignity I ought, and per- 
sisting in not going up to the city. It only remains 
to beg you will inform me as distinctly as possible 
(for there is no time to lose) what you approve, 
and what you think : though there is no longer 
any doubt. Yet if anything, or rather whatever 
occurs to your mind, pray let me know it. 

1 To propose terms of peace. 

r The object of Caesar's army at Brundisium could be 
nothing but either to destroy Pompeius, or to make him 
prisoner. 

s This must be the same as Titinius' son, mentioned 
before. See letter 18 of this book. 

* The fear of being ruined by Cassar, if he had not joined 
him. 

u The text is obscure, and very probably corrupt, so 
that I offer this translation without any confidence. 

v That is, shall go to join Pompeius, even though his 
present purpose be to intercept the supplies of his country ; 
for at that time Italy was furnished with corn by importa- 
tion chiefly from Sicily and Egypt. 

w See letter 11 of this book. 

* The bearer, it is to be supposed, of Cicero's letter. 



736 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



BOOK X. 



LETTER I. 

On the 3d of April, having come to my brother's 
house at Laterium^, I received your letter, and was 
a little revived ; which had not been the case since 
this ruination. For I most highly value your 
approbation of my firmness 2 , and conduct. And 
when you tell me that Sextus also approves it, I 
am as much pleased as if I thought I had the 
commendation of his father, for whose judgment I 
always entertained the greatest respect : who for- 
merly said to me, what I often recollect, on that 
5th of December*, when I asked him, " Sextus, 
what then do you advise ?" " Let me not die," 
said he in the words of Homer, " indolently and 
ignobly ; but after some great deed, which may be 
heard by generations to come." His authority 
therefore lives with me ; and his son, who is like 
him, has the same weight with me which the 
father had. I beg you to make my kindest com- 
pliments to him. Though you defer giving your 
opinion to no distant period ; (for I imagine that 
hired peace -maker b has already summed up ; 
already something has been done in that assembly 
of senators ; for I do not esteem it a senate ;) yet 
by that you keep me in suspense ; the less so how- 
ever, because I cannot doubt of your opinion about 
what I ought to do c . Why else should you men- 
tion Flavius's having a legion and the province of 
Sicily, and that this is already carried into effect ? 
What crimes, think you, are partly in preparation, 
and now contriving ; partly on the point of being 
executed ? And should I disregard that law of 
Solon, your fellow-citizen d , as I esteem it, and 
mine too, who made it a capital crime to join 
neither party in a civil commotion ? Unless you 
are of a different opinion, both I and the children e 
shall away from hence. But one of these is more 
certain than the other f : I shall not however be in 
a hurry ; I shall wait for your advice, and for the 
letter which I desired you would send by Cepha- 
lion?, unless you have already sent another. When 
you say, not that you had heard it from any other 
quarter ; but that you thought within yourself, I 
should be induced to go up, if the question of 
peace were agitated ; it has never entered into my 
mind that any question of peace can be agitated, 
while it is most certainly his wish, if possible, to 



y This place was close to Arpinum. It is mentioned 
book iv. letter 7- 

z In resisting Caesar's wishes about going to Rome. See 
book ix. letter 18. 

a Distinguished by the vigorous measures adopted in 
the Catilinarian conspiracy by Cicero, who was then 
consul. 

l> Who is here meant is uncertain. He appears to have 
been bought over by Caasar, and probably a tedious speaker, 
by what is said of his summing up. 

« Namely, that I should quit Italy, now that Caesar 
assumes tyrannical authority. 

<1 An Athenian: to which title not only Atticus but 
Cicero might reasonably aspire, from his attachment to 
Athens. 

e His son and nephew. 

f His own departure was more certain than that of the 
boys. 

e See book ix. letter 19. 



deprive Pompeius of his army and province : unless 
perhaps that summary speaker 11 can persuade him 
to be quiet, whilst the negotiators go backwards 
and forwards. I see nothing now that I can hope, 
or think possible to be done : yet this deserves the 
attention of an upright man, and is a great political 
question ; whether one should enter into the coun- 
sels of a tyrant, when he is going to deliberate on 
some good cause. Therefore if it should happen 
that I am summoned (which I do not regard : for 
I told him what I should say upon the subject of 
peace 1 , which he strongly reprobated), but yet if it 
should happen, let me know what you think I ought 
to do. Nothing has yet occurred which is more 
deserving of consideration. I am glad you were 
pleased with Trebatius's report ; he is a good man, 
and a good citizen ; and your own repeated expres- 
sion of " excellent well," is the only thing that 
has hitherto given me satisfaction. I eagerly 
expect a letter from you, which I imagine has 
already been sent. YouJ and Sextus have main- 
tained the same dignity which you recommend to 
me. Your friend Celer is more eloquent than 
wise. What you heard from Tullia about the 
young men is true. What you mention about M. 
Antonius k , appears to me not v so bad in fact as in 
sound. This irresolution, in which I now am, is 
as bad as death : for I ought either to have acted 
with freedom among the ill-disposed ; or, even at 
some hazard, to have joined the good party. " Let 
us either follow the rash measures of the good ; or 
let us lash the boldness of the wicked 1 ." Both are 
attended with danger : but the course I take is not 
dishonourable, and yet is not safe. I do not think 
that he m who sent his son to Brundisium on the 
subject of peace (about which I entertain the same 
sentiments as you, that it is a palpable pretence, 
and that war is preparing with all vigour) is likely 
to be appointed. Of this, as I hoped, no mention 
has hitherto been made 11 . I have therefore the 
less occasion to write, or even to think what I 
should do, in case I were appointed. 

h I apprehend this to allude to the hired peace-maker 
mentioned in the former part of this letter, and to be spo- 
ken in mockery of his tedious speeches, summarius being 
equivalent to perorasse. 

1 See book ix. letter 18. 

i The following part of this letter seems to be a postscript 
subsequent to the receipt of one from Atticus, to which it 
alludes. 

k It is doubtful to what this alludes ; and indeed it is 
doubtful if the text be correct. 

1 I suspect this sentence to be a quotation produced in 
illustration of what immediately precedes ; otherwise it is 
odd that the same observation should be repeated with so 
little variation. 

m Perhaps Balbus ; the younger Balbus, who was his 
nephew by birth, being his son by adoption. See book viii. 
letter 9. 

n I understand this to mean that no mention had been 
made of appointing anybody to negotiate with Pompeius ; 
and he was glad of it, not because he did not wish for 
peace, but because he saw that all overtures for that pur- 
pose would be insincere on the part of Ca?sar, and only 
designed either to allay the clamours of some well-meaning 
persons in Italy, or to embarrass and cast an odium upon 
Pompeius. 



TO TITUS POMPON IUS ATTICUS. 



737 



LETTER II. 

I received your letter the 5th of April, which 
was brought by Cephalion ; and had designed to 
remain the following day at Minturnse, and thence 
immediately to, embark; but I stopped at my 
brother's house in Arcanum, that, till the arrival 
of some surer information , I might be less ob- 
served, and yet everything might be done p which 
could be done without me. The warbler is now 
herei, and I am eager to be off; no matter whither, 
or by what passage. But this will be for my con- 
sideration with those who understand it r . Con- 
tinue, as far as you can, to assist me with your 
counsels, as you have hitherto done. The state of 
affairs is incapable of being disentangled : every- 
thing must be left to fortune. I struggle without 
any hope. If anything better should occur, it will 
be a surprise. I hope Dionysius has not set out 
to come hither, as my daughter Tullia wrote me 
word. Not only the time is unsuitable ; but I do 
not care to have my troubles, great as they are, 
made an exhibition to one who is not friendly. I 
do not however wish you to quarrel with him on 
my account. 



LETTER III. 

Though I have really nothing to tell you, yet 
this is what I wanted besides to know s : whether 
Caesar was set out 1 ; in what state he left the city, 
and whom he had appointed over different districts 
and offices ; whether any commissioners had been 
sent by decree of the senate to treat with Pom- 
peius and the consuls on the subject of peace. 
Wishing therefore to know this, I have for that 
purpose sent this letter ; and I shall be obliged to 
you to inform me about this, and anything which 
it may concern me to know. I shall wait in 
Arcanum till I hear. This is the second letter I 
have dictated to you this same 7th of April, having 
written a longer the day before with my own hand u . 
They say that you were seen in the court v ; not 
that I mean to accuse you ; for I am myself open 
to the same accusations I am expecting to hear 
from you, yet do not know very well what 1 should 
expect. However, if there is nothing, I shall be 
glad to hear even that. Caesar by letter excuses 
me for not going up, and says that he takes it in 
good part. I do not regard what he adds, that 
Tullus and Servius have complained of his not 
granting the same liberty to them as to me. 
The silly men ! who would send their sons to 
besiege Cn. Pompeius, yet hesitate themselves to 
go into the senate. But I send you a copy of 
Caesar's letter x . 

Information respecting Caesar's proceedings, as appears 
by the subsequent letter. 

P Preparatory to his embarkation. 

1 See book ix. letter 18. 

r The captain of the vessel, and others acquainted with 
naval affairs. 

s This refers to the preceding letter. 

* To go to Spain against Pompeius's lieutenants. 

u This longer letter was the first of this book. 

v The regia was properly the court of the chief priest ; 
but it must here be understood of some place where Caesar 
held his court. 

w Having met Caesar at Formiae. 

x This has not come down to us. 



LETTER IV. 

I have received several letters from you the 
same day, all full of information ; one particularly, 
which is equivalent to a volume, deserves to be 
repeatedly read, as I do?. I assure you that your 
pains have not been thrown away, and that I am 
extremely obliged to you. And as long as you 
can, that is, as long as you know where to find 
me, I earnestly beg that you will continue to write 
very frequently. But let us at length make an 
end, if possible, or some moderation, which is cer- 
tainly possible, of the wailing which I daily utter. 
For I now no longer think of the dignity, the 
honours, the state of life, which I have lost ; but 
what I have enjoyed, what I have done, in what 
reputation I have lived ; and, even in these cala- 
mities, what difference exists between me, and 
those on whose account I have lost everything. 
These are they who, unless they had driven me 
from the country, thought they could not obtain 
the indulgence of their wishes ; of whose associa- 
tion and wicked combination you see the issue. 
The one z burns with fury and wickedness, and, 
instead of relaxing, is daily growing more violent ; 
first he drove him a from Italy ; now he endeavours 
to persecute him in another 15 quarter, to plunder 
him in another province : nor does he any longer 
refuse, but in some measure demands, that, as he 
is, so also he may be called, a tyrant. The other ; 
he, who formerly would not so much as raise me 
up when I was prostrate at his feet ; who said he 
could do nothing contrary to Caesar's will ; having 
escaped from the hands and sword of his father- 
in-law d , is preparing war by sea and land, not 
indeed without provocation ; but however just, or 
even necessary, yet ruinous to his fellow-citizens, 
unless he conquers ; calamitous even if he does 
conquer. Great as these generals are, I do not 
set their actions, nor their fortune, before my 
own, however flourishing they may seem, however 
afflicted I. For who can ever be happy, that has 
either abandoned his country, or enslaved it? And if, 
as you remind me, I have rightly said in my book e , 
that nothing is good but what is honourable, 
nothing evil but what is base ; then assuredly 
each of those men is most wretched ; both of 
whom have always preferred their own power and 
their private advantage before their country's 
prosperity and honour. I am therefore supported 
by an excellent conscience, when I reflect that I 
have either rendered the greatest services to my 
country when it was in my power ; or certainly 
have never thought of it but with reverence ; and 
that the republic has been overthrown by that very 
storm which 1 foresaw fourteen years ago f . I 
shall go then with this conscience accompanying 
me, in great affliction it is true ; yet that, not so 
much on my own or on my brother's account, 
(for our age, whether well or otherwise, is already 
spent) as on account of the boys, to whom I some- 



y This little irregularity of construction is not to be 
condemned in a familiar letter, and seemed to be equally 
admissible in English as in Latin. 

z Caesar, « Pompeius. 

b Greece. c Spain. d Csesar. 

e Probably alluding to his treatise on Government, but 
contained also in his Paradoxes. 

* At the time of his consulate. 
3B 



738 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



times think it was due to have transmitted also 
our free constitution. One of these s, being better 
disposed, does not so prodigiously torment me : but 
the other h — O sad affair ! In ray whole life 
nothing ever happened more vexatious '. Spoiled 
by my indulgence, he has gone such lengths as I 
dare not mention : but I am expecting to hear 
from you ; for you said you would write fully when 
you had seen him. All my kindness towards him 
has been tempered with much severity ; nor is it 
a single or small fault that I have suppressed, but 
many and great ones. And his father's lenity 
should rather have called forth his affection, than 
been so cruelly slighted. The letter be wrote to 
Caesar gave me so much pain, that I never men- 
tioned it to you ; but we see how it has soured his 
own behaviour. But of this journey, and affecta- 
tion of duty, I cannot venture to speak as it de- 
serves. I only know that, after the interview with 
Hirtius, he was sent for by Caesar, and talked with 
him about my mind being entirely alienated from 
his measures, and my design of leaving Italy : aud 
even this I mention with timidity. No blame 
however attaches to me : the fear is for his natural 
disposition. It was this that corrupted Curio, and 
Hortensius' son ; not any fault of their parents. 
My brother is dejected with sorrow, and afraid not 
so much for his own life as for mine. To this, to 
this evil, bring consolation, if you can find any. I 
should wish particularly that his wife may either 
receive the reports that have been brought to me 
as false, or suppose them to be less than they are. 
If they are true, I know not what may be likely to 
ensue in this condition and flight. If we had yet 
a free government, I should not be at a loss 
respecting either the severity or the indulgence to 
be used. Either anger, or grief, or fear, has 
prompted me to write this with more asperity 
than accords with either your or my affection 
towards him. If what I have heard be true, you 
will pardon me ; if false, I shall be very glad to 
have you pluck from me this error. But however 
this be, you will impute nothing to the uncle, or 
to the father. When I had written so far, I received 
a message from Curio, that he would call upon 
me ; for he had arrived in Cumanum the evening 
before, that is, the 13th. Therefore, if I collect 
from his conversation anything to tell you, I will 
add it to my letter. 

Curio passed by my house, and sent me word 
that he would come presently. He went to address 
the people at Puteoli ; and having done so, he 
returned, and was with me a considerable time. O 
foul affair ! You know the man ; he concealed 
nothing. In the first place, nothing is more cer- 
tain than that all who had been condemned by the 
Pompeian law will be restoredJ ; accordingly he is 
to make use of their services in Sicily. He made 
no doubt of Caesar's getting possession of Spain ; 
that he would then pursue Pompeius with his 
army, wherever he might be ; and that his death 
I would be the termination of the war. Nothing 
could be nearer accomplished k : that Caesar had 

If His own son. h Quintus' son. 

* He appears to have been paying court to Caesar, at the 
expense of his father and uncle. It was the more vexa- 
tious to Cicero, because he had been endeavouring to keep 
well with Caesar, both for his own sake, and for that of 
his country. 

J See book ix. letter 14. 



wished in the transport of his anger to have had 
the tribune Metellus l put to death ; and if this had 
been executed, a great slaughter must have ensued : 
that many had advised a slaughter ; and that he 
abstained from cruelty, not by inclination, or natural 
disposition, but because he thought that clemency 
was popular ; but that if he lost the affections of 
the people, he would become cruel ; and he was 
much disturbed when he understood that he had 
given offence to the populace in the affair of the 
treasury m . In consequence of which, though he 
had determined to harangue the people before he 
left the city, he did not venture to do so, and set 
out with his mind greatly agitated. Upon my 
asking him what he foresaw ; what conduct" ; 
what republic ; he plainly acknowledged that 
there was no hope remaining. He was afraid of 
Pompeius's fleet ; and said that if it should be col- 
lected, he should quit Sicily. What, said I, are 
those six fasces of yours ? If they are granted by 
the senate, why are they covered with laurel p ? If 
by Caesar, why are there six i ? "I wished," says 
he, " to get them by a surreptitious decree of the 
senate, for it could not be done otherwise ; but now 
he is become much more hostile to the senate, and 
says, ' From me everything shall proceed.' They 
are six, because I did not choose to have twelve, 
as I might." I then said, how much I wished 
that I had asked Caesar for what I understand 
Philippus has obtained r ; but I was ashamed, be- 
cause he had not obtained anything s from me. " He 
would willingly have granted it to you," says he ; 
", but suppose yourself to have obtained it ; for I 
will inform him, as you yourself shall please, of our 
having talked together about it : but what does it 
signify to him where you are, since you refuse to 
come into the senate ? Yet now you would have 
given him no offence on that account, if you had 
not been in Italy." To which I replied, that I 
sought for retirement and solitude, especially on 
account of my lictors. He applauded my conduct. 
Well, then, said I, my way to Greece lies through 
your province', since the coast of the Adriatic is 
occupied by soldiers. " What," said he, " could 
be more desirable for me ?" And he added a great 
deal with much liberality. So that this is now 
settled, that I can sail not only safely, but openly. 
The rest he postponed to the next day, in which 
if there should be anything worth relating, I will 
let you know it. There are some things, however, 
which I omitted to ask ; as, whether Caesar would 
wait for an interregnum? or — how can I pronounce" 

k This, agreeably to the custom of the Latin language, 
applies to what follows. 

1 This Metellus had opposed 'Caesar in his plunder of 
the public treasury. See book vii. letter 12. 

m Caesar had forcibly seized the public money in the 
treasury at Rome, the tribune Metellus in vain resisting 
him. 

« The word exemplum in this place seems to mean 
"what character Caesar would exhibit." See book vii. 
letter 20. 

o Curio. See letter 7 of this book. 

P The laurels were attached by the soldiers, in conse- 
quence of some signal victory gained over an enemy. 

\ The consuls and proconsuls had twelve lictors given 
them by the senate, the propraetors had only six. 

r Licence to live where he pleased. 

8 Caesar had not been able to prevail with Cicero in 
wishing him to go to Rome. See book ix. letter 18. 

t Sicily. 

™ Or act from his own authority, as if he were a king. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



739 



it ? He said that the consulate had beenl offered 
to himself, but that he had declined it for the next 
year. There are other circumstances, also, about 
which I shall inquire. In conclusion, he sware, 
what he would easily accomplish, that Caesar ought 
to be most friendly towards me. " For what, I 
say 11 , has Dolabella written to me?" I asked 
what ? He y asserted, that when he had written to 
desire that I would go to Rome, Caesar expressed 
the greatest thankfulness, and not only approved, 
but was even glad that I had acted as I did. What 
think you ? I have resumed my composure. For 
that suspicion of domestic calamity, and of the 
conversation with Hirtius, has been greatly relieved. 
How I wish him w to prove worthy of us ! And 
how I invite myself to find some excuse x for him ! 
But it is necessary to have some communication 
with Hirtius. There must be something ; but I 
should be glad if it might turn out to be inconsider- 
able. And yet I wonder he should not have come 
back. But we shall see how it is. You will let 
the Oppii give credit to Terentiay. This is now 
the only thing to be apprehended in the city 2 . 
Assist me, however, with your advice, whether I 
should go by land to Rhegium, or should embark 
from hence. But since I do not go immediately, 
I shall have something to write to you, as soon as 
I have seen Curio. Pray take care, as usual, to let 
me know how Tiro goes on a . 



LETTER V. 
Of my general intention I conceive I have 
already written to you explicitly enough ; respect- 
ing the day, nothing can be said with certainty, 
but that it will not be before the new moon. 
Curio's discourse the next day came to the same 
amount, unless that he still more openly gave me 
to understand that he saw no end to this state of 
things. The charge you impose upon me of regu- 
lating the young Quintus, is an Arcadian under- 
taking 1 *. However, I will leave nothing untried ; 
and I wish you would do so too : but I shall not 
spare him. I wrote immediately to Vestorius 
about Tullia c ; and indeed she pressed me ear- 
nestly. Vectenus has spoken to you more reason- 
ably than he wrote to me ; but I cannot sufficiently 
express my surprise at the carelessness of the 
incription d . For upon hearing from Philotimus 

« I understand these to be the words of Curio, so that 
inquam means Curio said. 

▼ Dolabella. 

w Young Quintus. 

x This I conceive to be the meaning of the original, 
which has been variously interpreted, and, as is too fre- 
quent in obscure texts, unwarrantably altered. 

y See note m on book viii. letter 7- 

z The want of money is the only thing to be appre- 
hended for Tercntia ; the number of other females of dis- 
tinction doing away any impropriety in her remaining 
there. See book vii. letter 1 4. 

a It will be remembered that Tiro was left ill at Patrae. 

b In the original is the word Arcadia, which is probably 
taken from an oracle reported in the first book of Herodo- 
tus's history, discountenancing, as a work of great diffi- 
culty, a meditated attack of Arcadia by the Lacedemonians. 
See letter 12 of this book. 

c It is uncertain to what this alludes ; but seems, by 
what follows, [see letter 13 of this book,] most probably to 
relate to an advance of money. 

d This may probably allude to Vectenus having called 



that I might purchase that cottage from Canuleius 
for 50 sestertia (400/.), and might have it for less, 
if I applied to Vectenus ; I did apply to him to get 
some abatement, if he could, from that sum. He 
engaged to do so ; and sent me word a little while 
ago, that he had bought it for 30 sestertia (240/.), 
and desired I would let him know to whom I would 
have it assigned ; that the money was to be paid 
the 13th of November. I wrote to him rather 
angrily, yet with a familiar joke. But now, as he 
acts with liberality, I do not mean to find fault 
with him, and have written to tell him that I had 
been set right by you. I shall be glad to hear what 
you intend about your journey, and when. April 17. 



LETTER VI. 

Nothing now stops me but the season. I shall 
use no cunning in my proceedings 6 , happen what 
may in Spain. Nevertheless keep my counsel. I 
have explained to you all my intentions in a former 
letter, for which reason this will be short ; besides, 
I am in a hurry, and busy. Respecting young 
Quintus, " I take all pains f " — you know the rest. 
The advice you give me is both friendly and pru- 
dent ; but everything will be easy, if I can only 
guard against hims. It is an arduous task. There 
are many excellent 11 points about him : but nothing 
plain, nothing candid. I wish you had undertaken 
to manage the young man ; for his father, by his 
over-indulgence, undoes whatever I do. If I could 
act without the father's interference, I could ma- 
nage him. This you can do 1 . But I forgive him. 
It is, I say, an arduous task. I have been con- 
fidently told thatPompeius is going through Ulyrium 
to GauU. I must now consider how and which 
way I shall proceed. 



LETTER VII. 

I auiTE approve your going to Apulia and 
Sipontum, and that appearance k of unsettledness, 
and do not consider you to be under the same 
circumstances as myself. Not but we have both 
the same duty to perform in the republic ; but that 
is not the question. The struggle is, who shall be 
king ; in which the more moderate king has been 
driven out, he who is the better and honester of 
the two, who must conquer, or the very name of 
the Roman people will be extinguished : yet if he 
conquers, he will conquer after the manner and 
example of Sulla. In this struggle, therefore, it is 

Cicero by the title of " Proconsul," [see letter 11 of this 
book,] in consequence of which Cicero in return called 
him monetalis, or " money-stamper." Cicero seems to 
have been displeased with the abrupt manner in which 
Vectenus had concluded the purchase, and fixed the day 
of payment, without consulting him. 

e Shall not wait to see how things turn out in Spain. 

f This alludes to a passage in Terence, where an old man 
exposes the pains he has taken to educate his son. 

S Young Quintus. 

h See letters 10 and 12 of this book. 

» Cicero was living with his brother Quintus, whereas 
Atticus was beyond the reach of his influence. 

J I suppose on his way to Spain ; but it was not true. 

k Atticus, not willing to offend Caesar by abruptly 
quitting Italy, seems to have intended to pass some time 
irregularly in the south-eastern parts previously to his 
departure. 

3B2 



740 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



not for you openly to espouse either party, but to 
bend to the times. But my case is a different one, 
being under such obligations that I cannot bear to 
appear ungrateful. I do not, however, think of 
going into the field ; but of retiring into Malta, or 
some other place of equal insignificance. You will 
say, " By this you do not help him, towards whom 
you wish to show your gratitude : nay, perhaps he 
would rather have wished you did not go." But 
about this we shall see afterwards. Let me but get 
out ; which Dolabella and Curio enable me to do 
at a better season, the one by the Adriatic sea, the 
other by the straits of Sicily 1 . I have had some 
hopes that Servius Sulpicius might wish to converse 
with me m ; and I sent my freed-man Philotimus to 
him with a letter. If he will act a manly part, it 
may prove a valuable meeting ; if otherwise, I shall 
still maintain the same character as I used to do. 
Curio has been staying with me, thinking that 
Caesar is dejected by the popular displeasure, and 
himself diffident about Sicily, if Pompeius should 
have set sail. I have given the young Quintus a 
rough reception. I find it was avarice, and the 
hope of a handsome present. This is bad enough, 
but I trust there is nothing of that baseness which 
I had apprehended 11 . This fault I imagine you will 
attribute not to my indulgence, but to his natural 
disposition, while I endeavour by discipline to 
regulate him. You will arrange with Philotimus 
what you think best about the Oppii of Velia . I 
shall consider Epirus as my own? ; but I think of 
taking a different course. 



LETTER VIII. 

The state of things admonishes, and you have 
pointed out, and I see myself, that it is time to put 
an end to our writing upon such subjects as it 
might be hazardous to have intercepted. But as 
my daughter Tullia frequently writes to me, begging 
me to wait the event of what is doing in Spain, 
and constantly adds that you are of the same opi- 
nion, which indeed I perceive by your letters ; I 
have thought it not unsuitable to let you know my 
sentiments upon that subject. I think the advice 
would be prudent, if I meant to shape my conduct 
by the fate of Spain, which you say I ought to do. 
For it must necessarily happen, either that Csesar 
is driven out of Spain, which I should exceedingly 
desire ; or that the war is protracted ; or that he, 
as he seems confidently to expect, seizes upon 
Spain. If he is driven out, with what grace or 
honour shall I then go to Pompeius, when I imagine 
Curio himself i will go over to him ? If the war is 
protracted, for what am I to wait, or how long ? 
It remains, that if we are beaten in Spain, I should 
be quiet. But upon this point I think otherwise. 
For I would sooner desert him r a conqueror, than 
conquered and doubtful (instead of confident) of 



I Dolabella and Curio were Cicero's friends, and held 
commands in those parts respectively. 

m Servius Sulpicius was a senator of great respect, a 
friend of Cicero's, and a favourer of peace, but of a timid 
character. 

II See letter 4 of this book. 

See book viii. letter 7. and book vii. letter 13. 

P This must be supposed to be in answer to some letter 
from Atticus, offering Cicero the free use of his place in 
Epirus. 

<i Who is of Caesar's party. r Caesar. 



his affairs. Inasmuch as I foresee executions if he 
is victoiious, and violation of private property, and 
the recall of exiles, and cancelling of debts, and . 
honours bestowed upon the basest men, and a king- 
dom such as not only no Roman, but not even any 
Persian can bear, is it possible for my indignation 
to be silent ? Can my eyes sustain the sight of my 
delivering my opinion s in the company of Gabinius ? 
And even of his being called upon to speak first ? 
In the presence of your client Clselius ? In that 
of C. Ateius's client Plaguleius ? And the rest ? 
But why do I enumerate my enemies ? while 
I cannot without pain see in the senate my own 
connexions', whom I have myself defended, nor 
act amongst them without shame. What if it 
is by no means certain that I should be allowed to 
do so ? For his friends write me word that he is 
far from being satisfied with me, because I have 
not gone into the senate. However, I cannot en- 
tertain a thought of recommending myself to him, 
and that with some risk, with whom I refused to 
be united even with recompense. Then consider 
this, that the whole contest is not to be decided 
in Spain ; unless you suppose that, upon losing 
this, Pompeius will throw up his arms ; notwith- 
standing his whole plan is Themistoclean 11 . For he 
deems him who is in possession of the sea to be 
necessarily master of affairs. Hence, without ever 
striving to keep Spain by itself, he has always 
made naval preparations his principal care. He 
will accordingly sail, when the season is fit, with a 
prodigious fleet, and will come to Italy ; where 
what shall I be, sitting idle ? For it will no longer 
be allowable to be neuter. Shall I then oppose his 
fleet ? What evil can be greater, or even so great ? 
What indeed can be baser ? Have I feebly v and 
alone borne his wickedness against the absent ; and 
shall I not bear it in company with Pompeius and 
the other chiefs ? But if, setting aside duty, we 
consider only the danger ; there is danger from 
those w , if I do wrong ; from him x , if I do right : 
nor can any plan be devised in these troubles which 
is free from danger. There can therefore be no 
doubt but I should avoid doing anything base with 
danger, which I would avoid even with safety. 
Should I not have crossed the sea along with Pom- 
peius ? It was not in my power ; there is the 
account of the days. Besides (to confess the truth, 
without that concealment which I might use), one 
thing deceived me, which perhaps ought not, but it 
did deceive me ; for I thought there would be peace ; 
and if this had taken place, I did not care to have 
Csesar angry with me, at the time that he would 
be reconciled to Pompeius. For I had already felt 
the effects y of their union. It was through fear of 
this that I fell into this dilatoriness. But I shall 
obtain every purpose if I make z haste : if I delay, 
I shall lose it. And yet, my Atticus, certain au- 
guries inspire me with confident hope ; not the 
auguries of our college a collected by Appius, but 

8 In the senate. 

1 Recalled from banishment by Caesar's authority. 

u Who retired before the Persians from Athens, to con- 
quer them at sea. 

v The text is probably corrupt. I offer this interpreta- 
tion as what appears the least exceptionable. 

w Pompeius's party. x Caesar. 

y When Pompeius assisted Clodius's views by reason of 
his own connexion with Caesar. 

7 To quit Italy. a The college of augurs. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



741 i 



those of Plato on the subject of tyrants. For I 
do not see by what means he can long remain with- 
out falling off himself, even without any exertion 
on our part : since fresh and flourishing, in the 
space of six or seven days, he became the object 
of the bitterest hatred to that same indigent and 
abandoned multitude ; having so soon lost the pre- 
tension of two things ; of clemency, in the case of 
Metellus b ; of wealth, in the affair of the trea- 
sury c . Now what companions or ministers can 
he employ, if the provinces, if the republic is to 
be governed by persons, no one of whom has been 
able to regulate his own patrimony for two months? 
There is no enumerating all the particulars, which 
you will readily comprehend ; only place them in 
your view, and you will presently understand that 
such a kingdom can hardly last six months. If I 
am mistaken in this, I shall bear it, as many ex- 
cellent men, distinguished in the republic, have 
borne it : unless you imagine that I would rather 
die like Sardanapalus in his bed d , than in a The- 
mistoclean exile : who being, as Thucydides says, 
" the ablest to apprehend things present, after the 
shortest consultation ; and far the best to con- 
jecture of things to come, what was likely to take 
place ;" yet fell into those straits, which he would 
have avoided, if nothing had deceived him. Though 
he was one who, in the words of the same author, 
" eminently foresaw advantages and disadvantages* 
while they were yet in obscurity ;" yet he did not 
see either how to escape the envy of the Lacedemo- 
nians, or that of his own fellow-citizens, nor what he 
was promising to Artaxerxes. That night would not 
have been so calamitous to the prudent Africanus ; 
nor that day of Sulla's superiority so sad to the 
shrewd C. Marius ; if nothing had deceived them. 
Nevertheless I support my opinion by the augury 
I have mentioned. This does not deceive me ; 
nor will it turn out otherwise. He must fall either 
by his enemies, or by himself, who indeed is his 
own worst enemy. I hope this may happen during 
my life, though it is time for me to think of that 
eternal, not of this short life. But should anything 
happen to me sooner than I expect,- it signifies 
little whether I see it done, or foresee that it will be 
done. This being so, it is not to be borne, that I 
should submit to those against whom the senate 
armed me with authority to see that the republic 
received no detriment e . To you I commend all 
my concerns ; though such is your affection to- 
wards me that they need not my commendation. 
In fact I have nothing to tell you ; for I sit here 
only waiting for an opportunity to sail. Yet no- 
thing ever so demanded to be told, as that of all your 
multiplied kindnesses none was at any time more 
acceptable to me than the sweet and assiduous at- 
tention you have bestowed on my dear Tullia. She 
is herself highly gratified by it ; and I no less so. 
Her excellence is indeed wonderful. How does she 
bear the public misfortunes ! How her own do- 
mestic embarrassments ! And what a courage does 
she show at my departure ! Call it natural affec- 
tion, or the completest union of minds ; yet she 

b Whom he had wished to kill. See letter 4 of this 
hook. 

c The plunder of which showed that he was in want of 
money. 

d Sardanapalus was an Assyrian king distinguished for 
his effeminacy. 

e In his consulship. 



would fhave me do what is right, and be well 
esteemed. But of this too much, lest I call forth 
my own sensibility. If you hear anything certain 
about Spain, or anything else, while I remain in 
Italy, you will write to me. And at my departure, 
I shall perhaps send again to you ; and the rather, 
because Tullia seemed to think you would not at 
present leave Italy. I must manage to get An- 
tonius's consent, as well as Curio's, to my residing 
at Malta, without taking a part in this war. I 
wish I may find him as accommodating and kind 
to me as Curio. He f is said to be coming to Mi- 
senum the 2d of May, that is to-day ; but he has 
sent before an ungracious letter, of which I inclose 
a copy. 

Antonius, Tribune of the People, Proprcetor, to 
Cicero, Imperator. 
Unless I had a great regard for you, indeed 
much greater than you imagine, I should not have 
minded the report which is spread about you, 
especially as I do not believe it ; yet loving you as 
I do, I cannot dissemble that the very rumour, 
however unfounded, greatly affects me. I cannot 
think that you will cross the sea, considering your 
affection for Dolabella and your daughter, that 
accomplished woman, and the esteem in which you 
are held by all of us&, to whom indeed your dignity 
and splendour are almost dearer than to yourself. 
But I have not thought it the part of a friend to 
be indifferent to what is said even by ill-disposed 
persons ; and I have acted with the greater zeal, 
because I consider the task imposed upon me to be 
the more difficult, owing to the offence which has 
arisen between us h , rather from my jealousy than 
from any injury on your part. For I would have 
you believe that, excepting my Caesar, nobody is 
dearer to me than you, and that at the same time 
I am persuaded Csesar esteems M. Cicero among 
his best friends. Therefore I beg you, my Cicero, 
to take no hasty step, — but to distrust the attach- 
ment of one 1 , who first injured you that he might 
afterwards confer a kindness ; and on the other 
hand not to run away from one J who, though he 
should not love you (which, however, cannot be 
the case), yet would wish you to be in safety and in 
honour. I have expressly sent to you my intimate 
friend Calpurnius, that you may be assured of the 
great interest I take in your life and dignity. 

The same day Philotimus brought the following 
letter from Csesar. 



Ccesar, Imperator, to Cicero, Imperator. 

Though I was persuaded that you would do 
nothing rashly or imprudently, yet I have been 
moved by common report to write to you, and to 
request, by the intimacy between us, that you 
would not in this declining state of affairs take any 
step which you did not think it necessary to take 
in their sound state. For you will both inflict a 
severer blow on our friendship, and less well con- 
sult your own advantage, if you appear to be 

f Antonius. 
S Us of Caesar's party. 

h Antonius had been a candidate for the augurship in 
opposition to Cicero. 
' Pompeius. 
J 



742 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



influenced not by the course of events (for every- 
thing seems to have fallen out most favourable to 
us, most adverse to them), nor by attachment to 
the cause (for that was the same when you judged 
it proper to abstain from their counsels), but by 
condemnation of some act of mine, — than which 
you can do nothing more painful to me. That you 
may not do it I beg of you, by the right of our 
friendship. Besides, what can be more proper for 
a good and peaceable man and a good citizen than 
to abstain from civil broils ? This some who 
would wish it cannot do because of the danger ; 
you, to whom the testimony of my life and the 
assurance of my friendship are well known, will 
never find anything either more secure or more 
honourable than to abstain from all^ hostility. 
April 16. On my journey. 



LETTER IX. 

The arrival of Philotimus (what a fellow he is ! 
how silly ! how often misrepresenting in favour of 
Pompeius !) has frightened to death all my com- 
panions. As for myself, I am become callous. 
None of our people entertained a doubt of " Caesar's 
having checked his progress ;" whereas he is said 
to advance with the utmost speed : and that " Pe- 
treius had joined Afranius," though he brings no 
intelligence of the kind. In short it was even 
believed that Pompeius was passing with a great 
force through Illyrium into Germany ; for this was 
confidently asserted. I am of opinion, therefore, 
that I ought to get away to Malta, till we see what 
is done in Spain. From Csesar's letter it appears 
as if I might almost do this with his consent ; for 
he says that I can do nothing more honourable or 
more safe than to withdraw from all contention. 
You will say then, " where is that resolution which 
you professed in your last letter." It is here, and 
it is unaltered. But I wish it were possible to de- 
termine only at my own risk. The tears of my 
family sometimes soften me, when they entreat me 
to await the issue of the war in Spain. The boys 
could not without great emotion read a letter from 
M. Cselius written in a lamentable strain, and en- 
treating me to wait for the same event, and not to 
betray so rashly my fortunes, my only daughter, 
and all my connexions. My own son, indeed, is 
of greater spirit, and for that very reason affects 
me the more, and seems to be anxious only about 
my reputation. To Malta, therefore : thence whi- 
ther it shall seem prudent. Do you, however, 
even now let me hear from you, especially if there 
is any news of Afranius. If I have any conversa- 
tion with Antonius, I will let you know what has 
been done : but, as you advise, I shall be cautious 
in trusting him ; for k the means of concealing my 
design are both difficult and dangerous. I expect 
Servius on the seventh of May, for whom I shall 
wait, at the desire of Postumia 1 and the young 
Servius. I rejoice to hear that your ague is better. 
I send you a copy of Caelius's letter. 

k This relates to the expediency of obtaining Antonius's 
consent to Cicero's departure, since it was both difficult 
and dangerous to attempt it by stealth. 

1 Postumia was the wife of Servius Sulpicius, the person 
here intended. 



Calim to Cicero. 
I am distressed by r your letter, in which you 
show that your thoughts are engaged about nothing 
but what is sad. What this is you do not expressly 
say ; nevertheless you sufficiently declare the nature 
of what you contemplate. I therefore write this 
letter to you without loss of time, to beg and 
beseech you, Cicero, by your fortunes, by your 
children, not to adopt any measure prejudicial to 
your happiness and security. For I call the gods, 
and men, and our friendship, to witness that I 
have told you beforehand, and have given you this 
counsel not hastily, but have informed you after 
being with Caesar, and knowing what his disposition 
would be should he gain the victory, — if you ima- 
gine that Caesar will continue to observe the same 
moderation in liberating his adversaries and sub- 
mitting to their conditions, you are mistaken. His 
thoughts, and indeed his declarations, breathe 
nothing but what is severe and cruel. He went 
away much out of humour with the senate, and 
thoroughly provoked by the opposition to his 
wishes 1 ". There will assuredly be no room for 
mercy. Therefore, if you have any regard for 
yourself, for your only son, for your family, for 
your remaining hopes, — if I, if that excellent man 
your son-in-law 11 , have any weight with you, you 
ought not wilfully to disturb their fortune, — so that 
we should be obliged to hate, or relinquish, that 
cause in the success of which our happiness con- 
sists, or else entertain the impious wish of injuring 
you. Lastly, think what offence you must already 
have given by your delay. But now, to oppose 
Caesar in the time of victory, whom you were un- 
willing to offend while his cause was doubtful, and 
to join those in their flight whom you refused to 
follow as long as they resisted, is the height of 
folly. Take care that while you are ashamed to be 
wanting in the duties of the best citizen, you are 
not too negligent in choosing what is the best 
course. But if I cannot entirely prevail with you, 
at least wait till it is known how we go on in 
Spain ; which, I announce to you, will be ours 
upon the arrival of Caesar. What hope they may 
have after Spain is lost I know not : and what can 
be your object in uniting with a desperate cause, I 
cannot for my life discover. This, which without 
saying it you gave me to understand, Caesar had 
heard ; and as soon as he had asked me how I did, 
he mentioned what he had heard about you. I 
professed my ignorance ; but begged him to write 
to you in such a manner as might be most likely 
to induce you to stay. He takes me with him to 
Spain. If this were not so before I went to the 
city, wherever you were, I would have run down 
to you and argued the point with you in person, 
and used my utmost endeavour to keep you. Con- 
sider, Cicero, again and again, that you may not 
utterly ruin yourself and all your family, nor 
plunge yourself, with your eyes open, into a situa- 
tion from whence you see no retreat. But if the 
language of the best citizens affects you, or if you 
cannot bear the insolence and haughtiness of certain 
persons, you may choose, I think, some town free 

n» The motions in the senate for permitting Ca?sar to 
take the money out of the treasury were stopped by the 
intercession of the tribune L. Metellus. Caesar, however, 
got possession of it by force. See letter 4 of this book. 

n Dolabella. ° To Pompeius. 



TO TITUS TOMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



743 



from war while these matters are deciding, which 
will presently be concluded. If you do this I shall 
think you have acted wisely, and you will give no 
offence to Caesar. 



LETTER X. 

Blind that I am, not to have foreseen this ! I 
sent you Antonius's letter. Having repeatedly 
written to him that I entertained no designs against 
Csesar's measures, — that I was mindful of my 
son-in-law, mindful of our friendship, — that if I 
thought otherwise I might have been with Pompeius, 
but that I wished to be out of the way, because I 
did not like to be running about with my lictors, — 
that this measure, however, was not even now de- 
termined. To these observations see how super- 
ciliously he replies : — 

" How true are your professions ! For one who 
wishes to be neuter remains in his country ; he who 
goes away appears to pass judgment upon one of 
the parties. But I am not the person to determine 
whether anybody is at liberty to go away or not. 
Caesar has laid this duty upon me, that I should 
suffer nobody at all to leave Italy. My approving 
your intention is, therefore, of little consequence, 
as I have no authority to remit anything. I think 
you should apply to Caesar, and ask leave from 
him. I do not doubt but you will obtain it, 
especially as you promise to observe the relations 
of our friendship." 

Here is a Spartan despatch p for you ! I shall 
by all means deceive the man. He was to come 
on the evening of the third, that is to-day ; there- 
fore to-morrow he may perhaps call upon me. I 
shall endeavour to appear in no hurry % I shall 
give out that I mean to apply to Caesar : I shall 
conceal myself somewhere with very few attendants, 
and shall certainly fly away from hence in spite of 
these people. I wish it may be to Curio r ; this I 
say to you, God willing. I have received a great 
additional uneasiness. Something worthy of me s 
shall be accomplished. I am exceedingly sorry for 
your dysury. Attend to it, I beseech you, while 
it is yet recent. I was pleased with your account 
of the people at Marseilles' ! I beg to be informed 
of everything you may hear. I should like Sicily, 
if I might go openly ; which I had obtained from 
Curio. I wait here for Servius, as 1 am requested 
by his wife and son, and as I think it expedient. 
This fellow takes Cytheris u with him in an open 
carriage ; a second conveys his wife ; and there are 
besides seven others together, of his girls think you 
or boys ? See by how vile a death we perish ; and 
doubt, if you can, of the havoc he v will make, 
whether he come back conquered or conqueror. 

P The original is expressed in two Greek words, signify- 
ing a particular kind of cipher used by the government 
of Sparta, to which their generals were expected to pay 
implicit obedience. 

<1 The text is evidently corrupt ; but I read it with the 
least alteration — Tenlabo autem nihil proper are. 

r " I should be glad to get to Sicily under the command 
of Curio ;" who, though of Caesar's party, was personally 
attached to Cicero. From thence Cicero would proceed to 
Malta. 

8 This is said perhaps from a feeling of some dissatisfac- 
tion at the part he had hitherto acted. 

1 They shut their gates against Caesar. 

u Cytheris was Antonius's mistress. 

v Caesar. 



But I, if there should be no ship, will go even in a 
cock -boat, to snatch myself from the violence of 
these people. I will write more after I have seen 
him. I cannot help loving our young nephew, 
though I plainly see that I am not loved by him. 
I never saw anything so intractable, so set against 
his family, so absorbed in his own conceit. What 
an incredible weight of troubles ! I will, however, 
and do, take pains to correct him ; for he has ex- 
cellent abilities w , but requires great attention to 
his temper. 



LETTER XI. 
After sealing my last letter, I did not choose to 
deliver it to the person I had intended, because he 
was not one of my own servants. For this reason 
it was not delivered that day. In the mean time 
Philotimus arrived, and brought me yours ; in 
which what you say about my brother certainly 
shows a want of steadiness ; but has nothing 
insincere, nothing fraudulent, nothing that may not 
be turned to good, nothing that you may not by a 
single word lead whither you will. In short, he is 
affectionate towards all his friends, even those with 
whom he often quarrels ; and me he loves better 
than himself. I do not blame him for sending a 
different x account to you about your nephew, and 
to the mother about her son. What you mention 
about the journey, and about your sister, is vexa- 
tious, and the more so, because my time is so 
contracted that it is not in my power to remedy it ; 
for remedy it I certainly would. But you see in 
what troubles and difficulties I am. The money 
concerns are not such (for I often hear from him) 
that he does not wish to pay you, and is earnest to 
do so. But if Q. Axius, in this my flight, does 
not repay me thirteen sestertia (100/.) which I lent 
to his son, but excuses himself on account of the 
times ; if Lepta, if others do the same ; I cannot 
forbear wondering, when I hear from him that he 
is pressed for some 20 sestertia (160/.). For you 
see the difficulties. He has ordered, however, that 
the money may be provided for you. Do you 
think him slow, or backward, in such affairs ? 
Nobody is less so. But enough about my brother. 
Respecting his son, it is true that his father always 
indulged him : but indulgence does not make one 
deceitful, or covetous, or without natural affection ; 
though it may perhaps create haughtiness, and 
arrogance, and moroseness. Accordingly he has 
these faults also, which arise from indulgence ; but 
they are supportable ; for why should I add, at his 
time of life ? But the former, which to me who 
love him are more grievous than these very cala- 
mities in which I am placed, are not the effects of 
our tenderness ; no, they have roots of their own ; 
which, however, I would pluck out if it were 
possible. But the times are such that I must put 
up with everything. My own son I easily restrain ; 
for nothing is more tractable ; and it is in compas- 
sion to him that I have hitherto adopted less 
vigorous counsels ; and the more he wishes me to 
exert myself, the more I am afraid of injuring him. 
Antonius arrived yesterday evening. He may 



w See letter 12 of this book. 

* I understand this to mean different from that which 
Cicero had given in the preceding letters. Some suppose 
that he means Quintus had given one account to Atticus, 
another to Pomponia. 



744 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



perhaps soon call upon me ; or he may not even do 
that ; as he wrote to explain his wishes. But you 
shall know immediately what is done. I must now 
conduct everything secretly. What shall I do 
about the boys ? Shall I trust them to a small 
row-boat ? What inclination do you imagine I 
shall have for sailing ? For I remember, even in 
summer time, how uneasy I was sailing with that 
open vessel of the Rhodians? : what do you sup- 
pose then will be the case in this severe season 
with a little barge ? It is every way a sad state. 
Trebatius is with me, a thoroughly honest man, 
and good citizen. What monstrous things does he 
relate ! Immortal gods ! Does Balbus also think 
of coming into the senate ? *But I shall to-morrow 
get him to carry a letter to you himself. I am 
ready to believe Vectenus is kindly disposed towards 
me, as you say. I had joked with him a little 
angrily for having written to me so peremptorily 
about providing the money 2 . If he received this 
otherwise than he ought, you will soften it. I 
addressed him coiner, because he had addressed me 
proconsul. But since he is an honest man, and 
friendly towards me, I am ready also to be friendly 
towards him. 



LETTER XII. 

What will become of me ? Or who is there not 
only more unfortunate, but more disgraced, than I 
am ? Antonius says that he has received orders a 
about me by name. He has not however yet 
seen me, but mentioned this to Trebatius. What 
can I do now ? Nothing prospers with me ; and 
what has been considered with the greatest care, 
turns out the most unhappily. For when I had 
gained Curio, I thought I had obtained everything. 
He had written to Hortensius b about me; and 
Reginus was entirely with me. I never suspected 
that Antonius would have anything to do with this 
sea c . Which way shall I now turn myself ? lam 
beset on all sides. But enough of lamentation. I 
must sail then unseasonably, and creep unobserved 
into some merchant-ship. I must not let it seem 
as if I were stopped with my own concurrence* 1 . 
I must endeavour to get to Sicily ; which if I 
accomplish, I shall pursue something further. 
Let but things go on well in Spain. Though about 
Sicily itself, I wish the news may be true ; but 
hitherto nothing has happened favourably. It is 
reported that a concourse of Sicilians assembled 
round Cato, entreating him to resist, and promising 
everything; and that he was moved by it, and 
began to levy troops. I do not believe it, however 
illustrious be its author. That the province might 
be kept, I know. But we shall soon have news 
from Spain. We have here C. Marcellus intent 
upon the same purpose , or excellently feigning 
it : though I have not seen him myself, but hear it 
from one who is intimate with him. Pray let me 
hear if you have anything new. If I make any 

7 See book vi. letter 8. 

* See letter 5 of this book. 

a To prevent Cicero from leaving Italy. 

b Hortensius had a command on the south coast. 

c The southern, or Tyrrhenian sea. 

d It must not have the appearance of a plan concerted 
J between him and Ca?oar for the purpose of his remaining 
I in Italy. 

e Of quitting Italy. 



attempt, I will immediately write to you. I shall 
deal severely with young Quintus : I wish I may 
be able to do any good. But do you tear the 
letters in which I have said anything harshly of 
him, for fear of some disclosure : I will do the 
same with yours. I am waiting for Servius, yet do 
not expect from him any sound advice. You shall 
know whatever is the result. It must doubtless be 
confessed that I have committed errors. But is it 
once only ? and on one occasion ? Nay, everything, 
the more it has been considered, the more impru- 
dently has it been done. But, as Homer says, 
" what is past, we must let be, however sorry :" 
in what remains, let us only not rush on our ruin. 
You bid me be circumspect in my departure. In 
what respect should I be circumspect? All the 
accidents that can occur are so manifest, that if I 
would avoid them, I must sit down in shame and 
grief ; if I should neglect them, I am in danger of 
falling into the hands of abandoned men. But see 
in what great difficulties I am. I sometimes think 
it would be desirable to sustain even some severe 
injury from these people, that it may appear how 
hateful I am to the tyrant. If the course I had 
hoped were open to me, I would have accom- 
plished something, as you wish and exhort, that 
should justify my delay. But the guard that is 
kept is surprising ; and I have some suspicions 
even of Curio himself. I must act therefore either 
by force or by stealth : and if by force, I shall 
perhaps have to contend also with the season. 
But by stealth, is by stealth from these people ; in 
which if there should be any failure, you see what 
disgrace impends. But I am drawn on, and 
must not recede through fear of some outrage. I 
often think with myself about Cselius f ; and, should 
I have any similar opportunity, I shall not let it 
slip. I hope that Spain is steady. The affair of 
Marseilles, as it is noble in itself, so is it an argu- 
ment with me that all is right in Spain ; for they 
would not show such resolution if it were other- 
wise ; and they would know the truth, being so 
near and vigilant. You rightly take notice of the 
disapprobation expressed in the theatre. I perceive 
also, that the legions which he took up in Italy 
are very much dissatisfied. But yet nothing is 
more hostile, than he is to himself. You justly 
fear his breaking out into violence. If he is driven 
to despair, he will certainly do so. This increases 
the propriety of effecting something in the same 
spirit as Cselius, but I should hope with better 
success. But everything in its turn : whatever is 
done first, you shall immediately know it. I will, 
as you desire, do what I can for the young man&, 
and will support the weight of the whole Pelopon- 
nesus' 1 : for he has good parts, if there were but 
any disposition susceptible of instruction. Hitherto 
he shows none ; yet there may be ; or virtue is not 
to be taught ; which I can never believe. 

f The Caslius here spoken of has been supposed to be one 
C. Caelius Caldus, who endeavoured, but in vain, to check 
the progress of Sylla in the former civil wars ; but I do 
not find that this conjecture rests on any certain founda- 
tion. See letter 14 of this book. 

8 Young Quintus. 

h This probably alludes to the same thing, as when, in 
letter 5 of this book, he mentions Arcadia, which was a 
part of the Peloponnesus; meaning that no difficulty 
should deter him. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



745 



LETTER XIII. 

Your letter was particularly acceptable to my 
dear Tullia, and indeed to me. Your letters always 
bring something agreeable with them. Write, 
therefore ; and if you can offer any ground of hope, 
do not omit it. You need not be alarmed at 
Antonius's lions'. Nothing is pleasanter than this 
man. Listen to a trait worthy of a minister of 
state. He summoned the council of tenJ from the 
free towns ; and the four magistrates came to his 
residence early in the morning. First, he was 
asleep till nine o'clock : then, upon being told that 
the Neapolitans and Cumans were arrived (for 
Csesar was displeased with these people) , he ordered 
them to come again the next day, as he wanted to 
bathe, and was taking a lavement. This he did 
yesterday : and to-day he has determined to go 
over to JEnaria k . He promises to recall those that 
have been banished 1 . But omitting chese matters, 
let me say something about myself. I have had a 
letter from Axius m . I am obliged to you for what 
you have done about Tiro. I am quite satisfied 
with Vectenus. I have paid the money 11 to 
Vestorius. Servius is said to have slept at Min- 
turnse the 6th of May ; to-day he was to lodge with 
C. Marcellus in Liternium ; he will therefore reach 
me early to-morrow, and will furnish me with 
matter for writing to you ; for I now find nothing 
to say. I am surprised that Antonius should not 
so much as send a message to me, especially as he 
has always been very civil. I suppose he does not 
choose to deny before my face his having received 
a harsh command concerning me. But I should 
not ask any favour ; nor, if I obtained it, should I 
place any reliance upon it. Yet I must devise 
something. Pray let me know if anything is done 
in Spain ; for it might be heard by this time ; 
and everybody is anxious, as supposing that, if 
things go right, there will be no further trouble. 
But for my part, I neither think that the preserva- 
tion of Spain will decide the business, nor its loss 
render it desperate. I imagine Silius, and Ocella, 
and the others, are obliged to delay their departure. 
I perceive too that you are hindered by Curtius p ; 
though I suppose you have i a passport. 

1 Antonius is reported, but at a subsequent period, to 
have yoked lions to his carriage. He may at least have 
shown a fondness for them, and carried them about with 
him at this time. Cicero seems to mean that Antonius 
himself assumed so little of the character of the lion, that 
he condescended to amuse himself with low humour, be- 
neath the dignity of his situation. 

J The municipia, or towns admitted to the freedom of 
Roman citizens, were usually governed by a council of 
ten, and had besides four executive magistrates. 

k A small island near the coast of Campania, since called 
Ischia. 

1 See above, letter 4 of this book. 

m See letter 11 of this book. 

n The word money is not in the original, but seems to 
be the most probable completion of the sentence, and at 
the same time explanatory of what was said letter 5 of 
this book. 

Should not ask leave to depart. 

P Perhaps some debtor, from whom Atticus could not 
recover his money. 

1 In the original there appears to have been some Greek 
word, which has undergone such mutilation from copyists 
and commentators, as to baffle all reasonable interpreta- 
tion. The 17th letter of this book, which seems to have 
reference to this, makes it probable that Cicero meant in 



LETTER XIV. 

O wretched existence ! For to remain so long 
in fear, is a greater evil than the thing itself which 
is feared. Servius, as I before mentioned, having 
arrived the 7th of May, came to me the next day. 
Not to detain you unnecessarily, we came to no 
conclusion. I never saw anybody more disturbed 
by apprehension ; nor in truth did he fear anything 
that was not a just cause of fear. That man r was 
angry with him, this s by no means pleased; and 
the victory of either party was to be dreaded, owing 
to the cruel disposition of the one 1 , the audacity of 
the other", and the pecuniary difficulties of both, from 
which they can never be extricated but through the 
property of private individuals. This he said with 
so many tears, that I wondered they had not been 
dried up by such protracted misery. As for me, 
even this weakness of the eyes, which prevents my 
writing with my own hand, is unattended with any 
weeping v , though it is often so troublesome as to 
keep me awake. Collect, therefore, what consola- 
tion you can, and send it me ; not from books and 
philosophy ; for that I have at home ; though 
somehow the remedy is less powerful than the 
disease : but do you rather find out what relates to 
Spain, and to Marseilles. Servius brings a suf- 
ficiently good report on these subjects, and says 
there is good authority for that of the two legions w . 
Let me then hear this from you, if you can, and 
other things of the same kind. Something must 
necessarily be known in a few days. But I revert 
to Servius. We adjourned our conversation to the 
next day. But he is loath to go out of the country. 
He would sooner bear whatever might happen, in 
his bed. He has a painful scruple arising from his 
son's joining the army before Brundisium x . This, 
however, he positively asserted, that if the exiles 
were restored, he would go into banishment himself. 
To this I replied, that that would certainly take 
place ; and that what was now doing was not at all 
better ; and I produced many instances. But this, 
instead of giving him encouragement, increased his 
fear ; so that now it seems necessary rather to keep 
him in ignorance, of my purpose, than to invite him 
to do the same. Therefore, there is not much to 
be expected from him. I shall think of Cselius, 
according to your suggestion. 



LETTER XV. 

While Servius was with me, Cephalio arrived 
with your letter, on the tenth ; which brought us 
great hope of better things respecting the eight 
cohorts ; for they also which are in these parts, 

some manner to signify " a passport," which is there called 
diploma ; whence it may be suspected that the word here 
might have been SnrAojjUa. 

r Pompeius would be angry with him for having sent his 
son to join Caesar's army before Brundisium. 

8 Caesar was displeased with his having moved the 
senate not to approve of the expedition to Spain against 
Pompeius's lieutenants ; as Cicero had informed him he 
should himself do if he went to Rome. See book ix. 
letter 18. 

* Pompeius. 
u Caesar. 

v As if the very source of his tears was exhausted. 

* See letter 12 of this book. 
x See book ix. letter 19. 



746 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



are said to waver. On the same day Funisulanus 
brought another letter from you, corroborating the 
same circumstance. On the subject of his own 
business I satisfied him amply, giving him to un- 
derstand all his obligation to you. He has not yet 
paid me. He owes me a considerable sum, and is 
not supposed tp be rich. He now says that he will 
pay it ; but tbat one, who is in his books, delays : 
that, when this is paid, if there should be sufficient 
at your y house, you may send it by the messengers. 
Philotimus's freed-man, Eros, will tell you how 
much it is. But let us return to greater matters. 
That Cselian business, which you wish for, ripens 
apace ; and I am distracted with doubt whether I 
should wait for a favourable wind. There wants but 
a standard, and people will flock to it z . I am quite 
of your mind in thinking it best to go openly % 
and I think to set oft' accordingly : but I shall 
first wait for another letter from you. Nothing is 
to be got from Servius's opinion : every objection 
is raised to every proposal. He is the only man 
I have known of a more timid disposition than C. 
Marcellus, who regretted that he had been made 
consul. How dishonourable ! He is said too to have 
confirmed Antonius in his opposition to my de- 
parture, that he might himself, I suppose, remain 
with the better grace. Antonius set out for Capua 
the tenth. He sent me word that he was prevented 
from waiting upon me by shame, because he thought 
I should be angry with him. I shall go then, and 
in the manner you advise, unless any hope should 
previously be afforded of sustaining some more im- 
portant character b . But this can scarcely happen 
so soon. Allienus the prsetor however thinks that 
one of his colleagues will be appointed, if I am 
not. I care not who it is, so there be but some- 
body. I am pleased with what you mention about 
your sister. I take pains about young Quintus ; 
and hope things are better. As for my brother 
Quintus, I assure you he is making every exertion 
to pay the interest that is due; but he has hitherto 
squeezed nothing out of L. Egnatius c . Axius d 
modestly applies for 12,000 (100/.); for he has 
frequently written to desire I would advance to 
Gallius whatever he wants. But if he had not 
written, could I do otherwise ? In truth I have 
repeatedly promised : but this money he wants im- 

y Atticus, we have seen, succeeded to the property of 
Caecilius, who was a sort of hanker ; and I imagine the 
same business to have been continued on Atticus's account. 
Hence I understand this passage to mean, that if Funisu- 
lanus, after the money that was owing to him should have 
been paid, had enough at Atticus's banking-house to 
answer Cicero's claims, it might be sent down to him. 
[See book viii. letter 7. note m .] This receives consider- 
able weight from what occurs in several letters of book 
xii., from which it appears that Atticus was a long time 
engaged with his accounts, so as to show that they must 
have been voluminous and intricate. 

z This may either mean, that there were many people 
dissatisfied with Caesar, and ready to unite under any 
leader in opposition to him : or, that many people were 
desirous of leaving Italy as soon as an opportunity offered. 

* See letter 12 of this book. " I must act, therefore, 
either by force or by stealth." 

•> Of being a negotiator for peace. 

c See book vii. letter 18. 

d Axius is mentioned before, in letter 11 of this book, 
as owing Cicero 13,000 sestertii on account of his son, who 
is probably the same Gallius here spoken of. And now he 
says, that Axius, instead of repaying the money, borrows 
12,000 more, and wants it immediately. 



mediately. I wish people e would have considera- 
tion for me in these troubles. May the gods 
confound them ! But of this at some other time. 
I rejoice at your being freed from your ague, and 
also Pilia. While the stores and other things are 
putting on board, I mean to run down to Pom- 
peianum. I should be glad if you would make my 
acknowledgments to Vectenus for his attention. 
If you have anybody to send, k let me hear from 
you before I go. 



LETTER XVI. 

I had just sent you a letter on a variety of sub- 
jects, when Dionysius came to me at an early hour. 
I should not only have shown myself ready to for- 
give him, but should have remitted the whole, if he 
had come in the temper of mind you described. For 
in the letter I received from you at Arpinum, you 
said that he would come, and would do whatever I 
desired. Now I desired, or rather wished, to have 
him with me. This he had positively refused, 
when he came toFormianum, which occasioned me 
to write to you angrily about him. He said very 
little ; but the amount of his harangue was, that 
I would forgive him ; that he was so embarrassed 
with his own affairs, that he was unable to go with 
me. I replied in a few words, but felt great vexa- 
tion. I saw clearly that he despised my present 
fortune. What think you ? Perhaps you will be 
surprised ; but I must tell you that I reckon this 
among the greatest vexations of these times. I 
would have him continue your friend. The wishing 
you this, is wishing that all may go well with you : 
for just so long will his attachment last. I trust 
my design will be unattended with danger ; for I 
shall both dissemble, and mean to keep a sharp 
look-out. Let but the passage be such as I wish ; 
for the rest, so far as it is under the control of 
prudence, due care shall be taken. While I remain 
here, I should be glad if you would write me 
word not merely of what you know, or have heard, 
but also of what you foresee will happen. Cato, 
who might have kept Sicily without any difficulty, 
(and if he had kept it, all respectable people would 
have flocked to him) went from Syracuse the 24th 
of April, as Curio wrote me word. I wish, what 
is said, that Cotta may keep Sardinia. There is 
such a report. If it be so, poor Cato ! In order 
to lessen any suspicion of my departure, or of my 
design, I went to Pompeianum the 12th, that I 
might remain there, while the things requisite for 
the voyage were got ready. Upon my arrival at 
the house, information was brought me that the cen- 
turions of three cohorts which are at Pompeii wished 
me to go thither the next day ; it was my friend 
Ninnius communicated this to me ; that they wished 
to deliver themselves and the town to me. But I, 
look you, was off on the morrow before it was 
light, that they might not so much as see me. For 
what was there in three cohorts ? What if there 
had been more ? How were they furnished ? There 
occurred to me the same ideas upon that Caelian 
attempt which I read in the letter I received from 
you the same day, as soon as I arrived at Cuma- 
num ; and yet it might only have been done to try 
me. I therefore removed all suspicion. Upon my 

e Adjuvarent seems to be used absolutely, in the man- 
ner explained in book iv. letter 3, note ». 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



747 



return I find Hortensius has been here, and called 
to pay his respects to Terentia. He used very 
honourable language towards me. But I suppose I 
shall see him ; for he sent his servant to say that he 
would call upon me. This is better than my col- 
league f Antonius, whose mistress is carried in a 
litter in the midst of his lictors £. Since you are 
free from the ague, and have shaken off not only 
the disease but even the languor attending it, let 
me see you in Greece looking quite well. In the 
mean time let me hear something from you. 



LETTER XVII. 

Hortensius came to me the 14th, after my 
letter was written. I wish the rest of his conduct 
may correspond with this. His attention towards 
me is inconceivable, and of this I mean to avail 
myself h . Afterwards came Serapio* with your 
letter. But before I opened it, I told him that you 
had already written to me about him, as you had 
done. Then, when I had read the letter, I entered 
upon the rest very fully ; and in truth I am much 
pleased with him, for he seems to be at once a man 
of learning and of probity. I think of employing 
his vessel also, and taking him with me. The 
weakness of my eyes has frequent returns, and 
though not very troublesome, yet it prevents my 
writing. I am glad your health is now both re- 
stored from its old complaint, and strengthened 
against any fresh attacks. I wish I had OcellaJ 
here : for these matters seem to be rather more 
feasible. At present I am stopped by the equinox, 
which is very much out of its natural course k . If 
this blows gently, I hope Hortensius will continue 
in the same disposition, for hitherto nothing could 
be more kind. You are surprised at my having 
spoken of a passport ', as if I were charging 
you with I know not what offence ; and can- 
not imagine how it should have come into my 
mind. But as you had mentioned an intention of 
going away, and I had understood that nobody was 
permitted to go without one, therefore I concluded 
you had one ; as likewise because you had got a 
passport for the boys. This was the reason of the 

f See letter 15 of this book, where Antonius is said to 
have gone away without seeing Cicero. He was Cicero's 
colleague in the college of augurs. 

e See letter 10 of this book. 

h Hortensius had a command under Caesar ; and Cicero 
hoped to facilitate his design of sailing by his connivance. 
See letter 12 of this book. 

» Serapio seems to have been recommended to Atticus as 
a tutor to the two young Ciceros. 

J He is mentioned in letter 13 of this book, and may 
probably have been mentioned in some letter from Atticus. 

k Previously to the reformation of the calendar, the esti- 
mated periods of the year had grown into great disorder ; 
so that the equinoctial winds, which might favour Cicero's 
voyage, had not yet blown. See letter 18 of this book. 

1 See letter 13 of this book. 



opinion I expressed. But I should be glad to know 
what you think of doing, and above all if there is 
yet any news. May 16. 



LETTER XVIII. 

My dear Tullia was brought to bed the 1 9th of 
May of a seven months' child. I rejoice in her safe 
delivery. The child is very weakly. The calms 
have hitherto delayed me surprisingly, and have 
been a greater impediment than the watch which 
is kept over me. For Hortensius's professions are 
all idle words, so that he must be a most base man. 
He has been corrupted by the freed-man Salvius. 
Henceforward therefore I shall not write to inform 
you what I am going to do, but what I have done. 
For all the Corycaei m seem to listen to what I say. 
But still if there is anything from Spain, or any- 
thing else, pray continue to write ; and do not 
expect to hear from me till I arrive at my destina- 
tion, unless I send to you on my passage. But I 
write even this with fear : so slowly and difficultly 
has everything hitherto been done. As I laid ill 
the first beginning, so the rest follows. I am now 
proceeding to Formise. The Furies will perhaps 
pursue me by the same route. From the conver- 
sation which Balbus had with you, I do not ap- 
prove of Malta. Do you then doubt of his reckon- 
ing me among the number of the enemies ? I have 
written myself to Balbus, telling him that you had 
informed me of his good- will, and of his suspicion. 
For the one I have returned my thanks ; on the 
other subject you must excuse me to him. Did 
you ever know anybody more unfortunate ? I say 
no more, that I may not also distress you. I am 
worried to death with thinking that a time is ar- 
rived, when neither courage nor prudence can any 
longer avail me. 

m The banditti of Mount Corycus were noted for their 
secret intelligence ; from whence the term Coryca?i was 
used proverbially to signify any spies or discoverers of 
secrets. — Erasm. Adag. 



[In the interval "between the tenth and eleventh books of 
Cicero's letters, it appears that he actually quitted Italy 
thellth of June, and passed over to Dyrrachium, with 
his brother and the two young Ciceros, to join Pompeius. 
In the mean time Caesar had made himself master of 
Spain; and having been created dictator at Borne, 
marched to Drundisium, and thence embarked the Ath of 
January in pursuit of Pompeius. At first Pompeius 
obtained some advantage over Ccesar before Dyrrachium, 
but was soon after totally defeated in the memorable 
battle of Pharsalia. Cicero was not present on this occa- 
sion, but remained at Dyrrachium out of health, and out 
of spirits. After this defeat Pompeius's party dispersed. 
The greater part went to renew the war in Africa, u-hi- 
ther Ccesar also followed them. Some retired into Greece,- 
but Cicero returned to Brundisium about the end of 
October, and from thence wrote the 5th letter of the 
following book. J 



748 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



BOOK XL 



LETTER I. 



I have received from you a sealed packet n 
brought by Anteros ; but from which I have been 
able to learn nothing of my domestic affairs, about 
which I am deeply concerned. For he ° who has 
had the management of them is not there, nor do 
I know where in the world he is. But I place all 
hope of my reputation and private concerns in 
your kindness, which I have so often experienced. 
This if you will extend to me in these sad and 
desperate times, I shall bear with a better heart the 
dangers which are common to me with the rest ; 
and that you will do so I conjure and entreat you. 
I have two-and-twenty hundred sestertia (17,600/.) 
in cistophoriP in Asia ; by exchanging which money 
you will easily support my credit. Had I not 
thought that I left it quite clear, trusting to him q 
whom you have long since ceased to trust, I would 
have waited a little longer, and not left my private 
affairs in embarrassment. The reason of my writing 
to you so late, is, that I have been late in finding 
what I had to apprehend. I beg you again and 
ajjain to take me wholly under your protection; that 
if those, with whom I am r , are safe, I may escape 
along with them, and may owe my safety to your 
kindness. 



LETTER II. 

I received your letter the 4th of February, and 
the very same day I formally accepted the inherit- 
ance s according to the will. Out ' of my many 
sad troubles one is removed, if, as you say, this 
inheritance is adequate to the support of my credit 
and reputation ; which, however, even without this, 
I understand that you would have defended from 
your own means. As to what you mention 
respecting the dower 1 , by all the gods I conjure 
you to take the whole affair under your manage- 
ment, and to protect that poor creature u (who is 
suffering by my fault and negligence) out of my 
property, if I have any ; or by any means you can 
employ without putting yourself to inconvenience. 
Do not, I beseech you, suffer her to remain, as you 
say, destitute of everything. On what expenses has 
the produce of the farms been consumed ? No- 
body ever told me that those sixty sestertia (480/.) 
which you mention had been deducted from her 

n Not a regular letter ; which might perhaps be occa- 
sioned by the risk attending it. See the conclusion of the 
following letter. 

Philotimus. 

p See book ii. letter 6. The cistophori appear to have 
been the current coin of Asia Minor ; and this sum was 
probably saved during his government of Cilicia. 

1 Philotimus. 

r The Pompeians, whose safety here mentioned relates 
to their property, not to their persons. This and the 
three following letters appear to have been written from 
Dyrrachium. 

s Accepting it before witnesses within a certain time 
specified by the will. 

1 The dower of his daughter on her marriage with Dola- 
bella. 

u Tullia, who appears to have been brought into diffi- 
culties by her husband's extravagance. 



dower ; for I never would have suffered it. But 
this is the least of the injuries which I have 
received v , and which my grief and tears prevent 
me from detailing to you. Of the money which I 
had in Asia, I have drawn out nearly one half w . I 
thought it would be safer where it is than with the 
public renters x . When you exhort me to keep up 
my spirits, I wish you could suggest anything that 
might enable me to do so. But if to my other 
miseries is added that also which Chrysippus said 
was in contemplation (you have not mentioned it) 
respecting my bouse y , who is there more wretched 
than myself? 1 pray and beseech you, pardon me. 
I cannot write any more. You see how greatly I 
am afflicted. If this were common to me with the 
rest, who seem to be in the same case, my fault 
would not appear so great, and would therefore be 
the more tolerable. There is now no source of 
comfort ; unless you devise something, if indeed 
anything can be devised, that I may not be ex- 
posed to any peculiar calamity and insult. I have 
been later in sending back the courier, because 
there was no opportunity of sending. I have 
received from your agents seventy sestertia (560/.) 
in money, and the clothing z that was wanted. I 
should be glad if you would write in my name to 
whom you think proper: you know my friends. If 
they expect my seal, or signature, you may tell 
them that I have avoided this, on account of the 
watch that is kept a . 



LETTER III. 

What is doing here you will be able to learn 
from the bearer of this letter, whom I have kept 
the longer because I have been in daily expectation 
of something new ; though at present I have no 
other reason for writing, than that, about which 
you desired an answer, respecting what I would 
have done relative to the first of July b . Either 
alternative is attended with difficulty in such diffi- 
cult times ; the risk of so large a sum ; or, in this 
doubtful issue of events, that breaking off c which 



▼ From his wife Terentia, probably through the agency 
of Philotimus. 

w He placed it in the hands of Egnatius, a banker at 
Rome. See letter 3 of this book. 

x The farmers of the taxes in Asia, of whom frequent 
mention is made in the early books of these letters. See 
book i. letter 17, note c . 

r It was proposed to take from Cicero his house in Rome, 
on account of his going over to Pompeius. 

z Probably for his slaves. 

a Cicero being now with Pompeius's army at Dyrrachium, 
was under the restriction of military discipline, and, it is 
probable, might be watched with some jealousy. 

b This was probably the day on which some portion of 
his daughter's fortune became due to Dolabella. Cicero, 
as well as Tullia, was dissatisfied with Dolabella, and me- 
ditated a divorce. But considering Dolabella's credit with 
Caesar, it was difficult to determine, in the present doubt- 
ful state of affairs, whether to incur the danger of losing 
so large a sum, if he paid it ; or to cut the matter short 
by suing for a divorce, and thereby making Dolabella his 
enemy. 

c The expression is probably borrowed from Atticus, 
and means the separating his daughter from her husband. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



749 



you mention. Therefore as other things, so this 
especially I commit to your protection and kind- 
ness, and to her judgment and inclination. I 
should have done better for my poor daughter, if I 
had formerly deliberated with you in person, ra- 
ther d than by letter, on the subject of my own 
security and circumstances. When you deny that 
any peculiar disadvantage attaches to me, though 
this affords no consolation, yet there are many 
peculiar circumstances which you must see to be, 
as they are, very grievous, and which I might easily 
have avoided. But these very things will be less, 
if, as has hitherto been done, they are lightened by 
your care and attention. The money is with Eg- 
natius. Let it remain on my account, as it is, (for 
things cannot long continue in their present state), 
that I may be able to see what is most expedient ; 
though I am in want of everything ; because he 
also e with whom I am is in difficulties, and I have 
advanced him a large sum of money, thinking that 
when matters are settled, this may likewise be an 
honour to me. I should be glad, if there are any per- 
sons to whom you think I ought to write, that you 
would execute this, as you have done before. Pre- 
sent my compliments to your family, and take care 
of your health. In the first place make every care 
and provision for what you mention ; that nothing 
may be wanting to her f for whom you know how 
uneasy I am. From the camp, June 13th. 



LETTER IV. 

I received a letter by Isidorus, and two of 
later dates. From the last I find that the estates 
have not been sold s. You will therefore see that 
she h may be supported through you. With respect 
to Frusinas \ if only I survive, it will be a con- 
venient possession for me. You desire me to write, 
but I am prevented by want of matter, for I have 
nothing worth writing ; entirely disapproving, as I 
do, both what happens, and what is doing. I wish 
I had formerly consulted you in person, rather than 
by letter. I support your cause here among these 
people as well as I can. Celer will tell you the 
rest. I have hitherto declined all office, the more 
so because it was impossible to do anything as 
became me and my circumstances K You ask what 
new has happened : you will be able to learn from 
Isidorus. What remains does not appear to be 
more difficult k . I should be glad to have you take 
care (as you promise, and as you do) of what you 
know I have especially at heart 1 . I am worn 
with anxiety, which has also brought on extreme 
bodily weakness. As soon as this is removed, I 
shall join the leader of the business, who is in 

d That is, on the propriety of his own going to join 
Pompeius. See the following letter. 

e Pompeius. 

f Tullia. 

S Estates by which he proposed to relieve Tullia from 
her embarrassment. 

b Tullia. 

» The name of an estate. See letter 13 of this book. 

J The subsequent part of the letter appears to have been 
written after that affair of Dyrrachium in which Caesar 
was worsted. The vicinity of the armies made Cicero very 
cautious and reserved in what he wrote. 

k There did not appear any reason why Pompeius should 
not be equally successful in any subsequent engagement. 

1 His daughter's comfort. 



great hope m . Our friend Brutus n engages zeal- 
ously in the cause. So far I have been able to 
write with caution. Farewell. Respecting the 
second payment °, pray consider with all attention 
what is to be done ; as I observed in the letter 
which I sent by Pollex. 



LETTER V. 

I cannot without the greatest pain describe to 
you what causes, how bitter, how grievous, how 
unexpected, have moved me, and compelled me to 
act from a certain impulse of mind, rather than 
from consideration. They were such as have 
produced the effect you perceive p. I therefore 
neither know what to tell you about my concerns, 
nor what to ask of you. You see the result and 
sum of the business. I have understood from 
your letters, both from that which you wrote in 
conjunction with others, and from that which was 
in your own name, (what indeed I perceived by 
myself), that your declining influence made you 
look out for some new means of defending me. 
As to what you propose of my coming nearer, and 
travelling through the towns by night, I do not well 
see how that can be done ; for I have not such 
convenient resting-places, that I can pass in them 
all the day-time ; nor is it of much consequence 
for the purpose of your inquiry, whether people 
see me in the towns or on the road. But yet I 
will consider, among other things, how this can 
best be done. My uneasiness both of mind and 
body is beyond belief, and makes me incapable of 
writing many letters : I have only answered those 
which I received. I wish you would write to 
Basilus, and to whomsoever you think proper, also 
to Servilius, in my name. That I should have 
written nothing to you in so long an interval, you 
will understand to arise from want of matter to 
write upon, not from want of inclination. Re- 
specting your inquiry about Vatinius, I should not 
want his services, nor anybody's else, if they could 
find how to assist me. Q,uintus was at Patrse i, 
in a disposition very hostile towards me. To the 
same place his son went from Corcyra. I imagine 
they are since gone from thence along with the 
rest r . 



LETTER VI. 

I perceive your anxiety not only about your 
own, and the common calamities, but more parti- 
cularly about me, and my affliction. And this my 
affliction is so far from being lessened, that it is 
even increased by associating yours with it. How- 
ever, you see with your usual prudence to what 
source of consolation I am most open. For you 
approve of my determination s , and declare that at 

m Pompeius received great hope from his recent success. 

n This is more particularly mentioned, because Brutus 
was personally hostile to Pompeius, who had caused the 
death of Brutus's father under Sulla's administration. 

The second instalment of his daughter's dower. 

P That he should have returned to Brundisium after the 
battle of Pharsalia. 

q In the Peloponnesus. 

r To make their peace with Caesar. See letter G of this 
book. 

s Of coming to Italy. 



750 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



such a time I could have done nothing better. You 
add also (what, though of less weight than your 
own judgment, yet has some weight with me) that 
the step which I have taken is approved by others 
also ; that is, persons of consideration. If I 
thought this, I should be less afflicted. " Believe 
me," you say. I do believe you ; but I know how de- 
sirous you are that my distress should be lightened. 
I have never regretted my withdrawing from the 
army : there was such a cruel spirit, such a co- 
operation with barbarous nations, that a proscrip- 
tion was contemplated not individually, but col- 
lectively ; so that it was determined by common 
consent that the property of you all should be the 
prey of his victory ; of you all, I say ; for there 
was no thought even of you unmixed with cruelty. 
I shall never repent of my good-will * ; I do re- 
pent of the measures I adopted u . I could wish 
that I had retired to some remote town till I was 
sent for. I should have created less observation, 
and should have received less vexation. I should 
not be exposed to this present trouble v . To lie 
miserably at Brundisium, is every way painful. 
How can I advance nearer, as you advise, without 
the lictors, which the people gave me, and which 
can never be taken from me but by violence. 
These with their fasces I lately mingled for a time 
in the crowd, as I approached the town, through 
fear of some insult from the soldiers. I contrived 
to get home in time w . I want you now to go to 
Oppius ; and, provided it be thought right to ad- 
vance with these lictors, I imagine they will au- 
thorise me to consider of it x . For so they engage; 
that Caesar will have regard not only to the pre- 
servation of my dignity, but even to the increase 
of it ; and they exhort me to be of good courage, 
and to entertain the best hopes. They give me the 
strongest assurance of what I should more readily 
credit if I had remained at home. But I am 
entering upon things that are past. Consider then, 
I beg you, what remains, and consult about it with 
these people ; and, (if you think it expedient, and 
it meets with their approbation,) that Caesar may 
be the more inclined to approve what I do, let it 
appear to be at their suggestion. Let Trebonius, 
Pansa, and any others, be admitted to this consul- 
tation, and let them write to inform Caesar that 
what I have done, has been at their suggestion. I 
am quite alarmed at Tullia's illness and debility. I 
understand you are very kind to her, for which I 
am greatly obliged to you. I never had any doubt 
about Pompeius's fate y. For all princes and peo- 
ple were so impressed with the desperate state of 
his affairs, that wherever he had gone, I supposed 
this would happen. I cannot help lamenting his 
fall ; for I knew him to be a man of integrity, 
virtue, and dignity. Should I offer to console you 
about Fannius 7 - ? He talked mischievously about 

1 Of having wished to serve Pompeius. 

u The cruel disposition manifested in Pompeius's army 
made Cicero repent of having joined them. 

y His detention at Brundisium, and the uncertainty of 
his reception by Caesar's party. 

w This passage has been variously tortured. I give 
what appears to me to be the most natural interpretation, 
without vouching for its correctness. 

x How he should'advance with his lictors and theirfasces. 

J He was treacherously murdered in Egypt. 

1 Perhaps he was recently dead. Cicero seems to imply 
that his conversation respecting Atticus was such as en- 
titled him to little regret. 



your remaining. And L. Lentulus had already 
promised himself Hortensius's house, and Caesar's 
gardens, and Baiae. Just the same is done on this 
side, excepting that the other was boundless ; for 
everybody who had staid in Italy was esteemed in 
the number of enemies. But some time or an- 
other I shall be glad to talk over these matters with 
my mind more at ease. I hear that my brother 
Quintus is gone into Asia to make his peace. Of 
his son I have heard nothing. Inquire of Dio- 
chares, Caesar's freed-man, whom I have not seen, 
but who brought that letter from Alexandria. He 
is reported to have seen him either on his journey, 
or already in Asia. 1 look for your letter, as the 
occasion demands ; and hope you will take care 
to let it be brought to me with all expedition. 
November 28. 



LETTER VII. 

I thank you for your letter, in which you have 
accurately stated everything which you supposed to 
concern me. It is settled therefore, according to 
the opinion you give me from these people, that I 
should continue to be attended by the same lictors, 
as it was granted to Sestius : though I apprehend 
he did not retain his original lictors, but had others 
given him by Caesar. For I understand that he a 
disallows such decrees of the senate, as were passed 
subsequently to the departure of the tribunes. If 
therefore he chooses to be consistent with himself, 
he may still approve of my lictors. But what 
have I to do with lictors, who am almost ordered 
to quit Italy ? For Antonius sent me the copy of 
a letter he had [received from Caesar, in which it 
was stated that he had heard of Cato's and L. 
Metellus's arrival in Italy, with the design of living 
openly in Rome ; that he did not like this, from 
fear of its occasioning some disturbance ; and that 
all should be excluded from Italy, except those whose 
case he should himself have heard : and he expressed 
himself on this subject with great warmth. There- 
fore Antonius wrote to me requesting that I would 
pardon him, but that he was not at liberty to dis- 
obey these instructions. Upon this I sent L. Lamia 
to explain to him that Caesar had desired Dola- 
bella to write to me, pressing me to come to Italy 
as soon as possible, and that I had come agreeably 
to his letter. He then issued an order to except me 
and Laelius by name ; which I was sorry for, as 
he might have excepted us in fact, without pub- 
licly naming us. O the many heavy causes of 
uneasiness ! which you kindly endeavour to alle- 
viate, and not without effect ; for you do indeed 
lessen my affliction by the very circumstance of 
your taking such pains to lessen it ; and this I 
trust you will not think it burdensome to do very 
often. You will especially attain your purpose, if 
you can bring me to think that I have not entirely 
lost the good opinion of respectable people. Yet 
what can you do in this respect ? Nothing, truly. 
But if circumstances should give you any opportu- 
nity, this will afford me the best consolation. It 
cannot be done at present ; but if anything should 
arise in the course of events : like what has hap- 
pened now. For it was said that I ought to have 
gone with Pompeius, but his fate lessens the re- 



B Caesar. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



751 



proach of having neglected that duty. So of all 
things nothing is more censured, than that I should 
not have gone into Africa : but I considered that 
the republic ought not to be defended by the bar- 
barous troops of a faithless nation, especially 
against an army that had gained repeated victories. 
This perhaps will not be approved. For I hear 
that many good men are arrived in Africa ; and I 
know there were many before. I am very much 
pressed on this subject. Here then I stand in need 
of some favourable chance. It may be that some, 
or possibly all of them, may prefer their safety to 
the issue of war. For if they persevere, and gain 
their cause, you see in what a condition I shall be. 
You will say, what will be their condition if they 
are defeated ? It will at least be a more honourable 
wound. These considerations distract me. You 
do not say why you do not prefer Sulpicius's de- 
termination to mine : for though it is less glori- 
ous than Cato's, it is however exempt both from 
danger and from remorse. The last thing to be con- 
sidered, is the situation of those who are in Greece. 
However, these are so far better off, than I am, that 
they are together in considerable number ; and 
whenever they come to Italy, they will come to 
their own home. Continue, as you do, to soften 
these matters, and to conciliate as many as you 
can. When you excuse yourself b , I am well aware 
of your reasons, and consider it for my interest 
that you should be there c , if it be only to manage 
for me, as you have hitherto done, what can be 
managed, with those in authority. In the first 
place I should be glad if you would attend to this : 
I apprehend there are many who have or will 
accuse me to Caesar, as either repenting of the step 
I have taken d , or disapproving what is done. And 
though both are true, yet these persons assert it 
out of ill-will towards me, not that they have any 
knowledge of its being so. But that Balbus and 
Oppius may defend me against all such attacks, and 
by their frequent letters may confirm Caesar's kind 
disposition ; that this may effectually be done, you 
will use all diligence. Another reason why I should 
be sorry to have you leave Rome is, that you say 
you have been entreated e — O sad business ! What 
should I write ? or what should I desire ? I shall 
be very short, for my tears burst forth. I commit 
it to you, and beg you to take it under your care. 
Only see that, at such a time, it involve you in no 
difficulty. Pardon me, I beseech you : I can dwell 
no longer on this subject for my tears and grief. I 
will only say, that nothing can be more gratifying 
to me than your affection towards her. You do 
kindly in undertaking to write to whom you think 
it proper. I have met with a person who saw 
Quintus the son at Samos, the father at Sicyon. 
Their excuse is easily made. I wish they, who 
have seen Caesar before me, may be as ready to 
promote my interest with him, as I should be to 
promote theirs, if I had any opportunity. When 
you ask me to take it in good part, if there should 
be anything in your letter that vexes me, I do 
take it in the very best part ; and request you to 
tell me everything without disguise, as you do ; 
and to do it as often as possible. Farewell. 
December 19. 

b From going to Cicero. 

« At Rome. d i n coming to Italy. 

e Entreated by Tullia to assist her. The word "entreated," 
which includes the rest, is no doubt borrowed from 



LETTER VIII. 

Thottgh you perceive indeed how greatly I am 
afflicted, yet you will know it from Lepta and 
Trebatius. I pay severely the penalty of my rash- 
ness f , which you would fain persuade me is pru- 
dence : nor do I prevent your disputing the point, 
and writing to me as often as possible. For your 
letters afford me some comfort at this time. You 
must use every exertion through those who wish 
well to me, and have influence with Caesar, parti- 
cularly through Balbus and Oppius, that they may 
write on my behalf with all diligence. For, as I 
hear, I am attacked both by some in person, and 
by letters. These must be met, as the importance 
of the occasion demands. Furnius s is there very 
unfriendly towards me ; and Quintus has sent his 
son not only to make his own peace, but to accuse 
me. He gives out that I have traduced him to 
Csesar ; which is refuted by Caesar himself and all 
his friends ; and yet he does not cease, wherever 
he goes, to heap all sorts of reproaches upon me. 
Nothing ever happened to me so unaccountable, 
nothing in all these troubles so painful. Some 
atrocious things were related to me by those who 
had heard him talking openly at Sicyon in the 
hearing of many people. You know his manner ; 
perhaps you have experienced it. It is all turned 
against me. But I add to my uneasiness by speak- 
ing of it, and make you uneasy too. Therefore I 
return to my subject, and beg you to let Balbus 
send somebody expressly for this purpose 11 . I 
should be glad if you would write in my name to 
whom you think fit. Farewell. December 27. 



LETTER IX. 

I have indeed acted both incautiously, as you 
observe, and more hastily than I ought, and am 
out of all hope 1 , being kept by these exceptions^ to 
the edicts. If they had not been made, through 
your care and kindness, I might be at liberty to go 
into some unfrequented place : now I cannot even 
do this. What advantage is it to have arrived 
before the tribunes enter upon their office k , if the 
coming at all is of no advantage ? What can I 
hope from him 1 , who has never been a friend to 
me ; since I am already undone and crushed by 
this law ? Balbus's letters to me become daily less 
encouraging ; and there may probably be many 

Atticus's own expression. Tullia had been neglected by 
her husband Dolabella, and left at Rome in want of every- 
thing. 

f In coming to Brundisium. 

S Furnius is probably mentioned, like Quintus, as one 
who used to be Cicero's friend, and whom it was therefore 
the more grievous to have against him on this occasion. 

h To counteract the calumnies of evil-minded persons. 

» All hope of being able to leave Brundisium. 

J See letter 7 of this book. He could not, without offend- 
ing Caesar, refuse to use his permission of remaining in 
Italy. 

k Lest they might have published some law of exclusion. 
But he derived little benefit from his return to Italy, while 
he thought it unsafe to proceed through the country amidst 
Csesar's adherents with his lictors, and unworthy of him 
to relinquish them. 

1 Caesar, upon whose conduct Cicero could not depend in 
his present circumstances. 



752 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



from many quarters to Csesar against me. I am 
ruined by own fault. No part of my troubles has 
been brought on by accident ; everything is the 
effect of folly. For when I saw the nature of the 
contest ; that all was unprepared, and feeble, 
against troops in the highest order ; I separated m 
from them (what could I do ?), and adopted counsels 
not so much bold, as allowable n for me beyond other 
men. I yielded to my friends, or rather I obeyed 
them. Of one of them, him whom you commend 
to me, you will see the disposition from his own 
letters which die has sent to you and to others, 
and which I should never have opened but from 
the following circumstances. A parcel was brought 
to me, which I undid, to see if there was any letter 
for myself ; which there was not. There was one 
to Vatinius, and another to Ligurius, which I 
ordered to be taken to them. They presently 
called upon me burning with grief, crying out 
upon the perfidy of the man. They read to me 
the letters, filled with all sorts of calumnies against 
me. Ligurius was quite in a rage, saying that he 
knew Csesar had hated him ; yet had not only 
shown him kindness, but had also given him so 
much money, out of regard to me. After receiving 
this shock, I was desirous of knowing what he had 
written to others ; for I considered that it would be 
prejudicial to himself, if this great guilt of his 
should be generally known. I found they were all 
of the same kind. I have sent them to you, that 
if you think it desirable for him that they should 
be delivered, you may deliver them ; no harm will 
accrue to me ; for as to their being opened, I 
imagine Pomponia has his seal. It was his using 
this bitterness when we first set sail, which so 
affected me, that I was afterwards quite sunk : and 
now he is said to be solicitous not so much for 
himself as against me. Thus am I pressed by all 
circumstances ; which I am hardly able, or rather 
quite unable, to bear p. Amongst these distresses 
there is one equivalent to all the rest, that I shall 
leave my poor daughter plundered of her patri- 
mony, and all her fortune. I should therefore be 
particularly glad to see you, as you promise ; for 
I have nobody else to whom I can 'commend her ; 
as I understand her mother is threatened with the 
same dangers i as myself. But if you should not 
find me, yet let this be a sufficient commendation, 
and do you, as far as you can, mollify her uncle 
towards her. I write this on my birth-day ; when 
I wish that I had never been born ; or that my 
mother had produced nothing afterwards. I am 
prevented by tears from writing more. 

«» The word sciveram in this place evidently comes from 
sclsco, and though I do not find any corresponding signi- 
fication of it, I suspect it is here equivalent to desciveram, 
and have translated it accordingly. 

n It would have argued more courage to join either of 
the contending parties ; but Cicero was excusable in not 
joining Pompeius, by the hope of acting as a mediator of 
peace ; and his obligations to Pompeius were such as for- 
bade his co-operating with Caesar. 

° Quintus, in whose favour I suppose Atticus might have 
written to Cicero upon finding him angry at his brother's 
behaviour. 

P Has not this expression, as well as what immediately 
follows, allusion to thoughts of destroying himself ? such 
as we find him uttering under the affliction of his banish- 
ment in the third book. 

1 The danger of having her goods forfeited. 



LETTER X. 

To my inconceivable distresses there has been a 
fresh addition from what has been related to me 
respecting the two Quintuses. P. Terentius, a 
friend of mine, has had a good deal to do as 
deputy contractor for the customs and revenues 
in provincial Asia. He met with Quintus the son 
at Ephesus the 13th of December, and particularly 
invited him to his house through friendship to me. 
Having made inquiries from him about me, he said 
the young man informed him that he was very 
angry with me, and showed him a roll of paper 
containing a speech which he intended to make to 
Csesar against me. Terentius said what he could 
to check his senseless conduct. Afterwards, at 
Patrse, Quintus the father talked to him a great 
deal in a similar strain of slander. You are 
acquainted with his extravagance by the letters 
which I sent you. I am sure this must give you 
pain ; to me it is most distressing, and the more 
so, because I imagine there will be no room for me 
even to expostulate with them. On the state of 
things in Africa, I hear accounts very different 
from what you mention. For they say nothing 
can be more steady, or better prepared ; add to 
this, Spain', and the disaffection in Italy, the 
declining strength and zeal of the legions, and the 
confusion in the city s . Where can I find any 
tranquillity ', but while I am reading your letters ? 
which would no doubt be more frequent, if you 
had anything to offer by which you thought my 
cares could be lessened. But I beg you not to 
omit writing to me whatever happens ; and those u 
who are so cruelly hostile to me, you may blame 
at least, if you cannot hate them ; not with the 
expectation of doing any good ; but to let them 
see that you love me. I will write more to you 
when you have answered my last letter. Farewell. 
January 21. 



LETTER XL 

I am so exhausted with the torment of my great 
distresses, that if there were anything upon which 
I ought to write to you, I should not easily be able 
to execute it ; much less then, when I have nothing 
to tell you, when especially there is not even any 
prospect of things becoming better. So that I am 
no longer anxious even for your letters, though 
they always bring something agreeable with them. 
Therefore continue to write, whenever you have an 
opportunity of sending. I have nothing to reply 
to your last, which I received now a long time 
ago. For in this interval I find that everything is 
changed ; the right cause has acquired strength, 
and I pay the heavy penalty of my folly v . I must 
procure for P. Sallustius thirty sestertia (240/.), 
which I received from Cn. Sallustius. I shall be 

>• Since Caesar's rapid subjection of Spain, fresh insurrec- 
tions had broken out there. 

s Considerable disturbances had arisen between the 
tribunes. 

* In consequence of Cicero's return to Italy he had as 
much to apprehend from the success of Pompeius's party, 
as from that of Caesar's. 

u Alluding, no doubt, to his brother and nephew. 

v Pompeius's party was in considerable force in Africa 
and Spain, and Cicero suspected that he had acted preci- 
pitately in offending them by his return to Italy. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



753 



obliged to you to see that they are provided with- 
out delay. I have written about it to Terentia. 
Even this is now almost gone. I wish therefore 
you would arrange with her, that I may have 
enough for present use. I shall perhaps be able to 
take it up here, if I only know that it will be sup- 
plied at Rome. But without knowing that, I have 
not ventured to do so. You see the state of all my 
affairs. There is no sort of misfortune which I do 
not suffer and apprehend. And the misery of this 
is the greater, in proportion to the greatness of my 
folly. He w does not cease to slander me in Greece ; 
so that your letters have been of no avail. Fare- 
well. March 8. 



LETTER XII. . 

Cephalto delivered your letter to me the 8th 
of March in the evening ; and the same day in the 
morning I had despatched a messenger with a 
letter to you. Nevertheless, upon reading your 
letter, I have thought it right to make some reply, 
especially as you express yourself doubtful what 
excuse I shall make to Csesar for my going away 
at the time when I quitted Italy. I have no occa- 
sion for any new excuse: for I have repeatedly 
told him by letter, and have sent word by several 
persons, that I was unable, if I wished it, to bear 
the reflections that were made upon me ; with many 
things to the same effect. There was nothing that 
I less wished him to suppose, than that I had not 
acted upon my own judgment in a thing of such 
moment. Afterwards, upon hearing from Balbus 
Cornelius the younger, that he conceived my bro- 
ther Quintus to have been the trumpet to my 
march, for so he expressed himself, before I 
knew what Quintus had been writing to so many 
people about me ; though he had said, and done, 
many severe things to me in person, yet I wrote 
notwithstanding x to Csesar in these words : "lam 
no less anxious for my brother Quintus, than for 
myself ; but in my present situation I cannot ven- 
ture to commend him to you. So much however 
I shall venture to ask of you, that I beg you will 
not suppose he has done anything to lessen my 
duty and affection towards you ; but has always 
rather contributed to unite us together ; and has 
been the companion, not the adviser, of my going 
away. Therefore in other matters you will attri- 
bute to him whatever your kindness and the friend- 
ship between you demands. That I may be no 
detriment to him in your esteem, I earnestly 
entreat of you again and again." If then I should 
have any meeting with Csesar, though I do not 
doubt but he will be kind towards him, as he has 
already declared, yet I shall behave in the same 
manner as I have always done. But, as I see, I 
have much more reason to be concerned about 
Africa ; which you represent as being daily con- 
firmed in the hope of making terms, rather than of 
victory. I wish this were so : but I understand 
it is very much otherwise, and apprehend that you 
are yourself of that opinion, only write differently, 
not with a view to deceive me, but to encourage 
me ; especially when to Africa is joined Spain like- 

w Quintus. 

x The text appears to be faulty. I have supposed, with 
Graevius, that it ought to be nihilominus. 



wise^. Respecting your recommendation of wait- 
ing to Antonius and others ; if you think it neces- 
sary, I should be glad if you would do this which 
you have often done before. For nothing occurs 
to me that I ought to write. If you hear that I 
am unreasonably broken in spirit, what think you, 
when you find these noble 2 actions of my son-in- 
law added to my former troubles ? However, I 
hope you will not cease to write to me, as often as 
you can, although you should have nothing to 
write about. For your letters always bring me some 
comfort. I have "formally accepted Galio's legacy. 
I suppose it was a simple inheritance, since no 
form has been sent me. March 8. 



LETTER XIII. 

I have hitherto received no letter by Muraena's 
freed-man. P. Siser brought that which I am 
now answering. What you mention about the 
letter of the elder Servius, and what you say of 
certain people having brought information of 
Quintus's arrival in Syria, are neither of them 
true. In reply to your inquiry, how those, who 
have come hither, are, or have been affected to- 
wards me, I have understood that nobody has 
manifested any disrespect. But how little this 
signifies to me, I am quite sure you can judge. 
In my present grief everything is intolerable to 
me ; and nothing more so, than that I find myself 
in a situation, where the only things that are appa- 
rently desirable a , are what I have always disap- 
proved. P. Lentulus the father is said to be at 
Rhodes ; the son at Alexandria ; and C. Cassius, 
it appears, is gone from Rhodes to Alexandria. 
Quintus offers me some explanation by letter, but 
in terms more bitter than his heaviest accusation. 
For he says that he has understood from your 
letters, that you were displeased with his having 
written to several people so unkindly about me ; 
and that he is sorry he should have given you any 
uneasiness, but that he had done what was right. 
Then he details most foully the causes of his doing 
so. But neither at this time, nor before, would he 
have manifested his hatred towards me, unless he 
saw me to be every way distressed. I wish that 
even by travelling in the night, as you proposed, I 
had approached nearer to you. I can now form 
no conjecture either when, or where, I am likely 
to see you. There was no occasion for your 
writing to me about the co-heirs of Fufidius : for 
what they ask is just in itself; and whatever you 
had done 1 should have been satisfied with it. 
You have long since known my wish of redeeming 
the Frusinian estate b ; though at that time my 
affairs were in a better condition, and I did not 
think my case so desperate ; yet I have still the 
same wish. You will consider how this may be 
accomplished. And I should be glad, as far as 

y See letter 10 of this book. 

2 Dolabella was at this time tribune, and wished to pass 
several seditious acts, in which he was opposed by Trebel- 
lius, another tribune ; from whence arose great contention 
and disturbances in Rome. 

a The success of Caesar's party, from which he thought 
he had now less to apprehend, than from that of I'ompeius, 
which would be irritated against him in consequence of 
his withdrawing from them. 

b See letter 4 of this book. 

3C 



754 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



you can, that you would secure me supplies for my 
necessary expenses. What means I had, I presented 
to Pompeius at a time when I thought I did it 
prudently. For which purpose I then both took 
it from your bailiff, and borrowed elsewhere ; while 
Quintus complained by letter that I had given 
nothing to him ; though he never asked me, nor 
have I beheld the money myself. But I wish you 
would see what there is, that can be done c , and 
what advice you can give me about everything ; for 
you know the state of my affairs. My affliction 
prevents my writing more. If there is anything, 
which you think should be written to anybody in 
my name, I should be glad if you would do it as 
usual. Whenever you have an opportunity of send- 
ing a letter to me, I hope you will not omit it. 
Farewell. 



LETTER XIV. 

I am far from being offended with the honest 
truth conveyed in your letter ; in which you do 
not even attempt to console me, as formerly, under 
the general, and particular calamities, which I 
suffer ; but acknowledge that it can no longer be 
done. For things are not now, as they were before, 
when, to say nothing more, I thought I had com- 
panions and associates. But all who were sup- 
posed to be making their peace in Greece and in 
Asia, both those who knew the state of affairs d , 
and those who did not, are said to be going into 
Africa. So that, besides Lselius, I have no partner 
in my fault e ; and even he is so far better off, as 
he has been received f . About myself however, I 
do not doubt but Caesar has already written to 
Balbus and to Oppius ; from whom I should have 
heard, if there had been anything good ; and they 
would also have spoken with you. But I wish 
you would confer with them upon this subject, and 
let me know what answer they give you. Not that 
a grant of safety from Csesar can have any assur- 
ance »; but yet it will afford an opportunity of 
consideration and forecast. Though I dread the 
sight of everybody, especially with such a son-in- 
law h ; yet in such great troubles I do not see what 
else 1 I should wish for. Quintus still goes onJ, as 
both Pansa informs me and Hirtius. He k too is 
said to be on his way to Africa with the rest. I 
will write to Minucius the father, and will send 
your letter. I will let you know if he does any- 
thing 1 . I wonder that you should have been able 
to send thirty sestertia (240/.), unless it have arisen 
from the Fufidian estate. Yet I see it is so™. I 

c About redeeming the estate at Frusinas, and providing 
for bis necessary expenses, as well as about his brother 
and everything else. 

d The reverses which Caesar had suffered, and the rising 
hopes of the Pompeian party. 

e The fault of having returned to Italy, instead of joining 
the republican troops collecting in Africa. 

f Has been kindly received by Caesar's partisans in 
Italy. 

« Because Cicero's chief apprehension now was from the 
success of the Pompeian party. 

h Dolabella, of whose conduct he was ashamed. 

' What I can wish for, besides a protection from Caesar. 

'} Continues to calumniate me. 

k Quintus. 

1 If he will advance me any money. 

m That Atticus had directed Minucius to let Cicero have 



look for you ; whom I should be particularly glad 
to see, if it can any how be managed ; for the 
occasion demands it. The last act is already draw- 
ing to a conclusion n ; when it is easy to judge 
more soundly what everything really is . Fare- 
well. 



LETTER XV. 

As you produce sufficient reason why I cannot 
see you at this time, pray what ought I to do ? 
For Csesar seems to hold Alexandria in such a 
manner p that he is ashamed even of writing about 
what is done there. But it looks as if the opposite 
party would soon pass over from Africa i ; the 
Greeks r , also, will return from Asia to join them, 
or will remain in some neutral place. What, 
therefore, do you think 1 ought to do ? I see that 
it is a difficult question : for I am alone, or with 
one other, and can neither return to that party nor 
derive any degree of hope from this. But I am 
desirous at least of knowing what you think ; and 
this among other things made me wish to see you, 
if it could be done. I informed you before that 
Minucius had furnished me with only twelve ses- 
tertia (100/.) ; I should be glad if you could secure 
the payment of the rest. Quintus has written to 
me not only without asking pardon, but with great 
bitterness : the son with a degree of hatred which 
is surprising. No sort of evil can be imagined with 
which I am not assaulted. Yet everything is more 
tolerable than the sense of my own error, which is 
both strong and constant. If I were to have those 
companions in my error which I expected, yet it 
would be but a slender consolation. But every 
body's conduct besides admits of some excuse ; 
mine admits of none. Some have been captured, 
some intercepted, so as not to call in question their 
attachment, — especially when, upon being at li- 
berty, they have rejoined their party. Even those 
who voluntarily delivered themselves up to Fufius s 
can only be charged with timidity ; and there are 



that money, which he would replace with Minucius's cor- 
respondent at Rome. 

n So I understand the original, which is concise and 
thence obscure. It may be worth while here to advert to 
the force of the present passive, expressive of that which 
is in the act of being done. The want of a correspondent 
tense in English has sometimes occasioned a misapprehen- 
sion of the just meaning in both Greek and Latin authors; 
as Luke ix. 51, 'Ev rep o-vixirXypovQai ras v/tiepas ava- 
Xtyecos avrov — " When the days of his being received 
up into heaven were drawing towards their accomplish- 
ment"— -not, as in the common translation, "when the 
time was come." 

° This seems to me to have been generally misunder- 
stood ; I conceive it to allude to the denouement of a stage 
play, like what is" said afterwards in letter 19 of this book, 
" Jam enim mihi videtur adesse extremum." 

P Caesar, seduced by the charms of Cleopatra, was engaged 
in a war to support her cause in Egypt against her brother 
Ptolemaeus. 

i Egypt and Africa are generally distinguished by the 
Roman writers, the latter signifying that part which was 
reduced to a Roman province. Here, the party in Africa 
means the army attached to Pompeius's cause, who were 
in force in the neighbourhood of Carthage, from whence 
Cicero apprehended they might make an attack upon 
Italy. 

r These Greeks are those of Pompeius's party, who had 
fled into Asia Minor after the battle of Pharsalia. 

s Caesar's lieutenant in Greece. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTIC US. 



<oo 



many of various descriptions who, whenever they 
apply to them, will readily be received. You need 
the less wonder, therefore, that I cannot support 
such a weight of affliction : for my error alone 
admits of no reparation, — and perhaps Laelius's ; 
but how does that help me ? They say that C. 
Cassius has* changed his intention of going to 
Alexandria. These things I detail to you, not that 
you can remove my trouble, but that I may know 
whether you have anything to offer about what 
preys upon me. In addition to all the rest is my 
son-in-law, and these other matters, of which I 
cannot write for weeping. I am vexed too about 
JEsopus' son u . In short I am completely miser- 
able. But to return to my first point ; what do 
you think is to be done ? Should I try to come 
nearer to you unobserved % or should I cross the 
sea ? For it is impossible to remain here much 
longer. Why can nothing be settled about the 
Fufidian estates ? For the nature of the conditions 
was such as is not usually disputed ; since the 
portion which appears too little may easily be 
made up by a valuation. It is not without reason 
that I make these inquiries ; for I suspect the 
co-heirs may think my situation very doubtful, and 
may on that account keep the business in suspense. 
Farewell. May 14. 



LETTER XVI. 

It is not by my fault at this time (though before 
I have been faulty enough) that I derive no con- 
solation from that letter v : for it is written in a 
meagre style, and bears strong marks of not coming 
from Caesar, which I imagine you must have per- 
ceived. About meeting him, I will do as you 
advise w ; for there is no great expectation of his 
arrival ; and those who come from Asia say that 
nothing has been heard about peace, — in the hope 
of which I have fallen into this error x . I see 
nothing to be hoped, — now, especially, when such 
a wound has been received in Asia, in Illyricum, in 
the affair of Cassius y, in Alexandria itself, in Rome, 
in Italy. For my part, even if he should come 
back notwithstanding the war 2 in which he is still 
said to be engaged, yet I apprehend the business 
will be settled* before his return. As to what you 
mention of a certain degree of joy being excited in 
all good people upon the news of Caesar's letter, 
you indeed omit nothing which you think can be 
any source of comfort ; but I cannot persuade 
myself that any good man would think my safety 
worth the begging it of Caesar, and the rather be- 

1 He had purposed to go to Alexandria to make his peace 
with Caesar. 

u ^Esopus the actor had been received into familiarity by 
Cicero, but his son was a profligate. 

T A letter pretending to come from Caesar. 

w Atticus seems to have advised him not to put himself 
forward in saluting Caesar on his return. 

x The error of returning to Italy after the battle of 
Pharsalia, when he had expected that the opposite parties 
would have made peace. 

y Q. Cassius Longinus had been left in the command of 
Spain, where the people and soldiers revolted to the 
Pompeian party. In the other provinces here mentioned 
Caesar's troops had met with some check. 

z The war in Egypt. 

a Cicero was apprehensive of the army in Africa getting 
possession of Italy, in opposition to Caesar. 



cause I have now no companion in such a course. 
Those in Asia wait for the issue of events ; the 
Greeks afford a hope of pardon to Fufius himself b . 
These people had at first the same fear as I, and 
adopted the same resolution ; but the delay at 
Alexandria has righted their cause c and overset 
mine. Therefore I still request of you, as in my 
former letters, that if you see anything in my 
ruined condition which you think I ought to do, 
you will inform me. If I am received by Cssar's 
party (which you see is not the case), yet as long 
as the war lasts I am uncertain what I should do 
or whither I should go. But if I am cast off, the 
difficulty is still greater. I look, therefore, for a 
letter from you, and beg you will write explicitly. 
With regard to your advice of writing to Quintus 
on the occasion of this letter, — I would do it if the 
letter gave me any satisfaction. Though somebody 
wrote to me lately in the following terms : " In 
these troubles I am not sorry to be at Patrae. I 
should be there with more satisfaction if your 
brother spoke of you in a way that I liked to hear." 
When you say that he complained of my not writ- 
ing to him, — I once only received a letter from 
him, to which I sent an answer by Cephalio, who 
was detained several months by contrary weather. 
I have before mentioned to you that Quintus the 
son had written to me with great rudeness. The 
last thing I have to beg of you is, that if you think 
it right, and can undertake it, you would join with 
Camillus in speaking to Terentia about her will d . 
The times require that she should consider of it, 
and give satisfaction where it is due. I have un- 
derstood from Philotimus that she is guilty of some 
great e misconduct, which I can scarcely believe. 
But at all events, if anything can be done, it must 
be looked to. I long to hear from you about 
everything, especially what you may say about her. 
Upon this I want your opinion, even if you have 
nothing to propose ; for I shall consider that as 
conclusive. June 3. 



LETTER XVII. 

I send this by another person's messenger who 
is in a hurry to set off : for this reason it will be 
the shorter, and because I am going to send one of 
my own. My dear Tullia came to me the twelfth 
of June, and acquainted me with the numerous 
instances of your attention and kindness to her, 
and brought me three letters. But I not only 

b I understand this to mean that Fufius, who had been 
left in Greece, and to whom the Greeks had sued for par- 
don, now rested the hope of his own pardon from the 
reviving ascendancy of the Pompeians, upon the interces- 
sion of these very Greeks. 

c By Caesar's delay at Alexandria the Greeks had time 
to recover from their first alarm, and to observe the actual 
progress of affairs. Cicero, who had acted upon the pre- 
sumption of Caesar's superiority, now found himself in a 
difficult strait. 

d Terentia's conduct and extravagance had now made 
Cicero resolve upon a divorce. And in such a case, where 
there were children, it was the custom for each party to 
make a settlement by will on their common offspring, 
proportioned to their several estates. For when a wife 
was not guilty of infidelity, her dowry was restored to 
her. 

e This misconduct probably related to her appropriation 
and waste of Cicero's property. See book vi. letter 4, note 
p, and letter 22 of this book. 

3 C 2 



756 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



could not take that pleasure which I ought in the 
virtue, gentleness, and affection of an exemplary 
daughter, but was even touched with inconceivable 
grief at the thought of such a mind being involved 
in so sad a fortune, — and that by no fault of hers, 
but by my egregious folly. Now, therefore, I 
neither expect consolation from you, which I know 
you are anxious to administer, nor advice, for 
which there is no room. I perceive, indeed, both 
by your former letter and by the last, that you have 
tried everything. I think of sending Cicero f to 
Csesar with Sallustius. I see no reason why I 
should detain Tullia here any longer in such a state 
of general affliction : I therefore mean to send her 
back to her mother as soon as she will let me. In 
return for your letter of consolation s, suppose me 
to have said what your own understanding suggests 
as proper for the occasion. What you mention of 
Oppius's conversation 11 is quite consonant with my 
suspicion ; yet, speak as I might, I should never 
persuade these people that I approved of their 
conduct. However, I will observe what moderation 
I can ; though I see not what it signifies to me if 
I should incur their displeasure. I find you have 
just cause to prevent your coming to me, — for 
which I am very sorry. Nobody brings any account 
of Csesar's departure from Alexandria. It is certain 
that no person has come from thence since the 
15th of March, nor has any letter been received 
from him since the 13th of December ; by which 
you see that the affair of the letter * dated Febru- 
ary 9 (which, even if it were genuine, would be of 
little account), is not true. I understand that L. 
Terentius is come from Africa, and has arrived at 
Paestum. I should like to know what intelligence 
he brings, and how he got awayj, and what is doing 
in Africa. He is reported to hare been despatched 
by Nasidius. If you find out how this is, I wish 
you would let me know. Respecting the ten ses- 
tertia (80/.), I will do as you direct. Farewell. 
June 14. 



LETTER XVIII. 

There is yet no rumour of Caesar's departure 
from Alexandria ; on the contrary, it is believed 
that he is fully occupied. I shall not, therefore, 
send my son, as I had intended ; and must beg of 
you to extricate me from hence k : for any penalty 
is better than continuing here. Upon this subject 
I have written to Antonius, and to Balbus, and to 
Oppius. For whether there be war in Italy by 
land or by sea, it is by no means desirable for me 
to be here. Both of these may possibly happen ; 
certainly one of them. I learned from your account 

f [lis son. 

g The text here is obscure, and perhaps faulty ; hut I 
think it intelligible without any conjectural emendations, 
which should never be admitted unnecessarily. 

h The context leads one to suppose that Oppius, who 
was of Caesar's party, objected to Cicero's freedom of 
speech. 

» That, of which Cicero speaks in letter 16 of this book. 

J Scipio, who had the command of the sea-coast, pro- 
hibited all passengers, through fear of their establishing 
an intercourse with Caesar. 

k Cicero was still at Brundisium, whence he could not 
depart without danger of giving offence by retaining his 
lictors, or of dishonouring his rank by dismissing them. 
See above, letter 6 of this book. 



of Oppius's conversation what was their plan 1 of 
proceeding ; but I beg you to make them alter it. 
I expect nothing whatever but what is miserable ; 
yet nothing can be worse than my present situation. 
I wish you, therefore, to speak to Antonius and 
those others, and to expedite this business as you 
can. Write to me about everything as soon as 
possible. Farewell. June 20. 



LETTER XIX. 

(Grcev. xxv.) 
I readily assent to your letter, in which you 
say, in many words, that you have no advice to 
offer that can be of service to me. There is 
assuredly no consolation that can alleviate my 
suffering. For nothing has happened by accident, 
else it might be borne : but I have occasioned 
everything by those errors and distresses of both 
mind and body, which I wish my nearest con- 
nexions" 1 had chosen to heal rather than to aggra- 
vate. Since no hope is afforded me either of your 
advice or of any consolation, I will not hereafter 
ask it of you. I trust, however, that you will not 
cease to write, — but will let me know whatever 
occurs to your mind, whilst you have anybody to 
send or there is anybody to send to n , — which will 
not be very long. There is a doubtful report of 
his having left Alexandria ; which arose from a 
letter of Sulpicius, and has received confirmation 
from all the subsequent accounts. Whether it be 
true or false is of so little moment to me, that I 
know not which I should prefer. What I wrote 
to you some time since about theP will I wish they 
could place among the adverse letters. I am quite 
distressed at the wretched means of this poor 
creature^ ; I think nothing ever happened like it, — 
and wish you could point out to me any way in 
which I might assist her. I see the same difficulty 
which there was in giviDg advice before. But this 
object disturbs me beyond everything. I was blind 
in the second payment of her fortune. I wish 
somebody else, — but it is now past. I beg you, in 
these ruinous circumstances, if anything can be 
raised and got together out of my plate, with some 
part of my furniture, so as to be in security, that 
you would pay attention to it. For things seem 
to be drawing to a conclusion without any conditions 
of peace ; and the present state, even without an 
enemy, is incapable of subsisting. You may take 
an opportunity, if you think fit, of talking with 
Terentia upon these matters. I cannot write all 
that I feel. Farewell. July 5th. 

1 This probably relates to Caesar's lieutenants in Italy, 
who acted, he says, as if they were determined to keep 
him shut up in Brundisium, being perhaps unwilling to 
determine anything about his lictors till they should 
receive instructions from Caesar. lie applies to Atticus to 
procure authority for his removal without compromising 
his dignity. 

«n Alluding in the first place to his brother, and perhaps 
also to Dolabella and Terentia. 

n Said in a sort of despair of his being able to support 
his troubles. See letter 9 of this book, note P. o Caesar. 

P See letter 16 of this book. The subsequent line is of 
very doubtful interpretation. It may perhaps allude to 
some expression of Atticus, or his friends, calling the 
letter of Cicero in which he spoke of his will, as one of his 
croaking letters. 

q His daughter Tullia ; for in the very next, and several 
other letters, he speaks of her in similar terms. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



75i 



LETTER XX. 

(Grcev. xxiii.) 

Camillus has informed me that you had spoken 
to him on the subject, about which I wrote r to beg 
you would communicate with him. I am now ex- 
pecting to hear from you ; though if it is otherwise 
than it ought to be, I do not see how it can be 
altered : but having received a letter from him s , I 
want one from you also ; and conclude that you 
had not learned all you wished, — provided only 
that you are well ; for you mentioned your being 
attacked with some kind of indisposition. One 
Acusius arrived from Rhodes the 24th of June, 
and brought word that Quintus the son had set out 
to join Caesar the 29th of May ; and that Philoti- 
mus had arrived at Rhodes the day before with a 
letter 1 for me. You will hear Acusius himself, — 
but he travels slowly ; in consequence of which I 
shall deliver my letter to a more expeditious mes- 
senger. "What may be in Caesar's letter I know 
not ; but my brother Quintus highly congratulates 
me. To say the truth, so great has been my error 
that I can obtain nothing, even in imagination, 
which can be tolerable to me. I entreat you to 
think about this poor creature 11 , and (what 1 lately 
mentioned to you N that something may be made up 
to secure her from want, and likewise about this 
will. I wish also that I had attended before to 
that other business 7 , but I was afraid of everything. 
There was nothing better in this deplorable situa- 
tion than a separation. I should then have done 
something, like one alive w , — whether the cause 
assigned were the law for expunging debts, or the 
nightly violences, or his commerce with Metella, 
or all together x . Her property would not then 
have been lost, and I should have appeared to feel 
a becoming indignation. I well remember your^ 
letter ; but I remember also that time : though 
anything was preferable. Now he seems himself 
to threaten it z ; for I hear such things respecting 
the state of the republic a ; O gods ! My son-in- 
law especially ! That he should do this ; even 
expunge all former debts ! I think with you, 
therefore, that a bill of divorce should be sent. He 
will perhaps demand the third instalment of her 
dower. Consider, therefore, whether I should 
wait till it originate with himself, or whether I 
should anticipate him. If it be any how possible, 
even by travelling at night, I will try to see you. 
I hope you will write to me upon these matters, 
and anything else which it may concern me to 
know. Farewell. 

r Namely, the urging Terentia to make her will. See 
letter 16 of this book. 

8 The context appears sufficiently to warrant the reading 
with Manutius, ab Mo. The text of this letter seems to 
be faulty in several parts. 

4 From Caesar. u Tullia. 

v The business of his daughter's divorce. 

w Alive to his situation. 

x Any, or all of these offences on the part of Dolabella, 
would have justified Cicero in suing for a divorce for his 
daughter. 

y In which it is to be supposed that Atticus advised 
Tullia's divorce. 

z By his conduct, regardless of all propriety. 

a The text is very uncertain. 



LETTER XXI. 

{Grcev. xix.) 
Having an opportunity of writing by your ser- 
vant, I would not let it slip, though I have nothing 
to say. You write to me less frequently than you 
used, and shorter, — which I impute to your having 
nothing that you think I can like to read or to 
hear. But if there is anything, of whatever kind it 
may be, I should wish you to let me know it. The 
only thing that would be desirable for me is, if 
anything can be done respecting a peace, — of which 
in truth I entertain no hope. Yet since you some- 
times slightly mention it, you compel me to hope 
for what is hardly within the compass of my wishes. 
Philotimus is expected the middle of August : I 
know nothing more about him. I shall be glad to 
receive your answer to what I mentioned to you in 
a former letter b . I have yet time enough in the 
midst of calamities to use some precaution, though 
I have hitherto never used any. Farewell. July 22. 



LETTER XXII. 

{Grcev. xxiv.) 

What you some time since mentioned to me, 
and what you have twice repeated in your letters to 
Tullia about me, I perceive to be true. And I am 
the more miserable (though my wretchedness 
appeared to admit of no addition) because I not 
only must not resent the great injury I have 
received c ; but cannot even lament it with impu- 
nity. Therefore I must try to bear it. But when 
I have borne it, yet all the calamities are to be sus- 
tained, which you caution me to prevent d . For 
such is the offence I have committed, that in every 
state of affairs, and under every party, it is likely 
to be attended with the same consequence e . But 
I shall proceed in my own hand f , since what 
follows demands secrecy. See, I beseech you, even 
now about the will. The idea of its having been 
made at the time when she began to inquire, did 
not I imagine strike you (else she would not have 
asked), neither did it strike me. Yet, as if it were 
so, having once entered upon the subject, you may 
advise her to entrust it to somebody, whose for- 
tune is exempt from the hazard of this war. 1 
should like, above all, that it might be to you, if 
she is of the same mind. I conceal from the poor 
creature that in this I am apprehensive of that 
other danger?. I am well aware that nothing can 
be sold now ; but things may be laid by and 
secreted, so as to escape that ruin which hangs 

b This probably alludes to Cicero's speaking too freely 
upon the state of affairs ; which is mentioned more dis- 
tinctly in the latter part of this letter, and was before noticed 
in letter 17 of this book. 

c His not being at liberty to quit Brundisium. 

d The danger of giving offence to Caesar. 

e Cicero conceived that Caesar was so much displeased 
with his having joined Pompcius, and the Pompeians with 
his having deserted them, that his own ruin would ensue 
either way. 

f The former part of his letter being written by an 
amanuensis. 

% The confiscation of his property, in apprehension of 
which he wished to have Terentia's settled by will, and 



758 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



over us. For when you say that my own property 
will be ready for my use, and yours for Terentia ; 
yours I grant ; but what can there be of mine ? 
Respecting Terentia however (to pass by all other 
grievances, which are innumerable), what can be 
worse than this ? You had written to her to send 
a bill of exchange for twelve sestertia (100/.), this 
being what remained out of the silver. She sent 
me ten sestertia (80/.), and added that this was all 
which remained. You see what a person would do 
in a large concern, who could purloin this little 
from a small one. Philotimus has not only not 
arrived, but has not even acquainted me by letter, 
or by message, what he is doing. Some, who are 
come from Ephesus, relate that they saw him there 
going to law about some disputes of his own, which 
it is probable may be put off till Caesar's arrival. 
So that I imagine he either has nothing which he 
thinks it of importance to deliver quickly to me (in 
which case I am the more neglected) ; or, if he has 
anything, he does not trouble himself to convey it 
to me till all his own business is finished. All this 
gives me great uneasiness ; yet not so much, as per- 
haps it ought ; for I apprehend nothing signifies less 
to me, than what is brought from thence h . Why I 
think so S I am persuaded you know. When you 
caution me about accommodating my countenance 
and language to the time ; difficult as this is, I 
would however command myself, if I thought it at 
all signified to me. When you say in your letter 
that you think the business of Africa may be set- 
tledJ, I wish you had added why you think so. No 
reason occurs to me to suppose that it can be done; 
but if there should be anything, which has a ray of 
consolation, I hope you will write to acquaint me 
with it: or if, as I perceive, there should be 
nothing, write to tell me even this. If I should 
soon hear anything, I will write to you. Farewell. 
August 6th. 



LETTER XXIII. 

(Grcev. xx.) 

On the 16th of August arrived C. Trebonius 
from Seleucea Pieria, after a voyage of twenty- 
seven days. He reported that he had seen Quin- 
tus, the son, and Hirtius, with Caesar, at Antioch ; 
and that they had obtained all that they asked on 
behalf of Quintus without any difficulty. At 
which I should the more rejoice, if this concession 
afforded me any assurance of hope. But there are 
other things to be feared, and from other quarters; 
and what is granted by Caesar, as by a master, is 
still under his control. He has also pardoned Sal- 
lustius k ; and indeed is said to refuse nobody. 
Which itself is suspicious that inquiry may only be 
deferred. M. son to Quintus Gallius, has restored 
Sallustius' slaves. He came to transport the legions 
into Sicily; and brings word that Caesar is pre- 

placed in the hands of some trustee, who would not be 
exposed to the same ruin. 

h From Caesar. See letter 20 of this hook. 

1 Because he thought himself equally doomed to suffer 
from the success of either party. 

J The war in Africa may be terminated by negotiation. 

k Perhaps the same, with whom Cicero had thought of 
sending his son. See letter 17 of this book. 



sently going thither from Patrae. If he does, I l 
shall go to some place nearer Rome, as I wish I 
had done before. I am longing to receive your 
answer to the letter in which I lately requested 
your advice. Farewell. August 17. 



LETTER XXIV. 

(Grav. xxi.) 
On the 27th of August I received your letter, 
dated the 21st; and the pain arising from Quintus's 
former misconduct, which I had now laid aside, I 
felt most severely upon reading his letter. Though 
you could not any how avoid sending me the letter, 
yet I would rather it had not been sent. In answer 
to what you say about the will, you must judge 
what can be done, and how. About the money, 
she m wrote as I informed you before. If there 
is occasion, I must draw from the resource you 
mention. It is not probable that Caesar will reach 
Athens by the 1st of September. Many things are 
said to detain him in Asia, especially Pharnaces n . 
The 12th legion, to which Sulla came in the first 
instance, is reported to have driven him away by 
stones °. They do not suppose that any of them 
will stir. It is expected that Caesar will proceed 
directly from Patrae to Sicily : but if this p be true, 
he will be under the necessity of coming hither. 
And I wish he had come before : for I should then 
have got away somewhere or other. Now I am 
afraid of being obliged to wait, and among other 
things to bear in misery the unhealthiness of this 
place. What you advise of my taking care to act 
suitably to the time, I would do, if circumstances 
permitted, and if it were any how possible. But 
amidst such great offences on my part, and such 
great injuries on the part of my relations "J, I can 
neither do anything with becoming dignity, nor 
wear the appearance of it. You compare the times 
of Sulla : when everything was conducted splen- 
didly in its kind, though a little intemperately in 
the manner. But I lay aside r all considerations of 
this sort; and much rather prefer what may be 
advantageous to the community, with whose inter- 
est I have united my own. I should hope however 
that you will write to me as often as you can, par- 
ticularly as nobody else writes : but if everybody 

1 It may seem at first contradictory, that Cicero should 
here speak of removing from Brundisium, when in the 
preceding letter he regrets his inability to do so. But 
probably his stay at Brundisium may have been thought 
proper, in order to salute Caesar on his arrival ; and this 
reason would cease when Caesar should pass into Sicily and 
Africa without touching in Italy. 

m Terentia. See letter 22 of this book. 

n Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, had successfully 
opposed Caesar's forces in Asia Minor under Cn. Domitius 
Calvinus. 

o Thoy refused to go into Africa till they should have 
received their pay. See letter 25 of this book. 

P This account of the troops refusing to march. 

q Alluding to Terentia, to Quintus, and to Dolabella, 
whose behaviour had very much vexed and mortified his 
too irritable mind. 

r Atticus had probably recommended the necessity of 
temporising, as in the times of Sulla ; to which I under- 
stand Cicero to reply, that the cases are not similar ; and 
that at all events his own views were directed to the public 
good, not to his private security. Literally thus— " But 
these things are of such a kind as I must forget." 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



759 



wrote, yet I should be very anxious for your letters. 
Youfsay that Caesar will be more disposed to forgive 
Quintus at my intercession ; but I before wrote 
you word, that he at once granted to Quintus the 
son everything he desired, without any mention of 
me 8 . Farewell. 



LETTER XXV. 

(Grcsv. xxii.) 
Balbus's messenger delivered the packet ' to me 
very carefully. For u you write as if you were 
afraid I may not have received those letters, which 
I wish indeed had never been delivered to me : for 
they increased my affliction ; and into whose ever 
hands they had fallen, they would have communi- 
cated nothing new. For what is so universally 
known, as his v animosity against me, and this style 
of his letters ? Which 1 imagine Caesar transmit- 
ted to these persons, not because he was offended 
with Quintus's baseness, but for the sake of making 
my misfortunes more public. For when you say 
that you are afraid they may injure him w , and that 
you are endeavouring to remedy this, Caesar did 
not even wait to be asked about him x . This I am 
not sorry for : I am more sorry that my own 

s See Letter 23 of this book. 

t This packet contained copies of Quintus's letters, 
which seem to have been transmitted to Italy by Caesar's 
direction. 

u This explains the reason of Cicero's mentioning the 
safe delivery of the packet. 

▼ Quintus's. w Quintus. 

x Forgave him without waiting to be entreated. See 
letter 23 of this book. 



requests should have no effect. Sulla, as I con- 
jecture, will be here to-morrow with Messala. 
They are hastening to Caesar after being driven 
away by the soldiers, who refuse to go anywhere 
till they have received their pay. He ? will there- 
fore come hither, which was not expected. But it 
will be some time first ; for he travels so as to 
spend several days in the principal towns. And, 
do what he will, Pharnaces will occasion some 
delay. What therefore do you think I ought to do ? 
For my health already supports with difficulty the 
effect of this unwholesome air, which occasions 
additional uneasiness in my distress. Shall I beg 
these people z , who are going to him, to make my 
excuses ? And shall I proceed nearer to Rome ? 
Pray consider this ? and, what in spite of my 
repeated entreaties you have not hitherto done, 
assist me with your advice. I know it is a thing of 
difficulty ; yet do it as may be in these troubles. 
It is besides of great consequence to me to see 
you : I shall have gained something, if that happens. 
You will attend to the business of the will, as you 
mention. 



y Caesar. 



z Sulla and Messala. 



\_A few days after Cieero had sent this last letter, Ccesar 
unexpectedly arrived in Italy. He landed at Tarentum 
in September, and on the first notice of his setting for- 
wards towards Rome, Cicero set out on foot to meet him. 
Caesar no sooner saw him, than he alighted and ran to 
embrace him,- then walked with him alone, conversing 
familiarly with him for some time. Cicero followed Ccesar 
to Rome. At the end of the year Ccesar embarked for 

2 Africa, to pursue the war against Scipio and the other 
Pompeian generals.'] 



BOOK XII 



LETTER I. 



It is now the eleventh day since we parted, and 
I scrawl these few lines, on the point of going 
from home before dawn. I design to get to-day to 
Anagninum, to-morrow to Tusculanum, and to 
spend there one day ; so that on the 28th I shall 
observe our appointment. And I wish I may be 
able to run immediately afterwards to the embrace 
of my dear Tullia, and to get a kiss of Attica a . 
Pray write to me all about her b ; that while I stay 
in Tusculanum, I may know what she prattles ; or, 
if she is in the country, what she writes to you. In 
the meantime either send her, or give her, my 
love, and likewise to Pilia ; and though we shall 
soon meet, yet write to me if you have anything to 
say. 

While I was folding up this letter, the messenger, 
who had travelled all night, came to me with 
yours. Upon reading which, I have been much 
concerned at Attica's indisposition. I have 
learned from your letter everything else, which I 
expected. But as to what you say of the fire in 
the morning c , it is a greater sign of age to waver 

a Atticus's daughter. b What relates to Attica. 

c It is reasonable to suppose this may refer to some ex- 
pression of Atticus joking with Cicero for wanting a fire 
in the morning, like an old man ; to which Cicero replies, 



in memory. For I had fixed the 29th with Axius, 
the 30th with you, and the day of my arrival with 
Quintus, that is the 28th. This is all I have to 
say to you : there is nothing new. What need of 
writing then ? What ? When we are together, 
and prattle about anything that comes into our 
heads, the very talking, even if it is about nothing, 
has a sweetness in the conversation itself. 



LETTER II. 

Here, however d , it is rumoured that Marcus 
has perished by shipwreck ; that Asinius has been 
delivered \\p alive into the hands of the soldiers e ; 
that fifty ships have been carried into Utica by 
this adverse wind ; that Pompeius f is not to be 
found, nor has he been in the Balearic islands £, as 

that it is a greater sign of age to lose one's memory, as 
Atticus appears to have done in making some mistake 
respecting the arrangement of the days after Cicero should 
have returned to Rome. 

d It is to be presumed that this refers to a previous letter 
received from Atticus, in which he might have said there 
was no news. 

e The Pompeians. 

f The son of Cn. Pompeius Magnus. 

S Majorca, Minorca, and Ivica. 



'60 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



Patienus affirms. But there is no authority for 
anything. I send you what has been talked of in 
your absence. In the meantime games are to be 
celebrated at Prseneste : there will be Hirtius, and 
all that party h ; and the games are to last eight 
days. What feasting ! What gaiety ! While 
this is going on, the business ' has perhaps been 
settled. O marvellous menJ ! But Balbus is 
building : for what cares he ? Yet. if you consider, 
for one who studies not what is right, but what is 
agreeable k , has he not done well? "And are 
you asleep all this while ? It is time you should 
explain your purpose, if you mean to do anything 1 ." 
If you ask what I think, I think the proper pur- 
pose of life is, to be useful m . But why should I 
say much? I shall presently see you; and, as I 
hope, from the road straight to me ; when we will 
together appoint a day for Tyrannio n , and arrange 
anything else that is to be done. 



LETTER III. 

Excepting yourself, I believe nobody is less of 
a flatterer than I am ; or if we are either of us 
occasionally so towards anybody, at least it is never 
towards each other. Listen to me, then, when I 
say this without any deceit : that I wish I may die, 
my Atticus, if not only my Tusculanum (where I 
am otherwise very happy), but the islands of the 
blessed spirits are so precious in my sight, that I 
could be content always to be there without you. 
Therefore, to attribute to you the same feeling 
(which, indeed, is the case), let these three days? 
of which you speak be endured patiently ; but I 
should be glad to know whether you come to-day 
immediately from the auction, or on what day. In 
the mean time, I occupy myself with my books, 
and am sorry that I have not got Vennonius's 
history. However, not to be silent about my affairs, 
there are three ways of recovering that debt which 
is granted i me by Caesar ; either by purchasing at 



h Caesar's party. 

i The business of the war in Africa. 

J To be given to sports at such a time. 

k Agreeably to the maxims of the Epicureans, which 
Atticus had adopted. 

1 I understand the foregoing to be addressed to Cicero 
in the person of Atticus, to which Cicero subjoins his 
reply. 

™ Conformably with what he says in his first book De 
Legibus, c. 20. " Quippe cum antiqui omnes, quod secun- 
dum naturam esset. quo juvaremur in vita, bonum esse 
decreverint." And De Fin. iv. 6, " Summum bonum est — 
omnibus, aut maximis rebus iis, quae secundum naturam 
sint, fruentem vivere." 

n To read together some work which Tyrannio had 
lately written. See letter 6 of this book. 

° Called also the Fortunate Islands, into which the 
spirits of good men were supposed to pass after death. 
They are believed to be the same as the Canaries. These 
were formerly only casually and imperfectly known, and 
had ascribed to them beauties which they never really 
possessed. 

P Hoc triduum probably refers to Atticus's own expres- 
sion in some former letter, putting otf his visit to Cicero 
for three days. It may be observed that Cicero was a very 
early riser, often writing his letters before it was light ; he 
may very well, therefore, have sent to Atticus at Rome, 
only about twelve miles distant, to know if he might 
expect him that day. 

q It having been seen that at the approach of the war 
Cicero was indebted to Caesar, it is not probable that lie 
could subsequently have become his creditor. 1 am in- 



the sale (I would rather lose it : though indepen- 
dent of its baseness, I imagine this would itself be 
to lose it) ; or by assignment from a broker at a 
year's credit (who is there, that I could trust ? Or 
when would that Metonic 1- year arrive ?) ; or by 
Vectenns's agreement for one s half. Think about 
it. I am afraid, after all, that this man may make 
no sale ; but that he may hasten to add his applause 
at the conclusion of the games, lest a person of such 
importance 1 should be disregarded. But it u shall 
be attended to. 



LETTER IV. 

Your letter was most acceptable and delightful 
to me. How say you ? I have recovered my 
holiday v . For I was troubled at Tiro's account of 
your having appeared to him to be flushed. I shall 
add, therefore, one day more, as you propose. 
Respecting Cato, it is a problem fit for Archi- 
medes w . It is impossible for me to write what 
your companions* will read, not merely with satis- 
faction, but even with patience. For even if I should 
refrain from mentioning the opinions he has de- 
livered, and all that zeal and wisdom which he 
showed on behalf of the republic ; if I should drily 
attempt to commend his dignity and firmness ; 
this itself may be worth hearing ; but such a man 
cannot justly be praised, unless it is set forth that 
this state of things which is now established he 
saw while it was yet future, and strove to prevent ; 
and that he might not see it accomplished, relin- 
quished his life. Of these things what is there that 
I can render palatable to Aledius ? ? But pray 
take care of your health, and that prudence, which 
you show in everything, show especially in your 
own recovery. 



LETTER V. 

" Quintus the father for the fourth time 2 ," or 
rather for the thousandth time, shows his want of 
sense in taking pleasure at his son and Statius being 

clined to think, therefore, that this debt to Cicero may 
have been due from one of Pompeius's party, whose goods 
were confiscated, but out of which Caesar may have per- 
mitted Cicero to indemnify himself. See letter 21 of this 
book, note f . 

r Alluding to the cycle of 19 years invented by Meto, in 
which time it was calculated (but not correctly) that the 
sun and moon would return to the same positions about 
the earth. 

s Being content to receive one-half of the debt, as it 
is probable Vectenus might have done on some similar 
occasion. 

1 Said ironically, importing that this partisan of 
Caesar's, whoever he was, might be glad to push himself 
into notice by his applause, and escape the discharge of 
his debt. 

u The recovery of his money. 

v Probably Cicero might have designed to go up to Rome 
on occasion of his friend's illness, but upon receiving a 
good account, determined to prolong his holidays another 
day. 

w It was a problem of exceeding difficulty to write his 
proposed panegyric upon Cato so as not to offend Caesar. 

x Of Caesar's party. 

y Some one studious of pleasing Caesar. He is mentioned 
again, letters 23 and 24 of this book. 

z The original ispart of averse of Ennius,quotedby Aul. 
Gell. x. 1, " Quintus pater quartum fit consul." 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



761 



made Lupercans a , to see his family loaded with this 
double disgrace. I may add also Philotimus as a 
third. What singular folly ; if my own b were not 
still greater. But what face can he have to ask 
you to defray his expenses for this purpose ? Sup- 
pose him to have come to no " dry spring," but to 
Pirene c itself; or, as you say, to drink in your 
fountain " the emerging flood of Alpheus d ;" espe- 
cially under his great embarrassments. Where can 
this end ? But it is his affair. I am much pleased 
with my "Cato :" but so was Bassus Lucilius e with 
his performances. About Cselius f you will inquire, 
as you mention ; I am quite ignorant. Not only 
his ability, but his character should be known. 
You will let me know if you have any doubts about 
Hortensius and Virginius ; though, as far as I see, 
you will not easily find anything more desirable. 
You will negotiate with Mustella, as you mention, 
when Crispus arrives. I wrote to Aulus, to tell 
him that I had explained to Piso what I knew for 
certain about the gold. For T agree with you that 
this business is protracted too long, and that every- 
thing should now be got together from all parts. I 
plainly perceive that your whole time and attention 
is taken up with my concerns ; and that your 
desire of coming to me is prevented by my busi- 
ness. But I consider you as actually with me, not 
only because you are conducting my affairs, but 
also because I seem to see how you conduct them. 
For no hour of your occupation passes without my 
knowledge. I find that Tubulus 2 was praetor in 
the consulship of L. Metellus and Q. Maximus. 
Now I wish to know under what consuls P.Scsevola, 
the Pontifex Maximus, was tribune of the people. 
I imagine it was under the next, Csepio and Pom- 
peius ; for he was preetor under P. Furius and 
Sex. Atilius. You will give me, therefore, the date 
of his tribunate ; and, if you can, let me know with 
what crime Tubulus was charged. Pray see, too, 
whether L. Libo (he who accused Ser. Galba) was 
tribune of the people in the consulship of €ensorinus 
and Manilius, or in that of T. Quintus and Manius 
Acilius. For I am perplexed by the Fannian 

* The Lupercans were those who conducted the festivi- 
ties of the Lupercalia, instituted in honour of Pan, on 
which occasion they ran ahout the streets almost naked. 
There were formerly two companies of Lupercans, to 
whom Cagsar had lately added a third, into which people 
were desirous of being admitted ; hut Cicero thought this 
flattery unbecoming his family. Statius was a freed-man 
of Quintus's. 

b By his own folly he probably means the part he had 
acted in the civil war, with which he always appears to be 
dissatisfied. 

c An abundant spring near Corinth, sacred totheMuses. 

d The original is taken from Pindar, who thus charac- 
terises the fountain Arethuse, feigned to be derived from 
the river Alpheus in the Peloponnesus, passing under the 
sea and rising up in Sicily. Cicero means to say that it 
was absurd for his brother, who was considerably embar- 
rassed in his fortune, to incur such an expense, and to 
rely upon Atticus's resources. 

e Some obscure author, whose works pleased nobody but 
himself. 

f This part of the letter seems to allude to Cicero's nego- 
tiations with different bankers, or brokers, about the sale 
of his plate, which he wished to exchange for gold, either 
to be secreted or taken with him, in case of insurrection, 
or counter-revolution. 

s This and Avhat follows probably alludes to Cicero's 
treatise " De Finibus," on which he was then engaged, 
and doubtful of some circumstances and dates mentioned 
in the second book. 



epitome of Brutus, or rather Brutus's epitome of 
Fannius's history. I wrote what I found in the 
latter part of that work ; in following which I 
called this Fannius, who wrote the history, son-in- 
law to Leelius : but you demonstratively refuted it. 
Now Brutus and Fannius refute you. I had under- 
stood from Hortensius, who is good authority, that 
it was as Brutus states. Disentangle, therefore, 
this matter. I have sent Tiro to meet Dolabella. 
He will return to me the thirteenth ; and I shall 
hope to see you the next day. I perceive the great 
interest you take in my dear Tullia ; and that this 
may always be the case I earnestly entreat you. 
So, then, all is still open to consideration h ; for so 
you write word. Though I wished to avoid the 
beginning of the month 1 , and to escape the ledger 
of the NicasiosJ, and I have my own accounts to 
make up ; yet nothing is of sufficient moment to 
make me absent myself from you ; being actually 
at Rome, and hoping very soon to see you ; though 
every day the hours seem long whilst I am expect- 
ing you. You know that I am no flatterer, and 
say, therefore, something less than I feel. 



LETTER VI. 

With respect to Cselius, pray take care that 
there is no defect in the gold. I know the way of 
these things k . But the loss from the exchange is 
quite enough ; and if to this is added the gold 
itself — But what am I saying ? You will see after 
it. Here you have something in Hegesius's style 1 , 
which Varro commends. I come nowtoTyrannio m . 
What say you? Is this true? and without me? 
How often have I, when I was at leisure, yet re- 
frained from reading it without you ? How, there- 
fore, can you excuse this ? There is but oneway ; 
by sending me the book, which I particularly beg 
you to do ; though the book itself will not delight 
me more than I have been delighted with your 
admiration of it. For I love everybody that shows 
his attachment to his countrymen n ; and am pleased 
with your great admiration of so subtile a specu- 
lation. Though indeed your observations are all 
of that kind ° ; for you are fond of that science by 
which alone the understanding is nourished. But 
pray, what is there in that acute and deep research, 
which has reference to the ultimate principle p of 

h I understand this to relate to his daughter's divorce. 

1 This is supposed to be owing to his unwillingness to 
appear in the senate convened by order of Caesar on the 
first of August. 

J The meaning of this is uncertain, but most probably 
relates to the payment of interest to some usurers of this 
name, if he should be obliged to borrow money. 

k I understand this to mean, I know how liable gold is 
to be adulterated. 

1 Some author, whose manner of writing bare some 
resemblance to the preceding sentence, perhaps the inter- 
ruption and interrogation. 

in See letter 2 of this book. 

n Atticus, though not properly an Athenian, is elsewhere 
considered as such :— " ita enim se Athenis colloeavit, ut 
sit pasne unus ex Atticis," [De Fin. v. 2,] as indeed his 
name implies. Cicero's meaning in this place is, that 
Atticus, by his approbation of Tyrannio's subtil ty in rea- 
soning, shows his attachment to the taste of his country- 
men the Athenians. 

Distinguished by niceness of judgment and acuteness, 
by which the mind is exercised. 

P Cicero being at this time engaged in his treatise " De 
Finibus." 



762 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



morals ? However, this is a long inquiry ; and 
you are engaged, perhaps, in some business of 
mine ; and instead of that dry basking i which 
you overdid on my lawn, I shall expect to be enter- 
tained with ointments and elegances. But, to go 
back to my former subject : if you love me, send 
the book ; for it is truly yours since it has been 
sent to you. " Have you so much leisure from 
your affairs, Chremes r ," that you can read also 
my " Orator ? " Well done ! I am much obliged ; 
and shall be still more so, if not only in your 
own copy, but in those for other people, you 
will get your librarians to insert Aristophanes in 
the place of Eupolis s . Caesar, I imagine, meant 
to rally you upon using the word guceso, which, 
however, is quaint and pleasing. At the same 
time he so insists upon your being under no 
anxiety, that I can have no doubt of his intention t . 
I am sorry that Attica's indisposition 11 should 
continue so long ; but as she has now no shivering, 
I hope all is going on as we could wish. 



LETTER VII. 

I have made a short note of everything that 
you desire, and have delivered it to Eros ; indeed, 
more than you ask ; and amongst other things 
what relates to my son, the first notice of whose 
wish I received from you. I talked freely with 
him : and, if it is convenient to you, should be 
glad if you would inquire about it from himself. 
But why should I delay to inform you ? I explained 
to him that by my desire you had applied to him 
to know whether there was anything that he wished 
or wanted ; and that you had acquainted me with his 
wish of going to Spain v , and his want of a liberal 
allowance. With respect to his allowance, I told 
him I would do as much as Publius, or the flamen 
Lentulus, had done for their sons. Respecting 
Spain, I mentioned two objections ; one, the same 
that occurred to you, that I was fearful of incurring 
reproach. Was it not enough to have relinquished 
our arms in support of the Pompeian party? 
Must we also take arms against it ? The other 
objection was, that he would be mortified by seeing 
his cousin admitted to greater familiarity and 
favour. I would rather he should enjoy my 
liberality than his own liberty. Yet I gave my 
consent : for I understood that you did not greatly 
object to it. I must think about it again and again, 
and I beg you to do the same. It is a great thing, 
and one that involves no difficulty to remain quiet : 
the other is very doubtful. But we will consider of 

q This probably alludes to some conversation on the 
foundation of moral duty, held at Cicero's house during 
the time of their basking in the sun, as was usual among 
the ancient Romans. The word abiisus es seems to imply 
that Atticus had carried this to a prejudicial extent : the 
ointments and elegances mentioned are intended to 
designate Atticus's politeness compared with Cicero's 
drier statement ; ointments being often used previous to 
basking. 

r This is a verse of Terentius. 

s Cicero, in his piece entitled " Orator," had, it seems, 
erroneously put Eupolis for Aristophanes. 

1 Atticus had applied to Caesar to spare the estates of 
the people about Buthrotum, which were threatened with 
confiscation for their attachment to Pompeius. 

u See letter 1 of this book. 

v To join Caesar's army against Pompeius' sons. 



it. About Balbus I had made a memorandum, 
and think of doing so, as you advise, as soon as he 
comes back. But if his coming is delayed, I shall 
at all events wait three days. I omitted to mention 
also that Dolabella is with me. 



LETTER VIII. 

Many persons approve of this measure respect- 
ing Cicero w . He x is a very proper companion. 
But we must previously see about this first pay- 
ment^, for the day approaches, and he z travels 
quickly. Pray write to inform me what news Celer 
brings of Caesar's transactions with the candidates ; 
whether he intends to go himself into the Campus 
Faenicularius a , or into the Campus Martius. And 
I should like to know whether it is necessary to be 
at Rome at the comitia ; for I must needs satisfy 
both Pilia b , and especially Attica. 



LETTER IX. 

(Grcev. x.) 
This is sad indeed about Athamas c . Your 
concern is natural, but ought to be moderated. 
There are many ways of consolation ; of which the 
properest is, to let reason do that which time will 
do. But let us take care of Alexis d f that counter- 
part of Tiro, whom I have sent back sick to Rome ; 
and if there is any epidemical sickness on the 
Quirinal hill e , let us transfer him with Tisamenus f 
to my house. All the upper part of the house is 
unoccupied, as you know. I think this is worth 
considering. 



LETTER X. 

(Grcev. xi.) 

I am sorry for poor Sejus : but whatever happens 

in the course of nature must be borne with patience. 

For indeed what are we ? Or how long are we 

likely to regard these things ? Let us consider 

w Cicero the son. It probably relates to his going to 
Athens to complete his studies, instead of joining Caesar's 
army, which seems to have been returning from Spain. 

x It appears elsewhere that the son was accompanied to 
Athens by L. Montanus, who is probably therefore the 
person here intended. See letter 53 of this book. 

y It is uncertain to what this alludes. 

z It is probable that this may mean Caesar, on his return 
from the Spanish war. 

a This may perhaps mean, whether Caesar will appoint 
the magistrates " in a field of fennel," that is, in Spain, 
or suffer them to be regularly elected in the " field of 
Mars," or Campus Martius at Rome ; for both Plinius and 
Dioscorides take notice of fennel (/j.dpadpov, faeniculum) 
being particularly cultivated in Spain ; and Strabo men- 
tions a place in Spain called " the fennel plain," from this 
circumstance. 

b Celer, who was a candidate probably for the praetor- 
ship, is supposed to have been a relation of Pilia's, perhaps 
her brother, whom Cicero would not fail to support if 
there should be a free election. For Attica he often play- 
fully professes his affection. 

c A slave of Atticus's, who was just dead. 

d Another slave, and amanuensis. 

e The district of Rome where Atticus lived. 

{ A third slave of Atticus, who might wait upon Alexis, 
or who might himself be ill. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



■63 



what more nearly concerns ourselves, (yet not 
much either), what I should do about the senate s. 
Not to omit anything, Caesonius has written to me 
to say that Posthumia, Sulpicius's wife, is come to 
his house. I have already told you that I have no 
thoughts at present of Pompeius Magnus's daugh- 
ter 11 . The other whom you mention, I believe 
you know. I never saw anything more disgusting. 
But I shall presently see you : therefore when we 
meet. After I had sealed my letter, I received 
yours. I hear with pleasure of Attica's cheerful- 
ness, yet partake of your anxiety. 



LETTER XI. 

(Grcev. ix.) 
I assure you I am very well pleased with being 
here', and that, more and more every day, but for 
the reason J which I mentioned in a former letter. 
Nothing can be pleasanter than this retreat, if it 
were not a little interrupted by the son of Amyn- 
tas k . What a tiresome loquacity ! In other 
respects, you can imagine nothing more delightful 
than the house, the coast, the view of the sea, and, 
in short, the whole together. But even this does 
not require a long letter, and I have nothing par- 
ticular to tell you, and am very sleepy. 



LETTER XII. 

On the subject of the dower 1 I want you so 
much the more to clear me from all imputation. 
Balbus's delegation of his authority is quite royal m . 
Make an end by any means. It is discreditable 
for the business to lie in this state of suspense. 
The isle of Arpinas n may be very proper for the 
deification , but I fear it will not be thought to 
confer the same degree of honour p. It lies out of 

e To avoid either offending Caesar or acting in a manner 
unbecoming his former character and connexions. 

h Previous to this time Cicero had divorced his wife 
Terentia, and was thinking of marrying again, which he 
soon after did. 

i Probably at Astura. See letters 19 and 40 of this book. 
To this place Cicero retired after the death of his daughter, 
who died in childbirth. 

J Perhaps the absence of Atticus. See letter 1G of this 
book, which may not improbably be the letter alluded to ; 
the order of these short letters (many of them little more 
than notes, and without a date) having been apparently 
deranged in many instances. It would be a laborious and 
fruitless task to endeavour to rectify it. 

k Philippus, so called from Philippus, king of Macedo- 
nia, who was the son of Amyntas. He is mentioned again, 
letters 16 and 18 of this book. 

I It seems to me most probable that this may relate to 
the repayment of Terentia's dower upon her divorce. 

m It is quite uncertain to what this alludes; most proba- 
bly to some debt due from Cicero, the care of which Balbus 
had delegated to some third person. It may be that the 
discharge of this prevented the immediate payment of the 
dower. 

II Arpinas was a place inland, but surrounded by a divi- 
sion and re-union of the river Fibrenus before it falls into 
the Liris.— De Legibus, ii. 3. 

This must allude to his design of deifying his daughter 
Tullia, who had lately died, though nothing has yet been 
said of that event. It is probable that the letter may have 
been misplaced. See letter 18 of this book. 

P Arpinas, though in many respects very proper for the 
erection of a temple consecrated to his daughter, yet lay 



the way. My wish therefore is for the gardens' 1 ; 
which I will, however, examine on my arrival. 
About Epicurus 1 it shall be as you please ; though 
I incline to this latter kind of persons s . It is 
incredible how eagerly some people desire the 
other. To the ancients therefore ; for this is free 
from invidiousness '. I have nothing to tell you : 
but I have determined, nevertheless, to write every 
day for the sake of eliciting your answers ; not 
that I expect anything from them, but yet I some- 
how do expect. Therefore, whether you have 
anything to say or nothing, yet write something ; 
and take care of yourself. 



LETTER XIII. 

I am not easy about Attica, though I rely upon 
Craterus's u opinion. Brutus's letter is sensible 
and friendly v , but made me shed many tears. 
This retreat w is less worrying to me than that con- 
course of people. I want nobody but you. How- 
ever, I occupy myself in study with the same ease 
as if I was at home x . Yet the same violence of 
grief presses and hangs upon me ; not that I 
indulge it, but still I do not resist it. Respecting 
what you mention of Appuleius^, I apprehend 
there is no occasion for any exertion on your part, 
or on that of Balbus and Oppius, to whom he 
pledged himself, and desired I might be informed 
that he would not give me any trouble. Never- 
theless, get me excused from day to day on account 
of my health. Lsenas had promised to do this. 
Engage 2 C. Septimius and L. Statilius. In short, 
nobody that you ask will refuse to swear. But if 
there is any difficulty, I will go up myself, and will 
swear to a continual sickness. For as I must 
absent myself from these meetings, I would rather 
it should appear to be done by law than by grief. 
I should be glad if you would call upon Cocceius ; 
for he does not perform what he promised. I 
wish to buy some place to hide and shelter my 
affliction. 



too much out of common observation to do her the honour 
he desired. 

1 The gardens in the vicinity of Rome. 

r Cicero has been shown before to be at this time engaged 
in his book " De Finibus," in which he discusses in a dia- 
logue the opinions of different philosophers respecting the 
constitution of moral virtue, and seems to have consulted 
Atticus upon the person whom he should introduce to 
support Epicurus's doctrine. 

s By "this latter kind" I conceive to be meant not "more 
recent," but on the contrary, those who had been some time 
dead, but whom he had eventually named last among dif- 
ferent desdWptions of persons. 

* By introducing only ancient characters he would occa- 
sion no ill-will. 

u Craterus was a physician of eminence at Rome. 
v A letter of condolence on the death of Tullia. 
w At Astura, near Antium. 

* Among his books, in his usual residence at Rome. 
See letter 42 of this book. 

y This Appuleius appears to have been lately incorpo- 
rated into the college of augurs, on which occasion several 
festivals were held, from which Cicero desired to be ex- 
cused. 

z It seems to have been necessary for three of the 
college to attest the incapacity of one from attending ; 
he therefore desires Atticus to apply to C. Septimius and 
L. Statilius, in addition to Lamas. See letter 14 of this 
book. 



764 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XIV. 

I wrote to you yesterday about excusing me 
to Appuleius. I imagine there is no difficulty. 
Whomsoever you call upon, nobody will refuse. 
But speak to Septimius, and Leenas, and Statilius; 
for there must be three. Leenas promised me to 
manage the whole. As to what you mention of 
being called upon by Junius a ; assuredly Cornifi- 
cius is a rich man : however, I should like to know 
when it is that I am said to have been bound ; 
and whether for the father or for the son. Never- 
theless, as you say, see Cornificius's agents, and 
the surveyor b Appuleius. In wishing me to be 
restored from my affliction, you act as you always 
do ; but you are witness that I have not been 
wanting to myself. For there is nothing written 
by anybody on the lessening of affliction, which I 
have not read at your house. But my grief over- 
comes all consolation. I have even done what 
nobody ever did before me, written for my own 
consolation. I will send the book to you, if the 
clerks have transcribed it. I assure you, no com- 
fort is equal to it. I write all day long ; not that 
I expect any good from it, but for the time I am 
pre-occupied ; not effectually indeed, for the vio- 
lence of my grief presses me ; but yet I am soothed ; 
and I strive by all means to compose not my mind 
only, but, if possible, my very countenance. In 
doing which I sometimes think I am doing wrong, 
sometimes I think I should do wrong if I omitted 
it. There is some relief in retirement : but it 
would be much better if you were here. This is 
the only reason of my removal. For, in regard to 
my distress, it suits well. Yet this also is a source 
of regret ; that you can no longer entertain the 
same regard for me ; those qualifications in which 
you used to take pleasure are gone. I wrote to 
you before about Brutus's letter to me. It was 
sensibly written, but afforded me no comfort. 
What he wrote to you of his coming hither ; that 
I should like ; for such appears to be his affection 
that it could not fail of doing me some good. If 
you have any intelligence, I hope you will write to 
me, especially to inform me when Pansa c sets out. 
I am concerned about Attica, yet I rely upon 
Craterus. Do not let Pilia despond. Your own 
accustomed anxiety is enough for everybody. 



LETTER XV. ' 

As it is not thought right to make a general 
excuse to Appuleius, you will take care that it is 
renewed from day to day. In this solitude I have 
no intercourse with anybody ; but penetrate in the 
morning into a thick rough wood, from whence I 
do not go out before evening. Next to you, 
nothing is more pleasing to me than solitude. 
There all my conversation is with books. Even 
this is interrupted by tears, which I resist as much 
as I can ; but hitherto I am unequal to it. I will 

a This Junius seems to have called upon Atticus, as 
Cicero's friend, about some money due from Cornificius, 
for whom Cicero had been surety. 

b This is evidently a different person from that Appu- 
leius mentioned in the beginning of the letter. 

c He had been appointed to succeed Brutus in the 
government of Cisalpine Gaul. 



write an answer to Brutus, as you advise. You 
shall have the letter to-morrow, and will forward 
it when you have an opportunity. 



LETTER XVI. 

I would not have you neglect your own con- 
cerns to come to me. I will rather go to some 
place nearer, if you should be prevented much 
longer. Though, indeed, I should not have re- 
moved out of your sight, unless I had found that 
nothing was of any use to me ; yet if there was 
any alleviation, it was only in you ; and as soon as 
there can be from anything, it will be from you. 
Now, however, I cannot bear the very circumstances 
of being without you : but I do not approve of 
staying in your house ; nor can I stay in my own ; 
nor if I were anywhere near, should I still be with 
you ; for the same cause would prevent your being 
with me, which prevents you now. As yet nothing 
has been more agreeable to me than this solitude, 
which I wish Philippus may not destroy d , for he 
arrived yesterday evening. Writing and study do 
not assuage my grief, but they interrupt it. 



LETTER XVII. 

Marcianus has informed me that my excuse 
has been made to Appuleius by Laterensis, Naso, 
Lsenas, Torquatus, and Strabo. I should be glad 
if you would get letters written to them expressive 
of my thankfulness. As to what Flavius says of 
my having been surety for Cornificius more than 
five -and -twenty years ago, though the defaulter 
is rich, and Appuleius is a liberal appraiser, yet I 
should be glad if you would find out from the 
books of the joint securities, whether it is really 
so. For previously to my being aedile I had no 
intercourse with Cornificius. I do not, however, 
mean to deny it ; but I should like to know the 
truth. You may a'so call upon the agents, if you 
think proper. Though what does it signify to me ? 
Nevertheless 6 — You will inform me of Pansa's 
departure when you know it. Give my love to 
Attica, and pray take good care of her. My 
respects to Pilia. 



LETTER XVIII. 

Whilst I avoid all recollections which by a 
certain sting exasperate my pain, I refrain from 
advising with you ; but trust you will excuse me 
in this matter, whether I am doing right or wrong. 
For some of those authors, which I now chitrfly 
read, say, that it is a duty to do what I have fre- 
quently mentioned to you, and what I would fain 
have you approve. I speak of the temple f ; which 
I request you to consider in proportion to the 
affection you bear me. I have no hesitation about 
the kind of building, being satisfied with Cluatius's 
design ; nor about the thing itself, which is deter- 

d See letter 9 of this book. 

e The sense of his present affliction makes him indif- 
ferent to such matters ; nevertheless he would do what is 
right. 

{ Which he intended to erect and consecrate to his 
daughter. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



mined ; but I sometimes doubt about tbe situation. 
I wisb therefore that you would think about it. Yes, 
I will consecrate her, as much as can be done in 
these learned times, with monuments of every 
kind, drawn from the best sense of all writers, 
both Greek and Latin. This may perhaps renew 
my wound ; but I consider myself bound, as it 
were, by a vow and promise ; and that long space 
of time, when I shall cease to be, influences me 
more than this short period, which, however, 
seems to me too long. For, after trying every- 
thing, I find nothing in which I can acquiesce £. 
While I was engaged in that treatise about which 
I wrote to you before, I was, as it were, cherishing 
my sufferings. Now I reject everything, and find 
nothing better than solitude ; which Philippus has 
not interrupted, as I apprehended. For after paying 
his compliments to me yesterday, he immediately 
set off for Rome. I have sent you the letter 
which I wrote to Brutus at your recommendation. 
You will take care to have it transmitted along 
with yours. I have, however, sent a copy of it to 
you, that, if you do not approve of it, you may 
not send it. When you say that my domestic 
concerns are regularly administered, I should like 
to know what you allude to. There are some 
things about which I am solicitous. See that 
Cocceius does not fail me. For what Libo pro- 
mises, as Eros writes me word, I consider as 
certain. Respecting my principal, I trust to Sul- 
picius and to Egnatius. Why should you trouble 
yourself about Appuleius, when the excuse is so 
easy ? Consider how difficult it is for you to come 
to me, as you propose. For it is a long journey ; 
and I cannot take leave of you without great pain 
at your departure, which it may perhaps be neces- 
sary for you to make speedily. But all as you 
please. For whatever you do I shall think to be 
done for the best, and done for my sake. Having 
learned yesterday from other letters the circum- 
stance of Antonius's approach, I was surprised 
there should be nothing said about it in yours. 
But it may possibly have been written the day 
before it was sent. Not that I care about such 
matters. But I suppose he is come up about his 
sureties. As to what you mention of Terentia's 
speaking about the witnesses to my will, in the 
first place, be assured that I care nothing about it, 
nor have I room to admit any trifling or new con- 
cern 11 . But what resemblance is there between 
the two cases ? She would not employ those who 
she thought would inquire, unless they knew what 
it contained. Was there any danger of that in my 
case ? However, let her do as I do. I will give 
my will to be read by whom she pleases : he will 
find that I could not have behaved more honour- 
ably towards my grandchild than I have done. 
For as to not calling upon her to attest it ; in the 
first place, it never entered into my mind ; next, 
it did not for that reason, because it was of no 
consequence. Yourself know (if only you recol- 
lect) that I desired you at the time to bring some 
of your people. For what need was there of 
many ? Indeed I meant your attendants : upon 
which you suggested that 1 should send to Silius : 

g In these few words how strongly is expressed the want 
of that solid consolation, which is only to be found in the 
Gospel ! 

h So filled was he with concern for his daughter, and 
perhaps for the republic. 



whence it arose that I sent to Publilius 5 : but 
neither was necessary. You will manage this as 
you think best. 



LETTER XIX. 

This place J is indeed pleasant, and open to the 
sea, and capable of being seen both from Antium 
and from Circaei ; but we must consider how, 
amongst all the change of possessors, who may be 
innumerable in an endless posterity (if only this 
state of things should last), that which is con- 
secrated may still subsist. I have now no need of 
revenue, and can be content with a little. I some- 
times think of getting some of the gardens on the 
other side of the Tiber ; for this reason, that I 
know nothing which would be so much frequented. 
Which of them it should be, we will consider when 
we meet ; but the temple must be finished this 
summer. At all events settle with Apella, the 
Chian, about the pillars. I approve of what you 
mentioned about Cocceius and Libo; and especially 
about my judgeship k . Respecting the bond *, you 
will let me hear when you have discovered any- 
thing ; yet I should like to know what Cornificius's 
agents say, but would not have you give yourself 
much trouble about it while you are so engaged. 
Respecting Antonius, Balbus also wrote to me in a 
joint letter with Oppius, and with your concur- 
rence, that I need not be disturbed. I returned my 
thanks to them : but, as I have before told you, I 
would have you understand that I neither was dis- 
turbed at that news, nor shall I now be disturbed 
at anything. If Pansa has set out to-day, as you 
supposed, henceforward begin to inform me what 
you expect about Brutus's arrival ; that is, on what 
day. If you know where he now is, you will easily 
be able to form a conjecture. Concerning what 
you mention to Tiro about Terentia, 1 entreat you, 
my Atticus, to undertake the whole business. You 
perceive that some duty on my part is implicated, 
upon which you are fully informed ; and some sup- 
pose young Cicero's fortune to be concerned. The 
former consideration weighs far the most with me, 
as being more sacred and important ; especially as 
I conceive this latter to be neither well founded nor 
settled. 



LETTER XX. 

You seem not yet entirely to understand how 
indifferent I am about the arrival of Antonius, and 
about everything of the kind. On the subject of 
Terentia I wrote to you in the letter I sent yes- 
terday. When you exhort me, and say that others 
expected it of me likewise, that I should dissemble 
the excess of my affliction ; can I do more than 
spend whole days in study ? Though I do it, not 
for the sake of dissembling, but rather of soothing 
and healing my mind ; and if I do not reap adequate 
advantage, surely I do enough for appearance. I 

i This, being probably a relation of that Publilia whom 
he-had lately taken to his second wife, may have excited 
the greater suspicion and indignation in Terentia. 

J Astura. 

k It is uncertain to what this alludes; perhaps some 
occasion of Cicero's acting as a judge, from which Atticus 
may have got him excused. 

1 See letters 17 and 18 of this book. 



r m 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



write the less to you, because I am expecting your 
reply to my letter of yesterday. I am expecting par- 
ticularly to hear about the temple ; and something 
also about Terentia. I wish you would inform me 
in your next letter, whether Cn. Csepio, the father 
of that Servilia who married Claudius, perished by 
shipwreck in the lifetime of his father, or after his 
death; likewise whether Rutilia died before, or 
after her son C. Cotta. They relate to the book I 
have been writing on the moderation of grief. 



LETTER XXL 

I have read Brutus' s letter m , and return it to 
you. To say the truth, it is not a very civil 
answer to your questions. But this is his affair. 
Though one thing shows a shameful ignorance, for 
he supposes that Cato was the first to propose the 
sentence of death on the Catilinarian conspirators ; 
whereas everybody had proposed it before except 
Caesar. And because the sentence of Csesar him- 
self, then speaking in the place of praetor, was so 
severe, he supposes those of the consular senators to 
have been more lenient ; that is, of Catulus, Ser- 
vilius, the Luculli, Curio, Torquatus, Lepidus, 
Gellius, Volcatius, Figulus, Cotta, L. Caesar, C. 
Piso, and M. Glabrio, with Silanus and Murena, 
the consuls elect. Why then was the decree made 
according to the opinion of Cato ? Because he had 
said the same thing in more brilliant and copious 
terms. Me he commends for having brought the 
affair before the senate, not for having discovered 
it ; for giving encouragement, and for having 
formed my judgment before I consulted them. It 
was because Cato had extolled all this to the skies, 
and had proposed its being entered in the decree, 
that the vote was carried in favour of his opinion. 
Brutus seems to think he has done much for me by 
calling me the excellent consul. What enemy ever 
spoke in more meagre terms ? And how does he 
reply to your'other observations ? He only desires you 
to set him right about the decree of the senate. 
He would have done as much if he had been told of 
it by Ranius. But this again is his own affair. 
Respecting the gardens n , since you approve of it, 
get something done. You know the state of my 
affairs. If, besides, anything is received from Fabe- 
rius, there is no difficulty. But, even without that, 
I think I am able to manage it. Those of Drusus 
are certainly to be sold ; possibly also those of 
Lamia and Cassius : but of this when we meet. I 
cannot write more properly about Terentia than 
you do. Let my duty be the first thing to be con- 
sidered. If anything should go amiss, I would 
rather the fault should lie with her than with my- 
self. A hundred sestertia (800/.) must be pro- 
cured for Ovia, the wife of C. Lollius. Eros says 
he cannot do it without me ; I suppose, because 
some valuation ° is to be accepted and assigned. I 

m Brutus might probably have drawn up some account 
of Cato, which he had submitted to Atticus, and upon 
which Atticus had made observations, and proposed certain 
questions. 

n Where Cicero thought of erecting a temple to his 
daughter. See letter 19 of this book. 

In order to facilitate the arrangements between 
debtors and their creditors, Ca?sar had got a law passed to 
admit the estimation of property agreeably to its value 
before the civil war broke out.— Caes. De Bell. Civ. iii. 



wish he had mentioned it to you. For if the busi- 
ness, as he tells me, is ready, and he does not 
deceive me in this, it might be completed through 
you. I should be glad if you would inquire into 
this and settle it. When you call upon me to 
attend the business of the forum, you call upon me 
to do that which, even in happier circumstances, I 
avoided. For what have I to do with the forum, 
without legal trials, without a senate, and meeting 
those whom I cannot look upon with patience ? 
As to what you say of people's requiring of me 
that I should be at Rome, and not suffering me 
to absent myself, or suffering it only to a certain 
extent ; know that I have long since esteemed you 
more than all those together ; and that I have 
some regard for myself too, and would much sooner 
abide by my own judgment than that of all the rest. 
Yet I do not go further v than the wisest men 
allow ; all of whose writings, so far as they relate 
to that subject, I have not only read, which is itself 
a mark of some courage for a sick man to admit of 
his remedy, but have even transferred into my own 
compositions, which is certainly no sign of a 
dejected and broken spirit. From such remedies 
do not endeavour to recall me into that throng, 
lest I relapse. 



LETTER XXII. 

In throwing upon me all the burden of Terentia's 
business <», you do not act with your usual indul- 
gence towards me, — for these wounds are such as I 
cannot touch without the greatest pain. Manage 
it therefore, I beseech you, as you can. For I ask 
nothing more of you, than you can accomplish ; 
and you alone can find out what the truth is about 
Rutilia r . As you seem to doubt, you will write to 
me when you know, and as soon as you can ; also 
whether Clodia was living after the death of the 
consular D. Brutus, her son. This may be ascer- 
tained from Marcellus, or at least from Posthumia ; 
the other from M. Cotta, or Scyrus, or Satyrus. I 
entreat you again and again on the subject of the 
gardens. I must strive with all my own means and 
those of my friends, who I am persuaded will not 
desert me ; but I shall be able to do it by myself. 
And I have some property also, which I can easily 
sell. But without selling, by mortgaging the land 
for one year to the vendor, I can obtain what I 
want if you assist me. Those of Drusus are quite 
ready, for he is wanting to dispose of them. The 
next I think are Lamia's ; but he is absent. How- 
ever, if you can, find out something about them. 
Silius also makes no use of his, and will easily 
be satisfied with that interest. You have 8 your 
instructions. Consider, not what the present 
state of my affairs requires, which I regard not, 
but what is the object of my wishes, and what is 
the occasion of them ? 

P In the indulgence of his grief. 

q This must have some relation to Terentia's will. See 
letter 19 of this book. 

r See letter 20 of this book. 

s Notwithstanding my objections to admit conjectural 
emendations of the text, I have supposed this ought to be 
habes, which is quite agreeable to Cicero's manner of 
writing, while the common reading of habe is both harsh 
and scarcely intelligible. See book vi. letter 1, and book 
xiv. letter 2, also book xvi. letters 7 and 16. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



767 



LETTER XXIII. 
By the beginning of your letter I thought you 
were going to send me some news ; for you say, that 
although I did not care about what was doing in 
Spain, yet you would write. But in truth you only 
replied to my letter', as regarded the forum, and 
the senate. But my house is, you say, the 
forum u . What is my house itself to me with- 
out the forum ? All is over, all is over, Atticus ; I 
have long seen it, but now I acknowledge it, since I 
have lost the only tie v by which I was held. 
Therefore I seek retirement. And yet if anything 
should bring me thither, I will endeavour if pos- 
sible (and it will be possible) to let nobody besides 
myself be sensible of my affliction ; not even you, if 
by any means this be practicable. And in truth 
this is the reason of my not going up. You 
remember what Aledius™ asked of you. Even 
now they x tease me : what would be the case if I 
should go thither ? Attend to the affair of Terentia 
as you mention, and save me from this great addi- 
tion to my great calamities. That you may know 
I am not so overwhelmed with grief, as to be quite 
sunk, your annals mention the year in which Car- 
neades with the other deputies arrived in Rome ; 
now I want to know, what was the occasion of it ; 
I imagine it was on the business of Oropus?, but am 
not certain ; and if it is so, what debates were held 
about it ; besides, what distinguished Epicurean there 
was at that time, who presided in the gardens z ; and 
what illustrious statesmen were then at Athens a ; 
which I apprehend you can find out from A polio - 
dorus's book. I am sorry about Attica; yet as her 
illness is slight, I trust that all is going well. I had 
no doubt about Gamala b ; for whence should his 
father Ligus be so fortunate ? Not to speak of my- 
self, who am incapable of relief, though every- 
thing should happen as I wish. I heard the same 
valuation of Drusus's gardens which you mention, 
and I believe I stated it in my letter to you 
yesterday. But whatever be the price, that is well 
bought which must needs be had. To me, what- 
ever you may think (for I know what I think myself), 
it is some discharge, if not of my grief, at least of 
my bounden c duty. I have wricten to Sica in con- 
sequence of his acquaintance with L. Cotta. If 
nothing should be settled about these gardens across 
the Tiber, Cotta has some property near Ostia in a 

* See letter 21 of this book. 

u It is probable that Caesar wished, through his friends, 
to bring back Cicero to Rome, in order by his presence to 
give authority to Caesar's acts. 

v Tullia. w See letter 4 of this book, note. 7. 

x Caesar's friends. 

7 The Athenians had been accused to the senate of plun- 
dering Oropus, and had been condemned in a heavy fine ; 
in mitigation of which they deputed Carneades, Diogenes, 
and Critolaus, three philosophers of different schools, to 
plead their cause. — Aul. Gell. vii. 14. 

z The schools of Epicurus at Athens were held in 
gardens. 

a All these inquiries show that Cicero was at this time 
not so overwhelmed with grief, but that he could apply 
himself to the composition of some philosophical treatise, 
to which they relate. 

b Perhaps Gamala, son to Ligus, had lately died ; and 
his own affliction taught him to expect that Ligus would 
suffer the common calamities of humanity, and by such 
a loss would be unable to enjoy his otherwise happy cir- 
cumstances. 

c See letter 18 of this book. 



very public part, though it is but a little place. 
For this purpose, however, it is abundantly 
sufficient. I wish you would think of this ; but do 
not be alarmed at the price of the gardens. I have 
now no want of plate or of clothes d , or of any places 
of pleasure : this is what I want. I see too from 
whom e I can get assistance. But speak with Silius ; 
for there is nothing better. I have also given in- 
structions to Sica, who sends me word that he has 
made some appointment with him. Let him there- 
fore write to inform me what he has done; and let 
it be f as you shall think proper. 



LETTER XXIV. 

I am glad that A. Silius has settled his business ; 
for I did not care to refuse him, yet doubted how 
far it was in my power to serve him. Make an 
end of Ovia's affair, as you propose. It seems 
now to be time to make some arrangement about 
Cicero &. But I wish to know whether the money 
that he will want at Athens, can be obtained by 
letters of exchange, or must be carried with him ; 
and should be glad if you would take the whole 
affair into consideration, respecting both the man- 
ner and time. You will be able to learn from 
Aledius whether Publius is going into Africa, and 
when. I wish you would inquire, and let me know. 
And, to return to my own trifles, I want you to 
inform me whether P. Crassus, the son of Venuleia, 
died in the lifetime of his father the consular, P. 
Crassus, as I think he did, or afterwards. Like- 
wise, if my memory is correct about Regillus, the 
son of Lepidus, that he died hefore his father. 
You will despatch these affairs of Cispius, and of 
Praecius. All seems to go on most favourably 
with Attica. Make my compliments to her and to 
Pilia. 



LETTER XXV. 

Sica has written to me all the particulars about 
Silius, and mentioned his having laid the circum- 
stances before you, as you also acknowledge. I am 
pleased with the thing itself, and with the terms ; 
but should prefer paying in money, rather than by 
a valuation h ; for Silius will not want an estate for 
pleasure. But though I can be content with my 
present income, I can scarcely do with less. Whence 
then am I to find the money ? You will get six 
hundred sestertia (4800/.) from Hermogenes, 
especially as it is a case of necessity : and I find 
that I have as much in the house. For the rest I 
can pay interest to Silius, till I discharge it by 
means of Faberius, or somebody who is indebted to 
him. There will be something also from other 
quarters. But you will manage the whole business 
for me. In truth I greatly prefer these gardens to 
those of Drusus ; nor are they to be compared 

d Clothes made a considerable part of the wealth of 
great families. They were used not only for their nume- 
rous slaves, but as coverings for their couches. 

e It is most probable that Atticus might have offered to 
assist him. 

f So I understand this imperfect sentence. 

g About sending the young Cicero to complete his studies 
at Athens.See letter 8 of this book, note ™\ 

h See letter 21 of this book, note °. 



708 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



together. Believe me, I am influenced but by one 
motive, upon which I know that I am wild. Yet 
humour this my folly, as you do. For as to what 
you say of the " repose of old age V that consider- 
ation is at an end ; I am in pursuit of other 
things. 



LETTER XXVI. 

Sica writes me word, that even if he should not 
come to any agreement with A. Silius, yet he will 
come here on the 23d. I readily forgive your occu- 
pations, with which I am well acquainted ; and 
doubt not of your disposition, or rather your wish 
and earnest desire, that we may be together. With 
respect to Nicias, if I were in a state to enjoy his 
kindness, I should be particularly glad to have him 
with me ; but to me solitude and retirement is a 
province J. Because Sica was contented to bear 
this, I am the more desirous of seeing him. 
Besides, you know the weakness and delicacy of 
our friend Nicias, and his habits in regard to food. 
Why then should I be a trouble to him, while he 
can be no pleasure to me ? Nevertheless, his good- 
will is gratifying to me. One subject k you mention 
to me, upon which I am resolved to say nothing in 
return ; for I hope I have prevailed with you to 
save me from that trouble. My compliments to 
Pilia and to Attica. 



LETTER XXVII. 

Respecting the Silian affair, though the con- 
ditions are not unknown to me, yet I expect to hear 
all about it to-day from Sica. Cotta's villa, which 
you say you do not know, is beyond Silius's, with 
which I think you are acquainted ; it is a poor 
place, and very small. It has no land about it ; no 
space for any other purpose, though enough for 
what I want. I look for notoriety. But if we 
come to an agreement about Silius's gardens, that 
is, if you agree (for it rests entirely with you) we 
need think no more about Cotta. With regard to 
Cicero, I will do as you mention, and shall leave it 
to him to fix the time. You will get exchanged what 
money is necessary. If you find out anything from 
Aledius you will, as you mention, write me word. 
I perceive from your letters, as you must also from 
mine, that we have nothing new to say. The same 
subjects recur every day, and are long since worn 
out : yet can I not refrain from writing daily, that 
I may hear from you in return. Upon the subject 
of Brutus, however, you may have some intelli- 
gence ; for I imagine you know by this time where 
he means to wait for Pansa. If, as is usual, in 
the nearest part of the province, he will be likely 
to arrive about the beginning of next month. I 
should be glad if it were later ; as I have many 
reasons for avoiding Rome ; so that I even doubt 
if I should not offer him some excuse, which I see 
would be very easy. But there is time enough to 
think of it. My compliments to Pilia and Attica. 

1 In the original is a Greek word signifying the "con- 
summation, repose, or proper occupation of old age." 
The same expression is repeated in letters 29 and 44 of this 
book. 

J To which I go with as much delight, as another man 
takes possession of a government. 

k The subject of Terentia. See letters 18 and 23 of this 
book. 



LETTER XXYTII. 

I have learned no more about Silius from my own 
conversation with Sica, than from his letter ; for he 
wrote very accurately. If therefore anything occurs 
to you in the communication you may have with 
him, you will let me know it. Upon the subject 1 , 
about which you suppose some notice has been 
sent to me, whether it has been sent or not, I 
cannot tell ; certainly nothing has reached me. 
Do you therefore proceed as you have begun ; 
and if you can so settle it (which, to say the 
truth I do not expect) as to get her m approba- 
tion, you may if you please make use of Cicero. 
It may be of some consequence to him 11 , that he 
should appear to have wished it for her sake : to 
me it signifies nothing, excepting so far as you 
know , which I greatly regard. When you recall 
me to my usual habits, I must say that I have long 
since mourned for the republic, though I did it 
more gently ; for I had something on which my 
mind could repose. Now I am quite incapable ot 
maintaining the same intercourse and way of life. 
Nor in this do I think that I need trouble myself 
with the opinions of other people : my own inward 
sense is of more weight with me than the talk of 
the world. While I have been consoling myself in 
study, I have no reason to be dissatisfied with the 
advantage I have gained. I have lessened my 
repining ; my sorrow I neither could, nor, if I 
could, should I wish it. You rightly interpret my 
wishes respecting Triarius. But do nothing with- 
out their approbation. I love him even in his 
death ; 1 am the guardian of his children, and bear 
affection towards the whole family. With regard 
to the Castrician business, if Castricius wishes to 
receive a price for his slaves, and will consent to its 
being paid in the manner that payments are now 
made p, certainly nothing is more convenient. But 
if he is determined to take away the slaves them- 
selves, it does not appear to me to be equitable ; 
since you desire me to tell you what I think. I 
should be sorry that my brother Quintus should 
have any trouble about it. And I think I under- 
stand that you are of the same opinion <*. If Publius 
waits for the equinox, as you say Aledius told you, 
I suppose he will soon sail 1- . He told me he 
should go by way of Sicily. Whether he does go, 
and when, I should like to know. And I wish, at 
some lime when it is convenient to you, that you 
would visit the little Lentulus s , and send him such 
of my slaves as you think proper. Compliments 
to Pilia and Attica. 



LETTER XXIX. 
Siltus, you say, is to be with you to-day. To- 
morrow therefore, or rather when you can, you 

1 Cicero's will. See letter 18 of this book. >" Terentia's. 

" That so Terentia might consider him in her will. See 
letter 19 of this book. 

So far as his duty is concerned. See letter 19 of this 
book. 

P By the appraisement of property. See letter 21 of this 
book, note °. 

q Namely, that it is not equitable to take away the slaves 
from Quintus, who seems to have agreed with Castricius 
about a price for them, but could not immediately procure 
the money. 

r To Africa. See letter 24 of this book. 

s The son of Tullia and of Cornelius Lentulus Dolabella. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



769 



will let me know if you have anything to tell me 
after having seen him. I do not wish to avoid 
Brutus, yet I do not expect to derive from him any 
consolation. But there are reasons why I should 
not like to be at Rome at this time ; if these con- 
tinue, I must devise some excuse to Brutus ; and, 
as things now are, they seem likely to continue. 
Pray bring this business of the gardens to some 
conclusion. The chief object-is what you know. 
Another consideration is, that I want something 
for myself. For I can neither bear to live in the 
world nor to be at a distance from you. For this my 
design I find nothing more suitable than that place. 
Upon this subject I am persuaded of your concur- 
rence ; and the more so because I think (and I 
understand you are of the same opinion) that I am 
regarded with great affection by Oppius and Balbus, 
I would have you communicate to them how 
earnestly, and why, I wish for these gardens ; but 
that it can only be done when that Faberian business 
is settled. Find out therefore whether they will 
sanction it 1 ; or how far they can be induced, if I 
forego part of my claim upon early payment ; for 
I despair of getting the whole. In short you will 
discover if they are disposed to give me any assist- 
ance towards this design. If they will, it is a 
great point gained ; if not, let us strive by any 
means to accomplish it. Consider it as that ancient 
" repose of old age," as you expressed it, or as my 
tomb. Nothing more is to be thought of that place 
at Ostia. If I cannot get this, I must try about 
Damasippus's. Lamia's I conceive to be unattain- 
able. 



LETTER XXX. 

I think what I shall say to you ; but there is 
really nothing. The same day after day. I am 
much obliged to you for going to see Lentulus. Let 
him havewhat servants, and what number you think 
right. Respecting Silius's inclination to sell, and 
respecting the price, you seem to apprehend, in 
the first place, that he may not choose it ; and, in 
the next place, that he may not accede to the terms. 
Sica is of a different opinion ; but I agree with you. 
However, I have written to Egnatius, as he wished. 
1 have no objection to your speaking with Clorlius 
according to Silius's desire ; and this is better than 
that I should write to Clodius, as he asked me to 
do. With regard to Castricius's slaves u , I think 
it best that Egnatius v should manage it ; as you 
mention that you suppose will be done. Pray see 
that the account is settled with Ovia w . Since you 
say that it was night x when you wrote, I shall 
expect something more in to-day's letter. 

4 Whether Oppius and Balbus, who were concerned 
jointly with Faberius in conducting Csesar's affairs, would 
undertake to promote the payment to Cicero, especially if 
he consented to relinquish part of his claim on prompt 
payment of the remainder. See letter 47 of this book. 

n See letter 28 of this book. 

v Egnatius was a banker employed by both Marcus and 
Quintus Cicero. In this transaction the latter was con- 
cerned. 

w See letter 21 of this book. 

x It is to be supposed that Atticus had alleged this as a 
reason for abruptly concluding his letter. 



LETTER XXXI. 

Sica will be surprised at Silius's having changed 
his mind?'. For my part, I am more surprised at 
your saying, that if I should suggest a different 
purchase, (which he will not hear of, having des- 
tined it to some other purpose,) you think he may 
be induced to sell. For he imputes to his son the 
cause of his refusal ; which seems to me not 
unreasonable, considering that his son is everything 
he could wish. You ask me what is the highest 
price I would give ; and how much I prefer these 
gardens to those of Drusus. I have never been 
there. The Coponian villa z I know to be old, and 
not large, and that it has a noble wood. But I 
know the produce of neither ; which however I 
think it would be prudent to ascertain : though 
either of them are valuable to me from my parti- 
cular circumstances, not from the computation of 
their real worth. But I would have you consider 
whether it is in my power to purchase them. If I 
could sell the Faberian property, I should not 
hesitate to conclude even on prompt payment for 
Silius's, if only he can be induced to sell. If he 
refuses to sell, I would apply to Drusus on the 
terms which Egnatius told you he demanded. 
Hermogenes a may also be a great assistance to me 
in making a prompt payment. Do you only 
admit of my being in the disposition of one who is 
desirous of purchasing : yet while 1 am a slave to 
my wishes and my grief, I am willing to be directed 
by you. I have received a letter from Egnatius b , 
should he have any conversation with you, you 
will let me know ; for it will be most convenient to 
negotiate through him ; and this I think should be 
done, for I do not see how it is possible to come to 
any conclusion with Silius. Compliments to Pilia 
and Attica. I have written this with my own 
hand. Pray think what is to be done. 



LETTER XXXII. 

Publilia c has written to me to say that her 
mother, in a conversation with Publilius d , agreed 
to come with him to visit me ; and she adds, that 
if I would permit her, she would come at the same 
time. She uses many entreaties for this purpose, 
and begs me to write in answer. You see how 
embarrassing this is. I replied that I was even 
more afflicted, than when I had told her I wished to 
be alone ; and therefore was not disposed to let her 
come to me at this time. I thought, if I made no 
reply, that she would come with her mother. Now 
I do not think she will : for it was evident that the 
letter was not her own. But I wish to avoid 
altogether, what I see will happen, that they should 
come to me. There is only one way of avoiding 



7 See letter 25 of this book. 

7 Supposed to be the same as Drusus's. 

a A debtor of Cicero's. See letter 25 of this book. 

b This letter probably respected the sale of Drusus's place. 
But it may be observed that Egnatius, as Cicero's agent, had 
some concern with Silius likewise, and with Castricius, as 
appears by the preceding letters; though the latter was on 
Quintus's account. 

c Cicero, after being divorced from Terentia, had mar- 
ried Publilia. 

d Brother to Publilia. 

3 D 



770 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



it e ; which I do not like ; but it is necessary. I 
now therefore beg you to find out how long I may 
remain here, without being molested. You will 
manage this, as you mention, with prudence. I 
wish you would propose to Cicero, provided it 
appears to you reasonable, that he should accom- 
modate the expenses of this foreign residence to 
the rents arising from Argiletus and Aventinus f , 
which would easily have satisfied him, if he had 
been at Rome, and hired a house, as he thought of 
doing. And when you have made this proposal to 
him, I should be glad if you would arrange the 
rest in such a manner, that I may out of those 
rents supply him with what is necessary. I will 
engage that the expenses of neither Bibulus, nor 
Acidinus, nor Messala, who I hear are to be at 
Athens, will exceed the receipts from those rents. 
I wish you therefore first to see who are the people 
to hire them, and at what rate ; then, that there 
may be somebody s who will pay to the day ; like- 
wise what provision and equipage is wanted by the 
way. At Athens there can certainly be no occasion 
for horses ; and I have at home more than can be 
wanted for his use on the road; as you also 
observe. 



LETTER XXXIII. 

I should like, as I told you in my letter yester- 
day, if Silius prove such as you suppose, and 
Drusus be unaccommodating, that you should 
make overtures to Damasippus. He has, I think, 
allotted portions on the shore, of I know not how 
many acres, at a fixed price, with which I am not 
acquainted. Whatever arrangements you make, 
you will let me know. I am very anxious about 
my little Attica's health ; and should even fear 
there was some mismanagement ; but that the 
integrity of the tutor, and attention of the physician, 
and the regularity of the whole family in every 
way, forbid me to entertain such a suspicion. 
Take care then. I can say no more. 



LETTER XXXIV. 
Here I could remain contentedly for one in 
trouble, even without Sica ; for Tiro is better. But 
since you say that I must take care I am not 
molested (by which I understand that you are 
unacquainted with the certain day of their journey h ) 
I have thought it more convenient for me to go 
thither l . And I perceive that you are of the same 
opinion. To-morrow therefore to Sica's villa near 
Rome ; thence, as you advise, I think of going 
into the neighbourhood of Ficulea. Respecting 
what you wrote to me, as I am coming up myself, 
we will see about it together. I am most sensible 
of your kindness, diligence and prudence, both in 
the management of my affairs, and in consulting 
and advising me in the letters you send. 

e By going himself to see them. See letter 34 of this 
book. 
i Argiletus and Aventinus were districts of Rome. 
e Somebody to collect the rents, and pay thcni regularly. 
h See letter 32 of this book. » To Rome. 



LETTER XXXV. 

Should you have come to any understanding 
with Silius, I shall be glad to be informed of it 
the very day that I arrive at Sica's house ; and 
especially what part he wishes to have excepted. 
For when you mention the boundary, we must 
take care that it be not the very place, for the sake 
of which, as you know, I have been led to think of 
the whole business. I send you a letter from 
Hirtius, which is both recent and kindly written. 
Before I last parted from you, it never entered into 
my mind that a sum was to be distributed to the 
people, equal to the excess above a certain expense 
allowed by law to be laid out on a monument. 
This would not much affect me, but that somehow 
(perhaps foolishly) I should not like it to be called 
by any other name, than that of a temple. But 
however I may wish this, I doubt if I shall be able 
to attain it without altering the situation J. Pray 
consider how this is. For though I am less 
impatient, and have nearly collected myself; yet I 
stand in need of your counsel. Therefore I entreat 
you again and again more earnestly, than you like, 
or bear to be entreated by me, to embrace this 
subject with your whole heart. 



LETTER XXXVI. 

I wish to have a temple : from this I am not 
to be diverted. I am anxious to avoid the appear- 
ance of a monument ; not so much on account of 
the legal penalty, as that I may accomplish the 
deification. This I might do by erecting it near 
the house ; but, as I have often said, I am afraid 
of a change of possessors. In an open field, 
wherever I should erect it, it seems probable that 
it may retain the respect of posterity. You must 
bear with this weakness of mine ; for such I ac- 
knowledge it to be. I cannot communicate, not 
even with myself, so freely as with you. If the 
thing, the place, the design, meets your approba- 
tion, I beg you to read over the law and send it to 
me. If any method of avoiding it should occur, 1 
shall avail myself of it. If you write to Brutus, 
unless you think it improper, scold him for object- 
ing to be in Cumanum on account of the reason 
which he mentioned to you : for, to my apprehension, 
he could do nothing more uncivil. If you think it 
right to proceed in the affair of the temple, as I 
have begun, I should be glad if you would exhort 
and quicken Cluatius k . For, even if another situ- 
ation appear preferable, I imagine I shall still want 
his advice and assistance. To-morrow you will 
perhaps be at your villa 1 . 



LETTER XXXVII. 

Yesterday I received two letters from you ; 
one by Hilarius, dated the day before, — the other 
by the messenger on the same day. The same day 
also I received one from iEgypta the freed- man, 

J There were already many monuments erected in these 
gardens on the other side of the Tiber, amongst which it 
would be difficult to distinguish the temple he proposed 
to consecrate to his daughter. 

k See letter J 8 of this book. 1 Near Rome. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



'71 



saying that Pilia and Attica were quite well. This 
last was delivered to me the thirteenth day. I 
thank you for sending me Brutus's letter. He 
wrote also to me. This letter I send you, and 
likewise a copy of my answer to it. Respecting 
the temple, if you find nothing for me in the gar 
dens (which you may surely find, if you have that 
regard for me which you certainly have), I highly 
approve your proposal about Tusculanum. How- 
ever judicious you may be in your plans, as indeed 
you are, yet, unless you took a real interest in my 
obtaining what I so ardently wish, that idea could 
never have come so appositely into your mind. But 
somehow I require notoriety. Therefore you must 
accomplish for me the possession of these gardens. 
The most frequented are Scapula's ; besides, there 
is the vicinity to where you are, that it may not 
occupy the whole day to go thither. For this 
reason I should exceedingly wish you to confer 
with Otho m , if he is in Rome, before your de- 
parture. If there is nothing to be had, though 
you are used to bear with my folly, yet I shall go 
on till I make you quite angry; for Drusus at least 
is disposed to sell. If then there is anything else, 
it will not be my fault if I do not buy it ; but in 
this I beg you to take care that I commit no error. 
The surest way of taking care is, if I can accom- 
plish anything about Scapula's gardens 11 . I wish 
you likewise to inform me how long you will stay 
in your villa near Rome. I have need of your 
favour and your influence with Terentia ; but you 
will do as you think right : for I know that where 
anything concerns me you take more interest in it 
than I do myself. Hirtius has written to me that 
Sex. Pompeius has left Corduba and fled into the 
more northern provinces of Spain, and that Cneeus 
has fled I know not whither, for it is of little con- 
sequence. I know nothing more. He dates his 
letter from Narbonne, the 18th of April. You 
wrote to me doubtfully about the shipwreck of 
Caninius ; let me know therefore if any certain 
intelligence has arrived. With respect to your 
calling me from my sadness, you will greatly relieve 
me if you can find a place for the temple. Many 
things occur to my mind in favour of the deifica- 
tion ; but I am greatly in want of a situation. 
Again, therefore, see Otho about it. 



LETTER XXXVIII. 

I have no doubt you were very busy, which was 
the reason of your not sending me any letter : but 
he was an idle fellow not to attend your convenience 
when he was sent for that very purpose. At this 
time, unless anything has detained you, I imagine 
you are in your villa. I continue writing here all 
day without any relief, but yet with some distraction 
of attention. Asinius Pollio has written to me on 
the subject of our unnatural relation p. What the 
younger Balbus lately intimated pretty plainly, and 
Dolabella more reservedly, he has openly declared. 
I should be deeply concerned if there were any 

111 Otho might probably be one of Scapula's heirs. 

» It was to be expected that Scapula, being lately dead, 
his heirs would be obliged to sell these gardens in order to 
divide the property. 

Sextus and Cnjeus Pompeius were the sons of Cnams 
Pompeius Magnus. 

P Young Q,. Cicero. 



room for new sources of grief. But can anything 
be more abominable ? What a dangerous man ! 
Though for my part — but I will restrain my feel- 
ing. Let me hear from you, as you may be at 
leisure ; for there is nothing that presses. As to 
what you say, that I ought now to show the firm- 
ness of my mind, — and that some speak of me 
more severely than either you or Brutus write : if 
any persons suppose that my mind is broken and 
has lost its energy, let them know the extent and 
kind of studies in which I am engaged, — and I 
conceive, if they are men, they will think either 
that I do not deserve reproof, having so far roused 
myself as to bring my mind disengaged to the dis- 
cussion of difficult questions ; or if I have chosen 
this method of diverting my grief, which is at once 
the most liberal and the most worthy of a man of 
learning, that I ought rather to be commended. 
But while I do everything that I can for my relief, 
do you effect that<i, for which I perceive you are 
not less earnest than I am. I seem to owe this to 
myself, and to be incapable of ease till I have dis- 
charged it, or seen a prospect of discharging it, — 
that is, till I have a place such as I want. If 
Scapula's heirs, as you say that Otho told you, 
mean to have the gardens divided into four parts 
and valued, there is indeed no room for a purchaser. 
But if they are to be publicly sold, we will see what 
can be done. That Publician place, belonging to 
Trebonius and Cusinius, was offered me : but you 
know it is a mere barn ; and I do not approve of 
it at all. Clodia's I like ; but apprehend it is not to 
be sold. Though you say you quite revolt from 
Drusus's gardens, yet I must be content with 
those, unless you can find something else. The 
building I do not regard ; for I shall build nothing 
more than I should do otherwise. The 4th and 
5th books of Antisthenes's Cyrus please me like 
the other works of the same author, who is more 
ingenious than learned. 



LETTER XXXIX. 
When the messenger arrived without a letter 
from you, I supposed the reason of your not 
writing to be that you had written the day before 
what I answered in that letter. Yet I had expected 
to hear something relating to the letter of Asinius 
Pollio. But I measure your leisure too much by 
my own. However, unless there should be some- 
thing of importance, I would not have you think 
it necessary to write till you are quite at liberty. 
I would do as you advise about the messengers, if 
there were any letters of consequence, as there 
were formerly ; when, during the shorter days, yet 
the messengers constantly returned to their time. 
And there was something, as Silius, Drusus, and 
some other matters. Now, if it were not for Otho, 
there would be nothing to write about : even that 
is deferred. Yet I find relief when I talk with you 
in my absence ; and still more when I read your 
letters. But since you are out of town (for so I 
suppose), and there is no particular occasion for 
writing, our correspondence may rest till something 
new occurs. 

q The procuring a proper situation for 
consecrated to his daughter. 



temple to be ' 



772 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XL. 

What will be the nature of Csesar's censure 1 in 
opposition to my commendation, I see from the 
book which Hirtius has sent me, in which he col- 
lects together the faults of Cato, while he speaks 
very highly of me. I have, therefore, sent the 
book to Musca, that he might give it to your 
librarians, — for I wish to have it made public ; and 
that this may be the sooner done, I should be glad 
if you would give directions to your people. I 
often attempt to compose something in the way of 
advice s , but I cannot please myself. In this I am 
countenanced by the address of Aristotle and of 
Theopompus to Alexander. But what resem- 
blance is there between the two cases ? They 
wrote what was at once honourable to themselves 
and agreeable to Alexander. Can you devise any- 
thing of such a kind ? As for me, I can suggest 
nothing. When you say that you fear my influence 
and authority may be lessened by this my grief, I 
know not what people should either blame or re- 
quire. Is it that I should not grieve ? How is 
that possible ? That I should not sink under it ? 
Who ever did so less ? While I remained at your 
house, whom did I exclude? Who, that came, 
could be offended with me ? From you I went to 
Astura. Those lively spirits who find fault with 
me cannot read so much as I wrote. How well, is 
nothing to the purpose : but the kind of writing 
was such as nobody with a broken spirit could 
execute. I have been thirty days in my gardens'. 
Who ever found a want of access to me, or of free 
conversation ? And now I am so engaged in read- 
ing and in writing, that my attendants find it more 
difficult to bear their leisure than I to bear my 
labour. If anybody asks why I am not at Rome ? 
Because it is the recess. Why I am not in any of 
my farms, which are suitable to such a time ? 
Because I could not easily bear so much company. 
Therefore I remain, where he n who possessed that 
excellent place at Baise used every year to spend 
this season. When I come to Rome, neither my 
looks nor conversation will subject me to reproof. 
I have lost for ever that gaiety with which I used 
to season the sadness of these times ; but there will 
be found no want of constancy and firmness either 
in my mind or speech. Respecting Scapula's 
gardens, it seems possible, partly by your influence 
partly by mine, to get them submitted to public 
auction. Unless this is done I shall be excluded. 
But if we come to an open sale, my desire of pos- 
session will outweigh Otho's wealth : for as to 
what you mention about Lentulus, it does not rest 
upon that. Let but the Faberian business v be 
settled, and continue to exert yourself as you do, 
and I shall get what I want. In answer to your 
inquiry how long I shall remain here, — it will be a 
few days ; but I am not certain : as soon as I have 
determined, I will write to you. Do you likewise 
let me know how long you mean to stay in your 
villa. The very day on which I send this I have also 
received, both by letter and by word of mouth, the 
same account you mention of Pilia and of Attica. 

r Caesar wrote a piece called " Anti-Cato," in answer to 
Cicero's panegyric, called " Cato." 

8 To Cffisar, and probably at Atticus' suggestion. See 
letter 44 of this book. 

1 At Astura, u It is uncertain of whom he speaks. 

v See letter 29 of this book. 



LETTER XLI. 
I have nothing to say ; yet I wish to know 
where you are, — and, if you are gone, or going, out 
of town, when you mean to return. You will 
therefore inform me. And respecting my move- 
ments, which you desire to know, I have de- 
termined to be at Lanuvium on the 14th, and 
from thence to go the day following either to Tus- 
culanum or to Rome ; which I do, you shall know 
the same day. You know how querulous misfor- 
tune is, — not indeed towards you ; but yet I am 
grown very impatient about the temple : and unless 
this is, I do not say completed, but unless I see it 
in progress, I will venture to say (and you will 
receive it as you are accustomed), my vexation will 
vent itself upon you, however undeservedly. But 
you will bear with me in writing this, as you do, 
and have borne with all my weaknesses. I should 
be glad to have you collect all your consolations in 
this one object. If you ask, what it is I wish for ? 
First Scapula's gardens, then Clodia's ; afterwards, 
if Silius refuses and Drusus is unreasonable, those 
of Cusinius and Trebonius ; I believe they belong 
now to Terentius ; I know they did belong to 
Rebilus. But if you prefer Tusculanum, as you have 
signified in some of your letters, I shall not object 
to it. This then is what you must accomplish, if 
you wish me to be comforted ; whom you now 
accuse more severely than is natural to you ; but 
you do it from your great affection, and overcome 
perhaps by my foolishness. Yet if you wish me to 
be comforted this is the greatest comfort ; or, if 
you would know the truth, the only one. If you 
have read Hirtius's letter, — which I consider as a 
specimen of the censure that Ceesar has written 
upon Cato, — I should like you to inform me, at 
your convenience, what you think of it. To return 
to the subject of the temple ; unless it is finished 
this summer, which is yet all before us, I shall not 
think myself free from guilt w . 



LETTER XLII. 

(Grcev. xliii.) 
I have determined to sleep at Lanuvium on the 
14th, as I mentioned to you before ; from thence I 
shall go either to Rome or to Tusculanum. You 
shall know both beforehand. You do rightly in 
taking no notice of the relief which this business 
may justly afford me ; it being such, believe me, 
as you could not suppose. The thing itself shows 
how earnestly I desire it, when I venture to confess 
it to you, who, I suspect, do not very much approve 
of it : but in this you must bear with my weakness. 
Bear with it? Nay, you must even forward it. 
About Otho 1 dare not hope ; perhaps because I 
wish it. Besides, the purchase exceeds my ability, 
especially in opposition to one who is both desirous 
of having it, and rich, and one of the heirs. Next 
to this I should like Clodia's. But if these cannot 
be had, conclude what you will. I consider myself 
bound by a stricter obligation than anybody ever 
was by that of a vow. You will see, likewise, the 
Trebonian gardens, notwithstanding the owners are 

■" In letter 18 of this book he had said that he considered 
himself as bound by a vow. He alludes to the same thing 
likewise in letter 42 of this book. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



773 



absent ; and as 1 mentioned to you yesterday, you 
will think also about Tusculanum. The summer 
must certainly not be suffered to slip away without 
doing something. 



LETTER XLTII. 

(Grcev. Book xiii. Letter xxvi.) 
I entirely approve of what you mention about 
Virgilius's portion*. You will therefore act ac- 
cordingly. That is my first wish F; next to that, 
Clodia's ; and if I can get neither, I fear I may 
become outrageous and rush upon Drusus. I 
know no moderation in my desire of that object, 
which you know. Therefore at intervals I incline 
to Tusculanum. For anything is better than not 
to have it finished this summer. In my present 
state, I have no place where I can be more at my 
ease than at Astura. But as those who are with 
me hasten away (I suppose because they cannot 
bear my sadness) ; though I should be very well 
content to remain ; yet, as I mentioned to you, I 
shall go from hence, that I may not appear de- 
serted. But which way? To Lanuvium ? I try z 
to go to Tusculanum ; but will immediately let you 
know. You will bring your writing 3 to an end. 
For my own part, it is not to be believed how much 
I write in the day ; and even in the night ; for I 
get no sleep. Yesterday also I accomplished a 
letter to Csesar, because you seemed to wish it. 
And if you thought it expedient, there is no harm 
in its being written. As things are at present, 
there is no necessity for sending it ; but this shall 
be as you please. I will however send you a copy 
of it, perhaps fromLanuvium, unless it happens that 
I go to Rome. But you shall know to-morrow. 



LETTER XLIV. . 

I am very well pleased that Hirtius should have 
written to you with sympathy about me, for he has 
done it kindly ; and I am still better pleased that 
you should not have sent me his letter, for you 
have done it even more kindly. I wish the book, 
which he sent me upon Cato, to be published by 
your librarians for this reason, that his praise may 
be exalted by the censure of that party. In acting 
through Mustella you have a person extremely 
proper, and one who has been kindly disposed 
towards me ever since the Pontian b business. 
Therefore get something done c . What else, but to 
secure access to a purchaser d ? This may be done 
through any of the heirs. And I apprehend Mus- 
tella 6 will do it, if you ask him. You will thus 

x Vjrgilius was one of the heirs of Scapula, together with 
Otho, Mustella, and Crispus. 

Y Scapula's gardens. 

z His difficulty consisted in overcoming his repugnance 
to visit a place which sadly reminded him of his daughter. 

a Atticus seems to have been engaged in settling his 
accounts, with which these letters, litcras, were probably 
connected. Compare this with what he repeats in the 
following letter, sed quceso confice, et te vacuum redde 
nobis. 

b Perhaps some person whom Cicero had defended, or 
otherwise assisted. 

c In finding a place to erect a temple to Tullia. 

d To get Scapula's gardens exposed to public sale, 

e Mustella appears to have" been one of Scapula's heirs. 



px - ocure for me the place which I wish, for the 
purpose which I have at heart ; and besides, " a 
repose for my old age f ." For those of Silius, 
and of Drusus, do not appear to me sufficiently 
respectable for a family residence. How would it 
become one to remain for any length of time in 
such a villa as that? I should therefore prefer, 
first, Otho's ; and, next to that, Clodia's. If 
nothing can be done, either some stratagem must be 
practised upon Drusus g , or 1 must be content with 
Tusculanum. In shutting yourself up at home, 
you have acted prudently. But pray use despatch, 
and restore yourself to me free from care. I shall 
go from hence, as I before-mentioned, to Lanu- 
vium on the 14th, and the day following to Tus- 
culanum. For I have subdued my mind h , and 
perhaps conquered it, if only I can persevere. 
You shall know therefore, perhaps to-morrow, at 
all events the day after. But pray, how is this ? 
Philotimus affirms that Pompeius is not shut up in 
Carteia ; about which Oppius and Balbus sent me 
the copy of a letter to Clodius Patavinus, declaring 
that they believed it to be true ; but that a great 
war is still maintained >. He is in the habit of 
being a complete Fulviniasteri ; but yet, if you 
have any intelligence, let me know it. I want also 
to know what is the truth respecting Caninius' 
shipwreck k . 



LETTER XLV. 

While I have been here l , I have completed 
two long treatises : for I have no other means of 
deviating, as it were,' from the path of wretched- 
ness. Even if you have nothing to say, which I 
foresee will be the case, yet I wish you to tell me 
that, if only it is not in these terms. The accounts 
of Attica are excellent. I am concerned about 
your languor" 1 , notwithstanding you say it is 
nothing. In Tusculanum I shall have the advan- 
tage of more frequently hearing from you, and 
sometimes seeing you. In other respects things 
are more supportable at Astura ; nor are the 
objects, which revive my grief, more distressing 
here than everywhere else 11 ; though in truth, 
wherever I am, they are with me. I wrote to you 
about your neighbour Caesar, because I had learned 

f In the original is the same Greek word which was 
explained in letter 25 of this book, note *. 

g Some artifice to induce him to sell his gardens at a 
reasonable price. See letter 41 of this book. 

h Forced himself to return to Tusculanum, which he 
had hitherto avoided, as containing many objects calcu- 
lated to renew his grief for Tullia. See letters 45 and 46 
of this book. 

1 In Spain. 

J A partial interpreter of events in favour of his own, 
that is, of Pompeius's party. [See book x. letter 9.] Such 
as had been notoriously some person of the name of Ful- 
vius or Fulvinius. 

k See letter 37 of this book. 

1 At Astura. 

m In the original is a Greek word of doubtful significa- 
tion, but probably meaning a languor which created an 
indifference towards everything. 

n This I conceive to be the just meaning of the word 
magis in this place. On the contrary, at Tusculanum 
there were many circumstances to remind him of his 
daughter. 

" A statue had lately been erected to Ca»sar in the tem- 
ple of Quirinus, near Atticus's house, which was on the 
Quirinal hill. 



774 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



it from your letter. I would rather have him 
comrade with Quirinus than with Public p Safety. 
Let Hirtius be made public i ; for I was of the 
same opinion, which you mention, that while our 
friend's genius is applauded, his attempt to censure 
Cato would be derided. 



LETTER XLVI. 

I have never complained of your not writing ; 
for I perceive what you mention r . Besides I sus- 
pect, or rather know, that you can have had nothing 
to say. On the 8th I supposed you to be out of 
town, and concluded that there was nothing. I 
shall nevertheless send to you almost every day ; 
for I would rather send in vain than that you 
should have nobody to take your letters, in case 
there should be anything with which you think I 
ought to be acquainted. On the 8th I received 
your empty letter, as you call it ;_for what had you 
to write about ? Yet, such as it was, it was not 
unpleasant to me to know even this, that you had 
no news. You mentioned, however, something 
about Clodia. Where then is she ? or when will 
she come ? That place pleases me so well, that, 
next to Otho's s , I like nothing better. But I do 
not suppose either that she will sell ; for she takes 
pleasure in it, and is in no want of money : and as 
for the other, you are aware of the difficulties. Yet 
pray let us try, that we may devise some means of 
gratifying my wishes. I think of leaving this 
place to-morrow, and going either to Tusculanum 
or home*, and afterwards perhaps to Arpinum. 
When I know for certain, I will write to you. It 
had occurred to me to remind you of doing the very 
thing which you are doing ; for I thought you 
could more conveniently transact the same business 
at home, without suffering yourself to be inter- 
rupted. 



LETTER XLVII. 
{Grcev. xlvi.) 
I hope to conquer my feelings, and to go from 
Lanuvium to Tusculanum. For I must either 
renounce for ever that estate (since the same 
painful sensations will remain, only in a less de- 
gree) or I know not what it signifies whether I go 
there now, or ten years hence. Since the being 
thus reminded, is nothing more than what con- 
stantly wastes me day and night. What then, you 
will say, do your studies afford no relief ? In this 
respect I fear they may even do the contrary ; as I 
might otherwise perhaps be more insensible. For 
to a cultivated mind nothing is without feeling and 
interest. 

P Near to the temple of Quirinus was situated the temple 
of Public Safety ; and Cicero means to say that he should 
be sorry to have any tyrant in a place of safety. 

q Hirtius's essay, mentioned in letter 40 of this book. 

r That you are very busy. 

s The same that is elsewhere called Scapula's, Otho being 
one of the heirs. See letter 37 of this book. 

1 To his house at Rome. I have thought it right to pre- 
serve the character of the original by a literal translation, 
lie uses the word in the same sense elsewhere. 



LETTER XLVIII. 

(Grcev. xlvii.) 
Do then, as you mention, so that you put your- 
self to no inconvenience. For two words will be 
sufficient. Or I will go up, if it is necessary. 
This therefore as you can. About Mustella do 
as you propose ; though it is a great undertaking 11 . 
For this reason I more incline to Clodia. But in 
either case the Faberian account must be settled ; 
about which there will be no harm in your having 
some conversation with Balbus ; and indeed letting 
him know, what is the truth, that I am desirous of 
purchasing, and unable to do it without the dis- 
charge of that debt, and do not dare to engage upon 
an uncertainty. But since Clodia is to be at Rome, 
and you consider it so desirable, I look wholly that 
way ; not that I should not prefer the other ; but 
it is a great concern, and an arduous contest with 
one who is eager, who is rich, who is heir. Though 
in point of eagerness I will yield to nobody : in 
other respects I am inferior. & But of this when we 
meet. Make v public Hirtius's book, as you do. 
Respecting Philotimus w , I also thought the same. 
I foresee that your house will become more valuable 
from having Caesar for your neighbour*. I am 
expecting the return of my messenger to-day. He 
will bring me an account of Pilia and Attica. 



LETTER XLIX. 

{Grcev. xlviii.) 

I can easily believe that you are glad to be at 
home. But I should like to know how much 
remains to be done ; or whether you have already 
finished. I am expecting you in Tusculanum ; and 
the rather, because you wrote word to Tiro, that 
you were coming immediately, and added that you 
thought it necessary. While you were here, I was 
very sensible how much good you did me ; but I 
am much more sensible of it since your departure. 
Therefore, as I mentioned to you in a former 
letter, I will either go wholly to you ; or you shall 
come to me, so far as it will be consistent with 
your occupations. 



LETTER L. 

(Grcev . r xlix.) 

Yesterday, not long after you left me I think, 
some persons of smart appearance brought me 
despatches, and a letter from " C.Marius, the son 
of Caius, and grandson of Caius V urging me at 
great length, by the relationship between us, by 
the poem which I had inscribed with the name of 
Marius, by the eloquence of L. Crassus, his grand- 
father, to undertake his defence ; and he sent me 
a detail of his case. I wrote to him in return, 

i Great from the price. 

v It must be remembered that, previous to the invention 
of printing, it was a work of great labour to make copies of 
a book for the use of the public. 

w His intelligence about the war in Spain. See letter 
44 of this book. 

x See letter 45 of this book. This may be supposed to 
be said jestingly. 

y This I take to be a transcript of the title assumed by 
this man, who was an impostor. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



75 



LETTER LI. 

(Grccv. 1.) 
In proportion as your arrival cheered me, so 
your departure afflicted me. Therefore when you 
can, that is, when you have done with Sextus' a 
sale, you will come to me again. A single day will 
be valuable to me ; I need not say, agreeable. I 
would myself go to Rome in order to be with you, 
if I had sufficiently made up my mind on a certain 
subject b . 



LETTER LII. 

(Grcev. li.) 
I have got Tiro with me sooner than I had 
apprehended. Nicias is also arrived ; and I heard 
to-day that Valerius was coming. How many 
soever they may be, I shall feel myself more 
solitary than if you alone were here. But I hope to 
see you after Peduceus's c business. You give some 
intimation that it may even be sooner : but this as 
you can. About Virgilius do as you mention" 1 . 
I want however to know when the sale takes place. 
I see that you approve of my sending tbe letter to 
Caesar. To say the truth, I quite agree in the 
propriety of doing so ; and the rather, because 
there is nothing in it that is unbecoming a good 
citizen ; good at least for the times, to which all 
writers on government direct us to submit. But 
you know it was my desire that some of that party 
should read it first ; which I wish you would take 
care of; and not let it be sent, unless you understand 
that they quite approve of it. You will easily find 
out whether they really think so, or only feign. 
Feigning would be to me a prohibition. But this 
you will probe. Tiro has informed me of your 
opinion about Caerellia ; that it is unbecoming my 
dignity to remain in debt ; and that you think 
I should give a note of hand — " This you fear ; of 

z The same who is before mentioned. See book ix. 
letter 6. 

a Atticus, being a friend to Sextus Peduceus, wished to 
attend the sale of some part of his property. 

b From the obscure hint contained in this expression, 
it is probable he might allude to his conduct in the scnato 
respecting Caesar's authority and administration. See let- 
ters 11 and 29 of this book. 

c The same who in the preceding letter is called Sextus. 

d Virgilius was one of the heirs of Scapula, [see letter 
44 of this book.] whose gardens Cicero wished to get. It 
is to the sale of these gardens that he refers in the subse- 
quent sentence. 



that he had no need of a patron, since the whole 
power was in his relation Caesar, who was an excel- 
lent man, and exceedingly liberal ; but that never- 
theless he should have my good wishes. What ' 
times are these ! That it should ever happen that 
Curtius* should think of standing for the consul- 
ship ! But enough of this. I am anxious about 
Tiro. But I shall soon know how he does, for I 
sent a person yesterday to see him ; to whom at 
the same time I gave a letter for you. I send you 
a copy of my letter to Caesar. I should be glad if 
you would let me know on what day the gardens 
are to be sold. 



the other you entertain no fear e ." But these, I 

and many other matters, when we meet. With I 

your leave, however, the payment of the debt to j 

Caerellia must be suspended, till I know about Meto I 
and Faberius. 



LETTER LIII. 

(Grcev. lii.) 
You know L. Tullius Montanus who went with 
Cicero f . I have received a letter from his sister's 
husband, saying that Montanus owes Plancus 25 
sestertia (200/.) as surety for Flaminius ; and that 
something had been requested of you by Montanus 
respecting this business. If you can assist him, 
either by speaking to Plancus, or by any other 
means, I should be truly glad that you would do 
it : my obligation to him demands it. If, as it 
may happen, you are better acquainted with the 
business than I am, or if you think that Plancus 
should be solicited, I wish you would write to me ; 
that I may know what the case is, and what to ask 
of him. I am expecting to hear what you have done 
about the letter to Csesar. I am not very anxious 
about Siliuss. You must get me either Scapula's 
gardens, or Clodia's. But you seem to be in some 
doubt about Clodia, whether she will come, or 
when, and whether the gardens will be to be sold. 
What is it I hear of Spinther's being divorced ? 
You are very confident, you will say, in the copious- 
ness of the Latin language, to undertake such sub- 
jects 11 : but they are mere transcripts, and done 
with less labour than you may suppose. I have 
only to find words, and in these I abound. 



LETTER LIV. 

{Grcev. liii.) 
Though I have nothing to say to you, yet I 
write, because I seem then to talk with you. There 
are with me here Nicias and Valerius. I expect 
to-day a letter from you written in the morning. 
There will perhaps be another in the afternoon, 
unless your correspondence with Epirus prevents 
you, which I would not interrupt. I send you 
letters to Marcianus and to Montanus, which I 
should be glad if you would inclose in your packet 1 , 
unless that is already gone. 

e The original is a verse, quoted also elsewhere from 
some unknown author. Cicero's meaning seems to be, 
that while Atticus was apprehensive of the debt being left 
unpaid, he did not advert to the embarrassment which it 
might occasion to Cicero to pay it, before he was himself 
sure of being paid by his own creditors, Meto and Faberius. 

f To Athens. See letters 8 and 24 of this book. 

S Silius's gardens. See letter 44 of this book. 

h Philosophical subjects, which, before Cicero, had not 
been treated in the Latin language. He goes on to say, 
that he drew his matter from the Greek writers, and had 
little trouble except in finding Latin expressions. In the 
conclusion of his treatise " De Finibus," we find it said in 
the person of Atticus, — " Sed mehercule pergrata mihi 
oratio tua: quae enim dici latine posse non arbitrabar, ea 
dicta sunt a te, nee minus plane, quam dicuntur a Grascis." 

i Which Atticus was going to send to Buthrotum in 
Epirus, from whence Cicero's letters would be forwarded 
to Athens. 



776 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



BOOK XIII. 



{The arrangement of the letters in this book appears to be in several instances incorrect ; yet the inconvenience, not to 
mention the difficulty, of altering it in a way that could be satisfactory, made it to be thought more desirable to 
preserve the order already established.] 



LETTER I. 

Nobody could have written more firmly or 
more temperately than you have done to Cicero J, 
or more entirely as I could wish. Your letters to 
the Tullii k are likewise extremely prudent. So 
that either these mast have an effect 1 , or we must 
think no more about it. I see that you are using, 
or rather have already used, all diligence about the 
money" 1 . If you succeed in this, I shall owe the 
gardens to you. There is no kind of possession 
which I should like better, especially for that pur- 
pose 11 in which I am engaged ; and about which 
you prevent my impatience, by the assurance, or 
rather promise, for the summer . Besides, for 
the decline of my life p , and the relief of my sorrow, 
nothing can be found more suitable. My wish for it 
sometimes urges me to exhort you ; but I check my- 
self; for I do not doubt but that in a matter, which 
you think I have much at heart, your wishes even 
exceed my own. Therefore understand this, as if 
it were really so. I am anxious to know what 
they q think of my letter to Csesar. Nicias is much 
attached to you, as he ought to be, and is highly 
gratified by your remembrance of him. On my 
part I have a great affection for our friend Peduceus ; 
and transfer to him all the regard I felt for his 
father ; besides that I value him for his own sake, 
as much as I valued the other ; and am much obliged 
to you for wishing to produce this mutual attach- 
ment between us. When you have examined the 
gardens, and have informed me about the letter 1- , 
I shall have some subject to write upon. But at 
all events I shall write to you ; for there will always 
be something to say. 



LETTER II. 

Your early information was more gratifying to 
me, than the substance of your letter. For what 
can be more shameful 8 ? But I am now grown 
callous to such things, and have put off all feeling. 
I look for a letter from you to-day ; not that I 
expect any news ; for how should there be any ? 

J The son. 

k Tullius Montanus and Tullius Marcianus. [See book 
xii. letters 53 and 54.] They were with the young Cicero at 
Athens. 

1 I J is son appears to have been living extravagantly. 

m Collecting the money due to Cicero, that he might 
make his intended purchase of a site for a temple. 

n The deification of his daughter. 

That it should be done in the course of the summer. 
See book xii. letters 41 and 43. 

P See book xii. letter 45. 

1 Caesar's friends. See book xii. letter 52. 
r The letter he had written to Caesar. 

8 There is nothing to show certainly to what this al- 
ludes : but on comparison with book xii. letter 38, it is 
probable that Atticus might have written to Cicero on the 
subject of young Quintus. 



But yet — you will order the letters to be taken to 
Oppius and Balbus ; at the same time if you can 
meet with Piso, you will speak to him about the 
gold 1 . If Faberius arrives, you will see that the 
assignment is made (if indeed any is made) for as 
much as is due. You will receive the account 
from Eros. Ariarathes, Ariobarzanes' son u , is 
come to Rome. I imagine he wants to purchase 
some kingdom from Csesar ; for at present he has 
no place of his own to set his foot in. Our friend 
Sestius has been beforehand with me as his public 
attendant ; which I do not regret ; but as I have a 
great friendship with his brothers, arising from the 
important service I rendered them v , I have written 
to invite him to my house. As I send Alexander 
for this purpose, I shall deliver this letter to him. 
So to-morrow is Peduceus' sale : therefore as soon 
as you are at liberty w * though Faberius may per- 
haps be an impediment ; but however when you 
can. Our Dionysius makes heavy complaints, and 
not without reason, that he is so long kept from 
his scholars. He has written to me at great length, 
and I suppose also to you. I apprehend he will 
absent himself some time longer. I am sorry ; for 
I want the man very much. 



LETTER III. 

I am expecting a letter from you ; though not 
just yet ; for I write this reply to your last early in 
the morning. I am so well satisfied with these 
assignments, as to entertain no other question about 
them, except what arises from your hesitation. 
For I do not quite take it in good part that you 
should refer to me, who, if I negotiated the busi- 
ness for myself, should do nothing but by your 
advice. But I understand you to do it rather from 
the accuracy with which you always act, than be- 
cause you have any real doubt about their respon- 
sibility. For you do not approve of applying to 
Cselius, and are against selling any more x . In 
both which I agree with you. Therefore I must 
have recourse to these assignments. Otherwise 
you must for once>' have been made surety, and 
in these very deeds. But everything shall rest 
upon me. As to the time of payment being distant, 
let me but get what 1 want ; I imagine the day 
appointed by the auctioneer, or at least by the heirs, 
will likewise be distant. See about Crispus and 
Mustella; and I should like to know what is the 

1 See book xii. letter 5. 

" See book v. letter 20. 

v During his government in Cilicia. See book v. letter 20. 

w As soon as Atticus should be disengaged from attend- 
ing I'edueeus' sale, Cicero hoped to see him in Tuscula- 
num. See book xii. letter 51. 

x It appears from letters 5 and 6 of the preceding book, 
that Caelius was one of the persons with whom Cicero had 
exchanged some of his plate for gold. 

7 We le;irn from Cornelius Nepos that Atticus would 
never be surety for anybody. 



TO TITUS POMPON1US ATTICUS. 



777 



portion belonging to these two. I had been in- 
formed of Brutus's arrival ; for my freed-man 
iEgypta brought me a letter from him, which I 
send to you, as being kindly 2 written. 



LETTER IV. 

I am indebted to you for an elaborate account 
of the ten commissioners a . And indeed I believe 
you are right ; for the son b was qusestor the year 
after Mummius was consul. Since you repeat your 
question, whether I am satisfied with the sureties, 
I repeat my answer c , that I am. If you can make 
any arrangement with Piso d , bring that business 
to a conclusion, for Aulus e appears to be sincere. 
I hope you may be able to come sooner ; but if 
not, at least let us be together when Brutus comes 
to Tusculanum. I am very desirous that we should 
meet. You will be able to learn what day it will 
be, if you give it in charge to a servant to inquire. 



LETTER V. 
I had supposed that Sp. Mummius was one of 
the ten commissioners ; but however — For it is 
natural that he should have been lieutenant to his 
brother ; and he certainly was at Corinth. I send 
you Torquatus f . Talk with Silius?, as you pro- 
pose, and urge him. He objected to the day of 
payment being in May ; to the rest he made no 
opposition. But you will manage this also with 
the same care you do everything. About Crispus 
and Mustella you will inform me as soon as you 
have settled anything. Since you promise to be 
with me on Brutus's arrival, I am satisfied ; espe- 
cially as the intervening days will be employed on 
my chief concern 11 . 



LETTER VI. 

You have done properly about the . aqueduct. 
See that I may not have to pay no tax on pillars 1 ; 
though I think I heard from Camillus that the law 
had been altered. What answer can I make to 
Pisoj more civil, than that Cato k is at present 

z Cicero had before taken notice of the ungracious man- 
ner in which Brutus used to write. See book vi. letter J. 

a See letter 30 of this book. 

b He believes Atticus to be right in naming Tuditanus 
the father, instead of the son. See letter C of this book. 

c This answer is contained in letter 3 of this book. 

d With whom he wished to exchange some of his plate 
for gold. See book xii. letter 5. 

e Commentators have doubted about this name, which 
however I have admitted, because we find it before in con- 
junction with that of Piso. See book xii. letter 5. 

f This probably means the first book of his treatise " De 
Finibus," in which L. Torquatus is introduced as support- 
ing the opinions of Epicurus. See letter 32 of this book. 

S About his gardens. See book xii. letter 25, &c. 

h The procuring a place for the temple to be erected to 
his daughter. 

» This may be supposed to have been written in answer 
to some observation of Atticus respecting the tax which 
would be required on the pillars of his temple ; to which 
he replies that he desires he may have to pay it ; that is, 
he desires he may have some pillars. See book xii. let- 
ter 19. 

J Piso appears to have been a money-dealer. See book 
xii. letter 5, and book xiii. letter 2. 

k That Cato the son had none of his guardians with him 
to advise him. 



alone ? And this answer applies not only to the 
co-heirs of Herennius, but to other cases, as you 
know ; for you acted with me in the affair of the 
young Lucullus 1 , respecting the money which his 
guardian (for that ought to be noticed) had taken 
up in Greece. But he m acts liberally in saying 
that he will do nothing contrary to my wishes. 
When we meet, therefore, as you observe, we will 
resolve how to settle this business. You have done 
quite right to have a meeting with the other co- 
heirs. I have no copy of my letter to Brutus, 
which you ask for ; but however it is safe ; and 
Tiro says that you ought to have it; and, as I 
remember, at the same time with his expostulatory 
letter I sent you mine also in answer to him. You 
will take care that I escape the trouble of the 
judgeship n . I was quite ignorant of that Tuditanus 
who was great-grandfather to Hortensius, and sup- 
posed it to have been the son, who could not have 
been commissioner at that time. I consider it as 
certain that Mummius was at Corinth. For this 
Spurius, who lately died, often used to repeat to 
me some letters written in comic verses to his 
friends from Corinth. But I have no doubt he 
was lieutenant to his brother, and not one of the 
ten. And I have moreover understood that it was 
not customary formerly to admit among the com- 
missioners those who were related to the com- 
manders, as we, through ignorance, or rather 
negligence of their excellent institutions, sent M. 
Lucullus, and L. Mursena, and others nearly 
allied, as commissioners to L. Lucullus. But it 
is most natural that he should have been among 
the first of his brother's lieutenants. How much 
trouble you take, while you both attend to these 
matters, and despatch my business, and are much 
less careful about your own concerns than about 



LETTER VII. 

I have had Sestius with me ; and yesterday 
Theopompus arrived. He reported that letters had 
been received from Caesar , who said that he had 
determined to remain at Rome ; and added the 
same reason which was mentioned in my letter p, 
lest in his absence his laws should be disregarded, 
as had been the case with the sumptuary law. This 
is very natural, and what I had suspected q . But 
these people must have their way r ; unless you 
w r ould have me persevere in these same s sentiments. 
He mentions also that Lentulus l is certainly di- 
vorced from Metella. But all this you know better 
than I. Write, then, what you will in reply, so 
that you write something. Though I am at a loss to 

1 Cato and Cicero were left guardians to the son of the 
great Lucullus. — De Fin. iii. 2. 
m Piso. 
n See book xii. letter 19. 

He was at this time in Spain, fighting with the sons 
of Pompeius. 

P 1 lis letter to Caesar. 

1 It appears to me that Cicero, in his letter before-men- 
tioned, had anticipated this, and wished to prevent it. 

r Caesar's friends must be attended to, who objected to 
many parts of his letter, [see letter 27 of this book,] and 
probably to what he had said on this subject. 

s The sentiments expressed in his letter. 

* The same who is called Spinthcr. Sec book xii. let- 
ter 53. 



778 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



conceive what you can write about, unless, per- 
haps, about Mustella, or unless you have seen 
Silius. Brutus came to Tusculanum n yesterday, 
past four in the afternoon ; to-day, therefore, he will 
call upon me. I wish it had been while you were 
here. I desired he might be informed that you had 
waited for him as long as you could ; that you 
would come when you heard of his arrival ; and that 
I would, as I do, give you immediate notice of it. 



LETTER VIII. 

I have positively nothing to say to you ; for it is 
not long since you left me ; and soon after you re- 
turned my triple tablets v . I shall be obliged to you 
to let the parcel be taken to Vestorius, and to desire 
somebody to inquire if any farm belonging to Q. Fa- 
berius w in the neighbourhood of Pompeii or of Nola 
is to be sold. I should be glad if you would send 
me Brutus's epitome of Cselius's history x , and get 
from Philoxenus Pansetius's treatise on Prudence. 
I shall see you on the 15 th with your family. 



LETTER IX. 

You had just gone away yesterday, when Tre- 
batius came ; and soon after, Curtius ; the latter 
to pay his compliments ; but on being invited, he 
stayed. Trebatius continues with me. This morn- 
ing Dolabella came. We had a long conversation 
till the day was far advanced. I can describe 
nothing more attentive or more affectionate y . We 
came at length to the subject of young Quintus, of 
whom he related many particulars not to be re- 
peated or named ; and one thing of such a kind, 
that, unless the whole army knew it, I should not 
only not venture to dictate to Tiro, but not even 
to write it myself— But I check myself. Torquatus 
arrived very seasonably, while Dolabella was with 
me ; and Dolabella in the kindest manner explained 
the terms I had used in discoursing with him z ; 
for I had just been discoursing most urgently, 
which seemed to be gratefully received by Tor- 
quatus. I am longing to know if you have heard 
anything of Brutus a . Though Nicias supposed it 
to have actually taken place, but that the divorce 
was not approved : for which reaso n I am the more 

u Brutus had a villa in the neighbourhood of Tusculum, 
not far from Cicero's. 

v The Romans carried about with them little tablets of 
wood, or ivory, covered with wax, called pugillares, on 
which they wrote with a stilus. These tablets consisted of 
two, three, or more leaves, and were accordingly called 
duplices, triplices, &c. Cicero, it may be supposed, had 
written to Atticus on one of these consisting of three 
leaves, which Atticus had returned with his answer. 

w The same of whom mention is made, book xii. let- 
ter 25, and elsewhere. 

x Brutus may probably have epitomised several histo- 
ries. In book xii. letter 5, we read of his epitome of Fan- 
nius's History ; and Plutarch has reported, that on the 
evening previous to the battle of Pharsalia, he was en- 
gaged in making an abridgment of Polybius. 

y Dolabella had married Cicero's daughter, whose death 
he so deplored. It is doubtful whether a divorce between 
them had taken place or not ; at least there seems to have 
been no ill-will between the parties. 

z On the subject of Torquatus. 

a Who repudiated his wife Clodia, and was going to 
marry Porcia, Cato's daughter. Cicero hoped that Cato's 
popularity might obliterate any disapprobation excited 
by this divorce. 



anxious, as well as you ; that if any offence is 
taken, this may heal it. I am obliged to go to 
Arpinum, as it is necessary for me to regulate those 
small farms; and I am apprehensive that I may 
not be able to get away, if I wait till Caesar comes ; 
of whose arrival Dolabella entertains the same 
opinion which you formed from Messala's letter. 
When I get there, and find what business is to be 
done, I will write to inform you about the time of 
my return. 



LETTER X. 

I am not surprised that you should be deeply 
concerned about Marcellus b , and apprehensive of 
all kinds of danger. For who would be afraid of 
what had never happened before, and what human 
nature seemed incapable of committing ? So that 
everything is now to be feared. But do you c of 
all people transgress the evidence of history, by 
saying that I am the only consular d remaining ? 
What ! do you make no account of Servius ? 
Though this has no weight with me, especially as I 
think the condition of the others e no way inferior. 
For what am I ? Or what can I be, either at home 
or in public ? In fact, unless it had occurred to my 
mind to occupy myself in writing, I should not 
know which way to turn myself. I think I must 
do, as you mention, to Dolabella, and take some 
subject of more common and public interest. I 
must at all events compose something; for he 
earnestly desires it. If Brutus has come to any 
conclusion f , you will take care to let me know it. 
I think he should conclude it as soon as possible, if 
only he has made his determination : for he will 
thus either extinguish or appease all idle talk. 
There are some who even talk to me about it. But 
he will conduct this best himself, especially if he 
also consults with you. It is my intention to go 
from hence the 22d. For here I have nothing to 
do ; nor indeed there, nor anywhere ; there s, how- 
ever, there is something. I expect Spinther to- 
day ; for Brutus has sent to inform me. In his 
letter he exculpates Csesar on the death of Mar- 
cellus. But no suspicion would fall upon him, 
even if he had been killed insidiously. Now, how- 
ever, when it is clear that it was done by Magius, 
is not the whole to be imputed to his insanity ? I 
am at a loss to understand this h ; therefore you 
will explain it ; though I have no further doubt, 
excepting about what may have been the cause of 
Magius's madness ; for whom he had even been 
surety at Sunium. It was perhaps that very circum- 
stance ; for he was insolvent. I imagine he may 
have asked something from Marcellus, and Mar- 
cellus may have replied, with that firmness which 
was natural to him, that " things seen near, and 
at a distance, have not the same aspect 1 ." 

b He had been killed near Athens by P. Magius Chilo, 
one who had been his friend. 

c Who are usually so accurate. 

d A senator who had been consul. It does not mean 
literally the only one ; but that he was the only one who 
could support the dignity of the situation. 

e Those who have died in supporting the republic. 

f About his marriage. 

S At Arpinum. See letter 9 of this book. 

h To understand why Brutus should exculpate Caesar. 

> The original is part of a verse of Euripides. It means 
that Marcellus had now become acquainted with Magius's 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



779 : 



LETTER XI. 

I imagined the removal to Arpinum to be a 
slight matter ; but I find it quite otherwise, since 
I have been separated further from you. It was 
however expedient, both for the sake of reletting the 
farms, and to avoid imposing on our friend Brutus 
so great a burden of civility K Hereafter we shall 
be able better to cultivate a mutual friendship in 
Tusculanum k . But at this time, when he was so 
good as to visit me daily, and I was unequal to go 
to him, he was deprived of all comfort in his 
Tusculan villa. If, then, Serviiia 1 is arrived; if 
Brutus has concluded anything 111 , or even if he 
is resolved upon it ; when they go n to meet Caesar ; 
in short, whatever occurs, which I ought to know, 
you will inform me. Converse with Piso °, if you 
can : you see how ripe the business? is. Yet do not 
put yourself to inconvenience. 



LETTER XII. 

Your accounts of my dear Attica have much 
affected me ; yet at the same time they have af- 
forded me comfort. For your own consolation, 
expressed in the same letters, is a sufficient warrant 
for the relief of my anxiety. You have famously 
sold the speeches in favour of Ligarius. Hence- 
forward whatever I publish, I shall employ you to 
proclaim. As to what you say about Varro, you 
know that my compositions used formerly to con- 
sist of orations, or something of that kind, in which 
it was impossible for me to introduce Varro's name. 
But since I entered upon these philosophical 
inquiries, Varro has already given me notice of a 
great and weighty address i : two years have elapsed, 
while that Callipides r in his continual course has 
not advanced a foot. In the mean time I prepared 
myself, as he desired, to make him a return " ac- 
cording to the same measure s — or better if I 
could," for so Hesiodus adds. I have now pledged 
to Brutus, with your approbation, that treatise on 
the Foundation of Moral Duty, with which I am 
very well pleased. And you have assured me of 
his kind acceptance of it. I may as well, therefore, 
remove from my Academical Disputations the pre- 
sent speakers, who are distinguished characters 

distressed fortunes, which before he did not know, when 
he engaged to be his surety. Some have supposed this 
quotation to belong to the following letter ; in which case 
it would mean tbat Cicero, since his removal to Arpinum, 
found the actual separation from Atticus more grievous 
than he had expected in distant contemplation. 

J In calling every day upon Cicero, who had not suffi- 
ciently recovered his spirits to wait upon Brutus in return. 

k Brutus, as well as Cicero, appears to have had a resi- 
dence in the neighbourhood of Tusculum. 

1 Brutus's mother. 

m Relating to his marriage with Porcia. 

n This is generally supposed to mean Brutus; but it 
seems to me more reasonable to understand it generally of 
people going to meet Caesar on his return from Spain. 

° About the gold he was to provide in exchange for 
Cicero's plate. See book xii. letter 5. 

P The sale of Scapula's gardens was approaching. 

q His treatise on the Latin Language, which was after- 
wards published and inscribed to Cicero. 

r This was a proverbial expression taken from some 
person who was busily employed, but made little progress. 

s The original is part of a verse from Hesiodus. 



indeed, but by no means philosophical, and dis- 
course with too much subtilty, and substitute Varro 
in their place. For there are the opinions of 
Antiochus, to which he is much attached. I can 
find a place for Catulus and Lucullus elsewhere, if 
you approve of these persons ; and I shall be glad 
if you will write in answer to me upon this subject. 
I have received a letter from Vestorius about Brin- 
nius's auction 1 . He says that the business has 
without any dispute been referred u to me, to take 
place on the 24th of June. For they supposed 
that I should be in Rome, or in Tusculanum. You 
will therefore tell either your friend S. Vettius, my 
co-heir, or my friend Labeo, to defer a little the 
sale, as I shall not be in Tusculanum till about the 
7th of July. You have with you Eros v , as well as 
Piso. Let us think, with all our minds, of Scapula's 
gardens. The day is at hand. 



LETTER XIII. 

In consequence of the letter you wrote to me 
about Varro, I have taken the Academy w entirely 
out of the hands of those distinguished personages, 
and transferred it to our friend ; and from two 
books I have made it into four. These are longer 
than the others were, though there are several parts 
left out. I am very desirous of hearing from you, 
who understood that he was pleased with my de- 
sign. I want also to know who it was that you 
understood excited his envy ; unless perhaps it was 
Brutus. That was the only thing which remained x . 
But yet I should like much to know. In truth, 
unless my self-love deceive me, those books have 
come out in such a manner, that there is nothing 
of the same kind like them even in Greek. You 
will patiently bear the loss of your copy ? having 
been transcribed to no purpose. This, however, 
will be far more brilliant, more condensed, and 
better. I am now in doubt which way to turn '■. 
I am desirous of gratifying Dolabella's wishes ; but 
can find no proper subject. At the same time " I 
respect the Trojans a :" and if I should find some- 
thing, I do not see how I can escape reproach. 
I must either give it up therefore, or I must devise 
something else. But why do I regard these trifles ? 
How, I beseech you, does my dear Attica, for 
whom I am very anxious ? But I frequently recur 
to your letter, and feel satisfaction in it ; yet I look 
for further accounts. 

* Cicero appears to have been one of several heirs to 
Brinnius, whose property, as usual, was to be sold and 
divided. 

u It was usual for one of the legatees to be appointed to 
conduct the sale. See book i. letter 10. 

v Cicero's agent See letter 2 of this book. 

w His books on the philosophy of the Academy. See 
letter 12 of this book. 

x As if he had said that the envy excited by the dedica- 
tion of his former work to Brutus, was the only thing that 
could be added to enhance the satisfaction he had in his 
treatise " De Finibus." 

y Of the " Academica" in the first edition. 

z "What work I shall next undertake. 

a The original is from Homer, and has been more than 
once quoted before. [See book ii. letter 5, and book vii. 
letter 1.] The meaning is, that he had too much respect for 
honest citizens to write anything unbecoming the republic. 



780 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XIV. 

Brinnius's freed-man, my co-heir, wrote to me 
to say, that, if I pleased, he and Sabinus Albius, 
two joint heirs, would come to wait upon me. I 
entirely disapprove of it ; the inheritance is not 
worth it. Besides, they may easily attend the day 
of the sale, which is the 11th, if they will come to 
me in Tusculanum on the morning of the 8th, the 
day after my arrival. Or if they wish to put it off 
longer, they may do it for two or three days, or as 
long as they please ; for it makes no difference. 
Therefore unless they arc already set out, I would 
have you stop them. Let me know if there is any 
news of Brutus ; or if you have any intelligence of 
Csesar ; or if there is anything else. I should wish 
you to consider again and again whether you ap- 
prove of sending to Varro what I have written ; 
though there is something also which concerns 
yourself; for you must know that you are intro- 
duced as a third personage in that dialogue 15 . I 
think then we should consider, notwithstanding the 
names are already inserted. But they may either 
be erased or altered. 



LETTER XV. 

Pray, how is my Attica ? For I have had no 
letter from you these three days. This is not to be 
wondered at, as nobody came from Rome, and 
possibly there was no reason for writing. In con- 
sequence I have myself nothing to write about. 
But the day on which I deliver this to Valerius, I 
am expecting one of my people, who if he arrives, 
and brings anything from you, I am persuaded I 
shall be at no loss what to say. 



LETTER XVI. 

Though I went in pursuit of streams and soli- 
tudes, that I might better be able to support 
myself, I have hitherto not stirred a foot out of 
the house ; such great and continued rains have we 
had. I have transferred that whole Academical 
composition to Varro. It had at first been in the 
names of Catulus, Lucullus, and Hortensius. After- 
wards, as this appeared unsuitable, owing to these 
persons being, not indeed unlearned, but notori- 
ously unversed in such subjects, as soon as I got 
home I transferred those dialogues to Cato and 
Brutus. Your letter about Varro is just arrived. 
The opinions of Antiochus could be more fitly sup- 
ported by nobody. Yet I should wish you to 
inform me, in the first place, whether you think 
anything should be inscribed to him ; then, if you 
think so, whether this is the properest thing. 
What of Servilia ? Is she yet arrived ? Is Brutus 
doing anything c ? or when ? What is heard of 
Csesar ? I shall be in Tusculanum on the 7th, as 
I mentioned d . You will settle with Piso c , if you 
can. 

b The " Acadeunica " being written in the form of 
dialogues. 

c About his marriage. d See letter 12 of this book. 

e See letters 4 and 1 1 of this book. 



LETTER XVII. 

On the 27th I hope to receive something from 
Rome ; not that I had given any particular direc- 
tions. Therefore, send something by your own 
people. I must repeat the same inquiries; what 
Brutus intends ? or if he has taken any steps ? and 
whether there is anything from Caesar ? But what 
are these things ? which I care little about : I want 
to know how my Attica does. Though your letter, 
which is already too old, bids me hope the best, 
yet I look for some recent information. 



LETTER XVIII. 

You see the advantage of being near f . Let us 
then conclude the purchase of the gardens s. While 
I was in Tusculanum I seemed to be talking with 
you ; so frequent was the intercourse of our letters. 
But that will presently be the case again h . In the 
mean time, at your suggestion, I have completed 
the books to Varro with some acuteness. Still I 
wait for your answer to what I wrote to you : first, 
by what means you understood that he wished it 
of me ; since he, who is himself so great a writer, 
never addressed 1 anything to me : then, who it is 
that he envied, unless perhaps Brutus K For if he 
does not envy him, much less Hortensius k , or 
those who speak upon the republic. I wish you 
distinctly to inform me in the first place, whether 
you continue in the same mind, that I should send 
him what I have written, or whether you think 
there is no occasion for it. But of this when we 
meet. 



LETTER XIX. 

My secretary Hilarus, to whom I had given a 
letter for you, was just gone on the 28th, when the 
messenger arrived with your letter dated the day 
before ; in which it was particularly gratifying to 
me that my Attica begs you not to be uneasy, and 
that you say there is no danger. Your authority, 
I see, has famously recommended the Ligarian 
oration. For Balbus and Oppius wrote to me to 
say that they w r ere extremely pleased with it, and 
had in consequence sent it to Csesar, as you men- 
tioned to me before. In the case of Varro, I am 
not moved by any apprehension of appearing vain- 
glorious 1 ; for I had determined to include no living 
characters in my dialogues" 1 ; but since you inform 
me that Varro is desirous of it. and sets a great 
value upon it, I have composed this work, and 

f This is probably said in reply to some observation of 
Atticus. 

g Which have the advantage of being so near to Rome. 
See hook xii. letter 37. 

h He should soon be in Tusculanum again. 

i Never provoked me to write by first addressing any of 
his numerous works to me. 

J See letter 13 of this book. 

k To whom Cicero had inscribed a book of Philosophy ; 
or those in whose names the dialogue is maintained in his 
treatise on the Republic. 

1 I do not insert Varro's name through fear of being cen- 
sured for adopting the great names of persons deceased. 

111 See book xii. letter 12. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



781 



completed the whole Academical discussion in four 
books ; I know not how well, but with such care, 
that nothing can exceed it. In these, what had 
been excellently collected by Antiochus against the 
doctrine of incomprehensibility, I have attributed 
to Varro ; to this I reply in my own person, and 
you are the third in our conversation. If I had 
made Cotta and Varro disputing with each other, 
as you suggest in your last letter, mine would be a 
mute character. This has a good effect in old peo- 
ple; as Heraclides has done in several books; and I 
in the six books on Government. I have three books 
also on Oratory, with which I am much satisfied ; 
and in these likewise the characters are such, that 
it became me to be silent. For the speakers are, 
Crassus, Antonius, Catulus the old man, C. Julius 
brother to Catulus, Cotta, and Sulpicius. The 
discourse is supposed to be held while I was a boy, 
so that it was impossible for me to sustain any part 
in it. But what I have lately written are in the 
manner of Aristotle, where the conversation is so 
managed, that he himself has the principal part. 
I have finished the five books on the Foundation 
of Moral Duty, so as to give the Epicurean doc- 
trine to L. Torquatus, the Stoical to M. Cato, the 
Peripatetic to M. Piso ; for I considered that their 
being dead would preclude all jealousy. These 
Academics, as you know, I had discussed in the 
persons of Catulus, Lucullus, and Hortensius; but 
in truth the subject did not suit their characters ; 
being more logical than what they could be sup- 
posed ever to have dreamed of. Therefore, when 
I read your letter about Varro, I seized it as an 
inspiration. Nothing could be more adapted to 
that species of philosophy, in which he seems to 
take particular delight ; or to the support of such a 
part, that I could manage to avoid making my own 
sentiments predominant. For the opinions of 
Antiochus are extremely persuasive, and are so 
carefully expressed, as to retain the acuteness of 
Antiochus, with my own brilliancy of language, if 
indeed I possess any. But consider again and again 
whether you think these books ought to be attri- 
buted to Varro. Some things occur to me upon 
the subject ; but these when we meet. 



LETTER XX. 

I have received from Caesar a letter of condo- 
lence, dated April 30th, from Seville. I have not 
heard what has been promulgated about extending 
the city"; and should be glad to know. I am 
pleased that my services are kindly received by 
Torquatus, and shall not fail to increase them. It 
is impossible for me now to add to my Ligarian 
oration anything about Tubero's wife and daughter- 
in-law ; for the speech has been widely dissemi- 
nated ; nor have I any wish to defend Tubero, who 
is wonderfully fond of accusing people. You have 
had truly a fine exhibition". Though I am very 
well satisfied with this place p, yet I am desirous of 
seeing you, and shall accordingly return, as I in- 
tended. I imagine you have had a meeting with my 
brother, and I want therefore to know what you 

n See letter 33 of this book. 

o Probably alluding to some application, or perhaps al- 
tercation between Tubero and these ladies before Atticus. 
p Arpinum. 



havedone^. I am in no trouble about my reputation, 
whatever I may foolishly have written to you at 
that time. There is nothing better (for there is no 
other just object of care) than this r ; that every- 
body through his whole life should not deviate a 
hair's breadth from a right conscience. Observe 
how philosophically I talk. Do you suppose I am 
engaged in these speculations to no purpose ? I 
should be sorry to have you vexed ; for it was no- 
thing 8 . And, to return again to the same point, 
do you think that I have altogether any other care 
than that I may not be deficient towards him 1 ? 
Or is this my object forsooth, that I may "appear 
to preserve the public opinion? "For on these 
things there is no dependence 11 ." I wish I were 
able to bear my domestic troubles v as easily as I 
can disregard these. But you suppose me to have 
wished something which has not been accomplished. 
Is it not allowable, then, to have one's own opi- 
nion ? But, however, what was then done w I can- 
not help approving ; and yet I can very well lay 
aside all care about it, as indeed I do. But more 
than enough of trifles. 



LETTER XXL 

I delivered a long letter to Hirtius, which I 
had just written in Tusculanum. To that, which 
you sent me there, I shall reply at some other time ; 
at present I wish to advert to others. What can I 
say about Torquatus, till I have heard something 
from Dolabella ? As soon as that happens, you 
shall immediately know. I expect a messenger 
from him to-day, or at farthest to-morrow, who 
shall be sent on to you as soon as he arrives. I am 
expecting to hear from Quintus ; for when I was 
setting out from Tusculanum on the 24th, as you 
know, I sent a messenger to him. To return to my 
business ; that expression of yours, which had 
wonderfully pleased me, now exceedingly dis- 
pleases ; for it is altogether a nautical term, as 
indeed I knew ; but I thought that when the 
rowers were ordered inhibere, ''to back their oars," 
they suspended their motion. Yesterday, however, 
upon the arrival of a vessel at my villa x , I learnt 
that this was not the case ; for they do not suspend 
them, but move them in another manner. This is 
quite different from the Greek iiroxh- Therefore 

1 Towards reconciling Cicero and Quintus. See the 
ninth and following letters of book xi. 

r So I understand this passage, which has been variously 
interpreted by different commentators. 

s I conceive this alludes to some expression fallen from 
Atticus, probably on the occasion of Quintus Cicero. 

t This seems to be written under a sense of philosophical 
propriety, by which he was taught to be anxious about 
nothing but his own conduct. 

u In the original is a fragment only of a Greek sentence, 
which, in our ignorance of the remainder, must be supplied 
by conjecture. 

v Meaning, no doubt, his affliction for his daughter, as 
well as his concern about Terentia and Quintus. 

w Respecting his conduct towards his brother, who 
seemed to take offence at Cicero's advancing money to 
Pompeius, while he suffered Quintus to remain in difficul- 
ties. [See book xi. letter 13.] I am aware that the latter 
part of this letter has been very differently interpreted, 
and supposed by some able commentators to relate to 
Cicero's success in the forum, for which I see no sufficient 
grounds. 

x On the banks of the Liris, or Garigliano. 



782 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



let it stand in the book, as it was. Mention this 
also to Varro, unless he has already altered it. For 
there is no better word than I had used before, and 
which is warranted by the authority of Lucullus. 
Carneades also makes the guard of the boxer, and 
the action of the charioteer holding in his horses, 
to correspond with diroxv '» Du t the backing the 
oars is attended with motion, and that a consider- 
able one, while the ship is turned round to the 
stern. You see how much more I care about this, 
than either about public rumour ? ; or about 
Pollio z : let me hear also about Pansa a , if any- 
thing certain is known ; for I imagine it has been 
made public ; and if there has been any news of 
Critonius, or anything ascertained respecting Me- 
tellus and Balbinus. Tell me, is it your pleasure 
to publish my writings^ first, without my leave? 
Not even Hermodorus did this, who used to divulge 
Plato's books ; from whence came the proverb, 
" Hermodorus deals in words b ." How is this ? 
Do you think it right that anybody should have it 
before Brutus, whom I addressed at your sugges- 
tion c . For Balbus wrote me word that he had 
transcribed the fifth book of the Foundations of 
Moral Duty from you ; in which I have not indeed 
altered much ; yet something. But you will do 
well to keep back the others ; that Balbus may not 
receive them uncorrected, or Brutus when they 
are stale. But enough of these matters, that I may 
not seem to be diligent about trifles. Though now 
these things are the greatest with which I have to 
do. For what else is there ? I am using such 
despatch in sending to Varro what 1 have written 
at your suggestion, as already to have forwarded it 
to Rome to be transcribed. You may, if you 
please, have it immediately ; for I have written to 
my clerks to let yours, if you wished it, have the 
liberty of copying it ; but you will keep it private 
till I see you ; as you always do with great care, 
when I have desired it. But in consequence of 
my having omitted to mention this to you, Cserellia, 
glowing with a wonderful passion for philosophy, 
copies from your people, and is in the possession 
of these same books on the Foundations of Moral 
Duty. And I assure you (subject indeed to human 
fallibility) that she did not receive them from my 
people ; for they were never out of my sight ; and 
they were, besides, so far from making two copies, 
that it was with difficulty they completed one. I 
do not however impute any fault to your clerks : 
and that I would have you understand ; for I had 
omitted to say that I did not yet wish them to get 
abroad. What ! still upon trifles ? For upon 
subjects of importance I have nothing to say. I 
agree with you about Dolabella. Let the co-heirs d , 
as you mention, come to Tusculanum. Balbus 
has written to me about Caesar's arrival, that it 
will not be before the 1st of August. The account 
of Attica is excellent, that she has less fever, is 
quieter, and bears her illness with patience. As 
to what you say upon that subject for our con- 

y What the public may say of him, as in the preceding 
letter. 

z lie had been left by Caesar in Spain. 

a It is uncertain to what this relates. 

1> Hermodorus made a traffic of publishing in Sicily the 
lectures he had heard from Plato. 

c His treatise " De Finibus" is addressed to Brutus, and 
is that of which Cicero here speaks. 

d See letter 14 of this book. 



sideration e , in which I take no less interest than 
you ; so far as I know, I greatly approve of the 
gentleman, his family, and fortune. What after 
all is the chief thing, I am not personally ac- 
quainted with him ; but I hear favourable reports 
from Scrofa. He likewise lives very near you, if 
this is anything to the purpose ; and is more 
noble f than his father. When we meet therefore 
— and it will be with a mind disposed to approve. 
For in addition to what I have said, I have a re- 
gard for his father, as I believe you know, and 
greater than not only you, but than he is aware 
of; and that, both deservedly, and of long standing. 



LETTER XXII. 

It is not without reason that I ask so particu- 
larly what you think best about Varro. Some 
things occur to me, which I shall reserve till we 
meet. I have been very glad to interweave your 
name, which I shall do frequently ; for it was by 
your last letter that I first understood you did not 
object to it. About Marcellus s I had before heard 
from Cassius ; and Servius sent me the particulars. 
What a sad affair ! To come back to my first sub- 
ject ; there is no place, where I would rather have 
my writings remain, than with you. But I should 
like not to have them sent abroad, till we both ap- 
prove of it. I exempt your clerks from all blame, 
and do not mean to find fault with you ; notwith- 
standing what I wrote to you, that Casrellia had 
some, which she could only have had from you. I 
was aware of the propriety of gratifying Balbus h ; 
I only wished that it might not be given to Brutus 
when it was grown stale, or to Balbus when it was 
imperfect. I will send the books to Varro, if you 
think it right, as soon as I have seen you. You 
shall know the cause of my hesitation when we 
meet. In calling upon the assignees, you have done 
quite right. I am sorry you should have so much 
trouble about your grandmother's estate. The 
case of our friend Brutus is very vexatious ; but it 
is the condition of human life. The ladies 5 are a 
little unreasonable in bearing such hostile disposi- 
tions, while neither of them are chargeable with 
dereliction of their duty. There was no occasion 
to call upon my secretary Tullius. If there had 
been, I would have sent you word. For nothing 
has been deposited with him under the title of a 
vowJ ; though he has some money belonging to 
me, which I have determined to apply to this 
purpose. So that both 1 told you rightly where it 
was ; and he rightly denied having anything under 
that title. But let us at once enter upon this 
business k . For the consecration of men l , I do not 

c The choosing a husband for Attica. 

f Owing, I suppose, to his mother's family. 

g See letter 10 of this book. 

•» On account of his influence with Crrsar. 

» Meaning probably Servilia and Porcia, the mother and j 
wife of Brutus. 

j To be applied to the discharge of a vow, for such i 
he considered his resolution of erecting a temple to his 
daughter. 

k The temple. 

1 Though groves were often consecrated to heathen gods, 
yet, in the case of deifying men, something more open to 
view was preferable. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



'83 



quite approve of a grove, because it is too unfre- 
quented ; notwithstanding it has a reputation of 
sanctity. But this also shall be as you think pro- 
per ; for you are my guide in everything. I shall 
be at Tusculum, as I appointed" 1 ; and I wish 
you could be there the same day. But if anything 
should prevent you (as many things may), at least 
the next day, when the co-heirs are to come, by 
whom it would be cruel to be beset without you. 
Again another letter without a word about Attica ; 
but this I place among the best signs. I find fault 
with this ; not that you, but that she should not 
so much as send her compliments. But do you 
make my very best compliments both to her, and 
to Pilia ; do not however give a hint of my being 
offended. T send Caesar's letter, in case you should 
not have read it. 



LETTER XXIII. 

To the letter which I received from you yester- 
day in the forenoon, I immediately replied ; I now 
answer that of the afternoon. I wish Brutus had 
rather sent for me ; which was more reasonable, 
considering the sudden and distant journey upon 
which he was going n ; and, to say the truth, under 
our present feelings, when we are incapable of en- 
joying each other's society (for you know in what 
principally consists the pleasure of living together) 
I should readily have acceded to our meeting in 
Rome, rather than in Tusculanum. The books to 
Varro were no impediment ; for they have been 
re-made °, as you have seen ; they only wait to 
have the errors of the clerks corrected. You know 
my hesitation about these books ; but you are 
answerable. Those which I am to send to Brutus, 
are likewise in the hands of the transcribers. Get 
my business settled, as you mention ; though Tre- 
batius tells me they all make those deductions. 
What do you think these people will do ? You 
are well acquainted with the house. Conclude it 
then in affability. You cannot believe how much 
I disregard such concerns. I assure you in the 
most solemn manner, and would have you believe 
me, that my paltry possessions are more plague 
than pleasure to me ; and that I am more dis- 
tressed by having nobody v on whom I should 
bestow them, than gratified by having them to 
use. Trebatius also said that he had mentioned 
the circumstance i to you. But perhaps you were 
afraid I should be sorry to hear it. That indeed 
was kindly intended ; but, believe me, I do not 
now care about such matters. Therefore enter into 
negotiation, and clip it as you will, and make an 
end of it. Rouse them, call, speak to them, as if 
you thought you were speaking with that Scseva 1- . 

«> July 7- See letter 12 of this book. 

n Perhaps to meet Caesar on his way from Spain. 

It being generally agreed that the word de/ecti must 
be erroneous, I have supposed, with the least alteration, 
that it ought to be refecti; a word sufficiently appropriate, 
if it is considered that the work had been altogether 
re-cast, the characters changed, and the number of books 
extended from two to four. See letter 13 of this book. 

p Alluding to his daughter, who had been in distress, 
and formerly wanted his assistance. See book xi. letter 20. 

q The deductions in payment. 

r It is uncertain who this is. The name occurs again, 
book xiv. letter 10, and is there supposed to signify one of 
Caesar's soldiers who had enriched himself by the plunder 



Do not suppose that they, who are in the habit of 
grasping at what does not belong to them, will re- 
mit anything of their just dues s . Take care only 
about the day l ; and even that with civility. 



LETTER XXIV. 

What is this which I hear from Hermogenes 
Clodius, that Andromenes had told him he had seen 
Cicero u at Corcyra ? For I suppose it must have 
been known to you v . Has he then sent no letter 
even by him ? Or has he not seen him ? Let me 
know how this is. What more should I say to you 
about Varro ? The four books are in your pos- 
session, and I shall be satisfied with whatever you 
do. I am restrained by no " respect for the Tro- 
jans w '" why should I ? I was rather afraid how 
well he might himself x like it. But since you un- 
dertake it, I shall rest at ease. 



LETTER XXV- 

Respecting the deductions f I have already 
replied to your very accurate letter. You will 
make an end of it therefore, and without any 
hesitation, or revision. It is proper and expe- 
dient that this should be done. About Andro- 
menes z , I had supposed it must be as you say, 
otherwise you would have known it, and mentioned 
it to me. While you write so much about Brutus, 
you say nothing of yourself a . But when do you 
suppose he will come to Tusculanum ? For on the 
14th I am going to Rome. What I meant to say 
to Brutus (but what I perhaps expressed indis- 
tinctly, since you mention your having read it) 
was, that I had understood from your letter, that 
he wished me not to go up at this time merely for 
the sake of waiting upon him. But as the appointed 
time of my going b is so near, I beg that you will 
take care that this may be no impediment to his 
coming to Tusculanum for his own convenience. 
For I had no intention of calling upon him about 
the sale, since you alone are quite sufficient in a 
business of that kind. But I wanted him to attest 
my will c ; which I should now prefer executing at 
another time, that I may not seem to have come 
to Rome for that purpose d . I have accordingly 
written to Brutus, what I really thought, that there 

of the opposite party. The sense seems to require that it 
be some person of more power than principle. 

s Persons who have got money by unjustifiable means, 
will not relinquish justifiable advantages. 

1 That the money may be ready at the time it is wanted. 

u His son. 

v Atticus having possessions in Corcyra, and frequent 
communication with that country. 

w In the original is the same fragment of a verse so often 
quoted before. [See letter 13 of this book.] The meaning 
is, that he had no need to fear giving offence. 

x Varro. y See letter 23 of this book. 

z See letter 24 of this book. w 

a That is of your coming to Tusculanum, as well as 
Brutus. 

b To attend Brinnius's sale. See letter 14 of this book. 

c Wills were anciently performed with great solemnity. 
—Taylor, C. L. p. 64. 

d That Brutus may not imagine I go up now expressly 
to get his attestation, and should therefore he disappointed 
if he were not to be there. 



784 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



was no occasion for his being there on the 15 th e . 
I should be glad then if you would manage this 
whole business so, that I may not in the least in- 
terfere with Brutus's convenience. But what is it 
that you are at length afraid of, because I desire 
the books to be given to Varro on your responsibi- 
lity? Even now, if you have any doubt, let me 
know it. In elegance of style they have not been 
surpassed. I should like Varro, especially as he 
desires it ; but he is, as you know, " a stern man, 
and one who might easily take exception without 
just cause f ." Accordingly I often picture to my- 
self his countenance, complaining, it may be, that 
my part is more copiously defended in those books 
than his ; though you will perceive that this is not 
the case, if ever you get into Epirus, and have 
leisure to examine them. For at present I give 
way to your correspondence with Alexio &. I do 
not however despair of their meeting with Varro's 
approbation ; and after being at the expense of 
large paper h , I shall not be sorry to have that de- 
sign adhered to. But I say again and again, that 
it must be on your responsibility. Therefore if you 
have any hesitation, let us transfer it to Brutus ; 
for he also is an Antiochian \ O variable Academy, 
and like itself; now here, now there J. But, pray 
how did you like my letter to Varro ? May I die, 
if I ever study any work, as 1 have done this. I 
have not even dictated to Tiro, who is used to 
write down whole sentences ; but to Spintherus, 
syllable by syllable. 



[iV. B. The 26th letter ivas before inserted in its proper 
place, after the 43d of book xii.] 



LETTER XXVII. 

Respecting the letter to Caesar k , I was always 
of opinion that it ought first to be submitted to 
his friends. Otherwise I should have been not 
only wanting in attention to them, but should also 
have exposed myself to some danger, in case of his 
being offended with me. They have acted ingenu- 
ously ; and I take it kindly that they have not 
concealed what they thought. Especially they have 
done well in suggesting so many alterations, that 
the writing it afresh is more than the occasion de- 
mands. On the subject of the Parthian war, 
however, what ought I to have considered, but 
what I supposed him to wish ? For what other 
argument could my letter admit, besides flattery ? 
Had I wished to recommend what I thought best, 
should I have wanted matter ? Therefore the 
whole letter is unnecessary. For where the ad- 
vantage to be gained cannot be great ; and a 

e The day of Brinnius' sale. See letter 33 of this book. 

f The original is taken from Homer. 

S Atticus's bailiff in Epirns- 

h A presentation copy written on large and handsome 
paper. 

i See letter 19 of this book. 

J He compares his own variableness in changing the 
address, to the variable nature of the Academic philosophy, 
which he professed, ever bending to circumstances, and 
adopting probability in the place of fixed principles. 

k See book xii. letter 40. This letter appears to have 
been a letter of advice on public affairs, which made 
Cicero anxious to have the approbation of some of Caesar's 
party ; by which is probably to be understood Balbus and 
Oppius, who were likewise friends to Cicero. 



failure, even if it be not great, may be productive 
of vexation ; what need is there of running the 
risk ? Especially when I consider, that having 
written nothing before, he would expect that I 
should write nothing till the whole war was at an 
end. I am even apprehensive that he may imagine 
I wished this to be as a soother for my " Cato 1 .*' In 
short, I repented of having written, and nothing 
could fall out more to my mind, than that my 
labour was not approved. Besides, I should have 
exposed myself to the calumnies of Caesar's ad- 
herents, and among them to those of your rela- 
tion m . But I return n to the subject of the gardens. 
I would by no means have you go thither but with 
perfect convenience to yourself ; for there is no 
hurry. Whatever be the result, let us use our 
endeavours about Faberius. Respecting the day of 
sale, however, when you know anything, you will 
inform me- As the messenger, who came from 
Cumanum, reports that Attica is quite well, and 
says that he has a letter for you, I send him on to 
you without delay. 



LETTER XXVIII. 

As you were to inspect the gardens to-day, I 
shall hear to-morrow what you have thought of 
them. About Faberius you will let me know, 
when he is arrived. Respecting the letter to 
Caesar, believe me when I swear that I cannot do 
it. Not that the baseness of it deters me ; (though 
it ought exceedingly ; for how base is flattery ?) 
since it is base for me even to be alive. But, as I 
was saying, it is not this baseness that deters me ; 
I wish it was ; for I should then be what I ought 
to be : but nothing occurs to my mind. For with 
regard to the exhortations of those eloquent and 
learned men to Alexander, you see on what sub- 
jects they are employed. They are addressed to a 
young man inflamed with the love of the truest 
glory, and asking for advice in the pursuit of 
lasting praise. It is easy to speak in an honour- 
able cause. But what can I do ? Yet I carved 
out from my wooden materials something that 
might look like an image ; and in this, because 
there were some things a little better than what 
are doing, and have been done, they are censured. 
But I by no means regret this ; for if that letter 
had been delivered, believe me, I should be sorry 
for it. What ? Do not you see how that very 
disciple of Aristotle, with all his understanding 
and all his moderation, after he got the title of 
king, became haughty, cruel, intemperate ? And 
do you suppose this man p from amidst his pro- 
cessions, the comrade of Quirinus c ', will be pleased 
with this temperate letter of mine ? But let him 
rather want what is not written than disapprove 
what is written. In short, as he pleases. That 

1 To counteract any displeasure Ca?sar might have con- 
ceived from Cicero's panegyric on Cato. 

m Young Quintus Cicero. 

n It may be observed, that the expression of returning 
to the subject, is often used to mean, not returning to 
what had been said before in the same letter, but return- 
ing to any subject previously mentioned, especially if it be 
one of frequent recurrence. 

Aristotle and Theopompus. See book xii. letter 40. 
P Caesar. 

1 See book xii. letter 46. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



785 



Archimedean problem r , which once stimulated me, 
and which I referred to you, is past. Now, indeed, 
I wish for that issue or any issue s , much more 
ardently than I formerly dreaded it. Unless some- 
thing else prevent you, I shall be very glad to see 
you here. Nicras has been earnestly sent for by 
Dolabella, for I read the letter ; and though it was 
against my inclination, yet it was at my instance 
that he went. This in my own hand. 



LETTER XXIX. 

"While I was inquiring of Nicias different 
things relating to literary people, I fell, as it were, 
by chance upon the subject of Talna '. He made 
no great account of his abilities, but said that he 
was modest and prudent. He added, however, 
what I did not like, that he said he knew he had 
lately paid his addresses to Cornificia, the daughter 
of Quintus B , who was an old woman, and had 
been married several times ; but the match was 
not approved by the ladies, who found out that his 
property did not exceed 800 sestertia (6400/.). 
This I have thought it right you should know. I 
have learned about the gardens, both from your 
letter and from Chrysippus v . In the house, with 
the dulness of which I wa? well acquainted, I 
understand there has been little or no alteration. 
However, he speaks well of the larger bath, and 
says that out of the smaller may be constructed 
some winter apartments w . A covered place for 
exercise must therefore be added ; which, if it is 
made as large as that in Tusculanum, will not cost 
much more than half the price, in this place. But 
for that temple which I want, nothing seems more 
appropriate than the grove with which I was for- 
merly acquainted ; but at that time it was little 
frequented ; now I hear it is very much so : there 
is nothing that I should prefer to it. On this 
subject I entreat you to bear with my extravagance. 
It remains, that if Faberius pays me that debt, I 
would not have you make a question about the 
price. I would have you outbid Otho. At the 
same time I do not suppose he will exceed the 
bounds of reason ; for I think I know the man. 
But I hear he has been so roughly" treated, that I 
do not think he will care to be a purchaser. What ? 
Would he suffer ? — But why do I reason about it ? 
If you settle this Faberian account, let me have it 
though at a dear rate : if not, I must not think of 
it even at a cheap one. Let us try Clodia there- 
fore, from whom I entertain hope, both on account 
of their being much cheaper, and because Dola- 

r This probably means the embarrassment in which he 
found himself upon his return to Italy after the defeat of 
Pompeius, of which he speaks so much in book xi., when 
he doubted what steps he ought to take to conciliate Caesar, 
and dreaded the effects of his displeasure. 

s Banishment, or death, now appears more desirable to 
him than a life of sorrow and dissatisfaction, after the loss 
of his daughter, and loss of the freedom of the state. 

t It seems probable that this may have been somebody 
whom Atticus thought of as a husband for Attica. 

u Quintus Cornificius. 
An architect under Cyrus, of whom mention was for- 
merly made. See book ii. letter 3. 

w The ancient Romans used to have summer and winter 
apartments, the latter of which Plinius calls hibernacula. 
Ep. ii. 17. 

1 It is uncertain to what rough treatment Cicero refers. 



bella's debt^ is on the point of being liquidated, 
so that I may trust to paying in ready money. 
Enough about the gardens. To-morrow I hope to 
see you, unless some business prevent ; which I 
wish may be Faberius's. However, if you can. 



LETTER XXX. 
I return you Cicero's 2 letter. O hard-hearted 
man, who are not moved with his dangers a ! He 
accuses me also. I should have sent you his 
letter; for as to the other respecting his achieve- 
ments, I take it to be a copy of yours. I have 
sent a messenger to Cumanum to-day, to whom I 
have entrusted your letter to Vestorius, which was 
brought by Pharnaces. I had just despatched 
Demea to you, when Eros arrived. But there 
was no news in the letter he brought, excepting 
that the sale b would be in two days. Therefore 
after that c , as you mention ; and I wish the Fabe- 
rian business may previously have been settled. 
Eros, says he d , will not come to-day ; but thinks 
he may to-morrow morning. You must pay him 
attention ; though such flattery is not far removed 
from guilt. I shall hope to see you the day after 
to-morrow. Find out, if you can, who were the 
ten commissioners sent to Mummius e . Polybius 
does not mention their names. I remember only 
the consular Albinus, and Sp. Mummius, and 
think I have heard Hortensius name Tuditanus. 
But in Libo's annals it appears that Tuditanus was 
made prsetor fourteen years after Mummius's 
consulship ; which does not accord. I think of 
writing some political congress, supposed to be 
held at Olympia, or where you will, after the 
manner of your friend Dicsearchus. 



LETTER XXXI. 
On the morning of the 28th I received by 
Demea f a letter dated the day before, by which I 
might expect you either to-day or to-morrow. But 
I apprehend that longing, as I do, for your arrival, 
I shall myself be the occasion of stopping you. 
For I cannot suppose the Faberian business will 
be so soon despatched (even if it is in train) but 
that it will meet with some impediment. When 
you are at liberty therefore s ; as you are still likely 
to be kept. I shall be glad if you will send me 
the books of Dicsearchus, which you mention, and 
likewise his KarafiacTis h . About the letter to 



7 Due to Cicero. 

z Young Quintus's. See letter 2 of this book. 

a This is said ironically of the dangers he had magnified 
in his campaign with Caesar in Spain. 

b Can this mean the sale of Scapula's gardens ? 

c After the sale you will come to me. 

d Faberius. 

e See letters 4 and 6 of this book. 

{ It appears by the preceding letter that Cicero had sent 
this Demea before to Atticus, and it is to be supposed that 
he brought back a letter from Atticus to Cicero, which is 
that spoken of. The expression of the text is liable to the 
same ambiguity as that in the translation. 

e The sense is obvious, that he wished Atticus to come 
to him as soon as he was at liberty. I have thought the 
conclusion of the sentence was sufficiently clear, without 
adding to the original. 

h Meaning his book upon the descent into Trophonius's 
cave, which was before mentioned. See book vi. letter 2. 
3 £ 



78G 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



Caesar I am quite determined. And the very thing 
which they say he mentions in his letter, that he 
will not go against the Parthians till affairs at 
home are settled, is the same that I advised in 
my letter. But were it otherwise, whichever he 
chose to do, he might, with my consent. ' For does 
he wait for this forsooth? And will he do nothing 
but by my advice ? Let us, I beseech you, have 
done with this, and be at least half-free ; which 
we may yet be by saying nothing, and keeping 
quiet. But speak to Otho, as you propose ; and 
make an end, my Atticus, of that business J . Fof 
I can find no other place where I can be with you, 
and yet not be in the forum. With regard to the 
price, this has occurred to me. C. Albanius is the 
nearest neighbour; who bought of M. Pilius 1000 
acres, as well as I remember, for 11,500 sestertiaJ 
(92,000/.) ; and everything is now lower. But my 
wishes are to be taken into the account ; in which 
I am likely to have no rival besides Otho. Even 
upon him you will be able to make some impres- 
sion ; and the easier, if you have the assistance of 
Canus k . O silly gluttony 1 ! Let him suppose that 
I maintain the sternness of a father m . You will 
reply to his letter, if there is anything you wish to 
say. 



LETTER XXXII. 
Having received a second letter from you to- 
day, I did not care to leave you with only one in 
return. Do as you mention in regard to Faberius ; 
for on him depends the whole success of my design. 
Had not this design been in agitation, (believe me 
in this, as in everything else,) I should not trouble 
myself. Therefore, as you do (for nothing can 
exceed this) urge, insist, accomplish. I should 
be glad if you would send me both books of Dicse- 
archus on the Soul, and likewise that on the 
Descent n . I do not find his Tripoliticon, or the 
letter which he sent to Aristoxenus. I now par- 
ticularly want those ° three books ; they would be 
convenient for the subject p which I have in con- 
templation. The"Torquatus" < iisatRome : Ihave 
desired it may be sent to you. The 4< Catulus" and 
" Lucullus" r I imagine you have had before ; but I 
have made new introductions to these books, which 
I wish you to have, containing an eulogium upon 
each of these persons ; and there are some other 
additions. You have not quite understood what I 

* Of the gardens. 

J I conceive the figures ought to be interpreted Centies 
decies quinquies. See book i. letter 2, note J. 

k Q,. GelliusCanus was an early friend of Atticus, men- 
tioned by Corn. Nepos. 

1 This probably alludes to some account, received 
through Atticus, of his son's expensive living. 

m That is, Putet me patris tueri partes. At that time 
parents used great severity towards their children ; for 
whom Plutarch therefore recommends the interference of 
an uncle.— See Plut- Uepl <i>iA.a8eA0tas near the end. 

n' Entitled Kardfiaais, or the Descent into the Cave of 
Trophonius. See letter 31 of this book. 

The two treatises on the Soul, and that upon the 
Descent. 

P Probably his Tusculan Questions. 

1 A treatise of Cicero's, so called from Torquatus being 
the principal character named in it : perhaps the first book 
of his treatise " De Finibus." See letter 5 of this book. 

r The original names of two books of his " Academica." 
See letter 12 of this book. 



wrote to you about the ten commissioners ; which 
I suppose was owing to my writing by abbrevia- 
tions. For I meant to inquire about C. Tuditanus, 
who I heard from Hortensius had been one of the 
ten. But in Libo's annals I see that he was prae- 
tor in the consulship of P. Popillius and P. Rupi- 
lius. Could he then have been a commissioner 
fourteen years before he was prsetor ? Unless 
indeed he became qusestor extremely late, which I 
do not think was the case ; for I observe that he 
had no difficulty in taking the curule s offices at 
the regular times. I knew that Posthumius was 
one of them, whose statue you say you remember 
at the Isthmus. It is he who was with Lucullus ; 
for whom I have to thank you, as a very proper 
personage at that congress '. You will find out 
then the others if you can ; that I may have a 
splendid assemblage of characters. 



LETTER XXXIII. 

Strange negligence ! Can you suppose that 
Balbus and Faberius had ever once told me the 
declaration 11 was given in ? Moreover, it was by 
their direction that I sent up on purpose to make 
my declaration, which they said it was proper to 
do. It was made by the freed-man Philotimus. I 
believe you are acquainted with the clerk v : but 
you will write to him, and that without delay. I 
have sent a letter to Faberius, as you advise ; and 
imagine you will have had some communication with 
Balbus to-day in the capitol. I have no scruple 
in regard to Virgilius w . I have no reason for it 
on his own account ; and if I should purchase, of 
what will he have to complain ? But you must 
take care, that, being in Africa, he does not act the 
same part as Cselius*. You will see about the 
account with CrispiusJ'. But if Plancus thinks 
of it z , there may be some difficulty. You and I 
are both of us desirous that you should come to 
me ; but this business must not be left. This is 
indeed good news, that you hope Otho may be 
gained a . Respecting the valuation, as you say, 
when we have entered upon the negotiation ; though 
his letter only relates to the quantity of land. Con- 
clude with Piso b if you can. I have received 
Dicsearchus's book, and expect the KaTdfiaais. 
Give instructions to somebody about the commis- 



s The praetors, consuls, censors, and chief aediles, were 
allowed to use particular carriages, currus, from whence 
they were called curule offices. 

* Which Cicero proposed to introduce in some new trea- 
tise. See letter 30 of this book. 

u A declaration of each person's property was given in 
to the censors every fifth year ; and in the interval, every 
new accession was registered by the praetor. The declara- 
tion here spoken of may probably relate to some assignment 
of Faberius's property to Cicero. 

v The secretary whose business it was to receive the 
declaration. 

w Virgilius, one of the co-heirs of Scapula, appears to 
have been in Africa in support of Pompeius's party, in 
consequence of which it is probable his share may have 
been confiscated. 

x In surrendering upon condition of recovering his pro- 
perty. This Caelius is supposed to be a different person 
from him mentioned in letter 3 of this book. 

Y Mentioned in book xii. letter 24. 

z Designs to purchase the gardens. 

a See letter 31 of this book. 

b See book xii. letter 5. 



TO TITUS POMPON1US ATTICUS. 



•87 



sioners c . He will find it in the book which con- 
tains the decrees of the senate in the consulate of 
Cn. Cornelius and L. Mummius. Your conjec- 
ture about Tuditanus is very probable ; that, as 
he was at Corinth, (for Hortensius did not men- 
tion it inconsiderately,) he was then either quaestor 
or military tribune ; and I rather suppose this to 
have been the case. You will be able to ascertain 
this from Antiochus. Learn also in what year he 
was quaestor, or military tribune. If neither 
agrees, then, whether he was in the number of 
the lieutenants or of the pages d ; provided he was 
in that war at all. I was speaking of Varro, and 
behold the wolf in the fable e . For he came to 
me, and at such a time, that I invited him to stay ; 
but did not use so much violence as to tear his 
coat f ; for I remember that expression of yours ; 
and they were a large company, and I was not 
prepared. Nevertheless, soon after came C. 
Capito with T. Carrinas. Their coats I scarcely 
touched^; yet they stayed, and it fell out very 
well. But Capito, by chance, entered upon the 
subject of enlarging the city h ; that the Tiber was 
to be brought from the Mulvian bridge at the foot 
of the Vatican hills ; that the Campus Martius 
was to be built up, and the Vatican plain to be 
converted into another Campus Martius. " What 
do you say ? " cried I. " I am going to the auc- 
tion, that, if I can with propriety, I may purchase 
Scapula's gardens." " Take care how you do 
it," says he ; "for the law will certainly be car- 
ried, as it is Csesar's wish." I heard him very 
patiently, but should be sorry to have it take place. 
But what say you ? You know Capito 's diligence 
in seeking out news. He is not inferior to Camil- 
lus. Let me hear about the business of the 15th 1 ; 
for it is that which brings me up. I had likewise 
some other affairs, which, however, I can easily 
transact two or three days later. But I by no 
means wish you to be harassed with travelling. I 
also forgive Dionysius. As to what you say about 
Brutus, I have set him quite at liberty, as far as 
relates to me ; for I wrote to him yesterday to say 
that I had no occasion for his assistance on the 
I5thi. 

— ♦ — 

LETTER XXXIV. 

I came to Astura the 25th k , having stopped 
three hours at Lanuvium to avoid the heat. I 
should be glad if you could without much trouble 
get me excused from going to Rome before the 
5th 1 ; which you can do through Egnatius. But, 
above all, my principal" 1 concern is, that you 

c Whose names he wished to know. See letter 30 of this 
book. 

d Young men of family who went for instruction in the 
suite of the provincial governors. 

e As he spake of him, in he came. 

f I suppose this to allude to some joking expression 
formerly used by Atticus. 

S He did not press them to stay. 

h See letter 20 of this book. 

» See letter 25 of this book. The day of Brinnius' sale. 

J In the text is Idib. Mai., but it has justly been sus- 
pected that this is an error, or false interpolation. The 
month intended was probably July, the time of Brinnius' 
sale. 

k Probably in July, after his return from Arpinum. 

1 Of August. 

m I prefer the making Maximum begin the sentence ; 
for Cicero nowhere else joins it with Egnatius. 



should complete the arrangement with Publilius 11 
while I may be considered as absent. Write me 
word what is said about this. "As if the people 
cared forsooth ." In truth, I apprehend not; for 
it is an old story. But I wanted to fill the page. 
Why should I say more ? as I shall presently be 
with you, unless you put it off. For I have already 
written to you on the subject of the gardens. 



LETTER XXXV. 

O disgraceful circumstance ! Your name- 
sake 1 * is enlarging the city, which he never saw till 
within these two years, and which he thinks too 
little even to hold him. I expect to hear from you 
upon this subject. You say that you will present the 
books i to Varro as soon as he arrives. He has 
got them then by this time, and all doubt is at an 
end. Ah ! if you could know what risk you run r ! 
unless my letter has perhaps stopped you. But 
you had not received it when you wrote last. I am 
anxious to know therefore how the affair stands. 



LETTER XXXVI. 

Though what you tell me of Brutus's affection, 
and your walk together, is nothing new, but the 
very same that I have often heard before ; yet the 
oftener, the more agreeable. And it is tbe more 
gratifying to me, because you take pleasure in it; 
and the more certain because it comes from you. 



LETTER XXXVII. 

I send you this second letter to-day. Nothing 
can be more convenient or more suitable than what 
you mention about Xeno's debt, and the forty ses- 
tertia (3007.) from Epirus s . The younger Balbus 
spake of that business' to me in the same manner. 
There is nothing new, but that Hirtius disputed 
sharply with Quintus" in my behalf ; while he v con- 
tinued everywhere, and especially in company, to 
utter many calumnies first about me, then about 
his own father. But nothing of what he said was 
so plausible, as that we were both exceedingly hostile 
towards Caesar ; that we were not to be trusted ; 
and that I was even to be guarded against. It 
was quite formidable ; but that I knew our king 
was aware of my having no spirit left. He said 

» Respecting his divorce from Publilia, and the repay- 
ment of her dower. 

° A well-known expression in the " Andria " of Teren- 
tius. 

P This was probably some surveyor, at whose suggestion 
Caesar may have thought of extending the city. 

1 The "Academica," addressed to Varro. Which, though 
done at Atticus' suggestion, yet Atticus seems to have 
been afraid of recommending. See letter 25 of this book. 

r Said in pleasant mockery of his friend's timidity. 

8 This money due to Atticus from his estates in Epirus, 
and a debt from Xeno at Athens, [see book v. letter 10,] 
was proposed to be transferred to young Cicero in Athens, 
and repaid by *iis father at Rome. 

1 The calumnies of young Quintus, who was with the 
army in Spain. See book xii. letter 38. 

u The nephew. 

v Quintus. 

3E 2 



788 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



too that I was severe towards my son Cicero ; but 
of that as he pleases. I am glad I gave to Lepta's 
messenger my panegyric on Porcia w before I 
received your letter. You will take care, therefore, 
if you have any regard for me, that if it is sent to 
Domitins and Brutus, it may be sent in this form*. 
You will continue to give me daily information 
about the gladiators ?, and other subjects that are 
blown about, as you call it. I should be glad, if 
you think well of it, that you would call upon Bal- 
bus and Offilius about advertising the sale z . I spake 
to Balbus myself, who agreed to it. I imagine Offi- 
lius has a written account of all the property. 
Balbus has also. But Balbus wished for an early 
day, and at Rome ; if Caesar's arrival should be 
delayed, the day might be put off. But he seems 
to be just here. Therefore take the whole into 
consideration; for Vestorius has signified his 
acquiescence a . 



LETTER XXXVIII. 

As I was writing before dawn against the Epicu- 
reans b , by the same lamp and labour I scrawled 
something to you, and sent it before it was light. 
Afterwards, having slept again, when 1 got up at 
sun-rise I received a letter from your sister's son d , 
which I send you. The beginning of it is very 
reproachful ; but perhaps " he did it without con- 
sideration 6 ." It runs thus: " I am sorry for 
everything that can be said discreditably of you. 1 ' 
Meaning that many things might be said against 
me, though he professed not to approve it. Can 
anything be more foul ? But you shall read the 
rest, and judge for yourself; for I inclose it to 
you. You mentioned sometime since, that he was 
struck with the daily and continual commendations 
of our friend Brutus, such as many persons have 
told me he bestows upon me. He f has said some- 
thing about it to me, and I imagine to you, which 
you will let me know. What he may have written 
to his father about tre, I cannot tell. But observe 
how dutifully he speaks of his mother: "In order," 
says he, " that I might be with you s as much as 
possible, I wished to have a house hired for me, 
and so I told you ; but you have not done it, so 
that we shall be less together. For I cannot bear 
to see that house; you know why." The reason 



w Cato's sister, who had lately died. She was mother 
to Domitius. See letter 48 of this book, which should have 
preceded this. 

x In the corrected form in which Cicero had sent it pre- 
viously to his hearing from Atticus on the subject. 

y To be exhibited upon Caesar's return from Spain. 

z It is not certain what sale is here intended ; possibly 
that of Cluvius's property. [See letter 45 of this book.] 
Balbus probably acted as Caesar's agent. 

a That is, his readiness to have it take place at an early 
day. 

t> The 2d book of his Tusculan Questions, on which he 
was at this time engaged. 

c Writing before it was light, he of course wrote by a 
lamp. The expression " lamp and labour" was familiar to 
the Romans ; and though not so in English, it seemed de- 
sirable nevertheless to preserve it in the translation. 

d Quintus. 

e I suspect the Greek expression in the original to be 
taken from some former letter of Atticus, written in ex- 
tenuation of his nephew's misconduct. 

f Quintus the younger. 

& His father, to whom this letter was written. 



his father gives, is his aversion to his mother. 
Now help me, my Atticus, with your advice. 
" Shall I mount the lofty wall of justice 11 ?'' that 
is, shall I openly spurn him, and cast him off ? 
" Or shall I use the crooked pathsof dissimulation?" 
For I may add with Pindar — " to say the truth, my 
mind is divided." The former is more suitable to 
my disposition ; but perhaps the latter to the times. 
Whatever be your opinion, be assured that mine is 
the same. I am most apprehensive of his intrud- 
ing upon me in Tusculanum. It would be easier 
managed in a greater concourse. Shall I remove 1 
then to Astura ? What if Caesar should suddenly 
arrive ? Help me, I beseech you, with your advice. 
I will do as you determine. 



LETTER XXXIX. 

O vanity beyond belief J ! To tell his father 
that he must absent himself from home on account 
of his mother ! How dutiful ! But his father 
already relaxes, and says that his son had reason to 
be angry with him. I will, however, follow your 
advice ; for I see you prefer the crooked k . I will 
go to Rome, as you recommend, though against 
my inclination ; for I am deeply engaged in 
writing. By the same opportunity, you say I shall 
see Brutus, But were it not for that other reason *, 
this circumstance m would not bring me up : for 
he does not come from whence I could wish n ; 
nor has he been long absent, or ever written to me. 
But yet I want to know how his journey has turned 
out . 1 should be glad if you would send me the 
books which I before mentioned to you, especially 
those of Phaedrus, entitled Uspiaadv and 'EAAoSos p. 



LETTER XL. 

Does Brutus say this, that Caesar brings good 
tidings to worthy people? But where will he find 
them ? Unless perhaps he hangs himself i. But 
here what support he meets with ! Where then is 
that device of yours, which I saw in the Parthenon 1- , 

h Taken from Pindar, and quoted more at leugth by 
Plato in his Republic. 

1 To be out of Quintus's way. 

J I have supposed it ought to be written incredibilem. 

k This relates to the crooked paths of dissimulation men- 
tioned in the preceding letter. 

1 To avoid encountering his nephew in Tusculanum. 

m The meeting Brutus. 

n Cicero did not approve of Brutus's paying court to 
Caesar by going so far to attend him on his return to 
Rome. 

One object of his journey seems to have been the ob- 
taining the praetorship through Caesar's favour. 

P Commentators are not agreed about the text, and it is 
in vain to conjecture what these books might be. 

q This may probably allude to something previously said 
by Atticus. It appears to be meant of Caesar, who having 
occasioned the death of so many good citizens, could only 
find in the regions of the dead any deserving that name. 

r It seems most probable that this may mean some 
library, or gallery, belonging to Brutus, so called from the 
temple at Athens, and in which he might, by the advice 
of Atticus, have placed statues, or pictures, of his ances- 
tors Brutus and Ahala, the assertors of their country's 
liberty, the first against Tarquinius, the second against 
Q. Melius. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



'89 



of Ahala and Brutus ? But what can he do ? I 
am pleased with what follows 15 , that not even he 1 , 
who has been the source of all our atrocities, thinks 
well of our nephew. I had feared that even Bru- 
tus might entertain affection for him : for so he 
intimated in the letter he wrote in reply to mine. 
I wish he " had tasted some of his v stories. But, 
as you say, when we meet. Yet what do you 
advise ? that I should go up ? or stay ? To say 
the truth, I am both entangled in my books, and 
unwilling to receive him w here. I understand his 
father is gone to-day to meet him at the Acrono- 
mari rocks x . It is surprising how angry he went ; 
so that I was obliged to check him. But I am 
myself easily changed. Therefore I must hereafter 
take care how I conduct myself y. But consider 
what you think of my going up ; and, if it can 
be clearly seen to-morrow, let me be informed of 
everything early in the morning z . 



LETTER XLI. 

I have sent to Quintus the letter for your 
sister. Upon his complaining of the quarrel 
between young Quintus and his mother, (on which 
account he told his son that he would remove from 
his house a ,) I mentioned that he had written a very 
proper letter to his mother, but none to you. He 
was surprised at the first circumstance; but with 
regard to you, he said the fault rested with him- 
self, as he had repeatedly written to his son 
in terms of severity respecting your unkindness 
towards him. But upon his saying that he relented, 
I told him (after reading your letter recommend- 
ing 1 ' dissimulation) that I should not be angry with 
him. For theo came on the mention of Cana c . 
And indeed, it' that proposal should be adopted, it d 
became necessary. But, as you observe, some 
attention must be paid to our own dignity ; and 
we ought both to be in the same mind, though his 
offence towards me is thegreater and more notorious. 
But if Brutus brings anything conciliatory, we 
must not hesitate. When we meet, however : for 
it is a thing of some moment, and requires caution. 
To-morrow therefore e , unless I receive from you 
some further leave f of absence. 



s In Atticus's letter. 

* Caesar. 

» Brutus. 

v Quintus' stories against Cicero. 

w Quintus. 

x The text is uncertain, and the place unknown. 

y So I conceive the sentence ought to he completed ; 
meaning that he must be careful how he reproached his 
nephew, whom he might soon after have occasion to 
defend, as in the present instance. 

z E^rly on the day after to-morrow. He wanted to 
receive from Atticus an early account of everything relat- 
ing to Caesar's approach, that he might regulate his mea- 
sures accordingly 

a See letter 37 of this book. 

b See letter 38 of this book. 

c To be proposed as a match for Quintus. 

d It was necessary to dissemble his displeasure. 

e I shall see you in Rome. 

f Some intimation that I need not so soon go up to Rome. 
See letter 43 of this book. 



LETTER XLII. 

He s came to me, and was very much dejected ; 
upon which I said, but what makes you so 
thoughtful ? Do you ask, says he, one who has a 
journey to perform ; and a journey to the war, and 
that a dangerous and a disgraceful one h ? What 
then obliges you to go? said I. My debts, he 
replied ; and yet I have not even enough to sup- 
port me on the road. In this place I borrowed 
something from your eloquence, and held my 
tongue. But. he went on to say, I am most of all 
vexed about my uncle. On what account ? said I. 
Because, says he, he is angry with me. Why do 
you suffer it ? I said. (For I chose rather to say 
so, than, why do you give occasion for it ?) I will 
not suffer it, says he ; for I will remove the cause 
of it. You do rightly, said I ; but if it is not 
troublesome, I should be glad to know what the 
cause may be. Because, whilst I was deliberating 
whom I should marry, I did not satisfy my mother, 
and so did not satisfy him, But at present there 
is nothing I so much wish 1 , and am ready to do 
what they desire. I hope it will turn out well, 
said I, and I commend you. But how soon ? I am 
indifferent about the time, said he, since I approve 
of the thing. But I think, said I, that it should be 
before you set out ; for so you will give satisfaction 
also to your father. I will do, says he, as you 
advise. So ended this dialogue. But hark you : 
you recollect that my birth-day is the 3d of 
January ; you will accordingly be with me. Just 
as I had finished my letter, see here, Lepidus begs 
me to come up. I imagine the augurs have nothing 
to do in the way of consecrating a temple. But let 
us go J. I shall therefore see you. 



LETTER XLIII. 

I shall certainly avail myself of this delay of a 
day ; and you have done very kindly to let me 
know it, and in such a manner as to write yourself 
immediately from the sports, and to let me get 
your letter at a time when I did not expect it. 
I have indeed some business to transact in Rome, 
but I can do it two days later. 



LETTER XLIV. 
Your letter was most pleasing, however un- 
pleasant the circumstance of the procession k . But 
yet it is notunpleasant to know everything, even that 
affair of Cotta 1 . The populace indeed behaved 

% Young Quintus. 

h Against the Parthians, by whom Crassus had been 
defeated and slain. 

1 As to give them satisfaction. 

J Here follow two Greek words, probably corrupted, and 
rendered little more intelligible by the conjectures of com- 
mentators. 

k The procession here spoken of seems to have been that 
called Circensian, exhibited in the Circus Maximus, where 
the images of the gods were drawn along with great pomp 
previously to the exhibition of the games. On this occasion 
Caesar's image was also drawn next to that of Victory, by 
an adulatory decree of the senate. 

1 It is supposed that Cotta, even at this time, began to 
speak of making Caesar a king, on pretence of some obscure 
prophecy that the Parthians could only be conquered by a 
king. 



790 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



nobly in giving no applause even to the statue of 
Victory, on account of its bad neighbour ra . Brutus 
has been with me, and wished me very much to write 
something to Caesar ; to which I agreed ; but on con- 
dition that he would see the procession 11 . And have 
you ventured to present the books to Varro ° ? I 
am anxious to know what he may think of them. 
But when will he read them ? I quite approve of 
your conduct about Attica p. It is something to 
have the mind elevated with the sight, as well as 
with the awe and celebrity, of the ceremony. I 
should be glad if you would send me Cotta <i. Libo 
I have with me, and I had Casca before. Brutus 
has informed me upon the authority of T. Ligarius, 
that the naming of L. Curfidius in the Ligarian 
speech is my mistake ; but, as they say, an error of 
memory. I knew that Curfidius was very intimate 
with the family of Ligarius ; but I see that he had 
died previously. Therefore give instructions to 
Pharnaces, Antaeus, and Salvius r , to erase that 
name from all the copies. 



LETTER XLV. 

Lamia was with me after you left me ; and he 
brought me a letter he had received from Caesar, 
which, though it was dated antecedently to those 
brought by Diochares s , yet plainly declared his 
intention of coming before the Roman games l . At 
the end of it he desired that Lamia u would make 
every preparation for the games, so that he might 
not hurry up to no purpose. By this letter there 
seemed to be no doubt of his arriving before that 
time ; and Lamia said that Balbus upon reading 
that letter was of the same opinion. I find I have 
some additional holidays v ; but how many, do, if 
you love me, let me know. You will be able to 
learn from Bsebius, or from your other neighbour 
Egnatius. When you exhort me to employ those 
days in expounding philosophy, you urge one who 
is already running. But you perceive that I must 
spend that time with Dolabella. Were I not 
detained by Torquatus's business w , I should be 
able to run down to Puteoli x , and return in time. 
Lamia, it seems, had heard from Balbus that there 
was a large sum of money in the housed, which 
ought to be divided as soon as possible ; and a great 

m Caesar. 

n From which he would he ahle to judge how high Caesar 
was raised ahove the level of any modest address. See 
letter 28 of this book. 

See letter 25 of this hook. 

P In taking her to the Circensian procession. 

q Cotta, Libo, and Casca, here mentioned, seem to 
mean certain works of which they were respectively the 
authors, as we say familiarly Locke, or Pope, meaning the 
books written by them. 

r Atticus's librarians or clerks. 

s A freed-man of Caesar. See hook xi. letter 6. 

1 These began September 4. 

u Lamia was at this time aedile, to which office was 
attached the care of the public games. 

v That the necessary time of his going to Rome was 
postponed. 

w It has appeared by some former letters that Cicero 
wanted to serve his friend Torquatus through the influence 
of Dolabella. See letter 9 of this book. 

x To take possession of part of Cluvius's property, to 
which he had succeeded. See letter 46 of this book. 

V Cluvius's house. 



amount of plate, besides the lands ; that an auction 
ought to take place at the earliest time. I wish 
you would write me word what you think best to be 
done. For my own part, if I had to choose out of 
all, I could not easily find anybody more diligent, 
or more ready, or more friendly towards me, than 
Vestorius ; to whom I have written very par- 
ticularly, and imagine that you have done the 
same. This appears to me sufficient. What say 
you ? For the only thing I am afraid of is, that 
I may seem too negligent. I shall therefore hope 
to hear from you. 



LETTER XLVI. 

Pollex 2 told me he would be back by the 13th 
of August, and accordingly came to me at Lanu- 
vium the 12th. But he is rightly called Pollex, not 
Index a . You will learn therefore from himself. I 
called upon Balbus : for Lepta, who was anxious 
about the games b , brought me to him by force, in 
that Lanuvian villa which he has given up to 
Lepidus. From him the first thing I heard was 
this — " A little while ago I received that letter, in 
which he strongly confirms his intention of return- 
ing before the Roman games." I read the letter. 
There is a great deal about my " Cato" c , from the 
repeated perusal of which he says that he is grown 
more copious ; whilst from the reading of Brutus's 
"Cato" he appears to himself eloquent. From him d 
I learned the inheritance of Cluvius's property. O 
negligent Vestorius ! A free e inheritance, before 
witnesses f , within sixty days. I was afraid it would 
be necessary to send for him s. Now I must send 
to desire he will accept by my order. This same 
Pollex may therefore return h . I have also had 
some liberal conversation with Balbus about Clu- 
vius's gardens, in which he promised to write to 
Csesar immediately. He said that Cluvius had 
charged Titus Hordeonius with a legacy of 50,000 
sestertii (400/.) to Terentia, with the expense of a 
monument, and several other things ; but that 
there was no charge upon me. Pray, gently 
reprove Vestorius. What can be more discredit- 
able, than that Plotius the perfumer should so long 
before have informed Balbus of everything by his 
slaves ; and that he i should not have informed me 
even by my own. I am sorry for Cossinius, for 1 
had a great regard for him. If anything should 
remain after paying my debts and my purchases, I 
will send it to Quintus ; but I apprehend these 
will oblige me even to contract new ones. I know 
nothing about the house at Arpinum. 

z This appears to have been one of Cicero's messengers 
[see book xi. letter 4] ; perhaps the same who, in book viii. 
letter 5, is called Pollux. 

a Pollex in Latin signifies the thumb, index the fore- 
finger. Index likewise signifies one who gives information. 
Cicero, by saying he was no index, insinuates that he 
brought little information. 

t> He wanted to have the charge of the games to be cele- 
brated in honour of Caesar's return. 

c His panegyric upon Cato. Brutus likewise published 
something on the subject of his uncle Cato. 

d Balbus. 

e A free inheritance might probably mean one unin- 
cumbered with conditions. 

f It was to be accepted before witnesses. 

S Vestorius. h To Puteoli. 

1 Vestorius. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



791 



There is no occasion for your accusing Vestorius. 
For after I had sealed this letter, my messenger 
arrived in the night, and brought me a letter from 
him written with great exactness, and likewise a 
copy of the will. 



LETTER XLVII. 

As soon as your servant Agamemno touched 
upon the subject, not of my going up, (though I 
would have done that also, if it had not been for 
Torquatus,) but of my writing ; I immediately 
stopped my business, laid aside what I had in hand, 
and have executed what you desired. I shall be 
glad to have you made acquainted with the account 
of my expenses J through Pollex. For it would not 
be creditable to me to leave him k in distress this 
first year, whatever may have been his conduct. 
Afterwards I shall regulate matters more carefully. 
This same Pollex must be sent back to accept 1 on 
my behalf. It was impossible for me to go to 
Puteoli m , as well for the reasons I mentioned to 
you n , as on account of Caesar's approach. Dola- 
bella writes word that he will come to me the 14th. 
How irksome is it to be subject to a master ° ! 
Yesterday evening Lepidus wrote to me from 
Antium, where he was staying, — for he has the 
house which I sold. He requests me with great 
earnestness to attend the senate on the first ; that 
I should greatly oblige both himself and Csesar. I 
imagine it is nothing, else Oppius would probably 
have said something to you, — forBalbusis ill. How- 
ever, I would rather go up to no purpose, than 
be away if there should be any real occasion. I 
should be sorry for it afterwards. Therefore to- 
day I shall be at Antium ; to-morrow before noon 
I shall reach home p. If nothing prevents you, I 
wish you and Pilia would dine with me on the 31st. 
I hope you have settled everything with Publilius'U 
I shall run back to Tusculanum on the 1st; for I 
would rather everything should be arranged with 
them r in my absence. I send you my brother 
Quintus's letter ; not a very kind reply to mine, but 
yet such as may give you satisfaction, so far as I 
can judge. You will see. 



LETTER XLVIII. 

Yesterday in the midst of noise 3 I fancy I 
heard something about your coming to Tuscula- 
num ; which I wish, and wish again ; yet with 
your own convenience. Lepta requests that, if his 

J The expenses he had been at for his son at Athens. 

k Cicero's son. 

1 To accept formally Cluvius's bequest. See letter 46 of 
this book. 

m The seat of Cluvius's estate. 

n Respecting Torquatus. See letter 45 of this book. 

This has been variously interpreted. I understand it 
to be expressive of his indignation at being obliged to sub- 
mit to the directions of Dolabella and Lepidus, in order to 
conciliate Caesar's favour. 

P By home, he here and elsewhere means his house in 
Rome. 

q Brother to Cicero's second wife. See letter 34 of this 
book. 

r The family of Publilia, respecting the re-payment of 
her dower. 

s At Rome. 



affairs demand it, I will go up, — for Babullius is 
dead. Cresar, I believe, inherits one twelfth, 
though nothing has yet transpired. Lepta succeeds 
to a third ; but he is afraid he may not be allowed 
to take possession of the inheritance. There is no 
reason for this ; but, however, he is afraid. If 
therefore he sends for me, I shall hasten up, — else 
I shall not go before it is necessary. Send back 
Pollex as soon as you can. I have sent you the 
panegyric on Porcia ' corrected ; and I have done 
it the sooner, that if it should happen to be sent to 
her son Domitius, or to Brutus, it may be sent in 
this form. If you can conveniently do it, I should 
be greatly obliged to you to attend to this ; and I 
wish you would send me the panegyric u of M. 
Varro and of Lollius, especially Lollius's, for the 
other I have read, yet I want to look at it again, — 
for there are some parts which I hardly recollect. 



LETTER XLIX. 

I must first send my compliments to Attica*, 
who, I suppose, is in the country ; then give my 
best compliments to Pilia likewise. Let me hear 
of Tigellius, if there is anything new ; for, as Gal- 
lus Fabius informs me, he brings against me a most 
unjust charge of having deserted Phamea, after 
undertaking his cause. This I undertook, not with 
my good liking, against the young Octaviuses, the 
sons of Cnaeus ; but I agreed to it out of regard to 
Phamea. For, if you remember, he had promised 
me through you, to assist me in my canvass for the 
consulship, if there should be any occasion, which 
I looked upon in the same light as if I had actually 
made use of him. He came to me, and said that 
the judge had appointed to hear his cause on the 
very day when it was necessary for me to attend the 
council about my friend Sestius by the Pompeian 
law : for you know the days for those judgments 
are fixed. I replied that he could not be ignorant 
of my obligations to Sestius ; that if he had taken 
any other day whatever, I would not fail him. 
Upon this he went away angry. I believe I told 
you about it. However, I did not make myself 
uneasy, nor did I think it necessary to pay atten- 
tion to the unmerited displeasure of one with 
whom I was unconnected. I mentioned however 
to Gallus, when I was lately at Rome, what I had 
heard, but without naming the younger Balbus w . 
Gallus, as he writes word, had some business of his 
own. He says that Tigellius suspects me of hav- 
ing injured him from a consciousness of infidelity 
towards Phamea. I therefore send you this detail, 
that, if you can, you may learn something about 
this friend x of mine. Do not be in any trouble 
about me- v : it is well, if anybody be allowed to 

t See letter 37 of this book. 

II Likewise upon Porcia. 

▼ The particular occasion of this appears, by letter 50 of 
this book, to have been Attica's recovery from some illnes9, 
on which he congratulates both her and her mother. 

» From whom it is to be presumed that Cicero had 
heard of something said or done unkindly by Tigellius 
towards him. 

x This seems to me to mean Tigellius, and is to be under- 
stood sneeringly. Tigellius was grandson to Phamea.— 
Ep. Fam. vii. 24. 

y Tigellius was a singer in the train of Caesar. Cicero 
says that he had nothing to apprehend from his hostility. 



792 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



hate at his own free-will z ; it has an appearance of 
not being entirely slaves. Though indeed, as you 
perceive, those people a are rather slaves to me, if 
paying attention be the test of servitude. 



LETTER L. 

Having been advised in some of your letters to 
write to Caesar in a more copious manner, and 
having lately understood from Balbus in Lanuvium, 
that he and Oppius had written to Caesar, and in- 
formed him of my having read and greatly com- 
mended his book against Cato, I have written a 
letter to Caesar, on the subject of this book, to be 
delivered to Dolabella. But I sent a copy of it to 
Oppius and Balbus, and have desired them not to 
let my letter be delivered to Dolabella, unless they 
approve of the copy. They have replied to me, 
that they never read anything better, and they 
ordered the letter to be given to Dolabella. Vesto- 
rius has written to me to direct the Brinnian estate b to 
be surrendered on my part to one Hetereius, his 
servant ; in order that he c might himself properly 
surrender to him d that e at Puteoli. If you approve 
of this, send that servant to me. I imagine Vesto- 
rius will also have written to you. On the subject 
of Caesar's coming, I have heard from Oppius and 
Balbus the same as from you. I am surprised you 
should yethave had no communication withTigellius, 
if it be only to know how much he has received f . 
I am curious to know, though I care not a farthing. 
You ask what I think about going to meet himS: 
what think you of my going as far as Alsium ? I 
have even written to Muraena about receiving me ; 
but I apprehend he is gone^forward with Matius. I 
shall therefore apply to Sallustius. Just as I had 
written this last line, Eros has informed me that 
Muraena made him the kindest answer. I shall 
therefore lodge with him, — for Silius has no beds : 
and Dida, I believe, has his house quite full. 



LETTER LI. 

I forgot to send you a copy of my letter to 
Caesar, which was not, as you suspect, because I 
was ashamed of your seeing it, lest in ridicule I 
should be called Micillus h . In faith, I have writ- 
ten no otherwise than to one on a par and equality; 
for I think well of that book 1 , as I told you in 
person. I wrote therefore without flattery, and 
yet so that I think he will read nothing with more 
pleasure. I am now at length satisfied about 
Attica : therefore congratulate her again. Tell 
me all about Tigellius, and as soon as you can, — 
for I am in great doubt. I can inform you that 
Quintus comes to-morrow ; but whether to me or 



z That any one, as Tigellius, should be permitted to 
love oi- hate, but at his master's will. 

* Caesar's followers, in imitation of their leader, paid 
great attention to Cicero. 

k See letter 14 of this book. c Vestorius. 

d Hetereius. 

e Cluvius's estate. See letter 46 of this book. 

t From Caesar. 

g Caesar, who was on his return from Spain. 

h The meaning of this is not exactly known. It proba- 
bly alludes to some story that has since been lost. 

1 Caesar's " Anti-Cato." See the preceding letter. 



to you I am uncertain. He wrote me word that he 
should come to Rome the 25th ; but I have sent 
to invite him J, though it obliges me to go presently 
to Rome, that he may not arrive before me. 



LETTER LIT 

O the troublesome guest k ! But I had no 
reason to repent of it : for it turned out very 
pleasantly. Upon his arrival at Philippus's on the 
evening of the second day of the Saturnalia l , the 
house was so filled with soldiers, that there was 
scarcely space left for Caesar himself to dine. 
There were 2000 people. I was indeed disturbed 
at thinking what would be the case the next day m . 
Barba Cassius came to my assistance, and set a 
guard. An encampment was formed in the fields ; 
the house was secured. On the third of the 
Saturnalia, he remained at Philippus's till one in 
the afternoon, and did not admit anybody. I 
imagine he was settling his accounts with Balbus: 
then he walked on the beach. After two o'clock 
he went into the bath ; then he heard about Ma- 
murra n : he never changed countenance : he was 
anointed, and sat down to table, following an emetic 
course . So he ate and drank without reserve, 
and in good-humour ; sumptuously indeed, and 
with due preparation ; and not only that, but 
" with good conversation well digested and sea- 
soned, and, if you ask, cheerfully?." His attend- 
ants were besides entertained at three tables very 
plentifully. Nor was anything wanting for the in- 
ferior freed-men and slaves ; while those of higher 
condition were elegantly served. In short, I 
thought myself a man q again. Yet my guest was 
not one to whom you would say — " Pray come to 
me in the same manner when you return." Once 
is enough. There was nothing of importance in 
the conversation, but a great deal of liberal learning. 
In short, he was highly pleased, and enjoyed 
himself. He said he should pass one day at 
Puteoli, and one at Baiae. You have here the 
account of my hospitality or forced r entertainment, 
which was hateful to me, I say, not disagreeable. 
I shall stay here s a little while, then go to Tuscu- 
lanum. As he passed Dolabella's villa, the whole 
body of armed men ranged themselves on each side 
of his horse ', which was done nowhere else. This 
I heard from Nicias. 



In the interval between this and the subsequent book, Caesar 
had been killed by a conspiracy of distinguished men 
jealous of their country's liberty. At the head of these 
were M. Brutus and C Cassius the prcetors.~\ 

J At Cicero's house in Rome. 

k This may be considered as spoken by Cicero in antici- 
pation of Caesar's visit. 

1 The 21st of December. 

m When Cicero was to receive him. 

n Mamurra had realised a great fortune in Caesar's ser- 
vice. It is supposed that Catu'lus's verses on Mamurra 
may have been read, reflecting also upon Caesar. 

A course prescribed to such as were using vomits, 
which seems to have been familiar to the ancient Romans. 

P The preceding sentence is a verse of Lucilius. 

<l It put him in mind of former times under a free 
government. 

r In the original is a Greek word signifying a forced 
reception for the retinue of a prince. s At Astura. 

1 This was probably intended as a mark of honour. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



793 



BOOK XIV. 



LETTER I. 

I have been to call upon the person u about 
whom I spoke to you this morning. He said no- 
thing could be more ruinous ; that the state could 
never be settled. For if he v , with all his abilities, 
found no way of doing it, who will now find any ? 
In short, he said that all was ruined. I know not 
if it be so. But he affirmed, with apparent satis- 
faction, that in less than twenty days there would 
be an insurrection in Gaul; that, for his own part, 
since the 15th of March w . he had conversed with 
nobody besides Lepidus ; in conclusion, that it was 
impossible things should stop here. O prudent 
Oppius ! who does no less regret Caesar, while he 
says nothing that can give offence to any honest 
man. But enough of this. Whatever new occurs 
(and I expect a great deal), I beg you will not fail 
to write. Among other things, whether this is 
certain about Sextus x : but above all about our 
friend Brutus ; of whom Caesar used to say (as I 
heard from him with whom I have been), that " it 
is of great importance what he wishes ; for what- 
ever he wishes, he wishes strongly." Hey took 
notice of this, when he z spoke for Deiotarus at 
Nice, "that he seemed to speak with great ve- 
hemence and freedom." Likewise (for I like to 
write everything as it occurs) very lately, when I 
was at his house by desire of Sestius, and sat down 
till I was called, he a said : " Can I doubt of my 
being greatly hated, when M. Cicero is obliged to 
wait, and cannot get an audience at his own con- 
venience ? Yet if anybody is gracious, it is he ; 
nevertheless I doubt not that he hates me bitterly." 
This .he b told me, and much more of the same 
kind. But to my purpose. Whatever may happen, 
not only of great, but also of little moment, you 
will inform me. On my part 1 will omit nothing. 



LETTER II. 

Yesterday I received two letters from you. 
By the first I learned the circumstances of the 
theatre, and Publius c ; good indications of the con- 
currence of the populace. The applause, which 
was given to L. Cassius, has even some pleasantry d . 
The other letter is upon the subject of Bald Cape e , 

u Matius. See letters 3 and 4 of this book. 

v Caesar. 

w The day on which Caesar had been killed. 

* Sextus Fompeius, who had collected a considerable 
force in Spain. 

y Caesar. z Brutus. 

a Caesar. b Matius. 

c Probably some actor, who may have been cheered in 
the theatre for allusion to the downfall of tyranny. See 
letter 3 of this book. 

d L. Cassius being applauded not for any merit of his 
own, but because his brother C. Cassius had been one of 
those concerned in killing Ca?sar. 

e There is no doubt of Matius being intended under the 
name of Madams, which in Greek signifies bald, the sub- 
sequent word (paKaKpUijxa signifying a bald head, or naked 
headland, such as usually protects a harbour. But in 
this instance it afforded so little hope of tranquillity, that 
Cicero did not remain there ; Matius being evidently hos- 



which affords however no safe harbour, as you 
suppose. For I went on, though not so far as I 
had intended, being detained a long time in conver- 
sation. What I wrote to you, obscurely perhaps, 
was this ; he said that Caesar had observed to him, 
upon the occasion of my being kept waiting, when 
I went to him at Sestius's request : " Can 1 now be 
so foolish as to suppose this easy man will be 
friendly to me, after he has been kept so long 
waiting for my convenience ?" You have then a 
" bald cape " very unfriendly to tranquillity ; that 
is, to Brutus. I am going to-day to Tusculanum, 
to-morrow to Lanuvium ; thence I mean to pro- 
ceed to Astura. Everything is ready for Pilia's 
reception f ; but I want .likewise to see Avtica, 
though I forgive you s. My compliments to both 
of them. 



LETTER III. 

Your letter is still peaceful. I wish this may 
last ; for Matius said it was impossible. And my 
workmen, mark you, who went to purchase corn, 
returned empty-handed, and brought a strong 
report from Rome that all the corn was taken to 
Antonius's house. This is certainly a false alarm, 
or you would have written to inform me. Balbus's 
freed-man Corumbus has not yet been here. The 
name is familiar to me ; for he is said to be a 
clever architect. You seem to have been employed 
to countersign h not without reason ; for so these 
people would have us think ». 1 do not know why 
they should not feel it also in their heart. But 
what are these things to me ? However, scent out 
Antonius's real disposition. I suspect him rather 
of solicitude about his table, than of designing any 
mischief. If you have anything of importance, 
let me know it ; or if not, tell me the indications 
of popular feeling, and the sayings of the actors J. 
Compliments to Pilia and Attica. 



LETTER IV. 
What news do you suppose I can have at La- 
nuvium ? But I imagine that you there k must 
every day receive some fresh intelligence. The 
times are pregnant with business. For when 
Matius 1 is so indisposed to peace, what think you of 
others ? I am grieved indeed that (what never 

tile to Brutus, from whose cause alone tranquillity could 
be expected. 

f At Cumamim. See letter 17 of this book. 

e Forgive you for keeping her with you. 

h To set his seal as witness to the wills of some of Caesar's 
party, who wished to secure Cicero's friendship by their 
bequests, to which Atticus was privy. 

» Think them to be Cicero's friends. It alludes to some- 
thing previously mentioned by Atticus. 

J It seems to have been customary for the comic actors 
to insert passages calculated to catch the public mind. See 
book ii. letter 19. 

k At Rome. 

1 Matius had on a former occasion been mentioned as a 
person of moderation and prudence, supposed to be a friend 
to peace. See book ix. letter 2. 



794 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



happened in any other state) together with liberty 
the republic should not have been restored. What 
is talked of, and threatened, is dreadful. I am 
afraid also of hostilities in Gaul, and what Sextus 1 
may attempt. But whatever happens, this 15th of 
March is a consolation. Our heroes m , as far as 
lay in them, have acted gloriously and magnifi- 
cently. What remains to be done, requires sup- 
plies and forces, of which we have none. I write 
this, thatif there is anything new, (for every day I ex- 
pect something), you may immediately let me know 
it ; and if there is nothing new, yet that, according 
to custom, our correspondence may suffer no inter- 
ruption. I will take care it shall not on my part. 



LETTER V. 

Having used abstinence before you were seri- 
ously indisposed, I hope that all is now as I could 
wish ; yet I should be glad to know how you do. 
It is a good sign, that Calvena n is uneasy at being 
suspected by Brutus. But this is no good sign, 
that the legions are coming with their ensigns from 
Gaul. What do you think of those which have 
been in Spain ? Will they not make the same 
demands ° ? What of those which Annius took 
over p ? I should have said Caninius, but it was 
a slip of the memory. There will be great confu- 
sion excited by this gamester q . For that con- 
spiracy of Caesar's freed-men misrht easily be put 
down, if Antonius were right-minded. Mine was 
a foolish scrupulousness in declining to get an 
honorary legation r before the adjournment, that I 
might not seem to desert this swell of affairs, from 
which, if it were possible for me to remedy it, I 
certainly ought not to withhold my services. But 
you see the magistrates, if indeed they deserve the 
name, you see however the minions of the tyrant 
in authority ; you see his veteran troops at our 
side s ; all which are unstable * things ; while they u , 
who ought not only to be protected, but exalted, by 
the guards of the whole world, are rewarded neither 
with praise nor love, but confined within their own 
walls v . Yet, after all, it is they that are happy : 
the state that is wretched. But I should be glad 
to know what effect the approach of Octavius w 
produces ; whether people flock to him ; whether 
there is any apprehension of usurpation. I do not 
think it ; but yet, whatever happens, I wish to 
know it. I write this to you on the 12th, setting 
out from Astura. 

1 Sextus Pompeius in Spain. 

m The conspirators against Caesar. 

» Matius, whom he had before called Madams in letter 
2 of this book, both words being indicative of baldness, It 
is not improbable that Atticus may first have used Mada- 
ms, derived from the Greek, which was familiar to him ; 
and that Cicero may have invented the corresponding 
word Calvena from the Latin. 

Of what Caesar had promised them. 

P To Greece, preparatory to the war which Caesar was 
going to wage with the Parthians. q Antonius. 

r An authoritative leave of absence from the senate, 
frequently alluded to in the earlier books of these letters. 

8 Having lands given them in Campania and other neigh- 
bouring districts. l Not to be relied upon. 

u The conspirators against Caesar. 

* They withdrew from the public ferment excited by 
Caesar's death. 

w Better known afterwards by the name of Augustus. 



LETTER VI. 

I received your letter on the 12th at Fundi, 
while I was at dinner. In the first place therefore 
I was glad to hear that you were better ; then that 
you made a better report of public affairs ; for I 
did not like that approach of the troops. About 
Octavius I am very indifferent. I am curious to 
hear something of Marius x , whom I supposed to 
have been put death by Caesar. Antonius's inter- 
view with our heroes y passed off very well for the 
occasion. Hitherto, however, nothing gives me 
pleasure besides the 15th of March. Here at 
Fundi, where I am with my friend Ligur, I am 
distracted at seeing Sextilius's farm in the pos- 
session of that rascal Curtilius ; and what I say of 
him, I say of the whole tribe. For what can be 
more sad, than to look upon the very things which 
made us hate him 7 - ? Are we also to have for two 
years the consuls and tribunes of the people, which 
he chose ? I am quite at a loss to know what part 
I can take in public affairs. Nothing was ever so 
inconsistent, as that the destroyers of the tyrant 
should be praised to the skies % while the acts of 
the tyrant are defended. But you see the consuls ; 
you see the other magistrates (if they deserve the 
name) ; you see the want of energy in the good. 
In the country towns the people are exulting with 
joy. It cannot be told how much they are de- 
lighted, how they flock about me, how eager they 
are to hear every word relating to that affair. 3 Yet 
in all this time no decrees are passed. For such is 
the state of our government, that we are afraid of 
the very people we have defeated. I write this 
during my dessert. I will write more fully on 
public affairs another time. Let me on your part 
hear how you do, and what is going forward. 



LETTER VII. 

On the 14th I saw Paullus in Caieta, who in- 
formed me about Marius, and mentioned some 
other things relating to the republic, which were 
indeed very sad. There has been nothing from you, 
for none of my people have arrived. But I hear 
that our friend Brutus was seen near Lanuvium. 
Where does he intend to fix himself ? For while I 
wish to be acquainted with everything else, so 
particularly with what concerns him. I write this 
the 15th, on the point of leaving Formianum, 
that from thence in another day I may reach Pu- 
teolanum. I have received from Cicero a letter 
smacking of the ancient style, and of considerable 
length. The rest may possibly be feigned ; but 
the style of his letter shows that he has acquired 
some learning. Now I earnestly beg you to take 
care, as I lately mentioned to you, that he may 
not be left in want of anything. This concerns 
my credit and dignity, as well as my duty ; and I 
understand that you are entirely of the same opi- 
nion. If then there is an opportunity, I think of 
going into Greece in the month of July. I hope 
everything may be more favourable. But the times 
being such that it is impossible to say certainly 
what may be proper for me, what allowable, what 



x See book xii. letter 50. 
y The conspirators. 
a Caesar's death. 



Caesar. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



795 



expedient ; pray take care that I may support him 
honourably and handsomely. You will take into 
your consideration, as usual, this, and whatever 
else concerns me ; and you will write to me all that 
is interesting, or, if there is nothing, what comes 
into your head. 



LETTER VIIT. 

"When you wrote, you supposed me to be al- 
ready in one of my houses on the coast ; and I 
received your letter on the 16th at the little cottage 
at Sinuessa b . About Marius it is quite right, 
though I must needs grieve for the grandson c of 
L. Crassus. I rejoice also that our friend Brutus 
is so well satisfied with Antonius d . For as to what 
you say of Junia's e having brought a letter written 
in a temperate and friendly manner ; Paullus f gave 
me one that he had received from his brother ; at 
the conclusion of which he mentions that a plot had 
been formed against him, of which he had certain 
information. I did not like this, much less did he. 
I am not sorry for the queen's? flight ; but I want 
you to inform me what is become of Clodia h . 
You will take care about the Byzantians, as about 
everything else, and will send for Pelops to come 
to you. As soon as I have seen into the business 
of Baise \ and that assemblage, about whom you 
wish to be informed, I will write, as you desire, 
that you may know everything. I am anxiously 
expecting what the Gauls, what the Spaniards, 
what Sextus will do. This you will tell me, who 
tell me everything. I am glad that the reason of 
your silence was nothing but a slight indisposition ; 
for I seem, as I read your letters, to feel a tem- 
porary ease. Always write to me everything that 
relates to Brutus, where he is, and what are his 
intentions. I hope he may now safely walk alone 
all over the city. But yet I should like to knowJ. 

b Sinuessa is on the sea-coast, whither -Atticus's letter 
had been sent. It appears, from book xvi. letter 10, that 
Cicero had a house there. 

c This pretender had been put to death by Antonius. 
Had he been the person whose name he assumed, he 
would have been grandson to L. Crassus. See book xii. 
letter 50. 

d Brutus's agreement with Antonius was likely to lead 
to peace. 

e This Junia was sister to Brutus, and wife to M. Lepi- 
dus, who had the government of Transalpine Gaul. The 
letter must probably have been from Lepidus, the friend 
of Caesar, to Brutus. The good understanding of the oppo- 
site parties apparent from this letter, would be destroyed 
by plots, or the suspicion of plots, such as is afterwards 
mentioned. 

f L. JEmilius Paullus, brother to Lepidus. 

S Cleopatra, who had followed Caesar to Rome, and now 
fled upon the event of his assassination. 

h To what this alludes, or the following mention of the 
Byzantians, is not known. 

i When Cicero speaks of " the business" of Baiae, he 
may be supposed to mean the conversation and idle talk, 
Baiae being notorious for idleness. And this sense receives 
confirmation from the word chorum, which I have rendered 
" assemblage," but which in the original means properly 
" a troop of dancers or singers." The expressions may 
probably be borrowed from Atticus, who seems often to 
have indulged in a little good-humoured bantering, 
seasoned also with terms newly invented or newly applied. 
[See book iv. letter 8.] It is to this that Cicero alludes 
[see letter 14 of this book] when he says joca tua plena 
facetiarum. ; See letter 5 of this book. 



LETTER IX. 

I have learned a great deal about the republic 
from your letters, several of which I received at 
the same time by Vestorius's freed-man. To your 
questions I shall reply briefly. In the first place, 
I am greatly delighted with the Cluvian inherit- 
ance 1 '; but as to what you ask, why I sent for 
Chrysippus 1 ; I had two cottages in ruins, and the 
rest were so crazy, that not only the lodgers, but 
the very rats had left them. Some people would 
call this a calamity ; for my part, I do not think 
it even a disadvantage. O Socrates, and ye of the 
Socratic school™, I shall never be sufficiently 
thankful to you. Ye immortal gods ! how totally 
do I disregard such things. But, however, I have 
got such a plan for building, by the recommenda- 
tion and assistance of Vestorius, that this loss 
will be a real gain to me. There is a great con- 
course here ; and, as I am told, it will be still 
greater. Two, indeed, are the pretended n consuls 
elect. O gracious gods ! The tyranny survives, 
though the tyrant is dead. We rejoice in the death 
of the victim, w T hose acts we defend. How severely, 
therefore, does M. Curtius accuse us, as if it were 
a disgrace to live ! And not without reason. For 
it had been better to die a thousand times than to 
suffer such a state of things, which seems likely 
even to be permanent. Balbus also is here, and is 
much with me. He had received a letter from 
Vetus , dated the 31st of December, stating that 
at the time he was besieging Caecilius p, and had 
almost taken him, Pacorus the Parthian came up 
with a large army, by which means Caecilius had 
been snatched from him, and he had lost many of 
his men ; in which affair he accuses Volcatius. 
Thus a war in that quarter appears imminent. 
But let Dolabella and Nicias i see to this. At the 
same time Balbus gave me more favourable accounts 
of Gaul. He had a letter twenty days after its 
date, saying that the Germani, and those nations, 
upon hearing about Caesar, had sent deputies to 
Aurelius, who was left in the command by Hirtius, 
professing their submission to such orders as they 
should receive. In short, everything wore the 
appearance of peace, contrary to what Calvena 1 
had said. 



LETTER X. 

Is it so, then ? Has my and your Brutus found 
this fruit of his exertion, that he should be shut 
up in Lanuvium ? That Trebonius should proceed 
to his province through by-ways ? That all the 
acts, writings, sayings, promises, thoughts of Caesar, 

k See book xiii. letter 46. 

1 An architect, mentioned likewise book xiii. letter 29. 

n» Whose philosophy Cicero had adopted. 

n Hirtius and Pansa, who had been appointed by Caesar, 
not elected by the votes of the people according to the laws 
of the republic. 

° C. Antistius Vetus, one of Caesar's generals. 

P Caecilius was of Pompeius's party ; after the battle of 
Pharsalia he had raised an army in Syria, and was besieged 
in Apamea. 

1 Dolabella was going into Syria to conduct the war 
against the Parthians, and Nicias accompanied him, being 
attached by familiarity and friendship. 

r Matius. See letter 5 of this book, note n . 



796 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



should have greater force than if he were himself 
alive ? Do you remember how I demanded, on 
that very first capitoline s day, that the senate 
should be summoned by the prsetors 1 into the 
capitol ! Ye immortal gods ! What operations 
might then have been effected ; while all good, or 
tolerably good people were exulting ; and the 
rogues were confounded ? You lay the blame on 
the 18th of March u . But what could have been 
done then ? We were already ruined. Do you 
remember exclaiming that the cause was ruined, if 
he should be buried with funeral honours ? Yet 
he was burned in the public forum, and extolled to 
excite pity ; and slaves and beggars were sent with 
torches against our houses. What followed ? That 
they dared to say, " Do you oppose the nod of 
Caesar ?" These, and other things of the same 
kind, I am unable to bear ; therefore I think of 
changing my country for another. But has your 
windy colic entirely left you ? As far as I could 
judge by your letters, it seemed to be so. I come 
back to the Tebassi v , the Scsevas, the Frangos. Do 
you imagine that they expect to hold their pos- 
sessions, while our authority still subsists ? For 
thay gave us credit for more valour than they have 
found. Will these, forsooth, be lovers of peace, 
and not rather authors of plunder ? But what I 
said to you about Curtilius w and the Sextilian 
estate, I say about Censorinus, about Messala, 
about Plancus, about Postumius. about the whole 
set. It were better to have died when he x died 
(which I wish y had happened), than to witness 
these things. Octavius arrived in Naples the I8th z . 
There Balbus saw him the following morning, and 
the same day came to me in Cumanum, and said 
that he a was going to enter upon his inheritance b . 
But, as you say, he must have a great contest- 
radical with Antonius. Your Buthrotian d affair 
is, as it ought and shall be, an object of my care. 
You ask if the Cluvian inheritance 6 has already 
produced a hundred sestertia (800/.). It seems to 
approach to this ; but in the first year I have 
cleared eighty (640/.). Quintus the father has 
written to me in vexation about his son, principally 
owing to the fondness he now shows to his mother, 

s Day of transactions in the capitol, when, Caesar being 
assassinated, the conspirators took refuge there, and were 
joined by all the most respectable people. 

t Brutus and Cassius were praetors. 

i On which day was passed the decree confirming 
Caesar's acts, and the grants of land made to his veteran 
troops. 

v These are names of obscure persons enriched by Caesar 
out of the confiscated property of his enemies. 

w See letter 6 of this book. 

x Caesar. 

y I have in the translation adopted the conjectural 
emendation of Gronovius, who proposed to substitute 
utinam in the place of nunquam. 

z Of April. a Octavius. 

b Caesar's fortune, which Antonius had hoped to appro- 
priate to himself. 

c The Greek word in the original is probably a coinage 
of Atticus. See letter 8 of this book, note » . 

d Atticus had considerable possessions at Buthrotum in 
Epirus ; in consideration of which, he had not only got 
that country exempted from proscription, but had paid to 
Caesar's officers a large sum in discharge of the contribu- 
tions demanded of the inhabitants. This he was anxious 
to have ratified by the consuls according to the law for 
ratifying Caesar's acts. See Appendix, No. 1. 

e See book xiii. letter 46. 



towards whom he was before so undeservedly hostile f . 
He has sent me some flaming letters against him. 
What he is doing, if you know, and have not yet 
left Rome, I should be glad if you would inform 
me ; and indeed, if there is anything else. I am 
infinitely delighted with your letters. 



LETTER XI. 

The day before yesterday I sent you a longer 
letter. I shall now reply to the contents of your 
last. I should in truth be very glad to let Brutus 
occupy AsturaS. You speak of the intemperance of 
those people : did you expect it to be otherwise ? For 
my part, I look for yet greater things. When I 
read the harangue about " so great a man," about 
so "distinguished a citizen," 1 am unable to bearit. 
Though these things may now make one smile, yet 
remember, the custom of pernicious harangues is 
so cherished, that those our gods, not heroes, will 
live indeed in eternal glory, but not without envy, 
not even without danger. Yet they have a great 
consolation in the consciousness of the noblest and 
most famous deed. But what consolation is left 
for us, who, when our king is killed, are yet not 
free ? But let fortune see to this, since reason 
does not rule. I am pleased with what you tell me 
of Cicero. I wish all may go on well. The care 
you take to supply him amply for his use and orna- 
ment is very grateful to me, and I beg you to con- 
tinue it. Respecting the Buthrotians you judge 
very rightly, and I do not forget that concern. I 
will also undertake all legal actions which I per- 
ceive daily to become easier. With regard to the 
Cluvian inheritance (since the interest you take in 
my affairs exceeds even my own), the rents amount 
to a hundred (800/.). The downfall >> has not 
lessened the property ; I do not know if it may not 
have improved it. I have with me here Balbus, 
Hirtius, and Pansa. Octavius has lately arrived 
at the neighbouring house of Philippus. He is 
entirely devoted to me. Lentulus Spinther is 
coming to me to-day, and goes away to-morrow 
morning. 



LETTER XII. 

O my Atticus, I fear this 15th of March maybe 
productive of no other issue than a transitory joy, 
followed by the penalty of odium and grief. What 
is it that I hear from thence » ? What do I witness 
hereJ? A noble act indeed, but fruitless! You 
know how much I am attached to the people of 
Sicily, and how honourable I esteem that patronage. 
Csesar conferred upon them many benefits, to which 
I did not object, though their admission to the 
rights of Larium was too much. However, let that 
pass. But see now, Antonius, in consideration of a 
large sum of money, has promulged a law, said to 
have been proposed by the dictator in the comitia, 
by which the Siciians are made Roman citizens, 

f See book xiii. letter 38. It appears that Quintus the 
father had lately been divorced. 

g See letter 15 of this book. 

h This alludes to the ruinous state of some cottages 
belonging to the Cluvian property, mentioned in letter 9 
of this book. 

» From Rome. $ At Baiae. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



7^7 



of which there was never any mention during his 
life. Nay, is not the case the same with my friend 
Deiotarus k ? He is worthy indeed of any kingdom ; 
but not through the influence of Fulvia l . There 
are six hundred things of the same kind. But I 
come back to my purpose. In a cause so clear, so 
well attested, and so just, as that of Buthrotum m , 
shall we obtain no satisfaction ? "We may the more 
expect it, the more he n thus dispenses. Octavius 
conducts himself here in a manner very respectful 
and friendly towards me. His own people saluted 
him as Csesar ; but PhilippusP did not, therefore 
neither did I. I do not think it possible for him 
to be a good citizen, so many people are about him, 
who threaten the death of our friends. Theyi 
say these things are not to be borne. What think 
you, when this boy r shall come to Rome, where 
our liberators cannot be in safety ? Famous indeed 
they will always be, and happy too in the conscious- 
ness of what they have achieved. But we, unless 
I deceive myself, shall lie in disgrace. I wish, 
therefore, to get away, where " I may hear nothing 
of the Pelopidae s ," as the poet says. I do not like 
even these consuls elect, who have, however, forced 
me to declaim * ; so that I am not permitted to be 
at rest even at this watering-place. This is owing 
to my too great complaisance. Formerly it was 
almost necessary ; but now, whatever be the state 
of things, the case is altered. For a good while 
past I have had nothing to write to you ; yet I 
write, not because I can afford you any pleasure by 
this letter, but that I may elicit yours. Do you, if 
there is anything about other matters, but especially 
whatever occurs relative to Brutus, let me know it. 
I write this on the 22d u , while I am at table at 
Vestorius's house, a man unused to argument, but 
sufficiently versed in arithmetic v . 



LETTER XIII. 

Your letter of the 19th was delivered to me on 
the seventh day after. You ask, and even suppose 
that I do not myself know, whether I am most 
pleased with the hills and prospect, or with the 
walks on the level beach w . And indeed, as you 

k See book v. letter 17. He had been deprived of bis 
kingdom of Armenia by Ca>sar. 

1 Antonius's wife. See book xvi. letter 3. 
m See letter 10 of this book, note d . 
n Antonius. 

He had been adopted by Caesar, in consequence of 
which it was usual to take the name after it had been 
ratified in the assembly. 

P L. Philippus had married Atia, mother to Octavius, 
and niece to Caesar. 

1 Octavius's friends say that the conspirators ought not 
to go unpunished. 

r Octavius was at this time about eighteen years old. 

s Ihis is part of a sentence from a play of Accius, 
quoted more at length book xv. letter 11, meaning, 
" where I may hear nothing of these people." 

1 It was customary for distinguished orators to declaim 
on some subject proposed, for the edification of younger 
men. 

u Of April. 

v He was occasionally employed by Cicero in some 
money transactions, and may perhaps have been a scri- 
vener, or money agent, at Puteoli. See book xiii. letters 
45 and 46. 

w This must be supposed to allude to his recent acquisi- 
tion of Cluvius's estate at Puteoli. 



say, the beauty of both is such, that I doubt which 
is to be preferred. But "we have other cares than 
those of entertainments, and see with dread a pro- 
digious mischief gathering, and stand in doubt 
whether we shall be saved, or perish w ." For though 
you send me great and pleasing intelligence of D. 
Brutus* having joined his troops, in whom my best 
hopes reside ; yet, if a civil war breaks out, as it 
certainly will if Sextus remains in arms, which I 
am confident he will, what part I ought to take I 
know not. For it will not now be allowable, as it 
was in Csesar's war, to move neither to one side 
nor the other. But whomsoever this set of scoun- 
drels supposes to have been pleased with Csesar's 
death (and we have all most openly showed our 
joy), him they will hold to be in the number of their 
enemies. And this consideration leads to a most 
extensive slaughter. It remains for me, then, to 
join the army of Sextus ?, or perhaps of Brutus. 
An odious measure, at once foreign from our age, 
and exposed to the uncertain issue of war. So 
that we may in some measure say to each other, 
" My child, to you are not granted warlike opera- 
tions ; do you rather employ yourself in the lovely 
works of speech 2 ." But this must be left to 
fortune, which in such circumstances is of more 
avail than reason. Let us, however, see to that, 
which ought to be in our own power ; that what- 
ever happens we may bear it with fortitude and 
self-possession, and may remember that it is the 
condition of humanity : and let us still derive great 
consolation from literature, and not a little also 
from the 15th of March. Take now upon yourself 
the consideration of what constitutes my present 
solicitude, so many things occur to my mind 
both ways. I am going, as I had arranged, with 
a nominal appointment 3 to Greece. I may thus 
in some measure escape the danger of the impend- 
ing conflict, but am likely to incur blame for desert- 
ing the republic at so difficult a crisis. Should I 
remain, I foresee that I must be exposed to great 
risk ; but I conceive it may happen that I may be 
able to be of use to the republic. The following 
considerations are of a private nature ; that 1 think 
it may be very advantageous for the confirmation 
of my son, that I should go thither ; nor indeed 
had I any other object in view at the time when I 
determined to get from Caesar an honorary lieu- 
tenancy. You will take this whole business, there- 
fore, into your consideration, as you use to do 
where you think me to be concerned. I come now 
to your letter, in which you say it is rumoured that 
I am going to sell the property which I have at the 
lake b ; and to convey to Quintus that little place 
at an extravagant price, that the rich Aquillia, as 
young Quintus told you, may be introduced there c . 
But 1 have no thought of selling it, unless I should 
find something which I like better ; and Quintus 
has, at this time, no wish to purchase ; for he has 

w The original is from Homer. 

x Decimus Brutus was a relation of M. Brutus, and had 
the government of Cisalpine Gaul. 

7 S(xtus Pompeius in Spain. 

z The original is a little altered from an address of 
Jupiter to Venus in the Iliad of Homer. 

a .An honorary lieutenancy. See letter 5 of this book. 

b The Lucrine lake, in the neighbourhood of Baiae and 
Puteoli. See letter 16 of this book. 

c Quintus the son supposed that his father might marry 
Aquillia. See letter 17 of this book. 



798 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



enough to do in the repayment of his wife's dower d , 
in which he is under great obligations to Egnatius. 
And as for taking another wife, he is so far from 
it, that he declares nothing is more delightful than 
a single bed. But enough of this. I revert to the 
wretched, or rather the lost republic. M. Antonius 
has written to me about the restoration of Sextus 
Clodius e ; how honourably, as far as relates to 
me, you will see by his own letter, of which I send 
you a copy ; how profligately, how basely, how 
mischievously (so that I sometimes almost wish for 
Caesar again), you will easily believe. For things 
which Caesar would never either have done or suf- 
fered, are now brought forward from his forged 
instructions. I have treated Antonius with all 
civility ; for having once persuaded himself that he 
was at liberty to do what he chose, he would not 
the less have done it for my disapprobation. 
Therefore I send you likewise a copy of my answer. 



Antonius Consul to Cicero. 

It has happened from my occupations, and your 
sudden departure, that I have been prevented from 
treating with you personally upon the following 
business ; and in consequence am apprehensive 
that my absence may lessen the weight I might 
have with you. But if your goodness corresponds 
with the opinion I have always entertained of you, 
I shall sincerely rejoice. I begged of Caesar to 
restore Sex. Clodius ; and I gained my suit. It 
was my intention, even then, to use his kindness 
'only on the condition of your acceding to it ; which 
makes me the more earnest that I may now be per- 
mitted to do it with your consent. But if you show 
yourself unmoved by his miserable and ruined for- 
tune, I shall not contend against you, however I 
may seem bound to support Caesar's will. Yet in 
truth, if you are disposed to regard me with huma- 
nity, with prudence and charity, you will easily be 
persuaded ; and will be glad that P. Clodius f , a 
youth of the fairest hopes, should think that, when 
it was in your power, you did not persecute his 
father's friends. Let it, I entreat you, appear that 
you engaged in hostility with his father for the 
republic's sake; and you will not despise this 
family. For we more honourably, and more readily, 
lay aside the quarrels which have been taken up in 
the name of the republic, than those of private 
pique. Suffer me then to instil into this youth, 
even now, these sentiments, and to teach his tender 
mind that quarrels are not to be transmitted to 
posterity. Though I know well that your fortune, 
Cicero, is exempt from all danger ; yet I apprehend 
you would rather pass a tranquil and honourable 
old age, than one of vexation. Lastly, I ask this 
favour of you by my own right, having done every- 
thing in my power for your sake. Should I not 
obtain your consent, so far as I am concerned, I 
shall not give this boon to Clodius ; that you may 
understand how great your authority is with me, 
and may for that reason be the more easily conci- 
liated. 

d Having lately put away his wife Pomponia. 

e He had been a partisan of P. Clodius, and banished for 
having headed an uproar at the time of P. Clodius's death. 

f Son of that P. Clodius who had been so inveterate 
against Cicero, and the author of his banishment. Anto- 
nius had married his mother Fulvia, widow of P. Clodius. 



Cicero to Antonius, Consul. 

What you negotiate with me by letter, I should 
for one reason only have wished to negotiate in 
person ; that you might have perceived not by my 
words alone, but also by my countenance, and eyes, 
and forehead, as they say, the affection I bear you. 
For having always loved you, as indeed I was con- 
strained to do, first by your attention, afterwards 
also by the favours I received, so in these times 
the republic has attached me to you in such a man- 
ner, that I hold nobody dearer ; and the letter you 
have written full of affection and consideration, 
makes me feel not that I am doing a kindness to 
you, but receiving one from you ; while in your 
request you refuse to serve my enemy, though your 
own relation, against my consent ; when you have 
it in your power to do so without any difficulty. 
But, my Antonius, I not only concede this to you ; 
but such are the expressions you use, that I consi- 
der myself most liberally and honourably treated. 
And though in any case I should think it right 
freely to grant this to you, I am glad to do it also 
in consideration of my own feelings and disposition. 
For I never entertained any bitterness, nor any- 
thing that partakes of austereness or severity, 
beyond what the necessity of the republic demanded. 
To which I may add, that against Clodius s him- 
self I never showed any signs of anger ; and have 
always made it a rule, not to persecute an enemy's 
friends, especially those without power ; and not 
to deprive ourselves of the protection they afforded. 
Respecting young Clodius, I consider it to be your 
business to imbue his tender mind, as you say, with 
these sentiments, that he may not suppose any 
hostility to remain between our families. In my 
contentions with P. Clodius I supported the pub- 
lic cause ; he his own. The republic has passed 
its judgment upon our struggles. If he were living, 
I should now have no quarrel remaining with him. 
Therefore, since you ask this of me in such a man- 
ner, that, notwithstanding your power, you refuse 
to make use of it without my consent, pray give 
this also to the young man, if you think fit ; not 
that my age has any danger to apprehend from 
his youth ; or that my dignity has to fear any 
opposition ; but that you and I may be mutually 
united together more than we have hitherto been. 
For owing to the intervention of these hostilities, 
your heart has been more open to me, than your 
house. But enough of this. I have only to say, 
that I shall always, without hesitation, and with the 
greatest zeal, do whatever I think will please you, 
or contribute to your advantage ; of which I beg 
you to be thoroughly persuaded. 



LETTER XIV. 

Repeat again those same words to me h . Has 
our young Quintus worn a chaplet in the public ' 

g Sextus Clodius, for whom Antonius had written to 
him. 

h The text is borrowed from a play of Pacuvius. 

» The Parilia were celebrated the 21st of April ; but 
Caesar having received the news of a victory gained in 
Spain on the eve of this annual festival, appointed addi- 
tional games to be observed ever after in memory of that 
event. Young Quintus wore a chaplet on this occasion to 
show his attachment to Cassar. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



799 



? Was he the only one ? though you add 
Lamia, which I am surprised at ; but I wish to 
know who there were besides. I am quite sure 
however there could be nobody who was not a bad 
citizen. Yet let me hear the particulars. It hap- 
pened that I had despatched to you my letter of 
the 26th written at considerable length, about three 
hours before I received yours full of important 
matter. I need not tell you how heartily I laughed 
at your pleasantry and wit on the Vestorine k heresy, 
and the Puteolan custom of the Pherios. But let 
us turn to what more immediately concerns the 
public. You defend the party of Brutus and Cas- 
sius, as if I reproached them, whom I cannot 
sufficiently praise. But I summed up the faults of 
the times, not of the men. For after the tyrant 
has been removed, I see the tyranny continue. So 
that what he ' would not have done, is now done ; 
as in the case of Clodius ; respecting whom I am 
confident that he not only would not have done it, 
but would not even have suffered it. Rufio Ves- 
torianus m will follow, (who was never written 
Victor 11 ,) and others. Who will not ? We could 
not bear to be the slaves of the man himself ; yet 
we yield obedience to his memorandums. For on 
the 18th of March ° who could absent himself from 
the senate ? But suppose that this might in some 
manner have been possible ; yet, when we had 
assembled, could we freely deliver our opinions ? 
Was it not necessary by all means to support the 
veteran soldiers?, who were present, and armed, 
while we had nothing to protect us ? How little I 
was pleased with that session i in the capitol, you 
are witness. What then ? Was that the fault of 
the Brutuses r ? By no means indeed of those 
Brutuses ; but of other Brutuses s , who think them- 
selves cautious and prudent ; who were satisfied 
with feeling a secret joy ; while some even expressed 
their congratulations ; but none remained firm. 
But let us omit what is past ; let us support these 
people with every care and protection; and, as you 
teach us, let us be content to think ourselves happy 
in the 15th of March ; which to our friends indeed, 
those more than mortal men, has given an access 
to heaven ; but has not given freedom to the Roman 
people. Recollect your own prediction. Do you 



k Alluding to Cicero's 12th letter, in the conclusion of 
which he speaks of Vestorius as more versed in arithmetic 
than in philosophical reasoning. What is meant by the 
Puteolan custom of the Pherios is not so easily explained ; 
hut may probably be a witticism of the same kind, drawn 
from the circumstance of the Pherios being perhaps brokers 
at Puteoli. 

1 Caesar. 

m See book v. letter 2. 

n Atticus may have erroneously written his name Rufio 
Victor ; but Cicero says he should rather be distinguished 
by the name of Vestorianus, having been implicated in 
some dispute with Vestorius, but without obtaining a vic- 
tory over him, and therefore not entitled to the appellation 
of Victor. 

On that day the senate had been summoned by An- 
tonius, and passed the decree for the ratification of Caesar's 
acts. 

p Whom Caesar had rewarded with the confiscated estates 
of the Pompeians. 

q Where Brutus and most persons of condition assembled 
after the assassination of Caesar. 

r Brutus's party. 

s No fault of those who exerted themselves to restore 
the republic ; but of others, who refused to support them, 
after professing attachment to the cause of liberty. 



not remember how you exclaimed that everything 
was lost, if he should have a public funeral? You 
said it wisely ; and you see what has flowed from 
that circumstance. As to what you mention, that 
Antonius was to bring forward the subject of the 
provinces on the first of June, of which he was 
himself to have the two Gauls, with extension of 
the ordinary time in both : will it be allowed to 
vote freely ? If it is, I shall rejoice at the recovery 
of our liberty ; if not, what do I get by this change 
of masters, besides the pleasure with which my eyes 
beheld the just fall of the tyrant ? You say that 
the temple of Ops * has been plundered ; which I 
foresaw at that time. Verily we have been set free 
by excellent men, and yet are not free. So the 
praise is theirs, the blame our own. And do you 
exhort me to write history ? To collect together 
the wicked acts of these people, by whom we are 
even now besieged ? Can I avoid commending 
those same persons, who have employed you to 
countersign u ? Not that the paltry interest weighs 
with me ; but it is hard to visit with reproach 
people, whoever they are, that are kindly disposed. 
But about all my designs, as you mention, I think 
I shall be able to decide more certainly on the 1st 
of June, on which day I shall be in Rome, and 
will use my utmost endeavours, with the help of 
your authority and influence, and the perfect jus- 
tice of the cause, that a decree of the senate may 
be obtained in the case of the Buthrotians, such as 
you describe. What you bid me consider, I will 
consider ; though in my last letter I had referred 
the consideration to you. But you are for restoring 
to your neighbours v , the Marsilians, their property ; 
as if the republic were already re-established. It 
may perhaps be possible to do this by arms, in 
which what strength we possess I know not ; by 
authority it is impossible. 



LETTER XV. 

The short letter, which you afterwards* wrote, 
was indeed very pleasing to me, about Brutus's 
letter to Antonius, and the other to you. Things 
wear a better appearance than they have hitherto 
done. But I must consider where I am, and which 
way I should even now proceed x . My charming 
Dolabella ! For I now call him mine ; before, 
believe me, I had some doubt. This is an affair of 
deep contemplation. From the Tarpeian rocky ! 
On the cross ! Throwing down the pillar ! Con- 

1 In which Caesar had collected a large sum of money 
for the prosecution of the Parthian war. 

u See letter 3 of this book. 

v It is probable some deputies from Marseilles might be 
living in the neighbourhood of Atticus's house at Rome, 
suing for the restoration of what Caesar had taken from 
them when they refused to join his party. 

w Atticus had probably so called it in his letter. 

x It having been his intention to pass over to Greece. 
See letter 13 of this book. 

y Dolabella had exerted himself in his capacity of con- 
sul to check the forwardness of those who had raised a 
monument to Caesar, and erected a pillar inscribed •' To 
the father of his country." Some he caused to be thrown 
from the Tarpeian rock (an ancient form of capital pun- 
ishment in Rome} ; others, slaves, he ordered to be cruci- 
fied ; at the same time throwing down the pillar and monu- 
ment, and ordering the ground on which they stood to be 
new paved. 



800 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



trading for the new paving of the ground ! In 
short, it is quite heroic. He seems to have put 
an end to that affectation of regret 2 , which was 
already making daily progress, and which I feared, 
had it continued, would have been dangerous to our 
deliverers. I now entirely concur with your letter, 
and hope for better things ; though I cannot bear 
those persons, who, while ihey pretend to be friends 
to peace, support his a wicked acts. But all can- 
not be done at once. Things are beginning to go 
better than I had expected. I shall not, however, 
go abroad, till you think I can do it with propriety. 
I will certainly nowhere be wanting to my Brutus. 
Even if there were no friendship between us, I 
would do it in acknowledgment of his great and 
distinguished virtue. I give up to Pilia my whole 
house b , and all that it contains, being myself on my 
way to Pompeianum this 1st of May. I wish you 
would persuade Brutus to occupy my house at 
Astura c . 



LETTER XVI. 

I send this letter the 3d of May on the point of 
embarking from the Cluvian gardens in a row-boat, 
after having put our dear Pilia in possession of my 
house on the Lucrine lake, with the servants and 
purveyors. The same day I threaten our friend 
Paetus's potted cheese d , and proceed in a few days 
to Pompeianum ; whence I shall afterwards return 
by sea to these royal 6 domains of Puteoli and 
Cumse. O places greatly to be desired in all other 
respects ! but from the number of troublesome 
visitors almost to be shunned. But to come to the 
point ; how noble is this conduct of my Dolabella ! 
What matter it affords for contemplation ! For 
my part, I do not cease to praise and to encourage 
him. You do well to inform me in all your letters, 
what you think of the thing itself, and what of the 
man. Our friend Brutus, I suppose, might now 
wear even a golden crown in the middle of the 
forum. For who would dare to insult him, with a 
cross, or the Tarpeian rock f before his eyes ? 
Especially amidst such great applause and appro- 
bation of the lowest people. Now, my Atticus, 
resolve me of my doubts. I should like, when I 
have fully satisfied Brutus, to make an excursion 
into Greece. It is of great moment to Cicero, or 
rather to me, or 1 may say to both of us, that I 
should look upon him in his studies. For Leonidas's 
letter, which you sent me, affords me no great 
satisfaction. I shall never be content with com- 
mendations such as these ; " as things are at pre- 
sent." It is the testimony of one who feels no 
confidence, but rather mistrust. I had desired 
Herodes to write to me in detail ; but I have 
hitherto heard nothing from him. I fear he may 
have had nothing which he thought would give me 
pleasure to hear. I am much obliged to you for 
having written to Xeno ; for my duty and reputa- 

z The display of their regret for Caesar. a Caesar's. 

b His house at Cumanum, on the borders of the Lucrine 
lake. [See letters 16 and 17 of this book.] Pilia probably 
went on account of her health. See book xv. letter 1. 

c This proposal is mentioned before. See letter 11 of 
this book. 

d The same expression is used before. [See book iv. let- 
ter 8] It seems to mean only a cheap and homely dish. 

e Expressive of the satisfaction he took in them. 

f See letter 15 of this book. 



tion, are both concerned in his having no want j 

unsupplied. I hear that Flamma Flaminius is in j 
Rome. I have written to him to say that I had 

desired you to speak with him about the business j 

of Montanus s • and I shall be glad if you will take ' 

care that my letter is delivered to him ; and will | 

yourself, at your convenience, have some conversa- j 

tion with him. I conceive if the man has any | 

sense of shame, he will provide against the possi- j 

bility of any expense being incurred on his account, j 
You have acted very kindly towards me in letting 

me know that Attica was well, before I knew of j 
her indisposition. 



LETTER XVII. 

I came to Pompeianum the 3d of May, having, 
the day preceding, as I before wrote you word, 
established Pilia in Cumanum. There, whilst I was 
at dinner, your letter was delivered to me, which 
you had given to your freed-man Demetrius, the 
30th of last month. In this are contained many 
things prudently done, yet such that, as you your- 
self observe, every design appears subject to the 
control of fortune. Upon these subjects, therefore, 
we can only speak as occasion offers, and when we 
are together. Respecting the affair of Buthrotum, 
I wish I may have an opportunity of seeing Anto- 
nius, which will be a great step. But it is not 
expected that he will deviate from the Capuan road, 
whither I fear he is gone to the great prejudice of 
the republic 11 . L. Csesar 5 , whom I saw yesterday 
at Naples very far from well, was of the same 
opinion. This business must therefore be entered 
upon, and completed on the 1st of JuneJ. But 
enough of this. "Young Quintus has written a most 
bitter letter to his father, who received it upon our 
arrival at Pompeianum. The substance of it was 
that he would not tolerate Aquillia as his step- 
mother. That however might perhaps be borne. 
But what think you of this ? That from Csesar he 
had received everything : nothing from his father ; 
and for what was to come he looked to Antonius. 
How lost to all sense of honour ! But I will think 
what can be done. I have written letters to our 
friend Brutus, to Cassius, and to Dolabella ; of 
which I send you copies ; not with a view to 
deliberate about sending them, for I am clearly 
of opinion they should be sent ; but because I 
doubt not that you will agree with me. I beg you, 
my Atticus, to supply my son with what you think 
right, and to allow me to lay this burden upon you. 
I am very thankful for what you have hitherto 
done. That unpublished work of mine k has not 
yet been polished, as I designed. What you wish 
to have interwoven in it requires another separate 
volume. But, believe me, I think there was less 
danger in speaking against those wicked practices 
during the life of the tyrant than since his death. 
For he somehow bore with me surprisingly. Now, 

g See book xii. letter 53. 

h He went to secure the co operation of the veteran 
troops, who had been established in that neighbourhood. 

> This Lucius Caesar appears, by the following letter to 
Dolabella, to have been Antonius's uncle by his mother's 
side. 

j The senate had been appointed to meet on this day. 
See letter 14 of this book. 

k His Anecdotes, or secret Memoirs and Observations on 
Public Affairs. See book ii. letter 6. 



TO TITUS POMPON1US ATTICUS. 



801 



whichever way I move, I am called back to observe 
not only the acts of Caesar, but his very thoughts. 
Flamma being arrived, you will see about Mon- 
tanus : I think his business ought to be in a better 
state. 

Cicero to his Dolabella, Consul. 
Though I am satisfied, my Dolabella, with the 
glory you have gained, and derive abundantly great 
joy and delight from it ; yet I cannot help acknow- 
ledging that my pleasure is enhanced by the 
common opinion which supposes me to have a 
share in your praises. I have seen nobody' — and 
I meet with numbers every day ; for there are a 
great many excellent men who come into these 
parts™ on account of their health, besides many of 
my friends from the neighbouring towns ; all of 
whom, while they extol you to the skies with the 
loudest praises, presently return the greatest 
thanks to me. For they say they cannot doubt 
but that it is in consequence of my instructions 
and advice that you show yourself so excellent a 
citizen, and so distinguished a consul. To whom, 
though I might most truly reply, that what you do, 
you do from your own judgment and inclination, 
and that you need nobody's advice ; yet I neither 
quite assent, lest I should seem to lessen your 
praise, if it were all owing to my counsels ; neither 
do I strongly deny it ; for, you know, I am more 
than enough covetous of glory. Besides, it is not 
unbecoming your dignity (what was thought 
honourable to Agamemnon himself, the king of 
kings) to have some Nestor in forming your 
counsels ; while to me it is most glorious that you, 
a young consul, should flourish in praises as the 
pupil of my institution. L. Csesar, when I saw 
him sick at Naples, though he was suffering from 
pains all over his body, yet, almost before he 
saluted me, " O my Cicero," said he, " I congra- 
tulate you upon having such influence with Dola- 
bella ; which, if I had with my sister's son n , we 
might already be safe. Congratulate also and 
thank your Dolabella, who, since your own con- 
sulship, is the only one whom I can truly call a 
consul." He went on to say a great deal about 
the case, and the part you had taken ; and declared 
that nothing was ever done more noble, nothing 
more famous, nothing more salutary to the repub- 
lic : and in this all with one voice agree. I must 
beg you then to let me enter upon this false inhe- 
ritance, as it were, of another's glory, and in some 
measure to become a partner in your praises. But 
in truth, my Dolabella, (for hitherto I have been 
joking,) I would sooner transfer to you all my own 
praises, if indeed I have any, than draw off any 
part from yours. For having always had that 
affection for you, of which you are the best judge ; 
yet with these actions I am so wonderfully inflamed, 
that no affection ever was stronger. For nothing, 
believe me, is more becoming, nothing more beau- 
ful, nothing more lovely, than virtue. I have 
always, as you know, loved M. Brutus for his great 
abilities, his sweet disposition, his distinguished 
probity and firmness ; yet the 15th of March pro- 

1 The following part of the sentence being differently 
turned, there is left a sort of hiatus in the construction, 
which is no blemish in a letter, even if it be thought one 
in a more studied composition. 

m The neighbourhood of Baiae. 

n Antonius. 



duced such an accession to my love, that I won- 
dered there should have been any room for the 
increase of what seemed already at the full. Who 
would have thought that any addition could have 
been made to the love I bare you ? Yet such is 
the addition, that I seem to myself now at length 
to love, before only to have liked. Why, then, 
should I exhort you to regard your own dignity 
and glory ? Should I propose to you the exam- 
ples of eminent men, as they do who use exhort- 
ations? I have nobody to propose more eminent 
than yourself. It is yourself you must imitate ; 
with yourself you must contend. It is not allow- 
able for you now, after such noble deeds, not to be 
like yourself. Which being the case, exhortation 
is needless. We ought rather to congratulate you. 
For that has happened to you which has happened 
I believe to nobody else, that the utmost severity 
of punishment has not only been inflicted without 
exciting ill-will, but has even been popular ; and, 
while it has gratified every good man, it has like- 
wise pleased every one of the lowest class. If this 
were the effect of change, I would congratulate 
your good fortune ; but it is the effect of your own 
greatness of mind, your understanding, and judg- 
ment. For I have read your speech, than which 
nothing can be more prudent. So step by step 
have you gone back to the cause of what was done, 
and again returned from it ; that the case itself, 
by the confession of everybody, was ripe for your 
animadversion. You have saved therefore both 
the city from danger, and the state from fear ; 
and have conferred a benefit not merely temporary, 
but of lasting example. You ought, consequently, 
to understand that the republic reposes on you ; 
and that those persons, from whom it has derived 
a commencement of liberty, are by you not only 
to be protected, but rewarded with honours. But 
on these matters I hope very soon to say more in 
person. Since it is you who preserve the republic 
and us, take especial care, my Dolabella, of our 
own safety. 



LETTER XVIII. 

You repeatedly attack me because I appear too 
extravagantly to extol this action of Dolabella's. 
But while I certainly approve of what has been 
done, I have been led by more than one of your 
letters to this high strain of commendation. Dola- 
bella, however, has wholly forfeited your opinion 
by the same cause, which has likewise made me 
very much his enemy. The modest man ! He 
ought to have paid the 1st of January, and he has 
not paid yet ; though he was set free from an enor- 
mous debt by the hand of Faberius , and begged 
from him the assistance of Ops p. For it is allow- 
able to jest, that you may not think me too much 
disturbed. It was early on the 8th that 1 sent my 
letter ; and I received yours the evening of the 
same day in Pompeianum, by a quick conveyance 

This Faberius appears to have been a clerk to Ca-sar, 
and since made a tool of Antonius to insert in Ca>sar's in- 
structions what he thought fit. It was by such means that 
Antonius got possession of Caesar's money; with some of 
which he bought Dolabella's concurrence in his schemes. 

P Caesar's treasure had been secured in the temple of 
Ops ; and in Latin the same word signifies also assistance: 
from whence arises the matter of Cicero's jest. 
3 F 



802 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



of two days. But, as I sent you word the very 
same day, I wrote a sharp letter to Dolabella ; and 
if this has no effect, yet I apprehend he will not 
resist my personal application. I imagine you 
have settled the Albian account. What you have 
furnished me from the Patulcian account is most 
acceptable, and like everything you do. I thought 
Eros, whom I had left, was made for settling such 
affairs, which have got into confusion by his great 
mismanagement. But I must see about this with 
him. You will take upon yourself, as I have often 
mentioned to you, the whole concern of Monta- 
nus's business. I am not at all surprised at Ser- 
vius's desponding conversation with you at the 
time of his departure ; nor do I in any respect 
yield to him in despondency. If our friend 
Brutus, that excellent man, does not go into the 
senate on the 1st of June, I do not understand 
what he means to do in the forum. But he knows 
best. By what I perceive to be going on, I judge 
there has not been much gained by the 15th of 
March. Therefore I think daily more and more 
about going into Greece. For I do not see how I 
can be of any use to my Brutus, who, as you say, 
is himself thinking of leaving the country. I am 
not at all satisfied with Leonidas's letter. Respect- 
ing Herodes, I agree with you. I should like to 
have read Saufeius's? account. I design to leave 
Pompeianum the 10th of May. 



LETTER XIX. 
On the 7th of May while I was in Pompeianum 
I received two letters from you, one the sixth, the 
other the fourth day after their dates. I shall 
reply to them in their order. I am very glad that 
Barnseus should have delivered my letter to you so 
seasonably. You will manage with Cassius as you 
do everything else. How fortunate that I should 
have written to him upon the very point you advise 
four days before, and should have sent you a copy 
of my letter ! But while I was in despair about 
Dolabella's deficiency, or paylessness i (to use 
your own expression), behold Brutus's letter and 
yours ! He is thinking of quitting the country. 
But I see a different haven r nearer to one of my 
age ; into which I should like better to be con- 
veyed, while our Brutus is flourishing, and the 
republic established. But now, as you say, there 
is no choice. For you agree with me that my age 
is unsuitable to arms, especially to those of civil 
wars. Antonius wrote to me only about Clodius s ; 
that my gentleness and kindness was gratifying to 
himself, and would be a source of great satisfaction 
to me. But Pansa seems to be outrageous on the 
subject of Clodius, and likewise on that of Deio- 
tarus ; and uses severe language, if you choose to 

What is expressed in Latin the third day, is really the 
next day but one. In this sense it is used in the Gospels 
on the occasion of our Lord's resurrection ; and so in fact 
it is always used by Roman authors. 

P Some letter on the subject of the young Cicero from 
Saufeius, who may probably have been at this time at 
Athens. 

<i The original Greek may perhaps have been a word of 
Atticus's coining, of which I have endeavoured to express 
the meaning in a similar manner in English. 

r Death. Cicero was at this time in his 63d year. 

s This is probably in reply to some question of Atticus 
upon the subject of Antonius's letter. 



believe him. This, however, is not so well in my 
mind ; that he vehemently reprobates this act of 
Dolabella's. Respecting those who wore chap- 
lets* ; your sister's son, upon being accused by his 
father, wrote in answer, that he had worn a chap- 
let in honour of Caesar ; and had put it off on 
account of his mourning ; in short, that he was 
ready to bear every reproach, for that he loved 
Csesar even dead. I have written to Dolabella 
very explicitly, as you wished me to do. I have 
also written to Sica. I would not put this trouble 
upon you ; and should be sorry to have him angry 
with you. I know Servius's manner of talking 11 , 
in which I see more of alarm than of wisdom. 
But since we are all alarmed, I assent to Servius. 
Publilius v has been trifling with you. For Cserel- 
lia w has been sent hither by these people to nego- 
tiate with me. But I soon persuaded her that 
what she asked was not only not agreeable to me, 
but not even admissible. If I see Antonius, I will 
use all diligence about Buthrotum. I come now 
to your last letter (though on the subject of Ser- 
vius I have already replied) that I exalt Dolabella's 
deed. In truth, I think it could not have been 
better in such a case, and at such a time. But 
whatever I attribute to him, I do it from your 
letters. Yet I agree with you that it would be a 
better deed, if he paid me what he owes. I wish 
Brutus would occupy Astura. You commend me 
for making no determination about going abroad 
till I see how things are likely to turn out ; but I 
have changed my purpose. However, I shall do 
nothing till I see you. I am pleased with Attica's 
returning thanks to me about her mother, to whom 
I have given up my whole house and stores ; and 
I hope to see her again on the 11th. Give my 
compliments to Attica ; I will take good care of 
Pilia. 



LETTER XX. 

I went by sea from Pompeianum to my friend 
Lucullus's on the 1 0th, where I arrived about 
9 o'clock ; and upon quitting the vessel I got your 
letter dated the 7th, which your messenger was 
said to have carried to Cumanum. The next day 
I received another through Lucullus about the 
same hour on which I had arrived ; and I received 
one on the 9th dated from Lanuvium. Hear, there- 
fore, my reply to all of them. In the first place, 
I am much pleased with what has been done in my 
concerns respecting both the payment and the 
business of Albius. But with regard to your 
Buthrotum, Antonius came to Misenum while I 
was in Pompeianum ; and he had left it again 
before I heard of his being there. From thence 
he went to Samnium ; so that I can give you little 
hope of my meeting him. The business of Buth- 
rotum must therefore be managed at Rome. L. 
Antonius's x harangue is quite horrible ; Dola- 

t See letter 14 of this book. u See letter 18 of this book. 

v See book xii. letter 32. 

■* See book xiii. letter 21. It may be supposed that she 
was sent to negotiate a reconciliation between Cicero and 
Publilia. 

x He was brother to M. Antonius, and at this time one 
of the tribunes of the people. He proposed to make a fur- 
ther grant of lands to the people, to secure their support 
for his brother ; in which he was opposed by Dolabella. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



803 



bella's excellent. Now x let him keep the money 
to himself if he will but pay it on the 15th. I 
should be sorry if Tertulla? were to miscarry ; for 
Cassius's need to be reared as well as Brutus's. 
I should be glad to know what is become of the 
queen 1 , and also of the young Caesar a . I have 
done with your first letter, and come now to the 
second. About the Quintuses and Buthrotum, 
when I come, as you say. I am much obliged for 
your advances to Cicero. You think I am mis- 
taken in supposing that the republic depends upon 
Brutus ; but so it is. It will either cease to exist, 
or it will be preserved by him or his party. To 
your advice of my sending up b a written speech, 
let me, my Atticus, reply by a general maxim on 
these subjects, in which I am pretty well versed. 
There never was any poet or orator who thought 
anybody superior to himself. This is the case 
even with bad ones. What do you think then of 
Brutus, who has both genius and learning ? Of 
whom also I have had some experience lately on 
the subject of his edict. I composed one at your 
request. I liked mine ; he liked his own. Nay, 
when I had addressed to him my treatise on the 
best style of oratory, which I was induced to do 
almost at his earnest solicitation, he wrote word, 
not to me only, but to you also, that what I recom- 
mended he did not approve. Therefore, leave 
everybody, I beg, to write for himself. " Every 
one his own wife, mine for me; every one his own 
taste, mine for me." I cannot say much for the 
style of this, being taken from Attilius, a very 
harsh poet. I wish only that he c may be allowed 
to address the people at all ; for if he is allowed to 
remain in the city in safety, the cause is ours. 
For either nobody will follow the leader of a new 
civil war ; or those will follow who may easily be 
overpowered. I come to the third letter. I am 
glad that Brutus and Cassius were pleased with 
my letter; and have in consequence written to 
them again. With regard to their wish that Hir- 
tius may be made better through me ; I use my 
best endeavours, and he talks most honourably ; 
but he lives and is domesticated with Balbus, who 
talks honourably likewise : you must judge what 
you are to believe. I see you are greatly pleased 
with Dolabella ; I am exceedingly so. I lived 
with Pansa in Pompeianum ; who quite convinced 
me of his upright sentiments, and his desire of 
peace ; but I see clearly that some people are 
seeking for an occasion of war. I approve of the 
proclamation of Brutus and Cassius. You ask me 
to take upon myself the consideration of what I 
think they ought to do. But opinions depend 
upon the time ; which fluctuates every hour. That 
first act of Dolabella's, and this speech in oppo- 
sition to Antonius, seem to me to have done much. 
The cause was utterly sinking. Now we appear 
likely to have a leader ; which is the only thing 
the free towns and all good people want. You 
speak of Epicurus, and venture to pronounce that 
one should abstain from polities' 1 . Does not the 

x In consideration^ his patriotic conduct. 
y Wife of Cassius. 
z Cleopatra. 

a The son of Cleopatra hy Caesar. 
h For the use of Brutus, 
c Brutus. 

d It will be recollected that the leading principle of 
Epicurus's philosophy was to consult our own ease. 



dear look of my Brutus deter you from such lan- 
guage ? Q. the son, as you mention, is the right 
hand of Antonius. Through him therefore we 
shall easily carry what we wish e . If, as you sup- 
pose, L. Antonius should bring forward Octavius, 
I am anxious to know how he will address the 
people. I write this in haste ; for Cassius's mes- 
senger is setting off immediately. I am going 
presently to pay my compliments to Pilia ; then 
by water to feast with Vestorius. Best compli- 
ments to Attica. 



LETTER XXI. 

Soon after I had delivered to Cassius's messenger 
my letter to you on the 11th, my own messenger 
arrived, and (what was like a prodigy) without any 
letter from you. But it presently occurred to me 
that you must have been at Lanuvium. Eros 
hastened, that I might get a letter from Dolabella. 
He did not write about my business f , for he had 
not yet received mine ; but it was in answer to that 
of which I sent a copy to you, and was well ex- 
pressed. As soon as I had despatched Cassius's 
messenger, I received a visit from Balbus. Gracious 
gods ! how easily might you perceive his dread of 
quiet ! You know the man, how reserved he is ; 
but yet he spake freely of Antonius's designs, who 
was going round to the veteran soldiers, to secure 
the ratification of Caesar's acts, and to make them 
swear to enforce them everywhere ; for which pur- 
pose the Duumviri £ were to examine them every 
month. He complained also of his own unpopu- 
larity ; and his whole conversation showed his 
attachment to Antonius. In short, there is no 
relying upon anything 11 . To me it is no longer 
doubtful that affairs tend to war. For that deed 1 
has been done with a manly spirit, but with the 
prudence of a child. Who did not see that there 
was left an heir J to the kingdom ? What could be 
more absurd ? "To fear this ; to have no appre- 
hension about the other k ." Nay, at this very 
time there are many inconsistencies ; as that Pon- 
tius's Neapolitan villa should be held by the mother 1 
of the tyrant-killer. I must read again and again 
my " Cato the Elder 111 ," which I sent you, — for 
age makes' me peevish ; I am out of humour with 
everything : but my life has had its course n , let 
younger men see to it. You will continue to watch 
over my concerns as you do. I write or rather 
dictate this while the dessert is upon the table at 
Vestorius's. I intend to-morrow to be with Hir- 
tius ; and thus forsooth I hope to bring over to 
the honest party one of the five that are left ° ! It 

e Respecting Buthrotum. 

f The payment of his debt to Cicero. 

S The colonial towns of Italy were governed by two ma- 
gistrates, called duumviri, in imitation of the Roman 
consuls, and they were subject to tbe Roman laws. 

h For Balbus had talked honourably of serving the re- 
public. See letter 20 of this book. 

» The assassination of Caesar. J Antonius. 

k The original is a verse of which notice has before been 
taken. See book xii. letter 52, 

1 Servilia, who had been a favourite of Caesar, and re- 
ceived a grant of land forfeited by some of the Pompeian 
party. 

m Cicero's essay on Old Age, so entitled. 

n He was now about G3. 

I have endeavoured to give what appears the most 
probable signification of the Greek word of the text. I sus- 
3 F2 



804 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



is a great delusion. There is no one of them who 
does not dread a state of quiet. Let me then put 
wings to my feet ; for anything is better than to 
engage in war. Pray give my best compliments to 
Attica. I am eager for Octavius's speech, and 
anything else there may be,— particularly whether 
Dolabella's money begins to chink p, or if he has 
altogether cancelled my account. 



LETTER XXII. 
Having understood from Pilia*that a messenger 
was to be sent to you on the 15th, I have immediately 
scrawled something. In the first place, then, I 
wish you to know that I go from hence to Arpinum 
the 17th of May, — so that hereafter you will direct 
thither if there is anything, though I shall myself 
presently be at Rome. But I wish, before I arrive, 
to find out more accurately what is likely to happen; 
though I fear my conjectures may prove too true : 
for it is sufficiently clear what they aim at. My 
pupil i, who dines with me to-day, is greatly at- 
tached to him whom our Brutus stabbed ; and, if 
you ask me, I plainly perceive they dread a state 
of quiet. This position they hold and openly 
maintain, — that he who has been killed was a most 
distinguished man, and that the whole state is 
thrown into disorder by his death ; that what he 

pect that many of these words are borrowed from Atticus, 
who may possibly have designated by the appellation of 
irevTeAonrol some five principal supporters of Caesar's 
party, one of whom might be Hirtius. From Trei>Te\oiirot 
Cicero may humorously have derived TrevTe\oiiv6v. 

P If he is preparing to pay me. 

1 Hirtius. See letter 12 of this book. 



did would be without effect as soon as we lay aside 
our fears; that his own clemency was his ruin, 
without which nothing of the kind could have hap- 
pened to him. What occurs to me is, that if 
Pompeius r comes up with a firm army, which is 
probable, there will certainly be war. The very 
idea and thought of this disturbs me : for what 
was formerly allowed to you s will not now be 
allowed to me. I have not concealed my joy * ; 
besides, they are fond of charging me with ingra- 
titude. So that what was formerly allowed to you 
and many others will on no account be allowed. 
Must I declare myself then, and go into the field ? 
It is better to die a thousand times, especially at 
this age. The 1 5th of March, therefore, is not so 
great a consolation as it was, because of the great 
blunder that it embraces. Still those young u men 
"by their other well-doings put out this reproach v ." 
But if you have any better hope, since you both 
hear more and are admitted to their counsels, I 
wish you would write to me, and at the same time 
consider what I should do about a votive legation w . 
Many people in these parts warn me not to attend 
the senate on the first, as soldiers are said to be 
secretly engaged for that day, and expressly against 
the conspirators, who, I apprehend, will be safer 
anywhere than in the senate. 

r Sextus Pompeius. 

8 To take no part in the civil war. 

* Joy at Caesar's death. 

u The conspirators, who were all much younger than 
Cicero. 

v The original is a verse from some unknown Greek 
poet. 

w A leave of absence on some fictitious appointment. 
See letter 5 of this book, and elsewhere. 



BOOK XV. 



LETTER I. 

O sad news of Alexion*. It is not to be be- 
lieved how much I am afflicted ; and that, not on 
account of what most persons suggest, asking what 
physician I should employ. For what have I now 
to do with a physician ? Or if I should want one, 
is there such a scarcity ? What I have lost is his 
affection towards me, his kindness and gentleness. 
This consideration also affects me ; what is not to 
be feared when so temperate a man, so consummate 
a physician, is unexpectedly carried off by the 
violence of disease ? For all this the only conso- 
lation is, that it is the condition of our birth that 
we should submit to whatever is incident to 
humanity. Respecting Antonius, I have already 
written to say that I had not met with him ; for he 
came to Misenum while I was in Pompeianum, 
and was gone again before I knew of his arrival. 
But it happened that Hirtius was with me in 
Puteolanum when I read your letter. 1 read it to 
him, and entered upon the subject. In what re- 

x This physician was before mentioned. See book vii. 
letter 2. 
7 This no doubt regards the business of Buthrotum. 



lates to the first party he was not less earnest than 
myself; and in conclusion he appointed me the 
arbiter not only of this business but of his whole 
consulship. With Antonius I will so manage, as 
to let him understand that if he satisfies me in this 
affair I will give myself wholly to him. I hope 
Dolabella is at home z . Let us come now to our 
friends a , of whom you say you entertain good 
expectations in consequence of the moderation of 
their proclamations. But I learned Hirtius's real 
sentiments when he left me on the I6th to go from 
Puteolanum to Naples for the sake of meeting 
Pansa. For I took him aside and counselled him 
in favour of peace. He could not deny that he 
was desirous of peace ; but he feared the arms of 
our friends no less than those of Antonius. He 
confessed it was not without reason that both 
parties had a guard ; but for his own part he was 
afraid of the arms of both : in short, there is no- 
thing sound. About young Quintus I agree with 
you. Your letter to his father was extremely 
handsome, and could not fail of being most agree- 
able. I had no difficulty in satisfying Caerellia, who 

z That is, at Rome, where he could forward the business. 

a Brutus and Cassius. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



805 



did not appear very solicitous b ; and if she were, 
assuredly I should not be so. I am surprised you 
should have listened at all to the lady c , who you 
say was so troublesome to you : for as to my having 
spoken well of her before her friends, in the hearing 
of her three sons and her daughter, " the same 
person does not always utter the same thing d ." 
What is this ? What is it that should make me 
walk about in an assumed character ? Is not old 
age of itself a character sufficiently disgusting ? 
What Brutus requests, that I would go to him 
previously to the first e , he has mentioned also in 
a letter to me, and I may probably do so ; but I 
cannot at all tell what he wants : for what counsel 
can I give him who am in need of counsel myself? 
While he has consulted his own immortalisation 
better than our tranquillity. The report about the 
queen f will soon be extinguished. Pray remember 
about Flamma &, if there is anything you can do. 
Yesterday I sent you a letter as I was going from 
Puteolanum ; and I turned aside to Cumanum, 
where I saw Pilia almost well : I saw her besides 
at Baulos near Cumse ; for she had come to attend 
a funeral, at which I likewise assisted. Cn. Lucullus, 
my intimate friend, was carrying his mother to her 
grave. That day, therefore, I staid in Sinuessanum, 
and the next morning setting out for Arpinum I 
scrawl this letter. I have nothing new, however, 
to tell you, or to ask you ; unless, perhaps, you 
think what follows to be of any consequence. Our 
Brutus has sent me the speech he delivered at the 
meeting in the capitol, and has desired me to cor- 
rect it (but not with a view to excite applause) 
before he publishes it. The speech is written with 
great elegance of sentiments and expression, so 
that nothing can exceed it. Yet, if I had had the 
same cause to conduct, I should have treated it 
with more warmth ; you see what the subject is, 
and who is the person that speaks. I have, there- 
fore, been unable to correct it ; for in the style 
which our Brutus prefers, and agreeably to his 
judgment of the best method of speaking, he has 
so well succeeded in this oration that nothing can 
be more elegant. But I alone, whether rightly or 
not, am of a different opinion. I wish, however, 
that you would read the speech, — unless you have 
read it already, — and would let me know what you 
think of it ; though I fear you may be misled by 
your name h , and may be over-attic in your judg- 
ment : but if you will call to mind the thunders of 
Demosthenes, you will understand that what is 
consummately attic may be strongly expressed. 
But of these things when we meet. I did not care 
to let Metrodorus go to you either without a letter, 
or with a letter that contained nothing. 

t> About Cicero's taking back Publilia. See book xiv. 
letter 19. 

c Publilia's mother. 

d The original is in Greek, and seems to be quoted as a 
proverbial sentence. It means that there is now no reason 
why he should disguise his real sentiments, although he 
may have done so before. Old age is bad enough, without 
making it worse by assuming a false character. 

e The first of June, on which day he designed to go to 
Rome, where the senate was summoned. 

f Cleopatra. What was the report alluded to, is uncer- 
tain. 

S In the affair of Montanus. See book xiv. letter 1G. 

h Atticns. It will be recollected that the Attic style was 
esteemed the perfection of good writing. 



LETTER II. 

On the 18th, on my way from Sinuessanum, 
after I had sent my letter to you and had proceeded 
from Cumae to Viscianum, I received yours from 
the messenger. There was more than enough in 
it about Buthrotum. For you do not, nor can 
you, take a greater interest in that business than I 
do. It is thus proper for you to attend to my 
concerns and me to yours. I have accordingly 
undertaken this so, that I shall esteem nothing of 
superior obligation \ I learned from your letter, 
and from others, that L. Antonius had made a 
scurvy harangue ; but what was the nature of it I 
do not know, for you said nothing. About Mene- 
demus J it is quite right. Quintus k must assuredly 
be dictating what you write. I am glad you approve 
of my reason for declining to compose what you 
asked of me 1 , and you will approve it still more 
when you have read the speech, about which I 
wrote to you this morning. What you mention 
about the legions is perfectly true" 1 ; but you do 
not seem sufficiently to have considered what you 
can hope to have done by the senate in the affair 
of our Buthrotians. As far as my opinion goes 
(for I see so much), I do not think we n shall long 
subsist : but even if we are disappointed of this 
resource °, you will not be disappointed about 
Buthrotum p. I feel as you do on the subject of 
Octavius's speech ; and am not pleased with the 
preparations for his games i, and the appointment of 
Matius and Postumius to conduct them. Saserna r 
is a fit colleague for them. But all these people, 
as you perceive, are as much afraid of peace as we 
are of war. I should be glad if I could relieve 
Balbus from the odium he has incurred s ; but he 
does not himself believe it to be possible : there- 
fore he turns his attention elsewhere. I am glad 
that you derive comfort from the first Tusculan 
Disquisition ; for there is no resource either better 
or readier*. I am not sorry that Flamma speaks 
so fairly. What may be the case of the Tyndari- 
tani u , in which you are so earnest, I know not ; 
yet I will give them my supports These transac- 

» How well he fulfilled this promise is manifested by 
his letters still extant to Plancus and Capito. See Ap- 
pendix. 

J It is not known to what this alludes. The name occurs 
again letter 4 of this book. 

k This evidently relating to something said in Atticus's 
letter, it is no wonder that it should no longer be intel- 
ligible. 

1 See book xiv. letter 20. 

m This is supposed to allude to some legions which An- 
tonius had lately recalled from Macedonia. 

n The senate. 

o I understand this to mean, " even if we have not the 
senate to support us." 

p We shall be able to accomplish our purpose through 
Antonius. 

q Games that had been promised by Ca?sar, and were 
now celebrated by Octavius to gain the affections of the 
populace. 

r Saserna, Matius, and Postumius, were all partisans of 
Caesar. 

s Balbus, though friendly to Cicero, was attached to 
Caesar, and therefore suspected of ill-will to the cause of 
Brutus and the republic. See book xiv. letter 20. 

* The first Tusculan Disquisition is upon the contempt 
of death. u A people of Sicily. 

▼ So this imperfect sentence ought probably to be com- 
pleted. 



806 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



tions seem to move this one-of-the-five w , especially 
the expenditure of the money x . I am sorry for 
Alexion ; yet having fallen into so severe an illness, 
I think that he has been kindly dealt with. I 
should like to know who are his heirs in the second 
degree y , and what is the date of his will. 



LETTER III. 

I received two letters from you on the 22d in 
Atinas, in answer to two of mine. One was dated 
the 18th, the other the 21st. To the earliest there- 
fore first. Pray come to Tusculanum, as you pro- 
pose. I mean to be there the 27th. When you 
say that we must submit to the conquerors, I do 
not agree with you ; for many things appear to me 
preferable. As to what you recollect to have been 
done in the temple of Apollo during the consulship 
of Lentulus and Marcellus z ; neither the case nor 
the time is similar ; especially as you mention that 
Marcellus and others are taking their departure. I 
must therefore find out and determine on the spot, 
whether I can safely remain in Rome. These new 
meetings alarm the inhabitants a ; for we are placed 
in great straits. But let these things be disre- 
garded ; I can look upon still greater with uncon- 
cern. I have been made acquainted with Calva's 
will, a base and sordid fellow. I thank you for the 
care you take about Demonicus's accounts. I have 
already written very particularly to Dolabella about 
Marius, if only my letter has been delivered. For 
his sake I wish him success, as indeed I ought. I 
come now to the more recent letter. I have 
learned what I wanted about Alexion b . Hirtius is 
in your interest . I wish Antonius were worse 
than he is d . You mention Quintus the son. A 
volume of evils ! Of the father we will speak when 
we meet. I am desirous of assisting Brutus in 
everything I can. I see you entertain the same 
opinion of his speech that I do. But I do not 
quite understand what you wish me to write, as if 
it were a speech delivered by Brutus ; when he has 
himself published his own. How can this be ? 
Would you have it as against a tyrant, who had 
been justly killed ? I shall have much to say, and 
much to write ; but it must be in another manner 
and time. The tribunes have done well about 
Caesar's chair e . And excellent the fourteen rows 
of knights. I am glad Brutus has been at my 
house, provided he was pleased, and staid as long 
as he liked. 

w Hirtius. See book xiv. letter 21, note °. 

x Antonius's expenditure of the money taken from the 
temple of Ops. 7 After the failure of the first heirs. 

z At the breaking out of the civil war, when the senate 
united with Pompeius, and invested the consuls with 
extraordinary authority to provide for the safety of the 
republic. 

a The meetings of the veteran soldiers in the country 
towns. t> See letter 2 of this book. 

c On the subject of Buthrotum. 

d This must be supposed to relate to some passage in 
Atticus's letter, where he mentioned that Antonius was ill. 

e It had been decreed, in flattery to Caesar, that he 
should have a gilt chair in the senate and public places. 
Octavius wished to have this chair placed, in memory of 
Caesar, at the games, but the tribunes forbade it ; on which 
account they seem to have been applauded by the knights 
in the theatre, where they sat in fourteen rows of benches 
reserved by law for their exclusive use. 



LETTER IV. 

On the 23d about two o'clock a messenger 
arrived from Q. Fufius with a letter containing 
something about my restoring myself to him f ; as 
silly as usual ; unless, perhaps, whatever we dislike 
is apt to appear silly. I replied in a manner that 
I think you would approve. He brought me two 
letters from you, one of the 22d, the other the 
23d. I shall answer the latter first. " And the 
legion s ?" I applaud the circumstance. And if 
Carfulenus'too ; the streams, as they say, will run 
upwards h . You take notice of the factious coun- 
sels of Antonius. I wish he may act through the 
populace, rather than through the senate ; and I 
imagine this is likely to be the case. But to me 
all his measures have a warlike tendency. If 
indeed Decimus Brutus's province is snatched 
away, whatever I may think of his strength, it 
seems impossible to be done without a war. But 
for this I do not wish, now that assurance ' is given 
to the Buthrotians. You may smile ; but I am sorry 
that this should not rather have been accomplished 
by my attention, diligence and influence. When 
you say that you do not know what is to become 
of our friends J, the same doubt has long since 
given me concern ; so that the consolation I de- 
rived from the 15th of March already appears 
foolish. For we have shown a manly spirit, but, 
believe me, a childish prudence. The tree has 
been cut down, not torn up by the roots ; and you 
see accordingly how it sprouts. Let us have 
recourse then to the Tusculan Disquisitions, since 
you often appeal to them. We must endeavour k 
to conceal this from Saufeius ; for my part I will 
never tell. You say that Brutus has written to 
inquire on what day I should go to Tusculanum. 
As I before mentioned to you, the 27th ; and I 
hope to see you there as soon as possible ; for I 
apprehend I shall be obliged to proceed to Lanu- 
vium l , where there will be a great deal of talking. 
But I shall see about it. I revert now to the earlier 
letter, of which I pass over that first part relative 
to the Buthrotians, which is lodged in my inmost 
soul ; if only, as you say, there is any opportunity 
of acting. You seem quite earnest on the subject 
of Brutus' speech, by urging it again so copiously. 
Should I then support the same cause for which he 
has written ? should I write without his invitation ? 
No interference can be more disrespectful. But, 

f This expression may probably be copied from Fufius's 
letter. 

g This is copied fromAtticus's letter, and nodoubt alludes 
to the martial legion under the command of Carfulenus, 
which deserted from Antonius at this time. 

h The original is a Greek proverbial expression, signi- 
fying that it would be beyond all expectation ; for Carfu- 
lenus had been a firm friend to Caesar. In fact he did not 
join Brutus, but Octavius. 

i May not this refer to the unwarranted assertion of 
some foolish person saying that he would be answerable 
for the safety of the Buthrotians? which Cicero pleasantly 
ridicules. Had a war broken out, it might be expected that 
Antonius would be otherwise employed than in settling 
soldiers in Buthrotum. 

J The conspirators. 

k This is said in jest, with reference to Saufeius's attach- 
ment to the sect of Epicurus ; while the Tusculan Disqui- 
sitions are conducted upon principles totally opposite. It 
will be remembered that Atticus was also an Epicurean. 

1 Brutus and Cassius were at Lanuvium. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATT1CUS. 



807 



say you, something in the manner of Heraclides m . 
To that indeed I do not object ; but the subject 
must be well considered, and we must wait for a 
riper season of writing. For, whatever you may 
think of me, (and I should certainly wish you to 
think the best possible,) if things remain as they 
promise, (you will bear what I am going to say,) 
the 15th of March affords me no satisfaction. For 
he n would never have returned ; and we should not 
have been compelled by fear to confirm his acts. 
Or (to adopt Saufeius's maxims , and renounce 
those Tusculan Disquisitions to which you also 
invite Vestorius p) so gracious towards me was he 
(whom even dead may the gods confound !) that, 
since we have not by his death regained our liberty, 
there was no reason, at my age, to dislike him for 
a master. I blush, believe me. But I have already 
written, and will not erase it. I could have wished 
the report about Menedemus had been true ; and 
wish that about the queen may be so. The rest 
when we meet ; especially what measures o\ir 
friends should pursue ; what also ourselves, if 
Antonius means to beset the senate with soldiers. 
If I had given this letter to his messenger, I was 
afraid he might open it. I have therefore sent on 
purpose ; for yours required an answer. 

i How much I wish you could have given Brutus 
your assistance ! I will therefore write to him. I 
have sent Tiro to Dolabella with a letter and 
instructions. Desire him to come to you ; and if 
you have anything to say, write what you please. 
But see here ! most provokingly, L. Csesar begs 
me either to go to him at The Grove r , or to let 
him know where he may find me ; for Brutus 
wished him to have some conversation with me. 
A hateful and fruitless job ! I think however I 
shall go, and from thence to Rome, unless I change 
my present purpose. I send you this in few words, 
for there is yet nothing from Balbus. I am there- 
fore expecting to hear from you, and not only what 
has been done, but also what will be done. 



LETTER V. 

The messenger that went to Brutus has brought 
back letters from him and Cassius. They earnestly 
desire my opinion ; Brutus, indeed, which of the 
two plans s he should adopt. O sad state of affairs ! 
I have positively nothing to say, and therefore 
think of maintaining silence, unless you suggest 
something different. But if anything occurs to 

m Heraclides appears to have written a book of political 
dialogues, which has not come down to us. Book xiii. 
letter 9. 

n Caesar would probably never have returned safe from 
his projected Parthian expedition. This appears to be said 
partly in reference to the actual danger of the war, which 
had already been fatal to Crassus's army ; and partly in 
reference to the unstable and invidious nature of Caesar's 
power. See book x. letter 8. 

o The maxims of the Epicureans, who profess to consult 
only their own ease. 

P This must allude to something said, very likely in jest, 
by Atticus. 

q There is every reason to think this must be the begin- 
ning of a separate letter. 

r Near to Aricia, where Caesar had built a house. See 
book vi. letter 1 . 

s Whether he should go up to Rome the 1st of June ; or 
should retire from Italy. 



you, pray write. Cassius strongly begs and en- 
treats me to make a good citizen of Hirtius. Do 
you think he is in his senses ? 'Tis the fuller and 
the coals l . I send you his letter. What you say 
respecting a decree of the senate for the provinces 
of Brutus and Cassius u , is repeated by Balbus and 
by Hirtius ; and the latter purposes himself to 
bring it on ; for he is already in Tusculanum. He 
strongly advises me to keep away. He does this 
on account of the danger, which he says threat- 
ened him also. But for my part, even if there were 
no danger, I am so far from caring to prevent 
Antonius' suspicions of my dissatisfaction at his 
success, that the wish of avoiding him is of itself 
a reason why I am unwilling to go to Rome. Our 
friend Varro has sent me a letter, which he received 
from I know not whom (for he had erased the 
name), in which it was mentioned, that those 
veteran soldiers, whose claims v were rejected, (for 
some of them were dismissed,) talked very sedi- 
tiously ; so that whoever was thought to have 
opposed their interests, would be in great danger 
at Rome. Besides, how should I manage my 
going, my returning, my countenance, my step, 
amongst that party w . And if, as you say, L. An- 
tonius is to go against Decimus x , the rest against 
our friends y, what should I do? or how should I 
conduct myself? I have therefore determined, as 
matters now stand, to absent myself from that 
city in which I have not only flourished with the 
highest dignity, but have enjoyed some share of it 
even under subjection. Yet I am not so much 
resolved to go out of Italy, (upon which I must 
deliberate with you,) as not to go up thither 2 . 



LETTER VI. 

Our friend Brutus has written to me, and like- 
wise Cassius, that I might use my authority to 
secure Hirtius, whom they knew to have been 
hitherto well affected, though they could not en- 
tirely depend upon him. For I apprehend he is 
displeased with Antonius, but still attached to that 
cause. However, I wrote, recommending to him 
the dignity of Brutus and Cassius ; and wish you 
to be acquainted with his answer, in case you 
should draw from it the same conclusion as I do, 
that the opposite party are even now afraid of 
our friends' possessing more spirit than they 
really have. 

" Hirtius to his Cicero. 

" You ask if I am yet returned from the coun- 
try ; or whether, at a time when everybody is in 
activity, I am amusing myself in idleness. I 
likewise have quitted the city ; for I thought it 
more useful to absent myself. I write this setting 
off to Tusculanum. And I would not have you 
suppose me so strenuous as to return on the 5th ; 
for I see nothing that demands my attention, the 

' In the uncertainty of a doubtful text, I read 6 yva<pevs 
&i>6paicas, " the fuller attempting to clean coals ;" for he 
considered it a fruitless endeavour to reclaim him from 
Caesar's party to favour Brutus and Cassius. 

u To whom provinces would naturally be decreed, as to 
prators, at the expiration of their office. 

▼ Claims of a portion of land. w Caesar's friends. 

x Decimus Brutus. 

y M. Brutus, and the other conspirators. z To Rome. 



808 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



appointments being provided for so many years a . 
As Brutus and Cassius may obtain anything of me 
through you, so I wish that by you they may as 
easily be induced to enter into no intemperate 
counsels. For you say that, at the time they wrote 
to you, they were retiring. Whither ? or where- 
fore ? Stop them, 1 beseeech you, Cicero ; and 
suffer not all these things to perish, which must 
be utterly ruined by plunder, by fire, by slaughter. 
Only, if they have any cause of fear, let them be 
upon their guard ; but let them attempt nothing 
more. In good truth they will gain no more by 
violent counsels than by gentle ones, provided 
they are prudent. For this state of things, which 
is passing on, is not of a nature to last ; but by 
opposition it presently assumes a power of doing 
mischief. Write to me in Tusculanum, and let me 
know what hopes you have, of them." 

This is Hirtius's letter ; to which I replied, that 
they entertained no intemperate designs ; and this 
I confidently affirmed. This, such as it is, I 
wished you to know. Since sealing my letter I 
have heard from Balbus that Servilia had returned, 
and confirmed the opinion that they would not go 
out of the country. I am now expecting a letter 
from you. 



LETTER VII. 

I thank you for the letters you sent me, which 
indeed gave me much pleasure ; especially that of 
our friend Sextus b . You will say, " because he 
commends you." I think indeed that may be one 
reason ; but yet before I came to that part, I was 
exceedingly pleased both with his sentiments in 
regard to the republic, and with the accuracy of 
his writing. The peace-maker Servius c , with his 
little clerk, seems to have acted as an ambassador, 
and to be afraid of any captious proceeding. But 
he ought to have considered, that " it was no 
struggle of right," but what follows d . Let me hear 
also from you. 



LETTER VIII. 

After you left me I received two letters from 
Balbus ; no news. Also one from Hirtius, who 
represents himself to be highly offended with the 
conduct of the veteran troops. I am anxious to 
know what they will do about the first of March e . 
I have therefore sent Tiro, and several others with 
him, that whatever happens you may write to me 
by one of them. I have besides written to Antouius 
about an honorary legation, lest being an irritable 
man, he might be offended had I applied only to 
Dolabella. But as he is said to be difficult of 

a Ca?sar, preparatory to his Parthian expedition, had 
nominated the magistrates for several years in advance. 

b This is generally supposed to mean Sextus Peduceus, 
of whom mention is made, book vii. letter 13, and book x. 
letter 1. 

c Servius Sulpicius, a distinguished lawyer, who may 
perhaps on that account be represented as attended by his 
clerk. He is mentioned before. See book x. letter 14. 

d The original is from Ennius — " it is no struggle of 
right, but rather of arms ; they aim at a kingdom, and 
proceed by main force." — Aul. Gell. xx. 10. 

e Commentators have not without reason suspected some 
error of the text. It ought probably to be written " the 
1st of June." If that is not the case, it must relate to some- 
thing no longer understood. 



access, I have written to Eutrapelus to present my 
letter to him, as having occasion for such an ap- 
pointment. A votive legation is more honourable ; 
but I may make use of both f . Again and again I 
beg you to take care of yourself. I wish you could 
come to me ; but if you cannot, we will attain the 
same end by letter- Grseceius sends me word, 
that C. Cassius had informed him there were men 
provided to be sent armed to Tusculanum. This 
does not appear to me probable ; but yet it is right 
to be upon one's guard, and to go about from one 
villa to another £. To-morrow will produce some- 
thing to direct us in the consideration of this 
business. 



LETTER IX. 

On the evening of the third I received a letter 
from Balbus, saying that the senate was to meet 
on the 5th, for the purpose of appointing Brutus 
in Asia, Cassius in Sicily, to purchase corn for the 
use of the city. Wretched business ! first, that 
they should receive any commission from these 
people ; then, if any, that it should be such a 
lieutenant's commission 11 . I know not if it is 
better than sitting by the Eurotas 1 . But these 
things chance must govern. He says that at the 
same time a decree is to be passed for the allot- 
ment of the provinces to them, and to the rest 
of praetorian rank. This certainly is better than 
that PersicJ portico. For I would not have that 
distant Lacedsemon supposed to mean Lanuvium, 
Do you laugh, you will say, in such a state of 
affairs ? What should I do ? I am tired of weeping. 
Immortal gods ! how the first page of your letter 
disturbed me ! But what was that collision of arms 
in your house ? I am glad however that this storm 
soon passed over. I am anxious to know what you 
have done with your commission 11 , at once so sad 
and difficult of consultation. For it is indeed quite 
inextricable ; so beset are we by all the troops. 
As for me, Brutus's letter, which you say you have 
read, has so disturbed me, that though I was before 
at a loss, yet I am become duller than ever through 

f A votive legation granted by the two consuls, and an 
honorary lieutenancy from Dolabella. A votive legation 
was a nominal appointment in discharge of a vow. See 
letter 1 of this book. 

g To avoid being surprised. It should be mentioned, 
however, that the text in this place is very doubtful. In 
the Epist. ad Fam. xi. 20. D. Brutus admonishes Cicero to 
be upon his guard — cautum, et insidias vitantem. 

h During the time of their praetorship it is probable they 
could not be sent abroad but by some commission of 
this kind, which may have been devised by the friends of 
peace. 

i The Eurotas was a river of Lacedsemon. The expres- 
sion is probably a proverbial one, signifying, " to remain 
inactive," as Brutus and Cassius were doing at Lanuvium. 
The Romans used to give great names to their canals :— . 
" ductus aquarum isti Nilos et Euripos vocant."— De Leg. 
ii. 1. 

J Having previously applied the name of Eurotas to the 
stream that flowed by Lanuvium, he goes on in the same 
figure of speech to call the portico of Lanuvium by the 
name of a portico at Lacedasmon ; and concludes ironi- 
cally, that he would not have Atticus suppose him to mean 
Lanuvium ; thus humorously giving the true interpreta- 
tion of his own metaphor. 

k Atticus appears to have been solicited to go to Lanu- 
vium for the purpose of advising with his friend Brutus 
in the present difficult situation. See letter 10 of this book. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



809 



distress of mind 1 . But I will write more when I 
am informed of what has been done. At present 
I have nothing to say, and the less, because I am 
doubtful if you will get this letter. For it is 
uncertain whether the messenger will see you. I 
am very anxious to hear from you. 



LETTER X. 

How affectionately is Brutus's letter written ! 
How unlucky this time, when you are prevented 
from going to him ! But what can I write m ? 
Should I advise him to accept the offer of these 
people ? What more disgraceful ? To attempt any 
thing ? They dare not, neither can they. Come 
then, should I advise them to remain quiet? Who 
can answer for their safety ? And if any violent 
measures are adopted with regard to Decimus, 
what will become of our friends, even if nobody 
offers to molest them? Not to celebrate the 
games 11 ? What more dishonourable ? To exact 
corn ! How does it differ from that appointment 
of Dion" ? Or what office in the state is more 
contemptible ? In such a situation of things, 
counsel is not safe even for the person who gives 
it. This however I might disregard, if I were 
doing any good. But to enter upon it without any 
prospect of advantage ; while he listens to the 
advice or even the entreaties of his mother, why 
should I interfere ? I will however think what kind 
of letter I can write ; for I cannot bear to be silent. 
I will presently send therefore either to Antium 
or to Circsei p. 

LETTER XL 

I came to Antium on the 26th. Brutus was glad 
to see me. Afterwards in the presence of several 
persons, and of Servilia <>, Tertulla r , and Portia s , 
he asked what I thought. Favonius also was there. 
I had meditated upon this as I went along, and 
gave it as my opinion that he should accept this 
corn commission in Asia ; that nothing now re- 
mained for us to do but to secure ourselves ; in 
which was involved the protection also of the 
republic itself. After I had entered into this dis- 
course, Cassius came in ; upon which I repeated 
the same sentiments. At this place Cassius with 
animated looks (you would say Mars himself was 
breathing) declared he would not go into Sicily. 
" Shall I accept an offer which is intended as an 
insult ? " " What then do you propose to do ?" 
said I. To which he replied, that he would go 
into Greece. " And what," said I, " will you do, 
Brutus ?" "I will go to Rome," said he, " if you 
advise it." " But I do by no means advise it, for 
you will not be safe." " But if I could be safe, 
would you then approve it ?" " So much so that 
I would not have you go away at all, neither at 
this time, nor into a province after your prsetorship. 
But I do not advise you to trust yourself in the 
city." I added what will readily occur to you, why 
he would not be safe. A great deal was then said, 

1 It is probable that Atticus may have asked Cicero's 
opinion. m To Brutus. 

n This was the customary duty of the city praetor. 

Dion appears to have been formerly sent out of Sicily 
byDionysius under colour of someembassy, but really from 
the desire to remove one whom he feared. 

p To which places Brutus was going. 1 Brutus's mother. 

r Cassius's wife. s Brutus's wife. 



and especially by Cassius, complaining of the oppor- 
tunities which had been lost ; and he heavily accused 
Decimus. I said we ought not to dwell upon what 1 
was past ; though at the same time I agreed with 
him. And having entered upon the consideration of 
what ought to have been done ; without however 
saying anything new or anything more than is said 
every day ; (for I did not touch upon the subject 
of having omitted to strike anybody else u ;) but only 
that the senate ought to have been assembled, and 
the people more powerfully excited while their 
affections were yet warm : " It is taking the man- 
agement of the whole republic," exclaims your 
female friend v ; "this I never heard anybody 
advance." I checked myself w . At length Cassius 
seemed disposed to go into Sicily ; (for Servilia 
engaged that the mention of the corn should be 
expunged from the decree ;) and our friend x was 
soon driven from that idle? talk ; for he said that 
he acquiesced. He determined therefore that the 
games should be celebrated in his name, but 
without his being present. And he appeared will- 
ing to proceed into Asia from Antium. Not to 
tire you ; I had no satisfaction in that visit, besides 
the consciousness of having done my duty. For it 
was not to be suffered that he should leave Italy 
without my seeing him. Excepting for this debt of 
affection and kindness, I might say to myself — 
"What is the use of your coming hither, O 
prophet 2 ?" I found the vessel 3 shattered, or 
rather gone to pieces. Nothing was done with 
wisdom, nothing with prudence, nothing with 
regularity. So that if I before did not hesitate, yet 
still less do I now hesitate to fly away from hence ; 
and that as soon as possible ; " where I may hear 
neither of the deeds nor the name of the PelopidaeV 
But while I think of it, let me inform you that 
Dolabella has appointed me his lieutenant from 
the 2d of April c . I was told of it yesterday even- 
ing. A votive appointment you did not like ; and 
indeed it was absurd, that having bound myself by 
vows "if the republic should subsist," I should 
now discharge them when it is overturned. Besides, 
the honorary legations have, I think, a definite 
period by the Julian law ; and it is not easy to a 
legation of this kind d to add leave to go in and out 
when you please ; which is now granted to me. 
And the right which this licence gives me for five 
years is charming. Though why should I think of 
five years ? The business appears to me to be con- 
tracted within a little space e . But let me not 
utter ill omens. 

* That what is here said refers to Decimus only, appears 
from the context ; for Cicero himself immediately proceeds 
to the consideration of their past errors. 

11 Meaning that Antonius ought to have been killed as 
well as Caesar. y Servilia. 

w So I understand it, upon the authority of Cicero: " Re- 
primam jam, et non insequar longius." — De Leg. ii. 18. 

x Brutus. T About going to Rome. 

z The original is a verse taken from some unknown 
Greek author. 

a The vessel of the state, a metaphor not unfrequent 
among Roman authors. 

b A verse of the poet Accius, quoted before. See book 
xiv. letter 12. 

c It is uncertain whether there is any error in this date, 
or whether there may have been some reason for the com- 
mission being antedated. 

d One that is obtained for the discharge of a vow. 

e That is, the cause of the republic is reduced to a short 
term. 



810 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



LETTER XII. 

This is good news about Buthrotum. Rut I had 
already sent Tiro with a letter f to Dolabella as you 
desired. What harm ? I thought I had written 
sufficiently distinctly about our friends at AntiumS, 
that you needed not to doubt of their remaining 
quiet, and accepting Antonius's insulting offer. 
Cassius scorned the business of the corn, which 
Servilia engaged to get expunged from the decree of 
the senate. But our friend 11 , with all his dignity, 
said he would go into Asia, after he had agreed 
with me that he could not safely reside in Rome. 
For he thought it better to exhibit the games without 
being present. He was collecting vessels, and pre- 
paring for his passage. In the mean time they 
designed to remain in the same neighbourhood. 
Brutus talked of going to Astura 1 . L. Antonius 
kindly indeed by letter desires me not to make 
myself uneasy J. I acknowledge this as one favour 
received ; and may perhaps receive a second, unless 
he should come to Tusculanum. How intolerable 
are these negotiations k ! which however are tole- 
rated 1 . Which of Brutus's party m is to blame for 
this 11 ? There is, I am persuaded, no want of 
sense, no want of spirit in Octavianus ° ; and he 
seemed to be affected as we could wish towards 
our heroes. But it is matter of deep consideration 
what reliance can be placed on his age, his name p , 
his succession, his education. His stepfather^, 
whom I saw at Astura, thought he was not to be 
trusted. But he must be cherished however, if for 
no other reason, that he may be disunited from 
Antonius. It is well done of Marcellus, if he 
directs our own's own 1- ; who seemed to me to be 
much attached to him. He s did not place much 
reliance on Pansa and Hirtius. They* have a good 
natural disposition, if it is but firm u . 

f Upon the subject of Buthrotum, about which Atticus 
appears now to have had some satisfactory assurance, per- 
haps through the instrumentality of Dolabella. See letter 
14 of this book. 

S Brutus and Cassius. 

k Brutus. 

i To Cicero's house. See letter 3 of this book, and book 
xiv. letter 19. 

J Under the apprehension of his Tusculan villa being 
seized. See letter 8 of this book. 

k That we should be forced to negotiate for our security. 

I Antonius being suffered to proceed with impunity. 

•" So the word Bruti is to be understood. See book xiv. 
letter 14. 

'» For suffering Antonius to live. 

o The same who is before called Octavius ; but his 
adoption into Caesar's family having been confirmed, he 
took the name of C. Julius Caesar Octavianus, that of 
Augustus being added afterwards. 

P The name and inheritance of Caesar. 

q Philippus. See book xiv. letter 12. 

r It is consonant with Atticus's manner to suppose that 
he may thus have designated the young Quintus, meaning 
Cicero's own brother's own son. 

s Philippus. 

* Pansa and Hirtius. 

II He intimates the same thing in letters 1 and G of this 
book, and again in letter 22. I know not if any apology 
might be expected for giving a new interpretation to the 
concluding sentences of this letter. Suffice it to say, that 
I was dissatisfied with the explanation of former commen- 
tators, and always incline to resist the itch of conjectural 
emendations, the offspring of idleness and vanity. At the 
same time I should add, that both Middleton and Mongault 
apply this to Octavianus. 



LETTER XIII. 

On the 24 th I received two letters from you. I 
shall reply to the earliest first. I agree with you 
that I should neither take the lead, nor close the 
rear ; but should nevertheless favour them v . I 
have sent you my speech, and leave the keeping 
and the publication of" it to your discretion. But 
when shall we see the time that you will think 
it may be produced ? I do not understand how the 
truce you mention can possibly take place. It is 
better to use no opposition ; which is the policy I 
mean to adopt. When you say that two legions 
have arrived at Brundisium, you get all informa- 
tion first w : write me word therefore of everything 
you hear. I am expecting Varro's Dialogue. I 
now approve of undertaking something in the 
manner of Heraclides x , especially as you anticipate 
it with so much delight : but I wish to know of 
what kind you would have it. As I mentioned to 
you before, or formerly, (since you prefer this 
expression,) you have, to tell you the truth?, made 
me the more desirous of writing, by adding'to your 
own opinion, which was well known to me, the 
authority of Peduceus, which is always great, and 
of the first weight with me. I will endeavour 
therefore to prevent your charging me either with 
idleness, or want of attention. Vectenus and 
Faberius I cherish, as you advise. I suspect 
Clselius of no evil design, although — But what has 
he done ? On the subject of maintaining our 
freedom, than which assuredly nothing is sweeter, 
I agree with you. Behave so to Gallus Caninius ? 
The wicked man z ! What else can I call him ? 
Should I call him the cautious Marcellus ? Such 
would I call myself ; yet not so very cautious. I have 
now replied to your longer and earlier letter ; but 
what shall I reply to the shorter and more recent 
one, except that it was most delicious ? The news 
from Spain is excellent. Might I but see my 
Balbilius a safe, the support of my old age. I may 
say the same of Annianus, considering the atten- 
tion I receive from Visellia b . But these things are 
subject to the lot of human nature. You say that 
you know nothing of Brutus ; but Selicia informs 
me that M. Scaptius c is arrived, and that he is to 
come to her, not with any display, but privately ; 
and that I should know everything ; which I will 
immediately communicate to you. In the mean 
time you mention, in the same letter, that a servant 
of Bassus is come, who brings intelligence of the 
Alexandrian legions being in arms ; that Bassus is 
sent for d , and Cassius is expected. What say you ? 



▼ The party of Brutus and Cassius. 

w Though Cicero was now in the neighbourhood of 
Puteoli, and consequently much nearer to Brundisium, 
yet news from thence had arrived at Rome before it reached 
him. 

x See letter 4 of this book.' 

7 The text has been variously tortured. I would point 
it thus— Ad scribendum, dicere tibi vere, fecisti me acrio- 
rem, &c. i. e. ntpossim dicere tibi vere. 

z This appears to me to relate to Marcellus, whatever 
he may have done ; otherwise I see not how the following 
expression, cautum Marcellum, should come to be in the 
accusative case, unless indeed it be copied from Atticus. 

a I apprehend the word Balbilius is but a diminutive 
from Balbus, and so afterwards Annianus for Annius. 

b This must be some relation of Annius. 

c See book v. letter 21. 

d To put himself at the head of the Alexandrian legions 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



811 



The republic seems to be recovering its rights. 
But we must not presume beforehand. You know 
the unsteadiness of these troops d , and their habits 
of plunder. Dolabella is the best of men. Though 
while I am writing at my dessert, I hear that he is 
come himself to Baise, yet he wrote to me from 
Formianum a letter, which I received upon quitting 
the bath, saying that he had done everything to the 
utmost about the payment. He accuses Vectenus 
of shuffling, as such people are accustomed to do ; 
but adds that my friend Sestius has taken the whole 
business upon himself. He is an excellent man, 
and very much attached to me ; yet I want to know 
what Sestius should be able to do in this affair 
more than any one of us. If however there should 
be anything beyond my expectation, you will take 
care to inform me. But if, as I imagine, it is a 
lost case, you will nevertheless write ; for such a 
circumstance will not affect me. Here I amuse 
myself with philosophical speculations, (for what 
else can I do ?) and copiously explain what relates 
to our duty, addressing myself to Cicero. For on 
what subject can a father more properly speak to 
his son ? Afterwards I shall proceed to something 
else. In short, there shall remain some fruit of 
this excursion. Varro was expected to-day or to- 
morrow. But I am hastening away to Pompeia- 
num ; not that anything can be more beautiful than 
this place ; but there I shall be less molested by 
visitors. Pray let me know what accusation is 
brought in the case of Myrtilus, who I hear has 
suffered punishment ; and whether it is quite clear 
by whom he was corrupted. While I write this, 
I imagine the speech will just have been delivered 
to you. I am almost afraid to hear what you may 
think of it. Though how does it concern me, if it 
is not to come out till the republic is restored ? 
About which what are my hopes e I dare not 
write. 



LETTER XIV. 

On the 26th I received a letter from Dolabella, 
of which I send you a copy. In this he says that 
he has done everything that you could wish. I 
immediately wrote to him in return with the fullest 
expression of my thanks. But that he might not 
be surprised at my writing twice on the same sub- 
ject, I gave it as a reason, that I had not before 
been able to have any personal communication with 
you. Not to detain you, the following is a copy 
of my letter : — 

" Cicero to his Dolabella, Consul. 

" Having before heard by letter from my friend 
Atticus of your great liberality and extreme kind- 
ness towards him ; and having it also under your 
own hand, you that had done what we desired, I 
wrote to express my thanks to you in such terms, 
that you might understand you could not have 
conferred upon me a greater favour. But Atticus 
having since come himself to me at Tusculanum 
for this single purpose of returning you his thanks, 
through me, for the extraordinary attention and 
great kindness he had experienced from you in the 
Buthrotian affair ; I could not refrain from repeat- 
d This seems the most natural interpretation, though 
not supported by commentators ; who have followed each 
other in applying the words to Antonius and his party. 

e Meaning that he had no hope at all, but avoided the 
ill omen of saying so. 



ing the same to you more distinctly in this letter. 
For of all the marks of your affection and civility 
towards me, my Dolabella, which are very great, 
let me assure you that I esteem this the highest and 
most grateful, by letting Atticus see my regard for 
you, and yours for me. For the rest, though the 
settlement of Buthrotum has been your work, and 
we are naturally inclined to support the fruits of 
our own exertion, yet I wish again and again to 
recommend both the cause and the city to your 
patronage, that you may be pleased to cover it with 
your authority and assistance. You will confer a 
lasting security on the Buthrotians ; and will save 
Atticus and me from much trouble and anxiety, if 
for my honour's sake you will let them always 
remain under your protection. Which again and 
again I earnestly entreat you to do." 

Having finished this letter, I devoted myself to 
my compositions, which I fear may in several places 
call for your little red marks f , so discomposed am 
I, and occupied with deep s thoughts. 



LETTER XV. 

Confound L. Antonius ! if he molests the Buth- 
rotians. I have drawn up my attestation h , which 
you may countersign when you please. If L. 
Fadius the sedile demands the money belonging to 
the people of Arpinum, deliver up even the whole 
of it. (I wrote to you in a former letter about the 
1 1 sestertia (900/.) which were to be provided for 
Statius i.) If therefore Fadius asks for it, I wish 
it to be given to him ; but to nobody besides 
Fadius. I think there is some other deposit at my 
house, which I have written to Eros to give back J. 
The queen k I hate. Ammonius, the voucher of 
her promises, knows that I am justified in what I 
do. They 1 were all connected with learning and 
becoming my character, so that I should not mind 
declaring them in the public assembly. Sara, in- 
dependently of my knowing him to be a bad man, 
was besides insolent to me. For once only I saw 
him in my house, when asking him civilly what he 
wanted, he said he came to look for Atticus. But 
of the haughtiness of the queen herself, when she 
was in the gardens on the other side of the Tiber, 
I cannot speak without great pain. Let me, then, 
have nothing to do with such people, who seem to 
think not so much that I have no spirit, as that I 
have scarcely common feeling. Eros's mismanage- 
ment, as I conceive, is an obstacle in the way of my 
going abroad. For while I ought to have abundance, 
from the balance which he drew the fifth of April, I 
am under the necessity of borrowing. And what 
was received from the produce of my estate, I sup- 
posed to have been laid by for that temple m . But 

f Atticus appears to have been in the habit of marking 
with red wax such passages as he disapproved. See book 
xvi. letter 11. 

g Respecting, no doubt, the state of public affairs. 

h To Caesar's covenant respecting the Buthrotians. See 
Appendix. To L. Plancus. 

1 Statius appears to have been a freed-man of Q. Cicero. 
See book v. letter 1 ; and book xv. letter 19. 

J This settlement of Cicero's accounts seems to have 
been made preparatory to his going into Greece. See 
letter 17 of this book. k Cleopatra. 

1 The promises he had received from Cleopatra, it may 
be, of books, or statues. 

m In which he proposed to consecrate his daughter's 
memory. See book xiL letter 18, &c. 



812 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



I have given, instructions about these matters to 
Tiro, whom I have sent to Rome on that account. 
I did not care to trouble you, who had already 
trouble enough. The more modest my Cicero is', 
the more I feel for him. For upon this subject he 
mentioned nothing to me, to whom he ought par- 
ticularly to have written ; but he wrote to Tiro to 
say, that since the first of April, when the year 
ends, he had received nothing. You were always 
of opinion, agreeably to your natural disposition, 
and thought also that it concerned my dignity, 
that he should have from me not only a liberal, but 
also a handsome and ample allowance. Therefore 
I wish you would manage (what I can transact 
through nobody else, or I would not trouble you), 
that there may be paid by exchanges at Athens 
what is sufficient for his yearly expenses. Eros 
will furnish the money for this purpose. I send 
up Tiro ; therefore you will n be so good as to take 
care about it, and write me word if anything occurs 
to you upon the subject. 



LETTER XVI. 

At length a messenger is arrived from Cicero 
with a letter written, in good truth, after the ancient 
manner , which of itself shows some degree of 
proficiency. Other people likewise give me good 
accounts. Leonidas, however, still uses the same 
expression of " hitherto p." But Herodes gives 
him the highest commendations. What think you ? 
Though these should prove mere words, I am gra- 
tified to receive them on this subject, and gladly 
become a credulous hearer. If you have heard 
anything from Statius that concerns me, I should 
be glad to be informed of it. I assure you this place q 
is beautiful, and quite retired ; and, if you wish to 
write anything, free from interruption. But I know 
not how it is, " Sweet home r ." Accordingly my 
steps revert to Tusculanum s . For, after all, this 
rude scene would soon grow tiresome. I am besides 
afraid of the rains, if my prognostics * are true ; for 
the frogs are exercising their rhetoric. I beg you 
to let me know where, and on what day, I can see 
our friend Brutus. 



LETTER XVII. 

I received two letters on the 14th, one dated 
that day, and one the day before. Therefore to the 
earliest first. You will inform me about Brutus, 
when you know yourself. I had heard of the pre- 
tended alarm of the consuls u ; for Sica, very affec- 
tionately indeed, but with unnecessary agitation, 
brought me an account of that suspicion. But 
what is it you say, " that we must be content with 
what is offered v ?" For not a word has been 

n Cicero sent up his confidential freed-man Tiro with 
directions to communicate with Atticus upon the allowance 
for his son at Athens. ° See book xiv. letter 7. 

P This refers to book xiv. letter 16. q Pompeianum. 

r The original is part of a Greek proverb. 

8 Though Pompeianum belonged to Cicero, yet he Avas 
most at home in Tusculanum. 

1 Cicero had translated the " Prognostics" of Aratus. 

u Under pretence of personal danger the consuls appear 
to have surrounded themselves with a guard, perhaps to 
excite hostile feelings towards the conspirators. 

v The original is a Greek proverbial expression, quoted 
before, book vi. letter 5. It probably alludes here, as in 
the former instance, to the partial payment of some debt. 



mentioned bySiregius w . I am not pleased with 
this. I have been vexed about your neighbour 
Pletorius, that anybody should have heard it before 
me. You have acted quite right in the case of 
Syrus. I imagine you will easily stop L. Antonius x 
through his brother Marcus. I forbade the money 
to be given to Antro, or to anybody, except * L. 
Fadius the sedile ; but you had not then received 
the letter. It cannot either safely or properly be 
done otherwise. With regard to the deficiency of 
100 sestertia (800/.) to be provided for Cicero, I 
should wish you to inquire of Eros what is become 
of the rent of the houses z . I am not displeased 
with Arabio's conduct in the affair of Sitius. About 
my journey I think nothing, till I have settled my 
accounts a ; in which I believe you agree with me. 
J have replied to your first letter : now hear what 
I have to say to the other. You act as you always 
do, in assisting Servilia, that is Brutus b . I am 
glad you do not trouble yourself about the queen, 
and especially that you approve of my conduct. I 
have been informed by Tiro of the state of Eros's 
accounts, and have sent for him. I am much 
obliged by your engaging that Cicero shall be in no 
want. I hear great things of him from Messala, 
who called upon me on his return from them c at 
Lanuvium. And indeed his own letter is so affec- 
tionately and classically written, that I might read 
it to a public audience, for which I think he 
deserves the more indulgence. Sestius, I imagine, 
is not sorry about Bucilianus d . If Tiro comes to 
me, I think of going to Tusculanum. But I beg 
you to inform me without delay whatever happens 
which it may concern me to know. 



LETTER XVIII. 

Though I thought I had sufficiently explained 
to you on the 15th what I wanted, and what I 
wished you to do if it was convenient to you ; yet 
after I had set out, and was passing over the lake e , 
I determined to send Tiro to you, that he might 
be present at the transactions f which were in agi- 
tation. And I have also written to Dolabella to 

w Nothing is known of Siregius, or several other names 
which occur in this letter ; they may probably have been 
connected with Cicero only in his private and pecuniary 
transactions. 

x From giving trouble to the Buthrotians. See letter 1 5 
of this book. 7 See letter 15 of this book. 

z This may possibly allude to the houses mentioned 
book xii. letter 32, from the rents of which he proposed 
to defray his son's expenses at Athens. 

a In the text is inserted a Greek letter, the meaning of 
which has been much disputed. It seems to me most pro- 
bable that it is used for " accounts," being the first letter 
of the word \6yos. 

b Atticus had given to Servilia a sum of money for 
Brutus's use, probably the same which is mentioned in 
Corn. Nepos's life of Atticus, amounting to 100 sestertia, 
or 8001. From the same author it appears, that after 
Brutus was in Epirus, he sent him another present of 300 
sestertia, or 2400Z. c The conspirators. 

<l Sestius and Bucilianus were the names of two of the 
conspirators. What particular circumstance is here al- 
luded to, is not known : perhaps the collecting vessels to 
transport himself and his adherents to Epirus. See book 
xvi. letter 4. 

e The Lucrine lake, from his house at Cuma?. See book 
xiv. letters 16' and 17. 

f Probably his money transactions. See letter 15 of this 
book. , 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



813 



say, that, if he thought fit £, I should be glad to set 
off; and I have asked him about the mules of 
burden h for the journey. Let me beg 1 that in 
these matters (since I understand you are very 
much occupied, partly about the Buthrotians, partly 
about Brutus, the providing for whose games I sus- 
pect devolves wholly upon you, and in great measure 
also the conduct of them) that therefore in an affair J 
of this kind you will give me a little of your assist- 
ance ; for much will not be requisite. Things ap- 
pear to me to tend to slaughter, and that at no great 
distance. You see the men ; you see the arms that 
are collected. I do not think myself by any means 
safe. If you think otherwise, I wish you would 
write to me ; for I would much rather remain at 
home, if I can do it with propriety. 



LETTER XIX. 

What further attempt k is to be made in the 
case of the Buthrotians ? For you mention that 
you have been waiting in vain. And what does 
Brutus say of himself? I am truly sorry you 
should be so detained ; for which we may thank 
the ten 1 men. It is a troublesome business, but 
must be borne, and is most acceptable to me. 
Respecting the employment of arms, I never saw 
anything more open. Let me be off, then ; but, as 
you say, we will talk of it together. What Theo- 
phanes wants I cannot tell : for having written to 
me, I answered him as I could; but he says he 
wishes to come to me, partly about his own affairs, 
and partly about something that concerns me. I 
am impatient to hear from you. Pray see that 
nothing is done m rashly. Statius has written to 
me to say that Q. Cicero had strongly affirmed to 
him in conversation that he could not bear these 
proceedings, and that he was resolved to go over to 
Brutus and Cassius. I want now to understand 
this ; for what it means I am unable to explain. 
He may design something in a fit of passion against 
Antonius ; he may aim at some new glory ; it may 
be all a sudden impulse ; and assuredly so it is. 
But yet I have my fears ; and his father is much 
disturbed ; for he knows what that person n formerly 

g Cicero being appointed his lieutenant was obliged to 
wait for Dolabella's sanction. 

h Going in the capacity of lieutenant to the'consul, he 
was entitled to a supply of mules. 

» This must be understood, upon which the following 
sentence depends. 

J Relating to the settlement of his affairs previous to 
quitting the country. 

k This may either mean an attempt on the part of L. 
Antonius and others to molest the Buthrotians, [see letter 
15 of this book,] or an attempt on the part of Atticus to 
secure them. I incline to the former explanation. The 
letter being in answer to one from Atticus, several parti- 
culars in it are rendered obscure from our ignorance of the 
circumstances to which they allude. 

1 This expression is probably a humorous" one, taken 
from the decemviri, or ten persons, by whom the laws of 
Rome were framed ; and applied, perhaps by Atticus in 
the first instance, to some ten people distinguished by 
their disregard for the republic, who at this time, it may 
be, threatened to divide and appropriate Cicero's property. 
See letter 8 of this book. 

m Probably said in relation to the designs of evil-minded 
persons on Cicero's property. 

n Perhaps Dolabella. See book xiii. letter 9, where the 
very same Greek expressions are applied to young Quin- 
tus's conduct. 



said of him to me ; things not to be revealed. In 
short, I do not know what he is at. I am to re- 
ceive from Dolabella such despatches ° as I please ; 
that is, none at all. Tell me ; did C. Antonius 
wish to be made a septemvir p ? He was undoubt- 
edly worthy i of it. It is, as you mention, with 
regard to Menedemus. You will let me know every- 
thing. 



LETTER XX. 

I have returned my thanks to Vectenus,— for 
nothing could be more kind. Let Dolabella's de- 
spatches be what you please ; only let me have 
something, or at least a message to Nicias r : for 
who, as you say, did not before understand this 
arrangement 5 ? Do you suppose that any sensible 
man now entertains a doubt but that it is a journey 
of despair, not of business ? You say that men, 
and good ones too, already speak of the republic 
being in extremity. For my part, the very day on 
which I heard that tyrant 1 called in the assembly 
" a most eminent man," I began to distrust. But 
when I was with you at Lanuvium, and saw that 
our friends had only so much hope of life as Anto- 
nius had been pleased to afford them, I quite 
despaired. Therefore, my Atticus, I would have 
you receive this u with the same firmness with 
which I write it : that species of destruction, by 
which you are likely to fall v , you will esteem dis- 
graceful, and almost denounced against us by 
Antonius. From this snare I have determined to 
withdraw, not for the purpose of flight, but in the 
hope of a better death. The fault rests wholly with 
Brutus. You say that Pompeius w has been 
received at Cartheia. Now therefore they must 
send an army against him. To which camp then 
should I betake myself ? for Antonius cuts off any 
middle course. That camp is weak ; this is 
wicked. It is time therefore to hasten away. But 
help me with your advice, whether I should go from 
Brundisium, or from Puteoli. Brutus adopts a 
hasty but prudent counsel". I am much con- 
cerned : for when shall I see him again ? But we 
must bear the afflictions incident to humanity. 
You, are yourself unable to see him. The gods 
confound this man who is dead r, for having ever 
molested Buthrotum ! But, leaving what is past, 
let us consider what is yet to be done. Though I 

Going in the capacity of Dolabella's lieutenant, he 
might be supposed to bear despatches. 

P One of the seven commissioners appointed for the dis- 
tribution of forfeited or waste lands to the soldiers. 

1 This is to be understood as said in derision, the com- 
missioners being persons of no reputation. 

r Nicias was the intimate friend of Dolabella, and being 
to accompany him in his province of Syria, [see book xiv. 
letter 9,] he had probably already set out before him on 
that expedition. 

s The text appears to be faulty in this place. I have 
given what I conceive to be the meaning. 

t Caesar. See book xiv. letter 11. 

« What follows. 

v The text has been supposed to be corrupt. It may 
perhaps relate to Cicero's apprehension of Antonius's 
power and cruelty, which Atticus may have declared his 
determination to abide. Had we Atticus's letters, the 
sense would probably be clear. 

w Sextus Pompeius, who still retained a powerful army 
in Spain. x In retiring from Italy. 

7 Caesar. So before, letter 4 of this book. 



814 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



have not yet seen Eros, yet from his letter, and 
from what Tiro has ascertained, I am pretty well 
master of his accounts. You say that I ought to 
borrow two hundred sestertia (1600/.) for five 
months, — that is, to the first of November. The 
payment of the money due from Quintus will fall 
upon that day. I should be glad therefore (as Tiro 
assures me you would no,t wish me to go up to 
Rome expressly for this purpose) that, if you do not 
object to such a business, you would find out from 
whence the money can be procured, and contract 
for it on my behalf. This is what is wanting for 
the present. I must inquire more particularly 
about the balance from himself 2 ; and in this, 
about the rents of the dowry a estate, which, if they 
are regularly paid to Cicero, though I wish him to 
have a liberal allowance, yet will be nearly suffi- 
cient for him. I am aware that I must also have 
money for my journey ; but the former may be paid 
out of the estates as it becomes due ; what I want 
for myself must be had at once. And though I 
apprehend that he who is afraid of mere shadows b 
is driving on to slaughter, yet I shall not set off 
till my accounts are cleared. But whether they 
are unravelled or not, I will examine with you. I 
have thought it proper to write this with my own 
hand ; and have accordingly done so. About 
Fadius, as you mention : but to nobody else c . I 
shall hope to have an answer from you to-day. 



LETTER XXI. 

I have to acquaint you that Quintus, the 
father, is exulting with delight ; for his son has 
written to say that he had wished to go over to Bru- 
tus for this reason ; that Antonius having pressed 
him to get him made dictator, and to occupy some 
fortress, he had refused to do it ; and he refused 
from fear of vexing his father, from which time 
Antonius had been his enemy. " But afterwards," 
says he, " I recollected myself* 1 , being apprehensive 
that in his anger towards me, he might do you e 
some injury ; therefore I have pacified him ; and 
indeed have received from him a promise of four 
hundred sestertia (3200/.) certain, with the hope of 
the rest f." Statius writes word that he is desirous 
of living with his father ; and, what is surprising, 
he s is also glad of it. Did you ever know a more 
confirmed profligate than he is h ? I quite approve 
of your hesitation in the affair of Canus 5 . I had 
suspected nothing about the debts ; but supposed 

z Eros. 

a This appears to be the same estate mentioned in letter 
17 of this book, and may have been part of Terentia's dower, 
settled perhaps upon her son. 

b Antonius. See letter 17 of this book. 

c See letter 15 of this book. 

d From fear of irritating Antonius he checked his desire 
of joining Brutus. e His father. 

f What was further necessary to discharge his debts. 

S Statius himself, who was freed-man and steward to 
Quintus, and had, by his influence with the father, excited 
the jealousy and hatred of the son. 

h This appears to be said of young Quintus, whose story 
Cicero distrusted, thinking that it was a trick to get money 
from his father. 

» See book xiii. letters 41 and 42, where Cana may pro- 
bably be the daughter of Canus here mentioned. It will 
be recollected that she was proposed as a wife for young 
Quintus. 



the dower J to have been entirely repaid. What you 
defer, that you may speak with me personally, I 
shall be anxious to hear. You may keep the mes- 
senger as long as you please ; for I know you are 
busy. About Xeno you have managed admirably. 
I will send you what I am writing, as soon as it is 
finished. You mentioned to Quintus that you had 
written to him ; but nobody brought the letter. Tiro 
says that you do not now approve of Brundisium k , 
and that you talked something about soldiers. But 
I had already fixed upon Hydruntum K I was in- 
fluenced by your five hours' passage. But what a 
long voyage is this m ! However, we will see about 
it. I received no letter from you on the 21st ; for 
now what news is there ? You will come then as 
soon as you are able. I hasten my departure, that 
Sextus n may not first arrive, whom they report to 
be on his way. 



LETTER XXII. 

I rejoice with you upon the departure of 
young Quintus. He will give us no further 
trouble p. I am ready to believe that Pansa talks 
favourably ; for I know that he has always united 
himself with Hirtius. I suppose he may be very 
friendly towards Brutus and Cassius, if he can 
find his advantage in it ; but when will he go near 
them ? Likewise an enemy to Antonius ; but 
when ? or why ? How long are we to be trifled 
with i ? I mentioned that Sextus was on his way, 
not as if he were just at hand ; but because he cer- 
tainly acts with that view, and will on no account 
lay down his arms. If he persists, war must be the 
consequence. But here our Cytherius r declares 
that nobody but the conqueror shall live. What 
will Pansa say to this ? And if war takes place, as 
it seems probable, which will he join ? But of 
these and other matters when we meet ; to-day, as 
you intimate, or to-morrow. 



LETTER XXIII. 

I am wonderfully distracted, yet without any 
particular uneasiness ; but a great number of 
things occur to me both ways on the subject of my 
journey. " How long is this to last?" you will 
say. As long as there is room for hesitation, 
which will be till I am fairly embarked. If I hear 
from Pansa, I will send you both my letter and 
his. I am expecting Silius, to whom I will give s 
the memoir I have drawn up 1 . If there is any 
news, you will acquaint me with it. I have sent a 
letter to Brutus. If you know anything about his 
progress, I shall be obliged to you to inform me. 

J She may probably have been divorced from a former 
husband, but with some charge upon her dower. 

k See letter 20 of this book. 

1 The extremity of Italy nearest to Greece. 

»> From Puteoli. n Sextus Pompeius. 

° From Rome. P By his intrigues with Antonius. 

q By these ineffectual professions of Pansa. 

* Meaning Antonius, who was under the control of his 
mistress Cytheris. See book x. letter 10. 

s To be transmitted to Atticus. 

4 A short account of the state of public affairs. The 
same Greek word is employed in the same sense, book ii. 
letter 1. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



815 



LETTER XXIV. 

The messenger which I sent to Brutus returned 
from his journey the 26th. Servilia informed 
him that Brutus had set out that day at ten 
o'clock. I was sorry my letter had not been 
delivered. Silius did not come to me. I drew up 
that statement, and have sent the account to you. 
I want to know on what day I may expect you. 



LETTER XXV. 

There is great variety of opinions about my 
going abroad, for I have many visitors. But lee 
me beg you to take this matter into consideration. 
It is a thing of some importance. Do you approve 
it, if I think of returning by the 1st of January ? 
My mind is evenly balanced, yet so that I incline 
to go, provided my conduct gives no offence. And 
you have also ably pointed out the day, that was 
formerly held sacred; that is, the mysteries 11 . 
But however this may be, accident must regulate 
my determination about the journey. Let me 
therefore continue to doubt. For a winter voyage 
is an odious thing ; which was the reason of my 
asking you about the day of the mysteries. I 
think, as you say, that I shall see Brutus. I mean 
to go from hence the last day of the month. 



LETTER XXVI. 

I see that you have done everything about 
Quintus's business ; yet he is uneasy and doubtful 
whether he should humour Lepta, or shake Silius's 
credit. I have heard say that L. Piso wishes to get 
away on some appointment under a forged decree 
of the senate. I should like to know if there is 
any truth in it. The messenger, whom I told you 
I had sent to Brutus at Anagninum, returned on 
the night previous to the first of the month, bring- 
ing me a letter, in which there was one thing incon- 
sistent with his consummate good sense ; that is, 
that he wanted me to attend his games y . I 
replied, that in the first place I was already set out, 
so that it was no longer in my power ; in the next 
place, that it would be very strange for me, who 
have never gone to Rome at all since this assump- 
tion of arms w , and that, not so much in consider- 
ation of my danger, as of my dignity, suddenly to 
come up to the games. For at such a time to ex- 
hibit the games is quite right for him, — it is part 
of his duty ; but as it is no part of my duty to see 
them, so neither is it becoming. I am indeed ex- 
ceedingly desirous that they should be exhibited, 
and should be well received, which I trust will be 
the case ; and I entreat you to let me know from 
the very beginning how they go off, and afterwards 
to pursue the detail through each succeeding day. 
But enough about the games. The rest of his let- 

u See the conclusion of book v., also the last sentences of 
book vi. letter 1. It was perhaps deemed a profanation to 
travel, or to transact any unnecessary business, at the time 
of this solemn festival, which I conceive must be the same 
that in the passage referred to in the sixth book is called 
" the Roman Mysteries." 

v See letters 10 and 12 of this book. 

w See letters 18 and 19 of this book. 



ter sometimes inclines oneway, sometimes another; 
yet emits occasional sparks of vigour. Thatyou may 
judge for yourself what to think of it, I send you 
a copy of the letter, though my messenger informed 
me that he had also brought a letter from Brutus 
for you, which had been forwarded to you from 
Tusculanum. I have so arranged my journey as to 
be at Puteoli the 7th of July ; for I wish to em- 
bark as soon as I can, yet so as to use all human 
precaution in my voyage. You may relieve M. 
iElius from all further care. He wants permission 
to make some excavations at the extremity of his 
property, which are to pass under ground, and to 
be subject to certain serviced Let him know that 
I have long since objected to it, and that nothing 
would be an equivalent to me. But, as you say to 
me, let it be expressed with all gentleness ; and so 
as rather to relieve him from all further care, than 
to let him suppose that I am at all offended. I beg 
you likewise to speak freely with Cascelius upon 
that subject of Tullius?. It is a small concern 2 ; 
but you have very properly adverted to it. It was 
conducted with too much craftiness. If he had 
any way imposed upon me, which he was near 
doing, unless you had ill-naturedly a stepped in, I 
should have been very angry. However it may be 
therefore, I wish the business to be stopped. 
Remember * * * b You will take care to give pos- 
session to the person for whom Cserellia applies, 
at the highest price which was offered at the sale. 
I think this was three hundred and eighty sestertia 
(3000J.), If there is any news, or if you foresee 
anything that is likely to happen, I should wish 
you to write to me as often as possible. Remem- 
ber to make my excuse to Varro, as I desired you, 
for my backwardness in writing. I hope Mundus 
will trim his opponent . Let me know (for you 
are curious about such things) what M. Ennius 
has done respecting the will. From Arpinas, 
July 2d. 



LETTER XXVII. 

I am pleased that you should persuade me to 
do what I had already done of my own accord the 
day before. For by the same messenger who took 
my letter to you on the 2nd, I wrote also to Sestius 
in terms of great regard. He does kindly to follow 
me to Puteoli, but his complaint is unreasonable. 
For it was not so much my business to wait for 

x I have given what appeared to me the most natural 
interpretation of this passage, which is very obscure and 
probably much corrupted. 

y By comparison with letter 29 of this book, there is 
reason to suppose that this relates to some interest of 
money due to Cicero. 

z After the sentence relating to Tullius ; which seems 
to be inserted without any other connexion with the pre- 
ceding, than what may have arisen from its place in 
Atticus's letter ; he seems here to revert to the subject of 
M. JElius's request, which Atticus may have been the first 
to mention. 

a This I understand to be said in jest ; the notice which 
Atticus had taken of the business having thwarted Alms's 



b The text is too much corrupted to be intelligible. 

c The text is here likewise either deficient, or too con- 
cise to admit of any certain interpretation in our ignorance 
of the circumstances. The name occurs again in letter 29 
of this book. 



816 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



him on his return from Cosanum, as his, either 
not to go till he had seen me, or to come back 
sooner. For he knew I was anxious to set off, and 
had written to say that he would come to me at 
Tusculanum. I am troubled at the tears you shed 
upon leaving me d . If you had done so in my 
presence, I might possibly have changed altogether 
my resolution of going. But I like the hope, 
with which you consoled yourself, of our soon 
meeting again, which expectation is indeed my 
greatest support. You shall have no want of let- 
ters. I will inform you of everything relating to 
Brutus. I shall very soon send you my treatise 
upon Glory, and I will make out something in the 
manner of Heraclides, which may lie by in your 
closet. I remember about Plancus. Attica has 
reason to complain e . Your information about 
Bacchis, and about the chaplets on the statues, 
was highly acceptable ; and I trust you will here- 
after omit nothing, not only of so great, but of 
ever so little interest. I shall not forget Herodes 
and Mettius, and everything, which I can but sus- 
pect will be agreeable to you. O disgraceful son 
of your sister ! He arrived as I was writing this, 
about sunset, while we were at dinner. 



LETTER XXVIII. 

As I wrote you word yesterday, I have settled to 
get to Puteolanum f on the 7th. There I shall 
hope to hear daily from you, especially upon the 
subject of the games s ; of which you must also 
send an account to Brutus. I sent you yesterday 
a copy of a letter I had from him, which I was 
hardly able to understand h . Make my excuses to 
my Attica, so that all the blame may rest upon 
you ; and assure her that I have by no means 
" brought away with me all my affection." * 



LETTER XXIX. 

I send you Brutus's letter J. Good gods ! 
What a want of resource ! You will see when you 

d Uncertain if they should ever meet again in such dis- 
tracted times. 

e He might perhaps have sent her no message by 
Atticus. 

f I have taken the liberty of inserting this word in the 
place of " Tusculanum," which is found in all the editions. 
The alteration is very slight, and amply warranted by 
tracing Cicero's progress from the evidence of his other 
letters. For he appears to have gone from Puteoli on the 
30th of June [letter 25 of this book] to Arpinas July 2 
[letter 26], and thence to Tusculanum July 3 [letter 28], 
where he took leave of Atticus [letter 27], and from 
whence we find him at Formias July 6 [letter 29] on his 
way back to Puteoli July 7 Lbook xvi. letter 1], where he 
was to embark. 

g See letter 26 of this book. 

h It is said letter 26 of this book that Brutus' senti- 
ments incline " sometimes one way, sometimes another;" 
so that here we are to understand Cicero as hardly know- 
ing what conclusion to draw respecting the measures he 
would pursue. The same meaning is attached to the word 
interpretari in letter 19 of this book. 

» The concluding expression may probably be copied 
from some letter of Attica's. 

J Probably another letter subsequent to that mentioned 
in letter 26 of this book. 



read it. Respecting the celebration of Brutus's 
games I agree with you. You need not go to M. 
^Elius's house ; but speak to him k when you 
meet him. About the six per cent, from Tullius 
you may employ M. Axianus, as you mention. 
Your transaction with Cosianus is well managed ; 
and it gives me pleasure to find that you attend to 
your own concerns as well as mine. I am glad my 
lieutenancy l is approved. May the gods accom- 
plish what you promise m ! For what is there 
that I prefer to my friends ? Though I have my 
fears about her n , whom you except. When I have 
seen Brutus, I will write you a full account. I 
wish it may be true about Plancus and Decimus °. 
I do not like Sextus's throwing away his shield p. 
Tell me if you know anything about Mundus. I 
have replied to all your observations ; now 
hear mine. Quintus the son is come to con- 
duct me to Puteoli. A famous citizen ! you 
might call him Favonius, or Asinius. He did it 
for two reasons ; to attend me, and to make his 
peace with Brutus and Cassius. But what say 
you ? For I know you are well acquainted with 
the Othos. He says that he is going to take to 
himself Julia i : for a divorce is settled. His 
father asked me what was said of her. I replied, 
that I had heard nothing (for I did not know why he 
asked), excepting what related to her features, and 
to her parentage. But why ? said I. Upon which 
he told me that his son wished to marry her. 
Then I, notwithstanding my abhorrence, yet said 
that I did not suppose the reports to be true. It is 
his object (for this is it) to give our nephew nothing. 
She will have him without regarding his father. I 
suspect however that the young man dreams as 
usual. But I should be glad if you would make 
inquiry, which you can easily do, and let me 
know. 

I beseech you, what is this ? After I had sealed 
my letter, some persons from Formise, who were 
dining with me, told me they had seen Plancus, 
him who is engaged about Buthrotum r , the day 
previous to my writing this, that is, on the 5th, 
dejected and without his trappings ; and that the 
servants said, that he and his colonists s had 
been turned out by the Buthrotians. Well done ! 
But I beg you to write me an account of the whole 
business. 

k See letter 26 of this book, 

1 See letter 11 of this book. 

m Probably that he would see him in Greece. 

n This may mean Pilia, or Attica, whose health might 
prevent them from travelling. 

Plancus and Decimus Brutus had been nominated by 
Cassar consuls elect for the year after Hirtius and Pansa. 
They now commanded one the further, the other the 
nearer Gaul. It is probable that at this time Plancus had 
declared his determination to join Decimus Brutus against 
Antonius. 

P It was proverbially disgraceful for one " to throw away 
his shield ;" which means here " giving up the cause." 
[See book xvi. letter 1.] Itisnot unlikely that the expres- 
sion may have been borrowed from Atticus. 

i It is to be supposed that she was married to one of the 
Othos. 

r To make a distribution of lands in Epirus. See Ap- 
pendix. He is so distinguished, as being a different per- 
son from that Plancus, who was before mentioned in this 
letter. 

» Those who came to take possession of the lands. 



TO TITUS POMPON IUS ATTICUS. 



817 



BOOK XVI. 



LETTER I. 

I arrived at Puteolanum the 7th of July, and 
write this the following day on my way to Brutus 
at Nesis '. But while I was at dinner the day I 
got here, Eros delivered to me your letter. Is it 
so ? In the edict for proclaiming the games, is the 
month, instead of Quintilis, called July, according 
to the new name given to it in honour of Caesar u ? 
May the gods confound those v people ! But we may 
storm the whole day. Can anything be more dis- 
graceful than the adoption of the term " July " by 
Brutus ? I turn therefore to my own duty, and 
" let us leave this," as it is said w , for I see no 
help. But pray, what is it I hear about the settlers 
of Buthrotum being cut to pieces x ? And what is 
the meaning of PlanGus's going in such haste (for 
so I heard) day and night ? I want much to know 
the truth. I am very glad that my going is ap- 
proved. It is no wonder if the Dymeans y , after 
being driven from their possessions, should infest 
the sea ; but it does not follow that my staying 
here would be thought proper z . There may be some 
security in sailing in company with Brutus ; but I 
apprehend his vessels are very small. However, I 
shall presently know, and will write to you to- 
morrow. I imagine it was a false alarm about 
Ventidius a . With regard to Sextus b , it is held for 
certain that he does not take up arms. If this is 
true, I see that without a civil war we are to be made 
slaves. How then ? The first of January affords 
us hope in Pansa. Mere illusion ! In the wine 
and indolence of these people? From the 210 
sestertia c (1680/.) Cicero's accounts may very well 
be liquidated. For Ovius is recently come from 
thence, and details many circumstances which give 

* A small island not far from Puteoli, where the younger 
Lucullus, a relation of Brutus, had a villa. 

u In order to make this intelligible to the English reader, 
I have thought it necessary thus to paraphrase what in the 
original is contained in two words. I have throughout 
adopted the English dates; and in general the months 
have the same denominations in both languages ; except- 
ing that July and August used to be called Quintilis and 
Sextilis ; till the first was altered in honour of Julius Caesar 
a little before his death, the other afterwards in honour of 
Augustus. 

▼ The Caesarian faction, by whom this date is supposed 
to have been inserted in the proclamation. 

w This text has been variously tortured. Without alter- 
ing the reading of the manuscripts, I understand iufisv 
to be taken from Homer II. ii. 236, where Thersites says — 
"Let us leave this man." Nothing is more common in 
these letters than such partial quotations. The et preced- 
ing the Greek word, I take to be part of the Latin text. 

x See book xv. letter 29. 

7 These were pirates subdued by Pompeius, and planted 
at Dyme in Greece ; from whence they had subsequently 
been expelled by Caesar. 

z This seems to be the meaning ; which a literal trans- 
lation would hardly have conveyed. 

a That he was advancing with troops to support Anto- 
nius. 

b Sextus Pompeius. See book xvi. letter 29. 

c This may perhaps be the sum borrowed, which, book 
xv. letter 20, was in round numbers called 200 sestertia. 



me pleasure. Among the rest this is not amiss, 
that he was authorised to assure me his allowance 
was amply sufficient ; that 72 sestertia (580/.) were 
sufficient, fully and entirely ; but that Xeno doled 
it out sparingly and reluctantly, that is, by little at 
a time. What you have transmitted beyond the 
rents of the houses d , may be placed to that year, 
upon which fell the additional expense of his 
journey ; and in future, dating from the first of 
April e , let his allowance be raised to 80 sestertia 
(640/.) ; for the houses now produce so much. 
But it must be considered what should be done 
when he returns to Rome, for I do not think that 
mother-in-law f can be tolerated. I rejected the 
proposal through the tall Pindarus s. Now hear 
for what purpose I have sent the messenger. 
Quintus the son promises me that he will be a 
very Cato ; and both the father and the son have 
been urgent with me to commend him to you ; 
yet so, that you might only give credit to him 
when you should be satisfied from your own know- 
ledge. I shall give him a letter agreeable to his 
own wishes ; but, that you may not be moved by 
it, I write this for the purpose of assuring you that 
I am not moved myself. The gods grant that he 
may fulfil what he promises ! It would be a gene- 
ral joy. But I say no more. He sets out from 
hence the 9th. For he says there is an assignment 
for the 15th, and that he is severely pressed. You 
will regulate by my letter the manner in which you 
are to answer him. I will write more when I have 
seen Brutus, and send back Eros. I admit the 
excuse of my Attica, and love her dearly. My 
compliments to her and to Pilia. 



LETTER IP. 

(Grcev. v.) 
Brutus is already expecting to hear from you. 
What I told him of Attius's " Tereus v ' was not new ; 
but he supposed it to have been the " BrutusJ." 
However, some rumour had reached him that the 
exhibition of the Grecian games k had not been well 

d See book xii. letter 32. 

e See book xv. letter 15. 

f The mother of some lady proposed as a match for the 
young Cicero. 

S Probably some freed-man of large stature belonging to 
this lady. 

h This is probably the letter which was taken by young 
Quintus, and which I have thought fit to place the second 
in this book, having apparently been written on the even- 
ing of July 8, after his visit to Brutus in company with 
young Quintus. The behaviour of both parties at that visit, 
may have given Cicero additional confidence in his nephew's 
professions ; which afterwards proved to be sincere. 

i See the next letter. 

J Another play by the same author. 

k The people were entertained for several days together, 
during which time there were a variety of exhibitions, 
and, among the rest, what are here denominated Grecian 
games, which were probably the contests of the Athletae 
borrowed from the Greeks. 

3G 



818 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



attended ; which did not surprise me ; for you 
know my opinion of them 1 . Now hear what is 
better than all. Quintus has passed several days 
with me ; and if I wished it, would even have staid 
longer : but, while he was here, you cannot believe 
how much he delighted me in every respect ; par- 
ticularly in that m wherein I was least satisfied. 
For he is so entirely changed by means of some 
writings which I had in hand, and by repeated con- 
versation and instruction, that he will in future 
be disposed towards the republic as we could wish. 
Having not only assured me, but persuaded me of 
his sincerity, he has been very earnest with me to 
vouch to you for his conducting himself in a man- 
ner honourable both to you and to me. And he 
does not ask you immediately to trust him ; but 
when you are thoroughly satisfied, then to give him 
your affection. Unless he had convinced me, and 
I had believed what I tell you to be certain, I 
should not have done what I am going to mention. 
For I took the young man with me to Brutus, who 
was so well satisfied with what I relate, that he 
gave full credit to it himself, and refused to accept 
me as a voucher ; but commending him, spake 
most kindly of you ; and upon taking leave of him, 
embraced and kissed him. Therefore, though I 
have more reason to congratulate you than to ask 
you, yet I do ask that if heretofore he appears to 
have been guilty of some indiscretions owing to the 
infirmity of youth, you will believe that he has 
renounced them ; and trust me when I add, that 
your authority will have great, or rather the greatest, 
effect in confirming his resolution. Having several 
times thrown out to Brutus my design of sailing in 
his company, he did not seem to catch at it, as I 
had expected. I thought him absorbed ; which 
indeed is the case, particularly on the subject of the 
games. But on my return home, Cn. Lucceius, 
who sees a great deal of Brutus, informed me 
that he delayed his voyage, not from irresolution, 
but waiting if any chance should arise. I there- 
fore doubt whether I should go to Venusia, and 
there wait to hear about the troops. If they are 
not in the neighbourhood, as some suppose, I may 
go to Hydruntum. If neither 11 is safe, I shall 
return to this place. Do you think I am jesting ? 
May I die if anybody keeps me besides you. For 
only look rcund — But I blush to say it before your 
face. How charmingly are the days pointed out in 
Lepidus'sP auspices ; and how conveniently for the 
purpose of my return ! I derive from your letter a 
great encouragement to set out. And I wish I 
may see you there i. But as you shall think most 
advantageous r . I am expecting Nepos's 8 letter. 
Is he desirous to possess my writings, who con- 

1 That they are undeserving of attention. This appears 
from the Familiar Epistles. — Ep. Fam. vii. 1. 

m His attachment to Antonius. 

n Neither Brundisium nor Hydruntum. 

o This may perhaps allude to some letter from Atticus 
adverting to hook xv. letter 27, in which Cicero had ex- 
pressed his concern at parting from him. 

P Lepidus was chief pontifex at this time; in which 
capacity he appointed the days for the augurs to take the 
auspices, and Cicero, it will be recollected, belonged to the 
college of augurs. 

<i In Greece. 

r Meaning that he would not have Atticus go to his 
own inconvenience. 

s Cornelius Nepos, who had a great friendship with 
Atticus. 



siders as unfit to be read those subjects * of which 
I am most proud ? And you say, " after him, who 
is irreproachable u ;" but it is you who are " irre- 
proachable," while he is " divine." There is no 
collection of my letters ; but my Tiro has about 
seventy, and some may be got from you. These I 
must look over and correct, and then they shall be 
published v . 



LETTER III. 

(Grcev. ii.) 

On the 10th I received two letters, one by my 
own messenger, the other by Brutus' s. We had 
here a very different report respecting the Buthro- 
tians. But to this among many other things we 
must submit. I send back Eros sooner than I had 
intended, that there may be somebody to attend to 
Hortensius ; and also because he says he has made 
an appointment with the knights w . Hortensius 
however is very unreasonable ; for there is nothing 
owing to him excepting from the third instalment x , 
which becomes due the 1st of August ; and of this 
very instalment the greater part has been paid him 
some time before the day. But Eros will see about 
this on the 15th. In the case of Publilius?, I think 
there ought to be no delay in making the proper 
assignment. Yet when you consider how far I 
have receded from my right, by paying at once 200 
out of the 400 sestertia (3200/.) and giving a bill 
for the remainder, you may mention to him, if you 
please, that he ought to wait my convenience after 
the loss I have sustained in my just claims. But 
I entreat you, my dear Atticus, (do you observe 
how I coax?) as long as you remain in Rome, 
manage, regulate, govern all my concerns,. without 
waiting to hear from me. For though the balance 
is quite sufficient to discharge all ^demands, yet it 
frequently happens that our own debtors are not 
punctual to their time. If anything of this sort 
should occur, let my credit be of the first con- 
sideration with you : so as to support it by borrow- 
ing, or even by selling, if circumstances render it 
necessary. Brutus was much pleased with your 
letter. For I was with him several hours in Nesis 
soon after I had received it. He seemed to be 
delighted with " Tereus z ," and to feel himself under 
greater obligation to Accius than to Antonius. For 
myself, the more I am pleased with the account, 
the more it excites my indignation and vexation, 
that the Roman people should employ their hands, 
not in defending the republic, but in applauding it. 

1 Philosophical inquiries. 

u This, which is no doubt copied from Atticus's letter, 
and there applied to Cicero, as likewise the subsequent 
expressions, are taken from Homer. 

v It is to be supposed that Atticus had solicited him to 
publish a collection of his letters. 

w It is uncertain who are meant. 

x Should not this be written Hordeonius, who was before 
stated to have succeeded to part of Cluvius's estate ? [See 
book xiii. letter 48.] Whoever he was, Cicero appears to 
have purchased his interest on condition of paying for it 
by three instalments. 

y Brother to Cicero's second wife, to whom, upon his 
divorce, he was to repay her fortune. See book xiii. letter 
34. 

z The title of one of Accius's or Attius's plays, in which 
the expressions in favour of liberty called forth the plaudits 
of the populace. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



819 



The minds of these men a appear to be inflamed to 
such a pitch as to unmask their wickedness. But 
however, if they do but smart, let them smart for 
what they may 5 . I am glad of what you say, that 
my determination is every day more approved; 
and was anxiously expecting what you might write 
to me about it ; for I meet with a variety of opi- 
nions. Indeed it was on that account I protracted 
my stay, in order to leave it open as long as pos- 
sible. But now that I am driven out with a pitch- 
fork, I think of proceeding to Brundisium ; for it 
will be easier and more practicable to avoid the 
troops d than the pirates, who are reported to be 
seen abroad. Sestius was expected on the tenth e , 
but he is not come, so far as I know. Cassius has 
arrived with his little fleet. As soon as I have 
seen him, I mean to go on the llth f to Pompei- 
anum, thence to Acculanum, and so on. It is as I 
supposed about TutiaS. The report of iEbutius h 
I do not believe ; I do not however care about it 
any more than you. I have written to Plancus 
and Oppius 1 because you desired me ; but do not 
think it necessary to deliver the letters, unless you 
choose it. For after having done for you every- 
I thing in their power, I am afraid they will think my 
j recommendation superfluous ; especially Oppius, 
whom I know to be entirely in your interests. But, 
i as you like. Since you write word that you shall 
! winter in Epirus, it will be a great kindness to me 
if you go thither before the time that I must by 
j your advice return into Italy. Let me hear from 
I you as often as possible ; if about things of little 
j moment, by any messenger you may find ; but if 
there is anything of more importance, send some- 
body from your house. If I get safe to Brun- 
disium, I shall set about my Heraclidean workJ ; I 
have sent you the treatise upon Glory. You will 
keep it locked up, as usual ; but let select passages 
be marked, which Salvius k may read to your guests, 
when he has a good audience. These books please 
me much ; I would rather hear that they pleased 
you. Again and again farewell. 



LETTER IV. 

(Grcev. iii.) 

You have done wisely (for I am now writing 

in answer to the letter which you sent me after 

meeting Antonius at Tibur). Wisely I say in 

giving way to him, and even being forward to 

a Antonius's party. 

b The original is from Afranius. — Tusc. Disp. iv. 20. 

c Of going abroad. 

d Which were expected from Macedonia to strengthen 
Antonius's army. 

e The day on which Cicero writes. 

f There seems to be no doubt that what is in the manu- 
scripts v. Kal., should be v. Id. 

% What this alludes to is not known. 

h This is unknown. 

i On the subject of Buthrotum. 

j After the manner of Herarlides. See book xv. letter 4. 

k A freed-man of Atticus employed in his library, [see 
book xiii. letter 44,] and in reading to him during some 
part of his dinner ; which Corn. Nepos informs us was his 
constant practice. It seems to have been a frequent prac- 
tice not only among the ancient Greeks and Romans, but 
also in more recent times ; and was probably only discon- 
tinued upon the easy acquirement of books consequent on 
the invention of printing. 



thank him 1 . For as you rightly observe, we can 
more easily bear the loss of our public rights than 
of our private ones. When you say that you are 
more and more pleased with " O Titus," &c. m , 
you give me fresh spirits to write. In your expec- 
tation of seeing Eros, and not empty-handed 11 , I am 
glad that you have not been disappointed. But 
what I have sent you is the same treatise retouched ; 
and indeed it is the original itself in many places 
interpolated and amended. When it has been 
transcribed on large paper, you may read it in 
private to your guests. But as you love me, show 
yourself cheerful and entertain them well, lest they 
vent upon me the displeasure they may feel towards 
you°. I wish that what I hear of Cicero may be 
true. I shall know about Xeno, when I am there p ; 
though I cannot suppose that he would do anything 
either inattentively or illiberally. Respecting 
Herodes, I will do as you desire ; and what you 
mention, I will learn from Saufeius and Xeno. 
On the subject of Quintus the son, I am glad the 
letter i, which I sent by my messenger, was delivered 
to you previously to that which he took himself ; 
though you would not have been deceived. Never- 
theless — But I am anxious to know what he said to 
you and you to him ; yet I have no doubt that 
each behaved in his own manner." I hope to 
receive the account by Curius ; who, amiable as he 
is himself and beloved by me, yet derives a great 
additional regard from your recommendation. I 
have replied to your letter. Now hear what I am 
persuaded is unnecessary to be written, but yet I 
write. Many considerations affect me on my 
departure, and most of all, that I am separated 
from you. Besides, I dislike the trouble of a 
voyage, unsuitable not only to my age, but also to 
my character. And the time of my departure has 
something absurd in it ; for I leave a state of peace, 
to come back to war ; and the interval that might 
be spent among my small estates, in convenient 
and sufficiently pleasant houses, I am going to 
waste in travelling. My consolation is that I shall 
either be of service to Cicero, or shall be able to 
judge what advantage is to be expected. Then you, 
as I hope, and as you promise, will presently be 
there. If this happens, everything will go better 
with me. But I am much vexed about the balance 
of my accounts. For though it is all clear, yet 
Dolabella's debt being entered among them, and 
his assignees total strangers to me, I feel anxious 
about it ; so that among all my troubles nothing 
vexes me more. Therefore I do not think I have 
done wrong in having written to Balbus more 
openly, that if anything of the kind should happen, 
and. the payments should not correspond, he might 
assist me ; likewise in having desired you in the 
event of such an accident to communicate with 
1 Antonius may have agreed to acknowledge Atticus's 
payment in exemption, or partly in exemption, of further 
demands upon Buthrotum. With this the following sen- 
tence very well agrees ; meaning, that he did right to thank 
Antonius for his private services, notwithstanding the 
public wrongs entailed upon the state, lies publica and 
resfamiliaris, are here opposed to each other. 

m These words are the beginning of Cicero's treatise upon 
" Old Age." 

n That is, with some composition of Cicero's. The words 
are probably Atticus's. 

° Lest they be out of humour, and not disposed to like 
my work. 
P At Athens. 1 See letter 1 of this book. 

3 G2 



820 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULL1US CICERO 



him ; which you will do if you see occasion, more 
especially if you go into Epirus. I write this on 
the point of embarking from Pompeianum with 
three small vessels of ten oars each. Brutus is 
still in Nesis, Cassius at Naples. Are you pleased 
with Deiotarus, and are you not pleased with 
Hieras q ? who having been directed at the time 
that Blesamius came to me to do nothing without 
consulting our friend Sextus r , made no communi- 
cation to him nor to any of us. I long to kiss my 
Attica for the sweet salutation she sent me through 
you. You will return therefore my kindest com- 
pliments to her, and present them likewise to 
Pilia. 



LETTER V. 

(Grcev. iv.) 
As I told you in the letter you would receive 
yesterday or perhaps to-day (for Quintus s said the 
next day), I went to Nesis the 8th. Brutus was 
there. How he was vexed about the 7th of July 1 ! 
He was wonderfully disturbed, and said that he 
should write to desire that the fights with the wild 
beasts, which were to take place the day after the 
Apollinary games, might be proclaimed for the 
13th of Quintilis. Libo came in and said that 
Philo, Pompeius's freed-man,andhisownfreed-man 
Hilarus, had arrived from Sextus 11 with a letter to 
the consuls, or whatever else they are to be called v . 
He read us a copy of it. I said what I thought, 
that some few things were irrelevant ; but other- 
wise it was sufficiently dignified and not dis- 
respectful. I only wanted to have added that what 
was inscribed to the consuls alone, should have 
been to the praetors, tribunes of the people and 
senate, lest they should not produce what had 
been sent to themselves. They say that Sextus 
was at Carthagena with only one legion ; and that 
he received the account of Caesar the very day on 
which he had taken the town of Borea ; that after 
taking the town there was a wonderful expression of 
joy, a change in men's minds, and a concourse from 
all parts ; but that he returned to the six legions 
which he had left in the further part of Spain. To 
Libo himself however he wrote word that there 
could be no accommodation unless he were per- 
mitted to resume his own w house. The sum of 
his demands was, that all the armies should be dis- 
missed wherever they might be. So much for 
Sextus. Respecting the Buthrotians, after every 
inquiry I hear nothing certain. Some report that 
the settlers were cut to pieces ; some, that Plancus, 
upon receiving a sum of money, had run away and 

q Deiotarus having been deprived of his kingdom of 
Armenia by Caesar, sent Hieras and Blesamius his agents 
to Rome to procure its restitution, upon which occasion 
Cicero was his advocate with Caesar. But upon Caesar's 
death Hieras seems to have been the person who secretly 
gained over Fulvia, Antonius's wife, and purchased what 
he wanted for a large sum of money. [See book xiv. let- 
ter 12.] Deiotarus had already seized his dominions by 
force, which Atticus may have approved. 

"" This is supposed to be Sextus Peduoeus. 

8 The son. t See letter 1 of this book. 

u Pompeius. 

v They were not regularly chosen, but of Caesar's ap- 
pointment. See book xiv. letter 9. 

w Which had been his father's, and was now occupied 
by Antonius. 



left them. So that I do not see how I can ascertain 
what the truth of it is, unless you presently write 
to me. The going to Brundisium, about which I 
doubted, seems to be at an end ; for the legions x 
are said to be approaching. But this voyage ^ has 
some suspicion of" danger. Therefore I determined 
to sail in company with Brutus. I found him 
better prepared than I had understood. For 
Domitius z has himself some good vessels ; and 
there are besides some distinguished ones belonging 
to Sestius, Bucilianus, and others. For upon 
Cassius's fleet, which is quite a fine one, I cannot 
reckon beyond the straits a . It is rather unpleasant 
to me that Brutus seems to be so little inclined to 
hasten his voyage. He waits first to hear the issue 
of the games ; and afterwards, as far as I can 
learn, means to proceed slowly and stop at several 
places. Yet I think it is better to sail slowly than 
not to sail at all ; and if, when we have made some 
way, the passage appears clear b , I shall take 
advantage of the Etesian winds c . 



LETTER VI. 

Hitherto (for I am got as far as Sica's at Vibo d ) 
I have sailed rather conveniently than expedi- 
tiously ; for a great part of the way has been per- 
formed by rowing ; there being none of the winds 
which usually precede the Etesian. It happened 
also very opportunely that we passed over the two 
bays of Psestum and Vibo, which must be passed 
with an even course e . I got to Sica's the eighth 
day after I left Pompeianum, having stayed one day 
at Velia, where I. was much at my ease at my 
friend Thalna's. I could not have been received 
more hospitably, especially in his absence. I 
arrived at Sica's on the 24th, where I was quite at 
home ; therefore I stayed over the next day. But 
I mean when I get to Rhegium, before I undertake 
my longer passage, to consider whether I shall go 
in a heavy vessel to Patras, or in a light one to the 
Tarentine Leucopetra f , and from thence to Cor- 
cyra ; and if I go in a ship of burden, whether I 
shall at once cross over from the straits or go by 
way of Syracuse. Upon this subject I will write 
to you from Rhegium. In truth, my Atticus, I 
often ask myself what is the purpose of this voyage ? 
Why am I not with you ? Why am I not visiting 
my own villas, those dear spots of Italy ? But it is 

x See book xv. letter 13. 7 From Puteoli. 

z See book xiii. letter 48. 

a The straits of Sicily, for Cassius was to proceed to 
Syria. 

b From pirates. 

c These blew from the north in the months of July and 
August.— Plin. Hist. Nat. ii. 47. 

d See book iii. letters 2 and 3. 

e I have supposed with some commentators that the 
original ought to be written pedibiis cequis, and I under- 
stand it to mean that the ropes, which fastened the sails 
on each side, were equally stretched, so that the ship 
passed with an even course. It is well known that the 
word pedes is applied to many different things. So Homer 
in the construction of Ulysses* ship, ir6das riv&iqaev tv 
avTT). — Od. v. 260. 

f There seems reason to believe this may be the same 
as Leuca, near Hydruntum, the word Tarentine being 
added to distinguish it from another place of the &ame 
name near Rhegium, of which mention is made in the 
next letter. 



TO TITUS POMPON1US ATTICUS. 



821 



enough, and more than enough, to be away from 
you. And from what am I fleeing ? From danger ? 
At present, unless I am mistaken, there is none ; 
but to this very danger your authority calls me 
back. For you write word that my going is ap- 
plauded to the skies ; but on condition that I return 
before the first of January, which I certainly shall 
endeavour to do. For I would rather be at home 
even with the apprehension of danger, than in 
perfect security at your Athens. But see how 
things are likely to go ; and either write to me, or, 
what I should like much better, bring me word 
yourself. So much for this. I hope you will take 
it in good part, if I urge you to a thing, in which 
I am persuaded you already take more interest 
than I do myself. Clear up, I entreat you, and 
settle my accounts. I left a fair balance ; but 
there is need of some exertion, that my co-heirs 
may be paid in full for the Cluvian estate e on the 
first of August. You will see what is to be done 
with Publilius. He ought not to press me, since I do 
not avail myself of my right ; yet I wish him also to 
be fully satisfied. But what shall I say to Terentia ? 
Her I would have you pay even before it is due, if 
you can. But if, as I hope, you will quickly goto 
Epirus, I request you previously to provide for 
the entire extrication and discharge of this debt, 
for which I am pledged. But enough of these 
affairs ; I am afraid you will think it too much. 
Now hear my negligence. I sent you my treatise 
on Glory ; but it has the same preface as that to the 
third book of the Academics. It arose from hence, 
that I have a whole volume of prefaces, from which 
I am in the habit of selecting one when I begin 
any new composition. So lately in Tusculanum, 
not recollecting that I had before used that preface, 
I introduced it into the book which I sent you. 
But upon reading over the Academics in the ship, 
I found out my error. I therefore immediately 
wrote a new preface, which I have sent you. You 
will accordingly cut off the former, and glue on 
this h . Give my compliments to Pilia, and to 
Attica, my delight and darling. 



LETTER VII. 

On the 6th of August, having set out from Leu- 
copetra 1 , from whence I meant to pass over to 
Greece, when I had proceeded about forty miles I 
was driven back by a violent south wind to the 
same port of Leucopetra. There while I was 
waiting for a fair wind, at the house of my friend 
Valerius, so that I was altogether at my ease and 
very comfortable, there arrived some Rhegians of 
distinction, who had recently come from Rome, — 
and among them one who had been staying with 
our Brutus at Naples. They brought with them 
the proclamation of Brutus and Cassius, and said 
there was to be a full senate on the 1st of Septem- 
ber, and t hat Brutus and Cassius had written to the 

g See letter 3 of this book. 

h These expressions show the way practised by the 
ancient Romans in regard to their books, which consisted 
of a long scroll of parchment divided transversely into 
pages, and fixed upon rollers. 

> It appears by the first Philippic that Cicero passed over 
from Leucopetra near Rhegium to Syracuse, August 1, and 
the day following set sail for Greece, but was driven back 
to Leucopetra. Hence he made a second attempt to cross 
the sea to Greece, but was again obliged to return. 



consular and praetorian members to request their 
attendance. They reported that great hope was 
entertained of Antonius's giving way, of some 
accommodation, and of our friends' returning to 
Rome. They added also that my absence was 
regretted, and in some degree blamed. Upon 
hearing this, I did not hesitate to lay aside all 
thoughts of my voyage, which, to say the truth, I 
never much liked : but when I read your letter I 
confess I was surprised that you should so vehe- 
mently have changed your opinion, — though I 
concluded it was not without good reason. Yet if 
you were not the adviser and promoter of my 
going, at least you were an approver of it provided 
I returned to Rome by the 1st of January. Thus 
I should have been away, while the danger was 
likely to be less, and should have come into the 
very flame. But if this was not so prudent, I have 
however no cause to be displeased ; for in the first 
place it was done by my own judgment ; and in the 
next place, even if it had been by your advice, 
what is expected of one who gives advice, besides 
integrity? I cannot sufficiently wonder at the 
following expressions in your letter : — " Come 
then, you who prefer an honourable death ■), come ; 
will you desert your country ? " Did I desert it ? 
Or did I then appear to you to desert it ? You 
not only did not prevent it, but you even approved 
of it. The rest was still more severe; " I wish 
you would draw up for me some note to prove that 
you have done right." So then, my Atticus, does 
my conduct stand in need of defence, especially 
before you who so strongly approved it ? Yes, I 
will compose an apology ; but it shall be to some 
one of those who disliked and dissuaded my going. 
Though what need now of "a note ?" If I had 
persevered there might have been need : but this 
very want of consistency may be objected to me. 
No philosopher, among the many things that have 
been written on questions of this kind, ever called 
a change of opinion by the name of inconsistency. 
Afterwards you go on thus : "for if this had been 
done by my friend Phsedrus k , there would be a 
ready excuse ; but what are we to say now?" SB- 
then, what I have done is of such a nature that I 
cannot approve it to Cato 1 , being full of guilt and 
infamy. I wish it had appeared so to you from 
the beginning ; you should have been my Cato, as 
you always are. This last is the most galling of 
all, "for our Brutus says nothing ;" that is, he 
does not venture to admonish a person of my age. 
I can put no other interpretation on these words ; 
and assuredly so it is : for on the 16th of August, 
when 1 had arrived at Velia, Brutus heard of it, 
being with his ship off the river Heles, three miles 
east of Velia. He immediately came on foot to 
me. Immortal gods ! What satisfaction did he 
show at my return, or rather my coming back 1 
He then poured forth everything that he had sup- ' 
pressed, — so as to make me recollect that expression 
of yours, " for our Brutus says nothing." He J 
particularly regretted my absence from the senate | 
on the 1st of August. Piso he extolled to the 
skies. He said that he was glad that I had avoided 
two heavy imputations ; one of despondency and 

J This seems to refer to what Cicero had said, book xv. 
letter 20. 

k Apparently some Epicurean. 

1 A Stoic. These names both occur in Cicero's treatise 
" De Finibus," to which it is probable they allude. 



822 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



desertion of the republic, which I was aware that 
I incurred by going away,— for many with tears 
uttered their complaints before me, and would not 
be persuaded of my speedy return ; the other, 
upon which Brutus and those who were with him 
(and they were a good many) expressed their joy, 
that I had avoided the imputation of being supposed 
to go to the Olympic Games. Nothing could have 
been more disreputable than this at any period of 
the republic, — and at this period quite inexcusable. 
But I cordially thank the south wind, which has 
saved me from this disgrace. You have ^here 
plausible reasons for my coming back, and reasons 
which are at the same time just and ample : yet 
there can be no juster reason than what you 
mention yourself in another letter, — " if there is 
anything owing to anybody take care to provide 
some source from whence an equivalent may be 
drawn ; for the apprehension of war has produced 
a wonderful difficulty in raising money." This 
letter I read in the middle of the straits ; and no 
means of providing this occurred to me but by 
coming up to my own support. But enough of 
this ; the rest when we meet. Brutus has shown 
me Antonius's proclamation, and their reply, which 
is admirably drawn up. But I really do not see 
what effect these proclamations can have, or what 
is their object ; nor am I now, as Brutus imagined, 
going thither to take any part in public affairs. 
For what can be done 1 Has anybody seconded 
Piso ? Did he himself return again the next day ? 
But they say that at my age one ought not to be at 
a great distance from his grave m . But pray what 
is this which I hear from Brutus ? He said you 
had written word that Pilia had suffered an attack 
of palsy. I am exceedingly concerned, — though at 
the same time he added that you hoped she was 
better. I earnestly wish it. Present my best 
compliments to her, and to sweetest Attica. I 
write this on board, approaching to Pompeianum, 
on the 19th. 



LETTER VIII. 
When I know what day I shall arrive", I will 
let you know. I must wait for my heavy goods, 
which are coming from Anagnia ; besides which, 
several of my family are sick. On the evening of 
the first I received a letter from Octavianus. He 
is attempting great things : he has gained over to 
his party all the veterans who are at Casilinum and 
CalatiaP, — and no wonder ; for he gives a bounty 

m That is, it is right for me to be near Rome, where I 
must soon expect to be buried. 

n At Rome. In the interval between the time of writing 
the preceding letter and this, Cicero had gone up to Rome, 
where he arrived August 31, and was received with great 
compliments and congratulations. The following day, 
Sept. 1, he was solicited by Antonius to attend the senate ; 
but excused himself on the pretence of fatigue ; but really 
because he knew it was fruitless to resist the proposal of 
Antonius to decree divine honours to Cajsar. Antonius in 
rage threatened to pull down his house. Thereupon, on 
Sept. 2, Cicero pronounced his first Philippic against 
Antonius ; and before the end of the month he retired to 
the neighbourhood of Naples, where he composed his 
second Philippic, distinguished for the free exposure of 
Antonius's character. He still continued in the same 
neighbourhood when he wrote the present letter in the 
month of November. 

The first of November. 

9 Places in the neighbourhood of Capua. 



of 500 denarii (16L). He thinks of going through 
the other colonies. He plainly aims at making 
himself the head of an army to be brought against 
Antonius. Accordingly, I see that in a few days 
we shall be in arms. Whom then should I follow? 
Consider his name °-, consider his age ; and he 
requests to have first some conversation with me 
secretly either at Capua or not far from Capua. 
But it is childish to suppose that this can be done 
secretly. I informed him by letter that this was 
neither necessary nor possible to be done. He 
sent to me one Csesina of Volaterra,-' a friend of 
his, who brought word that Antonius was advancing 
towards Rome with the legion of Alaudans r , — that 
he demanded contributions from all the free 
towns, — and was conducting a legion s with military 
ensigns. He consulted me whether he should 
march to Rome with 3000 veterans, or should 
maintain the post of Capua, and prevent Antonius's 
approach, — or should go to meet the three Mace- 
donian legions which are advancing along the 
upper coast, and which he hopes are in his interest. 
They refused to receive Antonius's bounty, as this 
person relates, — and bitterly insulted him, and left 
him whilst; he was haranguing them. In short, 
he 4 assumes the command, and thinks that I ought 
to support him. I, for my part, advised him to 
go to Rome ; for I thought he would have with 
him both the city populace, and, if he could gain 
their confidence, likewise the most respectable 
citizens. O Brutus, where are you ? What a fine 
opportunity 11 do you lose ! I did not foresee 
exactly this : but I fully expected something of 
the kind. Now I want your counsel. Shall I go 
to Rome ? or shall I remain where I am v ? or 
shall I retire to Arpinum ? For that place pos- 
sesses great security. To Rome I think ; in case 
I should be wanted if anything decisive occurs. 
Resolve me this, therefore : I never was in greater 
perplexity. 



LETTER IX. 
I received two letters in one day from Octa- 
vius. He now wants me to go immediately to 
Rome, and says that he is desirous of acting by the 
authority of the senate ; to which I replied, that 
the senate could not meet before the first of Janu- 
ary, which I believe to be the case*'. But then he 
adds, " by your advice." In short, he presses 
hard, and I try to excuse myself. I cannot trust 
his youth ; I do not know his real intentions ; I 
do not care to do anything without your friend 
Pansa x . I am afraid of Antonius's power, and 

q Caesar. 

r This was a legion first raised by Caesar in Gaul. They 
were so called from a Gallic word signifying " the crested 
lark," in imitation of which this legion wore a crest of 
feathers on the helmet. So the name of Plantagenet is 
said to be derived from a sprig of broom, which the prince 
Geoffry of Anjou wore on his helmet. Lyttelton's H. 2. 
vol. i. 149. 

s Of four legions from Macedonia, three rejected his 
orders, and one joined him. 

t Octavianus. u Of restoring the republic. 

v In the neighbourhood of Naples. 

w Owing probably to the absence, or timidity, of most of 
the respectable members. See letter 11 of this book. 

x He was one of the consuls elect ; accordingly Cicero 
thought it better to wait till he should have entered on 
his office. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



823 



unwilling to go from the coast y, and at the same 
time should be sorry to be out of the way upon 
any great occasion. The proceeding of this young 
man displeases Varro more than me. He has 
steady troops ; he may have Brutus 2 ; and he acts 
openly, arranging and mustering his army at 
Capua. Already I see war. Write in answer to 
this. I am surprised that my messenger should 
have left Rome on the first without a letter from 
you. 



LETTER X. 

I arrived at my house in Sinuessa the 7th of 
November a ; and it was generally reported that 
Antonius was to sleep at Casilinum the same day ; 
which made me alter my plans. For I had in- 
tended to go straight to Rome by the Appian 
road, in which case he would easily have overtaken 
me ; for they say that he travels with the speed of 
Caesar b . I therefore turned aside from Minturnae 
towards Arpinum, with the design of sleeping on 
the 9th c either at Aquinum, or in Arcanum. Now, 
my Atticus, enter into my present concern with 
your whole mind, for it is a thing of great mo- 
ment. There are three parties to choose : whether 
I should remain at Arpinum, or should approach 
nearer, or should go to Rome. Whatever you 
advise I will do. But as soon as possible. I 
anxiously look for a letter from you. The 8th, in 
the morning at Sinuessanum. 



LETTER XI. 
On the 5th d I received two letters from you, 
one dated the 1 st of this month, the other the day 
before. First then for the earliest. I am glad that 
you approve of my work e ; wherein the brilliant 
passages which you have selected derive additional 
brilliancy from your judgment ; for I was afraid of 
those little red f marks of yours. Your observa- 
tion about Sica s is very just ; but it is with diffi- 
culty that I restrain myself. I will however 
mention it without any disrespect to Sica or to 
Septimia ; only so, that children's children may 
know, without any Lucilian fence h , that he has 
had children by the daughter of C. Fadius. And 
I shall be glad to see the day when this speech 

y From whence he might yet cross the sea, if Antonius's 
power should prevail. 

z This is generally supposed to mean Decimus Brutus, 
but perhaps without sufficient reason. 

a The date of this letter is generally acknowledged to be 
wrong. A comparison with the 13th letter of this book 
has induced me to adopt the dates of M. Mongault, which 
are alone warranted by the context. 

b See book viii. letter 9. 

c Mongault has shown how easily v. Id. is corrupted into 
ii. Id. 

d The 5th of November. e His 2d Philippic. 

f Marks of disapprobation. See book xv. letter 14. 

S It seems Antonius had married Septimia, daughter to 
Fadius and grand-daughter to a freed-man, consequently of 
inferior rank, and perhaps illegally so : for senators were 
prohibited from marrying libertinae. [Taylor C. L. p. 304.] 
But while Cicero wished to state this in his severe charge 
upon Antonius, he did not wish to hurt the feelings of his 
friend Sica, who was probably in some way connected with 
Septimia. 

h Without any such disguise, as the poet Lucilius used 
in his satires. 



may circulate so freely as to find its way even into 
Sica's house. But we have need of that time, 
when those • triumvirs lived. May I die if it is not 
wittily said. I would have you read it J to Sextus, 
and tell me what he thinks of it. He alone is as 
good as ten thousand to me. But take care that 
Calenus and Calvena k do not come in. When you 
say you are afraid of tiring me ; you tire me ? 
Nobody less. For as Aristophanes said of Archi- 
lochus's Iambics ', so may I of your letters, that I 
like the longest the best. But you are advising me. 
Even if you were finding fault with me, I should 
not only bear it patiently, but should be pleased, 
as long as good sense and kindness are mingled 
with reproof. Accordingly I shall readily adopt 
your corrections, and put " the same right as Ru- 
brius's," instead of "as Scipio's ;" and in the 
matter of Dolabella's praises I will lessen their 
heap. Yet I think there is in that place a fine 
irony, when I represent him to have been in three 
engagements against Roman citizens. I like better 
too that expression, " it is most unfit that this 
man should live," than, " what is more unfit ?" I 
am glad you like Varro's Peplographia. I have 
not yet got from him that Heraclidean work. In 
exhorting me to write, you show your friendship ; 
but let me assure you that I do nothing else. I am 
sorry for your cold, and beg you to apply to it 
your usual attention. I rejoice to think that " O 
Titus m " has been of use to you. The Anagnians n 
are, Mustella the captain of the gladiators, and 
Laco, who is a great drinker. I will polish up, 
and send you the book you desire. What follows is 
in reply to the latter of the two letters. The treatise 
on Duties, as far as Panaetius has gone, I have 
comprised in two books. There are three of his. 
But having in the beginning divided the considera- 
tion of duties into three kinds ; one, when we 
deliberate whether anything is honourable or base ; 
the second, whether it is useful or prejudicial ; the 
third, how we are to judge when these clash toge- 
ther (as in the case of Regulus °, it was honourable 
to return, and useful to remain) ; he has treated 
admirably of the two first ; respecting the third he 
promises hereafter, but has written nothing. The 
subject has been prosecuted by Posidonius, whose 
book I have sent for ; and have written to Atheno- 
dorus Calvus to give me the heads of it, which I 
am expecting. I wish you would urge him, and 
request him to do it as quickly as he can. In this 

i This is apparently copied from some letter of Atticus 
But what three people or what time is meant is uncer- 
tain. A. Gellius mentions that Naevius, a writer of plays, 
had animadverted so freely upon some leading persons, as 
to have been cast into prison by certain triumvirs ; but I 
know not if this can be the circumstance intended. — Aul. 
Gell. iii. 3. 

J Read his second Philippic to Sextus Peduceus. 

k Friends to Antonius, It was before seen that by Cal- 
vena was meant Matius. See book xiv. letter 5. 

1 Satirical poems. 

"> Cicero's incomparable treatise on Old Age, beginning 
with these words. 

n Mentioned in the second Philippic, where one is called 
" the prince of gladiators," the other " the prince of 
drinkers." 

° Who having been taken prisoner by the Carthaginians, 
was sent to Rome to negotiate for his liberation on disad- 
vantageous terms. But he, exhorting the Romans to reject 
the terms of the Carthaginians, returned to Carthage, 
where he knew that the severest punishment would be 
inflicted on him. 



824 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



is treated of duties under particular circumstances. 
With regard to the title, I have no doubt of KaQriKov 
being duty, unless you have anything to say to the 
contrary. But " of duties," is a fuller title. And I 
address my son Cicero, which seemed not unsuit- 
able. Nothing can be more clear than your ac- 
count of Myrtilus p. How poignant are your ob- 
servations on these people 1 * ! Is it thus against D. 
Brutus ? The gods confound them ! I have not 
busied myself in Pompeianum, as I proposed ; 
first, on account of the weather, than which no- 
thing can be worse ; then, I have every day a 
letter from Octavianus, begging me to undertake 
the conduct of affairs, to come to Capua a second 
time to save the republic, at all events to go im- 
mediately to Rome. " They were ashamed to 
refuse, and afraid to venture r ." He has however 
acted and still acts strenuously : and will bring a 
strong force with him to Rome ; but he is a mere 
boy. He thinks the senate may be assembled im- 
mediately. But who will attend ? Or, if he does, 
who in this uncertain state of affairs will choose to 
offend Antonius ? On the 1 st of January he may 
perhaps afford protection ; or things may come to 
a crisis before. The free towns are wonderfully 
inclined towards the boy. For on his way to Sam- 
nium he came to Cales, and slept at Theanus's. 
The greeting and exhortation was surprising. 
Would you have thought it ? On this account I 
shall go to Rome sooner than I had intended. As 
soon as I have fixed the time, I will write. Though 
I have not read the conditions (for Eros has not 
arrived), yet I shall be glad if you will conclude 
the business s on the twelfth. I shall be better able to 
write to Catina l , Tauromenium and Syracuse, if 
Valerius the interpreter sends me the names of 
those in power ; for they change at different times, 
and my own acquaintance are mostly dead. I have 
written a public letter, if Valerius will make use of 
it ; else he must send me the names. Balbus has 
written to me about the holidays set forth by Le- 
pidus u . I shall wait till the 29th, and hope to 
hear from you. And by that time I expect to 
know the event of Torquatus's business v . I send 
you a letter from Quintus w , that you may see how 
much he loves him x , whom he is sorry you should 
love so little. Give Attica a kiss for me on ac- 
count of her cheerfulness, which is the best sign in 
children. Farewell. 



LETTER XII. 
I send you the copy of a letter I have received 
from Oppius, because it shows his kindness. Re- 
specting Ocella y, while you hesitate and send me 

P See book xv. letter 13, where Cicero inquires into 
the nature of Myrtilus's offence ; to this it is to be sup- 
posed that Atticus replied, and that Cicero here acknow- 
ledges it. 1 Caesar's and Antonius's adherents. 

r The original is taken from Homer, and was before 
quoted. [See book vi. letter 1.] In this place it is ob- 
viously meant to apply to himself. See letter 14 of this book. 

s This relates, no doubt, to his money transactions. 

4 These are all places on the eastern coast of Sicily, 
where Valerius seems to have been canvassing for some 
appointment. The same person was mentioned, ( book i. 
letter 12. u See letter 2 of this book. 

v It is not known to what this alludes. 

w The father. x Quintus the son. 

7 Th.e name occurs before. [See book x. letters 13 and 
17.] He appears to have been one of Pompeius's party. 



no answer, I have adopted a counsel of my own, 
and think of going to Rome on the 12th. I con- 
sidered that it was better for me to be there to no 
purpose,. £at "a time when it was not necessary, 
than, if I should be wanted, to be absent. Besides, 
I have some fear of being intercepted ; for he z 
may arrive presently ; though there are various 
reports, and|some that I should like to have veri- 
fied. But there is nothing certain. Yet whatever 
happens, I would rather be with you than remain 
at a distance, in anxiety both about you and about 
myself. But what can I say to you ? Be of good 
courage a . This is a lively sally b on the subject of 
Varro's Heraclideum. Nothing ever amused me 
so much. But of this and other greater matters 
when we meet. , 



LETTER^XIII. 

What a strange chance ! On the 8th having 
left Sinuessanum before it was light, and got by the 
dawn of day as far as the Tirene bridge at Min- 
turnae, where the road turns to Arpinas, I met the 
messenger just as I was " entering upon my long 
course c ." I immediately cried out, " If you have 
anything from Atticus, give it me." But I was 
not yet able to read ; for I had sent away the 
torches, and the light was insufficient. But as 
soon as I could see, I first began to read the 
former of your two letters. It is elegant beyond 
everything. As I hope to be saved, I say nothing 
different from what I feel. I never read anything 
more kind. I will come then whither you call me, 
provided you assist me. But at first I thought 
nothing could be so irrelative to that letter, in 
which I had asked for your advice, as this answer; 
till I found another, in which you direct me, in the 
words of Homer, " to pass by the stormy Minas d 
to the island of Psyria e , keeping the Appian f road 
on the left." That day then I slept at Aquinum, 
rather a long journey, and a bad road : I deliver 
this as 1 am setting out from thence the next 
morning s. • 

LETTER XIV. 

(Part of Letter xiii. in Grcevius's Edition.) 
Eros' s letter has obliged me to send up much 
against my will. Tiro will explain the business to 
you. You will consider what is to be done, I 
wish you besides to write frequently, and to inform 
me whether I may advance nearer ; for I should 
like better to be at Tusculanum, or somewhere in 
the suburb ; or whether you think I must go yet 
further off. There will every day be somebody to 

z Antonius. 

a This probably refers to some expressions in Atticus's 
letter, to which this is a reply. 

b Again referring to Atticus's letter. 

e The original is from Homer. 

d Meaning the Apennines. 

e Meaning Arpinas, situated at the conflux of the Fibre- 
nus and Liris, and at the extremity intersected and sur- 
rounded by water, so as to be elsewhere called an island. 
See book xii. letter 12. 

f The word " Appian" was inserted by Atticus to eluci- 
date the application of his Greek quotation. 

S What follows is so evidently a distinct letter, bearing 
a different date, that I have not scrupled to separate it. 
This was written November 9, from Aquinum ; the other 
November 11, from Arpinas. 



TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 



825 



take a letter. It is difficult, at this distance, to 
answer your inquiry, what I think you ought to do. 
However, if they h are upon an equality with each 
other, it will be best to remain quiet. But if *, — the 
mischief will spread, first to usJ, then generally. 
I eagerly expect your advice. I am afraid of being 
absent when I ought to be there, and yet I dare 
not go up. Of Antonius's movements I now hear 
something different from what I mentioned. I 
wish you therefore to explain everything, and let 
me know the truth. For the rest, what can I say 
to you ? I am inflamed with the love of history k . 
For your encouragement stimulates me beyond be- 
lief. But it can neither be entered upon nor effected 
without your assistance. We will therefore con- 
sider of it together when we meet. At present I 
wish you would send me word, under what censors 
C. Fannius, the son of Marcus, was tribune of the 
people. For I seem to have heard that it was 
under P. Africanus and L. Mummius, and want 
to know if it is so. Send me a true and clear 
account of every change that happens. From 
Arpinas, the 11th 1 . 



LETTER XV. 
(Grcev. xiv.) 
T have positively nothing to tell you. While 
I remained at Puteoli there was every day some- 
thing new about Octavianus, and many false reports 
of Antonius. But in answer to what you mention, 
(for I received three letters from you on the 11th,) 
I perfectly agree with you. If Octavianus acquires 
influence, the acts of the tyrant will be established 
much more firmly than in the temple of Tellus m , 
which will be unfavourable for Brutus. But if he 
is beaten, you see how insupportable Antonius will 
be. So that it is difficult to choose between them. 

this sad fellow, Sestius's messenger ! He pro- 
mised to be at Rome the day after he left Puteoli. 
When you admonish me to proceed gently, I assent, 
though I think differently from you. Neither 
Philippus nor Marcellus n have any weight with 
me ; for theirs is a different case ; or if it is not, at 
least it appears to be so °. But this young man, 
though he does not want spirit, wants authority. 
However, if I can prudently be at Tusculanum, 
consider whether that or this p would be better 
when Antonius arrives. I shall be there with more 
satisfaction, because I shall know all that takes 
place. But, to pass from one subject to another, 

1 have no doubt that what the Greeks call naQrinov, 
we call " duty." Why should you doubt about 
its being rightly applied to the state ? Do we not say 
" the duty of the consuls ?" " the duty of the 
senate ?" It suits admirably ; or give me a better 

h Antonius and Octavius. 

i That is, if Antonius should have the superiority. 

J To Cicero and the other prominent supporters of the 
republic. 

k It must be supposed that Atticus had pressed him to 
undertake some history, probably the history of his own 
times. ! November. 

m Where the senate was induced to ratify Caesar's acts. 

11 It is to be presumed that Atticus had proposed to 
Cicero the examples of Philippus and Marcellus. 

° Philippus had married Octavianus's mother, and Mar- 
cellus Octavianus's sister. 

P Whether he might go to Tusculanum, or should re- 
main at Arpinas. 



word. This is sad intelligence about Nepos' son. 
In truth I am much concerned, and sorry for it. 
I did not know that there had been such a boy. I 
have lost Caninius, a man, as far as regards me, 
always very kind. There is no occasion for your 
speaking to Athenodorusi, for he has sent me a 
very handsome abstract. Pray take every precau- 
tion about your cold. Quintus, the great-grandson 
of your grandfather, has written to my father's 
grandson r , that after the 5th of that month on 
which I distinguished myself s , he will lay open the 
state of the temple of Ops l , and that before the 
people. You will see, therefore, and write me 
word. I am anxious to know Sextus's opinion u . 



LETTER XVI. 

(GrcBVi. xv.) 
Do not suppose it is from indolence that I 
decline writing with my own hand ; yet in truth it 
is from indolence, for I have nothing else to allege. 
However, in your letters likewise I think I can 
trace Alexis v . But to come to my purpose : if 
Dolabella had not used me shamefully, I might 
perhaps have doubted whether I ought to relax or 
to contend for my utmost right. But now I am 
even glad that an opportunity is offered to me, by 
which he and everybody else may know that I 
have withdrawn my affection from him ; and I may 
publicly declare, that, both on my own account, 
and that of the republic, I hold him in aversion. 
For after having at my instance undertaken the 
defence of the republic, he has not only been bribed 
with money to desert it, but, as far as was in his 
power, he has contributed to ruin it. In answer 
to your question, how I mean to proceed when the 
day w arrives : in the first place I should like it to 
be so, that there may be no impropriety in my 
being at Rome ; about which, as about everything 
else, I will do as you think right. But upon the 
whole, I am disposed to act vigorously and sternly. 
And though it may seem to be in some measure 
discreditable to call upon the sureties, yet I would 
have you take this under your consideration ; for I 
may introduce agents for this purpose ; and the 
sureties will not resist the claim. Upon this I am 
confident the sureties will be released. But I think 
it will be disgraceful in him x , especially as he has 
pledged himself in the debt, not to redeem his 
agents ; and it becomes my own character to pro- 
secute my right without exposing him to extreme 
ignominy. I should be glad if you would inform 
me what is your opinion about this ; and doubt 
not but you will be able to settle the whole in some 
gentler manner. I come now to the republic. I 
have on many occasions experienced your pru- 

1 See letter 11 of this book. 

r That is, Quintus the younger has written to young 
Cicero. This humorous circumlocution, of which instances 
have before occurred in this correspondence, may probably 
have had a reference to something no longer understood. 

s The 5th of December, on which day Cicero in his con- 
sulship exposed and defeated the conspiracy of Caliline. 

* Where was the public treasure, which Antonius had 
seized. 

u Sextus Peduceus's opinion of Cicero's second Philippic. 
See letter 11 of this book. 
v Alexis was an amanuensis of Atticus. 
w The day appointed for Dolabella to pay Cicero. 

* Dolabella. 



826 



THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 



dence in political matters ; but nothing was ever 
more prudent than the observation contained in 
your last letter. " For though at present this boy 
nobly resists Antonius, yet we must wait for the 
issue hereafter V Yet what an harangue ? For 
it has been sent to me. He swears " by the hope 
of attaining his father's honours 2 ;" and at the 
same time extends his hand towards the statue a . 
But let me not owe my safety to one like him b . 
As you say, however, the surest test will be the 
tribunate of our friend Casca c ; about which I told 
Oppius, when he was exhorting me to support the 
young man, and his whole cause, and band of 
veteran soldiers, that I could by no means do it, 
till I should be satisfied that he would not only 
not be an enemy to the tyrannicides, but would 
even be a friend to them. Upon his assurance that 
he would be so, why, said I, should we be in a 
hurry ? For I can be of no use to him before the 
1st of January d ; and we shall see his intentions 
before the middle of December in the case of 
Casca. He readily assented. So much, then, for 
this. I have only to add, that you shall have 
messengers every day ; and I imagine you will 
every day also have something to tell me. I send 
you a copy of Lepta's letter, by which that Stra- 
tyllax e appears to me crest-fallen. But you will 
read it, and judge for yourself. 

After I had sealed my letter, I received yours 
and Sextus's f . Nothing could be more agreeable 
or more friendly than Sextus's letter. For yours 
was very short, having written so fully before. It 
is indeed with prudence and kindness that you 
advise me to remain in this neighbourhood, till I 
hear the event of the present commotions. But, 
my Atticus, the republic does not at this time affect 
me. Not that anything is or ought to be dearer 
to me ; but even Hippocrates forbids giving medi- 
cine when all hope is past. Therefore I lay aside 
such considerations. It is for my private affairs 
that I am now concerned. Say I so ? Yes, for 
my reputation. For though there is so great a 
balance, yet I have not actually received enough to 
pay Terentia?. Terentia do I say? You know 
that some time ago I engaged to pay twenty-five 
sestertia (200/.) on the part of Montanus h . Cicero 

y The word postea in the original, if it is not an error, 
seems to have been misplaced. 

z Caesar, his adopted father. 

a The statue of Caesar. 

t> Like Caesar, who had erected to himself a tyranny 
upon the ruins of the republic. 

c Casca was the first of the conspirators who struck 
Caesar. He was now a candidate for the tribunate. 

d When the new consuls would come into office. 

e Various conjectures have been formed upon the mean- 
ing of this word. It seems to be most probable that it 
may have been the name of some character in a play, as 
we see it in the " Truculentus" of Plautus. Antonius is 
on all hands supposed to be the person intended by it. 

f Sextus Peduceus. 

S See letter 6 of this book. h See book xii. letter 53. 



had very modestly requested this on his own faith. 
I promised with all readiness, which you also 
approved, and desired Eros to set apart a sum for 
that purpose. He has not only not done it, but 
Aurelius ' has been under the necessity of borrow- 
ing at a most exorbitant interest. Respecting the 
debt to Terentia, Tiro wrote me word that you said 
the money would accrue from Dolabella. I sup- 
pose he understood wrong, if anybody understands 
wrong ; rather, he did not understand at all. For 
you sent me Cocceius'sJ answer, as Eros did, 
almost in the same words. I must therefore come 
up into the very flame of civil commotion. For it 
is better to fall publicly than privately. To the 
other subjects, upon which you so sweetly write to 
me, in my present disturbed state of mind I am 
unable to reply as I used to do. Let me first 
extricate myself from this care which presses me. 
Some means of doing this occur to me ; but I can 
come to no certain determination till I have seen 
you. But why cannot I be in Rome with as much 
propriety as Marcellus ? This, however, is not the 
question, nor do I much care about it. You see 
what it is that I care about ; and I shall accord- 
ingly go up. 



LETTER XVII. 

(Grcev. xvi.) 
I have read your very agreeable letter ; and send 
you a copy of what I have written to Plancus. I 
shall know from Tiro what passed between them. 
You will be able to give more attention to your 
sister when you cease to be occupied with this 
affair k . 



Presently after the conclusion of the above correspondence 
Cicero went up to Rome, where he used every exertion to 
rouse the people, the senate, the provincial governors, 
to support the cause of the republic. Octavius at first 
joined the republican armies against Antonius; but 
afterwards uniting with Antonius and Lepidus, formed 
that triumvirate, which extinguished the dying liberties 
of Rome. Having secured the military by promises, they 
proceeded to act without control, and to proscribe all who 
were offensive to them. Among these was Cicero, who 
vms at that time at Tusculanum ,- but thereupon he fled 
to Astura, and embarking there went along the coast to 
Formianum. Thence he was going again towards the 
shore to re-embark, when he was overtaken and killed, 
having ordered his servants to make no resistance. This 
happened twelve months after he had gone up to Rome, 
when he had nearly completed his 6ith year. 

» Some agent on the part of Montanus. 

J An agent of Dolabella. 

k The affair of the Buthrotians. There is reason to 
believe this short letter is misplaced in point of time ; and 
that it, with those which are thrown together in the 
Appendix, belongs to the same period as the others con- 
tained in book xv. and beginning of book xvi. relative to 
Buthrotum. 



APPENDIX. 



LETTER I. 
M. Cicero to L. Plancus, Prcetor elect. 

I know the great regard you bear to my friend 
Atticus, and to me your zeal is such, that in truth 
I consider myself to have few equally attentive and 
affectionate. For to the great, and long, and just 
friendship between our families, a great accession 
has been made by your disposition towards me, 
and mine towards you, equal and mutual. The 
case of Buthrotum is not unknown to you ; for I 
have often conversed with you about it, and detailed 
the whole affair to you. It happened in this 
manner :— As soon as we found that the Buthro- 
tian land was proscribed, Atticus became alarmed, 
and drew up a statement, which he gave me to pre- 
sent to Caesar ; for I was to dine with him that 
day. I gave Csesar the statement ; and he ap- 
proved the cause, and wrote back to Atticus, that 
what he asked was very just; but at the same 
time reminded him, that the Buthrotians must pay 
the remainder of the money at the time appointed. 
Atticus, who was anxious to save the city, paid the 
money out of his own property. Upon this we 
went to Csesar, and spoke in behalf of the Buthro- 
tians, and brought back a most liberal decree, 
signed by persons of the first distinction. After 
this had been done, I confess I was surprised that 
Csesar should permit the assembling of those who 
wished for the Buthrotian land ; and should not 
only permit it, but should appoint you to super- 
intend that business. Accordingly I spoke to him, 
and that repeatedly, so that he even accused me of 
want of confidence in his word. He likewise bid 
M. Messala, and Atticus himself, lay aside all 
apprehensions ; and openly declared, that he was 
unwilling to offend the minds of the claimants, 
while they remained in Italy ; (for, as you know, he 
affected popularity;) but that, when they had crossed 
the sea, he would take care they should be settled 
in some other place. This passed during his life : 
but after the death of Caesar, as soon as the consuls 
by a decree of the senate began to hear causes, 
this, which I have above written, was laid before 
them. They approved the cause without any 
hesitation, and said they would write to you. But I, 
my Plancus, though I do not doubt but the decree 
of the senate, and the law, and the decree of the 
consuls, and their letter, will have abundant autho- 
rity with you, and am conscious that for Atticus's 
own sake you would wish it ; yet in consideration of 
our acquaintance and mutual regard, I have taken 
upon me to request that of you, which your distin- 
guished kindness and gentle disposition would of 
themselves induce you to grant, that what I am 
confident you would do of your own accord, you 



will for my honour's sake do readily, liberally, and 
quickly. There is nobody more friendly, or more 
agreeable, or dearer to me, than Atticus. Before, 
his property only was concerned, though that was 
to a large amount ; now his reputation is likewise 
implicated ; that what he gained by great solicita- 
tion and favour, both in the lifetime and after the 
death of Csesar, he may effectually obtain by your 
assistance. Should this be granted by you, T 
would have you believe that I shall entertain such 
a sense of your kindness, as to consider myself 
under the greatest obligation. I shall make it a 
point to attend with zeal and diligence to whatever 
I think will please or interest you. Take care to 
preserve your health. 



LETTER II. 

Cicero to Plancus. Prcetor elect. 

I have already petitioned you by letter in behalf 
of the Buthrotians ; that, as their cause had been 
approved by the consuls, (who had legal authority 
to inquire, determine, and pass judgment on Csesar's 
acts,) you would promote that object, and would 
relieve my Atticus (for whom I know your regard), 
and me, (who am not less earnest), from our pre- 
sent anxiety. For everything being at length 
arranged, after great care, and much exertion and 
trouble, it remains with you to enable us as soon as 
possible to put an end to our solicitude. And 
indeed I know your prudence to be such, that you 
must see what great confusion will arise, if those 
consular decrees, which have been made respecting 
Csesar's acts, are not observed. On my part, 
though I disapprove many of Caesar's decisions, 
(which was unavoidable among such a multiplicity 
of business), yet for peace and quiet's sake I think 
it right to support them ; and I believe that you 
strenuously maintain the same opinion. But the 
purpose of my letter is not to persuade, but to ask. 
I ask you therefore, my Plancus, and beg you, with 
all the zeal and ardour of which I am capable, so to 
undertake, so to manage, so to conclude this whole 
affair, that what we have without any hesitation 
obtained from the consuls by the extreme goodness 
and justness of the cause, you will not only permit 
us to enjoy, but will take pleasure in it, consider- 
ing the disposition you have often evinced towards 
Atticus, both in his presence and in mine. By so 
doing you will confer the greatest obligation on me, 
who have always been united to you both by incli- 
nation and family connexion. That you will do 
this, I ardently request of you again and again. 



828 



APPENDIX. 



LETTER III. 

Cicero to his Capito 1 . 

I never expected to come before you as a sup- 
pliant ; but am not sorry that an opportunity is 
offered me of making trial of your affection. You 
know my regard for Atticus. I beg you therefore 
to grant me this ; forget, for my sake, the part he 
once took in behalf of a friend, your adversary, 
when his character was at stake. In the first 
place, it is becoming your humanity to pardon 
this ; for everybody is bound to support his 
friends : then, if you love me (to say nothing of 
Atticus), grant this wholly to your Cicero, for 
whom you profess so much esteem ; that what I 
have always believed, I may now fully know, the 
reality of your affection. After Caesar by his 
decree (which I, with many persons of the first 
dignity, countersigned) had exempted the Buthro- 
tians, and assured me that as soon as the claimants 
had crossed the sea he would write to assign them 
some other lands, it happened that he was sud- 
denly cut off. Upon this, as you know, (for you 
were present when the consuls were appointed by 
a decree of the senate to take Caesar's acts into 
consideration,) the business was put off to the 1st 
of June. The decree of the senate was confirmed 
by a law passed on the 2d of June, giving to the 
consuls the cognizance of those matters, which 
Caesar had purposed, decreed, and enacted. The 
cause of the Buthrotians was laid before the consuls. 
Caesar's decree was recited, and besides, several 
documents of Caesar's were produced. The consuls 
by the judgment of their council decreed in favour 
of the Buthrotians, and appointed Plancus to 
carry it into execution. Now, my Capito (for I 
know the influence you possess wherever you are, 
especially with a man of Plancus's easiness and 
humanity,) strive, labour, or rather coax and per- 
suade Plancus, who, I hope, is well disposed, to be 
still better disposed through your means. Indeed 
it seems to be a thing of such a kind, that without 
favour to anybody, Plancus would of himself, 
agreeably to his own disposition and prudence, not 
hesitate to maintain the decree of the consuls, to 
whom the inquiry and determination was referred 
both by the law and by the decree of the senate ; 
especially as, if this sort of cognizance were invali- 
dated, the acts of Caesar would seem to be called in 
question ; which not only those who are interested, 
but also those who disapprove them wish, for tran- 
quillity's sake, to confirm. Nevertheless, it is of 
consequence to me that Plancus should do this 
cheerfully and freely, which he certainly will if 
you exert that gentle spirit which I have often 
experienced, and that sweetness, in which nobody 
equals you. I earnestly request you to do so. 



LETTER IV. 

Cicero to C. Cupiennius. 

I had a great esteem for your father, and he 
always showed me extraordinary attention and 
kindness ; nor indeed have I ever doubted of your 

1 Probably the same who ia mentioned, book xiii. 
letter 33. 



affection towards me. I, on my part, have not 
been deficient in cultivating it. I therefore request 
of you the more urgently to aid the city of Buth- 
rotum, and to exert your influence that our friend 
Plancus may lose no time in confirming and carry- 
ing into effect the decree of the consuls, which they 
made in favour of the Buthrotians, agreeably to the 
authority given them both by the law and by the 
decree of the senate. This, my Cupiennius, I ear- 
nestly request of you again and again. 



LETTER V. 

Cicero to Plancus, Praetor elect. 
Excuse me, if after I have written to you in 
detail about the Buthrotians, I address you again 
upon the same subject. It is not, my Plancus, 
that I have any distrust either of your liberality, 
or of the friendship between us ; but in an affair 
of such moment to my Atticus, (in which now even 
his reputation is concerned, that it may be seen he 
is able to secure that to which Caesar consented, 
and which we, who were present at the decrees and 
rescripts of Caesar, witnessed and countersigned, — 
especially as the whole power of execution rests 
with you) ; that, what the consuls decreed agree- 
ably to the decrees and rescripts of Caesar, I say 
not, you should execute, but should execute with 
zeal and readiness ; this will be so grateful to me, 
that nothing can be more so. Though I hope that 
by the time you receive this the request I had made 
in a former letter may be already granted, yet I 
shall not cease to importune you, till I hear that it 
is done ; to which I look forward with great hope, j 
Then I trust I shall write in a different strain, and 
shall have to return you thanks for your important ! 
favour. Should this be conferred, I would have ; 
you believe not so much that Atticus, (who is 
deeply interested), as that I (who am not less ear- 
nest than he) shall be obliged by it. Farewell. 



LETTER VI. 

Cicero to Capito. 
I doubt not you will be surprised, and even dis- 
pleased, that I should address you again upoh the 
same subject ; but an affair is at issue of great mo- 
ment to Atticus, my intimate friend, to whom I am 
bound by every tie. I know your zeal for your 
friends, and theirs too for you, and it is in your 
power to render me essential service with Plancus. 
I am well acquainted with your kindness, and 
know the influence you have with your friends. 
Nobody can do us more service, on this occasion, 
than you. And the cause is as good as one ought to 
be which the consuls have decreed on the judg- 
ment of the council, having taken cognizance of it 
agreeably to the law and the decree of the senate. 
But I consider everything to rest in the liberality 
of your friend Plancus ; who I think, while for 
your friendship's sake, and for the republic's sake, 
he will carry into effect the decree of the consuls, 
so for my sake will be glad to do it. Assist me then, 
my Capito ; for which again and again I earnestly 
entreat you. Farewell. 



INDEX 



CICEEO'S LETTERS TO ATTICUS. 



N. B. THE NUMERAL LETTERS DENOTE THE BOOK, THE FIGURES THE LETTER. 



A. 

Aledius, ii. 4 ; xii. 23 

Alexio, xv. I 

Alexis, vii. 2 

Arnalthea, i. 13, 16 

Antonius, C, i. 12 

Antonius, M., x. 13 

Appius, v. 15 ; vi. 1 ; viii. 1 

Appuleius, xii. 17 

Arpinum, ii. 11 ; xii. 12; xvi. 13 

Aquillia, xiv. 17 

Arbuscula, iv. 15 

Archias, i. 16 

Ariobarzanes, v. 18; vi. 1 

Attica, vi. 4 ; xii. 1 

Atticus, i. 1 7 ; iii. 30 ; iv. 16 ; vi. 1 



B. 

Balbus, xii. 2 

Bibulus, ii. 19 ; v. 16, 20 

Bb'opis, ii. 9 

Britannia, iv. 16 

Brutus, vi. 1 ; v. 1 8 

Buthrotum, i. 1 ; xiv. 10 ; xv. 4 

a 

Cecilius, i. 10, 12; iii. 20 

Caesar, vii. 11 ; x. 4, 12 

Caesar, L., vii. 13 

Catilina, i. 11 

Cato, i. 14 ; iv. 1 ; xii. 4 

Catulus, ii. 24 

Cicero, canvass for cons. i. 10 ; with 
Pompeius, i. 16; with Clodius, 
ii. 1 ; son born, i. 11 ; banished, 
iii. ; returns, iv. 1 ; to Cilicia, 
v. and vi. ; in Campania, vii. 1 1 ; 
interview with Caesar, ix. 18; at 
Brundisium, xi.5; Tullia's death, 
xii. 14; entertains Caesar, xiii. 52 

Cicero, M., fil. xiv. 16 

Cicero, Q., i. 5 

Cicero, Q., fil. vi. 2 ; x. 4, 1 1 ; xiv. 
17 ; xvi. 1, 5 

Clodius, i. 12, 16 ; ii. 22 ; iv. 3 

Crassus, i. 14, 16 



Considius, ii. 24 
Crassipes, iv. 5 
Curio, ii. 18 ; x. 4 
Curius, vii. 2 
Cybistra, v. 18 
Cytheris, x. 10 

D. 

Deiotarus, v. 17 ; xiv. 12 
Dicaearchus, ii. 2, 12 
Dionysius, iv. 11 ; viii. 4 ; ix. 15 
Dolabella, vii. 3 ; xiv. 1 7 
Domitius, iv. 16 ; viii. ll ; ix. 1 

E. 

Egnatius, iv. 12 ; vi. 1 ; vii. 18 ; x. 
15 

F. 

Formianum, ii. 13, 14 

G. 

Gabinius, iv. 16 

H. 

Herennius, i. 18 

Hermeracles, i. 6 

Hircus, vii. 1 

Hirtius, xiv. 20 

History, xiv. 14 

Hortensius, ii. 25 ; v. 2 ; vi. 7 

Hortensius, fil., vi. 3 



Labienus, vii. 12 
Lentulus, iv. 6 
Lucceius, i. 7 

M 

Marius, xii. 49 
Matins, ix. 12 
Mummius, i. 18 ; iv. 18 
Messala, i. 14 

Mescinius, vi. 7 
Metellus, i. 18 



Milo, iv. 3 ; v. 8 
Montanus, xii. 52 



Nicias, xii. 26 



N. 



O. 



Octavius, XV. 12 

Oppius, vii. 13 ; viii. 7 ; x. 15 ; 
xiii. 23 



Patron, v. 11, 19 

Pharnaces, xi. 21 

Phemius, v. 20 

Philippus, xii. 18 

Philotimus, v. 8 ; vi. 4 ; vii. 1 ; 

x.9 
Pindenissus, v. 20 
Piso, i. 13 
Pollux, viii. 5 
Pompeius, i. 14, 19 ; ii. 19, 21 ; iv. 

9; v. 9; vii. 10; xi. 6 
Pomponia, v. I 
Pontinius, v. 6, 21 
Publilia, xii. 32 

S. 

Sampsiceramus, ii. 14 
Scaptius, vi. 2 
Servius, x. 14 
Sica, iii. 2 
Statius, vi. 2 



Taurus (mons), v. 21 

Terentia, xi. 22. 

Tertulla, xiv. 20 

Tiro, vi. 6 ; vii. 2 

Tullia, i. 8 ; iv. 1, 5; vi. 7 ; x. 8 

V. 

Varro, ii. 20 ; iv. 16 ; xiii. 25 
Vatinius, ii. 9 
Vectenus, x. 5, 15 
Vettius, ii. 24 



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